Little update

Though you poor Canadians are still probably buried under snow, spring has sprung in Busan with the cherry blossoms starting to bloom their delicate pale pink blossoms. School is busy but good. My students are amazing - it is a real treat to teach English majors.

The earlier post about a laptop, monitor and burger was very brief as at the time Colin and I were near starvation. Having already made one failed attempt to get a burger on the tenth floor of the ridiculously busy Lotte Department store we were forced to forge our way through the Saturday throngs to get to a second T.G.I.F. which did finally have the burgers we so desired. We had to wait a while for our burgers to arrive so the post was basically to distract myself from my hunger. What I ended up buying that day was a simple laptop to use for work as well as a lovely 22" LCD widescreen monitor which I didn't really need but was so cheap I figured why not. It sure takes up less space on my desk than the 19" CRT I had previously.

In other news, I continue to listen to music obsessively. I've decided to trade in my iPod Nano that I've had for a year and replace it with an iRiver Clix. It'll take a while to get used to the new design as well as the minor annoyance that I have to keep it on hold while in my pocket to prevent track stopping/skippage, but the sound quality is stellar and no more annoying iTunes. I listen to all sorts of stuff but for the past several monthes I've been under the growingly firm impression that Queens of the Stone Age are possibly the greatest rock band of our time (no disrespect to Led Zepplin). All five of their albums are so frikkin good.

In other hobby related news I'm looking forward to April 4th and I know many of you out there don't even need me to say why. I'll tell you this though, I am midly concerned the internet will explode that day due to the insane frenzy that will result from the beginning of BSG Season 4. Woo!!!

Ribs!!!

Ribs!!!
Originally uploaded by anninator

Ribs!!!Yummy BBQ ribs where you need a Micheal Jackson glove to get into tha flava...Bam!!!

Kickass

Kickass
Originally uploaded by anninator

Kickassmonitor + sweetass laptop + fatass burger = success! It's been an eventful day~~

Vietnam - Part I: Ho Chi Min City

In February I took a two week trip to Vietnam where I hooked up with my mate Jon. We had a super good time, time which was mainly characterized by eating but did involve some travelling and sightseeing.

Jon lives in Ho Chi Min City, which used to be Saigon. It's a big bustling city with literally millions of motorbikes, lots of awesome places to eat and very visible remnants of the French colonial period.

Check out the photos here.

What's new in Anne's world

Well, back to work so posts have obviously slowed down a tad :) I've got a lot of prep to do for my new classes; people are coming out of the woodwork to ask me to do more stuff, and I've been suffocating a little with super intense yellow dust but other than that things are good. Being all English majors, my new students are wikkid fluent which is really cool. I've so far really enjoyed exercising my teacher chops in the higher level atmosphere.

USS Nimitz and Co.

Tonight I tried to have a late evening swim but failed. Apparently the pool water was too dirty (??). So I dropped by my local watering hole to have a drink and see who was about. I was the first of my crew to arrive and as I waited a clean cut man approached me and asked if I was on my own. I responded that at present I was. He enquired as to if I was US Navy. This question was a little out of my range, and I responded truthfully that no, I was not, I was in fact Canada English Teacher. He seemed very surprised and asked why on earth I'd be teaching English in Korea. Putting two and two together I surmised that he was new to these parts. Turns out he was in fact a Sonar Operator on a guide missile cruiser. That would be a vessel in support of the USS Nimitz, a massive US Naval ship currently docked in our fair Busan. Tim was in fact a real swell guy. He very concisely and diplomatically explained his role aboard his ship the USS Princeton (he listens for enemy submarines) as well some of the major features of the other ships in the team. Interesting indeed. He estimated the crew of the Minitz plus the crews of the other five or so support vessels put the number of US sailors currently in circulation around Busan at between 7 and 10 thousand. That's quite a night out on the town!
"U.S. aircraft carrier: USS Nimitz, a 97,000-ton U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, approaches Busan Thursday. The nuclear-powered carrier and its 5,300 crew members will join the annual exercise of South Korean and U.S. forces here. The exercise, Key Resolve, mainly aims to test the combined forces’ capability to host over 600,000 U.S. troops to be deployed here in case of an armed conflict while effectively defending the country from enemy hostilities."

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/nation_view.asp?newsIdx=19841&categoryCode=115

Things I Love About Korea

I can buy something that approximates real food for under five dollars at the corner store - microwave Spaghetti Carbonara!!

2.5 minutes later and voila:

Is it gormet fare? No. Does it have any actual bacon? No. Does it taste frikkin awesome for $2.30 CAD at 3:00am? You betcha!!