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Arrival

I officially made it to Korea. The second part of the journey was much, much longer. I didn't read, I didn't listen to music. All I did was watch movies. Lots of them were bad. I saw:

1) My Life in Ruins
2) Duplicity
3) 17 Again
4) Star Trek
5) Sunshine Cleaning

Man, some of these were bad. Duplicity was the best, though Star Trek could have been if I didn't pass out half way through. I did some cross words to brush up on that language I'm going to be teaching for the next year.

I have already done something stupid. I've been waiting for this party that I have to attend to start (at 10:30) so I've been killing time by walking around, eating, window shopping. I've basically been doing everything I can to avoid being in my motel which looks like it could have been used to film pornography from the 70's. Anyways, I went to go eat some kimbap which looks a lot like a sushi roll (just for a visual reference). I ate, enjoyed and went to pay. It was then that I realized that I was in Korea and not Canada. I had no Korean money on me! I had to mime out that my money was in the hotel, pinky swore I would return and ran back. I felt super dumb. So many foreigners in this country act like pure idiots so I always feel extra embarassed when I accidentally do something not so smart.

Tomorrow I go for my health check (where they test me for H1n1, diseases and HIV - the later being against my rights to privacy, but whatevs). I need to get this check done in order to get my ARC (Alien Registration Card). I need this to stay in the country and to get other things like bank accounts, cell phones and internet service. All necessary things.

I'm off.

Miss and love you already!

Holy Moly.

I am in Vancouver on my way to Seoul.

Holy Crap. Time has gone by faster than a fat kid goes through a dozen Krispy Kremes.

Cheers!

A Whirlwind of Goodbyes

Me, Dad

This summer has gone by amazingly fast. I find that summers always pass quickly but add to it that I've a) been planning to leave the country and b) I've been all over the country the past couple of months, and I feel like summer never really happened!

I'm still in the middle of saying my goodbyes. Right now I'm at my mom's in Oshawa and I've been packing and visiting. Last weekend I said my byes to Nana, Papa, my great grandma, my aunt and uncle, Russ and Kocela. It was all over an emotional goodbye. I feel very lucky to have been able to go to Kincardine so many times this summer.

A couple of days ago I had my goodbye with Meg. Being my soulmate she knows neither of us can handle a drawn out emotional goodbye. We had breakfast where we talked about everything but me going away. She walked me to the subway where she essentially hugged me and ran away. Good girl.

After I left Meg I went and hung out with a friend who I haven't seen since before I went to Korea! We were really tight in high school and university, and though we haven't seen each other in years, he's one of those people who has remained near and dear to my heart. This was a different goodbye because I was more focused on, "Holy crap I'm hanging out with Greg!", instead of, "Man this sucks to leave Greg."

The most recent goodbye has been to Jonnie and Bronwen. They were amazing and had us over to their place for pizza and drinks and to spend the night. It was great fun as are Jon and Bron. I'll miss them lots but plans are in the works for them to come to Asia.

Dad is coming to the airport to see me off at 8:30 am on Tuesday. I'll say bye to Blake the night before and then to my parents at the airport. Let's not dwell on that right now, though. I'll be bidding adieu to Mike for a couple of weeks while he sorts his visa out, but he'll be joining me soon enough!
Nana, Me, Papa
Aunt Mary-Lou, Me, Uncle George

Montreal

Meg and I took our first trip together to Montreal in August. I have to tell you, it was one hell of a time. Anyone who has spent any time with Meg and I probably know that we consider ourselves soulmates, and as soulmates, we have discovered that we are perfectly matched for travel as well. No surprise, there. We ate deliciousness, had good wine, went dancing, walked everywhere and enjoyed each others company.

More specifically, we:

1) Spent time in downtown Montreal. Pride was on, and the place we stayed at was smack dab in the middle of the village. This made for lots of fun, and the best people watching I've had in a long time.

2) Walked around Old Montreal. Beautiful. Also, this is where Meg and I had "melted brie on a baguette". Holy crap!

3) Went to the Botanical Gardens. This was lovely, but the highlight for me was the section dedicated to China. A lot of Korean architecture is largely influenced in design and style to China's so if I tried really hard I could pretend that Meg was in Korea with me.

Halifax

Halifax will be a short entry since it was a short trip. We just had a couple nights there, but we did get to see a fair bit. None of that overly touristy stuff, though. More pubs and shops than anything. And I got a special tour. The "This is what Mike Caswell's Life was Like in Halifax Tour". It consisted of meeting his fellow nerds from the comic book store, seeing where he used to sit sometimes, oh, and where he used to catch the ferry to work. You can't pay to get anything like that so I felt very honoured.

After that a quick shuttle ride to PEI to end our trip.

P.E.I. In the Summer

Well, I made it back to the island to experience it without extreme snow and windchill. I'd like to say that I really, really, enjoyed my time on the snowy island but that the sunny island has some different stuff to offer. This trip was much shorter than the last, but we squeezed in considerably more.

The one thing I was totally bummed about missing out on last time was not getting to see the Westpoint Light House. We finally took the drive, and is so pretty!




We also went to the bottle houses. Sort of a tourist trap (as are lots of things on PEI) but they were alright. It's what you'd think. Houses made of bottles.


Other highlights of the trip included:

- a family "crazy hat" party. I did not win, but I really tried to!
- lots of lighthouses and scenery.
- easy access to Trivia almost every night, and Mike and I holding our own as a team of 2 against teams of 6-8!
- lobster for dinner.
- potatoes in every way imaginable.
- Anne of Green Gables (up to the point where Matthew dies)

I'm sure there's more and I am not doing the trip justice. But just trust me, I had a nice time with some nice people.