Binnok

It was Lunar New Year- January 28, 2006! I was off to Taiwan -Taipei on my own. I knew Holly from Markham ONtario was teaching near Taipei because I had been talking to her when I was thinking about teaching there. We had planned to meet at least one day. SHe booked me a cheap hotel. The QUEEN hotel and they spoke NO English! haha. Thami was staying at the Grand Hotel about 15 minutes across town. I tried to use the phone to call them both it took a long time to figure out!!!!!! GRRR. I met Thami for a late lunch at his nice hotel. Then we went touring around the city to see some temples. We were anxious to explore the night life as well but it was quite because of Chinese New ... read more

What a night! Off to the World Cup Stadium to watch S. Korea play Sweden. The stadium is huge and the fans are wild! We all had t-shirts that said :Be the Reds! Myself Kirk, Chris (both from Manitoba) and me off to the game. We had pretty good seats. Lots of beer and dried squid to boot. Ha ha no hot dogs! We saw some other foriegners we knew from some of the tours we did. The korean man sitting next to us lived in T.O. So we chatted for a while. In the end S.Korea and Sweden tied 2-2! As we left teh stadium and headed to the subway ,Chris was really drunk. He tried to get everyone in the jam packed subway to do the wave. Koreans do not apppreciate being bugged in ... read more

Well I accepted an invitation to the military ball here in Seoul Korea. 1941-2005. 14th Anniversary Miliary Police Ball (I thought Marilyn would be pleased) Anyway , it was an interesting experience. I bought a beautiful dress here - dark brown with sparkles around the edges, thin straps. My friend kim picked out the rest for me. It fit so well. It took place at Hyatt Hotel here - IT is nicer than HOME! There were many people there. I got to eat Western food!!!!!!!! Smoked salmon salad, beef- YUM! wine, and dessert. There was traditional entertainment from Korean women dancing and performing a drum formation. We sang both anthems , Korea and USA. Then after dinner there was a band they hired for us " Faded" they played old 90's rock and any requests. The ... read more

Well, another long weekend and off on an adventure korea tour! We went to Gyeong-Ju (south east of Seoul). The attractions are Mt Namsan. A very popular mountain for climbing with a great view of Sillas cultural properties. About 2 hours up and down. There are many Buddist tombs and Shrines you can find in the mountains and preserved in the area. The temples are beautiful as the builders or I guess designers have been known for their craftsmanship. We stayed in a beautiful HOSTEL- well it didn't seem like a hostel. I wonderful group of people went on teh tour and yes many Canadians, but many Europeans this time as well. I do have more pics of teh hostel and other such places from teh weekend but have yet to retrieve them. So here are ... read more

Well, a fun but crazy weekend! Laura and Vania had their last big going away party. Laura leaves for China on Thursday and Vania for New Zealand. The teachers got together on Friday night. On Saturday, we went to Carne Station for a big meal and drinks. They have so much food, which you can cook at your own table. Check out the pics! All you can eat and drink for 20.00! We ended being one of the last tables to leave after Kim decided to start playing drinking games "duckie f*&^" . Then Kim and Vania were doing beer and Soju shots! Scary stuff. We ventured to Itaewon. We hit the many bars that serve cheap jello shooters or cheap soju kettles, and free drinks for ladies. Lindsay and Gin enjoyed one of their last ... read more