Hwaseong Fortress

I went to Suwon today and saw the Hwaseong fortress. It was fantastic, the city of Suwon is partially inside the old walls. Cities like Suwon are always so fascinating because of the juxtaposition of old and new. The fortress was built almost 4 hundred years ago, and now is houses bus stops and cell phone shops. The city of Split in Croatia is designed this way, and so is Xi'an China. The walls take a couple of hours to hike, but there is other stuff to see as well, you just have to look for it. There is an old, but fastidiously restored, palace. I also saw a huge statue of the Buddha in this temple in the hills belows the walls. I caught a glimpse of the huge church there aslo. It is Presbyterian, and seems to be of the Dutch school of architecture, but it is all Korean in size and scope. Things in this country are just huge. I went to the roof of my building tonight and it is like a park (grass, trees and people making out). The whole nine yards. The weird thing is that my building is not even one of the big ones. Getting around this country is also very easy. People have literally no English, but are friendly and do what they can to help anyway. My Korean is progressing a little each day, probably because there is no choice but to learn a smattering, you would get pretty hungry otherwise. Reading Han'geul (Korean alphabet) is also becoming second nature, easier than English even. Well that's it for now, hope yer all doin well.

Open mic

I discovered a nice little Irish pub a while ago. It has an open mic on Wednesdays, and I have jammed the last three weeks. Its usually a blast, and actually gets rockin pretty good some nights. It is great to have time for music again, it is something that I have sorely missed as there was no time in Vancouver. Some of the people I meet are interesting, I played a set with a guy from Boston, the old host is an Aussie, and my friends Ontario Mike and Jonathan usually make it also. The bar has a great atmosphere, but pales in comparison to the Big Eye...oh well can't have all I guess, at least the puke smell isn't quite as acrid haha.

Deliverance with no hillbillies except me.

I had an absolute blast whitewater rafting this weekend. We went to Gangwon-do to this gorgeous river valley. I had rafted once before in Montana, equally fun, but very different. The valley was ethereally beautiful, with shades of green that were outright otherworldly. Seven of us went: Chantal, Heather, Nova Scotia Mike and myself from the Migeum campus, Rebecca and Lindsey from Sunae campus, and Scottish Mike from Incheon. It was probably one of the better weekends of my entire life. The rare combo of great times and good friends was unbelievable. Our Korean guides came and partyed the night away with us as well, also really great folks. I apologize for not having any pics of the actual valley or the raft, camera would have got soaked. I swiped a couple of Heather's pics from her site (sorry Heather, owe ya a Soju). You can check out her site too if you like, I will include the link. www.sitekreator.com/heather She also has some pics from a retreat we all had to do when I first moved here. I will pinch some of Lindsey's pics as well, as soon as I can. She has all the pics of Nova Scotia Mike being shorn in his sleep. Enjoy. Love Chaddy-waddy.

Seoul searching

I had quite a day on Saturday. I went exporing in Seoul. It is truly a fantastic city, and it has given me a new definition for the word huge. It is built in a small mountian range, and the mountains themselves are incorporated into the geography. There are tunnels through them, buildings clinging to them, and some have been geo-formed completely out of existence. I went to Insadong which is a nice little area, little meaning most of the buildings are not thirty stories or more. There is a guitar market there the size of Val Marie. I was in heaven (well hell actually, no first paycheck yet haha). I also went to Dongdaemun, a huge market. I capped the night off with some friends in Hongdae, one of the nightclub regions. Anyway here are some of the shots I got. Later.

Gyeongbukgung

I got the chance to see the palace complex of Gyeongbukgung. Built in 1394 and razed several times by the Japanese, the complex is the main palace of the Joseon Dynasty. I thought it was very beautiful and peaceful. It was similar to the Forbidden City in Beijing except smaller and without the hordes of tourists.

Patience is a virtue...but she won't always wait

The publishing tool for this blog is fast becoming the bane of my existence. More often than not, I cannot publish my pics. So if you see a blog that is text only, please be patient, I will have the pics up when the friggin thing is working...haha I'm not really bitter, just underwhelmed.

Baseball Korean style

Howdy. I checked out a really fun baseball game this weekend with some friends. It was quite a spectacle, the diamond was bigger than my hometown, and it was only one of twenty or so stadiums in the area. If you you want to see where, do a search on the Jamsil Olympic Park. Its absolutely huge. The only similarity to back home is that they play nine innings, and use bats, pretty much everything else is different. First off, the entrance fee was only three bucks, this is the Korean major leagues mind you. Beers were only two, and the cab ride over was four. The teams do not represent cities, I cheered for the Samsung Twins, I think. The crowd does all kinds of mass chanting and songs, and people throw toilet paper around. For snacks we had Kimchi flavored chips and squid jerky. The energy was amazing; the fans here are completely rabid. We almost got nailed by two homeruns, one hit the row in front of us and one hit two back, pretty crazy. Anyway here are the pics. See ya.