The Olympics are finished, and even though I couldn't see any of them in person, living in Korea and all, it's been a pretty satisfying run.
Here are the three things I was rooting for during these olympics:
1. Canadian Men's Hockey gold.
2. Kim Yuna gold
3. (I'm a petty old codger, but...) Canada finishes ahead of Korea in the medal standings.
And squee with glee, dear readers: I got all three!
So Canada won 14 Gold medals (an Olympic record), including the one we would have traded the other 13 for: Men's Hockey Gold. Way to go, Canada. I watched the game on tape delay (it aired live here at 5am), and got to enjoy it. And holy crap, what a great game that was.
Sidney Crosby is officially Canada's new national hero, and Joannie Rochette is not far behind. Plus, he was assisted by Jerome Iginla, one of those prototypical Canadian hockey players who can throw his weight around, or dupe you with a swift move. Now if only Sidney were playing for a Canadian team, too, and Toronto didn't suck, everything would be right in the hockey world.
Kim Yuna has achieved goddess status in Korea -- seriously, she could run for president right now and win, she could read the phone book and people would watch the telecast, she could become a pitch lady for Toyota and they'd hit #1 here. You could make money selling empty jars of air labled "Yuna Farts" (I stole that joke... but girlfriendoseyo's friend's mother said almost the same thing - "I bet even her poo is pretty", which is about the equivalent of "she pisses perfume" I suppose.)
That's all for now.
one expat's life in Korea
Showing posts with label canada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label canada. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Canadian Embassy Wants to hear from you, Canuckers
[Update]: The guest list is now full, but you're still welcome to contact Ms. Kim by e-mail (see below)
I got a message from Nicola Kim, a political officer working for Mr. Ted Lipman, the Canadian Ambassador to Korea himself. After a year of discussion about the English teaching experience in Korea, as well as Korean media representation of them, not only here on the blogs, but in Korean courts, and even in the international press (not to mention CBC Radio), the embassy is interested to hear feedback about life in Korea directly from Canadian English teachers.
The meeting will be at the Canadian Embassy in Seoul, from 2:30-4pm on Thursday, January 28th, and Nicola's looking for a one or two more voices to round out the discussion. They're especially looking for long-time teachers, who have been around the block a few times, and have a longer perspective, and even more, at this point, females are underrepresented on the guest list. If any of my readers, especially the female ones, are long-term English teachers in Korea, who hail from Canada, and you have a thing or two to tell, or ask the Canadian Embassy about life in Korea, here's your chance to put in your two bits.
If you aren't free at that time, but you can think of something you'd like to tell the Canadian Embassy, either a complaint or a request, or a "is there anything you can do about ___" or "you could help new incoming Canadian English teachers if you ___" kind of tidbit (or should I say timbit), you are invited to either leave your comments at the bottom of this post, at which point I'll be happy to relay them on to the Canadian Embassy when I go, or you're also invited to contact Nicola Kim directly by sending an e-mail to nicola.kim at gmail dot com
image source
I'm glad the Canadian embassy is doing this; it's a great gesture, and while it makes sense insofar as it will reduce the number of anguished calls they have to field from distraught English teachers, it is also a opportunity to open more communication between the community and the embassy.
So fire off that e-mail, if you can come to the meeting, or let Nicola know what you'd like to say, whether you can come to the meeting or not.
Periodic Table of Canada
I got a message from Nicola Kim, a political officer working for Mr. Ted Lipman, the Canadian Ambassador to Korea himself. After a year of discussion about the English teaching experience in Korea, as well as Korean media representation of them, not only here on the blogs, but in Korean courts, and even in the international press (not to mention CBC Radio), the embassy is interested to hear feedback about life in Korea directly from Canadian English teachers.
The meeting will be at the Canadian Embassy in Seoul, from 2:30-4pm on Thursday, January 28th, and Nicola's looking for a one or two more voices to round out the discussion. They're especially looking for long-time teachers, who have been around the block a few times, and have a longer perspective, and even more, at this point, females are underrepresented on the guest list. If any of my readers, especially the female ones, are long-term English teachers in Korea, who hail from Canada, and you have a thing or two to tell, or ask the Canadian Embassy about life in Korea, here's your chance to put in your two bits.
If you aren't free at that time, but you can think of something you'd like to tell the Canadian Embassy, either a complaint or a request, or a "is there anything you can do about ___" or "you could help new incoming Canadian English teachers if you ___" kind of tidbit (or should I say timbit), you are invited to either leave your comments at the bottom of this post, at which point I'll be happy to relay them on to the Canadian Embassy when I go, or you're also invited to contact Nicola Kim directly by sending an e-mail to nicola.kim at gmail dot com
image source
I'm glad the Canadian embassy is doing this; it's a great gesture, and while it makes sense insofar as it will reduce the number of anguished calls they have to field from distraught English teachers, it is also a opportunity to open more communication between the community and the embassy.
So fire off that e-mail, if you can come to the meeting, or let Nicola know what you'd like to say, whether you can come to the meeting or not.
Periodic Table of Canada
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Last few Summer Vacation Pictures
Last set of my best pictures from my Canada trip.
I like pictures of airport hangars and stuff. This was (I believe) in Tokyo. Or maybe Toronto. Anyway, I like the tinted glass, and the way it makes the sky that much richer.
Liked this sign at the Vancouver bus terminal.
I've told you about my sunglasses curse, right? I've never been able to keep a pair of sunglasses: I always either lose, or break them. Fortunately, hats have worked out better for me so far (knock on wood).
My awesome friend Melissa's son is super-cool. We had a great time chatting about the kinds of things seven-year-olds chat about. . . some of my favorite topics.
My surrogate family lives in my old hometown: when I was back in Canada, taking care of my sick mom, they lived in the same town, and whenever I was down, I'd go over to their place, just show up at the door, and they'd invite me in for a recharge. The two daughters are like my younger sisters, and they're awesome, and growing up to be awesome human beings, both of them. One of them had a birthday party, and I got to attend.
They're wonderful and funny and all that stuff, and here's a video of them being cute and funny and sisterly.
We found some flowers while walking around Harrison Hot Springs. Heres' my youngest surrogate sister. She's as funny as she is beautiful, and smart to boot. I spent a day hanging around with her and her friends (they all graduated high school this year) and we had some good laughs. From having conversations with seven year olds, to conversations with seventeen year-olds, it was a real grab bag this summer.
In Korea, flowers in your hair is a symbol of madness (cf: Ophelia), but in Canada it doesn't mean anythings special except, "I put flowers in my hair."
I drove the rockies and took some videos: most of the "shoot from a moving car" shots didn't work out, but I took some video that turned out OK. Watch for the flocks of birds, the bugs, and FWAM! The flying eagle!
Yeh.
Then off to Ontario for the end of my trip. My dad's house is there, and my extended family. Instead of craggy mountains, you get this:
My dad's house's bathroom had this really really cool looking sink-drain-plug.
My Dad lives in Niagara Falls now. (sweet!) and by happenstance, my cousin was visiting my OTHER cousin not far from there, and they had the time to come out and spend a day hanging out with me and being awesome. Dang, but I miss them! Staying touch isn't always a strong point for me, so I hadn't actually seen one of them since we were practically kids, but Heather lived near my old hometown one summer, and we had some hoppin' good times. She's awesome.
Sucks butt that I missed both their weddings while I was in Korea. Seriously sucks. I want to meet their husbands, though. This is the part where it really stings to be so far away.
My cousin Heather is one of the most beautiful human beings I've ever met.
We went under the falls, where the bass thundered all through your body.
The falls were in fine form.
You've seen lots of pictures of niagara falls already. I won't bore you too much with mine.
At night, I went there again with Mary-anna, my step-mom. She's super cool, and bore with me as I took pictures that she'd taken dozens of times before, all the while regaling me with interesting stories.
Here camera's way better than mine.
Plus, there was a fireworks show.
And the music didn't suck, like other fireworks shows I've been to (second one's Andong mask festival. Sound got muted, but the lady was singing "You Raise Me Up" [cheesetravaganza]. No music is better than crappy music... especially when it'll just get overshadowed by the falls' thunder anyway.
I caught the end of the fireworks show on video, and I've also showed some other cool shots I took on video. It really started raining after the show, and we got totally drenched - so wet that my shoes were still damp when I returned to Korea and unpacked them. It was a fun adventure with Maryanna, though.
This video also includes some footage from behind the falls and at the bottom (I think it's called table rock) -- it's awesome down there, and the falls are so loud, and all the other usual adjectives (majestic, awe-inspiring, blah blah). To get an idea of what it was like being there, connect the youtube video with the biggest speaker you have, lay on your back, turn the volume on high, and lay the speaker down on your chest while you play the video.
The video, then.
The last day before I flew back to Korea, I finally saw my mom's parents, one of the two main reasons I'd decided to go back to Canada this summer (that, and attending the family get-together in Langley). At my grandparents' house, the site of most of my best childhood memories, I got this shot of Dad
and this one of my grandparents. They're awesome. I wrote about my grandfather here.
Here's the house where they live, from the back yard: it's way out in the country, so remote they still use dialup, and only got their road paved in the '90s.
My grandmother loves gardening: she maintains a huge vegetable garden, even in her '70s, and keeps a whole swack of gorgeous flowers, too.
This is my favorite picture of their house from the trip:
and more flowers:
In the woods in FRONT of their house, my grandmother has carved paths all over the place, and each curve of the path represents, for her, a different son, daughter, grand, or great-grandchild. I didn't think to ask her which part was mine, but this little patch here...
was my mothers, before she died. The rock on the bottom right is the rock under which her ashes are buried. This was the first time I had the chance to visit mom's burial place since 2005, the year of her passing.
This is the rock where she's buried.
and i can't think of anything to say after posting that picture.
I like pictures of airport hangars and stuff. This was (I believe) in Tokyo. Or maybe Toronto. Anyway, I like the tinted glass, and the way it makes the sky that much richer.
Liked this sign at the Vancouver bus terminal.
I've told you about my sunglasses curse, right? I've never been able to keep a pair of sunglasses: I always either lose, or break them. Fortunately, hats have worked out better for me so far (knock on wood).
My awesome friend Melissa's son is super-cool. We had a great time chatting about the kinds of things seven-year-olds chat about. . . some of my favorite topics.
My surrogate family lives in my old hometown: when I was back in Canada, taking care of my sick mom, they lived in the same town, and whenever I was down, I'd go over to their place, just show up at the door, and they'd invite me in for a recharge. The two daughters are like my younger sisters, and they're awesome, and growing up to be awesome human beings, both of them. One of them had a birthday party, and I got to attend.
They're wonderful and funny and all that stuff, and here's a video of them being cute and funny and sisterly.We found some flowers while walking around Harrison Hot Springs. Heres' my youngest surrogate sister. She's as funny as she is beautiful, and smart to boot. I spent a day hanging around with her and her friends (they all graduated high school this year) and we had some good laughs. From having conversations with seven year olds, to conversations with seventeen year-olds, it was a real grab bag this summer.
In Korea, flowers in your hair is a symbol of madness (cf: Ophelia), but in Canada it doesn't mean anythings special except, "I put flowers in my hair."
I drove the rockies and took some videos: most of the "shoot from a moving car" shots didn't work out, but I took some video that turned out OK. Watch for the flocks of birds, the bugs, and FWAM! The flying eagle!
Yeh.
Then off to Ontario for the end of my trip. My dad's house is there, and my extended family. Instead of craggy mountains, you get this:
My dad's house's bathroom had this really really cool looking sink-drain-plug.
My Dad lives in Niagara Falls now. (sweet!) and by happenstance, my cousin was visiting my OTHER cousin not far from there, and they had the time to come out and spend a day hanging out with me and being awesome. Dang, but I miss them! Staying touch isn't always a strong point for me, so I hadn't actually seen one of them since we were practically kids, but Heather lived near my old hometown one summer, and we had some hoppin' good times. She's awesome.
Sucks butt that I missed both their weddings while I was in Korea. Seriously sucks. I want to meet their husbands, though. This is the part where it really stings to be so far away.
My cousin Heather is one of the most beautiful human beings I've ever met.
We went under the falls, where the bass thundered all through your body.
The falls were in fine form.
You've seen lots of pictures of niagara falls already. I won't bore you too much with mine.
At night, I went there again with Mary-anna, my step-mom. She's super cool, and bore with me as I took pictures that she'd taken dozens of times before, all the while regaling me with interesting stories.
Here camera's way better than mine.
Plus, there was a fireworks show.
And the music didn't suck, like other fireworks shows I've been to (second one's Andong mask festival. Sound got muted, but the lady was singing "You Raise Me Up" [cheesetravaganza]. No music is better than crappy music... especially when it'll just get overshadowed by the falls' thunder anyway.I caught the end of the fireworks show on video, and I've also showed some other cool shots I took on video. It really started raining after the show, and we got totally drenched - so wet that my shoes were still damp when I returned to Korea and unpacked them. It was a fun adventure with Maryanna, though.
This video also includes some footage from behind the falls and at the bottom (I think it's called table rock) -- it's awesome down there, and the falls are so loud, and all the other usual adjectives (majestic, awe-inspiring, blah blah). To get an idea of what it was like being there, connect the youtube video with the biggest speaker you have, lay on your back, turn the volume on high, and lay the speaker down on your chest while you play the video.
The video, then.
The last day before I flew back to Korea, I finally saw my mom's parents, one of the two main reasons I'd decided to go back to Canada this summer (that, and attending the family get-together in Langley). At my grandparents' house, the site of most of my best childhood memories, I got this shot of Dad
and this one of my grandparents. They're awesome. I wrote about my grandfather here.
Here's the house where they live, from the back yard: it's way out in the country, so remote they still use dialup, and only got their road paved in the '90s.
My grandmother loves gardening: she maintains a huge vegetable garden, even in her '70s, and keeps a whole swack of gorgeous flowers, too.
This is my favorite picture of their house from the trip:
and more flowers:
In the woods in FRONT of their house, my grandmother has carved paths all over the place, and each curve of the path represents, for her, a different son, daughter, grand, or great-grandchild. I didn't think to ask her which part was mine, but this little patch here...
was my mothers, before she died. The rock on the bottom right is the rock under which her ashes are buried. This was the first time I had the chance to visit mom's burial place since 2005, the year of her passing.This is the rock where she's buried.
and i can't think of anything to say after posting that picture.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Canada Trip Pictures: Driving Around Western Canada
So I went to Canada and stuff, but never posted the pictures I'd promised.
Now, a good bunch of them are on my primary computer, which is currently suffering an IP address error which I must wait until monday to resolve, but I uploaded all these a while ago, so you can see them.
And what else did you do this weekend, Roboseyo?
I was sick, so I mostly just stayed home and bummed around. Watched some sweet Alfred Hitchcock Movies: Cracked Rear Window, The Birds, and Psycho were all pretty awesome. Hostel was terrible. If I'm going to see so many movies, I might get my hands on the AFI top 100 or somesuch. Or watch more Korean movies, seeing as I owe alls'y'all a rundown of Korean movies well worth your time to see.
But here are some pictures of my trip to Canada.
Pictures of Niagara Falls, Southern Ontario, and who knows what else, coming ... soon? Whenever.
Now, a good bunch of them are on my primary computer, which is currently suffering an IP address error which I must wait until monday to resolve, but I uploaded all these a while ago, so you can see them.
And what else did you do this weekend, Roboseyo?
I was sick, so I mostly just stayed home and bummed around. Watched some sweet Alfred Hitchcock Movies: Cracked Rear Window, The Birds, and Psycho were all pretty awesome. Hostel was terrible. If I'm going to see so many movies, I might get my hands on the AFI top 100 or somesuch. Or watch more Korean movies, seeing as I owe alls'y'all a rundown of Korean movies well worth your time to see.
But here are some pictures of my trip to Canada.
Vancouver, downtown.
The night sky on the way home from white rock.
Many of the side streets in vancouver were vitually car free; maybe I missed something, but it seemed like they were reserved, either legally or tacitly, for bicyclers.
Near Grand Forks, British Columbia. The Rocky Mountains were in especially fine form this trip, and a good thing, as I drove across them twice, stretched over three days: one day from Langley to Red Deer, my sister's hometown to my brother's, eight from Red Deer to Creston, where my other sister lives, and eight more from Creston back to Langley again: a triangle punctuated by stops to stretch my legs, drive throughs, an epic seven hour stretch without finding a single Tim Hortons, lots of coffee, fewer pee breaks than usual, because of careful liquid intake (I'm a bit of a road-trip badass, after so many times needing to skooch all over the place so often).
I tried taking pictures of some nice stuff without stopping the car, by pointing the camera out the window, but it didn't really work out as often as I'd hoped it would.
I stopped at this bridge right before the sun went down: it was right in my windshield, making it dangerous to negotiate corners and stuff, so I just got out of the car and took pictures until the sun was low enough not to bother me anymore. This shaft of sunlight caught tons of bugs... few enough of them mosquitoes, that it didn't bother me much at all.
I also saw eagles circling above the river.
Other pictures of random vistas around the rockies.
Mist rolled in around Hope... not long after I took this picture, I couldn't see a hundred yards ahead of the car.
This looks like a KIA ad.
Harrison Hot Springs is a little resort town near my old hometown. Harrison Lake is an awesome freshwater lake. The resort town means my hometown is pretty as anything, but the cheesy tourists all go to harrison, which is close enough to enjoy, but not so close that I have to hear cheesy new-age music every time I walk to the pharmacy in my old hometown.
That there's Mount Cheam. My old house had a view of that mountain (from a different angle) right out my bedroom window.
Highway 7 between Mission and Harrison Mills is another of the prettiest patches of driving I've ever seen.
My sister lives in Creston, one of the prettiest corners of the world I've seen. The town also enjoys some of the most delicious tapwater in the world... certified. BC's interior is known for that. You wouldn't know it, but that fresh water blew me away, of all things, the entire time I was in Camaba.
I chased a sunset one day in the rental car. Glad I did.
We went down to a riverside park my sister knew. It was great. My sister and her husband and kids played by the water while I took sundown pictures. I also had a really great few conversations with my sister about... all the important stuff.
My niece, and her town.
The night sky on the way home from white rock.
Many of the side streets in vancouver were vitually car free; maybe I missed something, but it seemed like they were reserved, either legally or tacitly, for bicyclers.
Near Grand Forks, British Columbia. The Rocky Mountains were in especially fine form this trip, and a good thing, as I drove across them twice, stretched over three days: one day from Langley to Red Deer, my sister's hometown to my brother's, eight from Red Deer to Creston, where my other sister lives, and eight more from Creston back to Langley again: a triangle punctuated by stops to stretch my legs, drive throughs, an epic seven hour stretch without finding a single Tim Hortons, lots of coffee, fewer pee breaks than usual, because of careful liquid intake (I'm a bit of a road-trip badass, after so many times needing to skooch all over the place so often).
I tried taking pictures of some nice stuff without stopping the car, by pointing the camera out the window, but it didn't really work out as often as I'd hoped it would.
I stopped at this bridge right before the sun went down: it was right in my windshield, making it dangerous to negotiate corners and stuff, so I just got out of the car and took pictures until the sun was low enough not to bother me anymore. This shaft of sunlight caught tons of bugs... few enough of them mosquitoes, that it didn't bother me much at all.
I also saw eagles circling above the river.
Other pictures of random vistas around the rockies.
Mist rolled in around Hope... not long after I took this picture, I couldn't see a hundred yards ahead of the car.
This looks like a KIA ad.
Harrison Hot Springs is a little resort town near my old hometown. Harrison Lake is an awesome freshwater lake. The resort town means my hometown is pretty as anything, but the cheesy tourists all go to harrison, which is close enough to enjoy, but not so close that I have to hear cheesy new-age music every time I walk to the pharmacy in my old hometown.
That there's Mount Cheam. My old house had a view of that mountain (from a different angle) right out my bedroom window.
Highway 7 between Mission and Harrison Mills is another of the prettiest patches of driving I've ever seen.
My sister lives in Creston, one of the prettiest corners of the world I've seen. The town also enjoys some of the most delicious tapwater in the world... certified. BC's interior is known for that. You wouldn't know it, but that fresh water blew me away, of all things, the entire time I was in Camaba.
I chased a sunset one day in the rental car. Glad I did.
We went down to a riverside park my sister knew. It was great. My sister and her husband and kids played by the water while I took sundown pictures. I also had a really great few conversations with my sister about... all the important stuff.
My niece, and her town.
In Alberta, Highway 22, the Cowboy Trail, is another of the greatest bits of driving I've ever done. In fact, if I'd had time to hit up Vancouver Island as well, it would've been ALL the nicest drives I've done in my life. But we can't have it all.
And I had a good berry crumble at Wendel's in Fort Langley.
Took some pictures of Banff on my way through.
Cutest picture: I was glad to know Red Deer is a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone. That is, until Kim Jong-il drops one on it.
Few more of Red Deer, where my bro lives.
And I had a good berry crumble at Wendel's in Fort Langley.
Took some pictures of Banff on my way through.
Cutest picture: I was glad to know Red Deer is a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone. That is, until Kim Jong-il drops one on it.
Few more of Red Deer, where my bro lives.
And mushrooms in the garden outside my brother's house.
Pictures of Niagara Falls, Southern Ontario, and who knows what else, coming ... soon? Whenever. In conclusion, Korea is a land of contrasts. Thank you for reading my essay.
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