Monday, January 29, 2007

Korea, one more time

Ok! We have reached the last of our Korea posts! I promise you - our new apartment pictures and video will be up SOON! In fact I may be brave enough to say you will see them in approximately ONE week (we are still waiting for our couch). Anyways, I assure you that you will find the wait well worth it.
We still have no Internet in our new house so I am making this post from good ol' Freebell. I start at my new job tomorrow and it is looking pretty good. I got to borrow the texts the other teacher uses and they seem pretty simple and filled with Disney (this weeks characters are Lilo and Stitch!) I am going to be spending the next 2 days watching the other teacher and then I take over officially on Thursday. I will definitely make some posts to let you know how my first few days go.
ALSO, we found hockey night in Japan! Monday nights a bar in Nagoya plays hockey. We may go check it out tonight. It will be the first real hockey game I have seen allll year! Wooo!

Ok, moving on to the rest of our Korean Adventure. During our last night there we just kind of wandered around and ended up in this strange little alcove that was having some sort of Andy Warhol tribute. The place was so cool and funky and so we wandered a bit and enjoyed the decorations. I did some shopping and then we stopped off for an awesome meal! I swear...Korean food is sooooooo cheap! Agh...I still can't get over it. I wish I had some Korean food like...right now. Anyways, here are some pictures from that crazy corner of Korea:




I particularly like this one:




Note the Neon green and pink horse in the background:





I loved these guys. I tried to get Ian to give them a hug but he wouldn't. He claimed there was a do not touch sign but I think he was just intimidated by their wily good looks.



These last few pictures are from the day we left. We had enough time to browse through the Korean History Museum and it was probably one of the most impressive museums I have ever seen. It is this massive structure that looks like a piece of art itself. I tried to get some good shots of it, but it was too big and nothing was doing it justice. Instead these will have to suffice. Ian's video may be better.


Ok! Good bye Korea Hello new home!!

Oh - one last thing. I think leaving Nova was the best thing in terms of making Japanese friends! Suddenly we have people taking us places, throwing us parties, inviting us to their houses...its craziness!! And I love it!
Anyways, good bye for now!

Lots of love
Tara

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Tara and Ian,
Well it sounds like things are really looking up for you!! Glad to hear you are making new friends!! Can't wait to see the new apartment!!! Hope all goes well with the new job!! You'll do great!!!!

Love you lots,
Aunt Lori xoxoox

Meaghan said...

those umbrellas were awesome!!!! :)

Good luck tomorrow Tara!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Cool pics. Good luck with the new job.

Anonymous said...

Hi,how are are you doing? I know you are enjoying your stay! Hi, Ian! Good luck on the new job. Hope you will enjoy it very much!! I am enjoying my stay with mom and dad. Love you, Aunt Mame xo

Anonymous said...

Hi Tara and Ian, Wish you were here. Hope you are both doing well. Sending you our love, Aunt Marg and Uncle Ed.

Anonymous said...

Hi there, hope the new job is going well. The pics are great, keep them coming. We are having a great time with our visitors, we only wish you were here also. we will see you in a couple of months though. Lots of love always, Mom

AJ & Andrew said...

Hi guys!

Those pictures are priceless. It's good to hear that you are both doing so well and seeing a lot of strange and confusing things.

Since I don't often catch you guys on MSN, and what with you being on the other side of the world and all, I thought I'd take this opportunity to also tell you that ANDREW AND I ARE GETTING MARRIED!!!!

keep the stories coming
xoxoxo

Anonymous said...

That looks like some trippy place man... hahah.

Damnit... I cannot remember what I used for my log in and such... oh well, I will do it this way.

Meaghan said...

I need your new address! get internet already! eeesh!

your friends in Japan said...

Everyone!
Thanks so much for all the comments. We have been feeling lonely and disconnected due to the lack on internet at our new place. Unfortunatly because of some confusion we won`t have it for another week, but Rob has been nice enough to let me use the net here at the school. Wooo
ok

Aunt Lori - Yes! Things are looking up! Things are going great! Last night we had SIX Japanese people at our house! WOW
It was confusing and great.
Pictures will be up soon!
Love you lots!

Meaghan - Yes, those umbrellas were awesome. Haha. I thought you would enjoy them. In fact, the whole time we were there I kept mentioning how much you would have liked that area.
Also, the new address, which I will also put in a post later on is :
Ichinomiya City, Morimoto 1-11-15,
Diasu Morimoto Apt #101,
491-0831
JAPAN!!!!

Love you!

Janet - THANKS!
I am much less worried knowing that I have an expert to turn to for advice!

Aunt Mame!
WOW! Imagine my shock when I scrolled down and saw your name on our blog!! You should post more often!! I miss you!
We are having a great time here!
When are you going to come visit us???
Its only fair - you are visiting Mom and Dad. We should be next!
Love you lots!

Aunt Marg with the silver hair!
You win the award for best screen name!
Haha, I hope you are enjoying your trip! I really wish we were there as well! Sounds like you have a great full house! Thanks so much for checking out our site! I am so happy to hear from you!
We are having a great time here but we miss everyone lots!
Give my love to Uncle Ed!!
Love you both!

AJ
CONGRATS!
That was NOT something I expected to read on here, haha!
Any idea when the big day will be??
Thanks for keeping us up to date!

Derrick
Haha, I love how your comment is mostly just complaining about your password. Nice.
And yes, it was a trippy place. An awesome and trippy place. You should check it out sometime!


Thanks for all the comments everyone!!
Love you all!
Tara

Meaghan said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Meaghan said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Meaghan said...

ok, well I was TRYING to leave a picture, but it totally didn't work. LAME.

Anyways, I got your presents from Korea today Tara, and I LOVE them :) You are the best ever, thank you so much!!

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a21/nerdi_babe/koreangifts2.jpg

Justin said...

Ian and Tara,
Sounds like you guys are having some good times. Korea looks like a magical place. I especially like the little Korean men that ian was sitting beside on the steps. Ian, you should hug them if it's part of their culture...you shouldn't offend just because your belief system is different. When in Rome...
I will hopefully be in Asia at some point soon. Just being a milkman at the moment. Glad you got started in the new job and that you guys are meeting a lot of locals now! thats wicked.
Good luck with everything and I'll talk to you soon.

~Justin

fressia_33 said...

Hey, I'm a friend of Tim's from Sheridan College, and he directed me your way~
I am going to be coming to Japan in the fall with Nova, so if you don't mind me bugging you a bit, I would love to ask you some questions!
My main question right now is, I notice you quit Nova ... did you have any issues with your quiting the contract? I am interested to know so that I have an idea if I decide to quit Nova, either to do as you have done and pursue other options, or come back to Canada if things aren't working out.

Thanks a lot! And I hope you are settling in well to your new place and job <3<

Anonymous said...

Oooo no updates in a while. Hope the move went well and that everything's fine.

your friends in Japan said...

Sorry for the ages it took to respond. We have been disconnected from the internet since late January! Rest assured, the new place is great, we are now fully connected, and there will be many new updates to come in the near future.


Justin - thanks for the tip on embracing other cultures. I'll do my best!

Arlene - don't worry, Katmandu has a funny name, and is therefore completely safe.

Rebecca! - Hello, nice to meet you. You should get our email addresses from Tim, and we'd be more than happy to tell you all about Nova. But to answer your main concern: There is really no problem at all in getting out of a Nova contract. Average employment duration is 7 months. :S

Meaghan: Thanks for the picture! It's nifty. Sorry we haven't had any pictures or videos for you recently, but more will be soon!

Aaron - I have a student moving to Vancouver. Please contact me if you'd like a Japanese friend.