Paintballing

In about a half hour, Im going to head out with Whitney to the US Army base, Camp Walker. Well, around it. We're going for pedicures to treat ourselves as we were paint yesterday. We're not going to get manicures though, becuase we will ruin them tomorrow. Tomorrow, we're going an hour and a half outside of Daegu to Pohang. I am going to attempt paintballing. Yes, it's true. Tonight I'm going to have to go to E-mart to buy some clothes that I won't mind getting dirty. I'm a little nervous. It's pretty expensive here, and you hardly get any rounds, but I think it will be fun nonetheless. Hopefully I'll get some rad pictures.

After we get back into Daegu, I'm going to have to head downtown becuase I'm going to sign up for softball here. I need to get some exercise desperately. I'm a slave to my books. I'm reading so many books, at such a fast pace. The books tell me what to do..... :D I just ordered 6 more books from Seoul. As my waist expands, so does my brain. :)

Alex, I'm so glad you received the post card, and I'm SOOOOO excited to get a letter from you!

Ipod woes

So my iPod is screwing up. I went to plug it in, and it froze. iTunes wasn't recognizing that it was plugged it, and I couldn't disconnect it. I have disconnected it, and it's frozen. I can't turn it off, I can't play it, I can't change the song. Luc and I are hoping once the battery dies, everything will be okay. But this isn't good. I use my iPod so much. Why am I being punished?

On the lighter side of things. Luc and I have just feasted on some KD. It was glorious. Thank you for that!
Luc says: Thank you so much for the package Nannie and Grandad! It was some much needed KD.

It was much needed too after last night where Lucas and I made a on the spot decision to head out to Gyeonsan where Bev and Rod were going to their nice little Mexican restaurant. We had some margaritas, and I bought a round for everyone. Then we went back to their apartment to drink many Tequila sunrises, my first time. Oh man those are deadly delicious drinks. We drank quite a bit, and then taxi'd home, where I left my cell phone. I guess I tried to put it in my pocket, and missed unknowingly. We knocked on Whitney and Neal's door, and that's when I discovered my missing piece of hardware. Lucas called the phone and the taxi driver picked up. He spoke a little English, so he came back to drop off the phone. He wouldn't take any money in thanks, but made me give him his phone number, to practice his English i suppose. We've had a couple people ask for our phone numbers, which I feel really weird giving out like that. I try not to. At least in the end, I got my phone back, thank goodness!

Luc and I are both sick again. It's so lame. Sniffles. We're Vitamin C w****s. Which reminds me, our kids, instead of sighing or rolling thier eyes, they say "Heurrrrrr". We like the kids to say that as it reminds us of the above word.

****EDIT**** The iPod is working again after running out of juice and then plugging it back into the computer. Apparently it made clicking noises before turning off though, Luc was in the room. That's a little worrisome. At least my bluePod is back in working order. I love this little contraption.

The Neutering Aftermath

Koy was not very happy when he went to the vet, though Bootsie certainly was. He took over the house like it was no one's business. He had not had a night without Koy since Koy was a kitten (we've recently seen pictures of him as a kitten, Oh Lord, he was adorable). Bootsie was sooo quiet, and he slept on the bed, sleeping horizontally over my side, so i had no leg room. He was quite content.

The next day, when we picked Koy up, Boots HISSED at him! And he's been hissing at him since! I think he's upset becuase Koy came back. Koy, has been weird. Though he's kind of coming around. He's slinking around a lot, sleeping more. But he has come back to sleeping on my lap. That is until it's time to give him his medicine.

There has to be a better way for this. I don't think he's getting any of it. The first time, he got a little. THe second time, he threw up right after, and the third time, he was foaming it out of his mouth. I have a million scrathes on me, and then he hides under the bed not talking to us for hours. THe medicine is 2x a day for five days. This is not going to work.

We finally managed to book two days off to spend time with Diana and Mike. We have May 2nd, and May 9th off. That took some wrangling. So Mom and Dad, you need to get on the ball here. Beginning of June is good, it will be getting hot at the end. Make your choice.

Poor Koyangi

I feel so bad!

I took Koy to the vet today to get chopped. He's started to pee in corners, and so I figured it was his time to go in. On Saturday I went to a vet by us, discovered:
1) he does deal with cats. It is hard to find that here, most vets will only deal with dogs. Cats are not a popular pet.
2) he speaks very good English.

So I brought Koy to the vet pretty much the moment I woke up. He went into the carrier willingly, but soo regret it. He doesn't like being carried in it, and he's heavy, and the box is awkward.

I took him out of the box when we got there and he clung to me, didn't want to let me go. Now I'm having visions that he's not going to like me anymore. He's not going to come up to me when I'm reading and fall asleep purring in my lap. He;s not going to come onto my pillow at night and try to give me a bath. He's going to be some eunich recluse under the bed and never come out.

I feel so bad!

Boots, who is apparently not fixed, will be going in soon. I say apparently, becuase his behind looks like Ginger-Ale's. There's nothing there! And Koy, he was extremely well endowed in that area becuase they stuck out close to an inch behind him.

I hope Koy will forgive and forget.
I pick him up tomorrow.

I love you

I love you family.


We got the package.


I love love LOVE you!

Can you Say, GOOD TIMING?

So remember that picture of the Gate at night? Namdaemun? That we saw Thursday night, and coming home on Saturday. So yesterday, that gate burned down. Arson. Holy poopernickel.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/10/AR2008021001995.html

Good timing.

Seoul; Soul of Asia (that's the city's tagline)

We are back! We made it!

Alright, so Seoul for Solnal (Lunar New Years). I'm still sad that we never got to go to China, but it would have been uber cold, and I would have been miserable. It was freezing in Seoul. We got there, and taxi etiquette states that you have to take the taxi at the front of the line. THe taxi in the front of the line was a Deluxe one, which starts the meter at 3x the regular rate. Boo. Luckily, where we were staying wasn't that far away. We got to Seoul by the KTX. It goes about 300km/hr. You would think that it would look like we were going lightspeed, but it didn't. It really didn't feel like we were going that fast at all. But the ride was incredibly smooth. I like trains.

We were staying in Insadong, which is the cultural district of Seoul. It's really only a small street, but it's got some really rad vendors, and if you want souveniers, that is the place to be. When ever we would be looking for somewhere to eat, I would get so distracted, very fast, at all the trinkets and everything, and Luc would go all bonkers becuase he was so hungry. I can't help myself. I LOVE trinkets and gadgets, and tourist traps. It's not my fault. I swear. I have to look at everything. So the first day we checked into the Hotel, the Crown Insadong, and then met up with Brielle and Dave, who just happened to be staying the same area. We owe them so much, Brielle knew her way around, and she showed us the way. So we then went and had some food at a really rad restaurant off the beaten path.

We then went to see the Van Gogh exhibit that was in town. I was mildly sad that Starry Night wasn't there, but there were some other beautiful paintings there. We felt so sophisticated going to an Art Gallery show. We then bought a bunch of stuff from the art store. After that, we navigated our way through the Seoul subway system, which is completely ridiculous. Daegu is so much more organized. We went to Itaewon, which is more the bar district. We went to a Greek Restaurant called Santorini. Can you imagine Luc's excitement when we went to a Greek Restaurant? It's pretty much his favorite. Diana, all he was talking about was your Greek food :D We have Souvlaki, Gyros, and Baklava. Fantastic!

After Santorini, we went to the Canadian Bar, Rocky Mountain Tavern. It was in our Korea book, but it was a little disappointing. There weren't many Canadian beers, just Moosehead, Big Rock Traditional Ale and Grasshopper, and Alley Cat. The interior was pretty rad though., There were Haida carvings, framed Jerseys (Hockey and CFL), and license plates from every province and territory. But the people who were there reminded me of college drunkies. Once we had a couple beers we went to another place, where I swear to God, I had the best hot chocolate of my life. I'm imagining it now, and i'm starting to drool. After, we were pretty pooped, so we headed back to our hotel. Lucas and I slept like the dead. The bed was soft, the pillow was fantastic (though Luc wasn't too thrilled about the pillow), and strangely enough, there were no meowing all night long.

We woke up the next morning feeling so refreshed. Which is good, becuase Lucas had a long day ahead of him, with me tourist shopping. We first refueled with some lunch, and then I shopped down Insadong for a good three/four hours. A lot of the stores have the same thing, but I still like to look at it all. Once that was finished, Luc and I went to Gyeongbokgung Palace. We got there just in time to see the end of the changing of the guards. It was sweet. We wandered the place for about an hour, but it was so bitterly cold, we headed out. We missed a little of the palace gardens, but we were more concerned about keeping ourselves frostbite free.

We dropped off our bags at the hotel, and then met up with Brielle and Dave to go to a cute tea shop. You would never know it was there. There were birds, and the interior was so cozy. We'll be taking you parents when you come. Then we headed again back to Itaewon. We weren't very hungry at this point, so we went to a DVD room. DVD rooms are places where young folk go to be alone. It's basically a comfy couch, where you have a big screen, you pick a DVD,a nd the guy at the front plays it. Youcontrol the sound. We watched Welcome to Dongmakgol. It was set during the Korean War and there is this village that has no idea about guns, war, or hate. North and South converge here, and it the movie was AMAZING. I seriously recommend this movie. The tone of the movie is slightly humourous. Please, see this movie.

We then went for dinner at Buddha's Belly, a Thai place. Megadelish. Bought a bottle of wine, wanted a lot more, but it was pretty expenive to do so. I had already spent about 250$ by last night. Once dinner was over, we went to find a place to have some drinks. We went to a place called Helios, thinking it was maybe a gay bar. We got in, and it definately wasn't. It was crazy club, where the boys had to pay, and women were free. We stayed about two minutes. We then went to a Latin place where were had beer, margharita, and mojitos. That was more my atmosphere.

THe next day, Lucas and I had to check out, meaning we had to haul our bags everywhere we went. First we went for a sandwich and then to Changbokgung Palace. This palace is a world heritage site, and you have to go on a guided tour. So while were waited for the English tour, we went to Dunkin' Donuts. This was my first Dunkin experience, and I must say. Timmy's is better. Dunkin' is saltier. So went on the tour, which was an hour and 20 minutes, got lots of pictures. Then we needed to warm up, so we took a taxi to the CO EX mall, which is supposedly the largest underground shopping or smething. IT was a disappointed. I swear, 80% of the stores are restaurants. But we did have a little thrill. Randy Orton and Snitski (Wrestlers) were walking around. So we got our picture taken with them, we wanted to make Sean jealous.

We still have about 4 hours until our train left, but we went to the station to see if we could change our tickets in to leave earlier. We were tired, and wanted to to home. The tickets got switched, we chugged back home, got some dinner, and looked at our treasures.

Lots of pictures, lots of tourist stuff. I spent 300$. Oops.

Daegu with Jae Won

Today Erin and I and another teacher at my school (Nicola) were taken around town by my Korean partner Jae Won. First we went to the Arboretum. It wasn’t the best time of the year to be going, but we got a small sampling of Korean plants and had a pretty nice walk around. There was also this greenhouse full of desert plants and cacti that was pretty kool. Jae Won picked us up at my school and drove us out there. We got to see lots of the city by driving out there. Usually when we travel long distances we take the subway, so we miss lots of the sights, and don’t learn our way around the greater Daegu area. With Jae Won we learnt, amongst other things, where the American army base was, it’s a fairly big landmark, and people use it to give directions all the time, so it’s handy to know. So yes, there is an American army base here, but I don’t know if anyone knows what the soldiers do all day. We see them at the pubs at night and they are usually pretty rowdy, really… what’s the point of having American soldiers in Southeast Korea? On a side note, American fighter jets fly over the city every day. You can only sometimes see them, but I think it’s pretty kool, they’re fast and noisy :).

After the Arboretum, we went to Jae Won’s College, the College where he got his undergraduate degree. He got his degree English and Literature and is in the process of becoming a public school teacher. It’s a Christian College, so it had a church at the top of a hill, and from the church was a pretty good view of most of Daegu. It’s a pretty kool school. It was designed by an American, so all of the buildings have a Southern Colonial feel to them. There were a couple traditional buildings too, I think Jae Won said they were built to be a mock up of a traditional Korean town.

From the College we dropped Nicola off downtown and then went to Costco. Jae Won wanted to use us for our Costco memberships and we wanted to use him for his car. It was a win win. It was a great day all in all. By talking to Jae Won out of the office we learnt allot about the Korean way of life, and he helped me with my Korean.

Erin and I failed our Korean test on Tuesday. We felt so confident going in... then we bombed. The test was all writing though, and we weren’t really taught how to write during the class, it was mostly speaking oriented. It was the first time the teacher had taught the class, so he realized the mistake, but I think Erin and I should take the class again, so we can learn how to write. We know how to pronounce most of the characters (except for the confusing combined vowels), we just don’t know exactly what to write when things are said to us.

Erin and I are going to Seoul tomorrow! We get Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off because of Lunar New Year, so we have to take advantage of it. We are taking the fast train and will be traveling at over 300 KM/H. Apparently the train isn’t that thrilling, but I am excited for itJ. We don’t now exactly what we are going to do in Seoul, but we are staying in a Hotel in the cultural district, so we know we will have enough to do. We want to see some temples and we want to go downtown, and it might be worthwhile to go to the Canadian bar in Seoul, but there’s so much to do there I don’t think we’ll be disappointed. Apparently there’s a Van Gough exhibit in Seoul now too, I would like to see that if we could.

So no blog until Saturday night (our time), but I’m sure the next blog will be a good one. And sorry for not blogging about cultural differences, I’m saving that for when we have nothing to write about.

6am Adventure

The cats have kept Luc and I up all night since we got them. Last night was a real treat. Koy has taken to jumping on the fridge. I have to get him down, and spray him with water. I keep having this nightmare that the fridge is going to fall over. So we put things on the fridge to bar him from getting up there. He stopped for a couple weeks, but within the last three days, he's doing it again. Last night, we heard a LOUD noise. I started freaking thinking that the fridge was falling over. Lucas jumped out of bed like a hot tamale and started jumping in circles saying "what! what!". Thanks for saving me Lucas ;) We got up, and it turns out that Koy had jumped off the fridge, hitting his carrier on the top and sent it bouncing around. Koy and Boots KNEW they were in trouble. After Lucas and I had scoped things out, the started to slink out from under the bed, with big eyes. I clapped my hands, not very hard, and they both GUNNED it back under the bed. They stayed there for a little while, and i saw one of them starting to come out again, made a sudden movement, and he dashed back under the bed. They were quiet for a half an hour before they started their incessant meowing. The whole night, they are meowing. They do not stop!

I'm still makng fun of Lucas' hopping around in a circle last night. Eheheh.

Groundhog Day

Did the groundhog see his shadow? Becuase I'm about done with this coldness.

Communes Trivia

Last night, Lucas and I went to a bar that we had never gone beofre. We went to Communes, and hurrah, the music didn't suck! It was trivia night, and we got a team together and played the game. It was a lot of fun, until we realized that the winning team was a team of 8. You were only supposed to have 4-5 on a team. We would have had a team of 8, but they told us we had to break up. Apparently, this large team wins everytime, and they get away with the size because they are friends with the people running it. So people were getting a little miffed. Whatever, it was fun nonetheless for me.

On Wednesday, I got together with the guys from work to work on making questions for the new curriculum. For every article that we do, we have to write a series of questions. If we did this on our own, that would be 200+ questions, and countless hours of work.

Lucas and I have been trying to plan our Seoul vacation. We booked a hotel over the Internet in Insadong. Insadong is the cultural centre in Seoul where there are palaces, marketplaces, and history galore. I'm very excited. We are going to be packing a lot into two days I think. I'm so excited! And we're taking the KTX there which goes super fast.

Last night, a Korean guy sat down to talk with me as Lucas was over talking with some friends. He wrote his name in Korean, and I read it, and he was all impressed. See that? I can impress the Koreans. Though it's not hard. They praise you on your chopstick skills. One lady said I was relly beautiful, especially in my Columbia jacket (I was in the Columbia store). Last week, I was walking down the street by myself, and this Korean guy was like "excuse me, could I walk with you wherever you are going? I'm learning English and would like to practice." I was literally at the last stop on my walk, but becuase I'm so kind, I walked an extra three blocks in the completely wrong direction. This guy had awesome English, and he had learned on his own, becuase he just liked the language. It was quite impressive.

Luc is yelling at his computer. He's watching hockey, and the announcer apparently knows none of the Canucks names, and he doesn't know his hockey draft picks, etc. He yells at his computer a lot. That's how I know he's watching hockey. Do not disturb him during the game, or he will yell at you. Heads Up.