ok 
everyone... first off let us say we are sorry that we have been slacking on the blog... As you can see from the photo I have been very busy... I know that you all love to read all about our everyday life and just can't get enough of well... us. ;)
Seriously though, things have gotten much more hectic around here and it seems that we just can't seem to keep up! So today's post is going to be a 1, 2 punch combo with the subjects being our trip to a KBL (that is Korean Basketball League) game and the Daegu National Museum... Sorry if the details are a little hazy but it has been a couple of weeks since these events actually took place but lucky for you all we happened to take a boatload of pictures!
Orions-say WHAT???
So we found out that Daegu had a KBL team early into our trip... we decided then and there that this was a must on our to-do around Daegu (hey that rhymes!) list. My co-workers had already been to a game earlier in the season and so we kinda found out some of the small details (ticket price etc) from them... the tough part was trying to figure out where the heck they played and the game schedule...
After a little searching on the internet we were able to find out that there was a game on the 16th of Feb here in Daegu... We were playing the dreaded Ulsan team (haha I don't really know if they are dreaded) and it would be a great game... playoffs were just around the corner and seeing as Daegu was pretty much in last place, it was a must-win....
We headed out for the stadium early in the day so that if we got lost (that should be more like when we got lost) we wouldn't miss anything! We actually did not do too badly but we did end up taking a 3000 won cab ride in the end....
We got to the stadium about an hour early to buy our tickets and check things out... we got our tickets ok but there were really only nose-bleed seats left. Or we bought nose-bleed seats cause the guy didn't really understand what we wanted! But it was no big deal as we just moved down into some open seats after the first quarter...
The actual play left much to be desired... let me be the first to say this is no NBA game (not to mention there was only about 1000 to 1500 people there) but the people that were there were PUMPED UP!! That may have been due to the cheer-master leading all the cheers along with the regular music interludes! There was one row of die hard fans in the back all dressed in random costumes (think like cows and other animals) with jerseys on over top!
Jay and I settled into our seats and our 2500 won Hites (we are Hite people, not any
of that crappy Cass stuff) and started cheering along... Jay had gotten his own Orions jersey and was sporting it along with the oh so famous foam finger.... I think my foam finger might have been my favourite part of the game... I thought I was just the funniest kid in the world with that thing on....
At half time there was a number of little shows and contests, including a game where fans had to throw a little basketball down to the floor at Nike prizes and if you hit the prize you got to keep it! They had everything from hats to towels to shoes! Alas we were not selected for this fun
throwing game so we didn't win anything! After that was over the cheerleaders came out and did a routine along with some guys dressed up in costumes that looked like power rangers! So random but oh so funny!
In the end the Orions actually won the game and all the fans were happy... it was crazy though how fast the place cleared out after the final buzzer... We decided that we too would head home and then out for a night on the town to celebrate our big win!
The Daegu National Museum
So after the previous crazy weekend of basketball and hitting the town we decided that maybe we should do a little something to take in the culture (and give our livers a little break) so we thought that the Daegu National Museum was just the ticket. It is just around the corner from our house so we hopped on the trust 414 bus and off we went!
Seeing as it was the 4th Saturday of the month, our admission was free (who knew that that was a rule??) although I think we could have swung the 1000 won that they charge regularly! So we went in not really knowing what to expect (as sadly I really do not know much about Korean history except maybe the most recent stuff). We were welcomed by a very lovely information desk lady who presented us with maps of the museum in English!! This was turning out to be a great trip already, free admission and English maps! However the English did not last too long!
So next on our tour was the Traditional Folk Life 
Exhibition Hall which housed a number of life-sized re-creations of what folk life in Korea was like. This place was so unbelievable... all the "people" in the exhibitions were so well done, they each had different characteristics so it looked way more real... it wasn't like it was just one mould for all the dummies, they had put in SO much detail to each exhibit...
everyone... first off let us say we are sorry that we have been slacking on the blog... As you can see from the photo I have been very busy... I know that you all love to read all about our everyday life and just can't get enough of well... us. ;)Seriously though, things have gotten much more hectic around here and it seems that we just can't seem to keep up! So today's post is going to be a 1, 2 punch combo with the subjects being our trip to a KBL (that is Korean Basketball League) game and the Daegu National Museum... Sorry if the details are a little hazy but it has been a couple of weeks since these events actually took place but lucky for you all we happened to take a boatload of pictures!
Orions-say WHAT???
So we found out that Daegu had a KBL team early into our trip... we decided then and there that this was a must on our to-do around Daegu (hey that rhymes!) list. My co-workers had already been to a game earlier in the season and so we kinda found out some of the small details (ticket price etc) from them... the tough part was trying to figure out where the heck they played and the game schedule...After a little searching on the internet we were able to find out that there was a game on the 16th of Feb here in Daegu... We were playing the dreaded Ulsan team (haha I don't really know if they are dreaded) and it would be a great game... playoffs were just around the corner and seeing as Daegu was pretty much in last place, it was a must-win....
We headed out for the stadium early in the day so that if we got lost (that should be more like when we got lost) we wouldn't miss anything! We actually did not do too badly but we did end up taking a 3000 won cab ride in the end....
We got to the stadium about an hour early to buy our tickets and check things out... we got our tickets ok but there were really only nose-bleed seats left. Or we bought nose-bleed seats cause the guy didn't really understand what we wanted! But it was no big deal as we just moved down into some open seats after the first quarter...
The actual play left much to be desired... let me be the first to say this is no NBA game (not to mention there was only about 1000 to 1500 people there) but the people that were there were PUMPED UP!! That may have been due to the cheer-master leading all the cheers along with the regular music interludes! There was one row of die hard fans in the back all dressed in random costumes (think like cows and other animals) with jerseys on over top!Jay and I settled into our seats and our 2500 won Hites (we are Hite people, not any
of that crappy Cass stuff) and started cheering along... Jay had gotten his own Orions jersey and was sporting it along with the oh so famous foam finger.... I think my foam finger might have been my favourite part of the game... I thought I was just the funniest kid in the world with that thing on....At half time there was a number of little shows and contests, including a game where fans had to throw a little basketball down to the floor at Nike prizes and if you hit the prize you got to keep it! They had everything from hats to towels to shoes! Alas we were not selected for this fun
throwing game so we didn't win anything! After that was over the cheerleaders came out and did a routine along with some guys dressed up in costumes that looked like power rangers! So random but oh so funny!In the end the Orions actually won the game and all the fans were happy... it was crazy though how fast the place cleared out after the final buzzer... We decided that we too would head home and then out for a night on the town to celebrate our big win!
The Daegu National Museum
So after the previous crazy weekend of basketball and hitting the town we decided that maybe we should do a little something to take in the culture (and give our livers a little break) so we thought that the Daegu National Museum was just the ticket. It is just around the corner from our house so we hopped on the trust 414 bus and off we went!
Seeing as it was the 4th Saturday of the month, our admission was free (who knew that that was a rule??) although I think we could have swung the 1000 won that they charge regularly! So we went in not really knowing what to expect (as sadly I really do not know much about Korean history except maybe the most recent stuff). We were welcomed by a very lovely information desk lady who presented us with maps of the museum in English!! This was turning out to be a great trip already, free admission and English maps! However the English did not last too long! We started out in the main plaza checking out the displays they had along the stairs. The first 
thing we stopped to take a look at was some "Jar Coffins" that were in a large display case... these were dated around 1st to 3rd century CE!!! Talk about ancient history artifacts! I was utterly amazed to see they had uncovered something so old and it was so well preserved! Next to these was a diorama of sorts... They had basically reconstructed what a primitive Korean village would look like complete with little figurines spear fishing and cooking over fires! The time and pain-staking effort that must have gone into this display was inspiring.
thing we stopped to take a look at was some "Jar Coffins" that were in a large display case... these were dated around 1st to 3rd century CE!!! Talk about ancient history artifacts! I was utterly amazed to see they had uncovered something so old and it was so well preserved! Next to these was a diorama of sorts... They had basically reconstructed what a primitive Korean village would look like complete with little figurines spear fishing and cooking over fires! The time and pain-staking effort that must have gone into this display was inspiring.Next we made our way to the Archaeology Exhibition Hall and saw 
some amazingly old artifacts from all the way back to the Paleolithic period. It was pretty unbelievable how many things they had found from so long ago. The majority of the artifacts and displays in this part of the museum were based around pottery and metal workings but each individual display case had an explanation in Korean, Japanese, Chinese and English... who knows if they all said the same thing! Many of the items in this hall were excavated from tombs and burials all over Korea.
some amazingly old artifacts from all the way back to the Paleolithic period. It was pretty unbelievable how many things they had found from so long ago. The majority of the artifacts and displays in this part of the museum were based around pottery and metal workings but each individual display case had an explanation in Korean, Japanese, Chinese and English... who knows if they all said the same thing! Many of the items in this hall were excavated from tombs and burials all over Korea. We then headed over to the Art History Exhibition Hall which 
housed many of their Buddhist Culture and Ceramic Culture artifacts. There was a life-sized pagoda (stone sculpture thing that has many tiers to it) and a Buddhist temple bell... also there was the head of a Buddha statue that I particularly liked. It was in this room that the most random thing happened.... Jay and I were standing looking at the exhibit of Buddhist Culture in Daegu when a nice man came up to Jay and started drawing him. We didn't quite know what to do so we kept on looking at the exhibit... then we started to wonder if we could move on to look at another part of the exhibition but when Jay went to turn his head to read further the man gently put it back where it was (a side profile for him). We 
kinda laughed and when Jay moved again, the man put him back where he was originally... at this point another woman had walked over and started chatting with the "artist" and looking at Jay and I... we didn't know quite what to do so Jay just stood still until the man was done! When he finished his drawing he handed it to Jay and said "present"... amazingly it looks just like his side profile (especially considering the man drew it on the back of a flier with a pen!) He smiled at us profusely and then walked away! Seriously at this point I was thinking that we were the ones on exhibit! We laughed about it for a bit and then went on our way... the picture is still hanging on our fridge today...
housed many of their Buddhist Culture and Ceramic Culture artifacts. There was a life-sized pagoda (stone sculpture thing that has many tiers to it) and a Buddhist temple bell... also there was the head of a Buddha statue that I particularly liked. It was in this room that the most random thing happened.... Jay and I were standing looking at the exhibit of Buddhist Culture in Daegu when a nice man came up to Jay and started drawing him. We didn't quite know what to do so we kept on looking at the exhibit... then we started to wonder if we could move on to look at another part of the exhibition but when Jay went to turn his head to read further the man gently put it back where it was (a side profile for him). We 
kinda laughed and when Jay moved again, the man put him back where he was originally... at this point another woman had walked over and started chatting with the "artist" and looking at Jay and I... we didn't know quite what to do so Jay just stood still until the man was done! When he finished his drawing he handed it to Jay and said "present"... amazingly it looks just like his side profile (especially considering the man drew it on the back of a flier with a pen!) He smiled at us profusely and then walked away! Seriously at this point I was thinking that we were the ones on exhibit! We laughed about it for a bit and then went on our way... the picture is still hanging on our fridge today...
So next on our tour was the Traditional Folk Life 
Exhibition Hall which housed a number of life-sized re-creations of what folk life in Korea was like. This place was so unbelievable... all the "people" in the exhibitions were so well done, they each had different characteristics so it looked way more real... it wasn't like it was just one mould for all the dummies, they had put in SO much detail to each exhibit... Finally we headed over to the Traditional Culture Learning Center...
I think this was our favourite place in the whole museum... you could play with so many recreations of folk games, buildings, crafts etc. Sometimes when we are out we forget that some people can understand what we are saying and this was one of those times... we were playing with this huge mortar and pestle thingy made out of a huge tree stump and stick and I asked Jay what he thought it was for.... of course he made a joke and said, "I don't know, making mashed potatoes?" to which this w
oman burst out laughing and said "mashed potatoes?" Instantly we became friends and she proceeded to kinda follow us around this part of the museum giving us a little bit of info about each thing (this room was only in Korean and really I think it was mostly for children... but we are just big kids right?) And then when Jay was playing with the drums... the cutest little kid came up and starting playing with him... Jay thinks his name was Sylvio but I have to wonder about that! Anyways, that was pretty much our trip to the museum, a great day out all in all....
I think this was our favourite place in the whole museum... you could play with so many recreations of folk games, buildings, crafts etc. Sometimes when we are out we forget that some people can understand what we are saying and this was one of those times... we were playing with this huge mortar and pestle thingy made out of a huge tree stump and stick and I asked Jay what he thought it was for.... of course he made a joke and said, "I don't know, making mashed potatoes?" to which this w
oman burst out laughing and said "mashed potatoes?" Instantly we became friends and she proceeded to kinda follow us around this part of the museum giving us a little bit of info about each thing (this room was only in Korean and really I think it was mostly for children... but we are just big kids right?) And then when Jay was playing with the drums... the cutest little kid came up and starting playing with him... Jay thinks his name was Sylvio but I have to wonder about that! Anyways, that was pretty much our trip to the museum, a great day out all in all.... Final Thoughts
Oh and on another note... we have started taking some VERY informal Korean lessons, so we can maybe communicate a little better with the general public and we have also signed up for a rec league baseball team... should be a great way to get out and meet some more peeps... you know expand that social circle a little! That is about it for now.... So Rich you can stop bugging me now... we are all caught up on the blogging and as soon as we have something new to talk about you will be the first to know!!!
