Our first night out.

Our first night out in Seoul on a "school night". Our new roomie..Ashley...in the white stripped shirt, invited us out with her friend Shawn. (named after Shawn White the snowboarder) ..A bunch of the Counsellors from work decided to come, so it was really fun. We went to this Jazz bar, with some white chick singing, it was the most modern crazy beautiful place we have seen in forever!!! The bathroom was so fancy, I couldn't figure out how to turn on the water..I had soapy hands, but took about three minutes to figure out the water!! So funny!! All of the Korean Counsellors want to come and live with us now!! Kinda funny!

DMZ

The DMZ. A small area of land separating the North and South of Korea. The land belongs to the UN, and is extremely regulated. (curfews, limited population ect..) The farmers aren't allowed to use any chemicals in this area, and grow all organic food as a result. So, they are extremely wealthy, making about $100,000 USA a year... (which can take you very far in Korea!!!)
You need your passport for this tour.. It felt alot like the amazing race of tours. We were told "it is 11:12 am, be back on the bus by 11:35." Then we quickly checked out the sights. There were three areas of the tour. The first area had a movie on the history of the Korean war, a tour of a tunnel dug by North Korea to attack the south. (you have to walk up a long hill for this one!!) and a museum. Then we quickly headed off to a small area where you can see North Korea, and look through Binoculars at the soldiers waving on the other side. It was pretty insane.
Last you can have pics taken with a solider and your passports stamped.

We were pretty limited in the pics we were allowed to take. But I found one of the tunnel on the internet!!! After the tour we travelled Seoul visiting a huge temple, and shopping!! AND we ate DELICIOUS Galby, Beem Beem Bap and some sorta soup for dinner. The waitress was like a proud mother feeding her children. She even spoon fed each of us repeatedly!!



At the end of a bridge that used to exist between the North and the South is a barrier with all of these notes on it. Many families were separated as a result of the war between North and South, and these are notes from people with hopes of reunions for the families, and peace. Pretty cool!!!

United Colors of Benniton- We are the World

Canadian visitors for the weekend!!

Cherrys friend from University (UBC) Mika came to visit for the weekend. Mika is in the pink. Mika's friends came along, Kim and Kendall. Mika's Japanese, Cherry is Flipino, Kendall is 1/2 Japanese and 1/2 White, Kim is half Filipino and half white, and I am the only whitie in the bunch. Satuday we braved the heat and experienced the joys of Korea. Here are a few pics of our adventures. We were told you had to dress super conservative and formal for the demilitarized zone tour. So we all wore winter like clothing....we nearly melted.





Kim on the shuttle on the way to the demilitarized zone.










Cherry casually checking out North Korea.




Mika and Kendall

And then there were Three

Here is a pic of our newest roomie Ashley. She asked yesterday if she could move in with us, to which we both excitedly agreed. Ashley is awesome, and we both miss having a third roomie to balance things out. Ashley wants to be closer to work, and work on her English, and we want to work on our Korean, and learn how to cook Korean style!! So it should be a good match.
Ashley is a counsellor at our school, which means she deals with the crazy parents, while we just sit back and teach. A Korean, A Filipino, and a White girl...hummm could be interesting. The best part is Ashely is going to pay us rent...so Cherry and I will vertually have 0 expenses as her money will cover all of our bills and then some!!! AWESOME!!! We will have more $$ to experience Korea..(like eating out, currently we only eat out once a week) and have a Korean to help us with everything we do!!! Ashley is also a part of the "dance troop" learning Salsa, so we can all practive our mad moves together!!!

Happy Fathers Day!!!

My Dad....
Happy Fathers Day!!!

Favorite Father Memories:

5) Pirates Gold Ice Cream and Long John Silvers

4) The letergical dance of the Christmas story...preformed yearly..with the exception of last year.

3) Driving him crazy crying over the water bed of my dreams..and actually getting it!!! / the legendary RED shoes..with my awesome new dress!!

2) His retirement party, and truely understanding what a big deal his job was for the first time.

1) Weekend trip to NY city. There were no actual seats left on the bus for me..so I drove to NY in my Dads bus..on the stairs. TWELVE hours on the stairs...in the middle of the night!! Then we caught a fwe hours of sleep and headed out shopping..(Louis Vuitton!!), to Rocko's where I met "mama" and of course..Dads make over in downtown New York...sporting his first pair of "Maddens!"

Anyways, I hope you had a good day, and didn't work too hard!! Love ya and miss ya tonnes!!

Your baby girl!!!

Thats right!! THIS is my Salsa group. Yup...we are members at the Salsa club. The dude proudly standing closest to the right is one of our teachers...he has the fastest hips I've ever seen. Then the happy go lucky guy in the middle, is another instructor. Not so fast hips...but crazy shoulder shimmy. We learned how to do left and right spins last Sunday leaving me both dizzy and confused. Dance lessons in Korean, music in Spanish, and my brain thinking English!!!! The line dancing still kills me, although Sunday was a slow night so there weren't as many rushing to strut their stuff Britney style. Beyond Salsa this weekend was a bit of a bust. It rained all day Saturday so we ran around getting a few things, and stayed in Saturday night. Cherry has friends visiting from Canada in NINE DAYS, so we are busily preparting our little house for three guests..SO EXCITING!!

Other random Korea facts...when walking and feeling a slight bit of rain fall, I automatically think "rain or pee" so far, only rain. I almost got ran over by a motorcycle in my building..yes IN MY BUILDING, and I felt embarassed for being startled when he came flying through the doors. My students began class the other day by asking "teacher what is a whore" I now like Bubble Tea. Walking and I barely notice the smell of raw sewage anymore...the smell doesn't register until I wonder why I am suddenly flooded with memories of Coburg camp. Today I think an old man swore at me in Korean, later pushing me into a womans granny cart while walking up the stairs. (yes Lydia, I am a proud owner of the granny cart!!!) I have fallen up the stairs in the subway a total of four times to date. Korean women all run like Turnbulls.

Mike and Mark...this ones for you!

Hey Guys. Remember how I was SOOO worried I wouldn't get to get my fill of Wrestling here in Korea. Well...Thankfully it seems to ALWAYS be on one of the very FEW English stations I have here. We saw these dudes...and Cherry really wanted her pic taken with them...she thought the middle dude was "crazy hot"....