Exploring South Korea

NEW BLOG AND WEBSITE !!! www.cliffmarck.com

2009-10-04T00:16:00.001-07:00

Okay everyone... It's been taking me forever to post lately... mainly because I've been working on a new website.... Day in and day out it's felt like lately... making tiny adjustments here.. and tiny adjustments there... It's finally DONE!

I will NOT be posting anymore at this address.... and I WILL be posting on at least a weekly basis on my new blog because my aspirations for a successful part time photography business may depend on it!

You can now find my blog and new couple shoots... etcetera at

www.cliffmarck.com

*please be aware that there is a NEW post below this one about my overnight men's meeting with the Korean males from my school (click older post below) and new stuff posted on the new site already (click the link above)...

Overnight Men's Meeting in the Mountains!

2009-10-03T21:20:00.000-07:00

During the Summer... I was invited to join all of the other male teachers from my school to attend an "overnight men's meeting" as they deemed it... I was pretty unimpressed that this meeting landed on the day we returned from our busy busy trip to Beijing, China....

All the men met up at the school around 3pm and started speaking korean... this.. was going to be a long night I thought to myself...

We all took different cars and I rode up with Jung-Il... my first co-teacher's boyfriend... We drove for about an hour outside of Busan... We took winding roads through quaint Korean towns littered with the tradition that becomes amiss in the larger cement block of a city we've come to know in Busan.... We drove up a mountainside and down a mountainside until we eventually reached our destination...

This place was gorgeous... It was a small wooden cabin hidden away near the top of a mountain surrounded by different ranges... It shared this peak with a few neighbors and had a very natural feel to it... They had a garden.. flowers... grass and everything else that I was convinced didn't exist in Korea... Here are some shots of the cottage as well as the garden.. grapes... flowers and stuff like that...

After a little bit of shooting the breeze... the boys decided it was time to throw on the meat... They eat sooo much food... and it NEVER stops coming... all the way from 4pm - 3am.. there was some type of food around to eat... It was ridiculous... the second picture is of bar-b-q dried squid... machee-a-sayo! (delicious)

Then we got hit by the brightest sunset I've seen in a LONG time while I was having a conversation with Jung-Il on the front porch..

After this... My friend Minsu hangim (brother) asked me to take his picture with the sunset.... These were his natural poses by the way... :) and one out of focus shot taken by him...

Nightfall came quickly after that and the bugs were pretty insane up in these mountains... There were some massive moths...

We went inside and the soju and makju (beer) started flowing at an unbelievable pace... We watched the Busan Lotte Giants (baseball) game and they taught me how to play a card game that is pronounced go-do-ree.. It is way too complicated for me to try and explain here and now... I don't remember half of it anyways... The cards were tiny and it was all about certain parts of the pictures matching... and we ate grapes... delicious Korean grapes.... the kind that actually taste like the artificial "grape" flavouring.... I've never had this kind in Canada...

After a few hours of learning go-do-ree and losing a few thousand won (like 5 bucks)... the guys decided it was really time to start knocking them back.... and head outside to the deck... And it was not beer at this point... but soju.... uuuughhhhhhhh.. I HATE SOJU.... especially after this night... But check out the party hat that got busted out... there is a hilarious picture of the oldest male teacher below with the party cap on...

Here are some pics of the aftermath.... I didn't drink half as much as the other guys... but still payed for it the next day...

After that... well.. after that we went to bed... and by bed.. i mean we all slept in a giant room on the floor for about 3 hours until one of those freaks got up to start the coffee up around 6am...

They made me hangover soup... which was the most disgusting thing I've ever touched I felt... and my stomach was just turning...

They don't eat breakfast food... we had kimchi... meat... rice and hangover soup for breakfast... i wanted to die....

All in all... I had a great time.. and the more drunk the Koreans got.. the more they tried to speak English as their confidence grew... but it needs to be said that I will NEVER drink soju again... NEVER.

Beamosa Buddhist Temple Stay

2009-09-17T23:10:00.000-07:00

If you click on the link below, it will take you to some photos of a temple stay Laura and I participated in during the last weekend in August. It was a very interesting experience, and I think we can learn a lot from the Buddhist community. They don't waste a thing, they don't have or need any personal belongings and they are completely dedicated to being in the moment... as in... right NOW... and NOW and NOW.. I'm sorry I just wasted three moments in your life but it was to prove a point. The active mind is a very vulnerable and destructive thing at times. Think of all the times you've looked back on a situation and been upset because of the way things went.... get over it... it happened then... you should be only worried about now.. because that's all we've got. Conversely, think of all the times you've built up an upcoming event to be absolutely amazing... and then been let down when it didn't happen or didn't reach your imaginative standards... stop doing that... you're only hurting yourself in the long run... LIVE IN THE NOW! These are the basic concepts I appreciate from Buddhism and try to take with me on a daily basis; however, there are many things about the religion that I strongly disagree with.

When you become a monk, you are expected to leave all worldly possessions and attachments at the door; not limited to your own family. Now this, I disagree with strongly. The best times in my life have been with the people I love; my friends, my family. The ability to procreate and share a life with somebody... to raise a family built on trust and emotion is important to me. These are a few of the most amazing things given to us by God, and it is something you must abandon in order to become "enlightened." I say no thanks.. I'll live with my semi-destructive mind for my life.... but thanks to Buddhism the ups and downs will seem less volatile, and I'll make a stronger attempt to stay in the moment as often as I can... my tongue is dry... I'm going to get some water... that's a nice breeze coming in the window... my back hurts... i'm blabbering.... talk to you soon!

Click the link below to see how our experience went.... look for the wagooks (white people).. there weren't many of us :)

Buddhist Temple Stay Photos

Exploring Beijing, China (Day 3)!

2009-09-07T00:14:00.000-07:00

Today we're going to visit Tiananmen Square... the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and it wouldn't be a trip to China without doing some good old fashioned black market shopping (Laura was glowing)!

By day three our feet were hurting from the consistent hussle and bussle of the guided tour... we didn't really have any time to just explore or relax except for at night and by that time we were basically out of gas...

Started the day off with a tour of Tiananmen Square... I'd say it's most famous for the photo of "Tank Man" below...

This guy was brave enough to step in front of a convoy of tanks who were sent in by the Chinese government to break up the protests at Tiananmen square during 1989. These protests protests were sparked by the death of a pro-market, pro-democracy, and anti-corruption official, Hu Yaobang, whom protesters wanted to mourn. By the eve of Hu's funeral, 1,000,000 people had gathered on the Tiananmen square... so that should give you a sense of scale for how huge this "square" is.. It's the largest in the world... and is located directly in front of the Forbidden city which was built for the Ming family dynasty and constructed for Mr Zhu Di.. the same stud who ate with gold chopsticks from my previous post... Many rallies and famous speaches have gone down in front of the forbidden city..

Here's a picture of the lineup of people waiting to catch a glimpse of where Mao was burried in the middle of Tiananmen square.. It literally stretched for miles and there was no way I was waiting in it... NO.. WAY.. It was also really hot out as you can tell by all of the umbrellas in both of these shots... Yeah.. not raining... in Asia... SUNNY + HOT = UMBRELLA.... I'm used to it... They're scared of good ol' vitamin D...

And next.. we walked across the street to the forbidden city... This is the most ridiculous, over built, exhuberant (i don't have spell correct at school.. sorry), and pompous pad I've ever seen... It was enormous... I actually got sick of taking pictures.. now that's a sense of scale for ya! Here's the entrance way... Notice Mao hanging proudly over the entrance... like I earlier said.. this was built for the Ming dynasties emperor Zhu Di originally...

Mao's big ol' head...

For anyone not familiar with Mao... He was the leader of the communist party back in the day.. i don't know if it was 30's 40's 50's... but all I knew is he started the commie trend... and led the peoples republic of china until he died in the seventies... he is a pretty controversial person...

i'm no political science major.. but what i can speak from is a small bit of experience... people in China have to work hard.. there are so many of them... that in order to be successful (better than the other million people trying for the same job) they have to study 16 hours a day... eat a few meals.. and maybe sleep 4 hours a night if they're lucky... this type of competition would make me a commie as well.. wouldn't it be nice if we could all just do a job and get paid for it and live just as well as the next guy? yes.. in theory it's good.. in practice... good luck... after all .. who's going to want to go to school for 8 years to be a doctor and get paid the same as the next guy? ............ exactly! that's a pretty simple viewpoint... but.. i'm a simple man... onto more of the trip....

Here's an image of a totem pole made of cement inside the gates of the Forbidden City... quite a bit of detail on this one... done by hand i presume as well...

Here's a heavily cropped photo of a few Chinese guards... we weren't allowed to take pictures... so I took one really far away and this is how it turned out :(... oh well...

Here's an image of one of the Lions who guard the gates to one of the temples...

Next we went inside and trekked around a bit... as in an hour and a half... of temple after huge temple... I won't bore you with ALL of the photos... but here are a few...

The tour guide was sooo confused on how to work my camera... here's one of Laura and I... not so forbidden anymore.. is it?

And another temple..

The detail under these temples was much more intricate than the one's in South Korea... and fresh paint as well...

one more...

Here's another detail shot of the cement posts that were engraved every couple of feet....

Tourist!

Last one for the forbidden city... some rocks leading up to the temple ... I thought it looked cool...

Next.. we were off to lunch right?? WRONG.. we stopped at another tourist center to see how silk bedsheets were made and to be pushed into buying a new comforter... it was interesting.. but by this point... we had caught on to their ways and weren't impressed.... we got out of their pretty quick... here's a few snaps of the silk making process...

These are the worms they use...

Here's the area where they pull the silk and feed it into a machine to make single strands into nice thick bundles of goodness...

Next these bundles of silk are stretched over a stretcher/dryer?? .. haha.. i can't think of the proper word.. sorry...

Then after these dry out a bit they are taken and stretched further into the size of the comforter or blanket... you'll have to see Laura's blog for that shot.. But they basically stretched about a thousand of these sheets for each comforter... and they're apparently allergen free ... good for them.. we're still not buying one...

So we got out of there alive ... and grabbed some lunch... then went to the Summer Palace to see Emperor Zhu Di's Summer house... the forbidden city wasn't big enough for him I guess... WOW...

Here's the Marco Polo bridge... which was reconstructed about a hundred years ago....

It was surrounded by water as per his majesties request.... too bad he never swam... he just liked the serenity of it all... good for him...

A cement boat made purely for it's looks... and obviously not for it's functionality...

Laura on our water taxi boat... (not cement)

Another gorgeous entrance way....

Artsy shot through the trees of a temple here....

Another dragon head on the front of a boat... the dragon symbol represents the man in China... and the phoenix symbol represents the woman.. traditionally the dragon head is placed in front of the phoenix in order to represent his power... at the Summer Palace we heard a story of a woman who came into power and she placed her phoenix in front of the dragon to show her empowerment and was soon known as Dragon Lady.... I now call Laura "dragon lady" every time she asks me to do something :-)

Here's a picture of Lolo and our tour guide Cici right before we finished the tour...

and here's where Laura got locked up for stealing out of the wishing pot.... she's still there.... jk.. it's actually a jail cell for eunich's who had disobeyed someone of a higher power...

Good bye Summer Palace

Hello black market....

Yeah.. she was THAT happy... there are miles of shoe/coat/shirt/purse vendors just dying to give away their products for dirt cheap prices... (think like 10$ for a coach purse that was most likely made in the actual factory and snuck out the back door to this place to sell... some of them were brutal fakes as well though)... Here's some shoes...

Another shot of Laura with a new Chinese salesperson friend... still beaming with delight...

Again.. hahah...

Here's a clerk... but I mainly took it to show Laura haggling with the calculator in the background... they start at about a hundred dollars equivalent.. Laura pays about 15$ ... good girl...

After talking them down.. Laura smiles and says "really?"...

Jackets upon jackets...

How's this one look??

Rows and rows of vendors again...

After a few hours of this and a birthday present of a bunch of things from me to Laura... we were spent (literally) and ready to leave... we settled for a Subway dinner that was delicious and went back to the hotel to clean up...

After this.. I was so tired of taking pictures... I decided I wasn't taking my camera with me while we went exploring on our last night in China.... BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER...

We found the food markets... that sold as I mentioned previously... scorpions on a stick... fried chicken heart.... sheep penis... snake... and fried ice cream... yeah... SHEEP PENIS??!??!... It was amazing.. there were tons of people and crazy stuff getting chopped up and hacked everywhere... and as much as I am upset that I forgot my camera... I still got to experience it and see it all happen before my own eyes.. which barely happens without a viewfinder in between me and the subject these days... so I am great full after all..

We got up and left the land of the rising sun (wait.. that's Japan.. isn't it? oh well) at about 5 am !

My next post will be about my "men's meeting" I had with all of the male teachers from my elementary school last month... we stayed the night at a teachers cottage in the mountains outside of Busan... it was beautiful, and extremely interesting as an insider to their culture... that one will be within the next two weeks... then after that... it's time for a new blogsite :)... still in the works...

Take care for now!

Exploring Beijing, China! (Day 2)

2009-08-31T04:00:00.000-07:00

This my friends... is a picture of a wall.... not just any wall... but THE wall... THE great wall... read on for the deets....

Day two in China started with an Chinese style breakfast at the hotel.... It was delicious and gave us just enough energy to conquer the ..... wait for it.... Great Wall !

Why did I say Chinese style breakfast? Because in Asia... there is no "breakfast foods" served at breakfast.... No eggs, bacon, oatmeal or toast and jam... No fruit, yogurt or bagels.... Generally all meals are extremely similar in Asia... You can fully expect a plate of steamed veggies and meat to be at the breakfast buffet.... and we're used to it now... BUT it doesn't mean I like it!!!

We soon after jumped into our ride and were off for an hour and a half journey through Beijing and the countryside to see the Great Wall... About 30 minutes from the great wall we pulled over to a shop on the side of the road that specializes in jade jewelry and statues.... Later on during the tour we stopped at a few more tourist shops... I assume that our driver/tour guide got a cut from anything we bought from these places as they always headed back inside the shops after we bought something :) Sneaky Petes.... Here's a picture of a jade buddha... There was money scattered all over him as you could ask to be granted a wish if you parted with something of value.... (Jade is generally green.. but as I mentioned in the last China post... I haven't edited any of these pictures and the white balance had not been corrected)

Now... here's a picture of each of us with the Great Wall... I'm not going to post alll of them ... but there will be 5-10 pics of the great wall following this...

Annnnd yours truly :)

Here's a snap of the bottom of the very small section that we hiked... It took us about an hour to climb to the end of this section and anyone to do so was deemed a "hero"....

"Am I a hero? No. I'll tell you who is a hero though; Hiro, from the show heroes." - Michael Scott, "The Office"

Here's the mountainside greenery that stretched for miles and miles and miles... almost as long as the great wall itself... which is over 6,000 km's long !! ?!?!?!? !! INSANITY!!

These locks could be bought at one point to clasp onto chain attached to the wall itself... I thought it was a cool idea and would have bought one if they were still for sale...

Next we have an artsy fartsy shot of Lolo admiring the wall.. you can see the staircase stretch on in her glasses if you open up big size by clicking on the photo...

This is the inside view of the mountains from one of the many lookouts built about every 100 meters or so along the wall...

Here's a crazy looking mask for sale in focus and the mountains and great wall out of focus in the background...

Vice-Versa...

Me doing my signature wave.... also known as ... "The Clifford"...

Here we are at the end of the wall.. heroes at last... This is a picture of Laura having a staring contest with the wall.... after losing the contest she muttered "... you win... you always do.." and walked away...

From the last part of this section you can see where the wall starts again on a near mountainside a few km's away... You'd have to click on this one to see the lines of the wall start again....

The sky was really blue this day and the sun was HOT... It wasn't the best light for pictures... but I still managed to get a few shots off...

Another of the wall on the opposing mountain....

And here's the steps that go on .. FOREVER...

I picked up a few cheap t-shirts that will more than likely get eaten by my Korean washing machine named "deathtrap"... and we're done... off to the next destination....

We tour on to the Ming tombs... but not before stopping for lunch and another tourist shop guarded by these fools... (they're actually probably really important)

Laura bought a nice silk Chinese shirt while I painted this....

Then she wanted to look around some more at the Moo moo's... so I painted another one...

These are traditional Chinese guard/warrior statues.... seen everywhere in China....

Here's the entrance to Ming tombs... ANOTHER temple... you must be sick of seeing these by now... I know I am... Just wait until the forbidden city...

Been around a couple years I see.....

Here is the story of Zhu Di... Who was the founding Emperor of this temple during the 14th century...

And in Chinese... for all my Chinese friends playing along at home....

Mr. Zhu Di himself... Looking pretty darn proud of himself too if I might add... nice flow on that Fu Man Chu eh?

Some traditional pottery that reminded me of some of Mrs. Deyarmonds pieces from home...

If you think Jay-Z has a lot of bling... Check out Emperor Zhu Di's "silverware"... more like "goldware"... BALLIN' !

Saw Laura with her hands in this wishing dish when our guide wasn't looking.... times are tight...

Corner of one of the many temples...

The Emperor's were known to have upwards of 80 concubines (mistresses) .... Any man who entered the palace to work for the Emperor... usually known as eunichs..... unfortunately... if you look that up.. you'll find that a eunich is a castrated man... That's right... these Emperors trusted no one... and wanted all of the woman exclusively to himself... and made sure of it...

It was a very very hot day ....

I like these little dragon knockers for some reason...

And we are on our way out the doors... headed for another delicious dinner.... (ps.. the guy on the left's silhouette looks like me... it's not actually me.. no one is touching my camera :))

Here is one of the main buildings for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing that we passed on our way to dinner...

But not before we hit another unannounced tourist hot spot... for some authentic Chinese tea... This originally may have been Laura's favourite part of the trip... until she accidentally left the 40$ in rare tea she bought on the bus on our trip home from the airport ... boooooo....

Here's a shot of our Tea Guide explaining many of the medicinal benefits of the oolong/ginseng tea...

The testing cup is the smaller one... but the tea is first poured into the taller cup then transferred into the smaller... you then roll the tall cup between your palms as it releases the aroma and you can smell it first....

A charming pig I had to take one of on our way out of the tea house....

Onto dinner finally... some delicious chicken/nut dish with some fiery peppers to light the lamp....

Followed by another delicious mess of meatballs and veggies...

All accompanied by a bowl of tomato/egg soup and a nice cold Tsing Tsao Beer :).. Life is good in China...

This was a nice little Buddhist setup at the lobby of the restaurant...

We then went to a circus show to cap off the night... I wasn't allowed to take pictures during the performance... Which I am thankful for... I really enjoyed the show through my own eyes... BUT... I decided I had to shoot one frame from the hip when ELEVEN chinese women decided they would take a bike for a ride?!?!?!?... It's not the clearest frame... as there was security everywhere.. and my camera is anything but small... but you'll get the gist of it...

Some of the most amazing things I saw in China were not captured on camera... There's just too much going on... and I didn't feel like gluing my viewfinder to my face the WHOLE time.... The one thing I do regret not taking pictures of is the street food... I've never seen anything like it... oh well... I still saw it :)

That's it for day two... needless to say... we were exhausted and retired pretty early that night...

Day three had a tour of Tiananmen Square (where the very famous photo, "tank man" was taken), the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, a silk factory, and the most ridiculously huge underground black market for designer clothes.... yes.. Laura was ecstatic :)...

I should be posting within a weeks time.. maybe sooner as I've found I don't have to teach this week either... Until then..
ztai ztin.. (good bye)

Day 2 in China!!

2009-08-28T19:17:00.000-07:00

PSYYYYCHE....

I won't be updating the China trip until Monday unfortunately... I've been working on the new blogsite/portfolio all week! I will make it available to everyone by the end of September and will be moving to a new address... We're off to a Buddhist Temple now for a 24 hour experience .... Talk to you Monday!

Exploring Beijing, China! (Day 1)

2009-08-23T19:14:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone !

So just a little update on our busy month of August.... We went to Beijing for 4 days starting on the 10th... then flew back to Busan for the weekend and jetted off to the island of Jeju-do, South Korea for 5 days on the 17th... We then had a lovely little birthday celebration for Laura out in Hauendae on Saturday and are now getting back into the swing of things... kinda...

I say kinda... because I still don't have to physically go into work until next Monday... and don't teach until Tuesday :)

Life is good in Korea... or as the many Korean t-shirts say ... "Slow life is way to happy long fulfill life :)" ... yeah.. sure...

Onto to China I say! (I'll be posting one day of our trip at a time as it would just be wayyyy too long otherwise.. oh .. and i took over 600 pictures... by the way... I haven't edited any of these pictures... so don't expect anything too amazing out of this batch... the jeju pics though... will be more up to par )

We rummaged through the Beijing airport around noon on the tenth and it was an amazing building... the architecture was really cool and I managed to get a shot off before some wayhoo in a tye-dye shirt started talking our ear off about how he's flying to Thailand and hopes he can practice his japanese waike therapy on some locals riding the trains?? ... WHAT?? EXACTLY!

They also had some pretty crazy technology in the airports that I'm fairly certain was installed to impress people checking out the Olympics last Summer... they could read your body temperature as you walked through "immigration" with no need to stop... just in case you've got something that would spread like wildfire in a country of OVER A BILLION PEOPLE!

We met up with our tour guide shortly after at the terminal... her name was Cici... and to our surprise... it wasn't a giant tour with 50 foreigners on a coach bus and one Chinese guy with a microphone... We had our own personal tour guide and our own car with driver for the 4 days! Sha-bingy!!!

Here's a quick shot of Laura and Cici (tour guide) at the Summer Palace...

Okay.. from here on out... it's a ton of pictures of Temples and food... so if you don't like cultural stuff... run... jog.. walk.. or bike away from your computer.. now...

First stop was the Temple of Heaven... This is the main place where the Emperor would come to pray to the God of... you guessed it ... Heaven.... These temples are circular in shape and made up of nothing but solid painted wood... They're circular shape represents Heaven... and each temple is surrounded by a square wall .. which represents earth...

Here's Lolo (haha thanks Leanne) in front of one of the side buildings... not used for prayer...

Silhouette of the temple....

This place was pretty huge and we didn't even get to check into the hotel to stow our luggage before the hike... I always like to take a creeper shot of Laura walking in foreign places... something I find comical of a blonde woman walking amongst a completely homogenous population... here's one in China at the Temple of Heaven...

Dragon face !

Here's a quick pic of both of us at the main prayer station posing for a shot...

Then of course I see a cool wall and ask Laura to take a quick pose down it so I can play with the depth of field of my new camera.... I know... I'm a huge geek... I realize it more and more... every day...

And while we're at it.. how about you go and stand in that doorway and I'll get a picture of you in it while we can see the temple in the background ?? (she rolls her eyes and complies)

AND here's a picture of a camouflage tree... I'm sure no one will notice you're a tree now that you're wearing all that camouflage bark.... oh wait... you've got leaves (needles) and are made of wood... you're obviously still a tree... I digress...

Sneaky Tree :

Alright... after the Temple of Heaven... it was on to our first traditional Duck Dinner... and yes... i took a few pictures at dinner as well... haha...

Here's a shot of the oven where if you click on the photo to enlarge ... you can see the ducks frying up in the flames...

Here's our little carver boy cuttin us up a slice or two of fresh duck meat....

The cool part about dinner was that our tour guide would order all of our (prepaid) food in Chinese and a drink ... beer if we wanted... :) and then leave us alone to eat for an hour or 20 minutes... depending on our hectic schedule....

Quack quack meat...

and here's a picture of one of the servers with Laura as we were leaving... quite the unique traditional garb they were sporting...

And one last shot of some of the traditional lanterns that adorned the place.. there was a cool feel in this restaurant and it had a really authentic atmosphere... the food was pretty good as well...

We're now tearing off to see the Kung-fu show which is a play acted out in English for all us foreigners.... it was a story about a young boy who is left at a temple with his master at a very young age and how they learn to master the art of kung-fu and each progress to master and grow into their destiny... Most of the actors in the show actually train in the temples for years and years before landing a job in the show biz industry... You can't take pictures during the show... but here's a shot of one of the young monks after the performance....

After that we were brought to our hotel to check in and crashed pretty early as we were feeling a bit jet lagged...

I will post day 2 some time within the week... Day 2 included a tour of the Ming Tombs... more delicious food... an extraordinary Chinese Circus show... and oh yeah.. the Great Wall !!!

Bye for now !

SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMA!!

2009-08-06T00:13:00.000-07:00

This is a dedication to my good buddy Ryan Cousineau... There was a little squirrely school kid in my English camp who didn't know what he wanted his English name to be... I chose "Couse"... and he had quite the lip on him... he told me to shut-up a few times at first... and during my first lesson of camp.. he immediately hucked a paper ball at me and got sent to the back of the room... haha.. Check out the faces the little bugger made for the camera below.... he actually turned out alright... aside from him drawing a picture of a man with a camera and tripod in his comic book then him getting shot in the next frame... yes.. he killed me in his comic book... it was confirmed that I was indeed the photographer... haha...

Here's another quick little montage I took bored at my desk... dedicated to vacation !!!

I've been trying to edit sets with consistency lately as I'm preparing to make album type of layouts for when I start to shoot weddings. You'll notice the next few posts have kind of a storyboard layout with consistent colour patterns... oh yeah.. THIS was the last post.. for about 3 weeks... byeee !!

English Camp is Awesome !

2009-08-06T00:10:00.001-07:00

English Photowalk..., originally uploaded by CMarck.

For the past two weeks... Laura and I have been planning and running English Camps during our workdays... They are super cool... Why you ask?? Because I only have to be at work from 9-12:10 and I still get paid full time ... that's why!!!

Why else? Because I'm given complete control over my lesson's and don't have to teach the kid's much english if I don't want... The main idea of English Camp is to get children more excited about English and not steer them away from it

Soooo... I taught them a few practical things about english: currency, how to order food at a restaurant, directions, etc.. then it was on to the fun stuff... We made a comic book... played "english" sports (basketball, soccer, volleyball).... made peanut butter and jam samiches... a korean ice cream dish... and last but certainly not least.. i took them for a photowalk where they had to take a macro picture (something small), a portrait, and a landscape shot !

All along they have been earning "cliff dollars" for their English skills... This is money with my face on it that is signed by me for authentication... Tomorrow (the last day of camp) they will be allowed to purchase Canada pins, snacks, erasers, pencil cases, and english dictionaries at the Cliff Market with their "cliff dollars"... Needless to say.. the last few weeks have been fun and relaxed compared to usual... but not as relaxed as the next few weeks will be... Laura and I hop on a jet to Beijing on Monday and will fly down to Jeju (an island in the sun) for the following week for vacation...

I have posted a ton of stuff today... but the pics are all cross-posts from my flickr account as you'll see.. if you want to view anything larger.. you'll have to click on the photo and it will take you to my flickr site.. then click the magnifying glass or "all sizes" and pick the size...

I've updated until my "gupo market post" so you'll have a few pages to catch up on!!!
Talk to you in about three weeks as we're off on vacation starting tomorrow :)

2009-08-06T00:00:00.001-07:00

English Photowalk..., originally uploaded by CMarck.

Here's some more shots of the kiddies taking snaps and seeing what they could find out on the playground... and look at the girl on the right... so dang cute :)

Gwangalli Bridge...

2009-08-05T23:58:00.001-07:00

Gwangalli Bridge., originally uploaded by CMarck.

This area is one of the coolest in Busan... They've got a beach... a beautiful bridge and a lot of other stuff going on...

I found that you can bring a mat and have a picnic right here along with the other thousand koreans who show up to eat on a nightly basis and watch the blue hour and moon come out... It was quite the scene and I'll post a quickie of some of the locals eating on the boardwalk that boarders the show below....

2009-08-05T23:55:00.002-07:00

More shots from Gwang-an...

2009-08-05T23:55:00.001-07:00

Transformer High Bar..., originally uploaded by CMarck.

Cool fresh new building they're putting up in gwang-an, Busan... I snapped this one the same day as fisherino below... it's actually behind him on his right if you look closely :)

2009-08-05T23:54:00.001-07:00

Fisherino..., originally uploaded by CMarck.

This guy was pumped he caught dinner and happy to pose for a picture.. i'm still trying to get the best out of my new camera and am not happy with the way this shot turned out... it may get converted to black and white at a later date...

I'm 25 !!!.... a few weeks late :)

2009-08-05T23:52:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday to ME !, originally uploaded by CMarck.

Laura and I sometimes bring some sushi or cheese up to the rooftop of our building and have a couple drinks on the weekends ! This one was special as it was my birthday and I was getting older... just like everyone.. in the history of time has gotten.. .older... then we'll die... all of us... everyone will die eventually... i'm fine with that... haha.. that was strange... anyways... read on to see how the night went :)

New Kicks....

2009-08-05T23:47:00.001-07:00

New Kicks...., originally uploaded by CMarck.

Laura got me a new pair of trail running shoes for my birthday !!
I can't believe that you can step in a full puddle of water with these things on and not get wet!! Why haven't I found these until now??

She was pretty relieved to not buy me something photography related I'm sure.... BUT... I went out shooting the next week with them at gwangan beach... and found I could get some pretty cool pictures while literally standing in the sea... not getting wet!... THEY'RE AWESOME... I should be running in them soon up the mountain behind our place... but I've dropped a significant amount of weight since moving here from about 195lbs down to around 180lbs... and i'd like to bulk up bit now so I'm putting off any serious cardio in the meantime...

JAPANESE NOODLE CITY!!

2009-08-05T23:39:00.001-07:00

MMmmMMM... Masheeta !, originally uploaded by CMarck.

This a montage of my favourite restaurant in Korea... Laura took me out for my birthday where we had a few beers and enjoyed some japanese cuisine !

2009-08-05T23:38:00.001-07:00

deliciousness., originally uploaded by CMarck.

This is easily my favourite dish in Korea... and quite possibly anywhere... it's what keeps us coming back to this place... They change it a bit every time... go figure.. it's korea... but it always keeps that spicy flavour that we love.... that goes well with a nice cold asahi!

2009-08-05T23:36:00.001-07:00

JAPANESE NOODLE CITY !!!, originally uploaded by CMarck.

Laura took care of the bill which was very nice of her... the food was delicious as usual and we had a relaxing dinner...(well.. laura relaxed as i took pictures of everthing... poor girl) noww.. on to some more drinks and pictures :)

Wa-Bar

2009-08-05T23:35:00.000-07:00

Roooraa, originally uploaded by CMarck.

Here's my beauty at the bar after dinner... forcing one last smile before she's sick of me having a camera again :)

I really liked the bokeh this lens gives off with this camera... they call it a cat's eye bokeh as it's slightly askew...

2009-08-05T23:34:00.001-07:00

Beer Me., originally uploaded by CMarck.

We ended the night off at the local Wa-Bar for a few drinks.. This is a picture of an ice bin that are on every table in the restaurant.. they run about 2 feet by 10 feet and are full of imported beer and wine coolers from around the world.... it's really pricey compared to anywhere in korea and even even a little pricier than home... but it's nice to be able to have a czechvar or leffe brun every once in awhile as opposed to the swill that they drink in these necks.... that's it for my b-day !! it was a great one thanks to Laura.... I've posted one new story below about the local market as well... so read on! :)

The Gupo Market on July 23rd, 2009

2009-08-05T23:27:00.001-07:00

Soju Chuseyo, originally uploaded by CMarck.

There's a very cool traditional Korean market about a 10 minute walk from out house called the gupo market. I found these characters sitting just outside the area watching the action and sipping on some makelli (korean rice wine)... They asked me to take their picture... actually.. the front guy wanted it done.. the back guy.... nnnot so much :) Tough luck bud... this puppy is to fast for you to step out of the frame.... they then poured me a drink of makelli and started speaking korean to me... i took a swig and got out of there as i had no idea what they were babbling about...

Anyways... I continued on to the market which is traditionally crazy busy on all days that end with an 8 or a 3... today being the 23rd.. I was in for a nice little treat with my new camera....

2009-08-05T23:22:00.001-07:00

D7HUNDO, originally uploaded by CMarck.

Here's the first shot I posted previously... but look below at all the other snaps I took from my hour or two at the market.... it really was something to see... people haggling dimes for the smallest of things and fish and veggies gettin' smashed to bits everywhere....

2009-08-05T23:21:00.001-07:00

, originally uploaded by CMarck.

A vendor organizing his gems for sale just outside of the market area in Gupo.... I asked him how much for the hat... he wouldn't budge...

2009-08-05T23:19:00.001-07:00

Fish Face, originally uploaded by CMarck.

There are sooooo many dead fish at these markets... it's ridiculous... especially on days like today... because it ended with a 3 !

2009-08-05T23:17:00.001-07:00

Kimchi :), originally uploaded by CMarck.

This is the second person in the same day to ask me to take their picture... to put things into perspective..... NOBODY... has ever asked me to take their picture in Korea until today... first day out with the new rig... I'm pretty psyched about it! :)

2009-08-05T23:16:00.001-07:00

Ajumma, originally uploaded by CMarck.

What are you pointing that camera at she says?!?!... 'aint nothin' to see here !! ... haha.. she didn't look too impressed I was taking her photo.. unlike the few troopers I caught above !

2009-08-05T23:15:00.001-07:00

Mo' Dead Fish, originally uploaded by CMarck.

Here's a tighty of the more fishies getting hacked up by the same ajumma as above.... at the gupo market close to our house...

2009-08-05T23:13:00.001-07:00

I love garlic... but c'mon..., originally uploaded by CMarck.

This is the last picture of my first adventure with my new camera... There will be plenty more like it... but this one was special... as it was my birthday and everything just seemed to go right!! Take care for now...

D7HUNDO

2009-07-25T11:23:00.001-07:00

D7HUNDO, originally uploaded by CMarck.

Just got my camera in time for my 25th Birthday...

One word describes it.... AMAZING...

I've posted a bunch of new shots taken with it on my flickr page... feel free to take a look and don't forget to view them large... :)

Here's the link to my photostream Cliff's Flickr Pics or you can just click on the photo above

The lost photos....

2009-07-16T07:10:00.000-07:00

You may notice some weird changes to my blog as far as layout goes... I'm trying to customize my blog and learn a bit more about html coding as I'm looking into building a website soon. Anyways... here's the promised photos from Seoul... This one is of the Crazy drunk midget who tried to pick a fight with uncrazy.. undrunk wagook...(me)

Next is the band we checked out at a local park in Seoul... i took a wide shot to show the environment then a tight one to show the guy jamming out.... then i took a drink of my beer... and it was a good night...

And last... and definitely least... is a picture of this dirtbag clown... the absolute epitome of why children should be scared of clowns.... because they will try and kiss you... okay.. enough of me being an idiot... here's the creep show....

Here's his super creepy weird shoes.... and sox....

and finally.. him walking away... in the river.. because.... well.. why not??...

talk to you guys soon.. hopefully sooner than later this time....

Our first trip to Seoul...

2009-07-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

, originally uploaded by CMarck.

Laura, and I... along with a bunch of friends went to Seoul about a month or so ago.... We took the train up on Friday night and all stayed until Sunday... I decided I'm just going to post photos from my flickr account as I'm kinda bored at school and don't have my originals....

The first night in town we got in late and about 6 of us wandered the surprisingly empty streets... I still can't figure out how one of the most crowded cities in all of Asia was barren... We couldn't even find a place that would serve us food and it was only like 10:30.. in Busan... you can go into any restaurant... ANY time of the day.. and they'll whip you up something delicious in about 20 seconds.. literally... 20 seconds is about all it takes... it boggles the mind.... We ended up finding a restaurant that sold this really spicy sweet and sour chicken that was delicious.. and also we got an egg dish mixed with cheese meet and spicy stuff.. it was great... we went for a few drinks and hit the hay pretty early that night as we wanted to get up early and see the sites the next day.....

2009-07-15T21:59:00.000-07:00

, originally uploaded by CMarck.

So the next day we woke up good and early... well... at least the girls did... so they could go ...................... shopping?!?! ... yeah... Laura and her friends left early because they found a "forever 21" somewhere... if you don't know this store... it's basically a warehouse full of trendy accessories for prices almost as cheap as the products look...

The guys got up and headed to Seoul tower... dongnemun.... insadong.... and then i met up with them..... Where was I ?? spending a few hours with my camera for the last day before I sent it off to Quebec to it's new owner.... I went and took pictures of things pretty boring... like this overpass.... and then I took some shots at Seoul Station.. which is a broken down trainstation when I was approached by an older Korean midget... he mumbled something to me... and I just replied that I couldn't understand much in Korean... he kept mumbling and i tried to walk away.. and the little bugger smacked me in the gut like he wanted to fight.... hahahah... i just started back peddling and took his picture and laughed.... he got pretty mad... i think he was wasted at about 10 am.... seems about right for this country....

the picture below is of the largest temple in Korea... it's name is posted on my flickr page if you click on it.... gyeongbokgung??? i dunno... it's all the same to me...

2009-07-15T21:58:00.000-07:00

, originally uploaded by CMarck.

here's another shot of a different building at the temples in Seoul.... we basically just wandered around here for a few hours checking out the different buildings and ponds and stuff.... it was really huge actually....

soonafter this... we met up with the girls for dinner at the "best" chinese restaurant in Seoul... ... they all are self-acclaimed "best" restaurants as i've come to find out.... it's basically one of the only words they know.... oh well...

this shot was converted into a different colour scheme that i thought might look cool in a family room or study some day framed up?? mmmmmaybeee...

2009-07-15T21:57:00.000-07:00

, originally uploaded by CMarck.

one last picture of a shot taken at the temple.... i really like these buildings... they have so much character and tradition in the details it's ridiculous... you should click on this one to see the larger size if you want to know what i'm talking about....

2009-07-15T21:56:00.000-07:00

, originally uploaded by CMarck.

on the way to meet up with the girls for dinner.. we took the subway... Seoul's subway is crazy busy and always full... it's also about twice as wide as Busan's subway cars.... i held the camera up high and this is the best I got to show the atmosphere....

after we met up for dinner.... which actually might have been one of the best restaurants in korea yet... we decided to call a friend from Windsor to take us out on the town for the night who lived in Seoul.... that way we'd get a better idea of what goes on.. rather than wandering aimlessly down streets like the previous nights....

while we were waiting for him... we went to the 63 building.... this is one of the largest skyscrapers in Seoul and gives a really nice view... might i also add... that it costs 15$ for half a shot of scotch... and then they charge you tax when you leave?!?!... considering i've never paid a tax in my time in korea.. i was skeptical.. but we had a korean friend with us who said it was legit... the view here was incredible.. i took a few shots... but they were all garbage.. i will bring my tripod next time...

2009-07-15T21:55:00.000-07:00

, originally uploaded by CMarck.

here's a picture of a fruit vendor from earlier that day near dongneamun.... which is a big shopping district full of garbage basically......

when our buddy from Windsor showed up ... He took us to a really cool area where tons of younger people gathered at a local park and watched street performances at night... There was a live band at one point.. and a bunch of other b-boys doing their thing as well.. I've got a few pictures of this that I will post later today as it was a pretty cool atmosphere.... I will also post the one shot i took of the drunk fiesty midget that tried to have it out with me....

The rest of the night... we just relaxed and watched the band and then played some darts and stuff at a nearby hotspot....

2009-07-15T21:50:00.000-07:00

, originally uploaded by CMarck.

okay... sunday morning we had kentucky fried chicken for breakfast naturally... then went out exploring.. we found a man made waterfall and river in the middle of the city that was really cool.. there were tons of art on exhibit including a photo gallery that was really nice... i also got kissed by a dirty smelly clown... WHAT?.. yeah... i've got pictures I'll post later with a little blurb... Laura thought it was pretty funny.... we then visited insadong ... which is a huge market with really cool authentic merchandise... I'll be coming back here for a cool flag painting or something..... We have also decided to make a trip sometime in the summer time to visit the water park outside the city.... and Laura and I both love water parks.....

I took this picture in Insadong during a very rhythmic buddhist ceremony.... it was really cool to see one in progress...

I KEEP getting harrassed by a few friends and parents why I don't blog anymore??? Do you really want me to blog about how I folded or didn't fold my laundry today?? or how I am working on making a logo for an upcoming photo website and learning the ins and outs of wedding photography??? NO.. you don't... I can't bore you with my everyday stuff... It's no more exciting than yours.... BUT we did go to mudfest this weekend... and that is worth posting about... it was crazy.... and dirty... I didn't take any pictures... so I'll have to steal some from someone else....

I will be getting my camera NEXT week.. and i can guarantee there'll be some more photos up soon after that.... I am planning on doing a small project JUST on the food here and will blog about that soon as it is absolutely delicious.... until then.... laterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Missing pictures....

2009-07-15T21:31:00.001-07:00

I will also post the missing shots of the crazy drunk midget, the crazy drunk clown.. and the cool night hangout we found with the band performance later today...

Do you want to go for breakfast???

2009-06-18T01:18:00.001-07:00

Welcome to South Korea..., originally uploaded by CMarck.

No thanks.. I seem to have lost my appetite...

THIS ... is the guy I had to spend my first week in South Korea with... He was so strange... I'd wake up in the morning to this guy hovering over my body, asking ... " you want to go for breakfast now?!"... yikes...

More picture stuff...

2009-06-18T00:06:00.001-07:00

, originally uploaded by CMarck.

Here's a photo I worked on for awhile... It was of my photo buddy Jean-Michel... I should be posting a blog about our trip to Seoul next week... check on my flickr in the meantime if you want...CLICK THE PHOTO THEN ALL SIZES FOR LARGER

Bob & Pam Visit Busan....Tokyo... and now they're Engaged !!! :)

2009-06-08T23:59:00.001-07:00

First of all I'd like to congratulate my brother and his girlfriend Pam on their recent engagement... I'm really excited for the wedding and he couldn't have picked a better girl to be his wife... Nowwww.. what did we get up to while they were here?? We went to the fish market... a baseball game... which ended up being a brutal experience... and showed them around Pusan National University area... The rest of the week... we gave them pointers on where to go and what to do... because we were in school... At the end of the week.. they came to lunch with my fellow co-workers....

Here's some pics...

Here they are riding the subway... pretty exciting if you ask me... We just went to PNU this day and did some window ... or lack or window.. shopping.... and ate some treats that the locals were selling... Nothing really crazy....

I think I might have posted this before... but I realy liked this ladies worker hands... She splits up food like this for about 16 hours a day... everyday... just down the road from our apartments...

Here's a pic of Laura and them in the PNU area where we just browsed around waiting for the baseball game to start...

We found an arcade and just took a look inside... and the stereo-type is true... asian kids are amazingly good at video games... I took this picture trying to show how fast his hands moved.... It hardly does it justice.. I'd say he hit about 8 buttons a second for minutes on end... it was ridiculous.. ..

We soonafter headed to a baseball game to watch the Lotte Busan Giants get worked by LG.... Here's a dance performance put on in front of the stadium... These guys are dressed as bottles of liquor.. just having great time :)...

Panorama of the stadium in Busan....

Here's a shot of the crew ready to watch the game... but it's getting really cold and windy before the first pitch is even thrown...

Good thing Bob's found some beer to keep him warm :)

Cluck-cluck-cluckaaaaa!!!!

The main reason we wanted to take them to the game was that... the last time we went... we sat in the cheering section... This is where they have a full cheerleading team.. with band... and different songs for every player up to bat...
It's the roudiest crowd ever at a baseball game and really fun to see everyone eating squid as a snack and wearing orange bags on their heads for rally caps... unfortunately.. those tickets were sold out.. and we watched the game anyways... it was cold... windy.... and they got beat like 12-4 or something... the pitcher walked 6 guys the first inning !!!

They even ran into eachother and the wall trying to catch a long bomb thrown out by LG.... the ball is on the ground GUYS!! figure it out...

We went out that night for some shabu shabu (japanese raw beef dipped in a delicious red vegetable soup... which cooks the meat)and had a few drinks at a local bar... It was a really nice relaxing night...

The next day we went to Jagalchi fish market to show them the fish... It wasn't as busy as when I went during the week and they were sold out of the monster fish I had seen earlier in the year.... Here's a picture of when it's "not" too busy....

Bob & Pam hanging out at the stanky fish market....

Some fishies hanging by their tails....

Crab people crab people.....

Me and lovely Laura hanging by the harbour front :)

Some ajumma slanging tiny fish's... i wonder who eats these little guys??

Here's your answer.. these old men sit around in circles drinking soju and eating fish all day... neyyyyy sounds like a good time... they're usually playing a really strategic board game that apparently makes chess look like "guess who?"...

The one that almost got away.... this slippery devil made a run for it... too bad he can't run or he might've gotten somewhere other than the cement... idiot...

Bob inside the fishmarket.. where you can buy any fish you want and they'll prepare it for you on the spot.... There were people chopping off the heads of fish everywhere... Bob looks a little freaked out... I liked the background lights here... "bokeh" for a nerd like me...

We went to Nampo-dong a little after to check out the nice area and do some more street shopping... Found this guy making puffed rice on the street...

Here's the finished product....

Some dude walking around painted up and on stilts?? No idea why... same as the chicken headed guy at the baseball game...

Dragon head up top of Nampo Dong...

And a temple hidden behind some Korean engravings....

I'll be posting in a few weeks about our trip to Seoul... I'm trying to spread out the interesting stuff now... we're generally on a day - to -day schedule now... and not doing much exciting stuff...

However... we will be going on a trip to see the great wall in Beijing in the summer... along with a 5 day trip to the island of jeju which is known as koreas hawaii... so I'll have some good updates for next month... take care everyone.. and once again.. congratulations to Bob and Pam Marck!!

A thing or two about Korean News...

2009-05-29T00:05:00.001-07:00

This will be a quick blog to write about the current events of North Korea's threats and such. NO PICTURES !!! What??? Are you serious Cliff??? Yeah.. no pictures.

Last week, the past president committed suicide because he was found guilty of embezzlement. He stole or filtered somewhere in the ball-park of $600,000 USD equivalent.. or so I've heard... In South Korea, it used to be socially acceptable for a person to commit suicide if they shamed their family in any way... This president was old school and decided to do himself in.. no more than 30 mins from our house in Busan. Everyone has been very upset and depressed over his death... even though... he stole their money... and committed suicide...

Now... what you may be all worried about is the current news about North Korea and the fact that South Korea is threatening to search their vessels... and if they do search the vessels... it will basically start a war...

The issues are here:

1) Yes... North Korea has been testing missiles lately... and yes... this is in direct disregard for the U.N... They have been short range missiles.. (130km or so).. and I'm guessing their main targets would be Seoul... or Tokyo... Busan is much smaller in comparison and hardly a hub for any military action.. Seoul or Tokyo ... These would make the biggest bang... We live about a 5 hour drive from Seoul... If anything were to happen... I'm hoping we would be able to jump on a plane (we live 15 mins from the airport) and get home ASAP...

2) They have also tested a nuclear bomb recently... with that said... it is a very primitive design of a nuke... They have the plutonium and science of the bomb down.. but it's been said that they are about 5-10 years from miniaturization... which basically means they won't be able to fly this sucker anywhere... If they set off a nuke.. it will either be self-destructive and take out the boarder.. or more likely a guerilla style attack where they drive the nuke on a "vessel" into japan or south korea... once again... we live far enough from these points of interest.. where I'm fairly confident we could get out quickly if planes were still leaving the airport..

3) Laura and I have both registered with the embassy and know where the consulate is in Busan.

and most importantly

4) The South Koreans just laugh at this "world news"... They say they are blowing things dramatically out of proportion and there is not much to worry about. They say they are nervous but still think North Korea is blowing smoke in order to get the UN and USA's attention in order to gain aid in exchange for ending their "nuclear" program.

So what are we going to do???

Think of it this way... when you're on a plane and you hit some turbulance... what should you do??

Freak out over it???

Just sit calmly and hope for the best??

I don't think so...

I generally watch the flight-attendants... if they look calm... I'm calm..

because they've been through this a hundred times before...

A Night in the Life of Cliff in Busan, South Korea

2009-05-21T03:15:00.000-07:00

Once again... longer than I expected between blogging... This time I lost my USB... The one i purchased for about 40 bucks.... These things are usually free at home... not the case here.... Anyways.. the picture above captures a lot about Korea.... The mask... the man... the dark atmosphere... I liked it quite a bit... WHY DO THEY WEAR THE MASK?... They usually wear masks if they are sick to prevent spreading it.... how nice... they also wear it when the yellow dust comes over from China... they believe it filters the air and will help out their lungs... maybe.... They also think eating bacon "is good for you health" because the fat coats your throat when it slides down... I've finally gotten to the point where I'm comfortable with my teacher who told me this... And I responded .. "it also coats your arteries"... She didn't get why it wasn't good for you... oh well...

You're going to notice a re-occuring theme in my night shots... bikes... scooters... mopeds... etc... I went out to test a lens and decided I would just focus on one aspect of the night for the most part... the bikes... here's a picture of some guys repairing a bike.. while another moped scoots by...

These boys were keen for a night on the town... and is 100% a common scene... generally every other 100 meters there is someone so ripped off that they can't walk by themselves.... They say that the only time they get let loose is when they drink... and that the pressures of everyday life and how strict it is drive them to just get wrecked in these social settings.... They also lack some enzymes that help break down alcohol in their body... which also contributes to their sloppiness....

I'm stuck wondering whether they smoke these tiny cigarettes because the regular sized ones make them feel small.. or if because since they are smaller... they're actually justified as "good for your health"... who knows.. they all smoke the skinny minnies though... This guy's hacking a butt and buying some type of street food...

I know what you're thinking... "it's pretty creepy that you just go out in the streets and take pictures of unsuspecting people Cliff..." yeah... well.. it helps my practice for wedding photography (low light and fast moving people)... and it also helps me capture people in a candid type of moment and properly showcase the everyday type of occurrences that happen in South Korea... so take it for what it's worth... they already stare at me like i'm a freak... i might as well be snapping off a 5 lb camera in their face.. haha...

This guy was more than helpful... I loved the out of focus lights in the background.... "bokeh" in geek photography talk.... After I realized I should have shot in portrait... but ... too late... he's off into the night...

A large portion of Koreans are buddhists.... and it was Buddha's birthday on May 2nd... I didn't get around to taking a picture of the lanterns that help celebrate this until there was only one strand left.... so... this was as creative as i got... weeeakkkk...

This is a Korean coffee shop I found near gwangalli beach... i went there to take pictures of the bridge... but really messed them up... this was what i ended up with though.. i really liked the star effects on the lights....

Here's a little scooter I found with a snoopy sticker on it... Kinda looked neat...

Another old dude wearing a hard-hat just in case he falls off his bike.... just ridiculous...

And of course... another shot of a scooter...that is what i set out to do... take shots of scooters and test this lens' bokeh...

done and done...

I actually just found my usb... so don't worry ... i'll still be posting my regular twice a month snails pace.. no need to worry.. haha... until next time :)

A day in my shoes... in Busan, South Korea...

2009-05-06T23:52:00.000-07:00

The main reason I have slowed down blogging since my arrival (and the reason everyone slows down on these travel blogs) is that things are becoming normal to me... I see a guy slice off a fish head on the street... pfff big deal... i almost get run over by a 95 year old man on a scooter... daily occurence... Oh look there's a truck selling socks... yes.. they have trucks selling everything... You can either go to the store or sit in your house and they will eventually drive by chanting that they have socks for you.. just in case you couldn't make it through the day without ANOTHER pair of socks.... I'm used to these trucks.. I even have bought eggs off of the man who's chant sounds like " corrrn and chedddarr".. that means "eggs".. So here we go... less blah blah blah... and more pictures of a daily Korean life...

I leave the house and see a coffee machine... They're on every street corner.. about 20 cents for a half a small cup of coffee from tim's... I'll drink to that...

Here's Laura and my favourite ajumma... She has a little dog and works about 14 hours a day selling fruit... Laura buys off of her every other day... and I buy off her every other week.. and my fruit goes bad... go figure...

Some straw-babies... deliciousness....

Kim-chi pot... These pots are used to ferment different types of radishes, cabbages and what have you eventually used for dinner... They are on top of every other Korean home... You eat kim-chi with literally every meal... Koreans have a seperate fridge dedicated to Kimchi... Much better than the seperate fridge we have dedicated to beer.. or not.. you be the judge...

Okay.. I'm at the subway station... here's where I wait ... the train comes at 8:19 everyday like clockwork... i go one stop up and transfer.. i get to run with a few hundred koreans everymorning to catch my transfer or i'll be late... i HAVE to get this on video someday... there's just something hilarious about a tall white guy running with a herd of short koreans... i take that subway two stops down and i'm a 5 min walk from school...

a picture of a flight of stairs... is that spelt right? meh.. who cares... i walk up about 60 flights of stairs a day... and then there's the hill I walk up... there's a dramatic picture of this death hill on my flickr stream somewhere...

I spend the first half of the day teaching these runts... then eat lunch for a dollar... followed by me fetching coffee for all the men because i am the youngest.. for the rest of the day... i read about photography and look at pictures... I am looking at upgrading my camera soon so that there will be no holding back when i get home... i will start up a photography business of some sort after going to firefighters college... it's the first hobby in my life i've been passionate about.. i've had lots of "oh .. i just want this" and then give it up... this is different... underneath is a shot of the local camera repairman.. i haven't used him yet... but he's got tons of dirt cheap (like 50 bucks)old manual focus lenses i'm sure i'll dip into before the years through...

more shots of the goobers...

here's a pic with me and the other teachers that work in my lounge... a good percentage of elementary school teachers are women... i'd say 8/10 are women...

the ankle biters even found me on the streets after school was looong over....

I start to walk home and see this ajjuma cutting up herbs and spices on the street.. she has worker hands and has done this for half a century by the looks of it...

I cross by a market selling peppers... they sell everything else you can think of at the gupo market...

A man drives by on his scooter... Scooters are everywhere here...

Here's a shot of Bob, Pam and Laura in the area of Pusan National University.. My brother visited last week and we had a great time... It was really nice to see them and I will be blogging about those times after my next post... "a night in my shoes... in busan, south korea..." the pics are already done.. it's just a matter of uploading and jibber jabber now...

here's the end of my day and what i see close to my apartment building as busan falls into the night... this fella decided he would take a nap... maybe too much soju? maybe....

more on the night time antics next... (the pics are much more interesting) laterrrrrrrr...

Wanna go for a ride on my double bicycle??

2009-04-24T00:25:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken at night with my co-teachers old digital camera... the thing with me is that even if I capture the perfect moment (this) but it is technically flawed as a photograph... I would scrap it completely... and never post it online.. but this one is too funny.. and will probably haunt us forever...

I just found that one.. and had to post it before the weekend.. Okay.. Anyounghekaseeyoo!!

Cherry Blossoms ... "Wow.. Beautiful...."

2009-04-24T00:05:00.000-07:00

Like I said in the last post... around the beginning of Spring... all there is around here is cherry blossoms... and it's all anyone here seems to talk about... Whenever something is gorgeous.. the koreans generally say (always say) .. "wow.. beautiful"... I didn't take as many pictures of the cherry blossoms as you might think because... well.. I wasn't that impressed... They're just tiny little white flowers that have a life span of about a week or two... and then litter the grounds everywhere... (sorry mrs. deyarmond)... I like flowers.. just not these ones...

They did look really cool when they lined an entire street on both sides and just draped over the road... making a perfect frame for a picture opportunity... BUT.. I'm at school today.. and I don't have those pictures on my memory stick... so tough luck I guess.. Hopefully I'll post that shot in a later post... Here's a close up of the little flowers..

And last but not least a picture of a bird... or "boyd" as Mr. Deyarmond would say... pecking away at the cherry blossoms for a late lunch...

It was really hard to get a good shot of this guy... I kept making noises and yelling "Here birdie birdie birdie..." but he didn't seem to understand... I'm guessing he spoke Korean...

That's it.. short and sweet... My brother and Pam flew in last night and I'm just waiting to get off of work for the weekend.. We plan on going to a baseball game... going on a hike.. eating some smoked duck.. and visiting the fish market again to actually taste some of the creatures from the sea... have a good weekend :)

Gyeungju - The Ancient Capital of Korea

2009-04-22T23:49:00.001-07:00

Two weekends ago Laura and I went on a double date with my co-teacher and her boyfriend to the ancient capital of Korea, Gyeungju (pronounced Kyung-joo.) They wanted to bring us here to show us some of true Korean culture as there isn't much left after their battle with Japan about half a decade ago. They went on to tell us that the Japanese burnt down a lot of their temples, castles and other historic monuments that meant a lot to them and a lot of Koreans still have some hatred for Japan because this was not too long ago. Spicyyy...

This first photo is Laura and I standing in front of a hole in the ground.. .literally. But it's a special hole. The Kings from way back used to come to this castle (no longer here) and float cups down this river-hole and recite poetry and have a party... It's funny how this has evolved into todays culture of getting "crunk" and rapping with their boys... not all that different... right... Here's a similar pic of my co-teacher mi-kyung and her boyfriend chun-il.

Sidenote: this weekend i found out that when something is not found to be funny (like the "joke" above) Koreans will cross their arms and give a serious face to the person and make the sound "hurr"... haha.. i found this histarical and use it all the time now...

Another big reason we came to Gyungju was for the cherry blossom festival in Korea. The cherry blossoms are the way the Koreans know that Spring is around the corner. The same way we know this when the flowers start to bloom; however... they don't have a lot of flowers here, only cement... and cherry blossoms. Koreans go crazy for cherry blossoms. I find it kind of ironic that they love the cherry blossom so much but hate the japanese... this is because this is actually a japanese flower "sacorro" that they brought over not too long ago and is now everywhere... which would act as a constant reminder to me. Pretty Kunfusing to me...

Anyways.. we went to this first little tunnel hole and then drove about 30 mins to a small lake that was built for a King long ago. It was really nice and cherry blossoms were everywhere. I did a horrible job of photoshopping a really off hue sky into this shot.. haha.. maybe I'll do a good one and post to flickr... maybe.. They say maybe here all the time.. and it's usually always probably frustrating... Example... Can I get my check for last month? I didn't get paid. They answer "maybe"... I'm pretty sure they think it means yes...

Before we left there.. we found a little waterfall type of area where you were supposed to make boats out of leaves and make a wish as it went down the little river.. kind of neat...

Next.. we drove about another hour to a temple that was really cool... the architecture of the main building was mind boggling and you really had to be there to understand what i mean by that. The way it was built.. well.. without going into anything technical.. let's just say that the foundation should have fallen apart about 100 years ago but it's still perfectly level... They definitely knew something we don't know now...

This is a photo of Rora and I standing in front of a smaller temple and further below there is a picture of some angry looking guy who doubles as a door-handle.. tough life... you'd be bitter too if you just got banged around all day...

And below is a shot of the main building in black and white...

Next we went another hour to eat "authentic" Korean food... i thought I was eating authentic korean food now.. The difference is that wayy back.. when the Korean economy was very poor (i mean really poor.. so you guys can feel good about yourself when you read this) the families could only afford to have real dinners every once in awhile.. and they would make a meal consisting of about 50 side dishes (no overexaggeration) and no main meat b/c they still couldn't really afford it..

Their meals today consist of a main dish that is communal and also about 10 side dishes (to carry on the tradition)that are communal as well.. The only thing that is your own is rice and sometimes soup... no wonder they're always sick here...

So here's a picture of the food... psyyyyche... All of the korean restaurants were either completely out of food or too full and we had to wait an hour.. soooo we ate at pizza hut.. nothing more authentic then that.. MMMMM!

Then we drove another hour (keep in mind that we have now been in the car 2 hours to get here... and about 3 hours during the day.. every korean has the same idea on the weekends to go to the same place.. so they all just wind up sitting in traffic all day and that's supposed to be fun?!?!?).. drove another hour or so to a big lake called Modum.. ok.. i made that up.. but it started with an M... This is where they rented all types of bikes, dirt bikes, atv's and what we rode around the lake.. double-bikes!!.. hahah.. what a double date... here's a picture of a "family" bike that fits 4 people who all pedal.. it even has a roof.. haha...

Unfortunately.. I can't find the picture of Laura and I on the bike!.. It was on my memory stick and is now missing.. I really want to find it b/c it's hilarious!.. We rode around the whole lake and then drove home about 2 hours... All together this double date... lasted around 13 hours... They do things differently here... My next post will be about cherry blossoms and then maybe a soccer game post... maybe..

Laura's Photo-Shoot

2009-04-22T04:16:00.001-07:00

Lovely Laura, originally uploaded by CMarck.

Another photo blog... I know... but my lovely girlfriend allowed me to do a photo-shoot of her last weekend on the roof and I will be posting a few pics over the week... on a side note... my brother and his girlfriend Pam fly into South Korea tomorrow and I'm really excited to see them... they're actually probably on the plane now.. hahahha.... 22 hours... bruuuutal... anyways... tomorrow will be my real blog day as i have quite a bit of free time in the afternoon as of now... update you then.. :)

Jagalchi Fish Market... P.S.. It smells as bad as it looks...

2009-04-08T17:25:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh the fish market... this place effectively shows where the bartering begins in South Korea... I woke up at 5am on my day off to go down here and catch the fishermen loading the fish off the boats... unfortunately for me.. the subway didn't start till around 6 and i didn't get there until about 7am.. by that time.. the old ladies (ajummas) were in a frenzy prepping their fish for sales... This market typically sells fish to the the thousands of restaurants that consume busan.. However... they also sell single fish for any bystanders...

You can buy whatever fish you want here... among these were belt fish... white fish... octopus... sea cucumbers... giant fish that look like monsters??.. ... and i even saw a small shark for sale... After you buy the fish.. just take it to any of the nearby restaurants and they will prep and cook it for you for a small fee... Pretty neat... Did I do that?? Not a chance was I going to try and buy korean fish @ 7am for breakfast... I settled for a coffee and donuts at Krispy Kreme.. pretty authentic eh?? (by the way Richie Rich.. if you're reading this... they ONLY have instant coffee here for the most part.. and I'm still looking for a Tim Hortons)...

These people HATE getting their pictures taken... so I had to put on the big dog lens and stand a good 20-30 feet away to get natural looking shots... I don't get it... What are they thinking? "oh my... look what i'm wearing... and i forgot to put on my makeup today and have fish guts all over me... no photo-ee!!!!"... Look at how big this monster fish is on the far right of this shot... It is hideous!! I've asked my co-teacher about this fish and she says that they usually eat it at home with vegetables and that it has a relatively mild flavour for fish... She must have a much larger place than mine.. because this fish couldn't fit in my pad... Another thing I've noticed is that they don't have the same sense of humour as us Canadians...
They don't understand sarcasm AT ALL! Everytime I try to make a joke.. they just look at me like I'm crazy... For example, the crabs they have here are HUGE.. take a look at this one i found crawling up a building!!! can you believe it?? Obviously a joke... using sarcasm.. They would NOT laugh.. at all... actually.. you probably didn't either..damn... anyways.. here's some more pictures

Here's a picture of the shark they caught that morning!

And an octopus shot here

Also.. some strange looking fish that is butterflied open.. can anyone tell me the name of this little guy?

This is the couple I met from Ulsan at the fish market... He was interested in my photography equipment.. but more interested in speaking english with me... Koreans will do anything to speak a few sentences with a foreigner and get some practice in... They were very very nice people :)

This is where all the ajummas go to buy their paring knives, fish knives, or any other type of knife they could imagine...

An ice delivery guy.. and in the background you can see the action inside the fish market...

Some ajumma... obviously filing her tax return.. pffff...

Here is And this is my first shot of the day... when the sun was just pouring in.. and this lady was thinking "ugghhh... fish again" no doubt... (edit: i just noticed that if you open this picture up to full size... there is a photo of THIS lady hanging in the top right corner... in the exact same setting)

I'm looking forward to coming back here sometime in the afternoon to actually buy some fish and get the full experience without my camera... This past weekend we went to our first pro soccer game... a jim-gil-bong??.. which is a gender specific korean bath house full of different types of tubs and showers.. and saunas... and massage waterfalls... etc... the only catch is... everyone has to be naked... quite the catch isn't it?? but once you get over the abundance of peni everywhere... it really is relaxing.. kind of... Laura and I then went on a double date on Sunday with my co-teacher and her boyfriend... we went to the ancient capital of Korea called Kwang-ju.. It was pretty cool.. except for that fact that we spent 90% of the day in traffic b/c all of the other koreans had the same idea... ALL of them... I will have pictures up for that some time later this week or early next week... none of the bath house.. sorry to let you guys down... bye for now !!!

Laura's Lame Blog

2009-03-30T18:36:00.000-07:00

Okay.. I'm only calling it lame because she decided she wanted to do her own blog after I had already had a domain name that said "cliffANDlaura" "visitkorea".. and now i'm stuck with it... but from now on if you want to read her stuff there is a link on the top right hand side of my page that will direct you straight to her blog... there may be a lot of repitition compared to mine.. there may not be.. i don't know.. because .. well.. i don't read her blog... haha.. at any rate.. it will be there from now on...

Volleyball Tournament @ Hauendae Beach..

2009-03-30T17:18:00.000-07:00

As you might've seen in my past post.. there was a cool little video by my friend Brett... The background song is by the Gaslight Anthem in case you were wondering like me... Nice lil' tune... So we decided to play in an expat beach volleyball tourney just this past weekend... I had to wake up at 8am to play... I was pretty bitter about this at first.. but that quickly faded once we got there... It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day... and the half of my team who I didn't know previously turned out to be reallly really cool people and we had a ton of fun... BUT.. we lost our first game... now we were in the losers bracket and didn't play for 2 and a half hours... OK.. so we're on the beach on a sunny day with two and a half hours to kill... what can a bunch of mid-twenty year olds do on a beach?? oh yeah... drink... needless to say... our composure and team dynamics had changed by the second game... and we didn't stop winning (or drinking for that matter) until the finals... there were 15 teams or something... and we came in 2nd place... the worst part was.. we played the same team we lost to in the finals in the championship... actually.. the worst part was our prize... a bottle of tequila and 80,000 won... the last thing a bunch of burnt foreigners need is a bottle of tequila...

We had a really cute golden lab ref most of the games... Just thought I'd throw in a pic of him chilling on the side-lines...anyways... you might of been wondering why Brett and Nicole were dancing like idiots in the video... well... It's a little thing my friends from the South like to call "do your best jager"... No matter where you are (at the beach) or what you're doing (in the middle of play).. if your friends yell to you to "hey cliff.. do your best jager!!".. you have to stop what you're doing and do your very best mick jager style of dance... it's absolutely ridiculous... and i love it... by the end of the night... Nicole lost a bet and had to do a shot of tequila out of brett's pasty white belly-button... haha..

Okay.. so I realize my last few posts have shared a general theme... alcohol... and that's not all that we do around here... So the next few posts will be a lot more interesting and culture based... Last Monday I had the day off and went to Jagalchi fish market and took some pics of some really cool stuff... That will be my next post.. Either later this week or early next... Bye for now :)

Great little video made by my good buddy Brett Kennington from South Carolina...

2009-03-30T17:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a video documenting the night-life in Busan... Some pans of Haeundae Beach.. Some clips of the volleyball tourney and "do your best jager!".. i'll explain later..(click the button in the bottom right area to see it full-screen as blogger crops it a bit)

The dogs that don't get eaten here... probably envy the dogs that do...

2009-03-30T05:25:00.001-07:00

Seriously.... All of the dogs they have as pets look like idiots... The Koreans think it's hilarious to dye their ears pink.. put uniforms and outfits on them and even routinely put boots on them... Actually come to think of it.. I think it's hilarious too... But those poor dogs.... Everyone is just laughing at them.... hahaha....

And this one was just OVER the top... This cute white dog that hangs out at the octopussy stand (yeah.. they call octopus octopussy here) near haeundae beach... His owner thought it was a funny to draw eyebrows on him with permanent black marker.... I took this picture of him... and he just put his head down in shame... Everyone walking by just points and laughs and takes pictures... I know he's howling a cry on the inside.. But it was too funny to pass up on the photo up... Crazians...

Flickr Photos

2009-03-30T05:22:00.000-07:00

Don't forget to click on the photos to go to my flickr page... then click all sizes to view the large version... the blogger site skews the image and makes them look horrible... I used a filter on the last shot to make the clouds over the city look darker and give it a dismal look.... enjoy!

The Real Busan

2009-03-30T05:21:00.001-07:00

The Real Busan, originally uploaded by CMarck.

Okay.. I felt kind of guilty when I posted that panorama shot of "busan" will all of the mountain ranges... the truth of the matter is... Busan is only a gorgeous city if you hike for an hour and a half.... or you live by the beach... The rest of the areas are cement slums... with interesting little markets everywhere... people selling fish.. veggies.. fruit... dog... (honestly.. the older generation of men eat dog).. or whatever... but there's just cement and paint everywhere... and it makes me miss Canada... I live in one of the most flat parts of canada... but at least we have grass.. i haven't seen that here yet....

South Korea Fire Shot

2009-03-30T05:12:00.001-07:00

South Korea Fire Shot, originally uploaded by CMarck.

Okay.. Blogger uploads photos at a friggin snails pace.. About 5 mins a picture... So I've gotten a pro flickr account and will link from there a lot starting now... here's the fire shot!!!

Blue Hawaii.. The Local Watering Hole...

2009-03-30T05:00:00.001-07:00

Yeah... another bar post... We haven't done too much "interesting" or cultural type of things the past few weekends... we've just been getting to know friends... playing in beach volleyball tournaments and getting more comfortable with our surroundings.... This bar is called Blue Hawaii... It's run by a guy who says his name is "captain"... he's one helluva dart player.. but my good buddy neal has shown him how it's done a few times... i could see this turning into a year long rivalry with millions of won on the table.. but only time will tell.... they serve draft beer that costs the equivalent of $2.50 and liquor drinks that could remove paint from the walls they're so stiff... there's darts.. peanuts and nachos... and it's really close to where 4 of us live... so it's our local spot to have a few beers... oh yeah.. and they do ... THE FIRE SHOT... this picture doesn't do it justice... before this was taken... the entire room was lit up as the bartender blew fire at the pyramid of booze.... i've seen some flair bartending in canada... but nothing like this... Laura has a video of it somewhere... maybe i can scrounge it up later... probably not.... here's the pic though!

St Patricks Day in Korea... Just didn't feel right....

2009-03-30T04:19:00.000-07:00

I'm about two weeks behind schedule on this one... but ah well... I'm hoping to catch up on my blogs tonight.... For St. Patty's day Laura and I met up with a couple from Windsor that we're friends with.... Nick and Nicole... We checked out their palace (which is huge)... MASSIVE compared to where I live.... and also checked out Haeundae beach which is only 2 subway stops from their mansion.... The beach is really nice and I'll be posting a separate blog about that in a few mins... We ended up at a bar called O'Briens... yeah.. O'Go-figure... it was ST PATTYS DAY!... It should've been called O'Let's-Cram-300-White-People-In-a-bar-and-light-9000-cigarettes-as-incense... Anyways... we drank a few beers and ate hot-dogs and french fries which was a nice change of pace from the seaweed and rice i've been snacking on lately... you'd think i'd be losing weight b/c of my diet here and the fact that i walk 40000 stairs a day... but i just eat more to make up for it... maybe more... The best thing about the night was the music... A guy named Anthony Garcia and his girlfriend (who are both english teachers for the public system) are great guitarists and extremely talented musicians in general... They also gave out guinness gear in the form of playing cards and beach towels... the beach towel will come in handy because koreans only use face towels when they get out of the shower... for their bodies... probably because their bodies are about the size of my face... weeee little men.... okay... i'm digressing.... actually.. that's all i do... here's some pics of the rest of the night...

The Hill to Home, Busan, South Korea

2009-03-22T07:15:00.001-07:00

The Hill to Home, Busan, South Korea, originally uploaded by CMarck.

I'm just fooling around with my flickr account now so I can blog my photos straight from flickr which will make things easier for me... Here's a subtle HDR shot of the hill that leads up to Laura's and my apartment.

EDIT: It really seems to distort the picture when put straight from flickr... if you want to see a larger size... just click the photo... then click all sizes once you're re-directed to flickr. That'll give you a sweet idea of how it should look... ALSO... You'll be able to view my full photostream on flickr if you like... I generally only post my favourite pics there.

Panorama that you can enlarge... hopefully...

2009-03-20T00:07:00.000-07:00

The last picture wouldn't enlarge and it was definitely one of my favourites from Korea so far... so hopefully this one will blow up when you click it :)

Beomosa Temple and Our First Hike in South Korea !

2009-03-19T23:34:00.001-07:00

okay... i'm back.. bored as heck at work today... they wanted me to play volleyball AGAIN today... (we play every wednesday)... but they didn't tell me beforehand and I'm not playing in my dress shoes against a bunch of 4 foot men... so.. here's the Beomosa Temple and hike post... sorry for the pictures but I shot a lot of raw shots this day and my computer at school won't recognize those files... soooo ... you're getting the leftovers.... ALSO.. as cool as it is to travel in foreign countries... it's pretty hard to learn anything from the historic sites when you can't read or understand their friggin language.... so we basically had to learn by using our eyes.. and i don't have any cool info about the temple to pass along... other than it's the most famous one in busan.. and the public is only allowed on weekends... hopefully i'll be able to brush up my korean well enough to understand the basics soon enough... here's a pic of one of the buildings... with some monks walking in the background if you enlarge it... i'm not too sure they're called pagodas anymore... "mmmaybe" a pagoda... as they say here.... all the time..."mmmaybe"... the hike took about an hour and a half up.. we stopped for lunch.. where they were serving noodles and water.. or makelli and soju.. which are both boozes of sorts... no thanks.. i could barely move for the past two days... a couple of very nice men came over to laura and i and gave us these rice stuffed things to eat... i think they felt bad for the foreigners eating ramen noodles.. so bad that they came back over with an egg and salt for each of us... i was kungfused... i thought the eag was raw and the soup was to cook it... about 10 mins later we realized they were hard-boiled and we were chumps... it was delicious.. masheeta they say here... here's a pic of the koreans that fed us a better lunch than what we had :)... below is another pic of Ro-ra looking out into the wilderness on our hike... it's really cool that we can basically hike anytime we want.. however... we're not hiking alone.. there were thousands of koreans at beomosa this day... i'm actually probably under-exaggerating... this is a place where you have to learn to be peaceful on the inside... because you're sure as heck not getting a moment alone with nature here !!! here's a pic of a random part of the hike where there was about the average amount of koreans... it's definitely not a peaceful hike... there's always someone on your tail and you can't go at your own pace... the koreans are always in a rush to be somewhere other than where they are... which must be stressfull and lead to most of their demises... demises?? .... whatever... if it wasn't for stress.. these people would live forever... they eat veggies.. rice and seafood and live in a mountain range.. every street is on a hill... and are consistently getting exercise.... and every once in awhile they get food poisoning.. which helps take off about 10 pounds!!... horrible... here's a shot at the summit... (not much of a hike really)...

and here's the view we got from the top of the mountain here in Busan... the hike was worth the view... I took three shots and stitched them together in photoshop... yeah.. i'm a huge photo geek... so what... this one is worth clicking on and viewing the large version.... okay.. now have a good weekend... oh wait .. it isnt' friday afternoon there yet?? hahaha... i'm living in the future suckers!!!... k.. bye for now :)

Food Poisoning in Asia...

2009-03-19T22:43:00.000-07:00

mmmMMMMmmmMMMmm BUFFALO CHICKEN WINGS !!! wooo hoooo.... I didn't think I was going to get to eat chicken wings until I got back to Canada in a year... this is great.... WRONG... not great... not good... almost deadly.... i literally thought I was going to die... I did not tell my parents about myself being sick because I figured there was no need for them to worry... Here's a not so cute picture of a buffalo choking a chicken... ( I WAS THAT CHICKEN!!!)...

We went out to eat around 7 or 8 on a Thursday with a few of our new found friends and we were having a great time... we ordered what we thought was "a" pitcher of beer for all 4-5 of us and this is what showed up... hilarious... it was massive... by the end of the meal... that looked delicious by the way... i was feeling a little queeezy... and i figured it had to do with the 3 liters of beer that had appeared in a giant tube earlier...

WRONG... it was the death chicken... I woke up at 3am and... well... it was the first time I'd been happy about having my kitchen sink located less than a meter from my head... I literally couldn't move for the next 36 hours and it was the worst pain I've ever felt in my gut.... Luckily I have a wonderful girlfriend who helped to take care of me... She brought me all types of liquids and meds to help me out... She came in about 14 hours after dropping off some water for me and asked why I hadn't drank any of it... The answer was simple... I couldn't reach it... and there's no way I could stand up... yeah.. it was THAT bad.... I will never eat chicken wings in Asia again... These people can kill a poisonous blowfish that will kill you if cut wrong and eat it raw... but if you give them something that has to be kept frozen and deep fried for 5-10 minutes and then served... well.. good luck...

Luckily by Sunday I was feeling okay... and was so glad about being able to walk again that Laura and I decided it was a good idea to hike a mountain.... What's that you say? ... You're an idiot Cliff!!... No kidding... It was a great view and I'll post that stuff soon... But I was dehydrated and still sick... My stomach and appetite weren't the same for an entire week!!!.. I've never been sick like that in my life... and won't touch chicken wings until I'm home ... if then.... Next post will be of the beomosa buddhist temple and our first hike :).. I've got a sweet panorama to post for you too... Have a good weekend !

Laura's Blog...

2009-03-18T21:42:00.000-07:00

Some people have been asking about Laura's blog... it's basically a really lame version of my blog... here's the link....

http://globetrottin-laura.blogspot.com/

My School... and Students.. Little Ankle Biting Korean Students...

2009-03-15T23:21:00.000-07:00

Here is the elementary school that I will be teaching at for the next year. I will help co-teach English to students from Grade 3 - 6.... this school is a LOT older than it looks in this picture here... and for some reason it's always freezing inside... my co-teacher says it's very cold in the winter and very very hot in the summer... sounds great... i get my own brand new computer that they put an english operating system on for me... and my own desk... laura gets her own office with couches and stuff... i share mine with 7 other english/music/gym teachers... but i don't mind.. i just sit on the internet all afternoon whether they're here or not... yeah...

i teach in the mornings... from 9am until about noon... then for the rest of the afternoon i sit on my butt and read up on photography and hockey... that's it... oh.. and i always listen to the late game with my headphones on... which is usually a west coast team.. but whatever...at first i thought it was pretty boring... now i'm kinda liking it... i've asked the other teachers if i can help them with anything... they usually say "no.. take a rest.." hahaha... oh man...

here's a view from the window at my school.. busan is pretty cool because as much as it's a city... it's surrounded and built on mountains... so whenever you want to get away on the weekend ... you can go hiking and get a pretty sweet view of the city or mountain ranges.... laura and i went to the beomosa temple the other sunday and i got a pretty sweet shot of the skyline i'll be posting later this week.... the only problem with "getting away" in asia ... is that 10,000 other asians are also getting away.. so... you're never really alone in a tranquil place.. they're packed too...

here's a shot of the kids... they're all really cute.. and absolutely love foreigners... i sign about 10-20 autographs a day.... still.... the hilarious thing about these little whipper-snappers is that they're not afraid to say what they're thinking.. mostly because they don't know much english.. but i get told almost daily that i look like pinnochio.. or my nose is big.. or i have a small face... hahah... but that i am handsome too??? .. i am also considered to have a fat stomach... i

am 6 foot 3... and 190 lbs.. .by north american standards i'm pretty thin... over here.. i'm fat... damnit... gonna have to work on that... and i'm guessing that eating rice every meal and hiking my way to work is going to help on it's own.... i'm going to do a few more little posts either tomorrow or the next day.. 'cause i've been slacking lately... mainly b/c i blog at work and have to transfer my photos from camera to my mac.. then from my mac to my memory stick.. then from that stick to my school computer... so hold your horses... i've still got to update you guys on food poisoning in korea... it's like your stomach getting poked with chop sticks that have been heating up for an hour on a grill... and our beomosa hike... haeundae beach.. gwangalli bridge.. and our st patty's day night out ... so.. stay tuned.... until then... annyounghekaseyo !!!

asians always do the peace sign when they take a picture... and say kimchi !!! instead of cheese...

Tiny Bathroom.... The tap Doubles as a SHOWER ...

2009-03-09T23:21:00.000-07:00

Yeah... here's the few shots i took of the bathroom... if you don't know about Asian bathrooms... here's everything you didn't want to know... they do everything in a 2 x 2 room... when you shower.... the entire bathroom gets soaked... and it just drains out through the floor... mine started to smell funky last week and i realized that i had a leak in my tap... so there was always some form of still water in my bathroom.... luckily.. my land-lord is quick and speaks english.... here's where I spend all those countless hours putting on my face.... ps.. anyone thinking of moving to korea or living in korea now should invest in a mini squeegee found at any department store here.. they cost about 2 bucks and help dry the place up in a jiffy... as long as you don't have a leak of course...

My Dorm Room for a Year...

2009-03-09T21:55:00.000-07:00

I know you were expecting pictures of my apartment. But I basically got a dorm room... It's definitely the smallest place I've ever seen anywhere... while I was doing my research about South Korea... nowhere did I find a place THIS small.... not on youtube... not googled... nowhere.. it's tiny... BUT... it's clean.. and brand new.... and that's very important... i'd way rather have a small, comfy and clean place than a palace infested with cockroaches... as I've heard some expats receive.... okay.. here's the pics... also... All of the stuff you see in this picture was bought for me by my school who was very generous for taking me out... they literally said 'get anything you need'... they asked if i wanted a new computer... haha.. although i was tempted.... i did not give in.... but i did get a pretty pimped out chair!! and desk... laura picked out two nice chairs and a table for our dinners and stuff... all of the instructions on everything is obviously in Korean... so... whenever I wash my clothes ... something is bound to go wrong... (not much different from when my Dad helps was my clothes.. "Hey Dad... is our washer Korean too?".. jk) Sooo .. back to the point.. below is a picture of my wonderful co-teacher Kim-Mee-Kyung and her boyfriend Jeun-Il... They were both extremely helpful moving me in ... helping with my alien registration card...helping with any questions I had... etc... The only thing great about having a tiny apartment is that the sink is only 2 feet from your bed; however, this only comes in handy if you wake up in the middle of the night with a severe case of food poisoning.... yeah... wonderful.... more on this in a later post...............

Busan Night Life

2009-03-04T23:13:00.000-08:00

This is downtown Busan!! The subway stop is called Seomyeon or something like that. It is about 25-30 mins by subway from our neighbourhood.. which is called Seokdeuk-dong.... We are basically on the North-West part of town... Originally I was dissapointed about where we were placed but now I am pretty happy... We aren't on a main street... so it's less noisy... However, I do here water running all night and people going up and down the stairs all night long... sooo.. come to think of it ... it's a wash.. so i'm upset again... upset we didn't get placed on the east side... which is near the beach... that would've been nice... We can take a subway ride only 35 mins to the beach anytime we like though.. and we've got rooftop access so we can sunbathe or read books... or drink beers on in the Summer... so that will be fun.... There is a photo of Laura and some of her new friends drinking some Mek-chu in a foreigner bar (white people are foreigners here)... so much so that everyone stares and laughs at me everywhere I go... students are now asking for my autograph... no big deal.... Below is a picture of me and my new buddies in Busan... We took a few shots of tequila that night and although none of us really remember the end of the night... sorry to any children or grandparents reading this... haha.. but it basically made us good friends for the year to come I believe... so let the good times begin... I have written more below this post and will post pics of our apartment and stuff sooner than later now that I have internet access conisistently... and more time than I'd like....

2009-03-04T22:43:00.000-08:00

Here comes some ladies including RoRa.. (as they call her here) doing the Macarena in our Noreabong room.... Annnnnd here's a picture of the masssive pitchers of the beer they serve up in Korea... They're about 3 times the size of the pitchers served at home.... They taste awful... But it doesn't matter after the first one.... then we're feeling good enough to eat some of the random food that we decided to pick with a blindfold on... like these little burnt fish snacks... they were the first thing I didn't enjoy in Korea.... The picture on the right is the platter of food they decided to throw our way after our random picking.... The dirty fire fish is on the right... and they served it with a bowl of fruit loop like balls ... on the left!!... yumm yumm dimm summm...

2009-03-04T22:26:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure Laura has a huge crush on Tom Jones... here she is caught singing "sex bomb" at korean kareoke... known here as Noreabong !! Koreans love Kareoke.... You get your own room for about 15 people and a huge sound system and disco ball with several tvs... then they start funnelling in watered down beer and soju... let the fun begin!

2009-03-04T22:05:00.000-08:00

OMG SHOES!!! Honestly.. Look at Lauras face here... she has NEVER been happier... What about when she met me you say?.. Wrong.. she is much happier here... We also are conveniently located a 2 min walk away from an underground shopping centre... Geee I wonder if Laura had anything to do with that... P.S... NOTHING fits me here... they all just laugh at me.... great...

Korean Night-Life....

2009-03-04T21:40:00.001-08:00

Okay... so it was about a week longer than I thought it'd be... but... I didn't have internet for a few days and am finally getting comfortable enough to blog at school while I am getting paid... That's right.. I don't do much here... I only teach 22 hours a week.. which is actually 22 40 min blocks... so technically I only "work" 14-15 actual hours a week here... and during those 14-15 hours... i co-teach... which means... the other Korean english teacher makes the main lesson plan and i simply help out.. i help out by reading out loud anything in English so the students know how the words or sentences are properly pronunciated.... i only work in the mornings... so after 12 noon... i sit on my computer and listen to hockey games and facebook a bit... and blog maybe...

I've got a feeling I'm going to get pretty bored with this routine so I think I'm going to ask to help to lesson plan and get more involved if at all possible... okay... night life right... sorry...

Beer here (mak-chu or bak-chu) is horrible for the most part... it tastes like Pabst Blue Ribbon from home ... however, I have found a few that I like... so that's good enough for me. It's also pretty easy to find imports... for example i grabbed a 4-pack of tall MGD's from the Lotte Mart for 840 won... which is about 8 bucks... not bad... not bad at all... Anyways... Koreans like to drink while eating only... They will go out for dinner... and they like to do this often and will drink plenty of bottles of Soju or Makelli... these are rice alcohols and rice wines... the soju tastes like a mild vodka... not too mild though.. usually between 25-30%.. so you've got to watch yourself !!!

We've gone out several times in Cheonan and that's where a chunk of the following pictures will be from.... Laura has also found that they sell cheap shoes (shuz here) everywhere... so she is experiencing Heaven on earth ....

Oh yeah.. eating and drinking is very cheap here... you can eat a korean style bbq and a 700ml beer and a bottle of soju for about 10$ dollars.... it's ridiculously cheap... if Laura and I go out to eat near the market by our house.. it costs about 4 or 5$ for both of us... while cooking at home is relatively more expensive... and until I get sick of the food here.... i am only going to eat breakfast and snacks at home I think.... We've got a solid group of friends here now that we like to go and eat and drink with... We all got placed in the same region for the most part....

Everyone at my school is finding a reason to take me out to dinner lately.. my co-teacher brought me for Cal-Goo-Su the other night.. and she said "koreans eat this when it rains"... and literally everyone who came in the restaurant ordered the same soup... oh .. it's knife noodle soup... and it's called that because the noodles are cut haphazardly with a knife i think... there's no knife in the soup... you use chopsticks and a spoon only... which is just as tricky as it sounds....

Last night I played volleyball with the Korean men teachers... they were all very good surprisingly... I'd say I was in the top half but definitely not the best player... We went to eat "live fish" after... that meant raw fish thank God... When I walked in the restaurant there were aquariums and I was a little scared... but after about an hour of sitting criss crossed... we were served some sushi grade fish among 40 plates of other stuff... Koreans eat for about 2 hours.. and also drink for longer... I have to get up and say I'm going to the washroom just to stretch my legs.... I'm too tall for their country....

okay... now.. i'm going to post some pics from the last weeks nightlife.... one at a time so you can click on them to enlarge... i haven't found a better way.... they will probably appear above this post.... next post will be my shoe-box of an apartment.. and my gorgeous neighbour (Laura lives across the hall)....

Korean Folk Museum

2009-02-24T02:09:00.000-08:00

Annyeunghaseyo!!... Yeah we've been taking Korean lessons at night.. but i took tonight off to post this blog....

Alright... a few days late... but i took like 300 pictures so ... ya gotta give me some time t

o filter through all the garbage that i took in... and by garbage.. i mean shots of guys riding on horses standing up... or asian chicks doing flips like 40

feet in the air off of a see saw... and stuff like that... it was pretty crazy... and definitely

something interesting every turn we took... i'm gonna post like 15-20 pics and just explain what happened beside them... so this one might be a little long.... apparently this was called the

Wild Flower Garden (thanks jill.. i stole this info from your blog).. it was basically a bunch of creepy looking dudes made out of wood....

Next i passed this crazian old guy who was shuffling a pair of sharp and rusty at the same time scissors yelling something korean... i guess it was "i am old as all hell with gold teeth 'cause i ate too much of this honey candy i'm trying to sell you...

it's 2$ per bag... buy it or i'll cut you with this rusty sharp scissors"... or something like that... either way.. it was pretty tasty... i bought it .... as i didn't want to die...

And yet another artists rendition of an old guy i've come across... or something like that... i found it on the gate to some old building... looked like the candyman above....

So... then we checked out some sweet pagotas... i'm sure that isn't spelt right... but they are those old chinese colorful buildings.... here's a nice lil shot from there..

I think you can click on it to see a larger size if you want to see the detail... but it works sometimes ... and doesn't sometimes.... k.. next there was an old lady who was spinning silk out of silk caccoons?? i don't know how it works or what was going on... but she gave one of the guys in our group a ball of the stuff... which i'm pretty sure has an insect inside.. and the

jerk ate it?? really?? yeah.. really... he said it tasted "buggy"... here's a shot of the old korean woman spinning it up..

After that... me and buddy kyle dressed up in ancient korean wear and played with swords and stabbed each other for the pictures... and what i really mean about "for the pictures" is that he's dead now... not really.. k.. here's the shot taken by laura...

Moving along here... here's a shot that looks like the opening of the flickr webpage... "welcome to flickr !"... it's a shot of a korean woman who is selling pottery... they had tons of pottery and

laura could only think that her father would be in Heaven there :)... if you're reading this and want more pottery shots.. e-mail me and i'll send them to you Mr. Deyarmond... k.. here's the lady.... in the middle... lauras on the right ... obviously having fun... there'll be a pic of her having even more fun in my next blog.... omg shoes !... you'll see..

We spent the rest of the day playing on random swings... jumping rope and playing arrows with little kids... now.. you're thinking... what the heck are you doing jumping rope with little kids??and.. what is arrows?? i don't know.. there's just

something funny about doing anything with little kids who can't communicate with you... and arrows is an ancient korean game where you throw real arrows at these little metal things that form three small hopes... had to be there.. really dangerous....

Okay.. then if that wasn't enough... there were performances.. this is a few shots of a dance party team or something... they broke dance and smashed bells together with ribbons... it became kind've annoying after awhile....

And another shot

Then... there were the

se girls who did the splits and flips like 40 feet high springing off of a giant see saw... they w

ould each jump like 10 times it was pretty ridiculous... here's my best shot i spiced up a bit..

As you can see from that shot... koreans love their cameras too... so i'm right at home so to speak...

Next... there was a 60 year old man (guesstimate) who tight rope walked with an asian fan.... now.. i know what you're thinking... 60 years old? i couldn't do that NOW!!?... read ... 60 years of experience... he not only tightrope walked.. but sat down

on the rope and bounced on it jumping... he was just

nuts... here he is...

And another shot of him below... when he got tired... ....... he thought it was a good idea to sit

criss cross apple sauce on a 2 inch rope... crazy not to right?

Alright.... next there was a horse show where young korean guys did gymnastic moves on horses running in a circle at a pretty fast speed....

No wonder they always win the pommel horse event at the olympics.. asians practice on actual horses... moving at very high speeds... the pommel ain't got nothing on them...

Aaaaand if that wasn't enough... they stood up on the horses and rode off into the sunset... korea is nuts!!!

Okay.. that took me about an hour to upload all of that stuff .. probably cause i don't know how to manage the pics properly.. but either way... don't expect another post until the weekend.. it'll be about the nightlife in korea ... we've been out a few times... and there's quite a bit of unusual things... and unfortunately i'm missing a good friends b-day tonight... (you've gotta pick your nights).. but we're going out Thursday and moving to our places in Busan/Pusan on Friday afternoon... so you can look forward to seeing some nightlife stories.. and then after that.. my new shoebox of an apartment post.... bye for now...

Day 2 - Medical Exam and Book Learning!

2009-02-21T01:51:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone.. this just in... Laura wants to do her own blog... So if you want to see a really good and awesome blog that is updated with pictures and exciting stuff.. come and visit this site on a regular basis... On the other hand... if you want a lame and boring site that will give you a virus ... Go to Laura's site... Just kidding... but she is going to be doing her own thing and i'll link to her site once it's going... Soooo.. today we did a medical exam in the morning.. that involved peeing in a cup.. an eye exam and hearing test.. blood taken.. height/weight... blood pressure and of course we had to wait 2 hours to go on the x-ray bus.. i really wish i brought my camera for that one... Why they need our x-rays?? I dunno... Usually you have to have a broken bone for them to perform an x-ray in Canada... but apparently they enjoy radiation for fun here... ------------------->

Here's a little pic of the

country... we

landed in the green area.... we're doing orientation in the next blue area... and we'll be living in the red area.... starting this Friday.. just to give you an idea.

We started learning a bit about English as a second language and the first teacher we had was really interesting and hilarious actually. He gave us an example of what we could do with our English Camps (not regular classes). You can find that here on youtube @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5yFmyGm9iA

Pretty crazy stuff eh? This was an example done by another teacher a few years back. If that was done in Canada... it'd be all over the news.... Als

o.. they believe in corporate punishment and i found this little "rule" in my text... "Speak softly, but carry a big stick." hahaha... this is going to be fun !!!!

Next class we had a teacher who was boring as all hell... we talked about how great he was... pushed his products and basically bored as all to tears.... He was

very intelligent but didn't know how to teach worth a damn... or at l

east keep my attentio

n.... Here's a picture of him...

And an artist's (my new friend Dave) rendition of him... spitting.. .or splitting image? haven't figured that one out yet...

Alright... so.. we got our Korean class leader to write down the address of a bar for us and a few new friend and us are going to have a few pints tonight in the town... If we get lost... we just show them our name tags and they'll take us back to campus... Pretty hilarious really..... I took a few pics of me studying and Laura studying which bar to go to... but they're kinda boring...

Here's a pic of dinner tonight.. kim-chi is fermented cabbage that kinda tastes like it's been bathed in that hot garlic rooster sauce... it's really tasty ... it's pictured in the top right corner... if you ever want to see the details of a pic.. just click on it and it'll bring up a huge version... k.. there'll be some really cool pics soon posted b/c tomorrow we're going to a korean folk adventure or something.. and i'm bringing out my big dog camera for same sweet shots... i'll post some time before Friday I'm sure.... laterrrrrr...

Some other Photos from Day One in Korea!!!

2009-02-20T04:40:00.001-08:00

Some wise Looking Fellow

Raaraa saying Harroo...

Awesome Drummers at the Opening Ceremonies

This is a very conscious Cliff...

Fan dancer

Some wicked Korean Art found inside a random building :)

The Flight of Our Life !

2009-02-20T04:03:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone,

Soo... Laura and I decided to make a blog site for our adventures overseas... It will not be grammatically correct or anything... just a diary of some of the interesting things we see and do while we are in South Korea... We'll both sign in and out of the same blog.... and you'll probably be able to differentiate between our posts by the fact that I use a string of periods to signify pauses in sentences.... while Laura writes like a proper human should... so yeah... figure it out.

Basically... we left Detroit yesterday morning around 730am..... b/c we were so early they gave us a flight that was 2 hours ahead of ours... Then Chicago to Tokyo,Japan... (over 13 hours on that plane).. then from Tokyo to Seoul... then took a 2 hour bus ride to Dankook University where we're participating in an orientation program until getting our year long placement in Pusan! Yeah.. so we basically we were travelling for about 35 hours from Kingsville to here... straight... haven't slept much..

But we did go for a short walk around the campus today.. played pingpong... and ate some crazy Asian... crazian food.... it's delicious by the way.... We had a cool intro ceremony and have met a few really cool couples so far... All of the people here are extremely nice and we're really excited about everything right now :)... Anyways... that's it for now... like i said... we're both going to write into this same blog separately... and probably more often at first... as we're kind of bored right now... but once we get busy ... we'll see.... I'd say check back once a week and you should get an update or a half if you're interested.... k... bye..