WEDNSEDAY DATE NIGHT

Last month, Maureen and I came up with a geeky idea that we now call WEDNESDAY DATE NIGHT. Basically, we take turns planning a night out for the other, and keep the destination a secret.
I will quickly go over the Wednesday Dates that we have been on.

1) Namsan Tower
I am scared of heights, Maureen knew this and that is why she took me to Namsan Tower on our first date. The toughest part for me was to take a cable car to the tower. The darn thing was filled to its capactity and it shook (as I cursed) the whole way up.
Jokes of vertigo aside, the view of Seoul from Namsan reconfirmed my belief that Seoul is a huge metropolis.

2) Movie Night - "The Last Duchess"
Maureen had been talking about this movie called, "The Last Duchess" and so I decided to surprise her with our first movie experience in Seoul. We went to a massive twelve storey high theatre in downtown Seoul. There are two differences worth noting between Canadian and Korean movie theatres; first, snack foods are much cheaper in the theatre; second, Koreans use an evil thing called assigned seating. As we walked into the theatre (fully equipped with theatre treats) we noticed that there were a dozen people sitting in one big clump. Our ticket numbers recquired us to clump ourselves to the clump, thus adding to the clump. Maureen and I broke away from this pattern of thinking, and decided to choose our own seats. This backfired when the owners of our new seats showed up. We got the boot. Having noticed that Koreans take assigned seating a little too seriously, we proceeded to clump ourselves to the clump. I enjoyed the movie.

3) Cirque Du Soliel
Maureen wrote about this date in her most recent blog.

4) Bau House
Earlier in the week, Maureen mentioned that she really missed her pets. Her comment got my creative wheels turning. I did a little clacking on the Internet, and somehow found a ridiculous solution to her little problem. I took her to Bau House, a cafe packed with noisy, smelly, drooling dogs. There were at least thirty dogs of various shapes and sizes running around Bau House. The tables were chewed, the couches were ripped, and the place reeked of dog. Shortly after the beagle urinated on our table our cheesecake arrived.

5) The Old Tea House
Continuing with the animal theme, Maureen took me to a bird cafe on the next date. The Old Tea House had a quaint setting, littered with candles, old books, paintings, and bird droppings.
This is an example of the type of business that might have thrived eighty years ago in Canada, but still exists and thrives in Korea.

6) E-Mart
Writing this now, I realize that the dates I prepared are kinda lousy compared to the ones Maureen prepares.
Last Wednesday I took Maureen to an E-Mart. E-Mart is this place that is alot like Wal Mart, but it has several floors of shopping madness. The prices are fairly cheap, and the selection is great. We bought a small Christmas tree and some decorations for our apartment.

7) ????
It's Maureen's turn for date night. Where will she take me? What will happen? Ohh... the suspense...

Cirque Du Soleil, Ice Bar and Everland!

Hey All! I wrote this blog at school on Thursday, and haven't had a chance to post it until today, Sunday, but I hope that won't matter.

I taught 5 grade 5 classes today, and now I have the afternoon off, so I'm writing e-mails, listening to my iPod (mainly to drown out the religious and off-key singing by my older co-worker), and reading news on the BBC. Yesterday all my grade 6 classes were cancelled due to a field trip, so I studied up on my travel plans, and have been reading extensively on the countries we plan on visiting.

We have 2 weeks off (although Bob's school won't confirm his dates), and we plan on flying to Ha Noi in Vietnam, visiting Ha Long Bay with its karst topography, travelling down the Vietnamise coast to Saigon, hitting some beaches along the way, and then going through Cambodia to see Ankor Wat and the royal places in Phenom Phen, and into Thailand, where we will go to Trat

(beachy), Bangkok to see more royal palaces and shopping, then to Phuket and the Similan Islands to lay on the beach for about 3 days. Sounds busy, but I want to see as much as possible in those 2 weeks, as it will probably be my only chance in this lifetime.

We have another 2 weeks in the summer, which I want to spend in Japan, China or Hong Kong. We'll plan that when the time comes though.

Today I found out that I'll be teaching 2 weeks of Winter English Camp, from January 5 - 16, 2009. The rest of January I have to goof off in my office, where I'll read several books (that the school will buy), label my travelling pictures, watch movies, write e-mails, and probably do my nails. This job is pretty sweet, but culture shock is starting to sink in. I'm very happy here most days, but other days I go nuts. People constantly push into you, and past you in line for food or the bus. It smells here, and there is no possible way I could eat another grain of rice. I am very cautious around ajumas, old Korean married ladies. They think they run the world. They are noticeable by their comfy shoes, black slacks, and floral print blouses, and are usually wearing a big, black visor. The visor is like the rattle of a cobra - if you see it, you know you're in danger. They are very pushy, and usually pretty grumpy. Watch out, or you'll get an elbow to the ribs.

Last night Bob and I went to see Cirque du Soleil – Alegria, for date night. It was so amazing. I cannot even begin to put into words the description of each act. There were contortionists, trapeze artists, a fire baton twirler, and a hoola hoop girl, and a trampoline act, among many other acts. The set and costumes were beautiful. Our tickets were not that expensive, and definitely worth the money. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take pictures inside the tent, but I tried to smuggle a few.

The Circus Tent:

Some Circus Pictures:

Friday night we went to Hongdae to the Sub Zero Ice Bar. Basically it was a room filled with ice inside a meat locker. For the 15,000 won you paid to get in, you get a parka, mittens, and a free drink. Bob convinced us all that a Jagerbomb would be delicious. Unfortunately, the Koreans don't seem to understand the 'bomb' part of the drink, and instead, we all had to sip away at straight Jager shots, rather than having them with Red Bull. The bar was really empty (and cold!), so we only stayed for about 15 minutes, which made it a really expensive trip. We left early that night, and went home to bed.

Some Canadian Eskimos:

Our Ice Drinks of Jager Shots:

Bob Dancing:

Saturday morning our downstairs neighbour, Ho, and his 9 year old son Kevin, drove us to Everland, the Korean version of Walt Disney World (and a fairly good version at that). Ho told us the drive would be about an hour. Three hours later we arrived. Everland was huge, and pretty fun, although we would have had much more fun if we were there alone. We did one roller coaster with Kevin, Racing Coaster, which was a runaway train ride. The line up was about 40 minutes, and the ride was about 30 seconds, but it was fun, and Kevin has a lot of fun. Due to the immense lines at the park, this was the only ride we did all day, but Kevin still had fun, and munched on very delicious sweet popcorn as we strolled around the park. Everland is currently celebrating Christmas, and has decorations everywhere and is constantly playing Christmas carols. I definitely know where I'll go if I get upset at Christmas time! At night, there were fantastic fireworks, and a Moonlight Parade. We left around 9 pm, and the ride home was about 1.5 hours, and then we went straight to bed.

Maureen in Everland:

Everland Christmas Area:

Today Bob and I toured around Samcheong-dong, which is a very artsy area, relatively close to where we live. We had some really great peppermint tea and a blueberry banana waffle, and strolled around the streets appreciating the yellow ginko baloba trees and browsing the various art galleries.

Tonight we lesson planning like fiends, trying to get ready for the upcoming week. We've been very inconsistent, if not invisible on the blogging front lately, but we're going to do our best to improve.

Miss you all,

- Maureen