Back to Busan

Hi! This past Friday was Buddha's Birthday, which meant that we didn't have school. Of course my friends and I (and apparently every other foreigner in Korea) decided to turn our 3-day weekend into a mini spring break vacay.

Thursday night Sara, Anna, Rebecca, and I jumped on the 9:20 KTX to Busan. We arrived around midnight, and cabbed over to Haeundae Beach. We went to the love motel we stayed at during our initial visit and rented out a cheap room for the night. The night was still young, so we went out to a bar we must've made quite an impression at on our first visit, because Sara and Rebecca's picture is still on the wall and they remembered us and bought us drinks.

Friday morning we checked out and dragged all of our stuff to the beach to meet up with John and Q. And wow...the beach was exactly like spring break. It felt like Panama City, only we were missing a Wisco flag, red cups, and fake IDs. It was a beautiful day and the beach was packed with vacationing weigooks (Korean word for foreigners). I wish I could have understood the Korean conversations around me, they must have been so confused. Wanting a tan? Playing football? And volleyball? Blaring music? In a way though, I think it was a good thing. I feel like when Koreans see weigooks in isolation, they think we are so bizarre...but seeing huge groups of us all together, they can see that the way we act, talk, and dress is our normal.

Haeundae Beach

We checked into our hotel (the amazing Novotel right on the beach!) at 2, and then went to lunch. We went to TGI Fridays...nothing special but it was the first time I've had it since I left America last year, and I was pretty excited. After lunch we went back to the beach until the sunset and then went up to our room to get ready for the night. We went out to a bar to meet up with some friends, and then to the club that was in the downstairs part of our hotel. It was so much fun, but we got tired early (relatively speaking) and were in our hotel by 2am. We're getting old, I know.

Lunchtime view of Haeundae Beach

Novotel on Haeundae

Anna, Reebs, Sara, and me watching the sunset on Haeundae

Hotel view

Saturday we woke up to lots of rain...we were so disappointed because we wanted another good beach day, but no such luck. We went to a lunch/brunch buffet across from our hotel, and then chilled in our hotel room for most of the day. After grabbing dinner, we got ready for our last night out. We went to one bar that was FULL of foreigners and was totally out of control...girls slut dancing on the pool tables, boys swinging from the ceiling with their shirts off...it felt like home and it was awesome. After that we went to a club that was a little bit more low key which was a great way to end the night.

Me and Rebecca enjoying the hotel on our rainy day

Sara, Q, John, and me at Rock 'n' Roll Bar

U2 Bar with Sara

Sunday we had bought tickets to leave on a 2pm train because we wanted extra beach time, but of course it was still POURING rain outside...so I called the front desk to ask for a late check out. By the time we cleaned up the room which we successfully trashed (we do it to every hotel somehow), it was time to leave for the train station. We had tickets in first class for our return trip because the regular class was sold out. The extra money was definitely worth it because we each had tons of space to ourselves. We were definitely in recovery after we had been three-day weekend warriors. There was a little girl sitting in the seat in front of me, maybe 2 or 3 years old. She kept running back to my seat to say hello and give me candy (only to take it all back 15 seconds later). She was sooo adorable. We arrived at Seoul Station at 5, ate dinner quick, and then went our separate ways. It was such a great getaway and EVERYONE was there, so it was even more memorable.

This week is a full week of work...standard usual business. North Korea is starting to get a little crazy. I'm not convinced that tensions will rise to the point of a full-scale war, although we should all be careful not to forget that the two countries are technically, legally, still at war with each other. The US has of course pledged to support SK and I think that will be a huge deterrent for the North when it comes to any sort of a military action. South Korea is imposing economic sanctions, and restricting trade. With North Korea having such scarce resources, I definitely think it will have a negative impact on them, but I do also worry about how they will react. South Korea is also considering putting up Cold War-style propaganda speakers along the DMZ, and the North says they will shoot the speakers down, to which the soldiers in the South have been instructed to retaliate. I think for most of us, its just business as usual around here...but I have to admit that it does make me a little nervous living so close to the danger zone. These rising tensions, though, have happened in the past and I think its just part of the roller coaster relationship on this divided peninsula. In the meantime, I've registered with the US Embassy here so if anything major does go down...they'll be sure to contact me and get me out of here right away. Hopefully things will cool down soon.

Bangkok has been a hotspot lately for conflict as well. I think the media has blown it out of proportion quite a bit, but things did get pretty bad there for awhile. I've been asked a lot about what exactly the conflict is over. To be honest I don't know much, but my general knowledge (which I hope is correct??) is that several years ago the military staged a coup, and ousted the Prime Minister. People in his party won the subsequent elections, but it was found they committed election fraud. They then declared the current Prime Minister to be the winner, and red shirts have been opposed ever since. They want new elections and have been demonstrating, and protesting and it has turned violent. It makes me sad to see such a great city with such wonderful people going through such a difficult time. I hope that once things are settled there, it won't deter people from continuing to visit. The islands are safe, though, since the protesting and violence is all in the government centered areas in Bangkok.

This weekend should be (hopefully) pretty low key, since we don't have any holidays or major plans. Weather is looking good though, so I'm sure we'll find something entertaining to do. Here's your K-Pop song for the week. Here is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Hyori Lee. It sort of feels like a strange combination of all of Lady Gaga's videos, but the song is still fun. That's all for now...bye!

"I like it in the city when two worlds collide. You get the people and the government, everybody taking different sides. Shows that we ain't gonna stand shit, shows that we are united, shows that we ain't gonna take it. Memories are fresh. The people I've met are the wonders of my world." -- Adele, "Hometown Glory"

Lights, Camera, Lotus!

Hello! So this past weekend was SO busy. Unfortunately, I left my apartment in such a rush on Friday that I forgot my camera L Everyone else did a good job of documenting the weekend though, so I can put up another entry once I steal get all the pics. Sara’s mom gave me a few already as well. The whole Dorsey clan was in town so we tried our best to show them Seoul. Friday night we went to the hotel in Myeongdong and took them out for some Korean BBQ. We decided to take Sara’s little brother out to our favorite spots in Hongdae, which ended up being one of our more ridiculous nights. Its really warm out now so it was nice to finally be out without dragging around a huge coat. We ended up at one club that’s usually really crowded, but we were the only ones there. So naturally we had a raging dance party just the 4 of us. Don’t judge.

The next morning we were all feeling the aftermath of such a crazy night, but we tried to pull it together. The Dorsey fam went to Seoul tower, and then we all went to a baseball game. It was my first one here in Korea, and it was pretty fun. They have convenience stores, Burger Kings, and KFCs inside the stadium – so you can get normal food at normal prices. There’s none of that $6 for a beer nonsense. We watched the Lotte Giants battle the LG Twins. The twins were HORRIBLE. I think there was a point where the score was 13-0. Finally in the bottom of the 9^th the Twins scored 4 runs, so there was a little bit of redemption there, but clearly not enough. We were cheering for the Twins too since they’re from Seoul, and the Giants are from Busan (I think?). I love watching baseball, but the Twins were so bad it was a little hard to watch. Also, I’ve never seen so many people get hit by pitches in a game, even in little league games I don’t think its that bad! I’m pretty sure the Twins pitcher hit like 3 of the Giants in a row, and then walked another guy, causing them to walk in a run. Unreal. The game was still a lot of fun though, and I’m excited to go to more.

After the baseball game we went back to the hotel to meet up with John and Q. We went to a little Korean restaurant and then took the Dorsey fam to a noraebang. After the noraebang we took them to our favorite hookah bar. After we had figured out what we wanted, we asked Q to explain it all to the waitress assuming that she couldn’t speak English. After a few seconds of Q babbling away in Korean, the waitressed asked us a question in perfect English, and we all just burst out laughing. Turns out, she was from California. Oops. I’m so used to assuming that people don’t speak English so when they can speak it perfectly its always so funny

Sunday we walked around Myeongdong and explored the area around the hotel.

Sara's dad, me, Q, Reebs, Sara, Sara's bro, John - practicing for the World Cup

We found a little sticker photobooth and crammed all 8 of us into it to snap some totally ridiculous pictures. We then walked over to Insadong to check out the Lotus Lantern festival that was happening. The festival is sort of the kick-off to the celebration of Buddha’s Birthday (which we celebrate on May 21^st this year). We got some food at a restaurant in Insadong and then went out to roam the streets. We tried “bundaegi” which is sort of a roasted silkworm larvae. I thought they were pretty gross, but I’ve eaten worse (scorpions and grasshoppers anyone?).

Having a very genuine reaction to the bundaegi (Q wasn't amused - he loves those things)

Me, Sara, and Reebs with our lotus lanterns in Bongeunsa Temple

There were tents set up in the street where we could make paper lotus lanterns. We went to Bongeunsa Temple where there were hundreds of paper lanterns set up. Just outside the temple on the street was a man holding some unknown critters. They looked cute enough, so we crept in a little closer to check it out. Before I knew it, he was holding the little creature out by its tail and threw it at me!! It was a flying squirrel!!!! It landed on my leg, and proceeded to crawl up my leg, up my body, and down my arm. The little kids started to swarm and I’m pretty sure I’m in about 300 random pictures. But aww the little guy was so scared and so adorable.

Showing off my new flying squirrel friend

Just a little baby! Look how cute he is :)

Once the excitement of the flying squirrel attack had subsided, we found out spots for the parade and watch the parade of lanterns, which goes from Dongdaemun Stadium to Bongeunsa Temple. We sat near the Jongno Tower - where we celebrated New Years a few months ago in the street. The parade ended around 9 and from there we called it a night. Here's some of the parade pics tho - complements of Mrs. D.

Allergy season is starting booooo. I’m starting to become sniffly mess. On the bright side – health care is cheap over here and I got lots of drugs from the pharmacy for about $4. Win.

The K-Pop song for this week is another Girls Generation song. Its called Run Devil Run. I've linked you to the version with the English subtitles so you know what its all about.

"Once in a while it really hits people that they don't have to experience the world in the way they have been told to." -- Alan Keightley

A Few Jeju Pics

Here's a couple pics from Jeju that I promised for you non-facebookers (i.e. mom and dad), stole them from Sara (thanks!). Figured they were necessary since I took one decent pic of the two of us and had about 40 of the fake volcano show.

Cheonjiyeon Waterfall

Manjanggul Lava Tube

Lanterns for Buddha's Birthday

So much food for 2 people!

Losing big money at the casino

Jeju-do that?

Hellooo!! So I'm back from Jeju. I'm hanging out at school writing this instead of teaching because for some unknown reason I only had half of a class all day. Easing back into the daily swing is always best after some time off. So let's talk about Jeju.

Last Wednesday was a national holiday, Children's Day. I don't really get the significance of it, but I also don't care because my school also gave me off Thursday and Friday. Only Sara and I went because Anna made a temporary continent switch and jetted off to Prague for the week to visit her sister who is studying abroad there; and Rebecca had her brother and a friend in town so they were visiting family.

Tuesday after school I headed to Gimpo airport to meet Sara. I nearly had a heart attack on the bus because it was within an hour of our flight and I was STILL sitting in traffic. Luckily, I made it in plenty of time, and we grabbed some food at the airport and boarded the plane. The flight was only about an hour, and we arrived on Jeju Island around 9:30, got on a bus to the other side of the island, and checked into our hotel. We stayed at a hostel that was super cheap, only $10 per person per night. The workers spoke English and we had free internet so it wasn't a bad deal. We woke up Wednesday morning to see lots of cloudy skies. We spent the day taking a little boat tour, and visiting some of the island's waterfalls. They were really beautiful, but I wish we could've seen them in the sunlight, I'm sure they would've been even better.

Cheonjiyeon Waterfall

Jeongbang Waterfall

Near our hotel

That night, we decided to go check out some of the nearby resorts. We went to the Lotte Hotel which looks like a giant castle. We treated ourselves to a nice dinner at the restaurant there and shared a bottle of wine. We also took a disgusting amount of pictures of a random volcano show from the balcony of the restaurant...

Lotte Hotel

Volcano show that we were obsessed with

Following dinner we headed to the hotel casino where we each blew about $20 on the slot machines. We cut ourselves off after that, but believe me that temptation to "win our money back" was there. Funny thing about gambling in Korea: its illegal for Koreans! In America, we get carded to make sure we're old enough to be gambling, but in Korea, they asked to see our passports to make sure we weren't Korean. I'm not sure what the legal age for gambling here is, but I would guess about 18 or 19. It doesn't really make sense to me, but I guess for tourism purposes casinos bring it a lot of revenue. Seems discriminatory to not allow Koreans in on all the fun but I don't know much else about how it works. I'll look into it.

Thursday morning we woke up with intentions to hike Halla Mountain, which is the central volcano on the island. Its inactive so its safe for hiking, and its one of the main attractions of the island. However, it was gloomy and rain threatened the entire day, so we made alternative plans. We took a bus to Manjangul (Manjang Cave). Its basically a big old lava tube, and the lava created this really crazy looking cave. Of course, it was really dark in there so my pictures are really dark. Sara probably has some better ones (in fact she has better pictures overall of the trip so once I can steal some from her I'll repost a few of them so you can all see better).

Sara in Manjang Cave

After the cave, we went to Seongsan, better known as Sunrise Peak. Its on the east side of the island, and we weren't about to wake up for sunrise, but we made a point to stop there anyway because it really is beautiful. We hiked up to the top, which was made fairly easy by paved trails and stairs. The top of the peak is sort of a crater that was formed in some complicated geological way that is beyond anything I can explain or understand, but it looks cool :)

Near the top of Sunrise Peak

The landscape of Jeju is sort of a strange combination of Hawaii meets Ireland. There is so much green, along with black sand beaches, rocky cliffs, and some beautiful ocean views.

Friday was our first sunny day, and we took advantage of it by going to the beach. Jungmun beach was near our hotel so we went there. It was a beautiful day and the beach was relatively empty thanks to the Koreans because afraid of the sun. Sara and I let ourselves fry all afternoon.

Jungmun Beach

Beach babes

Made me laugh so hard...just read it.

After the beach we decided to hotel crash some more, and walked to the Hyatt which has some of the best views of all the hotels on the island. After that, we headed to the Shilla hotel, which was by far our favorite. We had a beer as the sun set, and sat next to a group of Chinese ladies. It never gets old watching people who don't speak the same first language to try to communicate in English.

Saturday was our last day, and we really did want to spend 8 hours hiking up Halla Mountain, but naturally it was another beautiful day, and we wanted to fry even more. We went to the Shilla and snuck in to use their amazing pool. We probably could've asked someone to use the facilities for a fee, but no one said a word to us the entire day so why mess with a good thing? The hotel pool area looked like Marissa Cooper's house (yeah OC fans, you remember that?!).

Shilla Hotel Pool

The pool was a great place to relax and people watch. It turned out to be such a nice day, and while it would've been great to hike that mountain and see the view, I think we were both pretty content to just lounge by the pool all day. That's what vacations are for.

View from our hotel

Our flight left early Sunday morning so we laid low Saturday night. Plus we were both so sunburned we could barely walk, so any crazy last nights were strictly off limits. Overall though, it was a great vacation, and I was glad for the getaway. Jeju is supposed to be really touristy, so it was a little different than I expected. It pretty much just looked like the rest of Korea. That's the thing here, every place looks almost identical to the next place, even in touristy locations. Its definitely the most accommodating for Koreans, since very few people even in the tourism industry can speak English. Luckily Sara and I are proficient enough in Korean to understand the basic phrases and communicate a general idea of what we what. And when all else fails...we use sign language. It was actually really nice that Jeju wasn't super touristy, because I think uber-tourism tends to ruin cultures. And its not that I was expecting it to look like America, I just somehow thought it would look different. In America, you would never second-guess which city you were in. You would never confuse Miami with New York. But a few places in Jeju could've easily been Seoul. Such is the life here.

Even in our small city of Seogwipo on the island, you would never guess upon closer inspection of the town that its an island who's main income is tourism. There are dilapidated and abandoned buildings, school kids running around, and traditional restaurants everywhere you look. Korea isn't big on aesthetics and as a result, even nice places are hard to distinguish from the outside.

This coming weekend, we have plans to check out a baseball game with Sara's family since they are coming for a visit. And the following weekend is Buddha's Birthday which is a national holiday and we'll be going down to Busan for some festivals, temples, and beaches! The weather is soooo nice so I'm really excited for all of this!

Naturally, coming out of a vacation, I have another article on travel. I really really hope you take the time to read it, as well as the last one I posted. They're lengthy but insightful and explain how I feel in a way that I'm not really able to with words. I don't know what else to say about it, except that its important to me and its important that the people I know understand this about me. SO READ IT :)

Here's your K-Pop Song...Its called "Oh" by Girls Generation (better known in Korea as SNSD).

I'll post some more pics of Jeju after I steal them from Sara! Ciao.

"Never more than on the road are we shown how proportional our blessings are to the difficulty that precedes them." -- Pico Iyer

I Wish I Was 4

Hello! So, last Sunday was the Gwacheon Marathon Festival. There were 4 races: 5K, 10K, Half, and Full marathons. My friends and I ran in the 10K (although a few brave people from our team ran in the half). I run with a group of foreigners in Korea called Team Dirt. Most of us are English teachers. The group was set up by our friend Justin in order to raise money for CHM research. CHM is a rare, inherited eye disease that causes progressive loss of vision. It ran in his family, and now his brother is affected by it. Click here to learn more about Team Dirt!

Team Dirt tent

Audrey, Chrissy, Q, me, and John post-race

So this was my very first race, EVER. And I did ok actually. I had signed up for the 10K, but as we found out later, the course had been measured incorrectly, and our 10K was actually 11K. My official time was 1:07:59, but had the race been the length it was supposed to be, its safe to assume it would’ve been less. So I’m not fast, but at least I didn’t come in last. Overall though, it was a really fun time. A few people from our team even placed in their respective races, so it was really fun to cheer for them on the podium. Every race, there is a self-imposed theme for how we should dress. This time around was Superheroes. As some of the only non-Koreans in the race, we stood out enough as it was, but the race photographers were loving our group and I’m sure a bunch of my friends’ pictures are already scattered around the internet and newspapers here. I sort of missed the superhero memo, but I wasn’t alone J

So, this is such a weird story. Where my school is, is pretty rural, and except for the teachers at the elementary and middle school near me, there are no other foreigners. The other day I was getting on the bus to go home after work, and this Korean girl turns around and asks me where I’m from. Now, I get asked that question a lot, and I can never gauge someone’s English from such a simple sentence. So I said “The U.S.”. She asked “Where?” and I said “Chicago” (let’s face it, no one has a clue what or where Wisconsin is). Homegirl busts out with a “Oh, I’m from Dayton, Ohio”. Um…excuse me WHAT?! Turns out, she’s on a break from UD because she’s been having some visa issues, and her family is from Yangju (the city where my school is). I was so surprised, and I told her…I was actually JUST in Ohio, and my parents are from Cleveland. She’s only been in the States for 5 years or so, and speaks English incredibly well considering she couldn’t speak it at all when she first moved there. We figured out that we had both arrived back in Korea at the exact same time a few weeks ago, although on different flights. How weird is that? The more I travel, the smaller this world gets…

Speaking of travel…I found this great article which sums up so well everything that I feel and believe about travel and why we do it. It makes you smarter (there’s proof!). It makes you more open minded. People who travel or have immersed themselves in a completely different culture tend to be more creative because they recognize that a single thing can have several different meanings. Its not just the physical distance from home that gives us a different perspective, although it does help to separate you from issues so that you can see what’s truly important to you. Its also the confusion of being somewhere unfamiliar that allows us to think outside the box. Click here to read the article. I admit, its kind of long. But I promise its worth your time. Hopefully reading this article will either help you understand me more, or it will inspire you to travel J

Here’s another story for you all. On my phone here, I tend to get lots of phone calls and text messages in Korean. Its really common for companies to send a text, rather than have a telemarketer call. Usually, when I answer the phone in English, and the person at the other end realizes that I won’t magically start speaking Korean, they give up, and we both hang up. Well, the other day at school, I received what I assumed was another phone call like the others I’ve gotten before. The person at the other end was being persistent, however, and continued to call back 3 or 4 more times. I was sitting in the office in school, and none of the other English teachers were around, but one of my students who speaks English relatively well was next to me. I asked her if she would please talk to whoever was on the phone and explain to them that I don’t speak Korean. So I had the phone to little Hyunhee and she starts babbling to the man on the phone. I hear a burst of laughter from the other teachers in the room. Apparently she (quite forcefully) asked the man to “NEVER CALL THIS PHONE NUMBER AGAIN”. Now…this wouldn’t be funny if it were just a stranger or a telemarketer. But who was on the other end of the phone? The POLICE. Yeah…the Korean police. Apparently there had been an emergency call made from my phone…which I know is not even possible because I checked my outgoing calls and there was no emergency number dialed, so it was obviously just a big misunderstanding. But ohhh I felt so bad, making my poor little student talk to the police. They didn’t believe her at first, and she had to keep repeating herself: “Really, I’m not lying, this is a foreigner’s phone and she doesn’t speak Korean, and NEVER CALL ME AGAIN.” By that time, my co-teacher had gotten into the room and was laughing at how adamant Hyunhee was being to the police. She told me that the police definitely won’t be calling me again because Hyunhee sent a very clear message. My bad.

Its midterm time in school, which means I have a lot of time to sit around at work and catch up on all of my American television. Friday we got out of school early and I went hiking with my teachers at Suraksan. The weather was a little crazy, going between rain and sunshine, but it was really warm so overall the climb to the top was really nice.

Sang-Jin and me at the top of Surak Mountain

Suraksan (수락산)

Saturday morning I hopped on the subway bright and early for a nearly 2 hour trek to Suwon to Rebecca's apartment. We then met up with Q, John, and Sara in the Sinsa (신사) area of Seoul, which has endless restaurants, boutiques, wine bars, and cafes. Its definitely my favorite neighborhood in Seoul because of the diversity; plus there's an amazing little bakery with cupcakes that are sooooo yummy. We ate brunch at The Flying Pan, which has great paninis, omelettes, pancakes, french toast, and more. It was really nice to have a real brunch. Like I've said, in Korea they eat the same stuff for breakfast that they would eat for lunch or dinner, which I absolutely cannot stand. I need some cereal and eggs in the morning. After the Flying Pan we stopped at the bakery and then found a cute cafe/wine bar called the Alley Cafe. We sat and enjoyed a glass of wine before parting with the boys to enjoy our afternoon some more.

Alley Cafe

Sara, Reebs and I went to a little Italian restaurant called Sognare. It was still warm out so we sat outside in the back of the restaurant and enjoyed the last of the daylight before going back to Suwon.

Sognare

Sunday we woke up and after breakfast hopped on the subway to Seoul Grand Park, which is only about a 30 minute subway ride from Rebecca's apartment. It was one of the warmest days of the season so far, and we were soaking up every bit of it. Seoul Grand Park is the overall area that contains Seoul Land Amusement Park, the Seoul Zoo, and several other smaller parks. We took a sky lift to the entrance of the zoo, and then another to the back of the zoo, so we could walk through the zoo and end at the front.

Seoul Grand Park

Seoul Zoo entrance

We were in all of our 4-year-old glory carrying around Hello Kitty balloons and drinking slushies.

We had a little picnic in the zoo and had a great time watching all the adorable fat little Asian babies. By far the strangest animals we saw were the raccoons. Yeah...there were raccoons at the zoo. What? They're not native to Asia and their cage was therefore surrounded by people exclaiming how "kyopta" or "cute" the raccoons were and trying to pet them. We had a hard time being understood when we all freaked out when kids tried putting their fingers through the bars to pet the raccoons that were reveling in all the attention they were getting. Those things are nasty and mean and definitely not meant to be petted by little children. Ew. Here's some pics from the zoo (the giraffes were my favorite!):

Red Panda

Giraffe!!

Meerkats

Sunset from the zoo

Tomorrow (Tuesday) I’m leaving for Jeju with Sara. Our flight leaves around 8:30 on Tuesday night, and its only about an hour flight down to Jeju. We’ll be coming back Sunday afternoon. Jeju is sort of the Hawaii of Korea (Busan is like Miami). Our initial plan was to rent a car, but I was not able to get to the US Embassy in Seoul to get my US license notorized which I need in order to get a Korean license. So we’re just going to have to rough it, taking buses and taxis. There are lots of hikes, waterfalls, and beaches. I’m really disappointed we couldn’t rent a car, but some crackhead came up with the Embassy hours that involve them only being open for FOUR hours per day (and only 2 hours on Wednesdays). Seriously? What. The. Hell. Their job is to serve US citizens who live in Korea, and they seriously are only open 4 hours per day? Let’s hope nothing major happens while I’m over here, but I’ll quite literally never make it into the Embassy with those hours.

Your K-Pop song for the week comes from B2ST (pronounced "beast" - remember 2 in Korean is "ee"). The song is called Shock, enjoy!

Happy belated Birthday Mom! And Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad :)

"We travel because we need to, because distance and difference are the secret tonic of creativity. When we get home, home is still the same. But something in our mind has been changed, and that changes everything." -- Jonah Lehrer