Sorry everyone for being so neglectful of my blog lately! Needed to get a digital camera and then took me a while to figure out how to use it. Got a whole whack of pics now to post... check out my Flikr account!

Lots of stories to tell: DMZ tour, shark diving, Beijing trip, Pohang cabins by the sea, new coworkers, and good friends leaving... but maybe I'll let the pictures do the talking : )

Goodbye to Jocelle and my good friend Catherine, two great people! But they'll be back... ohhhh they'll be back!

Catherine at the cushion bar in Seoul

Paul and Jocelle

Goodbye to my good friend Paul, whose ambitious endeavours and wanderlust has taken him to bigger and better things ; ) I'll be waiting for that mansion in Spain, Paul! You betcha I'll be coming to visit...

Natalie and Me

My good friend/coworker/neighbour Natalie, who has been working with me in the Kindergarten since the beginning of September. Finally people believe me that I have the best job ever!

It's taken me some time to upload all the pictures I've collected up 'til now, but I did it! Check out the links to my other picture pages, listed at the left under my profile.

This is the view from my current apartment in Daegu! Riverside, surrounded by mountains, it's really nice on a clear day... the Daegu airport is just across the river as well as a military airbase, so the planes can be kinda loud sometimes, but it's worth it to me...

Haven't been able to write much lately, partly due to the fact that I've been sick on and off for the past three weeks and have been waiting to get my pictures scanned... if you're thinking of coming to teach here in Korea, beware of the Korean cold! These bugs are not what you're used to, so unless you have a VERY good immune system, you'll find them hard to shake once they take hold... thankfully, I've got a pretty good stockpile of Echinacea and vitamins. I've found they've helped me a lot- both to prevent and delay getting sick, and also to reduce the severity once I am... or you can go to the Korean medical clinic and get a shot in the butt- but a warning to those out there with any kind of medicinal allergy- it's anyone's guess as to what exactly are in them! I'm allergic to Penicillin and Erythromycin and have come pretty close to accidentally being given them, so to be safe I don't accept any kind of medicine that I'm not 100% sure about. Keep in mind the culture of saving face- someone might not like to admit that they're wrong. My last boss insisted that the cocktail of pills he wanted me to take did not contain Penicillin, and after much hassling and guilt-tripping ("come on, do you think I want to hurt you??!") I finally got him to call a doctor and found out that- OOPS!- there was a pill in there with Penicillin. So if I had trusted him and taken the medication, I would not be sitting here today... let that be a lesson to myself and everyone else! Do not let anybody hussle you into thinking otherwise- especially if you're young and female, do not let anybody think they can shove you around.

Well this is my first attempt at blogging... after living in Korea for two years I've finally decided it's time to get my thoughts and experiences out there for people who want to know about me personally or who are interested in doing these things themselves and want another's viewpoint... I've traveled a bit already but that's only whetted my appetite for more, and I thought this was the best means of letting people know what's happening with me along the way! So here it goes...

Today was my first snow day in Korea! Plenty of that where I come from back home- what Canadian can forget those days of their childhood, waking up in the wintery semi-darkness of dawn to see outside your window a thick, white, fluffy blanket of freedom? And running to the radio to listen with anticipation for the name of your school to be announced as being closed- hurray, it's a snow day! I'd smile and shuffle sleepily back to bed, looking forward to a full day of fun... later. I've always loved sleeping in.

Of course, South Korea doesn't get much snow, and less as you go further south. So imagine my surprise when I walk outside this morning and find the streets covered in white velvety softness, cars inching along carefully and people picking their way gingerly down the sidewalks (myself included- it's slippery)! I finally make it to my school and my manager approaches me at my desk with a smile and says in her shy broken english- "Anne, today, no class... snow, mahni, mahni!" ("mahni" means very much, or a lot, in Korean). Of course, it's only a few centimeters- just a light dusting by Canadian standards, but enough to wreak havoc here with transportation and pedestrians. Hurray, it's a snow day!

And I thought- what a great day to finally start working on my blog page! So here I am, floor heat cranked and bundled in my warm, comfy home-lounging clothes with a nice mug of steaming green tea, sitting at my computer. Sure, I had to get up early anyways and can't go back to bed like I used to, but that's ok, I'm just happy to have a day off.