Saturday blog by Luc

Well Mom and Dad are in China now. They arrived the day after the earthquake, so no worries there. I think their cruise in China will take them into some of the affected area, so they might have some neat stories when they get back. From what I hear, the internet in China is highly censored, which obviously makes it difficult to work with and very slow, so I wouldn’t expect to hear from them until they get home. I know you can’t read blogs from China, so I know they won’t be posting on here until they get home.

It was great having them here and showing them how we survive in a foreign country. We did our best to impress them with our skills in speaking and reading Korean. Dad’s attempts at Korean reminded me of mine in my first weeks as an expat.

I really loved Jeju. I’ve never been to a real Tropical Island but Jeju had everything you think when you hear Tropical Island, palm trees, beautiful blue water and warm weather. I could have used more than three days there. Everywhere you turned there was something to do. Sure there were lots of corny museums and tourist trap type things I wouldn’t want to see, but there were also tons of beaches and supposedly some good hiking.

Seoul was a whirlwind again. It’s such an overwhelming city. If you count Incheon, where its main airport is, it has 20 million people. However, this time Erin and I were the tour guides and I think we did an adequate job. We knew the area we stayed in and had no problems getting around; I was impressed with our taxi skills. By living in Daegu, I think Erin and I have developed better Korean than most foreigners in Seoul. There’s so much English there that you would never really need to learn any Korean to get around, I think we even suprized a few cab drivers with our English.

I liked the DMZ tour more than Erin. Sure it was a tourist trap, but it was still worth seeing. There’s no real other way to see North Korea, or a North Korean soldier. Not many people in Canada can say that they have seen a North Korean village, or a statue of Kim Jung Il. The whole tour was a little strange, but lots of things in Korea are strangeJ, and we were in a military control zone, so of course it would be regulated.

Dad said he really liked my foosball league. Apparently it’s the most competition he’s seen in 25 years. I actually beat him once too, so I guess I got better J. He was in Korea for three weeks and managed to come to three weeks of foosball. He was a very dedicated player. The guys were calling him the best front man in Korea, so I think he’s a legend of sorts at the Thunderbird Lounge.

I have been going to Hapkido for two weeks now. So far it has been pretty fun and I’ve been getting some decent workouts. I will definitely get more flexible in time. We do 20 minutes of stretching every Monday, and have to try and do the splits every Thursday. Every time we kick (which is allot) it also stretches most muscles in our legs, so eventually I won’t suck at kicking. I’m always sore now though. The Thursday boxing at Hapkido combined with the foosball Thursday nights has also made my hands sore. I need nurse Jessica to look at my arthritis hands.

Well, I’m off to an all you can eat and drink buffet (yes it’s all you can drink beer for $20). Should be a good time!