Lake parties and Chapter 1 of my own Motorcycle Diaries...

Ummm....wow. What a weekend!

On Friday night, we had an awesome time with my good friends Dawni, Johnny and Lina (the latter two are Koreans, and they're awesome...it can be pretty hard to meet and make friends with Koreans, but Dawni seems to be very good at it, and I'm so happy that she's bringing them into my life!). We just went out for good cheap pizza (it's a new joint and we're starting to be regulars, so they're super nice to us, giving us freebies and discounts all the time), then went out for coffee before I sadly had to head home (I hate being a slave to the bus schedule).

On Saturday, I visited my friend Brandon in the hospital (had his tonsils out) and packed my stuff to head to the Masan Reservoir for a nice little foreigner party. My friend Ryan throws these (you may remember him, he too me out for dinner and helped me get started a few days after I landed in Korea...a top-notch guy...definitely will suck when he leaves) every few months, though we're all hoping we can make it every few weeks!

So we met up in the afternoon, hiked to the lake/reservoir (remember all the pics of the waterfalls I took a few weeks ago?? No waterfalls now....the creek's totally dried up! Good thing I went when I did), and found our little pagoda, which would serve as our party headquarters for the next 12 hours or so! (Taken on Sunday morning).

Soon, the table in the pagoda was covered in equal parts alcohol and snacks (including Ryan's delicious home-made cookies) and the party was on. More and more awesome people kept showing up, and I'd say at its height we probably had 30 people there.

After spending roughly two hours blowing up a little rubber dinghy, we hit the water and it was beautiful!! Amazingly warm and surprisingly clear...bullfrogs in the weeds and turtles swimming around us...yup...doesn't get much better. Thanks to light pollution from Changwon, it never got dark enough to get us in trouble...who knows what can happen with half a dozen people holding on to a dinghy in the middle of Korea???

We swam to the other side of the lake and back a few times and generally lived like we were the only ones in paradise...twice while out on the water (we were in there for probably 3 hours total), the monsoon rains let loose, making the experience all that much more surreal and more "Korean." What can I say? Another great night...how often do you get to belt out Modest Mouse's "Float On" while hanging onto a dinghy in the middle of a lake in Korea with some awesome people from all corners of the world?

By about 1 or 2 a.m., most people had made the treacherous trek back to civilization, but 4 of us (Ryan, Allison, Conrad and I) decided to make the pagoda our home for the night and chatted for an hour or two then went to sleep.

On Sunday we woke up to this:

Not too bad at all...after cleaning up, we hiked out of the forest and parted ways. I took a quick 3-4 hour nap and headed back into town to meet up with Ryan to look at a motorbike.

When the guy pulled up I was instantly impressed then quickly disappointed. I was impressed because the bike sounded great...disappointed because I realized that whoever owned it previously went to the Sticker Store, bought up their entire stock and applied it to every square inch of this poor bike. It has stickers from all sorts of manufacturers the bike has not, does not and will not ever have parts on it from. (For one thing, the bike is a Hyosung, but it had Suzuki, Honda, Yamaha and Mitsubishi stickers on it...and that's just the bike manufacturers...the rest ranged from NOS to four different types of tire makers...close to 40 in total...yikes).

Anyhoo...the bike is a 2000 or 2001 (or thereabouts) Hyosung Mirage. I've always wanted a small-displacement cruiser and one day retrace Che's ride through South America. What I love about this bike is that, unlike most 125cc bikes, it's a 2-cylinder V-Twin, rather than the much more common single cylinder. This makes the bike much, much smoother and it sounds like a real bike and not a lawnmower.

It's a 4-stroke oil cooled engine mated to a 5 speed manual transmission...it even has a dual caliper disc brake in the front, which is a nice touch.

Now...onto the bad: cosmetically, she ain't no beauty queen. The seat is ripped, the paint is scratched here and there and there are random imperfections from pretty much nose to tail...but nothing above and beyond what one would expect of an older, basic bike.

Mechanically, on the other hand, the bike is an all-out winner. It starts on first try every single time, it runs and idles like a dream, sounds great, the transmission is tight, shifting is accurate and the brakes are top-notch. A few hours before selling the bike, the previous owner put on a brand new rear tire, brand new rear shock, new ignition lock and gas tank cap/lock, new lights (including LED turn signals), new spark plugs and a fresh oil change! After de-stickering the poor guy...here's a horrible picture of it in my carport...not bad considering I paid about as much for it as a friend of mine spent this weekend on ONE night in a fancy hotel in downtown Seoul...and she wasn't as impressed as I am with the bike.

I put about 120km on it the first night of owning it and the thing runs perfectly...but there is a LOT to do on a bike...for those of you who don't ride...check this: left hand does clutch, left foot shifts up and down, right hand does throttle and front brake, right foot does rear brake. In addition, your left thumb does the horn, turn signals and high/low beams, your right thumb is responsible for engine kill, engine start and turning on/off the lights...at first it was a little overwhelming, so I just practiced on my street and did silly things like hit the clutch instead of the brake (after decades of riding mountain bikes, I'm used to the left lever being the front brake, not the clutch), but soon I got the hang of it and hit the road...at first to Samgye and back, then a little farther, and then off to Cheongyeong I went...the secondary highways are a beautifully peaceful thing in Korea at night! I even met some other riders (Korean) in Cheongyeong, who chatted me up...it was pretty cool. I stopped a few times on the way back just to admire the countryside at night and have a pop (one thing that sucks about a cruiser...zero storage unless you put on saddle bags or a tail storage unit...both are cheap, thankfully...or just wear a backpack).

All in all, I'm extremely pleased with the bike and I seem to have the basic mechanics of riding down (within 6 hours of first sitting on a motorbike, I had covered 120km and been all over the place...pretty proud of it)...however, I have to admit, I still have a bit of fear as to how vulnerable one is on a bike. I'm going to buy some used riding pants and jacket and I already have a full-face helmet, so it's a start and it was certainly a lot more safe riding on a motorbike than it was on the scooter, but I think if I save up enough money and find a good enough deal I may get a car soon and sell the bike...

That's it for now...hope your weekend was half as good as mine! :)

T

Odds 'n' Ends...bagfuls of cash, glasses and Korean age calculation formulas

Here I am again...Round 3 of deskwarming since I got to Korea...this is going to be the longest stretch...7 work days (so, basically a week and a half), then I'm off to the Philippines and come back and do another week and a half of deskwarming!

So, I figured this is the perfect time to let you guys know what I have been up to lately...I finished my summer camp and it was a huge success! It was only 5 days, but with zero experience, zero training and absolutely zero help from anyone around here, I was a little nervous about it. Add to this the fact that our summer camp funding was cut from roughly $3,000 to exactly $0, and their instructions of "make it fun and exciting and make sure they learn lots" was starting to look like a pretty tall order.

Thankfully, it went off without a problem, and the kids had a blast. I decided to ditch much of the "educational" parts of it (they wanted us to teach normal classroom-type classes..."but make sure they have a lot of fun"....right) and concentrated on teaching through games and fun activities. We did a bunch of word games they loved, we chatted a lot (more than anything, I think, these kids need to just practice TALKING...about anything...), we did a treasure hunt (they loved it), a show and tell day, etc...and on the last day...we watched Tom and Jerry. It blew me away that 70 years after the cartoons were made halfway around the world, it's still the one they ask for...I was only too happy to oblige :) (my small summer camp class...the other class had about twice as many kids)

In other news...I FINALLY HAVE GLASSES!!! My friends back home are probably jumping up and down and cheering right now. Let's just say that when I go back, the streets of Victoria (especially at night) will be much, much safer...I've been needing glasses for 15 years, but I've always been too poor or too lazy or a combination of both to get them. Well, the other day I had some time to kill (thanks to Dawni being 9 hours late), and I walked into the glasses shop and vowed to not walk out without my very own pair! The eye exam, frames and coated lenses cost me (after a wee bit of haggling...hey, this is me, after all!) the equivalent of about $45!!!

Check it!

Interestingly enough, since I've been wearing them, I've caught more Korean girls checking me out...seriously...and yes, in hindsight (pun intended) I wish I had gotten them a long time ago haha.

The other day I (and everyone else within about 75 km of here) woke up to a massive thunder and lightning show. My initial reaction was to jump out of bed, salute and yell "YES, DEAR LEADER." Apparently North Korean invasion jokes are no laughing matter around here...

More random stuff: There is a leak somewhere in my apartment building, and it's apparently dripping water off the ceiling of the unit below mine. They've been trying to figure out where it's coming from on and off for months. A few days ago I heard what sounded like the end of the world coming from the unit beside me...these fools were air hammer/air chiselling the floor next to my unit. The whole building (floors/walls/etc) is concrete...they were actually hammering through the floor to try and find the pipe...amazing. After turning the unit into a pile of rubble and failing to find the leak, they knocked on my door.

I couldn't make this stuff up. Then they started on my unit....out came the hammers and chisels and up in dust went my floor. Neat. Best of all, after making a hole big enough to fit a child through in my floor, they re-concreted my floor and admitted defeat. They hadn't found the leak.

Two days later they announced that they need to get into my room so some plumber with a fiberoptic camera can come and inspect the pipes. This made me laugh. I love that they somehow found it reasonable to dig up two units before calling in the guy with the camera...Korean logic at its finest! :) 

Here's another bit of Korean lack of logic for you. They quote all prices in multiples of 10,000 won (roughly 10 bucks). It's absolutely maddening. Imagine if you were at home and if you asked someone how much a bike was and they said "twenty three", but really meant "two hundred and thirty". That's how it happens here, I'm starting to get used to it, but it was maddening at first. If you ask someone how much a motorbike they're selling, for example, is...they'll say forty (or four-ten). which means this: four-ten times ten thousand haha. Getting into the millions (ie: over a thousand bucks) gets even more tricky haha. This is the reason I was excited about the 500,000 won bike which turned out to be the 5,000,000 won bike. 

Speaking of money...the other day I was at the bank to transfer some money back home...and in the less than an hour I was there I saw a ton of crazy big cash transactions. I saw one woman stuff about 12 stacks of 10s in her purse (each stack worth around a grand), but that was nothing compared to the guy who had two 10 inch stacks of 10s and a roughly 6 inch stack of 50s. Doing the math quickly, I'm guessing he had about $50,000 in cash there. The ladies at the bank realized that that's not something you put in your back pocket, so they went into the back room, got a paperbag and stuffed it full of the cash, and he walked out, casually carrying the bag like he had a litre of milk and a loaf of bread in there. All in all, in the less than an hour I was there, I saw 6 or 7 people walk out the door with over $5,000 cash. Apparently you don't have to worry about getting mugged as soon as you get to your car.

Random...saw this on my way to work the other day...woman washing clothes on the side of the river...she has a little stone shelf made up for this purpose...never thought I'd see something like this in the middle of a developed country in 2011

More random junk...Koreans LOOOOVE shirts with English stuff on them. It doesn't matter what it is. I swear I could make a fortune selling shirts that say "I'm stupid and ugly. Please kick me."

I found this gem yesterday...the Gay and Lesbian Surfing Association. Motto: "Come on our...the water's fine"...had to stop the guy and take a picture of him:

And the last oddity. Koreans have their own way of telling how old someone is. I, for example, am 29 years old, but in Korea I'm 31. (Needless to say, I prefer the western method). Many people believe that this has something to do with the lunar calendar (which is still in unofficial use in Korea). It doesn't.

I finally had this explained to me (interestingly enough, my translator, another English teacher at my school, didn't know the reason either, even though he has been using "Korean age" all his life). 

So...here is how they calculate age. Your age is counted from the moment of conception. But, subtracting nine months would require way too much in the way of math, so they just lop off an entire year. And then they forget about silly things like days and months and just count the years. So...I was born in September, 1981. Minus a year for being in the womb, brings us to September, 1980. Ditch the month and you're at 1980. It's 2011 now...minus 1980 --- BAM! 31 years old. As far as I can understand, when using Korean age (and that's ALL they use here), everyone will simultaneously turn a year older on January 1.

Okay, that's it for me...hope all y'all is havin' a great time...

T

I finally found the Korea I have been looking for!!

Since the day I landed in Korea, I have loved exploring and loved everything that I have seen, but there has been something missing. The small towns. The middle-of-nowheres. The big fields with nothing but mountains, not 15 identical highrises for a backdrop.

Everywhere I have been in Korea I have been very aware of the fact that I'm in the middle of a developed country. In Canada and the USA I love escaping into the Rockies, the heart of British Columbia or the middle of the desert in Arizona and be surrounded by nothing but nature...I have missed that feeling immensely since I got here. I also love small towns and villages. I'd never want to live in one again, but I was born and raised in one, and I think that's why I'll always have a soft spot for them. When you're relying on intercity buses and trains, however, you miss those things in Korea. 

Well, a few days ago, I messaged a few friends who have scooters and motorbikes here to ask them for a bit of advice in trying to decide what I should buy for myself. One friend, Jesse, an incredibly generous guy, offered to lend me his little Hyosung Rally 100cc scooter to get my feet wet on while he works. I can't thank him enough for this...it's not just the use of his trusty bike that I owe him for, but also for giving me an opportunity to find the kind of places I have been yearning for for 4 months! 

So, yesterday, (after transferring enough money to Canada to pay off a third of my student loans!!!) I grabbed the little Hyosung and headed for the hills...literally. 

The first gem I bumped into was this: a hidden little pond at the end of a beautiful twisty road not too far from my house, but too far to comfortably walk in an afternoon (I have tried before and always had to turn back because it gets dark so early around here):

So peaceful and unlike the rest of Korea I have seen!

After that, I fueled up the little guy and headed up the highway toward Namji for the sole reason that I have never been there. Now, taking a 100cc scooter on a highway on your first ride is probably not only idiotic, but also illegal, but hey...this is Korea, I really don't want to stand out by doing things like observing the laws of the road. And, well, I wouldn't be me if I didn't do idiotic things that made my poor parents shake their heads in disappointment :) 

So, up the highway I went and it was an absolute blast. Soon, the city was behind me and it was nothing but beautiful open fields, rows and rows of mountains and complete and utter freedom! At the time (around 4:30 p.m), there were almost no cars on the road, so I had a perfect 4-lane divided stretch of highway all to myself...I even managed to peg the speedometer and top out at about 83 km/h...interesting on a scooter, that's for sure!

I took a few detours, got off the main highway and found some stunning scenery...people toiling away in the fields, tiny little hamlets, a big river I didn't even know existed, and little creeks meandering through lush forests. This is the Korea I have been aching to see!

I mean how perfect is this...tiny little village behind a cute little pond with mountains in the background...very idyllic!

I made it to Namji and then crossed the river again (on a beautiful bridge I'll get pictures of on my next ride) and headed to Bukmyeon, a cool little town filled with hotels built on hot springs. En route I found this...a massive statue of Buddha at a beautiful temple...

Monkeying with the G9:

After Bukmyeon, I decided that I should head home before sunset...that's when the only scary thing happened...it wasn't too bad and I wasn't too concerned, but it was certainly a lesson. As I was scooting up the hill on a back road, a big 25 ton dump truck came up behind me and started following me way too close and honking at me...I'm not sure what he expected me to do, there was nowhere to go. As great as the 100cc scooter is in town, it shows its limitations between towns, especially when challenged by one of the hills here...Korean hills tend to be steep and there are about 94 trillion of them in my province alone. Something with more power and better gearing is an absolute necessity if you're planning on leaving town on a regular basis (which I am). So, as much as I like the little scooters, I'm on the hunt for a 125cc 5-speed cruiser that would be more suited to my needs without being crazy powerful or expensive.

On the way home, I saw one of my favourite sights...a beautiful valley at sunset filled with lush, bright green rice paddies, stunning mountains in the background and a lone farmer walking around...this humble picture truly does not do what I saw justice, but here it is anyways...

After covering about 110 km (not bad for my first ever ride!!...not counting riding dirtbikes with Jimbo a few times nearly a decade ago), I parked the scooter and walked home with a huge grin on my face.

I'm incredibly happy that I found the other half of Korea and I can't wait to explore as much of it as possible. I'm also happy that I'm on the verge of having my own transportation again. I got my first car when I was 15 and haven't been without a vehicle since. Having to rely on buses and trains, while neat at first, has been starting to wear on me lately. I really miss the freedom of having a vehicle of my own and, quite frankly, I wouldn't mind having something with an engine to call "my own." Considering how cheap bikes are here (a basic 125cc highway-legal motorbike can be had for around $400), I think this might be one of the smartest things I do in Korea. 

Stay tuned and have an awesome day everyone!

T

Korean workshops: lake cruises, caving, booze and singing rooms...hmm...fine, since I'm being paid, I'll go!

First off...I apologize for the super late update...I got sick last week and, on the doc's orders, I took 3 days off (ie: no internet for 3 days). As usual, they pumped me full of drugs (IV drip, 5 kinds of pills and a liquid medication) in the hopes of walking that fine line where they kill everything inside me, but manage to keep me alive by the faintest of chances.

Taking the sick days was an experience in itself. Back home, if you're sick, you don't come to work. Here, I had to tell my principal that I intend to be sick, then go to the doc, get a note from him suggesting I take 3 days off then have the vice principal sign off on it, approving my sick leave. Because, as we all know, middle school vice principals are the leading medical authorities in Korea.

Fast forward to Monday (good weekend, thanks, just relaxed and hung out with my homiez). Monday morning they were doing final preparations for the school-wide workshop (50+ teachers, vice principal and principal) and I tried my best to get out of the whole thing. I thought it would be a boring series of lectures in Korean and I would be ignored and bored throughout the two-day ordeal. They asked me to pack my own food for two days, so that was a bad sign.

Getting out of the thing was a no-go and I was getting the distinct feeling that the powers that be weren't too happy at my attempts to stay at school and do lesson plans instead of joining the workshop...so, I reluctantly packed and showed up on Tuesday expecting the worst.

Well, let me tell ya...going on that "workshop" was the best decision I've made in a long time. For one thing, calling what we did a "workshop" is about as accurate as calling the annual beer pong tournament in some dorm room an "International Summit on Nuclear Disarmament".

We got on our big comfy tour bus after the kids left for the last time this semester and all the professional teachers and serious bigwigs turned into top-notch party animals. It was like that episode of Simpsons where the parents send the kids off to camp and as soon as the bus is out of sight, they start dancing and popping the champagne open.

In true Korean fashion, social bonding revolved around the generous flow of both tasty treats (everything from cherry tomatoes to chocolates and pumpkin-tofu chips) and copious amounts of alcohol.

Our first stop was Sobaeksan National Park where we went for a gorgeous mountain hike and I found a few of my favourites....waterfalls:

The first thing I noticed during the hike (and the lunch we had en route) was that far from being ignored, I was like the most popular girl in high school...everyone wanted to talk to me. Teachers I've never met were coming out of the woodwork to say hi and tell me a few nice things either in broken English or by having the other English teachers translate.

Likewise, lunch was a huge surprise...there was a veritable cornucopia of vegetarian options! I stuffed myself on all sorts of cool stuff (like random fresh vegetables and whatnot from the surrounding mountains).

Then we headed into Chungju, a little resort town in the mountains. It was perfect...it's like a Korean Jasper...okay, so maybe it's not quite as nice as Jasper, but it has the same feeling of a happy little town tucked away in the mountains...I loved it.

When we got there, what was the first thing I saw? A 1991 Chevy S10 pickup truck. Now, to most of you this means absolutely nothing. But, I owned one for 9 years and I loved that little thing...I haven't seen an S10 in nearly half a year (getting bored of Hyundais and Kias, quite frankly), so I was ecstatic to have its dumb, square eyes staring at me from across the parking lot. Talked to the owner (of course, I did)...he gets parts from the US every time something breaks on it...that takes dedication haha

Dinner was at a local joint that, like every other restaurant in that town, served pheasant...my coworkers had pheasant for dinner AND breakfast the next day...bit of a departure from orange juice and cereal, but hey...who am I to judge? I asked for veggie options, they gave me a 100% absolutely definitely meat-free plate of dumplings that, when I opened them up presented half a zoo. So much for that.

After the dinner came another proud Korean tradition: get absolutely loaded and head to the Noreabang or singing room. I have successfully avoided heading to a "shinging room" (most Koreans have trouble with "si" sounds since it doesn't exist in Korean...pretty funny when my students say they have to sit...confused me at first why they are so vulgar and why they talk about having to go to the bathroom...). Anyhoo, this way there was no getting away from the singing room...which is basically an entire floor filled with rooms the size of motel rooms. In each room, there is a biiiiig couch, a table filled with snacks and copious amounts of beer, a big screen TV and a microphone...oh and a big, booming sound system.

Even though I told my coworkers that hearing me sing would be absolute torture for them, they insisted I give it a whirl. All Koreans seem to listen to and sing are REALLY crappy K-pop "dance" songs from about the '70s to now. They all sound more or less the same and they're all horribly lame. Since I listen to gangster rap and rock, I was a little out of my element when they insisted I tackle something cheesy and pop-y. I finally settled on Yellow Submarine by the Beatles, thinking everyone knows the Beatles. I was wrong. I mean seriously...how the hell does anyone in the civilized world live in ignorance of the awesomeness that is the Beatles???

So, I was completely on my own, while I screamed my head off, in a horrible, off-key rendition of the British classic.

The rest of the night was spent smashing my fist against tambourines and clapping with over-exaggerated enthusiasm while my respected elders made fools out of themselves singing incredibly cheesy pop songs written by people who have the musical talents of squirrels.

Thankfully I have a few other coworkers who decided that drinking themselves into oblivion can wait for another day and we sneaked out just before midnight and headed to bed.

Back at the hotel, we had ONE bed for 5 men. My coworkers suggested I take the bed and share it with someone else...ummm....no thanks. I shottied half of the L-shaped couch and crashed while the rest made themselves semi-comfortable on the floor. Now, what's amazing about this is that sleeping on the floor seemed perfectly normal to them and we were actually staying in a FANCY hotel. Boggles the mind.

I was tired as hell, so I passed out right away, but unfortunately not long after, my drunken co-workers started showing up one after another, stumbling around the dark room, bumping into random objects and trying to figure out the TV from their soju and beer-induced oblivion. Thankfully, anticipating that this would happen and knowing Koreans enough that just because they see someone sleeping 6 inches from them, they will not hesitate to sit down, talk at full volume and turn on the TV and go about their normal business at 2 a.m., I hid the TV remote. Crafty Hungarian: 1. Drunken Koreans: 0.

However, that was just Round One. Round Two began when the intoxicated fool decided that, since he can't watch TV, he'll just go to bed and plopped himself down on the other side of the L-shaped couch, kicked my feet and started snoring. At first I was angry, then I decided that, hey...he's sleeping so damn deeply, he won't know where the bruises on his shins came from in the morning. So, I gave him a swift kick or two.

To my great surprise this was an incredibly effective tool in reclaiming my personal space. Not only did it force him to untangle his sweaty feet from mine, every time I kicked him, he tried to turn on his side, which is rather difficult on a couch. The result was a hilarious (for me) tumble and crash to the floor, hitting the coffee table on his way down. Not one to be easily phased, he tried to get up and either crashed back down to the floor, or made it as far up as getting on all fours and then passed out! Honestly. He looked like a dog that just fell asleep in mid-walk. This repeated itself about three or four times when he finally realized that perhaps sleeping on the floor was the wisest course of action. Crafty Hungarian: 2, Idiotic drunken Korean: 0.

At the crack of dawn (7:22 a.m., to be exact) we were woken up by a phone call urging us to wipe the drool off our faces, get dressed and head out for a pleasant pheasant breakfast (more mountain vegetable-filled bibimbap for me!).

After breakfast came the awesome part of the day...we boarded the bus and headed to Chungju Lake, which is apparently a man-made lake and the second biggest body of water in South Korea. This place is nothing short of gorgeous! What made it even better is that, upon getting to the lake, we boarded a ship and went on a one and a half hour cruise! Seriously...best...workshop...ever!!!

And one more...

After that, another great lunch and I met some Koreans who immigrated to Canada from Korea a few years ago and were back for a visit...they live about 1 kilometre from my family's house!!! Small world! :)

And then came the only part of the weekend that truly rivaled the Chungju Lake cruise...Gosu Cave!!

Sadly we kind of rushed through it, but I'm soooo happy we went there! It had a ton of neat formations and it was pretty dang long too...took us about 40 minutes of walking at a brisk pace...I'm definitely going back there with a tripod and a day to kill!!

Near the entrance:

Some of the many awesome formations...with an enthusiastic math teacher thrown in for scale (this cave was MASSIVE in some places and tiny (had to bend over and just about crawl) in others:

Detail shot of one formation:

And one more...

I have a ton more pictures on my Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/tamasv so check it out!! :)

The rest of the trip took a rather interesting turn. Two days of drinking started bearing fruit when the teachers on the bus fired up the kareoke machine and started belting out more of Korea's finest ridiculously annoying songs from the past 4 decades.

Soon, as the mokkoli (rice wine) and beer flowed, there was dancing in the aisles and much interaction of the sort that I'm sure the husbands and wives of the teachers would not appreciate. It was pretty funny how quickly things go downhill when you add alcohol. Upon our sober start the day before, the head teacher made a neat little announcement about the importance of safety and implored us to fasten our seatbelts lest harm befall us. Fast forward 36 hours, and he was dancing in the aisle alongside the principal, vice principal and roughly 20 teachers as the bus screamed down the expressway at about 110km/h.

Sadly, as is so often the case, alcohol brought out the worst and most disgusting in some people. As is the custom, the principal went around the bus offering people drinks of the rice wine. Okay, offering is perhaps the wrong word. He went around terrorizing people into drinking the vile liquid in his quivering hands. In Korea, when the principal goes around with a bottle of soju (20% alcohol drink) or rice wine, you drink it. Period. Pretty much every principal does this at social gatherings and people, whether they like it or not, have to drink it or face having their career fall from the sky and go up in flames, much like the Hindenburg.

As most of you know, I don't drink and have never had a drop of alcohol in my life. Many have tried to change that, but none has succeeded, but my principal sure gave it his best shot.

After trying to force me to drink the stuff for about 3 or 4 minutes (literally) and having me vehemently object, he threatened to kick me off the bus if I didn't drink. I told him that that's fine, I like walking. He was half-serious. I was completely serious. Then, he did something that, in Canada, would have likely cost him his job and the use of his right arm for 4-6 weeks...he held the cup of rice wine over my head and poured it all over me. I am having a hard time coming up with instances in my life where I felt so degraded and mistreated, but I managed to hold my temper (go me!) and stop at merely envisioning breaking his arm in three places.

Sadly, while others watched, they could offer little more than "we're sorry...he's drunk." Such is life in Korea. He may have doused me in the disgusting crap that was clouding his judgement, but the victory was mine. I stood up to him and my will of not drinking prevailed. He walked away a sore loser, who later realized the stupidity of his actions and spent the rest of the trip sucking up to me and making sure I knew that, despite my stance on alcohol consumption, I was still his best friend.

Despite that blemish at the end of the trip, the retreat was a smashingly great experience. It opened my eyes to a new area of Korea I can't wait to discover even more and it brought me closer to my coworkers and superiors. Perhaps most importantly, it solidified my place as one of the teachers (not just a temporary worker) on the faculty and I found out that, rather than being the merely tolerated outcast I thought I was, I am a respected, appreciated and much wanted colleague...a great way to end my first semester as a middle school teacher!

Have a great weekend, everyone...I know I will! :)

T

Of Buddhist burial grounds and behemoth buildings in Busan

This weekend was another rainy monsoon-y one, so I stayed close to home (plus I'm trying to save money for my trip...I think Indonesia is out for a few reasons...the plane ticket costs twice as much as to the Philippines or Thailand, and you need a visa for Indonesia, adding more expenses and headaches to the process).

On Friday and Saturday nights we went out for dinner with a bunch of friends and it was a blast (except on Saturday it was raining so hard that even with my umbrella I was soaked to the bone

But, on Saturday, a bunch of us (Ross, Nicole, Alice, Kim and I) headed to Busan...we figured if the weather was good we'd bum around town, if the weather was crappy, we'd hit up Centum City, the world's largest department store. I haven't been to Busan nearly enough times, and that really has to change...it's a beautiful city and only an hour away by bus (and the bus costs around $3!!).

Busan also has a wicked subway system, so getting across town from the bus station to Centum City is an easy, cheap and simple affair (get on the subway from the bus depot, sit on the subway for half an hour and get off underneath Centum City...it's brilliant). Oh...and I got a subway card and charged it enough so I don't have to worry about subway fares for another couple of trips...more incentive to go back! Anyhoo...Centum City is pretty crazy...it's massive...and it's filled with all sorts of shops selling everything from fruits to the latest fashions and cutting-edge electronics. I did a quick photo-stitch with the G9 to give you guys a bit of an idea of how massive it is (this isn't even all the floors, by the way...under the "floor" in this picture there are still a few levels!)

There is also a skating rink on the 4th or 5th floor...and, of course, the most exciting thing about ANY skating rink is the Zamboni...I was lucky enough to catch it in action...the fact that it was a shark Zamboni made my weekend!! (also...let me tell ya...panning something that moves at a snail's pace is harder than it looks haha)

And the view from the top of Centum City (9th floor)...pano stitch with the G9...the ocean is at the extreme left of the picture!

I managed to control my urges to buy stuff (I saw a beautiful tripod that thankfully had an absolutely idiotic plate release mechanism that kept me from taking it home with me) and walked out with just a small gift for my brother. Oh...and trippy as it is...while we were in the bookstore (I found a Terry Pratchett book!!! I think I'll be back for that!), I bumped into a guy who lives literally 200 feet from me...small world!

After that, I came back to my area and went for dinner with a few new people (finally got to meet Christopher...a super nice guy with whom I've been talking for months, but somehow never managed to hang out in person)...and then Dawni and I headed home...I was feeling pretty crappy (was coming down with something), so she told me to cheer up...turns out splashing in a big puddle and soaking her up to the waist was EXACTLY the kind of pick-me-up I needed. Thanks Dawni, you're a true friend!! :)

Sunday was a write-off...was feeling pretty crappy and the weather was so-so...went for a run, then geeked out at Lotte Mart (what's awesome about the grocery store is hang out long enough on a Sunday and you'll bump into friends...never a dull moment).

Then Monday came. My hell day...5 classes plus my afterschool English club. Got through that (still feeling pretty crappy, not sure what it is...my parents are saying it's probably the flu. Ugh. I dunno, all I know is I had zero strength and just wanted to sleep all day. So, I got home, went for a run, then went for a 1.5 hour hike. Because that's what smart people do (I can see my mom shaking her head right now). I figured I'm just going to kick my own ass in an effort to kill whatever is in me. Anyhoo, I decided to try a few new trails last night and man am I ever happy...I have to go back with my real camera, but check this out...I found a bunch of Buddhist burial grounds halfway up the mountain in the middle of the forest!!

Another one:

This one was the biggest by far:

Part of the last one:

All this up the mountain in a forest!! Blows the mind...must have been a lot of effort considering the size of those stones or the structures are made of!

Definitely going back with the real camera one of these days.

But for now I have to run...my first (of the two today...mwhahahaha!!!!) is starting...have a splendid day, everyone!

T

Gettin' down and dirty in Daejeon...

Ummm. Yeah. This whole thing of cutting back on travelling to save money for my big trip coming up (Philippines? Malaysia? Thailand? Indonesia? Who knows. Stay tuned!) ain't workin' so hot. 

About two weeks ago my awesometastic friends Ross and Nicole asked me if I wanted to go to Daejeon with them to celebrate Canada Day. After considering all the options, I reluctantly agreed...okay, so that's a bit of a lie, I was incredibly excited about it. Canada Day is one of my favourite holidays, one that has always been one of the highlights of my summers and I would have been pretty bummed out if I didn't get to do anything special for it. Throw in the fact that Ross and Nicole are more fun than a barrel of monkeys on crack and my obsession with seeing new places around here, and you'll get the picture right-quick.

*Public service announcement: once you get past all the boring writing, you will be rewarded with a ton of humdrum pics at the bottom of the post!...and this is why I never bothered with public relations*

So, we headed straight from work to the bus terminal (well...they did. Poor bastards. Since it was deskwarming week, I was home by 3 p.m., had time to chill out, watch a movie, make myself a delicious and tasty meal then go and meet them. I do love me my public school). After 3 hours on our limo bus we arrived in Daejeon, which looked awesome even at first sight in the dark! 

After dropping off our stuff at Kim's place (thanks Kim!! Despite never having met me, she offered her place for the 3 of us to stay at all weekend...my introduction to the awesome waygooks of D-town) we headed to Yellow Taxi, a foreigner hangout. I've been to a foreign hangout or two around my area and, to be quite frank, have been less than impressed with them. But wow...the Yellow Taxi was different. For one thing, it's huge...there is a dance floor, a stage, a bar, tons of seating, booths, pool tables, dart boards, you name it, there's actually stuff to do other than sit at the bar like sardines and get drunk (little known fact about sardines: they spend their Saturdays crowding bars and getting hammered). 

The atmosphere was wicked too...tons of people in Canada shirts (myself and Nicole included!), hockey jerseys, even fur hats! There, Ross and Nicole introduced me to a ton of their old friends (they used to live there) and I they were all first-rate homies. I'm generally a friendly dude and I'll go up and talk to anyone (I'm like that overly friendly and trusting 5-year-old you KNOW is going to get abducted one day), but in Daejeon I met my matches. Within half an hour, it was like hanging out with old friends.

There was even a live band that played an hour-long set of Canadian tunes...everything from the Guess Who to Sam Roberts...first rate stuff. That night we went to bed at around 5 a.m. (well, I slept on the floor in my awesome new sleeping bag!). A few hours later we were up and ready to take on Daejeon. 

After having breakfast at Kraze Burger, (my first burger in 4 months and while it was nice, their idea of a veggie burger patty is a slice of fried tofu...ummm...yeah) Ross and Nicole took me to the Expo Park, which was built for the '93 Expo. It was like something out of an old sci-fi movie set...I'll let the pictures do the talking on this one...

One of the rides, reflected in the window of another ride that looked about as safe as a rusty 1972 Ford Pinto:

The IMAX building (BC people: remind you of anything? ...looks just like the Omnimax building in they built in Vancouver for the '86 Expo)

Oldschool arcade:

Ferris wheel:

One of the many rides:

All aboard the crazy train...

They had an oldschool Lola race car...I've read so much about Lolas, but never seen one in person...yay...

After that, we wandered around Daejeon a bit, Ross and Nicole kept showing me wicked little lively neighbourhoods, awesome futuristic bridges, buildings, etc, then we headed to the opening of a foreigner restaurant serving Mexican food. Kinda funny being a Hungarian-Canadian eating Mexican food in Korea...doesn't get much more culturally diverse than that!

After that, we bummed around the area for an hour or two (I absolutely loved it...it has such a positive vibe...and...and...AND....I saw a brand-spankin' new Nissan GT-R...dayumm....after being surrounded by Kias and Hyundais for 4 months, it was nice to see a real car). Then we yo-yoed back and forth between the Yellow Taxi and the Mexican place, which turned into a dance bar after hours...again, I met a ton of cool new people, including Petra, with whom I had way too much in common...I mean her weapon of choice is a Canon 40D with a 50 1.4...how can you not like a girl who rolls like that??

Somehow the night got away from me and I managed to finally go to bed at around 8 a.m. to the relaxing sounds of rain absolutely dumping outside and thunder and lightning breaking the monotony. An hour or two of sleep later we were up and running again...headed into a few new parts of town and then off to the bus terminal to pass out on the bus. 

Ummm okay, that's about it. Oh yeah, and I'm sporting a sweet-ass moustache right now. I'm not gonna lie, it's really sexy. I'm not sure how I'll be able to fight off the hordes of girls who will want to feel the sensuous tickle of my cookie duster on their various body parts. Oh yeah. Ladies of Korea...watch out.

Also...Daejeon watch out...I really liked you. We should do this again. For reals. We can be friends only, if you want, but I really want to see you again. Okay, well now I'm just sounding silly. Soo...umm...Daejeon...umm...you have my number. Call me. *Click.*

T