So Monday, January 23rd was Emily's birthday. I (Jon) had to leave for work at 9:30, so we had to get up a little earlier (at the crack of 8:00) so that she could open her presents. I got her a black goldfish (two, actually, but one didn't want to be present and died beforehand), a hair blow-dryer and a new scarf, among other miscellaneous items.
I then went to the school while Emily stayed home and received birthday congratulations from a variety of people over the phone (thank you to everyone that phoned and e-mailed - it meant a great deal!). She then came into the school because I had a test that she supervised for me.
(When the kids have a test it has a speaking and a writing portion, so I pull the kids out of the class one at a time for the speaking portion and Emily supervises the writing portion and then entertains them for the remainder of the class.)
Several students remembered her birthday and gave her some gifts and cards, which was very sweet and cute. We finished the day and then went for supper at VIPS (Very Important Person Society), which is like a salad bar/steak restaurant. It was fairly nice and the food was pretty good.
Anyway, we got to eating and Emily and I ate nearly identical portions of everything, except that I tried the chicken pilaf, whereas she did not. After I had dished it up, I noted that it smelled funny. After I had put it in my mouth, I noted that it tasted funny. However, being in
Boy, was I wrong.
Halfway through my ice cream dessert, my stomach started to seize up. I wasn't sure if I was suddenly full or if I was ill, but we figured it was a good time to go home regardless of the circumstances. I made it to our apartment and proceeded to have the worst night of my life in recent memory.
I made at least 10 trips to the toilet to violently expel the contents of my stomach in a most noisome and unpleasant manner. While not puking my guts out, I laid on the couch moaning in agony because of my stomach cramps. I was up no less than 3 times in the night to continue the routine, finally emptying the last bit of chicken pilaf at about 6:00 AM. Emily was kind enough to teach for me on Tuesday, while I lay at home and recuperated.
Minus the ending, the birthday was good.
And my advice to you: Don't eat the chicken pilaf.
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Happy Birthday, Dear Emily...
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
The Korean Subway vs. The LRT
Korean subways are an experience unto themselves.
Actually, they are quite similar to the LRT in Edmonton.
Except that they're sparkling clean.
And quiet.
And safe.
And efficient.
And fast.
And they go from somewhere you are likely to be to somewhere you likely want to go.
Perhaps they're not so much like the LRT after all...
Actually, they are quite similar to the LRT in Edmonton.
Except that they're sparkling clean.
And quiet.
And safe.
And efficient.
And fast.
And they go from somewhere you are likely to be to somewhere you likely want to go.
Perhaps they're not so much like the LRT after all...
Saturday, January 07, 2006
The fastest 3 years of my life...
As many of you will know, I (Jon) left Canada 6 months ago at the ripe old age of 22. My birthday is September 10, 1982, so I soon turned 23 by all familiar calculations. However, Korea has a different way of reckoning ages.
The first 100 days of anything is a very important milestone in Korea. Babies, for example, turn one year old 100 days after they were born. The reasoning (which makes more sense than Canadian age does, in many instances) is that the child was alive for nine months before they were born, so they are one year old 100 days, or about 3 months, after they are born. After that, everyone turns one year older on January 1 (which is something that I don't understand as much).
So my birthday being when it is, I would have turned one on approximately December 20, 1982 and two on January 1, 1983. I therefore turned 25 on January 1, 2006.
I have aged three years in only six months, which has certainly been the fastest three years of my life.
The first 100 days of anything is a very important milestone in Korea. Babies, for example, turn one year old 100 days after they were born. The reasoning (which makes more sense than Canadian age does, in many instances) is that the child was alive for nine months before they were born, so they are one year old 100 days, or about 3 months, after they are born. After that, everyone turns one year older on January 1 (which is something that I don't understand as much).
So my birthday being when it is, I would have turned one on approximately December 20, 1982 and two on January 1, 1983. I therefore turned 25 on January 1, 2006.
I have aged three years in only six months, which has certainly been the fastest three years of my life.
Our holidays
CAUTION: LONG UPDATE.
Summary: We got back from our holidays safely and it was an amazing time. There are pictures at the bottom for those that wish to skim.
We went to Busan and Seoul (as we had planned) and it was cheaper and easier than we were expecting. It cost us 210,000 won for five nights accommodation (which is about 210 dollars), which was wonderful. We left at about 9:00 from our apartment on Friday (the first day of holidays) and went to Busan. We arrived around 1:00, checked into our hotel (http://www.centralhotel.co.kr/e_index.html) and then went and had Subway. We were very excited, as deli meat and buns of any sort are nonexistent here. It was delicious and cheaper than we expected. We then went to the beach, walked by the water for a while and then called it a night. The next day we wanted to see a little bit more of the town so we went to a Foreigner's Street. It really showed us how limited our worldview still is.
We were expecting a foreigners street to be full of English restaurants and shops, but what we found was Little Russia. All the stores had their names written in Russian and there were Russian mob bosses (or so they looked) lurking at us from every corner. It was a little unnerving (eastern Europeans sometimes have that way) and so we went back to the same beach area and went to a restaurant called Bennigans (your average middle of the road western type restaurant). It was great because we had an ocean view and could see all the preparations happening for the first sunrise.
We went and saw the Chronicles of Narnia in the afternoon, which was quite good. Movies here are great. It's only 7,000 won for a ticket and you get assigned seating, so it doesn't matter when you show up for your seats. We enjoyed it and then walked down to the beach again to see what sort of New Years eve festival was going on. There was some sort of cultural festival in a different part of the city that we (fortunately) decided to bypass (it looked incredibly boring when we saw it later on TV). The fun seemed to be on the beach, though, as dozens of vendors were selling 35 ball Roman Candles (fireworks) for 2,000 won. On the way in, we saw the "No Fireworks" sign, but hundreds of people were doing it, so we figured we'd have cellmates if we got in trouble.
It was really funny - you had your basic people shooting the fireworks into the ocean, your drunk people with the weaving aim and the little three year old kids who are not quite sure what to do with the lit fireworks that their parents have handed them. We set off two tubes each (eight dollars well spent), watched everyone else do theirs for a while and then went home to watch the countdown on TV. Unfortunately, the commentators watch wasn't quite right, so the countdown to the New Year started at about 4 instead of 10. Nevertheless, it was a good New Years Eve.
The next day we woke up at about 5:00 and took the subway (along with thousands of Koreans) to go to the same beach (again) and watch the sunrise, which was to take place at 7:35. We stood right at the water (big waves would soak the people that weren't paying attention - it was funny) and so we had great "seats." So good, in fact, that the TV cameras were jostling us to try and get the shot of the sunrise. If you just ignore them, they have to let you be and go somewhere else (which is what we ended up doing and what they ended up doing). Korean culture is funny sometimes. You need to be very assertive and very stubborn. To do so is not rude, and to not do so is to lose the good spot on the beach that you've been saving for the last 90 minutes.
There was an airshow with helicopters, people sending out wish balloons (balloons that people tied wishes to that they would then let float above the water), scuba divers, band performances (they played this intense music that sounded like an action movie sequence - it felt like North Korea was about to invade) and a boat parade. All in all, it was well worth it and we had a really good time, though we were exhausted. We slept most of the way to Seoul (which actually took almost 5 hours by bus, which was a long time).
When we got to Seoul, we checked into the guest house that we were staying in (http://www.kimsguesthouse.com/), got a pizza and then called it a night. (Pizza and fried chicken places are everywhere here.) The next day (January 2) we went to Lotte World, which is the worlds largest indoor amusement park. It was really fun, though the lineups were quite long. We went on every ride that we had time to, including this one called the Gyro Drop. It is a giant pole that they slowly raise you up 70m (about 210 feet) and then drop you at about 100km/h, so it's a really fast free fall. It was very intimidating and could hold a lot of people (about 50 people per try) so the lineup was always short. We went on it a couple of times, as well as some roller coasters and other such things.
We went to Sizzler for supper that night, which is a grand feast of a buffet. They had fajitas, tacos, salads, soft ice cream, good drip coffee, (and one of my favorites) potato skins with real cheese sauce. We ate enough to be sufficiently stuffed and then went home.
The next day we went to a giant market ( the whole area has 30,000 shops of various sorts) and meandered there. Emily got 2 new shirts for 6,000 won total and I got some new socks. They rotate what stalls are open every day and we were there on the women's clothing/winter coats/underwear day. We would have really liked to have gotten a bunch of funny T-shirts, but no such luck. We then went to Subway for supper (for the third time in 4 days) and to a second hand English book store. We bought some books and went back to the guest house.
We came home the next day and got ready for classes, which were on Thursday & Friday. My schedule for January is really good, but odd. I teach from 11:10 - 12:45 and then I have lunch until 3:10. I teach until 6:25 and then I'm done. I don't actually teach any more classes (I don't really know why) so it's not any more difficult, just longer. The week went well, especially because it was only two days. I've got some new classes and I lost some classes, which is too bad, but such is life.
Today (Saturday) we went on a cultural trip put on by the GIC (Gwangju International Center). It was only 10,000 won each and it included our transportation, a tour of a Korean traditional wine making facility, lunch, entrance to a swimming pool/spa, a tour of a temple and they provided snacks both ways on the bus. It was really neat, and a very authentic cultural experience. The wine was not grape wine as we understand but rice wine mixed with aloe. The meal was a traditional Korean meal, where everyone has their bowl of rice and then about 10 communal side dishes in the center of the table where you just grab a mouthful at a time with your chopsticks.
The most cultural experience was certainly the swimming pool and spa, though. The swimming pool is co-ed and you wear a swimming cap and trunks, but the spa part is different. Guys go with guys, girls with girls and everybody is in the buck (AKA: fully nude, naked, in your birthday suit, nekked, etc.).
There was a lineup of probably 20 showers along one wall with everybody scrubbing their little hearts out and then a good half dozen different pools for sitting in, some hot, some cold, some flowing, some outside, etc. The girls had even more, some with green tea and the like in them. There were also stools with mirrors and telephone showers, for those that wanted to get an even more thorough clean. There were also a bunch of different saunas and stuff like that. Public nakedness is very different here. It's just a commonly accepted part of life, and it's not really a big deal at all.
Well, not a big deal in the sauna, at least.
So that's been our life in the past week. It's been really busy but really good. We had a great holiday and we both feel refreshed and relaxed. One thing we enjoyed was the number of different people that we met. We stayed with a Finnish fellow and a guy from Washington while we were in Seoul and then on the cultural trip we hung out with this couple from Minnesota, three people from England, and a different couple from Quebec. We then had supper with some Canadians and a girl from Ireland. However, the people that top the chart was this Russian physicist (that sounds neat if you say it out loud) who has a degree higher than a PhD (available only in Russia). His name was Igor and he was married to Olga, which Emily and I found both appropriate and amusing. That has been one of my favorite parts of Korea - meeting people from all over the world.
Some pictures:
This is a dog decoration that they put (permanently, I think) on the beach. 2006 is the year of the dog, so this is to celebrate that and to help ward off evil spirits.
Summary: We got back from our holidays safely and it was an amazing time. There are pictures at the bottom for those that wish to skim.
We went to Busan and Seoul (as we had planned) and it was cheaper and easier than we were expecting. It cost us 210,000 won for five nights accommodation (which is about 210 dollars), which was wonderful. We left at about 9:00 from our apartment on Friday (the first day of holidays) and went to Busan. We arrived around 1:00, checked into our hotel (http://www.centralhotel.co.kr/e_index.html) and then went and had Subway. We were very excited, as deli meat and buns of any sort are nonexistent here. It was delicious and cheaper than we expected. We then went to the beach, walked by the water for a while and then called it a night. The next day we wanted to see a little bit more of the town so we went to a Foreigner's Street. It really showed us how limited our worldview still is.
We were expecting a foreigners street to be full of English restaurants and shops, but what we found was Little Russia. All the stores had their names written in Russian and there were Russian mob bosses (or so they looked) lurking at us from every corner. It was a little unnerving (eastern Europeans sometimes have that way) and so we went back to the same beach area and went to a restaurant called Bennigans (your average middle of the road western type restaurant). It was great because we had an ocean view and could see all the preparations happening for the first sunrise.
We went and saw the Chronicles of Narnia in the afternoon, which was quite good. Movies here are great. It's only 7,000 won for a ticket and you get assigned seating, so it doesn't matter when you show up for your seats. We enjoyed it and then walked down to the beach again to see what sort of New Years eve festival was going on. There was some sort of cultural festival in a different part of the city that we (fortunately) decided to bypass (it looked incredibly boring when we saw it later on TV). The fun seemed to be on the beach, though, as dozens of vendors were selling 35 ball Roman Candles (fireworks) for 2,000 won. On the way in, we saw the "No Fireworks" sign, but hundreds of people were doing it, so we figured we'd have cellmates if we got in trouble.
It was really funny - you had your basic people shooting the fireworks into the ocean, your drunk people with the weaving aim and the little three year old kids who are not quite sure what to do with the lit fireworks that their parents have handed them. We set off two tubes each (eight dollars well spent), watched everyone else do theirs for a while and then went home to watch the countdown on TV. Unfortunately, the commentators watch wasn't quite right, so the countdown to the New Year started at about 4 instead of 10. Nevertheless, it was a good New Years Eve.
The next day we woke up at about 5:00 and took the subway (along with thousands of Koreans) to go to the same beach (again) and watch the sunrise, which was to take place at 7:35. We stood right at the water (big waves would soak the people that weren't paying attention - it was funny) and so we had great "seats." So good, in fact, that the TV cameras were jostling us to try and get the shot of the sunrise. If you just ignore them, they have to let you be and go somewhere else (which is what we ended up doing and what they ended up doing). Korean culture is funny sometimes. You need to be very assertive and very stubborn. To do so is not rude, and to not do so is to lose the good spot on the beach that you've been saving for the last 90 minutes.
There was an airshow with helicopters, people sending out wish balloons (balloons that people tied wishes to that they would then let float above the water), scuba divers, band performances (they played this intense music that sounded like an action movie sequence - it felt like North Korea was about to invade) and a boat parade. All in all, it was well worth it and we had a really good time, though we were exhausted. We slept most of the way to Seoul (which actually took almost 5 hours by bus, which was a long time).
When we got to Seoul, we checked into the guest house that we were staying in (http://www.kimsguesthouse.com/), got a pizza and then called it a night. (Pizza and fried chicken places are everywhere here.) The next day (January 2) we went to Lotte World, which is the worlds largest indoor amusement park. It was really fun, though the lineups were quite long. We went on every ride that we had time to, including this one called the Gyro Drop. It is a giant pole that they slowly raise you up 70m (about 210 feet) and then drop you at about 100km/h, so it's a really fast free fall. It was very intimidating and could hold a lot of people (about 50 people per try) so the lineup was always short. We went on it a couple of times, as well as some roller coasters and other such things.
We went to Sizzler for supper that night, which is a grand feast of a buffet. They had fajitas, tacos, salads, soft ice cream, good drip coffee, (and one of my favorites) potato skins with real cheese sauce. We ate enough to be sufficiently stuffed and then went home.
The next day we went to a giant market ( the whole area has 30,000 shops of various sorts) and meandered there. Emily got 2 new shirts for 6,000 won total and I got some new socks. They rotate what stalls are open every day and we were there on the women's clothing/winter coats/underwear day. We would have really liked to have gotten a bunch of funny T-shirts, but no such luck. We then went to Subway for supper (for the third time in 4 days) and to a second hand English book store. We bought some books and went back to the guest house.
We came home the next day and got ready for classes, which were on Thursday & Friday. My schedule for January is really good, but odd. I teach from 11:10 - 12:45 and then I have lunch until 3:10. I teach until 6:25 and then I'm done. I don't actually teach any more classes (I don't really know why) so it's not any more difficult, just longer. The week went well, especially because it was only two days. I've got some new classes and I lost some classes, which is too bad, but such is life.
Today (Saturday) we went on a cultural trip put on by the GIC (Gwangju International Center). It was only 10,000 won each and it included our transportation, a tour of a Korean traditional wine making facility, lunch, entrance to a swimming pool/spa, a tour of a temple and they provided snacks both ways on the bus. It was really neat, and a very authentic cultural experience. The wine was not grape wine as we understand but rice wine mixed with aloe. The meal was a traditional Korean meal, where everyone has their bowl of rice and then about 10 communal side dishes in the center of the table where you just grab a mouthful at a time with your chopsticks.
The most cultural experience was certainly the swimming pool and spa, though. The swimming pool is co-ed and you wear a swimming cap and trunks, but the spa part is different. Guys go with guys, girls with girls and everybody is in the buck (AKA: fully nude, naked, in your birthday suit, nekked, etc.).
There was a lineup of probably 20 showers along one wall with everybody scrubbing their little hearts out and then a good half dozen different pools for sitting in, some hot, some cold, some flowing, some outside, etc. The girls had even more, some with green tea and the like in them. There were also stools with mirrors and telephone showers, for those that wanted to get an even more thorough clean. There were also a bunch of different saunas and stuff like that. Public nakedness is very different here. It's just a commonly accepted part of life, and it's not really a big deal at all.
Well, not a big deal in the sauna, at least.
So that's been our life in the past week. It's been really busy but really good. We had a great holiday and we both feel refreshed and relaxed. One thing we enjoyed was the number of different people that we met. We stayed with a Finnish fellow and a guy from Washington while we were in Seoul and then on the cultural trip we hung out with this couple from Minnesota, three people from England, and a different couple from Quebec. We then had supper with some Canadians and a girl from Ireland. However, the people that top the chart was this Russian physicist (that sounds neat if you say it out loud) who has a degree higher than a PhD (available only in Russia). His name was Igor and he was married to Olga, which Emily and I found both appropriate and amusing. That has been one of my favorite parts of Korea - meeting people from all over the world.
Some pictures:
This is a dog decoration that they put (permanently, I think) on the beach. 2006 is the year of the dog, so this is to celebrate that and to help ward off evil spirits. Fireworks on the beach. Sorry for the blurry.
Whale killing wish balloons. One balloon must have had a hole because it only made it about 30 feet out before it landed in the water. Everyone laughed at it.
First sunrise of 2006. We're 16 hours ahead of (most of) you, and this was on the east coast of Korea, so it really was pretty much the first sunrise anywhere in the world of 2006. It was really fun!
Look at all the people! We were in the middle of the beach, so this is only half of the people. There were about 700,000 people that came to see the first sunrise in Busan last year.
Jon at Lotte World. See the creepy people in the background?
Emily at Lotte World.
Emily outside the spa.
The temple on Jiri Mountain. Nearly every mountain (all the big ones, anyway) will have a Buddhist Temple. This temple burned down about 400 years ago, but they rebuilt it, so it's a 400 year old exact replica of one about 1600 years old. Sometimes the age of Korea astounds me.
Emily & I at the temple.
Well, that was our winter holidays. Hope you enjoyed reading about them as much as we enjoyed having them!
(This blog posting was taken mostly from an e-mail I sent to my parents. I hope they don't mind...)
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