Hammy's Corner

Gotta Love Big Lebowski!

2011-09-27T22:54:00.000-07:00

Have you seen it!? You need to, if you haven't. Donny, this isn't Nam! There are rules here!

Check out my bro's site, it's all Lebowski!

http://sweb1.dmit.nait.ca/~vgondziola1/BigLebowskiFanSite/

Bike, bike, everywhere a bike...

2010-12-20T06:41:00.000-08:00

In Holland there are hundreds of cyclists biking around the cities, going to and from their destinations regularly. They have bike lanes galore, bike racks everywhere and the right of way as far as pedestrians are concerned. If you're walking around in Holland, you best be watching your step, cause the bikes won't stop for you. So, it can be a bit dangerous as a pedestrian, but as long as you watch, then you're fine. I think it's great how many people incorporate exercise and environmentally friendly transportation into their lives over there! Fantastic!

Sung to the tune "Signs", originally sung by The Five Man Electrical Band, here's my new version of the chorus, I call it "Bikes".

Bike, bike, everywhere a bike
Riding on the road, breaking my stride
Stop here, watch there, hey, can't you see the bike?!

The gong show of trains, planes and automobiles!

2010-12-17T03:43:00.000-08:00

We are home after a trying day of traveling. It began with waking up at 6 am in Den Hague Holland. As we are packing the last of our things, having a quick bite and getting organized for the day of travel that's ahead of us, the phone rings, our taxi cab arrived 15 minutes earlier than we ordered it for and he's now waiting for us! Ahhhh! I hate rushing! Even if it's not my fault that he's there early, I still know he's waiting and feel the need to hurry up. So, we rush out of our hotel room and get driven to the train station. Our cab driver was a very happy man, for the record. That was nice. :)

Upon arriving at the train station we go to buy our tickets and the machine won't take our credit cards. We stand in line, buy tickets from a teller and search for someone to tell us where to go. We find out that the train to the airport has been delayed, and we are instructed to train it to another town, where as it turned out, was also delayed! Apparently if the train tracks are even dusted with snow in Holland, everything slows down and delays start happening. There on the platform we stood, with the morning commuters, waiting, slowly being surrounded by more and more eager people. Our big bags on our backs, other bags in hand. Listening to the Dutch announcements about the delay and watching the expressions of the faces around me to tell me what it is saying. I'm frustrated and feeling the need to warp to the airport, because we are already supposed to be there 10 minutes ago and we aren't even on the train! "We can't control this, there's nothing we can do, so no use getting worried." Dan says to me in his usual calm manner. He's got the right attitude about these sorts of things. If we can't change it, and it's not our fault, then getting upset only makes things harder. It calms me down, for the moment.

Arriving at the airport 10 minutes before our boarding time gives us enough time to check in and head to the gate. We arrive at the boarding gate just on time. Then we end up standing in their security/boarding line for an hour and a half, while each passenger talks to the security guards anywhere from about 3-7 minutes!! Oh my god, this is crazy! so inefficient! Are they doing security via the trust route? Have a deep conversation with all the passengers and then decide who can go through the next phase? Which is, the full body scan and x ray of luggage.

Our flight out is now delayed and we only have a 2 hour layover in Seattle! Again, Zen Dan is not worried. This wouldn't all matter so much if Dan and I didn't have to be home in enough time to repack, only to leave again, this time for Hawaii, one and half days after we are set to arrive in Edmonton. If it was just a matter of getting home and sitting there until next year, delay me all you want! But, I can't miss this flight!

After some maintenance issues and waiting to get all the passengers past the tea party that might as well have been happening out there at security, we finally boarded. The 10 hour flight was really great! I didn't sleep, I watched movies, drank free beer, ate good food and talked with Dan.

Landing in Seattle was a gong show from the moment our wheels touched the ground. We had to wait for the plane that was currently in our spot to get a piece of something or other attached to it so it could get pushed out. With only an hour to spare and a major bathroom break to be taken, I was feeling the stress again!

We pulled in, and went through US customs, the first time. While waiting to pick up our bags Dan and I took turns asking people what we are supposed to do once we have the bags. Which exit do we take? Which train? Will we have enough time? To which the lady, who worked there and was standing there to help people, pointed me toward the electric message board to find my answers... it only had what gate we needed, which meant very little since I didn't know how to get there. Another lady came around wanting to see our customs cards, again. I told her about our flight boarding in just a few minutes, to which she said, "good luck."

After getting our bags, finally!, we went through customs again (??) and then dropped our luggage off on the connecting flights belt 20 minutes after our connection flight started boarding. They told us it was fine and that we had enough time. I told Dan, our bags aren't going to make it. Next, we had to go through US security, getting a body scan, again. Keeping in mind we have not left a secure area since the last body scan. We had to then take 2 trains and literally run to our gate to catch our flight. They paged us on the intercom. We made it.

We finally arrive in Edmonton, only to find out, understandably so, that our ride isn't coming because of the terrible road conditions! We'll have to shuttle it in. After the day we have had, it's fitting that our luggage doesn't show up. So, we wait half an hour to file a missing luggage claim, because there were that many people in front of us doing the same thing! The airport staff member is complaining as we fill our forms out, saying she can't believe this is happening on a day when she took a shift for another co-worker. We are making a lot of work for her! Yes, she was really complaining to us that our luggage was lost and now she has to deal with this!

ANYWAAAAYSSS... We take an hour long shuttle ride to a downtown hotel, "At least we don't have our big heavy bags to carry!", I say honestly.

We walk to the grocery store to get something for dinner and walk home, eat, watch The Office and go to sleep. phew! After 21 hours of travel and 23 hours of no sleep, I slept for 5 hours and am now awake, at 4 am... happy to be home. :)

Dan has just woken up, it's now 5:20 am... oh jet lag!

Seein' Red!

2010-12-14T09:06:00.000-08:00

We've all heard about Amsterdam's Red Light District, but to see it with one's own eyes puts a whole new spin on it. Legalized prostitution.

Prostitution has been more or less accepted at various times throughout history in the Netherlands, but prostitution and brothels were not fully legalized until the year 2000. It was at that time they entered into a world of regulations and taxes.

With more than 75% of Dutch citizens recognizing prostitution to be a job no different than any other profession, the government got on board with the attitude and decided that if it's going to happen anyways, as it has been for centuries, why not make it legal?! At least this way the government can implement some regulations in an attempt to keep it a safer and more profitable industry.

For example, the licensed workers must undergo std testing, pay taxes, produce their license when the authorities come knocking and along with being asked to show their license they are also asked if they are there of their own free will and if all is well. There are also age restrictions; the workers must be at least 18 and the clients at least 16.

As Dan and I walked the beautiful canals of the RLD, we noticed the waters lined with swans and the first and second floors of the buildings filled with half naked women peering out of their windows, lit with, of course, red lights! Sometimes the curtains to a ladies room were drawn and we could only assume why that was. But, if the curtain wasn't closed, then there would be a woman standing there.

It's a strange feeling walking by these windows, just a few feet away from these women, face to face, eyeball to eyeball! I found making eye contact for longer than 1 second to be uncomfortable and intimidating. I smiled at them as I walked by. They didn't much care to smile back most times. But then again, I usually averted my eyes before they could likely have a chance to smile back.

The faces of these women are a mix of emotions. Some look like they could care less about being there. Slumped over on their stool, in an unflattering position, texting a friend, or playing a game on their cell, (who knows!?) Those ones kinda glanced up once in a while, taking a drag off their smoke and then looking back at their phone. Those ones looked a little sad, bored, tired or something.

There were others who stood, or sat, there laughing while talking to the girl next to them, or while talking on the phone. They'd be talking up a storm, just like how I would have been chatting it up with a co worker when I worked at Finning or Shoppers Drug Mart! As we walked along the canals, looking at the women I'd say to Dan "I wonder what they're talking about?" or "I wonder what she is thinking about right now..."

Many of them tap on the windows, like crazy, as the men passed by. The girls would smile, blow kisses and wave the men in with their hand or index fingers. You could hear the sound of something metal tapping on their glass doors all throughout the canals. Sometimes there were propositions being made, most times it was just a little window shopping. And, boy were there window shoppers, by the dozens. The amount of men vs women walking around that street was seriously disproportionate. I'd say 6 men to 1 woman and that might be an understatement.

Dan and I saw a couple exiting the woman's room, smiling. "Quick!! Let's follow them and hear what they're saying!" I said to Dan. So we did. They were speaking German as they both lit a cigarette.

One of the working ladies threw a glass of water in a man's face as she said "There!!! Maybe now you leave!!" But, he didn't. He stood there for quite a while.

I know that it is frowned upon to take any pictures along this district so I didn't really... but I did take two picture from afar, just to show the set up of the scene. The pictures are blurry, because I was scared I would get tossed into the canal if I got caught, sorry!

These were just a few of my observations of the red light district.

Now that's some gouda cheese!

2010-12-13T01:11:00.000-08:00

As we wandered around the streets of Amsterdam the other day we passed a store front lined with giant rounds of gouda cheese, row by row, all gouda! "Let's go in!" I said to Dan. We entered and much to my delight there were stands everywhere filled with different cheeses and what's better is that there were samples of all sorts for us to try! We went from stand to stand, circling our way around each one sampling the cheeses.

"Oh! Try this one! This one is great!"

"Try it with this mustard on top! yum!"

So, we ate cheese to our belly's content. After snack time I bought a little jar of Dutch honey mustard to take home with me and we continued on our way. The town of Gouda is here in Holland and boy oh boy they sure make a mean gouda cheese!

2009-02-01T23:09:00.001-08:00

Fair trade?

Indulge yourselves. You always do.

We mostly work hard and we hardly play.

In this hopeless position it feels like we’ll stay.

I wish you could know,

Or more precisely, try fathom,

the first thing about hunger and pain

Sickness and rain,

that fell so hard and so much that it swept my grass house away.

You come to look and bargain and steal.

You think it’s fair, that it’s a good deal.

You think you know how we must feel.

Have you ever really missed a meal?

Poor, shmore, tough luck!

Suck it up! Here’s a buck!

I guess you’re hoping for my heart to melt?

These are the cards that I was dealt.

And I can’t really say,

that I know how you felt,

Or how you must still feel

How you probably always will.

I’m entitled and I work hard too.

I earn mine and I do what I do.

Never mind you!

Ok. Indulge some more, you always do.

Can’t you give up your cushions to give me a shoe?

Or two?

What about the shirt off your back?

I’m not trying to beg here,

It’s not like it’s for crack.

I’m just so hungry and I’m sick and I’m tired.

A new company’s in town and we all just got hired.

We work twenty-hour shifts,

On our feet the whole time.

The heat is unbearable,

Is your air-con comparable?

Gotta meet this deadline,

And all for a dime.

I could quit if I want,

But that won’t bring home the bacon.

I’m breaking my soul,

While you’re out fakin’ bakin’.

I just want you to think and to look and to see

If there is anything you can do, to try and help me.

From person to person,

One soul to another,

Can’t you please help out a brother?

Imagine if I was your mother.

Doesn't that sound nice?

2008-08-09T01:29:00.000-07:00

“OUCH!”

“Oops, I’m sorry, did I hurt you? It was an accident.”
That’s what she said. Then she turned her head and walked away.
She went to think of the difference between knowing when to hold them or fold them.
Knowing when to shut it or vent it.
Cabin or tent it.
Buy it or rent it.

She now sits under the cloudy and cool night time sky and thinks about the difference between a man and a woman.
We'll call all the differences ,"it".
What is "it" really?
Can you ever really put "it" into words? Can"it" ever be fully understood?
You are either one or the other. And if you are both, you are still neither one, per say,
but rather, it would make you a whole new thing to understand.
So, yes then! She understands that she will never understand all of the differences between a man and a woman.
But, one things for sure is she knows there are differences.

So, she goes to her lab.
Get's her things ready.
She's scared, but she's ready.

"Footprint, on my heart.
Nice and deep, from the start.
Wet cement, big man shoe,
step and press and stamp me too."

Toad’s leg, bat’s eye,
Pick the heart and the guy,
Newt’s tongue, snake skin,
Be sure to love from deep within.

She stands there stirring up the pot,
Ready is the potion shot.
Plug your nose and brace yourself,
Take that love life off the shelf.

Hearts in eyes and butterflies.

Heads will turn and loins will burn.

True love comes and enters self,
Forever changed, it's off the shelf.

Full of new thoughts and dreams.
And a new life to amalgamate her’s with.
Someone with new ideas about why they’re there.
Someone who’s a little different than she is.
As are all people different than her, as all are from others.
We are all here together. As one.
Differences or not.
We at least all have that in common.
There is something more than special about that.

It’s unity at it’s finest. It’s the largest group she knows of.
It’s humanity and those that make it so.

It’s wonderful and sad at the same time.
The inequalities are what makes her so sad.
But they may be necessary. This is something she’s yet to understand.
But she’s trying.

She does think that some people just need a sip of that love potion she whipped up,
Love potion, the world’s cure?
Deep and pure.
True and real.

"Doesn’t that sound nice?"

Fiesta time!

2008-05-31T12:15:00.000-07:00

We stayed in a city in Honduras, called La Ceiba for a few days as the biggest party of the year went on. According to some, it´s the biggest party in Central America. It lasts a week long and it it´s to celebrate a saint... can´t remember which one. It was full of all the things a fair would have; cotton candy, singing and dancing, food vendors, beer, jewelery and trinkets and all sorts of things.
Some people from the parade in costumes.
Our favorite meal there. Baked potato with refried beans (so good), and pickled vegetables and salsa on the side. Yum! And beer.

Some parts of the streets were so packed, you literally couldn´t move. This was a good time to hold onto your wallets and keep a hand on your purse.

Our favorite restaurant at the party.

They let kids gamble! Just fun little games, but still... strange to see.
I got my hair braided there.

Fun fun fun!

Parrots!

2008-05-31T12:11:00.000-07:00

Yes, there are parrots here... neat, isn´t it? We´ve seen them a few places, but these ones are from Honduras, at a site we went to to see some old Mayan Ruins, in a place called Copan.

It´s all about the ocean floor now.

2008-05-31T11:40:00.000-07:00

The seaweed is always greener, in somebody else´s lake. You dream about going up there, but that is a big mistake. Just look at the world around you, right here on the ocean floor. Such wonderful things surround you. What more is you lookin´for!!? Under da sea...

Hey all! Just a little update here. I have some very exciting news! Dan and I are now official SCUBA divers! We are certified to dive on our own, any where in the world, for the rest of our lives. We are certified to dive down as far as 18 meters, which is what we dove down to yesterday... actually, we went down as far as 20 meters when we were looking at a sunken ship.

We know what to do if we run out of air under water, how to share air with our buddy, how to get water out of our masks when under, how to navigate using a compass, how to equalize the pressure in our air spaces as we descend (ears, sinuses and lungs), how to float weightlessly without touching the surface or bottom of the ocean using the air in your lungs, how to set up and take apart all of our equipment, and a whole lot of other skills. It´s really quite amazing, I think. :)

We´ve been on a tropical island in Honduras, called Utila, for about a week now and this island´s primary industry is Scuba diving. They thrive and live off of students who come here to learn how to dive, just like we did. There are plenty of schools to choose from and a whole lot of different dive sites to go to, filled with things that you couldn´t dream up if you tried.

Our team. The guy in the middle is our instructor, Chris. The 2 in the bikini tops were students, like us and the other 2 girls are dive masters, who assisted us when diving.

Scuba practice in the shallow water.

The boat loaded with our equipment.

Dan setting up his weight belt.

Hoover, our boat driver. He always played reggae music and sang on the boat, great guy!

The island is on the Caribbean side of the country, so the water is about 28 degrees celsius and the vibrant colors vary between teal, blue and green. Imagine slowly deflating your jacket and sinking down to the bottom of the dive site. Ears popping and hurting as the pressure builds, causing you to breath faster or slower than normal, and you are trying not to hold your breath, so your lungs don´t explode, but you want to hold your breath, cause when you are in pain, you tend to breath in a strange way or you go as far as holding your breath for periods of time. As all this is happening, you are wondering why you are doing this to yourself. But, then your ears finally equalize and the pain is gone and your breathing returns to a normal, in, out, in, out. Remember not to breath in through your nose, cause by now there is water in the nose part of the mask and it´s gonna be there for the remainder of the dive. Baby bubbles or big bubbles, whatever, just be sure to always breath - the most important rule in scuba diving.

Now you are down there and surrounded by fish you have never seen before, sting rays swimming along the sandy surface, walls and clumps of colorful coral and sea plants, fish swimming in, around and out of it all. Tiny little garden eels poking their heads out of the sand, swaying back and forth with the current, popping their heads down as you swim over them. They look like grass, but they´re not... they´re alive and watching you. We saw a few sea horses! I spotted one of them and he was pregnant... yes, HE. Crabs, jelly fish and other strange things all around you. This world exists and most people never get to see it and it´s just crazy! I´ve always looked at the ocean and thought about how beautiful it is and how nice it sounds as the waves hit the shore. But, now, I look at the ocean a little differently, cause I know a little more about it, I know that we know more about the moon´s surface than we do about the ocean and all it´s special little secrets. I know that I am lucky to be a part of it´s world, if only for a little while at a time.

Anyways, I just wanted to share a little of what I have been experiencing over here in my world. We´re going on 2 dives tomorrow morning, which I am more than excited about!

El Salvador= mostly El Sickador

2008-05-31T11:26:00.000-07:00

We went to El Salvador for a week or so and unfortunately Dan was sick for 2 of those days and I was then sick for 2 days after he got better, so, unfortunately we didn´t see too much there. But! We did go on a hike to some really amazing water falls and that was definitely the highlight of that country for us. A guide took us along the trails, he was sporting a machete, as all the men there do, and off we went.

Just as we had built up a nice sweat, we came upon some falls that had a big, clear and cool pool of water at the bottom of it. So, of course we swam and floated around in it for about an hour and felt like we were in a movie or something. It was refreshing and absolutely gorgeous. Then onto 3 more waterfalls. It was a great day.

Our guide standing in front of his house.

There was some crazy guy who kept climbing up the cliffs, as the water poured over them and jumping off them and into the pool, which I think was crazy.... Dan and I cringed every time he jumped, fearing the worst.

Then after plunging into the pool from the ledge, he would stand up here and hang out for a while, which again, made us soooo nervous!

I love markets!!

2008-05-25T13:14:00.000-07:00

Baby for sale!! we have boys and girls and this one is only 100 bucks and you get a free bag of Thyme with him! And, I am just kidding... but I kinda wanted to ask how much for the baby, but didn´t want to freak out the vendor.

In every city and town we have been to so far there has been some sort of a market there. They are so much fun to wander around in. The vibrant colors and interesting and original art work one finds. The carvings, paintings, food, spices, clothes and the jewlery!! Oh man, the jewlery here is like nothing you will find in Canada. So unique and reasonably priced. Beautiful and precious stones, tightly weaved braclets and necklaces, cocunut jewlery, bone jewlery and the list goes on. The food all in baskets, overflowing with fruit and vegetables and color!

The vendors calling out to you as you pass them buy, ¨Come in! Look closer! Try it on! Pick it up!¨.

To that I usually say,¨just looking, thanks¨. Or, sometimes I say, ¨Sure I will, and how much is it?¨(all in Spanish, of course!)

I then give a look of suprise! Then I ask them to sell it to me for half the price they just said.

Look of suprise from the vendor follows. (I expect this, it´s all part of the game).

Then they give the counter offer, and I give mine, which is slightly over half of what they asked for in the first place and we all look like we are deep in thought and considering saying no, and then BAM! The sale. It´s great, but you have to be in the mood for it. Above are some pics from some markets that I have been to.

Our family... we love them!

2008-05-02T11:41:00.000-07:00

Here´s Dan handing out stickers to the kids and their friends. That was hectic. They had their little hands all over the stickers, trying to get their share. Ana is making a face at the camera.

It was little Ana´s birthday on Wednesday. Ana is the one wearing green. She turned 5. There was a party at the house. All the kids from Ana´s class came over and had cake and sang and ate lots of candy. Ana was running around laughing and smiling the whole time. After they finished singing ´Happy Birthday´to her, her mom dunked her face in the cake... that was funny.

This is Tina. She´s the mother of the family. She´s an amazing cook and she always sits and talks with us, in Spanish, about everyday things. She works hard everyday, from 5 am til 8 pm around the house. Washing clothes by hand, sweeping, cooking, sewing clothes for the family, etc. She always has a smile on her face. Such a sweetie.
This is our family that we are staying with. They are the best! Dan and I are having a great time wih them. Yesterday we all went to the beach and went swimming. We played frisbee and splashed around in the lake for an hour or so. It´s like having 2 little sisters and a little brother. They come in our room, jump on us and our beds. I have been drawing pictures for the kids and they´ve been coloring them with the felts and crayons that we bought them. Today I am going to paint the girls´nails pink!

Heat wave

2008-04-24T12:47:00.000-07:00

We hiked up an active volcano here in Guatemala yesterday. The lava was literally under us, flowing, crackling and melting our shoes. We walked on hardened lava to get to the flowing stuff. It was amazing! More later, no time now. xoxo

I was a monkey for day, swinging through the forest, screaming out my monkey call.

2008-04-20T15:51:00.000-07:00

Well, we have arrived and remained intact here in Guatemala (the country that I secretly dreaded coming to... or not so secretly). So far, so great! We drove here yesterday with a tour group from Belize. We arrived at a place just outside of the famous ruins of Tikal and went zip lining through the canopy of the rain forest!

I was shaking like a leaf, wondering as I climbed one step higher, ¨what the hell am I doing?¨ I am not a fan of heights and here I am leaving my life in the hands of a 17 year old kid who is securing my harness and hooking me up to a wire.

¨Ready?¨he says with a Spanish accent. I am sweating, seriously, sweating. Hands literally shaking. Eyes like saucers, looking into his, searching for reassurance. He just stared back into mine, probably enjoying my fear, cause he´s so fearless with it. He goes down the line legs spread and upside down!

Trying to put my weight all onto the harness, but to scared to. Thoughts going through my mind= Point your feet, keep legs together. Left hand on harness. Right hand on wire, behind my head, only to be used as a guide and breaks when he tells me to break. Lean back. Go.

Wow! We did that about 10 times from platform to platform throughout the jungle. It was very amazing and as usual, I was so scared to do it and in the end happy that I did it and I have no regrets.

Then we saw the ruins of Tikal, which were great. Ancient buildings of the Mayans. We also saw toucans, parrots, spider monkeys and howler monkeys ,which we heard from atop this huge temple. Sitting up there with the wind blowing at us, cooling us down from the hot day. High above the canopy, an airial view of the whole jungle, mountains in the distance and temples sprinkled all throughout the mass greenery, poking their heads up to enjoy the view. The howler monkey´s groans reaching the skies. They groaned and called out to each other cause it was about to rain and they, like us, don´t always like the rain.

Then Dan and I and 3 other girls came here to Flores, our guide dropped us off and didn´t leave until we were comfortable in our hotels. The 5 of us went for dinner together and again for lunch today, enjoying each others company.

It´s been a safe and nice time here so far. Today Dan and I enjoyed a swim in the lake that surrounds Flores, as it is an island. Warm and refreshing. A group of Mayan ladies stopped by the lake, most likely on their way home from church, and they stripped down to their undies and had a swim too. Ohh laa laa!

I can´t post pictures, as I haven´t found a computer that accomodates my memory card yet and I can´t hook up an usb cable to my camera. I will post some as soon as I can.

xoxoxo
Amie

Going on a gator hunt, but I'm not afraid! I got my trusty oar.

2008-04-18T19:42:00.000-07:00

So, Dan and I rented a canoe today. We're here in San Ignacio. A small town in the middle of a valley, surrounded by jungle with a river running through it.

We set off, heading up river. As the town's traffic grew more distant, the bird calls and leaves rustling in the forest grew more distinct. We paddled in and out of shady overhangs of big old trees and caverns and half caves. We were hearing things coming from the forest that we couldn't define.

Then it occurred to us that there may be crocodiles and/or alligators! We had our eyes peeled and talked about all sorts of strategies, should one come upon us and attack. We even had the swiss army knife ready (like that really woulda helped). Then we saw one! crossing our paths, head bobbing along slowly in the water. Crossing the river. We backed off, not sure what to do. Watching. Waiting. It got out on the other side and then we realized that it was only a huge iguana. PHEW.

We went up river some more and asked a man that was in his boat if there were alligators in the river and he said, "only ones that are like 3 or 4 feet long". Yikes! Anyways, we think we saw one a little later, hanging out near a tree, either that or a really big lizard.

We did a lot of bird watching and that was fantastic. We saw about 40 eagles flying around us and far overhead. We saw some green and pink humming birds feeding on some flowers. There were 3 vultures feeding on some dead meat, one of which got chased away by the other 2 vultures. There were dozens of other birds that we saw too. We would paddle and park in the shade and watch something that caught our eyes and repeat that as the ride went on. Always on the look out for gators though.

Girl! Whose ya teacha? Who you playin drums wit? Who you gonna listen to? You listen to me!

2008-04-15T15:15:00.000-07:00

We're in Hopkins town now and it's quite the interesting little find. It's got all dirt roads, with many potholes. It is beach front along the turquoise Caribbean ocean. The people here listen to either reggae or hip hop. There are a tonne of dread locked heads in sight, mostly welcoming you with a hello and a smile. There are grass roofed houses and cabanas galore and palm trees and bushes, even more.

We're staying with an artistic, eccentric lady named Trish, at her place, Kismet Inn, and she's pretty interesting. She's 54 and is originally American, from Manhattan and she had an after death calling to come to Belize and make a life here. She died for 3 hours about 11 years ago and took a while to recover and about 10 years ago her calling became clear. Go to Belize. So she did. She came and married a Belize man with the last name Kismet so that she could live here. On one end of town she's known as Mrs Kismet and on the other she is Mrs. Elvis.

Elvis is a laid back Caribbean man with long arms, a head full of dreads and a killer white smile (purchased at the dentist in Guatemala). He lives with Trish and as she puts it he is her "Black Caribbean lover". He grunts and groans at her in a language I have a hard time understanding, when she tells him to do things around the place and he speaks of needing a rest or a nap instead. She says he turns into a clumsy animal when he drinks and he breaks her bikes when he tries to ride home in them, cause he's so hammered.

In any case, he's really nice and so is she. Elvis took Dan and I out for a good time the other night to an open aired, sandy floored bar. There we listened to the men play their drums and turtle shells and dance and sing in a language called Garifuna. I sat down at the bass hand drum and the man next to me, Conrad, taught me a "rhydum" (as he put it) that is typically played here in Belize, forgive me but I forgot the name of that "rhydum".

Conrad was trying to teach me and then Elvis would come in and show me something and then another guy. I was trying to listen to all of them and then Conrad let me have it and asked me who was teachin' me and who I was listenin' to. Anyways, I learnt the beat and kept the beat and had the drummers playing along with me and singing and good ol Elvis was dancing and swinging his long arms around and up in the air. Dan took a chance at the shakers and he did good!

Dan and I are having a great time and we keep breaking out into hysterical laughter about something strange we've seen or something that Trish has done or said, or another great story she tells and I will come and tell Dan and we'll laugh (in good fun of course).

All is going good here and we're really enjoying the people we've been meeting and as always, each others company.

Next stop, coming soon is Guatemala.... which I am a little nervous about.

Eh Mon! Can I gettu anyting?

2008-04-12T19:55:00.000-07:00

We're still in Belize city and it's going well. I don't feel safe going out after dark, so we haven't been. We did a walking tour today of this area downtown and along the ocean and it was really nice. We got the info on where to go from our lonely planet guide. We saw the governors old mansion, a bird island, a cemetery and some neat houses. I had a gigantic glass of orange juice at a restaurant, got some stuff at a store (for super cheap), saw a cathedral and got to see the city in action. Later we went to see a movie and we had a nice dinner too.

There's this one guy who hangs around our hotel telling us the places we should go check out in the city and later gets aroung to asking us for money, or trying to come up with ways he can get us to give him money. "Can I gettu anyting? What do u need?" He wants to run out and grab us, "some beer? or a burger? some vics vapour rub? juice? cigarettes? anything at all, man?". Anyways, he finally just came out and asked me for some money last night, and i threw down a dollar from my balcony (he was on the street and we were hanging out upstairs). Then he came back asking if he can get us anything again. Then this evening when we came in for the night he came up to us as we got out of the cab and asked how we were, where we went, if we had fun and for more money! Dan gave him 50 cents. He's nice enough... it's just awkward standing there talking, knowing what's coming.

The streets are full of wanderers both day and night. At night we sit up in the balcony and watch the people. They are mostly our age or younger and we aren't sure if they're up to no good, or just wandering around, yelling out to each other, singing, playing loud music, etc. There are lots of stray dogs about and at night they seem to go wild barking at people. Not all the dogs, but some.

We were woken up at 4 am last night to some long honking coming from a car down below and yelling. And then we heard glass break, at which point we got up to check it out. They were trying to wake up their friend who lives across the way from us. Anyways, some great music came on in the car and the girls started singing and I kinda wished they woulda stayed out there longer, cause I was grooving to the tunes, as I spied out of my window.

Tomorrow we are going to a place called Hopkins Town and it's on the coast. We're planning on staying for maybe 3 nights or so and then we will head to the Guatemalan border and stay in a town near there before crossing over.

Bye for now!

Beach bums

2008-04-09T18:31:00.000-07:00

Beach bums. That´s what Dan and I have been for the past week, mostly. We left Playa Del Carmen after 2 nights spent there and came to Tulum, an area known as Mexico´s backpacker´s beach bum heaven. We stayed in the town for a night in a sweet hotel that had a king size bed and no bugs or grass roofs. It was a night of being pampered before our excursion out to more beach side cabanas.

The first place we stayed in on the beach was this hut on a small cliff that had a great view and we could hear the waves crashing just feet from us. Our bed was on stilts and just turning over in the bed, as non disruptive as possible, was a challange. We thought we´d for sure be the last people to stay on it before it finally collapsed. Luckily we made it through the night without incident, just lots of teetering.

Once we made our way down to the beach for a swim, just a few steps down some rocks, we found ourselves on our very own private piece of beach. I tanned topless and no one was around to see, it was liberating. It was like being on a deserted island, which is a far cry from Playa Del Carmen.

We went walking to check out some other cabanas along the beach, cause ours had a few too many ants and the bed was, as I said, on it´s way down....crashing to the ground... with or without it´s patrons. Anyways, we didn´t find a place to stay on that walk, but we did find a place to shower... we couldn´t resist the tile walls and nice appearance of the shower and we were hot and our shower at our place was a darkish place with crappy wood walls and rusty faucets... actually, rusty faucet, the other one was only a hole in the wall.

The next day we took a taxi about 5 km down the beach and found a super place to stay! Big, cement floored cabana, with a sturdy bed! Many places to chill out on the property, beach front and we were just a few blocks from the Tulum Ruins, which we went and saw on Monday. We counted 22 lizards and iguanas on that trip to the ruins and it was great fun trying to pick them out of the landscape, since they blended in so well.

We partied with a group of Mexicans that were staying the night at the same place as us. We called the head guy "Montezuma" (secretly). He was very insistant on us sitting down at the bar with him and his friends and having a few drinks on him. We were skeptical at first, but he ordered and opened them in front of us and later it became clear that he has finally gotten a day off from catering to the Cancun tourists and came out there to party and he wanted people to party with... enter Dan, Amie and a sailor named Raoul. So, there was a group of about 8 of us and we had a great time.

This one guy " Little Richie" dove for the volley ball on the pavement and totally bloodied up his big toe, ouch! He was trying really hard at that point, cause Dan and I were beating him and his friend so badly, awww.

Anyways, we stayed there 2 nights and Tuesday was beach day, which was nice. Played some frizbee and swam and then came to town to stay in the same sweet hotel again. Today we went to Chichen Itza, one of the modern wonders of the world and it was pretty spectacular. We hung out there all day and here we are back in town at an internet cafe.

Tomorrow we head off to Belize, via bus. We´re hoping and expecting it to be a smooth trip and transition.

Wanna get ripped off? Come see my junk!

2008-04-02T20:57:00.000-07:00

That´s what a street vendor said today on the road as we walked on by...lol, it was quite honest and therefore hilarious. We are here in Mexico, Playa del Carmen, and although the travel time to get here was long, we are here now and happy to be so. We should have a good sleep tonight, as it will be the first solid hours slept in the last 30 something... yay!

Our beach cabanas are decent. Nice grass roof, comfy clean bed, what else do you need? Maybe some airconditioning and a bigger lock on the door... but, hey, it´ll work for tonight and then tomorrow we go to Tulum. The water is beautiful, aqua and warm. The beaches are white sand and oh so nice! Anyways, more later! We are being safe and having a nice time.

The rigs...

2008-03-29T06:22:00.000-07:00

Me and my truck and someone's dog.

The derrick.

The 2 cooks, Dianne and Janice and the campie, Sonia = my sanity out there. They just had a food fight here, it was really funny to watch.

The boys working.

Ryan, the derrick hand, up in the derrick.

Tuk tuk turned up

2007-12-26T01:00:00.000-08:00

This is a tuk tuk, much like the one that fell on me. I was sitting with my back facing the driver on that little piece of metal, with my arm wrapped around the little bar, for "safety".

This is the actual tuk tuk that fell on me, parked by our hotel hours after the accident. The driver of it went back to his town for a few days (probably to prevent us suing him, or something).

In Cambodia about 2 weeks ago the 5 of us got into a motor vehicle accident. We were piled into a tuk tuk (see pictures) driving along, when a motorcycle hit us (Vonn and I had our backs to the traffic, not knowing what was going on behind us). Anyways, just as Vonn and Kristy were in the middle of debating about who would get more injured in an accident, the 3 of them sitting in their proper bench seat? Or Vonn and I sitting on the metal bench, without a back or arm rests... nothing other than a single bar on either side of us. We now clearly have the answer to that debate, proving Vonn wrong, sorry Vonner.

Like I said, we were driving along when all of a sudden I hear a bang and the next thing I know I am lying on the pavement with my right arm pinned under a metal bar from the tuk tuk.

Our driver overcompensated when trying to turn away from the oncoming motorcycle and in turn we flipped over. My arm was wrapped around the bar in order to keep me from falling out of the vehicle as we were turning and driving in and out of the mad traffic of Cambodia.

Bang! Tip! See roof of tuk tuk before my eyes.
Close eyes.
Eyes open.
Right arm bulging out all around the metal bar.
Pull arm towards myself. OUCH! Nothing.It's not moving. Shit. Am I going to lose my arm? Is this how these things happen? My arm!!! My right arm!! I need help!

"MY ARM! MY ARM! MY ARM! MY ARM!", I shout.

The others weren't injured, aside from a few sprained fingers or toes and a scraped leg. Everyone got up as quick as they could and Dan was the first out. He and a local bystander and someone else lifted the vehicle off my arm.

Pull arm out, look back as I am getting up and spot gas leaking out of the motorcycle all over the road.
Get up extremely fast.
Ahhh! Explosion? This can't be happening!
Run to a safer distance away from the mess and realize that I am standing in the middle of traffic that is still moving, barefoot and in a little bit of shock, but not enough shock to know that I should get the hell off that part of the road. shit.
Watch the motorcycler who hit us drive away. Nice. No surprise.
Get my shoes on.
My bag! "Get my bag!" Dan gets my bag.
Ok... breath.,.,.. ouchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. My ARM! OWWWWW..... That was scary and my arm hurts alot, but I know it's not broken.

I see our tuk tuk driver inspect his bloody pinky toe and slowly walk his motorcycle, with the tuk tuk attached, off to the side of the road.
Ouchhhhhhhhh!!!!! My arm!

Tears.... lots and lots of tears and heavy sobbing and asking the question of, "what happened? what just happened???" Now it seems like a safe enough time to cry.

A local walked us to the doctor's office that was a block away and the doc cleaned my scraped elbow (vigorously) and got me to move my arm to see if it was broken. Dan, Jay and Kris spoke French with him, his English was limited. He sent me away with a prescription.

I've been to the doctor since I've returned to Canada and had numerous tests (x ray, blood work, ultrasound, inspection, etc.) and there is no serious damage, just a possibility of infection. So, I am keeping my eyes opened for the signs. It's really swollen and misshapen now, most of the bruising has subsided. Other than some pain and discomfort, everything else is good.... except that I also hurt my shoulder and my leg. But my arm is the main injury and the most painful one.
My arm about a few hours after the accident.
My thigh a few hours after the accident.

My calf... both were bruised, this is just one of them.

My leg a day or two after the accident.
My arm a day or two after the accident.

Luxury.... HA!

2007-12-10T19:51:00.001-08:00

It's strange when you start to get excited about things like - hot water, clean bed sheets, a room that isn't near a rooster, power at any time of day, no bugs or GIGANTIC spiders, windows in your room, screens on those windows.... the list goes on.

We came into the country being mislead by the taxi driver who purposely dropped us off at the wrong place, to get commission from the hotel he took us to and our way out of the country was also deceiving, leaving a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth.

We paid for a "luxury" 22 hour bus ride to a particular city in Laos. We had just come into Hanoi from the stunning "Halong Bay" that we stayed at on an island for 5 days, swimming in the ocean, strolling around, trekking and other things. Our old hotel was trying to sell this 22 hour bus ride to us at 50 dollars a person, we found a better deal for 24 dollars a person just down the road. We get on the bus and find out other people paid 12 dollars for the same ride. Great.

Then not too long after we are driving we also find out that everyone is going to Vientienne, Laos... a city in the North of Laos and we are supposed to be heading to a Southern city called Savateket. AWESOME!!

The bus was packed to the roof with boxes of goods that are going to be delivered somewhere. We made several stops where locals were piling on and paying 1/8 of the price, I'm sure. We made stops that allowed these people waiting along the side of the road to continue to load our "luxury" bus with more goods. It got to the point where a big box, filled with "q tips" kept falling on mine and Dan's head. The aisles were piled with bags of rice or grain or whatever that stuff was. Bike wheels. Stools and chairs. People started to resort to sleeping in the aisles, on some of the stuff, cause it may have been more comfortable than the small chairs we were crammed into.

The driver kept insisting that the bus was going to the Northern city and we had excepted our fate that we paid twice as much as most to have the "luxurious" ride of a lifetime (for 22 hours!). all to end up on the wrong side of the country of Laos! YIKES. Next thing we know a Vietnamese man is yelling to us about something, when we pulled over in this "one horse town". "BLA BLA BLA, bla bla bla.... Savateket, bla bla bla".... all with great urgency.

Me thinking some of these things and saying most of them- "WHAT? you want us to get off the bus here? why? what? ok!! Just a second. I have to get my stuff.... our stuff is buried under all this shit that you guys piled on the bus and now you need me to immediately get off this bus to go the Savateket??? is there a bus coming for us? where do we wait? do we have to pay again? when is the bus coming? what's going on?? yeah yeah yeah, I am hurrying! Thanks for the friggin notice!! It's kinda hard to walk over all these bags of RICE!!! bouncing my big bag off of all these chairs and probably peoples heads. AHHHHHHHHHHH!! I hate this place! Did I get all my stuff from my seat?? Did anyone check? Where do we go? when is the bus coming??? is there a bus coming? where are we?"

We stand on the side of the road, having been traveling for a total of like 36 hours, coming straight from Halong Bay the day before and getting directly onto this "luxury" bus for the past 22 hours. It's hot. We're confused. Oh! Here's the bus we're supposed to take.... jam packed with people!!! Bags go under, we get on and sit on the only stools left down the middle of the aisle, cause the seats were all full. And, pay some more money! Cause these tickets we are showing them that we paid for have nothing to do with this driver here in Laos. OF COURSE! So, there we sat in the aisle of a bus on little plastic stools, bouncing our shoulders between the seats, longing for our previously scoffed at and hated "Luxury Bus".

In any case, we made it to the city we wanted to be at and had an awesome time there. We rented bikes and went around the place and chilled there in this small, totally relaxed city (that is Laos 2nd largest city.... but it looks like a little town). Ate well. Played games. It was fun. And now we laugh at the hellish ride that at first made us laugh and then later all wanted to rage, cry, plead, pout or whatever.... anyways, now it's just a good memory.

Look both ways before crossing the road, yo!

2007-12-10T19:02:00.000-08:00

I left off in Hanoi, Vietnam, last time I wrote. I want to try and express the scariness as well as thrill of crossing the road there. This is a city where the traffic didn't stop until late at night (midnight to be exact, because at that time everything in the country literally shuts down and the streets are empty, all except for the street cleaners and rats.) Anyways, the traffic doesn't stop for you.... really, it doesn't stop. It may slow down if it has to... but it won't stop. So, you have one option: walk out into anywhere from 4-8 lanes of traffic that is rushing by you and at you. You do this one step at a time, keeping eye contact with the drivers that are heading straight for you and they start to swerve around you. Take another step, and another, and before you know it you are now standing in the middle of a road with traffic rushing by you on both sides, heart pounding, palms sweaty, keeping your eyes on all of them all at once, and you must continue to baby step it all the way across the road.

Good Morning Vietnam! Not without incident it wasn't.

2007-11-19T20:06:00.000-08:00

Living it up in Hanoi Vietnam, the country's capital. We've been here for a few days now, but we had a few problems along the way. Kristy accidentally left her purse in a bathroom and got her wallet, camera and passport stolen in Malaysia. She and my brother rushed around to get a temporary passport for her, so she could make her flight to Vietnam.

Just 6 hours before we were all set to fly we were in the hotel room in KL when my little brother, Vonn, got severe diarrhea paired with harsh vomitting. We made it to the airport for 4 am, Vonn with a bag in hand the whole time, using it once in the cab.

Check in.

I then look around for Vonn, as we come to the realization that if anyone catches on to the fact that he is so sick he will be detained and quarantined upon arrival in Vietnam. Where do I find Vonn? Throwing up into a bag in the middle of the airport. Poor guy. Anyways, we tell him that he must try to keep his sickness on the down low as much as possible... he made it through security on all ends without question.

The airline we were with didn't assign seats. So, we stood in line early to ensure that we are first to board and get our seats together. A Vietnamese lady managed to butt her way in front of us. Pretending to look at something outside and then asking the desk a question about her ticket, next thing we know, she's in front of us. She takes her friend's bag and holds it, as they exchange a wink and a smile and her friend stays behind us. Well, we weren't gonna take it.

The doors open and this 50 year old woman breaks into a short sprint! and then she slows down. We (all 4 of us, except Vonn) start running past her. She starts running again and we are in a full out race to the airplane. Vonn is watching from behind and about a dozen other people start running too. We come to an airline stewardess who tells us to stay inside the painted lines. Running past her, we do. We get to the stairs of the plane, out of breath and tired and the woman is still trying to sneak past us along the railing, up the stairs. Jay puts his elbow out and we form a solid block, not letting anyone by us. Upon boarding the plane, the stewardess greeting us says, "got your morning exercise, did you?" We sat down, laughing hysterically and got strange looks from the others boarding. The woman we were racing was smiling as she boarded and the plane was only 2/3 full in the end.

We arrived in Hanoi that morning at around 9 am. We took a taxi, specifically asking to go to a certain hostel. The man at the airport who set us up with this taxi was in a big rush to get us in to the car and on our way.. a little suspicious, but we weren't sure what to make of it. Anyways, the taxi driver took and made about 15 phone calls on his cell phone and then takes us to "our place". We arrive and 2 guys open the door, poke their heads in the cab, show us a business card with the hostel name on it and tell us it's full, but they have another suggestion.

Jay knew they were lying right away. We get out of the car and quickly realized (regardless of the lies these two guys were telling us) that we were not where we asked to get dropped off... in fact we weren't even on the map of our lonely planet guide. The cab driver was long gone. The 2 guys proceeded to assure us that we were at the right place and to please come into their travel agency. We told them to get out of our faces and walked away... finally our harshness made them back off, as they were following us down the road a bit, still trying to convince us.

Vonn was being a super trooper, not even complaining (had to throw that in). We walked for about 30 minutes and finally found the area and place we were looking for. On their wall it says "Beware of people who pretend to be with our hotel. They will steal your money, like they stole our name." They didn't have room for all 5 of us, we found other places with in 1 minute walking distance and we were so happy to be safe and sound. I will write more later about what this place is like. This entry is probably long and entertaining enough for now.

p.s. Vonn is feeling much better and has been for a few days now. :)

Brother Vonn's post

2007-11-15T06:36:00.000-08:00

Here is something that my brother wrote on his Facebook acct. about the last few days here. I thought that it encapsulated things quite nicely. So, instead of writing my own post this time, I figured I would just post his words instead... also to give you the view of one of my fellow travel partners.

"Howdy Y'all! I'm now in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. Although, all the cool people call it KL so I'll refer to it as such from now on. When I last informed you all, I was in this city with a very long name that I have since forgotten. I remained there for another day or so. We went and checked out this temple that was well over 1000 years old. It was pretty cool. After that we went and saw this shadow puppet show. This guy is apparently the most well known shadow puppeteer in southern Thailand. He's even performed for the king. We took a tour through his museum and then watched a short play.

The next day, we, Amie, Dan and myself, parted ways from Jason and Kristy for a short while. We took a bus down to Hat Yai, a sort of border town. Our plan was to catch the 2:50 train to KL, having the bus arrive at the train station at 1:00. To our extreme disappointment and aggravation, our bus didn't take an hour to get to Hat Yai like it was supposed to, it was more like three. We couldn't buy tickets for beds on the train until the next day so we were stuck in Hat Yai for one night without anything to do. Alas, we wandered around for a bit and discovered this bar that it turns out Lonely Planet recommended for having live music. It was really cool to see a Thai band do covers of songs such as: Layla, Stairway to Heaven, and Hotel California, along with many others.

The next day, Amie and Dan went to the train station first thing to get some sleeper car tickets but they were all sold out! This meant that was had to go through a 17 hour train ride in slightly reclining seats. This however was not as bad as it could have been. The seat next to me remained empty the whole time and the train cleared out by the time we were getting tired so we each had a pair of seats to try and get comfortable in.

17 hours later, we were in KL. We decided to stay in the China Town here, which is a beehive of activity. There's other travelers all around as well as street vendors trying to peddle their wares. You can't go 2 steps without someone offering you watches, DVDs, bags, or clothes. Everyone calls me "friend" here. I've never felt so popular. Also, with the shops repeating every 20 feet or so, you don't need to bother going back to look at something that caught your eye. You just have to wait until the next "Official" Rolex store comes up. We walked around this city and it really is quite beautiful. The Mosques are gorgeous and the more modern buildings are interesting too. We checked out the Twin Towers and soaked in a movie in the mall at their base. They are breathtaking when they're lit up at night.

We've found this very nice Reggae bar. It's a chillin' atmosphere with friendly peoples. For instance, last night we were drinking with a corporal from the Australian army, a student from Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Ambassador's son. It was definitely a cool experience.

I believe that's all for now.
Y'all take care now, y'hear?!"

Thailand...

2007-11-11T04:15:00.000-08:00

Hi, so, we will be leaving Thailand tomorrow afternoon. We're in Hat Yai now, 53 km from the Malaysian border. Dan, Vonn and I are together and Jason and Kristy have branched off to have a few days on their own. They will meet us in Malaysia in a few days.

Thailand was a unique experience full of excitment, fear , joy and laughter. I have made some observations as I have travelled around here that I will share.

Scenic - it's a panoramic beauty! A very lush, green, lively, beautiful country. The seaside is gorgeous as is the mainland. I look around all the time and think about how pretty it all is.

Dogs- lots! no leashes. hungry. diseased. looking for food and love. sad. They scare me.

Food- delicious! currys. coconut. rice. noodles. pineapple. etc. cheap!

Bugs- plenty. I'm all bitten up. Mostly mosquitos and some spiders bites too (I think).

Housing- lots of shacks and huts. broken down houses. old wood. rusting metal roofs. in need of repair.

Cows- walking freely along the roads/highways. Munching on grass. lots of cows.

Motorcycles - everywhere! no helmets. familys of 3 fitting on one bike. toddlers and/ or dogs standing in the front.

Vendors- tonnes! selling anything from sausages, fresh fruit, freshly squeezed orange juice, banana pancakes, pad thai....

Power outtages- frequent on the islands.

Toilets- lots of squatters. bring your own toilet paper or wash off with the bucket of water next to the toilet. pour water down the toilet to flush it, from the bucket. don't put tp down there!

King- highly worshipped here. You can spend time in jail if you make a joke about the king. pictures him everywhere. people wearing yellow shirts and bracelets to show support. They truly love him here.

Poverty- lots. You are a walking money machine and they know it.

There is a lot more and perhaps my observations seem like sterotypes... but it is what I have noticed as I have travelled down South from Bangkok.

Next stop, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Burning skipping ropes aren't as cool as they look, but they make for a good story.

2007-11-09T21:15:00.000-08:00

I decided to jump into a spinning, burning rope on the beach the other night. I thought it was going to be a cool thing to do. A blast from the past... the days when I used to skip on the streets with my little friends. The strange thing is that I was never good at that kind of skipping back then. Yet, somehow I decided that on this night I could do it and I could do it while being intoxicated and while the rope was, yes, on fire.

Counting down from "3,2,1 Go!" Jason standing behind me, counting with me, ready to jump in with me... but he didn't follow. I was in the center of the spinning firey rope, I turned to see if Jay had followed and the next thing I knew the rope hit my left foot, knocking me down. In the process I managed to twist/sprain my right foot and burn my left foot.... ouch. I lay there scared that the rope would continue turning and whack me again, but it stopped. I was laughing very hard... unaware of my injuries and looking into Jay's laughing face. I got up and hobbled out of there.

The injuries are healing nicely and I laugh everytime I think of the incident. Just thought I would share it with you.

Freaky deaky GIANT spidey!!

2007-11-08T19:56:00.000-08:00

Yeah, so there was a spider in our bathroom last night that was a little bigger than the span of my hand. Dan tried to kill it and missed. The power was out and we only had a small tea light as our light. We slammed the door after the spider got away from Dan and then realized that the candle was still burning on the plastic ledge in the bathroom.... we had no choice but to go back in.

So, with our shoes on this time and shoes in each hand we decided to creep in. Spidey was sitting in the corner behind the door... waiting. I went to get closer and the spider jumped from one wall to another. OH GOD!! It jumped! Anyways, we slammed the door and were still stuck with the same problem. So, again, we opened the door... grabbed the candle and our belongings, not daring to look behind the door and slammed the door again and then Dan escorted me outside to pee in a bush. PHEW!

Monsoon, please end soon!

2007-11-07T01:54:00.001-08:00

Yeah, so it's monsoon season in Thailand and Malaysia... and that's where we are now and where we're heading soon. Boooooooo. We have had nice weather up until yesterday. Since yesterday it has been pouring almost steadily.

After leaving crazy Bangkok behind we took a 10 hour, (supposed to be 7 hour), middle of the night, 3rd class train ride to the place where we took a ferry to a small island called Kho Tao. The train ride was tough to sit through due to the discomfort of the upright, half broken seats, sore bums from sitting on the hard seats, bumpy ride, etc. People were sleeping on newspapers on the floors and we were very tired and uncomfortable, overall.

When we got to the island, we found beach some huts nestled in the palm forest, near the ocean front with our own private beach and spent 3 days there. It rained at night and was sunny in the day. Our bathrooms were wooden floors with huge spaces between each slat. The toilet flushed out under the raised huts and our back yards were literally our latrines. Smellllly. The grounds were amazing and tropical and lush. The water was warm to swim in and a bluey green.

Now we are on another island and re-thinking our travel plans, seriously taking the weather in to consideration. It's gonna rain here for days to come and we want sun!

Bangkok- culture shock

2007-11-01T00:24:00.000-07:00

Hey! So, after the craziest week of my life (finishing everything at work, report cards, marking tests, prepping and throwing a huge Halloween party at school, packing, cleaning, entertaining house guests, etc), we're now here in Thailand. Got here yesterday night, late. The cab driver was falling asleep while driving us into Bangkok. We were trying to talk to him, get him to turn up the music, coughing loudly, etc. So, we made it here safely.

We're (by we I mean my 2 brothers, Jason and Vonn, Jason's girlfriend and Dan, my boyfriend) are staying in a guest house in a back packers zone called Khao San.

Khao San Road

Last night I felt a little scared to walk around. There were all sorts of people everywhere. Garbage filled the streets, pee smells filled my nostrils. It was Halloween, so along with my strange new surroundings, which resemble nothing of where I have been living for the last year (small town Korea), there were people with costumes and make up on. Bleeding eyes, and battle scars painted on their faces, masks and other things. So, it was a little unnerving. In any case, we found our place tucked away down a random alley. 5 of us slept on 2 beds, more comfortably than you would think.

The shower in our room is cold but refreshing. The food is so unbelievably delicious! Things are going really good so far. It's very cheap to be here.

Chusok - the biggest holiday in Korea!

2007-10-13T18:07:00.000-07:00

Chusok is Korea's biggest holiday and it is comparable to our Thanksgiving. 4 of my friends and I went to an island off of the East coast of S.Korea for this long weekend holiday. It is an extinct volcanic island and it's landscape is dramatic and beautiful.

The ride out was on a bumpy passenger ferry, after an all night bus ride to the coast. The ferry had to go over 2 meter waves and this did not happen without incident. Dan, Mike, Michelle and I all took travel pills and either relaxed or slept most of the way and when I finally got up to go to the bathroom, I found our friend Linda and about 20 other people laid out in the galley and bathrooms moaning and puking into little blue bags. But none moaned as much as what I referred to as The Banshee! She was in the girls bathroom, on the floor, with a bag full of puke moaning like I have never heard before... it freaked me out as I sat there peeing. "Ahhhhh... Moaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa .... eeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...." etc. Anyways, poor Linda spent her 4 hour ride surrounded in this. One would start to hurl and they'd all be hurling. All with the Banshee calling out to them in the distance. Anyways, here are some pics from the trip

The gang- L to R - Me, Dan, Linda, Mike and Michelle. We were at the ferry port.

A cool looking rock face. The water is actually really bright greeny blue, but my pics didn't capture it.
They call this "Elephant Rock", do you know why?

This tree was pretty rad, and it was still alive!! We saw this on a big hike that we did.

We had fun with the giant reflection pics for a bit. I think it's neat.

I went bridge jumping. It doesn't look very far down, but it sure felt like it was. I was scared...heart pounding. But the water was nice and I was happy that I did it, after it was done.

Pretty view... of the landscape I mean, ;)

I thought this rock looked like an animal howling at the moon... cool, hey?

A shot from the ferry of the town we stayed in.

A sculpture we came across, nestled in the mountains.

Squid fishing boats. They go out at night and turn on their bright lights to attract the squid. At night you can see many lights out at sea and in the morning they come back to the harbor and clean and hang the squid to dry. Squid is the islands main industry.

Hundreds of squid were hanging like this all over the harbor.

Dan and I after a small hike.

We had a lot of fun, as we always do together. We went on a 984 m elevated hike to the top of a mountain, bridge jumping, strolling, we went on a cable car ride, on a tour of the island, we played cards, drank beer, ate some good food, met some nice people (one who had a striking resemblance to Emma Watson... aka Hermione in the Harry Potter movies), needless to say, I kind of secretly stalked her all weekend long... what? I had to!! It was Emma.... oh Emma, where are you now?

My sweetheart!

2007-09-27T02:19:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to give my sweetheart some attention and credit for being so good to me! He's really special and wonderful! Awwww... isn't he adorable! :)

Climb that mountain!

2007-09-10T07:13:00.000-07:00

Climb that mountain? Did he just say that mountain right there? The gigantic one? To the top? Heh heh... he said to the top, but he couldn't have meant all the way to the top. It's huge and the top few hundred meters is just a face of stone, shooting straight down. Heh heh... phew, I thought he meant to the top top.

Well, it turns out the tour guide said what he meant and meant what he said. The goal was to climb to the very top of that mountain and sit on the flat top and look out onto the East sea off in the distance and the mountain tops all around us.

It was a cool day, compared to what we had just survived all summer. The breeze kept blowing the whole afternoon and we made our way into the forest at around 1:30 pm. The hike started out as a slow assent, continually growing into what would become a steep climb requiring me to use both hands and as well as my legs to get up over these big rocks.

A steady climb going up and up and up for about an hour and a half. Feeling my blood pressure rising, head feeling explosive. Is this what a person feels before they have a stroke? I think I need a break... yeah, I definitely need to sit down before I fall down. My face a deep shade of red. Breathe... drink... breathe... Ahhh, that's better. Much better. Let's continue on. Don't worry about your sore legs, you can do it. Just do it! You'll feel so proud at the top.

Finally! The top! Yesssss.... I knew we weren't gonna go all the way to the top top. Just to this here plateau type area. This is practically the top. WHAT? Stairs? How many? 800??? Oh noooooooo..... my legs are going to turn to jello right before my eyes. EIGHT HUNDRED STAIRS! Steep ones too.

Oh man... I need to sit down. Sit. Breathe. Drink. Think. My sweetie, by my side, telling me that I can do it. My friends calling me on, telling me I can do it. Yeah, I can do it. I have to! I didn't come this far to sit at the bottom of some stairs. So, I climb. Red faced, sweaty, a little dizzy, thirsty but feeling like I am doing a really good thing here. This will not be something I will regret. I will regret not reaching the top, however. Climb, step step step... breathe, drink, breathe.... ouch!! My legs!!

800 stairs and a total of over 800 meters in height climbed, I have finally reached the top! Wooo hooo! And it's beautiful. I sit on top of the second highest mountain in the country and look in amazement and breathe. The sea on one side and mountains and forest on the other.

And then, the descent. All the way back down. Legs shaking, involuntarily moving quicker than I want them to at some points because I am not strong enough to control them at this point.... ouch. But it sure felt good being at the top. Wow.

Johnny Appleseed

2007-09-03T16:21:00.000-07:00

So, I have a group of kids whose English skills are of a higher level (at least compared to what I normally teach, which is the alphabet, reading and basic expressions). I can have simple, but meaningful conversations with these kids, which I have to say is so enjoyable and relaxing for me. We did a play with this group of kids called Johnny Appleseed. Here are some pics from it.

The crew just after they had finished doing the play, which went really well, by the way.

The set that Linda (my friend and co-teacher) and I built.

A group shot, behind the scenes just before starting the play.

Peter (the main character), all freaked out as the kids from other classes piled in to watch the play... he was so cute! Do you like how we had to get the pot to stay on his head?

It ain't easy being a hero, but someone's gotta do it.

2007-08-06T05:58:00.000-07:00

So, to continue on with the Bali trip happenings from the previous blog, we also went white water rafting.

The river was beautiful and warm and a dark shade of green. It was surrounded by jungle and steep walls. Birds constantly chirped, singing as they flew across our path. We hopped out of the raft a few times and floated at a quick speed down river just a bit behind the raft. There were natural stone walls with intricate carvings in them along one part of our journey. People bathing in the river as we passed. Warm breezes and light and fancy free water falls. Hidden caves and blowing palms. Blue skies, sprinkled with clouds.

There were four of us in the raft in total. Dan and I, our guide and this Australian woman who had broken up with her boyfriend on their trip to Bali and had spent the previous 3 days crying in a hotel room. She decided that it would be a good idea to try rafting for the first time ever. Well, wouldn't you know it, she got dumped out of the raft on some steep rapids, along with our guide!! Ahhhhh!! Yes, the rapids got the better of our guide too. As he got tossed out of the raft he and I locked eyes and all I saw in his was fear. So, the next thing I know, it's just Dan and I in the raft, taking a moment to comprehend it, we looked around wildly, grabbing our barrings. Next thoughts, "Oh shit! What the hell! Our guide is gone and we're all alone! We have to get them back in here. Ahhhhhhh!!!"

So, I run to the back of the raft and start to paddle backwards, to try and slow the speed of the raft down and Dan was also paddling hard to try and reach them. As more rapids were fast approaching, we managed to slow down a bit and the guide caught up to us. Dan was assisting him as I reached out and grabbed the lady's paddle and pulled her in towards the raft. Dan lifted her into the raft and then, phew, everything was under control again. It ain't easy saving lives and being a hero, but someone's gotta do it.
The lady gazed into my eyes for the remainder of the day, telling me how happy she was that I grabbed her paddle. I kinda thought that maybe she fell in love with me or thought I was a real angel from heaven the way she kept looking at me... seriously.... anyways, like I said, it ain't easy being a hero, but someone's gotta do it.

Balicious

2007-08-03T06:13:00.000-07:00

I am in Bali right now and it is simply delicious! Dan and I have been here for one week and we leave tomorrow night. We have had a busy, action packed, and yet relaxing, vacation.

Breakfast is free every morning here at the hotel. We start our day with scrambled eggs, toast, tomato, fried mushrooms, orange juice and coffee. Then we either go relax for a bit, wander to the beach, do a little shopping, have a massage (only 5 bucks!) or head to one of our planned activities.

The pic above is Rosa and Audrey, all ready to give us massages. What they do here is give you a massage and then guilt you in to going into their store to buy something. The purchase of an overpriced t shirt or purse is where they really make their money.

We saw a traditional Balinese dance of their version of the Romeo and Juliet story called Ramayana as well as a Fire Dance. There were men chanting out songs throughout with their hands raised above them, as they sat cross legged in a huge circle, in rows of 3 men deep as a dance took place in the middle of their circle. The final performance was a man dancing in fire and coals, which was pretty wild. All the while there were bats swooping in and out of sight. Very neat.

We also went and saw a few different temples. They are very religious here and they follow the Hindu religion. Both temples were great, but my personal favorite was the one on the beach.

We went to a monkey forest, which was at another temple in the forest. This is where about 200 monkeys live, by choice. They don't ever leave the comfort of the proximity of the temple. Here the monkeys climbed on us. We fed them. Saw a few babies. One baby had just been born that morning.... awww he was the cutest! One monkey bore it's teeth at us and hissed. Overall they were really cute and friendly.

There is more to tell, but this is all I will include for now. We are flying home tomorrow night, but there is a typhoon sweeping through Japan right now and we are supposed to land there to transfer... so I dunno if there are still flights going out or what. More soon!

Mud Fest... I've never been so muddy in my life.

2007-07-28T21:17:00.001-07:00

Mudddddyyyy times! We, Dan and I and 5 of our friends here, went to mud fest, Korea's biggest festival, last weekend. There is a huge natural mud beach, that has goopy, thick, slimy, gray, nutritious mud! People get covered in the stuff from head to toe, either just for the fun of it, or because it has anti aging, 'good for your skin' stuff in it. We first went to the mud beach and rolled around in the stuff, had it clumped on top of our heads, squished between our toes, accidentally, or in Dan's case, not so accidentally, rubbed into our eyes. He wanted to prove to me that it isn't so bad having a little mud right on the eyelid, or near the old eye, cause he accidentally rubbed some into my eye. So he took a handful of mud and told me to watch and he rubbed it all over one of his eyelids, then attempted to open his eye and said, "ohhh, I can't see!!" It was pretty hilarious!

Dan and I after we painted ourselves with mud!

The 7 of us, who went on the trip. Left to right - Leah, Linda, Dan Fitz, Michelle, Mike, me and Dan, my honey! These were the outfits we wore when going to the mud beach... when we came off the beach we were literally covered in thick gray mud. It was loaded into my hair, all over my whole body, including my face. We were so muddy that no one was able to get my camera to capture it, sadly.

Mud bath. This mud was hauled to the sand beach from the mud beach for the festival.

The natural mud beach and some things to jump on and crawl through.

Anyways, there was mud fights, chicken fights, mud wrestling, a drill where we had to crawl, run, jump over things etc. with this Korean man yelling at us to go faster. Then once it was all finished we went up to this water truck and got hosed down by freezing cold water with the drill Sargent holding the hose in hand, taking way to much pleasure in hosing us down.

Once that was finished the bus took us to the beach town where we checked into our room and then we went to the sand beach, painted ourselves with mud (see pic directly above and the first one of Dan and I) and hung out, listening to live music that was playing off a big stage on the beach. We also went swimming, strolled the beach, watched the fireworks, listened to a guy with his guitar singing songs on the beach, we sang along too for some of them. It was pretty awesome!

You down with DMZ? Ya, you know me! You down with DMZ? Ya, you know me!

2007-07-25T16:05:00.000-07:00

Dan's cousin Joanna was here with her hubby, Eugene, a few weeks ago. They stayed with us for a few days and we went to the DMZ. For those who don't know what the DMZ is, it's the demilitarized zone that lies between North and South Korea. See pics and explanations below.

Dan and his cousins, striking a pose at a park we went to. Pretty fabulous, if I do say so.
A North Korean city with the world's biggest flag flying over it. It's a 600 pound flag. Anyways, this city isn't even a real city, it's just an illusion, set up by the Korean government, to trick the North Koreans into thinking that there are people living that close to the South Korean border. The UN and US soldiers call it Propaganda Village. It's buildings are all empty, as are the streets. Although, a small group of people cleaning and turning on lights reside within the village.

Our tour guide. He is surrounded by North Korea on 3 out of 4 sides of himself. There are also active mine fields just off to his left.

Inside the DMZ, near the western coast of the peninsula, is a place called Panmunjeom, home of the Joint Security Area; it is the only place where North and South connect. You can see the one soldier half behind a building and half exposed. This is a safety measure, in case the North Koreans ever started shooting, he could quickly duck behind the wall.

This is the actual border. The pebbled side is South Korea and the dirt side is the North. Notice that I took the shot from the North Korean side... cause I was in North Korea!!!

Dan and I standing next to a rock soldier. His fists tightly clenched, always. The door behind him leads right onto North Korean soil. He is guarding that door. He was like a rock... I guess that's where they get their names, hmm... interesting.... anyways, standing next to him it felt like there was a force field around him, like he was solid and unmovable. It's hard to explain, but it was certainly noticible.

Dan in the 3rd tunnel. This is one of four tunnels that the North Koreans were secretly digging in an attempt to sneak into South Korea. We walked down into it, at a steep, constant descent and I secretly took pics. They didn't turn out very good, cause I couldn't use my flash. Anyways, it's really just a tunnel, but it was still neat walking around in it. This picture is near the entrance, later on the walls get jagged, rocky and really wet.

And this concludes the trip to the DMZ. :)

Zoos are sad, but this one was the worst!

2007-07-14T16:30:00.000-07:00

I went to the zoo on Thursday with my little kids, for a field trip. I already think zoos are really depressing, but I have to say that this was the saddest zoo I have ever seen. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's neat to see exotic animals up close, but I would rather watch the nature channel than see these poor things chained up or caged in the way they were. Anyways, you are probably wondering why I am bothering to show you these sad pics... but maybe if we all become aware of the sadness, then we will stop going to the zoo and stop supporting these terrible living conditions for the helpless animals.

This poor ape just sat in his empty cage reaching out for me to hold his hand, staring into my soul.
This orangutan at least got to be out of his cage. His job is to sit and pose for pictures with patrons of the zoo. He's really cute, and although he does at least get some stimulation, I still feel bad for him.
These monkeys were doing tricks for us... jumping, rolling, bowing... etc. that's no life for a monkey!
Deer caged in.
A lion caged up in a small area. He sat there and growled at us.
A bull in a small pen.
Sad lama... all penned up too.
A monkey staring into my eyes... I swear he was pleading for help. Look at his cage!! There is nothing stimulating in there and it's so small!! Poor animals.

Anyways, that was my trip to the zoo. I tried to have fun, cause I was with all the kids and I didn't want to be a downer. It was exciting to see them get so excited about the animals. Like I said, it's neat to see animals that I rarely get to see. But at the expense of their quality of life, I don't think it's worth it. I kept pointing out to my kids how sad it all was.

I would say to them, "Look at the lion (or deer, or monkey... or bull, etc), he's so sad."
"Why teacher? Why sad?"
"Because, he's so big and he should be running around and playing, but he's is stuck here. Wouldn't you be sad if you were in there?"
"Yes, teacher".

I want to live in a beach town!

2007-07-03T04:24:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago some friends of mine (Mike, Michelle, Linda and of course, Dan) went to Busan. It's a coastal city on the Southern tip of South Korea. We took a train there from Seoul. We were only there for one night, but it was so much fun and it only confirmed how much I love the ocean and seeing new places!

We hung out at the beach and went swimming. We watched people throw each other into the water and bury each other in the sand. There was a fashion show dress rehearsal on the beach all day and the real show was later that night. We went to a really great aquarium later in the afternoon, with the coolest sea creatures!! We ate at good restaurants all weekend and had some amazing Indian food on the Saturday night! We went on bumper cars and strolled the boardwalk at night. It was only a weekend, but felt like a real holiday!

A view down a really nice beach in town, just after sunset.

We were enjoying some early afternoon mudslides before hitting the beach. Left to right- Me, Michelle and Linda.

We went to an aquarium that was situated on the beach. We really liked this fish, so I pretended to kiss him, naturally. There were sooo many other cool fish there too, especially the jelly fish!

My good friend Linda, whom I call "Linder". She got a little sandy there on the beach, it was amusing to just watch her be so full of sand.

Cuddling up on the beach with my sweetie.

Us doing what we do best, laying around.

A giant turtle going up for air, amidst the shark infested tank.

Check out those shark teeth! We got to walk through this cool glass tube. There were sharks swimming over us and all around us! I kept having flashes of how screwed we be if the glass broke... or if I somehow got into that tank.

Sigh... what a great weekend!

This just in! beep- beep beep beep - beep - beep beep beep beeeep - Pee Socks strikes again!

2007-06-21T06:57:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's right folks! Just when you thought it wasn't possible, Pee Socks struck again!
She peed her little self today at school, during art class! How does she do it you ask? We just don't know the answer to that question at this time. Why doesn't her mother send a change of clothes to school for her you ask? Again... we really don't know the answer to that one. After her 3rd incident of peeing her skirt and socks, we can only hope that she will have a spare change of clothes for next time, should this happen again.

In other news, it is with great sadness that I bring you this information. Pee Socks is being moved to another class. Her skills are not as high as her classmates (mostly due to the fact that she isn't even 5 years old yet and her class mates are all 5 going on 6 years old). Keep in mind all this age stuff is in Canadian years. According to Korean years, they are all 6 years old. Anyways, she isn't going to be in my class anymore and I am really really sad about this. She is pretty much the sweetest, cutest little girl I have ever met and I will really really miss her. Although I will still see her in the hallways, but I won't be teaching her anymore... waaaaaa....

Pee on little one, pee on. xoxo

yo! What ya eatin' over there?!

2007-06-16T09:24:00.000-07:00

I'll tell you what! Here are some pics of the food that I've been chowin' down on. Also, if you click on my "osaka photos" link you will find 6 more pics at the top. I tried to make my own album for the food, but I couldn't figure it out.

Aiin's World

2007-06-14T06:26:00.000-07:00

We went on a little day trip with the small kiddies to a place called Aiin's World in a nearby city. They have tonnes of monuments, cathedrals and world famous places and wonders there, all scaled down to miniature size. Still, bigger than I am, but much smaller than the real deals that they are replicating. They had the Pyramids and Sphynx of Egypt, the Taj Mahal, Great Wall of China, New York City, the Kennedy Space Center, the Arc Du Triumph, the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Opera House from Sydney, Australia, Ludwig's castle from Germany, the Vatican City, the Colosseum, the Louvre, the Notre Dame, all sorts of famous churches and temples and palaces, bridges, squares and I could just go on for quite a while here. Anyways, it was so neat to see all these places so small. Here are a few pics for your viewing pleasure! :)

Me and my class in front of the Vatican. New York's skyline is in the background.

A view of some of the Cathedrals from atop the Colosseum.

Russia's Red Square.

New York's skyline. Note: twin towers and King Kong!! He would moan and groan down at us, it was pretty cool.

Freak show!

2007-06-12T02:14:00.000-07:00

Today was the last of my classroom observations! All of May the kid's parents came in to observe our classes... talk about stresssssful!
So, today was my last one and it was my morning kids... the little ones.

How did it go, you ask? They were buck wild! Most of them anyways. There were 10 parents and 10 kids. Some of the kids were shouting and running up to the story book I was reading with them and licking the pages (cause there were hot dogs in the story). They were climbing up on the chairs while we were playing "I spy with my little eye" and dangerously reaching to point at certain objects. So, I was running around in circles telling them to stay off the chairs, lifting them down every few minutes. This one kid kept shouting out all sorts of nonsense, interrupting me and causing a scene and then he started saying, "Amie teacher is booby teacher! I can see your boobies!" Oh, shame! I just kinda looked at the parents and at him putting the book up to my chest saying, "Don't say that!" Yeah... so that was how I spent my morning.

Tae Kwon Do! It rocks and we rock!

2007-05-23T07:25:00.000-07:00

So, we went to a Tae Kwon Do performance in Seoul last weekend. These crazy people were jumping heights that were twice their own! Kicking wooden boards in half! I heard "Hiiii Yaaa" and "eeee ughhhhhhhh!" and "YA!" from the black belts just as they were in the midst of their sweet moves. There was also some traditional drumming that went on before and during the performance and there were dancers too!

Then, Dan and I took lessons and did some pretty sweet moves. Please see pics, but don't judge us, as we are still pretty new at this whole "Tae Kwon Do" thing.

My momma is gone, :(

2007-05-21T04:59:00.000-07:00

My mom came to visit for 2 weeks and it was so nice to see her. We had a lot of fun. She left today and now I am sad. Her room looks so empty and all I can say is that I feel really sad today. Here are some pics of us while she was here.

The big trip!

2007-05-17T05:17:00.000-07:00

So, the boss man took us all on a kick ass excursion this past weekend. We (most of the people I work with and some of their kids and my mom) all piled into 2 SLP yellow buses and took off to Hantan River (a 2 hour drive from my place). We watched Spider Man 3 on the bus and stopped off for lunch at this restaurant that you take off your shoes and sit on the floor for. There were huge windows everywhere and the view was amazing! The river far below us, embedded in what I would call a canyon. Green, lush vegetation all around. Soft edged stone walls. Dan and I ate Kimchi soup and it was about the spiciest thing I have eaten in Korea, and that is saying something.

Next we drove 10 more minutes to the white water rafting area. We got suited up with our life jackets, helmets and paddles and hopped on a big bus and went down, closer to the river. It poured rain the whole time and there was even lightening and thunder at some points. We had to scale up and down big rocks along the shore lines at some points, because the river was too low for us to make it over the rapids. My poor mom had quite a time dealing with the slippery, rocky, dramatic landscape. Especially wearing flip flops! But we all helped each other and it was really some nice, considerate team work.

We had to cross some shallow rapids by foot, which was interesting. My friend Linda lost her step and fell in... luckily they were only shin deep. My mom almost lost her shoe, but Dan caught it. We spent a lot of the time jumping up and down in the raft, moving from one side of it to another, to get off the rocks we were getting hung up on. A few people fell in the water. This is because the guides got people to stand on the edge of the raft and jump around or have competitions where they try and push the other one off and then the guide would just push both people off the raft. In the end, whether you fell off or not, everyone was soaked!

Then we went to the resort, which overlooked the canyon and the river and was also surrounded by rice patties. We had a dinner, which was bbq pork and a pile of traditional Korean side dishes, all you can eat. We had all you can drink beer and soju (a hard alcohol) and then moved it into the Noribong tent. Noribong is pretty much Kareoke, but you get your own private room. There we sang and drank into the night. We had people dancing on tables. Other's pretending to video tape it all with gigantic bottles of beer on their shoulders, as though they were cameras. Then we went back to the Korean's room and played spin the bottle and if it landed on you, you had to get up and sing something, or do some kind of performance. Some of them were doing Tae Kwon Do kicks, others were singing. This is my boss on the table in this pic.

The next day we had a hearty breakfast of rice, fish soup, kimchi and a few other side dishes (I would have preferred a bowl of cereal). On the way home we stopped at an archaeological site and checked out some huts and gardens and went home.

It was a super rad trip!!

Happy Children's Day!

2007-05-06T00:28:00.000-07:00

So, it was Children's Day last Saturday, here in Korea. We, at the school, celebrated it on the previous Friday. We had 500 helium balloons brought in. There were tonnes of activities planned out for the kids. I was at the face painting booth. I painted flowers, hearts, spiders, stars, dinosaurs, cars and butterflies. It was so much fun. I have never seen those kids sit so still! Their little eyes would try and look off to one direction if there was a commotion off somewhere. But they held their heads so still.

Anyways, I spent the week making the backdrop for the photo booth. The kids all took class photos in front of it. It was a lot of work, but once it was all hung up, it looked pretty good. I hope they keep it hung up for a long time! See Pics.

Me to a tree and back again

2007-04-24T02:06:00.000-07:00

Anxiety fills my chest.
Why have you come to linger here today?
Once in a while it comes to visit me,
it doesn’t stay,
too long,
but it is an annoyance, nonetheless.

Things appear to be great.
My courtyard is sprinkled with cherry blossoms.
A gust of wind creates a snowfall of petals.

I walk by the same smiley, old man every day.
He stands at his bus stop as I head off to work.
Stepping out to meet me on the sidewalk,
he looks at me head on and smiles.
We smile and give a slight bow.
High Five! Slap!
Or a gentle handshake some days as I walk on by.
I don’t stop to say hi,
I just keep moving, smiling too now.

A warm breeze blows and in comes the yellow dust with it.
How bad is that stuff anyways?
Some days I can see the small mountains in the distance, oh so clearly.
And other days it is a misty mystery as to what lies down yonder.

I walk by the purple budding flowers,
snap,
take a picture, it will last longer.
So, I do.

Babies breath... is that babies breath I see?
No, no I don’t think so... but I thought so.
Do babies breathes smell as sweet as that flower looks?
I think their breath smells more like sour milk, mixed with magic babiness that makes it smell sweeter than you would imagine.
Or it really smells like sour milk and baby cookies.

The grasshoppers have started rubbing and humming again,
I can hear them at night when I am out and about.
It makes me think of France or other places,
it makes me feel like I am on vacation.
Sometimes I think I am on vacation.

How does a person go back to their old life,
after living this life here?
What is my old life? What is this life?
What is real and what is part of the “vacation”?

I look forward to the weekends here like I never have before.
What will I look forward to in the future?
I suppose I could keep focusing on the little, beautiful things that are all around me.

I have meaningful interactions with people everyday here.
I believe that I have taken them for granted some days.
I try to constantly appreciate everything that goes on around me.

Like the smiley, old man.
Or, my children, who look up to me and some days I feel things for them that are not very nice... and I don’t know why I feel this way.
I am here to teach them and some days I think that they made me come here and teach them... and I will resent them for that, because some days I don’t like my job and it’s not fair to them.
I don’t know how much of me they see when I am feeling this way,
I always try to mask it, at least for the most part.

But when I think about them in moments like these,
I feel genuine appreciation and I would even go so far as to say, a certain type of love for them.

I buy milk from the same man every day.
He speaks English and we talk a little here and there,
usually about the same old things.
But as I approach his store, I get excited to go in and say hi.
And he always kinda chuckles because I am so predictable,
buying the same small milk every day, for my cereal.

My anxiety is gone now... as will be the petals on the blossom trees.

Field trip with the young ones

2007-04-20T06:39:00.000-07:00

Last week we took the little morning kids to a big indoor playground. There were padded floors, an air filled play area, balls to jump in, a trampoline, a huge, complex maze of tunnels to crawl through going left, right, up and down and slides to go down. It was so much fun. I spent a good hour or more chasing a student of mine, Joon Woo, around that place. He was screaming, turning around to see that I was still after him, laughing and just completely over the top, excited! It was hilarious and I had so much fun, maybe even more fun than some of the kids. Check out some of the pics.

My morning class

2007-04-13T23:28:00.000-07:00

These are the kids that I spend Mon-Fri with from 9:40 am - 1:20 pm... it's called Intensive Preschool or IP. I am growing more attached to them as the weeks go by.

Little Pee Socks

2007-04-13T23:19:00.000-07:00

Well, by now, who ever has been reading my blog for the past bit has heard of Pee Socks. My cutie pie student who has had a few accidents. We went on a field trip with the morning kids and I took some pics. Here is a pic of Yoon Young aka Little Pee Socks. Isn't she adorable? Awww...

PARTY ,PARTY, PARTY!

2007-04-07T22:34:00.000-07:00

So, our boss took us all out (like 20 of us or so) to a nearby restaurant/bar on Friday to thank us for being good teachers. The food was non-stop. Just as you were finishing a dish, another would come and be placed down at whatever table the server could find room at. Dan had meat free potato skins and some fries, but other than that, everything had some kind of fish or meat in it. Everyone had small plates and shared whatever dish was laid at their table.

The beer flowed all night and all of us proceeded in drinking our worries away. Our boss (Mr. Kho) and his wife (Stacy) were partying just as hard as we were. Their kids were with us. Julie is their daughter. She is very sweet and is currently one of my students. Most of us there have at one point or another taught her. Her little brother Doo Won (whom I call Mini Kho, cause he is a mini version of Mr. Kho) who is 3.5 years old was also with us for the whole night. A little strange getting drunk in front of a student, but she didn't seem to mind.

After hours of eating and drinking we walked the next block over to a Noribong place (private Kareoke rooms). We sang there for a few hours and danced and played tambourine. Everyone sang at some point. Dan and Dan sang "So Happy Together", which I thought was great, cause they're so funny when they're together. We ended the night with Piano Man. Loved it!

Oh, those cherry blossoms!

2007-04-07T22:16:00.000-07:00

So, we went to the Flower festival in Seoul yesterday. First we walked through a park that was just starting to blossom. There were people on bikes (some on the two person bikes), some were roller blading, while others played basketball.

Then we walked towards the National Assembly building. On the way we found these strange large mirrored boxes on the street and all of these people were taking pictures of themselves in the mirrors... so, of course, we had to do it to.

We then continued on our trek and came across these people who had mad roller blading skills. I took a video and a few pics. They had little pylons set up and were weaving in and out of them while spinning in circles, with music playing out of their ghetto blaster. Their feet looked like rubber as they bent and bounced around the pylons.

Then we walked on the grounds of the National Assembly and there were statues, flowers, water fountains and other pretty things. Following the sound of drums and cymbals we found our way to the festival, which was behind the Assembly building. We went up this hill into a forested area, which then lead us onto a flat area with trees in bloom, people having picnics, playing with their kids, sitting on benches, or laying around on the grass. We played hacky sack there, which was good fun! Two Korean guys stood watching intently and then Dan invited them to play with us... they were so excited every time they kicked the hack. It was cool.

There was a street that ran along the river lined along both sides with hundreds of cherry blossom trees. We made our way down to that road and walked along taking pictures. Along the shore of the river, off in the distance, there was a shack that rented out kites. There were a handful of kites being flown above in the sky. It was a really great day!

Cherry blossom time, just around the corner!

2007-04-05T07:02:00.000-07:00

I am going to a flower festival in Seoul this weekend. Cherry blossoms everywhere, along with a bunch of activities and performances of all sorts. Woo Hoo!

Amie Teacher's random update.

2007-04-04T03:53:00.000-07:00

They all call me Amie Teacher and Dan is Daniel Teacher... even some of our fellow teachers call us that. Dan is called Daniel because we have another Dan at work too... So, not to confuse anyone, they all call him Daniel, except me. :)

So, I just finished my report cards yesterday and Dan finished his today... that was hell. Out of every month at work, about a week of it is me staying for 12 hour days trying to do marking, report card writing and the daily stuff too. But then that crazy week gets finished and then it's time to catch up on everything else I was putting off... lesson plans and prep stuff and the other side jobs that they keep piling on. The supervisor will say to us, "it's only this. It'll only take 2o minutes". Then sure enough, there is something else that comes up.

Total hours worked last month after teaching all day, which 3 of those teaching days are almost 8 hours of teaching- 60 hours. Yes, I said SIXTY. And, no, there is no overtime or bonus pay or even a big thank- you... well... actually the boss is taking us all out for beer and dinner on Friday, which I heard starts at 7 pm, but some teachers (like Dan) aren't finished teaching until 8:40... so, I dunno. But, to be honest, I appreciate the dinner, I do, but I would really prefer to get paid some overtime for all of those extra hours I spent there.

We received some new furniture last weekend from some friends of ours that we work with. See Dan the Man's blog for the details. Pictures of the place with all our delightful furniture are coming soon to a blog near you.

Pee socks- Oops, she did it again! Yes, little pee socks peed her skirt, tights and socks again, today. Did I tell you that I am teaching kids who are 4 years old, but according to Korean years, they call them 6 year olds? Not all of them are four, but none of them are six either. Yes, anyways, this is why they sneeze gobs of snot out onto the table and look to me for help and are still wetting themselves... I try to remind myself of their true age on a daily basis and sometimes a reminder isn't necessary, because you can plainly see their age in their actions. The problem is, I am most often expecting them to behave like proper students, not the little, little, little kids that they are.

But, I am starting to get into their mind frame. I am often down on the ground getting jumped by them at all angles. Roaring at them, tickling them, grabbing their feet as they try to get away... them looking at me and laughing hysterically, coming at me for more, only to run away laughing and screaming when I turn my attention to them. Or I will have anywhere from 1-3 kids on my lap at our morning circle time on the carpet. One will get off me and another will take their place. It can be really fun and they are sweet, for the most part. And they tell me they love me and I say it back (secretly feeling awkward about it... but I don't want to hurt their feelings).

Anyways... that's a little about what's going on here. I saw the first blossoms of Spring yesterday. Purple flowers growing on some trees on my walk to school. The Yellow Dust season is approaching and the people are wearing their face masks more and more. Sometimes the sky looks a tinge of yellow, especially when you look somewhere into the distance. It's pollution that rolls in from China at this time of year. It lasts about a month and it's not good to breath in at all.

Ok, that's long enough, sorry... I hope you are all doing well!
xoxo
Amie

I got my hair cut, ok? So, I took some pictures... so? So, I wanted to show you my lovely locks... ok?!!

2007-03-22T03:45:00.000-07:00

A man in a black sweater with gigantic white rhinestones all over the front of it cut my hair. He sprayed a little bit of water on my puffy hair and combed it out with a fine tooth comb... needless to say I was quite concerned about how it would all pan out. He kept cutting and cutting and not wetting it, other than the initial few sprays. He curled it a bit, with a flat iron of all things! It cost me 10,000 Won, which is about 11 dollars. So, hey, I can't complain.

I wanted to make sure that you guys really understand how nice he did my hair, so I have added some extra pictures for your appreciation.... when I went home and took about ohhh, I'd say 20 odd pictures of myself, it was because I had you people in mind... ok? It's all for you! Do you like my lovely locks? If anyone wants me to send them all 20 pictures, you just say the word man... say it! I dare you! I'll send them!

Little Pee Socks

2007-03-21T06:23:00.000-07:00

Little pee socks... she's so cute... but so full of gas and pee.

A little girl in my morning class (who is 4 and a half years old) is such a cutie. Her name is Yoon Young. She has dimples and big brown eyes. Her tummy is round and her body really little. Her skirt always falls down, cause it slides down her round tummy and then right off her. She wears cool tights, with neat patterns on them. The kids all wear uniforms in the morning classes at the school. Plaid skirts (girls), plaid pants(boys) and matching sweaters and shirts (all). The tights are the biggest thing that differentiate them from each other, clothing wise I mean.

Anyways, how did sweet Yoon Young get the nick name Pee Socks from me you ask? Well, first let me say that I don't call her Pee Socks to her face, only among teachers when I am updating them on the latest incident. So, there she stood, against the toothbrush cupboard, all the other kids are in a circle on the carpet and all I hear is Yoon Young saying, "Teacher! Teacher!"
There she was, in a puddle... her socks soaked in pee... luckily Ina (my Korean partner teacher) was in the room with me and she lifted Pee Socks up and carried her out of there.

Later on, all changed up and in fresh clothes, in comes little Pee Socks. She sits on my leg for story time and then gets really excited and calls out an answer and lets out this big ripper! right on my leg! I instinctively jerk her off of me and screw up my face and say, "ewwww!" Then comes the smell... we make eye contact and she's grinning, almost embarrassed and I kinda smile and scrunch my nose up at her... Anyway, she ripped another one in class today, but I acted like I didn't hear it.

And that is the story of little Pee Socks.

New photos

2007-03-18T07:25:00.000-07:00

As you will see to the right there is a link that says, "Palace in Seoul photos". If you click there you can check out some pics from our trip.

Ceanne came to town!

2007-03-18T06:29:00.000-07:00

So, my good friend Ceanne came to town for 10 days and stayed at her sister, Chantel's place in Seoul and at my place for one night. We had a lot of fun and I got to see her about 4 different times or so. Here are some pics of our fun nights out!

Dan and Dan grooving out!

2007-03-17T19:36:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOPDNIxtcco

Just when you think that you have had a long day at work, think again Batman!

2007-03-13T06:39:00.000-07:00

So, I went into the Family Mart by my school today (which is a convenient store that is opened 24 hours) and I was talking to the friendly Korean owner. I asked him what time he gets off work and his response was, "I don't know, sometime tomorrow".

I said, "Tomorrow? What time did you start?"
He said, "umm, since 12 am."
"Midnight??! You've been working since midnight? That's like 17 hours that you have been working for already! And you're not off until tomorrow?"
Red eyed and still smiling he replies, "yes, that's right"
"Isn't there someone else who can come in and work for you? How many people do you have working here?"
"Two others, but they are busy with school and stuff, so they can't come in until sometime tomorrow."

Did I ever mention how hard working and diligent Koreans are? Well, in case I haven't, let me just say that I have never seen any group work such long days and put in so many hours as I have here in Korea. This is an extreme example, but it is a true example nonetheless. I can safely say that I will never be able to achieve their work ethic and I am not so sure that I would want to. Not that I don't admire it, but it is a little to extreme for me, personally. WOW! A nation full of worker bees, or beavers, or ants (the ants that work really hard)... good on them!

A little update.

2007-03-09T20:54:00.000-08:00

We have started a new schedule at school as of last Friday and boy was this whole week a crazy one! Last Thursday I spent all day at the school decorating my new classroom... which is now filled with 5 year olds Mon-Fri from 9:40 am - 2:10 pm. I have 10 of them in my homeroom class. You wanna talk about classroom management? I am sooo tired from one week with them, I can't believe I have to do this everyday for the rest of my contract, never mind the rest of my classes that I have. Then for 80 minutes out of my morning I switch kids with another teacher and I have only 4 little ones, which is so nice and peaceful compared to the group of 10.

When the new semester started last Friday we were given very little instruction on what to do and how to do it, in spite of our 3 hour meeting Thursday full of useless information. Most of our classes were filled with new students that we hadn't had before. Most of us didn't have books for ourselves or the students for about half of the week. And we were told to just wing it basically. Along with all of this Dan and I had to correct all of our tests from last semester and put in several hours of report card writing and test correction.... not giving me any free time to sort out how I was going to "wing it" in all my classes. It was brutal and I wasn't afraid to tell my supervisor so. Now I have a head cold and we have today and tomorrow off. Dan, Will (the new teacher from England) and I are going to Seoul right away for some Indian food and to walk around. That is the latest from this side of the world.

My latest painting that I am working on!

2007-02-22T04:30:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

2007-02-20T03:27:00.000-08:00

Hello!
So, the Chinese New Years just passed. This meant that we had a lovely long weekend. Dan and I went to our friend Linda's house Friday night. We drank and played our favorite board game, "Settlers of Catan". Super awesome!

Saturday we hung out, had some good eats here at the house. Then Dan and I went to Ilsan, a nearby city and had some Pizza Hut (delicious, cause it has sweet potato and cheese in the crust!). Then we saw the movie "The Bridge to Terabithia", or something like that. It's the sequel to "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"... umm, yeah... it's a kids movie, with not much for cool fantasy stuff and I ended up crying for the last 15 minutes of the movie, cause it was sad... great!

Sunday we hung out at Dan and Leah's, with Linda too (played more Sets, which is what we call Settlers of Catan now) and then all 5 of us went to Seoul to party it up. We met my friend Chantel there and hung out in an area called Itaewon... it's the foreigners end of town. It was good.

All the Koreans at some point during the weekend bowed to their elder family members, received money from those that they bowed to and celebrated the new year with family and good food.

We were sad to return to work today, but it's a short week and we had a great weekend!

A small list of observations I've made while in South Korea

2007-02-04T01:26:00.000-08:00

Face masks- People wear cotton face masks here. The kids wear them when they're sick. Their's have cute little cartoon pictures on them. Sometimes, when they're not even sick, they put them on as they leave my class to go home. All sorts of people in the street wear them too.

Side dishes- This is the land of side dishes... whether it's at a restaurant, or the lunch ladies delicious lunches that she makes us at school, there are always lots of side dishes to accompany the meal.

Food sharing/ Germ sharing- No problem! They have no issue with using the same chop sticks that have just been in their mouths to dip into the communal side dishes.

Birthdays- They have their birthdays, which is a celebration of the day they were born. But, they turn a year older on New Years day... all of them!

Watch out for motorcycles- The food delivery motorcycles sometimes drive on the sidewalks, and you better watch out, cause they will come really close to you if you're in their way.

Bathing at the gym- I have a gym pass now and me and the other ladies shower out in the open, hot tub and sauna it up totally naked! The towels are as big as large face cloths, and that's it... nudey nude nude.

Stare bears- There are some people who can't seem to take a long enough, hard enough look at us... they (especially the kids) will look wide eyed, mouths gaping, plain old staring... awkward!

Me and my kiddies!

2007-02-02T22:55:00.000-08:00

It was my birthday! Oh, what fun!

2007-01-31T03:01:00.000-08:00

I had a birthday a few weeks ago and, as usual, I had so much fun! It fell on a Saturday and on the Friday before, Dan took me out for lunch. We came back to school and there was a cake waiting for me and the staff sang to me and I blew out my candles. What kind of cake you ask? Fresh fruit on top of angel food cake layered in a bunch of whipped cream! About 7 of my kids brought me presents (I waited until Saturday to open them... by the way, I told them about my b day weeks before in a convo regarding the calendar or something... not to get presents). My desk was decorated by Dan (and I sort of helped him... hee hee) and he made me a birthday sign (see pic).

The actual birthday- Had a video call with my dad and Connie around 11am and then later with my bro Jay. Opened some presents from the kids and Dan (with Jay on the call, watching). Lazed around until about 8 pm. Had dinner, left over pizza from the night before. Then Dan and I headed to Chantel's place, my friend who lives in Seoul. We drank a bit there. Went to a bar near her place, (a really happening part of Seoul). Played pool, drank and danced all night long. Chantel offered Dan and I her place to crash at that night, which was great, cause it saved us a 1.5 hour bus ride home at 5:30 am. So, we stayed there. Dan took me for Indian food the next day (also in Chantel's neighbourhood). We walked around, I bought an easel and then we came home later that day! How lovely!

Donkey on the loose!

2007-01-23T01:23:00.000-08:00

This is my new donkey. Dan got it for me for my birthday. I love it! He sits by our computers, silently bobbing his head up and down. Sometimes I will say something to Dan and then say, "Isn't that right, Donkey?". And he always agrees with me, silently bobbing. Isn't he lovely?! Notice where he is sitting for the picture. On my new easel that I bought for myself for only 2o bucks! All I need is paint, canvas and some brushes, and I am on my way! Isn't that right, Donkey?

I went to a Korean wedding, how exciting!

2007-01-21T17:31:00.000-08:00

Michelle, one of the Korean teachers at our school, got married and we went to the wedding. We were invited... I think. I mean, we didn't receive an invitation via paper or verbally, but apparently, according to the other Korean teachers, we were invited.

It was the day before the wedding and several of the Korean teachers (not Michelle though, she was in class at this time) were asking if Dan and I were coming and were insisting that we were in fact invited. The only reason we didn't get an invite from Michelle is because she didn't want us to feel obligated to go. They said it was a cultural difference and that of course we are invited! So, we decided that we would go, hoping that it would in fact be okay with the bride and groom.

Michelle was very happy to see us the next day in spite of the confusion. Her and Louis (her husband) were hanging out together before the ceremony, getting pics taken. We, foreign teachers, went in to get our pics taken with them. Then 20 minutes before the ceremony Louis' mom told us to go downstairs and eat. There was a huge spread of delicious food. Sushi, salads, all sorts of kimchi, stir fry type stuff, rice, vegi's and fruits.

Michelle walked down the aisle to the wedding march, "Here comes the bride", played on an organ. They were being taped and put up on the big screen above their heads, with Korean writing below. They went and bowed to each set of parents. Held their right hands in the air as they swore to God. He kissed her cheek to seal the deal. Some people sang them songs. Louis' dad got up and thanked everyone. There were group pics afterward, which were done on the stairs of the alter. Then people went back downstairs to eat more and later the next day Michelle and Louis flew off for their honeymoon. After the wedding Dan and I went to watch a horror movie at a DVD bong. Has anyone seen Saw 1, 2 or 3? Well we watched all of them within 2 days... bloody, but a good plot.

This New Year's celebration was all new to me!

2007-01-12T03:28:00.000-08:00

The five of us, the same ones from the ski trip, went downtown Seoul for the New Year's Eve celebration. We hung out around city hall and were entertained the whole time. If it wasn't because we were surrounded by thousands of people, which is entertaining enough for me on any given day, it was all the other goings on that kept my head darting left to right, up and down.

There were dancers in traditional dress dancing all through the streets in groups of about 10- 15. They clanged bells and banged drums, waved the Korean flag and danced and sang. It was super!

Then there was all the vendors. Selling anything from all sorts of food to fire works! Roman candles for everyone! You're 8 years old? Hey! No problem! Do you have 1000 won (about 1.25 Canadian) then there you go little person, go shoot it off in the streets, but sort of be careful! People were shooting them off all night and it was madness when the clock struck 12! Fire works everywhere, all down the streets, just shooting straight up above everyone's heads. The air was filled sulfur and smoke, stinnnkky. A big gong type bell rang several times. And everyone in Korea turned a year older!

After this we took a train to another part of Seoul and had some supper at 2 am or so, after witnessing a street fight of course! I was trying to see some crazy Tae Kwon Do moves, but it was more like drunks fighting, too bad it wasn't more artistic looking. Dinner was delicious! Then we went dancing until 5:30 or 6 am. Fun fun fun!

Korean ski vacation... so good!!

2006-12-29T07:50:00.000-08:00

We just got back from our 4 night/5 day Christmas ski trip and it was so much fun! It was Dan and I along with 3 other teachers/friends from our school who are all from Canada, Dan, Linda and Leah.

We had a ski hill view from our 14th floor hotel room (see pic of hill). Sue (a Korean teacher at our school) hooked us up with the accommodations through her husband's membership at this resort that was a 3 hour bus ride from our homes. This hook up gave us a discount on the room (we each paid about 75.00 for all 4 nights) and we got 40% off on the lift tickets! The runs were pretty good. The snow is all man made and overall made for good skiing, in my opinion.

Dan and I skied 3 days and although he had to wait for me here and there (he's really good on the ol' skis), I was able to keep up for the most part. I fell a few times and the third day was icy and so cold, and I was slipping and falling all over those hills... some of the wipe outs were pretty funny, some kind of painful, but not too bad.

We played cards and board games. We went to the arcade and gamed it up. There was a billiards room where we shot pool. We went bowling! And, of course skiing! It was a really fun trip. Woo hoo!!

Happy Hanukah and Merry Christmas!

2006-12-23T10:07:00.000-08:00

Tonight is the last night of Hanukah and tomorrow is Christmas eve. We lit some candles in our makeshift menorah tonight, they then fell over and we propped them back up without any of them going out!

We went to Seoul tonight and there were many Christmas festivities. Lots of light displays and a few Santas walking about. There were more vendor booths set up along the streets than usual and many people with their families and cameras there to enjoy it all.

The pics are of our menorah, the Christmas decorations in Seoul, a jam packed train that we rode and some of the vendors.

Things here are going good. My ears are clearing up. We are on Christmas vacation for 10 days and on Monday morning (Christmas day) we (Dan and 3 other Canadian teachers from my school) leave to go skiing for 5 days! Happy holidays!

A few things I've noticed about Korea.

2006-12-20T03:19:00.000-08:00

Korea:
Fish- The scent of fish wafts through the air. Fish stands, selling fish soup, fish sticks, fish stu and fishy fish stuff too. As you walk by one of the many stands, the strongest fishy smell fills your nostrils and my first thought is always, "Ewww! That stinks! I just can't get used to it."

Bowing- As I enter any restaurant or store I am met with a bow and verbal greeting. Other people do it to, like the kid's parents or some people I work with, or just strangers on the street. Make eye contact, give a small bow and greeting. I smile, cause I don't know how to say hello properly yet, or I am just too self concious to say it.

Red light runners- The busses and sometimes other cars run the red lights, the ambulances and cops don't seem to. Hmm...

Meat sticks- They sell yummy bbq'd meat sticks at these stands all over the place for 1000 won here (like $1.50), sooo good!

That's all for now. More later, as there is way more to mention!

p.s. I'm doing well, by the way. I had my ear drum cut opened by a doctor the other day. My ear was plugged for nearly a month, as no natural drainage took place. So, I had to resort to the cutting. It hurt, the anestetic was weak, but I didn't want him to stick a needle in my ear drum either. He sucked some fluid out with a sucky thing... that was the most painful out of everything. Then I had to lay on that same side that night with tissue under my ear and hope for maximum drainage, as the incision was due to close by the next day. I go to see the doc tomorrow to check the progress... my hearing is better, but not perfect yet. I am hoping for some good news, which I am pretty sure I will get. Bye!

Freakin' lady freakin' out on us!!!

2006-12-06T03:20:00.000-08:00

So, this freakin' lady freaked out on Dan and I today! The pic below is from our screen that shows whose ringing our door bell... 2 are of her, cause she's crazy and she rang it twice in a row!! and the other one is the security gaurd from our building... I wasn't able to fit her husband's pic in this pic, but he came to our place too!

First thing this morning a man came to the door. Dan was still sleeping at this point. The man was nice, he spoke almost all Korean and basically he told me that he lived in the apartment below us and his wife is angry cause the ashes from our cigarettes were landing on her banister railing... I brought him in, showed him our ash tray and said we won't ash out the window anymore.

Then the security rings us a few minutes later and insists that I come with him. I go into the ladies apartment only to be met with a psychotic, eye twitching, Korean screaming bitch. At this point Dan woke up and came to our door to hear what was going on. She was up in my face, yelling so loud that Dan could clearly hear her from our place upstairs... I tried to explain the game plan for future smokes and apologize, but she didn't relent. So I got bitchy and stormed outta there.

Minutes later she rang our bell. We opened the door, upon seeing Dan she calmed down a bit, but still continued spazzing out on us. We eventually felt it necessary to show her our balcony and how we would smoke from then on. She wasn't satisfied. All of a sudden, low and behold! she spoke English!! Granted it was broken, but we could understand her. She asked us what country we were from, where we worked, threatened to call the police, several times... threatened to call our boss (we lied about where we work). She told us she and her husband are high class and that "Everday! EVERDAY! I clean up the ashes!! I can't sleep at night!! I can't sleep!" Well, my question is why did it take her 2 months to talk to us and how is it that she is so high class and yet has zero people and communication skills?? And, what? You can't sleep? Really? Come on, psycho! How obsessed are you!!?

We're pissed! We're thinking about putting a flaming bag of a hot steamer on her door step... maybe that will bring us some peace of mind...

Dan's big golden birthday!

2006-12-04T15:52:00.000-08:00

It was Dan's birthday last week. The director bought all of us pizza and cake and gave Dan a present. We had the house and office decorated for him. He opened some presents here, at the apartment, and then we (Leah, Dan and I) went to Seoul and found a little Indian restaurant and went for dinner, which was delicious! These are some pics from the big day!!

My ear drums

2006-12-04T03:49:00.000-08:00

Hey guys! I went to the doctor again, the Hefner lounge one. Anyways, this time they took pics of my ear drums. The one on the left is actually my right ear, the one that was infected. And though this pic doesn't show it as well as his screens did, you can kind of make out some little bubbles on my infected ear drum. Those were filled with fluid and the other drum was smooth smooth smooth... it was neat, so I took a pic!

I didn't know that Hugh Hefner has a medi center in Korea!

2006-11-25T21:45:00.000-08:00

So, I have been sick for the past week and I have been to 2 doctor's offices. One was a whirlwind check up. He had me on a swivel chair. Swirling me around left, right... breath! Check my heart rate with the stethoscope... turn. Open your mouth! "Ahhh". Close your mouth and your eyes! Spray some stuff up my nose. In the mean time there's a nurse checking my temp through my ear and looking in my other ear to check my drum. Swivel... turn, poke, prod... breath... about 3 minutes later I was finished my check up and walking outta there with a prescription.

Next... my ear starts hurting a few days later. I walk into Hugh Hefner's medi-center! Pimped out! Purple velvet couches and throw pillows! Whoa... So I wait in this luxurious waiting room... hoping the doctor is having a busy day and I can sit in there a bit longer.

My name gets called, I enter the docs room. He is wearing a head band thing with a circular mirror at the forehead! Yeah, he was! Anyways, he checks my ears. He puts a metal knife type thing on my teeth, hits it and in my right ear (my sore ear) I can hear this crazy ringing! Then he sprays this mystery spray up my nostrils and then puts a long silver thing up there and looks off to his right. So I follow his gaze and there on these big tv screens is my nostril! He has a camera in my nostril... and the stuff he sprayed up there looks really gross when it's magnified on the big screen. So he takes a still shot and does the same with the other... the interiors of my nostrils, frozen on the big screen... nice. He tells me that if the medicine doesn't work, that the worst case scenario would be them making an incision on my ear drum to let the fluid drain out externally.... I was diagnosed with an inner ear infection that started in my throat. So, prescription in hand I am leaving the office and I am nabbed by a nurse and sat down in this chair... one more thing before you go! She puts stethoscope type ear phones on me and out pours the bass. Yes, pure bass played into my ears for 2-3 minutes, to try and loosen up the fluid to promote drainage... I finished with that, walked through Hugh's lobby and left.

Froggy Frog Humidifier

2006-11-17T07:58:00.000-08:00

Our Friday Night

2006-11-17T07:13:00.000-08:00

Me and my roomies just sitting here chillin' in the apartment this Friday eve. I'm sipping on the vino and they're drinkin' the beer... OB Blue, is the name. Listening to music... took a few pics...

Teaching this week was better than last... only one kid cried in my class this week. As opposed to at least a kid a day last week. The only kid who had a good reason to cry last week was the one who ran his face into the wall while we were playing a writing game that required them to get up to see the word and go back to their spot on the glass wall (which they write on with erasable markers)... yeah, he ran into a wall, nose first...bloody nose!!! YIKES!! Anyways, the rest of them were just being cry babies! I tell ya. Every time they cry I have to bring them to the receptionist... it starts looking bad when it's Thursday and I'm on my 5th kid for the week...

So, ya, this week was better! I was singing and dancing in class today... singing new words for them to learn and striking dance moves periodically... "Alligator! Alligator... bump bump chh, bump bump chh... what does it start with? A! What is it? Alligator!" dance dance!! Yeah, it was a success!

The wine is good... the music is good... the company is good...

Leah, the other roomie, says "like, seriously guys booooooo".

Free hugs? Yes, please!!!

2006-11-12T06:56:00.000-08:00

So, we were in a trendy part of Seoul last weekend and there were 2 people on the street with signs in their hands, raised high above their heads. These people were about my age. One was a guy, the other a girl. They looked as normal as any 20 something year old person you might run into in Seoul would. They weren't normal though, they were extraordinary! Do you know what these signs said? "Free Hugs"!!! I thought that was the best idea ever!! What a peaceful gesture! So, I went in for one. I went to the guy and he opened his arms right up, grinning ear to ear. He swallowed me with his arms and gave me such a warm, heart felt hug. He was Korean and he spoke English. As he was hugging me he said, "Hi! How are you tonight? Doing good? Are you happy?". It was a great hug! I was hesitant to go hug him at first, but as soon as I did, I was so happy with my decision!

Some pics for y'all!

2006-11-11T01:23:00.000-08:00

My Kiddies... so cute

2006-11-08T05:10:00.000-08:00

The sounds of my neighbourhood...

2006-11-03T02:57:00.000-08:00

I hear kids playing outside at most hours of the day. The suburb, Paju, that we live in has so many kids running and walking around, roller blading, skateboarding, biking, scootering... am i missing anything? I sit in my house and hear them play down in the courtyard below.

We have a sweet courtyard below us (we are on the 4th floor) ... I love standing at my balcony looking down on it, or up at the starts at night. That's right, I can see the stars so clearly! Orion shows up above me around 9-10 pm every night... it's one of the only things that is truly familiar to me here. Not that they don't have milk, cars and sidewalks... but it's a familiarity that is different from those types of things... it's hard to explain.

About once a week I can hear the sounds of the market in the courtyard below...

I also hear piano echoing off the building walls. It is good piano playing, mostly classical... whoever is playing it must have a window opened. I love it!!

I hear kids practicing "tae kwon do" as I walk past the building where the lessons are. Then I hear them run into the streets when the lesson is over, still in their uniforms.

And now, as of Monday, I hear kids, making kid noises, in school all the time. I'm most happy when I hear them speaking English, because they aren't supposed to speak a word of Korean while they are in school.

I hear cars and buses going by... it's not too loud, but it's there.

I hear construction sounds all around our neighbourhood... everything is so new, lots of things still being built. It isn't something that wakes me up in the morning, it's closer to the downtowny area... if you can even call it downtown. Actually it's more like, "up town".

I hear music playing loudly in the streets when certain stores are having a promotion. Sometimes they are shouting out things over the mic... I wonder what they're saying?

I heard 7 older women chanting as they walked through the streets the other night, it sounded religious.

I hear crickets all the time.

I heard about 10 tanks roll through downtown the other day! They were loud... it sounded like a bunch of tanks rolling by... heh heh, sounds redundant, but that's what it sounded like... thunderous tanks!!!

I hear Korean everywhere I go... that's an obvious one. I am trying to catch onto the language. After about 2 weeks of being here Dan and I realized that when we thought we were saying "goodbye" to people, that we were actually saying "sit down". heh heh... that was a funny realization... I still say it sometimes... I can't remember how to say goodbye... "Han io sayo"? I don't know. Dan can say it...

Sometimes I hear updates of some sort come out of these speakers of our apartment walls... some Korean person just starts talking away and Dan and I just smirk as we look from each other to the speakers in the wall...

Many many sounds I hear... these are the sounds of my neighbourhood.

I hope you are all doing well! Love Amie

Osaka- no sake, but plenty O geisha!

2006-10-26T17:20:00.000-07:00

2 days ago, Dan and I went to Osaka for a period of 24 hours to get our work visas. Dan almost didn't make the trip due to not being able to find his passport! We tore the whole place apart looking. The buzzer rang, our ride was there! And no passport in sight! Needless to say, he found it. It was laying in the middle of his floor among everything that was tossed around in the mad search. Coming home the next night was funny, it looked as though we had been robbed.

We spent most of our time in Osaka either lost or purposely wandering around the streets downtown. After finding the Korean consulate we began the search for our hotel/place to sleep, the Osaka House. Weaving in and out of the well dressed business men, punked out teens and young adults, hip looking women and men, old people, homeless people and of course all the bicycle riders (whom rode on the sidewalk, weaving in and out of this madness!

We made it to the Osaka House and were shown to our room... which was exactly that, a very small room with futon mats stacked up along the wall, a small tv and communal bathrooms. The sheets were clean and it was somewhere safe to stay.

We wandered around the lantern and people filled streets. I bought a big red Japanese lantern, which we are going to hang up in our apartment! I tried some interesting food along the way to seeking out a restaurant that could serve us a vegetarian meal... not very easy to find in Japan, as far as I can tell. I drew pictures of the foods that Dan can't eat (shrimp, fish, a pig, chicken...etc) and put a cross through it and put check marks next to the vegetables, egg, rice and noodles that I drew. We went to an English Pub (if you can believe it!) and ate a Japanese version of cheese and crackers, cheese pizza (very thin) and these yummy mushroom things. We drank absinthe there too and then left.

We hit bars up and down the streets searching for Sake. I could not find it anywhere!!! We settled for beers at one place and then gin at this other bar, where we drank and played pool for a good portion of the night. We tried to get into a few strip clubs, but we weren't allowed in because we weren't Japanese! “Are you Japanese?” “No... arigato....” “Sorry, only Japanese allowed here, not foreigners.” We left there laughing and complaining of racism.

I also attempted to get into what I think was a sex house of some sort... I wasn't going to stay there, I just wanted to go in and take a peek... a man with a bowtie came at me and waved his hands, smiling as he shook his head... not allowed there either...

I saw real geisha more than a few times! They were there!!! I couldn't believe my eyes and my luck!!! I spied on this older geisha from atop some stairs as she politely gave a man her cheek to kiss as he tried for her mouth several times... she was graceful and non-offensive and beautiful!!

There are tonnes of casinos mixed in to the madness. As you walk by them you hear loud bells and whistles and sounds coming from the slot machines. Dan and I went into an arcade and played video games for a while too... that was fun!

We had a good trip, it was short and sweet. Glad I went!

Kimchi is the food for me!

2006-10-18T02:48:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to say how much I love Kimchi!! It is a pickled cabbage that they serve with every meal here. One of the ladies that I work with brought Dan and I a whole big container of homemade kimchi today and I am more than excited to have it on hand!

Korea Korea!

2006-10-16T23:55:00.000-07:00

I'm here safe and sound! Living it up in Paju, South Korea. About 12 miles from the N Korean border and an hour bus ride from downtown Seoul. I'm living with my brother Jason's friend Dan the Man. We have a sweet apartment with hardwood floors that are great for sliding around on. It's about a 10 minute walk from our place to school.

So far the people here in this country have been very hospitable and helpful. Our supervisors have also been wonderful with helping us get settled in!

Last Friday Dan and I went to Seoul to explore and have some dinner. Around midnight, we were walking in our neighbourhood, heading home from the bus stop and we were pulled onto a patio of a bar by some foreigners (from New Zealand and the States) who insisted that we have "a beer" with them. 3 beers and a bunch of Soju (nasty hard alchohol) later we eventually made it home. But this was after we went to their apartment (in the same complex as ours) and found the Kiwi laying on the floor in front of the elevator, next to his own puke... awsome! So, we went in and the American shot my leg with one of his air/bebee type guns (he had 4), then he showed us the weights he could lift and pumped those for a bit and showed us all the stuff he stole and the garbage that he's been tossing out the windows of his 10th floor apartment... we were so charmed that we had to leave.

It's been exciting so far and we're getting around just fine. Trying all sorts of food and slowly setting up our crazy nice apartment to suit our needs.

Just before I go...

2006-09-05T20:42:00.000-07:00

I had a great summer! It started in June with Virgil's wedding (one of my very best friend's). I was the maid of honour and toasted the blushing bride. Next came July Long weekend. The big party at my lake lot that lasts a week with a pile of good friends. I look forward to it every year and I am going to miss that the most when I am gone. I am leaving for South Korea in about a month. I will be gone for a year. I am going there to teach English.

After July Long weekend my mom, Vonn, Jason, Kristy and me went to Fairmont hotsprings and spent about 4 or 5 nights. We golfed, swam, went in bumper boats and just chilled and played games. It was so much fun! Vonn turned 18 somewhere in between and we took him to the casino for some black jack and nickle slots. We all played a lot of poker this summer.

My other friends got married in August. Tatum and Steve. I gave grace before dinner. Then just this past Friday I was emceeing my other friends wedding (Ceanne and Peter), with my friend Catherine. It went over great! Everyone laughed at our jokes and everything!

So, all is well and I will be touch.

Spring time in Paris...

2006-04-30T13:49:00.000-07:00

Arc De Triumph

Louvré

We have been in Paris for a few days now and this city is historic and beautiful! I went to the Eiffel tower the first night and it was all lit up! It's friggin huge! All made of metal.

Yesterday was museum D'Orseè, which was full of the Greats such as; Monet, Cezanne, Degas, VanGogh, Gougan and many many more. I was in my element! And they let us take pictures of the art work! Yessss.

Today was the Louvrè. 7 hours of walking through it, and there is still some of it left unseen by me. Today the tables finally turned with me and my mom! She was dragging her heels and she wanted to hurry up because she was getting bored. I usually get like that after we've been shopping for a few hours... she likes to shop for many hours... manyyyy hours... I don't really like shopping at all, so you can see how this has been a problem for me for the past few weeks... but today was sweet revenge! A reversal of roles! Finally... ha ha ha ha... HA HA HA HA... ok, that felt good.

The Louvrè is full of world famous Art from the stone age to the Egyption era, to the dark ages to the Renaissance... etc. It is an old palace turned into a museum; it's full of sculptures, tools, paintings, lavish rooms filled with lavish furniture, tapistries, jewlery, dishes, tombs and a real mummy from Egypt!!! Let me emphasize the hugeness of the building and grounds... HUGE, 7 hours didn't cut it, i needed longer. I saw the Mona Lisa, yes. She is very nice.

Paris is in bloom. There are many parks here and they are well groomed. They have shops for everything with fresh everything and variety like, whoa. Pork shops, cheese shops, olive oil shops!, bread shops, pastery shops, fish shops, fruit stands, vegi stands... etc. There is a stand for everything here. They have crepe stands like how New York has hot dog stands.

I saw the arc de triumph tonight... Napoleon wasn't kidding around when he said build me a monument! BIGGGGGGGG and Glorious!

I'm smack dab in the middle of monument land, I tell ya.

I have walked for about 11 hours today in total, no joke, and my feet are killing me. I'm looking forward to my comfy bed tonight, but first I have to walk home!!!

I choose Atlantis

2006-04-27T21:09:00.000-07:00

Here's something I wrote when I was in Crete a week ago:

I sit here on a large slab of stone,
my blanket laid out,
rocks jutting out, everywhere,
I'm surrounded by water and stone.

Land masses in the distance,
they call them islands,
they look like large turtle backs surfacing the water.

Some are no bigger than the "mountain" in the center of Montreal.

They call it a mountain,
I call it a hill.
To each his own.

When I was in Montreal there was a French radio station, which played French music, that I listened to.

I loved it.
I taped it.
I'm listening to it now.
I love it.

I look around me now and I am reminded of the Cliff's of Insanity from Princess Bride. It feels like Wesley is going to rescue me soon, not that I need rescuing, but if he showed up, that's what he'd do.

Or maybe a merman is going to surface out of this sparkling turquoise bliss they call the Aegan sea.

He could pop his head out of the water that is but 3 feet from me now, and he'd grab my wrist and yank me into the water, give me a kiss, which would be the only way I could grow my tail, and we'd swim down to Atlantis.

There is a nearby island called Santorini, I go there in a few days. There is a myth that the lost city of Atlantis can be found in the waters of Santorini. That is where my merman is from, Atlantis. Sorry Wesley, today I choose Atlantis.

My brother has a boat....

2006-04-27T00:44:00.000-07:00

So I am back in Athens now. From Crete we ferried to Santorini and stayed there for 2 days where I had a love affair with an Albanian man named.... none other than Leonardo! YESSSSSSSSS I got my Leonardo! It may not have been a DiCaprio, but hey, how can I complain.

The island used to be one, but was split up by a volcanic eruption. So now it is a semi circle of broken land around the center (which is called the caldera, or the volcano). One side is all cliff and the other side of the circle is sea level with black sand beaches.

I met a very handsome man named Leonardo in a restaurant that he was working in and he offered to take me dancing the first night. He came and picked me up with his motorcycle!! I didn't wear a helmet, because he didn't have one... I was nervous at first and then I later relaxed. His bike ran out of gas on route... we sorted that out after about 45 minutes. We didn't end up going to the club that night, but rather we enjoyed some wine and eachothers company...

So he was my island boyfriend for 2 days. He asked me to stay there with him, he told me that I wouldn't have to pay for anything and that he would look after me. All i would have to do is sleep until I wanted to wake up and go to the beach and he said we could be together from 4-7 pm on his breaks and after he was done work... please stay, don't go, when will you come back to see me? When can i see you again? We can go on vacations around Europe! etc etc etc...

Has anyone seen Shirly Valentine's movie where she goes to Europe (I think Greece) and a man tells her that his brother has a boat and that he'd take her sailing. She said yes, ok, I'll go, but I won't sleep with you. And next thing you know she's on the boat, rocking the boat (if you know what I mean)... anyways, he tells her to stay with him and asks when she'll come back etc etc etc. She goes back to America and then decides to return to see him and she goes into his restaurant and sees him talking to a woman saying "My brother has a boat"... ha ha ha... well I wonder about my Albanian man... "Let's go dancing." LOL. Anyways, I was a good girl and we had a lot of fun. It was my European 2 day love affair.

Good Friday. No, Great Friday!!!

2006-04-22T01:09:00.000-07:00

It was good friday yesterday according to the Julian calander (which is what the Greek Orthodox people follow). My mom and I went to a small village called Elounta for dinner and then we walked around the center near the water. We went into a church and lit 3 bees wax candles for my deceased grandparents and deceased uncle... it was meaningful and special.

Just outside the church was a procession of about 200 people ready to make their way around the village and back to the church.
The front had a man carrying a wooden cross and he was surrounded with alter boys (I'm a baptised Greek Orthodox, so some of this was very familiar to me. Such as the alter boys and priests wardrobes and the singing/chanting that the priest did as we walked through the village). After the cross was the priest and a flowered chapel was propped up on the shoulders of 4 men (one at each corner) this chapel followed the priest. We'd walk about 40 seconds and then stopped and the priest would sing and then we'd walk again and stop again. The whole time the church bells were sounding out and locals were setting off fire crackers and fire works and periodically clanging pieces of metal that sounded like the church bells.

All store and restaurant owners along with their patrons came to the streets to watch the procession pass by. The all stood with their hands clasped in front of them and periodically crossing themselves in the Greek Orthodox manner... 3 times in a row.

I feel lucky to be here for their Easter. Tonight we are going to another town for more celebrations... soon it is the rising of Christ and that means a big party is coming to town! How exciting!

Spinalonga... sent there to die...

2006-04-22T01:08:00.000-07:00

Last night we drove to a nearby village and accross from it sits an island of about 4 city blocks by 7 city blocks called Spinalonga. It was oringially an old Venitian fortress built in the late 1400's and was later turned into a place of exile. Up until the 1950's it was used as a leper colony... the sick were went there to live out the rest of their lives and eventually die there... isolated. The buildings on the island were dull and lifeless... the island reiked of death and suffering... it still gives me a very unsettled feeling just thinking about it. It reminds me of Dachau (a concentration camp I once visited in Germany). It's eerie and sad to look at.

Crete... it's paradise!

2006-04-22T00:56:00.000-07:00

We are now in Crete staying at a Greek resort. From my balcony I can see our glorious pool and the grounds and then onward is the emerald Aegan sea. There are islands both nearby and off in the distance.

I see palm, olive and orange trees. The emerald waters glisten in the sun. White wash buildings with arches and small square windows and big windows with blue shutters.

We are in a place called Agios Nikolaus. The best part about our resort other that the view and the breakfasts is our private beach. You must first walk through the hotel and then a winding bush and tree filled path to get there. The hotel has a billiards room and several sitting rooms along the way with lavish couches and chairs. A ping pong table outside and a tennis court too. Trees and birds and white washed private villas for the really wealthy people is all that I pass to get to beach.

There are tiered stone slabs all over looking the sea with chairs and bamboo unbrellas, or you can sit in the sand if you like. The birds chirp away and the waves lap up on the stone and beach... it's absolutley beautiful! I'm in paradise.

Athens... the land of kisses and beauty!

2006-04-18T14:30:00.000-07:00

I am in Athens Greece right now and it is beautiful! We went to see the Acrpolois yesterday and my mom took a piece of marble from the ground... very sneaky. It was surreal to see such ancient pieces of architecture with my own eyes, not in a text book.

Greece is warm, it was 28 degrees today. The greek salad, tzatiki and souvlaki is all amazing. I kissed my jewler today. I asked him for a discount on this great necklace (I paid a lot of money for it, but they all tell me it'll be worth it). anyways, I asked for a discount and he said if I give him 2 kisses on the cheek, so I did.

I also kissed a man that was sitting outside the restaurant my mom and I spent quite some time looking for. After many wrong turns and lots of directions given to us by the locals, we found it, so I asked him if this was the place and he said yes, and I kissed him. He told me that he'd sing me a song... turns out he was in the band that played the whole night, and he played classical guitar and sang with 2 other men (one played the bazooki). He was smiling away at me and my mom as he sang... he was charming.

We sat under an orange tree and ate traditional greek food while drinking red wine and clapping away to the music. The greeks danced and a few yelled out "Oppa"! A waiter brought me some flowers that he picked (I kissed him on the cheeks too). The table in front of us bought us a bottle of red wine and I got one of their phone numbers and e mail address too. I think i will call him when I return to Athens next week. Tomorrow we fly out to Crete (one of the islands).

We have shopped like crazy. Bought some jewlery and a few other things too. I can see the ocean from here, can't wait to go swim in it. The Acropolis sits high up on the top of a big hill and it is most beautifully lit up at night. I can see it from the block that my hotel is on... I love Greece! More later!

Love, Amie

Touch down and take off

2006-04-14T16:56:00.000-07:00

So I have now returned from Montreal a little less than a week ago and I leave for Greece tomorrow morning and I will be flying for something crazy like 11 hours??

My decision to go to Montreal for the amount of time that I did was one of the best decisions I could have made. I had the most fun out there meeting my brother’s girlfriend, Kristy and the rest of his friends. I also got to spend a lot of time with Mulli and meeting her friends was also refreshing and new. I teared up as Jay and I hugged goodbye at the airport. I’m going to miss him… a lot.

I want to thank both Jay and Kristy for taking me under their wings in making sure I was safe and having fun. You guys were awesome!

About a week ago I danced on a bridge in Montreal and then I came home and wrote about it the next morning. So I want to share that:

Me & The Bridge

Last night I danced on a bridge.
The streets were wet from the rain that poured down earlier that night.

It was only me out there on that bridge. Me and my Discman.
Cars drove by, sure, but who are those faceless cars to me?

The bridge took me past the factory and over the desolate train tracks.
I smiled and jumped in circles with my arms spread out before me.
I was free.
Free from judgment and strange looks.
It was a good song and I wanted to dance.

Scattered throughout the city were church tops and bus stops and church peaks,
and steeples and domes.

Downtown stood off in the distance with its glorious buildings made of stone, glass and concrete. The windows had lights beaming out of them.

Random strobe lights from the tall downtown buildings shone out, circling light onto the city below.

The air was misty and foggy.

The music was pumping through my headphones.
And I danced.
And I sang.

Just me and the bridge.

Hillside beats

2006-04-02T16:24:00.000-07:00

I’m sitting here listening to French music and it sounds so nice. The window is opened and the spring breeze is sweeping through the apartment. I can hear the traffic humming off in the distance.

Vonn left this morning and I am a little sad that he’s gone. I had so much fun hanging out with him and wandering the streets with him. Kristy and the sibs and I had a good week. We partied at the university bar on the night of the elections for the Student Union. We partied in a bookstore for a bit that night, which was an interesting environment to be drinking in. There was also beat boxing and free styling. It made for a unique party and a good way to spend my time.

On Tuesday Mulli and her friends and I went to a bar called Jello. It was Rastarific! There was live music (motown), we were sitting with the band and their friends. The lead singer wants me to make him a bracelet like the one I have. So next Tuesday I am meeting him back there (he plays there every Tues.) and he's bringing the beads and I'm bringing the hemp and I am going to make him a bracelet. To ensure that I do this he gave me one of his bracelets (made of wooden beads) and 2 pinky swears!! So, of course I will be going back there to live up to my promises.

Wednesday night was a wrap party and a preview of Vonn and Jay’s movie that they made last summer. It was held at a bar/restaurant. The night ended up back at Jay’s house and the four of us played UNO for hours, it was the never ending uno game, it was full of lots of laughter and fun.

For a short time Vonn was my travel companion and now he’s gone home. I still had a good day in spite of missing his presence. I walked down to this place at the bottom of the mountain (the mountain, being the only mountain in Montreal, which is in the center of the city… it’s actually a really really big hill, if you ask me, but hey, if they want to call it a mountain, by all means…). It is a large park full of grass, trees, baseball diamonds, soccer fields, beach volley- ball courts and bush. At the base of the mountain is a monument and around that monument on Sunday afternoons is an event called Tam Tam. Today was the first of the year, because it is finally warm enough to chill outside and enjoy the weather. Tam Tam is an event where tonnes of people get together with their hand drums, tambourines, and other percussive instruments and they have an all day jam session beating their drums and dancing and sitting and playing. There are spectators all over the grassy mountain- side listening and hanging out. Some people dance, some others lay and read, others throw a football around or a Frisbee, others puff a dubie and others have brought a guitar and are sitting there playing their own tune… it was an experience that I wish I could have again, but this is the last Sunday I am here, so it was my first and last experience for a while, I’m glad I caught it.

I am now certified to teach English as a second language! I received my certification last weekend, which was the last day of my course. One of my classmates is already set up with a job in China! So, that was fast. I’m not going to start applying for a job overseas until I get back from Europe in May.

I’m going to go and read my book, bye for now!

Me and my Sibs, just chillin'

2006-03-25T19:12:00.000-08:00

So… so so so…. Things here are going great! I don’t feel much like a tourist anymore. I find that I am learning my way around the city very well! Vonster Monster (my little bro) got here on Thursday night, so it is me and my sibs hanging in Montreal. Me and the bros… it’s a nice feeling to be hanging with both of them again. It’ll be a time to remember.

I am almost done my TESL course! That means by tomorrow I will be certified to teach English as a second language overseas! My final presentation was today. I did good in spite of my red rashy neck. I get red… real red when I stand up in front of the class and have to teach anything that lasts longer than about 3 minutes… I hate it. In any case, I got through the 20 minute lesson and managed to have some fun while I was at it. YAY!

I have been out and about a lot since I have written last. I have been to a few house parties (one last weekend for St. Pattie’s day) and last night (just for fun). Both parties were large in number and cool in setting. Both in shared apartments (many room mates comfortably sharing one large apartment), hosted at different places by different hosts. Hardwood floors, high ceilings, old and beautiful light fixtures and door frames… everything here is old. Ambient lighting and good indie music. Smart and fun people… all around a great time was had, for many reasons.

I also went to the St Patrick’s day parade with Jay and his people. It was a party in the streets. I met them outside my school on my lunch break, caught the parade, had a few beer and went back to school. After school I met up with them all at a pub (which is where the pics are from). I met some Swiss guys, whose pictures these are, and I drank beer and danced all night. Casey (the curly haired, thoughtful looking one in the pic with 3 people) and I danced into the night… everyone else left, but she and I partied on! It was so much fun. I will write more soon, but for now I must go! Cheers! I hope this finds you readers well.

I riot now... I'm a rioter! Rah Rah Rah!!!

2006-03-16T07:04:00.000-08:00

Hey guys! So, yesterday was an exciting day for me. Just one block from Mulli's place was the 10th Demo Against Police Brutality. It was a meeting of the rebels and anarchists. On the back of the flyer that I received the first day I arrived in Montreal there are 10 reasons a person should attend the rally: It said “The police harass, brutalize, rape, kill, do racial profiling, social cleansing, political repression, is corrupted, hide us the truth, benefit from impurity”

This flyer of course fails to mention the good work that the police officers do daily and it fails to appreciate the risks they take in their jobs. In any case, I had to take this opportunity to march with the rebels and see what this rally was all about. There was a meeting at the square at 5 pm. The ages of the protesters mostly ranged from late teens to those in their twenties. Many were either wearing masks, handkerchiefs over their faces or pink pig snouts made of cardboard egg cartons. The majority of the crowd falls under the punk genre. Most wore leather studded jackets, army type boots, lots of black wear, Mohawks (dyed or not), tight jeans that have patches on them or rips in them… you get the idea. There were signs and flags being waved in the air, and a megaphone with someone constantly shouting into it.

The cops were on stand by… waiting. The crowd of about 300 protesters then took to the streets of the city and marched among the traffic, stopping cars and kicking over road construction materials. They were ripping down the election signs and shouting throughout the streets. Some of them were banging on buckets that they brought. The megaphone was also going the whole time at the front of the march.

The only advice I received was from my brothers friend Tim, he said to keep a safe distance and that generally there are a lot of arrests at these things, so leave yourself an out so you can run away if you have to. As the march was leaving the square Jay (my brother) was in the midst of the crowd waving me over to come and walk with him… I reluctantly came to him from the sidelines and began walking. I said, “I’m scared… some of these people look really angry… but I guess I’m marching with them… so its ok.”
Jay laughed and said, “Yeah, it’s the cops you should be scared of right now.”

So, there were a few pit stops, one of which there were fire dancers/spinners at. Music was pumping, people climbing traffic light posts and yelling out into the crowd… others were sitting on the parked cars (which the roof of one got badly dented… that wasn’t cool at all.) The traffic was among us, the drivers looking a little bit frightened. March on…

Jay left me at this point… now I was alone with these people that I did not know more than 3 of, who I didn’t even walk with anyways. By the time Jay and I parted I looked around and realized that I was now among the entourage of police officers that were following the crowd. (I ripped my pig nose off so fast… what a poser… whatever! You guys would have put on the pig nose too when that anarchist told you too!!! Ok! And if you were left alone with a bunch of cops you also would have ripped it off really fast!! Ok?!)

So I caught up to the tail end of the rally now I was in between the rioters and the police… great! Just what Tim told me not to do. I had no out. I all of a sudden felt really claustrophobic. Sure enough the march halts again but now they start hurling large objects at the police who are lined up against the windows of a restaurant. Objects like sticks, recycle bins, buckets… whatever they had on hand. Windows shatter there is a huge commotion, people start running, all of a sudden way more cops come out on foot from I don’t know where. They have shields and masks and helmets… and they looked scary. They started getting behind the protesters and pushing them along back down the road… I snuck into the stoop of a restaurant hoping that everyone would just run on past me. Yeah… not so lucky. All of a sudden the cops are in my face yelling “MOVE MOVE MOVE!!!!” They were coming at me with their shields first. All I could think was “Run and please don’t fall because you will get trampled”. So I ran. I wandered around for another 45 minutes, driven by adrenaline. I wanted to see more. Shit was about to go down. For the next while every street I looked down either had a small army of cops, or there were little clusters of protesters, some single stragglers like myself (which I liked and thought was the safest), cops on peddle bikes, riot police in vans, cop cars driving around, road blocks… it was crazy!

I eventually made my way back to the square where it all began and in the centre the main intersection was a large group of protesters. They dumped the garbage out of the cans and were hitting the cans with their sticks. There was the sound of glass breaking. And a few random shouts and a distant murmur of people talking. In the distance you can see police lights flashing down every road, they had to close down those roads leading to this intersection. You could also hear the distant sirens going off. Other than that the streets were very quiet… no traffic… just the clicking sound of the lights changing from green to yellow to red… it was strangely beautiful. I eventually left because I was so cold. I knew it wasn’t over, but my legs were numb… so the link I’m sending out now you can copy and paste into the address bar of your Internet site and you can see how it all ended.

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=4574454d-e2b5-4688-81b1-464563be9190&k=94408

or this one too - http://www.mytelus.com/news/article.do?pageID=cbc/montreal_home&articleID=2200337