First blog in a long time....

It's a rainy day here in Yangshuo, China. So after being washed off the rock, I've come back to the city to spend the day hiding indoors. Seems like the perfect opportunity to finally get blogging again.

I left Korea a few weeks back, and am currently in China, after having been to Vietnam. In a few more weeks, I'm off to Japan, then to Hong Kong and finally, to backpack with my little brother.

In the coming days, weather permitting, I will be out climbing again, or in here posting some pictures.

Till then, be safe,

All the little things....

No matter how many times I tell myself, I just can't keep up with this blog. This year around, I find myself living in Korea, as opposed to feeling like I'm visiting and teaching. The latter meant that I was always out sightseeing and exploring. In a way, this year is very much the same, but I'm seeing different things that I never saw last year. Albeit, I have been riding around on my bike rather than walking.

I regret this just a little bit, because on a bike, the world rushes by. It's about as bad as being in a car and never being able to stop. But on a bike, you are the driver and passenger at the same time. Just the other day, we walked to a store we always rode our bikes to. It was amazing to see all the little stores that we never knew were there. Also, because of the bike, I can't just snap pictures. So I hope to start slowing down, ride the bike to a destination, then get off and walk.

We found a new rock climbing wall. We've been frequenting the same one for a few months and finally got out and found some new territory. This wall is much nicer, with a dedicated top rope section and another seperate bouldering wall. Most Koreans only top rope, so the bouldering wall is all for us. We've marked off a few routes so far and have been practicing with those. We had quite a crowd of top ropers watching us for a while. They kept trying to follow our routes, but with much difficulty. Hopefully in the future we will be able to find more walls to climb.

In the meantime, my brother was here. I haven't updated my blog since before his arrival. But I am in the process of getting those pictures together. For simplicity's sake, I will break it up into a few seperate blog entries. He was here for 2 weeks and you can read about that below.

Just this past weekend, I had the most delicious dinner I've had in a long time. I was introduced to a special 'Seafood and Sushi Family Buffet Restaurant'. For a fair price of a buffet back home, you can feast on International food from around the world.

I made good use of an empty stomach, enjoying: buffalo wings, calamari, a vast variety of sushi, tereyaki, curry chicken, SNOW crab, shrimp, salad, spaghetti, fresh fruits and a generous portion of desert cake, cookies and other snacks. It reminded me very much of the Asian buffets I used to visit when I was a child.

Ever since I bought my bike, I have woken up, ridden to school, worked, taken a break, back to work, rode home, changed, then either: biked, or rock climbed. By the time I arrive back home, it's about 10:30 or 11pm and I'm ready for bed. This has left little time for anything else.

For my friends reading this who think I've fallen off the face of the earth, well I guess I have. Many friends are getting married, or for all I know now, could 'already' be married.

What else is there to say? My good friend Peter is leaving Korea next week. We've got a fairwell party planned, so that should be one last blast before he leaves. He's taking the ever so cliche path of travelling vast distances before heading home to his native country Canada.

Come to think of it, I went out for some food and beer with a crew of people I worked with last year. It was a sort of reunion if you will. My friend Adrian, Ben and Peter were out in Gangnam having a few social drinks, when the night suddenly turned into something I can't quite remember. I've seen some of the pictures from Peter's blog, but beyond that, I guess I was having a good time. I woke up the next day to an apartment littered with broken glass, cigarette butts and my knuckles all skinned on my right hand. They are just healing up, but damn did they hurt for a while. Check out the blog entry here.

I miss my camera. I miss getting out and taking the day's slowly. Lately it's just been rush rush rush. Time to slow down and enjoy the coming seasons....

A Tale of Two Lees....

A while back my little brother Nick came to pay me a visit. I'm sure he doesn't like to be called 'little' anymore, considering he's 24, but to me he'll always be my 'little' bro.



He flew into Seoul on the 17th of May just after I finished work. Busing to the airport, I found him sitting in the middle of the airport. It was a strange sensation to see him sitting there. Friends I have met here remind me that I am in Korea. But to see someone or something from home is different. He will have been the first person, family or friend to have visited me from Canada. Either way, we got out of there fast, catching the next bus towards my side of Seoul.

Having arrived during the week, I was due to work the next day. So I couldn't really show him around until the weekend. I introduced him to my version of a 'Western home-cooked' meal, after which we stayed up late and talked about home.

I can't really remember what we did and when, but I think he had one of the best possible vacations one could have in Seoul. He saw more of Seoul than I ever did in my entire year here.



We ventured to the soiled district of Itaewon, with its thronging street vendors and cheap souvenirs. It was late at night on a weekday, so it really wasn't the essence of itself but nonetheless worthy of a visit. We visited Palaces, Temples, Markets, Night Markets, Neon-Capitals, Fashion Districts, Art Districts, Food Districts, Shopping Districts, Malls, Amusement Parks, Schools, Tea Houses, Rivers, Tributaries and Mountains.



The food was also another big part of his visit here. I wouldn't have felt right if he came all this way and never experienced some of the mouth watering flavours that exist here. No Burger King and KFC for him. Every food that I could think of that is traditionally Korea, we managed to try in a period of two weeks. Little Tea Houses lining Insadong market, the somewhat-delicious dop-bokki (rice cake) stalls, somgyopsal, galbi, kimbap-shops, bakeries, you name it and we probably ate it.

My school was nice enough to allow my brother to join us on one of our field trips. We took the children to Seoul Land, which is a typical field trip destination here in Korea. There were so many children that we barely managed to get on any rides. But just a day spent with my kindergarten kids was enough to give my brother a taste of teaching life in Korea.

At the time, the two weeks that Nick spent here seemed to last a long time. But as soon as it was over, it felt like he was never here. Time is funny here. Days at work last a long time and the weekends just blow by. I couldn't have asked for a better person to come visit, save the rest of my family. Hopefully he had just as much fun as I.

My second 'supposedly' scheduled blog....uh oh

I've had a little bout of 'something' this week. I'm not exactly sure what I have, but I don't feel sick. But there is something definitely making my throat sore. It could be the oncoming smog that is customary of spring here. The air gets thicker and much more putrid. While I doubt it's actually the air, it quite possibly could be something I got from my kids. They come to school everyday, rain or shine, sick or death, like the little troopers they are.

So due to the unforeseen circumstances that have hindered my mobility, I have done pretty much nothing this last week.

Early Saturday evening, the guys from work headed down to Itaewon for the International Food Festival. Being smaller than I imagined, it was still interesting to see. The Canadian food consisted of hot dogs and hamburgers, while the souvlaki and kebabs were among the favorites. At the entrance to the food fair, you could buy glasses of wine, or entire bottles. There was a salsa stage with signing and dancing, so the obvious thing to do was buy bottle of wine, sit and relax. I left shortly after night fall for bigger and better attractions.


After Itaewon, I met up with Peter and attended the Seoul World DJ Festival.
Acclaimed to be the largest outdoor music festival ever held in Korea, it was one of the best outdoor festivals I have attended. A few of the outdoor events I saw last year included the FlowFest, Daecheon Mud Festival and Wonderland 2007. I can't even begin to explain the energy that you could feel. Peter and I wandered around throughout the park, going from one tent to another. There was a dedicated Psytrance tent, which actually sounded more like some sort of Conga-line. The D&B and Main tents housed the larger DJ's from around the world. There was some Canadian talent too, but they played on Friday night, I only went Saturday night. It reminded me alot of the Full Moon Party we attended on Koh Phangan, Thailand. The same energy, but no beautiful beach and a complete lack of drugs. Well, the 'lack' of drugs might be a misnomer, there were alot of people passed out on the ground, or curled up sleeping in the tightest of spots.


Later in the evening, after bumping into countless friends I made last year, we retreated to a plastic tube playground. Plenty of people had the same idea and were chilling out in the 'construction' tube haven.

Around 6:30am Sunday morning, we headed to the subway station, along with the rest of the party-goers who were still jumping at the wee hours of the morning. A long subway ride is the last thing you want to do after a long night. The seats are all taken, and you are left wobbling back and forth while the subway chugs along. You almost choose to stand, for once you touch the seat, you immediately fall asleep; only to arrive in some unknown place far far away from where you should be.

When I arrived home, I was so tired, I couldn't even manage the 10 minute walk to my apartment. It was decided a taxi was in order. I caught this gentlemen in my apartment area, still dressed up in business attire; who obviously had too much Soju to drink and couldn't find his way home. Where better to sleep than slumped in front of a store?

I spent a little time this past week rummaging through the photos I took while backpacking through Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

I have been trying to sit down and recount some of the adventures I had, because I never took the time to really explain what I did and where I went. I remember vaguely updating my blog from the road. But those were only short intermediate explanations from the side of the road. I really want to sit down and write a bit more of my trip, if only for myself.

Then when I think about photographs, I realize how little I have actually taken my camera out. I'm quite disappointed in myself for not taking my camera with me these days. I used to take it everywhere, but since, I have worried too much about damaging it. I even have trouble updating the 'Picture of the Day', because the pictures I have taken are not that appealing to me.

Time to get some new material.

Since my arrival....

I've been saying the same things about my time here since my arrival. I've been doing alot of the same things, but they keep my occupied.

School has been great. It's only been about 2 months, but I really don't think I could get any more comfortable here. The children are great, not too old and not too young. I enjoy the material as well as the attitude of the children.

I don't get the crazy mis-translated English phrases like I used to last year, but from time to time I get a crazy picture. I think this started as a frog, but ended as.....


The other day one of the boys, named William, was dressed up just like me, or rather, I was dressed up just like him. Reminded me of Austin Powers and "Mini-Me".

This week, Friday is Teacher's Day/Children's Day. That entails games and more games for the entire day. I've seen the Korean teachers test twisting balloon animals and other activities. Some of the children's parents are attending the school that day, so that will be another interesting story.

This past weekend, a few friends and I wanted to get out of the city. For the past few weekends, we've biked across town to the Dongdaemun Market and Namdaemun Markets.

We've been mapping out the bike paths in the city, trying to find quick paths across and through the city. Major bike paths line the Han river, but often you need to get into town off the Han river. We've been primarily riding with traffic or on the sidewalks, but until my helmet arrives, I've been staying off the roads here.

So this week we headed South to Bundang, to find a few paths we looked up online. To get to Bundang, we just followed the river. Like I said, the bike paths are fairly wide, so keeping away from the pedestrian traffic is usually easy. Having said that, once the schools are let out, children swarm the paths, riding their bikes home. This is hectic, as many children barricade the paths with their bikes.

The ride to Bundang was not that far. By road, it's about 30km or so South from my house. By the river, it's only 18km.

Once at the park, we asked a group of Korean bikers to point us in the right direction. The map we had, was in color, but once printed off, no more color. So the trails were not labeled properly. We started following one shorter path, but expected it to be a dirt trail. The whole time we were riding on concrete looking for a turnoff to a dirt path.


After about another 30 or 40 minutes of biking up a long, gradual hill, we leveled out and asked for more directions. The elder man who helped us, pointed to our map and said we were roughly South of the park we started at. Atleast we were following the trail through the city...or so we thought. After biking uphill a bit more, we started to turn back and thats when we came across 3 Korean bikers heading uphill in the direction we just came. We asked if they were mountain biking, and followed them up the rest of the hill. As it turns out, we were not South of the park, but directly East!

The 3 Koreans we were riding with were very friendly. After a few photos, we headed on our way DOWN the mountain....and I still didn't have my helmet....

The trails were not that difficult. In some spots it got steep, but for the most part it was easy to handle. Plenty of pebbly paths and loose dirt. One section of the trail, I was coming down a steep slope behind my friend. He had stopped and gotten off the bike, causing me to stop and get off my bike. Rather than wanting to walk down the slope, I tried to get back on the bike and ride down.

But the incline was too steep and my seat post was too high for me to get over onto the back wheel to balance the bike. The bike rocked forward on the front wheel and twisted as I rolled off the trail down the hill. It probably looked worse than it did, but I wish I got a picture or two. The rest of the trail was fast and fun. At the bottom, I found that I had a scratch on the back of my calf. But that's all I came away with. I got a pretty nasty sun burn too, which is very noticeable on my arms.

After the ride, I spent some quality time in a children's playground.

That night, I went to see DJ Astrix at the Woo Bar.

The Woo Bar is located in the lobby of the "W Hotel", which is easily the most stylish venue in Seoul. I have heard that standard rooms at the Hotel run at $700 US a night. DJ Astrix is from Israel, along with the likes of the 'Infected Mushrooms' who are due in Seoul 2 weeks from now. I saw the Mushrooms in Montreal on New Years 2003 at the "Area club", so I hope this year will be just as good. Aside from the very expensive beverages, the night was great, having not drank a single beer that night, I rolled in around 6am with nothing more than a stifling yawn.












Now it's the middle of the week, and I need to call my Grandmother to wish her a happy Birthday. Other than living on my bike, I've been rock climbing with a friend from work. Here's the wall we frequent almost every night.












And that about wraps up this entry. See you next time!

Laziness, complete and utter laziness...

That's all I can say. Laaazzzziiiinnnneeeesssss

It's been a little over a month and a half since I've returned and I have yet to even touch this blog. For the start, I did not have internet access at my apartment, so that was my excuse. But lately, I've been out alot, which hasn't given me the time to update my blog.

BUT, I have been taking pictures, and I want to start uploading the picture of the day again.

Alot has happened. New teachers have arrived and the workplace is starting to settle down. I have my eyes set on a new MTB, so I keep looking forward to payday this week. I've been rock climbing as well, and a friend found a free outdoor climbing wall not too far from our house.

Basically, since my arrival, I've just gone to work, then finished and explored the area. I live next to a very popular night district, up in the ranks with Hongdae and Itaewon (albeit, I hate Itaewon, but most foreigners have some sort of appeal).

In my off hours, some friends and I spend our time looking around for Bouldering gyms, so far, we've found quite a few. I trek around on my skates quite often too. Been out a couple times to see some friends from last year, but because payday was a little far off from the first day I arrived, socializing has been minimal.

I've been out exploring other parts of Seoul that I never really ventured to last year. More so the smaller districts rather than the larger 'foreigner populated' areas. I've seen all the touristy parts, so it's the smaller parts I enjoy more now. A friend and I took a bike trek to Dongdaemoon, which was a fair distance. Biking through the lesser known areas was intriguing. I love to see untouched Asian lifestyles, which aren't heavily influenced by the Western world. It reminds me of being in Hong Kong when I was a boy. I hope that when I get my bike, I'll be able to visit more remote areas, that are far removed from the subway line, or even the subway stations.

When I think about the parts of Seoul that I do know, they typically expand outwards from the subway stops that I frequent. Maybe the area spans multiple stops, but off the subway line, or between all the stops, I really don't have a clue. We found some amazing market areas, that are not the standard Namdaemoon or Dongdaemoon. Same ideas, but very different items for sale. I felt for a moment, that I was back in Thailand, with all the vendors selling cheap watches and sun glasses.

The area where I live has been good to us so far. It's very enjoyable, being a richer area of Seoul than what I was used to last year. My children's parents drive their kids to school in BMWs, Lexii and Porches. The car dealerships are just one block up the road!

My friend Peter has a very culturally insightful blog at http://seoulpurpose.blogspot.com. His format and his style makes reading it something I look forward to. He's made a habit of sticking to a routine of doing his weekly entry once a week on a specific day. I think I might take that same tactic, so that I become used to updating my site. I certainly don't have the same 'creative palette' as he does, but I don't think I will be writing so much about my experiences this year. I did that last year. Maybe I didn't. I found that I wrote about alot of things last year. This year....I'm not sure how I'll do this.

For now, I am getting my photographs together and setting up the upload.
Stay tuned....

Settling in

So far I have just been getting settled in, while getting the hang of things around work. Everything is great so far and I am really enjoying the atmosphere. We applied for our alien ID's the other day and until that is complete, I won't have internet or phone set up at my house. That should happen later this week and once it does I will be able to email everyone. Haven't really had anything to do at home because I have no internet or phone or telephone, so I am barely every home.

I'll be around soon.

Day 1 :: Arrival

I left my house around 2pm on a Thursday afternoon. My flight wasn't until later that night, so I had plenty of time to meet my brother and have dinner with the family.

When I finally arrived at the airport, I found out my flight was delayed. I had to wait around for an extra couple hours, before boarding at 1:30 am. I think I left the plane sometime around 5:20am Seoul local time, after a 14 some odd hour flight. As I proceeded to collect my bags and go through customs, I was stopped for bringing in some chocolate spread. After some careful explanations about what it was, the agent then asked me what I was doing in Korea. I told him I was teaching, and that's when he brought out his English language book. He had some delicate questions about pronunciation and where to place the emphasis in certain words. A very friendly fellow, and it made the transition back to Korea somewhat enjoyable for the moment.

I got out the gate, where I was told I would meet a driver who would take me to my school. I glanced around, and saw nothing other than the names of people who had signed up for tours around Korea. A lot of Phillipino tour groups and the odd Chinese group.

I stood around, waiting maybe 10 minutes, and still nothing. Finally, a red faced man stuck a sign in my face, and sure enough it was my name in big bold letters. So I waved at him, and he angrily shook his head, pointing frantically at his watch. Oh what a joy it is to be back to the land of the Morning Calm!

I explained to him that my flight was delayed, in the broken Korean that is my attempt at the language. I need to practice more. On the way into town, we had a little adventure of our own. A few black taxi cabs kept cutting him off on the freeway, to which he would roll down his window and wave his middle finger at the other drive. I wonder where he learned that gesture. Expecting some loud horn to be emitted from the truck, all I got was a little chime playing over and over again.

He drove me to where I thought the school would be, but it turns out, he was lost. His little GPS dashboard controller took him to the wrong place. He looked around, got out of the truck and walked up and down the alley looking for the school. He got on his phone, called someone and found out where the school was. At this point, I had out the piece of paper which had the schools address on it. He got back in the truck, and started to put in the new address for the school. He typed in 99-12, but what he should have put in was 994-12, which is what I had on my paper. So I told him that he needed to change it, by the shade of red on his face, he wasn't too happy about that. I can imagine being in his shoes. The school had no idea about the flight delay. They were never at the airport. So this shuttle bus driver, showed up at 3:50am, when I should have arrived, and had to wait around until 6am before I showed my face.

We get to the school, and it's around 7:30am. But no sign of the teachers who are to drive me to the apartment. We wait for a little while, and I talk to the driver about the copious numbers of StarBucks in Canada and America. Luckily for me, there is one just downstairs. With the chit chat out of the way, the teachers come downstairs and drive me to my new apartment. But as luck would have it, they too didn't quite know which apartment I was going to be in. They drove around this complex, getting in and out of their cars. After the third try, I was at my new pad. I get upstairs, they give me the key and I get them to write down the address, badda bing, badda boom, they were gone.

I take a look around, a decent place. I couldn't have asked for better, unless it was brand new. A seperate bedroom from the kitchen, divided by a sliding door. A balcony where the fridge and washing machine are, also divided by a sliding door, and a large bathroom. It's clean, it's nice, it was obviously a girls apartment. After taking down all the glittering stars decorating the mirrors and glass doors, I headed out. Two two men were at the door, who were there to clean up the apartment. I assumed they were just going to sweep and mop and take out some of the garbage. I had kept my stuff packed up and in the closet, so that they wouldn't get anything mistaken for 'garbage'. But I had taken out my ipod and headphones, my laptop covers and other things. My water bottle was also on my desk. I grabbed my coat and headed out for something to eat. First stop, a regular kimbab restaurant. The food was just like I remember, and boy was it delicious.

But when I returned to my apartment, the men were just leaving. I walked in, and all the stuff I had laid out was missing! I yelled at the men from my window, and they told me I could look in the trash downstairs, and that they didn't remember what they threw out. At this point, I was getting a little angry. I ran downstairs and looked through the trash, dust and all, my stuff was lying in the bottom. Not a good start to the year.

But hey, it's certainly better than last year!

Now that I have started the week and met all the other teachers, I think this year will be a good one. The Korean staff are top notch, incredibly friendly. The school is built like a school. Rather than a school placed in a building, the building was built for the school. Everything is built for kids. I'm pretty impressed by everything that I see. The foreign teachers are great too. Lots of friendly faces and good attitudes. And I can't complain about the area. Being on the Eastern side of Seoul, there is alot of bustling markets and shopping districts that were lacking on the West side of Seoul.

Already I'm looking forward to the year.

A year in review....

I think to myself that I should have done this a few weeks ago, when the new year was being rung in. But at the time, it didn't come together.

Alot of things have happened in the past year. When I think about it, it hasn't been just a year. I left around the 1st of October 2005. I returned to Canada on Dec 14th 2006. So 1 year 3 months. So many experiences, so many memories. So many things learned, limits pushed, exceeded, friends made, friends lost, friends rediscovered.

I look back on the whole thing, and I have to actively think about it in order to believe that it was me, I was the one who did these things. In reality, I haven't done anything amazing, anything unique. I can't imagine what percentage of students graduate and travel overseas. How many people teach English, then travel afterwards. It's absurd to think about the numbers. I think each and every one of us who does take that path, wants to feel for themselves that they are embarking on something unique, something life altering. Even if everyone is doing the same thing, there is so much wide open space, that we all get to experience it to it's fullest. For each and every one of us, this is our time to grow, to stretch the opportunities that we have laid out in front of us. It allows us to open our eyes, to see what we may not have seen before, to experience a way of living that is so vastly different from what we have always known. I for one loved my travels. I wouldn't trade anything for those experiences. The places I've been, the people I met, the things I got to do. They are all unique to me. Yes, others have gone to the exact same places, stood in the exact same places and saw some of the exact same things as I. But each of us has a chance to live it for ourselves, to experience it firsthand, not to be told the adventure as secondhand conversation.

We are all so different. The people we meet along the way, the things we interact with. They are all for us. I met those people, not someone else. They related to me, not not someone else. The stories shared, the adventures lived, the moments passed; they were for me, for us.

Alot of people get to do this sort of thing. Alot of people look at this as escape. For some, sure, perhaps it is just that. But for others, it can be a part of their life, a part of their growth. Whether an awakening, a yearning, a dream, or just to pass the time, the outcome is the journey, not the destination. It doesn't matter where you go, what you do or how many places you visit. You could goto the next town for all it matters and the idea is the same. It is the things that happen along the way, the little things that change you, become a part of who you are. Those are the true gems to exploring the world.

If nothing else is learned, nothing else is gained, then what was the point in the first place?

Things in a nutshell....

Well, I've been pretty busy lately visiting with old friends, travelling around locally, cleaning, packing, snowboarding, and spending time with my family. I've been trying to spend more time with my grandmother, since I have been away for some time.

My next trip should be up to Ottawa sometime in the next few weeks to see some more friends. But there are still so many that I haven't been able to see.

I'll be returning to Korea again sometime in February. So that is something to look forward to. I certainly enjoy travelling.

Plenty has happened in the last little while, but to be honest, I really don't feel like writing about any of it at the moment. I want to, but there is so much that I want to do while I'm home, that I figure my blog can wait. I'm sure once I get back overseas, which isn't that much longer, I'll be back to the usual updates.