C:\Marlow\

Just thought I’d throw these on my blog quick cause some people I know don’t have or use Flickr.com

It’s funny how every country has their own perceptions of others and their own way of telling you about theirs. I just met some Spaniards in my room in the hosteland their first thought is “You know the Raptors? They have 2 Spanish players”. I met some other Spanish bboys and their question was “Oh you know the Boogie Brats?”.A mexican that asks if our “soccer fields are really ALL grass” or a French girl that tells you she “likes Celine Dion”. An American that says “Toronto, that’s near Niagara falls, right?”.

You have to be ready to answer these questions constantly in a hostel because “where are you from” is the travel equivalent of frosh weeks “What’s your major?”. I’ve tried to spice things up with more open ended questions having been in the same hostel 10 days but I’ve received a few blank stares that change in to smiles once I readjust my line of questioning to a more geographic one.

But do you think it’s our nationality that defines us? It brings up that classic psychological debate of nature vs nurture and there’s tons of arguments for both sides. But it makes me wonder, what defines Canada? A country that struggles to find an identity when it’s just a big mixing pot of cultures. It’s like trying to pin a taste on trifle or budae chigae.

After travelling around a bit I’m intensely jealous of fall these other countries with Cultural identities and histories. The Koreans have their language and Kimchi, the Chinese have so much culture and history they could build 10 more great walls out of the books it filled. Walking around France I’m jealous all over again. There are apartment buildings here that are as old as our country and still have people living in them. I can’t even count the number of French restauraunts I’ve seen here.

It’s not that I begrudge the acceptance or diversity of our country. It’s one of the things I love most about Toronto. Korea-town, Little Italy, Greek-town, Little Portugal, China town, etc… but it leaves me wondering where is Little Canada?

I’ve felt for a long time that everyone in Canada is just a permanent visitor and find it kind of sad that we don’t really have a culture of our own to have in common with other Canadians. Maybe it’s partially my fault for not liking hockey or something. What do we do or have that no other country has in common with us? What makes Canadians unique? In what areas does Canada excel or is number one?

I’ve arrived safely in Paris and I’ve been going around town with two bboys from Spain that I met in my hostel. We’ve even met some other bboys going around Paris. I’m going to cut ths short cause this internet kiosk is being a putin de merde

a demain

Ok, it’s official. I just booked my non-refundable tickets to Paris, France leaving this thursday (June 21st) and returning July 20th. I’m heading out to France to practice my French, meet some French bboys, and hunt down some baguettes in their natural habitat.

I’ll be going by myself which is a little scary because I’ve never travelled alone before. I stayed an extra month in Korea by myself but I already had some friends there and knew my way around. So this will definitely be a different experience. A test of the new Chris that you see before you, I’ve been working on improving myself the past few years and I think I’ve come a long way from the Chris that existed in high school. Better in some ways (I’m more confident and somehow, more handsome), worse in others (I bite my nails).

I’m really excited to be going to Paris and will likely head down to Nice or Marseille as well for the last leg of my trip. If anyone knows anybody in France that I should look up drop me an e-mail or message or call my cell or something. It’d be great to know one or two people before getting in town and just being completely disoriented.

I’ll definitely be blogging from France while I’m there and I promise at least a few photos, unlike my half-assed Thailand posts! I hope I get to see a lot of you before I head out, but if not I’ll see you when I get back for sure!

I’ll update as soon as I have more info, cause I don’t know if I can sit still right now, I’m still too excited!

Woot woooooooooooo!

Hey Blog!

Wow, it’s been a while, eh? What’s it been…? Two weeks… Three…? What?!?! Two months?!

Wow, I’m sorry I haven’t been keeping in touch with you. I guess I’ve been busy living life to the fullest. What did I do yesterday? Well, I guess I didn’t do too much… I met up with Phil, it had been a long time since I saw him.

We went to see Spiderman 3. Huh? Yeah, it was ok. Not great, but good I suppose. after the movie we went to dinner at a carribean restaurant called Island Mix. No, it wasn’t a date, blog. Well, the waitress looked at us a bit weird. Yeah, I guess it kind of looks adnd sounds like a date, shut up, ok Blog?

I know you’re upset cause I don’t post on you like I used to. I promise I’ll change baby. Tell you what? How about I post some photos on you? It’s been a while since I last posted photos on you but you used to like that, right? Two weekends ago I went to the Marijuana March with Jon and took photos of the guys playing hack. Sounds interesting,eh? I’ll put those photos up. How’s that sound?

What? Oh, the marijuana march was in Toronto. Weed’s really illegal in South Korea. Yes, Toronto, Canada. Wow, it has been a long time since I posted on you. Last I posted was the day before I left Korea!

I’ve been adjusting well, yeah. Thanks for asking Blog. I didn’t get a big culture shock like I thought that I would. Sure I miss the food and my friends but it’s nice not hearing old men hoarking all over the street and a lot fewer people smoke here too. That’s nice at least.

So I’ve been home for about 2 months now I want to know what is everyone doing now and where can I meet up with you to get caught up on things? I’ve got tons of free time to travel so let me know and I’ll visit

Tomorrow morning I’ll be on my way home to Canada. It’s strange how quiet my life will seem outside of the bustle of Seoul and the bali-bali (quick quick) way of life.

I’m still packing my suitcase right now and being pressured to go to bboy practice now. I know if I go right away I’ll have a blast but will end up packing drunk and that’s probably a bad idea, but I want to spend as much time with all my friends as I can before I leave them for what could possibly be forever.

People keep asking me when I’m coming back to Korea, and I never know what to say… I certainly don’t want to teach English again for a year. But I know forcertain that I’m going to miss Korea and their way of life and mannerisms and sound effects. It’s been a really strange day oday that started out with me shopping for clothes, then just sitting at a subway station in a very strange mood watching people go by, to me yelling at my old co-worker because they f***ed my plane ticket home and would not pay to fix it and couldn’t do so in time.

On that note, I won’t be flying in to Toronto. I will instead be flying in to Montreal. What I’ll do once I’m there I’m not 100% sure but I DO know that I will have an ass-and-a-halfs load of luggage to take with me however I get home.

I just realized I’m blogging when I should be packing and/or saying good bye to new and dear friends. So I will end my post here.

It’s strange how some people I’ve known most of my time in Korea will be or already have disappeared without a trace, but some of the Korean friends I’ve made in only the past few weeks here in Anam are already planning trips to visit me in Toronto!

It’s funny how friends can enter your life so strongly or just disappear so easily.  I would love to hear anyone’s opinion or stories relating to this.

I’ll add some pictures of people I’ve met here when I have a spare moment…

Please read this post with the knowledge it’s about a week delayed…

Last friday after bboy practice my two recent Korean friends, ?? (Seungju) and ?? (Changshin), were upset to hear that I would be going home so soon so they decided that after dinner we would go back to my small apartment and drink and hang out. So we grabbed a few bottles of Korean beer and went back to my place to chill and talk.

After hanging out till about 3 am I told them they could spend the night at my place and they crashed on the floor of my place. Keep in mind the floor is about as big as the single bed in my place, I also felt pretty bad about not having any pillows or blankets for them either .

The next day we went to a large bboy practice and it was one of those really inspirational practices that pushes you to be more creative than usual. The music was incredible and just made me want to keep dancing and the dancers everywhere were incredible so it was just a fantastic vibe over all. However, I pushed myself too hard at practice and hurt my knee which I had surgery on a year or two back.
After the practice I went to BBoy Night a bboy party that was being held in Gangnam, in Seoul, and this place was near impossible to find. I met up with my friend Chris at the subway station in Gangnam and after about what seemed like an hour of wandering aimlessly we called the studio and found out it was underground not 20 feet from where we were. God damn… Anyways, even though I was injured Chris and I decided to enter the 2 on 2 battles just for fun and I’m so glad we did as you’ll soon read why.

So I heard rumour that bboy Born and TinoRoc (two of my favourite bboys) were entering. So not only am I going to battle but I’m going to get to see two legends roast some other bboys in the circle. Now for those of you who haven’t already guessed at what happend, those suckers were Chris and I. Here’s a video to prove it aswell (Sorry for the long intro…)

technorati tags:bboy, born, tinoroc, breakdance, breakdancing, korea, gangnam, seoul