An extra long weekend in Busan!

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

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!

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

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....

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

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

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!