Since moving to Korea I haven't been writing here as often as I once did, but I don't plan to stop altogether. The other blog (Shauna in Korea) has been a really awesome way to stay in touch with friends and family and tell people about life in Korea, but sometimes I just want to talk about life, and not Korea, and I don't want to share it all with those same friends and family that are dialed into the other blog - so I'll still write here when the mood strikes. If, however, you'd like to see what life is like in Korea for someone from Canada, you're welcome to pop over, as I do write more often and I tend to post lots of pictures.
I don't regret the choices that brought me to this point, but sometimes I really do feel like I have no idea what I'm doing in my life, just kinda steering haphazardly all over the road and taking every opportunity to launch all 4 wheels off the ground whenever possible... whhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! Since my relationship ended and I made the big move life is different. I am different too in some ways. My head is quieter. I am introspective but still distracted. Lonely in a different way, but things are all simply exciting as well. Looking for challenges and trying to keep active in life, instead of just in my head, it's an interesting journey so far. Change sucks. Change is good. Change is inevitable. Life is change, non? Or was that something about a box of chocolates...
Monday, March 15
Friday, March 12
A Child of the World
I know that not every country in the world runs like ours at home in Canada. I know that different groups, children included, do not have the same rights and privileges that we have in Canada, but as a child of the world myself, this story (from February 1st) is really sad to me...
New Dehli, India is the host of the Commonwealth Games this year. For people who might not really know anything about the Commonwealth Games, (somehow I didn't), they started as the "British Empire Games" and have since become the "Commonwealth Games," with just over 53 countries (broken into more than 70 teams) competing in a range of sports. There are 10 core sports (like athletics, boxing, rugby sevens and hockey) and up to 7 optional sports chosen by the host nation (sports like archery, basketball, diving and triathalon). Our Aussie friends (as well as England, who gets to compete separately from the rest of the UK) do much better in these games than most olympics: Australia was the highest scoring country for 10 years of the games, England for 7, and Canada only for 1.
While I've never watched the fanfare myself, after reading about it the games sound like they'd be fun to go to. I'd have to say that if I were a competing athlete I'd be hoping the host country that year was somewhere exotic, i.e. not Hamilton, Ontario (sorry Hamilton), so I'd probably be excited to get a chance to go to India as part of a sporting event. The IOC website says that India is in a bid for the 2016 summer olympics, and the thought is that if this year's Commonwealth games go off well that maybe it will sway the bid in their favour for the 2016 games, so I'd imagine that India is under a lot of pressure to make sure that everything goes off without much being amiss (that whole 'being in the spotlight' thing. I'm having visions of days long ago when the poor were shuttled from the streets and into jails during large celebratory events to preserve a mightier cleaner vision of the city... or my days not-so-long-ago in Slave Lake, AB when the town would pay for the local vagrants to be bussed to a town a few hours north during the one-week summer festival so tourists didn't have to deal with them...
International competitions are ridiculously expensive, and surely every country that hosts a spectacle like this one goes through hardships on many levels to do it (talk to BC taxpayers this year, most are NOT happy). I'm not naive enough to think everything was done above-board even in my own wealthy and priviledged country as it prepared for the Olympics this year. However, I hope I'm safe in my assumption that we didn't have our small children working alonside their parents in the streets to get the job done quicker.
I've spent some time in New Dehli, and when travelling in India in general it was difficult to handle just being witness to the extreme differences in quality of life between and among people in different communities, towns and states. I think the point was even sharper having been raised in an environment of as much priviledge as I've always accepted as simply a 'Right' as a citizen of my country. When I say that I'm not referring to physical wealth per se, as my family certainly wouldn't have been thought of as wealthy, but more in terms of food, clean water, clothing, medical care, education, and being safe from the threat of guns and militant action. Maybe that's why this picture made me so sad.
Maybe the children in the photo are really just playing with some spare tools that are laying around while they wait for their parents to finish, and an overzealous or lazy journalist making assumptions behind the camera; After all, they're all clothed, none of them really appear to be working, right? Maybe the kids really just go hang out at the jobsite because they get fed for being there... maybe. Or, maybe this world we live in still has a long way to go.
New Dehli, India is the host of the Commonwealth Games this year. For people who might not really know anything about the Commonwealth Games, (somehow I didn't), they started as the "British Empire Games" and have since become the "Commonwealth Games," with just over 53 countries (broken into more than 70 teams) competing in a range of sports. There are 10 core sports (like athletics, boxing, rugby sevens and hockey) and up to 7 optional sports chosen by the host nation (sports like archery, basketball, diving and triathalon). Our Aussie friends (as well as England, who gets to compete separately from the rest of the UK) do much better in these games than most olympics: Australia was the highest scoring country for 10 years of the games, England for 7, and Canada only for 1.
While I've never watched the fanfare myself, after reading about it the games sound like they'd be fun to go to. I'd have to say that if I were a competing athlete I'd be hoping the host country that year was somewhere exotic, i.e. not Hamilton, Ontario (sorry Hamilton), so I'd probably be excited to get a chance to go to India as part of a sporting event. The IOC website says that India is in a bid for the 2016 summer olympics, and the thought is that if this year's Commonwealth games go off well that maybe it will sway the bid in their favour for the 2016 games, so I'd imagine that India is under a lot of pressure to make sure that everything goes off without much being amiss (that whole 'being in the spotlight' thing. I'm having visions of days long ago when the poor were shuttled from the streets and into jails during large celebratory events to preserve a mightier cleaner vision of the city... or my days not-so-long-ago in Slave Lake, AB when the town would pay for the local vagrants to be bussed to a town a few hours north during the one-week summer festival so tourists didn't have to deal with them...
International competitions are ridiculously expensive, and surely every country that hosts a spectacle like this one goes through hardships on many levels to do it (talk to BC taxpayers this year, most are NOT happy). I'm not naive enough to think everything was done above-board even in my own wealthy and priviledged country as it prepared for the Olympics this year. However, I hope I'm safe in my assumption that we didn't have our small children working alonside their parents in the streets to get the job done quicker.
I've spent some time in New Dehli, and when travelling in India in general it was difficult to handle just being witness to the extreme differences in quality of life between and among people in different communities, towns and states. I think the point was even sharper having been raised in an environment of as much priviledge as I've always accepted as simply a 'Right' as a citizen of my country. When I say that I'm not referring to physical wealth per se, as my family certainly wouldn't have been thought of as wealthy, but more in terms of food, clean water, clothing, medical care, education, and being safe from the threat of guns and militant action. Maybe that's why this picture made me so sad.
Maybe the children in the photo are really just playing with some spare tools that are laying around while they wait for their parents to finish, and an overzealous or lazy journalist making assumptions behind the camera; After all, they're all clothed, none of them really appear to be working, right? Maybe the kids really just go hang out at the jobsite because they get fed for being there... maybe. Or, maybe this world we live in still has a long way to go.
Tuesday, March 2
Speechless
Is this not the most beautiful picture ever?
I thought it was an edited photograph all photoshopped to heaven and back.
I going to post it on my photo page to share it, but IT'S A WATERCOLOUR!!!!!...
Thing is, I can't figure out who made it, and I'd like to see more of their stuff...
Am speechless...
I thought it was an edited photograph all photoshopped to heaven and back.
I going to post it on my photo page to share it, but IT'S A WATERCOLOUR!!!!!...
Thing is, I can't figure out who made it, and I'd like to see more of their stuff...
Am speechless...
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