Jay and Gar's Korean Adventures

Bijindo - sun, sand and friends

2008-06-17T20:35:00.000-07:00

Ok, ok so I know we aren't great at keeping you all up to date but honestly not too much has gone on since we last wrote. We are living weekend to weekend here wishing we lived just a little closer to the beach! So over the past month we have headed down to the beach at Pohang (about an hour away from Daegu) and spent our long weekend on an amazing little island just off the south coast of Korea... this post is dedicated to the second beach trip... Bijindo.

So we headed out to the bus station to catch a 7:30am bus down to Tongyeong, where we would catch the ferry over to Bijindo around 11am. We wanted to make the most of our 3 days off so we wanted to get there as early as possible. The bus ride was uneventful, two and a half hours riding in the back seats (5 across) of a bus full of Koreans. We did get many dirty looks as I think that it must be some kind of unspoken rule that you must be quiet on all forms of public transportation. As a little sidebar, let me tell you about all the times we have gotten looks and shhhhs from people... KTX from Daegu to Busan - got told to be quieter by the train attendant and we weren't even being loud... just playing a little euchre. Express bus from Daegu to Pohang... we were shot about a million dirty looks for simply talking and laughing while all other riders were silent. And now again on the bus from Daegu to Tongyeong... same treatment. I wonder if it is because we are speaking English and people can't really tune it out as well. If you think about times when you are in an elevator or some other closed space and people are speaking a different language it is totally harder to ignore... who knows though!

Anyways we get to Tongyeong, and head down to the ferry terminal to find everyone and their mother is already there and the 11am ferry is sold out. This put a real monkey wrench in our plans! We are forced to sit and wait in the ferry terminal until the 2pm ferry!! We made the best of it, made a little camp spot and just hung out... music playing, drinks a flowin... Oh and one thing I forgot to mention our good friend Tae had actually overslept and missed the bus to Tongyeong so we are down one group member (who also happens to be the only one of our friends who speaks Korean!) We finally get a hold of her and she jumps on a bus for Tongyeong... the only problem is she may not make the 2pm ferry and that is the last one of the day. We are all trying to figure out what to do when she calls back with a plan to take a private boat over (and it will only take 10 minutes as opposed to the 45 minute ferry!) We are pumped and taxi over to the little fishing village where we are to leave from.

Finally around 2:30 or 3 o'clock we have all of our group members together and we are ready to go to the island. We load up the little boat we are taking over there and help another family get all their things in order and we are on our way! The drive over is beautiful and we are all excited for our time there! We arrive and the nicest girl picks us at the dock in a pickup truck. We load all the stuff on and head over to our pension. What is a pension you ask? Well it is kinda like a hotel but not really. There are cooking facilities (ie a little kitchen) and one big room. It obviously has a washroom too but there are no beds... the one thing I think I will never get used to in Korea, is sleeping on the floor... but we figured it was only a couple of days so why not? Well let me tell you this was the HARDEST floor I have ever slept on and wouldn't wish that kind of uncomfort on my worst enemy... so we made it easier to sleep by drinking lots and lots of maekju (aka beer).

Our first day was a great sucess with all of us enjoying a nice lunch of roast chicken sandwiches and cajun mayo, hitting the beach for some sun, sand and relaxation and then cooking up a mighty dinner of bulgogi (Korean specialty made by Tae and myself). After dinner we decided to kick it outside with our new friends the Korean boys living next door. We still are unsure of their story as none of them spoke English but we sure did have a great time!! They told us a ghost story about the haunted path up the mountain which then Luke and I decided would be a good idea to explore! We headed up the mountain, no flashlight, no plan.... let me tell you, I was scared... so scared in fact that I decided to turn on Luke and book it all the way back down to the pension! hahaha On the way I met our Korean friends and they walked me the rest of the way back down... then they went off to look for Luke! This whole process was getting to be too funny... then Ian went up to look for Luke and the Korean guys... the Koreans ended coming down first but from a completely different way... and then like 10 minutes later Luke and Ian came from another different path! It was unreal! Tae and I ended up staying awake until all hours of the night talking about English education in small towns with the girl who ran the pension (of course it was Tae and I talking, Tae translating, Tae and the girl talking, Tae translating!) Finally we decided it was time for a little ramyeon snack (Korean noodle soup that is super popular) and then we hit the sack...

Morning came early and it wasn't too hard to convince any of us to get up as well the floor wasn't all that comfy! We decided that this was a day to hit the beach hard and work on our tans... I wasn't hard to convince... The boys brought down their toys (baseball gloves, volleyball etc) and proceeded to play on the beach while us girls read our books and took in the sun. It was all going so well until our resident accident waiting to happen (aka Luke) ran to catch a ball in the water and sliced open his foot on a piece of glass or a rock or something in the water!!! Now this is a pretty serious problem as we are on an island in the middle of nowhere... and it is Saturday so there is no doctor on the island (why it matters that its Sat I'll never know). Luke wanted to stay, he figured it would be ok but Ian (our resident firefighter and therefore the most knowledgable about emergency situations) put his foot down and Luke had to go to the hospital. One call to 119 (the Korean equivalent to 911) had a boat on its way out to collect our friends (Luke, Tae and Ian) and off they went to Tongyeong. Hours later they return with a little worse for wear Luke and his 25 stitches. With the emergency averted we continued on with our vacation.

Dinner that night consisted of BBQed kabobs and rice... then we made a big bonfire in an old oil drum and hung out around the fire. A bit more calm of a night... aside from Jill and Laura's turn on the Nore Bang (karoke) which cleared out all the Korean boys next door! We all hit the sack again and looked forward to our last day.

Nothing too eventful happend our last day... everyone except me as I was feeling a little bit ill and worn out... went on a hike around the island for a while. I sat around the pension and read... it was a beautiful ending to our trip. We took the ferry back to Tongyeong at 4:30pm and then the bus back to Daegu... where real life began again on Monday.

That is about all that has gone down recently but I will be sure to keep you posted on our next big trip to Mudfest, the Daegu Amazing Race and our softball championships! Until next time... xoxo

Happy Birthday Buddha - Donghwasa and Mt Palgongsan

2008-05-15T22:06:00.000-07:00

On our second long weekend of May (that is right we got two in a row!) We decided to take it easy and recover from the madness that had been the previous two weeks. We thought a nice hike in the mountains just north of Daegu would be a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon... I had forgotten that it was Buddha's birthday and figured it would be peaceful to see a temple, check out the world's tallest Buddha and spend some times with friends. Little did I know that A LOT of people had this same idea!

We started off in the early afternoon taking the City Express Bus out to Palgongsan. That is one thing I LOVE about Daegu is that you can take the bus just about anywhere. This ride was about 45 minutes to an hour and it cost us a whole 990 won (or about 99 cents). However it wasn't the most comfortable ride as many Korean bus drivers feel the need to continue to heat the buses in over 20 C weather. Then add in a whole lot of people (standing room only... and even there just barely, its like there is no max capacity for the buses) and you have one sauna of a bus ride!

Anyways we made it up to the base of the mountain and when we got out we were greeted by what seemed like karaoke in the main tourist square... so we started to look around for any kind of signage (that we could read) or tourist info booth (because they all have English maps). We really were not lucky with either of those so we just decided to start walking up and then we followed the guys with the hiking gear on!

This seemed to work out just fine for us as we soon approached the imposing gate leading to Donghwasa. The entry fee was 2500 won per person which seemed pretty reasonable so we paid and moved on... This was where we found the "traffic jam". There was a line of cars stretching for quite some distance but when we moved on a little further we found out that it was because they were waiting to cross the one way only bridge. However there certainly were a large number of people on the temple grounds as it was the day before Buddha's birthday.

We made our way up to the main temple area and checked out all the different statues of Buddha and the many buildings. Everywhere you looked there were lanterns upon lanterns upon laterns. I kind of expected this as all over the city there are lanterns hanging from every tree and post but I wasn't expecting the sea of laterns in the main temple square. We didn't actually enter any of the temples as we didn't really know the customs and didn't want to offend anyone so close to a religous holiday. We did however get some excellent pictures from outside.

From here we made our way to the Tongil Buddha statue, the world's biggest standing Buddha (33m high and 16.5m around). This statue is believed to cure sickness and prolong life. It is amazing. It is hard to describe the feeling of seeing something so huge in the middle of a mountain forest! The area around the statue included other temples as well as a pair of 17m high stone pagodas on either side. It was all very festive for the up coming ceremony on the Monday and there were heaps of people visiting. Some of the group had a chance to have a green tea ceremony break with a number of women dressed in the traditional Korean Hanbok clothing. The women told Ian that he was very handsome and Jay that he was very sexy! I wonder what the difference is in their eyes (I would say it is the facial hair... )

After this we decided that we had had enough for the day and that we would go downtown to grab a bite to eat before heading home. As we headed back down the mountain (we had to wait for 3 different buses because there were SO many people heading back at the same time) we were undecided about a location for dinner but then when we got there someone suggested Quizno's. Yes that is right. Daegu has a Quizno's. And while I can't say it is as good as it is at home, it is the darn closest thing I have had in 5 months. It was delicious!

And now you are all caught up. The weekend is almost here and perhaps we will do something blog-worthy. Until next time. Peace.

Daegu FC... definitely not the premier league

2008-05-13T06:40:00.000-07:00

So all you blog fans, I, your trusty blogger, am back to finish up the remainder of the holiday weekend. You might ask yourself, "Why does she have so much time on her hands these days?" Well for those of you who don't know, Jay is working extra hard these days which leaves me with lots of time well, by myself. So I figure, what else have I got to do? haha Anyways, onto the stuff that matters!

We headed back early Monday from Busan to go to the Daegu FC game at World Cup Stadium. We didn't quite know how to get there or what to expect but what else is new? We jumped into a cab and headed over to the stadium. We had heard a little rumor that the game was free because it was Children's Day... however that turned out to be false. Well I guess it was partly true as it was free for CHILDREN (that should have been obvious).

The game itself was not overly exciting, but that may just be because I am not a huge soccer fan, and well there really weren't that many people there. But the half time show was gold! It started out with 4 army dudes rappeling from the rafters. When they got to the ground they whipped out automatic weapons and started firing (blanks of course). Next 4 more guys came down with this time head first and when they got to the ground they were firing different guns (handguns I think but what do I know about guns?)... this continued for 4 different groups of 4 army guys all firing guns, luckily the opposite direction of where we were seated. Then a huge group of Korean martial arts men came marching onto the field where they proceeded to put on a martial arts kicking, jumping and breaking stuff show. All very amusing! Following this the game went back to the second half which was ok. (but no guns and no martial arts)

Aside from the actual sports aspect of the game I just love going to see what is going to happen or what the Korean people are going to do. One of my favourites from this game was the folks who made hats out of newspaper to protect themselves from the sun. Why not just bring hats? you ask... well who knows... maybe it is a lot easier to make one... maybe the paper ones are more stylish... maybe they really just like paper crafts... your guess is as good as mine. It was funny though because we chose to sit where we were because we wanted to get some sun and enjoy the day, however we were like the ONLY people sitting there. Everyone else was sitting way up in the stands because it was under the shade. I will give the Koreans one thing... they are definitely not going to succomb to skin cancer any time soon... the number of people I see wearing full length pants and long sleeve shirts on 30 degree days is unreal. Its like they just don't feel the heat.

That is about it for the game. We headed from here down to Suseong Lake for the boys to play a little basketball and to enjoy being outside for a little bit longer. Then it was on to restaurant street for a little galbi (marinated thinly cut pieces of beef that you eat wrapped in a lettuce leaf with rice and other sides) before heading home. Another great day in the Gu!

An extra long weekend in Busan!

2008-05-12T05:54:00.000-07:00

May 2nd -5th

In honour of our visitors we decided to make the long weekend an extra long weekend and took the Friday off. So with our lovely Monday off for "Children's Day" (don't ask me why that is a holiday seeing as every bloody day is children's day lol) we had 4 days to take off and explore Busan.

We woke up early on Friday to make our way over to Dongdaegu to jump on the KTX (the high speed train... which let me tell you does not do Mach 8 despite what anyone tells you!) to Busan. After a short 1 hour and 10 minute train ride we got ourselves into the city. We stepped out of the station in Busan to a giant dragon display... it was pretty unreal! It was 11:11am and we were ready to go! The enthusiasm died down a little after we realized we really had about another 45 minutes on the subway but that didn't stop us from talking to random people and trying out new things (albeit from a vending machine in the subway station... Ashley was so disappointed by her cream soda that had no fizz).
When we finally got off the subway at Haeundae Beach we were itching to find somewhere to dump our stuff and start exploring. This however proved to be much harder than it sounded. We were under the impression that we could get a room in one of the Korean 'love motels' (yes it is exactly what it sounds like, complete with round beds) for 25 000 to 30 000 won a night (approx $20 to $30), so we were searching for a deal. The only problem is with these love motels is that very few of the concierage (haha) speak English. Anyways, all of our friends (and the guide books) say to ask to see the rooms before you agree to pay for them as some of them are tiny with just a bed in it... so we decided to split up (Jay and Ash, TJ and I) and check out as many as possible. In the end we just carried around the guidebook which had the sentence in Korean and pointed to it. Needless to say at some places where the owner was a little old lady who couldn't see anymore this didn't work. We checked out probably 20 motels looking for a deal but we couldn't find anything less than 50 000 won. Then we remembered it was a long weekend. Even at love motels they jack up the price on the long weekend. As a last resort before meeting back up with Jay and Ash, TJ and I checked out one final place. As luck would have it a patron was standing in the hallway when we were trying to enquire about the rooms and she spoke perfect Korean and English. She got the lady to cut us a deal and we got all three nights for 120 000! We dumped the stuff, grabbed a few beers and headed down the beach to wander around for a bit.

This first night was Ashley's birthday so we had already decided that we would do a nice dinner for her and get dressed up to celebrate. We had been eating a lot of Korean recently so we decided a nice Western dinner would suit us just fine. We headed to the Outback steakhouse as everyone wanted steak (and Jay had not had steak in about 4 months and I was ready for some good salmon). We were not really prepared for the experience though! TJ and Jay's steaks were very undercooked... for future reference, a med/rare steak in Korea is just about the equivalent of blue rare at home! However Ash's and my food was superb! After dinner we just decided to call it a night and relax in the motel as we knew that when all our friends arrived the next day it was going to be a LONG long weekend!

Saturday morning came and we decided to take a little harbour cruise that we had seen the day before. We got our selves ready and set out to find breakfast and a bank... We ended up finding this amazing little "toast" restaurant (which is simply a sandwich place that makes sandwiches on a grill but man let me tell you this is one of the most exciting finds when we have spent most our time here thinking there was no such thing as breakfast in Korea!) which made a mean bacon and egg sandwich. We then headed towards the water and lo and behold there was a bank! This was really turning out to be our day! We decided to stop and grab some soju, cause who doesn't like a quick nip in the morning, and smoothies for the boat ride...

The cruise was pretty great, it was short, about an hour, and it went down the beach, over past the main bridge (a kind of landmark in Busan) and out to the light house. It was a very beautiful cruise and Jay and TJ made friends with a couple of little kids who loved TJ's beard and giving Jay high fives!

Later on that afternoon we met up with a bunch of friends from Daegu and hit the beach. Part of the group played a little ultimate frisbee and volleyball and some of us continued with the soju and a little suntanning... as the sun began to set we decided to grab a shower, get ready for the night, get some food and head out to a bar called Star Face where they had all you can drink for 15 000 won (talk about dangerous)!

Needless to say the next morning was a slow one and no one really felt like doing too much, which worked out quite well as the weather in the afternoon was less than exciting (cold and drizzling rain). After another wonderful breakfast at the toast shop, some of the boys decided to head over to the auto show that was happening that weekend in Busan. Us girls (and TJ) decided to wander around the shops and see if there was anything worth buying! When the weather turned we decided to spend the day relaxing around the motel, watching movies, reading books and the like. Some people braved the weather but not too many of us! That night we planned to grab a nice dinner, all of us together, as it was TJ and Ashley's last weekend in Korea and our friend Lindsay was heading home to South Africa the following week.

The next morning we were up and out of there bright and early so we could make it back to Daegu for the Daegu FC game at 3pm! The trip back on the KTX was not nearly as fun as the way there but we still had a whole day left of our really long weekend to enjoy!

The Sculls Do Daegu

2008-05-10T03:05:00.000-07:00

Wednesday the 23rd of April TJ and Ashley left Canada and embarked on the crazy trip to Korea. They arrived here late Thursday night and Jay and I met them at the bus station. This was the beginning of an awesome two weeks. We took them for their first Korean meal at 3am as they were starving from the day of flying. We headed down to our local 24 hour gimbap shop and ordered up some bibimbap and ddeok beok ki. This was the beginning of Ashley's love for ddeok and TJs attempt to try all the Korean food he could! We went home to catch up with each other and then catch some zzz's before work on Friday. Luckily for me my last class on Friday was cancelled so I got to come home early and hang out. Our plan for Friday night was to head down to grab a bite to eat and then hit Commune's to introduce TJ and Ash to downtown Daegu (or maybe to introduce Daegu to them!) We ended up being a little late and not being able to hit the restaurant we wanted (because in Korea most restaurants close around 10 and seeing as we work until 10 it makes it difficult to get a decent meal after work). So we moved onto plan B: Billibow.

For those of you who don't know what Billibow is, it is a combo of billiards and bowling that is just amazing! As long as you are eating or drinking you can play free!! We ordered up some pizzas and Hite and hit the lanes. While we were there the bartenders put on this flare bartending show involving fire and everything! I took a video, if you want to see it check out my (Gar's) facebook. From there it was on to Commune's for trivia night. Again we were a little late so we didn't get to play but we sure did get to have a good time! By the end of the night everyone was singing along to the tunes and then we decided to move the late night party to Thunderbirds for a couple of games of foosball then on to the gimbap shop for some food... its like the days/nights never end here... until the sun comes up!

The plan for Saturday was to hit up Woobang Tower land and then our friend Lindsay's going away rooftop BBQ... Due to our late night (or early morning) we decided that rollercoasters and cotton candy could wait until later in the week... we had a pretty quiet morning and then headed on over to Linds' place. It was a tad chilly to be hanging out on the roof but we all braved the weather and had a great time. A bit later on in the night we hit up Old Skool downtown but all in all we had a relatively tame night... We wanted to be well rested for our softball game on Sunday!

Sunday was the big game... the Green Goblins (that's us) vs the Thunderbirds... a win here would put us in a tie for second place... haha yeah we are really serious about this stuff ;) No seriously though, we packed up a big towel, some food and beers and headed down to Duryu Park to spend the afternoon in the sun. It was a gorgeous day, perfect for some ball. We played a huge game and came out on top with our cheering squad helping us along the whole way! TJ and Ash managed to get some great action shots and we decided it after the game we would head down and grab some Shabu Shabu for supper with the group. Shabu is very thinly sliced pieces of meat that you cook up in this boiling broth in the center of the table with a bunch of veggies an ddoek. You then can place in on little ssam (lettuce leaves with rice) and kinda eat it like a lettuce taco (that is probably the stupidest description ever but you get the point). We have a favourite Shabu place over in our neck of the woods but seeing as we had a pretty big group that was interested in coming we decided we would move to the more central location of... you guessed it.... downtown. The food was good (but not as good as our place haha) and TJ had the opportunity to down a big plate of seafood (he had Nick and Tae to share with). After Shabu we wandered around downtown a little window shopping and then headed home.

Seeing as Jay and I had to work all week, TJ and Ash were on their own for Monday to Thurs. They ended up wandering our neighbourhood on Monday, checking out all our local fruit and veg vendors, the local shopping and the sites. Tuesday they attempted to make their way out to Mt. Palgongsan (somewhere we haven't even been yet) but were thwarted by the sheer difficulty of making your way in a city where you don't speak the language. They ended up back at Duryu Park and explored all it has to offer (bicycle rentals, a small Buddhist temple, little walking trails). So Wednesday we got all the directions sorted and after a lovely lunch of Sam Gap Sal (long pieces of pork that kinda look like bacon but thicker which are cooked on an inverted wok type thing in the center of your table along with veggies and served with a plethora of side dishes) they headed up to Gatbawi (a Buddhist shrine on Palgongsan). The hike was more difficult than many of the guide books made it out to be so TJ hiked the last half of it by himself while Ash went back down and explored the temple area. Wednesday night we hit up a little bit of Western food at Pizza Mall where you can apparently buy your own beer and bring it into the restaurant because they don't sell it there. Or at least that is what we thought you could do and no one seemed to tell us we couldn't! Then it was on to Commune's open mike night to see some of the local talent. We tried not to stay out too late but this is Daegu. Thursday we hit up Hami Mami's for the best Western breakfast in the East and then TJ and Ash headed over to Woobang Tower land for a day of fun. They ended up doing the bungee jump off the tower!! Crazy kids!

Friday we booked off for our trip to Busan so Thursday ended our week of the Scull family in Daegu.... Check out the next post for our trip to Busan!

Catching up.... yet again!

2008-05-10T01:35:00.000-07:00

Alright, first off I am going to apologize again (yeah I know) for the lack of posts in the recent past... we have had a whirlwind month with TJ and Ashley visiting for two weeks, the change from cold to beautiful spring weather and well regular life! No excuses though, and I am here to catch you all up on what has been happening in the Far East...

Last post we tested our physical fitness with a hike up Mt Apsan... this time we have really expanded our Korean experience with a professional baseball game, a good ole college styles beer pong tourney, some new Korean cuisine, a trip down to Busan and a professional soccer game... Its been a jam packed month so I hope I can do it justice! The Sculls trip to Daegu will have to be in a second post as it seems as though I have a lot to talk about!

Samsung Lions

First on the list is our inaugural Samsung Lions experience.. and what an experience... a beautiful Saturday afternoon, sunshine, beer, ball... can it get any better? We rocked up to the stadium a little late for the game and got our tickets. $6 for a general admission ticket, we knew this was the start of a beautiful thing. Then, as I scanned the area for my new best friend (the beer vendor), all I could hear was a number of Koreans all shouting to get my attention so that I would buy my beer from them... the lady who was jumping up and down won my attention and I headed over. $2 a beer. Why can't sporting events in North America be like this? I am sure we would be heading out to support our team (or really any team for that matter) all the time!
We got our supplies and went in to find our seats... We found a big group of people from our baseball league all decked out in jerseys with their names in Korean on the back... talk about serious fans! We decided this would be the spot and settled into our seats. The sun was hot, the beer was cold and the game was ok (haha Korean sporting events are not really of the same caliber as the major leagues at home but who really cares?). As the game wore on, our seats became shaded and we thought it was time for a move... we moved into no man's land (one side of the stadium is filled with Lions fans and the other is the visiting team's fans) and watched our Lions beat the LG Twins! Now it was time to continue the day downtown...

Beer Pong Tourney

Now I am sure you are all thinking... where and why would there possibly be a beer pong tournament in downtown Daegu?? Well truthfully I am not sure about why but the where part is easy. Club That, a foreigner bar downtown decided to throw together this tournament where it was $20 to enter and it was all you could drink with prizes going to the winner of the tourney and the best dressed. Tae and I being the party poopers we are decided not to enter the costume portion of the evening but made up for it with our killer beer pong skills. Jay, Nick, Luke, Ian, Laura and Megan all took a stab at the costume contest with some HILARIOUS results. Jay and Nick actually ended up pulling off the win in this department and coming up with second place overall in the tourney. Not a bad showing for Team Canada. Not to mention they somehow had the entire bar singing the Canadian National Anthem every single time they won a match. Seriously 5 different times I sung Oh Canada that night! That has to be some kind of record in this country! Post tourney we were all pretty tired and hungry from the day of ball and the night of pong and headed to the Gimbap shop for a little late night meal and then home for a good nights sleep.

That's about it for your first installment... the next one is on its way (this time I promise!)

Conquering Mt. Apsan

2008-04-05T19:56:00.001-07:00

This week we made plans with some other folks to head out to Mt. Apsan to take a little hike up one of the more beautiful mountains in the city. Apsan is located in the south end of Daegu, which is great for us because it is not too far from our apartment. We got up early, had a little breakfast headed out for the subway and then made the trek past Camp Walker (an American Army Base) and then met everyone at the base of the mountain. We decided, due to time contraints that it would best to take the cable car part of the way up, so we got our tickets and waited for enough people to fill the car. Within about ten minutes or so, we all piled in the car and headed up the mountain. The view from the car was breath-taking and it was much higher than expected! After our ears popped and we got out of the car, we took a minute to look around at the all the trails and then headed out.
The oddest thing about hiking in Korea is that it is so popular that you can see anyone from the seasoned hiker with all the latest North Face or K2 gear to a couple wearing dress clothes and shoes (yes this could mean women in high heels!) to mom's toting small children... SO I figured if a six year old could do this... how hard could it be?
We headed up the trail which at first was pretty easy but as we got nearer to the "peak" it got how can I say it... a little intense! Our hike to the top lasted about a half hour or 45 minutes and the view was spectacular.... you could see all of Daegu (and if it wasn't sooo foggy/smoggy we would have gotten some great pics... sorry) and it looked like a little lego city with all the rows of apartment buildings!
As we headed back down we decided to hit the new breakfast place over by Camp Walker which is run by a friend of our from the baseball league. Excellent idea... the first real "American" breakfast we have had since we got here! (aside from at home... but if you know us at all you know how much we love a good breakfast out!)
So ended another lovely Saturday afternoon... next stop Samsung Lions baseball so stay tuned!

Catching up....

2008-03-10T19:50:00.000-07:00

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!

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.

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.

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...

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 woman 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!!!

The Seomun Market

2008-02-17T00:14:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, February 10th we decided to venture out and

experience some of the local culture in Daegu. Since the city has so many markets in the streets we thought we would try out one of them and of course we figured we may as well start with the biggest and most famous of them all, The Seomun Market. It is actually one of the original three markets in Korea. After taking quite a subway ride across the city and then walking for a bit we found ourselves in front of our destination. Although we really had no idea what to expect as far as what might be available for purchse at the market or what the prices might be like, we were excited for a genuine Korean experience!

Like most shopping in Korea, the selection was just insane... you could buy anything from socks to dogs (and no, we don't know if the dogs were for eating or for pets, I choose not to think about it) to clothes to lunch! We didn't actually buy anything while we were there but we did manage to spend over two hours (in the cold) wandering up and down the alleyways in sheer amazement...

This shirt is pretty much the representative "Konglish" shirt you can find at the markets... sometimes the saying make sense, sometimes I think they just write stuff on clothes simply to see English words... I don't really get it but to each his own I guess! Just in case you can't actually read the shirt, it said "N-Mass bread is very common made from flour, water, yeast, a milk. There is more fibre in wholemeal bread than in white bread." Odd I know, its like wearing an advertisement for brown bread...

So then we came to the area of the market where they had the live animals... it was so weird to see literally like 10 or 20 chickens or rabbits like stacked on top of each other in one small little cage... I also don't know if you were supposed to pick one out when it was alive and then they kill it for you or what but we kind just steered clear of asking any questions! However, this is where I saw the cutest little puppy and I wanted to take him home with us but alas, a little Korean apartment is no home for a puppy... :( So here are some of our pics from the adventure to take a look at.... our first

outing to the market was very intriguing and we will for sure be heading over there again!

Grains for sale

Really don't get the whole Korean obsession with socks that have characters and pics on them!

When I saw this food stall I swore I would never eat intestines.... never say never!

Jay checking out the merchanise.... this dog says "Green-a-Toto" on it... but it doesn't look very green to me!

Eating out in Korea/Moving to our new place

2008-02-07T23:06:00.000-08:00

Wow!!!! So life has been very busy over the last week and a half over here making it very difficult to keep up with the ole' blog. The good news about that however is that now we get a double issue of "Jay and Gar's Korean Adventures".
The first discussion is about eating out at a dining-in restaurant. Last Saturday we went out for an authentic Korean meal. Although one may think that it is odd that we haven't done that yet, it is not really. Going out here can be very daunting because if there are no pictures on the menu then you are really taking a gamble at what you might end up eating. So we had a couple of our friends (Sia and Mariam) take us out to a restaurant. Sia has been here for five or six months now and really knows whats going on more or less with ordering and whatnot. When we arrived at the restaurant, first we took off our shoes and then sat down, on the floor at the table of our choice. Just like you see on T.V., the table had very short legs and there were cusions for us to sit on. There was already tea waiting for us when we go to our table. Next we got menus, which actually did have pictures on them which made it much easier to decide what we wanted. At this particular restaurant you basically decided on a type of meat that you want to to eat and then you received side dishes and rice with that meat. We ordered the pork meal, Sia and Mariam ordered the bulgogi beef and we decided we would all share everything. After we ordered the food we also ordered a couple of bottles of soju. For those who do not know, soju is Korean liquor that is best served ICE COLD. When luke warm or just a little bit chilled this stuff tastes like rubbing alcohol but when it is chilled very well it actually isn't horrible. As we waited for the food to start coming out we did a couple of shots of soju and before we knew it we had our meals. When I tell you that there was enough food for about 12 people, I am not even exaggerating. It was insane. There was the pork that we ordered and the bulgogi beef that Mariam and Sia ordered (if you ever get the chance to try bulgogi, do it, it's DELICIOUS), along with oysters, clams, rice, kim chi, a garlic paste, roasted whole pieces of garlic, cooked vegetables, mushrooms, two whole fish, and so much more. The food was amazing and as we ate, we eneded up drinking 3 bottles of soju. One of the very cool things about this retaurant and many others, from what I am told, is that there is a button that you can push that lets your server know that you need something and as soon as you push it they will be over within seconds to see what it is that you need. The service here is absoultely fantastic, especially considering that tipping is not a part of the culture here. After we were through eating we asked for the bill which came to 34 000 won which is about $36 Canadian. For the amount of food that we had on our table and three bottles of liquor, what a steal!!!! After we left the restaurant we went out to a pub where we enjoyed flavoured soju. This stuff was amazing. You can get almost any flavour you would ever desire and its just crushed fruit and soju. At 6000 won per pitcher its a heck of a deal!!! I recommend the kiwi and the strawberry! Be careful with soju as you cannot tell you're even drinking and then all of a sudden, BAM! You're walking crooked and slurring like never before!
The second part of this installment will focus on our big move. We were told before we left that we would be in small apartment when we first got here and then we would be moving into a bigger place very soon. Our time had come and we were movin' on up!!! The only problem was that we were moving on the Lunar New Year Holiday so not only were we doing it all ourselves but we were doing it without a truck! the good news for us is that we were only moving around the corner. We managed to pack all of our belongings, move everything, including some furniture and a bunch of food as well as unpack and set everything up, all in one afternoon. The plan was simple, we would both pack things in the old apartment, then we brought the first stuff over, Gar started unpacking while I brought everything else over and then I helped unpack the remainder when I was done lugging stuff over. People must have thought we were crazy carrying all kinds of random household items back and forth between two apartments about 700 metres away from each other. However, now it is done and we have a bigger place with much more functionable room.

Here are some pictures of the new place:

Guest Room.... not to worry for anyone coming to visit, there will be a bed when you get here!

The kitchen/dining area... small but WAY bigger than the old place (and not a hallway!)...

The balcony/laundry room and our fancy new bathroom.... like the dolphins on the wall?

Our new bedroom with a bigger TV and little desk area for us to work at...

So that is about it... hope you liked the tour of the new place and stay tuned for updates!

Interesting things in day to day Korean life!

2008-01-29T15:39:00.000-08:00

Ok all you blog fans, it is I, Gar... As we have had a bit of a quiet spell here in the Dags (that is my lovely short form for Daegu) other than work and the occasional trip downtown for the night, I felt maybe it was necessary to show you all a little bit about what everyday life here in Korea is like! Aside from the post Jay put up about the crazy shopping cart driving at Costco (and really, all driving for that matter) we have noticed a few more interesting/strange things about our existence day to day.

This whole idea stemmed from what is happening outside my house as I write... my neighbour is moving. It sounds regular enough, but of course there is a little bit of a Korean twist on the process. Due to the fact that we live in a high-rise (like pretty much every other person in Korea) moving can be a bit of a pain... 14 floors is a long way to move heavy things, especially when the elevator is the size of maybe a small bathroom. I mean you can fit maybe 7 people in the elevator, that is if you are feeling adventurous! (it does tend to feel like the cable might let go at any time even when you are the only one in it) So they have invented a way to move things down a long ladder type thingy that has a platform attached to it! I know that is not a very useful description so I decided that I would be "that crazy foreigner" who takes pics of people moving!

Ok so then once they have loaded up the little platform thingy it moves down the long ladder to a waiting truck! I am pretty much amazed by the ingenuity of this invention (even if Jay wasn't nearly as excited as I was!)

Seriously though, how cool is that? Just wanted everyone to get a chance to see what we see everyday here in Korea!

Our First Hike -- Janaury 21st 2008

2008-01-21T05:35:00.000-08:00

We are now starting to form a daily and weekly routine that involves working five days a week at the same time everyday, grocery shopping, eating out, performing household tasks and now we have now added an outdoor activity, hiking. On Sunday, we decided that we would go for a hike up into the hills that are only about a ten minute walk from our house. We packed a backpack full of water bottles, some fruit and a couple of extra layers of clothing. As we walked up the hill there were paths to follow but the hill was fairly steep. In the most steep of these areas there was even a rope that acted as a banister to hold onto while you climbed your way up.
Along the way up there were a few things that we did not really expect to see. The first was a little creepy but interesting none the less. Since Koreans do not really have the tradition of burying the deceased in cemetaries, they seem to make use of some of the mountainous areas in our city. This is the reason that we saw grave stones of all shapes and sizes. The interesting thing to note about the burial process is that they do not seem to plant the dead bodies six feet under like the North American tradition because there are big humps right beside the grave stones. We are not even really sure that they technically bury them underground at all. It very well could be that they leave them at ground level and just pile dirt on top them and allow grass to grow on top of the hump.
Along with the burial places we also noticed that there must be many different hiking groups that have formed. They seem to advertise by posting flyers on random trees to let people know where they will be meeting, as well as what times and days they will be hiking as a group. They actually were hiking the same day as we were but unfortunately they were about six hours ahead of us and therefore we did not get the chance to meet the group. Maybe next Saturday night we can stay up late enough that we can actually just head to the hill to meet the hiking group before calling it a night.
The third and most interesting thing that we found on our hike was the outdoor gym equipment that we found along the paths. The first equipment that we came across was pretty basic, simply consisting of a rope tied to a tree, a couple of giant hoola hoops and a few clocks (some of which did not work). However the equipment defintely got more impressive. The second area intended for working out consisted of ab machines, a number of bench presses, some inverted benches for doing sit ups, hoola hoops, as well as free weights that could accomadate at least ten or twelve people at a time. The third area that we came across was not as big as the second but at least half the size and therefore very impressive.
We have come to the conclusion that Koreans are very much interested in physical fitness judging by the number of people that we saw hiking the same paths as us and the large number of people using the gym equipment. This is especially impressive considering the fact that it snowed for the first time since we have been here yesterday and up in the hills it actually accumulated on the ground!

Round-up on the first week!!! -- January 13th 2008

2008-01-13T03:29:00.000-08:00

Well, we made it through the first week! We didn't die, we haven't gotten sick, we didn't even get hurt (knock on wood, of course). It has actually been a fantastic week! Gar started work (which she wrote about) and I (Jay) did a lot of exploring around the neighbourhood which was awesome. We also learned how to take a cab and the bus (to many different destinations), how to sort the garbage (I know it doesn't sound tough but it is a hell of a process here!), where to buy groceries and household items (I'll get into that soon) and most important of all we have learned to always be aware of where the motorbikes are.
As far as transportation is concerned, we are very impressed! The buses are extremely frequent, clean and cheap. The drivers do not speed and the buses are in great condition (unlike other countries we have visited, haha). We have a bus stop just outside of our apartment building and we can catch a ton of buses there to go to many different places. The funny thing about the bus however, is that if you don't pay the right amount, the driver does not seem to mind. At the begining of the week I asked my boss how much the bus cost to ride and he told me he does not ride the bus but he was pretty sure that it cost 1000 won (a little over a dollar) so when we went to get on the bus we put 1000 won in the box where the money goes and the bus driver never said anything so we assumed that we had paid the right amount. We have done the same thing all week and it wasn't until today when we were sitting near the front of the bus that we noticed someone else put 1100 won in the box. We felt bad about the mishap and we will now be paying the full amount to ride the bus everytime, however it is nice to know that if we are for some reason short then it's not a big deal.
Cabs so far in Daegu have been amazing! The cab drivers speak varied amount of English ranging from absolutely none to a couple of words, to phrases and expressions. No matter how much English they speak however, they have all been very polite and helpful. Since we don't know how to say our address in Korean, we carry around a laminted piece of paper with our address on it and just give it to the cab driver when we want to go home. It feels a bit strange but we don't really have much choice in the matter at this point. The cost of a taxi ride is also very reasonable. It costs us no more than 7000-8000 won (~$7.50-$8.75) to get downtown which is about 20 minutes away.
One of the places that we have taken the cabs and buses to is E-Mart. This is now my favourite store in the world! This store is very similar to a Wal-mart Superstore. You can buy everything from kitchen items to appliances to clothing, to gorceries, liquor and beer and even treadmills and other sporting goods. It is 3 levels high and must be 5 million square feet (thats an educated guess, haha). This is where we have gotten most of the things that the apartment lacked when we got here to make it feel more like our home. We have also gotten a ton of Western food at E-Mart at very reasonable price. Another place that we have done quite a bit of shopping is the Dong A Department store. This is a very high end department store that also happens to have a grocery store in two underground levels. This store is very convenient as it is right at the end of our street. Today we took the bus to Costco. We have our membership card from Canada and it also works here. When we walked in, it was absolute madness. If anyone ever wants entertainment, the best form can be found at Costco in Daegu, South Korea on a Sunday afternoon. The place was just absoultely packed with people. Koreans, although very nice seem to always be in a hurry and whether they are driving a car or if they are pushing a shoping cart they are going to get where they are going and there isn't anything that anyone can do to stop them. If you stop to look at something in a aisle they will bump you with their cart. This happened to us a number of times today as we were in no hurry at all. On one such occasion the guy bumped me with his cart and not five seconds later he SMASHED into a lady's cart in front of us. It was pricelsss and we couldn't help but laugh out loud.
Living in Korea can also be a lot of work sometimes. Because there are so many people (just a hair under 50 million) in such a small place (99 617 square kms) they are extremely careful about how they dispose of waste and organize garbage and of course recycle. When we bring garbage down to the waste area at the front of the building there are about 5 or 6 different sections to divide the garbage into. Therefore we now make sure to keep everything divided in the apartment so that it only takes us a few minutes to sort things out once we get downstairs as opposed to the nearly 2o minutes it took us the first time we brought garbage down (lesson learned).
One of the other things that still puzzles us about this country is the traffic laws. Because we live in a major city the main streets are all at least 5 or 6 lanes wide and there are a ton of strange intersetions. This makes it very difficult to try and figure out which traffic light pertains to people driving in each direction. Also there seems to be a lot of advance lights for people driving in each direcrtion but it is almost as if it is completely random and the lights never turn the same way twice. The other really funny thing is that there is obviously not even close to enough parking in any secton of the city because people park in the most ridiculous places. As you can see in these pictures, some park on the sidewalk while others double and triple park people in and it is never out of the question to see someone parked just randomly in the middle of a street. It is safe to say that we will never drive a car here. However, that does not ensure our complete safety. There are many motorbikes and moped type bikes here and some of them drive on the road but do not seem to obey the traffic lights or speed limits what so ever. While others drive on the sidewalk, which seems dangerous to begin with but add to this the fact that they are not very loud so if you are walking down the street listening to your ipod or even just generally not paying attention then you might not even realize that one is sneaking up behind you and they can just whiz by going 90 miles an hour. The lesson here is to be alert at ALL times.
Everyday we learn something new, and I think (and hope) that this will continue to be the case. Week one was a great success and hopefully that will continue!

Starting school!!!

2008-01-09T00:23:00.000-08:00

So this week I (Gar) began teaching my English classes... so far it has been a very exciting (but tiring) experience. I came into work on Monday at 11:30am expecting to teach at 1:30 and get some sort of training (or at least a run down of how things worked at the school) before that but I was mistaken! I actually had a class at 12:30 so we would have to do the abbreviated tour. Jesse (my head teacher's English name) showed me my new digs... classroom 605. It is definitely bare bones but I am allowed to decorate any way I please. I have a whiteboard, 2 maps of the world, 7 desks and a teachers desk as well as every ESL book you could possibly think of! That sounds like a good thing however it just means that I have basically a different book for every class! It's a little hectic but I am figuring it out....
So then I was handed my attendance sheets and on them was a list of the students names, the books I needed for the classes and the times the classes started and finished at. This was pretty much the end of my preparation. Jesse was extremely helpful in that he sat in the first 3 of my classes and helped me introduce myself to the younger kids (because they do not speak much English) and then he went back up to his office! Pretty much I was just thrown to the wolves (so to speak). Luckily my kids were all very nice and helpful... some of them are extremely shy in terms of speaking English but I can already see a difference between the way they act around me today (Wed) and our first meeting.
So far the whole experience has had a very steep learning curve but I am figuring out things as I go and any questions/concerns I have are very quickly answered by Jesse!

The Journey to the Other side of the world -- January 6 2008

2008-01-06T02:39:00.000-08:00

On Friday Janaury 4th we finally began our journey. We left the house in Barrie at about 2 am and after a couple quick stops (including our last Timmy Ho's visit for who knows how long) we were on our way to Pearson airport. We checked in as soon as we possibly could and then said goodbye to the wonderful people that came to see us off. To these people (Mama Jude, Papa Tom, Grandmas Males and Scull and Sumo-G) we thank you very much! After we said our goodbyes we headed towards the customs booths. We got through with no problems and then went towards the area where we waited for the shuttle that would take us to the plane. This plane took us to JFK Airport in the Big Apple, New York City. The plane ride was about an hour long and was smooth sailing. When we got to JFK we ran into a girl named Miriam who was also on her way to Daegu and also got her job through Shane (our recruiter). She was extremely nice and for the rest of the trip we basically went with the three's company theory of three heads are better than two (or one in Miriam's case). We took it easy inside JFK for a while grabbed a little McDonald's breakfast (Yea, thats right Margaret ate McDonald's) and then headed through security once again and onto our plane. This time the plane ride would be much longer. We were taking off at 12:40 pm and we were to land in Daegu at 8:15 pm Saturday local Korean time. This is where things were going to get interesting. A 14 hour and 40 minute flight was going to be extremely difficult. When we got on the plane we were pleased to see that each seat had its own individual screen and that there were T.V. shows, movies games, and flight information available to everyone at the touch of the screen. Although we all took advantage of this service we also decided it would be good to sleep as much as possible so that the time would pass quickly. We also received two meals on this leg of the trip.
By the time the plane landed it felt like we had been on there for days. Needless to say our plan for the time to pass quickly did not work out as well as we would have liked. But after nearly 15 hours and very little movement we were finally in Seoul, Korea. This meant it was only one more plane ride until we were in Daegu. We got through immigration extremely easily without even speaking a word and then headed down an escalator toward the baggage conveyor belt. The allowance for us as far as luggage was concerned was two bags each. We spotted and grabbed five of our six bags extremely easily and somehow we could not find the last one. At this point we were extremely worried that someone had either mistaken Jay's bag for their own and taken it or that in some freak luggage accident one bag had made a wrong turn somewhere along the way. After getting directions to the lost and found, miraculously the last bag dropped onto the conveyor belt and we all breathed a sigh of relief. After we grabbed the last bag we headed toward our last stop at security, dropped off our bags and headed towards the waiting area for our last flight. Shortly after arriving we boarded the plane headed for Daegu and in what seemed like an instant we arrived in our new city. We left the plane, got our bags and this is when we parted ways with our new travelling buddy, Miriam. We did however get her phone number so we will meet up with her when we are all settled.
Jesse, the Head Teacher at Margaret's school picked us up at the airport. He was extremely nice and his english was top notch considering that he has lived in Korea for pretty much his whole life (oddly, he did mention that he was in Toronto for a very short period of time years ago). He took us to our new apartment, helped us bring our bags upstairs and then took us for a drive to see where Margaret's school was located. After that he brought us home and ran out to grab us some groceries. About 10 minutes later he came back with a litre sized bottle of water, 4 cans of beer, a litre of coke, some cookies and ice cream. He also gave us 70 000 won (about $75) to get us started on whatever we would need for the apartment. After he left we decided we would like something a little bit more substantial as far as food went so we walked down the street and got a pepperoni pizza from Pizza Bingo for 6000 won (about $7). It was large enough to feed us both and we had left overs. We also got about a dozen oranges for 3000 won (about $3.50) which we decided we needed for breakfast. After we came home and ate the pizza, we made up our bed and quickly fell asleep.
We awoke bright and early in the morning, very excited to set up (and clean) our apartment and explore our new surroundings. By 9 am we had unpacked our suitcases, moved some furniture around, eaten an orange and the leftover pizza, showered and made a list of things to try and find on our venture in town. When we left the apartment our first task was to time how long it would take to get to Margaret's school so she could walk there on her first work day. That went very well except for the dilly-dallying that we did on the way there due to the fact that everything seemed so amazing to us that we had to stop and check it all out. When we arrived at Margaret's school we decided that we would head back in the direction of the apartment as we knew that there were some stops we could make on the way to accomplish some goals we had set for ourselves.
Our first stop ended up being at an internet cafe. We went inside, made some hand getures that seemed to get our point across and ended up using computers for what seemed like it must have been a half hour or so, sent some facebooke messages, talked on msn and wished our good friend Downtown a happy birthday. When we went to leave we discovered that we had only used 1400 Won ($1.50 at the most) worth of computer time between the two of us which meant to us that internet cafes were cheap. After that we continued on to Dunkin Donuts and got a cup of coffee (which was much more expensive then the internet usage) and then headed to the department store. We entered in the front doors and saw brand names like Burberry, Chanel, and such everywhere and knew that this was not going to be somewhere that we were going to find ourselves very often. However, the two underground floors of the department store were where the grocery items were located. It took us a good hour or an hour and a half but we managed to check out pretty much the whole thing and got most of the items that we decided we needed (minus pillows [our apartment only has one], an iron, and a laundry basket). We felt that we had done pretty well and were especially pleased with the cleaning supplies that we had found. After this we headed home, put some tunes on and cleaned the apartment from top to bottom.
In the middle of the cleaning frenzy I decided it was about time that I called my director and let him know that I had arrived safe and sound. I did this and he told me that he wanted to see us later and that he would call our apartment when he was in the area. Just as we finished our cleaning and were sitting down to have some lunch (yogurt and an orange), the phone rang and it was Mr. Kim (my director). He asked us to meet him at Margaret's school as this was pretty much the only thing we had land marked thus far. We headed out immediately and met him at the location agreed upon. We got in the car with him, did some introductions and then we showed him where our apartment was located. He then took us for a drive and we went and saw where my school was located. We also got to see much more of the city then we had been exposed to up until this point. He then offered to take us for a little tour. We saw where the subway stations were, he pointed out some major landmarks and then we decided to go downtown. When we got there it was everything we expected, a million stores and jam packed full with people walking in every direction. Mr. Kim then stopped suddenly and said that he would be right back. He went into a cell phone store, spoke to one of the sales people and then came back and asked us if we would like to arrnge to get a phone. We graciously accepted his kind offer andwent with him inside. We checked out the phone he had offered to arrnage for us, which as a slider video phone (SWEET!). The phone was free as long as we agreed to use it for six months (also SWEET!). The plan was pretty basic, 200 minutes for 30 000 Won (about $35) per month and text messaging cost is 20 won per message (about 2 cents) and since Mr. Kim was arranging everything for us he said he would just take the bills off of my pay. After we were done getting out phones we took a cab home for the first time which meant we got to see even more of the city which was amazing!
When we got home we wanted to make some dinner with the groceries we had bought but unfortunately we couldn't figure out how to work our stove so we went out and got KFC (yea, thats right Margaret ate KFC) and then called it a day. All in all a pretty successful first 24 hours in Daegu!!!

We have Visas and and flights!! -- Janaury 2nd 2008

2008-01-02T18:24:00.000-08:00

Well, the pieces have fallen into place. We were able to check our visa status online and found out late this morning that our visas were in fact ready for us to pick up. So, this afternoon that is exactly what we did. As soon as we discovered that our visas were ready we called Shane (our recruiter) and he looked into flights for us. We then made our final trip down to Toronto and visted the good ol' Korean Consulate on Avenue Road. It was by far the easiest time we have had there in our experience with the visa process. We simply walked in, showed I.D., and they gave us our passports that contained our work visas. We then drove back to Barrie and waited to hear from Shane about our flights. Around 8:30 pm we heard from Shane and found out that we will be leaving early in the morning on Friday January 4th. So that is going to be the start date for Jay and Gar's Excellent Adventure --Korean Style!!! Stay tuned, enjoy and live vicariously through us as we teach, learn, travel and explore!!! We hope that you enjoy!!!

Preparing for it all -- December 29th 2007

2007-12-29T14:50:00.000-08:00

For the last few months we (Jason Scull and Margaret Saari [who will be known as Jay and Gar from this point on]) have been planning our big move. We are headed to Daegu, South Korea to become English teachers at private schools. These schools are called Hakwons and Korean children attend them after their regular school day.
When we started the process of trying to find places of employment in Korea we thought that it would be fairly simple. We knew that we needed to find a recruiter to be the middleman in the process and we knew that they would do most of the work to actually find us a job. This was true. We spoke to many different recruiters. Some of them seemed as though they could be very helpful, while others just seemed to want to put us on a plane as soon as possible, send us to Korea and collect their money from our schools. By the time we had spoken to probably about ten to twelve recruiters we finally decided on one called Travel and Teach. It is run by Shane Bennett and that is who we have dealt with so far throughout the process. Shane himself taught in Korea for a number of years and then when he moved back to Canada he decided that he wanted to become a recruiter.
Shane was able to find us jobs at two schools in Daegu where we will be sharing an apartment. Although we signed our contracts that say we are to start on January 2nd, we have had some issues getting our visas due to the fact that all of the rules to get a work visa in Korea are changing right now and therefore there has been some confusion and we will not be starting on the 2nd. However, having said this, we should get word within the next couple of days that our visas are ready and as soon as they are, we will contact Shane, he will book tickets and we will be on a plane to Korea to start our adventure. This is why for the last couple of weeks we have been planning, changing bank accounts, buying toiletries and clothing, packing, and mentally preparing, so that we are ready to go when we get word!!! But before we go we want to say Cheers to all of our friends and family and we want you to know that while we are away we will think of you everyday!