The Beauty That is Boracay, Philippines.

Hello Hello,
So, the little 9 km long island of Boracay in the Philippines was sooo paradise, that Jake and I are considering purchasing real estate on it's fabulous beach. That will perhaps happen once we get some more degree's / credentials and land wicked jobs, so that we can afford to fly across the world during dry season, and then fly back to Canada in rainy season. The flights would really be the only expense though, as a cabin on the beach goes for about $1,500/year. Yes, that's right. One month Toronto rent in some dingy, basement apartment covered in mold, or a year in paradise.... Hmm. tough call, it really is.
Here, let me convince you more with a picture.

So, yes. Jake and I made the 6 hour trek via Korean Air to the Philippines landing December 29th in Manila. Early the next morning we took another flight, and a catamaran to get to Boracay Island for a 9 day 8 night stay. Boracay is nestled south of Manila, and north of Cebu, and is a tourist paradise, with abundant mango's, sprawling white sand beaches, clear turquoise water and where the rum is the cheapest ingredient in your rum and coke. And of course, it goes without mentioning the tasty local beer San Miguel, sold ice cold at 40 cents a pop. Sound too good to be true? Well, it isn't, but it didn't come without some preceding sketchy experiences...

Our quick and limited view of Manila was all we could take. Somewhere between the cockroach ridden hostel, the coked-out cab driver that refused to put his meter on as he continuously swerved in and out of oncoming traffic, the prostitutes at the convenience stores, the either homeless or drunks passed out in make-shift hammocks strung between two telephone poles on the highway, and the numerous locks, gates, and barbed wire surrounding our hostel, we lost interest in discovering Manila in greater detail and made a beeline for the islands that we had heard were world famous. We stayed in Manila for little more that 10 hours ( 5 of which were spent trying to sleep amid the cockroaches), and then got on a tiny Asian Spirit plane to Caticlan. From Caticlan, we took a weathered but friendly catamaran to Boracay. And then the sand, sunsets, scuba, and mango daiquiris began to sink in.

We stayed at a resort (note that the term "resort" is used very loosely in the Philippines) called Nikko's Resort. It was basic and clean, and we only encountered one cockroach, which (after a brief yelp) we accordingly sprayed with sunblock and kicked him out onto the porch to cook in the hot island sun. He only came back once. We called him Gary. He was an island cockroach for sure though, because he was so slow and lazy we could keep track of him at all times. He'd only move a centimeter or so an evening.

We befriended the awkward front desk employees, and spent the next 9 days in a luxurious environment we will always remember.

While in Boracay we got our PADI Open Water Scuba Diver certifications from French instructor Nadine at Aqua Life Divers Academy. We had four dives, up to a maximum of 17.5 meters. The coral and marine life that we saw, at such relatively shallow depths were breathtaking. All of the marine organisms and species that I have been fascinated with via text books, dissection labs and educational videos over the past years were swimming up to my scuba mask, and curiously peering at my fingers. We are now certified world-wide to dive up to 18 meters on our own. Hopefully, we will be able to use this certification sooner than later, and in more amazing tropical climates like Thailand and Malaysia!

We also celebrated New Years in Boracay, on a beach still warm from the past days sun. We rang in the new year at a Reggae bar, sitting in sand-sprayed bean bags and sipping mango daiquiris (which, yes, Jake and I spruced up with the 20 cent pint/mickey of rum that we purchased at the convenience store-- talk about convenience eh!? haha). It was an amazing night of warmth, sand, tropical senses, loud music, good food, bare feet and fireworks.

This is us after a fabulous New Years buffet dinner for a simple 200 pesos (php), or, approx. $5 Canadian. On our way to our New Years drinking spot.


Our trip was fabulous and usually included searching through the markets for cool shell jewelery, cheap and unique clothes, good happy hour specials (most bars it ran from 3pm - 8pm!), amazing ethnic cuisine from Italian and Greek to Mexican and Indian, a few dips into the sea, sailing, snorkeling, scuba diving, taking pictures, meeting new friends and bartenders and listening to great music well into the night.

So, pictures really can say more than words for this unforgettable trip, so take a look at our metric tonnes of pictures!! They are well worth a peek!

**Colleen's Pictures: One , Two , Three , Four ** **Jake's Pictures: One **

Xoxox

December and Christmas

Hey there all!

It's been a while, we know, but hey.... that's us.

We've been real busy, and are both in the middle of applying to grad schools! Jake is applying for a one year B J, starting mid-August. Yes, thats right. Jake is going to spend all his earnings from this year on a year long BJ..... Bachelor of Journalism that is!... at the University of King's College. On their website they advertise all over the place things like "What a one year B J can do for you!" "Come to Kings, we offer the best B J in the country!" haha. It's awesome. But seriously, Jake's mind did a huge 'click' and a compact fluorescent light bulb appeared atop his head. He's real excited, and so am I! His resume is so stacked with relevant experience he's basically a shoo-in.

I've applied for 2 programs, but am not going to get into it that much for fear of rejection, and then everyone who had read this being like... "Colleen, it's October....weren't you supposed to have started school in that blablabla program yet?" and then the pang of rejection would replay itself over and over as I explained my shortcomings.... so... I'm applying to Dal for two programs. And my fingers are crossed. Please cross yours in the appropriate manner as well.

Needless to say, we are rather busy and behind in many ways, with many things, so please let this brief December and Christmas post rest your weary souls until we post about or fantastic, fabulous, wonderfully stupendous trip to the Philippines! Boracay was more than what I've envisioned paradise to be like. But, that story will come, along with millions upon millions of my fabulous photos... oh, and some of Jake's. haha. Actually I'm pretty sure that every picture ever taken on the island is an award winner though, as it's sooo naturally beautiful, even a shitty camera paired with a shitty photographer couldn't screw it up.

December:

The month was warm -- snow, sleet and rain free -- and rather quick! We participated in the usual: drinking, dinner guests, Karaoke with randomers, another English camp, casinos, drinking, food, a visit to the Busan Aquarium and ..... teaching? It was a nice month of looking forward to Christmas and then, on December 29th, the Philippines (Boracay) and New Years on the beach!

Christmas:

Christmas was great! We had lots of presents to and from each other, and a few from home.... well, Jake's home. Jake had a few from home. Or rather an entire Keith's 2-4 box filled with many individually wrapped presents, including some rum, an Antigonish shot glass, some Canadian maple syrup, socks, lots of Canadian paraphernalia compliments of the Antigonish Dollarama (god I miss that place), and many other things.

We had planned a giant feast between Jake, Simon, Byoung Chul, Min He and I, but the plans were ruined when Jake caught the flu after our 2 day 1 night camp-out in the Ulsan mountains, and then passed it on to me in the Christmas spirit on Christmas Eve. We had originally thought it was a wicked hangover, but then it lasted two days, and then I caught it for two more days... so the hangover theory was a miss. This flu was not a nice, gentle one, and was obviously contagious, so the festivities and food had to be canceled.

We had gone (Korean) camping (a.k.a. a hotel, but surrounded by nature) with a bunch of other foreigners living in Ulsan for the weekend before Christmas (the 22nd-23rd). There were 3 Canadian St.FX'ers (Jake, Darren and I), one American, an English bloke, a Kiwi, an Aussie, a few Irish and Scottish, some Korean, and a partridge in a pear tree. After arriving at 2pm, it began. Jake immediately convinced us all that "there's nothing wrong with a few drinks around Christmas time".... and the motto stuck, keeping the beer flowing (and when that was gone, the rum, and when that was gone, other people's beer) until 5am when we all decided enough shenanigans had ensued to call it a good Christmas drink. We laughed and ate mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots, beer-can chicken and all the other good Christmas eats that we could manage to cook. We ate outside, and some complained that it was too cold, but us Canadians assured everyone that, no, it was not actually cold at all, but more like a Nova Scotian summer night. Hilarity ensued, Trailer Park Boys was watched, I made some 2am spaghetti for all interested parties, and we had a great time. It was a lot of fun and soo relieving to be able to speak English to people again, and have the same sense of humor, and to be able to use sarcasm and put subtle things into conversation that were understood and reciprocated. Talking to our Korean friends can sometimes be challenging and many jokes, sarcasm or subtle inuendos are lost in translation. So, despite the flu, our December and Christmas was fun and most certainly memorable!

That's it for now... back to applications. Stay tuned for a Boracay post!

Photos of:
November - *Jake's* & *Colleen's*
** December **
** Christmas **

4 Months In: Time Flies When You're Teaching English

Hello again,
First off, an apology for the lacking posts. It's a mixture of our laziness, the annoying sticky keyboard we have to type on (because we are too lazy and forgetful to buy a new one), our computer once again being swarmed with a strange virus that turns off our monitor every few minutes and then we are forced to restart the computer (well, now it's actually in the computer graveyard and we are in a stinky, smoky PC room or internet cafe), the daunting task of uploading and explaining my millions of pictures and not all that much going on in our lives!

I'm sure we've mentioned it a million times over, but times has just flown since we've got here! We are already 1/3 finished our contract, and we now know all the students at the academy by name (we're guessing around 200 of the little buggers). Most of the Korean names are a combination of two of these in no particular order: Young, Min, Cha, Dong, Bin, Yay, Hye, Un, Hee, Jung, Da, Ji. None of the names are gender specific either. For example, I've had a male Jung Wee, and a female Wee Jung, and both a male and female Da Oon. We know our students all by their Korean names, even though in Korean English Academy's it is regular practice to give the students an "English" name, and always go by that name in the academy, and when the students meet english speakers.

As our computer, and hence all our pictures and files, are currently unaccessible, I will just post the pictures that I uploaded to Facebook before our beastly and emo computer took it's own life, and include a short update.

Our first experience at English Camp was a ... ... hmm... strange but not too painful one. We hopped into our bosses Hyundai Mini-van at 5pm on Saturday with 10 students (that's right, plus, Jake, me and our boss!) , and headed to (one of) our bosses "beach appartments" about 45 minutes outside of the city.

Jake taught and sang the classic BNL (Barenaked Ladies for those of you that aren't the die hards) "If I had a Million Dollars", we made some curry for dinner (the students peeled the potatoes and carrots), and then slept on the floor. Well, everyone except me and the tiny little Cindy you will see in the pics slept on the floor. We got a queen sized bed to share, and though I was in a separate sleeping bag, I feared in the night I was going to roll over and crush her like the 10 pound bug that she is. Fortunately for me Cindy fell off the bed in the middle of the night on her own, eliminating that possibility... haha. She climbed right back on though, still completely asleep and unaware. Her mom told us that she hadn't slept the night before because she was too excited for English Camp, so she was pretty exhausted that night. My thoughtful students woke me at 5am, and the day had some more games, and then ended at the local fish market. We got back into Ulsan around 2pm with 150,00 won.

I was able to witness my first Korean concert on a soccer field at the local Ulsan University campus. It was pretty elaborate and interesting, though I didn't quite care for most of the music.. except of course, the latest boy band sensation Big Bang with their latest (and only) single "Lies". I'm going to try to get it on my Ipod and perhaps post it here. I have a video of it that I will post later as well!

Have a good one, we have to head to bed now. We'll write more when our new computer we ordered today gets in on Thursday. Until then, call us!

**Pictures 1, 2 , 3 **

Cheerios,

콜린 (Colleen) and 제이크(Jake)

Everything is bigger in Beijing

Thanksgiving is certainly a different holiday in Korea. While everyone is spending this weekend back in Canada enjoying gravy, turkey, and an extra day off, we in Korea have celebrated thanksgiving a long time ago, by eating chewy and strange rice cake treats called "Song Pyun" (I think). Chusok is the name for Thanksgiving, and it lasts 5 days -- the weekend plus three days off. The Koreans themselves returned to their hometowns and bowed to their grandparents, or at least that's what I could gather from the assignment I gave them called "How I Spent Chusok." Colleen and I took the opportunity to visit our giant neighbour to the west, China.

We booked a travel package with an agency based out of Busan (Korea's 2nd biggest city, 45 minutes from us) to Beijing. It was a full tourist deal -- pay a lump sum and be treated to airfare, hotel, meals, and even a Chinese local tour guide who spoke English and told cheesy jokes. His name was Duncan, and he was the man. There's a lot to be said about 'roughing it' and backpacking through the real parts of a country, but time was limited for this trip and we had no regrets choosing this option. Beijing was huge. Halifax is big, Toronto is much bigger, but Beijing is freakishly large. Without a set itinerary and an old pro like Duncan, we would have spent our 4 days running around in circles. Big, smoggy circles.

Our trip started with an early morning bus ride to the Busan airport. Our boss, Mrs. An, graciously drove us to the bus terminal at 8:30am. I'm sure it was no big thing for her, as she regularly gets up at 5am to hike mountains, but we were very appreciative. She gave us $10 each too, just like grandma. I didn't tell her, but it bought me a lot of 40 cent Chinese beers. We soon arrived in Busan, met up with our friends Jake and Alison (see previous posts about them... yes, I realize Jake and I have the same name), and hoped aboard a Chinese Air vessel bound for Beijing. The first thing we noticed was the white people. For the first time in 3 months, we were part of a big white group, primarily made up of English teachers like us. The second thing I noticed was the hysterical Chinese newspaper they gave me on the plane. Reading their state-controlled press certainly informed me that I wasn't in Kansas anymore. The big protest controversy in Burma (which was headline news on CNN International) wasn't covered until the 5th or 6th page, and they never actually mentioned what the protests were actually about.

As soon as we landed, we were whisked on our tour bus (which would become our second home for the next 4 days) and introduced to tour guide Duncan (who would become our second father for the next 4 days). Our first stop was the Temple of Heaven. This was where the emperors of China would come to pray for good harvests and lucky lottery numbers. We hadn't previously heard of the Temple of Heaven, but we soon recognized it's famous Hall of Prayer, which is often used as a symbol for Beijing. The temple, situated on about three square kilometers of Beijing park land, was beautiful, and was an excellent appetizer for the grandeur we were to view on the rest of our trip. Back in the day, what the emperor wanted, the emperor got; the Temple of Heaven was on the smaller end of the imperial temples and palaces we were to visit. It was littered with guys selling everything from Beijing 2008 Olympic t-shirts to Rolex watches (of the $1.50 variety). Actually, I'm fairly certain these guys followed our bus around Beijing. Afterwards, we were treated to Beijing Duck (formerly known as Peking Duck). This famous meal, synonymous with the city, was brought out whole from the kitchen and then thinly sliced by the chef at our table.

The next day, after an early morning wake up call and delicious Western-style breakfast (a rare treat for ESL teachers in Korea... perhaps worth the entire price of the travel package), we were off to the Summer Palace. This place was absolutely stunning. Basically, the emperor wanted a place to hang out in the summer, with a lake, in Beijing. And a mountain too. So, they built a vast man-made lake, and used the excavated soil to build a small mountain. What the emperor wanted, the emperor got. It also featured the world's longest corridor. We're not sure the Asian obsession with corridors, but yeah, it certainly was long. Next, we were bound for the city centre, home of Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. This was another instance which reaffirmed that we weren't in Kansas anymore. Our tour guide Duncan described Tienanmen Square as the world's largest city square, home to many festivals and such... and... was where... "those students and the tanks and things happened." It certainly struck home when we came into view of the front gate of the Forbidden City, with the massive painting of Chairman Mao, that we were square in the middle of where a lot of wild shit had gone down. The square was packed, with tourists of all nationalities, and salesmen of all levels of dignity. One was so persistent that I eventually caved and bought a Mao wristwatch (which now, only works if I flick my finger against it). The Square was also well endowed with a vast Olympic display. The city is certainly pulling out all the stops for the games. We soon entered the Forbidden City, the place where the emperors of old would live. The place was inhabited by the Emperor, his 3,000 concubines, and government officials, all eunuchs. What the Emperor wanted, the Emperor got. The place was well guarded, too. The cobblestone paths upon which we walked were 15 layers deep, in case assassins got the balls to tunnel under the walls. The rest of the palace was an array of buildings and gardens, laid out much like a maze (which was why myself, Colleen, Alison, and Jake got separated from the group -- or lost -- for a period of time). Afterwards, we enjoyed Mongolian BBQ and made our way to a Chinese acrobat show, which was simultaneously the most amazing and horrifying thing I've ever seen (and I've been to a few live pro wrestling events).

The next morning, Duncan (who lovingly became known as "Dirty D," due to his bringing us to the most random convenience stores -- all owned by his "cousins" -- to "buy the beer and the pepsi") informed us that Chairman Mao once said that a man is not a hero until he climbs the Great Wall of China. That morning, we were to become heros. When we arrived at the Great Wall, I was struck with a real sense of an authentic "holy crap we're in China" feeling. We had visited Tokyo, which was fantastic but was well endowed with Western comforts. We live in Korea, but the shock has settled down and it's starting to feel like home. But the Great Wall slapped me in the face and made me wake up and smell the Chinese ginseng tea. We were to climb one of the Wonders of the World. 3,000 steps and one hour later, we made it to the top, and to our surprise, we ran into a couple of X-Rings. Even more surprising, was the fact that I had gone to elementary school with one of the X-Rings. Small world, no? We were sure to snap a few pictures for our friends at the Alumni Office. The coolest part of the Great Wall, aside from the magnificent view, was that is was sort of a converging point of world travelers. We heard more languages than we could count, including some Russian guys singing old army marching songs, to a Mexican Soccer team galloping up the Wall shouting "Arriba!" Colleen and I, being Colleen and I, ended up spending too much time at the top, and realized we were late for the bus. We soared down the Wall, shaving about 50 minutes off our climbing time, and dooming our thighs and calves for the next few days.

The next day was a 'free day,' ie - we were left on our own to tackle the giant, and we took in some shops, which meant some intense bargaining. There is no such thing as a sticker price in Beijing, and you have to usually talk the shop keepers down about 700% before you make your final deal. I'm pictured to the right with a woman who tried to sell me what she called a "C-U-B-A" bag, before I educated her on the country of Cuba. Our other stops included the Beijing Hard Rock Cafe, Tienanmen at night, and a cool lakeside restaurant/bar area. Beijing was mind-blowing. The architecture was huge and innovative. The people were fun and full of life. And the beer was dirt cheap... there's nothing wrong with a few drinks around Thanksgiving. We had an opportunity to drive past the Beijing National Stadium -- best known as "The Birds Nest" -- which was still under construction. The building was too immense to describe (largely built on the backs of Chinese guys getting paid next to nothing). They do everything big in Beijing; always have and always will. My one concern about the Olympics in particular is the terrible air quality. The sky was hazier than I've ever seen. At many points, you couldn't actually see the sun, more just a big bright yellow smudge of a circle. I sure wouldn't want to run a marathon in that stuff.

On the whole, the trip was absolutely magical. You truly felt a certain uniquely intangible sensation in Beijing, where its mystical history and culture is beginning to mash with western world foundations, but still holding strong. It satisfied our travel bug for a while now (or perhaps ignited it further).

Hope all is well back in the true north, strong and free!

-Jake

PS: Click the following links for our pictures!
Jake's Facebook album (1 of 2)
Jake's Facebook album (2 of 2)
Colleen's Picasa album (the big one)

September Adventures

So, September has come and almost gone!
We've switched classes, which will happen every two months, so we have a new batch of kids to get to know and learn. That's 5 - 8 classes of new names! It's thrown a much needed change of pace into the work schedule though.
September has been somewhat quieter than the past few wild months, but not a lot quieter! We went to a dance club one night to satisfy Bla's (Simon's gf) unquenchable desire to go dancing since her broken foot had finally healed. So, she got the names of a few clubs, and we went to the one that was supposed to be a 20-25 year old crowd, what we thought would be a fun night. We all got on our dancing shoes and headed to New Concert dance club in New Downtown. There were some serious looking but scrawny Korean bouncers at the door in suits and headsets. We were nervous there was a dress code, but in the end it seems there wasn't. (Though I was later informed that there was an "age code"... any Korean older than 25 is rejected. Good thing Simon is British and intimidating, otherwise he could have been kicked out because he is 35) The place was HUGE! Absolutely large. The ceiling was a few stories high, and there were tables and booths everywhere, and then a huge dance floor at the front with a giant stage, and a d.j in center stage that rotated every song set (as shown in picture!).

So, the dance floor was rocking, we got some beers, and then Bla and I went to dance. We started grooving to some really cool remixes, all of western hip hop and pop songs. It was nice to hear songs we knew.... even though I hate those Much Music songs in Canada, they were a rare comfort here on the dance floor. Dancing to random Korean songs just wouldn't have been the same. So, we are just getting into it, 3 or 4 songs in, and the music stops, moves into a slow tune, and everyone leaves the dance floor. Bla and I are confused. We go back to our seat and drink. In Korea, a lot of things are organized or pre-decided for the youth by elders. Opening a dance club must have come with its rules by the older generation, because a dance club this big and popular and hot, and with such great sound and music is probably too taboo and Western for the average Korean parent. So the Korean flair is that the music stops/slows every 5 songs exactly, so that no one get too tired, exhausted or too close and sexy with a member of the opposite sex that they would get the chance to hook up. Then you go back to your table with your friends, and wait for the next 10 min dance set. It was tooo weird. The second you get into your groove, the music stops and everyone leaves. It was definately a way mostly to deter close dancing and mingling of opposite sexes, as the groups of friends were all single sex. Actually, the majority of people on the dance floor were groups of guys dancing together in a circle, breaking out intense dance moves. It was strange to have a mainly guy dance floor, as girls are usually the overwhelming majority in Toronto clubs. The age limit also probably ensures that if people do hook up, they are within 5 years of one another in age.

We also went on a spur-of-the-moment trip to Busan, Korea's 2nd largest city (Seoul = 1st). I needed to shop, and Jake needed to go to a casino! Casino's in Korea are only for foreigners (another example of controlling citizens behaviour), so they are obviously rare, as the clientelle pool isn't very large. We had some nice dinner, chicken galbi, went to the mall where I got a few unique articles of clothing, and then we played Black Jack and Roulette at the Busan Lotte Seven Luck Casino!

Jake and I are heading to Beijing for the Chusok, or Thanksgiving, holiday for 5 days and 4 nights Sept 22nd-26th. We just got our finalized travel itinerary and take a look at our 5 star hotel!! The Loong Palace Hotel has 9 restaurants (2 clubs) and anything else you need for sports, spa, cinema, bowling or anything else really. We are very excited. Here's our travel itinerary!
Only one more week of work 'till we hit up China!! Yaaay! I am super stoked for the Beijing duck, acrobat show, Forbidden City, Great Wall and Tian'an Men square!!
That's it for now, here are my pics!

** Colleen's Pics**

Birthdays!

Hey everyone!
Colleen here for the birthday update! Thanks to everyone for the b-day wishes and gifts, namely all the pencils and erasers I received from my thoughtful students who probably purchased them minutes earlier from the stationary/candy store located directly underneath our school. The month of August has just flown by, and we can't believe we are already two months in! It has been fun, frustrating, tiring, hilarious, exciting and absolutely dumbfounding at times, but the overwhelming consensus is that coming to Korea, and Ulsan in particular, was probably the best decision we could have made after graduating. We are already able to pick out certain words when listening to Koreans talk, and can order several dishes at restaurants that don't have pictures on the menu or wall. We've got two "How to read/speak Korean" books that came with the house, and sometimes you can hear me annoyingly repeating the "awe" "ooo" and "uhhh" noises, slowly and unassured as I attempt to read the Hangul symbols.

Anyways, onto the post topic of birthdays!
As I'm hoping all of you are aware of, both Jake and my birthday have passed in the past week or so and they were both fun and memorable. First up was my birthday, on August 23rd. On Aug. 22nd, Jake and I decided we would head down to Ilsan beach for a casual beer or two. We went to the WA Bar (the only Western themed bar in the area) and got some beers. Just to put a Korean Western bar into context for you, they sell "Western" dishes that you have never seen in the west. A popular one is pork cutlet in sugar-gravy with a strange vegetable on it. All Koreans assume every restaurant in the West will have this dish, and that it is the best seller too. Another head scratcher is the Koreans obsession of associating Western food with pickles. If you order pizza, it comes with pickles. French fries- you get pickles, spaghetti - you get pickles.... you get the drift. It's like some Korean a while back went to the "West" and informed the entire Korean population of the food we ate, but was sorely mistaken, or just couldn't remember the real recipes. (Probably the exact feeling Chinese people have when they eat at a "Chinese restaurant" in the West for the first time) So at the WA Bar, our favourite western food is shredded cabbage in a mustard-yogurt sauce with chicken, pickles, cherry tomatoes and jalapeño peppers on the side. Sounds just like home, right? Once midnight struck, and it was officially my birthday we headed to the beach, got a beer at the convenience store, and set off some fireworks. After fending off a drunk, soaking wet and feisty man by offering him a sparkler, we went back into the convenience store for one last beer, calling it a night, we had decided. However, when we got to the store we were greeted by a table of Sri Lankens and some Korean HHI workers (Hyundai Heavy Industries basically employs 90% of the city's population, give or take a percentage point). So, semi-well versed in English, we were invited to their table for soju and mekchu (beer in Korean). We obliged, and several hours later, not to mention a haphazard Joe Louis birthday cake and a fire work or two later, we stumbled home and went to sleep.
An hour before I turned 22 for real (at 8:01am) I was awoken by a phone call from my mom. Jake made me some breakfast while I snoozed a little longer and I opened my presents from him (jewelery, a singing card and a spa facial) and my mom (a card and pasta sauce in the mail) Work that day was fun, as I gave my students candy and a word search - I wasn't interested in doing much more. My boss served us birthday cake for lunch and I got lots of gifts from my students, some more useful or touching than others, such as 4 red roses from a shy boy named Dong Gew, or a wallet and notebook from cute Tay Eun and her sister Day Eun. We were too tired to go out that night, but strolled to Ilsan beach to play a few games- basketball, batting cages, and rock, paper, scissor machines.
Saturday we were treated to a joint birthday lunch by our boss. All of our coworkers attended, as well as Mrs. An's son and nephew. She took us to "the most expensive restaurant" in the area, which was a traditional Japanese restaurant where her husband has very important business meetings. Unfortunately for me, the entire menu was shellfish, and it was a set menu for everyone. She was well aware of my shellfish allergy, she even wrote me a post it in Korean saying "I am allergic to shellfish. Please do not serve me food with shellfish in it" for me to show at Korean restaurants. However, I think she was so excited getting reservations that she temporarily forgot my allergy. So, while strange snails, squid, eel, sea cucumber, sea urchin, sea squirts, and other indistinguishable foods were being cracked and consumed, I had a bowl of plain rice, kimchi and some tuna.
In the evening Simon and Min He came to our place for some pre-drinks, and we set off to the beach for a long night of football (Man City vs. Man United - Simon "obviously" roaring and screaming for Man. city through to their defeat). We enventually ran into the Sri Lankens we met the other night, and arrived home around 6am.
(Oh God, I write waaay too much... sorry)

Jake's B-day went well. We went out the night before for some Booldak (Fire chicken - seriously the hottest thing we have eaten in our lives, but soooo good despite the fiery hot pain!) and beer. We witnessed our second WA Bar birthday party; the lights go out, weird birthday music comes on and the bartenders juggle flaming bottles and make the b-day boy drink some fiery shot ..... its wild. They usually set off fireworks inside too. Thankfully we witnessed someone else getting the WA Bar b-day, don't worry, it wasn't for Jake. We played some games, and headed home in the pouring rain. Because it was well after midnight, Jake decided to open his gifts from me, and save the ones from my mom and his family until the morning. I got him some stretched canvass, acrylic and watercolour paints, and two books - a compilation of Nietzsche's work and F. Scott Fitzgerald's. The morning was a bacon and egg breakfast, complete with a talking picture frame from his family. A cake was consumed at lunch and he received pencils and letters from his students.
So there you have it, our birthdays mingled into one.

**Jake's pictures**
**Colleen's pictures**

Japan: Part Two -- Turning Japanese, I really think so.

Disneyland -- Luckily for us, the Happiest Place on Earth exists in more than one place, with one located just east of Tokyo. Tokyo Disney Resort contains the classic Disneyland portion -- which is an almost exact replica of the original Anaheim, California; along with the newly opened DisneySea, the most expensive theme park ever built. It contains a goddamn man-made volcano equipped with a lava dodging roller coaster. How cool is that? The park is comprised of several 'Ports of Call,' which are themed on different parts of the world (both real and fictional), including the Mediterranean, "USA," Aladdin's "Agraba," and more. Disneyland itself was fantastic. We spent a good chunk of our daylight hours in the magic kingdom, and more than satisfied our quarter-life-crises. I got to relive my wondrous journey to Disneyland in 1994, and Colleen got to buy the Minnie Mouse ears that her rich childhood friend would bring back every year from Florida. We feared massive line-ups (this is Tokyo) and blazing sunburns, but we made it through the day largely unscathed. The line-ups were not terrible and we were able to go on the vast majority of the rides which we wanted, and for some reason the Japanese sun doesn't burn skin. As the sun started to set, we made our way over to DisneySea, taking advantage of the 'after 6pm' discount. Lucky for us, this was about the same time that everybody went home. There was absolutely no wait time for any of the fantastic, more intense rides at DisneySea. Unlike the long line-ups for feel-good easy rides like It's a Small World in Disneyland, we were able to run through the queues and hope on intense roller-coaster rides like Journey to the Center of the Earth. Disney left us with the intangible magic that everyone seems to experience, regardless of age. They are so damn good at what they do. Right down the finest detail, Mickey and the gang spare no expense to make a trip to Disneyland something truly unique (not counting the 4 or 5 replicas throughout the world).

(the rest of) Tokyo - Our plans for the day after Disney weren't really solid. We had a room booked in Kyoto (a three hour bullet train ride away) that night, but we felt like we weren't quite finished with the big city. We could hop the train at any point -- one leaves about every 20-40 minutes (and the Japanese are very punctual). We decided to shove our bags in a locker at the Tokyo train station and take our time exploring a bit more, until we were satisfied. Our mission: Find the INTERSECTION. That's right, our goal was to find an intersection. Not just any intersection, no, we wanted the intersection, otherwise known as Shibuya Crossing. If you've seen any film (such as Lost in Translation) or tv show set in Tokyo, you've seen the Shibuya Crossing. Featured in the stolen, unauthorized photo to the right, it's supposedly one of the busiest intersections in the world. All traffic stops while swarms of pedestrians move every which-way as they try to cross. The Crossing itself, well, it was busy, but a tad underwhelming. Maybe we had built it up too much, but the crowd outside of Piper's Pub at around 2am on a Saturday night in Antigonish could have given Shibuya Crossing a run for it's money. That said, it was satisfying to reach the "Times Square" of Tokyo as several giant video screens played Ads above us, and we even managed to catch a glimpse of the world's busiest Starbucks. Below is a video of our 30 second journey across the 'the world's busiest.' That's a few small steps for Jake and Colleen, and a giant leap for .. ah, I don't know. (we've been experiencing technical difficulties with this one, folks... just click my YouTube link at the bottom of this post if you can't view the video here)

Kyoto -- We effin' loved this city. I'm not sure if we were simply biased due to our left-winged fondness for the environmental protocol signed there, or if its pure old-world beauty charmed us off our feet. I suspect it's a larger chunk of the latter. Kyoto was the former imperial capital of Japan before the feds packed up for Toyko, and contains a wealth of fascinating architecture and civil design to match. We arrived around 10:30pm, and made our way to our first Ryokan, which is a traditional Japanese inn similar to a Bed and Breakfast. We opened the door to find two large guys from the Southern United States playing Magic Cards in the ryokan kitchen/lobby. We unpacked our bags and checked the internet to investigate a supposed Typhoon which was heading toward our departure port, Fukuoka/Hakata, the next day. Mr. Internet told us that 120 domestic flights had been canceled in Fukuoka. We could find any direct info about our hydrofoil ferry, but we had a phone number. Unfortunately, we were well past office hours. Secretly, we hoped the Typhoon would blast Fukuoka, postponing our ferry, and allowing us extra time in the city we so desperately wanted to explore. With the office hours forcing us to play the waiting game until the morning, we did the only thing any self respecting maritimer or maritime-graduated 21 year old would do -- we cracked open my duty-free litre of Jack Daniels and then hit the town. In very broken Japanese, we asked a cab driver to take us to the Kyoto hotspots. He seemed confused, then responded, "Drink Street?" We hopped in the cab and he dropped us off in a curiously quiet neighbourhood, and told us to climb the stairs to the second floor of a boring looking building. We reached the top floor to find... (drumroll)... a Japanese restaurant. We were a tad bummed, until a waitress came up to us and asked us if we spoke French. Suddenly the night became more exciting. We crapped our way through about an hour and a half of drunken highschool French with our Japanese host, who studied French in high school. We also took a number of ridiculous videos, which we're currently debating whether or not to upload to YouTube. To the right is a picture of yours truly readying his chopsticks for an assorted grab bag of raw fish, complete with a shrimps head for garnish. Jack Daniels and Kyoto are not a great mix.
The next morning, I struggled toward the phone to see if we had to hop a bullet train and sail across the rough Sea of Japan. To our shock, despite the fact that the sea would no doubt "be angry that day," our ferry company said we were good to go. Suddenly, the ghost of Jack Daniels himself possessed me and I asked if we could change our reservations. Thankfully, we were able to push them back two days, which would allow us to both see more of Japan, and recover from the previous night. So, after shaking the cobwebs and finding another Ryokan for that night, we rented some bikes and cycled across Kyoto. It turned out to be a great idea. We were able to cover a lot of ground that day and check out some very interesting buildings and streets. Also, I bought a ninja death star. I hope I can get that puppy through customs on my way back to Canada. We finished our day with a great Italian meal (a little taste of home), made it back to the Ryokan before our 11pm lock-up/curfew time (the old lady who owned that place ran a tight ship). We decided to draw up some plans for our extra day in Kyoto. Half way between Kyoto and our ferry in Fukuoka was Hiroshima, and we thought we should check it out before we departed the land of the rising sun.

Hiroshima -- The city name seems to resonates within our collective conscience as one of those "we really shouldn't have done that" things, right up there near the Holocaust and other nasty things throughout mankind's history. We knew our stop in Hiroshima wouldn't be exactly a chipper way to end our Japan trip, but I think we both felt we needed to see their monuments and reflect on the destruction and devastation of the A-Bomb that dropped to end WWII. We hadn't realized it, but we arrived in Hiroshima a day or two before they were to commemorate and mourn the anniversary of the bomb, which dropped on August 6th, 1945. The city was bustling as people came from all over the world to attend the ceremony. Activists and important figures from all over the world were descending upon Hiroshima, which has now become a beacon of peace and tolerance. We were very lucky to get the last hotel room available, and after checking in, we set about trying to find the monument grounds. Perhaps the main monument in the Peace Park is the A-Bomb Dome, a government building relic which survived the blast. The bomb actually detonated about 600 meters above it, and due to the way the bomb exploded (outwardly, slightly), it didn't totally destroy the building. The city has preserved it as a constant reminder. We also viewed the Children's monument, which is based on the young girl, dying from A-bomb radiation induced cancer, who attempted to fold 1,000 paper cranes. The grounds contained a vast amount of breathtaking monuments, and the whole message truly struck home. It put the stats and time lines from history class into perspective, and it's not something that either of us will soon forget.

Back to Korea -- The next morning we woke up, and hopped on the train back to Fukuoka. It was by far the easiest train ride we took -- after a week of struggling, we actually understood how to properly and efficiently use the Japan Rail. Dems da breaks. The hydrofoil back wasn't so bad, a tad rocky, but we were glad to have avoided the typhoon. We hope you've enjoyed our 2 part trilogy on our trip to Japan.

Hope everyone back home is doing well. Our birthdays are coming up (Colleen -- Aug 23 / Jake -- Aug 29), we'll try and have a drink for each and every one of you.

Be sure to check out our photo albums of Japan:

**[Jake's: 1 ,2, 3]**

***[Colleen's millions of photos and videos]. ***

I'm also slowly uploading videos to my YouTube account.



Cheers!