Learning to Love Kimchi

Is it weird that its taken me this long to like it? I actually want kimchi sometimes now. Not all the time of course. Not even most of the time, but every now and then...I want it. I'm so Korean.

Since I last wrote...let's see. Mostly just getting back into the swing of things at school. I'm pretty sure that it had been since last September since I had a true full week of classes at school. There was always at least a day where there was a test, or a holiday, or some reason why I didn't have to teach. Kind of nice. But now...the semester is in full gear and I think we're all coping with having to actually work since we've had so much downtime. Rough life ;)

So let's see. Last weekend I went out on Friday in Seoul with Sara, John, Q, and Rebecca. We went out in Itaewon which we almost never do. We'll definitely have to do it more often I think, because we had such a good time. Saturday I went out in Dongducheon with a big group of people who live in my area. We took up the biggest room at the noraebang which was hilarious, and pretty much every song turned into a group sing-a-long. Busted out some old school stuff, which is always fun.

This past weekend a group of us who live north of Seoul rented bikes and rode along the Han River in Seoul. I ended up with this crazy pink bike with a basket on the front. It was a little chilly out, but overall not too bad, and we had such a great time! Renting bikes was really cheap, even though we were late returning them.

Beenish, me and John in Yeouido Park in Seoul

After our long day of bike riding, we went out to celebrate our friend Chrissy's birthday with dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Hongdae and then out to our favorite spot...Zen Bar. This turned into the usual night of tequila and dancing followed by everyone crashing at my place (I'm the cheapest cab ride from Seoul). Sunday once we finally dragged ourselves out of bed we went for a little White Day date out to lunch and then to a movie.

Sarah, Reebs, Anna, and me @ Zen Bar in Seoul

Have I explained this already? I forget. White Day is sort of like another Valentine's Day. In Korea on Valentine's Day, the girls give the boys gifts. On March 14th, it is White Day when the girls receive gifts and candy from the boys. And on April 14th is Black Day, the singles "holiday" when people without that special someone sit around eating black noodles. I think my friends and I will celebrate with beer and tequila but maybe that's just a cultural difference.

I need to start keeping notes of what I want to write about here, because I had a bunch of awesome things I wanted to share but now I can't remember any of them. Sorry.

Came across an incredibly interesting article about the seemingly excessive studying that kids do here. check it out on Matador Abroad. I have to say...I agree with it. Even though I'm learning the ropes here more every day, I still struggle with certain things. Like, why is there "camp" during the winter and summer breaks? Why are the students still forced to come to school even after final exams have been completed? In my mind its a huge issue of quantity over quality, and in Korea - quantity means more. Study more. Work longer hours. Take more classes. Nevermind that these students are spread so thin with everything they're forced to do with the limited time they have. They hardly have any free time.

It makes me sort of sad to compare my high school life with that of my students. I remember spending weeknights at dance practices and cheering on my friends at basketball games, and weekends going on dates with boys or hanging out with my friends testing the limits of our parents' nerves and patience. There were football games, parties, and dances. Things that, in my opinion, define our youth and things that I feel like these kids are missing out on. They have no concept of these things. They literally can't even imagine it because these things don't exist in their society. High school kids partying? What's prom? Forget the fact that they (obviously) don't have football here, but they don't have any real outlet like sports for showing their school spirit. Don't get me wrong, I think studying is important and looking back, I probably should've done more of it both in high school and college. However, after seeing how things are in another corner of the world, I am incredibly grateful for having been raised in a society where the focus is not strictly on academics, but rather on creating well-rounded individuals. I was able to pursue my passion for dance, serve my community through volunteer programs, earn my own spending money by holding down a job, and even travel to Ireland with a group from my high school. The idea of a 16 year old doing all of these things is shocking to a lot of my co-workers and students here because they are so concentrated on the academics of it all that there isn't time for these things.

When we come back from a weekend or a holiday break, I always ask my students what they did the days preceding our class. I am met with 30 blank faces. One or two students will offer a meek "I slept" or "I played computer games" or the most common "I studied". Huh? That's what you did with your time away from school? I know their English isn't very good, but c'mon, they can do better than that right? Even the kids who can't recite those phrases in English will ask for help translating and that's what they say. When my peers and I were asked that same question in high school Spanish class there would be a different response from every one of us. "I went skiing with my family", "I went shopping with my friends", "I had a volleyball game". I think I would be shocked if I heard that from a student of mine.

Sometimes, especially growing up in America, we assume that our way is the best way. Traveling has definitely showed me that this isn't the case. There are things to be taken from every place, every corner of the world. Perhaps in America we should focus a little bit more on academics, although I would never advocate it to the extent that it is here. Would it be wrong to encourage a little less studying here, and a little more time spent with friends just (gasp!) having fun?

New K-Pop songs are out. Here's the latest from 2NE1 called Try to Follow Me (날 따라 해봐요 - Nal Ddara Haebwayo).

I filled out a bracket for the NCAA tournament. My friends and I joined a little pool here...we'll see how that goes. I tend to suck at these things as it is, but now I think it will be even worse since I can't just turn on ESPN and I'm not working in college athletics anymore so I'm not soaking up all that incredibly useful information for situations like these. Also, randomly, I signed up to run a 10K in April. Hm. Not sure what I was thinking with that one, but it will be a good incentive to start running again since I've sort of been slacking this past winter.

Hope everyone has a great St. Patrick's Day! My friends and I will be celebrating in Seoul this weekend at an Irish festival. Apparently there's Guinness and face painting. Sounds like an awesome combination. Later!

"I often think about the world in which I live today, of animals and plants and nature's gifts set on display. But the most amazing thing that I've seen in my time are all the different people and all their different minds and different ways. It would take a lifetime to explain." -- No Doubt

Reebs This One's For You

Hello. So, Rebecca brought it to my attention that I completely suck at keeping up with my blogging (which speaking of, Reebs, when was the last time you updated your blog??). But she has a point, and if anyone still reads this, I'm sorryyyy.

The new school year started on Tuesday. Monday was a holiday, I think it was the Korean independence day or something. All these holidays - I really have no idea what they're for, but I don't complain. Anyway, new school year started on Tuesday, and so there is a whole new batch of kids, which naturally - I never see and don't get to teach. High school in Korea has 3 grades, but since my school was new, there were only 1st and 2nd years when I arrived. Now that the new year has started, there's nearly 270 new 1st year students. This is a HUGE number because the other 2 grades have about 150 students each. I'm really disappointed I don't get to work with these new students. From what I hear they're WAY better behaved than my current students. Plus I was hoping I could reuse some lesson plans instead of having to make all new ones but no such luck.

So Tuesday after work I came home and was relaxing and minding my own business when my co-teacher Sang Jin called me. I was a little worried, because she rarely calls me outside of school, and if she does need to get ahold of me, its generally by text. About 10 of the teachers were near my subway station having "hwaeshi" which is a teacher's dinner gathering. I think it was sort of an impromptu thing. But I threw on some clothes and met up with them. OH. MY. GOD. The first day must've been rough on them because when I got to the restaurant around 8:30 I was shocked to find most of my superiors completely trashed. I mean....they were on an entirely different level than I expected anyone to be on a Tuesday night. Totally untouchable. I couldn't even begin to catch up.

One of my (new!) neighbors in the noraebang :)

Sang Jin and me after leaving our mark on the restaurant wall

What else... Ooh I no longer have to take the bus to school in the mornings, which is totally lame to be excited about, but believe me its awesome. Two teachers from my school moved into my building and one of them has a car and drives us now. Saves time, and money. How efficient. Ew. I sound old.

Also, since its a new school year and we have a bunch of new kids and all...there's new teachers! Including 2 new English teachers (and a third who I'm pretty sure worked at the school last year teaching something that was definitely NOT English because she can barely communicate with me, so I have no idea what running a classroom with her is going to be like). One of the new teachers is really soft spoken and seems really intimidated by the rowdiness of the students. I told her she better get used to it because the kid have been bad this week already and I can tell that's their "good" behavior and its only going to get worse.

I've been dancing a lot - which has been great because after being with those crazy kids all day, its soooo nice to be able to go to the studio for a few hours and dance it off. The weather is slowly getting nicer - I was even able to go for a run outside this past weekend. There's a great running/walking/biking path along the river near my apartment, and I don't feel all the judgmental eyes on me the way I do when I walk around other places.

I think tomorrow (Friday) I'm supposed to have another teacher's dinner gathering thing. Unfortunately I was only just informed of it today, and already have plans to hit the dance studio and then go out in Itaewon with everyone. People here sort of don't get the concept of preplanning - they just do everything on the fly when they feel like. Sorryyyyy but I have a life, you gotta give me some warning! Itaewon is a part of Seoul where the US Military base is, so there are lots of foreigners and most people speak English pretty well because they're used to dealing with the military. I generally try to stay away from it all, but I could use some diversity.

BIG NEWS: There is a Taco Bell coming to Seoul - in Itaewon! I almost died when I found out because there is no other fast food I have been craving more than that greasy fatty fake mexican yummy goodness. I don't know when it opens, but the sign said "Coming Soon". Life is complete.

Did everyone watch the Olympics?! Kim Yuna!! I'm sooo happy and relieved that she won gold. Poor girl has a lot of pressure on her over here. She's in every other advertisement on TV and like I mentioned before, a small country like Korea gets (in my mind) unusually proud of their celebrities who make it outside of Korea. I was definitely cheering for her. But now...people are still talking about it. She's on a million different TV specials. SBS replayed her performances over and over and over. They even played her performances with the commentaries from different stations around the world - including NBC so i was able to hear the English. Its a little overdone - a concept which Korea doesn't seem to understand, but regardless - I'm still happy and excited for her!

I won't even go into the whole hockey thing, but needless to say - that was incredibly disappointing Team USA - shape up! Also, I couldn't stop laughing during the closing ceremony when the big beaver came out, not only because it was so categorically Canadian and random, but because the commentary said "ahh and the always enjoyable giant inflatable beaver..". Whaaa? Always enjoyable? I'm pretty sure that was the first giant inflatable beaver I've ever seen, but thanks Bob Costas for your amazing commentary.

Here's the latest K-Pop song, its called "Change" by Hyuna. I learned some of the dance in class last week actually. Well the parts that can actually count as dancing anyway, which is only a little bit, but still fun.

Waiting for warm weather!

"If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home." -- James Michener

We Love Lotte World!

Hello!

Sorry its been so long since I've written...I was good about this, but I've definitely been slacking.

So things have been relatively normal around here since we got back from Thailand. Its cold (but getting warmer already!!). All of us have hardly been working. Its the end of the school year, so there's hardly any work to do (and by hardly any, I mean zero). It was the Chinese New Year a week ago, so we had some days off school for that. My schedule has consisted of working from 9-10:30 and then going home at 10:30. I only teach one class of about 3 students, and then I get to leave. The new school year starts here on March 2nd, so this is just sort of a review for the kids I'm teaching, and a chance for them to maybe get ahead. I like working with a small group of students because I can pretty much do anything I want - we watched a Simpsons episode on the Olympics, which was awesome because the show had all the neat Olympic vocabulary I taught them, plus they totally understood what was happening in the show and it was great.

To pass the work-free afternoons, we've sort of been on a rediscover Seoul kick. We're trying to do all the things that we sort of take for granted because we're here all the time. This past Thursday, I met up with Anna and Rebecca and we went to Lotte World in Seoul. Lotte is a company that owns....pretty much everything. There's Lotte Mart (like Home Plus or Super Target), Lotte brand foods, Lotte Super (simple grocery store), and of course...Lotte World! Its an indoor and outdoor amusement park right in the middle of the city. Since its still pretty cold outside, the outdoor part of the park was closed, but we decided to explore the indoor park. I suppose its most comparable to the indoor park at Mall of America, but a little bigger.

The whole thing is sort of kitschy and definitely targeted to a younger audience, but that didn't stop us from acting like 7 year olds for the day. We started off on a ride called "The Adventures of Sinbad" which was a themed water ride that took us through the story of Sinbad. It was pretty elaborate, but of course the dialogue in each of the scenarios was in Korean so we couldn't understand everything, but it was still cute. We also stopped to watch a little parade...

We spent the day going on all of the rides, including a ride really similar to the spinning teacups at Disney World...except these were called the "drunken baskets". Interesting name for a ride designed for children. We got a little over zealous with the spinning, and were all ready to throw up after getting off.

Lotte World also has a roller coaster. The ride lasts for about a minute, but it was still fun. We also went on a ride called Pharaoh's Fury..it seemed like it would be a tame ride...but ended up being a little crazy, and was basically a small roller coaster in the dark. Definitely unexpected.

Lotte World at night

Reebs and me at Lotte World

Friday night I went with Sara, Rebecca, and Anna to the Seoul Museum of Art. I hadn't been back there since my first week in Korea, but we wanted to go because there was an Andy Warhol exhibit that we really wanted to see. It was really cool to see so many of his most famous works...the Marilyn Monroes and the Michael Jacksons, and his self portraits. We went to Hongdae after that and ate at a really great Indian restaurant. Korean food is great, but sometimes we just want some diversity!

Everyone watching the Olympics? Its become quite the rivalry between the U.S. and Korea in speed skating. Cheering for the U.S. obv, but definitely happy to see Korea doing well! I think Kim Yuna (or Yuna Kim) is going to be skating this week. There is some serious pressure on her over here to win gold...so hopefully she can pull it off or she's pretty much going to disappoint everyone in this country. Sort of sad. In the states we kind of take all of our medal winning for granted, but in a small country like Korea they're just so damn proud to win any medal that they replay it over and over and over....and over. I've seen each speed skating race where a Korean medaled about 5 times now. I get it. You got a medal. So did we. Relax. But it still doesn't stop them from replaying it, and its all my students can talk about. Speed skating! Figure skating! Kim Yuna! Lee Jung Soo!

So here's a K-Pop song for all of you...I know how much you missed it. Anna introduced me to this song, and now I think we're both wishing we had never heard it. Its definitely the strangest video and overall concept to a music video that I've seen. Its called Marshmallow...and we're pretty sure the girl is falling in love with the marshmallow, because its so plump like a jelly and soft like a cookie. Those are the actual lyrics (in translation). I don't get it. I'm guessing no one else does either, but it will make you laugh.

Other than that...things are pretty much back to normal around here. Sort of boring. BUT don't you worry. Yesterday we made a list of things that we want to do here in Korea...most of them need to wait until the weather is nicer because they're outside or involve taking a trip somewhere. But in a month the weather should be warming up, especially in the south, and we'll be able to start on our list. There's still so many things we haven't done here so we're going to make sure we make them happen this spring and summer. Lots to look forward to!

"Life is known only by those who have found a way to be comfortable with change and the unknown. Given the nature of life, there may be no security, but only adventure." --Rachel Naomi Remen.

To Bangkok and back!

Hi everyone! I know its been awhile. We're all back from Thailand safely. Let me just say...it was absolutely amazing.

So I was thinking about how to possibly write this entry...and its going to be impossible for me to sum up the past 2 weeks concisely, but I will try to only mention the stuff worth mentioning and do my best to remember the details of those things that are. So...here we go:

On Friday (Jan 15th), me, Sara, Rebecca, and Anna all met at the airport. We took a shuttle bus to our hotel, and stayed the night out at the airport. We woke up bright and early for our 9am flight. Our flight stopped in Beijing, where we had to go through an international transfer with some not-so-friendly Chinese customs workers. Word of advice...if you can avoid a layover in China, do it. Its annoying. Once we got through their security checkpoints, we had some time to kill in Beijing (the largest airport in the world!). We found a restaurant and had a few beers. Our flight left Beijing around 2 that afternoon and we were off to Bangkok! Five hours later...we touched down in the gateway to Southeast Asia.

Bangkok: We arrived in Bangkok around 6pm. We took a taxi from the airport to Khao San Road - the backpackers' ghetto. In Thailand, they drive on the left side of the road, which was at first a little strange for all of us, but we got over it quickly (but not before Rebecca tried to climb in the driver's seat thinking it was the passenger side). We had no reservations, so it took us a few tries at several places before we found room for the 4 of us. After we were got settled in, we hit the streets! We ate dinner at a place near our hotel and ordered a tower of beer. Eventually we bought some grasshoppers from the bug cart guy, and enjoyed our snack.

The next day we took a tuk tuk (a little motorized scooter with a cart in the back for passengers) to the weekend market. Here they sold pretty much anything you can imagine. Little trinkets and toys, home decor, pets, food, and...well just everything.

We returned back to our hotel and then ate dinner at several of the street food vendor carts, which is always good. We also were somehow brave enough to attempt to eat a scorpion. I'm not sure what we were thinking, but we all somehow managed to do it.

The next day we took a tuk tuk to the big Standing Buddha, a monk hangout(?), and finally the Grand Palace. Unfortunately I don't know much about buddhism nor Thai history to fully understand what I was seeing, but either way, everything we saw was incredible. The Grand Palace contained several different areas, and we were able to see the Emerald Buddha, which is a small buddha carved entirely out of emerald. I couldn't take pictures actually in the temple, so I don't have a clear picture of it.

After stopping for lunch, our last stop of the day was Wat Pho, which is where the Temple of the Reclining Buddha is. The Buddha was enormous - he took up the entire length of the temple!

Reclining Buddha

After that, we headed back to Khao San Road and prepared for our last night out. Sara's friend Erin, who is teaching in China, met up with us that night and joined us for about a week of our trip. We went to a club in Bangkok where we met the top actress in Thailand. We didn't even realize it until someone pointed her out to us. She was incredibly friendly and from that point on we saw posters, ads, and billboards of her all around Thailand.

Tuesday we spent the morning and early afternoon on a long tail boat. Bangkok is kind of like Venice...its built on canals, and its sinking! We took the boat through several of the canals and were able to see an entirely different side of Bangkok. It was so interesting to see the houses and shacks built up on the water. Many of them were run down and it was strange to see such poverty among the high rise apartments and the growing modernity of Bangkok (a city of nearly 8 million people). It was also fascinating to see such strong tradition still holding its place in a city over run with tourists and westerners. We ate lunch at a restaurant on the river, and then went back to Khao San Road for a few last beers before we left. Anna's friend Casey, who is teaching in Korea also, met up with us, and stayed with us for the remainder of our time in Thailand.

Koh Tao: To get to Koh Tao we took an overnight bus to Chumphon where we took a 6:30am ferry out to the island. We were pretty tired when we arrived, but also super excited to finally be on beach and also having the knowledge that we still had a full week and a half left there, we let ourselves bake in the sun for the better part of the day on Wednesday. We had a bungalow right on the beach...the ocean was literally our front yard.

The view from our bungalow front porch

Enjoying my first day on the beach!

That night, sunburned and happy, we ate dinner on the beach. Every restaurant along the beach sets up a barbeque at night, where you are able to choose your own seafood or whatever you would like. All of the seafood is fresh from the ocean, and while I'm not much of a seafood eater, I did try some crab and prawn, and I admit, it wasn't too bad!

While we were eating, we were entertained by a little French kid playing with a Thai kid. It was actually so entertaining to watch their interactions because it was obvious that they didn't speak the same language, and neither of them had learned English (they were maybe 4 years old). In Thailand, nearly everyone speaks English - even more so than in Korea, because let's face it - people who "speak" English in Korea really suck at it. Thailand is so touristy that the only way to communicate is through English even though the majority of the tourists are European and don't speak English as a first language. There are also a lot of tourists from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, but hardly any from America. I think over the duration of our trip we met maybe 2 other Americans. We were all actually ok with it though, because we figured that we're a pretty decent representation of America...we weren't doing anything that anybody should be ashamed of at least. And compared to the Aussies, we looked like angels :) Anyway, watching these kids play with each other was so hilarious because the only English the Thai boy knew was "hello" and so to get the French kid's attention he would scream "HELLLLOOOOO". Really interesting to watch.

The next day we went snorkeling. We hired a boat for the morning and afternoon and headed off to Shark Bay. Our boat driver snorkeled with us and pointed out sharks that were swimming right underneath us! I hadn't actually expected to see sharks, but there they were, swimming only a few meters below us.

Where are the sharks?

Sharks!

We also saw a bunch of beautiful fish! After snorkeling, we boated over to Koh Nangyuan. Koh Nangyuan is actually 3 islands all connected by sandbars. We were only allowed to be on the island until 5pm though, because then the tide comes in, and there's no way to get between the 3 little islands once the sandbars are submerged. This place was probably one of the most amazing and perfect places I have ever seen. We spent the afternoon there snorkeling, sunning ourselves, and finally ending with a quick hike to the top of one of the islands where we could look out and fully appreciate the place.

Heaven on Earth

The next morning we woke up early to do some more snorkeling and then went back to the ferry port to catch our next boat.

Koh Phangan: The site of the infamous Full/Half/Black Moon parties. We took a late afternoon catamaran over to Koh Phangan from Koh Tao. We checked into our bungalows and then ate dinner at the restaurant at our resort. We decided to go out on Haad Riin Beach, so we hopped in a cab and off we went. Haad Riin Beach is where the Full Moon Party usually is held. Even though it wasn't an official party night, the beach was still full of people selling buckets of booze and flame twirlers encouraging people to participate. Naturally quiet little Anna got sucked in...and she decided to blow fire?

We were all cheering her on though, and she did great! The next day we spent time just hanging out on the beach in preparation for the Half Moon Party that night.

Outside our hotel in Koh Phangan

Anna painted everyone's faces while I did everyone's makeup so we were all looking our best for the night! Its really common for people to get paint everywhere so we decided to paint our faces up nicely. The party was really crowded and was in the middle of the jungle? There were black lights everywhere which made our face paint glow in crazy ways, and pretty much the only way to get alcohol was in the form of a bucket...so naturally we each got our own :)

Erin, Anna, and me at the Half Moon Party

Sunday was spent recovering from the chaos of the night before by laying out and eating cheeseburgers at the resort. Talk about Paradise...

Koh Samui: Monday morning we took an early ferry over to Koh Samui. Koh Samui is the biggest of the islands. We took a cab from the harbor to Chaweng Beach and checked a few hotels before deciding on one near the beach. We took moped taxis to a temple where we were blessed by monks.

Tuesday we took a "safari" where we got to ride elephants, feed baby tigers, and experience the scariest trek through the jungle ever. After the animal portion of the day was done, we were supposed to go to the top of some mountain in the jungle that had a great view of Koh Samui and the ocean around it. Well...it was rainy time (i.e. it was pouring out) in the jungle and our 4x4 driver didn't seem to care. He was flying up and down the eroding clay paths that were supposed to pass for roads, taking turns too sharply and too quickly. We were in the back screaming for our lives as he calmly chatted on his cell phone and all the while a 3 year old French boy was sitting on TOP of the jeep with his parents giggling. Eventually, the rain subsided and we were able to return back safely. We never did get to the see that "great" view though...

Chaweng Beach on Koh Samui

Wednesday we had planned to leave for Phuket. This is when not having plans becomes incredibly awesome. Everyone we had talked to that had been to Phuket had nothing but bad things to say about it. But we had heard amazing things about the island of Koh Phi Phi. SO. We decided to stay another full day in Koh Samui to soak up the sun, bypass Phuket completely, and stay for 2 nights on Koh Phi Phi. Probably the best decision we made on the trip.

So Thursday we had booked tickets to get us from Koh Samui to Koh Phi Phi. And what an adventure it was. The day began at about 5:30am when we woke up. We packed up our stuff, checked out of our hotel, and were picked up by a van around 6am. From there we were taken to a ferry port, where we got a bus, which took us to another ferry port maybe only a few kilometers away (why we weren't just dropped at that one to begin with, we'll never know). We got on a ferry for about an hour and a half that took us to Surat Thani on the mainland. From there, we got back on the bus which was randomly letting people off. Eventually, we were made to get off the bus in the middle of a random town (still Surat Thani we're guessing), and made to get in the back of a giant tuk tuk with our luggage strapped on. We figured we were being brought to another bus station, but no. We were dropped off on some back road at an abandoned restaurant sort of place. We had no idea what was going on. After about 45 minutes of waiting, another bus came. We took that bus to yet another little restaurant place, where we were made to get off the bus, only to get back on 30 minutes later. This bus finally took us to the port on the other side of the mainland in Krabi, where we were able to catch our ferry to Koh Phi Phi. All in all, we had about 8 transfers, but we arrived on Koh Phi Phi at the time we had expected. Crazy. We found a place to stay on Koh Phi Phi and headed out for the night.

Koh Phi Phi: Koh Phi Phi is the island that was hit the hardest by the tsunami on December 26, 2004. Most of the footage from the tsunami you may have seen from Thailand was taken from this island. Basically, the island lost everything. Everything was flattened. As a result, much of the central town area is brand new and looks really nice. However, even 5 years later, they are still rebuilding and debris is still visible throughout the island. Its soo beautiful though. It was probably my favorite place along with Koh Tao.

Friday we spent the morning and early part of the afternoon soaking up our last day of sun on the beach. The beach was amazing and perfect and beautiful and I really can't even explain how great it was. Around 2, we got on a longtail boat that we hired for the afternoon, which took us out to Maya Bay. Maya Bay is a totally uninhabited island, where the movie "The Beach" was filmed in 2000. The tide was out when we got there, but when we left around 5, it was slowly coming back in. We watched the sunset from the boat after a quick stop on Monkey Beach. We got off the boat as the sun set on our last real day in Thailand.

Maya Bay - Where "The Beach" was filmed

Rebecca and me goofing around on Monkey Beach

Last sunset

Saturday we woke up early to catch the 11am ferry over to Phuket. We went straight from the port to the airport where we caught our flight to Bangkok. We had about 6 hours in Bangkok so we left the airport and went back to Khao San Road for some last minute shopping and a few drinks before we caught our 1am flight to Beijing. After transferring in Beijing, we arrived in Korea around noon on Sunday.

Overall, it was an unbelievable vacation with amazing people and I could not have asked for a better time. We joked the entire time that we were on the dream vacation people win in contests, and we talked about how lucky we were that not even a year out of college we were able to take and plan this vacation. Every place I go inspires me to go somewhere else. I feel like I need to see it all. Who knows where our next adventure will be...we still have some places in Korea we need to explore, and then we can begin planning our trip for this summer. Some places on the idea list...Indonesia (Bali), Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Exciting!

View of the beach on Koh Phi Phi

"I know, I know for sure that life is beautiful around the world." -- Red Hot Chili Peppers

Kelsey Does Korea (and the biggest snow storm in history)

Hello! Hope everyone who still reads this thing is doing well :)

So I'm just hanging out at home on this lovely Monday because...I don't have to work. For a month. Yep. No working for me for one whole month. My life is too easy, I know you're jealous.

Kelsey arrived last Sunday. I took a bus out to the airport to meet her and then we came back to my apartment. She was a bit jet lagged after such a long flight, so she pretty much crashed right away. Monday morning I helped her get to the subway and figure out where to go. I, unfortunately, had to work the entire time she was here, but we made the most of it. I was teaching "winter camp" for some students, but I only needed to be at school from 1-4 everyday.

Monday...oh Monday. Seoul received the most snow it has had in...forever I think. Apparently it was the most snow on record in over 100 years or something. I wasn't impressed but over a foot, maybe a foot and a half of snow fell on this snow-handicapped city. The subway broke. Schools shut down. People fell. Cars crashed. Everyone completely lost their shit and had no idea how to handle the snow. Of course, I hadn't expected it either, but growing up in Wisconsin I was more than equipped to handle it. Wish I could say the same for the other 25 million people in the Seoul metro area, but no. It really didn't seem like that much snow to me, but I suppose I've seen more. Korea on the other hand was in shock. I met up with Kelsey on Monday after school and showed her Cheonggye Plaza and stream and then we went out for a nice Korean meal :) Luckily all of the Christmas decorations are still up in Seoul so even though it was freezing, she still got to see how beautiful it was lit up.

Cheonggye Plaza

Tuesday I went into Seoul with Kelsey in the morning and we visited the Seodamun prison. It was a prison built by the Japanese when they occupied Korea. Korean nationalists were imprisoned there and tortured. It was an incredibly sad place, made even sadder by the fact that with the exception of a few soldiers taking a tour, Kelsey and I were the only ones there and the place felt really desolate. I'd like to go back when the weather is nicer to see what its like. After the prison I went back to Yangju to work, and then met up with Kelsey at the movie theatre in Uijeongbu. We saw the movie Nine (good movie!) and then called it a night.

Wednesday we went to the Korean War Memorial and Museum. Surprisingly I hadn't visited here yet, so it was exciting to go. The museum was really well set up and incorporated some of Korea's older history as well as the more current Korean War. I couldn't stay here long though, because I had to rush out to go to work :(

UN Flags outside the war memorial (and Seoul Tower)

Sitting on an Air Force plane

Dog tags of soldiers who died during the Korean war (under the UN emblem)

Even at this point, 2 days after the massive snowfall, Korea still hadn't figured out how to deal with the snow, which had now frozen in the subzero temperatures. The subway was taking forever, traffic was still bad, and only a select few of the sidewalks had been shoveled. Alright, Korea. Figure it out.

Wednesday night I met up with Kelsey in Insadong. We found an adorable little teashop and then made dinner out of the yummy street vendors that I love so much. This particular one we came across immediately took a liking to me. Even with his limited English, he had somehow learned the phrase "I have a crush on you". LOL. I was like "who taught you that?". He had some trouble pronouncing Kelsey's name (Keshi?). Definitely had a good laugh with that one.

We wandered our way down to Gwanghwamun Square and then home.

Thursday Kelsey went to the DMZ with the USO tour (same one that I took with my friends a few months ago). I met up with her Thursday night at the Han River and we took a little boat tour of the Han at night. We ended up on a "live music" tour which was really just some guy singing karaoke with his guitar. Hm. Kelsey and I entertained ourselves by sharing a box of soju for the duration of the "tour".

The Han River

Friday morning we awoke bright and early to go to N Seoul Tower. We climbed up Namsan hill and then went up into the tower. I hadn't been there before, so it was really nice to see it finally. Like many things here...I find it best explained in pictures.

One of the walls outside the tower is entirely covered with locks that people have put up. They all have little messages on them proclaiming their love and are locked onto the railing. The messages are primarily in Korean, but languages from all over the world can be found here. Definitely one of the coolest parts of the tower. The windows in the observation area are really cool as well. There are labels on the walls telling you which direction you are facing, and then major cities with the distance in km of how far away that city is. The closest one to home is of course Chicago. Ya'll are 10,525 km away from me!

Seoul Tower observation deck

I've been there!

And now I've been here too!

Kelsey went to Suwon to check out the fortress Friday afternoon while I was at work. We met up in Hongdae where she gave me an incredibly thoughtful gift of handmade ceramic mugs as a thank you for hosting her. Thanks again Kelsey :)

So the latest K-Pop song is actually one that some of you in the states might know. Its by the Wondergirls and its called "Nobody". There's a Korean version too, but this is the version that's popular in the states. So many Koreans here are so proud that this group has had some success in the US. They actually were on So You Think You Can Dance a few months ago I think. Enjoy!

I'm leaving for Thailand on Saturday. We're going out to a hotel near the airport on Friday night so we can avoid being up super early in the morning Saturday. So I probably won't update until after I get back from Thailand which will be January 31st.

Super excited for this year. Looking back...this time last year, I had absolutely no idea that I would be living in Seoul. A year from now? Who knows where I will be. Exciting!

Check #3 on this article.

서울 (Seoul) 2010...its going to be a great year :)

"I am the one generation with the future in the palm of my hands. And I overcome the revolution for the people with a vision now listen to me. Generation 'I', coming alive. So open your eyes, and show the world what you see. Let it out, let it go. Live today for tomorrow." -- Richey Lam, "Generation I"