New souvenir

So Yesterday (Monday) morning I got a Korean driver's licence in preparation for the car rental and pick-up of Becca's parents, who arrive on the 25th (that's Christmas to the holiday-ly impaired) -- about which we are ridiculously excited, I might add.

I thought that it (the licence) would be harder to get, since I didn't even think to get an international licence before we left Canada, but all I needed to bring was my alien card, passport, three pictures (which cost 7000 won at a local dept store), my Canadian driver's licence and 10,000 won.

I filled in the forms, paid the money, and got an eye exam. Then they wanted to make sure that I could do one deep knee bend in a row, and was fully capable of wiggling my fingers.

Seriously. I had to squat then stand up again and wiggle the fingers on both hands in order to get my licence. But no road test. Just finger wiggling and squats.

Anyway, now I can legally drive (a car) in Korea, and have a nifty souvenir. Also, it seems that this licence doesn't expire for another 10 years, which is neat. I'm not sure why, but It's neat.

here it is:

A kimchi-making, plate-tossing extravaganza!

So Saturday night we had our early Christmas present to ourselves. We went to this. They're usually based in Seoul, and I'd heard good things, so when I found out that they were in Cheongju for the weekend, I jumped on the chance.

It was intense.

Basically, it's an almost completely non-verbal performance, which is obviously right up our alley. The show was a kind of cross between Stomp, The Iron Chef, The Court Jester, an old kung fu movie and the Three Stooges. Translation: it was awesome.

The premise is that there are three chefs at a wedding hall, two men and a woman, and there's a wedding for which they have 1 hour to prepare. Now, normally this wouldn't be a problem, but these particular chefs can't seem to resist the temptation to drum on anything and everything they have at their disposal. Add to the mix the managers clumsy and lazy nephew and WATCH OUT! You've got a recipe for DISASTER!

Anyway, it was a whole lot funnier than either of us were expecting, and they did cool things like take people from the audience up on stage, and throw things into the crowd. Such a great show. So if you ever find yourself in Korea and can't think of anything to do, and happen to see a poster that Nanta is performing in your town, you now know what you have to do.

Birthday

My birthday....

Was amazing! The entire day was really wonderful. At work they got cake and a present for me! The present was a beautiful Korean tea set thing -- very unique. The cake was also ... unique. Nothing beats sweet potato on pizza apparently here. Sweet potato ice cream is likewise a favorite. I was utterly shocked though, at the Sweet potato cake that everyone enjoyed in the office! They actually cook the sweet potatoes and make a mush that they put as a layer of the cake. It wasn't that bad. Ryan was unfortunately on another anti vegetable binge in hopes of catching scurvy and therefore did not partake in the potato fun. (they have a lot of potato fun in Korea).

On the Friday night we had real cake (delicious) and also crab. Now I had mentioned that us cooking crab would be a neat thing to do together for my birthday and there happen to be an abundance of live crabs in the supermarket. What I didn't know, unfortunately is that the arch nemesis of Ryan, from the aquarium we went to, were also at the grocery store. I'm at work and Ryan has gone off to pick out a crab. He comes back and mentions that we do not have a pot large enough to hold the crab that he has gotten so it will be cooked at the grocery store. I become suspicious. We have rather large pots you see. Unusual, but perhaps crabs have longer legs than I am imagining. I get home and find a ferocious looking gigantic crab that Ryan is gleefully attempting to hack the limbs off. The giant crabs differ from normal crabs in several ways but the most important of these is the spikes that they have protruding from their exoskeleton. Think of a giant rose stem you initially hack off and then break open to eat. I think it was the best birthday present ever to have Ryan assert his 'provider' role while wrestling with a giant dead spiky thing. It was hilarious!

The following day we went to Seoul (that's right, it was a two day affair!) where I got a birthday present of boots and did Christmas shopping.

Well that's about it!

EDIT: photo server's back up. Here are the pictures:

First off, the crab itself:


Secondly, the epic battle:

It's...

SNOWING!!!!!