O Canada

Alrighty, I've been home for a while, and I figure it's time to update everyone. I'm living in Canada again. I'm at my parent's new house, and soon will be living in an appartment in their basement. My day is routine and mind-shatteringly restrictive. I'm looking at online tutoring to earn some money, which will be nice. I'm still trying to decide what I'm going to do next September. Where I'll live, what school I'll go to, and, sometimes even, what I'm going to do. Until the time comes for those decisions to be made, I'll be here; and I love visits (even if they can only be online chats or phone calls)!

Fabulous Fun and PIFF

It's festival season in Pusan, and lately I've been really busy just trying to do everything from TreX games to the Pusan International Film Festival, with some mountain-top camping in between!

Lets start with TreX
Hapkido/BMX:

I only saw a few things from the TreX games, including some outdoor exhibitions that blew my mind. Some Hapkido performances were spectacular, with high leaps, fast kicks/punches, smooth tumbles and unbelievable athleticism. The BMX exhibition was spectacular! High tricks and a lot of hard falls. Again, fantastic athletes! See Chris' pictures for some great shots.

Gymnastics:
I also saw something I never thought possible. Picture this: four girls. a see-saw with chair cushions under the part that hits the ground on the down tilt. That's it. Two at a time the girls, using their OWN BODY STRENGTH, would jump and propel one another in the air. Once in the air she would do FLIPS and gymnastic tricks, then land on the board again to propel the opposite girl into the air. All this, over CEMENT! No protective netting or cushioning. Just cement. If one of the girls aimed wrong, or came out of a flip at the wrong time, she'd land on cement after a 15-20 foot fall. SCARY! I also saw the kite festival at Haeundae (some AMAZING kites) and some BMX/skateboarding/in-line skating competitions in BEXCO. All were fantastic. Mind-boggling. Unfortunately, my camera was out of batteries...

The Film Festival

Religulous:
The Pusan International Film Festival was fun last year, though sadly, I missed most showings due to work. The same thing happened this year. Chris and I decided to see a film called "Religulous", despite knowing nothing about it, because it "guaranteed laughs." I didn't laugh. It was stupid, biased and cut-and-paste to prove the director's point. Only a brainless sheep, like the ones he mocked in the movie, would believe anything portrayed in the movie as "enlightened". A waste of time.

Johnny Mad Dog:

However, one good thing about the movie was that as we were in line to get the tickets a man came up to us and told us that he had to go to Seoul and couldn't use his tickets for a movie called "Johnny Mad Dog". We went and saw it. I have to say, this was an EXTREMELY difficult movie to watch. In fact, I closed my eyes for some parts. It's about child soldiers in Liberia and it was brutal, heartrending, and REAL. Of the 14 main children actors in it all are either ex-child soldiers or homeless/familyless street kids from Liberia. All have seen, or even participated in, the events portrayed in the movie. It was rated +12, but I would put the highest possible rating on it. There are EXTREMELY disturbing scenes, including mass killing, hard drug use and rape. No 12-year-old should be allowed to see those things, no matter how life-hardened they are. It reminded me of all I have been reading about Somalia and Darfur. Which I think is the point. More about those places in the news later...

Anyway, this past week has been great. I'm trying to get in all of Korea I can before coming home, and I think I'm doing a pretty good job...!

Vietnam: The place to be. Seriously.

OK, so Chris and I went on an AWESOME trip to Viet Nam for a heavenly 8 days and 7 nights. We wanted to go somewhere to get our scuba diving lisences so I looked at a few countries and picked Viet Nam because of the weather, and Hoi An because I'd found some divers' blogs online saying it's the new place to go for diving. That was the extent of our planning. off, got tickets, jumped on a plane and arrived in Da Nang (the closest airport to Hoi An) with a bunch of Korean money and a nearly empty bag. Totally random, unorganised and relaxed! The town was georgous, the people really interesting, and the experience, oh so wonderful!

a coracle on the sea.
If anyone has any desire to visit Vietnam in the future, I highly reccomend it, and would be happy to provide information on the town we visited, the people we met, and the place we stayed. It was positively amazing.

Here are some pictures to better tell the story of my trip to Vietnam! To see more, go to

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=39922&l=9c431&id=512991936

or

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=42017&l=0767e&id=512991936




Chris made a friend, Sang, whose father is a fisherman. They kindly took us on a tour and showed us how they catch their fish. His father didn't speak English, so his son translated for him. He was the most beautiful man. His face was weatherbeaten, and full of life and love.
















a fisherman's hut and our dive team!


















There were very few traffic/safety laws (so it seemed) but everyone was going really slowly anyway...















This is the view from the restaurant on top of the hotel. The land and sky were both breathtaking. I couldn't get enough of sitting on the roof, eating a free, buffet, all-you-can-eat breakfast and staring out from the top of the world to such spectacular beauty. Amazing.
















We got a bike taxi back to the hotel at one point. Chris bought fresh-squeezed sugarcane juice!
















the view everywhere was amazing. The sky was huge.
















Another stunning sunset.

Dear Tommy

I know this is late, but there are some things I wanted to tell you. You really are a good student. You may have never done your homework in the 5 months, 5 days a week that I taught you, but you worked hard in class, and more important, you did your best. I'm not sorry I made you do so many push-ups, nor do I think you regret doing them. You had a smile on your face every day, even on the days when you knew you'd be doing push-ups. I appreciate that you didn't take the discipline personally.


I looked forward to your "Hello Teacher!" any time you saw me, anywhere. Your cheerful attitude was inspiring to other students, and you were a great leader. I know your parents were pushing you to excel in school, and I know you had a lot of stress on your shoulders. I'm sorry I didn't tell you often enough how great a boy I think you are. I know that's all you wanted; to be accepted by your parents and teachers.


Your parents must be suffering so much at the double tragedy of losing both you and your sister. I'm not surprised you tried to save her; that's the kind of person you are. I'm sorry, so sorry, this is late. You deserve so much more than this end. I'm so sorry.


You're a hero Tommy.
Goodbye.


Love, Rebekah Teacher

My student who went by the name of "Tommy" died this weekend trying to save his little sister, who fell into a river. They both drowned. He was 12 years old, and although I'm not sure how old his sister was, I'm fairly certain she was much younger. I have no idea how to come to terms with this tragedy. I can't imagine the pain of his parents. I feel numb. I'm confused. Angry. Helpless.

Vacation in Nam...!

Yes. I'm in Hoi An, Vietnam right now! Chris and I spent the morning arranging scuba diving for the next few days (we're getting out international certification while we're here) and this afternoon was spent at the markets, checking things out and taking pictures. Right now Chris is off on a bicycle somewhere with his camera and I just had a nap with my scuba text (that I started reading but fell asleep with).

This place is amazing. The hotel we're staying in is $35/night with free breakfast and bicycle use. There is also a pool and sauna, as well as the option of a manacure or massage (pay extra for those last two). We had a very expensive dinner last night that cost $20 for the two of us and it was DELICIOUS! We start scuba diving tomorrow morning with a French instructor named Rudolph (ze scuBAH divING instrucTORRR).

It's a blast and we've only been here 24 hours! I love every minute!