Hong Kong February 7, 2011

the city light in hearts....romantical

I don’t know that I can do my trip justice in a blog post, but my 3 days exploring Hong Kong were a glorious break from work and snowy S.K.

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!

A Slippin’ and A Slidin’ January 25, 2011

Check out all that winter gear!

Last weekend I went snowboarding!!! So exciting!! With this freezing cold weather lately I’ve really been dying to get out for some physical activity. The guys stopped playing soccer, it’s too icey outside to run, my gym is too far away for motivation to walk there, and well, I just don’t do any other sports. hahaha I have soooo been missing playing outside! I didn’t realize how much I play outside until recently. Now I will be taking every chance I get from now on! I have been dying to get some friends to go snowboarding with so Charlie decided to get the EBS group together for a snowboardig/skiing trip up to Vivaldi park! Yes!

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!

Building 63 January 8, 2011

Fishies!

Today I went on a very mini adventure (into Seoul, of course) to a place called Building 63. It is the tallest building in Korea with 63 floors and this ridiculous golden exterior that sparkles on a cloudy day and just blinds on a sunny day! haha Today it was snowy outside so there was no blinding at all. 😛

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 trip home had been long anticipated and was well worth it. I have so missed my family and friends and even though it was a short trip it was a reminder… a foretaste, if you will…. of my life to come when I return to Cali in 75 days! woot woot So, I’m gonna take a few minutes to do the lame, but efficient, day-by-day catch up of my awesome vacation!

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!

재주도 Day 5: August 29, 2010

Our last day and it had stormed all night so we never could get our hikes in. We canceled our early morning hike and sunrise peak and slept in. Then headed home in the late morning.

When we got back to Ansan we found out that one of the men from our church passed away while we were gone. He’s been in the hospital nearly the entire time I’ve been here so I didn’t know him, but I spend a lot of time with his wife. He died from lung cancer so we went to his funeral (which is different than American funerals…it’s more of 3 day wake). Anyhow, I went to give my condolances to the wife and his family. It was really sad.

So, now I am home and thinking about all of the things I need to do before Monday. On Monday I start regular school again. Technically this is second semester for them, not the beginning of the school year, so all of my students/classes will be the same except for a new group to do afterschool program with. I’m really looking forward to after school program and really hoping for saving grace and patience with my coteacher for regular school. I am also starting a Korean class either this week or next week. I get to go back to my dance class at the gym after a few weeks break. Plus, I’m also going to be helping out with the English Bible Study group on the university campus and they are having some welcome back dinners and such beginning tomorrow! I’m looking forward to a busy semester and I can’t wait to share all of my stories with everyone.

I love you and miss you all sooooo much!!! I think of you everyday.
XOXO

재주도 Again! August 28, 2010

This past week I spent 5 days on Jeju Island (that’s what my title says…I’m practicing my Korean more and more!) with Lisa and Soo. Soo and I had gone to Jeju for a few days in May, but it wasn’t enough to really experience everything that we wanted to so we decided to go again while we still could. It’s the Asian equivalent to Hawaii so summer time is the best time to go, but since school starts around this time it was slightly less populated as people are staying home now.

We did so much and took soooo many pictures that I really don’t want to cram it all into one post. I’ve been gone for 5 days so there are 5 days worth of posts to make up for it. Muahahaha. Here we go….

Day 1: We spent hours upon hours at the beach! Yeah! I’ve soooo been missing the California beaches this summer. I didn’t realize how much time I do actually spend at the beach until I didn’t have it any more! lol This day we went to a beach on the west side of the island and the ocean water was this beautiful teal color. You could see out for miles and the sky was a perfect bright blue and white fluffy clouds. It was as if it was out of a post card. The water was pretty warm too. There were no waves which I actually thought was disappointing, but Soo and Lisa really enjoyed the calm water. We enjoyed the beach until the sun went down. Then we went to a completely randomly selected burger place across the street which actually made pizza sized hamburgers! hahaha It was sooo impressive, not to mention it was one of the best hamburgers I’ve ever had! (You wouldn’t like though, Trav. It was covered in veggies and stuff and the meat patty was kind of small so I thought of you and how it wasn’t really an impressive burger by our standards…. those standards aside though, it was fantastic!)

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Side note: Koreans are really ultra careful in the water. I mentioned how we had to wear life vests when I went to the water park with Matthew and some of my friends? Well, at the beach, most Koreans rent tubes to have in the water and there are life guards that sit on water jet skis at the booeys (wow, my spelling is horrible) and they block off the shallow parts with ropes because that’s where the safest place to swim is and so that’s the recommended swimming area and very few people swim outside of it. Very interesting!

Weekend in Buyeon August 2, 2010

I had an incredibly relaxing and refreshing weekend to end my 2 weeks of chaos! It pretty much started on Thursday when Soo and I went for a girl’s night in Seoul. We went and got our hair cut (mine didn’t turn out the way I wanted it at all because it was just totally lost in translation, but she did a good job cutting my hair). Then we went out to dinner and then did a little shopping. We stayed the night at her cousin’s house and came to work early Friday morning on the subway.

After classes on Friday we left work early to meet up with everybody from church near the university. We loaded up into the bus and were on our way to our weekend get away. The little girl that sat behind me on the bus was a girl that I knew and have lovingly given the nickname “bug girl” because she is always carrying around bugs. This time she had a cicada! If you don’t know what that is, look it up. They are everywhere here right now and I HATE them soooo much! Funny thing was that it seemed totally happy to just hang out in her hand. When she put her seatbelt on she handed the bug to the guy nex to her and the bug started making tons of noise and was so upset. Then she took it back and it just sat in her hand totally fine. Pretty funny. Anyhow, after the first hour of the ride we stopped and she let him go. Relief!

It took 2 hours to get to our hostel in Buyeon which is an old capital of one of the ancient dynasties. There was a large statue dedicated in the town center and a few historical sights, but I really wouldn’t have guessed it was something too special if no one had told me. So, Friday we just relaxed, had a nice big dinner and explored the park and river area near our hostel. We played some night frisbee which was a lot of fun with a glow in the dark frisbee!

Saturday was beach day!!!! I was so happy!!! We went back to Boryeong (which was where the mud festival was) and it was only about half an hour from our hostel. We arrived at the beach nice and early and it was a beautiful day. The sand wasn’t as nice at this part of Boryeong and once you got into the water it was all red and black mud!!! It was really really hard to walk, but felt really good on our feet until the tide started going out and there were rocks underneath the mud. The water was the perfect temperature though. We swam, had some awesome seafood soup for lunch (I practiced my Korean a lot at the restaurant to order and stuff yeah!), relaxed and chatted, played with the kids, swam some more and then headed back to our hostel around 5.

One of the little boys was my new best friend by the end of the day. His name is Shi Ahn and he’s soooo cute! He’s only 3 years old, but he decided that I was way more fun than playing in the water so we played in the sand together and stuff. It was really cute. Then he sat in my lap on the bus ride back to the hostel and fell asleep while playing “doggy” in my lap. Literally, he was mid bark and fell over asleep. hahahaha He was so tired! When we would hit a bump in the road he would wake up and start barking again (well, he said “mong mong” because that’s the korean version of “woof woof”) as he was jolted awake and then his eyes would close and he would be sleeping again instantly. so precious!

So, Saturday night we had a great dinner and then walked around exploring all of the disgustingly giantic spiders that were in the park. This place was spider heaven! It was horrible and fascinating to me all at the same time.

On Sunday we had our church meeting and then Soo and I decided to do some exploring so we caught a boat road on an old, traditional Korean boat which took us to the other side of the mountain. We didn’t expect to only go one way, but we thought we might as well head on for an adventure. We started along the hiking path and first found the old famous temple that is apparently a really popular tourist attraction so that was really neat to see. The old temples have such detail in their architecture and painting, it’s incredible. As we hiked some more we came across this famous rock where apparently a bunch of the women from this old dynasty committed suicide when the dynasty fell. They jumped off of the rock into the river below. Now that area is kind of a memorial to them. Finally, the last thing we found on our hike was at the highest point of the moutain where there was an old look out peak. Apparently there was a fortress wall around the area and this was the highest peak. The prince of the dynasty at one point actually came out and painted the chinese caligraphy on the look out building himself. A nice little touch. We finally came out on the other side of the moutain right next to our hostel. Tadah! We made it just in time to snag some lunch and hop on the bus back home.

This weekend was so nice because it felt like I was just on a weekend vacation with my family. I miss weekend camping trips!

Seoraksan!!! July 29, 2010

So, it’s been way too long since I went on this trip to just now be posting it, but I’ve been trying to recover from it. hahaha On the bright side, that means I don’t remember all the tiny details so it will prevent me from writing WAY too much on my blog 😛

I went with the Seoul Hiking Group (same club that I went to the mud festival with, but different people for this trip) to Seoraksan Mountain. It’s the second tallest mountain in South Korea. I have no officially hiked 2 out of the three tallest mountains here. Woot woot! It was by far the most intense hike of my life. We met in Seoul at 11pm Friday night and rode in the bus overnight to the mountain. It was really hard to sleep because the airconditioner was freezing and the guys behind us decided to stay awake and drink and chat all night. Ugh! We got to the mountain around 230am and got ready to hike! We started our hike, in the dark, at 3am. It was really nerve racking because the hike was steep and rocky and we only had a few flashlights for our group, but I go to hold one of them for the people around me so I felt a lil more secure.

The trail was crazy. At some parts there were really steap stairs and other parts it was just regular dirt trail and some parts we had to climb over these big rocks and stuff. If we didn’t have a guide I would’ve thought we were lost half of the time.

We reached the top around 8am with a few stops in between. There were definitely a few people who turned around and went back after the first hour or so. We were soooo exhausted! We didn’t even really take in the scenary much when we first arrived because there was a shelter and we headed straight there to take up the floor and nap! hahaha When I woke up around 9 though it was beautiful outside! It was still a little foggy, but the view that we could see was incredible. We hung out around the top for a while to take it in and enjoy. I could see the tops of other mountains because this mountain was so tall! We had a ramen and mandu (dumplings) party in the shelter there before we left again.

The way back down was an easier trail because it was mostly man made with stairs or rocks positioned as stairs, but it was brightly lit by the sun and the fog was clearing so it was really scenic. There were a few waterfalls and we took our time to enjoy the mountain. We stopped a lot and finally made it down to the bottom around 3 in the afternoon. By the time we got to the bottom my legs were shaking!!! It’s been 5 days since the hike and my legs have just today felt fully recovered. It was so worth it though! Wow!

Anyhow, we finished out the day with lunch at a nearby restaurant, traveling to our really really nice hotel that we stayed at and a chicken and beer party on the beach all night! After staying up all day/night Friday (pretty much) and hiking all day Saturday, I finally got to sleep for the first time all weekend at 1am Sunday morning. I slept like a rock!

The next day we were heading out again at 11am. This time we went into the valley of the same area (the name of which slips my mind right now, sorry) to go rafting. I have never been rafting before and this was a fantastic first experience. At this time Lisa and I had actually made friends with the guys who were behind us and annoying on the bus Friday night so we were having a grand ol’ time making friends and hanging out. We split into 2 groups for rafting and got a quick lesson. The instructor spoke limited English but was actually really fun and interested in learning it and so he became our parrot throughout the rafting trip, repeating us all the time! hahaha It’s like having a little kid with us.

The river was gorgeous. I’m pretty sure it was something straight out of a movie! Rafting was a little scary sometimes because there were some dangerous parts, but we had all the girls in our raft so our guide was really nice to us. hehe The other raft though got stuck on a rock in the middle of one of the rapid areas!! We came up behind them and accidentally crashed into them which nearly sunk our raft!!! but we recovered and got around them just before a second raft came and hit them. This whole time they were not budging from this rock. It was impressive really. After all of this the ended up flipping their raft! hahahaha It was a rough ride for them for a little while.

About half way down the river we stopped at a swimming whole and were able to go diving off the rocks into the river. I was a little nervous at first because we had to cross the river to get to the diving rocks, but the current was stronger than my swimming skills. One of the guys in our group was a lifeguard though (and of course we had life vests and helmets on so I was totally safe, I just didn’t want to float away) so he went over with me which made me feel better. I did float down the river just a little bit while I was swimming, but I made it to the other side and walked back up so i could jump off the rocks too! Woohoo!

It was a few hours until we finally made it to the stopping point which was the end of our river trip. So much fun!!! I can’t wait to go rafting again sometime! Now it was time to hop on the bus and drive home.

We hit tons of traffic on the way home and what should have been a 2 hour drive actually became a 5 hour drive. Wow! No problem though. We had all become friends and decided to get down with some karaoke on the bus. We sang 4 and a half hours of karaoke and were dancing like crazy people on the bus all the way home! 5 hours of stop and go traffic has never before been so appreciated. haha

I finally got to my house around midnight sunday night with really sore legs, sore arms and a voice that was nearly gone! It was totally worth it though. I think that was possibly one of the best times I’ve had so far in Korea! It’s on the top of my list for best experiences. Thank you to Seoul Hiking Group!

Teacher Trip July 22, 2010

Disclaimer: This was a professional development, staff bonding trip. It was cleared by the board of education and we turned in photos and information as proof of our follow through with the plan that was turned in. Let the adventure begin…

Tuesday the students came to school for about two hours for a final assembly and to clean up their classroom and such before they began their summer vacation. At 1130 all of the teachers/staff (except my coteacher because she is a sub so she doesn’t come on this trip hehehe) loaded onto a bus and prepared for a two hour drive to our destination in Songnisan National Park.

It’s safe to say that I was surprised while we were driving and the teachers began passing out beers and drinking and then one of the 2nd grade teachers stood up, put his sunglasses on (cause he’s cool like that), he pulls out a microphone and lights start flashing on the bus ceiling. Let the party begin! This teacher planned a game where the other teachers were called on and had to pick a paper out of this jar which gave them challenges to do like sing a karaoke song, beat another teacher at some word game, or even “the hardest one” have a 5 minute conversation with Ashlee. It was silly, but the teachers had fun and started to let loose. I tell you what, Koreans LOVE karaoke!

Then we make a stop for lunch at this herb garden place. It’s flower rice for lunch. Yes, that’s right. A bowl of flowers, rice and various herbs mixed with spicey sauce. It was pretty good, but not my favorite. The owner of the garden was really excited to have a foreigner eating there though. He pulled me up in front of everyone and decorated my face with flower petals like they do with traditional Korean weddings I guess (that was kind of weird) and then he fed me a spoonful of the flower bibimbap. Wow! Embarrassing and weird, but everyone else got a kick out of it. Then we walked around the garden where they grow all of the food that we ate. I was bonding with the principal while we were walking because he really loves to hear me try to speak Korean so he was teaching me some things and Soo, him and I were chatting. At one point there’s a bunch of beautiful flowers and a waterfall and stuff so I ask the principal to take a picture with me. He gives me a lil hug and we smile and “kimchi!” When I took the camera from Soo I realized “Oh! Look! That rock we were standing in front of is shaped like a giant penis!” hahahahahaha So my new favorite picture in the world is the picture of my princpal, me and the rock penis. bahaha

Anyhow, back onto the bus we go for more drinking and karaoke and silly games. After another short drive on our party bus we stop at a gallery (cause this is a professional development and educational trip). It was a really scenic little gallery with some nice sculpture gardens around and inside the gallery was all artwork by a famous korean artist, Woonbo. It was pretty cool because I got to practice my Korean by reading the titles and trying to understand them when I looked at the picture and stuff. The art was fantastic, but I couldn’t take any pictures so I will just have to keep that memory for myself. He was a very simple and colorful artist. I enjoyed this a lot.

Well, that was fun… back on the bus to drink and karaoke. hahaha At this point it’s getting dark outside and the lights are going like disco balls and the teachers are dancing in the aisle. Woohoo!!! Now we stop for dinner. We ate raw fish for dinner and it was quite delicious. I also really enjoy quail eggs which we had as a side. At dinner it is expected that everyone will drink more. The principal stands up to give a toast and tells everyone he wants them to take 3 shots of soju… one for our hard work, one for thanks, and one for good health (ironic, no?). Some of the teachers around me and I put sprite in our shot glasses and drank that instead. lol We were at dinner for 2 and a half hours!!! I have never seen people drink so much straight hard liquor in my life. Soo and I eventually didn’t partake in much conversation with other teachers because they were drinking and it was getting harder to understand their loud, excited speech! A few teachers did come to speak to me in English which was exciting. Since they spoke to me in English I did my best during the trip to always respond in Korean. I did ok. One teacher told me, “Ashlee, we did not meet before this very well. You call me Mark! I could not talk to you before because English is scary, but I speak very good drunk English!! Now when I see you at school I will say “hello”.” So we had a toast to that and then another teacher came over to tell me that she just thought I was so wonderful apparently, but the only thing she could say in English was “I love you!” hahahaha It was really interesting to hang back and watch everyone actually. I’ve gotten really observant too since I can’t understand much of what they’re saying (especially at dinner) I rely a lot on my observations of their body language and stuff. Like, there was one teacher who was acting like she was drunk, but every time someone offered her a shot, she would just put it to her lips and then dump it out underneath the table. Sure enough when we were getting ready to leave there was a beer glass under the table where she was sitting that was filled with soju. Anyhow, dinner was a good time and our staff alone took up the entire restaurant so after a few hours (and when they ran out of cold alcohol) we decided to head out.

Now I expected to go to our hotel, but the party wasn’t over yet. We went to a bar! A norebong (karaoke bar), of course. There was a karaoke competition between all of the grade levels judged by the vice principal. Third grade teachers got 3rd place with my lovely singing of “Dancing Queen” as we all danced around like crazy on the dance floor. My principal was even booty bumping with me! hahahaha Now all of the teachers are calling me “dancing queen” cause we were jammin! I danced to a bunch of Korean music I didn’t know and played the tamberine as back up dancer! Oh yeah!

There was no soju at this place, just beer, but all the same traditions applied. Its a great sign of respect to have someone ask you to take a drink with them and there are rules about how you accept and pour drinks to each other and stuff. If it’s someone older than you (I’m the youngest! lol) then you always use two hands and you’re supposed to turn your head away from the person when you drink. It’s done one at a time. The person to approach pours first and you drink and then you offer to pour one for them. A few teachers drank with me the “american way” and we just poured for each other, clanked our glasses together and drank together.

Well, by about 1am the principal decided that we could finally go to the hotel (our 2 hour drive became a 13 hour party/adventure). Soo and I were placed in a room with 2 other teachers. It was the typical Korean room with mats to lay on the floor and no furniture. Soo and I were exhausted and ready to go to bed, but the other two ladies wanted to go out some more. A few of the staff’s rooms were dedicated “party rooms” and were for people who didn’t want to sleep, but we didn’t remember which rooms so instead of partying more the ladies decided to stay with us and practice their English. That was cute and all, but I was sooo tired. We talked for a few minutes and then went to bed around 130.

Up and at ’em at 7 am for 730 breakfast. Oh boy! The second day was simple because everyone was pretty hung over. lol Soo and I ate a little bit of the Korean breakfast and then ventured out into the downtown area to pick up some donuts and coffee. 🙂 Then we had a 5 minute bus ride to the national park where we walked around for a while. There is a huge buddhist temple there and so I got to learn a little bit about that. The teachers are always eager to teach me things. hehe It was a really nice afternoon with perfect weather for walking around the foresty area and the water in the creek was cool so we would stop to dip our feet sometimes.

Finally, we drove home only stopping to pick up lunch. We arrived back in Ansan around 2 in the afternoon so Soo and I finished off our mini vacation with a trip to the movies. We went to see Inception which was a really really incredible movie! I loved it! Then we made a yummy shrimp dinner before I finally came home and went to sleep! yeah! Now I have Thursday and Friday of prep days at work before my hiking/rafting trip this weekend and summer camp starts Monday! whew!

Summer Adventures begin in Boryeong July 19, 2010

Me, Jenny, Rori, Claire and Natalie in front

Saturday I took my first trip with the Seoul Hiking Club. It’s a pretty large group that is organized by a Korean man who just really enjoys hiking and outdoor adventures so he has taken it upon himself to start this group and show foreigners the beautiful sights of South Korea. So, I paid about 60 bucks for transportation, lodging (which was right on the beach and it was soo…. awesome!), and BBQ dinner Saturday night, breakfast sunday morning. That’s not too shabby. There were about 150 people that went on this trip. I met people from all over the world like Germany, South Africa, a number of states in the US, Canada and even quite a few Koreans. I met some wonderful people and some people that I could live without, but I think that’s how life goes.

My trip started at 630 am when I headed down to the train station and hopped on for my hour long ride into Seoul to meet Warren, the guide, for the first time as well as all of my new travel campanions. The train ride was a simple, one train shot, straight into Seoul which was really nice. When I arrived I introduced myself to Warren for check in. He was in this bright Hawaiian tshirt, shorts and flip flops with a big floppy hat. I couldn’t tell if he just really enjoyed dressing that way or if that’s how he felt like he blended in with all of us tourists. hahaha He was really nice though and I started chatting with a few people who had been on trips with this group before. I heard nothing but good things.

I wound up sitting next to a really strange guy on the bus ride there. It was a three hour ride to Boryeong and I was absolutely ready to get off that bus when the time came. Warren asked if anyone would like to sleep in an all girls room and my hand shot up so quickly! I was really lucky to be placed in a room with 4 other awesome ladies!!! Claire from New Jersey (I think), Jenny from Toronto, Natalie from Germany and Rori from…I can’t remember… We all had a good laugh at our room when we realized it was about the size of half of my living room here and there were no beds or anything. Just 4 blankets and 4 pillows for each of us to sleep on the floor with. hahahah SOOOOO Korean!! Anyhow, we were grateful to be sleeping with all girls because it was going to be close quarters. So the group of us bonded right away and we were off to enjoy the beach.

We had some fried chicken, ramen and beer for lunch. Then we went back to our rooms to get ready to go to the mud festival. Woohoo!!! Claire and I were ready quickly so we decided to go down to the corner market and pick up some Soju so we could indulge a little before we took off to get in the mud. We went in and bought this ridiculously cheap, but giant bottle of soju. When we got outside we decided that it looked kind of bubbly which was odd so, standing on the street corner, we busted it open and each took a swig. It was definitely Soju! Ugh! The taxi driver that was passing us stopped to drop his jaw in our direction and we took off laughing to share our new found joy with our roommates. *Don’t worry, it’s not illegal to drink outside in Korean* We got to our room and finally remembered we should’ve brought cups to drink out of or something, but we didn’t. So, the soju went into rice bowls and we all sat around on the floor of our room and drank it out of the bowls. hahaha Go Korea!!!

No we were ready to go! We headed out to the mud festival and things were crazy! As soon as we got into the mud area people were nuts about hte fact that the girls and I were clean. “you’re too clean!!!” they would scream at us as they came running to hug total strangers and cover us in as much mud as they could scrape from their bodies to ours. It was hilarious! We went over and joined the biggest mud fight I’ve ever seen in my life. And each side had different muds! It was really soft, smooth mud that felt soooo good. Well, it felt good until you got smacked with it. I definitely came out of their with a few bruises, but it was all in good fun. Claire and I then decided to try out the mud pits. We were in there for all of three minutes because that we just a little too crazy for us. All the military guys were hanging out in there and just going crazy pushing people into the mud and trying to keep everyone rolling around and not letting anyone stand up. It was comical, but a little too intimidating for our style. Come to find out someone actually wound up breaking a leg in the mud pits just a few minutes after we got out so I’m really glad we decided to move on. So we went and race people in mud obstical courses and mud slides. It was just a good ol’ messy blast. I reminded me of when we would take a hose to the park and play in the mud there when I was little. This time it just happened to be a bunch of adults acting like 10 year olds. It was a pretty good time. Oh! I did lose my shoes during the mud fight though. My foot sank in and I was wearing my flip flops and that was the end of their lives. Sigh… Now I have some super awesome bright yellow slipper sandal things. Oh yeah, they’re pretty wicked.

After all the excitement we went back to our pension (the place we were staying at… they call vacation homes and such “pensions” here) and got ready for BBQ. It took us each at least half an hour to shower. There was just mud everywhere! In my clothes/bathingsuite/hair/etc! Every time I thought I was clean then I would rinse off and find more. That’s ok. Totally worth it.

The BBQ was nice. Warren did a really good job of providing plenty of food for all of us. We had some bulgogi (beef) and noodles, rice, bananas, muffins, water, beer, wine. What a feast! I got to chat with a bunch of people and make some more cool friends. Talked with a Korean girl for a long time who was really nice and got to meet her group of foreigner friends. I ended up hanging out with them and just two of the girls from my room for the evening. The other two were exhausted and went to bed. So, now that we’re all clean, showered and fed we decided to go hit up the live concert down on the beach. It’s raining, btw, did I mention that before? It’s been raining off and on all day, but that hasn’t stopped us. In fact, as far as the mud goes it just makes it better! The concert was actually quite a few pretty popular Korean groups. I was stoked to recognize some of the songs. It was pooring rain and man, the Koreans came out at night!!! During the mud fest it was mostly foreigners, but we became a rare sight again during this concert. Anyhow, the weather was actually great because it was warm out and the rain felt really nice. So we a few of us decided to head down to the beach for a swim. Did we want to walk ALL 3 min back to our rooms to change? Nope. So we went for a swim completely… yes, you got it… completely clothed! hahahaha I lost 20 dollars out of my jean back pockets to the ocean that night. That was the most money I spent all weekend! The water was absolutely wonderful though. It was cool, but not icy by any means. Just perfect for the warm summer weather here. Finally, we went back to the pension after a bit more concert and stayed up chatting away.

That night we squeezed into our tiny room to sleep and took turns with pillows. hahaha I slept by the door, but apparently I was so tired that I didn’t even feel it when the 6th girl (who we didn’t really know) walked into the room and hit me with the door while I was asleep! hahaha Oh man. It was the worst night of sleep in my life though because after what must have been the first few hours I was waking up constantly with back aches, sore neck, cold, hot, etc etc. It’s a good thing it was only one night.

The next day we decided the mud was cool, but we could do just one day of it and be ok. We went down and enjoyed the beach all day Sunday. It was a beautiful beach with great sand and the water was such a nice temperature all the time. I found some really nice shells… probably the size of my hand and beautiful in color. I brought some home. hehe Jenny, Claire and I went tide pooling and I got to see some things I’ve never even seen before. Score! Claire studied marine biology (I believe that was it) and so she was really knowledgeable about everything. I can’t wait to email TJ with my new found knowledge of sand crabs!

We sat out in the sun and just enjoyed a day of relaxation. Had a great lunch and some really delicious kimchi chigae (I have no idea how to spell it in English though)! It’s a new favorite of mine. We left the beach around 4 to head home. I got home completely exhausted and unfortunately really awkwardly sunburnt from the mud and my horrible lazy sunscreen job and funny positions crouching in the tide pools and such. I will have one heck of a splotchy tan!

It was a really awesome weekend though. I had my last day of class today in which I just played games with the students. Tomorrow I’m off on a teacher retreat! I’ll tell you all about it soon.