Blah blah blah

And now it's time for the usual Monday morning posting....

Had a fairly quiet weekend for a change. Richard and I were adamant at work on Friday about how we weren't going out of the neighbourhood that night, and Tom had to work on Saturday so he was also in support of that idea. Mid-evening rolled around and the usual texts started coming in for Friday night plans, we remained strong and texted back "No thanks!" Richard said it would be impossible to get him out that night and I said it would take me a lot of convincing. Lorne then asked what would happen if I got a text to play poker. I said that would do it. Anyhow then Richard got a text about the possibility of meeting up with some Korean girls and he was convinced. Me not wanting to spend the night by myself jumped on the bandwagon and headed to Santa's to meet the normal crowd. It was actually a good time because most of the gang was there, and Simone, was there and was excited because her bachelorette party is next weekend and I got the details for that. It is a themed party (blah!) and we are all to dress as fairies (blah blah!). Since most of the girls who will be there know me through their boyfriends who play poker, I have been declared "Poker Fairy" So it should be good fun to plan my outfit. For the bachelor party the men are actually playing poker and they are already joking that I would probably rather be at that party instead....

For Saturday night, I had promised Tom and Richard a home cooked meal. Originally I wanted to make lasagna and Lorne told me I could borrow his oven if I made some for him as well. Turns out finding ingredients, such as cottage cheese or lasagna noodles was next to impossible. So I settled for making shrimp ceasar salad and chicken fettucine. Lauren also joined us for dinner and offered me a proposal of marriage (twice) in exchange for my cooking. I think I'm gonna wait for other offers... I left Tom's around 12ish and went home for an early night's sleep as I had made plans of hiking for Sunday morning and ice skating during the evening.

Kevin bailed on me for hiking and then I got a text from Richard saying they had gone out at 3 in the morning and didn't make it home until 9am. AND they had met up with Ivan, who I was supposed to be going skating with, so that pretty much nixed my skating plans as well, being that he had partied all night. So Richard, Tom and I headed downtown and went to a DVD room where we watched Magnolia and vegged out for the evening.

Not much happening around here this week I don't think, winter intensive classes finish which is great, and we have another new teacher arriving in a week or two but all is quiet around here otherwise.

Miss you!

Haha, the Joke's on You....hmmmm...maybe not...

So in an attempt to make me feel old, Matt emailed me this list of how to tell that you are no longer young. Turns out, by the list's standards, I'm still pretty young. I don't know whether I should be proud of that or ashamed....

• YOUR HOUSEPLANTS ARE ALIVE, AND YOU CAN'T SMOKE ANY OF THEM
• HAVING SEX IN A TWIN BED IS OUT OF THE QUESTION
• YOU KEEP MORE FOOD THAN BEER IN THE FRIDGE
• 6:00 AM IS WHEN YOU GET UP, NOT WHEN YOU GO TO BED
• YOU HEAR YOUR FAVORITE SONG IN AN ELEVATOR
• YOU WATCH THE WEATHER CHANNEL
• YOUR FRIENDS MARRY AND DIVORCE INSTEAD OF "HOOK UP" AND BREAK UP"
• YOU GO FROM 130 DAYS OF VACATION TIME TO 14
• JEANS AND A SWEATER NO LONGER QUALIFY AS "DRESSED UP"
• YOU'RE THE ONE CALLING THE POLICE BECAUSE THOSE %&@# KIDS NEXT DOOR WON'T TURN DOWN THE STEREO
• OLDER RELATIVES FEEL COMFORTABLE TELLING SEX JOKES AROUND YOU
• YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT TIME TACO BELL CLOSES ANYMORE
• YOUR CAR INSURANCE GOES DOWN AND YOUR CAR PAYMENTS GO UP
• YOU FEED YOUR DOG SCIENCE DIET INSTEAD OF MCDONALD'S LEFTOVERS
• SLEEPING ON THE COUCH MAKES YOUR BACK HURT
• YOU TAKE NAPS
• DINNER AND A MOVIE IS THE WHOLE DATE INSTEAD OF THE BEGINNING OF ONE
• EATING A BASKET OF CHICKEN WINGS AT 3AM WOULD SEVERELY UPSET, RATHER THAN SETTLE, YOUR STOMACH
• YOU GO TO THE DRUG STORE FOR IBUPROFEN AND ANTACID, NOT CONDOMS AND PREGNANCY TESTS
• A $4.00 BOTTLE OF WINE IS NO LONGER "PRETTY GOOD SHIT"
• YOU ACTUALLY EAT BREAKFAST FOOD AT BREAKFAST TIME
• "I JUST CAN'T DRINK THE WAY I USED TO" REPLACES "I'M NEVER GOING TO DRINK THAT MUCH AGAIN
• 90% OF THE TIME YOU SPEND IN FRONT OF A COMPUTER IS FOR REAL WORK
• YOU DRINK AT HOME TO SAVE MONEY BEFORE GOING TO THE BAR
• WHEN YOU FIND OUT YOUR FRIEND IS PREGNANT YOU CONGRATULATE THEM INSTEAD OF ASKING "OH SHIT, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?

...and no, I'm not telling you which ones were true and which ones weren't.

Only Me

Well I've almost recovered from my weekend of skiing, I have a few nice bruises on my elbows and legs but the soreness is gone for the most part. I even made it up the mountain yesterday before work.

Went to The Brickhouse last night for a few rounds of poker. As usual I started off strong and ended up with nothing. My favourite quote from last night was, "That's a pretty big chip stack....for a girl." Right after going out in the game I went to grab my phone to check the time and realized my phone was gone. I knew I had had it on the way to The Brickhouse so I concluded that it must have fallen out of my pocket in the taxi. I called my phone and the taxi driver picked up. I was able to say 'hi' and 'hold on a minute' and then I passed the phone off to Chris who speaks pretty good Korean and was able to give the cabbie directions to The Brickhouse. A few minutes later I got a phone call saying the cabbie was there. I rushed down the stairs figuring the cabbie would be outside, but he wasn't. I tried to have a conversation with the cabbie but it was a series of me saying, "Mulaio" (I don't know) and him saying, "Yobaseyo?" (hello).

I went back upstairs and Chris told me that I was supposed to go the church down the street to meet him. So I ran back down the stairs and to the church but there was no taxi there. I called my phone again and the cabbie picked up and we were back to our enriching conversation of "Mulaio" and "Yobaseyo". I stopped a random man walking down the street and asked him where I was. Then I put him on the phone with the cabbie to explain it. The man talked to him for a while and then gave me back the phone and continued on while I waited on the corner. About 4 cabs stopped in that time, thinking I needed a taxi, and each time they rolled down their window I was like, "Handphone?" Fortunately after a few minutes the cabbie showed up and I got my phone back!

So for those of you keeping track... in cabs I have lost a digital camera and a handphone, and on trains I have lost my wallet. Sometimes I think it is impressive that I am able to dress myself in the mornings....

Teacher's Pet

Well today all my birthday cards and packages from home rolled in. Thank you! It was slightly over shadowed by my favourite student, Katie, though. She is like 12 years old and so polite and smart, and I can't ever see her being the snotty-nosed teenager like most. Anyhow, at the beginning of class she gave me a tiny bottle of Canadian maple syrup wrapped up with a card. The card said:

To Diana,

Hello, Diana. I'm Katie. I'm sorry to you. Because I didn't give a present on your birthday. This maple syrup is from Canada. My friend give me. But I don't know about how can use maple syrup. Happy Birthday!

From Katie.

Sometimes I just love my job!

Ski Bunny

Just came back from a fantastic ski weekend! It was so much fun. It only ended up being Tom, Trey and myself and on Friday night we headed up to Cheongu, which is about an hour away, to meet our friend Mary who we have met a few times, and was the brains behind the operation this weekend as she had been before.

We arrived in Cheongu just before midnight and ended up at a random house party with some foreigners in that area. It was alright, although we didn't know anybody and they all seemed to be involved in their own conversations so we pretty much stuck to ourselves. We left around two, which was pretty late given that we had plans to be up at 6 in the morning. Six o'clock came around and we cursed ourselves for staying out late the night before but reluctantly got up and headed to the bus station. Another two hour bus ride (which meant another two hours of sleep!) and we were at the ski hills!

I was pretty excited because I used to enjoy skiing, though it has been years since I had done it, and I was also nervous because I was pretty convinced I was going to be awful at it. It was okay though because Mary had only been 3 times before, Tom hadn't skiied in 8 years, and Trey had never done it. We bundled up and got our ski gear on and headed to the bunny hill lift.

The first hill down I made it down without falling, I was able to zigzag along and go at a reasonable speed and stop when I wanted to. I was a happy camper. Tom and Mary were naturals and put me to shame, and Trey did okay for his first hill with only falling a few times. We looked at the line of the ski lift for the bunny hill and figured it was too long, so we moved on to a bigger hill. At the top of it there were 3 hill options and we got to the top of a really steep one and Trey decided this was the one he wanted to do. I got my video camera going and the 3 of us watched him take off down the hill, falling about 2o seconds later. Tom and Mary took off down it and, ever the follower, I went down shortly after. I started off okay with the zigzagging and then started going faster, and faster, and faster. Zooming past Tom and Mary who were helping Trey up. So fast that they didn't even see me go by. I figured I had two options, I could keep going and pray I didn't crash into a tree, a fence, or a person or I could wipe out. I opted for the latter and fell, only the hill was so steep I just kept right on going down at record speed. Finally, I was able to stop myself with my ski pole. With a back full of snow I started getting my skis back on and prepared to give it another go. Just as I was about to get up I looked up and saw Trey sliding down in the same manner I had, and I moved just enough to stop a collision, and also enough to lose my grip on the hill and take off sliding again. (I'm sure it was quite comical to anyone who wasn't me.) I did manage to stop myself, get up and ski down the rest of the way without falling.

After that we went onto the hardest hill because Tom and Mary were prostars and Trey is much much braver than I am. I fell a few more times on this hill, which was just enough to kill my confidence in my skiing capabilites and for the rest of the day I went down the hills at a turtle's pace trying to work on my turning, and stopping, and general gracefullness. By the end of the day we were sore, wet, tired and hungry. We headed down towards town in search of a hotel room, where we found a pension, which is a hotel that has sleeping rooms with no beds, just blankets and pillows meant for sleeping many people. We had six people staying in our room because two of Mary's friends were joining us and we got the biggest room in the place, which was clean, had a tv, and a massive pile of pillows and blankets. Even though I'm sure that that room would normally get used by 20 Koreans, and there were only 6 of us, we used every blanket, and pillow in the place and had it set up like a big slumber party.

Next we went to the Hot Springs Sauna next door and refreshed with some hot baths and saunas. After we went for sam gyup sal for dinner, which is bbq pork wrapped in lettuce, and then we went off for some drinks, despite being so exhausted. Around 1 we were all knackered and headed back to our slumber party where we slept until after 10 this morning.

Trey and I were far too sore for more skiing, but Tom and Mary were raring to go. So Trey and I headed back, in pain, and left Tom and Mary for round two. Despite my embarrassing ski skills and the pain I feel today, we can't wait to go again! Possibly next weekend, or the weekend after.

So Much For An Apple A Day

You know it is going to be a good birthday when you are awoken by a text message from your mother at 8:30 am, (after going to sleep at 4:30), followed by another text from a friend, followed by the realization of, "Hmmmm... I don't feel good, I think I need to go to the doctors." I hate going to the doctors: poking, prodding, answering all their questions, I'd rather just wait it out. I have spent the last eight months believing I could make it through the year without having to visit a doctor here. I was wrong. So I grabbed my Lonely Planet Phrasebook and browsed through the, "At the doctor" section and started highlighting my symptoms and my professional diagnosis.


There are doctors offices on every corner here and one down the street has been frequented by other foreigners here so I figured that was my best bet. Most of the foreigners I know usually take a Korean teacher with them to translate everything, but the thought of relaying everything to a teacher, hoping it all would get translated correctly, and then having everyone at work involved in my business, I figured I would give my independent side a shot. I have to say, Korean doctor's offices are the best. I walked in, gave the receptionist my Alien Registration Card, she filled out all my information, I gave her my highlighted Lonely Planet Guide and she guided me to the doctor, with no wait. The doctor spoke limited English and asked me if I had each symptom that I had highlighted, to which I said yes. Then he looked at my diagnosis and wrote me a prescription. No poking, no prodding; obviously I look like I've spent some time in medical school.


After that I went out to the front desk to pay, not sure what to expect. I do have healthcare here but my form was in my desk at work so I figured I would just get the receipt and file it through later. My bill for the doctors? 15 550 W ($15.50). Not that I should be too shocked, I did technically diagnos myself. Next stop was the pharmacy. The pharmacist spoke limited English but apologized to me that the prescription was "very expensive." I said okay, that was fine, I needed the prescription. The "very expensive" prescription was 17 000 W. And the prescriptions are different too because they give you like 8 different types of pills to take in one dose and then they package the dosage into individual baggies, so when it is time to take the medicine it is just like, "Oh where's my bag of pills?"

So despite visiting the doctor on my birthday I am kinda happy because I was able to do it all by myself without any problems, and I also think Canada should rethink their healthcare and do it Korean style. Though maybe I should wait to ensure that the pills they gave me work and aren't just a variety of M&Ms and jelly beans.

Still Alive

Alright I skipped my normal weekend posting of shameful stories filled of alcohol and sleeping past noon, but that's because it is getting a little dry, I could repost a weekend story from last weekend and you wouldn't know the difference. Meh...on second thought I will just post about this one...

Birthday celebrations were good though, we went for Italian food, we wanted to go to Wa Bar but it burnt down. Actually the bar above it burnt down, as did all the other top buildings in the complex. It was quite the devastation, topped off by a dead fish left in an aquarium that had busted under pressure. According to Brick House last night, the fire was caused by an angry drunk man at 5am who threw a fire bomb through the window. Not sure what he was so angry about but there was one fatality and the damage to all the surrounding places is devastating.

We moved on to Brickhouse, where Trey and I momentarily stopped birthday celebrations to partake in a quick game of poker. From there we went to McDonald's and stayed for far too long and probably made the poor girl behind the counter rethink her career as a fry guy. After that was noraebang until like 4 in the morning.

Sunday was uneventful. I was far too lazy, and the only thing productive that I can say is that I made it to the grocery store.

Monday I got up and went to the gym only to get home and realize I had locked myself out of my apartment like a retard. I shamefully knocked on my landlord's door and learned he wasn't home. My next plan of action was to hit the 7/11 for some bobby pins and Matlock my way into my apartment. Turns out I'm no Matlock. Went out and walked the neighbourhood for a while and bumped into Lauren and Megan so I joined them for lunch, while worrying that my landlord wouldn't be home by the time I needed to go to work and I would show up at work with no makeup, hair unstyled, and pretty much looking like a trainwreck. By some small fortune he was home when I got back, although by that time my hair had dried, I threw on the bare neccessities for make up and headed to work, only to have my kids ask all day, "Teacher are you sick??"

Last night was poker night where I nailed the final nail into my coffin for the place at the loser's table, but it was okay because I had been prepared for that. The final tournament is tonight so I am heading back to take my place at the loser's table and cheer on the winners competing for the title. Next week we start all over again and maybe I can regain some poker respect. (Actually they are all surprised by my tournament standings as I am a pretty solid player in the cash games).

AND this weekend we are doing a ski trip! Yay, to a place that is a few hours away where we plan to meet with a few people we have met at past events, so it should be a lot of fun and a nice change of scenary. Though it has been a long while since I've skiied so I will probably be sore after it all, if not missing a limb or two.

Alright that sums up my past few days.

And oh, p.s. Happy Birthday To Me Tomorrow!!!

Hmmmm....

I think I'm coming down with a hangover.

What's In a Name?

I love translation of words from English to Korea, and what certain English words sound similar to in Korean. Once in a while my kids will get curious about me and start asking all sorts of questions, "Where are you from?" "Are you married?" "How old are you?" "What is your Korean name?"

They are always baffled when I say I don't have a Korean name and ask me why not, which I then try to explain that I don't speak Korean and I wasn't born in Korea, so I was never given one. This usually leads into a discussion about my full name, along with my mother and father's name because they don't understand the middle name concept, nor which name is the name that everyone in the family has. Usually I explain this by writing everyone's name on the board. One of my classes found my middle name, Barbara, quite funny. Then they started calling me Barbari... Usually when this happens I go to one of the Koreans and ask what it could possibly sound like.

Turns out in Korea, a barbari person is someone who goes around flashing people. That's right, Diana Flasher Ratz. It's one of those things where you smile, laugh about it for a few seconds and then try and get them back to conjugating verbs or whatever it is they happened to be doing before hand. Today one of my kids came in and said "Diana teacher I told my mom your name is Diana Barbari Ratz and she laughed." So great, now all of my kids, and their parents are going to be referring to me as Barbari...thanks mom, thanks dad, for the excellent middle name ;)

Happy Birthday Mom!

Now before watching this birthday greeting I would just like you to keep in mind:
a) I'm your daughter. (and I'm hilarious)
b) You would have taken much more birthday teasing had I been in the same country; you are getting off easy.
c) If this bugs you that much, it was Beth's idea...hahahaha

and oh yeah, Happy Birthday, I love you!

Monday....groan

Why does it always seem to be Monday morning??? The weeks usually pass by here at warp speed but never does a weekend seem so far away as it does on Monday mornings, knowing I have to teach 40 classes in order to make it to Friday...sigh... (quit whining Diana)

I did manage to make it up the mountain yesterday, the small one, not the big one. I've been avoiding the mountains like the plague these last few months out of my distaste for all things wintery. But I decided to quit being a wimp about the cold yesterday afternoon, donned about 5 layers of clothing and headed out. A few months ago I was able to charge up the mountain like nobody's business but yesterday it damn near killed me. Of course it didn't help that I have no warm, outdoorsy clothes and was wearing rather inappropriate footwear, but still it was a wake up call that I need to get over my resentment towards Mother Nature and back up that hill on a more regular basis. Goal for this week is to grab a pair of climbing shoes from Home Plus and some full-length exercise pants. And last night my friend Kevin called me, wanting to know if I wanted to go hiking this morning, to which I said not until I get my proper gear, but him and I are going to try and tackle the mountain a few times a week as part of our New Year's Resolutions.

We never made it ice skating yesterday, probably cause the rest of the crowd was out past five on Saturday night and missed the better part of the afternoon. Oh well, no need to show them how graceful I can be on ice skates anyhow (I wish).

So that's about it for now, hope everyone had a good weekend!

Last Call It's 3 am

Look I'm home early! Guess that's what happens when you start at 7pm. Actually this has been a fairly low key weekend, this is the month of birthdays so we are coupling the weekends in consideration to our livers. This weekend was Dan's birthday but we are waiting for next weekend to celebrate his and Mark's together. The following weekend is mine, followed by Greer's so her and I are doubling up for that one. All of this means that this weekend was somewhat relaxed in preparation for next weekend.

Last night we decided that tonight should be a movie night and I volunteered myself for dinner duty, which gave me reason to head to HomePlus early this morning and get the ingredients for a spaghetti dinner. (I've discovered that if I have something to bake or cook, it gives me reason to awake at a decent hour on weekends). By noon today I had a potful of spaghetti simmering, and I must say it was delicious. Spaghetti is one of those homey meals that I usually crave after being somewhere for awhile and this was the first time I've had it since being gone.

Anyhow it ended up being Tom, Richard and I for dinner and then Megan and Lauren joined us for a screening of Borat, which was somewhat offensive and hilarious at the same time. After that we went to a house party (at 1am) for someone who is about to exit Korea. Wasn't that sad being that tonight was the second time we had met him. I stayed for an hour or so and came home with intentions of climbing the mountain tomorrow and ice skating in the afternoon...will keep you posted to how that pans out!

They Missed Me, They Really Missed Me

Well not really.... but Lorne informed me today that over the break my landlords noticed my absence (being that the walls are thin and they live right next door), as well as the mail pile up so they called Brian, my boss, to inform him that I had not been around in some time. Given the times I normally come home I'm sure they were happy to get a few nights of peaceful sleep. Anyhow Brian had a slight panic attack, probably thinking I had high-tailed it back to Canada and called Lorne saying I had "disappeared."

Now you all know how subtle I was about my trip to Thailand and how I rarely talked about it in the previous months, so I can understand how Brian missed the notes on the calendar, the arrows pointing to my departure date and me dropping the word Thailand into each and every sentence. It kinda made me feel like I was living with my parents though, I don't come home for a few days here and people notice! I can't get away with anything...anywhere.... :(

I Don't Wanna Work!

Where did 11 days go??? Where??? In two hours I have to be back at work with the rugrats...it's not fair.

And January marks the start of new intensives, which you may remember me bitching about back in August, when the kids get their public school vacation so their parents double them up on their other schooling.

This time won't actually be as bad as the last go now that we have another foreign teacher and I've been whining at work for months now because all the other foreign teachers work way less hours than we do for the same amount of pay. I guess it finally paid off because Lorne informed me that starting this week we don't have to be at work until 2pm. We have always started earlier because in our contracts it is written that we must have an hour of prep time before the start of each day, but I usually spend that hour talking to everyone, listening to my MP3 and maybe running off a photocopy or two, but it definetly does not take an hour to prep classes, especially with 2 spares throughout the day. Apparently there are some other positive changes to take place as well because Lorne and I have been fed up at the lack of organization and he went in and had a sit down with management over the break to discuss it so I will hear all the details today but whoever said whining doesn't pay off obviously didn't know how to do it right....

Picture Time!

For pictures of Thailand click here:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?&mode=fromsite&collid=31070442207.210049019107.1167647655209&conn_speed=1















For pictures of New Years click here:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?collid=31070442207.231838119107.1167647428480&folderid=31070442207.383809119107.1167647428480&mode=fromshare&conn_speed=1&collid_list=31070442207.231838119107.1167647428480:31070442207.210049019107.1167647428480:&img_size=5&trans_delay=3000&trans_enabled=true&conn_speed=1&mode=fromshare&

Hello 2007!

It seems like it was only three or four days ago that I was in Thailand and thinking how great it was to be up so early everyday and not carrying on until all hours of the night and how I would try to continue that once back in Korea, yet here it is, 9:30 in the morning and I just strolled through the door.

We had thought about New Years for the past few weeks but didn't really put any serious planning into it, figuring we would just wait to see what others were up to. Saturday we decided that we had to do it up, in Seoul. So yesterday at noon, Trey, Tom, Richard and I boarded the KTX and headed off for an afternoon of shopping, dinner and a night of partying. We met up with Lauren at the Seoul station who came straight from the airport, having just arrived back from London. Being that a normal night out for us is 4am anyhow, we decided that it was unneccessary to have a hotel, instead we would just stay up all night and catch the first train back to Daejeon in the morning. (What could possibly go wrong???)

We spent some time wandering around one of the markets but then decided to head off in the direction of Itaewon for some bar hopping, dinner and a little adventure. We started our night off in a Canadian bar, The Rocky Mountain Tavern, and sat around for a few hours talking, laughing and having a good time. Next we headed off for some Mexican food which was quite delicious. Afterwards we found ourselves in a tiny bar across the street with another pitcher where we made plans to hit up a university area a few subway stops away because we had heard of a party, Attack of The Little Green Women. It was still only nine o'clock or so at this time so when we arrived at Hongik area we checked out a few other spots in hopes of the ultimate new years party. We stopped three other foreigners on the street and asked them where they were going. They didn't know but welcomed us to go with them. We ended up at Korea's version of Hooters, which was really more just like a TGIF's, we sat around there until 11:30 and then decided we had to get somewhere fast for a countdown. We found a tiny dance club a few blocks over and it turned out to be a pretty good time, so we hung around there until at least two or so.

Somehow our next stop ended up being at a 7/11 where we stayed for far too long but there were a lot of people around and we needed to refuel on some snacks. Shortly after our hands were numb from the cold and we needed a new venue to move on to. We ended up at some basement bar where there were a lot of Korean men break dancing, which was odd but gave us a chance to sit down for a few moments as we were losing some of our energy.

At this point it was around four o'clock and we ended back on the streets in search of one last stop to tie us over until we could catch the subway to get to the train station. Being that it was so late most places were completely empty or closing their doors, especially to a group of drunken foreigners. At 4:30 we had had enough and decided to grab our stuff out of the lockers in the subway station and just cab it back to the train station, only obstacle was that Lauren's luggage was in a locker a few stops away, didn't matter, at that point we just wanted to get home. We got to the bottom of the subway and the gates were all closed off, which meant we couldn't get to our locker.

We were now wandering around Seoul, tired, cold and hungry with no place to go. Not to be broken too easily we tried our luck at finding a DVDbang, which is kinda like Noraebang, only you get your own private room for watching a DVD of your choosing. The first two places we tried wouldn't let all five of us into one room, and we decided at our third stop that we could break off into two groups just so we could finally stay put somewhere, turned out to be unneccessary as the next place let us all into the same room. This was actually our first time at a DVDbang and they are essentially just privatized movie rooms with couch/beds for viewing pleasure. Richard chose The Eternal Sunshine of The Spotted Mind, and we all stretched out onto the cushion set up. I think most of us made it ten minutes into the movie before falling asleep. Two hours later the movie was over and the subways were open! We made the neccessary locker stops and ended up back at the train station by 7:30 for a New Years breakfast of KFC and Burger King.

Finally at 8:00 we were on the train and en route to Daejeon. Now it is ten o'clock and I should be wiped out but I am still awake so will get to work on posting my Thailand pictures and New Years pictures.