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

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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