It's been a whirlwind time with Meghan here. We've been doing everything and having so much fun. The photo above is from our trip to Kyung-Ju and the UNESCO world heritage site Bulguksa Temple. We spent the afternoon wandering around the temple grounds. It was so nice.

Today we had a funny wake up call with the likes of three Korean movers poking their heads around my apartment. I was at work at the time and Meg was lounging on my sofa reading a book when all of a sudden she heard voices and footsteps in the apartment. Needless to say they didn't expect her to be there. We thought we were moving out on Tuesday you see, but apparently the moving order was for Monday morning bright and early. The next few hours were pretty funny with us wheeling our things to my office and grabbing our bags and checking into a hotel downtown. But all ended well. I just got back from a really nice dinner with the Principal and another English teacher. They were very kind. Tomorrow to Jeju. I'm having a blast.

Meghan arrived in Korea last Saturday night. Since then we've been having a splendid time enjoying the country. We were in Seoul for the weekend and then came to Daegu and proceeded to see the sights, go hiking, go to the beach and just chill out. I'll have updates about all of those things in the near future.

Last Friday night I went to Busan with John, Hizoo and his friend Inchol. We went to the beach and took in a baseball game of the Lotte Giants. Baseball in Busan is unbelievable. Everyone really gets into it as you can see from the photo above. John is taking the picture, Hizoo is next to me and next to him is Inchol. I really enjoyed the roughness of Busan.

The summer has offically arrived in Daegu. By 7am it's 32 C or higher. So, tomorrow I'll be heading off to Busan (the above map uses the old spelling of Pusan) with my buddy John. I'm excited to visit Busan as it is the second largest city in Korea, and it will be the furthest south I've been in Korea yet. Of course in a couple of weeks I'll go even further south to Jeju Island, Korea but I've always wanted to visit Busan and I'm glad that in my final few weeks I'll be able to do it. Located right on the coast, another big attraction of the city is its famous beaches. Ahh, I'll be swimming in the East Sea tomorrow.

One thing I won't miss about Korea is groups of soldiers in full army fatigues and machine guns marching by my apartment. This doesn't happen often but I certainly don't like it when it does. I was lucky I had my camera nearby or I would have missed them quietly marching past. I heard air raid sirens this morning and I saw a few lone unarmed soldiers walking around as I made my way home from work so I figured the Korean National Defense forces might be out today. What an eerie sight.

I took a little trip to the Daegu Immigration Office today to get a Visa extension. My current work visa runs out on the 28th of August and since I'll be staying in Korea until the 6th of September I opted to get the extension rather than risk deportation. It was a simple enough process; just show up, fill out an application and they give you the stamp (pictured above) free of charge. I enjoy filling up my passport. It's mind blowing how busy that thing is going to get over the next couple of months with travels to Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Loas and Vietnam (many of which require full page tourist Visas). I'm taking care of business this week doing my final home keeping and prep work before the fun begins. I'm looking forward to Saturday, seeing Meghan and spending the weekend in Seoul.

Yesterday I went swimming with my good friends John and Hizoo. We travelled about an hour out of Daegu and stopped at a local swimming lake. It was really great to swim and be surrounded by those Korean mountains I love so much. I was having so much fun I forgot to take any photos. We swam all afternoon and then met some new friends and enjoyed Korean BBQ near a waterfall before heading back to Hizoo's place in Daegu for more food and those infamous Korean drinking games. It was a good night indeed.

Today I made my way to Mt Namsam near the ancient city of Kyung-Ju. This is my final weekend alone as next weekend my wonderful girlfriend Meghan will be joining me here in Korea, and a few weeks later I'll begin my South East Asia adventure with my dear friend Aileen. I had been to Kyung-Ju before as I visited Belguksa Temple and other sites last fall, but I always regretted running out of time and not being able to hike Namsam. Well, today I set things straight.

I met a nice group of middle aged Korean hikers on my way up the mountain. I took a photo for them infront of a large image of Buddha which was carved into a rockface. Around twenty minutes later I met back up with them at the top of the mountain and they invited me to have lunch with them as they had brought a hot plate, a tonne of food and a truly vile mixture of Korean Soju and wine with them. We had a great time on the mountain top.

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There's a song bird I like by the name of Paul Baribeau. Paul is from Michigan and he likes to sing about it lots, he also has a knack for putting the truly quirky aspects of human relationships into words in often funny and neat little ways. He has a big beard and a booming voice. A couple of years ago he teamed up with another muscian by the name of Ginger Alford (who is in the fantastic punk band One Reason) and they toured the United States only playing Bruce Springsteen covers acoustic style. They played in living rooms, and parks and bookstores and record shops and zine libraries and just about anywhere you could imagine. Paul Baribeau has a new cassette tape out simply entitled "Demo Tape." I've been playing it absolutely nonstop since it appeared online. Here's one of my favourite songs from the tape; though in all honesty, it's impossible to pick a favourite...

I think I'm in the middle of Third Eye Blind's "Semi Charmed Life" in the photo above. It was my second time at one of the infamous Korean Singing Room's. I went with John, his friend Hisue, and Mijeen (a girl we met in Pohang / Prince Dubai's future wife). It was a pretty ridiculous time to say the least.

It was neat though, before Noribang we went to Duryu Park which is this great spot where everyone goes to just chill out in the evenings. There's an outside theatre which has performances during the week days but even at 11pm on a Friday night there were hundreds of people just chilling out and picnicing. It was a rad time.

I'm getting more and more excited for South East Asia travels. I started my Visa Process yesterday; first up is Laos. There are visa's available upon arrival but things are complicated in that we're doing a land border crossing from Cambodia. And by the sounds of things it's not the greatest of border crossings for getting Visa's, so it's good to already have one before arriving. So, I stopped by my favourite travel agent here in Daegu and he helped me out. I'm really happy, the price is much less than I expected. I was thinking it would cost over $100 but I got it for around $50 and it'll only take four work days until I get it. I'll be sure to post an excited update here when I do. --I sort of have a thing for visa's and passport stamps and such. In North Korea we tried to bribe a customs official on the train to give us one of the elusive DPRK stamps but it wasn't happening.

Anyway, I'm off to get some Babimbap. It's starting to really set in that I'm on my last legs here in Korea, so I'm really taking advantage of getting the authentic Korean things while I still can. In a month's time I'll be in Singapore with my dear friend Aileen!

I'm thrilled to announce that I've been granted the opportunity to interview a musician and artist I deeply respect. Phil Elverum also known as Mount Eerie or The Microphones is currently on tour around the East Coast. He played what I'm told was a very intimate show at Ampersand in Charlottetown the other day. I wish I could have been there, but I got in touch with Phil and we'll be doing an interview for my webzine when he returns from tour next week.

I remember seeing Phil play live twice before. The first time was at The Haviland Club over five years ago. It was my introduction to Phil's music. I think I was one of six or seven people in attendance. The second time was at Sappyfest #2. It was pouring rain and there were hundreds of people there to see him. Myself and my then girlfriend were right up front as he played all of our favourite songs; it was truly amazing. Here's one of my favourite songs of his:

Check it out; today I made some of my favourite Korean dishes. The first front and center is Kimchijjigae. It's a very spicy stew made of an assortment of things; kimchi (pickled cabbage) being the essential element. Other ingredients include tofu, onion, green onion, red pepper, red pepper paste, a dash of sugar, a little sesame seed oil and other Korean spices. The side dish is called Kongnamul Muchim which is just a soy bean sproud side dish. It's super easy to make and it's just cooked soy bean sprouts mixed with cloves of garlic, green onion, red pepper, soy sauce, dash of sugar, dash of salt, little sesame seed oil and that's that. So so good.