i'm so hungOVA

hey whatup ya'll,
so this weekend was a gonger. Here's a quick toned down version of what happened.
Our friend Dennis came into town during his Asian Odyessy tour. We didn't manage to watch the football game but we did manage to have an insane evening. First we met up with Dennis and Eddie (Devone) at Rocky Mountain Tavern in Itaewon. Rocky Mountain Tavern is actually owned by some Alberta boys, and serves big rock beers and poutines. So after drinking 4 pitchers we needed to make our way to Carney Station for an ALL YOU CAN EAT & ALL YOU CAN DRINK extravaganza. But before getting to the place we needed to wander around and drink beers on the street, buy du-rags and sweatbands and act a foo
At Carney Station things got wild. They've got sushi and nori rolls, pasta, and korean bbq to eat, and kegs of Cass and Max flowing freely. There was also *shudder* bottles of soju in a fridge free for the taking and a bartender pouring any kind of hard stuff you'd like. There was also 9 of Eddies English teacher coworkers, who wanted to have a good time. It was Mayhem.
Basically we stuffed our faces and got dangerously drunk. Played drinking games with beer and soju. Then left after our 3 delirious hours were up. We wandered the streets some more looking for a club, until finally catching a 40 minute cab home which featured me puking the entire ride home into Shanna's shoe bag.
Thank god I had Shanna taking care of me that night, and my super ultra hungover ass the following day.
gross dude.

Here's us at the Rocky Mountain Pub.



Wandering the Streets, buying du rags and sweatbands.



Eddie: "I want to eat the fattiest peice of Samgubsal you can find" --gross!



Shanna and Dennis- Buddies

vs!

after last month's embarassing loss at monthly contest against dave's class, i have come out on top! after weeks of strenuous training and strict resolve, dryad won monthly contest. i really had no doubt in my mind, but the kids really came together to grab the unanimous win. the choreagraphed version of eency weency spider was the clincher. i think i might have a future in being a pageant mom. a mixture of instilling fear, shame, and promising victory is the perfect equation.

of course dave's class was sad. sam almost cried. nobody likes being second place. especially when first place is so glorious!

we are the champions. no time for losers.

and for your viewing pleasure.

Where the Wild Things Are

Nice! My favorite children's story of all time is being adapted into a movie.
I love the book so much, it's partly why I was fascinated with art at an early age.
Movie looks awesome, and putting Arcade Fire for the trailer..EPIC!


-D

confessions of an alcoholic watching shopoholic

ok so Shanna and I love the movie theater that we found called "thc9". it's called thc-9: it sounds like some kind of pharmacuetically grown marijuana strain. wtf!
anyway, we went "confessions of a shopaholic tonight".
ok guys as bad as it sounds it wasn't that bad. it had it's moments and Isla Fisher is cute cute cute.
anyway. i love Korean cinemas so much. today i was pimpin!
before the movie I hit up KFC and got chicken, a chicken burger, and a soft drink.
then I went to 7-11 and bought 4 beers. what can I say fried chicken and beers at the movies while scooping summa shanna's popped corn (she mixes butter popcorn and caramel). 2000 times my Caloric intake.

tommorow i kind of have a big day. My school is going to film me doing this phonics lesson: letters, hand actions then words- that they'll be using. My boss tells me, "after you are gone, you will still be here! hahaha". they are hiring a professional film and light crew and I'm supposed to wear a tie, and have all the actions memorized and practiced (yeah right). so I'm kind of a big deal.
but now I'm thinking. should I be asking for more money for this? If they are using my image (and video of me) for years after I'm gone than I feel like I'm owed a bit of chedda no what I'm sayin???

oh well we'll see what happens.
Shanna mentioned that my boss recruited me for his basketabll team. it's a good time and kind of funny. no one knows any English so players will run over to my boss and tell him something than he will run over to me and translate what they said. most of the time it's really straightforward like "pass the ball" but it's a good laugh.
we lost this weekend because the other team was goof. they had a guy that was as tall as I am and my boss called him a professional - I guess he was a university star? anyways. it was a good time.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend. Shanna's friends Dennis is swinging by Seoul for a week. SO we are going to meet up with him and one of his other friends that is living in Korea. We are hoping to get SMASHED annd watch a fifa game KOREA vs. IRAQ. . Iraq has a team?? word.

Stones Out!

spring fev-uh

anyong ha se yo!

things continue to be on the up and up in korea. it's getting gorgeous here. everything is getting greener and fresher. spring has officially arrived. my favoritist things are blooming and sprouting: cherry blossoms, magnolias, ginkgos... love it.



our very own grinkgo has begun to sprout. so exciting!!



unfortunuately with spring comes bugs. it would appear that dave and i are on a losing battle with team cockroach. we'll get them yet....

still loving tv. koreans are crazy about gossip girl. they're are commercials 24/7 for season 2 and re-runs everyday of the week. it was comical at first, but the commercials are too much! they're all in korean with choice kor-english. ex: "anyong! gosship gill". dave and i have gotten to the point of mimicking all the commercials we see too often. our favorites include one for a tea drink "beshko chico", a washing machine "bubbles, bubbles", and one for an air conditioner "ching ching howwzen", and one for philidelphia cream cheese "philly-del-pia cream chees-ee". strangely enough, during tv shows, commercials are few and far between. maybe one or two through the whole show. i adore the straight cuts back to the program, no waiting for what will happen next! it's like having tivo.

we had a nice relaxo weekend. the weeks are starting to really fly by. we're in love with the new movie theatre. it's so clean and organized. every type of treat imaginable can be bought: there's a 7/11, fast food joint, gelato places, etc. in addition to the concession (which has two types of popcorn: caramel and butter!) you have to get a number and wait in a seating area to purchase a ticket. and then you get to choose your seats on a screen showing all the ones still available. both times we have gone the theatres have been pretty empty. there's even a huge arcade while you wait. we played house of the undead 4, a terrific zombie killing game. i'm not going to lie, i did pretty well. if ever faced with a zombie attack, i'm pretty sure i could hold my own. we decided to friday the 13th. i, of course, was terrified. it was your typical slasher with some hollywood michael bay production thrown in. pretty decent. and the whole movie excursion including treats costs about $20. CHEAP.



we woke up yesterday only to find that we had no hot water and gas. dave, being the hero he is, called the gas company and patiently tried to figure out what was going on. apparently, the gas company cut us off because the bill hadn't been paid. i was livid. how ghetto!! we immediately called our boss to get it put back on. she realized she had neglected to pay the bill, but assured us that she DID pay the power bill. great. you did half your job. fucking AWESOME! geez. luckily everything was back to normal after we came back from a shopping trip downtown. dave bought me a new keychain to calm my nerves. in a way, it expresses the way i feel. perfect!



in an obvious attempt to stack his team, our boss has recruited dave to play in his men's basketball league. clearly his height, foreigner status and mad skills all came into play in this decision. our boss has been reminding him every week for a month about the impending game this weekend. this left me to my own devices this afternoon. what did i do? well shop of course. i rather enjoyed myself. nice weather, lazy, langerous shopping, grande iced chai from starbucks... simply the best.

enough for now. dave will report soon.

love and miss everyone tons!
xoxo
-S

Who Watches the Watchmen?

Sad that I missed watching "the Watchmen" in Seoul this weekend. I asked my secretary at school if there was any good theaters close by. It turns out that there is a mega dope theater right under our nose. So Tuesday being the day Shanna and I are off early we made our way down there.
Theater set up was swizzzz-a lounge area, tons of fast food and treat stores that you can bring into the movie with you (blizzies!), crazy arcade games, and regular movie fare without the inflated prices.

It was a bit difficult to figure out times and movies (everything Korean, even numbers, and they don't have pictures of what movies are playing either). But we prevailed and got to see "the Watchmen"


Like the comicbook store guy in the Simpsons (does he have a name?) I am going to blog a review:


I was a big fan of the graphic novel, and was very curious how it would translate onto the screen. The comic is full of dark narrative and prose, with flashbacks, cut scenes, and additional information and multiple story lines--a daunting task.
But it ended up being word good. exceeding my expectations. staying mostly true to the original work.

The fight scenes blew me away, I was smiling in my seat. There was some gnarly gore that had Shanna didn't like-feeling the squeemies. it also had some rather large radioactive glowing blue cock and balls of Dr. Manhatten (shanna liked).

It was last night and I'm still really jazzed about it, but I'm afraid if you haven't read the book and your impartial to geekie comics (crossed with literature) you might not enjoy it like I have. It's not universal bang bang action like the Batman movies, it's gritty and really gets into the character of the superheroes.

* * * * * (5/5 STARS)

seoulmates

current weather in saskatoon: -22C "feels like" -31C. yikes. don't you guys know it's already march?! well korea sure does. everything is warm, breezy, and turning green. on friday, it's supposed to 19C!

dave and i had a fabulous weekend in seoul. as usual. our hotel was fantastic. it was cute, modern, roomy, seconds away from our favorite areas of seoul and best of all CHEAP! we will be definitely be staying again. our friend dennis is currently travelling asia and is making a stop in seoul in two weeks. hopefully, we will stay there again for that weekend. behold. the metro!





mega cute, right? we even got two beds! they had the cutest robes that i wanted to steal. perhaps on my next expedition. AND downstairs was a smoothie king (exactly what the name implies)! we mostly just shopped around. dave finally found shoes that fit him. for the most part, asking for a mens US size 13 had only elicited laughter followed by "no. no big size. too big." i went into a about a 1000 stores. half the time shopkeepers don't let you try on anything. you kind of just have to hold it up against you. it's frusturating to say the least.

koreans are crazy for photo booth pictures. there is little shops packed with dozens of booths. packed to the max with korean schoolgirls and cutesy couples wanting a taste of photographic novelty. dave and i couldn't resist.




we rounded off the weekend at our favorite overpriced italian bistro for some paninis and creme brulee.



dave claims the creme brulee was so good that it caused his "synapses to start firing". what a weirdo.



we were planning to catch the watchmen, but missed it so just made the looooooong trek back home. luckily, for some reason, this weekend the subways weren't packed like sardines. passengers were quite sparse. pretty much the best.

until next time.

xoxo

-S

happy white day!

now... before you all go and start thinking that korea has warped my mind against humanity and made me into some kind of white supremecist, let me explain:

white day, celebrated march 14, is a response to valentine's day. in korea, women give men chocolate/candy. but on white day, men respond by typically repaying the prior gift three-fold. popular and appropriate gifts include not only candy, but jewelery and the like as well. nobody explains it better than wikipedia...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_day

what a pleasant surprise it was for me today. i was like the belle of the ball. students, the male secretary kai, my boss, winning my affection with sugary confections. what a delight! dave got candy too, but only from students. sucker.

delicious booty:



tomorrow we will make the great escape to seoul to celebrate more of dave's birthday. he was pretty psyched about a basketball game. he asked our secretary kai when we first got here about the basketball schedule. after some researching, kai gave him the homepage of games and locations. HOWEVER, we just found out today that there was a bit of miscommunication... in actuality, kai had misunderstood him and directed him to the baseball schedule (bor-ring). apparently, basketball season is during the winter and is now ov-ah. march madness? not so much. those crazy koreans!



more shopping time for me i guess.

xoxo

-S

What's my Age again?

well it's my birthday. yes sir, yes ma'm!
I'm 26 years old..or am I 28??
Koreans have a different way of counting age then us Canucks.
When a Korean is born they are already one years old..tricky
trickier yet all Koreans get one year older one January 1st. So a baby born in December, is already 2 years old in January.
Even trickier still Koreans have two systems of counting numbers. Each system is used for counting different things. There's "Pure Korean" and "Sino Korean". 26 is a different number depending on what you're counting: "Sumul Yosot" or "iShip i". [and then there's cardinal and ordinal numbers that complicates things even worse.]
I got to the bottom of it and they count age using "pure korean" system.
So I'm now Sumul Yosot (Sumul Yodoll- Korean age)


ok. still confused?
I'll leave you with some sweet poetics courtesy of Blink one hundred eighty two titled "what's my age again?"

"..And that's about the time she walked away from me

Nobody likes you when your 23

And you still act like you're in Freshman year

What the hell is wrong with me?

My friends say I should act my age

What's my age again?

What's my age again?.."

new love!

david and i have decided to have a love child in korea.

his names is gringko. he is our baby gingko.

getting a gingko tree started off as a necessity to curb pests (ie: cockroaches). our korean friend hoon told us that cockroaches cannot tolerate an invisible smell the gingkos give off. because dave and i LOATHE the few cockroaches that have appeared around our humble abode, we made journey to the nurseries by our house.

the nurseries are AMAZING. full of the prettiest things imaginable. orchids. trees. flowers. baby bonsais. so cool!



i fell in LOVE with some cherry blossom bonsais, but was unsure of their cockroach expelling abilities.





after securing said gingko (with much help from my ever improving korean), the nursery owner began raving about the ceramic pot it was in and how his wife makes them. cost of gingko: $13 (reasonable) cost of container it was in: $30 (yikes!) realization that we couldn't really back out of purchase: priceless.

baby gringko.



and although he doesn't look like much now, rest assured that he will (most likely) grow into this.



who needs a cat?

Big things fighting

The Japanese have always liked big things fighting each other destroying cities, while saving cities. and screeming citizens running for their lives.
Godzilla, King Kong ..Big man
I don't know about you but I think this looks like a good movie:

Brief Synopsis from Apple:
"A middle-aged slacker living in a rundown, graffiti-ridden slum, Daisato’s job involves being shocked by bolts of electricity that transform him into a stocky, stick-wielding giant several stories high who is entrusted with defending Japan from a host of bizarre monsters. But while his predecessors were national heroes, he is a pariah among the citizens he protects, who bitterly complain about the noise and destruction of property he causes.."

happy saturday!

just had to post my new favorite k-pop song.... seriously love it. english subtitles are for your convenience... forget britany. forget beyonce. this is girls generation.



koreans are OBSESSED with this song. i hear it at least 10 times a day- department stores, on the street, ringtones. it's pretty much the shit. it's a megahit. girls AND boys at school have learned the dance.

weekend!

ahhh...

finally it's friday! we got a new schedule this week and it's alot better than our last one. less kindergarten and more elementary. AND we don't have to wake up early every morning. love it! we have these monthly contests every month and i'm currently working on a synchronized performance of eency weency spider with my class. we are going to blow dave's class away. i really think i might grow up to be a pageant mom. the trick is strictness ("wrong! do it again!") threats like ("you don't want pegasus class to win, DO YOU?!") and scare tactics ("if you guys lose to pegasus, it's going to be really embarassing!")

i'm sure glad i don't teach these kids, because they might pop a cap in my ass. i met them on the way to work. they were all too eager to pose for me.



we FINALLY got internet and cable at our house last week and it's been fantastic! i LOVE it. i'm currently watching america's next top model at this moment. the english channels are limited, but pretty sweet nonetheless. all of my favorite shows are on. dave and i have even become victim to the viral tv that we avoided back home. yes. we watch such hits as beauty and the geek 4 and america's smartest model.

dave has become positively obsessed with the crane games lining every single street in korea. he blows like 10 dollars at a time. and it's not just the lobsters. it's everything. candy. toys. bobbleheads. unfortunately, i'm way better than him at them and win a prize almost every time. i think it has something to do with his depth perception...

we're going to have another chill weekend in our area. we stayed in last weekend and decided to explore our downtown area. much to our surprise, it has all the conveniences and pleasantries we thought only existed in seoul. score! this is good because i have grown to loathe the subway. mostly because on our last big expedition i nearly passed out. they get so packed and hot and there is NO personal space whatsoever. koreans don't understand the concept of "the train if full".

it's official. i'm not going to be nicole richie skinny by the time i get back. dave and i like to frequent korea and japan's answer to mcdonalds, lotteria, during our breaks. in addition to regular burger and fries fare, lotteria also offers such delicacies as bulgogi burger, squid burger, crunch shrimp patties and grean tea blizzards. yum!

crunch shrimp patties with "seasoning potato"



we also mad our way to outback steakhouse this week. much due to eman and colby's reccomendation. i (and dave too) was highly dissappointed with the "blossoming onion" we got as our appetizer. maybe next time the aussie cheese fries.



well, signing off for now. i leave you with a picture of dave and i outside our humble abode....

ROUND 2!!

You wanted it, you got it.
Dave VS. Lobster Round II


did you hear the music? It's intense!
ok I know the first few attempts were weak at best, but I was nervous.
I almost got him a few times. Then Shanna wouldn't let me play anymore, because she claims I was hurting them.
C'mon I doubt lobsters are feeling pain on this game. They have tough armored exoskeletons.
anyways, Dave 0 - Lobster Crane Game 2