Christmas Video...

We're on a video frenzy....Our friend Cass created this video from our trip to Seoul last weekend...Turn up the music and enjoy the show!

Christmas in Seoul!

Walking down a crowded street in Seoul, being pushed in all directions by a multitude of Koreans...I asked myself, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE????? Here's a clip of what it feels like to be surrounded by seemingly the entire population of Korea!

Enjoy!

Feeling A Lot Like Christmas

It snowed yesterday in Daegu, which I have been told doesn't happen a lot in this city. We were heading out the door to go shopping (again) for Christmas presents and to our surprise we were greeted by snowflakes. I was so excited that I called our friendly canadian neighbor to share the news, "Our first snow of the winter"! It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas in Daegu!

I took some shots of us hoping that you would be able to see the flakes. No such luck, but there is a shot of the street we live on, of Lauren on our second story stairway, and of random shots through out our city.

Tis the Season to be Jolly

Here is our Christmas tree. Who ever said "Size doesn't matter", hasn't seen our tree. It is 4ft small. It lacks in size but it is full of heart. We are both very proud of our fake litte tree! Merry Christmas!

This is our friend Cass getting fresh with a green Santa.

This is a street vender roasting chestnuts over an open fire. Yummy!

Bithday Boy

Hey!!! It's Lauren here...I managed to tear Dana away from his blog for 2 minutes...unbelievable! He is a blog addict. I'm sure they will have some kind of treatment courses soon for people like him. Well, most recently we celebrated Dana's 28th birthday (Dec. 6th)! Woo Hoo! The Korean teachers and staff threw a mini party for him at work with a beautiful cake. I managed to sneak away earlier in the week and bought him some much needed items. He was in desparate need of some sweaters and a coat. So, I went downtown and searched high and low for some duds for him. The problem is that Dana is quite a big larger than the majority of Koren men. He wears an extra large in the states...trying to find that here is just ridiculous! Luckily, I managed to score some pretty cool items. The night of his birthday, Cass, Barry, and I took him downtown. He requested a Japanese sushi meal, but he must have forgotten that we are NOT in Japan. Barry asked around and found a cute little Korean sushi restaurant. Dana is a daring guy, he will eat anything that you put in front of him. He chowed down on the Korean sushi, while Cass, Barry, and I managed to cough down one or two pieces. The reality is that Korean sushi is NOT Japanese sushi and there is a world of difference. I am not a big fan of Korean food in general, but I vow never to touch that sushi again. Even Dana, the guy with apparently numb taste buds, said it was a bit odd. I believe there were california rolls with spam in them, topped with mayonaise, raisins, and sweet pickles. Ew. Ew. Ew. So, after dinner we had green tea cake (also a disappointment to the palate) and opend gifts. We then headed out in search of a bar to get our drink on. We found a really nice place with long couches and chilled for a bit. Randomly, Dana looked out the window and saw some MoonKkang people and a guy, Aaron, ramdomly looked up and saw Dana. Turned out that is was another girls birthday too. We all hanged out and had a fantastic time...or I did at least...and that's what matters. ha. ha.. Well...I've rambled on long enough and now Dana is hovering over me, dying to get back to his addiction. Ciao for now. Word to your mother.

Hello Kitty!

Look at the Kitty cat! I bought a Hello Kitty doll for Lauren from a vender on the side of the street. Needless to say, but Hello Kitty is huge here.

Korean Trade

As Americans, we are desensitized from watching anti-American protesting because we see it almost daily on news channels. My senses woke up on this walk to school, when I saw thousands of S. Koreans protesting down our main street in Daegu. I stood up on a trash can to take some of these shots and I couldn't see an end to the crowd of protesters. It was overwhelming and Lauren took it hard. She couldn't understand why they were protesting against us, due to the close ties that the U.S. currently holds with South Korea.

It turns out that the crowd were protectionists, trying to stop the importation of U.S. beef into Korea. They do not want to compete with our goods coming from overseas. However, a global economy functions on a give and take relationship. In order for all parties to benefit, the U.S. and Korea must both be able to buy and sell goods to foreign markets.

I remember in 1988 shopping in Seoul for inexpensive goods on a family trip. We bought Reebok's in Korea for dirt cheap because they were manufactored here. Now in the Korean market place, I pay $200 dollars for Nikes made in China.

It is apparent that free trade and a global economy are working for Korea. Less than twenty years ago Korea had a Peace Corps program in place. The Peace Corps would still be here and Korea would still be trying to develop its country, if the United States and other countries had blocked trade with them. Therefore, they shouldn't try to block our beef.

Halloween Bananza

It was Halloween before we knew it in S. Korea. We had landed in country, settled in our new apartment, and it was time to celebrate with a night of mischief. We headed downtown on a hunt for costumes, but it was shortly ended. There is only one custome store.

Normally, Halloween is the one night that I don't hold back on. My past Halloween customes speak for themselves. However, this Halloween we were going to meet a number of fellow Moon Kkhang teachers at the costume party, so I decided not go over the top. Lauren and I picked up some funny accessories that put us in the Halloween spirit.

Worth mentioning is Barry's moose ears: Canadians completely out number American teachers in S. Korea, so he is taking a jab at all the Canadian staff at Moon Kkang. He attempted to drink Molson and talk hockey to get into full character.