Mind, Tommy And Seoul

It's Time For A Change

2007-07-28T13:03:00.000+09:00

Hey, it's been a while I know. This will be a short post. I just want to let everyone know that I moved into a new apartment (a month ago) called Poonglim in the Seohyeon area. It's right by Samsung Plaza (below). Click on the images for original size.

Samsung Plaza

Samsung Plaza (Neon)

Poonglim. Huge Building.

Jazz Restaurant in Jeongja.

Can you guess which side is the rich side?

I'll be back with another post soon... ah, who am I kidding.

-Tommy

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Now playing: Modest Mouse - People As Places As People
via FoxyTunes

Another Vacation :)

2007-02-21T18:50:00.000+09:00

Hey, everything is still good on this side of the planet save Kim Jung Il.

Nothing really new to report for this month. Same, same, but different I guess. However, at the end of February John and I will be heading to Osaka, Japan for a friend of ours' wedding. Actually, it is the brother of our friend Miron who is getting married. I think it's a great excuse to go experience Japan and see a good friend too. We will definitely party it up there. I hear it's really expensive in Japan, which is a downer but I'm sure it will still be a good time.

On a totally unrelated topic, a friend of mine showed me some fantastic colour photos of South Korea back in 1954. This will be sure to blow your mind seeing how much progress they have made in 50 years. It also just goes to show you where their mentality still is. Everything in South Korea you see is similar to back home but the way the majority of people 30+ think here is shown by these pictures.

Compare with these present day pictures.

Enjoy!

-Tommy

New Link

2007-01-20T20:45:00.000+09:00

Hey. I've added a new link to my blog. It's eye4insanity.blogspot.com. Check it on the right. A friend of ours from Canada, who lives in the same apartment as us, reports on all the insane things going on in Korea. Please check it out. There are lots of interesting posts. Guaranteed to enjoy.

-Tommy

A Long Overdue Post

2007-01-16T19:53:00.000+09:00

Greetings and Happy New Year to all!

I am alive and haven't forgotten completely about my blog. Bear with me as this will be a long post. I have much to report.

NOVEMBER

Work in November was easier and more laid back than ever. We had maybe 3hrs each of teaching a day and the rest of the time we played on our computers and chatted amongst each other and the Korean staff. This didn't come without consequence. During the second week of November John and I were called into the foreigner staff meeting that consisted of John, myself, and our supervisor Henry (or as the Koreans say 'Henly'). He had some unfortunate news: "Sorry guys but the school will be closing at the end of the month." To say the least we were shocked. The school had only been open for 6 months up to that point. Isn't it common business knowledge that it takes at least a year if not two years for a business to show profit? Our owners/investors gave the school 6 months and called it quits. Successful business' in Korea all depend on the major investors intuition and feeling about it. So, our main investors decided that there was no way they would show a profit by the end of December and decided to 'get out early'. I didn't agree with this logic, if you could call it that, but what could I do? I am in Korea after all. Needless to say the next two weeks of work were the easiest I had ever experienced.

This shocking news left John and I with some problems. We were no longer going to get paid at the end of each month. Our health insurance was going to be canceled. Our E2 working visas were going to get canceled. We didn't know where we were going to live. Are we going to get any kind of compensation? Return flight ticket? It was a lot to deal with in two weeks time.

From other stories I have heard since, we were very lucky with the school we chose because the people we worked for were really good to us (aside from the fact that we lost our jobs). Our problems were solved as follows: they paid us for the month of November, paid for half of next months rent, returned some of the money we paid for our visa status, compensated us for a return-flight ticket, and let us stay in the apartments they had given us, but we had to put a deposit down and actually pay rent every month. Our health insurance wasn't a problem after all. As long as you show them the insurance slip, the doctors don't care and just bill the government. So we do still have health care, thankfully. At that time we were under the impression that they had to cancel our working visas. This meant that we would have to leave the country and come back through immigration to get 6-month visitors visas (6-months only for Canadian citizens). (We learned after the fact that if they don't cancel it within 14 days then we could keep our E2 status.) This seemed to be a huge and costly inconvenience at first but after thinking about it we saw this as an opportunity to visit a new country. We thought about taking the hydrofoil to Japan for about $300 round-trip (~3hr boat ride one way) but after talking with a friend of ours, he convinced us to go to Cambodia with one sentence: "Guys, you can shoot a rocket launcher and blow up a cow in Cambodia!" After hearing that we were sold on Cambodia and began planning the trip.

DECEMBER

The following weekend we made a trip down to Itaewon (biggest foreigner place in Korea, I have probably already mentioned this in previous posts) to find a good travel agent. Low and behold we did. His name was Ken and he was from Pakistan but spoke perfect English. He hooked us up with a return-flight to Cambodia at a much better price than we could find online. We booked the trip then and there for departure on December 13 at 3pm. It was approximately a 6.5 hour flight there. Not too bad.

A little background info: Cambodia is a 3rd world country fyi, there are basically two types of people here, the extremely rich (Cambodian standards) and the extremely poor. The streets are filled with hundreds of motos (little mortorcycles) or huge 100+ thousand dollar Toyota SUV's. You can't drink the tap water or use it to brush your teeth. Everyone there is only there to take your money (for the most part) so beware. The kids run the streets. They walk around with photocopied books and haggle you all day. The tuk-tuk guys (These are the guys that take you around in a kind of trailer attached to a moto) will haggle you to get rides from them all day long, there are hundreds of them. If you reject the ride they will offer you a prostitute. If you refuse the prostitute, they offer you a lady boy. Anything you may consider illegal back home and somewhat hard to get you ask the tuk-tuk guys. They can get you anything you want.

We arrived in Cambodia at about 10pm or so that Wednesday, found a taxi outside and told him to take us to this hotel that was mentioned in the Cambodian Lonely Planet book. He took us there, we booked a room and settled in.

Our hotel on the left.

Just across the street, the local kids keeping cool.

We had a couple of beers and then were talked into going to one of the clubs there by one of the tuk-tuk guys. The ride was maybe 5 minutes or so, the streets were very dark and I have to admit that I was a little bit scared. It was a total change from what I had been used to. There is one major street where it is relatively safe but once you venture off from there it is pitch black and you don't know anything about your surroundings and apparently it can be very dangerous, although we had no troubles at all during the trip (perhaps we were lucky). The tuk-tuk guy drops us at the club - The Heart of Darkness. This was a club full of foreigners young and old getting drunk at maybe $1.50US per 500ml of Ankor Wat Beer. In addition to the foreigners were plenty of prostitutes trying to make friends with you at every chance they could. We had 3 or 4 beers, hit the dance floor for a half hour or so, then went to the hotel. End of DAY 1.

John not too pleased on the back of a tuk-tuk.

The next morning we woke up, had breakfast at the hotel and made a deal with the owner. We booked our stay with them and their "sister-hotel" for the entire trip, reserved a driver for 4 days. We got driven around in a black benz in a third world country - how terrible of us. It was only $25US a day to take us anywhere we wanted, how could we not?

Oh, I forgot to mention, we were at this point in Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia. We stayed here for another 2-nights, I believe, then we travelled to Siem Reap, another big city in Cambodia where most of the ancient sight seeing was done.

Back to our second day. After breakfast we went for a walk and got familiar with our surroundings a bit. We decided to go see and do a bunch of things this day. First on the agenda
was going to the shooting range to shoot machine guns and throw grenades. This was awesome!

On the way to the range.

The driver took us to this shooting range that was maybe a half-hour away. We entered this heavily fenced off property where there were about 10 Cambodians sitting around and shooting the shit, no pun intended. You could just imagine us, two white guys arriving in a benz and getting out of the car. Their eyes lit up with dollar signs. Cha-ching! They took us to the table they were sitting at and gave us the menu, yes a real menu with all the different guns you could shoot.

Some of the guns you could shoot.

Tommy with the Tommy Gun.

We ordered a beer and two rounds for the AK-47. John and I both took a turn on the AK. It was cool, but not the best. That was $30US each. Next, I had to debate between the anti-aircraft gun or the M60 machine gun (a.k.a. The Rambo Gun). With little persuasion they sold me on the M60. Good choice I think. This had some serious power and surprisingly good accuracy. I was a much better shot with the M60 than the AK-47 (see pics below). It was extremely exhilarating and worth it for $60US. John's second choice was a magnum of sorts, similar to the one Clint Eastwood used in his Westerns. He says this was a lot of fun, but it couldn't match the Rambo Gun. I don't care what anyone says.

Me and the Rambo Gun. Oh Yeah!

Johnny with the magnum.

We were still unsatisfied at this point because we were under the impression that shooting a rocket at a live cow was going to be cheap. Man, were we wrong. It was $200US to shoot one rocket (B-40 rocket launcher I think it was called) and about $200US to buy a cow. We definitely could not afford this. An even more expensive option was shooting a rocket out of a tank - $1500US!!! You normally shoot it into the mountain side but they said we could shoot a cow too. We decided to buy a hand grenade. It was $30US. I paid $20 and John $10. I got to throw it. I had to throw it into a pond they had there. It wasn't a huge explosion of water or anything like I imagined, rather a big bang rippled through the ground beneath you, still pretty cool.

Getting ready to toss the grenade.

After this we headed to The Killing Fields.

The Killing Fields are where soldiers of Pol Pot (leader of the Khmer Rouge) brought all those with any education to be slaughtered. He basically wanted to re-start his country at year zero by killing all those with any education. Insanity, to say the least. Here you can see many of the graves and skulls of those slaughtered here. Very eerie.

Grave sites.

Skulls of the slaughtered.

As we were walking the fields we were spotted by a gang of children. As we approached they offered to pose for a picture. This sounded like a great idea. I snapped the photo and instantly 10 children were yelling at us "Money, money, money. One dollar please...." We were actually broke at the moment and had no more cash on us otherwise I would have gladly paid. They basically strip-searched us for money and to their disappointment didn't find any and left us to bother some more tourists.

The gang of kids.

As we were leaving this small child approached me and began chanting "Do you have any moneyyy, do you have any moneyyy...." It was as if his parent taught him to say that, very rehearsed. The kid was really cute and I found a dollar that I had missed earlier and gave it to him, I couldn't resist. (That chant became a slogan for Tobin, Chris, Krissie, and I later on in December)

"Do you have any moneyyy?"

After the Killing Fields we visited a prison used to hold all of the people who were slaughtered in the fields. Here, again, the educated were brought and interrogated. We couldn't find out from anyone why they were being interrogated.

The prison.

The balconies were caged to prevent suicides.

My theory is that Pol Pot wanted to gain as much knowledge from them to remain very powerful. More knowledge equals more power, right? The people here were kept in very small quarters either individually or in groups. There was a place to hang people that got out of line, otherwise there was a truck that came to pick up a group of these people after being interrogated to the Killing Fields to be murdered. The most horrifying thing about this whole ordeal was that the soldiers doing the killing were children. Maybe from 6 or 7 years of age to their late teens. Furthermore, after all these children did their 'job' for Pol Pot, he threw them a party and put poison in the drinks and wiped them all out. Crazy SOB.

We did a lot that day and were really tired and hungry. We came back to the hotel napped and then went out for dinner at this restaurant that provided live entertainment. No, that that kind of entertainment, but a cultural dance type of entertainment. The food was great and the dance was interesting.

The next day we travelled to Siem Reap. It was about a 4-hour drive in the Mercedes. We saw a few accidents and the country side. Interesting landscape, nothing much in terms of buildings or anything like that.

A head-on collision on the way to Siem reap. As we passed it looked like there was a lifeless body on the road.

Just a nice pic in Siem Reap.

That night, after dinner, our driver took us to a club. This was no ordinary club though. They did have a bar, a dance floor, and karaoke capabilities. But, through a set of door there was a separate room in which you could enter. Inside this room was a stage-like setting behind a pane of glass filled with beautiful Cambodian women. Here you could sit down on a leather couch, have a drink and really decide which female you wanted to purchase for the evening. I think it was something like $45US for the night and $25US for the hour. Obviously John and I aren't into this sort of thing but it was fun to see.

Siem Reap.

The next morning we woke up at 4:30am and took off for Ankor Wat - one of the main things to see in Cambodia. It is an ancient temple that was built in the 12th century for one of the kings - King Suryavarman II. The place is huge and you can buy a ticket for a day, 3-days, or even a week to explore everything. We just went for the day. The reason for going so early in the morning was to see the beautiful sun-rise, but the weather wasn't on our side and it was foggy that morning. The structures here are very detail oriented and must have been extremely beautiful in their day. Here's a bunch of pics from the main temple.

Ankor Wat.

Our driver.

After the main temple we went to the Bayon temple. This is where they shot Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (movie with Angelina Jolie). This was by far the coolest place to see there. I don't even want to try to describe it for you. Just check out the pictures.

Washroom break. Just some instructions.

These two temples took up most of the day. We were told that they had elephant rides to the top of a mountain where there was another temple and a beautiful sunset to see. On our way to the elephants we spotted monkeys on the side of the road. We jumped out of the car and there was about 35 monkeys just hanging out in a little field, playing, fighting, grooming and all the things that monkeys do. A girl came to us and sold us mini-bananas for a dollar and we fed the monkeys. A lot of fun.

John feeding the monkeys.

Three monkeys were on our driver at one point and one of them freaked out and bit his back. Ebola anyone?

We finally made it to the elephants. $15US each for a ride up and $10 down. We just went up. Elephants look really funny from behind when they walk. Their legs look like human legs, it's weird.

On the ol' elephant.

The following day we relaxed for the most part and then went on a boat ride to see the floating village. The village was exactly that. They had everything from houses, convenience stores, schools, police stations, and restaurants that floated on the water. Some people would even deliver goods right to you - convenience boats. Kids would float by us on these tin saucers and ask for money.

That night we decided it was time to visit the very famous Happy Herb Pizza joint. The name says it all. You sit down, order a beer and a pizza and the waiter will ask if you want it happy or not. Obviously we said yes.

Happy Herb Pizza.

We split a large pizza and had a few beers but we weren't feeling happy in the least bit until about 45mins later. We went for a nice walk down the strip and observed Cambodia from a new perspective. It was much more surreal and interesting. After the walk, we went back to the hotel for a few more beers and went to bed.

The next day we checked out the mine museum and a zoo. They have a completely volunteer based crew of people that go around and de-mine the heavily mined outskirts of the major cities making it safer for the locals. These mines were put in place after the Vietnamese pushed the Khmer Rouge (Pol Pot's army) to the north of Cambodia where he set up camp. The Khmer Rouge would do rogue missions where they planted as many mines as possible across the country. Many Cambodians have been affected by them.

A cool and very acrobatic monkey at the zoo.

A really interesting Khmer dish. It was chicken in a curry-like coconut milk sauce with vegetables.

That night and the next night we partied it up. We got massages both nights at $6US/hour. John went for the 4-hand massage, which was $10US/hour. They are great after walking around all day. These are not the same as Rub-n-tugs back home. Strictly massage to our disappointment ;). The first night we went to a club called The Pyramid. It was the only place with a happening dance floor. On the downside this is where all the lady boys (what a great name for them) go to pick up foreigners and show them a good time. They were really hard to distinguish and with the help of another foreigner we were told who to stay away from. You could also tell by the way they played pool - much more aggressive in their shooting than real girls.

The last night we took the girls form the massage place out to a club but they didn't like western music that much I guess and took us to a Cambodian club where we were pretty much the only foreigners.

Masseuse girls.

It was a good time for the most part - John almost got in a fight with one of the dudes there but we backed off because apparently the ones that cause trouble are the rich kids and they usually carry guns and have bodyguards.

By the end we did have a great time although we were completely fed up with all the begging. When you're not used to it you can only handle so much.

We returned to Korea the following Thursday morning at about 6am. Chris and Krissie were scheduled to arrive that night at around 8pm. They came to visit me for about 2 weeks. That was the 21st of December. Our friend Mike Tobin came to visit us as well but arrived on the 26th. That night everyone rested up after all the travelling.

Early afternoon on Friday I got my friend to take us to Moran market. This is a big market here in Korea where they serve pretty much any animal you want (including dogs and puppies) to eat under the most unsanitary conditions. Unfortunately, it was closed (only open on weekends). So hopped on the bus and went to Itaewon. Chris and Krissie wanted to do some shopping. We shopped for a few hours and then went to the Seoul Pub for food and drink. This is honestly the best pub I have ever been to. You will not have a better time in any other pub, I guarantee it. We got there around 6pm. Immediately the owner spotted my friends that lives here (they know each other from previous drinking episodes). The owner, Mister Jung for strangers and Master Jung for his friends, came to our table and the drinking games began. Before we knew it, it was 9pm, everyone was loaded and we were playing the boot game. Beerfest anyone? Basically, there is a large boot-shaped glass filled with beer to drink from. Someone rolls the dice and whichever number it lands on and the one opposite of that are the drinking numbers. (2 and 5 for example) If you roll a drinking number you drink from the boot. You can attempt to finish the whole thing. If you do the previous person that drink has to pay 8,000 won for it (which goes to charity). But, if you spill more than 4 drops, have the beer lose contact with your lips, or puke within 10 minutes after finishing it you lose and have to buy a round of shots for everyone on the game. Makes for great entertainment. If Master Jung gets a drinking number, its over. He does a little dance for you, drops all his jewelry into the boot and chugs the boot. He is a drinking machine. He can drink all night and he is one of the fastest beer-chuggers I have ever seen. He lost only once the 2 times I was there to this large American seasoned drinking professional. This guy was at least twice Master Jung's size. Check out the pics and the movie of Master Jung drinking the boot.

Seoul Pub arrival.

Junior (Master Jungs brother), Toby, and Master Jung. It ain't a party unless Toby spills a drink on himself.

Master Jung taking the boot.

Baseball. Newspaper is the bat and a shot glass is the ball. I am the catcher, Chris the batter, and Master Jung the pitcher. He shoots the shot glass out of his mouth a good 20 feet. I did catch the sot glass but no prize was awarded. Weak!
("I think something is poking me in the back.")

Tobin with the Jung brothers.

Master Jung going for a second boot!

Rules for the boot game.

Master Jung performing one of his many bar tricks.

Jug-off.

Doing a dance.

We basically got drunk from the 22nd to the 24th. Drank on the 25th but didn't really get drunk and Tobin showed up the following day.

We drink here a lot. $2 pints.

Drinking at the Happy Liquor Pia.

Does anyone know who the fat cowboy on the left is?

Toby does look better the drunker I get.

Out drinking.

Butterfly larvae. A Korean delicacy. Tastes like dirt!

On the 24th, friends of our here had a pot luck Christmas party. Everyone prepared great food except for us. We chopped up half of the kielbasa that Chris brought for me. It was probably the first dish to be finished. Success! Everyone ate and drank much. It made for a merry time.

Me and the hosts: Paul and Sun

"Do you have any moneyyy?"

For the rest of the week we visited the National Museum and the War Museum, Dongdaemun (the big shopping area here), Myeong-dong (a popular hang out area with lots of stores and restaurants), and saw a really interesting show at Korea House. They performed traditional Korean dance and an amazing drum show that everyone agreed was the highlight of the night. It was 4 men with different drums. Each started making sounds with their drum and eventually harmonized the sounds into a very trance-like beat that gave you goosebumps as you listened and watched. We also went to Lotte World. It's another amusement park here with half of the rides inside and the other half outside.

On our way to the National Museum.

The four drummers.

Toby got pulled up on stage to join the dance.

WAR Museum:

Lotte World.

For New Years we started the party off at a friends house. We stayed there until about 12:30am to celebrate the new year and then took off for Hongdae. We went to the Ska Bar. A small dungey place that charged $15 a head and sold really expensive drinks but the music hit the spot. We danced there until about 6 or 7am. Good-times!

Pre-New Years.

Hongdae area. Funny random Spanish guy.

At Ska Bar.

JANUARY

Chris and Krissie left here on the 3rd of January. Thanks for visiting, it meant a lot to me. :)

Toby left on the 5th of January. He is missing Korea already and wants to come back. Thanks for coming dude, it was a blast.

Right now I am working part-time as an English teacher and still having a lot of fun here.

Thanks for reading the long post and I promise to post more often.

Last thing, can you guys leave comments please. They are as good for me as my posts are for you.

-Tommy

Homesickness Finally Set In

2006-10-10T22:02:00.000+09:00

Hey Hey!!

I miss everyone lots!

So the past couple of weeks I've been really missing home, family, and friends. I finally feel homesick. My thresh-hold for being away from home is about 10 weeks I have finally figured out. It's weird, you get memories of the weirdest things like being in Blockbuster renting a movie and then going over to Luca Pizza for a delicious pepperoni slice. Or missing the natural smell of your house or the smell of your blanket and pillow, even just the sweet summer-time smell of Mississauga (much better than the smell of Bundang let me tell you). And obviously the good times with family and friends. My friend Andrew Lockhart was actually down here visiting John and I during Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) and I asked him to bring me my pillow, I just couldn't get a good nights rest without it. Yeah, I know I'm still a kid at heart.

Chuseok, as I mentioned, is the Korean equivalent to Canadian Thanksgiving. They don't eat turkey or any traditional food from what I gathered. Rather the whole city of Seoul gets on the bus, train or in their cars and travels back to the country side in which they grew up or where their parents/grandparents are living now. The gatherings are usually about 20 relatives in size and they eat lots of food and drink lots of soju. Another key thing they do is go to their ancestral grave-sites and cut all the grass that have grown over them. The sites are usually in the mountains so they don't get regular maintenance like back home in the cemetery. Now they just use cremation instead of burrying their loved ones. They really dont have the land for cemetaries - small country wayyy too many people. After cutting the grass they pour Soju on the grave and ask for good fortune. Cool tradition.

Soju, by the way, is their national alcoholic beverage of choice. It is made using chemicals (not the normal fermentation process) and is therefore really cheap. A 500ml bottle costs $1.50CAD and is usually about 20% alcohol. (the Japenese love it and pay like $20 for a bottle) Tastes like a weak vodka. From what I hear there is fromaldehyde in it, which kinda scared me away from it. But it's sneak-up-from-nowhere-punch-you-in-the-face-drunkeness and the price, of course, gets you crawling back everytime.

Okay, back to our eventful week of Chuseok. Andrew showed up on Sunday October 1st around 10pm. We talked for a couple hours and had a couple shots of Soju to celebrate his safe arrival and went to bed. The next day John and I had to work so Andrew journied off to Seoul by himself (brave guy) and saw some of the things you should see when you visit Korea, like the Seoul Tower, some of the palaces and simply expriencing the vastness of Seoul itself. Monday night we got cleaned up, slamed back some G and T's (gin and tonics) at Good Fellas and decided we were gonna hit up Hongdae University. Hongdae is where most of the uni kids hang and is generally considered the party area. We had been told previously that by taking the bus versus the subway we would save about an hours traveling time. I had not used the bus system on my own until that night, it is quite complicated so I stayed with the simple subway system. But this night we were all feeling brave, could have been the gin talking, so we decided to take the bus. Hopped on the 5501-1 and took off for Hongdae University. We travelled for about 35 mins and arrived at a different university and were told to get off - last stop. We had no idea where we were and just started walking. Finally, we encountered some foreigners drinking at the local convenience store (as per usual) and asked them where we were. To our suprise we ended up in Suwon which was in the complete opposite direction. No matter, they offered to take us to a foreigner bar there and we accepted.

At the bar we met a bunch of people, mostly foreigners and pounded back 3 pints of beer at $2 a piece. That was cool but we all had a fever, a fever for some cowbell (OBV) and dancing. Asked the guy we were with for the nearest club and took a cab down. We ended up going to a club call G Club. $10 cover but you get a free beer, not bad I guess. The club was filled with Koreans and no foreigners. Turned out to be pretty sweet. We all had a blast and cabbed it home around 5 or 6am.

Tuesday we slept in and decided to go to Everland. Everland is the zoo here in Korea. It's actually more like an amusement park with a zoo. It was awesome.

Everland at night - they love Halloween here.

They had lots of different animals. The usual lions, tigers, and bears. But get this, they actually had LIGERS!!! Thought that was only a joke from Napolean Dynomite. Yet again Korea proved me wrong. Couldn't get a good pic of them because we were in a bus and it was night time. They had some other good rides (similar to those of wonderland) and things you could do. One of the best rides was The Human Sky.

It was a chairlift ride up to the top of the hill - exhilerating!!! LOL

(man I really need to update more often, this is getting long and tiresome)

Another intersting thing to see were the WILD BABIES.

Look at those wild babies. Even the kangaroos come to see them.

The Korean couples love to dress the same and tell everyone who the man is and who the woman is.

A little inside joke for you Chris. "Zlotovy Beasant"

Andrew sportin' the halloween gear.

We had luch at the Burger Cafe. Here is what's left of Andrew's delicious chicken. John and I had some equally delicious burgers. Damn it. Koreans really don't know how to make a burger!!

One more things about Korean food. They love to put it on a stick or, of course, a BONE!

Check it out - Smoked Sausage on a Bone. Just doesn't taste the same any other way.

Well, enough about Everland. Thursday morning we left for Sinchilwon. A place about 2 and 1/2 hours north of us by bus. We had some cabins rented there with some other foreigners we met.

The cabins.

That day we did some white water rafting which ended up being real weak. The water was way too low, but the scenery was amazing. Didn't get any good pics because I thought the camera was going to get soaked. It was Korea's equivalent to the Grand Canyon. Here's a taste.

That night we partied hard. Played a bunch of drinking games and had a blast. Here are some hilarious pics. Try and make out the story yourself.

Getting there.

A debate on who is supposed to drink.

John giving the human chomp to our buddy Dosh.

Surprised by the flash.

John and I loving it.

Looks like someone made fun of me. And John there with the rescue. What an ugly pic. LOL

Blue Mountain repeat anyone???
Who does this guy think he is? Me?

John purposly soaked my leg with a cup of beer, so I got him back on the chest.

The, apparently, I licked his nipple. Only speculation though. No memory no proof, right.

The next day we went ATV-ing in the mountains. Let me tell you ATV-ing is bloody awesome. I want to buy one when I get back home. The guide took us on the hardest trail. There were many steep rocky hills and awesome trails. A few of us were getting stuck a lot, not to mention any names everyone else but me, and the guide had a serious workout helping everyone out of their jams.

Getting to the mountains.

Loving it!

John and I. South Korea in the background.

North Korea.

One piece of advice from the trip, brought to you by the Coca Cola Company:

"Stop thinking. Feel it."

We left back home on Friday night and just chilled out. On Saturday we went and visited an old prison constructed by the Japenese during their occupation of Korea. Interesting to see the jail cells and where they hung people. We got a really eerie feeling by the hanging area.

"Oh no, the Japs got me."

John getting sentenced to hang.

The noose.

Andrew and I in front of the biggest flag ever.

Also, in the death zone there was this tree that is a couple of hundred years old or so but it wont grow. They say the angry spirits of the murdered Koreans keep it from growing. It's the size of like a 20 year old tree. A comparison below, both trees are similar in age.

The big tree.

The small tree.

We also went to one of the palaces. This palace was where the last King and Queen of the Joseon Dynasty lived. Now a tourist attraction. It was cool to see but kind of boring at the same time.

Sunday we woke up at 5 am and went to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). This is the border line between North and South Korea. It spans 4km wide. 2 to the North and 2 to the South on the 38th parallel. According to the guide it is the most dangerous place in the world, yet the safest. Hey, that's Korean logic for you. We got to see North Korea from a distance but Kim Jung Il didn't make an appearance - boourns. The best part about this trip was going into one of the four tunnels that the North had created for invasion purposes. The South claims that the North dug it but I can put serious money on the claim by the North that the South dug it. As of now, I don't know who to believe. Apparently on Saturday 3 or 4 North Korean spies were caught trying to get into the South. That's all they told us and I couldn't find anything in the news. Perhaps it was sensored.

At the DMZ.

And that was our week. Good times all around. Andrew we really appreciate you visiting us. We had a great time man. Thanks!

I'll leave y'all with this: Why Not! 75, Everyday.

- Tommy

I'm Rich Bitch!!!

2006-08-31T21:50:00.000+09:00

A millionaire before the age of 25. Not many people can say that.

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know that I'm finally a MILLIONAIRE!!!! That's right. First months pay: 1.7 million (after taxes of course). How do you like that. Drinks are on me.

Too bad it's only Korean WON. LOL.

Peace

-Tommy

Last two weekends of fun

2006-08-22T09:57:00.000+09:00

Hi everyone. John posted our last two weekends on our site http://wevegotseoul.blogspot.com
and said pretty much all I was going to say on my site. (I also have links to that blog, Kasia's blog, and Miron's blog in the right column, if you hadn't noticed) So I suggest you check out wevegotseoul and this way I can be lazy and you can get the scoop on what we have been up to lately. Win-win situation I suppose :). Things are still going well and we are having fun. Only thing we are waiting for is our first pay cheque so we can finally start budgeting our moneys.

I wanted to add a few more pics of of the past couple of weekends as well.
Here they are:

Craziest site for a tent or what? Looks like it could be comfortable... err?

Most of the dogs in the country are caged up and ready to kill.

The best green tea I've ever had, prepared by a Buddhist priestess. Notice the pouring with two hands, very important.

Somewhat phallic...

I thought I'd leave you with that.
Bye for now.

-Tommy

2006-08-10T23:47:00.000+09:00

First Week At School

We walked to the dirt-rod building where our school is located. We expected the school to be its own building but it's actually located on the 6th floor of the Hyaendai building. Got off the elevator and to our suprise was a brand new school. A "Sick, Wicked, and Nasty" was definetly in order.

The great thing about where we live is that we can leave 5 mins before we start work and still get a coffee and make it on time. Everything is really close. It's also really lax at Kang's because we can listen to our pods while we work. One of the only disappointments was that there were no other foriegn teachers. They were all older Korean women. Not old old, but older.... late 20's and up.

A pic of a Korean teacher and one of John's students.
Anyways the week went well overall. The job so far is really easy. We have way too much time on our hands when we're not teaching, which is good and bad. Sometimes it's really boring. The students are really good, only a couple of trouble makers, nothing we can't handle. And did I say that the job was easy.

Here's a pic of the entrance to our beautiful workplace.

The girls we work with are super nice. They are always buying us donuts and cold coffee bevri, among other treats. Another thing, last week we met two of the investors for Kang's Academy. They thought we were moshta (handsom) and we got two pimpin tickets to see USA vs. Lithuania at the World BAsketbal Championship's this Sunday. Oh Yeah!!
Anyways, be back with another post soon. Peace.

- Tommy and John

2006-08-01T10:24:00.002+09:00

Finally, Some Power!!!

Last Saturday John and I went on an adventure to Yongsan (Electronics capitol of SK)to find a power converter so we could hook up all our electronics. SK runs on 110V while back home its 220V. This crazy box does the conversion and allows me to use all my toys (ie laptop, ipod etc).

We hopped on the subway at Miguem station which is maybe a 2min walk from our place, transfered 3 times and made it to Yongsan. The Subway system is one of the largest in the world yet one of the easiest to use. Everything is bilingual (Korean, English) and signs are posted everywhere. It's impossible to get lost. Well almost impossible. During our transfers we noticed a big trend in male fashion here. Pink Purses!!! (I couldn't get a better pic but his GF had her own purse) Check it out.

Back to Yongsan, there are literally 100's of shops in this electronics mall (it's almost like a flee market but way nicer). Here you can bargain for anything from extension cords to plasma t.v.'s. Very interesting. So we ended up finding our converter for about 20,000 won (about $23CAD) and bought a set of speakers too for about the same price.

We took the hour subway ride back home and explored Bungdang (the city where we live). Tons of restaurants, bars, and shops. Really cool. Here's a sample.

Anyways, I'll be back with a post about our first day at school... umm work.

- Tommy

2006-07-30T14:26:00.000+09:00

The Beginning

I'm new to this blogging thing, so bear with me for a couple posts. So, we arrived at Incheon Airport on Thursday, July 27th at 8pm. We quickly got our bags and were picked up by a Korean taxi driver holding up a sign with our names on it. There are so many cars here, its amazing there aren't more accidents. It was about an hours drive from the airport to the city in which we are living in, Bungdang or Bungdang-gu (not sure what the difference is). We arrived at our building to meet the director of our school (Julie) and someone else who works there (Esther). They took us in and showed us the two apartments they got for us. One was bigger than the other so naturally this was a problem for us (who gets the bigger apartment?). We solved it the only way us grown men know how to solve such problems... a coin toss, with no less then a 10 Korean won coin. I chose the Temple and John the side with the 10 and I lost. Boourns. Below are pics of my place and view. To sum up, we arrived safe and sound. I'm sure now everyone can finally have a good nights sleep.

- Tommy