Ever wake up after a crazy night of partying and wonder where you left your car?  I can honestly say that has never happened to me…no joke.  BUT it seems to me that that must be a regular occurrence here in Korea.  The main difference is that in North America you would wake up to find that your car had been towed away if you had left it someplace that it shouldn’t be.  Not here…have no fear your car will be right where you left it…no matter what.

Here are my favourites…the corner park…the double park…and the crosswalk park.

This weekend I decided that I had better go and do something cultural.  It’s been a while since I learned something new or rather something significant about Korea so I called a few friends and we headed off to the Korean War Memorial Museum located in the heart of Seoul.  I had heard from several people that it’s a pretty amazing place and they were right.  The museum features displays that cover an almost 5,000-year history of foreign invasions, from before the Three Kingdoms Period through the Korean War.  The exterior of the museum is surrounded by a park which is filled with aircraft, tanks, and other fighting machines from the Korean War to the present…that was my favourite part.  Here are a bunch of pictures that I took:

This is me sitting inside a UH-1 helicopter also known as the Huey…so cool!!!

Here are Dan and I in front of a U.S, Sherman Tank.  The next picture is the Soviet   T-34.  The tank that defeated Hitler on the western front in WWII.

The back of the T-34 and beside it an American B-52 bomber!!!

Here we see an American F15 fighter jet and beside it we see Dan and Erich standing under the open bomb bay doors of the B-52 bomber.  This is the high altitude bomber that was tasked with delivering nuclear payloads for the United States during the cold war period.  SOOO COOOOL!!

Next we have a mobile artillery cannon with 105mm gun (that’s big) and the South Korean version of the U.S. Abrams tank.  This is the tank currently used by the U.S. military.

These planes are pretty awesome.  The first is one of the original Soviet Mig fighters.  This plane came into the possession of South Korea due to the defection of the pilot in 1983.  Yes in 1983.  The plane beside it is the South Korean version of the American Spitfire.  Awesome plane. 

Ok, so I took a bunch of videos so you could see what it was like wandering around Ilsan which is the city next to Hwajeong where I live.  These two cities make up the greater city of Goyang.  I spend quite a bit of my free time there so I figured you may want to see what it’s like.  Oh and you may want to take something for motion sickness before you watch these.

This first video is of Andrew and I crossing a big plaza in Ilsan towards a semi outdoor pedestrian mall type shopping and restaurant area called the Western Dome.

The second video is us entering the Western Dome area.

Warning video 3 is long.  It’s us right inside the Western Dome.

This video is of us crossing the street back in the oposite direction from the Western Dome into an area called LaFesta.

Here we are wandering around the LaFesta area as the sun goes down.

Here are some squid in an outdoor fish tank in front of a restaurant.  There are tons of these types of tanks all over the place with a wire variety of fish.

Here are some funny different things that I have come across since the last time I made a post.

So here we have the Severance Hospital…better hope you never have to go there for anything…you may arrive home less a limb…or worse.  Next to that is the Foreign Restaurant…you know in case you just arrived in Korea and were about Korean cuisine and wanted a taste of home.

Here is Andrew…again…I’m starting to think we spend to much time together.  He is posing with this stereotypically effeminate hair salon statue.  I do realize that the odd thing isn’t that the statue is effeminate but rather that the statue itself exists on this earth in the first place.  Next to it we have a book store called “What the Book’?  Actually a pretty cool name if you ask me.

 

And lastly my very favourite sign from this set…“Magic Hole”!!!  Besides, “Why?” and “Doesn’t that company have a person that speaks English that is not from Korea on their staff and if not why didn’t they just approach an English speaking foreigner who is visibly not Korean on the subway or in some other random place and ask them if the phrase “Magic Hole” had any other connotation that may be viewed in a less than favourable way as it related to their product?”, many questions popped into my head when I saw this banner.  By the way, this is some national campaign and not just some mom and pop store.  Back to my questions…“What does the Magic Hole do and what exactly goes into the Magic Hole?”  “Should you even put anything in it in the first place?”  Just because it’s magic that doesn’t mean that something good will happen if you stick something in it.  "Would it be a good idea to stick an inanimate object in it first…you know to test it out?”  How about your finger first…if you loose it would you still have 7 more and 2 thumbs…I could live with that.  Or how about some small animal like a rodent or kitten that you had become bored with or one you had only pretended to love because it was a gift from your now former girlfriend.  So bizarre…but oddly enough…I want one.

Hello everyone I know…agian it’s been a while since my last post.  This time I have a real reason…although being lazy is a real reason I suppose.  I have been super busy of late with these extra classes that I am doing.  It was a ton of planning but that is all done now.

So what’s been going on?  Well since my last post my very good friend Dan has finally made it to Korea.  Dan got here in early October and stayed with me for a bit.  So I figured it was my duty to show him around while he had some free time.  So I called Andrew and Andrew (I know 2 Andrews) and my friend Ryan and Andrew called his friends Nicky and Peter who were visiting from Scotland we hit the road.

Our tour started on Saturday afternoon at a place called Itaewan which I wrote about in an earlier post.  We had a couple of drinks at a Canadian themed restaurant to figure out what we were going to do that day and then checked out some of the street goods and shops.  Here we are at the Canadian bar.  Moving clockwise starting from the bottom left  there people are: Andrew, Dan, Andrew, Ryan, Peter and Nicky):

After that we stopped for lunch / supper at a restaurant called Geckos which is a British style pub which I also wrote about before.  Here we are at Geckos:

Next on our tour was a cool place called the Manhattan Bar.  While there we played a game that I am now officially naming “MYSTERY COCKTAIL”.  It’s pretty simple…you just order a mystery cocktail for the person on your right…or left if there is something wrong with you.  Here we are:

 

When we had finished using Iteawan like a manwhore on a one night stand we grabbed the subway and heading to Sinchon.  There we visited our good friend Key.  It was here birthday so we stopped in to wish her well.  I didn’t get any pictures there…not sure why.

After Sinchon It was on a bus this time back to Ilasn and a place called Barzan where we met up with Chelsea and Jason.  That’s Chelsea at the bottom right and you can see a bit of Jason in the top right.

AND FINALLY our last stop…early sunday morning I might add was at the locally famous (but don’t know why) Bar Boom!!!  See, Peter and Nicky on the left and Andrew making new friends on the right.

And last but not least the aftermath…no this isn’t when we were getting up but rather it was bedtime!!  FUN SLEEPOVER!!:

Ever heard of the Lemon Tree song?  Well I hadn’t until I came to Korea.  It’s a song that English teachers use to help reinforce the present progressive form.  I know…blah blah blah!!  The point is that the kids love this song and SO DO I!!  I promise you if you are feeling crappy just give it a listen you will magically feel better.  Here is a video of the song.

Back in Canada we all know that you can buy beer for around a dollar per bottle at the beer store.  To me that’s a pretty good deal.  Well here in Korea the alcoholic beverage of choice is something called Soju.  Soju is a very mild flavoured rice liquor that is a little too easy to drink.  It kind of reminds me of vodka but at least with vodka I can taste when I’ve put too much in my mixed drink.  This brings me to the dark side of Soju.  I’ve heard from a number of Koreans and ex-patriots alike that when you drink Soju there will come a point quite suddenly and unexpectedly when you realize that you’ve shifted from sharp and coherent to Russell Crow.  It’s a strange sensation that’s very difficult to describe.  It really does creep up on you, probably because Soju has almost no flavour and mixes pretty much with anything.  The kicker…Soju also costs a dollar a bottle AND the alcohol content is generally between 16% and 25%.  It can also be found at every single convenience store…anywhere.  YEAH CONVINIENCE!!  I know…CRAZY!!  It’s not uncommon to witness business men passed out in doorways and parking lots as though they were curled up nice and cozy in their beds.

These are the brands that I keep in my fridge…I was going to list them but just realized that the labels are written in Korean.  That’s something I say alot by the way.

 

The other day I was feeling like I had not been spending enough time exploring this week.  So to fix that I decided to take a quick subway ride to one of my favourite places so far…Ilsan.  More specifically, I decided I was going to spend a good few hours exploring Lake Park which is located there.  I had been there once before but it was dark and I didn’t have my camera with me.  Here are a bunch of pictures of Lake Park…and one of break dancing shrubbery…ENJOY!