Ahh mascot fights, just another thing to look forward to. I've made plans with my Korean pals John & Mr Park to go to a Samsung Lions baseball game in Daegu next Friday night. If the video posted above is any indication, it should be a really fun time.

On Monday my school treated us teachers to a free lunch at a local spot and we enjoyed the ultra dangerous swell/puffer fish. You need a license from the government to be able to prepare and serve swellfish in Korea because it's so poisonous. It reminded me of a Simpsons episode (pictured above) I had seen years ago. I'm happy to report that I didn't die and it was quite a good experience.

Well, I'm going to Hiroshima this weekend. It's Buddha's Birthday so I have four days off (Saturday through Tuesday). I found an airfare I just couldn't pass up; Seoul to Hiroshima return for under $400 Canadian including tax... it just doesn't get much better than that. As things were it didn't seem that I would get another chance to visit Japan and that upset me... Tokyo was fantastic but I wanted a more well rounded Japanese experience. I think a trip to Hiroshima will provide a very good contrast to the Tokyo trip of a few months ago.

Hiroshima has such an incredible history and I fully intend to explore the sights such as the Peace Memorial, The Cenotaph for the Atomic Bomb Victims, the Bell of Peace, Shukkeien Gardens, upon other things. I'm going to rent a bicycle and explore the city that way as well. I'm really looking forward to it.

Here's the deal: I've entered a mixtape challenge. The idea is to make a mixtape and go head to head against someone else's mixtape. Other people vote on their favourite and after a week of voting whoever has the most votes wins. My round one match up starts on Monday. Being that it's round one we're allowed to do anything we want with the mixtape so I decided to make a themed mixtape called PHONING IT IN. It has a really weird (and hopefully really cool) lo-fi feel to it as all of the songs are actually played through the telephone! It includes some explanations and banter between songs and you hear some people putting down the phone before they play and sometimes even laughing because of the idea of playing to a telephone.

Essentially, I'm looking for some feedback on my mixtape. So click the play button below let me know what you think! There are a few rules I should mention: first the mixtapes must be under 30 minutes in length and secondly in the interest of fairness the track lists cannot be released until after voting has closed... so people don't pre judge them without listening through. So, I'll do you the same and I won't release the track list until a week from now. Thanks!

Oh, and the image above is from the fantastic film "The Go Getter". I saw it last summer at City Cinema with my good pals Ashleigh & Tristan. This is the trailer:

Alright, photos and videos to come I promise but firrrrrst let me just say that I went hiking around Mt Palgonsan today. I think it might be my favourite place to be in Korea. There always seems to be a mist hanging over the mountains; I just can't seem to get enough of it. Now that spring is here I find myself rushing up the mountains every chance I get.

// CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE PHOTOS //

All aboard Rapid Bus #1! Here's a little bus tour of Daegu. The song playing over the images is called 'Full Cup' by Japanther.

The first in a series of bicycle tours of Daegu. This is just a little test out to see how it would work and I'm pretty pleased with the result. This is just a video of me going on a run to a nearby spot to get some gimbap. The song playing over everything is called 'The One With The Wurlitzer' by a band called American Football. More soon.

General update time: Things are going well. It's midterms at my school so for the past week I've barely had any classes. I can't believe the semester is already half over; I feel like it just started last week. I'm having a fantastic time in the classroom and the students are really responding to me. Another two months and that will be that.

Aileen and I are neck deep in our South East Asia plans. I'll be breaking out a few maps soon which will outline our trail of destruction. When the time does come this 10-4 blog will be turned into "80 Days in South East Asia" with regular updates with photos and stories and such as we make our way through Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. The whole thing will get under way on the 6th of September and we won't make it out until the end of November. I'm going to start getting my visa stuff sorted out in May; begin the process.

I'm going to be making some interesting updates to this blog over the next week; I'm going up Palgong Mountain on either Saturday or Sunday and I promise to bring along my camera for some photos. I may also stop by at a few nearby temples... we'll see about that. I've also been playing around with my video camera and my video editing software and hopefully (fingers crossed) within the next week I'll be able to post a video of a bicycle tour of my neighbourhood and the downtown area of Daegu, because I know y'all are interested to see it.

Oh, I wanted to do a sort of MTV Cribs themed photo for this entry; thus the photo of my work/computer space at home. I've got my books, my incense, letters from home, and of course the wonderful Craig Ferguson on youtube.

My contract is up on the 31st of August and I've notified my school that I will not be staying on for another year. They're sad to see me go and I'll be sad to say goodbye to Korea as well; I really have enjoyed my time here but I'm thrilled to be moving on to my great South East Asia adventure with my good buddy Aileen.

My final days in Korea will be spent on the beautiful Jeju Island in southern Korea --it's actually as far south as you can go without leaving the country. The entire island is essentially a UNESCO world heritage site. Pictured above is Mt Halla which is located in the center of the island and a fantastic hiking destination. On top of that there are amazing national parks full of waterfalls, incredible beaches, and a rich history throughout the region; it's truly a fascinating area.

I'll be saying goodbye to Daegu on the 1st of September. I'll be relaxing in Jeju until the 6th and then I'm off to Singapore to rendez-vous with Aileen. I booked my plane ticket today --with my school picking up the tab--; here's to a fantastic Korean summer. I'm not going to waste a second of it.

I first saw these babies when I was in Tokyo. They're gooey Fanta with bits of Jello in them. They're pretty strange but I can appreciate them every so often. My good buddy Kyle of Kylefall.com fame loves these things so I'm going to be sending him a small shipment in the mail. And so the epic drink exchange begins. I'll send him Fanta he'll send me Green Arizonas.

I'm battling through a flu this Easter. I've been grounded all weekend with it; I had big plans to search out the Cherry Blossoms on Palgong Mountain as well as a trip to Paramount Bikes to get my bicycle tuned up. Unfortunately there was really no way I could do these things this weekend after waking up Saturday morning sick as a dog. I like to think I have a pretty strong stomach though so I've enjoyed a bit of Easter chocolate between drinking orange juice and resting.

I had my first tennis lesson last thursday with Mr Gee. He's a fantastic coach; he's the gym teacher at our school but his speciality is tennis and it really shows. He's giving lessons after school to anyone on the faculty who wants them; so I'll be seeing him every Thursday afternoon. He doesn't speak any English and my Hangul really isn't up to par yet so we really rely on playing charades; it's a lot of fun. I'm used to playing baseball so I was having some trouble holding the racket so more than a few times he'd exclaim "Baseball, no!", to which I would respond with the same broken phrase in Hangul.

I'm going out to dinner with him and John (the Korean fellow I share my office with) this coming Wednesday. I'm looking forward to it. I'm growing closer to John and Mr Gee so it would be nice to get together outside of work. They're both new this semester and the closest of the faculty to my age. John is 28 and I think Mr Gee is around the same age. The other teachers are friendly but I find the age gap along with the language barrier a little hard to penetrate. Wednesday should be fun; they've both told me in the past how they like the Soju so things could get interesting.

I've been listening to a 7" by the Mountain Goats called "Songs About Fire". It's from 1995; I really enjoy the Mountain Goats but I can't seem to get into anything they've done past 1997. I have to listen to more. For the time being however I'll continue to rock out to "Songs About Fire". Here's a song from that 7" called "Stars Around Her"

Sweet sweet spring has arrived in Daegu! All this week the temperature will be in the mid 20's. This afternoon the biggest bee I've ever seen flew into my office. John (the Korean teacher I share my office with; John is his English name, I'm afraid his Korean name escapes me at the moment) and I cowered for a few hours. We were both quite relieved when the bell sounded and ushered us to class; we couldn't get out of that office quicker. The bee has since flown out the window. All is well in the world.

There are helicopters and fighter jets flying over head these days; a response to the North test firing a rocket yesterday no doubt. People aren't really talking to me about it but I can tell things are tense.

I was visited by Oh today. He's invited me to join him and his family on a weekend trip to a city just north of Daegu in late May. I quickly accepted; I'm going to go over to his place next week for dinner. We'll surely end up watching CSI; his wife is absolutely obsessed with it. It will be nice to see them.

I broke the news to Ms Lee today that I will not be renewing my contract. Everyone is quite sad to see me go; I'll miss them. I'm so excited about everything that is coming up; but at the same time it'll be hard to say goodbye to Korea. I'm busy planning my final five months here; they'll be quite busy. John has offered to help me find a Buddhist temple to do a weekend stay which is so nice of him. I'm afraid in this instance the language barrier has been quite difficult to overcome; so that'll be a great help.

My spirits are high and I'm looking forward to what lies ahead. In the mean time I'm biking and listening to FYM a lot...