Shut.Down.Everything

"President Madagascar! There's a man coughing in Brazil!"
"SHUT.DOWN.EVERYTHING"

Well, the past few weeks have gone by in a blur. Aaron had caught a cold, which means that inevitably, it was passed on to me. I lasted 4 days before I succumbed. I was sick for around 2 weeks, with the last week consisting only of constant coughing. I ended up taking 3 days off from work as I had not been sleeping well due my cold and from evil mosquitoes. Neither Aaron nor I caught the H1N1 flu as we did not even have a fever, but the cold left us both feeling exhausted and weak. It was definitely not a fun time for us as neither of us had the energy to clean, make dinner, or even go outside.
Braving the outdoors the Saturday after I caught my cold, Aaron and I decided to go volunteer at the animal shelter. Aaron decided to sleep in longer, so I went at the usual time. However, it was still too early for me to get out of bed and I ended up feeling worse afterwards. It was back to bed for me for the rest of the weekend.

The H1N1 hype is increasing and when I was sick, many of my teachers asked me to go to the hospital. Apparently the hospital is the same as a clinic in Canada. However, after my experiences with doctors in Canada, more specifically, in Nova Scotia, I stayed at home to nurse my cold. I am sure it would not have made any difference anyway. As Aaron and I work at rural schools, there are less students getting the flu than if we had worked in Daegu. None of my students have had the flu and only 3 of Aaron's students from Goryeong middle school were out with the flu last week. Last week, the Korean government had been deciding whether or not to close all the schools for two weeks, but as of today, only a few schools in Seoul have been closed. I highly doubt there will be any school closures in my area. However, the problem is that teachers come in from Daegu to teach in the country, so their children go to the schools in Daegu and transferrence occurs from there.

Surprisingly, even with the H1N1 warnings and the cancellations of so many school festivals and fieldtrips, Ugok middle school went to Gyeongju for a fieldtrip last Friday. I'm glad I had the opportunity to attend and was extremely excited as Aaron and I haven't traveled much since we got here. We visited Bulguksa, a famous temple (I'll post pictures when I remember). We also went to a writing center that was opened by a famous novelist and a poet, a Buddhist statue in a cave, and a music box museum. The fall scenery was amazing in the mountains and there is a lot of old temples and shrines in Gyeongju as it was the capital of the Shilla Dynasty.

November brings about a new month and also a new school schedule for me and Aaron. He has taken over my position at Gaejin middle school while I have been moved to Dasan Middle school on Wednesdays and Thursdays. I'm a bit disappointed as I really enjoy working at Gaejin Elementary and now my time there has been dropped down to one day. Today is my first day at Dasan Middle school. I am not really sure what to think yet. It's going to be really cold in the winter because I need to take a bus to Dasan, then wait for the school bus to come pick up the students at the bus terminal.

Next week, Aaron and I will be going to Seoul to visit my friend Scarlett whom I met in Nova Scotia. We're going to all go to a friend's wedding on Saturday, then Aaron and I need to go look for some winter clothing that may fit us (more especially him). The sizes we have seen in Daegu are ridiculously small.

It is almost time for winter vacation, so Aaron and I are planning to go to Hokkaido... not sure how we will go about it yet....

Working at KAPS

Last week, Aaron and I spent our Saturday at the local animal shelter (KAPS) in Daegu. We went to the dog shelter, which is on the 3rd and 4th floor of a building. One of the veteran volunteers, Emma, met us outside at 10am and we proceeded to go upstairs to start the day. Our first task was finding a shaggy dog, or at least one that required clipping so that Emma could show us how to clip. The first dog Emma chose was a shih tzu. It had to have its rear end shaved, then got washed and then was fully clipped if needed (mainly around its ears). Aaron and I then chose a schnauzer (the label on her cage said yorkie, but it wasn't). It was quite hairy around its ears and had a bobby tail @_@ I felt somewhat bad because it was so happy to see us and then we ended up washing and shaving its tail off. Emma had to shave the rest of the tail because I somehow managed to clip it into a broom shape -.-;
We eventually ended up with a brown maltese puppy, which was surprisingly cute. She was a real scaredy cat when it came to anything but hugs. Unfortunately, she had an extreme case of mites to the point where she would cry out as she constantly scratched her ears and paws. I felt so bad for her and we had run out of something called BioKill (used to kill insects and mites), so Emma put shampoo on her ears until we came back from lunch with Sunnan, the woman from the cat shelter, who gave us some powder to help against the mites and brought a botel of Biokill. We had to wash the puppy and its cagemate (who was starting to get it too), and she kept crying as we washed her. The entire time! Not only that, but she also tried to lick the shampoo~ She was a crazy puppy :P Aaron sat with her in his lap in front of the heating fan while Emma combed the mites out of her ears. She eventually burrowed in Aaron's lap and tried to sleep while randomly jerking up to bite a leg or scratch an ear.
After we put her back, we decided to walk some of the larger dogs. There were two jindos, an afghan, and an oversexed cocker spaniel. I walked the larger of the two jindo dogs (they look a bit like shiba inus @_@) and she was really cute. Well, until we walked outside and she took a giant poop in the parking lot. Aaron was walking the afghan, but it was too skinny and managed to escape its lead, so once Emma caught it, she decided to walk it. We walked around Duryu park, but it was really crowded for a Saturday. There was some sort of event going on at the cultural center. Aaron's new dog (the smaller jindo), had runny issues, so apparently it was leaking randomly during the entire walk. A random man walked up to me and said something along the lines of "mal upda", but I had no clue what he was talking about, so like I always do, I smiled at him and walked away. However, he followed me and eventually caught up to Emma and was talking to her. She managed to figure out that he said the dog was bleeding or something (the female dogs were in heat). He continued to follow us until we found Sunnan. She said that he wanted to take the dog home with him. When she told him she was afraid he would eat the dog, he promised he would eat other dogs, but not this one @__@
Coming back from the walk, our job was to wash my jindo while Emma and the other volunteer shaved down a yorkshire terrier that looked like it had gone through a washing machine. Our job was quite difficult as the jindo did not seem to like water. It was getting quite chilly (it was around 5:30 by then), so we decided to end early and just pick out all the thorns from its coat. By the time we had finished, it had random blotches of white where the shampoo had worked, but other parts of it were still grey. Maybe next time we'll get to it fully....

Changing of the seasons

It's finally October. Apparently blogspot has been disabled on all of the school computers (it really did not help that I somehow ended up opening 20 tabs of my blog at one of my schools -.-;), which is why I have not been writing. So much has happened as of late! The seasons are changing and I notice the leaves of the persimmon tree are starting to fall off. The forests are starting to shed their leaves, distributing yellow, red, and brown leaves everywhere. The rice fields are starting to turn yellow and I think the harvest time will be near. Maybe by next week, the fields will be barren!

We found a Costco in Daegu. It's a bit far from the subway station, so we took a taxi last time, but there is so much Western food there. It's almost like the Costco back home. A little bit of a reminder of home.

We have also started volunteering at the local animal shelter. It is separated into the cat and dog compound. The cats live in an abandoned house and a backyard, but the dogs live on the 3rd and 4th floor of a building in cages. Aaron and I have decided that we will walk, wash, and possibly groom the dogs as they require the most attention. Apparently a lot of owners just let their dogs go into the street when it becomes too expensive to take care of them. One of the dogs now at the shelter was found in a forest. It was left to die with a wire wrapped around its neck! Understandably, it is afraid of us and we only saw it peeking around the corner before it ran away to hide again.

The food here is amazing. We have been going to grill restaurants and ordering randomly off of the menu as we had no clue what most of the words meant. However, I wrote down some of the menu items and had them translated. There was a somewhat embarassing moment when the owner grabbed the menu from me because he saw me copying it. He probably thought I was trying to steal some trade secret or something? Anyways, there are two types of grill restaurants where we have been to. The first one has a metal slate that is heated where the meat is cooked on, and the other one is a round metal plate with holes and is heated by coals underneath. Both places have about the same menu. At one point, we ordered something that we had no idea what it was. It looked like the backbone of something small and I thought it tasted like eel. However, when I asked one of my teachers about the translation, they said it was called hagfish.... Look that up @_@ Oddly enough, Aaron does enjoy it, but I find it tastes somewhat weird.

Chuseok weekend, which was a 4 day weekend, was really relaxing for Aaron and I. We spent most of the time at home. It was too difficult to travel around as everyone was doing the same thing, trying to get back to their home towns. For Chuseok, people go home to their families and home towns (or wives go to their husband's families) to spend time together and visit their ancestors' graves. The women prepare a lot of food to eat and to take to the graves to be blessed. I was invited by my co-teacher, Mrs. Kim from Gaejin Elementary school, to join her family in the preparation of food. I got to meet her family and helped prepare a lot of tasty food :P Afterwards, her mother-in-law packed containers and containers of food for me to take home so that Aaron could try. There is still a lot sitting in the fridge because we cannot finish it all.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Koreans really take recycling to a whole new level. In order to throw away garbage, we need to buy specific garbage bags from grocery stores in a pack of 10 for around $3. However, almost everything can be recycled: plastics, paper, cardboard... pretty much anything that has a recycling logo on it. All that needs to be done is to place them in a netted bag! Food waste can be recycled by placing it in a red bucket with a strainer inside and a lid. We need to also buy a tag from the grocery store in order to let food waste collection know that it needs to be emptied. Collection comes quite frequently (at least twice a week), so nothing ever really piles up.

It is quite cheap to buy food at the open market, but also cheap to eat out. The other day we went to a 막창 (place that serves intestines) by accident. We ended up getting cow intestines stew (sort of like a hot pot). It was chewy and really weird, but everything else was quite tasty ^_^ The hotpot plus rice per person was ~$8+$1. Then we ordered a pop and potato pasta (sort of like gnocchi... I don't know what the exact translation is) and it cost another $1 each. In total, we spent ~$20 eating out, tax and tip included. Dinner always comes with side dishes, so we always have to make sure we do not order more than we can eat.

Yesterday night, we went to downtown Daegu to listen to one of the English teacher's(Bryan's) band. We ate out at an Italian restaurant and each had a type of spaghetti and a German potato salad (which was a vinagrette salad with a potato sliced in half that had sauce on it). Dessert was included, but the dessert here is not what someone would expect. Dessert here is normally a drink (coffee, tea) or some sort of Korean food that is not a sweet. The dinner was extremely filling. I could have done without the salad as the spaghetti was more than enough.
Bryan's band was a hip-hop-like band and it was better than I expected. We ended up leaving early though as a lot of people were smoking and I was starting to feel unwell. I tried a non-alcoholic drink called Cinderella, which was made up of grenadine and pineapple juice. Last night was the first night we took a taxi and it went quite well. The taxi had a DVD player that played some Korean talk show during the drive. The taxi driver understood Aaron and we made it home safe ^-^
Should get internet next week sometime, so hopefully I can post some pictures.

Where do you live?

Curious about where we live? You can find Aaron's and my apartment on Google Maps by typing in : 대구서부버스정류장 West Daegu Bus Station‎ . If you zoom in all the way, to the bottom left, there is a spot that says 푸른마을빌라 and that is our building... You can also just try to copy and paste the building name.
The schools I teach at are Gaejin 개진 and Ugok 우곡, so you can see the general area if you put those into Google Maps. The schools Aaron teach at are Goryeong 고령 and Sungsan 성산.

The Beginning

Things have finally settled down and Aaron and I have started teaching this week. My entire weekend was spent going to PC bangs (PC rooms) to finish my four lesson plans for Monday and Tuesday. Aaron did not have to plan (or at least he was not told to plan) any lessons, so he partially helped me and surfed the web. The PC bangs are used to play games at such as Counterstrike, Maple Story, etc., so there was no Microsoft Word. I ended up using Prezi for my Canadian culture class, which is quite difficult to use compared to Powerpoint and not as versatile. All my rushing and planning was to naught as I ended made my presentations too long and have yet to actually finish any presentation. In fact, I had to split my lessons into two separate lessons as it was a bit too much for my class.
Today, in my grade 1 class, two of the four students were sick, so we canceled the lesson and ended up watching an episode of Fringe that had Korean subtitles. I'm not complaining ^-^
Tonight, there is a teachers meeting dinner at a restaurant somewhere (I am not sure where as I do not get told everything).

I brought maple cookies to school today and it seemed to be a big hit. Everyone liked the cookies and a teacher asked me if I knew whether or not I could buy it here in Korea (I have no clue!). I think I will ask my mother to send us more cookies since we did not bring enough (we had no clue we would be teaching at so many schools). For lunch, everyone is always telling me to eat more (I really can't@_@). They think I don't take enough food even though I do already eat a lot. Today, one of the teachers even brought more food over to me and put it on my tray. As for eating lunch, everyone pays around 1,000 to 2300Won to eat cafeteria food in schools. In Ugok, everyone sits at the same table, but is separate by gender in half. At Gaejin middle school, I sit with the female middle school teachers while at the elementary school, I sit with my co-teacher and her student. Aaron apparently sits with the female teachers in one school while sitting with his co-teacher and students in another.

Yesterday, we ended up going to a restaurant called Tudari and Aaron ordered for us by pointing out pictures (we love it when they have pictures on menus). We ate a bunch of meat and veggies on skewers although we were not really sure what most of the meat was-.-;

I finally took the bus with Aaron yesterday and today. It was really crowded and instead of everyone lining up, seniors rush to the doors and the rest of us gather behind them. I had my bag held by someone who was sitting. It is common in Korea for someone who is sitting to ask a person standing if they want their bags held.

Day at the market

The past few nights for dinner, we have had nothing but meat to eat for dinner (mainly pork). Having had more meat the past few days than I have had the past year (Being vegetarian is very difficult in Korea, especially when we do not know what the menu items are and when we do not want to offend our hosts), Aaron and I have been yearning for fresh vegetables. As Aaron was predisposed yesterday with two dinners, I was left alone at home. I decided to try my hand at laundry. My experience consisted of me pressing a big button to turn on the machine, then putting the laundry detergent into the washing machine along with the clothes, then pressing an even larger button to start. The machine showed the time to finish, so I ended up falling asleep while I was waiting. After I woke up, I did the best I could to hand them on a hanging drying rack that was too small. We'll need to go buy a new drying rack with more space.

After hanging everything to dry, I decided to attempt the market. There is a large market one block from our apartment that spans a couple blocks or so. They sell clothing, seafood, pharmacy products, fruit, vegetables, and a whole lot of other stuff. There are even street vendors that sell cooked food. Ugok, where my main middle school is situated, is known for their watermelons, so I was wandering around the streets looking for watermelon. The season is almost over, so it was very diffiult to find. I did eventually find a watermelon, which cost 5000won (~$5) and also bought some grapes for 3000won (~$3). The watermelon here is a lot sweeter and heavier than a watermelon of the same size I would buy in Canada. It was very difficult trying to bring the watermelon home because I had to walk for 5 min or so carrying the really heavy watermelon on a string (not really sure how I should describe it, but it's ingenius :P).

Gaejin Elementary school is quite a lot of fun. I really like the kids and they are really cute ^_^ The classes are really small though. It is somewhat difficult to communicate with some of them as they are at all different levels of English and some do not know what I am saying hen I ask them questions. However, they help each other, so that does help things. I am in charge of greetings and storytime at the elementary school, which is quite a lot of fun even though the students are still quite shy of me. My co-teacher, Ms. Kim, is really nice and quite fluent in English so we can have long conversations.

Different country, different culture

Well, I have been going to my schools for orientation. Everyone is quite nice and they all say I look young and seem to be comfortable around me (I am guessing because I look Asian?). Right now, it is Wednesday, so I am at Gaejin Middle School. I watched my co-teacher, Ms. Um, teach the grade 1 middle school class. It consists of 3 boys (there are only around 16 students in the school). The basic instruction is a lecture focusing on teacher to student communication. I will be teaching 3 classes (one per level) about Canadian culture.

As for my apartment, we have 'officially' moved in. We have a fridge, gas range, TV, table and chairs. Notice anything missing? We're missing a bed and have been sleeping on the floor the past two nights. The hot water needs to be turned on and off everytime you want to take a shower. We have no internet at the moment. I think we need to get our alien registration card in order to apply for internet service. I found out from my co-teacher the other day that the area where we live is famous for its grilled pig intestines. For an entire block, there are restaurants for grilled pig intestines (and other food, but that is the main focus).
Today, I will be going to the immigration office with my co-teacher from Ugok Middle School to get an alien registration card and a multiple entry visa. For the alien registration card, we need 2 passport sized photos, our passport, contract, ARC application, and fees. I'm really lucky because my co-teacher from Ugok, Mr. Phie, helps me with everything and tells me everything I need to know to live in Korea. There's still so much I need to learn.

This morning I took the subway for the first time. Thanks to Mr. Phie and Aaron's co-teacher, Mr. Lee, having given us a demonstration last week, I was able to buy my token and get to the proper station without getting lost. I was unaware that token machines only took 1000won bills and coins, but fortunately had 2 1000won bills in my wallet (my only 2!) and managed to pay the 1100won fare.

Last night, we went to a newly opened restaurant near our apartment. The waitresses could not speak any English, but we managed through hand gestures and props. We ended up ordering mandu (dumplings) and a meal for 2 people, which consisted of a ton of side dishes, chap chae (fried potato noodles), and gooksu (noodles in broth). We definitely ordered too much, but the waitress explained to us that we could take the mandu home if we did not finish them. They were really helpful and Aaron and I plan to go again, but this time order less! The meal here was really cheap and came out to only 20,000won, which is around $20.

Motel Life

The first few days of 'freedom' for us. We finally left Jeonju University!! We had lunch at a sit-down (just a low table, no chairs) restaurant for bibimbap, then were escorted to a parking lot where we met our co-teachers. I met my co-teacher whose name is Phie, Jae-soon, and my principal of Ugok Middle School. I will be teaching between 4 schools for the next 4 months: Ugok Middle School, Daejin Middle School, Daejin Elementary School, and DaSan Middle School. It's going to be a lot of work, but apparently I get an extra 150,000W stipend for my troubles. Both mine and Aaron's co-teachers are really nice, so this is a nice start ^-^ Aaron and I originally wanted to live in Goryeong, but because the way my school schedules are laid out, I would need to take a bus out of Goryeong to go to Daegu (a major city), then take a different bus back towards Goryeong to go to my school.

When we arrived in Daegu, it was too late to look for an apartment, so we had to find a motel to stay in for the night. The first motel we went to, we were rejected on the spot because it was full (also noted were the pics of naked women in front of the doorway). Thus, our first experience with a love motel. The second motel we were rejected due to the nature of our stay (we wanted to stay a night, but the proprietor stated we were only allowed an hour). The third motel we were rejected due to the size of our luggage. Finally, at our last motel, we were accepted and placed oddly on the 5th floor even though most of the hotel was empty @_@ It's a somewhat creepy room and quite different from Canadian motels/hotels. At least ours was. I am sure that a higher class motel or hotel would be much more similar to North American hotels. The sheets and towels are clean, but they did not clean off the tables nor give new soap. Our shampoo, toothbrushes, razors, and toothpaste came in a package. The body soap is shared in a bottle and the used hand soap just stays in a dish between patrons. Our aircon was somewhat sufficient, but the room was still stuffy enough that we used the fan the entire night. I found it entertaining that I could operate the TV and turn off all the lights with just a push of a button on the remote on our nightstand. ^-^ Easily entertained J!

It was somewhat difficult to sleep as I woke up frequently in unfamiliar surroundings. The next day was when we were to meet my co-teacher to look for apartments. We went down to find breakfast (two rice balls and a bottle of tea from 7-11). It was interesting to see everything from outside our motel room. There was someone selling squid in a tank outside our motel, a lot of vendors selling food and toys from the side of the road (or on the road), and there is a huge park and amusement park. The most interesting thing I have seen so far is the fact that there appears to be no left turns. Instead, there is a lane for U-turns, which I have found work quite effectively.

We ended up only going to look at three apartments in two buildings. The first one was a small one room apartment (with a narrow bathroom and narrow kitchen), which we dismissed immediately. The second one, which was right down the hall, was a roomy two bedroom apartment with a huge kitchen and larger bathroom. We liked it, but it was a bit too large for us. The last apartment, which we ended up choosing, was around two blocks away. It is on the third floor and has one large bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a place to hang our wet clothing. The bathrooms I have seen so far are quite efficient and there is no separate shower. Instead, there is a hose with a shower head attached to it. You stand pretty much anywhere in the bathroom and take shower. No bathtub either T_T
Well, hopefully we can get the apartment. The landlord is working today and does not want to sign the contract until Monday.... Two more days to go.... Two more nights in the motel @_@

Medical Exam

The medical exam is what I was most apprehensive about upon arriving in Korea. As H1N1 has been labeled a pandemic (It really isn't), extra precautions are being taken (such as temperature being taken upon departure from the plane and arrival at the university, and a need to take your temperature everyday during orientation). If we failed the medical exam, we would be forced to return to our home countries, bearing the brunt of all costs!
For my class, which was #8 (and the last class to be tested), we were allowed to eat breakfast, but not lunch as we could not consume and liquids or food for 6 hours before the exam. We arrived at the student union building and were handed a questionaire to fill our before heading over to have our height and weight taken. It was taken at the same time by standing on a weight while a bar came down and bopped you on the head. Next was the eye exam, which I believe I failed horribly as I could not read the bottom row for my right eye and the last two rows for my left eye even while wearing glasses. Colourblindness testing went by without a hitch, but I was not told what to do for the hearing test (I had to put on headphones and point out from which ear I could hear the tone), so I sat there while the attendant continued to beep the tone in my right ear until she had to explain. Blood pressure was taken, then the all so dreaded blood test. I was fine when I got out, so after talking to Aaron, I proceeded to the bathroom with my urine cup, not realizing that Aaron was behind me, almost fainting. The bathrooms had only squat toilets, which was a surprise as the dorm rooms has Western style toilets, so I had to remember how to use them after not having seen them for 9 years! Having finished, the last exam was the x-ray. I couldn't find Aaron, but after coming out from the x-ray room, he was seated, waiting for his exam. It was then that he explained that he had almost fainted (probably from having the blood drawn too quickly). Finally, it was the end of our medical exam and we were allowed to leave.
Things went by without a hitch, aside from Aaron's spell, but we have yet to hear back about our results. Hopefully things go well!

Jeonju University

Wow... It's been almost 3 months since I last wrote. Things were really hectic in Vancouver, what with moving out of my apartment, back to my parents' home, then getting ready to move to Korea. We managed to find a direct flight to Incheon, but we paid $1043 ($957 + tax) for each ticket on Air Canada Tango Plus. What made me mad was the fact that a week later, they offered not only cheaper tickets for Tango, but the Tango Plus tickets had dropped around $150! We should have just waited.
However, the time came when we had to leave for Korea. Two days prior, Aaron and I were still scrambling around to find everything we would need to bring and didn't pack until the last day pretty much. The flight was extremely long and uneventful, which is definitely a good thing. I never sleep well in planes, so I spent the 11 hours watching Sunshine Cleaning, Monsoon Wedding, and a Korean movie called Too Much Blue. I rarely slept, but napped fitfully on Aaron a little bit at a time. Once landed, our temperatures were each taken and we proceeded to the commuter train, which would take us to customs. Customs took the longest as we had foreign passports. I think Aaron and I were the last people at Customs as we were in the middle of the lineup, and people behind us were moved to other faster lineups. We finally moved through, retrieved our luggage and after a 4 hour bus ride, arrived at Jeonju University where we would spend the next 9 days in orientation.
The orientation consists of lectures from 9:00-5:30p (with lunch in between). The lectures are supposed to help supplement your knowledge of teaching English in Korea. I have never actually taken a TOEIC course of any kind, but the lectures albeit a bit boring sometimes, do help to give me ideas for lesson plans. We had a welcoming presentation where we watched a Pansori, a fan dance, and a Korean drum dance. We were then given a lecture by Kevin Price regarding Korean culture such as chemyun and noonchi. The lecture was enjoyable, but I found that I already knew about such customs as they are similar to the way I was brought up. That is one thing I have realized about Korea. How similiar it is to Chinese and Japanese culture, but at the same time is different in its own way.

This is Jae to Jae, do you hear me out there

It has been over two weeks (two weeks last Thursday) since we handed in our criminal record check request form to the Vancouver police. The clerk told us it would take approximately two weeks. Now we are anxiously waiting for our forms to arrive in the mail as positions are filling up fast in Korea. On the forum for applicants, Eric, our coordinator, had posted that almost all metropolitan positions had been filled, and that it was expected to be completely filled by the end of this week.

I never realized how difficult it was to obtain a criminal record check. Vancouver is a separate detachment from the RCMP, which made our application process even more difficult. Vancouver has slightly different requirements from the RCMP and a criminal record check letter of request on company letterhead from the company requiring the check is needed in addition to two pieces of identification and the consent form. All the information needed can be found here. I believe that the RCMP has a slightly different process although I am not sure, since I was residing in Vancouver, I had to apply through the Vancouver Police Department.

Sasquatch Music festival

A couple of weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to attend the Sasquatch Music Festival. This once a year music festival came up in conversation while I was working at spud!. As my coworker coincidentally had the same music interests, we would spend time discussing upcoming concerts and indie bands before the arrival of the head of the department. One day, she mentioned that the Sasquatch music festival was coming up. I had missed it the year before since Aaron and I were driving home from Ontario, but after looking up the lineup, there was no way I was missing it this year. The Decemberists is what reeled me in completely ^-^

A few months passed, and then another few and finally the week of the festival came into view. We left on Thursday morning with the intention of meeting up with Margo in Seattle, whom I had not seen for over 5 years, then arriving at the Gorge on Friday afternoon. The trip over the border did not go smoothly. We were asked to step out of the car to go into an office where a bunch of Asians were and then a family of Mexicans later entered. We were then questioned repeatedly about the purpose, location, and reason for the trip and also our occupations. After awhile, we were let go and resumed our trip.

We arrived at the campground Friday afternoon quite unprepared for the sun beating down upon us as we set up the tent. It was a large field fenced off from the rest of the campgrounds with porta-potties spread throughout the field and three portables that had 2 showers and 4 flushable toilets per gender. This was the highlight of premier camping and the main reason why we paid an extra $70USD. Friday was spent hiding behind the car, away from the sun.

::SATURDAY::

Saturday was the beginning of a new adventure! We were originally not planning on arriving at the festival until around 4pm as that was when the first set we wanted to see started. However, the sun and its heat woke us around 7am, so we started the day earlier than planned. The Sasquatch Festival consists of 3 stages, the main stage: Sasquatch, medium-sized stage: Wookie, and the smallest stage: Yeti. There is also a comedy/dance tent located near the entrance.

We went in around 11am and found a shaded place to sit on the hill where the main stage was located. Our first taste of the music at Sasquatch consisted of garbled rap punctuated with random shouts of the name of their band, Champagne Champagne being emitted from the Yeti Stage. Vince Mira started soon after on the main stage, adding his melodic Johnny Cash-like music in with the rapping. Eventually, Owl City joined in with his bubbly, cheerful electronic pop music. Truthfully, I had wanted to see Owl City, but was unwilling to relinquish my position under the shaded tree, so it was nice I was able to listen to Owl City albeit from afar. Listening to Owl City was like floating on fluffy pink cotton candy clouds and dancing with unicorns and baby ducks peeping in the background. I dare you to listen.

Eventually the sun moved, as did the shade, so we lost our spot and had to leave before we burned. I truthfully do not remember much of the next few hours, since I was exhausted from the lack of shade. I vaguely remember thinking that Blind Pilot was okay. I'll have time to check them out later as they are opening for the Decemberists in July. Also, while wandering about we saw Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele at the Yeti Stage and came to the conclusion that yes, his ukulele was quite magnificent. We found shade near the Sasquatch Stage and listened to M.Ward. I will need to check up on him later on as his music was quite good… After awhile, we headed over to the comedy show to see Todd Barry, the bongo drummer from Flight of the Conchords. He gave quite a good show, but a lot of the show was him making fun of a lot of the audience members. I had to leave early as I wanted to see Arthur & Yu at the Yeti Stage and managed to escape Barry’s cynical eye as I left. I arrived in time to see Arthur & Yu start, but the instruments drowned out Wescott’s (Yu) voice during the performance. I was slightly disappointed as it was her voice in their song “There are Too Many Birds” that first drew me to their band. I left a little early to make it to Sun Kil Moon as their concerts overlapped. Sun Kil Moon is not the type of band that is meant for a music festival such as Sasquatch. The music is a bit more morose and softer than the rest of the bands that are found at the festival. The Decemberists were wonderful as always. Of course I may be biased, as they are one of my favourite bands. Not only that, but I was watching them play from the very top of the hill. They were still fun to watch from afar as they did try to fit the role they were singing.

I missed the rest of the Decemberists concerts and Yeah Yeah Yeahs (whom I had wanted to really see because I have heard that Karen O dresses up in really crazy costumes) as I was too exhausted from a full day of sun and was in need of a shower. I still managed to catch random strains of Yeah Yeah Yeahs from my tent. It was actually nicer to sit in the quiet campground and listen to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs from afar.

::SUNDAY::

Second day, same as the first, a little bit louder, a little bit worse! The second day was super crowded, so much more than on Saturday. In fact, we had to fight to find spots under the shade. We arrived early again as the sun once again woke up. Mike Watt and The Missingmen opened on the main stage. Mike Watt is quite older than what one would expect in the punk genre, but definitely made up for it in his enthusiasm for playing. He is just a guy who enjoys what he is playing and for that I admired him. Street Sweeper Social Club came up on stage afterwards. I had listened to them before going to Sasquatch, but did not really like their music as it is a rap rock group. They did have a very captivating stage presence though and I enjoyed listening to them during the set. I would recommend seeing them live.

I cannot remember doing anything else until we went to see the Red Wine Boys. Todd Barry and Jon Benjamin made up this duo. The tent was packed and they came on stage drinking red wine. Their set consisted of making fun of the audience and then answering questions the audience would ask. They were buzzed by the second half of the set and Aziz Ansari (the racist grocer from Flight of the Conchords) came on to wineboard Benjamin. As a finale, they showed a slideshow of what they said were dicks from Maine. I did not really see much as the guy in front of me was on his knees and straining to see, thus blocking my view. Afterwards, they started spraying the audience with watered down red wine. We left to go to the record shop so that I could get M83’s autographs. While in line, I had the pleasure of listening to the middle of the Avett Brother’s set with my favourite of their songs, “Die Die Die”. We went back to the comedy tent in the hopes of finding a seat to watch Aziz Ansari and to ensure a spot for Zach Galifianakis. Unfortunately, it was jammed so full at the tent that people were standing partially in the sun in order to watch. We ended up going over to a beer tent to watch the end of The Wrens until we could go back to jam our way in. Zach Galiafiankis, according to Aaron, is a set meant for a bar sitting, not for a festival as he is apparently not used to hecklers. He was pretty funny and followed his normal routine of showing off his characters, playing the piano, and the grand finale of his music video with him ripping paper off of a board although he ended 30min early. Aaron says it is probably because he was pissed at all the people heckling him…

M83 was the most amazing concert I attended. They played on the Wookie stage and I stood at the front, with a sore back and sore legs from having stood all day with a backpack on. Their experience was almost spiritual as you watched them play, the sun setting behind us, shining down on the big video screen behind them. Morgan Kibby was amazing as the keyboardist and Loic Maurin as the drummer. I was one of many who were dancing along to the beat. The most reserved person must have been Anthony Gonzales as he fiddled with the buttons of all the electronic boxes on stage.

We did watch part of the NIN concert, which is their last tour before their go on hiatus. I truthfully did not find them all that amazing, but that may have had to do with me being once again at the very top of the hill with only a view of the video screen that was constantly blocked by some girls who decided they would dance up on the hill instead of down with the crowd. We did not bother staying for the rest of the concert as I couldn’t see anything anyways, so we headed over to Of Montreal, which I have heard good things from. We arrived in time to watch aliens infiltrate the stage and the guitarist anally probe an alien with his guitar. My attention was taken away by a guy next to us tossing a random girl’s cellphone into the crowd, then grabbing a passing girl and kissing her. Eventually, he went away, but I later learned it was to strip, as he came running by naked, right back into the crowd. By then I was dead tired and Aaron and I left to return to our campsite… and that….. was the end of my time at the Sasquatch Music Festival of 2009.

I came away from it with M83's autographs, a bad back, sunburns, and empty pockets. However, it was a fun experience and I'm willing to try it again!

When the sun drops, so does the puck

Now that the end of the Playoffs for the Canucks has occurred prematurely, it has opened up a whole new path into the future. Namely, the time slot previously allocated to watching the Canucks advance is now empty and devoid of occupation, so what more should be done with this new influx of free time than to find a new job!

I had previously handed in my resignation at work effective May 8. With such dissension in my department, I had no plans to remain especially after two of my favourite coworkers had left before me. With the original intention being to wait for Aaron to finish his LSAT exam and see where he would be going to law school, our plans veered towards a whole different direction. We decided to go teach English in Korea. It is not that Aaron or I had never thought of teaching in Korea previously, it is just that the thought stayed exactly what it was: a thought. The idea first re-crossed my mind as I was deciding to leave my workplace. I wanted a break from accounting and my coworker had previously mentioned her time teaching English in Korea, so what better idea than to apply to teach in Korea for a year?