Weekend

Actually managing to post twice in a week, good on me!

FINALLY have an end date at work, which is October 2nd, and I've said I want to leave the very next day, so Jason will be getting my flight sorted next week. Nice to know I managed to squeeze almost a full month's extra salary in, and will still make it home in time for Thanksgiving.

The semester at school ended today which means on Monday all of our classes will change. Because of my impending departure I don't actually have any of my own classes, except for my kindergartens, instead I will be spening the first week of September with a new teacher's class while she shadows me. Then for the following three weeks I will be covering for a teacher who is going home for a vacation. Shouldn't be too bad, but next week will suck because the new teacher's always get terrible schedules with low level classes, and no spare block for prep, which means I'll be teaching more next week.

This weekend is yet another going away, this time for Jeremy. He has been one of the fellow gamblers all year long, so he wants to head up to Seoul for one last try at the casino. The casino is quickly becoming my home away from home these days, but it's okay cause I've been winning. I promise the casino trips will stop...right after Vegas!

As for now, it's time to start getting ready for tonight's debauchery...have a good weekend!

Blah blah blah

Don't have much to say; had a relatively normal weekend, which involved too much good food, too many good drinks, and too little exercise.

Was my neighbor, Erin's, birthday so we celebrated that by going to Cin Cin's, an Italian restaurant, where our food bill was $150 or so and our wine bill was $350...which actually isn't as bad as it sounds because there were 12 of us, so that money went way further than it would have in Canada. After that we went to a bar called New York, that is set up with bed-like couches, which were super comfy, but after a bottle of red wine at the restaurant, really all it did was make me pretty sleepy. Managed to stay out until 3 or so, but ended up coming home about four hours earlier than everyone else!

Other than that there isn't too much excitement. This week is the last week of the semester and next week classes change over. I won't have my own classes due to my pending departure, but instead will be training a soon-to-be arriving teacher, and then covering for a teacher who is heading to Canada for a short vacation.

Tomorrow is open class for the parents and I will be teaching a kindergarten science class, which is like pulling teeth on the best of days. Today to prepare the class, I showed them exactly what we would be doing and went over the answers with them... so hopefully all goes smoothly, if not I can just tell them I'm leaving soon anyhow.

Anyhow gonna head out for a roller blade now cause I skipped the gym. Hope you had a nice weekend!

Japan

Promises to write more last week fell through due to laziness and time flying. Just got in from Japan tonight and too tired to sleep, which is gonna be great when I have to wake up early for work tomorrow.

Along with it being our weekend to go to Japan, it was also Joe's last weekend in Korea, so on Thursday night a bunch of us headed out to TGIFs for dinner after work. Their night carried on into the wee hours of the morning, I'm sure, but Andrew and I had to head out to Busan in order to catch our 8:30 ferry to Fukoka. The KTX train doesn't leave early enough in the mornings to arrive on time, so we had to head down the night before.

We considered grabbing a hotel for the night, but then realized we could just spend all night at the casino instead, which would be wayyyy more fun. So at around one o'clock in the morning we arrived in Busan to a torrential downpour and then headed over to the casino. On the train ride up I kept thinking I was going to play 19 and 23 until they hit, so I got some chips and started playing, the second number that came up was 23 and I won about $300. Two or three spins later and 19 hit. I was loving life. The night continued on like that and I was way up, but then I started to go down. I should have cashed out but figured we were there to spend the night and sitting around was no fun, so I cashed out what I had put in originally and figured that at the very least I would break even for the night. We continued playing right up until 7:30 in the morning and I walked out of the casino up $250, perfect for some spending money in Japan.

We headed over to the ferry terminal and got through customs with about 1 minute to spare before the jet-foil, super fast boat sped off. Immediately Andrew and I fell asleep. Now if you think we were tired from being up all night, I should give Andrew credit because he had been on a two week trip over in South America because he won a trip for a PokerStars tournament, so he was still recovering from his first trip.

At around one we arrived and both of us were looking a little rough around the edges from lack of sleep, so we found a somewhat cheap hotel, had a few hours sleep, and then got ready to go out exploring. One of the guidebooks recommended that Nagasu was the place to be for young salary earning men and women, and we figured that would be a great place to find some sushi and maybe meet a few other foreigners to hang out with. Turns out Nagasu was the red light district and Andrew and I agreed that we didn't want to eat dinner on "stripper street." Instead we headed to Canal City, which is a massive mall that the guidebook also hyped up. After exploring all the food options we sat down at a sushi train and had a few pieces of sushi, but it wasn't all that special so we decided to make that our appetizer and head somewhere else. We settled in at an oyster bar and ordered some wine and asked the server what he would recommend. He pointed to one on the menu and said he liked it because it was the biggest. We thought that sounded better than the creamy one he also suggested so we ordered two of them. They were like the size of a fist! It was a little daunting at first to eat it, but after Andrew ate his and said it was pretty good, I tried mine and actually thought it was the best oyster I've ever had. We also had an oyster pasta which was pretty good as well.

Next we decided we needed to find somewhere to drink for the night and were still amazed that we hadn't found any foreigners. From neighborhood to neighborhood we went and nothing seemed promising, finally we ended up at a 80s pop music bar that had a few Japanese people in it and we decided we would stay and have a drink. Andrew had rye and ginger, I had wine, and our bill ended up being $3200 yen...which is like $40! Ridiculous.

More wandering around and still nothing. Finally we stopped in at an internet place and looked a few places up online. We got to one foreign place and it was okay but we thought we would check out a place called Dark Room because it was toted as being Fukoka's best foreign spot. Turns out it was pretty awesome and we ended up staying until six in the morning.

Slept through Saturday morning and felt a little better than death upon waking up. We headed over to Canal City to do some shopping and eat some food. We decided on Wendy's, because Korea doesn't have Wendy's, and I thought it would ease my hangover a little. It was pretty delicious. I originally had wanted to shop around, but the mall was crowded and everything was expensive, and nothing really grabbed my attention. Instead we ended up walking all along the rivers and ended up back down at the harbour which was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

It was into evening by that time and we headed back to the hotel to change to go out for a nice Japanese dinner and then maybe go to a concert we had heard about the night before. Upon getting to the hotel, both of us sprawled onto our teeny tiny beds for a short minute, and before we knew it we had been asleep for an hour! I showered and got ready and came out and Andrew was still sleeping. I figured he was probably exhausted and let him sleep a bit longer. Then he woke up and said he had to get ready, but fell asleep again about 30 seconds later. This went on all night and in the end we didn't go anywhere and I watched the Olympics on TV. It was a little disapointing for us because we had wanted to go out, but in the end I think he probably really needed the sleep, and the boat back this morning was so rocky that I was relieved I didn't have a hangover to contend with.

Anyhow we arrived back in Busan around four, headed to the beach area because there's a great Indian restaurant there and managed to make it to the train station with just minutes to spare for our train.

Overall it was a great weekend. Fukoka didn't have a ton of stuff for us to do, but we traveled well together and it was nice to get to see another country before my time here expires. Sadly/happily next time I go through customs will be on my way home to Canada!

All Nighter

Made a trip up to the casino yesterday with Thomas and Jeremy. We had been trying to organize a day trip up for the last few weeks but vacation time got in the way of it. We found out before going that there was a closer, but smaller casino, right near Seoul Station, so we decided we would check it out, instead of the one we've been to before that's way out of the way.

As per usual, I found a roulette table and plunked myself down at it. I bought fifty dollars worth of chips and started betting on random numbers. Not too long into it I hit my first number (which is worth about $85 if you have one chip on it), and then I hit a second number right after that! My lucky streak was on! A couple hours into it I was up about a thousand dollars, and the three of us decided to take advantage of the free restaurant that the casino provides, in order to soak up some of the free alcohol that we had been consuming.

For the first rational time in my life, I took the six - one hundred dollar tokens outta my pocket and cashed them in, and figured I would just play with the stack of chips that I had left back at the table. I'm not sure if you know this about Korea, but the highest bill they have is $10, so I had quite the wad of cash in my purse.

Anyhow, after some food we headed back to the table and my luck started to wear out. I sat at the same table until I had dwindled my stack down to a hundred and then I decided it was time for some black jack, but the low minimum tables were full. Instead, I started playing a game called Casino War, which is pretty much beat the dealer. I won and lost a few hands there but didn't really like it because it went way too fast and there was no thrill in it. Back to roulette. Still couldn't get my lucky streak back and by this time I was down to what I had cashed out earlier. Thomas was in the hole, and ready to move on with his friend who had arrived. So Jeremy and I headed back to Seoul Station, and despite having lost almost half my winnings, I was still pretty happy about what I did have. Turns out we missed the last train by about ten minutes and were stuck in Seoul for the night. Back to the casino.

We managed to play for another five hours, eat some more food, and drink some more drinks, in which time I managed to make back what I had lost earlier and cashed out at just over $900! Which is awesome because when we were on our way up that day I had said to Jeremy that the most I had ever won was around three hundred. Also, next weekend I go to Japan, which is super expensive so now I have a bit of mad money to play with, and I have some savings for Vegas in a month or two!!!!!!!!

Anyhow we managed to board the first train this morning at 5:25 and were back in Daejeon around 6:30. I slept for a few hours but now I'm raring to go today. Not sure what I'm going to do, because it is 35 degrees outside and even with the air conditioning pumping inside I feel like I might be melting.

For a change, I actually have lots of different things to write about so I might post a few times before heading to Japan on Thursday. Enjoy your weekend!

Back from Taiwan

Been back now for just over a day, was meant to have had a productive day with cleaning and unpacking and running around but instead stayed out far too late and ended up sleeping the day away. All in all, had a fairly good trip, despite lousy weather and lots of bus travelling:

Monday - woke up at 6:45, checked the weather status in Taiwan to see if the pending typhoon was going to cancel our flight. The ten thirty flight had been delayed, but our one o'clock flight was still on schedule. Arrived in Taipai around four in the afternoon, to grey skies and drizzling rain, but far better than we were expecting. Checked into our teeny tiny hostel and headed out to Shilin night market. The market wasn't what I had been expecting as it was mainly food stalls and the markets that weren't food, didn't have anything I really wanted to buy. After that we consulted our guide book and checked out a few foreign bars, but being that it was a Monday night most were fairly empty.

Tuesday - still lousy weather, my mood proceeded to get grumpier. We headed out in the middle of the morning to see a temple and a downtown part of Taipai. I thought it was fairly old looking and not that different than Korea. Still grumpy. We debated what to to with our day, seeing as the weather was messing up our plans for a week at the beach, we decided that we should make our way towards Kaoushing, another major city, in hopes of better weather. A four and a half hour bus ride later and we were in the city. Fortunately we were on a luxury bus that had lazy boy seats, personal tv monitors, and loads of room. I definetly liked Kaoushing better than Taipai as it seemed a little newer and there were some prettier sights. For dinner we went to a Taiwanese restaurant and I decided to try one of the dishes that had been mentioned in our guide book - drunken chicken. It was not good, it vaguely tasted of wine, and it was served cold, with skin, next to some grated ginger . After that we headed to a bar and sat and played cards for a few hours. By this time I was thinking that the trip was going to be a total bust and I just wanted to go to sleep.
Wednesday - still gray skies, still grumpy mood. We decided that despite the weather we might as well stick with our plan for Kenting because the city wasn't that interesting, so we boarded another bus for a two and a half hour ride to the beach. This bus was not nearly as luxurious as the first one, and right before we left for Taiwan I managed to break my Ipod charger, so now I was without music as well. The ride went fairly quickly, and despite being worried about being carsick, I passed the time by reading a book. Finally, we arrived at a little town outside Kenting, right on the beach. We headed to a hostel Tom had stayed at before, but it was all booked up, so we ended up staying at another little place down the road. We decided it was time for the beach, even if the skies weren't bright. Ever the optimist (hahaha), I slathered on some tanning oil and settled onto the sandy beach. After a few hours of frisbee, beach walking, and some playing in the waves, we decided to head to Kenting for some dinner and shopping. Had a yummy meal which seemed to be a cross between Taiwanese and Thai food, and it finally started to feel like we were on vacation. After that we spent a few hours looking through the shops and stopping at bars for random drinks. Just as we were walking down the street to grab a taxi home, we saw a guy drive by on a scooter, slide off it, and hit a pedestrian, this changing my mind about renting a scooter for the following days. Don't know how the two people were but did see two ambulances drive by about twenty minutes later.

Thursday - sunny skies, my mood a little cheerier! Woke up to a blue sky and big waves on the beach. Grabbed my towel, lotion, and book and headed off. After about two hours the sun was pretty intense and I decided to walk back into Kenting so I wouldn't end up looking like a tomato. Had a nice peaceful walk in, spent some time wandering through the shops, but was disappointed that there didn't seem to be anything that I wanted to buy. Walked back to our town and met up with Tom who had rented a surf board and was practicing his skills. Despite what we had seen the night before Tom was still keen to rent a scooter, and I conceded that if I didn't have to drive, I would still be game for it. So we rented a scooter, which was cheaper to rent for 24 hours, than our taxi had been the night before, and headed back to Kenting for some dinner. Being that Kenting was kind of expensive we opted to go back to our place, buy drinks at 7/11 and sit on the beach, which we did for a few hours before going and sitting outside of a hostel and playing cards for a bit.

Friday - another beautiful day, and my mind frame was finally on vacation mode, which was appropriate, being that it was time to head home. We spent a bit of time at the beach swimming, but both of us were fairly red from the day before, so we headed to our hostel, showered, and set out for a day on the scooter. It was really nice to drive all around and see the ocean views that way instead of from a bus window. Tom got me to try driving, but after a loop around a parking lot, I was quite content to remain as a passenger and just enjoy the scenery. Being that it was the last day it passed by fairly quickly, and towards the evening we had to start thinking about the long trek back to Taipai. We opted to go in a shuttle car back to Kaoshing, rather than the bus, and our crazy driver got us to the city in just under an hour and a half. This gave us two and a half hours to kill in Kaoushing, and Tom decided to head to an internet room, while I went and walked through a night market. Then we had a four hour bus ride back to Taipai, and the bus had almost no suspension which made it fairly impossible to sleep. At five in the morning we ended up back in Taipai and then we had another hour bus ride, plus the flight, plus a three hour bus ride back to Daejeon.

I got back here yesterday and with very little sleep. Heather and I met up to talk about our different vacations, and then we met up with some others from the neighborhood and went out, instead of getting some much needed sleep.

All in all, it was a pretty good week, but I don't think I would ever go back to Taiwan or recommend it as a place to go, the places we saw were nice enough, but from the other countries I've visited there is much more to do and see, with vast cultural differences from Korea, and for the most part, a lot cheaper. On a more positive note though, less than two weeks from now I will be in Japan and hopefully that will be everything that people talk it up to be!

Anyhow I'm off for now, time to start thinking about going back to work tomorrow. Hope you all had a good week.