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May 4th 2008

Published: May 4th 2008

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CanuckinKorea

This Photo has not been doctored in any way

The owner of this car is going to see YELLOW written on the top and think "Those damn white people"!

Well it's May I've almost been here for 2 months now and I love it more everyday. Well I somedays I don't love it so much but that's not Korea's fault it's the Gobi deserts fault, damn yellow dust. Ya know that isn't just a clever nickname it's literally yellow. It builds up on cars and walls and the ground and it's thick yellow nastiness. I actually decided to buy a mask because after reading about what yellow dust contains I really have no interest in inhaling it. (sulphur, soot, ash, carbon monoxide, and other toxic pollutants including heavy metals and viruses, bacteria, fungi, pesticides, antibiotics, asbestos, herbicides, plastic ingredients, combustion products as well as hormone mimicking phthalates). It's the hormone mimicking phthalates that scares me the most I mean I can barely say that in English how do you say it in Korean! This morning Mickey and I headed out on a walking tour of our area. We both busted out the masks because you couldn't even see the mountains which is a good indication that the dust is bad. Sure enough the cars that line our street were covered in dust like a piece of KFC chicken is covered

Mask time

I broke down and bought one!

in that special recipe crap (it wouldn't surprise me if they had some of the same ingredients!).
It was a pretty nice walk. The weather wasn't quite as hot as yesterday which was HOT (to steal a word from Ayden, CRIPES! It's only the beginning of May :S) We ended up going to Home Plus to grab some things for a big breakfast on Monday morning (woot long weekend!) I also bought 2 more shirts both organic with witty things written on them like "Wear Nature" and "Peace on Earth, Good Luck to People"! Ontop of that I bought 2 Korean cds because I think that downloading them isn't nearly as cool has adding them to my collection! I got Epik High and Younha.
Yesterday, Natasha and I went to get our hair straightened. Yep mom I did it I got my hair permanently chemicalized! No worries though the stuff they use is safe for pregnant women so it's not nearly as bad for your hair. It's also about a 1/4 of the price as home. Since we were first timers we got 30% off so mine was $56 instead of $80 although I have very dry hair so I

Photo 3

A very nice older woman selling corn and fried silk worms...mmmm!

had to have a treatment which was a mere $70 but it was a nice CHI treatment and my hair could be sold to make a silk dress right now! Now since it was my first time having it done I had no clue just how long the process takes and let me tell you you will need to clear your entire day if you are planning to get it done! We got there at about 11:30 and left at around 4. It's a good thing they are nice and can speak a tiny bit of English. Although I couldn't tell what my guy was saying about my hair, either it was the colour of chocolate and looked good or it was the colour of crap and looked bad...seriously I have no clue but I think I'll go with the chocolate. I honestly think there were admiring all the natural highlights I have because these Koreans are all about the basic black when it comes to natural hair colour!
So after dropping $126 on my hair (which will last about 6 months) Natasha, Mickey and I headed to Seomon Market which is one of the oldest in Korea. When we

Photo 26

Beautiful trees

got there Natasha insisted that we stop at one of the side "restaurants" I say it like that because they have their "kitchen" set up on the side of the road and their seating area set up on the sidewalk. So we stop and get soup because it's only about 32 degree's and freezing and we needed some boiling hot soup to keep us from suffering from that hypothermia thing! It was a basic anchovy broth with green onions and thick wheat noodles. We added like 3 spoonfuls of red pepper paste mixed with onions and peppers and you couldn't tell what kind of broth it was all you could taste was pure deliciousness! After we ate our 3 gallon bowls of soup for $3 we walked around the booths. We purchased some neat Korean souvenirs to send home including Korean fans which are a good summer purchase. I'll walk around with one in the summer while I wear my mask. I don't want to breathe the air in but I'll swish it at myself! I also bought a new pillow with bright stripes on it. It's a great case hand sewn and thick. Along with that I got some

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Got Fish? If not this place does!

bamboo blinds for my room. They are green with bamboo leaves panted on them. Now I just need to find a drill so I can put them up. I'll have to find one of those Koreans buy something to use once and then sell it stores. They had them everywhere in Seoul but I have yet to discover that district in Daegu!
Ok I just realized that I am writing this backwards but if this is a problem start at the bottom!
On Friday Mike, Natasha, Aurora, Mickey and I headed to Little Italya. Instead of complimentary garlic bread this time we got unlimited bottles of Lemon Rosemary water which was wonderful! I, living up to Aurora's and my vow to try everything on the menu, ordered the Chili and cheese pasta which was so spicy I thought I was going to fall over but it was a good falling over feeling! The chef came out near the end of our meal to ask if we wanted more drinks and Mike asked his name which is cool I just can't remember his Italian name is Bruno though which suits him just about as much as an Emmy would suit David

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The place for buttons is this place!

Curuso. We found out that he was trained at a high end Italian restaurant in Seoul and he was planning on going on a cooking tour of Italy for 3 months pretty soon. I think I actually heard Aurora's heart break a little. He asked all of our names and addressed us by name when we left. Mike wants to put together a book of our trips there and give it to him before they leave. I think it's a cool idea. So if you happen to be in Daegu and see people taking picks of stupid things in an Italian restaurant it's probably us! Oh and the coolest thing, he wants to open another restaurant when he gets all the kinks sorted out at his current one (he's been approached to franchise it but refuses WOOT!) anyway he's going to give it to his employee's when he opens a new one. He needs to marry Aurora because she's not going to find a cooler guy then him!
After dinner we went shopping. I bought a couple more shirts because apparently it was the week of buying shirts!
Thursday was Mickey's first day of life in Daegu. She arrived late

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Natasha eating a not so hot hot pepper

on Wednesday night just as I did...although not as late. When she got there we headed right to Home Plus because her luggage did not arrive with her and she didn't have a shirt for the next day. I ended up buying a pair of Diadora sandals and a "Green is the new Black" shirt. The sandals which are apparently a big Italian Sports company name were about $3.80 and are so comfy. I actually bought another pair today to wear at home. I may send a pair home for you dad! I also bought some socks for a decent price. And may I just add that we were there at about 1130pm and the place was full of children. I figured that they had probably just finished school somewhere!
When we were getting off the subway on Thursday there was this guy ahead of us on the escalator that looked back at us and then did this double take like "WHOA white ppl" as we went up the second escalator to street level he said hi in Korean and I said hi back in Korean (I'm so awesome at saying hi in Korean, I can also say bear, butterfly

copy

Yellow Dust makes you look like this

and coffee like a pro!) he then started talking to us in Korean which took me right out of the conversation but left Natasha with one foot in it! When we got to the top he busted out some broken English and we found out that he is a student at Keimyung university just down the street from work and he is majoring in Japanese but also studying English. He asked us if we would be interested in being friends because he would love to have some foreign friends to help him speak better English and also to show off the city to. We exchanged emails and numbers and went on our way. I was so happy that Mickey and Natasha were there with me because I would have been like ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I have no interest in private tutoring A) the penalty for being caught is too steep for me B) I'm paid well to begin with and C) I help with English they help me with Korean it's a win win!
Wednesday was a very productive day my boys LOVED the Grammar House Rock video's almost as much as they loved my laptop! Jerry touched it once and I

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The little "restaurant" seating area. Behind that wall (that slides btw) lies a shop selling clothes!

looked at him and said "Jerry do you have 2 million won for me if you break it" and he went about as white as me! I had them watch a Finding Nemo clip and write the adjectives they heard. On Friday I had them watch some of A Bug's Life and they had to put adjectives, verbs, nouns and prepositions they heard or thought of into the right column. Whoever came up with the best words in the right columns gets a prize...guess who's getting a prize!!
Anyway that's been my life this week in a nutshell or rather in a tiny piece of the internet.
Oh and Mickey is AWESOME! She's a photography student at Ryerson so she's all about the picture taking which makes me smile!
Annyong heseyo!

Oh one last thing on Friday I was asked to call a parent because she wanted to speak with me. Aurora said she's never had that before so I was slightly nervous because it was a kid that I liked and hadn't written anything bad in her report card. Well the mother didn't speak English and I don't speak Korean so I quickly handed the phone to Alyssa

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Lots of strawberries. I'm guessing that for all those you probably had to shell out a whopping $5

who talked to her for a bit and when she hung up she said that Kayley loved me and was so excited to come everyday and learn. I was like WOW since she is in my least favourite class and I'm generally miserable in it! Although she is a great kid and I love her in that class because she does keep me sane! But it was exciting to have that kind of feedback right from a parent.

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