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Hong Kong February 7, 2011
the city light in hearts....romantical
I went with Soo and Jacob and we stayed with a few really sweet couples from the church in Hong Kong. They had tiny apartments, but I guess that’s standard living in Hong Kong. It’s a big city and so there’s a lot crammed into this very small area. We were all over the place and everyone talked about how far away things were, but I realize their concept of “far” is very different from mine. The longest we spent traveling was about 45 minutes from our apartment complex in Kowloon to Lantau Island! It was fantastic. We rode subways, double decker buses, and walked everywhere. The transportation was easy to figure out and manage and everything was in English and Chinese.
There was some bits of Chinese culture to be found, but mostly because of the Lunar New Year coming up at the end of our stay. We went to visit the Hong Kong Museum of History, which is one of the most elaborate and fascinating history museums I’ve ever been to in my life! I learned a lot about China and Hong Kong, but I didn’t see much of it reflected in the culture of the city. However, I learned that it is probably due to Hong Kong having been a British Colony for a really long time. They actually just became their own, free country in 1997! I also learned though (a little bit of backwards history for you here) that British colonized Hong Kong to help them come out of Japanese colonization. Did you know that at the time that Hitler was trying to make moves to control Europe, the Japanese Emporer of the time was actually trying to control Asia. I’ve found a very anti-Japanese attitude in Asia so far and it seems to be because Japan dominated even China at one point. From the Asian perspective, that has a lot to do with why the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor…they were confident in their ability after taking control over so much in Asia and were hoping to move onto American land next. Now, I don’t really know how accurate that is, but that’s the general belief and attitude I’m finding as I talk to people from Korea, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Interesting, huh?
The food in Hong Kong was AMAZING!!! We went out to this great dim sum place with some people that Soo knows. I was eatin my heart out, my friends. I tried some jellyfish. It was …not bad… interesting… chewy….I don’t need to have any more of it. lol Their desserts in Hong Kong are rockin! Every kind of pudding that I tried was delicious! And there are cake and pie shops on every corner. hahah I was in fat people heaven, but there were no fat people to be seen! It was amazing. I also tried Ostrich. It was in an ostrich pie though so I can’t give a very good commentary on what I thought of the meat. It was good mixed in with the gravy and the spices and stuff. The food that the lady we were staying with made for breakfast was really unusual, I couldn’t even tell you what it was actually, but it was also incredibly delicious. And, in case you were wondering, McDonald’s in Hong Kong is the same as the U.S. except it’s cheaper. 😛 They had street market food easily available, although not as all over the place as in Korea. The point is… Jacob and I ate! hahaha
There was a lot of shopping! Asians really like to shop. It’s not really my thing on vacation and we spent a lot of time in the shopping districts where I would’ve rather done something more active, but that just means if I ever go back I will have much more to do still.
My favorite day was when we went to Stanley market and beach. It was really small and there was a nice lil Asian style market along one area of the beach and there was a line of tiny mom&pop style restaurants down the other side of the beach. The weather was perfect (well, compared to the below zero in Korea). The sun was bright. I got awesome souvenirs. Jacob and I went exploring to find the temple nearby. Then we made our way to Victoria Harbor area and took the tram up to the peak where we could see this amazing night view of the entire habor and city area! It was so beautiful!
That day really made me miss California a lot though. It reminded me a ton of Cali and seeing all the couples at the top of the peak taking pics together and being all cute made me think of Matthew. I had a tough time falling to sleep that night. I miss home very badly.
Anyhow, my next favorite day was Disneyland!!! Honestly, it’s very similar to the one in California, only cheaper, again. It’s a little bit smaller, but they had some shows and things that were different. Their Lion King show was spectacular! And of course we ate things like fish balls in curry sauce and squid in gravy for snacks. Ok, I didnt’ eat the squid stuff. That was a lil too much for me. ha We ate dinner there at a nice chinese restaurant. Oh! I got to meet Tinkerbell!!! She was the most convincing character I’ve ever seen at Disneyland before! She was adorable! Anyway, there was the typical awesome fireworks show and Oh! Jungle Cruise! which had different parts to it like when all the water lights on fire and it looks like we’re gonna die and then a geiser goes off and puts out all the fire! Amazing!
That’s all I can really say about my trip. Good times. Relaxing. Great weather! Amazing food!! and… now I’m back. 😛
12 days til Singapore
40 days til I come home!
Here Comes the Bride, Korean Style February 6, 2011
My stud Korean boyfriend who escorted me.
They had a photography session. I wasn’t there for that because, of course, it was just the bridal party. Turns out there isn’t actually a bridal “party” that participates in the wedding…it’s just the bride and groom. Their photo session was elaborate! All their pictures look like they came out of a wedding magazine. She wore 4 different wedding dresses for the photos which were all rented and chosen by the photographer. They were very glamorous and Hollywood style which apparently is the expectation in Korea. They were beautiful. Not particularly my cup of tea though.
They had a reception. Before the wedding there was a lunch reception. It sounded a lil backwards as far as timing, but relatively in line with American weddings I thought. Then I found out that they actually rented out two entire restaurants!!! buffet style and just invited anyone and everyone they knew! The restaurant I went to was absolutely packed with people flowing in and out. The restaurant was pretty average, nothing extravagent, but certainly high quality. We ate to our heart’s content and then my fellow American friends and I asked where the bride and groom were. Well, they’re getting ready for the wedding, of course! Silly question! lol I was disappointed though that there were these huge dinners going on to celebrate them, but we don’t actually get to see them or congratulate them at all. However, lunch was delicious!
They recieved gifts. They rented a wedding hall for their ceremony and it was decorated simply, but beautifully. When we first walked in there were tables at the front to collect money for the couple. I learned that Koreans don’t do gifts for people on their wedding day, they just give them money. They don’t even do cards! They literally just hand the guys at the front table money, which is put into a nameless envelope and then you sign the guest book (pretty much just to say, Hey, here is my name. I gave you money.). I felt like it was a little… cold… I guess. Very generic and unthoughtful, but I can understand the simplicity of it I suppose. Soo, Lisa and I shared a card and went in on the money together. We “Americanized” their tradition a lil bit in that way.
They had a ceremony. The wedding hall’s tables were already filled and there were so many people invited that about half of us couldn’t actually sit down. This began mine and Lisa’s questioning people with “Is this normal in Korea?” I can’t count on one hand how many times we asked that question. Just checking. And actually, we were even late to the ceremony because people were just hanging out at the lunch and our ride as well as a bunch of other guests were absolutely ok with being late to the ceremony. I don’t think anyone was shocked by that at all. Anyhow, so a whole bunch of us stood in the back of the room and EVERYONE in the room just chatted away. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s absolutely acceptable in Korean culture to talk while others are talking… well, in many cases. I’ve been shocked and awed by this many a time and yet again at this wedding ceremony. I couldn’t understand what was being said anyhow so I chatted a bit and took in the scenery. There were beautiful flowers and table settings (as I would expect) and long white train that went from the back of the room to the front for the bride to stand on. The only people at the front were the bride and groom and the person marrying them. Oh, and the camera men. They were having their wedding recorded and played onto large screen tv’s farther back in the room so we could all see. hahaha
The bride wore a white dress. Being glamorous is extremely important to Korean women. Young Man’s bride is no exception. I found out that many women in Korea actually rent their wedding dresses because they would rather rent and have the most elaborate dress possible than buy a dress. And her dress was absolutely fantastic! It was a strapless dress that was given lace straps on top of the beaded upper half of the dress. She had a silver beaded belt. The entire dress was then lavishly decorated with more sparkling beads and had layers that were literally beyond her control. Any time she moved there was someone who was in charge of carrying the back half of her dress and reorganizing it to lay nicely when she was standing. Her veil, which was also lace and beaded, went from the top of her professionally styled head of hair all the way down to the floor just beyond the train of her dress. To top it all off she had dainty satin gloves on her hands to hold her bouquet with.
He had a tux. Yep.
There was a bouquet toss. While the bride tossed the bouquet the groom also tossed his boutenire (how do you spell that word anyway?). The catch is that they didn’t just throw it into the crowd, they threw it to a friend that they chose ahead of time who stood just off to their side so they could simultaneously toss the flowers over their shoulder and their friends were sure to catch it. I was told that the superstition is that if the recievers catch it then they will be married in the next 6 months, but if they don’t catch it or if they don’t marry by then then they will never get married (so they intentionally selected friends who are already planning their weddings). Ha! Wow!
There were toasts from good friends. As a part of the ceremony a few good friends of the couple stood up and gave lil toasts about the couple…although, come to think of it toast isn’t a good word because we didn’t have drinks to toast. Anyway, they gave little speeches. As they were giving the speeches a fog machine turned on under the apparent “runway” for the bride and groom and they “floated” on the fog while people spoke about them. A group of people from church then stood up and sang a song to them (that’s a church thing, not a Korean thing) and they did a little walk down the “runway” to come wave hello to all of us in the back of the room.
The groom kissed the bride. Actually the photographers made the groom kiss the bride in front of everybody. It is not part of the official wedding ceremony, but they thought it would make a cute picture so he kissed her on the cheek and everyone in the hall errupted in “awwwwww….”‘s and “woooo….”s.
After the kiss, they had another photo session with the family and we all went home.
Happily Ever After.
A Slippin’ and A Slidin’ January 25, 2011
Check out all that winter gear!
What a day! I have to give a shoutout to my dear friend Bryant in high school because he taught me how to snowboard a little bit in high school and I had no idea what challenge he had taken on. The girls asked me to teach them and I said I’d teach them what little I know from my wopping 3 days total of snowboarding in my lifetime. On Friday night we drove up to the church in Chuncheon where they’ve let us stay the night a number of times. They are so sweet! We stayed up super late eating fried chicken and playing games. Then we were up at the crack of dawn Saturday morning!
We made it to the mountain, geared up and ready to go by 10am. It wasn’t very crowded at all and I went over to the bunny hill with my newbies. (Don’t you liek how I talk as if I’ve been sooo many times? hehehe). Wow! It took such a long time just to get everyone to be able to stand up on their board! hahahahahaha They would start to get up and then start sliding away and fall over! Poor Soo Kim could not move without sliding into the fence they had at the side of the slope. I guess t’s a good thing they had a fence or we would’ve been short one soo (we had 3 to begin with). My other friend Soo, the one I work with, did ok, but by the time she finally got the hang of standing up and moving forward there were SOOOOOO many people on the bunny slope we could barely go anywhere. It took me a little while to get to a point where I could stand and not fall over on the first time, every time. I was falling sometimes also because I was trying not to hit people and trying to snowboard in a certain direction to follow the girls who were all over the place. They were just trying to learn to balance and move forward, not quite able to turn yet. Then I realized that Bryant never even took me to the bunny hill! Initiation by fire! It was probably smart on his part cause my girls were dying trying not to crash into the masses of 8 year old kids learning to ski. haha It was quite comical.
So, it only took us 2 hours to get to the bottom of the bunny hill. 😛 By then, since this is Korea, it was so crowded at the park that there was at least an hour wait for all the lifts! I couldn’t believe it. That’s when I remembered that this is the same place that Matthew and I went for the water park over the summer and how crowded it was then. It’s a very popular vacation destination here. The girls and I went to get some coffee and relax our aching muscles from falling over and such. My arm was actually more sore than anything from trying to help them up and having to take off my board and carry it for a while while I was trying to teach them. It was really hard considering I only knew so much. I also discovered that I stand up, move forward, veer right and stop at a novice level, but I cannot turn left and I’m goofy footed. This all made it very difficult to teach.
Our friend Luke, who just got back from studying in China, came on the trip and he found us while we were having coffee. Apparently Charlie did initiation by fire with the new skiers, but Luke did not fair so well. Luke really wanted to try one more time and I was dying to go again so we had just enough time to hit up the bunny slope once more. We waited a stinkin hour in line of the lift and made it up time at which time Luke says to me, “Why have I not been to this pleasant place called the bunny hill before?” hahahaha He was so happy to be with other beginners. But then we both made it to the bottom of the hill in like 5 min! I wish we had had time to go down one of the other hills! I only fell once during the second run because I couldn’t turn left around a ski lesson for 5 year olds.
Anyhow, I came home with only one bruise! yeah! And Soo Kim has vowed that she will never snow board again, but all the other girls had fun and would try again if it wasn’t so crowded they said. We enjoyed a 4 hour car ride back with my friend Kyu Sung who just went into the army yesterday! tear* Lots of traffic which sucked, but we just got to hang out. It’s all good.
Next week: Last week of winter camp with third graders (who I’m learning have a HUGE maturity gap from second graders), my first Korean Wedding, then off to Hong Kong!
53 Days!
In His Glory!
I'm wet!
I considered the possibility that I loved this church so much just because it become such a home away from home for me. I think that is partially true, but I am very satisfied here in all my church hopping. lol So, after much consideration within myself and later with some people from church, I decided that I wanted to be baptized while I am here. I wanted to do it here partially because I love my church here so much, partially because I am finally feeling confident in living a christian life and partially because I’ve considered it for so many years that I think the time is right.
I know that my family isn’t all big time religion people (actually, most aren’t), but that’s ok. I’ve learned that I can be Christian and still be a normal person! hahaha I actually think that finding my own confidence in the things that I believe lets me kind of accept my position in life and other people’s differences because I’m not afraid of being different too. Is that weird? 😛
Anyhow, a while back I was doing some reading and helping out with the bible study on campus and I read Mark 16:16 “he who believes and is baptized shall be saved.” and then I read a footnote in my study Bible that talked about how believing by itself (which is what I had at the time) was totally acceptable as far as being a Christian and what we consider salvation, but having baptism should go along with it as an outward affirmation. I never wanted to get baptized before because I didn’t want to committ to a church or a “religion” as a set of rules. Then I realized that I don’t have to committ to a church or set of rules outside the Bible because being baptized just means you’re outwardly declaring that you are a Christian. It’s rejecting living life for the world and accepting that you live life for God. I don’t have to be any different, I just have to show a sign of my confidence in my life choice. That I can do!
“To be baptized without believing is merely an empty ritual; to believe without being baptized is to be saved only inwardly without an outward affirmation of the inward salvation. These two should go together. Moreover, water baptism should be accompanied by Spirit baptism, even as the children of Israel were baptized in the sea (water) and in the cloud (the Spirit).”
I don’t want to weird people out by getting all spiritual on you guys, but I just wanted to share that. Being christian has been increasingly important to me and now I am confident in my life choice. 🙂 My baptism was really awesome because it was at somebody’s house and there were actually 6 of us that got baptized together. Actually, it was mostly just a family who just recently started going to church and then me and one other person who was kind of like me by experience. We decided to all do it together and it made it really exciting. I was kind of nervous at first, but I’m really glad I did it. They just had me sit in the bathtub, we said a prayer together and two guys, Paul and Jin, that i’ve been pretty close with in the church here dunked me in the water (Paul held a washclothe over my face so that my face didn’t get wet) and then we all sang a song and ate yummy food! My body feels the same, but my spirit is much more relieved because I finally feel like I’ve fully accepted being a person in God.
When I get back home I’ll have to find a church, AGAIN! But I think my friends here have some connections and I’m happy about that. Hurray! My search is over!
A Camping We Will Go January 20, 2011
"What's happening here?!" says Bug Girl
I have really struggled with curriculum planning since I’ve been here because I have such a wide range of abilities among my students between the ones who go to private academies for English, the ones who just study what they learn at school and the ones who don’t have any English skills or desire whatsoever. I’ve found that the key to participation is personal interest (which I learned in my college classes of course), but simple personal interest can come from incorporating interesting games/activities into the lesson that can be so easy for the kids to suddenly be dying to get involved in! I’m really only giving them a few new key vocab words a day, at most, but I want to really focus in on the things they already know and do a lot of fine tuning. So, I am doing a lot of “drill and kill” of basics like alphabet, numbers and colors. That way my students who are advanced are now able to pull these things instantaneously from the top of their head without having to translate or think about it and my students who don’t know the basics are getting practice. And then we learn some new key words and apply them to practical things about camping.
Monday: camping basics and supplies
Tuesday: Going on a bear hunt (about outdoor aspects of camping)
Wednesday: Animal tracks
Thursday: Descriptive words
Friday: Camping experience (we build lil tents with blankets in the classroom, make fake trees and fire, play camping games like cards and make smores)
It has been a blast and a complete success! I’m getting all students to be active to at least some extent-the shy ones are still difficult, but they’re coming out of their shells. They are learning new things in an English context and practicing their listening and speaking skills SO much!
One of my favorite things so far was telling them about racoons. We were talking about animals we might see while camping and how to identify their tracks (very basic stuff cause they’re so young). We also talked about which animal tracks are ok to see and which ones mean danger. Well, I through Racoon in their because their tracks are kind of cool. hahah yes, that’s my rationale for that one. I found out that Racoons are an American animal so we talked about Racoons for a while. I told them they are not really good or bad tracks to see, but we have to hide our trash from them! They were soooo shocked! hahaha When they forgot how to say Racoon they would ask me, “Teacher, animal trash eat. Name is what?” hahahahaha They so loved hearing about silly Racoons. Then we finger painted our own hand prints and made replica animal prints.
You’d be shocked at how good they were!! I had 25 first graders, hands covered in paint and they all went home almost completely clean! I had two students get paint on their shirts and two students who used purple which apparently leaves your hands a pink color. When I got to second grade, they all went home totally clean!!! (It probably helped that I told the second graders I would kill them dead if they painted on anything other than the paper! buahahaha Of course I told them I was kidding, but I’m sure they didn’t wanna test out that theory after I said it. Oh kids! 😛 )
This past Tuesday I brought Suh Hyun, the little girl that I do private tutoring with, to English Camp here for a day. She’s only about 5 years old and she came to the second grade English camp so I was a little nervous, but she behaved so maturely with them. I was really impressed. The girls in my class of course wanted to play with her because she was cute and socially it worked it out really well. She did get a lot of English practice in because she was with me ALL day long, not even just for English camp, but my entire work day. English camp with a little bit above her level, but she’s not the only with limited English skills. I actually got to see, through her, that my theory of emphasizing basic skills in the midst of these greater subject lessons was helping my lower level students. I noticed how much counting and alphabet practice she got. Then after school I let her finger paint too. WHOAH! A 5 year old finger painting is soooo different from my 7 year olds! hahahah She is very outgoing and likes to push her boundaries so I had my hands very full finger painting with her for an hour after school. She was so hilarious though. Suh Hyun is one of the most brilliant little kids I’ve ever met and she loved mixing the colors to see what it made. By the end of the hour her hands and her forearms were just coated in thick paint! *I’m such a good babysitter 😛 * Then, I had forgotten that the purple paint stains your hands pink…I had take her home and apologize to her parents for their now neon pink daughter. It was histerical though! And her commentary on things is fantastic. Soo translated what she was saying and this 5 year old already has sarcasm down and everything. I was cracking up so hard sometimes that I almost cried! We really had a lot of fun together.
Oh! Another one of my favorites is making s’mores with them. This is a listening activity that we do on the last day. Mostly this is my favorite because they are so curious about these crackers and chocolates from America and the unusual little marshmellow sandwich. I explain to them that usually we heat the marshmellows in the fire, but they know we can’t have real fire so we do it in the oven for a few min. This is great because then the marshmellows get soft and the chocolate melts a little bit. Aside from their curiosity, I absolutely love to see their faces when they eat it! Oh they make such a mess, but it is just so adorable! Thank God for wet wipes.
Next week I have third graders and I’ve made my curriculum more challenging for them. For example, one day we make Trail Mix for after we go on our bear hunt. For first graders it was simple number and counting practice. For second graders I had the advanced students read a recipe that I wrote to the lower students and they all practice English counting. So, for third graders I’m going to give them ingredients and explain what trail mix is and then I’m going to have them do the math to divide up the ingredients they have, write a recipe and then trade with another group to make their trail mix. I’m curious to see how some of my changes go. I’ll require them to talk to me in complete sentences of course and they’ll also have little quizes every day which I don’t do with my younger students for simplicity sake.
Boy, upon reflection I sound like a really, really messy teacher. Oh well. There are only those 2 really messy activities. I just have to do something out of the curriculum norm during the winter/summer camps for the sake of keeping everyone’s interest, including my own. We do certainly all love it though. Can’t wait to do it again next week!
58 days!
So. Cal. girls in So.Ko.
I wasn't aloud to sled face first, but it would've been fun!
I’ve mentioned to you all about the girls from Santa Clarita that I met here? So, Jessica and Megan and I decided to go to this really awesome looking Ice Festival. There was ice sculptures, ice skating, ice fishing, other snow activities, good looking food, etc. We were pretty excited about it. The weather here has hit below zero farenheight and I was not about to let the weather bring me down in my last 2 months here!
Change of plans. This is where the trouble begins. Apparently there’s been quite an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Korea recently and it’s mostly in the country side. The ice festival in Hwacheon that we were going to go to closed to prevent a large population of people in that area which could cause more spreading of the disease. This trip, however, was planned through Seoul Hiking group, so our great tour guide, Warren, found a different ice festival where we could enjoy similar activities and it was just a little bit farther than Hwacheon. Alright, we were still on board and ready to go for it!
Saturday morning, I woke up at 530 in the morning, got ready to go and left my house with 3 shirts, a sweatshirt, my coat, 2 pairs of fuzzy leggings, my jeans, 2 pairs of socks, a fuzzy headband around my ears and a large scarf that I wrapped all the way around my face. No joke, I felt exactly like that kid from a Christmas Story. “I can’t put my arms down!” I walked out of my house into what was the coldest winter day in Korea in the past 30 years, someone told me!!! We all met up at the bus stop and started our trek to the ice festival. It was cold, but we were still optimistic that it woud be a good time once we got there.
Wrong! First things first: They are really crazy about this foot and mouth thing. When we got there we all had to take turns being crammed into this little box that “sanitized” us before we could enter. I guess I would appreciate it if I understood why. Like, they just roped off the street and only allowed us to walk past the rope once we were sanitized, but cramming us all in there like that can be very sanitary, not the mention that the air on one side of the rope is the same as the air on the other side. No? I don’t know if you can imagine what I’m trying to describe, but… it was quite interesting. Every time we left the ice festival street and came back we had to get sanitized again and they also sprayed sanitizer on the bus when we drove into town!!! What?! Anyhow… back to the story…
Ice fishing might sound like fun, but now I can say that I’ve gone ice fishing for a whopping 20 min and that was enough to last me the rest of my life! hahaha It was freezing!!! and the wind was blowing which meant all the little flakes of ice from digging the wholes were blown right up into our face! Ouch! A few people caught fish which was kind of cool, but the girls and I decided maybe on the frozen river wasn’t the place for us. The highlight of my frozen river escapade was watching some kid fall and slide across the river. bahahahaha Hilarious! Then my friend fell because she stepped right into one of the holes in the ice! luckily they’re small, don’t worry. Just her foot was really cold after that. We were very careful walking after that.
We went inside and warmed ourselves up with some dumpling soup (mandu gook) then decided to try the snowy area. We bought tickets to go sledding which really was a lot of fun…. the first 3 times. After that we were damn near frozen again! We watched some guys catch fish with their bare hands as they waded in the water in just their shorts and tshirts. They’re nuts! I actually felt worse for the fish though. They throw them onto the ice and snow and the fish very quickly freeze to death. The flop around a lil and then… death. That’s gotta be a horrible way to go. *shudder* After about an hour of hanging out outside, the girls and I decided we were not cut out for this. It should’ve been a sign when we were the only people on the bus that weren’t from Canada or Europe. California girls chillin at the ice festival…. literally.
So, we headed into town, found a cute little coffee shop and hung out there, playing cards until our bus was ready to go at 5pm. I tell ya what. When that sun went down, oh baby! it was nearly unbearable outside. We enjoyed a bus ride of karaoke on our way home and agreed that we should’ve known better than to go to an ice festival, but hey, at least we can say we’ve done it. 😀
59 days!
Building 63 January 8, 2011
Fishies!
I went out with Soo, Odi and my friend Hyun Yung (who I’ve mentioned previously). To fully appreciate the highlights of my adventure you have to know a little bit about Hyun Yung. She is half Chinese and half Korean, but she is from Taiwan. Her father is extremely over protective and when she came here to study Korean at the University he made sure to house her with a family from church who would take care of her according to his style. Well, Paul and Paula (her parents for the time being) are out of town this weekend so I kidnapped her! I love Paul and Paula, but Hyun Yung has been dying to get out more often and so I took the opportunity. I’m sure they’ll be ok with it. If not, I fear the rath of Paula later! Oh No! It is certainly safe to say that Hyun Yung has been very sheltered and it was quite a little adventure for her.
We took pictures frollicking in the snow around the Han River a bit and headed towards Building 63. Inside the building there is tons of stuff to do including art museums/exhibits, restaurants, an aquarium, an IMAX theatre, shopping, etc. Inside the building is also OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive! We went into their aquarium area for the afternoon and enjoyed feeding otters (Yes! We got to feed otters!) and letting little fishies feed on the dead skin on our fingers. You should’ve seen Hyun Yung hoot in laughter!! It was so great! I wish I could capture her reactions to these things for you. She says zoos around the world are all the same, but apparently aquariums are not. We saw a seal show which was pretty adorable and another sea lion show which Korea has become famous for as far as I’m concerned. I’m pretty sure that’s my 5th sea lion show. lol Anyhow, after that Soo and Odi rested their feet while Hyun Yung and I spent 30 minutes watching an Anecanda devour an entire frozen chicken while in the water! I’ve never seen anything like that before. Hyun Yung said we were not aloud to leave until it finished and I agreed. haha It was freakin awesome!!!
We had some lunch. We all shared Bip Bim Bap (rice with veggies, egg and spicey sauce) from a giant wooden bowl. It was silly really, but we kind of got a kick out of it.
We wanted to take the elevator upstairs, but then we found out it’s… well… expensive. So we debated about it and long story short, the majority ruled that it wasn’t worth the money to go to the top and have a cup of coffee. lol It would’ve been cool, but that’s ok. I’ve seen the bird’s eye view of seoul a few times already. We found a Tom n Tom’s on our way home and shared a delicious dessert. Hyun Yung looked around at one point and said “whoah! This is why my dad sent me to Ansan. There’s is nothing to do in Ansan, but everwhere else has millions of awesome things!!!” hahaha She’s so cute.
Well, that is pretty much the end of my adventure and now I am sleepy after staying up late to skype with one of my dear friends. So, I bid you farewell until I come online another time to update you on my English Winter Camp and next weekend’s ice fishing! woohoo
70 days! 😀
There’s No Place Like Home January 4, 2011
Exhausted, but still so happy!
My flight to California was long and uncomfortable, but I was excited to find my family at the airport. Actually, I was a lil upset at first because I initially could’t find my family! haha Apparently Trav had to go get chips or something? 😛 Anyway, when I finally found them it was a warm welcome and a big hug from my little brother who is growing quickly and wont be so little anymore. Everyone was pretty up to date on my life, thanks to my handy dandy notebook, I mean, blog. So we just got to enjoy spending quality time together exactly like I remember it.
Christmas day was enjoyable and relaxing. I got to finally meet my baby niece and she’s is just adorable. Kaylee is a sweet and happy baby … my sister is very lucky! We opened presents, enjoyed lounging around the house together and a fantastic dinner of mom’s meatloaf. mmmmm…. meatloaf! That night I met up with Andrew and some of our friends that we used to work with at Magic Mountain. We had some drinks and played some games. Andrew keeps in close touch with them still, but it had been a long time since I’ve seen them and it was good times catching up.
The day after Christmas I got to meet up with nearly the eniter family. My wonderful boyfriend and I didn’t quite time things right and he wound up at the house before I was so Matthew got to meet everyone and get to know them well. haha I miss my family so much! One of the many things I loved about living in San Luis was that I got to be a little bit closer to my family and help take care of my grandma. I was really happy to see that grandma and everyone else are all doing well. People always send emails and updates about everyone doing well, but of course I still wonder and worry so my heart was put at ease. (Do I sound like an old woman there? jeez) My cousins are growing up soooo fast! And, believe this or not, we actually got a picture with five generations of women in my family…. my great grandma, my nana, my mom, my sister and me, and my niece. That’s so incredible! I’m very lucky to get to be close with my family and actually grow up with so many generations. It has really influenced my life I think. A lot of people comment on my sense of family value, but I think I’ve just learned to appreciate what I have is all.
Anyhow, that night I went to visit some old coworkers at Albertson’s which was nice. I did start to make a kind of family there so I was glad to see some people. Matthew and I hung out with my dear friend Cody for a bit and then we hit up some good ol’ In-n-Out Burger. Yum!
The 27th I met up with Brittany Tom who I miss like freakin crazy! She was with her family down at Disneyland so I drove out to have lunch with her in downtown Disney. The traffic sucked and I spent 4 hours in the car for a 2 hour visit, but it was totally worth it. That girl makes me laugh and we caught up on life. I don’t have a million friends, but the friends that I do have are the kinds of friends that I can meet with any place, any time and just have good ol’ fun together like nothing has ever changed. I love it! And on that note, Andrew and I got together that night (after I came home and kicked Trav’s butt on Batchi Ball hehe) and went out for a rockin sushi dinner. I had a leechy mojito and if you ever get the chance to have one, do it. It was delicious. I also got to see his family and the kids are growing up really quickly. I’m glad to say that they’re all doing well. His mom has always been really sweet and supported me a lot so I make it a point to always go back and visit. What a great family. I taught them some Korean games that I brought back and we played until midnight. Then I got locked out of my car and we had to call triple A and blah, blah, blah. I made it home! Yeah! haha
The 28th was a kind of lazy day. I spent some time playing with TJ and I taught him some new Korean games as well. I don’t know how often he’ll ever use these things, but I think he gets a little bit of exposure and that’s cool. I like to think he’ll at least remember getting to try different things that I bring home. It’s a good experience to see some of a different culture and I like to think that I’m using my opportunities to maybe give him some opportunities and stuff too. Besides, it’s also just fun to play. haha That’s what really matters! I took a wonderful bath thanks to many fantastic Christmas presents that spoiled me and made me beautiful for my boyfriend who came down that evening. I’m glad my family is getting to know him. We played some more batchi ball (yes, matt and I won against trav and tj… just gotta make that known). Mom made an awesome dinner, again. Spaghetti and meatballs. I looooove momma’s food! Then I took Matt to meet Andrew, who is now the only friend of mine outside of SLO that Matt has gotten to meet since I’ve been away so long. They got along really well and we enjoyed some good beer and Matthew’s first pizzuki! Delicious! Then Matthew and I killed time walking around the new courtyard area at the mall, dancing around, almost getting locked in the mall, and then it was time for HARRY POTTER!!!! It was awesome.
The 29th was my day with Matthew’s family. We left my house liesurely that afternoon and made it to Wasco just a little while before dinner. I got to catch up with his mom a bit. She is just one of the sweetest ladies ever! His sister and her new boyfriend joined us all for dinner. I enjoyed a great awkward moment where Matthew, his mom and his sister all left the table and the new boyfriend and I were left to make small talk with dad. Thank goodness the weather had actually been an interesting topic with all the rain and flooding lately cause that was my fall back topic of convo! Hurray for bonding with Matthew’s dad. hahaha The poor boyfriend just had no idea what to say, but the rain did me well for some chit chat. As I get to know his dad it’s actually not too hard to make small talk, but I’ll just have to keep up on weather and sports from now on before I go to their house. haha Anyhow, some of Matthew’s best friends came over after dinner and we enjoyed a lil present swapping (I got 4 stockings this Christmas!!! I love stockings!!) and had a nostalgic night of disney movies.
The 30th Matt and I drove up to his family’s cabin in… I don’t know where… the mountains. haha It was really pretty up there because it had just snowed a few days before, but also really cold. We spent the entire rest of the afternoon curled up on the couch in a large blanket while the house heated up. It wasn’t until after dinner that we could no longer see our breathe inside the house. It was another movie night for us.
The 31st Matt introduced me to some of the neighbors up there. We went to visit a close friend of his dad’s (apparently they’ve known each other since infancy! talk about good friends). They’re all really nice people. They had some kids at his dad’s friend’s house and they were adorable! A couple of really young, really talkative little boys who were just thrilled about the snow! Later we went on a little hike through the snow which was fun. I nailed him right in the head with some snow… I can’t say snow ball because it was so fluffy that it wouldn’t even make a ball. I’ve never seen snow like that. So, we a had a snow fight. That night we sat out on the porch with some champaigne and you could see all the lights in the valley from their porch, but also every single star in the sky it seemed. We could see so clearly that the milky way was actually visible! It was incredible and a very romantic new year’s eve. We went inside to watch the “rockin new year’s eve” in New York and smooched at midnight! (blush) It was a wonderful new year’s eve.
New Year’s day we cleaned up the cabin (it’s a lock of work because they only go up for vacation and weekend get-aways so we had to shut off all the water, protect the pipes from freezing, clean, vacuum, etc). It was a great little relaxing retreat from my crazy week. Then we went back to Wasco, had dinner with his family and then back to Santa Clarita to spend the night with my family. Whooh! One last night and goodbye with my family. I already miss them!
By the time I got on the plane back to Korea I was absolutely exhausted. Matthew drove me to the airport and we got some ice cream after I checked in to enjoy a little bit more time together. I teared up a bit while he watched me go all the way through security until we couldn’t see each other anymore. My flight back was not quite as cramped and I sat next to a nice old man. I slept for the majority of it. I had a lot of problems when I got to the airport in korea though. I had technical issues with my email and stuff before I left so I never printed my itinerary. I looked up my flight info and just took it with me without the official print out. I was put into a glass case thing because I didn’t have a ticket to leave China so I was a “threat” upon arriving. I didn’t realize that my “China Eastern” flight from China to Korea was “through Korean Air” …. I didn’t realize they could say stuff like that. I’m not sure how that works, but I thought I was flying China Eastern and people were sending me all over the airport telling I should go here, there and everywhere and every time I got somewhere they told me I didn’t belong there. Then someone told me I missed my flight and I almost freaked out! Finally someone told me to try Korean Air (at this poitn I was fighting back tears because Chinese people are just really not that friendly so I doubt they would care that I was crying and then they just wouldn’t be able to understand me. lol ugh!). The KoreanAir people were really sweet and got me right to where I needed to go and my flight was wonderful!! Koreans brag about being the best in a lot of things and most of the time I think they’re kind of silly, but I do think they are the best airline I’ve ever flown with. I will give them that. Anyhow…. I’m home now. Safe and sound and all is well.
I was greeted at midnight by 4 people from church who also brought me groceries for dinner and breakfast the next night. They are sooo thoughtful! After all the craziness I was glad to come back to the comfort of friends. I got a lot of sleep and even slept through the night here so I don’t think jet lag with be a problem. Hurray! I’m happy to be back, looking forward to my final adventures around Asia, but also counting down the days til I’m home again. 75 and counting!
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