Happy New 2011!
New years is celebrated a bit differently here. What most people like to do is goto the coast to watch the first sunrise at dawn. But I heard the roads are very congested getting there and back. Another teacher said he likes to climb to the top of a mountain and wait to see the first sunrise. Or a third option in downtown Daegu was to goto a park where they have a giant drum which they beat at the stroke of midnite.

The weather had turned a bit colder last couple of days with daytime high -2 and overnight -7. I had planned on going downtown to see them beat the drum but the problem with my location is that it takes 45 mins to take the bus downtown. Then buses shut down at 10.30 so i'd have to take a cab back and end up waiting a long time as all the cabs would have been occupied. The other two options of watching a sunrise sound nice in July but I wasnt too keen on huddling in the freezing cold waiting all night for the crack of dawn and then trying to get back home.

The sunrise in Busan did look quite amazing with crowds from other peoples pictures. Also on new years day with the time delay I was able to watch the new york celebrations live at 2pm and the other US time zones next, which ordinarily i'd have been sleeping and missed back home. Went to see Tron on new years day and there was actually a crowd at my local movie theatre as opposed to the five people usually there!

The last week of December we had a rare snowfall. Not much by Toronto standards, only 2cm, but like England Daegu is not equipped for snow so it all just sits here and doesnt get plowed or salted. All the kids went crazy again on their last days of school and were all out scraping whatever snow they could find. Even some teachers rushed out with cameras.

Again all the heads were sticking out the windows from all four floors. Some people were throwing snow from below trying to hit the people above. Others had snuck up giant snowballs and were throwing them down from the above windows. Where I live there are no sidewalks so the cars and people go down the middle of the street. All the snow became pack ice and was difficult to walk as there are a few slopes on my street.

School is now closed from Dec 30 to the Mar 1 public holiday. That doesnt mean I get two months off. First I have to do winter camp afternoons for three days at another school. Then I do winter camp at my school half days for ten days. After that I get my official 10 days vacation which I will use to visit home and run into the three day lunar new year holiday in february to give me a couple of extra days. At my winter camp my first group is half elementary /half middle school students, my second group is all middle school but half third graders going to high school after the break. I never knew I would have this kind of mix from both schools so having to improvise and tailor my lessons on the spot.

When I return in February for some bizzare reason students all have to come back for graduation ceremonies. The new school year starts in march and the third graders will be leaving to goto high school. Not sure why they dont do the graduation ceremonies last week of december??. After graduation week the last two weeks of February there are no classes again. Foreign english teachers do not get time off and still have to go and sit in an empty school, referred to as 'deskwarming'. I guess it makes it fair as Korean teachers have to work six days whereas we always got saturdays off throughout the year so now its payback.

My school is somewhat flexible and says I can leave at lunch since the cafeteria is closed until March. Also, they allowed the previous teacher time off to travel in korea and have said I can do the same. This doesnt mean I can go 'on holiday'. I have to submit an itinerary of places in Korea I want to visit and get this approved by the vice principal as 'research travel days'. I guess this is a way for them to cover themselves in case the school board asks why I'm not there, since the other schools do not allow this and officially we are required to be in school even though there are no classes (other foreign teachers have to sit in empty schools till 4.20!)

Weather has settled into a pattern of daytime high +2 with overnight -5. Very manageable compared to Toronto, not even wearing my gloves. No rain and hardly any wind compared to back home. Seoul is a min of 5 or more degrees colder so more like Toronto averaging daytime highs of -5 and overnight -12, glad I'm not there. We keep seeing all the snow, ice, and freezing pipes in Seoul and other places on the news. Dont all the foreign teachers that rush to Seoul as their no.1 choice think of this? Wonder how folks in north korea manage where its colder and they have no heating oil? They say there are no trees left as they have all been chopped down.

Tried a Squid Burger at the korean burger chain version of Mcdonalds. It was all crunch and no taste except for the hot sauce. Also they give you a pager when you order so you wait for it to light up to pickup your order. They also have something strange called a 'lady burger' for women only??
Here is the commercial from youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zBbu-mh vlU

My blog had another 1500 hits last month after joining the koreanbloglist site. So now every past, present, and future blogger from korea has read my site. Hopefully these numbers will die down as I move further down the list.. I have over 500 pics to date on my blog from all my travels, museums, festivals, and towns in korea I have visited. Not sure why the Itaewon Mosque and the Uzbekistan Restaurant and the no.1 and no.2 most visited pics???

some interesting sites I found...

Daegu monorail linking chilgok to downtown (I'm further north and not even on this map!)
http://blog.galbijim.com/2008/09/daegu- announces-its-3rd-subwayi-mean-monorail -by-2014/
included some pics below of the construction going on around town

things to do in daegu
http://koreandreamer.blogspot.com/2010/ 04/discovering-daegu-metropolitan-city_ 23.html

lastly some pics of Paldal Market which I always pass on the bus so decided to check out. Nothing too exciting except the bikers whizzing by so watch out!