a token blog

So it's hit the 6-week-to-go mark, and I didn't think I was the type to get homesick but for 'some reason' the thought of getting back to the old CW of C (Commonwealth of Canada) is sounding real nice right now.

Just got back from playing poker with the newly formed Gwangmyeong crew. It includes Wayne, Stu, and I (the Original Three), and the new recruits of the cool Canadian couple of Ryan and Kristin, with special guest Oxford Tom. I made up all those nicknames just now, but they all seem to fit. I can't believe that it's been almost a year since I've been here, and the way my little town has changed since day 1 almost brings a tear to my eye. I'm not sure if I'm ever gonna be back here, and despite it's little quirks, it has come to be as close to home as I've known for some time.

Just recently before the whole North Korea nuclear testing, Wayne and myself took a little trip to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) and peered into North Korea for a while. To be anticlimactic, for some reason I expected there to be some cool military stuff in a 'demilitarized' zone. Now I know that the DMZ is called just that for a reason, and there wasn't really much to look at. Still kind of cool though. To counter this disappointment, we headed off to the War Memorial in Seoul, where we knew there would be some cool stuff to look at. There most certainly was, and there are tons of pictures of that here.

I also attended my old co-teacher's wedding (Megan) last weekend. It was somewhat of an experience to see a Korean wedding. It's kind of like a Korean breakfast though, it's one of those things that just doesn't compare to the way we do things at home. It was kind of cool to see, it lasted about 15 minutes in total. In a nutshell, the guy comes up first, then the girl, then the pastor talks for a while and they both say about two words (probably meaning 'I do' in Korean) then the new couple makes very respectful bows to both sets of parents, then they bring the cake out, cut it with a sword (which I'll admit, is one-up on the Western style) and then they leave. Only in about 2 minutes they come back for more pictures.

So the wedding ceremony isn't that much different then Canada, but the aftermath left much to be desired. We went upstairs to a buffet (where the amount of people at the meal suspiciously doubled the amount of people at the ceremony), ate some food, the couple made a quick entrance to say hi, and that was it. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the funness of Bandringa wedding receptions, but I felt a little jilted.

Anyway, that is what has been up, this website is being funky and won't let me add pictures, so you're gonna have to link up to the picture website to be visually entertained. I've got one final big trip planned on November 11th, of all days, a hiking trip to the most famous mountain in Korea: Seoraksan. So unless something else noticably interesting happens, I'll probably be making one more blogpost to the tell the story of that trip, and then will be doing most of my storytelling in face to face form.

See you soon

A little B & E in the R.O.K.

This month's little story...

So me and Wayne had yet to find a sport that we are in the same ballpark in. We had attempted basketball and soccer, both with disastrous results. It usually ended with one individual feeling like the king of the world and the other like the guy who wants to kill the king of the world.

We were walking back from an attempt at soccer which quickly turned to ping-pong at the Gwayngmyeong rec center, when we came across a massive field with a footbal pitch, volleyball, basketball, and... tucked away in the back corner, a tennis court. This got to brainstorming, and I quickly shelled out a couple bucks at the local sports shop for a tennis racket and we were at the races. There was one problem though, the court was (and still is) quite securely locked up, to keep us crazy waygooks (korean word for foreigners) from having any fun, no doubt.

It's kind of obvious what the next course of action was. If they didn't lock it up, maybe we never would have been inspired to see what all the fuss was about. But inspired we were, and now we had a mission. After we hopped the fence and under the net, we gave the court a full inspection. To be fair, the 'fuss' was probably that anyone who is actually good at tennis would mark the place 'condemned' as soon as they realized it more resembles a beach volleyball court. But we're not good at tennis, so it's ok.

After the tennis game, we were walking back and heard music coming from the little city center of Cheolsan. We followed the tune and there was a dance performance in the middle, starting with some belly dancing and moving on to some hip-hop and some other kinds. Just another random korean moment. That also reminds me, there was a massive music festival in Gwangmyeong about 2 weeks ago that I went to as well that was really cool. Some good bands, both western and korean, and totally out of the blue. Twas fun. Good fireworks display at the end too. Oh, and I did the Terry Fox Run out here as well... Also good fun.

This week is Chusok, which I'm kind of ignorant of why it's a holiday, but we get tuesday to friday off. I really let this holiday sneak up on me, and while most other people are off making the most of their precious time off, I have no plans. At the same time, I haven't had actual 'plans' for a weekend since I got here, and there has never been a dull moment, so I should be able to postpone the craziness for a couple extra days. I might go on a trip to some mountain with a friend or something, but who knows...

Anyhow, that's the month of September in a nutshell. 2 months till I go home for Christmas!