From East to West and back again. There is something about Asia that has always held my attention, Somthing here that draws me in and captures my imagination. I feel trapped in my journey sometimes, like I am being carried by some unseen force that I have no comprehention of nor any clue as to its intentions for me. The journey started that way and it will likely end that way, if it ends at all. For now, I am quite happy to let it carry me along, and along the way I will experience all that life has to offer.

As well as the journal, please check out the photo site, I would also love input on that. I will update the photo site as much as I possibly can.
Photography
This journal puts the twenty latest entries on the main page, now that I have been at it for a while, older entries are on the right hand side under the link that says Archived posts. Ya the one right there -->
Currently I am in Thailand. Below are flags of the other countries I have visited and hopfully more will be added very soon.
Last week marked my eight month point in Korea, meaning I have another four to go. With that eight months I have been thinking recently about things that I have become desensitized to in Asia that I would have been very aware of when I first got here.
Today, I was getting some baked goods when the woman who was selling me them told me the price I had no idea what she was saying or what the price was. I asked her to repeat and she did and again I did not understand. For the third time I asked her what the price was and this time she said it was 2300 won. Feeling a bit strange for not understanding what she was saying, I was thinking about it while I was walking home. On the walk I realilzed that the first two times she had said "two thousand three hundred" in English, she did not have a thick accent, I was just not expecting it and because I was expecting the price in Korean, I simply did not recognize the English. It has become such a rare thing that someone speaks English to me that I do not even recognize it when I hear it.
Comming out of the washroom the other day there was a lady cleaning in the middle of the men's room. I barely noticed. If this had happened in Canada I would have been shocked to see a woman in the middle of the men's room in broad day light. If a woman had had to clean the washroom in Canada it would have been locked and closed down while it was being cleaned.
Squat toilets have become common and I don't even think about them anymore.
So have the stares from people and the pointing fingers from small children who attempt to draw their parents attention by pointing and shouting "American". In Korean of course.
Being bummped into and cut in front of in line is common for me. I have even taken to doing it myself. If you give some one any distance in a line up, you will lose your place. At bank machines, I have to stand directly behind the person in front of me, giving them not personal space what ever.
Drunken people are common. People pass out in the street all the time. If I saw some one at home passed out on a corner I would probably help, here it is just common place and you just leave them to sober up on their own and sleep it off on the street.
Ok enough negative things. Being offered food and drink from people I don't know is also common. In Canada I would wonder what these people wanted from me in order for them to be so nice to me. Here is just normal for people to invite you to eat and drink with them. I think I get this even more than Korean people do because I am different and Koreans are looking to show their best face to the world. The certianly do that in spades.
Paying for food when I go out has also become uncommon, if I am out with Koreans they insist on paying and get quite offended if I try to pay. I would feel very uncomfortable with this and feel like I am not pulling my weight in Canada and a bit like I am mootching off some one. Not so here, I have just had to accept the fact that others want to show their hospitality by picking up the bill.
Ok that is enough for today, I will end this post with a Giant spider. Yes I did take the photo and belive it or not the spider was BIGGER than it looks in the photo. It is by far the biggest spider I have even seen in nature. Oh and there are some new photos up.