sea cucumber

At Muuido we were informed that the funny pale orange sea cucumbers that are sometimes seen on the mud flats when the tide is out actually fluoresce.
How did we find that out? A couple of guys we met had wandered out on the mud flats a couple of nights earlier after having a few drinks and one either stepped on one or hit accidentally hit it with his foot causing it to light up. What a cool discovery!
We did get to see it ourselves. They are hard to find at night because there aren't that many of them to begin with. When the tide is well out, take a flashlight and go for a walk. They appear whitish on the dark mud in the light of the flashlight. With the lights out, when touched, they glow a greenish blue color. Love it!!!

swine flu, skirmishes with North Korea, etc...

So, my school has closed its doors until Friday. 3 days off mid week. I'm certainly not complaining.
I wonder though how affective this is. A couple of students got the flu and the result is the school closing. So what happens if a couple more students end up with the flu next week or the following week or such? Do we close the school again? Korea has free flu shots for school children (grade 1 and up, but not kindergarten age because it is not part of mandatory education) that will be given in public schools across the country. The parents can opt out of having their child immunized if they want. Any children younger than that can be taken to family doctors for their shots. Public school teachers are next on the list (or at the same time?) for the shots. Foreigners have to wait, or so I've been told. I figure all of the hagwons should provide shots for the teachers. Why not? We see just as many kids as the regular teachers!
In an attempt to make kids remember to wash their hands and be careful, I think some parents are telling their children that if you get the flu, you will definitely die. I've been told that by several students. Interesting. I then explain to the kids that no, getting the flu doesn't mean you will die. Some will just not understand my explanations, though, or accept them if they do, since it's all in English, a foreign language to them, and of course, if it contradicts what their mommy tells them, what are they to believe? I suppose they will learn soon enough since all of them will at some point encounter someone who has had it, or will catch it themselves.
Today there was a bit of a fight between North and South Korean ships to the west. Sounds almost the same as the one that happened my first year in Korea, in 2002. A North Korean ship crossed the Northern Limit Line, that is the internationally agreed upon demarcation line in the Yellow Sea. North Korea doesn't agree with NLL and so every now and then crosses it. The incident in 2002 was a bit more serious, though, as it involved 2 North Korean ships, one of which was on fire on its way back up, and a South Korean ship sank as it was being towed back to shore. Several South Koreans died during the skirmish. I didn't really hear much about it, though, other than the first couple of reports.
There have been other incidents as well.
I wonder how much attention this newest fight will get with all of the attention being put on the swine flu.

March 15th & 16th: Hama, new friends and Lattakia [updated with pics and more; first posted 03-04-09]

Oh, I forgot to mention that while I was downstairs writing, Abdullah made me share his dinner - a burger (half) and some fries. Tasted great, but I ate too much that day. :S
I got up at 8 to get ready and have breakfast. After finishing my small breakfast, I went to my room to pack up my stuff as my plan was to leave around lunch time for Lattakia. While there, Abdullah called me to say I had to join him in the salon as he was having his breakfast of fuul (beans) and bread and such. He said I was in Syria and had to try the Syrian bean dish. Okay then. I had a second breakfast. It was so good!!! Once again I was eating too much. Ugh. Oh well. It was a good chance to try different things. After eating I went out to wander around Hamah, as I had yet to really do that. I went to the Azem Palace museum. It is small but nice. A man there sort of took me around and opened some doors for me. Even outside he kept saying photos were not allowed (there were only signs inside the rooms saying no photos). He would say no photos, then look around as if trying to be sneaky, and then say I could take a photo. He was actually telling me to take photos of certain things in some of the rooms, which I had no interest in taking photos of. Sort of like 'ooh! a window! picture okay!' I said no thanks and then he said no photos but okay for me to take photos. After a while it got kinda annoying but whatever. In the end, he was asking for a tip since he was letting me take pictures when he wasn't supposed to. It was all in order to get money, of course, which I knew right from the start. That seems to be the way it is everywhere over here. After I saw all there was to see in the museum, I wandered over to the nearest norias (water wheels). The water wheels in Hamah are amazing. There are so many of them!!! 17, to be exact, including the largest waterwheel in the world. They are very old, dating back to the Byzantine time, though of the course the wooden parts have been replaced fairly regularly to keep them running. Too bad I didn't get to see them actually moving (though it seems they can be VERY noisy!A street in the old quarter near the Azem Palace.While I was there taking pictures, a guy nearby asked if I wanted him to take a picture for me so that I could be in a picture. He seemed quite sincere (I always use my intuition and it has served me quite well), so I said okay. He kinda looks like Andrew McCarthy. Every time I looked at him it reminded me of the movies Pretty in Pink and Mannequin and I kind of laughed to myself. I walked with Alaa' for a while talking about all sorts of things - Syria, work, travel, etc. He spoke some English but not a lot. He took me to the big Hama Museum. It is big on the outside, but there is not much there to see. Then we went for coffee. I said I was going to Lattakia and he decided, if it was okay with me, he would join me to sort of show me around. He was enjoying my company. He called his co-worker/friend to get him to cover for work the next day (only one of them really has to be there at a time).
I went back to my hotel to check out and he went home to change and then picked me up at the hotel. We went to the bus station to get tickets, but the soonest bus was sold out and the next one was several hours away. So we decided to take a micro bus. Well, the micro bus that was there was already full and was just pulling out so we had to wait for the next one to fill up. They said maybe 30 minutes. That turned into a couple of hours. We were talking to 2 girls on the bus infront of us (we had the whole back seat because of my bag - I had to pay for the extra seat, which is really not much). They were both students, taking nursing in Lattakia. One of them, Fihal, had to go to the hospital by 5 to work. Eventually, after the bus was still not full, we all paid a little extra to make them go. Fihal was late for work as we didn't arrive until after 5. On the way, Rasha, the other girl, made arrangements for us to stay in a beach house (which they kept calling a chalet), as she knew someone that had one. It was fantastic and relaxing. The beach house was large, with 2 bedrooms (with 5 beds), a large living room with a view of the sea, and good sized kitchen (all on the 2nd floor). The Mediterranean Sea is beautiful! The next day we wandered along the shore and I got my feet wet. I can't go to the sea and not at least get my feet into it. ;) After talking a while, Alaa' decided he wanted to go to Aleppo, too. He lived in Aleppo for several years when he went to university, and wanted to show me around. Okay then. After leaving the beach house, we went to the train station to get tickets and leave my bags at the cafeteria (thank goodness they will store bags, as I didn't want to have to carry them around or sit there and wait the whole time). We had several hours to wander. We went along the corniche and down the steep side to the water's edge. So nice. The color of the water there was amazing!! I made Ali follow me and climb up a huge rock/hill, all vocanic rock, I think. On top, it was very windy. Though it was cold, it was very refreshing and the view was great. After sitting there for a while, we tried to get a hold of the girls again, but they were both busy. Rasha was on her way back to Hama already. Oh well.
On the way down the rock, Alaa' noticed that the heel of his shoe had at some point, fallen off. So our next activity was finding a cobbler to fix his shoe. As we searched, we stopped for a felafel sandwich for lunch... SO good. It took a while, but eventually we found a shoe repair shop in the downtown area. The place was literally a crack in the wall. The width of the room was only slightly wider than the guy's shoulders!! It was interesting watching him work. He did a great job of giving Alaa' two new heels. It only cost 50 Syrian pounds, which is about $1. The train to Aleppo was so nice. A lot of space, a smooth ride, and fairly fast. Definitely better than a bus ride! In Aleppo, we caught a taxi to the hotel that I had sort of picked out from my Lonely Planet Guide. It was absolutely horrible!!!! It smelled so bad, the paint was chipped and peeling off the walls. When they opened the door to a room to show it to me, all sorts of dust came flying off the walls. Yuck!!! We were out of there fairly quickly. Around the corner we found another hotel. It wasn't great but was much better than the other one, and cheaper. My room was very large, with my own bathroom/shower and heating. Alaa's room was nice but smaller, and no bathroom. He had to use the shared bathroom and shower with other rooms. Of course, his was cheaper.
For dinner, Alaa' took me to his favorite pizza place in Aleppo, a little place near the university called Mister Taster. The pizzas we had were sort of sampler pizzas with 3 kinds on one - 1/3rd mushroom, 1/3rd sausage/meat, and 1/3rd spicy chicken. It was delicious. Much better than I had expected.
I am still unable to upload any pictures. :( For some reason the computers here won't recognize my camera. I guess you'll just have to wait.

Now...

Wow. I really am behind on my posts. I'm trying to catch up but can't seem to get more than one day up at a time, which means I'm not catching up at all. Well, some of the days I can lump together, I think. I'm also studying at the moment. Yesterday and today I've been reading the diving manual. I'm taking a PADI diving course here in Dahab, Egypt. I'm taking the course with Octopus World, which is a small but very friendly and professional place. It's great so far. Yesterday the weather was fantastic. Hot, calm, cloudless sky. Too bad I was in a classroom most of the day watching the video. Today the weather wasn't as nice. It was still warm but quite windy. At least it didn't really affect us much, as we only had a couple of quizzes and then started the dives today and were in (under) the water the whole time. Tomorrow, other than another very short quiz, it'll all be underwater. A dive in the morning and a dive in the afternoon. My dive instructor, Khaled is so funny (but very serious when he needs to be). He is Egyptian and the same age as me. He lived in Europe for several years so speaks English fluently (as well as some French, from what I have seen). He is a bit of a hippy with his attitude and his dreads. Funny.
The place also has Korean dive instructors!! I didn't know that until I got there and was surrounded by a group of Koreans finishing a dive. LOL. Can't get away from Koreans!! They really are everywhere!! ;)

Muuido, again.

A couple of weeks ago I finally made it back to Muuido. For the past few years, friends of mine have planned a big end of May trip to the island. I went a couple of years ago and loved it. Then last year I was unable to due to a sick rabbit. :SThis year it was a group of over 50 going (though it sort of broke off into smaller groups, of course). It was perfect weather for the beach, at up around 28 C.Muuido isn't really a swimming beach, as it is pretty much all tidal flats. Yes, you can swim, but when the tides are in, it doesn't get very deep, and when the tide is out, you've got to walk a mile to get to the water.During the day, Koreans are out digging for clams and snails and little crabs that were everywhere. It is a great place, though, to lounge around on the sandy beach enjoying the sunshine and friends.You can also ride a horse around the beach for 5000 Won, or ride an ATV around the other end of the beach.Jared is always great at planning things (and a handy car) and so we had food for the entire time. For lunch, grilled chicken kebabs. For dinner, barbecued steak (sandwiches, if desired), sausages, salad, potatoes, etc. For breakfast, bacon, eggs, sausages, coffee (thanks to David), donuts, etc. At night after dinner, a pit was dug and a fire built. I love bonfires. Everyone sat around the fire or stood nearby talking, drinking,roasting toes, roasting marshmallows, burning marshmallows (one Korean girl had never roasted marshmallows before and doesn't like marshmallows, but loves burning them!).David had a great idea of giving people shots.... from a watergun. He spent almost the entire evening perfecting his aim (though he still missed every now and then).We had some entertainment in the form of one of the guys tossing knives and flames around - a hobby like juggling is a great thing to pull out at a bonfire.The next morning, we had a huge breakfast and then everyone did their own thing. Some packed up and left, some took naps on the beach, some hiked out across the flats to take a dip, some wandered about the beach and the tidal flats.Eventually it was time to pack up and head back to reality. The trip out to the island and back into the city kinda sucks. The length of time really depends on timing. To get there, you take an airport bus to the International airport and then catch a bus to the ferry. The airport buses run every 20 minutes and can take up to an hour (or more?) to get to the airport. Then the bus to the ferry runs only once an hour, at 20 past the hour. If you miss that, you've got a long wait. It is possible to catch a taxi, but it costs 10000 won for only a five minute drive. Worth it if there are a few of you. The ferry across takes about 20 minutes. Then you catch an island bus to the beach.Waiting for the ferry, David decided to try the little shellfish that were being sold and bought a bag. A couple of others tried with him. The verdict - he said they were okay but kind of tasteless. I say no thanks.