Still catching up...

We're trying to catch up on posts before the new year. For many of you reading this you think we're already too late but hey, it's still only the 31st here ok!

Here's a pic from Christmas breakky at the Whites (614):


Shae, Joyce and Lance at Christmas dinner with the Ohs:


Lach and Shae at Granville Island a couple of days later:


Jen left early on Monday morning (cry).
To distract ourselves, we went to a hockey game (our first) haha:



Here's one of the half time (and half size!) entertainment...aren't they cute?!


I think that's all for this year. Lach might put a few vids up but other than that, see you next year!!!

Snowboarding = pain

Well we figured, when in Rome.... so we've taken up Snowboarding. An innocent sounding sport where one travels down a mountain, at speed, with both feet connected to (that is, tightly strapped to) a plank of wood (or whatever Snowboards are made of). Ok, so maybe it doesn't sound so innocent. Well it isn't innocent, it is painful yet strangely addictive. I'm not sure why though, it's expensive, it's hard, it's cold, you fall over. But we'll be back up that mountain!

I (Lachie) face planted/nose dived/ate poo as they say.... I was bleeding, and proud of it. I haven't even mentioned the muscular pain that one experiences after 'riding' for a day.. any way.. here's a couple pics.


A healthy breaky to start the day.


The mountain.


The aftermath.

Snow Fishing

So I (Lachie) went fishing the other day (Saturday 20 December) on the Sqamish River with some other crazy Australians, Boulto and Sean. It was very cold... like -15C. Brrrr! We didn't catch anything but it was good fun! Bit different to surf fishing back in Coolumn, we really didn't want to fall into the water here...

Our House

Home, originally uploaded by Lachie_D40.

I figured out how to blog directly from Flickr... woo hoo!! This is our little appartment on Robson St, the 'upmarket' shopping strip in downtown Vancouver.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

Jen made it safe and sound!

And Christmas made it with a bright clear day, but it DID snow (a lot!) on Christmas Eve. So that's a white enough Christmas for us :-)

During the day Jen and I walked around in the snow, then we all spent Christmas eve singing carols at Coastal Church, Silent night was in candlelight. A long snowy walk to Stanley Park to check out Bright Lights and the miniature train ended with a friendly bus driver giving us a lift to the top - only to find out that the bright lights thing wasn't open! We still had a great time exploring in the snow then home to warmth, some maple ham, desserts and ice wine :-)

Waiting...

for Christmas, and for Jen :-)

We'll have a Christmas visitor which I'm very excited about. My friend Jen from Canberra is coming West from Ottawa where she's working at the moment. Looking forward to catching up. Should be heaps of fun. 

Thanks Shana for the Christmas card, Jack makes a super cute elf.

We have decorated our little apartment to try and up the festivities.  We are missing very much the presence of Ruby the red-nosed reindog this year.  Will try to get some pics up and  hopefully we'll get on here for Christmas but if not, have a safe and Merry one as we remember and give thanks for the birth of our Saviour.

It snowed!

Here are some pics from our appartment.

What's wrong with this picture...?

Ok, so it's not a picture, but Shae went to work today!!!!

Ok. You can stop laughing now.

The holiday is over, at least for one half of us. Can't really complain, lach is doing the vacuuming.

Lots has happened, will put up a longer entry and some pics another day.

Travelling hobos...

We moved...yes, again.

We have moved into our new place (well, for 2 months). We are subletting a little 1 br appartment in the middle of the city - it's cool, but much noisier than North Van!! 

This way, we'll be closer to downtown east side and all the goings-on there. 

I sort of miss being around people but it's nice to have our own (sort of) place again :-)

Hows the wildlife ey?

We saw SQUIRRELS!!!!!!!!!

In the STREET!!!!

We saw them crossing the street!!!!!!

We also saw a skunk the other night which I forgot to report. We tried to take a pic but were very cautious. Apparently you can smell them blocks away in the summer. Pee-ewwwww....

Happy Birthday Joshie!

Awww. It's little Joshie's birthday today - he is 5 so I guess he's not little anymore!!! Hey Josh, you get 2 birthdays cos it's your birthday tomorrow over here! haha. Have fun explaining that one Mel and Scott! :-D

So I promised an update. It's hard to update when we've just been doing normal stuff. I have included some pics though so you can see some of Vancouver and the people we've been hanging with. It has been really great being able to stay at my uncle and auntie's, getting fed delicious food and getting to know my relos a bit better.

We have also met up with some friends of a friend (Boulto) from Canberra. They are into the great outdoors so we're sure there will be many stories and pics of rugged adventures to come.

It's been especially great to meet and hang out with the guys from 614 in the Downtown East Side area. They are really inspiring in the way they are serving God by just living there and passing each day with people who are ignored or intentionally shunned by the general population.

We are moving into our own place (for a couple of months) on Tuesday/Wednesday. We managed to get a sublet from an Aussie (amazing how we find each other!) who is going back to Brisbane for a couple of months. He lives in a small appartment right in the centre of town, so we will be closer to the action. I have to say I'll miss the Sea Bus though (for the majority, I think if I say "ferry" you get the idea).

We've enjoyed a fantastic time of relaxing (for Lach) but next week I think we'll have to start pinning down things like jobs, and begin to get into some sort of life routine.

Feel free to email or call us on skype. We are 5 hours ahead, but one day behind!

Shot of Vancouver from the "sea bus"...



Tim Horton's ...that's for you Sandra!!!



Lach with my Uncle and Auntie. Me (shae) with my cousin Joyce.



Michelle and Shae making Candy Wreaths for Christmas :-)



The 'outdoor' crew at a photo exhibition.

We're still here....

Sorry, have been really lazy about blogging. Will update soon...hopefully tomorrow :-)

Hope everyone is well. We are good, despite the constant rain :-( 

Setting up our double lives...

Today was pretty boring. Sorry no pics cos Lach hasn't put them on the computer and I am too tired my brain is hardly working anymore.

My auntie took us to 7/11 to buy public transport tickets, then we took the Sea Bus (ie. Ferry) 'downtown'. They live in North Vancouver (near the mountains, just beautiful) about 1/2 hour from the city or 'downtown area'. We walked around a bit and just checked it all out. It's a sleepier city than Seoul that's for sure!

We managed to get ourselves set up with new local SIM cards, so we have Canadian numbers now. We also got ourselves a bank account (with no money in it! haha). So we're well on the way to building our Canadian identities. We will try to get insurance numbers on Thurs (like Tax file number, so we can get paid).

Met Joyce (my cousin) after she finished work and went to (this is for Sandra) Tim Hortons (a coffee chain).

We'll start to look for a place to live tomorrow. And I (sharyn) will have to get a job.

Welcome to Canada Eh?

Yup. We made it. Nice full flight, had to pay for matey (lach's guitar) to be checked-in...but we made it. We are in the "no hayfever" land!

Basically caught up on electronic mail, rested, ate, now about to sleep. Checking out downtown tomorrow :-D

Last night in Seoul

Had a bit of a sleep in then got up and went out to Hangang River Park - very nice but it was so cold and windy...there were people flying kites which looked great.



We kept walking up to Yoido Full Gospel Church - Yongyi Cho's church. It was massive and a bit strange but cool to be there. They have 5 services a day (as far as i know) and have a different band and choir for each one. It's full on!



Went to Namdaemun market to have a look for some bargains but Lach wasn't feeling well and there really wasn't anything we'd wear so we checked out a department store nearby (ahhh, warmth) and then headed home for a rest before some dinner and night shopping in Itaewon.
We went to the BEST restaurant we think we've ever been to. No pics, but it's called Ola and is an italian restaurant opposite Itaewon Hotel. Soooo good. Great service too. Go there! haha

Can't believe it's our last night here. I am sad. It is a cool place and has been a very enjoyable holiday.

We head to Canada tomorrow evening. Stay tuned.

Who are the Visitors....

Got up and met mum and dad who came up to Seoul from Buyeo (about 3 hrs away). Auntie Pik (mum's youngest sis who teaches English in Osan, near where we were yesterday) also came to meet us at Starbucks. One of her colleagues heard she was coming to meet us and gave us these sweet little korean souvenir keyrings. So cute! People are so nice here.



It was a wet and miserable day but we decided to brave the elements and see more of Seoul despite the weather. Here is dad, busted jumping the barricades at the train station! haha



Auntie Pik took us to a korean traditional eating place where we sat on the floor to eat, and had black chicken! Weird. Was fun.



We then went to Insa-dong - awesome little area with lots of little craft boutiques. Had coffee there in a cool loft bookshop/cafe. Very funky. Walked around to a cute little stream area which was pretty but cold. Found a massive bookstore too which had anything and everything. Amazing how much stuff there is in this city.



Went to a moroccan place for a buffet dinner - probably not the best choice since we had been eating all day but it was Yum!

Thanks family for a great day! :-D

Folk Village Folks

Lach said yesterdays blog was too long so here's a shorty for you. Today we went to the Folk Village at Suwon. Took us 2 hrs to get there but it was worth it - lots to see and do. Check out the pics. Haven't quite worked out putting up the vids.

Seoul City Bus Tour + happy birthday kila

We finally got to sleep in today. When we got up, we had breakky at Starbucks then hopped on the Seoul City Bus Tour - a hop on/hop off bus that goes around the city to major districts/tourist attractions.

Our first stop was N Seoul Tower. A steep climb up and we were met with beautiful autumn leaves. We checked out the reenacted smoke signal tower, and breathed in the not-enticing aroma of beetle. Not sure what beetle it is but it STINKS! And they eat it.



Went up the tower which for a observation tower was pretty good actually. Amazed that Seoul is such a big city. We were both in awe of it's size. Huge...massive...gigantic. Very Big.



We also discovered the fences of padlocks. we don't really know what it's all about, but we joined in anyway. haha. We'll look up the story one day. Crazy Koreans.



Next stop was Deoksugung Palace. It was about an hour away cos we didn't want to miss the changing of the guard...so we missed quite a few other stops :-( Grabbed some KFC before the ceremony. The colonel would be proud. The ceremony was colourful and musical. Worth it.



Decided to walk to Namdaemun Market, where Lach discovered "camera corner" so we were stuck there for a looooong time. Bought a few additions (yes, even more) for little D40. Walked into the market briefly, by that time we weren't really up for market shopping.

Continued on foot to Seoul Station. Not much happening there but the old station would've been a grand building in it's day. It's now shelter to many homeless people, the first we've really seen here in Seoul.



Missed the bus (couldn't find the stop) so got on the subway (yay) and made our way home.

Had Korean bbq for dinner (galbi, rib meat). Was ok. We didn't find it that great compared to some of the other korean foods you can get.

Tomorrow we head off to the FolK Village. Can't wait! So far, Seoul has not failed to impress.