Sunday, July 30, 2006

Konichiwa

Greetings,

Just a quick note to let you all know that we have arrived in Japan safe and sound. Today we explored Tokyo which is everything you would expect: big, busy, and absolutely fascinating. We looked at a temple complex, walked around the Imperial Palace gardens, saw the Tokyo Dome, rode a rollercoaster, wandered the red light district, and went to that huge intersection you always see on tv. We are very tired.

That is all I am going to write for now as we cannot upload pictures until we get back, and because this keyboard only has a spacebar on the left (I am used to the right and everytime I accidentally hit where the spacebar should be the keyboard switches to Japanese) so it is taking a long time to type (sort of like writing with your other hand), and because I cannot figure out how to type an apostrophe, I cannot use contractions, which is very annoying.

Until next week then,
Jo

Friday, July 28, 2006

Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto

We finally got paid and thanks to the Korean currency system it feels like we are rolling in the cash. For some reason the highest Korean note is 10,000 Won which is the equivalent of $10.00 Canadian. Imagine if Canadian bills only went as high as ten dollars and you can see how truly strange the situation is here. Combine that with the fact that everything is paid with cash and what you have is a state of affairs where even small paydays make you feel like a millionaire.

We also received our money in an envelope which added a certain mystique that I haven’t experienced since fat Tony paid me for off’ing Little Jon back in 1995.

Tomorrow we are off to Japan so won’t be able to update the site until we get back. It’s our first vacation and although we haven’t been here for that long we are pretty excited to do some traveling and get a break from teaching.

Tomorrow we are going to wake up at the crack of dawn and then take a train to the city of Busan. From there we will catch a Beetle, which is a sophisticated ferry that rockets along the water at ridiculous speeds. In fact, the boat doesn’t really touch the water and sort of glides along it instead.

(The "Beetle" - maybe the coolest ferry ever made. Yes, even cooler than the Fast Cat.)


(Just to give the full effect, we're including this graphic representation of the Beetle's coolness.)


Once in Japan we are taking a train to Tokyo where we will spend three days getting lost, failing to properly speak Japanese, and of course, eating enough sushi to qualify for the next season of television’s the Biggest Loser.

(We don't actually know these women, but they're Japanese and they're eating sushi, so they fit.)


We also plan to hit Tokyo Disney and Fuji-Q (which is a theme park at the base of Mount Fuji for those of you who missed out on Hooked On Phonics). From there we will be off to Kyoto to work on implementing wind turbines and reducing emission levels. Of course, once we are done saving the environment we will spend a few days experiencing traditional Japanese culture and eating even more sushi, which according to our guide book the Japanese apparently call…..Sushi.

(The happiest place in Tokyo.)


Since we won’t be able to post until next Sunday we wanted to leave you with a short, humorous story from work. Yesterday we were walking home with one of my students (Oh Ram Sole) when we started to talk about the food that we missed the most. One of the things we brought up was salsa at which point he replied with “Korean Salsa?”

We figured that even though it seemed like a question, he must have been informing us that Korea has its own type of salsa and we got pretty excited (it should be noted that his English is at a beginner level and most of this was done through short words, grunts, and hand actions). We asked him what Korean salsa was made from and he seemed really, really puzzled as though we had just asked him what side of the moon he enjoyed rollerblading on or something. Since he didn’t seem to understand we pushed on and asked him if it was made from fruits or vegetables. When that question didn’t remove the puzzled look we asked him if you could even eat Korean Salsa and then we made eating motions with our hands and went “Salsa, Salsa”.

He seemed to pull back in utter shock and said “No, No, No”. Then he looked at us the way that our soccer team did last week and the way that my grade 12 prom date looked at me: in utter disgust and horror. We decided to switch topics as seemingly he hated salsa and apparently everyone who ate it as well. The look he gave us was that shocking.

Anyway, today in our Korean class we asked the teacher what Korean Salsa was like and what you ate it with. I think we even told her how excited we were to try it and how great it was going to be to taste fresh salsa in our mouths again. At that point she started laughing so hard she cried and it took five minutes for her to calm down enough to explain that in Korean “salsa” means Diarrhea.

(Mmmmm...salsa with corn. Muy bueno.)


Sigh, poor us. It was just one of those days. By the way, to fully appreciate this anecdote, go back and read the part again about tasting fresh salsa in our mouths.

Fortunately we have Japan to help drown our sorrows. And on that note, take it easy and don’t forget what John Lennon said, all you need is love, and a really really good Korean- English Dictionary.

Cheers

Shayne (and Jo)

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Kickin' it Old School Style

Over the last few years I have noticed a very disturbing trend. Right before our very eyes playgrounds have been disappearing from all over Canada. Look outside and see for yourself: they are gone.

Sure, there may still be parks and maybe even a slide and a swing or two but the good old fashioned playgrounds of yesteryear have gone the way of the Dodo bird, Pogs, and Joe Piscapo’s career.

Instead our children now amuse themselves on super safe pieces of plastic that were designed by some egghead to remove not only the danger from the outdoors but the fun as well. My generation earned their stripes from falling off the merry-go-round and we developed self esteem from tackling the monkey bars and living to talk about it. As well, there isn’t a 20 or 30 year old alive who can’t talk for hours about the vicious burns they used to get from metals slides on sunny days.

But all of that has now changed. Kids now play on “Adventure Playgrounds” that really are nothing more than plastic tubing, sawdust and enough safety measures to kill any chance of lawsuit or fun.

Alas, ladies and gentlemen there is hope and its name is Korea, sweet glorious Korea. The place where lawsuits and liability haven’t yet been discovered and where old school playgrounds flow like preverbal milk and honey. Every day I walk home past a great little park and after reading a story on the website www.retrocrush.com about the disappearance of playgrounds I was inspired to write this post and to show you what Canadian children are missing out on.

This might look like any regular playground from afar, but oh no, it’s a keeper. Not only does it contain the wonderful old toys from my childhood but it’s intertwined them with some of the cooler features from new playgrounds (like the Tic, Tac, Toe board). It’s some sort of a hybrid playground that we believe must have been built by aliens as it is much more advanced then anything we have ever come across before.

This playground is too cool to be content with a mere merry-go-round so it has two personal sized ones instead. I have never seen of one of these before but it absolutely rocks. It has two small discs that fully rotate on the bottom and then a metal bar to hold on with on the top. It is, with out a doubt, the most dangerous piece of playground equipment I have ever encountered and god how I loved it.

Of, course in this picture you can see why something like this would never be allowed in Canada. Although, it’s a lot of fun this bad boy would probably be enough to wipe out an entire city of the Canadian kids who grew up on today’s playgrounds. Hell, I bet most of today’s kids have never even seen metal before and would think that it’s some new form of plastic.

I don’t really understand this particular piece but its metal and you can climb it so it gets thumbs up from me.

Ah here ya go, the granddaddy of them all, the metal slide. This thing is so cool that it ought to have its own floor at every museum in the world (ok well maybe not, but you get my point). These are all but extinct now and that’s a real shame. Even though I was lucky enough to ride it on a cloudy day I still gave it its proper respect and never looked it in the eyes or addressed it by its first name.

This looks like some sort of casualty from the old Russian Olympic Team. I think it might have been part of a gymnastics club at sometime but for whatever reason it’s now in the local playground. You can’t seem to do much with it except for fall off and that’s basically what we did.

This bridge makes the Okanagan Bridge seem enjoyable by comparison. It’s about as shaky as Hillary Clinton’s chances of presidency and every time I walked across it I fell. Conveniently it has a zillion spaces for your limbs to fall though so you never have to worry about not getting hurt.

Here’s an oldie but a goody, the classic monkey bars. There’s enough metal here to build, well, hmmm, something made out of a lot of metal I guess. Anyway, they brought back a rush of childhood memories and not only did Jo and I both make it across but we managed to do it without the help of the local children who were staring at us with all the awe and wonder deserved for our stellar feat.

Here’s a shot of some classic Korean playground Graffiti. Although I cannot translate completely I believe that it says something about your mother and sister.

Here is some sort of metal rope ladder that is surrounded by metal poles and a metal structure. This thing would eat our children alive.

Jo’s rocking out on the swings and although this is still a common feature of many playgrounds what’s truly strange is that the metal rings are protected by a plastic covering. It would truly take a special child to survive the personal merry-go-round, the metal slide, and the crazy bridge, only to be taken out by a swing set. The safety equipment on the swings is also the only kind in the entire park. Oh, mystical Korea, how I wish I understood thee.

Ok, so we don’t exactly understand what this is or what it does. But we know that every time we tried to use it we failed and that it will probably take months of forensic evaluations before we have a proper diagnostic of its full powers and abilities.

And of course what playground wouldn't be complete without a situp bench. Perhaps that's why Canadian children are so fat and Korean children aren't. They have infused play with exercise. It's brilliant, but I only got as far as three situps before my pants split. Of course looking at that picture I can see that I don't need to do any more situps as I'm already quite the sexy beast.

Well, that’s it, a Korean playground in a nutshell. It’s like traveling back to the time when Canadian children were smart enough to not get killed on a playground.

I fear that we are raising a generation that will be lost if the plastic protective covering ever comes off and I think it’s only right to send each and every one of them over here to put some hair on their chest (that statement is gender neutral, Shayne and Jo.com does not support one gender over the other. We merely support hair.)

Cheers

Shayne

Monday, July 24, 2006

Tales from the Aisles

I think the time has come to satisfy your curiosity and tell you what you've been dying to hear about since day one: what it's like to grocery shop in Korea. So come take a tour of our local grocery store. But let me first warn you. This is not a journey for the faint-hearted or the narrow-minded.....

The night view of our grocery store, conveniently located just two minutes by foot away from our apartment. Frustratingly, however, we were not aware of its location until 3 weeks into our stay, after making several trips from another store up a very large hill with armloads full of groceries.


Just inside the first thing you come across is the small bakery section. It was here that we discovered that, much against popular belief, one could indeed find whole wheat bread in Korea. What's somewhat annoying, though, is that you have to pay for your bakery purchases here, and not with the rest of your groceries. I'm sure that 6 months from now this will make perfect sense and we won't be able to believe that Canadians actually pick up their bread with the rest of their purchases. For now, however, we still find it baffling.


Here's Shayne in the next section of the grocery store proper: the dollar store section...sorry, the 1,000 Won section. You can buy pretty much anything here, including clip-on ties.

Unfortunately closed in the evenings, this is a take-out stand right in the middle of the store. You can buy dumplings, deep-fried meat on sticks, and of course, dinner in a styrofoam carton.


The deli section of the store. Whereas in Canada you would find potato salad, sandwich meats, and individually-sized macaroni and cheese, in Korea you find pickled garlic, strange black corn, and 50 kinds of kimchi.


Shayne still not being able to get over either the size of the beer here, or the fact that you can buy it (and any other type of alcohol) almost anywhere. I, however, cannot get over the fact that they seem to drink only light lager comparable to our Lucky Brand or Old Dutch Pilsner.


This is something that has Shayne shuddering (while I just try to ignore it). Various marinated meats in open, seemingly un-refrigerated bins. Fantastic.


Onward to the seafood department - a must in any Ulsan grocery store. Here I am holding up an eight-pack of baby octopi. Yum.

And if that didn't get you salivating, have a look at these bad boys.....


One thing we can't seem to get over is how strange the seafood is here. These had to be the scariest catch of the day and we have no idea what they are....although they seem like a cross between a frog and a piranha. I think the watermelon garnish was added to soften their image. It hasn't worked.


Here is what amounts to the foreigners' section, and it ain't much. There's more to be had in the bigger stores in town, but this is pretty typical for a neighborhood shop. All we can say is thank God for Costco.


And this, my friends, is the Spam section. Yes, Koreans love their Spam. I don't get it either.


A small taste of the vegetable section. Most of it's similar to home, although slightly different (like skinny, prickly cucumbers, and fat, stubby carrots), but we still have no idea what these are. We've narrowed it down to either some form of root vegetable, or tree branches.


One of the really great things about being in Korea is the prevalence of fresh fruit. Not only can you get it in the shops, but you can buy it from sidewalk vendors who seem to be everywhere. Another thing of note is they don't make the cashiers here memorize dozens of fruit and vegetable codes. Just like the deli, they have staff who weigh and tag your baggies of produce. A much better way of doing it, I think.


This was a shot we couldn't pass up on. I'm standing next to the mainstay of Korean grocery stores, the walking, talking, in-store flyer. When we first encountered this phenomenon, we thought they were simply telling everyone that they were closing and to get out. But no, he just belts out special after special. Anyways, he's friendly enough.

Well, there you have it. Not completely different from back home, but there's definitely enough here to keep us head scratching...and for some time to come.

Cheers,
Jo

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Well, at least we didn't get pantsed

Moving to a new city always presents the problem of making new friends and buddies. So far Jo and I have been fairly lucky considering that in only three weeks we have already made several friends and even more acquaintances. But you can never have enough friends and with that in mind we were really looking forward to this particular Saturday all month.

That was because Saturday was the annual foreigners Triathlon. An all day event designed to encompass meeting new people, playing team sports for 6 hours, and of course the age old hobby of drinking all day long.

This year’s scheduled sports were soccer, volleyball, and ultimate frisbee. Foreigners are divided into teams based on their nationality and then compete in an all day tournament for the year-long honour of being the best damn sports team in all of Ulsan. It’s kind of like the Olympics minus the talent, the crowds, and the steroids. Now everyone knows that Jo and I are far from athletic and usually don’t spend our weekends running about on a sports field but we thought we would give it a try and we were assured that the events were fun and definitely not competitive in nature.

So with that in mind we jumped on a bus and set out for the other side of town in order to compete in the name of Canada and the Queen (personally I was there on behalf of Prince Charles as I have always found him to be a lovely fellow). On the ride over we daydreamed about how great the fields were going to be. Korea is in love with soccer and it's no secret that it takes the game very very seriously. We were sure that the fields would be in world class condition and we were definitely not let down upon arrival.

We arrived to these beautiful fields and then enjoyed a day of laughter, camaraderie, and the finest beer in the world.

Oh, faithful readers, how I wish I could tell you that the day really turned out like that. But life is never predictable and thus neither was our first experience at the Triathlon. What we really arrived to looked more like this:



And like this:


And who could forget this:


After viewing the fields and realizing that we had worn expensive shoes that were designed to be run in but not to be washed with mud we decided that it was best to sit out of the sports and just watch from the sidelines.

Our plan might have worked too if it wasn’t for the fact that the majority of the members of Team Western Canada were too hung over to show up and play. We couldn’t let our team face disbandment so we ended up playing after all. Minus the mud, and our lack of athletic abilities, the day went well enough.

Unfortunately our team was more comparable to the Vancouver Canucks than to the Calgary Flames and we lost 5 games in a row.

(Shayne looking more like Captain Crunch than Captain David Beckham)

Now admittedly Joanna and I offered very little to the team. I think my biggest accomplishment was getting four points in volleyball and hers was finally getting her one kick at the soccer ball (and even though she missed the ball and fell to the ground in defeat it was a beautiful attempt anyway).

We were cool with our losses and it would have been fine to end the day 100- 0 but clearly some people disagreed. As the day progressed certain people became more and more competitive and were soon acting like we were the Italian national team instead of a bunch of fat foreigners playing in a mud puddle under an overpass.

Having realized our lack of skills the team soon understood that in order to win our role would have to be minimized. It’s been a long time since grade 11 PE but I soon remembered the shame that comes when someone doesn’t pass to you when you are wide open but instead tries to make a miracle pass to the guy blocked by 6 defenders because lord knows that even he has a better shot than you do. Haha, I was tempted to revert back to high school and run to my locker and cry under my giant poster of Britney Spears.

Soon the competitiveness spread to the other teams and I kid you not we almost witnessed a fight over ultimate frisbee. I can understand that people get worked up over competition. But please, golf sure, tennis Ok, hell even chess. But ultimate frisbee? What is going on with the world where people are taking throwing a frisbee seriously?

It seems that I traveled with the frisbee for too long and this really upset an opposing player. The dude looked like the kind of dork that after playing ultimate frisbee every day will run home and paint his collection of Orks a new color so that they will pose an even bigger threat to Frodo when they battle it out come Saturday night.

Anyway, a teammate of mine took offense to his taking offense and soon common sense took offense as words were said and anger projected over a flat disc and its been thrown (or rather traveled with).

Whew, after that paragraph I need a break.

(Here is Jo checking how much longer until we were free.)


(Team Western Canada. Most were really cool people and super friendly. Some, however, not so much. Points if you can guess who.)

I think that the idea behind the day was great and I give big props to those who organized it. But it wasn’t really our thing as we are just not that competitive when it comes to recreational sports. We did meet up with some acquaintances though and that was cool so the whole day wasn’t a bust.

One last thing though. I didn’t mention this but there were something like 6 different games to be played. There were 2 soccer games, 2 volleyball games, and two ultimate frisbee games. By the end we were so tired we could hardly move. Jo and I are more likely to hang out with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie than we are to jog or go for a run so by the end of the day we could barely hobble to a taxi.

(Yours truly and Jo looking a little worse for wear and praying for the invention of time travel to go back about, oh I don't know, 7 or 8 hours. And look at the shoes, our beautiful beautiful shoes, sigh.)

As soon as the last whistle blew we were on our way off the field equipped with enough new wisdom to know that the next time a day of organized sports rolls around we will lock our door and drown our sorrows in a bottle of soju and a plate of Kimchi.

Cheers

Shayne



Thursday, July 20, 2006

Birthday celebrations and Kimbap Heaven

(The mini Asian garden Shayne bought me for my birthday. The big one's called a money tree.)

This post is going to be a bit hodge-podge. A little more like an actual journal entry than a themed post. But I have lots to say.

As birthdays go, this past one was pretty good.

Not only did I get spoiled for a day by Shayne the day before, but on my actual birthday I was thrown a little party at work by my boss, Mrs. An.

She ordered Korean-style Chinese food, as apparently it's tradition to eat noodles on your birthday (I couldn't figure out if you can eat any noodles, or just noodles from a Chinese restaurant...both options seem equally strange and therefore appropriate).

(The delivery guy delivering our lunch...on real plates! ...They trust people to bring them back in Korea.)

The Chinese food we had for lunch at the school was definitely better than we had anticipated. You see, about a week or so ago we tried a Chinese restaurant by our apartment. We ordered some dishes recommended by our co-workers, and instead of a sumptuous feast, we got spaghetti slathered in a bland black bean sauce and sweet and sour pork (we were expecting something like chow mein and wonton soup, so you can imagine our surprise...and horror). Anyways, we have no longer sworn off Korean Chinese food as the stuff we had at the school was much better. Shayne got some fried rice, and I had a rice and vermicelli dish (satisfying the noodle requirement).

(Shayne ready at the trough, while Mrs. An in the background gets ready to pay.)

After lunch, they brought out a cake. Luckily for them, all cakes in Korea come with birthday candles and matches. Unfortunately, however, none of them come with 27 candles. sigh.

(Me with three of the Korean teachers and Mrs. An in front of the cake....which, although the star of the show, has been mostly cut out of this picture.)

After blowing out the candles, I cut the cake and then (as any normal person would do with no plates or forks around) I started to pick up a piece to eat. As laughter erupted I looked up to see that everyone else (except me and Shayne) had chopsticks at the ready. And I must say that even though it seemed like the most ridiculous idea in the world at the time, after trying it I think that cake is probably best eaten with chopsticks. It's easy to cut, pick up, and you can massive pieces into your mouth with ease.

(Diving into the cake like children...the cake was covered in fruit, including a cherry tomato)

Anyways, that was Tuesday.

Wednesday our telephone and internet were down due to the heavy rains. And we stayed in and watched tv for much the same reason.

Today, however, we were a little more adventurous. Probably too adventurous. A small restaurant called Kimbap Heaven had been highly recommended to us by other foreigners, so we decided to check it out. Even though I'm not big on kimbap, we were assured that they had many different dishes, and more importantly, an English menu.

After perusing the selection, we decided on "bean curd fried noodle," "steamed dumplings," "assorted fried rice," and "assorted kimbap." It seemed like a decent meal from the names of the dishes, but we were never more mistaken.

(Our meal, minus the dumplings)

When our meal came we found out what the words on the menu really meant. Bean curd fried noodle means fried tofu bits with udon noodles in a peppery soup. It tasted like pepper with pepper-flavoured noodles and pepper-flavoured tofu. Not great. The "assorted" in the fried rice meant strange bits of seafood (the miniature octupus legs were the most intriguing), a fried egg, and shredded seaweed. The "assorted" in the kimbap meant spam, processed cheese, and about half a jar of mayonaise. No, I did not make that up. The dumplings, however, were quite tasty.


(Shayne holding two of the many and assorted side dishes that come with every meal. On the left is kimchi and on the right is what we discovered is spam circles on some sort of tofu thingy...repulsive)

(Take a close look at the kimbap and you can see the spam and processed cheese...whoever had the idea that this was kimbap heaven evidently had been brought up on 7-11 fare and nothing else.)

In the end we managed to get down about half of the meal (less so of the rice once we discovered the little tentacle thingies). But, as the whole thing only cost us about $10, we weren't too disappointed to chalk it all up to experience. I must say, though, that we are beginning to discover the limitations to Korean food. Thank God for Cheerios.

Jo

Monday, July 17, 2006

Damn cruel internet

Greetings

Unfortunately the site isn’t allowing me to post pictures right now. I was going to post a blog about today’s adventures but that shall have to wait. In the meantime please wish a happy birthday to my lovely co-conspirator and collaborator in crime, Miss Joanna Groves. She turns a wee 27 today and I encourage all of you who read this site to leave a message for her. Korea is a long way from home and hearing from all of you will be the best present possible.

Cheers

Shayne

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok - the internet appears to be back to tip top shape so lets get to work. Because yesterday was a holliday in Korea we decided to celebrate Joanna's birthday a day early. Being the crazy party animals that we are we hit the town, ate some dinner, and then caught a movie. Back home that might not be that out of the ordinary, but in Korea anything can quickly turn into an adventure.



Let me be begin by saying that on average everything is bigger in Korea. Just take a look at the movie theatre behind me. It's probably bigger than Canada's parliament. It holds more than the actual theatre but the rest are just small shops, a few restaurants, and an arcade that we will definitely cover at another time.

In Korea there are basically three traditions for foreigners on their birthdays. The first, is a meal of traditional Korean noodles which we will be trying later today. The second is to get rip roaring drunk and make a fool of yourself which we will be skipping due to a lack of desire for both the rip and the roaring part. And the third is to eat at one of the over priced western restaurants in town. This one was easy, as there are several of them to pick from and even though we have only been here for a few weeks the idea of steak and pasta sounded great.





We settled on Outback Steakhouse and fought our way through the traffic in order to get the blessed piece of dead cow that you see above you. Steak is pretty rare in Korea and Outback did a good job of making it taste just like you would find in North America. There are some differences though. It came with a bowl of pickles soaked in vinegar and a dipping sauce that we couldn't quite identity but are certain that it contained both glee and merriment as ingredients. After the meal I excused myself and made a bee line to the gents washroom.

Although expecting to find a mere toilet and go about my normal business what I found was much much worse. Although having read about electronic toilets for years I had never previously had the displeasure of meeting one face to face, or I guess face to seat. The beast was 100 feet if it was a foot and had steely cold eyes that could not only see through your soul but could eat away at it if you stared into them for too long.

Ladies and gentleman this is no joke. The washroom at Outback contains an egregious beast that got the better of me. I tried to tame it in order to use its functions but I’m afraid that within mere seconds not only was I covered from its painful spray of death but I had to make the walk of shame back to my seat looking like this.

I tried to go back to my seat and pretend that everything was okay. But I just couldn’t do it. I had to go back and face what had quickly become my great Korean nemesis. I grabbed the camera to document my struggle and marched back in there to show it who was boss.

Well, I’m proud to say that after 15 minutes of pain, sweat, and tears I figured out how to work the computer…er… I mean beast. I used every function and didn’t get wet or covered in the surprise spray that it kept throwing at me.

Captain Ahab had his whale and I have what you see below But I do caution you to be careful, once you look at him you might not ever be the same again.

I shudder just looking at his cold grimace and viscous bunny covered trash bin. Although scarred by the whole experience I have to show you something else that is pretty cool in the washrooms over here. This little fellow:

We have named it a turbo powered skin reducing hand dryer thing – a m’ jig. It sure does its job though. Unlike the hand driers back home you always leave the bathroom dry and don’t have to resort to wiping your hands on your pants which creates the misfortunate illusion that the bathroom trip didn’t go quite.

After dinner we walked around the mall and picked up some ice cream.

Only it wasn't exactly ice cream. Sure it was cold and tasty and expensive but it wasn't quite the same. I have seen these before in Canada but they never gained the popularity that they have over here. Dots - millions of frozen delicious dots.



This particualr batch was Kimchi flavoured and under the top section we found a piece of cabbage that was great. The ice cream was a pretty good treat but it didn't last long and then we made our way to the cinema.

Eventually we will spend an entire post on the cinema so we won't pay it much attention right now. But I will point out that everytime you walk into a nicer building over here you have to wrap your umbrella in a plastic sleeve (by the way, since it is always raining you always have your umbrella no matter what). They have little dispencers outside the doors that look like this:

It was a little strange at first but in no time at all we mastered the system and now we proudly present you with proof of this feat:


Yup, that's me holding two umbrellas wrapped in plastic. Mom I bet you are so proud.


We were lucky enough to get tickets to see Pirates of the Caribbean (as it's crazy popular here) and I have to say that we both really liked it. I recommend that all of you watch it if you haven't already.

This picture is the Lotte wheel which is right beside the cinema and is one of the biggest wheels in the world. We would have ridden it by now but it seems to always be closed no matter what the weather is or what time it is.

Anyway, so that was our day. We had a great time celebrating Jo's birthday and I will finish this post by wishing her a final happy birthday. I don't think that I would have moved here with out Jo and I'm very lucky to have her in my life.

So happy birthday Jo - my little cougar.


Cheers

Shayne