Repatriate Me!

Last week from Thursday through Saturday myelf, and my wife & kids went down to Kyunju (yes I know my spelling is different than wikipedia, but there are about 4 different English spellings for each Korean placename and I use the one I like best), one of the cultural meccas of South Korea.

We drove down early Thursday morning, stopping for a great lunch after we arrived in the city and getting to our hotel about 30 minutes before check in time. After check in we went to the pool for the kids – it was blistering hot and walking around touristy places at this time would have been dreadful with young kids. On Friday we also took an afternoon break from 1:30 to 4:30 at the pool.

In the evening we started our travels around Kyungju. Over the entire trip we went to the Bulkuksa, Soekuram, Royal Tomb Complex, Choemsongdae, Kyungju National Museum, and Anapji among others. I was last in Kyungju 10 years ago when I visited most of these places but wanted to go back for myself as well as to bring my kids to one of the most important historical sites in Korea before we move back to Canada next year.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

On the way to the Bulkuksa

Inside the entrance gate to the Bulkuksa – 10 years ago these guys weren’t so beat up looking. Think it’s time for a touch up job.

The main building of the Bulkuksa

Another angle of the same building, this pic was taken with my camcorder

More photos in the individual entry – go check them out.

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Aug 17, 2010 Comments(0) Share on:

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I’m in Ottawa right now on my scouting trip in preparation for my move back to Canada next summer. When deciding where to stay in Ottawa this trip my priorities were on budget – I wanted the cheapest place I could get as long as it is clean. The size and amenities were not important. I found out that various Universities across Canada rent out dorm rooms during summer vacation so I booked a room at the University of Ottawa residence. This is my review of the residence after one night.

The room is small and clean. The size is about what I expected and honestly I don’t really care about the size since I only need it to sleep in. When I booked the room I understood that my rate was going to be $42 a night including parking (which is $12) however when I checked in I found out that I had to pay an extra $12 a night for parking. I’m not sure if I misunderstood the deal or if I’m being mischarged. In any case there’s some poor communication going on here.

I got the key to my room and went up and when I opened the door it was like walking into a sauna – it was about 10 degrees hotter than outside, which was already 31C. The tiny window opened on to a busy street with tons of street noise. I went back down to reception and asked for a different room – I got one not facing the street which was much better but the room temperature was the same. The window is incredibly tiny and barely opens at all. There is no air conditioning (that’s okay I guess for the price) but there is also no fan which means no air circulation.

I went out and about all day, did my thing and came back to the dorm around 9pm and had a shower. About 10 minutes after my shower I was a bucket of sweat again. Went down and complained, but was told that nothing could be done because the supervisor was not there – alright. I also wrote an email to the dorm people and am now waiting for a reply (expect one later today) Anyhow I somehow managed to sleep last night waking up a lot due to sweat and being extremely parched. I packed up my things and took a shower – as soon as I returned to my room I left before I started sweating again. Once outside the air temperature was quite reasonable and not sticky at all (at 6:30 am) even though my room still felt like it was around 38C.

The conditions are unreasonable and unlivable especially in light of the weather advisory currently on – The radio has several times a day talked about keeping hydrating and being inside with air conditioning. Yet the university is renting dorm rooms with effectively zero air circulation and not even a fan. Today I’m going to buy a fan, which I will use for 3 days and then throw away (what a waste of money) as well as a thermometer so I can properly document the temperature differences. Once I have this done and take some pictures I will post this review up to the internet.

Jul 11, 2010 Comments(2) Share on:

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Yesterday was a good day for me. I had a relaxing start to the day which involved packing my stuff up and getting out of the hole that was the University of Ottawa dorm rooms. I have a blog post in draft about it, but haven’t decided if I should publish it or not. Thanks to XUP, I was able to move to a much better place for the next couple of days.

Anyhow after packing I met up with Jonathon Snook (twitter – @snookca) for lunch at the Aulde Dubliner in the Byward Market. We talked for awhile and had a good lunch. Really enjoyed meeting him and hope to connect again once I’ve moved.

Shepards Pie, something I’ve never eaten before – was pretty good but a little too heavy for lunch

After lunch with Jonathon I met up with a mortgage broker who basically said the same thing that the bank told me the day before. We have nothing to worry about and will definitely be able to buy a home when we return to Canada – even without having a job, due to getting an equity based loan.

Following that I met XUP and went to dinner with her and two others before heading out to an Ottawa bloggers meeting which was really great. I met a lot of people and got to see a very vibrant blogging community. I’ve been to a couple of blogger meetings in Seoul, but nothing compared to the Ottawa meeting.

This morning I went to the School board and got some good information about putting my kids into school here and am about to head out and take a look at some neighborhoods with listings that my real estate agent recommended.

Jul 08, 2010 Comments(3) Share on:

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This morning I met one of my friends and colleagues for a coffee. Shelley lives nearby and we figured we’d go for the slightly long walk to the Hongdae area and try to find one of Chan’s Espresso Bar or Miz Moren in order to theoretically get a better cup of coffee than you do at the chain shops.

Shelley isn’t very good with directions and I have an anti-compass built into my brain so needless to say we didn’t end up finding either shop. We did find another coffeeshop that was pretty good, but unfortunately I forgot the name of it. We sat there for some time chatting before deciding to go to Itaewon for lunch – great selection of restaurants in that area plus Shelley wanted to go shopping there and I needed to buy a new suitcase for my trip to Ottawa on the 4th of July.

Lunch was good, we both had fish and chips as seen in the picture – I had an apple cider with mine which is something I haven’t had in ages. Was really good.

While we were wandering around lost looking for a coffeeshop we found the “Luxury Ho Bar” right next to the Hello Kitty Cafe. Now I’ve seen Ho bars before – they’re a very large chain here in Korea, but this is the first time I’ve seen a “luxury” Ho bar – better class of Ho? right next to the hello kitty cafe is just classic. My apologies for picture quality – done with my cell phone and not my regular camera.

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Jun 24, 2010 Comments(0) Share on:

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Yesterday my family and I went out to Seoul Forest for a picnic and day at the park. We met up with 4 other families and had a great time While there I realized, thanks to Dan, that there is something blog worthy in that event. At the major parks here in Seoul you can order pizza, chicken, or Chinese food and have it delivered to wherever you are in the park.

I’ve seen this so many times I had started to think it was normal back home in Canada, but as I remember now that would never happen. We actually ordered chicken before we left and had it already spread out when the delivery guy came to our spot and dropped off a flyer so we would know the local number to call. Anyhow really convenient and something I like about Korea that won’t happen in Canada.

Here’s a picture my wife took of the playground are of the park. I’m sitting on the stairs next to the guy with th red cap (Dan).

May 30, 2010 Comments(2) Share on:

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