Overall

Having had a week to digest this trip, I must admit that although it won't hit my Top 5 All-Time Best-Trips, it wasn't bad. Being in Korea as a tourist is a completely different experience, one that leaves you pretty satisfied on many levels.

As you might have guessed from my highlight on Food, the combined deliciousness and cheapness of it was, for me, a big plus. It's also something that I neglected to really pay attention to the first time around (when it's around you every day for many months, you don't really think of it as something to take pictures of).

The bonus of having many friends left in the Country with which to catch up on, drink and sing Karaoke, is great. It's also something most tourists wouldn't have, and that I was thankful for.

It was also great to see my old Kids (students), many of whom remembered me quite well - particularly the advanced ones. Some of my less-advanced ones also were excited as well, and managed to point to their current teacher to say 'BAD TEACHER' then point to me and say 'GOOD TEACHER'. haha.. Kids are awesome.

Another great thing was having so much reading material around me to practice my reading and speaking of Korean. I only learned how to read Hangul (the Korean letters) a few months after getting back to Canada, so putting the knowledge to practice for the first time was a definite highlight - and fun. There are so, so many words that are actually 'English' written out in Korean - so even with my limited vocabulary, I could make sense of a decent volume of text.

I also got to see a few more sights in Seoul I hadn't seen the first time, including a folk-village, a temple, and a few areas of the (enormous) city. To me, any trip where you learn and experience something new is far from a waste.

The jet lag has been somewhat difficult to deal with since I've been back - it took me a good 5 or 6 days to get my sleeping schedule back where it should be, but it's still not perfect. I suppose moving forward 13 hours, then backward again three weeks later will do that.

This will most likely be the last time that I venture to Korea, at least for the foreseeable future. After all is said and done, I still think it's an incredible country, and I highly recommend anyone to go and visit it should they have the opportunity.

Cheers

Food For Thought 2: Think Harder

Home is Where the Heat Is.

Holy cow, Ottawa. Way to welcome me back with sweat.

Apologies for being lazy with the blogging on this trip. Will do a handful of post-trip-blogups, followed by Pizza.

The Sidekicks

With every meal in Korea, side-dishes are served.

This.. is their story: *cue Law & Order theme*

The Cheonan

Interesting times to be following the news in Korea. As you may have heard, there was an incident here back in March, where a South Korean warship - The Cheonan -mysteriously sunk. The tragedy was unofficially blamed on the North, and there has been much anger over the loss of 46 lives.

All men in South Korea have to do two years of military service, so whenever these types of losses occur, it really is something that cuts deeply to all Korean families. These 46 could have easily been anyone's brother, son, or friend.

Today, the official report from an international-body of observers concluded that the blast was from a North Korean torpedo, emerging from a submarine. This leaves the South in the difficult situation of having to form some sort of response (not only to quell anger, but as a detterent to the North), and yet not escalate this conflict. The last thing anyone wants is to respark fighting between the two Koreas, but given the volatility of the North of late, there is a possibility it may come to that.

The Huffing and Puffing continued, as the North declared that they would "respond to reckless countermeasure with an all-out war of justice" according to the BBC. 

The mood around here does seem to continue to be indifferent, though, (at least, in regards to those threats). A lifetime of threats will probably do that to someone - Lets just hope that the no-all-out-conflict 'streak' continues.

(Will be back in Canada in five more days)

Food For Thought

Rosie