Looking Ahead

It was a pretty typical week of work, after last weekend's short adventure to China. I haven't quite caught up on my sleep yet, but at least my legs have finally stopped aching, after the Great Wall trek.

I spent this weekend working at a local Youth Center - the same place as the time where I was handed a Wikipedia print-out and told to 'teach' for 2 hours. This time, I had a different (organized!) Korean co-teacher, and hosted a Freespeaking class - it made the whole experience a lot more pleasant.

Afterwards, I went into Seoul for a free outdoor music-performance, behind City Hall. My Bluesfest-replacement for 2009, I s'pose (that is, if Bluesfest featured Korean versions of Céline Dion).

Still, it was fun.

After playing a few games with the noobs at home and getting a haircut, I started planning my next trip, for the end of July: Japan. Plane tickets seem a heck of a lot more expensive than for China, but I'd regret not jumping on the chance to see Tokyo, while it's still this close.

Have a good week!

Seriously, China

From Beijing - June 20-22

Beijing: Day 2 - The Great Wall

We booked our guide to pick us up from our hotel, to head to the Great Wall, at 7:30am on Sunday morning. The trip from downtown Beijing was about two hours, to the section of the Great Wall we were headed for: Jiankou.

Jiankou is a section of the Great Wall that has fallen under disrepair, and is not technically open to the public. Our tour group (which consisted of seven tourists, ourselves included) was greeted to the area with large signs reading 'This Area of the Great Wall is not Open to the Public'. Still, we were allowed to go through the gates, with our guide bribing the locals who are in charge of guarding it. According to him, the government doesn't want anyone climbing it, due to safety, yet the locals have a serious need of money, so they still let some tourists through.

I didn't think much of it until we finally saw Jiankou, when I realised: holy crap! We actually have to climb the Great Wall. Many, many sections were in such bad shape that we had to climb with our arms and legs, and seriously watching our step.

One bad step meant a 50-60 meter drop.

Climbing this part of the wall is probably the most dangerous thing i've ever done - and I probably wouldn't have done it if i'd kept up with the news. Last week, a newly-wed couple died after being struck by lightning, causing them to fall off this part of the wall.

Still, it was an incredible place to be. Nature has overtaken the wall, with many trees and shrubs growing on it, and there's just something amazing about seeing the wall today, untampered by repair. The ruins felt incredibly historic, and helped invoke thoughts of soldiers once-upon-a-time keeping guard on this gigantic thing.

The most dangerous part of the Jiankou (and of course, most memorable) was a part where the wall was completely gone. The only way to get through was to climb against a wall (and a branch, that someone had put up), and reach a nearby ladder. Again, if you happened to miss it, it was a heck of a dive. I can't say I wasn't nervous, but holy crap, it feels good to have done it. Here's a video of Ryan, reaching the other side (with my overly-worried commentary about the branch possibly cracking).



After about 6 hours of walking on the ruined-wall, we finally reached a section that was being repaired, and what a difference; being able to walk quickly without thinking you might die is a huge relief, when you're getting tired as all-hell.

Finally, we had two choices for getting off the wall: The traditional walk-down-the-hill, or the badass way of sliding down. That's right - there's a slide, where you can ride down a track using luges that go pretty freaking fast.

It was an awesome way to end an awesome day. The Great Wall alone made the entire China trip worth it. Although my legs still hurt, I wouldn't hesitate to do this all over again. Here are some extra scenic shots:






...and in case that's not enough, feel free to enjoy the 483 Beijing pictures I took, here.

Beijing: Day 1

I just arrived back in Korea this morning, after spending two great days in Beijing. We saw most of the great sites (Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Summer Palaces, Great Wall), which were all very cool. We did run into some problems from some less-than honest Chinese, but the overall experience was great.

As soon as we landed, on Saturday, we were subjected to the Asian Paranoia of Influenza. They wouldn't let us off the plane without first shooting some kind of heat-sensor gun at your face, to make sure you're not running any kind of fever. They had two people, scanning a few hundred less-than-happy passengers.

It took a while.

After we checked in to our Hotel, we decided to make our way toward Tiananmen Square, which was supposed to be a 15 minute-walk. Once we're halfway there, we get stopped by guys offering scooter-rides. We say 'Tiananmen', they say 'OK, OK!', and proceed to go completely the wrong way.

Not only did they not bring us to Tiananmen, after a 'scenic' tour of decrepit, destroyed buildings; they also wanted to charge us 300 Yuan for each scooter. That's about 60$ (so 120$ for two). Needless to say, we learned the valuable lesson of not trusting guys on the street, and to always alllllways make sure about the price first.

We eventually reached Tiananmen (where i'm posing with the Korean-style peace sign), and made our way to the 'Palace Museum', popularly referred to as the Forbidden City. The museum had a fair deal of genuinely interesting places and artifacts, but a great deal of it has been converted into Restaurants and Gift Shops, so the entire experience didn't feel very genuine.

From the exit of the Palace Museum, we went to the Summer Palace, which was a little less crowded, and a little more interesting. It was the summer retreat of an Emperor or Empress, a few hundred years ago, built next to a lake.

For dinner, we stopped at a restaurant that offered the famous Peking Duck (Peking being the former English name of Beijing). The duck is sliced right in front of you, and served with several condiments (I'd name them, if I had any idea what the heck I ate). We were also served duck soup (which strangely didn't have any duck meat in it) - maybe it's the water where the duck was cooked?

Either way, it was very, very good.

After dinner, we booked our trip for the following day to the Great Wall, and proceeded to go to several bars, one club, and even squeezing in a good 5 hours of sleep! I'll write up about the Great Wall tomorrow, but i'll say this: it was absolutely spectacular.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Flying Off

If you look closely enough, you'll find a less-than-appropriate name to one of the stores in this picture. This is in the Foreigner district (Itaewon), so you can bet it ain't a typo. Makes you wonder how many Koreans clue in to that one..

Anyway, we're off to Beijing in a couple of days. The flight itself is about two hours (and i'm guessing we'll be circumventing North Korean airspace). We'll be trying to pack in a crap load of sightseeing in a very small amount of time, but it should still be a pretty cool trip. Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall are on the agenda.

I was also told that it might be a good idea to bring my face-mask - Beijing might very well be the most polluted mecca in the world. Lets hope it's not that bad!

I'll be back on Monday with a recap of the trip. 'til then, have a good one!

My Finger Hurts

Today, I experienced Korean-Baseball first hand - quite literally. I went to a LG Twins vs SK Wyverns game, and was (un)lucky enough for one of those rogue-balls to come my way.

In all the times i've been to a Baseball game in Ottawa, what with, oh, 1% of the audience present in Seoul, a ball-into-the-audience never came near me. This time around, my first time, a ball heads straight toward my head - I managed to block it, at the expense of a sprained finger, but that damn thing got away from me afterwards. haha.. What're the odds, really?

Baseball is a big deal over here. Korea has its own, exclusive league: the Korea Baseball Organization, which has a total of 8 teams. Three of those teams are based in Seoul, and one in Incheon. What I find a little strange (and cool, from a marketing standpoint) is that people refer to the teams not by the names, not by the city, but by the Corporate Sponsor.

We were in the LG Twins stadium, where the cheers always went 'LG! LG!'. Not once did I hear the word 'Twins'. I can't imagine North American leagues ever becoming like that, though - i'd have a hard time cheering 'MICROSOFT!', or 'SCOTIABANK!'.

Here's a video, to get a sense of the crowd.



Have a good one!

Poor Hossa

I went down to the Foreigner district, today, to watch the final game of the NHL playoffs. I appreciated being in a room with plenty of beer-hoisting, passionate Canadians, but boy, does it suck to be Marian Hossa today.

Really didn't see Pittsburgh having a chance on this one.

Ah well.

On the China front, we managed to find a place to apply for Tourist Visas (which take 4 working-days to process.) What's strange is that the base-fee for American Tourists is 125,000 Won, (about 115$), versus 35,000 Won for tourists of any other nationality.

Poor Americans - victims of Chinese discrimination. I wonder what the reasoning behind those fees really are, though.

Eh.

Why Not Beijing?

Next week, i'll be taking a short three-day trip to Beijing (Leaving Saturday, coming back Monday morning). One of the teachers that used to work in GEC, Ryan, wanted to do something memorable to celebrate his birthday, and suggested China awhile back.

I kind of forgot about the date, until this week. We're in prep-mode right now, having to go through the whole Chinese Visa affair, and figuring out plane tickets. It won't be cheap, but since my days in Asia are winding down quickly, I might as well see the major-sights while I can.

There's been nothing terribly exciting, other than that.

On that note, a few shoutouts:
-Congrats Émilie!
-Damn you, Dany Heatley.
-Go Detroit!
-Hi Mom

Cheers

The Blue Screen of Death

Saturday, I had planned to do a bit of gaming, before getting on with my day. When it came time to turn on the game, it crashed. I tried again. It crashed again. I said 'okay! I'll reset it'.

Unfortunately, my Windows never restarted; it said something about a crash dump, and restarted itself automatically, overrrrr and over. Anyway, all this to say, I spent the entire weekend attempting to fix it. In the end, I had to reformat and reinstall (arrrgh).

In between my angry-yells and girly, upset-yelps, there was one positive: I managed to save all of my pictures, so the last 10 months haven't all been lost. Google's Picasa service is pretty awesome for uploading a couple thousand pictures, and redownloading them all again.

Everything's pretty much back to normal now, aside from the Microphone, which is still down. If you were hoping to hear my voice this week, you'll have to make-do with my picture, your imagination and a fair bit of alcohol.

I'll try to report on something more exciting than a Blue Screen, next week.
Cheers!

The End's Beginning

June has rolled in, the playoffs are coming to an end, and Detroit is about to beat down the Penguins to take another cup. With that comes the beginning of a new Semester at GEC, where i'm once-again carrying a full-load of classes (and it's about time).

I held on to all of the previous classes I was teaching (4 beginner-level children's classes, and my two adult classes), and picked up two extra beginner kid groups, as well as two advanced groups. I haven't had a group of kids that I could really converse with in over 6 months, so i'm pretty happy about that.

The most frustrating thing for me, at times, is that when kids are misbehaving or fighting, I can't really do all that much. They can't express why they're angry, and I can't explain how i'll punish them - in those cases, I have to relegate the duty to my Korean co-teacher. In the advanced classes, there's something really great about saying 'You'll get an extra hour of homework if you're not quiet', and hear whimps of 'oh no!' before hearing silence.

Other than that, things are going well. On the exploration front, I was hoping to take a trip to the Demilitarized Zone sometime this spring, but it's looking less and less likely these days - you can guess why - so instead, i'm looking at the Korean sports scene. It'd be cool to catch a Baseball or Soccer game while i'm here (possibly this weekend).

Hope everything's well back at home!
Ciao!