Personal Space

I have been asked to describe the people here. I can only give my own limited perception, but I have noticed several differences from Canadians. I'm not saying the differences are good or bad, just different. Since there are too many for one post, I'll just focus on one aspect for now.

In Canada, there is a little thing called "personal space" that is highly valued and respected among Canadians. Nobody dares violate another person's bubble of "me" space, at least not without profuse apologies and "excuse me"s. However, this seemingly insignificant, yet very important, unspoken rule is often taken for granted by many people.

Never again will I be one of those people.

In Korea, the phenomenon of personal space is virtually non-existent. Since theirs is a culture that does not promote individualism, they do not consider personal space to be important. Also, when you have a population of nearly 50 million people in a country not much bigger than Nova Scotia, personal space is difficult to come by.

For example, navigating the city's largest department store on a busy weekend is often a rather difficult and sometimes frustrating endeavour. Getting from point A to point B without getting hit by a cart, almost stepping on a young child, or getting shoulder-checked is nearly impossible. Having experience in hockey would be a definite advantage here.

When we go shopping, the people often seem oblivious to anybody else in the store. They have a tendency to block the entire aisle by leaving their cart positioned diagonally across the aisle. If you want by, you have to move their cart yourself. Just make sure there are no children in the cart (which there usually are), or you will get some dirty looks.

As much as they will get in your way, if you happen to be in their way, they wouldn't hesitate to nudge you aside. Or they may just wedge themselves between you and whatever it is you were trying to look at. In a checkout line, if you are not within inches of the person in front of you, you are not really in line. People will squeeze in ahead of you without a second thought.

As Jordan has said, "the people are always in a hurry to get somewhere. However, when they get there, they will just stand in the way and move for no man." When push comes to shove, it works both ways. That is just the way it is. I guess when you have this many people in so little space, you have to be a little pushy if you want to get anything done!

Now I know what a sheep feels like. In fact, when we are stuck in a crowd, Jordan often starts "baa-ing"!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday

to my wonderful husband!!

I love you!

Because of the time difference at home, Jordan told me he will be celebrating his birthday for 37 hours.

Chocolatey Goodness

Today was the first time in over four months that I tasted a Reese's peanut butter cup and a Coffee Crisp! Now that's something worth posting about.

A package from my mom just arrived today, and it was full of Reese's and Coffee Crisp, two of my favourite chocolate bars, although Jordan claims that the peanut butter cups were intended just for him.

These are chocolate bars that we haven't found anywhere in Korea. We did happen upon a bag of mini-Reese's in the Bangkok airport, but they were ridiculously expensive, and we couldn't justify it. The phenomenon of chocolate and peanut butter co-existing in bar form seems to be non-existent in Korea.

Fortunately, Jordan's and my favourite chocolate bars (Snickers and M&Ms, respectively) are readily available here, so we are in luck. But any other type of bar that either of us likes is nowhere to be found.

You can get Twix (my childhood favourite) and KitKat here, but the KitKat doesn't taste the same. They have Mr. Big, but no Oh Henry. There are also many Korean versions of some familiar chocolate bar brands. For example, "Crunky" (similar to our Crunch bar) is pretty popular here. Also, Kikkers is a variation of KitKat, and Atlas is a type of Snickers. Dream Cacao would be the equivalent of our Hershey's chocolate bar.

I'm sure there are more, but I can't think of them now. Besides, all that's really important is that now I have some Reese's peanut butter cups and Coffee Crisp!

Back to Korea

So, I realize that I have written far more about our trip to Thailand than I have about Korea even though we were only there for four days and we have been in Korea for four months. But, that's because Daejeon has become almost commonplace for us and going to Thailand was an exciting adventure away from the so-called "drudgery" of everyday life. That, and Thailand was just incredibly awesome.

So, in recognition of the lack of posts about all things Korean, I am open to requests. What would you, my faithful readers, like to read about my life in the Land of the Morning Calm?

Happy Valentine's Day

On Valentine's Day in Korea, it is more common for only the woman to give chocolates to the man, rather than the other way around, as in western cultures.

I protested to that tradition.

So, we celebrated Valentine's Day like we would at home. Jordan, as usual, was very sweet. First of all, he brought me breakfast in bed to the background music of Il Divo. He gave me a little pink, heart-shaped box full of many different chocolates! Mostly Hershey's kisses, which are very popular here. And, for my favourite, he also gave me chocolate body wash! Now the bathroom smells like chocolate and so do I! What could be better than that!


Later, at the school, Jordan came into my classroom (before classes started) bearing a red rose! I was pretty happy since I didn't expect any roses this year. Roses are few and far between in Korea. Actually, I think I have only seen roses for sale on one ocassion, so I still have no idea where he got it.

We didn't have a picnic this year. Instead, we went with the more typical "eating out" tradition in order to satisfy our desire for western food that tastes like western food. So, after work, we went to TGI Friday's. It was really good.

We had a lovely first Valentine's Day as a married couple!

Last Picture

Ok, I promise this will be my last post about Thailand. But I just had to post this one last picture of the view we had from one end of the beach. There were many island-rocks jutting out of the water, but this one caught our (Jordan's) attention.

Jordan aptly named this particular rock "Pecker's Point."

Monkey Business

Here is the requested picture of me holding the monkey. He was pretty cute and very well-behaved.

And Mom, I wanted to bring a monkey home for Dad since I know he's always wanted a monkey. But, I don't think they would have let it through customs.

Monkeys and Massages

Thailand is apparently quite famous for its massages, so Jordan and I decided that it was something we must experience. It was all outdoors under a canopy with a perfect view of the beach and ocean. It was very relaxing. Having never had a "real" massage before, I quite enjoyed my Thai massage. Afterwards, they gave us each pineapple on a stick.

At the far end of "our" beach, just beyond the massage place, we discovered a colony of monkeys. They were very friendly and quite funny to watch. They would gently grab pieces of banana right out of our hands. They were also practicing their wrestling.

I was able to get pretty close to this little family.

This monkey was having quite the conversation with Jordan.

And I thought this little guy was just plain cute. He looked like he was going to fall right off the boardwalk.

Speaking of monkeys...

On our first night in Thailand, we ventured out to explore our new territory. As soon as we exited the hotel, I spied a monkey sitting on some local guy's shoulder.

Of course, I was immediately drawn to the monkey, and started walking towards it. And, of course, the guy saw me coming a mile away. Before I knew what was happening, he practically threw the monkey on me! I was feeling a mixture of bewilderment and excitement that I was holding a real live monkey, so, being a typical tourist, I beckoned Jordan to take a quick picture.

I neglected to notice the rather large polaroid camera hanging around the guy's neck. So, as Jordan was taking a picture with our camera, the guy was doing the same with his own camera. He proceeded to put the monkey on Jordan's shoulder and take yet another picture, even though Jordan resisted.

As I'm sure you have already guessed, the guy then expected to sell us the pictures for 200 baht each. Having just arrived, we hadn't yet mastered the art of exchanging the money in our heads. We managed to pay for just one picture, arguing that we only wanted one picture. As we walked away, however, we figured out that we had payed the equivalent of about 7 bucks for that picture!

Ah, the mistakes made during the first few hours in a new country. We learned pretty quickly after that. So, the next time you go to Thailand, steer clear of guys holding monkeys. All I can say is, he saw me coming!

At that time, little did we know that just down the beach there lived a whole big family of monkeys, which could amuse us for free!

Elephant Trekking and Snorkeling

When we decided to go to Thailand, one of the things I had really wanted to do was to ride an elephant. And it was pretty cool!

The guy in charge of our elephant even let me slide down off the bench and ride on the elephant's head. As Jordan said, I felt like a princess! Our elephant was rather cantankerous though, and she kept wandering off the beaten path or stopping to scratch an itch on a nearby rubber tree.

After the trek through the jungle, we fed the elephants some pineapples.

This baby elephant did an awesome impression of Taylor Hicks, complete with harmonica!

He was also really good on the hula-hoop, much better than either of us!

While I was desperate to go elephant-trekking, Jordan really wanted to go snorkeling. So we went on a full day tour by speedboat to several different and very beautiful islands. Once I learned how to breathe (in my defence I had never used a snorkel before), it was amazing! The speedboat ride was a bit rough though, but fortunately, I was too excited to get sick. We weren't really floating on the water, more like jumping from wave to wave!

This is one of the more unique islands we saw, called Chicken Island.

A few times, we all just jumped off the boat to go snorkeling in deep water so we could see all the coral on the bottom. The water was perfectly clear, and it was beautiful seeing the coral and colorful fish. Jordan saw a Nemo fish, but I missed it. We took an underwater camera, so we had a lot of fun with that! Jordan was a bit disappointed in the final results however.

Here are some snorkelers looking for fish near a cave.

It was a beautiful day, and it was so much fun! We both got a little red on our backs from being face-down in the water all day!

Relaxing and Dining

Our hotel was lovely. It was owned by a Swiss who had fallen in love with Thailand (as well as a Thai woman I do believe!). Many of the hotels and restaurants were owned by Europeans who obviously loved Thailand so much they never left. Not that I can really blame them.

The hotel restaurant served both Thai and Swiss food, both of which were delicious, although, being in Thailand, we mostly stuck to Thai food. I did enjoy my Swiss breakfast though.

Our room had a private balcony with a lovely view of the ocean.

We were in a perfect location, right in the middle of everything. And directly across the street we could hop on a longtail boat which would take us to any one of the various surrounding islands that had more secluded beaches and up-scale resorts.

And here is the "real" owner of the hotel...

This cat was always in the hotel lobby and was usually sprawled out on this same chair every day. She was pretty friendly.

As I already said, the food was absolutely delicious. I had never had Thai food before, but now I love it! It has such a unique flavour. The place was also bursting with fresh fruit! Even on the beach, some of the locals would walk up and down selling pineapple on a stick. I was very excited to drink straight from a coconut for the first time.

I also drank from a pineapple!

The nearby convenience store had a plethora of chip flavours. The Mexican BBQ flavour was really good, and of course I had to try the salmon flavoured chips! It was a bit of a let-down. They weren't that great. Go figure.

But everything else was delicious. Jordan said his favourite part of the trip was the food! It ranks pretty high on my list too.

The Beauty of Thailand

We have returned from a most wonderful vacation in Thailand! And I'm sure you're all dying to hear about it.

It was amazing! We did not want to leave. I loved every minute of it. There were so many things we got to do and see. Some of the highlights include snorkeling, elephant trekking, monkeys, delicious food, shopping, exploring, and relaxing on the beach.

But I would have to say that my favourite part was simply admiring the beauty of the tropical paradise. The landscape was breathtaking! I have never been to such a place before. I couldn't really begin to describe it, and pictures just don't do it justice, but they will have to do.

This was "our" beach.

Bamboo Island was one of the many secluded beaches we visited.

Ao Maya Beach was one of the most beautiful places we saw! It is in a cove. The sand is white and the water is crystal clear with many colorful fish. While snorkeling, we could hear them chewing on the rocks! This place is actually the site for the movie "The Beach," but I've never seen it.

There were huge "rocks" of islands jutting out of the water everywhere. It was magnificent!

More to come...

The Book of Ruth: Part II

Welcome to the Second Edition of the Book of Ruth. My first edition, which was begun in February 2006, remains in existence, so my archives from the past year can still be read.