Brine Bubble

Dives, Cults, and Waterfalls

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 31 May 2008 18:00:00 +0000

Hey guys! Amie and I are having lots of fun in Utila, the smallest of the Bay Islands in Honduras. We both just took a class and earned our PADI open water scuba diver certifications! We have two more fun dives left, and then we will be done with our scuba school. Utila is a very cool little island where the locals are black or white English speakers of the ¨Jamaicanesque¨ creole variety, although there are also some Spanish speakers who moved here from the mainland. It´s got a very laid-back atmosphere.

There´s a beautiful coral reef around the island, with loads of amazing sea creatures, but not much in the way of beaches, so scuba diving is the main tourist industry here. Amie found a pregnant seahorse yesterday! We saw a stingray too, giant anemones, a sea turtle, a jellyfish, lots of beautiful tropical fish and some bizarre little animals called garden eels, which sit half buried in the sand with their heads out and quickly slip down when you go near them. Our instructor is a 25-year old Toronto native who came here 5 years ago on a road trip. He did his open water certification and liked it so much that he did the rest of the levels all the way up to instructor, and has been working here ever since. Here is a picture of our class:

Before Utila we were in the coastal city of La Ceiba where we went attended a massive street party in honour of Saint Isidro, the patron saint of the city. People from all over come for the Carnaval, the biggest party of the year. It mainly consists of getting very drunk and walking around watching bands on different stages and lots of ¨punta¨ dancing, a very sexualized form of dance which would not go down well in Canada outside of a strip club. We did meet some very odd characters at the party, though, including members of a cult called ¨Growing in Grace¨ which believes that a Puerto Rican man named José Luis de Jesús Miranda is both God and the Antichrist. An English-speaking Bay islander with a 666 tattoo on one arm and SSS on the other very animately preached the word to us for awhile.

Amie also got her hair braided while we were there:

Before that we were in Copan Ruinas in western Honduras, which was a nice little town near some beautiful Mayan ruins, one of the most southerly outposts of the old Mayan civilization. We came there from El Salvador where we both got sick for a couple days each, so didn´t really do too much, although we were led to some spectacular waterfalls near the town of Juayua by a machete-toting young man.

We are still deciding what to do next... More updates when we do!

Joyriders

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 04 May 2008 03:11:00 +0000

The family has been amazing, and we´ve decided to stay another week.

Here is a pic of Marvin and Ana, two of the kids in the family. Ana just turned five and Marvin is ten.

Our Spanish is coming along nicely, and we´ve been enjoying the lake! Today we went kayaking to a little village called San Juan. There were a lot of art galleries and everyone seemed very friendly. When we wanted to go home though, we found that our kayak was missing from the dock! Some kids there assured us that it would be back soon, and sure enough, a couple of men came paddling back in it within a couple of minutes. Pretty freaky for a minute there, but no harm done.

A better lava video.

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 02:55:00 +0000

You can really see it flowing in this one.

(If you are reading this on facebook, click on ¨view original post¨ to see video.)

We´re in with the family now - a pair of cute little girls led us very slowly down the street from the school to their house. The bed gave a large crack when we laid down, so we switched to something sturdier, and bigger. The mother´s name is Tina and was very sweet and welcoming. We start our lessons tomorrow - very exciting.

Lava and a Lake

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:36:00 +0000

Check it!

We joined a group and climbed a volcano called Volcan Pacaya near Antigua in southern Guatemala. Here you can see some lava flowing. It was amazing!

We are in San Pedro La Laguna on Lake Atitlan now. We signed up at the Cooperativa Spanish School for a week's worth of lessons starting Monday, and will be staying with a family for the duration. Should be fun!

Southward Bound

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:13:00 +0000

Hi all!

Haven't updated you in awhile. I'm in San Ignacio, Belize now with Amie. We're just about to head into Guatemala tomorrow, to see the ruins of Tikal. We rented a kayak and went on a great trip up the Belize River today. We watched a trio of vultures scuffling with each other and dining at the shore for awhile. There was also a large iguana sunbathing, and about 30 eagles (?) flying overhead... And lots of strange little fish. Beautiful! Belize is an amazing little English-speaking country with a population about the size of Greater Victoria, which is bizarre, especially considering how ethnically varied the population is and how much culture is here. Hopkins is a great little beach town where most people looked like Rastafarians and spoke either Garifuna, an indigenous language, or creole, or both, along with heavily accented English. We got a lot of sand flea bites there, which are now horribly itchy and look like some crazy disease! We started in the Yucatan in Mexico, where we spent lots of time lazing around on beaches, especially in white and sandy Tulum, which was relaxing. We're a bit apprehensive about travelling in Guatemala, as our minds have been filled with horror stories and we both have detailed, morbid imaginations, but we'll be careful. I'll try to post some photos soon!

Bobby McFerrin

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:38:00 +0000

Visions of Frank

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:24:00 +0000

My friend Dan turned me on to this... Very cool.

Southeast Asian Sunset

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:43:00 +0000

It was nice!

A White Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 09:09:00 +0000

I'm in snowy Edmonton now, visiting with Amie and her family. We've just had a delicious Ukrainian Christmas feast. A bit colder than I'm used to, but I'm enjoying every minute.

To catch you up: after Vietnam we travelled to Laos, which was quiet and peaceful, especially compared to Vietnam. We checked out Savannakhet and the Four Thousand Islands, and then continued on down into Cambodia, straight to Phnom Penh. We were having a good time there until we got into tuk-tuk accident on our way to the Killing Fields. Four of us were slightly hurt, but unfortunately Amie got the worst of it, with a crushed arm. Our driver tried unsuccessfully to avoid a motorbike, veering to the right and tipping us over to the left. Amie and her younger brother were in a worse position than the rest of us, facing backwards on a bench without protective armrests. She had her arm wrapped around a the metal bar beside her for stability, which is what crushed it when we tipped. Anyway, she's got a bulbous-looking hematoma now, and has to keep watch for infection. We are measuring it every day and hopefully it will just heal on its own. The motorbike driver seemed okay and drove off after the collision, and our tuk-tuk driver walked his tuk-tuk over to the side of the road and tended to a bleeding toe, as we were led by a good samaritan to a little clinic. We heard later that day from other drivers around our guesthouse that our driver had hurt his leg and driven back to his hometown.

From Phnom Penh we continued on to Siem Reap and checked out amazing Angkor Wat. Then it was out of Cambodia and back through Thailand to Bangkok, where we indulged in a bit of a shopping spree. We flew back to Korea again for a few days, where we said our final goodbyes to our coworkers and students. It was great to see them again, although it was strange knowing that for many of them it would probably be for the last time.

I hope you're all having a very Merry Christmas! It's good to be back, and mostly in one piece!

Bit of a tan in Vietnam

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 14:59:00 +0000

I'm in Vietnam now, quite enjoying my travels with Kristy and the Gondziolas. We've just spent a few days relaxing on an island called Cat Ba in northern Vietnam, which has been beautiful and fun... Tomorrow we're going back to Hanoi and then starting down south towards Laos, our next destination. I remember hearing some bad reports about the people in Vietnam, but I'm pleased to report that in my experience they have been unfounded - people have been a bit pushy, but generally very kind.

Before Vietnam we were in Malaysia, which redifined multiculturalism for me, although I was only in KL, so it might not have been a very representative view. Still though, I've never been anywhere like it - so many different cultures coexisting on the very same street, and not all assimilated into some uniform majority. Very inspiring.

I'm really looking forward to Laos. More later!

Outtie

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 17:25:00 +0000

This house will be not my house, by the end of tomorrow...

And I am off! Finished my contract... Without a plan, except Thailand... Amie's brothers and Kristy are here, and we are off tomorrow, leaving our world behind. For a new and warmer one! One with Pad Thai I suspect...

More blogs when I get there..

Whee!

Ulleungdo

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 14:47:00 +0000

We took a trip to the island of Ulleungdo off the east coast last week during Chuseok, a Korean thanksgiving holiday. It was very pretty, although it smelled a little more like squid than I would have liked.

Random Collection of Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 17:40:00 +0000

My dad and I in Gyeongju

My cousin Jo and her husband Eugene and I in Seoul

Amie and I on our vacation in Bali

Amie and a new pal in Bali

Recent Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 07:36:00 +0000

Well it's been awhile since my last update, let's see, what's happened... My cousin Joanna came to visit with her husband Eugene, which was a blast. We all went together with Amie to the DMZ and saw a couple of North Korean soldiers checking us out through binoculars! Quite a bizarre carnival-like atmosphere up there - it was like the front line of a war had been turned into a tourist attraction and vehicle for propaganda by both sides. We went, we saw, and we bought the t-shirt. Or three.

We also went to the Mud Festival, reportedly the biggest festival in the country. We rolled around in the mud a bunch and were put through various mud-related drills by a comical mud sergeant, and then we went and relaxed on the beach. Lots of fun...

And now Amie and I are taking our summer vacation in Bali, Indonesia! Ten days in this beautiful place, and then it's back to the grind for a few more months in Korea. I'll post photos later when I have a better connection... Hope you're all doing well!

Fantastic, Freaky Physical Feats

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 18:25:00 +0000

Two fun things I did recently: (1), went to a taekwondo show at a palace in Seoul, and (2), saw Cirque du Soleil's "Quidam" show!

The taekwondo was pretty amazing, with incredible flipping, dual board-breaking action aplenty, as well as a couple of funny little fantasy skits involving attackers getting their comeuppance after victims take some taekwondo classes and pull out some sweet moves. Pretty much every Korean child learns a martial art, and many of my students come to class wearing taekwondo or hapkido uniforms.

Cirque du Soleil was fantastic too, and has been something I've watched on TV and always wanted to see in person, so this was really great! The story was of a young girl who is bored and ignored at home, and so who imagines a fantasy world composed of very talented gymnasts, jugglers, mimes, and other assorted circus folk. Some of the especially memorable acts included four little girls of about ten performing some crazy diabolo moves, and four men leaping onto and off of each other's shoulders... There were some great contortionists, too... They also did a little play with random members of the audience which was very funny and worked surprisingly well. All in all, some awesome stuff!

Here's a youtube video of the diabolo girls:

No Suntan on the Hantan

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 14 May 2007 16:08:00 +0000

Hello people!

Just got back from a very wet weekend of drinking, singing, and whitewater rafting with my coworkers on the Hantan River. It was wet mostly because there was a lightning storm going on for a good portion of Saturday... You'd think that with so much rain, conditions on the river would at least have been good for rafting; but if so, think again, because we got stuck on every "rapid" we came across. We found out at the end that this was the wrong season for rafting, and that the river should have been at least a few feet higher for a good time. So there was a lot of jumping and leaning on one side or the other to get unstuck, and even getting out and hiking around parts that were too shallow. Add to that a nagging suspicion that being in the river during a lightning storm might not be too good of an idea... Despite all that, we did have a great weekend. The scenery was spectacular, too! Amie's mom is here visiting, so she came along as well, and had tons of fun with us.

Self-Imposed Mandatory Monthly Post Fulfillment

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 16:02:00 +0000

Hellooo...

Well, life here is pretty static, but a couple of things have, in fact, happened. For one, after months of not even turning it on, having milked the maximal amount of hilarity out of the bizarre comedic medley that is Korean game shows, Amie and I discovered a new, exciting channel on our TV: the Armed Forces Network, or AFN! It has many of the familiar old shows from back home, including news programs from such networks as ABC and CNN. The commercials are mostly for jobs such as explosive ordinance disposal and military chaplain, but there are also some informative ones such as updates on the yellow dust alert, and notifications that America supports me. They are propaganda, but the propaganda is so much more obvious and up-front than that of the normal consumer-oriented ads that I'm used to, that I actually much prefer them. Anyway, I'll have to bottle my enthusiasm until next week, since I've joined "TV Turnoff Week," as a result of my newfound TV-replacing addiction, Facebook.

Also, they've already been here for awhile, but it'll be new to you: two more Canadians have joined us, both from Toronto. According to our supervisor, management prefers Canadians because they tend to be above average teachers, whereas Americans tend to be either spectacular or terrible, and they prefer a North American accent. Not sure whether to be insulted or complimented there - if I were prone to taking insult, which I am, I'd say it kind of sounds like Canadians are a good bet because we're uniformly mediocre. Whatever... I have to say that many of the Koreans I've seen have an incredible work ethic - they only introduced a two-day weekend here in 2002, due to (no doubt tireless and weekend-free) efforts by Korea's labour unions, and they drastically reduced the number of national holidays at the same time. Funny anecdote: not too long after we got here, our director told us to have a good "long weekend" - to which we replied, ecstatically, "what, long weekend??" - and were told, soul-crushingly, "yeah, Saturday-Sunday, riiight??," a line which we still use in times of despair.

It's not really all bad, though... We are getting paid pretty well, and our apartment is rather amazing. Plus, now we get to sit around on long weekends watching AFN - after this week is out, anyway :)

Bye for now!

Pimped Out Pad

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 05:41:00 +0000

Howdy!

Two of our very generous Korean co-workers, Lewis and Michelle, are moving, and they had some spare furniture to get rid of, including a bed! They came today and helped move it into our place. So now we've got a bed for our spare room! Which means you really have no excuse not to come for a visit. They also gave us a little computer table, a desk, and a swivel chair. Sooo good!

We're in the middle of report card week, which is a crazy time every month in which we have tons of work to do. On top of that, we're at the beginning of a new semester, so we have all new classes and all new schedules. It's a bit hectic and not so fun... But at least now we have a good desk to mark our tests on at home.

What are all y'all up to? I feel like I'm pretty out of the loop. Let me know how you're doing!

Kai is ok!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 04:51:00 +0000

Here's a recent picture of my sis's baby, Kai. He was having some very serious problems, but the staff at BC Children's Hospital came through for him. He's wonderful!

PS: that's a hand-me-down outfit he's wearing from when I was his age! :)

Seol in Seoul and such

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 17:54:00 +0000

So, Happy Seol! It was Korean new year the other day, which didn't mean much for us other than that we got a long weekend... Apparently Koreans reserve their partying for the regular old solar new year, because there didn't seem to be much happening. But a good time was had in Seoul regardless.

We have a couple new foreign teachers in our school; one from Calgary, and one from a town in Cornwall, England. That makes five Canucks and an Englishman - and yet in about half the classrooms are maps of the USA. I guess maybe it helps that there are seven American military bases in Paju...

In the news, in case you missed it, North Korea has agreed to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor in return for a million tonnes of fuel oil, and a promise that it won't get attacked in the foreseeable future. It still gets to keep the nuclear weapons it already has, and any that it can make from the material it has already produced... But it looks as though I won't be getting nuked anytime soon. Probably.

Oh, yeah, btw: the US has almost 6000 active nuclear warheads, as does Russia. North Korea has material for about 4 or 5, maybe. Also, the US remains the only country in the world to actually use a nuke against another country. Not that the North Korean regime isn't psychotic - but I just thought I'd throw that in for a little perspective.

Cool New Additions to the Blogosphere

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 15:55:00 +0000

In addition to Amie's blog, where you can get lots of updates on Amie and yours truly, there are a couple great new blogs where you can even find some updates on the state of the world in general, namely: Morgan's blog, (well, actually blogs... and s) as well as the even more recent arrival, All or Nothing. If you haven't checked them out yet, do! They rock! Hard!

Excitement abounds!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 12:25:00 +0000

Hey guys!

Here's a picture from Google Earth of a place in Paju that looks like Gyoha, where I'm at, although it may not actually be:

I'm in one of those big apartment buildings in the complex at the top, if that is in fact Gyoha.

In other news, I got Skype, so I can video conference with anyone who gets it too and searches for my name!

Here's a link to an article about an "English village" that popped up around here, which I'm really glad I'm not teaching at.

Not much is new with me... I stayed at school with Amie for a good 13 hours writing report cards on Saturday, until about quarter after five in the morning. Whee!

Here's Amie and her friend Chantel from Edmonton at her place in Seoul on Amie's birthday:

Bye!

Memories...

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 17:23:00 +0000

My dad sent me this pic of my sis and I when we were kids... It's rad.

Happy Hanukah!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 17:38:00 +0000

We were kind of lacking in materials, but we improvised a little celebration with some birthday candles, tin foil, and an egg carton.

We were on the subway today and there seemed to have been some last-minute Christmas shopping going on - this is what it looked like:

And here's a pic of Amie and I in Seoul.

Sorry for any dupes on Amie's site, but we only used one camera, and we both wanted to post some pics! Hope you're all doing well and enjoying the holidays!

Settlers of Korea

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 13:01:00 +0000

Leah's boyfriend Dan came yesterday! We went over to their new place and they taught us euchre, a great card game which they're addicted to. Unfortunately when she moved they took Leah's bed, so we have a spare room with nothing in it. If anyone comes to visit, make sure you bring an air mattress. Amie and I had to work today, even though it was a Saturday. But we got paid for it, and then the boss took us all out for lunch in the nearby city of Ilsan. We hung around there for awhile and walked around in a park, went for pizza, and then found a board game cafe where you can sit around on couches and play games! And they had a certain German game called Settlers of Catan, so we played it and then I had to buy their copy when we left...

We're getting excited for Christmas - we have a vacation, and we're going on a ski trip! Should be awesome!