That time of the year again

From this weekend onwards Kyung Hee campus will be again awash with cherry blossoms. March was downright chilly in Korea, so the sudden balmy turn has become a welcome relief. Now it's time for the drunken revelry beneath the blossoms as picnicking hordes get out the soju bottles, dried squid and other side dishes, and go into party mode.

Mexicans

My amazing homestay family in Guanajuato. Mama's cooking was especially tasty and in copious quantities. Managed to put on about 5 kg in a week thanks to her culinary ways - hundred and one ways of cooking tortillas (flat corn bread), moles (rich dark sauces consisting of ground chocolate, cinnamon, chillies etc over chicken or pork), and tamales (corn dough and condiments wrapped in corn stalks).
The family were always joking with each other and there was a real warmth and love that was always palpable. Family seems much more important to Mexicans than to Australians or Koreans, and these folks always find time for a meal together in the evening or at 3.30 pm (lunch happens late in Mexico).

This Mexican girl was so cute that I couldn't resist snapping a quick candid picture. She is busy admiring some of the Aztec ruins at Teotihuacan and is wearing a blouse with traditional indigenous embroidered motifs. There was an astonishing variety of indigenous groups in Mexico and travelling a few hundred kilometers on a bus was enough to notice a perceptible difference in the appearances of the locals, not surprising in a country where 60% of the population is mestizo or descendents of both Europeans and Indigenous peoples.

Viva la Mexico!

Have spent the last few weeks in Mexico and what a great time it was. Mexico City, the second largest city on earth, slowly but surely sinking into the pre-Hispanic ruins and marshes upon which it was built by the conquistadores, was surprisingly relaxing in the historic center. I had been expecting a lot more chaos, but it had a village feel, and the lack of pollution and absence of criminal elements didn't seem too warrant the bad press this city constantly gets.
Rivera's murals are truly impressive for their scale and dynamism. Interesting that Rivera equates capitalism with social decandence and communism with humanism, and yet his blue house that he shared with Frida Kahlo is an expansive mansion far beyond the means of many Mexicans even today, and so he appears to have been very much part of the establishment rather than an authentically "revolutionary" thinker and activist.

Madly dashed off this painting using Painter 9 and my Wacom tablet the other day. Those hills in the foreground sure do look like mammories - got to be something Oedipal in all of this...

Sorry for nabbing this photo from your blog Charla but it's such a great one. Koreans got so into the last World Cup that lots of people went to the trouble of creating works of art on their faces. Dae Han Min Guk! Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap!

Trish and myself catching up over drinks on our traditional Friday nite get-together. I blame that nasty frown on my dad who use to always give me this look with his finger raised whenever I was in for it...

I'm absolutely loving my classes this semester. You guys rock!

I spent the second half of my Australian trip up in Sydney where my sister lives with her family. Both my sister and her partner Ron are architects who build hospitals in and around the Sydney area, and even work in the same office! Despite the constant 24/7 of seeing each other they get along pretty well. Must be nice to be able to talk to your partner about the same work issues and share similar interests.

My nephew and niece, Liam and Eliza, are both getting cheekier by the day. I got splashed big time only moments after snapping this shot. They're such cuties and it's a shame I only get to catch up with them once a year.

The Melbourne city landscape is taking on a more risky, postmodern feel with recent architecture that is a bit more out there, but still seems to work in with the Victorian terrace houses and stately buildings. My eyes are still getting accustomed to Federation Square and all its ungainly domino pieces, but the inside exhibitons, museum spaces and galleries are fantastic.

An unconventional shot of the Shrine of Remembrance. A vision of the glories that await every fallen soldier who hath served the nation...

As a uni student I used to be a permanent fixture on the Acland St cake shop scene, living in Elwood close by. My friend Jane and I would down huge amounts of those fruit tarts and chocolate eclairs while we kept up a steady supply of froathy cappucinos, followed by an alcohol fuelled binge later on in the evening. If only my ticker could stand such gluttony these days - I guess, my arrythmia (irregular heartbeat brought on by alcohol and overeating) is a blessing in disguise as it is keeping the weight gain off and teaching me everything in moderation - boring!,

Melbourne was busy trying to put on a real show for the Commonwealth Games held here earlier this year, and so the local councils have come up with all sorts of installation works to show off. I was impressed by this original skeleton of a ship that used to ply the local waters, suddenly drifted aground on the local St Kilda shore line, nice timely pun on the latest Flying Dutchman craze.

It's good news to know that I don't need to go all the way to St Kilda, Prahran, or Brunswick Street to imbibe some laid back coffee culture. The lanes in and around the city center are full of an artsy vibe that has transformed these parts of the city from once dark, grubby, graffiti-sprayed, dumpster-laden no-go zones. Now all I need is to buy one of the Victorian, Federation or Art-deco apartments just round the corner and I'd be ready to settle...who needs the suburbs!

Always wonderful to return to the Dickensian backstreets and lanes of Melbourne that lurk just behind magnificent arcades like this one uprooted from Milano.

Despite the bushfires, loss of habitat, and virulent chlymidia infections, it's good to still get a glimpse of healthy koalas munching away high up in the eucalyptus trees. The eucalyptus 'high' means that they spend a good 21 hours out of 24 zoned out in a semi-concious state.

Stawell & Hollow Mountain

With water restrictions in place as a result of the ongoing drought more locals are switching to native Australian gardens rather than the English garden look which soaked up so much water. The good thing is that native gardens are also low maintenance and seems to work well with a variety 0f different architectural styles. Never knew that native grasses would suit an Edwardian era home in the photo above but it all seems to work.

Mt Stapleton and Hollow Mountain are at the northern end of the Grampians National Park, one of the few remaining areas still open to hikers after a huge bushfire destroyed more than half the park in a matter of days. I shudder to think of all those poor koalas and other wildlife too slow moving to escape the twenty metre flames that engulfed the region and burnt on for days.
I love the natural amphitheatre above for two reasons: 1. you have to jump across hair-raising canyons along the top of the mountain in order to complete the trail, and 2. it is one of only a few mountains I've climbed that gives a humongous six echoes of "Koo-ee" (for Koreans that's "Yahoo" in Australia) when you bellow into the walls of the main amphitheatre.

Back in Oz (Australia) once more

Those of you reading this blog may think that my life revolves around extended international trapsing, and you wouldn't be too far off the mark thinking so. I get around two months off per year, once in summer, and once again in winter, and I certainly make the most of it. This is one of the best perks about working at a uni job here in South Korea.

Right now I'm back in Australia staying with my mother in the gold-mining town of Stawell in Victoria. It recently made world news because of the bushfires that have burned out half the Grampians National Park in the background. Add to that, the ominous signs the local mine is running out of gold and laying off workers, and a prolonged drought due to global warming/climate change, and you can get some idea of the local mood in town. Bring on the rain! Quickly now...

My mum is in the process of selling the family home so she can move up to Sydney and be closer to my sister and her family. There always was a bit of a city-slicker stride hidden away in her country-upbringing exterior. Let's hope there's a buyer for our colonial mansion built around 1866. It'll be sad to say goodbye to it after so many wonderful memories surrounded by family, but such a huge home is becoming too much bother for mum to handle on her own.

Korea has again been swept by an incredible wave of soccer fever, and thank God they won their first match against Togo otherwise the suicide rate may have just gone up with the pain of defeat. Koreans seem to take it all so seriously, as though their international reputation could be indelibly scarred by a quick defeat. This cute kid was on his way to City Hall to cheer on "the Reds" and luckily, he was going to be pretty rapped with the final score. As fate had it my exams started the next morning after the game, and so many students turned up bleary-eyed and hungover, and weren't too focused on giving their Powerpoint presentations to the class. The second game is tonight at 4am (!) and guess who has another exam tomorrow morning at 10am - viper teacher ('doksa' as they say in Korean), but what can I do? It is the final exam week after all.

Even lovers got in on the act by jousting with their inflatable "On the Reds" toys.

Thousands of Koreans gathered last week in front of City Hall to cheer on their team playing Togo. This shot was taken at 4pm and the game didn't start till 10pm! We gave up on trying to find a spot and ended up watching the game right next to a giant plasma screen in our favorite neighborhood pub.

One of Korea's most famous players, Park Ji-Seong has been immortalized on a downtown skyscraper. It's going to be hard for him to live up to the incredibly high expectations of Koreans. Good luck mate!

Alberta backcountry - breath-taking!

Snowshoeing was tougher than I imagined. Next time I'll stick with cross-country skiing.

Lake Louise was iced-over and a castle had been carved out of ice blocks! Surreal landscape it was...

The last Canadian trip photos, I promise! Banff was stunning as expected but I think I preferred the more sedate, low-key surroundings of Lake Louise. Banff was just a tad too polished, and catering for the well-heeled crowd who'd just jetted in from Calgary. Picture-post card it was, although a little too sedate after all the wild rooming moose had been relocated out of town because of silly tourists being gored while trying to feed them.

Bright colors in the animal kingdom often warn of poison and so it isn't surprising that these jellyfish would conceal a hefty sting in their tentacles for the unwary. But talk about grace and poise. I'm finding the intricate patterns of close stills captivating me more and more as they contain their own private, unexplored worlds.

Never thought that smoke stacks could be especially beautiful but at 7am on a crisp winter day in Vancouver this was a striking image as I came out of a metro station and had to admire the billowing wisps in the clear morning sun. Who said that smoke stacks can't be photogenic, huh?

After a week in Vancouver I packed myself off to do some skiing at Mt Whistler and Blackcomb. I'd been warned about the tacky village and the "sky-high" prices, but thought that it was reasonably restrained and worked in well with the landscape. Canada seems completely driven by credit cards. They wouldn't take cash for ski hire, only my credit card, and it was the same story for much of my travels. Although the ski ticket and ski rental cost me around $140 Canadian dollars, I was able to cut costs by staying at a youth hostel out by a frozen lake close by. I really recommend the experience to anyone.

It certainly doesn't look too steep judging from this shot, but don't be deceived. There were some harrowing ski courses with sheer drops over the side and not one piece of netting to break the fall. Skiing in Korea was a very tame affair compared to this, but what an adrenaline rush!

The views from near the peak were stunning and I found myself constantly stopping to take photos while my fingers slowly froze to death along with the camera batteries.

That duck-feather "astronaut suit" as one friend likes to call it came in very handy up at the summit where morning temperatures were a brisk -18 degrees.

Hi guys! Just want to let some of you know that yes, I am back on campus and not in Canada still, but let's just pretend the dates are in February rather than March/April because I was wanting to have more fun travelling than sitting around in Vancouver's Internet cafes all day downloading/uploading photos. This is a shot of the suspension bridge at Capilano gorge, which has been in operation for well over a hundred years. It not only leads across the ravine but extends into a tree-top network of bridges for closer study of the immense pine trees in this area. Stunning place! Shame about the hordes of tourist buses, but then, who am I to talk...

That bridge sure can sway and buck when you've got tourists trapsing all over it, and it is a long way down into that SHALLOW river stream.

The usual ugly mug.

The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia was definitely worth the bus ride out from Vancouver, despite a lack of sleep from partying the night before. The sheer genius and brilliant craftsmanship of the face masks on display from all over the world quickly woke me up and had me enthralled. This museum proved to be much better than the often tacky displays on offer at the museum in Victoria, despite all the hype about the latter in the Lonely Planet guide I was carrying.

Tragic to see that one of the few places I can easily find First Nations artifacts is in a museum/mausoleum. The other is in and along the overly touristy galleries of Gastown, where a small wall hanging by an indigenous artist can easily sell for a thousand dollars.

Brings new life to the old expression "He's got me by the b#$%!". This kind of attention to detail adds a very human element to the embrace.

An imposing entry to a Squammish tribal home.

The face we show to others is often a pale, reduced version of the real identity hidden away beneath it. Connecting with other people can be thwart with the distractions of a large group, blaring background music, feeling on edge and vulnerable. This huge, First-Nations sculpture summed up so well the ennui and angst of modern living even though that's probably not what was originally intended, and was most likely made in a small, tranquil coastal community over a hundred years ago. Or maybe that wasn't the case with the rapid dissolution of tribal life and health at the mercy of invaders carrying smallpox and weapons over the space of a few decades. Wouldn't mind talking to the original carver to find out what message he/she wanted to convey. If only...

Vancouver Bound

My first glimpse of British Columbia in Canada. After the endless concrete and manmade gimmickry of Tokyo I was mesmerized, sipping morning coffee through the plane window and getting itchy feet, thinking of all those rugged peaks, pristine forests, and skiable slopes that awaited.

The famous sails of the massive convention center overlooking the harbour - Sydney Opera house rip-off, don't you think?

Stanley Park is a huge, overgrown park just west of the downtown area. I had a fantastic time on my mountain bike grooving around the bike paths through the forest and along the shoreline - very exhilirating. I even managed to narrowly avoid running over my first racoon - just as well it wasn't a skunk. I'm going to bicycle my way around new sights as much as I can in the future. It's a welcome change from the sedentary pace of walking and brings new obstacles and challenges that make it more rewarding. Give me more bike paths in Seoul, please.

The North shore of Vancouver is closer to the wilderness and endless skiing opportunities just 30 minutes away from downtown. There aren't so many major cities in the world that offer wilderness on the doorstep to a city. As the hollywood superstars and celebrities such as Oprah move in with get-away villas perched high up in the mountains, rents and real-estate in Vancouver have even overtaken those of Toronto. Ouch!

The totem poles in Stanley Park remind me of the 'Changsung' poles that traditional protect villagers at the entrance to rural towns in South Korea. We are, after all, talking about a similar original ancestory of both Koreans and Native American Indians, which is though to be Mongolia. Shamanism and witch doctors, local wildlife imbued with spiritual powers, the protective powers of totems - there are incredible similarities harking back to a shared ancestory.

Sydney, Auckland and Vancouver all seem to share a certain resemblance with plenty of mariners, coastline, residential highrise apartments, sense of modernity, mild climate, and laid-back ways. I could certainly settle here for a while.

On the 6th of Feb I stopped over in Tokyo for a few days to break up my flight to Vancouver and check out how much the place has changed over the last seven years since the days when I worked here.
I've always wanted to spend a night in the Sheraton overlooking Ueno park. My architect sister would love the interesting dynamic capsule look of the place that has a resemblance to the models she used to make while at uni. Sadly it was a bit out of my price range so I settled for a nice, claustrophobic coffin at the local capsule motel, instead.