My New Tattoo (with 3 t's, not 2!)

Since arriving in Korea, I have developed an obsession with tigers. These stealthy and powerful creatures represent many things:

Being cool and having power, exotic and untouched wilderness, the 1980's... and so much more.

My obsession peaked few weeks ago when I got a tiger tatooed on my shoulder. Enjoy the pictures.

How It Works Around Our Apartment Complex

Korea is a very densely populated country, with 480 people in each square kilometer, on average (while Canada has around 3.5 people living in each square kilometer).

So, the big issue here is space. This being said we have noticed some crazy things happening that we do not see back home:

Everyone lives in apartments. They build up here, not out.

It's normal to box other cars in in the parking lot due to lack of space. People leave their vehicles in neutral, with a rock under the tires. In case the people boxed in must leave, they roll the other car out of the way... so cool!

The coolest thing we see is when newcomers arrive to our apartment block, they load their stuff onto a platform and zip it up to their apartment window with a crane/zoom boom type thing. I guess you are fined $50 if you use the elevator to move, since it's in high demand.

Everything, and I mean everything, is recycled! Its great to see. We've had maybe 4 small bags of garbage since arriving here. There's no space for big landfills, so the only option is to recycle.

Who knows, maybe Canada will take on some of these practices one day when our population is larger.

The Most Spectacular Field Trip Yet!

This day was truly ridiculous, and lots of fun. For the July field trip at school we took the kindergartens to a “water park”. I was anticipating something similar to Lakewood Civic Center in Saskatoon. I thought the kids would play in the questionably clean water, we’d throw them on the grass for chips and hot dogs at lunch time, then back to the pool for more playing (and inevitably one kid would throw up from going in the water too soon after eating). But this wasn’t the fate for these young private-schoolers. Oh no, their futures are bright and their parents wallets are fat.

We took the kids to Daemyoung Resort, which (according to the guide book) is the most exclusive resort in Gyoung-ju, a neighboring city. They have a giant water park that is focused on catering small children which made are jobs a lot easier (i.e. stand around and look really white in our bathing suits). There was a lot of shallow water, slides, toys and lifeguards. Not that lifeguards are necessary however. These kids couldn’t have drowned themselves if they tried. Each child had a proper PFD (lifejacket) AND swim ring to match their swimsuit, cap and goggle attire. These kids were almost completely immobilized by all the stuff they had on. What happened to water wings and natural selection? The pictures speak for themselves.

At lunch time the images of hot dogs were dashed by the dining hall we were seated at (in our bathing suits) where we were served a visually stunning meal on the fine china. Most of the kids hardly touched their food, so luckily the day ended without anyone losing their lunch in the wave pool. By the end of the day we were exhausted from all the splashing, screaming, running, and crying. We even persuaded some of the kids to ditch the lifejackets and swim rings so they might actually frolic Saskatchewan style (which involves swallowing a healthy amount of pool water while trying to stay afloat).

The wave pool rules were entertaining. I think properly translating Korean into English for signs must be a lucrative business over here...

I hope this isn't going to break some kind of law posting pictures of kids in bathing suits online. Here goes nothing...

Bouldering Competition Korean Style

A while back I attended a competition in Busan, the neighbouring city. 3 climbing clubs (The host gym, our gym and one from the city of Kyongju) met at "Family Climbing Center" and worked on 5 or 6 boulder problems in this great facility.

To sum up the event, we arrived, visited and had introductions, went for dinner, climbed for an hour, had another dinner in the gym, and celebrated. The night ended with me curling up in the crawlspace at 2 am, to get some shut eye, while most people went strong until who knows when. The best part, there was no scorekeeping... all for fun!!