One step closer

We've now completed the final "deep cleaning" of our time in Korea. We spent all of yesterday discussing it and half of today doing it, but Laura's apartment has now been stripped of all but the essentials for our last three weeks here. Yup, only three more weeks. 15 work days. I generally don't like countdowns, but I'm finding it unavoidable. As much fun as I've had here, coming home will be awesome. Still no plane ticket, though...

On the topic of home, a group of us went out for drinks on Friday and ended up at the Norae-bang (pronounced no-ray-bahng, means "song room," and is basically a private karaoke room for you and your friends). This one played the typical pastoral and dramatic natural vistas on its screens for the most part but threw in, for good measure, some cityscapes. Surprisingly enough, at one point we found ourselves watching the C-train go by followed by a portion of the Stampede rodeo. This was followed by the Lion's Gate Bridge and Stanley Park. Yup, Vancouver and Calgary were amply featured on the video screen of a karaoke room in Miryang, South Korea.

Other than that, the past few days have been fairly laid back. We did witness a rather odd scene (which may still be going on as I type this). We were crossing the bridge into my school's part of town and couldn't help but notice that the river was a good 2-3 feet lower than usual. This, in itself, was odd seeeing as it has been raining rather heavily over the last week, but was made all the more odd by the people who had ventured across the newly formed beaches and into the water to dig for/collect things out of the river. We have no idea what it was they were searching for and, apparently, finding in copious amounts. We only know that they have been doing it all day and there are at least 20-25 people out there at any given time. I'm guessing they're digging up some sort of freshwater shellfish. Either that or the change they accidentally dropped into the river over the past year or so.

Guy