Canadian New Years....with some galbi thrown in!

Well, the New Year is here and the vacation is has almost come to an end. What’s been going on? I suppose a damn lot to put it simply. I’m officially half-way through my course and half-way to becoming a certified primary school teacher. It’s been a tough go of things since I began school. In the beginning I was wondering what all of the fuss was about. I seemed to have plenty of free-time and little to study, but things quickly snowballed. My practice teaching was tougher than I imagined. After 5 years of teaching relatively well-behaved kids in Korea, I was thrown into the fray with a 3rd grade class in one of Ottawa’s Beacon Schools. It was challenging, but in the end everything worked out well and I’m certainly the better teacher for it. The kids I taught, while chatty and uber-energetic, were very cool!

Rough semester done, solid grades and an amazing time teaching 3rd grade in ottawa, it was time for a nice little break. Mai and I spent Christmas with my folks for a week and my waist grew by several centimeters...the sign of a truly Canadian Christmas. I've come to quickly realize, after spending my first winter in Ottawa, that a truly Cnadian Christmas...at least an Ottawa one is friggin cold!! Wow...this place seems to have the same temperature as Yellowknife...actually...it often does!

For New Years, Mai and I ventured to London...Ontario. Our magical VIA experience, with crying babies across the aisle had a happy ending when Tom and Amity whisked us away from Union Station to London. The four of us met in Korea and were going to have a "quasi-Korean" themed New Years. We stopped in Korea Town in Toronto and picked up supplies for a feed of New Years galbi at Tom's place. Tom and Amity supplied the Korean bbq cook plate and Mai and I supplied the Baek saeju.


Tom cookin up a storm of galbi...in the confines of his Canadian apartment. Tom's funky litle Korean cooker was compliments of Amity. I believe she picked it up at a korean market in Columbus, OH.

After a few days and enough booze to kill a small herd of cattle, the four of us were off to Toronto. it was the last stop before Mai and I were to head back to the "Siberia-Like" atmosphere of Ottawa. Our tour guides (Tom and Amity) decided that it would be in the best interest of us, as well as the rest of humanity for us to visit the Steamwhistle Brewery in downtown Toronto. It's beside the CN Tower and the Rogers Centre. It was a great call on their part. A quick tour and four glasses of fabulous pilsner later, we were on our way.


A gaggle of former English and Japanese teachers enjoy the wonderful sudes at the Steamwhistle Brewery.

Here is a pile of Steamwhislte kegs on the production floor of the brewery. It's basically a "pile of heaven." Damn fine beer and in large quantities.


Tom used some of his savvy photography skills and snapped a few neat pics of Mai and myself outside Steamwhistle. EeEkkk...there appears to be a CN Tower in the background.

Ok...time in London and Toronto was finished. Back on the train for the trip to "Siberia-like" Ottawa. An annoying first-year Ottawa U student sat across from us and talked non-stop for more than four hours. A nice businessman sat beside her and somehow tolerated her babbling. I thought Mai was going to leap over me and quickly put an end to the girl's nattering. It was quite possible since two days earlier we watched the new Johnny Depp flick, Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Luckily Mai didn't have a razor on her at the time!!

So, we got back to Ottawa and walked home. It's about a 15 minute walk from the train station...no problem. WRONG! IT WAS COOOLLLLD!!! Painful cold. Got home and checked online...with the windchill....-29C. Ahh well...tis life in the Great White North.

Tonight we ventured downtown to look at the lights. The NCC (National Capital Commission) lights up Ottawa for the Holiday Season. From December6-January 6, there are beautiful lights throughout the downtown area, on the museums and of course the Parliament Buildings. With only 2 nights left to see them we needed to take a gander...well worth the trip.


Here's the canada Post building on the corner of Sparks Street across from Darcy Magee's pub. It certainly looked ship-shape.


Mai stood here infron of the Parliament Buildings. They looked great. They are illuminated with massive white snowflakes and lots of other groovy little lights.


The Fairmont hotel...aka...Chateau Laurier looked awesome as usual. Whenever I look at the hotel it reminds me of some sort of Bavarian castle. Why can I imagine it full of drunken German monks for some reason?


On our way home, we stopped on the bridge between the National Arts Centee and the Rideau Centre to take a look at the Rideau Canal. At night it looks great. Check it out for yourself.

Just a few more days left and the last term of my teacher education programs gets underway. I suppose things will be the same way as last semester; start off slow and then snowball into a world of assignments, stress and this time teaching a junior grade for 5 weeks...wither grade 4, 5 or 6...not sure yet. I plan to keep folks posted about my life in Ottawa on a more regular basis now. This is definitely a cool little city to live in and a lot of interesting thngs to do and see. Oh yeah...and it's really cold too!!