This is why my kids are so cute

Home, sweet home

We miss Lethbridge. One of Cate's favorite things to do is sit on this bench and look at the bridge, waiting for trains to go by. She never gets to do it though, because we don't live there (obviously). And it wouldn't be fun right now anyway because, if you can't tell from the photo, it was bloody cold.

This is my photo of the day for Jan. 14. I was in Lethbridge for work for the day, and the grey sky over the coulees on my way out of town was too nostalgic for me not to stop and snap a shot.

The girls

Oh ... it's you

Hi there. It’s been a while. Allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is David. I’m a bit older now – less hair, but more experience. I no longer drift around Asian cities. I live in the soulless cesspool that is Calgary. I still have a beautiful wife, but I now have two gorgeous daughters: Cate Rowan and Maggie Jane.

I’ve decided to continue this blog for no reason other than my life seems more interesting when I look at it as a series of stories … or posts if you will. There isn’t much to say, and I doubt there will be any time soon, but I’ll spin a yarn every now and then. Mostly I’ll be posting photos, including selections from my just-started 365 Project; one photo every day in 2009. The entire thing will be on Flickr. Carmen and I have also committed to snapping a shot of each of our girls for the next 365.

There's actually eight happy feet now. And they're not really happy. They're fairly stationary for the time being. But that's okay - for the sake of simplicity, I'll keep the name the same.

Enjoy.

May

Alright dudes. Let's get reacquainted. I live in Calgary. I have a twentysixmonthold daughter and a wife who's about five months pregnant.

Besides all that, things are the same. We live really close to Chinatown, so we can go there when we get homesick. Although Koreatown would probably make more sense, it's still Asian. Most people don't know the difference anyway. Okay, I'm not really ethnocentric, it's just nice to live close to Asian grocery stores again. I really miss Korea.

Ameijing (*wink*)

You'd think that on a travelblog, a trip to Beijing, China would be worth a few posts, wouldn't you? Apparently not. Not yet, anyway. We've been busy lately with a job search, trips to Key West and Saskatoon and a real, live social life outside of Facebook.

There's a lot to talk about, but I'll start with what is by far the most amazing place I've ever been to, Beijing. We took a bus from Daegu to the Busan International Airport, and then a two hour flight to The Capital City of China. We'd gotten used to the confusion and disarray of Korea, so the chaos that awaited us at the Beijing Int'l Airport was almost overwhelming. I was on the verge of a panic attack when I realized I couldn't communicate with anyone other than the clerks at the Information booths who wanted to rip us off on our taxi fare and hotel accommodation. Culture shock wasn't something I expected on our way home from Korea. But we'd done enough research to know which taxis were legitimate, so that was okay. But, explaining to our driver where our hotel was was another matter. Luckily, by some miracle, the Chinese guy getting into the taxi next to ours spoke perfect English and translated to our driver. Then it was the best hour-long traffic jam I've ever experienced as we drove through the city.

Our hotel was a tenminutewalk from Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City and five minutes from Wangfujing. We only had three days, so it was impossible to do and see everything we wanted to, but it was an extraordinary experience. It's hard to describe the character of the city. It's massive and modern, but crowded with groups of old men in fedoras and people riding 50yearold bicycles.

This, I think, is my favorite photo of the city. It best captures our experience of Beijing:

It's almost a shame to have to make such a quick schedule out of seeing some of the most significant and historic places in the world, but we made the most of it. In the morning of our first full day we walked to the Forbidden City. It was already overcrowded at 9:00 in the morning. I hadn't realized until we got there that the Square and the front wall of the City are separated by an eight-lane-wide road and are joined by tunnels. Tiananmen Square is actually totally isolated so it can be closed at night. Also, it's enormous. Like, really, really huge. Here's a view of the City from the Square:

That's the National Flag of China in the middle, which stands at the front of Tiananmen Square and is raised every morning in ceremony at sunrise. The Square is heavily patrolled by military and police. In fact, you can't go a block in the entire city without seeing at least a few uniforms.

That's the Monument to the People's Heroes above. The intersection to the right of that is, I think, the sight of the Unknown Rebel.

Our hotel was surrounded by hutongs, which are alleys lined with small shacks. They are the traditional style of homes in Beijing and are quickly being wiped out to make way for modern apartments. At the risk of sounding ignorant, I can't believe people live in these:

Since we didn't have a long time to spend in the city, getting to the Great Wall was going to be difficult. But we found a great tour guide who picked us up at our hotel and took us to the Mutianyu section of the wall, which is far less visited and much older than the popular Badaling area. The drive to the wall was a surreal experience in itself, taking us through a few small villages and the beautiful countryside of China. Along the way our guide told us the story of the Wall and how it was built. Every man, from the age of 16, was required to help build, and thousands died in the process. Their bodies are buried beneath it. Chairman Mao once said, "We are not heroes until we've climbed the Wall." So every Chinese person feels obligated to visit at least once in their life.


Later that day we went to the Temple of Heaven:


We got a bit of shopping in too. The rumours are true - stuff in China is cheap. Dirt cheap. Bartering in Wangfujing Market was exhausting, but it worked and was actually sort of fun. Prices would start at around 250 Yuan and I'd end up paying between 15 and 30. And, to be perfectly honest, I was still getting ripped off.

We definitely didn't have as much time in Beijing as we would've liked, but I've made a promise to myself that we'll go back some day. We'd even consider living there for six months. It's certainly a possibility. Actually, a lot of things are a possibility. I guess we've learned that over the last year. It makes settling down a bit more difficult. But, as some of you know, we've got another two feet on the way, so settling down is priority one at the moment. I still have to give a debriefing of our time in Korea. It'll take a bit of thought but I'll get to it ... soon. There's plenty of other stuff to talk about too. But until then, here are a few more of my faves from Beijing.

Happy Birthday Cate Rowan

Somehow, this rascal is two years old already.

We've made life a bit difficult for her lately, but she's put up with us and manages to get more beautiful and sweet every day.

Hold your horses, people

This blog isn't finished. I just need some time to get my head straight. It's been a wild three weeks. There's much more to come. It won't be long.

In the meantime, check out my Flickr account for new photogs. The link is on the right.

Peace.

So, that's it

Unbelievably and probably with little anticipation, this is my last post from Korea.

How did it come to this? Really. Where did this last year go? Time flies when you're in a foreign country, keeping up with Asian life, looking for a job in Canada, looking for a home in Canada, buying a car, packing everything you own in four bags, planning a trip around the world with a twoyearold, planning a trip to Florida three days after you get home and potty training. It all really does just pass you by.

And now here we are. 11:00 pm on Tuesday, eight hours before we get in a taxi to the bus station, on our way to Busan, before we fly to Beijing. I wish the gypsy lifestyle was as cool and carefree as they say.

I had no intention of my final post from here being rushed. I always thought it'd be this long, well thought out reflection, with wonderful metaphors and summaries of important lessons learned over the last year. Instead it's a scattered blurb I'm writing in between packing and cleaning. And our last day has been a total mess. I suppose there'll be time for reflection later.

So, one final story of confusion and incompetency, something that goes hand-in-hand with being a resident of this grey, grey place. The plan all along, as dictated by Carmen's school, has been for her to go to the school this afternoon and pay our final utility bills and pick up the damage deposit we put down last March. It was inconvenient, but whatever. As we were packing this afternoon Carmen's co-teacher, Su, shows up with three men. One was the gas man, the other was the school accountant and the third was just some random short, bald guy who seemed to not really have a job but yelled a lot. Su says they're going to cut the power, gas and heat. "When?" Carmen asks. "Right now," she says. 2:00 in the afternoon. We look at her, stunned, and say that's impossible. "Oh, but we talked about, remember?" she says. Hmm, no, we don't remember that, because it never bloody happened. How the hell are we supposed to live with no electricity, heat or ability to make food? The amazing part is it took us quite a while to make them realize how completely, utterly ridiculous that is. Then they tell us we owe two months worth of utilities. The problem is we only owed one, because I paid last month's last week. The gas and electrical companies won't have record of this until Thursday which means they don't know for sure if we've paid and, of course, they don't believe we have. So Su tells us we need to pay for both months and if it turns out we have paid, they'd wire us the money to Canada next week. Again, the amazing part is it took us a while to make them realize how ridiculous and illogical that is. Then, before they leave (an hour later) they tell us we have to pay for today's use of the utilities. I'm in shock as they discuss whether it should be ten or fifteen dollars. I grab the calculator and divide last months bills by 30 and show them they're asking for four dollars. FOUR DOLLARS. They realize how incredibly stupid that is and sheepishly take a handful of change from me. To top it all off, Carmen has to take our house keys to the school before we leave in the morning, but they want the door to be locked. So, Cate and I have to stand outside with our stuff and wait for her to come back. Think that'll happen? Me neither.

The upside is we're going to Beijing tomorrow. Once the stressful stuff is over with, I'll write a bit more about how this chapter of our lives has finished up. If possible, I'd like to add photos and an update from Beijing, but chances are I won't have time in between sleeping and being a tourist.

It's been fun.

History

I took this picture of the famous Namdaemun Gate on Wednesday night:


This is what it looks like now:


It happened Sunday night. I found out about it just after I posted. I can't explain what an utter tragedy this is for Korean people. They are devastated. This is arguably the most important piece of history in Korea.

You can read more here, here and here.