Well this week was a cold one... very cold indeed..

JYP The Dancer was the ticket for Thursday night. The show was pretty good. JYP was on the top of his game unfortunately the stage hands, pyro and costumes were not. Right up first was one of the stage curtains didn't come down, some of the pyrotechnics did not go off, one of the dancers tops kept falling dawn and when the stage hands were setting up a silhouette scene the back lights turned on to show them doing it. However the rest of the concert was good. One of the Wonder Girls came on to sing and he also took one of the audience members up, tied them to a bed and did some singing and... well you can figure it out from there.

Also this week on the most freezing day I went to the New Zealand Embassy to get my original Degree noterized for 29,000 Won so that I can send it back to New Zealand to get it Apostilled which is the new law that came into effect 15th November 2010. So if you have your original Degree here in Korea and you plan to stay on another year then you had better get an Apostilled copy.

Christmas was very quiet for me and I have been having a big rest over the weekend as I have been stressed out over the last 2 or 3 weeks and next week I may have to move so... I need a good break or something to relax me after that.

Here is a JYP clip so you can know what it was all about:

Christmas Lights

Wow. Christmas is almost here!

I have all my shopping done already so no mad rush for me. Anyway it was easy I didn't have to get too many presents :) actually on second thoughts I did travel all over Seoul looking for the right gift though...

Another week has gone by (thankfully) and I have had a few things to think about over the weekend.

I don't want to say much about the job situation at the moment but I will tell all when I have something in concrete to tell you.; which will probably be next week. Yay!

So it was freezing and it snowed again this week.

Again there is war in the headlines as South Korea is all geared up to have some live firing on Monday or Tuesday even though the North is threatening full scale war.

However I did come across this handy guide:

People are still believing nothing will come of it all but if you keep poking that animal with a stick something is bound to happen sooner or later.

I went around a few cities in Seoul to see what kind of lights and things were going on in the winter night. I found that in the heart of Seoul people were ice skating in the open air, in Jamsil (Lotte World) people were ice skating under a roof... so lots of skating. I did have a look in the maze that is Lotte World and found that there is a 3 level cafe eatery with 10 pin bowling, a shooting range and game arcade down there!

So here are a couple of pictures... the rest you can see in the slide-show link... haven't had one of those in a while huh...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54304440@N04/sets/72157625629346016/show

Well Christmas on Saturday so I am not sure what I am doing at this stage. Thursday I am going to a concert so that will be something. And I'm sure there will be some more drama to be had this week also.

Oh my apartment seems to be leaking water through the floor now... I'm not sure why but I hope to be out of here before anything really exciting happens!

I also stumbled across this movie trailer earlier in the week. I will have my ticket no doubt :)

This is most likely going to be a quick post as I have spent most of my week on the job hunt.

However there were a few highlights:

1. I have now got my brown belt in Taekwondo. So red then black and I do hope that I can still complete the whole process!

2. Was taken out to Nanta the show on Thursday night. It was a unique experience and a fun show to watch. I had a rubbish bag land on my lap and people were brought up on stage to help out in the performance. There was also an opportunity to throw plastic balls at the performers. So in all a fantastic night!

This is a fantastic drawing I found at school:

I do have an interview tomorrow for a job so wish me luck!

I guess that's all for this week and I hope to have something more exciting going on next week to share with you!

Oh dear

Well as I said last week something was in the air and now I have the news. You have all heard the nightmare stories of hogwans with bad apartments, not paying their teachers, working the native teacher like a slave and then there are the ones that run out of money and leave their teacher with no job... yes mine is the latter. I was given the word on Friday that my last day is 31 December.

I have been looking and applying already and there seems to be many jobs out there and I hope that I have the advantage of being in Korea so I may be more financially appealing than bringing someone over here with the airfare and medical check up expenses.

I will keep you posted on how things progress.

Not to discourage anyone from coming of course but I stumbled across this and found it... amusing... or perhaps ironic:

Wow it snowed last Sunday night so I went outside. I know this sounds strange but I was a bit excited as it was my first time in the snow! Hopefully it will snow again this week!

I went to Myeongdong to the department stores to look for something which I didn't find there but I did take a few pictures of the cathedral:

I also ended up at the Konkuk University Subway station (line 2) to look at the Lotte Department store there but here is a quick tip for all the males. If you come out exit 5 I believe (Lotte Department store) go right walk on till you see a sign "Rodeo" walk down that road you will find the greatest concentration of men's wear that I have discovered so far. There are the suit stores and many coat stores but also Puma, Fila, Nike, Adidas and so on. You can see in the picture all the stores and the Lotte Department Store in the background.

On two occasions I have seen the following. Once I think on Tuesday and another time today while I was on the subway. These are Tuesdays pictures:

I wonder where that has come from and where it is going?....

Here's a random picture of what my subway trip to school was like.

Well I will leave you this week with something interesting if not funny...

War? and Snow and the DVD room

Well a week of very interesting developments. I can't say what some of them are just yet but I can say that they are concerning to say the least. I will keep you up to date on this with next weeks post... but I can say things are not looking so good.

I think last week I made a comment about the landscape turning from lush greens into something that resembled a war zone or battlefield:

And then I was reminded about something and I said "Oh yeah this is a war zone".

And then I found this which is probably the most modern footage of the North as opposed to those old clichéd soviet style propaganda films of the 60's and 70's.

So today I was keeping an eye on the news as South Korea and the US are continuing their Naval drills today and I saw this: (I hope the link still works):

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2010/11/28/0200000000AEN20101128005800315.HTML

Basically it says that Korea is in a state of ultra emergency as declared by North Korea.

Well I'm pretty confident that if something did happen and 1 million men came across the border with 180,000 special forces through the 20 other tunnels that the South has not found yet, that it would be impossible to get out of here as the major airports to the north would be rendered useless in under a day.

But anyway it snowed yesterday! Not as much here as other places around Seoul but it was snowing none the less.

Also Christmas is gearing up here already and I am sure there will be plenty of opportunities to get those lovely night Christmas light photos for you :) But in the mean time:

Have you ever wondered what the inside of a DVD room looked like? Well wonder no more! Its a small room about 2 meters wide by 3 - 4 meters in length with a projection screen and a large vinyl seat and a telephone I guess to talk to reception. These places can be found all over the place and I would assume... that it gives young couples a place to get away from everything for a couple of hours and 15,000 Won will get you some alone time.

So I will leave you with this - the song is Perfect War by FGFC820

Winter = Cold & Sick

So this week I got hit hard by some kind of sickness and I am at the very end of it now. The difference between getting sick in new Zealand and getting sick here is that you can feel the sickness creeping up on you in New Zealand and it usually takes a while to take hold and then a while to get rid of. In Korea its more like you turn around and wham you get hit by a bus. You really don't feel that sick i.e. you don't feel drowsy but you sure cant stand up in the classroom for very long and it takes a long time to get out of bed and try to get going in the morning. I did have a bit of a runny nose and a small cough but the worst of it was the rest of my body was just so fatigued that it was very confusing and just downright tiring. However I had a little help with some medication, food and clothing that a Korean angel sorted me out with so I survived.

So that being said I didn't get up to too much this week apart from a couple of meals and a long rest. But if you want to see a few photo's of what Korea looks like now keep scrolling down. I will be taking more photos this week as the scenery has turned from lush green to what appears to be a dead battle ground in some parts. Its an amazing transformation... well for me anyway having never been in this kind of climate for winter.

But first I went out on Tuesday for lunch (or was taken) to a traditional Korean restaurant to have many a spicy dish. Now I cant really tell you what this was like because by the afternoon and evening I was pretty down with this illness. But here is a photo of some shredded jellyfish and other dishes.

Saturday we rocked it to Pizza Hill. Now I have to mention Pizza Hill because its right next to Walker Hill Hotel and not only has amazing views but where else can you get a 50,000 won pizza? Well here it is with a 15,000 won salad :)

All right well winter is coming and some days it is very cold and other days its not too bad. One thing I have noticed however its not like a New Zealand cold. It something you would expect up a mountain. The air is dry and the cold is like being in a freezer box. If you are wearing a big warm jacket, a couple of pairs of socks and thermals you will feel cozy but every bit of exposed skin will be literally freezing like the hung meat at the butchers. So if you are just about to head over here be aware that it is cold and bring some serious winter equipment.

This is what it looks like here now:

Yes this is the sun at about 4:30 pm

And this is my favourite picture although it was only taken with my phone which I regret...

And for all who remember a few weeks back I was going to post a picture of my jacket.. well one of them... here it is:

Well being sick for 4 or 5 days has not been easy and I have had a TV show to keep me company for the long hours in bed. If you don't know the Trailer Park Boys... shame on you. This is quality Canadian television... :) Check out a clip for yourselves:

Now you too can "rock some Mitchell"