Paul's "Adventure" in China

Wednesday, July 4: Home Sweet Home

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 23:50:00 +0900

The tour of China is concluded! Time to go home! Depart Jinshitan by bus at 8 AM => Dalian => Tokyo/Narita => Vancouver => Calgary. Across the world in 24 hours.

JAL is the best airline I’ve ever flown with. The food is great. Two kinds of chicken, salad, sushi, olives and ice cream.

And finally, here I am! What a trip!

Things you notice immediately about Calgary after being in Asia for 7 months:

1) You call this a city? Where are the towers? Where is the industry? Where are the throngs of people? This is a small town, at best.

2) Cars, cars everywhere! Holy crap, I’ve seen more cars than people. This is insanity. Don’t you jackasses ever take the bus?

3) Clean air, trees, and birds singing! Oh Canada! You take these things for granted when you live here.

4) Jeez, it’s cold here. I’ve been living in 30 degrees and humidity for the last month. No wonder the foreigners always complain about cold.

And in case you were wondering, my first meal when I arrived home was chips and salsa. Two bowls of chips and salsa. It was the best thing I’ve ever tasted.

China blog, over and out.

Wednesday, July 4: Da Hei Shan

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 23:38:34 +0900

For our final weekend in China, we climbed Jinshitan’s local outdoors destination, Da Hei Shan (Big Black Mountain).

See that fort way up there? Yeah, that’s where we’re going. It’s actually not nearly as far as it looks.

At the bottom there is this little temple. The idea here is to throw a coin into the shrine. The higher the level you can throw your coin into, the better your luck will be. Or something like that.

These temples, while common as dirt in Korea and Taiwan, are hard to find in China, since the communists tore most of them down during the cultural revolution.

Another temple, not far up the hill. The jagged rocks here make for a beautiful landscape, and some great climbing, as we’ll see. In fact, the Chinese call places like this “geoparks”.

People hang ribbons and banners from the trees. I’m not entirely sure why, I think it’s some Buddhist thing.

This is the landscape you think of when you come to China.

Near the top, another temple.

The statues here are all very well dressed.

…even the big one.

There’s a booth selling incense sticks. It’s traditional to light one in the memory of the recently deceased. I lit one for Pete.

Now we’re at the fort you saw in the first picture. The summit is not far from here, but it gets steeper.

Ahhhh, the summit. You should be able to see Kaifatchu from up here, but the view is obscured by the Chinese…err, mist. Yeah, it’s “misty”.

At the top, there’s a weird installation… and a weird tourist.

Apparently Fan Fan beat us here.

Stopped to do some casual climbing on the way down. With cliffs like these all over the place, I’m surprised rock climbing isn’t a bigger hobby in China. This pinnacle was only a short hop from the main cliff face :)

Team Zissou.

Well, only one way down now….

I’m tired. Let’s ride home.

Da Hei Shan: Not quite the Great Wall, but still pretty damn nice. And much less crowded.

Wednesday, July 4: This Is Jinshitan

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 22:59:25 +0900

I’m home now and retroactively adding the last couple updates. (Pictures upload a lot faster in Canada.) This is where I’ve been living these last few months: say hello to Jinshitan.

This is Susan’s, the western restaurant where we all go for breakfast on Sunday mornings. We would not have survived without Susan’s. Some people ate here almost every day for a year.

The “Rocky Balboa” gym I’ve been training at. Everything you need, nothing you don’t. The pool table and ping pong see more use than the weights with the locals. It’s hard to bulk up on Chinese food.

This is Big Man, he owns the gym. Nobody knows his real name. He’s the strongest man in China, and real friendly too. Speaks a bit of English.

Typical Chinese news stand: 30% Beauty magazines, 60% anime, 10% video games.

Food stands by night in Kaifatchu. These guys stay open late in the summer, and you can spend all night drinking and eating barbecue.

Quintessential smalltown China

This is the old village, it’s been systematically torn down and replaced with apartment blocks. This is about all that’s left of it.

The parking lot. Like I’ve said before, they tear up and replace a different section every week. Keeps them busy, I suppose… Yay, communism!

Jinshitan’s main street: honk honk honk honk honk

Discoveryland, the amusement park right beside the school. Quite nice, actually. And expensive. I cheaped out :P

Jinshitan is full of brand new shiny apartment blocks like this. But nobody lives in them. They’re all empty. It’s just momentum from their housing bubble.

This is where everyone really lives: the old soviet style apartment blocks.

…typical quality Chinese construction. They had to tear up the ground to fix a pipeline or something. Nice of them to put the bricks back.

Jinshitan’s main export is seaweed. The fishers bring it in from the bay, and a crane loads it onto trucks like these, which take it…wherever it goes. A truck like this drives by every 5-10 minutes, from sunrise to sunset.

People who buy it will string it up on clotheslines to dry. I have no idea what they do with it. Mostly, I think they just eat it.

Chinese fishing boats anchored in the bay.

There are a lot of old-ish women like this who sit and sell seafood, vegetables, or candy all day long. I think most of them are widows.

The gang out at a fancy hot pot restaurant. One thing I will miss from China is hot pot. It’s basically buffet-style soup. This is the fanciest hot pot joint in town, everyone gets their own little bowl and camp stove, and you can choose your own sauces from the sauce buffet. Once you figure out which sauce is good, it’s delicious :)

This was my science classroom. This is the one room I’ll really miss, science class was the best part of my day.

Study hard and you can be like Yao Ming.

Ruby Bar, our favorite place in Kaifatchu. It’s our favorite place because it has a foosball table, and the bartender is a cute young chinese girl who kills me at foosball every time. Also, apparently it’s still christmas in July.

Soggy what?

Mon, 07 May 2012 23:00:09 +0900

Dragging my sore and broken body out of bed the morning after Hallasan, I decided my final day in Jeju should involve something a little less strenuous. So I headed south to the little town of Seogwipo for the day.

Seogwipo is just a nice place. If I looked up “nice place” in the dictionary, there would be a picture of seogwipo. It’s pleasantly warm, full of parks and greenery, and with a nice view of Hallasan to boot.

And lots of little creeks where the kids play. Just a nice place.

This rock is a big tourist attraction. There’s a path where you can walk around, but it’s a protected nature area, like most of Jeju’s coast.

Koreans like to pile rocks even more than Canadians do.

This is on the rock. Those volcanic flows make for some neat formations.

The rock on this island is very non-porous, so you get puddles like this everywhere. Like the crater lake, I guess. Down here they look like tidepools, but above the tide.

Look closely. Yes, that is a bridge over an isthmus. No, I don’t understand it.

Then I visited this waterfall. Let’s talk about this waterfall. This waterfall has been developed as a tourist attraction to the point of absurdity. I was trying to find a way down to it by following the park pathways, but there seemed to be no way in. Like trying to undo a bra clip, this confused and infuriated me. But from down here, I saw that the entire area has been enclosed by a fence, and the only way in is through the ticket booth.

As the water flows from the waterfall to the sea, they have built a series of artificial dams.

…creating ponds in which they have placed these enormous carp. They look small here, but these things are like 2 feet long.

Further along the coast, there’s these neat volcanic rock formations. Yay, geology!

Then another waterfall. No way am I paying 2 more bucks to walk down to this stupid waterfall. Especially when that money could be spent on ice cream!

And Jeju orange juice. Jeju oranges are a big export. In korea, they get excited over Jeju oranges like we get excited over mandarin oranges.

Seogwipo: just a nice place!

This concludes my tour of Korea. Jeju gets an A+

Home sweet Jinshitan

Mon, 07 May 2012 21:57:10 +0900

Arrived home to a nice surprise today: the water pipeline into Jinshitan has ruptured and the whole town will be without water for a couple days. What fun. Clearly they are in need of my expertise.

Hallasan!

Sun, 06 May 2012 15:54:41 +0900

Today I successfully dragged my lazy ass out of bed at 7 am to go climb Hallasan. Here’s how it went:

I think this is where the trail starts. Is this where the trail starts? Hold on, let me check the map…. yeah, this is where the trail starts. Ok, let’s go.

Here’s the route: 8 km up, 9 km down. Took me 7 hours. Most exhausting hike of my life. I am not cut out for this mountaineering stuff. I’m sticking to rugby from now on, 80 minutes max. Just to rub it in, there were old people and children who made the same hike. Koreans are crazy.

I am not!

I decided to go up the gentler East face and down the steeper North face. About 2/3 up, there’s this rest stop where everybody takes a break, eats instant noodles, and gets ready for the sprint to the top. There were some monks here making the trek in their monk robes, which get really gross and sweaty. There’s a gold mine waiting to be tapped in breatheable monk robe materials.

Almost there! The peak is 1940m elevation, but the starting point is about 600m. My ears kept popping from the elevation changes.

The party at the summit!

Obligatory proof picture. Yes, at the top there is a crater lake.

Still not green at this time of year. Hallasan is a great showcase of how the wildlife changes with elevation. On the way up and down you pass through several distinct biomes. Hallasan has the greatest diversity of wildlife found in Korea.

At the top, nothing but rocks, grass and tiny shrubs hiding from the wind. From here, you should be able to see the entire island, but the infamous Jeju fog usually blocks your view of the coast. Here you can see that much of the trail is built of stairs (either stone or wood), probably about half of it.

Around 1900m, the short scraggly korean conifers take over.

The North face was much more jagged and scenic. Better in every way, really. For all of you reading this who plan on hiking Hallasan in the future (so, nobody), I would suggest going up and down the North side. You’re not missing much (other than instant noodles) on the East.

Below 1800m you have deciduous trees and ferns.

I was wondering how they got stuff up and down the mountain. There’s this vehicle mounted on a monorail that follows the trail on the North face. Next time I’m breaking my leg just so I can have an excuse to ride this thing down. But how the hell does it stay balanced?

Wheeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

A little lower, flowers appear.

Then there’s a brief layer of cedar. Felt like Vancouver here.

Then in the gentle slopes below 1000m it turns into a green woodland paradise. Incredibly picturesque forest down here, great place to spend the day if you don’t feel like climbing a mountain.

…as these ladies seem to have figured out. They’re the smart ones. Should have stopped here and played in the pools all day. Damn hike almost killed me. I must have drank 10L of water that day and I still gave the waitresses a heart attack when my leg cramped up at dinner and I jumped outside going “ow ow ow ow!”

Tomorrow: recovery day!

Jejuin' it

Thu, 03 May 2012 22:00:29 +0900

Today’s itinerary: Mount Halla (Hallasan). Depart 7 am, return 5 pm. 4 hours to the top of the volcano, 4 hours down the other side.

Today’s reality: sleep in ‘till 9, make breakfast, ponder life, play on computer, set out for easier attractions after lunch. Professional tourist.

So today I visited Seongsan (Sunshine Peak) and Manjonggul (Manjong Cave), Jeju island’s #2 and 3 attractions, respectively. Hallasan is #1. We’ll get there tomorrow (cross your fingers.)

Hallasan is THE volcano on Jeju, but it is by no means the only one. There are probably near 100 smaller cones dotting the landscape, all of them a classic collapsed shield volcano:

Here’s one of many I passed on the 1-hour bus ride to Seongsan.

Also wind turbines. Good on you, Korea. Jeju is quite a windy place, especially at altitude, as I learned quickly on my climb.

There is probably no place on earth like Seongsan. You will soon see why. From a distance, it instantly jumps out at you. It’s connected to the mainland by a stretch of land only wide enough for a road. The “town” at its base is composed entirely of hotels and restaurants, each of which sells the exact same menu for the exact same price. I’m calling the competition bureau.

Quite crowded, even on a Thursday. There’s only one trail to the top, and you can’t leave it. You just have to join the procession. They’re very serious about protecting their world heritage sites, and they never stop reminding you that it is, in fact, a world heritage site.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s just a big rock sticking out of the ocean. We have those in Oregon.” Oh, you’ll see. You will see.

As you climb, there are some pretty ocean views.

And jagged pinnacles.

But then you get to the top…. and you see why there is no place like it on earth:

Stop flashing gangster signs, asian lady.

Yes, Seongsan may be the world’s only perfectly isolated bowl rising vertically from the sea. According to some list, it’s one of the 7 natural wonders of the world (although I think there’s more such lists than wonders by now).

From the air, it looks like this. No, I didn’t take this one, smart ass. Apparently it’s an ancient volcanic crater which has been miraculously eroded equally from all sides, forming this perfect circular bowl. Must have been an amazing place for the natives to play (when they weren’t devoting every spare minute to spamming statues). Of course, no one is allowed into the crater now.

After Seongsan, it was off to one of Jeju’s other world heritage sites (they have a few). This one is a 7-mile-long lava tube big enough to carry a train. It made for some fun long-exposure photography. I should have taken more pictures, but here I ran into some teacher friends and they didn’t feel like waiting while I played with my camera. Jackasses.

The entrance. Ooooooooh, spooky. The whole thing was quite well-developed. Every tourist attraction in Korea is well developed. In Canada, we have an outhouse and a ranger station if you’re lucky. In Korea, even the smallest attraction has a restaurant, visitor centre, nice landscaping, clean new roads, and of course, full wireless access.

With the water dripping from the roof, you get some nice splash effects with the long exposure time.

And some nice ghost effects.

And some nice jackass effects.
“You have to stand REALLY still.”
“Like this?”

…

Ok, that’s a lie, I told them to move.

Still, neat place. I think they threw some of those old mill stones in the puddles to be used as stepping stones. Well, it’s not like anybody else was using them any more…

Tomorrow: Hallasan, for real!

Summer in Seoul

Wed, 02 May 2012 21:49:41 +0900

Posting out of order… forgive me.

I’m back in Seoul! You know what that means!

Awwww yeah. 1-0 gg no re. Still got it!

Seoul in spring is a beautiful city. In Dalian, we don’t even have leaves on the trees yet. What gives? Seoul is right beside us and it’s already hot and muggy.

You can tell it’s summer now because there’s cotton candy at the palace.

The palace is looking vastly improved from January.

…and 100 times as crowded.

For good reason, I suppose.

It’s hot here. Just ask this guy.

Korean bars have funny names. Ho Bar is actually a franchise. There are 10 of them in Hongdae district alone.

Ho Bars 5 through 7. Okay, maybe they’re double-counting a bit.

Here’s a good place to take the lady.

And this is just…. I don’t even… really?

Korea...Again

Wed, 02 May 2012 21:30:36 +0900

I’m back, baby! This time on Jeju island, Korea’s tropical* vacation hot spot. Geology nerds will get that pun, along with most other things on Jeju, as Jeju appears to be the world capital of stones and geology. Their marketing logo is the traditional stone statue carved by the locals hundreds of years ago (think Easter Island), and these things - originals and replicas - are EVERYWHERE. They have so much volcanic rock on this little island they don’t know what to do with it. Porous stone is the material of choice for building your backyard fence, or just piling into a mountain bigger than your neighbour’s. This place has got lava balls up to its….err, eyeballs.

Today I visited the stone park, where all manner of ancient stone carvings are on display (some original, some replicas) along with the Stone Museum, one of a few geology-themed museums on Jeju island. Let’s take a look:

This is where the gods rose out of the earth…or something like that.

Jeju’s #1 export: little stone statues.

Happy statue is happy.

Hey, I wonder if I can… okay, never mind.

Entrance to the Stone Park. What’s this all going to be about?

Jeju totem pole: wood body, stone head.

A priceless archeological relic! An ancient stone mill!

Apparently Jeju has more priceless archeological relics than they know what to do with. They just pile the damn things in the field. “You found ANOTHER one? All right, fine. You know the drill. I’ll get the bobcat.”

What do tadpoles and Jejuites have in common? They’re both SWIMMING in stone-age artifacts! Zing!

I wonder if this one’s an original…

Mexican stand-off. Speaking of which, Korea has excellent mexican food. Who would have thought?

I wasn’t sure about building a fence out of tombstones, but after a while I got to lichen it.

Ancient burial sites. Replica.

Into the forest I find strange characters.

…Whom I proceed to mock. Cultural insensitivity: the return!

Suddenly there are more of them.

I think they’re watching me…

How many of these damn things are there?

…oh crap. The class photo.

And these are their pots! Seoul National Museum, take a lesson from this! See this? This is the proper method of displaying 5000 pots. We’ll talk later.

And these are their houses. This was called the replica ancient village, but I’d call it a replica ancient town. Enough houses here for hundreds of people, easily. Why on earth did they need to make such a big village? Heritage park, you got nothin’ on this.

These are the big ones. Front right: grandpa simpson. Back middle: “solidarity” statue.

Well, I suppose you can never be TOO careful…

Hey Korea, we invented that one! You can’t take that from us! That one’s ours!

Jeju island: please stop giving archeologists grants. You’re starting to look like the crazy old lady with the russian doll collection.

Moooooooooney!

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 09:19:29 +0900

About to write a test, student walks up to me and opens his wallet. Uh-oh. Turns out he just wants to show me some foreign currency his parents brought back from their trip to Africa: 10 000 Guinean Francs! Whoa! How much is this worth, he asks?

As it turns out, about $1.50….

Breaking Things

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:20:08 +0900

A student was rolling the blinds down today when the whole thing fell off the wall. Second time this week, in a different room each time.

After the laughter subsides, another student chimes in, “made in China!”

They know how it is.

Thursday April 12

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:03:59 +0900

Inappropriate chinglish: At the gym today, saw a young man (very possibly a student) wearing jeans with large letters sprawled across his ass:

“Stupid as Fuck

Rich as Shit

Proud of It”

Maybe he doesn’t know what it means. Or maybe he knowsexactlywhat it means.

Also at the gym: A very fat, shirtless man working out with one hand while smoking a cigarette with the other.

This “fitness” concept might take some explaining…

Wed, April 4

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 22:11:05 +0900

A bunch of students loitering at the gate with shovels today.

“What are you kids doing?”

“Teacher, we go to girls campus, to fill holes.”

“You WHAT?!”

“Teacher, we plant trees.”

“oh.”

So today we planted trees.

Friday March 29

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:22:14 +0900

Told my students about rugby today. Passed them a ball. Showed them a video.

“But Mr Spoering, you are not strong. How can you play rugby?”

Canada, what are you doing?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 17:42:06 +0900

One of my few connections to Canada is the western restaurant’s subscription to Macleans magazine, which I browse through as I eat my french toast every saturday morning. This week, the front cover is this:

Canada, what is wrong with you? I leave for a few months and this crap takes over? You’re looking at everything that is wrong with education, right here.

Although, if you actually read the article, it’s nothing like the title suggests. It’s just another rehashing of the perennial “old math vs new math” debate which will probably never go away. Macleans just likes their controversial titles.

On a more positive note, this weekend marks the official start of Beefcake season. Or should I say, chickencake season. Chinese weight gain diet: chicken, noodles, eggs and nuts. Go huge or go home!

Or both, preferably…

Term 2 in China

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 19:59:00 +0900

I’m back from my vacation and 3 weeks into teaching. As you may have noticed, updates will be few and far between this time. There isn’t much left to tell about china.

Student Names

With a new batch of students comes a new batch of strange English names. Some of the highlights this time:

Egg

Storm

Flint

Faris (Beuler)

LL (Cool J)

and my favorite, Gracesnow-Arrowfog

Recent Happenings:

It finally snowed in China! And zero snowmen. Must not be a Chinese thing.

The cleaning ladies do not know how to shovel snow. Protip: it’s not leaves. Speaking of which, they did the thatch raking right before it snowed. Do we compost the pile? Do we bag it and throw it out? Nope, we just set the damn thing on fire and drive away. China is new to the concept of “green”. In fact, our paper recycling at school goes straight to the campus incinerator.

Here’s the boys campus where I teach now. It’s just across the street from the girls campus.

The inside of the old boys building. Reminds me of an Escher sketch sometimes.

…where I’ve been known to do things like this from time to time. Remember this one from high school?

I’ve also been doing a lot more of my own cooking this term. Behold my latest creation. I am a wizard.

You can get chicken here dirt cheap. In China, nobody wants the chicken breast, so you can pick them up for practically nothing. The chicken lady at the market spots white people from a mile away and yells at you, holding up the chicken breasts. 50 cents each. We also get the Korean instant noodles, which are miles better than the Canadian brands. Chicken and ramen, every day!

Thursday Feb 16: Hiking in Taipei...Again.

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 20:51:26 +0900

Headed back into the hills again, this time on a foggy day. Nice thing about foggy days: you don’t sweat so much. This is a big plus for some of us.

Also, the wildlife comes out to play.

He’s not dead, he just can’t flip himself over. They’re kind of like turtles that way. Being the nature lover I am, I walked away laughing at his evolutionary shortcomings. Sucker.

I was wondering why the signs kept saying “6 Big Rocks —->” Then…well…
Anybody else think the one in the middle looks sad?

Good place for lunch, anyway. Bad things about living in such a humid climate: your crackers go soggy within a day, and your sandich within a few hours. This may go a long way to explaining the lack of bread in the local diet.

Most of this path was very well paved. Upon occasion, you will find a smaller, older path leading off into the woods. When you do, always take it. You will find something interesting.

Such as this: a giant statue in the middle of nowhere. Sure, why not? These things are surprisingly common, if you know where to look.

She was accompanied by these…gentlemen.

You find a lot of crap shacks too. I’m as confused as you are.

Branch off to an even smaller and sketchier path, and find even more exciting things!

I followed this path and it ended at a sheer cliff. I assumed I was meant to go up, and I was not about to turn down an invitation like this!

At the top of the cliff I found…more cliff. Hmmm. Well, too late to turn back now.

And more cliff…. in total I climbed about 100 vertical metres. It just kept going.

Somewhere along the line I entered the cloud layer. I looked back at one point and realized that the view had dissolved into the mist. Standing there on the cliff, it felt like I was stepping off the edge of the world.

The cliff rendezvoused with the foot path at the summit. Up in the clouds, you start seeing shapes in the trees. Easy to be an art house photographer up here.

Julia set?

The way down followed this drainage trench, part of an old abandoned coal mine.

My last picture from Taiwan: the entrance to the old coal mine. This is where my adventure ended. Nothing to do now but update the blog, pack, and head off for China…

I will end with a small piece of advice for friends and family:

Go to Taiwan. It’s better than Saskatchewan.

Thursday Feb 16: The "Day Off"

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 20:11:27 +0900

Looking for lazy things to do in Taipei, I visited the Zoo and the hot springs. Taipei has the biggest zoo in Asia, and along the “ring of fire” hot springs pop up like Starbucks.

The monkeys are always a riot. I think this one is expecting food.

And this one’s getting more than she expected…

A black swan, better liquidate some assets. Behind it … what the hell is that thing? I think I saw those getting clubbed in “2001”.

PAAAAAAAAARTYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!11~

More of the usual suspects. However, photographing animals at the zoo offers all the satisfaction of shooting fish in a barrel. And the aquarium wasn’t even open! Zing! They had pandas too, but somehow I missed those. There wasn’t even ice cream :(

On the way to the hot springs…PIPELINES! Interesting method for river crossing… That’s a 90 degree 1.5D turn where it meets the brick wall at the end. Can a pig that size even handle such a turn? Does anyone from Rosen still read this?

The hot springs were, well… hot. Kind of a bummer, though, as most of the land is owned by hotels who make a killing off the free heated pools in their back yards. The public hot spring wasn’t even worth the effort. But hey, at least they had ice cream.

Thursday Feb 16: Hiking in Taipei

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:52:24 +0900

Taipei is surrounded by low mountains, and there are enough hiking trails to keep you entertained for years. Pick any random trail and just keep heading up; you’ll find something different each time. Here’s what I found today:

Bananas!

What looks like a neighbourhood from below is actually a cemetary. At the top of the mountain is this village-of-the-dead where the rich and/or famous watch over the city in tombs that are bigger than they really need to be.

Here’s one of the fancier ones.

Ok, what’s the big idea…

Taipei 101: the most photogenic thing on Earth. I told you it was big. Those are not small buildings next to it.

And again….

The view in other directions is nice too, I guess…

You call it vanity, I call it proof. Taipei is bloody hot when the sun comes out. And the humidity…always bring lots of water. Of course, the damn locals are still wearing jackets when I’ve got my shirt off and I’m still sweating like a fountain.

Oooooooh, silhouette. It was a long hike…

At the end I passed this temple, which is the most intricate structure I’ve ever seen in my life. It would take many lifetimes to finish all the carving work on this thing. Every square inch of the temple was covered in some pretty detailed carving. Mom, you would have spent all afternoon here.

Close-up of stone slab along the wall.

Close-up of wood section. Some of them were protected behind glass.

Like I said, every square inch.

It was a long day. I took a cab home :P

KOREA TOUR REPLAY PACK

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:31:00 +0900

You can download the replay pack from Team Canada’s Korea Starcraft Tour here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?yxhp6fbu5fr39sw

Team Canada needs your support. I expect feedback.

Here are the complete results:

Gunsan University Day 1: LOSS (1-2)

Gunsan University Day 2: WIN (3-1)

Busan: LOSS (1-4)

Seoul Day 1: WIN (1-0)

Seoul Day 2: WIN (3-1). This was Team Canada’s greatest day. Unfortunately the replays from this day are still in limbo. In them you can see such moments as Team Korea saying “I’m crying” as he concedes and all his friends laugh at him :D

Seoul Day 3: WIN (2-0)

Those astute mathematicians among you will by now have calculated that Team Canada finished with a victorious 4-2 record. All those hours I spent playing this game instead of making friends weren’t wasted after all!

Also included in the replay pack are a number of 2v2 and 3v3 matches in which you can see Team Canada carrying his Korean dead weight allies to victory!

What a proud day to be Canadian!