As tensions rise with N Korea moving and test firing missiles and setting off Nuclear Bombs under ground I'm enjoying some good ol Korean Baseball league fun. Last night I went to the baseball stadium with my Korean pals John, Joon Gyu and Dae Hi. We drank beer, ate fried chicken, fried fish, gimbap, noodles, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

It was a thrilling game. The Samsung Lions of Daegu (who aren't doing too well this season) were pitted against the Sk Wyverns of Incheon (ranked #1 overall). On paper it looked like the Lions were going to get crushed. But they were off to a fast start scoring a run in the first three innings including a leadoff homerun in the first. The Wyverns didn't do much of anything until the top of the 7th inning when the Lions got into trouble with a few base hits and a walk. Before you could say Babimbap the bases were loaded and living up to their reputation the first place Wyverns took full advantage of the situation as the next batter up hit a grand slam!

The Lions battled back in the bottom of the eighth and with a runner on second Lion's star Park Jin-Man drove in the tieing run and with the bases loaded the Wyverns pitcher issued a walk. Closer Oh Seung-Hwan came on in the 9th to seal the deal and registered two strike outs for the save.

The crowd was a little subdued as the funeral of former President Roh Moo-Hyun took place earlier in the day. There were no cheerleaders or mascots for the game as a sign of respect. The crowd really picked up in the later innings of the game though and I must say they rivaled the crowd I was with in Hiroshima earlier in the month.

A lot has been going on. N Korea has been going absolutely crazy but I'm not too concerned. The general consensus seems to be that they're just looking for attention. There's nothing I can do about the situation anyway. Worst case scenario I have my Canadian embassey contacts and I'm registered so they know where I am if need be... but I can't imagine it coming to that.

In other news I celebrated my twenty third birthday a few days ago on the 27th. My dear mother celebrated her 59th on the same day. John and Joon Gyu threw a little surprise party for me at school on my birthday. They surprised me with a great chocolate Birthday cake, party hats, and the whole nine yards. I'll post pictures soon.

The other night I went for dinner at my school's Art teacher's house. His name is Gyu Joon Park, not to be confused with my other friend and tennis coach Joon Gyu Park. It was wonderful to meet his family. John came with me to help with translation as none of them speak English and I was the first non Korean to ever step foot in their house. They were very kind. We ate late into the night until we couldn't eat anymore. He's a really interesting man; we bonded over travelling and hiking. He's going to draw my portrait for me before I leave because as he explained it's the one thing he can do. I was very honoured. It was a very sweet visit.

My dear friend Aileen is moving to Australia on the 1st of June. My thoughts are with her ; I know she'll do great and will have many stories to tell when we meet in Singapore before setting off on our South East Asia adventure in September.

I snapped a few photos from the Lions / Wyverns game. We were really close to the action and I brought along my 300mm lens for zoomy goodness. Here are nine photographs for your viewing pleasure!

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Growing up I used to worry about the day they dropped the bomb / Blow up my house my dad and my mom / Everyime the sky would turn a funny shade of green / I thought they'd drop the bomb on me / And then media told us not to worry anymore / That there wasn't any threat of a nuclear war / And everyone just forgot / Everyone just forgot about it / Everyime I thought about it I'd get real scared / And now I'm glad they told me not to care / What you got to keep in mind is that all those bombs are still there / I bet one day we'll find out why we were so scared.

The news of the second Nuclear test by North Korea comes just 48 hours after news broke that former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun (from 2003 to 2008) took his own life over the weekend by jumping off a cliff near his home. People are in a state of shock.

This is a song written by this great punk band called Operation Cliff Clavin. Another great punk band called This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb are the ones playing it.

There are twelve student teachers (pictured above) visiting my school this month. Today the grade sevens went on a field trip to the local amusement park in Daegu, Woobang Tower Land. We all went along. It was fun to hangout with the student teachers. They all range from twenty four to twenty six years old... still making me the young'un... but they're nice people and it was cool to hangout with them.

I have some photos up from the day spent at Woobang Tower Land on my photography (and I use that word lightly) site. Go ahead and check'm out at... HTTP://JUNNNKTANK.COM/YOUANDME.

In a mere eight weeks I will be back on Prince Edward Island for a two week visit. I'm writing lists of essential things I have to do and people I have to see. It'll be fantastic to see my girlfriend Meghan again, and my mom and grand father and of course my dog (pictured above).

Beyond that I'm putting on a show for the great Shotgun Jimmie (video below). I just can't seem to help myself with putting on shows. I'm really looking forward to it. My favourite Charlottetown bands, The Barnkats and New Royalty have both confirmed to be playing the show. Other plans include a visit to the wonderful City Cinema (anyone care to join me?), a trip to the wind farm, dance parties and wrestling and relaxing in backyards and so much more... Maybe Meghan and I will make candy apples again... last year during the HFF festival I put on we made a whole batch of them for the first show. They were a pretty big hit... we'll figure out something special to do...

Friends, loyal blog readers if you are going to be on Prince Edward Island between July 16th - 27th I would love to see you. Get in touch and we'll work it out.

Here's a video from the fella that I'm going to be putting on a show for when I'm back. Sackville, New Brunswick's own, Shotgun Jimmie:

After a morning which was filled with gift giving (all of us teachers received new bedding for the summer, a large box of mini pancakes called Kyong-ju Cookies, many fruit drinks and rice cakes, watermelon and a special lunch prepared for us by the principal) John and I took off to explore a little bit of Daegu. We found ourselves at the Daegu FC Football Club Stadium. There wasn't a game going on so we were able to tour the stadium and actually get right down on the playing surface as you can see in the photo above! We're planning on seeing a game sometime soon. After the DaeguFC visit John took me to visit his old University campus. It was neat to see it and we visited a traditional Korean Folk Village as well.

John told me a story about our friend Mr Park who is teaching me tennis. Mr Park has very little English but nevertheless in university he took an English language class. On the first day they were required to stand up and introduce themselves to the class. Unfortunately for Mr Park who had no English experience before that was selected to be the first student to introduce himself. So, as John tells me, Mr Park stood up confidently and said the only English phrase he knew: "What time is it, Mr Park!" He then bowed and sat down. I'm told that the professor never called on him again. As you can imagine his nick name throughout the rest of his university years was "What time is it Mr Park". I couldn't help but laugh at the story, but it brought me back to those awful moments in school where a teacher would put you on the spot. John wants me to call him "What time is it Mr Park" the next time we're out.

It's Teacher Appreciation Day today at school. There aren't any classes but I'm told there will be a brief assembly first period and then we'll see where the day takes me. I was given a cute letter from one of my grade seven students. It was sealed in an envelope and everything. It reminded me a little of gifts I used to get as a swim instructor and I couldn't help but laugh at myself:

Dear. Dixon
Hello, Dixon? I'm 1 grade 4 class in students Cheon Dong Hyeon. How are you? Yesterday, P.E. Contest 'sorry, teacher' teacher is Ovat and all tired but funny time. Today is teacher's day. Happy teacher's day! I'm Dixon teach class very funny and interesting. Goodbye"

Amazing.

The picture above is an event from the Sports Day that I forgot to include. Everyonehad balloons tied to their legs and when the music started it was a free for all as everyone tried to stomp on each others balloons. The last one left standing was declared the winner. It was complete mayhem.

I've gotten a little nostalgic watching YTVretro.com. It's all of the old shows from YTV in the 90's.... Are You Afraid of The Dark? Breaker Higher, Goosebumps, even PJ Phil is there! Here's to nostalgia.

Today was the great annual sports day at my school. The sun was shining and everyone had a great time! I was in an event where the teachers were blindfolded and had to follow the sound made by one of their students using a noisemaker such as a bell or a drum or something like that. I'm happy to report that I won the event; actually I destroyed it -- apparently I was already making my turn around the final pilon before any of the other teachers were even half way there. The kids were blown away and thus gave me the name of Superman for the rest of the day.

It was a pretty long day in the heat but there were some nice tents set up to cool off and everyone was treated to ice cream after lunch. Tomorrow is a Teachers Appreciation Day so there won't be any classes; I think we'll probably be getting off at lunch time, too. I don't think I've taught a full week in about a month thanks to exams and holidays and such. Next week field trips begin. Ahh, I love spring. In just under two weeks I'll be turning twenty three, though I'm already twenty four in my Korean age.

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It's Mother's Day today. I think my mom would kill me if I posted a picture of her here, so instead I've posted a picture I took a little over an hour ago. I stayed up all night last night, not for any particular reason... I just didn't want to go to sleep, and I wanted to see the sunrise. I almost fell asleep more than a couple of times but I made it through and around 5am I made my way down to the river and enjoyed the sun lighting up the Korean sky.

One of my fondest childhood memories of my mom was her singing a Beatles song to me. It served as a lullaby even and it often put me to sleep as a youngster. I'm particular fond of my memories of the drives home from Canoe Cove. We would often get together with good friends turned family and enjoy a feast of a meal, much political debate, and more times than not a shocking movie (seeing Fargo at young age and being haunted by the wood chipper scene for instance...). As hosts and guests alike would begin to drift off we would set out for the journey home. I would be half asleep for most of the drive but as we neared home my mom would break into this familiar song. It was like a warm blanket growing up, and I'm not ashamed to say it still is.

If ever I'm feeling homesick I put on this song and it takes me back to those soothing drives from Canoe Cove to Cornwall. I'll be calling my mom later today to wish her a happy Mother's Day.

In the spring of 2008 I went on a wild UK adventure with my good buddies Christian and Josh. On our second day we madeo our way to the Luminaire club in downtown London to see one of our favourite bands from Brooklyn "Matt & Kim." We danced along to Spank Rock before their set and then we got lost in a massive dance party --still, that crowd had nothing on Charlottetown. I've posted a video (above) from that show in London. Unfortunately this seems to be the only video that exists and it's really short... try to imagine us right up at the front going nuts. You can sort of make out Christian in the crowd from time to time; he's wearing glasses.

It was this trip where I caught the travel bug and knew I had to come to Korea / Asia and beyond. Apart from hiking in the Highlands of Scotland and rocking out in London this trip included me hoping off of a train as the doors were closing on our first night in London and getting lost for nearly two hours. By the time I finally made it back to our hostel it was after hours and I tried climbing the fence and failing miserably. I didn't know it at the time but Christian & Josh were watching the whole thing unfold from a window in the hostel. A few moments later I found the 'after hours' back entrance only to be greeted with hugs and smiles from my travel buddies.

Since the above video is so short I thought I'd include another Matt & Kim clip. This is what they're up to these days; it's their newest video.

These photos highlight the Hiroshima Carp vs Yakult Swallows baseball game I attended, as well as my time walking around the Peace Memorial Park while enjoying the Flower Festival and other misc things. This wraps up my photos from Hiroshima.

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When the Atomic Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945 it is thought that the explosion took place directly above this building. Now a UNESCO World Heritage site the skeletal remains of the building were among the few things left standing in the entire city. Here are twenty photos from the Atomic Bomb Dome / Peace Memorial Park I took this past weekend in Hiroshima, Japan. This was a very intense and moving place to be. I was lucky enough to be in Hiroshima during the Flower Festival; I'll be making a further post about this event soon.

// CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE PHOTOS //

When the Atomic Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945 it is thought that the explosion took place directly above this building. Now a UNESCO World Heritage site the skeletal remains of the building were among the few things left standing in the entire city. Here are twenty photos from the Atomic Bomb Dome / Peace Memorial Park I took this past weekend in Hiroshima, Japan. This was a very intense and moving place to be. I was lucky enough to be in Hiroshima during the Flower Festival; I'll be making a further post about this event soon.

// CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE PHOTOS //

Hiroshima was fanastic. I had an unbelievable time. I did everything I set out to do -- I visited the Atomic Bomb Dome and Peace Memorial Park, I explored Hiroshima Castle and Shukkeien Gardens; I ate Okonomiyaki (Japanese Pizza), enjoyed the Flower Festival activies and I even caught a baseball game of the beloved Hiroshima Carp.

I'm not exaggerating when I tell you the Carp are the pride of Hiroshima. I swear every seat was taken and everyone spent the entire game chanting and dancing for their team. It's a brand new stadium opened just this year so everyone was really excited. How I got to the baseball game is kind of a funny story; essentially I just started following this huge crowd from Hiroshima JR station and ten minutes later I found myself at the baseball stadium buying a ticket. Not long after that I found myself chowing down on a Phili Cheese Steak amid a sea of rabid fans dressed all in white and red (The Carp's official colours).

The visiting team The Yakult Swallows had some fans of their own; they would break out these bright blue umbrellas and sing a special song and do a special dance whenever they scored a run. It was pretty great.

I'll write more about my trip to Hiroshima, Japan soon and I'll post photos as well, but first I just want to let you know that I'm going to be visited by a girl (pictured above) in late August for my final days in Korea. I can't wait to see her. The countdown is officially on!