Thanks Korea

I've been trying to post something once a week or so, usually after my weekend activities so that there is something interesting for you all to read. However, this weekend I am less than impressed with this country so my post will be short. I went to Seomun Market yesterday with Ted; the market itself is rather impressive. It was huge, ridiculously crowded, and full of all kinds of people selling their wares. Unfortunately, we stumbled across the part of the market where they sell animals for eating. There were all kinds of dead pheasants, 4 or 5 large roosters in one small cage, huge rabbits (bigger than a cat), and several cages full of puppies and kittens. It kind of made me want to puke. We left the market after that, and we walked over to Dalseong Park where they have a zoo. I like zoos, but this one just made me want to cry. All of the animals looked mangy and skinny, and none of them had enough room to run around. The bear was the worst though...I've never seen a more unhappy looking bear. This is where the weekend gets really eventful: we left the park and walked home, I took a nap, and then we reconvened a couple hours later to get dinner. The Italian place we wanted to go to was closed so we went to the Italian place next door instead. I got pasta, Ted got pizza with potatoes on it, and within an hour after eating I felt terrible. I had a wicked fever, complete with chills and body aches, a massive throbbing headache, and I'll spare you the more disgusting details. I got absolutely no sleep, and I spent all of today in bed. I got up around 8pm to make myself some chicken noodle soup and to move over to my armchair so that I could get out of bed for a couple hours. I had Ted make a trip to the market down the street to get me some Coke to settle my stomach and some Gatorade to rehydrate. Apparently he felt kind of sick last night too, but he didn't have it nearly as bad as I do. So yeah, my weekend kind of sucked. I managed to make it through 22 years of my life without food poisoning, but Korea has successfully contaminated me within just two months. Well done.

Ski the East

This weekend was a long one for us in Korea; we had Monday off to celebrate Lunar New Year. New Year's Day was technically on Sunday, but since it's a big holiday here we got the extra day off. Angie and I took advantage of the extra day to take a ski trip up north. We went about 4 hours directly north of Daegu, but east of Seoul. The mountain was called High1. We signed up through a trip organizer, so all we had to do was give our information, transfer money into his bank account, and all the plans were made for us. We got a bus trip there and back, 2 days of skiing and equipment rentals, dinner, one night in a hotel, and a snow suit rental for about 200,000 won (about $200). Not too shabby.

We couldn't have asked for a better weekend. The weather was beautiful, conditions were perfect, the mountain was good size with plenty of challenging terrain, and it was rather sparsely populated because of the holiday. The view from the top was phenomenal. I've never seen anything like it back home. I tried to capture it on video for the folks at home, but honestly, the camera doesn't even do it justice.

For whatever reason, they seem to think that everyone wants to listen to Korean pop and ballad music while they ski, so they blast it all over the mountain from speakers on the side of the trail. I found myself dancing while Angie adjusted her bindings, and when she looked up she burst out laughing and announced that we had to record it. So here it is. Make sure you go pee before you watch it though...neither one of us can watch it without laughing, and we've seen it about 30 times now.

There were a couple differences between the way things are done at ski resorts back home and the way they're done here. When they pack up their skis to go home, instead of just brushing the snow off, they blow it off with a high pressure air gun. They're quite meticulous. When you get on the lift at home you just ski right up to it; here, they open a little gate which slides you onto a conveyor belt that delivers you to the lift. I felt like a package at UPS. We also got to ride on a gondola (they don't have any left in Maine...Sugarloaf used to have them, but they got rid of them years ago). Here's a picture of one in case you've never seen one. We took a ride down the mountain on a little monorail cart, too. It was a little scary at times because I thought it might tip over, but thankfully it safely delivered me to the bottom. Last, here's a peek at a Korean-style hotel room. Yes, I slept on a thin mat on the floor, and my pillow was essentially a little bag of rice. Not the most comfortable night of sleep I've ever had, but I folded my mat in half and that made it a little more tolerable.

One Day in Shi-Nae (Downtown)

I was resolved to spend another weekend alone, but then Angie decided to come to Daegu on a whim. She arrived Saturday morning, and we spent the day wandering around downtown Daegu with my coworker, Ted. We hit up the jewelry market where there are precious stones embedded in the street. We drifted through the army surplus section where a Korean man approached Angie and I to say "Hello. Shop here." We indulged him by browsing his wares for a brief moment before Ted came back and rescued us from the obligatory perusal. Probably the most interesting of the themed market areas was the foreign goods market. It was full of American wonders like Skippy peanut butter, Spaghetti-O's, Downy fabric softener, and Lancome mascara. I was in need of mascara so I inquired about the price. For a mere 24,000 won (about $24 USD) I could be the proud owner of a new tube of mascara. And if I wanted a lesser brand of mascara I could pay just 18,000 won. I think I'll wait until I go to E-Mart again so I can pay something more like 7,000 won. I did buy a beautiful traditional Korean-style dress, though. I will admit I paid too much for it, but I fell in love with it when I tried it on. I know it'll be a hit at home...no one else will have one like it, that's for sure.
We also found the music market and putzed around there for a bit. Ted was looking for a keyboard so he could annoy me at odd hours of the day through the thin walls of our adjoining apartments. How sweet of him.

For dinner we visited The Holy Grill, where we shared a plate of Four Skins (get your mind out of the gutter, it's potato skins with cheese and bacon), and I had the cheesiest, most delicious plate of Mac and Cheese ever to grace God's green earth. Nothing tastes like home like a plate of Mac and Cheese.

We also found a guy selling bootlegged copies of DVDs that are still in theatres. I got New Moon, Avatar, and Angie got 500 Days of Summer. They were going to $5 a piece, but I got the guy to sell all three to us for $10. Thank you to my Bourret lineage for teaching me how to cut a deal.

Ang and I came back to the apartment to watch our new copy of New Moon, and then we headed back downtown to experience the Daegu nightlife. We went to Club Frog, and even though we had no ID we were able to get in (my employer currently has my alien card, but it's common knowledge that I couldn't be in the country alone unless I was 18 so it wasn't really an issue). That was actually the first time that anyone has even asked for my ID since I've been here. Anyway, we got a drink and headed into the crowd of people. It's a big floor with a couple of balcony levels, but people were packed in like sardines. It was interesting to see because it's way different than clubs back home. Everyone faces forward to watch the dj, and people just sort of nod their heads and dance in place. The Korean girls are really good at rejecting guys. If a guy tries to dance with a girl, she turns around to check him out. If he meets her approval, she allows him to dance with her. If not, she simply says "anneyo" (no), and he moves on to find another girl. Also, the ladies room was full of girls smoking cigarettes. It's taboo for Korean women to smoke in public (it's synonymous with being easy), so they all smoke in the bathroom where no one can see them. It's definitely a different sort of atmosphere than at home, but it was kind of nice to know all the words to the songs, despite the fact that I'm in a country on the other side of the world where very few people speak my language. So yeah, I spent several hours shouting over the music and the throngs of Koreans so Angie could hear me when I spoke to her, and this is the result. My throat still hurts :(

Oh, and this is from last weekend at Angie's. Pyxis was trying to sneak a bit of my sangria. No such luck though. Much too good for bunnies.

Say Hello to my Little Friend

I couldn't help myself...I bought a bunny. I felt the need to have a little companion in my apartment, so I caved and bought a little baby dwarf rabbit. She has some little spots on her head that reminded me of a constellation so I named her after one...Pyxis. She's a bit mischievous, but she's mostly too cute for words. She's a bit rambunctious at times, but she also enjoys chillin' out in my lap. And she's a mooch. If I let her she would probably have consumed the corn dog and sangria I had at Angie's the other night. Pyxis was perfectly content to relax on my chest, until I had food, that is. She nearly hopped into my wine glass trying to get some. Much too good for bunnies. So without further ado, her she is. Friends, family, loved ones, and random internet nomads, meet Pyxis: