Live, love and eat kimchi...

I heart Vietnam

2009-11-19T08:49:00.000-08:00

Vietnam was the icing on the cake of our incredible journey. Though I LOVED Cambodia and probably consider it my favorite country yet, there was something truly unique, lovely and special about Vietnam. As we arrived by bus, I immediately noticed how surprisingly modern Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) was- everything looked thriving, clean and high-tech. But the biggest shock of all were the motos! Literally hundreds of motos crammed onto every block of every busy street, but as one friend put it, they seem to flow like a river through the city. They're small, fast and efficient, so traffic isn't really a big problem.

This is nothing compared to the big rotaries in Ho Chi Minh...

After getting over the craziness of the city, we found our way to the backpacker area and checked into a quaint, family-run guesthouse tucked in a quiet alleyway off of the main strip. Our first goal- eat some pho noodles! We went straight to the most well-known Pho restaurant, where Bill Clinton famously ate during his visit. With pictures of Billy hung all around, we felt right at home. And the vegetarian pho (beef is standard, but I don't eat it) was really amazing.

Then we saw a traditional water puppet show in which these puppeteers were submersed in water behind the back drop for a whole hour! It was quite fun and entertaining.

More Vietnam traffic...throughout the trip I'd been trying to get a photo of a "baby on bike." This is the best I could get!

After three days in Ho Chi Minh City, it was time for Alexis to head home, but I had one more week to explore on my own. I decided to join a 3-day group tour of the Mekong Delta so that I could meet some people, and sure enough the moment I got on the bus I made some friends! Daniel and Pete became my comrades for the week- we went on the tour, did a homestay, went to a water park, ate delicious seafood and more. That's what I love most about backpacking- how you just pick up momentary travel buddies until its time to go your separate ways.

As usually, I couldn't resist a little flirting with danger. But really, he was a very nice boa constrictor.

The first night of the Mekong Delta tour, a group of us had opted to do a homestay with a family who lives on the Mekong. We arrived, with all of our luggage on this tiny, rickety little river boat in pitch black of the night, but were welcomed with this amazing Vietnamese feast.

Elephant ear fish, fresh spring rolls, fried spring rolls, veggies and beer. One of the best meals of my trip!

The homestay family baby. Adorable!

The next morning we went to one of the famous floating markets, where farmers come to trade and sell their goods on the river. We got in on the fun buying lots of fruits and delicious Vietnamese coffee.

Back in Ho Chi Minh, I hung out with the boys for a few more days. We went to a water park, and had fun with the locals and considered careers as rickshaw drivers. I decided it wasn't for me!

On my last night, we enjoyed an amazing seafood feast on the street. We picked our seafood and it was cooked right there in front of us. I had never had razor clams before, but they are definitely one of the most delicious seafoods. Finally, it was time to say goodbye to my new friends and to lovely Vietnam. It's hard to describe my feelings at leaving. My incredible journey was over, and it had exceeded all expectations I ever had. I met so many incredible people, had seen places most people don't get to see, and had had adventures, mishaps, and overall a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience. I'll always look back on it as a time I was completely free to see the world and be exactly who I want to be.

Incredible Cambodia

2009-11-17T09:45:00.001-08:00

Wow, I cannot believe I've neglected wrapping up my blog for this long! My sincere apologies, the only excuse I can give is that I'm very focused on getting on to the next chapter in my life! It's been nice to be home in the states (and I'll write a little about that later), but I'm very anxious to get a job and an apartment of my own, so all of my energy has been going towards that. Anyway, more on the later, here is a quick recap of the rest of Cambodia.

After spending five days in lovely but rainy Siem Reap, we caught a bus to the capitol city of Phnom Penh. Though the city didn't stand out as one of the best we'd been, there were some very impressive landmarks such as the ornate Royal Palace.

It also had the best market to explore. Covering at least a square mile of land, the market was full of every kind of souvenir, household item and asian food you could imagine. I especially LOVED trying all of the different types of fruit. Although the dragonfruit pictured above was by far the most impressive looking, it actually tasted similar to a very bland kiwi. My favorite based on taste was surprisingly a familiar fruit with a twist: grilled mini bananas! I can't even begin to describe how wonderful these little things are when grilled on a stick or wrapped in rice and grilled in a banana leaf. My favorite snack of the trip!

Since our brief stop at a shelter in India, we had been wanting to spend more time at an orphanage on our travels. So, when we heard about the Lighthouse Orphanage just outside of Phnom Penh we knew we had to take the time to volunteer.

I was so pleasantly surprised to see how incredibly loved and cared for the children at Lighthouse were. Though they didn't have much- each a bunk bed in a small cottage with a few classrooms and a great big dirt terrace outside- they seemed very happy and easy going. Plus, they all had wonderful english thanks to other volunteers and their school. Even the three year olds!

We had such a good time playing with these little guys and I really hope to go back some day to give even more.

His name, so he tells me, is Bit. So I nicknamed him "Lil Bit." He is a future rap star of Cambodia, look out world. Check the video below!

Angkor What?

2009-10-20T05:42:00.000-07:00

After four days of chilling out on Koh Chang Island, we made our greatly anticipated journey to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Getting across the border was easier than we thought, but it certainly cost us; we ended up paying about $30 more than we should have due to tourist scams, but in the end we were happy that the added money did make our trip more speedy and hassle free. We finally arrived in Siem Reap in the late afternoon in a massive down pour (which we later found out was due to the typhoon). The streets, which looked more like a river, were filled with water and we watched as the motorbikes and bicycles waded through it up to their knees. We didn’t think much of it though, and enjoyed the rest of the day hanging out at our wonderful hostel, Prince Mekong Villa. We needed to rest up for the next adventure: 3 days of exploring the ancient city of Angkor.

We were up at 5 a.m. to ride our bikes to Angkor Wat for sunrise. Unfortunately, it was looking very cloudy and grey, but we decided to go for it anyway. Mistake? Yea, maybe. About 5 kilometers into our 9 kilometer ride to Angkor Wat, we hit the floods. Once again, cars and motos riding through massive amounts of water. It looked like we could make it without getting too wet, so we said what the hell. We weren’t turning back now! But sure enough as soon as we went for it, we found ourselves knee deep in water, our sneakers completely soaked. There was nothing we could do though, and we carried on soaking wet, with sponges for shoes.

We purchased our pricey 3-day entrance ticket and made our way closer to Angkor. Just then, it started to rain! We’re here, we’re going to enjoy it, we decided. And we did. We spent the day biking around the massive ancient city. First, we went around exterior of the city, along an old stone wall gate to see some beautiful views and what would have been an awesome sunrise. After, we headed to the center of Angkor to see Bayon, the temple of faces. This incredible stone structure has massive faces carved at the top of the temple. In the rain, walking through dark, cold passages, I truly felt like I was in my own version of Indiana Jones.

Next, we explored another temple off the beaten path, recommended by our hostel owner. A tiny little temple called Ta Nai, located 4 kilometers down a dirt road. That didn’t seem like a long way, but since it was raining, the dirt had turned to mud creating somewhat of a sticky situation. We made it, and after being woo’d into buying some postcards by the most adorable and well-spoken 5-year old salesman I’ve ever met, we headed into the tiny, deserted temple. Once again, I felt like I had traveled back in time. Just an amazing feeling to be at a place that old and that incredibly beautiful.

The next three days, we continued exploring the massive city of Angkor. We went to the temple where Tomb Raider was filmed (which was by far the most crowded), road a tuk-tuk 40 km through villages and country-side to a famous temple devoted to the goddesses, and discovered tons of little gems, such as Ta Prom, which has an ancient tree growing entangled with the temple gate. On the last morning, the sun was finally making an appearance, so we woke up at 5 am to see the most famous of the temples, Angkor Wat, at sunrise. We never would’ve expected that over a thousand people would planned to do the same! There were probably at least 2,000 tourists, all snapping photos and watching as the temple changed colors with the morning sky. Despite the crowds, it was a beautiful way to end our 3-day adventure in Angkor. It was truly one of the most stunning places I’ve ever been.

Next, off to Phnom Penh to enjoy more of beautiful Cambodia…

Escape to Thailand...

2009-10-15T07:40:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, we made our escape from the hospital in Varanassi. It was a little alarming when I woke up that morning, only to see that the small rash on my back and arms had become much more red and bumpy, and had spread all over my body. I called the doctor right away to have him check it (hoping that somehow we would still be able to leave) and sure enough, he said it wasn’t contagious and it should be fine in a day. So we left!

Although I felt incredibly weak, I managed to carry my own 10 kg bag and walking slowly, we exited the building and entered back onto the chaotic streets of India. I was immediately struck by the harsh brightness, the intense heat, and the horrifying street smells that I’d become so accustomed to in my three weeks in India. Having spent 3 days in quarantine, my nose had completely lost it’s desensitization. And although there were several moments when I was on the verge of fainting, vomiting or crapping myself, we made it from Varanasi to Delhi and then, finally, Delhi to Bangkok. India was amazing, and it sure gave me a lot to remember it by, but when we got to Bangkok it was pure relief.

We headed to the backpacker epicenter of the world, Khao San Road (featured in The Beach) and settled into a sketchy little guesthouse. I had to go back to the doctor because the rash was still really bad, but they were incredible kind and helpful. The doctor diagnosed my illness (finally!) as Dengue Fever, said I would be fine in a few days and gave me some antihistamines for the rash. We spent a few days in Bangkok, enjoying the shopping, nightlife and other modern amenities that reminded us of home. And we ate LOTS of delicious Thai street food. Pad thai, vegetable curry, tom yum soup, mangos, dragon fruits, papayas, and more. It was refreshing to have so many fruit and vegetables, which we couldn’t really eat in India.

After a few days, we were ready to get out of the city so we headed 2 hours north to Ayuttaya, which was once the capital city of Thailand. The city is speckled with beautiful and well-preserved ruins from the Buddhist society that thrived in the 1300’s. We stayed at a quant bungalow where the owner bent over backwards to help us, and we rode our bikes all over town. Unfortunately, I was still suffering from my tropical disease, often nicknamed “break bone fever” because you get such bad arthritis that it feels like your bones are breaking. So riding bikes turned out to not be such a good idea. Still, it was better than walking. I sucked it up and tried to make the most of it, and I was very happy I did.

Finally, on Saturday we made the journey to the island of Koh Chang. After an 8 hour bus and boat ride, we headed once again to the backpacker area, called Lonely Beach. This place is a seriously chilled out, hippy heaven. The dirt road that leads to the beach is strewn with hemp shops, tattoo and massage parlors, reggae bars, and lots of cheap bungalows. We went straight to the beach and got a bungalow on the water for a whopping 250 baht ($8) a night. We thoroughly enjoyed chilling out on Koh Chang. We did a lot of laying on the beach, but also met some cool people and ate some great Thai food. On our second day, we decided to venture out of Lonely Beach, so for $3 we rented a scooter (and helmets, of course) and explored a bit of the island. We hiked to a waterfall, did some shopping in another beach town, and rode to a peak to check out the awesome view. It was so fun and really liberating.

Finally, our last day in Thailand arrived. We woke up to the sunniest, hottest day yet and headed out to the beach. In the afternoon, we had oil massages in a little wooden hut right on the beach. It may have been the most relaxing experience I‘ve ever had. Listening to the ocean waves, while being rubbed down with oil and relieved of all the soreness and fatigue of travel; what could be better? It was pure bliss, and after a long day of nothing but chilling, we enjoyed a last Thai meal of sweet green curry stew along with pad see-ew noodles with squid. Simply delicious.

Next, it’s off to Siem Reap to see the ancient Angkor Wat. As usual, I can’t wait.

Hospitalized...in InDiA!!

2009-10-09T21:40:00.000-07:00

It was our last day of the tour; we were in Varanassi and would be taking an overnight train that night back to Delhi to say goodbye to the group and go our separate ways. We planned to have a leisurely day stopping at a few temples and finishing up the last of our purchases at the local market.

But when I woke up, something was wrong. When I got out of bed, my hands and my feet were so soar at the joints that I could barely walk. It felt like I had arthritis. “The weirdest thing happened to me this morning,” I explained when Lex woke up after I limped out of the shower. I told her what happened and she suggested maybe going to a doctor. “Yea, maybe,” I responded. I walked back into the bathroom in my towel to brush my hair and gasped. All over my back were blotchy red and purple spots.

We immediately told our tour guide and he took us right to a hospital, without even telling the rest of the group that the plans for the day were cancelled. Although the symptoms were bizarre, I wasn’t really nervous. I just figured I get some meds and be on my way in a few hours.

When we arrived, I was rushed through the emergency and waiting rooms, and shown to a doctor eons before any Indian person, I’m sure. Looking back, it’s probably because they were afraid I had swine flu.

Anyway, the doctor told me it was potentially serious, and that I would have to be hospitalized for two or three days. TWO OR THREE DAYS?!! I burst into tears. I’d never in my life been hospitalized before, and now I’d be hospitalized in India, in the hands of strangers, and would have to leave behind almost everyone trustworthy person (except for Lex who was staying with me, thank goodness).

After being tested and given lots of mysterious meds, I started to get comfortable in my private room with a satellite TV, couch, extra guest bed, and room service. Plus, the travel insurance company was so helpful and had already picked up the bill! I really didn’t feel too bad, except for the fever, joints and rash, so once all of the paper work and travel plans were settled, I was able to relax.

But three days of relaxing became very, very long and tedious. We ate luke warm hospital food and strange fruit. Lex made trips out to the real world to use the internet. We watched terrible movies like Conan and The Lizzie McGuire Movie. We watched and laughed as about 100 random staff members came in and out of my room, cleaning, tending, asking if I needed anything. In this case, it was a little too much.

strange fruit!

Finally, on Day 3 it looked like I was healing enough to leave, and the doctor gave me the OK to go the next day. “By the way,’ I asked, “Do you know what’s wrong with me?” “Not really. Possibly some mutation of Dengue Fever, but there’s really no way to know,” he answered. “Fantastic!” I replied. At least I was off to Thailand in one more day…

once in thailand...covered in calomine lotion for the rash

Last Stop: Varanassi

2009-10-01T05:26:00.000-07:00

Varanasi is much like other cities in India: noisy, energetic, colorful, and at times, smelly. Yet, there is also something very special about it. As it is ridiculously ancient, it has a beautiful old charm and it is sacred to the millions of pilgrims who visit every year.

This bull has been chilling in this garment store for 8 years!

Poppy seed shake...weird!!!

Our first activity in Varanasi was a sunset boat ride up the Ganges River. We boarded into an old wooden boat and putted up the river towards the burning yards. This is where Hindus are cremated when they come to holy Varanasi to die. Three fires were set a blaze when we road up and many people were surrounding them, watching. Our guide kindly told us not to take a picture out of respect, so we put away our cameras. As we got closer, young boys dressed only in their underwear, began jumping off the ledges of buildings into the river, right next to the burning yards. They were having a great time. Someone pointed out, that that seemed pretty disrespectful, right? Actually, Hindus look at death more as a part of life and so for the boys who live their, it is a part of their lives. Though it was weird, I could understand how this could be the case in a country like India. Anyhow, after making our way back down the river, woman in saris handed us beautiful floating candles with pink and orange flowers placed on them. We were told to light the candle, make a wish and float the candles off into the river. They were so lovely that I wanted to keep mine… but, I wanted my wish to come true more!

After our boat ride, we followed Shakti through the hectic market and suddenly, we were at a wide open area in front of the river, only it was packed with thousands of people. There was a stage set up next to the river, and people sat surrounding it on all sides; they were even sitting packed into boats, waiting for something special, I was sure. We walked down and found seats on the boats, just in time. Soon enough, beautiful Indian music and drums started playing, and 6 Hindu monks took their place on the stage. For the next hour, they put on a incredible ceremony, which they apparently do every day of the year. They chanted, sang, danced, and banged drums all the way through. It was amazing! By the end of the ceremony, all of the people were clapping and chanting a long. For us outsiders, it was both exhilarating and eerie to see this mass of people all smiling and singing so passionately about something that we could not understand.

The next morning was yet another early, early morning. At 5 a.m. we headed back to the river boats, but this time we would be seeing a completely different side to river life. The morning was filled with much more life on the river. Priests set up shop on the many stone steps for people to come pray with them. Men, women and children formed groups and got into the Ganges river to bath. As we road up the river, I found it hard not to feel intrusive, but Shakti assured us that they don’t mind or they wouldn’t do it in the open. Still, I was still too shy to take any photos.

We went back to sleep after the boat ride and then took an excursion outside of the city to Saranath, where Buddha gave his first sermon. It was a little disappointing that it turned out to be nothing but a pile of rocks, but it was still really cool to be there. We still had one more day in Varanasi, before heading back to Delhi for the end of the trip, so my plan was to take it easy and do the last of my shopping (I had a lot more on my list of things to buy!). But little did I know, that there would be a big wrench thrown into my plans. Stay tuned…

The Taj...

2009-09-23T08:55:00.001-07:00

Taj Majal: immense…awe-inspiring…surreal. It’s really no wonder why this magnificent structure is known as one of the seven man-made wonders of the world. And to be there and see it in person was simply awesome. In fact, I loved it so much, that I tried to pick it up and take it home with me...

The city Agra is really known for one thing, and that is the Taj Majal. There are other forts, temples and mausoleums, but all pale in comparison. So, we were there for just one night and two days and the majority of the time spent outside of our hotel’s neighborhood was spent viewing the Taj. On the first day, we went to a beautiful garden at the suggestion of our tour guide, in which you can view the Taj from across the river. We decided we would see it at sunset from this view and would go to the actual site for sunrise, when there would be far fewer tourists there.

The garden, called Matar Bagh, was a nice, quiet escape from the city on its own, but the spectacular view of the Taj made the 100 rupee (or $2) entry fee really worthwhile. We camped out at the river and as we waited for the sun to set we had fun taking entertaining pictures holding it in our hands, lifting it, and even taking a bite out of the Taj. Although the sun didn’t set near the Taj, so the colors weren’t as spectacular as we’d been hoping, it was still a perfect way to spend our first eveing in Agra.

The next morning we woke up at 5:00 am (the third early morning in the past four days!) and hired rickshaws to take us to the actual site. We had all made it a point to be on time and scrambled to get there well before sunrise, so we were extremely disappointed when the guards didn’t open the ticket counter or the main entrance until at least 15 minutes after the start of sunrise. After a half hour of waiting anxiously (and being entertained by the monkeys all around), we were still the first group to get a glimpse of the stunning Taj Majal. We spent several hours walking around and exploring the different magnificent views and areas of the grounds. Like I said, it was simply awesome. I don’t know what else I can say, I think my pictures are the only things that come close to doing it justice. So, I’ll think I’ll just leave it at that.

We had another overnight train that evening, and arrived early this morning to Varanassi. It is the most holy city in India, where Buddha gave his first sermon, and where thousands of Hindus go every year to die. It is also cool because it is the longest continually inhabited city in the world. People have been living here for over 5,000 years. Anyway, that’s all I know for now, so I’ll right more on my way back to Delhi.

Jaipur: The "Pink" City

2009-09-23T08:30:00.000-07:00

I had high hopes for the city of Jaipur, known for it’s ancient forts and palaces made of pink clay. When we arrived, it was immediately apparent that this was, as we’d been told, the biggest city in Rajasthan. It was crowded, chaotic, and noisy, but luckily our guesthouse was in a nice secluded area. Still, I was looking forward to seeing the old downtown, pink area. On the first evening, we went for an orientation walk with Shakti, and we traveled through the market, until we finally arrived at the Hawa Majal, or the “Palace of the Winds.” This old palace is named for its 953 windows and it is said to be the most photographed building in Rajasthan. It certainly was beautiful. We admired the building and the chaos around it (elephants, cows, pigs, dogs, and goats included) and then moved on.

As we made our way through the touristy market area, it became apparent that this was definitely the most pushy city. Every store, every stand we passed, people approached us practically shoving their goods into our faces. It wasn’t exactly a surprise because we’d dealt with it a little already, but we were all becoming annoyed pretty quickly. I just kept repeating the rules- patience, patience, patience, patience…and a sense of humor. Shakti took us to an old square where thousands of pigeons hang out and people buy corn and grains to feed them; kind of a confusing idea seeing as India already has plenty of people and animals to worry about feeding, but it was fun to see the pigeons flying every which way around us. Luckily, there were no poop mishaps either.

After becoming oriented with the sites, we headed to the local cinema, which is known to be the most beautiful old cinema in India. For 100 rupees or $2 we got a ticket to see a bollywood film and a lassi (a delicious yogurt specialty drink). The movie was called “Love Kal jaal” and it was a love story about an Indian woman who is living in London, but goes back to India for an arranged marriage, only to discover she is still in love with an India man in England. Though we couldn’t understand much of the movie (no subtitles either) we thoroughly enjoyed the bollywood-style, especially the dancing. When the movie finished, we went for a very local Indian meal, where we could see the food being cooked in an open kitchen.

The next day, we decided to avoid downtown and find more relaxing activities. A bunch of us took a rickshaw about 30 minutes outside of the city to see the Amber Fort. We were a little over budget so we decided not to spend the money to go into the fort, but we were delighted to see so much just by walking around it.; we were still able to walk through beautiful gardens, up stone paths and into the fort’s main plaza.

pushy people!

Finally, in the late afternoon, it was time for the highlight of our Jaipur visit; an Aryuvedic massage. Aryuveda is an ancient Indian medicine practice, that believes there are three sources of energy (air, fire and water) which must be balanced in the body. Their practices focus on vital points on the body to release, restore and balance a persons energy. For just $12 dollars, I had a one-hour Marma Therapy Massage, in which they used warm herbal oil to massage the entire body, focusing on the vital energy points. It was soooooo good! I left feeling completely relaxed and revitalized, and also very satisfied with the incredible bargain. It also left me looking forward to all the massages I’ll be getting in Thailand!

Tomorrow, it’s off to Agra to see the Taj Majal- finally!!! Although Agra is not known as the most cultural or beautiful city, I’m sure seeing the Taj will make it a highlight of the trip. Look forward to pictures soon!

Onward to Pushkar...

2009-09-21T05:12:00.000-07:00

Pushkar is a small holy town surrounded by mountains and farmland, that attracts tourists and Indians alike, who come to see or experience Hindu pilgrimages. The town has a strict no alcohol, no meat, no dairy policy, so needless to say it was a very healthy stay.

We arrived at our beautiful hotel in the early afternoon and spent the day exploring the bazaar, full of cheap, Indian goods that made it difficult not to overspend. Walking through the market, I got my first glimpse at the holy men who live their; dressed in white linen pants and tunics, wooden beaded necklaces, and a bright orange or yellow turbin around their head, while holding a big wooden walking stick, it’s hard to miss them. But their faces are by far the their most distinctive feature. Usually, they have a long white mustache and beard, and have red and orange dots or lines drawn on their forehead. Some are even covered with a whitish pant that makes them look ghostly. It’s really amazing to see them for the first time. The only problem is that I was way too intimidated (and felt quite intrusive) to try to take a picture. Hopefully, I can get one in the next holy city, Varanassi, but for now, I've found one online.

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3147/2317014702_4bf5194f5a.jpg)

We headed to bed early the first night as we would be waking up at 4:30 a.m. the next morning to do a sunrise climb up to a temple on a mountain overlooking the city. We met in the lobby at 5 a.m. and the 6 of us who were up for it made our way through the sleepy city. When we got to the base of the mountain, it was just about dawn and we knew we had to scramble to make it to the top by sunrise. The only problem was it was a very, very steep climb, up big, stone steps. Mark led the pack and I was determined to keep up with him, so despite sweat pouring down my face and my heart pounding, I kept on without taking a break. We made it to the top in about 30 minutes and the 4 others made it up shortly after; later, Shakti told us that we were the first group he’s had in three years to have everyone who attempted the climb to make it to the top. Anyway, despite a few clouds blocking the sun, it was still a beautiful view and I was so glad to be up in the mountains. After soaking up the view, we headed back down, through town and back to bed for a few hours.

On Day 2, we explored the market again and took our last opportunity to haggle over the items we wanted. It’s so much fun to haggle in India! You can always get the price down, and if you’re not happy you just have to walk away and you’re almost guaranteed to hear “Ok, ok!” as you’re leaving. It usually makes for a very satisfying purchase. That night, we went to a restaurant that plays movies. We were the only group there, so we were able to choose and we settled on “Slumdog Millionaire,” one of my favorite movies ever. The first time I saw it, I loved it, but watching it in India, after having experienced so many things that go on the in the movie, made it so much more enjoyable and special. The only problem with the evening was that the movie was finished before our dinner was served! Over 2 hours! But as Shakti told us on the first day, there are five rules when traveling in India: 1) patience, 2) patience, 3) patience, 4) patience, 5) a sense of humor. I think it’s very solid advice.

Udaipur

2009-09-21T05:05:00.000-07:00

For our first night in Udaipur, we hired rickshaws to drive us around for the evening, which gave us the opportunity to really see this beautiful city. It is by far the cleanest, most livable city we’d been in; not that I liked it better (the others had other great qualities), but this was definitely the first glimpse we had at middle class life in India. We went to the lake and saw the many palaces and five star hotels scattered through out the mountains and coast, and then wandered through a magnificent garden full of fountains and sculptures. Finally, it was time for dinner, and we were in for a treat. Udaipur is our guide Shakti’s hometown, so he really knows the best places to go. He took us to the coolest outdoor food court, where we sat at picnic tables with tons of different food stalls around us. The best part was that we were able to sample some of the best, most local food we’d had yet. I had a potato and lentil dish called “Chola Koftka” which was creamy and so perfectly flavored with spices, it was by far my favorite dish of the trip.

The next morning, Shakti had one more surprise for us. His home, which he shares with about 10 members of his family, was right around the corner from our hotel, so he invited us to a traditional Indian breakfast, cooked by his wife. It was delicious. We had fresh bananas and guava, a yellow biryani rice with fresh herbs and spices, a light, fluffy cake made of mace flour fermented overnight, a sweet syrupy cake, and my favorite of all- India chai. The sweet, milky tea has the perfect mixture of spices making it incredibly addictive. After a few refills, we were ready to go for an orientation walk of the palace area.

That day, we walked all through out the palace, where the current Maharage (King) of Udaipur and family still reside. Shakti was able to take us to some areas where you wouldn’t go as a regular tourist, such as the sitting room and ballroom of the five star palace hotel. It was beautiful, but we were all most excited about the evening activities.

At 4 pm we made our way to a local homeless shelter (part of our tour companies campaign for responsible travel) where we greeted the residents, handed out food, and met with the nuns who run the facility. They were incredibly kind to us and all of the people seemed very grateful that we cared to make a visit. We all pitched in a group donation and then left feeling a little sad, but also very good for helping out.

Next, we had our much anticipated cooking class. For a mere $10 we were given a 3 hour cooking lesson and were served a massive feast of vegetarian dishes. They taught us how to make paneer masala, Malai Koftka, spicy snacks called samosas, biryani rice, and chai tea. We cooked, laughed, and at the end, finally ate. It was so cool to see all of the individual ingredients and spices that go into India food, and it definitely served as inspiration for me to try cooking more when I get home. I can’t wait to experiment with all of the new ethnic flavors I’ve picked up!

The last stop of the night was a cultural show of music and dance. It was truly spectacular. Three musicians sat in the corner of the stage (set in a beautiful outdoor courtyard) as women dressed in vibrant, sparkling saris showed us a variety of traditional dances. First, they danced with little gold castinets all over their bodies, then they twirled around with fire on their heads. The final (and most spectacular dance) was a water dance from the desert region of Rajasthan. They explained that in the desert, woman have to walk very far to retrieve water, so instead of carrying just one pot on their head, they can carry up to nine. In this dance, the woman started with just one large pot on her head, and one by one, they added more and more pots, and she continued dancing around the stage. Finally, she had nine pots which probably measured over 20 feet high, and she continued to spin around the dance floor. It was unbelievable. I took some video, so hopefully I’ll be able to post it sometime soon.

So, it was a great time in Udaipur. It was really fun to see another side to our tour guide, as well as experience some different aspects of Indian culture. As of right now, we’re on a train to Pushkar, known for their bazaars and camel fairs. I don’t know what to expect, but I’m sure it will be good.

Uncovering Jodhpur

2009-09-14T00:46:00.000-07:00

When we arrived by bus in Jodphur, the streets appeared to be crowded and dingy, and I had no idea the treasures that we would find here. We checked into our gorgeous little oasis of a hotel, with a garden courtyard and pool (which we made plenty of use of in the 100+ degree weather) and then headed out to explore the city.

After haggling down the price of an auto-rickshaw from 100 rupees to 50 (about $2 to $1), we were driven to the pinnacle of the city, the stunning Maherang Fort, a centuries old fort palace where the actress Liz Hurley was recently married. The fort was stunningly beautiful and we wandered around it, taking pictures and getting a lot of attention from the Indian tourists who apparently hadn’t seen any foreigners in this less touristy city. When we were finished, we wandered down hundreds (maybe thousands) of steps into the city neighborhoods, with their blue façades, dyed with indigo to keep the buildings cool. We just wandered the neighborhoods observing the ordinary, yet fascinating daily lives of the Jodphur people. Everyone was friendly and we had so many kids chasing after us, screaming “hello!!” and it took me back to Korea for a moment. After a few hours of exploring the neighborhoods and markets, we headed back, and tried our first Indian talhi dinner, a sort of buffet in which you’re served an assortment of small dishes. It was, of course, delicious.

The next morning, we were up early to take an excursion out of the city to see the Bishnou villages of India. Bishnou means “29” and the people in these villages commit to 29 rules to living an eco-friendly life. They are subsistent farmers who don’t kill animals; they farm and make handicrafts for a living. The 11 of us were driven by safari jeeps an hour outside of Jodphur, and our first stop was with a farm family, where we would participate in an opium ceremony. Opium is illegal in India, but the Bishnou people have been using it forever in ceremonies and to welcome guests, and no one stops them because they don’t abuse it or try to sell it. Anyway, the elderly man of the family welcomed us and had us sit in a circle with him, around a wooden contraption used in the ceremony for making opium tea. After preparing the tea, he did a ritual chant and then offered us each a taste. There were no tea cups at this ceremony though- in the Bishnou culture, each person drinks the tea from the hand of the eldest man. So yes, I sipped opium tea out of an Indian man’s hand, and it was an experience I‘ll never forget. It was just a small sip, not enough to have any effect on us, except the equivalent of a caffeine buzz, but it was just amazing to be a part of the ceremony.

After exploring their house and meeting the family, we headed to the next village where we were taken to the house of a weaver. When we arrived, he was seated at a huge, wooden weaving machine, making a massive blue “Duhri” and Indian rug made of cotton. He let us all have a try and showed us some of his best pieces. After leaving the weavers, we visited a potter and a clothe maker, who made gorgeous handmade prints for bedspreads, saris and pillows. It was very tempting to buy, but once again I resisted. Finally, we were taken to a farm families house where we were served a simple, yet delicious lunch of millet bread, curry lentils and masala potatoes. As we drove back to the city, we spotted wild antelope and water buffalo, and we all basked in the delight of such an exhilarating morning. It was such a beautiful and unique experience to be welcomed into the homes of the Bishnou people, yet another that I surely won’t forget.

That afternoon, we enjoyed our oasis, before taking our group orientation walk with our Tour Leader, Shakti, that evening. First, we walked through the Jodphur market sampling street food and checking out the local goods. Next we went to a Lassi Shop (famous Indian drink, like a yogurt shake), which Shakti had been talking for days, saying it is known to serve the best lassi’s in India. My expectations were very high, and luckily they were met. The lassi’s were thick, creamy and cold, and were the perfect combination of sweet and tangy, and had an added surprise of spices like saffron. Absolutely delicious and so filling, but the boys couldn’t resist and had to get another. For only 17 rupees each (40 cents), they could afford it. After, we went to an amazing textile shop, were we were showed beautiful fabrics and some people did a bit of shopping. Finally, we capped the night off with another talhi dinner, this time all you can eat for 125 rupees (less than $3!). Yet another delicious meal.

This morning we had a 8-hour bus ride to Udaipur, through stunning mountains and farmland. We’re here for two days, in the “most romantic city in India” and will be going to the city palace, Lake Pichola, as well as taking a cooking class. Hopefully, I’ll learn how to replicate some of the amazing cuisine I’ve been experiencing!

20 Hours to Jaisalmer

2009-09-12T02:19:00.000-07:00

After a twenty-hour overnight train (sharing one room with 6 people), we finally arrived in Jaisalmer, a fort city in the middle of the desert. As we rode in on tuk tuk, I was absolutely taken away by the majestic fort, rising up over the yellow city; and all of the beautiful people going about their day, dressed in brightly colored saris and tunics. It looked like something straight out of an Indiana Jones movie, simply unreal. And soooo different from Delhi, thankfully. That afternoon we all needed to unwind from our nearly day long journey, so we enjoyed our beautiful hotel pool and courtyard, before heading out for an evening of exploration. We went to a stunning lake where we met Indian families and played with some children, then we rode out into the desert to see the sunset while sitting in the ruins of an old palace. To top it off, we ate at a delicious Indian food at a rooftop restaurant overlooking the brightly lit fortress, and listened to the sound of traditional Indian music. It was quite an evening.

Jaisalmer city fort

The following day, we explored the inside of the fort, which is the only inhabited fort in India. Every road, every corner, every alley, was a feast for the eyes. Cows wandered down the little stone paths, and traditionally dressed women and children went about daily life. There were plenty of shops and stands selling goods to tourists, but everything was handmade and absolutely beautiful. It was so hard to resist buying it all, and a few of the people in our group couldn‘t; my friend Anna purchased a stunning 4x6 wall hanging, leather purses and a few scarves. We headed back to the hotel in the late afternoon, to get ready for our overnight camel safari. Jeeps picked us up at 5, and drove us 45 minutes into the desert to a picturesque campsite, with the coolest safari tents, once again feeling as if we were in an old movie. We dropped off our things and got right on our camels. It was so incredible to be on top of these huge, docile animals, riding over sand dunes in the middle of the Thar desert. As we watched yet another beautiful desert sunset, I really couldn’t believe where I was, and everything that I was doing. Truly magical.

The rest of the night was spent feasting on Indian food, playing cards and having a laugh with the group outside of our tent. In the morning, we headed back to the hotel and had one last day to explore the fort and palaces of Jaisalmer. The next day we would be heading to the Jodphur, the “blue city,” famous for making jodphurs, the horse back riding pants. At that point, I wasn’t sure how it could get much better, but I had no doubt that it would. All I can say is India is spectacular.

First of India- Delirious in Delhi

2009-09-12T02:14:00.000-07:00

After pulling an all-nighter, Lex and I said our final good-bye to Korea and embarked on our greatly anticipated journey, which would start in India. Four flights and 20 sleepless hours later, we landed in New Delhi airport and were finally at our destination late on Sunday night. We were exhausted, so we decided to take it easy on Monday morning, but by about 1 p.m. we were ready to go out and get our first glimpse of Delhi life. We would be meeting our group for the adventure tour at 6 p.m. that evening, so we thought we’d just wander around that afternoon. We met a girl name Sophie who was in the same position, so she tagged along as we headed out in to the streets of our neighborhood called Karol Bagh.

We knew that there was a market near by, but weren’t sure where it was, so we just decided to walk. Immediately we were bombarded by the chaos and noise of the Delhi streets, and if that weren’t overwhelming enough, our appearances were giving completely gave us away to the locals. We got a lot of attention as tourists, but just tried to keep our belongings close and not make ourselves look too out of placeWe wandered, admiring the beautiful textiles, shoes, and other random goods, but we weren’t ready to buy anything just yet. After a couple of hours, we decided we had had enough for our first day; this was surely a place that you needed to ease into. We headed back to the hotel for our meeting, where we met the group we’d be traveling with for the next twenty days.

Right away, the group dynamic was fantastic! Our Tour Leader is an Indian man named Shakti who has been working for GAP for 3 years and knows everything there is to know about the places we’ll be going. There are 11 of us on the tour, all in our twenties. There are nine girls and two guys, which isn’t the best ratio, but everyone gets along great so it’s fine. Also, Lex and I are the only Americans, everyone else is British, so that’s a fun dynamic for us. That night we went out for our first Indian meal, and all I can say is, AMAZING! The food is just so good, I’ll try to get some pics.

On Day 2, we met Shakti in the morning and went out to have an orientation walk of Old Delhi. The moment we got to Old Delhi, it was complete and utter sensory overload!! People, cars, bikes, rickshaws, going in every which way and ALL honking their horns. Not to mention the millions of people, dogs, and occasional goat or cow. It was incredibly overwhelming…and at times smelly. But there were so many interesting things to see too. We went to a Sihk temple first, where we watched many people praying, as three holy men sat at the alter and sang. We then went to the community center behind the temple, where volunteers cooked curry and made chipatis, of which any one is welcome to come and eat. They offered it to us, but we were sure our stomachs weren’t ready. Still, watching and helping with the cooking was definitely the coolest experience of the day. We wondered through more markets, checked out the Red Fort, and eventually headed back for a big lunch before boarding our train. We had a 20-hour overnight train to Jaisalmer to look forward to, but honestly I was ecstatic to escape the chaos of Delhi, in exchange for a more relaxing, natural side of India.

This is it...

2009-08-29T12:01:00.000-07:00

It's 4 a.m. and I've just been out for the best last night I could have imagined. Good friends, good food, and lots of dancing. Korea's had it's ups and downs, and I've certainly dealt with a lot of issues with my school, landlord, etc during the departure period, but overall it's been amazing. I'm leaving this year with life long friends, career aspirations and a lifetime of travel experience. Next stop- India! I'll try to write as much as possible, so keep checking in weekly. Miss you, love you, and see you soon!!!

Last Hurrah on Geoje Island

2009-08-25T19:06:00.000-07:00

I had an awesome final full weekend in Korea. A few friends- Alexis, Kate, Ryan and Fil- and I decided to go beach camping on Geoje Island, just a 45 minute ferry ride from Busan. Although we almost missed our boat because we were waiting at the wrong gate of the terminal, we made it with about two minutes to spare, and got to the island my mid-afternoon on Saturday. A taxi took us around the beautiful, mountainous island and dropped us off at Gujora Beach. It was definitely the nicest beach I've been to in Korea, not only because of the scenery, but also because of the lack of people.

We walked to the far end of the beach and claimed the best camping spot, a rock alcove at the end of the beach, where we were really secluded from everything and everyone else. Ryan and Alexis had smartly planned ahead and borrowed a nice tent from a friend, but Kate, Fil and I had decided to kind of wing it. Oops. On the way to the island, we'd past a store selling a lot of beach supplies, and we picked up a mosquito net tent, which looked like a real tent only it's walls were made out of holey mosquito netting and there was no floor. Oops again. We set up our tents, and figured we'd be just fine for one night.

We had packed lightly on the food, bringing just potatoes, garlic, corn, bananas and chocolate, knowing that we could find what we needed at the food stand near the beach. Around dinner time, the girls went to get food and supplies, while the boys set out to find wood to build our fire. We went to the food stand and were delighted to find a pack of 35 mini hot dogs- score! But when we tried to buy them, the lady said "Aneyo!" or "No." We didn't understand why, but she showed us that they were actually used to make corn dogs which she sold individually, so the pack was not for sale. We put on our best disappointed and confused foreigner face, and she finally caved, selling them to us for just ten dollars. Double score! We headed back to the campsite, and made a delighful dinner of roasted vegetables and hotdogs, washed down with some cold beer.

Unfortunately, as we were just throwing our chocolate-stuffed banana boats on the fire, we noticed that the tide was coming up really high. We knew that this was a popular camping spot, so we didn't think it would be a problem, but sure enough the water came crashing over our fire. We grabbed our things (and the banana boats, which were delicious!) and moved to higher ground. It was too late to find more wood for a new fire, so we climbed up onto the rocks and spent the rest of the night singing along to the guitar and watching the bioluminesence in the water. This beach (and several others in Korea and Thailand) have phytoplankton that mate at night and cause little sparks that light up in the water. Very cool to watch!

It was a great night and we were all so happy to be chilling on an island with a guitar, rather than be at some bar in the big city of Busan. We headed to bed sometime late at night, and I was hoping that I could pass out right away, without worrying about our "accomodations." Unfortunately, sleep didn't come so easy, and I spent the night flicking bugs off of my clothes and out of my hair. Yuck! Luckily, the netting kept the mosquitos out, but the lack of a floor meant the other critters made it in. Eventually, I did fall asleep, and woke up to a beautiful pink and purple sunrise- my second in one week!

We hung around on the beach for the rest of the day enjoying the cool water and the stifling hot sun and then packed up and headed back to Busan in the late afternoon. Despite the bugs and heat and water logged campfires, we had a great time on Geoje Island... I couldn't have picked a better way to spend my last full weekend in Korea.

ferry ride to Geoje

setting up our "tent"

probably the funniest hat-wearing family I've ever seen

the rocks

kate and the view from out site

waking up in a room with a view

That time I lived with Buddhist Monks...

2009-08-21T01:10:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, I finally made the last check off of my "Things to Do before Leaving Korea" list. I had the week off from school, but unfortunately all of my friends who are still in Busan were working, so instead of doing nothing I thought a temple stay would be the perfect solo getaway. When you hear "living with monks" what comes to mind? For me, I imagined a lot of meditating and prayer, some communal work and plenty of chanting. It turned out to be a really amazing experience, though in no way what I was expecting.

entrance gate to the temple

After a two and a half hour journey to Andong, a little village outside of Gyeongju, I arrived at Golgulsa Temple in the mid-afternoon. I checked in with the a westerner who lives at the temple, and he briefed me about the temple stay and handed me a schedule which looked something like this:

5:00- dinner
6:00- orientation
7:00- chanting time
7:30- Zen martial arts training
9:00- bedtime

4:00 am- wakeup
4:30- chanting
5:00- sitting meditation
6:00- walking meditation
6:30- breakfast
8:00- Zen martial arts training
10:00- 108 bows and meditation
11:00- tea time
11:30 lunch

The official temple stay wasn't starting until dinner so I had about two hours to wander around in at least 95 degree weather, and explore the site. What I found was that the martial arts center as well as my room in the guest quarters were at the bottom of a very steep mountain and the main temple and shrine were located about a thirty minute climb up the mountain. I tried not to think about it, but looking at the locations on the schedule, I had a feeling I was going to be getting a lot of exercise.

temple dog

Before dinner, I had a chance to meet the other westerners who would be doing the temple stay, one girl named Leslie from Switzerland was a student in Korea and a couple from the Netherlands who were backpacking around the country for three weeks. It was nice to meet them and chant a little, but all in all there wasn't much time for talking on this trip. We went to dinner together and ate in silence among the monks and the three resident foreigners. Dinner was a delicious and simple meal of vegetarian noodle soup, rice, kimchi and radish, and we were instructed that we must eat every speck of food, as monks do not waste.

afternoon prayers in a cave shrine

After dinner, we had orientation and then participated in the first chanting session. In front of an alter in the martial arts center we bowed three times and then tried to follow along as several monks did their nightly chants. After, it was time for zen martial arts and I think all of us foreigners were surprised to see that this too was a "follow along" kind of situation. It occurred to me that this temple stay would be about experiencing life with monks, not being taught by them. After struggling through an hour of intense martial arts kicks, punches and series of fighting movements, we settled down for moving meditation. This was my favorite part of the evening. As calming Buddhist music played, we stood in a circle and followed the monk as he lead us through a series of flowing motions. It felt very spiritual and though no one explained to us what it meant, I could feel that it was all about releasing positive energy. It's hard to explain, but it was a very powerful exercise and I did feel both energized and released afterward. When it was finished, we made our way back to the room and tried to get some sleep before the early morning to come.

Sunmundo- Korean zen martial arts

this guy was intense!

I didn't have much luck with sleep, but I must have managed a few hours, as I was awoken at 4am to the sound of a wooden block drum. This was our wake up call, and we hurried out of bed and got ready, so that we could make it up the mountain to the main shrine in time. I did not want to miss the morning, not only because I was excited to participate, but also because I thought I would probably die before I could complete the punishment of being late- 3,000 bows.
We arrived in the main shrine and witnessed all of the monks present. They stood in front of the alter, and the rest of us stood in rows behind. We all did our 3 bows- one for ourselves, one for everyone else, and one for Buddha- and then the thirty minutes of chanting began. After, we moved outside to a deck protruding off of the front of the temple, with a stunning view of the mountains and valleys below. It was dark when we sat down, but as we meditated for an hour to the sound of monks chanting and hitting the wooden block drum, the sun began to rise, coloring the sky pink and purple. It was definitely the highlight of my stay, and although I can't say I learned how to meditate any better, I was still happy just knowing I'd tried.

It wasn't until after the sitting and walking meditation that I realized how tired I was. The rest of the morning was a grueling test of endurance. After breakfast, we took part in another hour and a half zen martial arts class. It was really tough, but the instructor pushed us to continue kick after kick, and you can't exactly say no to an expert martial arts buddhist monk. When we were finally done, I was hoping for a break to relax, but as I looked at the scheduled I saw that I was far from finished.

It was time for the 108 bows. Now, when I say bow, I don't mean bend at your waste and lower half way. A Buddhist bow looks like this: Hands together in prayer, bow your head once, then lower down to your knees, bend forward until your forehead is touching the ground, pick up your hands to your ear level, then place them down again, then stand back up using only your knees, ankles and feet. I calculated that it takes about 25 seconds to do one bow, so how much time would it take to do 108? About 40 minutes.

The purpose of these bows are for self-purification and every bow has a purpose behind it. We were given the english translation, and here are a few:

1. I bow to wonder where I came from and where I'm going.
17. I bow to feel that love originates inside of me.
51. I bow to know that happiness does not come from others, it comes from myself.
92. I bow to hope for peace in everything around me.
108. I bow for myself, realizing that my own precious life is like the universe.

It was a painful, grueling forty minutes, but it was well worth it. Once again, I felt proud for my effort and ability to endure the daily routine of a monk. Just when I thought that all of the hard work was over, we were told we would once again be climbing up the mountain to hear a speech from the grand-master himself. It was the first day of the lunar month, so he gave a speech, and although it was in Korean, it was still cool to be in the presence of this holy man.

grand-master

Finally the morning came to an end. I had one last meal with my fellow temple stayers and the monks and then we all parted ways. As I headed home, I tried to reflect on the experience. It really wasn't what I had been expecting, thankfully it was more real than I had pictured it to be. The monks were not there to give us lessons on being a monk, they were just living their lives and we were graciously welcomed to be a part of it for one day. It was a lot more physical than I had expected too. The combination of climbing that hill, martial arts, 108 bows, and waking up at 4 am was more work than I would've thought. And although, I didn't walk away spiritually enlightened or anything, I do have a much greater appreciation for Buddhism in general, and also how important presence is in our everyday lives. Taking time to meditate, reflect, and work on your mind and body not only benefits yourself, but also those around you. I think that's what I really took away from it.

One more thing- I apologize if my photography is a little disappointing, but all I can say is this isn't the sort of thing where you take a lot of pictures. There have been too many experiences where I felt like I was doing something just for the sake of capturing it on camera, and I didn't want this to be one of them. I'll always remember this amazing experience, even if I don't have all of the pictures to prove it.

Strangee Korea

2009-08-11T17:47:00.001-07:00

I feel like I'm running low on material these days, as the end is nearing and I'm spending my days planning for my journey once I leave Korea. The only news is that according to the Busan Ministry of Education, swine flu is "finished" or as they say "finishee." Sure it is. Anyway, with this new revelation, I had yet another adjustment in my summer schedule. First English camp, then skype, then office work, and now English camp is back on! It's only 5 days and I'm happy to be teaching, but I can't help but think they are a little ridiculous for not knowing when to just let it go. When we got word that camp was back on, my co-teachers were calling me from their vacation spots in Ireland and the Philippines to plan 5 days of class. Oh, Korea! Other than that, I'm just chilling at the beach and trying to keep myself entertained for 2 more weeks!

Speaking of entertainment, I thought I would dedicate this blog this to the weird and wonderous things I've found through out the year in Korea. From smelly bug snacks, to fish that suck your feet, to dogs with perms and hair dye, there's a lot of things in Korea that are different, to say the least. Perhaps my favorite thing is noticing all of the kooky English signs and t-shirts, with their typos and ridiculous names. I'll stop talking and just let you see for yourself.

pretty kitty..??

doggie dye

doggie eyebrows

somehow i doubt Kenny Rogers is aware of his singing rooms all over korea

a bakery called "Bland" !

standard baseball fan attire- plastic bag on your head

Next week, I'm on vacation (one week off and then one more week at school!) so I'm doing a temple stay in the mountains. That's right, I'll be living with monks and doing everything they do- even waking up to meditate at 4 a.m.- but only for a day and a night. It should be really interesting and different, so look forward to a blog on that at the end of next week. Hope you're all enjoying your summer!

Live and Learn

2009-08-02T19:39:00.000-07:00

After writing last week's entry, I immediately got a reality check, testing whether or not I could really live up to my words and my "rules" for happiness. In order explain what happened, I have to back up a bit.

It all started two weeks ago on the last day of school, right before I was getting a few days off, and then would be back to teach summer English camp. We received a call from the Busan Education Office saying that several schools in our area had swine flu cases and that summer camps were all cancelled. For a second, I wondered if I would be off the hook, but quickly realized that my co-teacher had somthing else up her sleeve.

While other schools did cancel everything, leaving all of the English teachers free for the month of August, my school wouldn't give up on the English program. They came up with the idea that I would run a class over Skype, with all of the English camp students (24 of them)! I immediately voiced my opinion that that was way too many students and that 4 hours of skyping a day was way too long. They told me to just try and we could always change it, and in the end they chose only 12 students for 3 hours of skyping a day. Still ridiculous in my opinion, but I agreed so as to show that I wanted to work hard and do my part.

I went along with it, and sure enough, on days 1-3 there were a ton of problems. Most of the students didn't have the technology to have a coherent conversation and many of them really couldn't understand me without the visual aid of facial expressions and body language. Two Korean English teachers were joining the class, and they would constantly have to interrupt to explain something in Korean. It was very frustrating. I was in a pretty bad mood all week. I kept thinking about my blog and trying to look on the bright side, but it was so tedious and frustrating and just plain not working. Not to mention, it was rainy all week, which didn't help! To make matters worse, the Korean English teachers were going to be on vacation on the 3rd and 4th week of the class and I'd be on my own.

I knew I had to make a change. I had tried to teach the class, but if I didn't do something soon, it would be too late to change anything and I would be stuck and alone. I voiced my opinion again, but they ignored me. On day 4, I spoke to my co-teacher about how frustrated I was and we need a better plan for while they were on vacation. She suggested that we have a meeting with the Vice Principal the next day, and I happily agreed.

I went to school and after calmly and kindly stating my feelings and opinions about the situation, they understood. They realized that I would have happily done English camp (it wasn't my fault it was cancelled!) but that Skype just wasn't working. In the end, they decided it would be better if the Korean English teachers took over the Skype class and I did their job of planning the curriculum for next semester. Although I felt a little guilty, I had to realize that I had stood up for myself and made my situation better without making anyone else's worse. So, here I am at work for 4 hours a day, planning, creating and having a hell of a lot less stress during my last month in Korea. Plus, my Vice Principal gave me extra vacation time, too. Not a bad trade.

So, this whole situation taught me a few things. First: Be sure you can practice what you preach, but also realize you can learn from your mistakes. Second (and I already knew this, but maybe had to be reminded): Being happy is a constant struggle of mind over matter, of which you are in control. But remember that it's far easier to be motivated when things are going well, then when they aren't, so go easy on yourself and others when that's the case. Third: The change rule is soooo important, but you must be willing to stand up for yourself and know what you want instead. So, in regards to my blog last week, I do think I can "practice what I preach" but obviously I'm young and am far from having everything "figured out" so I just need to keep working at it.

And that's about all I had to say about that. I made up for my less than stellar week with a wonderful weekend at the beach. Must have spent 24 hours there, just taking 8 hours off to go home and get some sleep. This week, I'm keeping it positive, back in the office in the mornings and running around like crazy trying to prepare for the big trip ...only 4 weeks to go until India!! Can't wait!!

My thoughts on happiness...

2009-07-29T00:58:00.000-07:00

Looking back, my year in Korea has been one of the happiest in my life. Sure it's been exciting to be in a new country, with a new job and new friends, but I'm convinced those are not the reasons that it's been so happy. I mean there are tons of foreigners who come here with the same opportunities and circumstances as me and are absolutely miserable. I don't think it's the environment I'm in, rather the attitude and action I've taken. And though, I will look back on it so fondly, it wasn't always so good. The second and third months were really rough. The combination of missing my friends and family, not being there for the holidays, and the crappy weather, as well as the initial excitement wearing off, had me down. But, I decided to commit myself to happiness and have now definitely achieved it.

Now that I’m about to leave Korea, I’ve started thinking a lot about how I need to take these attitudes and practices back to the "real world" with me. Actually, I don't think it's going to be too hard. While I’ve been here, I’ve thought a lot about personal development and happiness; I’ve read about it, listened to pod casts, read books and blogs about the subject and in doing so I’ve learned a lot about myself and how to live a happier life. There have been five strategies I’ve used to make the most out of my year and I will continue to use them to always strive towards happiness and fulfillment. I’ll dub them my “5 Basic Steps to Being Happy.”

My 5 Basic Rules for Happiness:

1. STOP- Stop trying to compete with other people or fulfill other people’s expectations of you.

2. CHANGE- If you’re not happy with something in your life, change your course. It may be scary or it may take a lot of effort at first, but your ultimate happiness will be the greatest reward.

3. COMMIT- Happiness is 100% a state of mind, and you must commit to thinking positively and always working towards happiness.

4. DO- Do what you love. Period. Life’s too short to waste it on things we despise.

5. SIMPLIFY- A wise person once said, “It is better to want what you have than to have what you want.” If you always need more material things, you will never be satisfied. Keep your life simple and surround yourself with the simple things in life that bring you joy.

Now, I’ll go into a little bit more detail on each rule. Sometime after moving to New York and working at Columbia, I realized that I was living my life out of concern of what other’s thought of me. The move and the job seemed like a natural progression after college; All of my peers were getting high-paying finance jobs and I felt like a failure compared to them if I did anything but live and work in New York and try to become some important person, too. In the back of my mind (and in my heart), I always knew that what I really wanted to do was travel and help other people in a real, direct way, but I didn‘t want to be seen as a failure. Even once I got to Korea and had been here for 7 months, I was STILL considering going back to what I had been doing before, just so I didn’t “fall behind” any further. Then one day, I was listening to my favorite pod cast, “The Daily Boost” and the host, Scott Smith, was talking about following your passion. He basically said, “stop trying to keep up with the Jones’s. Don’t worry about what everyone else is doing and what other people’s expectations of you are. You already naturally do what makes you happy, now just do that for a living.” It really hit me hard. I realized that the thing I was already doing was teaching and traveling, and it had been the happiest year of my life, thus far. That was when I started to really consider becoming a teacher. And having the weight of comparing myself to everyone else off my shoulders as been so liberating.

My next rule is “change.” Right around time I had learned about Korea, and knew I wanted to go, but was SOOO scared, my friend Ashley told me an amazing quote. She said her mom had always told her “feel the fear, and do it anyway.” I’ve lived by that quote ever since. Basically it means, dare to chase your wildest dreams. Let yourself go after them, and accept the fear. The results will be so much sweeter when you accomplish something that took that much courage. The other part of this rule is just to know when you need to change. Know when you’re doing things that aren’t satisfying you, and figure out a way to change for the better. And never say never.

"Feel the fear...and do it anyway."

Since being in Korea, I’ve realized that to be happy, your mind has to be committed. For some people, that’s completely effortless, but other’s of us have to work at it. The thing people don’t always realize is that happiness has NOTHING to do with your environment, and EVERYTHING to do with your conscious decision to think and feel positively despite outside forces. You can think yourself into happiness, or at least out of misery, in almost any situation. In general, if you think negatively or expect bad things to happen, you will be unhappy and bad things will happen. If you are positive and let bad things roll off of you or you are able to see the good in them, then you are controlling your feelings and actively deciding to be happy. And you know what they say; if you think positively, you will attract positive things.

Mini-adventures are a quick fix... what could be funnier than fish sucking on your feet?

Next is to do what you love. Life is to short to make it anything but great, so try to do what you love and not to do what you don’t love. I really didn’t like my job in New York. I really wanted to teach and travel. I stopped working in New York and I started teaching and traveling. Simple really. Even if it’s not always possible in your career, especially with the current economic situation, you can still fill your life with things you love in your free time. Just get out there and do something.

I'd say I look pretty happy here :)

My last rule is to simplify. It’s been an important contributor to my happiness this year. Work hard, play hard, de-clutter your life, and stop worrying. Planning is great, but worrying and creating drama is a waste of time. Another part of simplification is to stop being such a consumer. I’ve lived with a lot less this year in Korea; no television, a lot less clothes and shoes, no fancy phone, no couch, etc. I mean it’s not like I’m living in a hut or anything, it’s still very comfortable, just a lot more simple. And I keep a list of simple things that make me happy. Whenever, I’m having a bad day, I just refer to the list and think about or do something on it to feel happier. My list includes- reading a good book, dancing, hiking, my family, exercise, my favorite music, nature, and more. Yesterday, it was pouring rain, but I had to get out of my apartment and out of my head, so I went for a hike in the rain. Went all the way to the peak of the mountain, got soaked, and was smiling the entire time. I also bookmark all of the Youtube videos, blogs and articles that instantly help boost my mood (I’ll list a few at the bottom).

Miss you guys!

Well there is SO much more I could say on this subject, but I‘ll leave it there…for now. In case you haven’t noticed, I really enjoy talking and writing about happiness, positivity and motivation, so expect to hear more about it in the future. If for no other reason, it helps me so much to write about it, but I also hope it can help you a little bit, too.

A few things from the internet that make me happy:

I LOVE this blog, definitely my inspiration: http://happiness-project.com/

Probably the best/most hilarious wedding procession in the history of the world. Watch the WHOLE thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0&feature=related

Where the hell is, Matt? Again…because I love it so much. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY

PS22 Chorus, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5vrtZKvxWM

Last week of school...annyong, Gumjeong Elementary!

2009-07-21T06:13:00.000-07:00

Last week, classes finished for the semester at my school, and I had to say goodbye to my 420 students. So, we had a party in all 14 classes, with snacks, games and songs and it was a great end to a great school year. I forced each class (with the exception of one) to smile for a picture, just to prove to you all that I do in fact teach over 400 Korean children every week!

During my goodbye party week, I received an overwhelming amount of presents and letters from my students. One student built me a model of my classroom, another student gave me a korean flag, and I got a lot of tacky but cute jewelery. Also got a lot of interesting food including chicken, cake, starbuck's latte's, aloe juice, dried squid, and more. But the most touching things I received were the letters, telling me how much I will be missed and how I have helped improve my students English. That is the ultimate pay-off I was hoping for with all of my hard work this semester.

Although I didn't always realize it, looking back I think that having my own classes was the best thing to happen to me in Korea. Though it was hard, as well as above and beyond the call of duty of a native english teacher, I know that it was the greatest experience I could have had. It really was invaluable. If I had continued co-teaching all year, I never would have formed the relationships I have with my students that have caused them to be so sad over my leaving. I never would have known how good it feels to succeed in motivating and teaching students. I never would have realized that teaching is the most rewarding job in the world if you go at it with passion and honest effort. So, as much as I want to say how unfair it was and how my school took advantage of me, the truth is that they KNEW I could do it and it was really a gift.

An unforgettable birthday...

2009-07-14T04:49:00.000-07:00

It's been an amazing year in Korea and last week, I had an amazing birthday to top it off. I'm not one to make a big deal about my birthday, usually just happy to spend the day with a few really good friends, but I have to say, this year was truly special.

A package came for me at school the other week from my mom, and everyone was so curious about what it was. I opened the box and inside there were a few presents and a ton of cards (thanks to everyone who sent me something!), so my school immediately asked, "When is your birthday?!" I told them, but didn't think much of it until my students started talking about it. I realized that everyone in the school knew. On Friday, the day before my birthday, everyone was saying "Happy Birp-day!" and one class even sang to me. I had my afterschool class with my wonderful sixth grade girls and I knew they had something planned because they'd been giggling around me all day. Sure enough, they came into my classroom singing and holding a birthday cake. It actually wasn't a cake, but about 15 choco-pies (like Little Debbie's) piled up with chocolate sticks stuck in them to look like candles. It was adorable! They also presented me with a box of notes, which I almost cried reading. They all said happy birthday and thanked me for teaching them, it was so sweet. At the end of class, the other 5th grade English teacher, MJ, came to my classroom with one more suprise. She presented me with a book from our students, full of birthday letters and pictures. It was so amazing, and probably the best keepsake I'll have from Korea.

On Friday, we were all getting ready for a big celebration- the Boryong Mud Festival! We were leaving Saturday morning, so a few friends got together for a low-key birthday dinner at the best Indian food restaurant in Busan. We ate a ton, had some hookah, and then headed home to get ready for the main event.

Lucky for me, the most ridiculously amazing event of the year in Korea happened to be on MY birthday! Thanks to Alexis, I had a hat to wear to the festivities so everyone knew that it was my birthday. It was probably the best present I received because I got so much attention from everyone ...mostly from dirty, muddy, strangers but at mudfest that's ok! Oh and there were Korean photographers everywhere snapping pictures of us crazy foreigners and they LOVED me and my birthday hat, haha. The "paparazzi" took so many pictures of me, we were joking that I'll probably be seen on a banner or brochure next year, so if you're in Korea then, keep your eyes peeled! We had a blast, covering ourselves in mud with 10,000 other people, and spent the day going down fun slides, mud wrestling, and just partaking in all of the muddy shenanigans. At night, we showered off and the party continued at bars and restaurants with the thousands of other foreigners and Koreans alike.

At the end of the weekend, I was absolutely exhausted but it was worth every bit of suffering I experienced at school on Monday. It was a birthday that I am SURE I will never forget!

Laura Teach-uh!

2009-07-06T23:37:00.000-07:00

So for those of you who haven't heard yet, I've decided that I want to become a teacher when I go home. Although I didn't think much of it the first half of the year and then had really tough second semester, which made me question it even more, a number of things made me change my mind.

The first thing was that throughout my time in Korea, I have really loved teaching and felt more right about it than any other job I've had. Though I talked about a lot of the problems I was having, I realized that they all had to do with the language barrier and subsequent miscommunication, which was aggrevated further by the lack of support from my school. Now that I have solved all the miscommunication problems, I feel that I am truly teaching, rather than standing up and putting on a show. And I love it! I have found ways to excite and motivate my students, and I think I have genuinely made a difference to them, and it feels so great.

Thinking about my values and goals in life, I've finally come to terms with a lot of things about who I am and who I'm not; I've realized I'm not competitive (in the business sense), don't care about making millions of dollars, don't want to work for a corporation, and I can't stand cubicles and staring at computers for 8 hours at a time. But I DO love being active, taking on challenges, working with young people, inspiring them, and making a real difference in lives daily. Teaching is a no brainer for me then, right? Although I resisted teaching for a long time (for the wrong reasons), I really think now that it's what I need to do with my life. So my plan next year is to apply to a number of different fellowship and graduate school programs to get my Masters in Education.

Now, on the note of inspiration and making a difference... you've probably already heard of the incredible Mr. B and his PS22 Chorus, because if you haven't then you must be living under a rock! Just kidding. But seriously, Mr. B is a music teacher in Staten Island who has done wonders with his students, the PS22 Chorus, inspiring them through music and making them famous on youtube for their amazing musical talent. It just goes to show how a passionate, inspiring teacher can truly make a profound difference. If I can make 1/100th of the difference that he has made, I'll feel successful.

PS22 Chorus, singing "Landslide":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2p5augniQA

And check out the Mr. B's blog: http://ps22chorus.blogspot.com/

Insanely awesome weekend

2009-06-29T04:30:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I went on a trip with Adventure Korea, an adventure tour company for foreigners. On the itinerary was rafting, camping, visiting the DMZ and bungee jumping (but this was an option that only a few people decided to participate in)...do you think I took the plunge? Read on to find out...

We left early on Saturday morning, and after a long 7-hour bus ride up the coast of eastern Korea, we finally arrived at the Hantan river for our rafting trip. Most of us have rafted some pretty serious rivers back home, so when we saw the calm, un-intimidating river, we were less than impressed. But, we made the most of the trip, singing songs, starting water fights and stopping every twenty minutes to splash around on the shore and make slip and slides out of our rafts. Despite the lack of serious white water, we had a great time. After hiking a ways up to our buses, we washed off and headed to bungee jumping site.

We were a little behind schedule as we pulled onto the bridge where the bungee jump was, so the guide (his name is Young) told us that half of the people who wanted to go would go that night and half would go the next morning. I was relieved because I really wanted to do it, but I was way too freaked out to do it then, and I thought having a night to get up my courage would be helpful. Yet, just as the first group got off the bus, Young changed the plans. "How about everyone who wants to bungee gets off now? If we can fit everyone tonight, we won't have to come back tomorrow. But if we can't fit everyone, then we will come back." Great!! It was now or never, so I got off the bus, but at that point I really didn't believe I was going to do it that night.

To jump or not to jump?

Hilary canon balled it...and scared the crap out of us all!

Best pic of the weekend

I waited on the bridge, as the bravest of the group climbed up to the platform which jutted out above us. As the first few people took the plunge, I watched nervously as they fell almost 200 feet from the bungee platform. Person after person screamed with the thrill of the jump, which made my heart pound even harder! After about an hour, they told us it was time for the second group. It was going faster than they had anticipated and we would be finishing everyone tonight. Now I was really, really nervous! A couple of girls backed down because they just weren't ready, but I knew I HAD to do it, or I would always regret it. When I got up the platform, I became so nervous and nauseous that I thought I could throw up. On top of that, I hadn't had a chance to use the bathroom, so I was nearly positive I would pee my pants when I jumped! The bungee guys looked at my paper work and got me rigged into the ankle cuffs that would be keeping me from falling to my doom. Though I couldn't believe I would feel safe with just some stuff around my ankles, it was surprisingly sturdy and I knew it would be ok. Finally, after about 30 minutes of waiting so nervously, it was my turn.

I'm committed...peace out y'all!

moment of truth

Before I knew it, I was ushered to the edge of the platform and the bungee guy hooked me up to the cord and checked that I was all secure. I waved to my friends down at the bottom and took a deep breath. I still couldn't believe I was doing it! I hobbled to the edge of the platform and the guy said, "OK, you go on 4...1, 2, 3." "Wait!!" I screamed. I thought at that moment that I could turn around, but the thought quickly passed because I knew I was going to do it. "PIGHTING!!!" I yelled, the korean's way of saying "let's go kick some butt." Again, the guy began to count. This time, I went on 4. I bent my knees and dove out head first, falling for what seemed longer than it was. As I got close to the water, the cord caught and shot me back up, where I hovered weightless for a moment. I screamed and screamed and screamed, and then swore a little, but it was the best adrenaline rush I've ever experience.I was soooo happy I did it. The hardest part was all of the anticipation and then the moment before I actually jumped, but once I did it was insanely exhilarating. So yea, I can't say I won't be doing that again! ...and I didn't pee my pants either!

It's a little blurry, but that's meeee

After the bungeeing was finished, we headed to a Korean guesthouse where we were served a delicious traditional meal. We got settled into our rooms (which were both cozy and bug infested) and then enjoyed drinking, talking and singing around a bonfire for the rest of the night. At about 1 a.m. our guide took us out to play the "bravery game." The guest house we were staying at was only about a mile from the DMZ, so just by walking across the street and up a big hill, you can view the lights of the North Korean watch towers. Doing it at one o'clock in the morning makes it "bravery." It was fun, but I don't think it took a whole lot of courage.

Bonfire

Showing off my guitar skillz

The next day we actually went to the DMZ. We passed through the secure military zone and were not allowed to take any pictures (though at that point we were still on the South Korea side). The only point when we were actually in the de-militarized zone (neutral territory which is technically both countries) was when we went about a mile down into the 2nd Infiltration Tunnel. This is one of the four tunnels that was dug by North Koreans during the Korean War to invade South Korea. We walked through the tunnel for about 30 minutes until we reached the point where it was closed off, and I was happy to turn around as it was very creepy and claustrophobic down there! We went to several other areas of the DMZ, but that was by far the coolest.

Under the DMZ

North Korea did not build this for 6 foot American girls

Soldiers outside of the tunnel

Mountains of North Korea

Awesome pic of the DMZ gate, my friend Steph took this

It was an incredible, exhilarating weekend. Though I know I can't go jumping off of bridges or tunneling into communist countries every weekend, I certainly want to keep up the excitement. This weekend we're camping on a beach for the 4th of July and heading to the Mud Festival next weekend. As usual, can't wait!

The "F" Word

2009-06-21T21:41:00.000-07:00

Lately, all of my friends in Korea seem to be using the "F" word a lot, and it's really starting to get to me. It seems like every time we get together, people can't stop saying it. So I'm sorry that I skipped a week of writing, it's just been difficult to reflect on what I've been doing here, when I'm constantly bombarded with that annoying "F" word: future. Wait- what did you think I meant?

Though I am still having a great time in Korea, playing in volleyball tournaments, enjoying the beach and starting to wrap up classes for the semester, I'm also spending a lot of time planning. Some of it is really exciting and some of it I would rather not be thinking about just yet.

The exciting news is that Alexis and I have booked an adventure trip in India for the first leg of our post-Korea backpacking trip! Sooooo excited! We'll be going on a 20-day tour of India with the same company I went sailing with in Greece. They are called GAP Adventures and I highly recommend them to anyone who wants to have an active, cultural experience and meet lots of cool people while your doing it. And thanks to my friend Jon who works for GAP and got a good discount, the trip won't break the bank. Anyway, we'll be flying to Delhi on August 30th, then touring to many different cities in Rajasthan- Jaipur, Udaipur, Pushkar- then to see the Taj Mahal in Agra and finally to the longest continually inhabited city in the world, Varanasi. It's going to be an incredible experience, full of good food, culture and people. And there's no need to worry about us; we're preparing to get all of our vaccinations, insurance, and we will be in the hands of a very reputable tour company. I can't wait!

GAP Adventures, Roam India Tour

(http://www.gapadventures.com/)

After India, we'll be heading to Thailand for my second visit and Alexis' first. We'll spend time in Bangkok, then travel to Sukothaini in the north, and then head to the island of Koh Chang for some R&R which I'm sure will be much needed after 25 days with our backpacks. After Thailand, off to see Angor Wat, one of the seven wonders of the world, in Cambodia and then to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) in Vietnam. That will be around October 10th, and Lex will head home while I plan to stay a little bit longer. Possibly have some more friends meeting up with me there, but if not, I'll be doing a 2-week UNESCO volunteer project in the Sapa Valley region of Northern Vietnam, teaching English. It's going to be the adventure of a lifetime!!

Alright, I'll write more about the "F" word in blogs to come, but for now I'm just going to focus on enjoying the present. I'm sure after I leave Korea, I will really miss it! There are many exciting events coming up, so I will have a lot to write about again soon. Next weekend, I'm going on a rafting and camping trip in the Gangwon-do province, about 4 hours north of here. We will also be touring the DMZ (so long as their are no security issues with the evil step brother, you know who). The following weekend is the 4th of July and we'll be camping and bonfire-ing on a beach near Busan. After that, it's the biggest weekend of the year for foreigners in Korea, and it just so happens to be my birthday! It's the Boryeong Mud Festival and thousands of people go to this beach and get covered in mud, and party it up for the weekend. It's going to be one hell of a birthday!

"Yesterday's the past, tomorrow's the future, but today is a gift. That's why they call it the present."

- comic on Nan's fridge, thanks!

Teaching in Korea- Progress Report

2009-06-09T21:11:00.000-07:00

My main purpose of coming to Korea was to teach, yet I realize that I haven't written a whole lot about it in my blog. There have just been too many exciting adventures in my free time, that I haven't gotten around to it. The last time I wrote about my teaching experience, I told you about all of my challenges and how I was being taken advantage of my school by teaching completely on my own (against the contract) and without any teaching materials or curriculum. I vowed to keep a positive attitude and make an honest effort, and that's exactly what I have done.

The last four months of teaching have been really challenging, but it has gradually gotten easier and I am finally enjoying teaching on my own (mostly on my own, now). The major turning point came when I finally stood up and made my voice heard about the difficulties of teaching 4th grade alone. Although I didn't want to "give up," I realized that the communication gap was too large for me to be effective on my own. The 4th grade level is too low and to sit and listen to a native English speaker for 40 minutes straight, without any Korean, was just too difficult for them, hence the behavioral problems. I spoke up to my co-teachers (which I had already done, but this time I was much more insistent) and they suggested I write a letter to my Vice Principal fully explaining myself. When he read my letter, he was fully convinced and realized that it would in fact be much more effective to co-teach for 4th grade. He agreed, so long as I would still teach 5th and 6th grade on my own, which I happily accepted.

So, I have been co-teaching on Mondays and half of Tuesday with a young, energetic teacher named Jolie and the collaboration works great. Jolie is there to teach and translate in Korean, and I still serve my role to teach listening and speaking as a native English speaker. It really is very effective, and I can tell that the students are happier, more at ease and much better behaved in a situation where they understand whats going on. Plus, the co-teaching situation not only helps the native English speaker, it also helps the Korean English teachers improve, which is really needed in most public schools.

Now with my improved 4th grade situation, I have more time and less stress so I can be better prepared to teach alone. I 've learned a lot from my last three months of teaching and now have very good systems in place for my 5th and 6th grade classes. I pretty much use the same formula for every class; a 5 minute introduction, 10 minutes to review and present new information in an interesting way, 15 minutes for the main lesson, and 15 minutes to practice with games or activities. The biggest lesson I've learned is the simpler the better. I now focus on one or two phrases for each lesson, and even if it is too easy for the high level students, it still serves as a fun way to review, as well as practice listening to and conversing with a native English speaker. Though they've always thought my class was fun (I've played games through out the whole semester), lately I can tell my students are really understanding things better, and they are much more confident and happy because of it.

Just to sum up a few things I've learned about Teaching ESL in Korea (alone):

- Simple is better; stick to one or two key phrases and your students will have a much better experience
- Sometimes it's OK to give up; When things in the classroom are repeatedly not working, you need to make a change. Otherwise, you are doing yourself and your students a disservice.
- Play games! As long as you keep your students learning and speaking English the whole class, then the more fun, the better.
- ESL students will love you; If they have behavior problems, it's probably not that they don't like you, but rather they just don't understand you.
- Positive reinforcement is essential; make a reward system and stick to it. I have a group sticker chart, where teams can earn candy.
- Keep a positive attitude. There will be good days and bad, but if you keep a positive attitude and a smile on your face, the bad will be few and far between.

Finally, I don't think I could have turned this into such a good experience without my own conscious effort to keep a positive attitude. It can be really hard living in a foreign country when you don't speak the language and you can't even communicate with your co-workers. There are a lot of foreigners in Korea who probably get out of bed in the morning expecting the worst, and that's what they get. This year I've made a new effort to make a positive experience out of every morning. For me, that involves eating a healthy breakfast and drinking a nice cup of coffee while I check the news back at home. Then, on my way to school, I listen to podcasts, which are my new obsession!! If you own an iPod, you can download hundreds of thousands of podcasts on any subject right from your itunes for FREE. On the way to school, I listen to "self help" podcasts which sound corny, but they are really amazing. My two favorites are "The Daily Boost" and "Motivation to Move" and they are 10 minute long, positive thinking podcasts that really help me get pumped for my day.

Here's a list of my favorite podcasts, if you are interested:
- The Daily Boost
- Motivation to Move
- NPR: Wait, wait, don't tell me
- Nutrition Diva
- This American Life
- Stuff You Should Know
- NPR Storycorps
- The Moth

Teaching my afterschool class

One of my favorite fifth graders on Music Festival Day

1st Graders girls AND boys perform at Musical Festival
(4 boys to be exact!)

Green tea trip and things on my mind lately

2009-06-01T06:13:00.001-07:00

This past weekend we hit the three-months-left-in-Korea mark. I can't really believe that I've been here for 9 months and made it through three-quarters of my time here, it just feels like it all went by too fast. Now, with only three months left, I'm constantly thinking about what's next. The thought of leaving the comforts of life here are a little scary: my great apartment, a fairly easy job, good money, culture, food, interesting people, etc. At least I know that my travels after Korea will provide enough excitement to get over it pretty quickly. With all of this thinking and anticipation, I've come to one conclusion: stop it! Stop worrying about what's three, six months down the line, and enjoy the present. Enjoy today and the next three months, and the rest is going to work itself out. I'm happy here, so I might as well soak it up while I can!

That being said, Lex and I have continued making checks on the "To Do" list. A week ago, we went to the green tea plantation in Bosung, and although we spent approximately 8 hours of the 24 hour journey on a bus, 10 sleeping, and only 6 actually experiencing the sights, we both agreed that it was totally worth it. We left on Friday right after school and hopped on a 4-hour bus cross-country (yes, you can make it across the entire country in less than 4 hours). At about 10 o'clock at night we were dropped off in a quiet, little village and planned to catch a cab to a near by hostel. But when we saw that there were several motels right around the bus station, we decided to check them out first. We picked the one that had the most cars, thinking that it was probably the most popular with the Koreans (always go where the locals go). Turns out, the place looked nice and new and they offered it to us for only $30 for the night! Happy as Koreans eating kimchi, we settled into our comfy little room- complete with a real shower! -and got some much needed rest.

On Saturday morning we were up early and at the green tea plantation by 9:30 a.m. Our first stop was to get a green tea latte, which was so delicious, and we then spent the morning wandering around the plantations and taking in the luscious, green rolling hills of green tea. It was truly a unique sight. I think my friend Rebecca described it best when she said it looked straight out of Alice in Wonderland. And unlike in Busan, we were the only foreigners at the plantation (actually we hadn't seen any others since we left Busan), so we had a lot of children and even some adults coming up to us curiously and trying to practice their English. It was fun. After a few hours of exploring, it was time for lunch and we were excited to check out the specialties dishes. We settled on green tea sungyupsal. Sungyupsal is korean barbeque with pork and you basically cook the pork on a grill and then wrap the meat in a lettuce leaf, adding sauces and different types of kimchi. This meat was doused with green tea powder and all of the sides and sauces incorporated the plant as well. It was everything we expected and more. The only thing that could make our experience any better was topping it off with some dessert. You guessed, green tea ice cream! After a long morning full of lots of sight seeing, stair climbing and indulging, we headed back on the bus and made it home just in time to go out on Saturday night. It was the perfect little trip and coming back on Saturday actually made the weekend feel so much longer!

On the way home, we got to talking again about leaving Korea. We talked about things at home that we were excited to have again (good sandwiches, English signage, cheese), about things we'll miss from Korea, and then we realized something that was pretty much inevitable; we had probably picked up a few new habits that we would be taking home with us whether we liked it or not. Here is the list we came up with, just to prepare you all so you're not so surprised by any slightly odd behavior.

8 Korean Customs I'm Likely to Take Home with Me (sorry couldn't think of 2 more to make it 10):

8. Adding an "ee" to the end of many words such as changee, beachee, fishee, etc. It has become so ingrained in us to use these words or else we won't be understood.
7. Not speaking during meals. Koreans tend to be very quiet when eating (so long as soju is not involved).
6. Sharing meals. Koreans share everything, and food is no exception. From sandwiches to meat dishes to even, I kid you not, soup, Koreans put their food in the center of the table and share. And I've come to really like it that way!
5. Thinking most food that doesn't have red peppers or wasabi is bland. There's even a bakery in my neighborhood called Bland!
4. Not tipping, oops! This is one habit I know I better break at home, but I will sincerely miss the days of keeping my extra dollar at the bar or not having to factor in the tip when eating with large groups at restaurants. It sure is nice!
3. Using scissors instead of knives at meals. That's right, at a table in Korea you will find that each person has chopsticks and a spoon, and a communal pair of scissors is used to cut the meat. Sounds strange, but we've decided that it's a great thing!
taking my shoes off in the house
2. No shoes allowed. Taking off my shoes and slipping into a nice pair slippers when entering a home, school, and even many restaurants is a comfy and greatly satisfying habit that I would really like to hold on to.

And the number one habit that I will have trouble parting with when I arrive home from Korea is...

1. Bowing! The bow/head nod has become so ingrained in me that I often find myself doing it to western friends and vice versa. We all agree, it's gonna be a tough one to break. So before you decide to laugh and make fun of the weird, awkward habits I picked up in Korea, remember habits are easier to form than they are to break. Have a little sympathy and patience, it could take at least a year!

Japan, Round 2, Part 2

2009-05-25T00:06:00.000-07:00

Finally, we were on the last leg of our epic adventure. Though it had been a great trip so far with Mom and Dad, I decided to spend sometime with friends in Japan. My Westcoast Connection co-worker and friend Kelly is currently living and studying in Tokyo and I really wanted to meet up with her, so I suggested that Mom and Dad to take an overnight trip to Nikko on Saturday. Nikko is a charming, historic town just ninety minutes from Tokyo by train, but worlds away from the big, bustling city feel, and I knew they would really enjoy it.

I felt a little bit like a parent taking my child to the first day of kindergarten. I had held their hands through Asia up to this point, but now it was time for them to go off and explore the world on their own. I knew they could do it. I had trained them well and they were going to do a great job traveling on their own. We arrived at the train station on Saturday morning and after one more little pep talk, I waved goodbye and assured them I would be there to pick them up after school...errr after the trip. "Will you just walk with us to the track to make sure we get on the right train?" Mom asked. "No," I chuckled, "I know you can do it on your own."

After leaving my parents to fend for themselves, I headed back to Shinjuku to meet up with Kel. I got to her apartment building by 11 am and was happy not just to see her but also to meet some friends that would be coming along for the day. Our first stop was lunch at Harajuku, where we had a good western meal. Though I could have gone for more Japanese food, I was thrilled to eat a simply delicious grilled chicken caesar salad. That was not something I ever thought I'd have in Asia. After lunch, we decided to check out a reggae festival in Yoyogi Park. Again, not something that I would have expected to find in Tokyo, but I knew that this city was full of great surprises and couldn't wait to see what it was all about. The reggae fest was so sweet. It was crazy to see so many hippies and rasta-clad Japanese people and we bet that the entire hippy population of the whole country was probably at the festival. Though we didn't exactly fit in by our looks, we got into the spirit and had a great afternoon dancing to live music and checking out all of the interesting people. In fact, people watching is one of my favorite activities to do when traveling; just sitting around, watching all of the unique, culturally different people in any given place. That night, I got a real taste of Tokyo nightlife. We started at a fancy rooftop Thai restaurant in Roppongi, the hung out at a cool hookah, hip-hop bar, and finally ended up at a posh club called Ferria where we danced the night away. Oh yea, and did I mention got invited to the VIP table of some young Japanese business men? It was a fun experience, and they were absolute gentlemen. It was a great time and after a long, exhausting night, I said good-bye to my girls and then headed back to the hotel to get some shut eye before picking up Mom and Dad in the morning.

Wait, this is in Japan?

Babies in rasta clothes, so cute

the girls

After getting a grand total of four hours of sleep, I rolled out of bed at 8 am and headed back to the train station to meet Mom and Dad. Despite my best efforts, I still made it there twenty minutes late and found Mom and Dad waiting eagerly. They told me they had had a great time in Nikko and that everything had been smooth and easy. It really is amazing that even in a country as foreign as Japan, you can get by and have a wonderful time without knowing the language at all. The train station where we met was right near the beautiful old area of the city called Asakusa, so I suggested that we walk around there and have lunch before heading back downtown. We walked the streets, lined with vendors and shops selling souvenirs, antiques and traditional clothing. We stopped for some delicious and refreshing green tea ice cream, which made the perfect breakfast! As we walked around, Dad began to have quite a dilemma over which souvenir he wanted to bring home. On the one hand, he really wanted a nice casual kimono, which they'd been given in the guesthouse in Nikko, to use as a robe. On the other hand, he loved the beautiful paper fans and thought that displaying them on the wall would be a better way to remember the trip. In the end, he settled with the fans, and they found several beautiful ones to hang up. For lunch, we went into an authentic noodle bar, where we sat with locals who curiously watched us slurp the noodles in a surely uncultured way. But we didn't care, the atmosphere was great and the food was delicious!

Temple in Asakusa area

typical street scenes in Asakusa

hunting for fans

Finally, we headed back to our hotel in Shinjuku where it was time for me to pack up my stuff. I would be heading back to Korea that afternoon and Mom and Dad would stay in Tokyo for one more day before making the journey home. I packed up and just as we left the room, I pretended to forget something, so that I could put out a small gift for Mom and Dad- a clay sake pitcher and glass set, which I hoped would always remind them of how much fun we'd had on our adventure. We took a stroll through beautiful Shinjuku Gyoen Park, which has traditional Japanese gardens, and took a few more pictures before heading to the train station to part ways.

Beautiful Shinjuku Gyoen park

"It kind of feels like you were the parent and we were the children on this trip" Mom said with a laugh, trying to make light of the fact that we had to say goodbye. I hadn't wanted to mention it but I completely agreed. It was so fun to introduce them to new places and cultures that I know they wouldn't have had the opportunity to experience without me, and to see them grow confident as travellers. In just 9 short days, Mom and Dad had graduated from kindergarten to at least the fourth grade level of their travel education (haha, ok maybe I've exaggerated a little, but they defintely did improve their travel skills!). I know they left Asia exhilarated by their adventure and confident that they could do it on their own next time.

Once again, trying to hold back tears, I found myself saying goodye to my family, an event that was becoming a little too familiar. Despite my sadness to have to leave them, I just kept thinking one thing; how lucky I am to have people that love me enough to come all the way across the world to see me. Life's an adventure, but in the end, I know its all about love. So thanks to those of you who constantly remind me of that...

Japan: Round 2, Part 1

2009-05-18T01:40:00.000-07:00

I have to say, I was pretty nervous about taking my parents to Japan (although, of course I didn't tell them that). When we first came up with idea of going, I thought it was great because I thought, why would you come all the way over to Asia and only see Korea? Korea is great and all, but there are a lot of other must-see places right next door. I had already been to Japan over the holidays, and based on my first experience in Tokyo, I started to question whether or not they would like it (after having already purchased the tickets). There were a number of reasons why. First of all, Tokyo is insanely big. It's home of the world's busiest subway station and crosswalk, the public transportation map looks like an intricate spiderweb, and you couldn't even make a dent on the city in three days. On top of that, Japan is expensive. Really expensive. Still on top of that, people rarely speak English, though English signs are everywhere (thank God!). For all of these reasons, I was pretty nervous about the trip. Yet, remembering how fascinated I was by the culture and how insanely cool and edgy the country is helped calm my worries. In the end, it turned out great. Although our adventure in Japan got off to a rough start, it was amazing after all and I was so glad not only that I got to take my parents there, but also that I got to experience the awesome city of Tokyo again.

It was a quick and easy hour and a half flight from Busan to Tokyo, and we arrived in Tokyo by 2:30 on Friday afternoon. The hard part was over...or so Mom and Dad thought. I knew that we had one more obstacle to get over; getting out of Shinjuku train station and finding our hotel. Getting out of Shinjuku train station? Even in a foreign country, how hard can it be to get OUT of a building? Just look for the exit or follow the people leaving your train and you'll find it, right? WRONG. Shinjuku station is the biggest, craziest mess of a subway station that you could possibly imagine. It's spans across at least 10 city blocks and is 5 levels high from the underground tracks, up to several above ground railways. It's what some people refer to as a "clusterfuck" (pardon my language, but that really is the best word to describe it). After approximately 20 minutes of lugging our bags up and down stairs and through crowded corridors, we finally wound up at the West Exit. CRAP! "Our hotel is east of the station, we definitely need the East exit," I told Mom and Dad. We all agreed that it would just be best to get in a cab, no matter how round-a-bout of a drive it was. Turns out, our cab driver didn't even know how to get to a hotel in the same area of the city we were in! He tried looking the address up in his map book of Tokyo (seriously bigger than a yellow pages phonebook), but couldn't find it. Even after calling the hotel, he was still driving around in circles.

At this point (especially if you know my Mom) you may be thinking, were any of you freaking out?!? Actually, we all remained pretty calm, even Mom, but I could feel the underlying panic that could have ensued at anytime. If anything, I was just feeling that all of my worries about them not liking Japan were already coming true. But, alas, we finally arrived at our cute little hotel, and aside from Dad almost mistakenly paying $100 for the cab ride, we made it there unharmed, and in one piece.

From there, the trip just got better and better. Just as we arrived at the hotel, the rain and fog that had covered the city as we flew in over it, was dissipating. As soon as we went up to our room and re-energized (beer was not involved this time, but would be shortly), we were off to our first stop at the famous Meiji Shrine near the equally famous Harajuku neighborhood. The stark contrast between the beautiful, old shrine, empty due to the rainy afternoon, and the hip, crazy, crowded shopping area of Harajuku provided a great introduction to the type of place that Japan is; A country that holds tight to it's past, while at the same time embracing and pioneering the newest trends and technologies.

After seeing the shrine and walking around Harajuku it was about 6:30, and I had planned to take Mom and Dad to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant that I had scoped out last time I was there. Unfortunately, the building where the restaurant had once stood was now a construction site, and finding a place to eat is not easy in Harajuku. It's more of a cafe/clothing type area. So, I suggested that we head to Shibuya to see Shibuya crossing and go to a spot where I was sure we would find our sushi. Mom and Dad agreed, but not before taking our beer break, we were long overdue for that.

We hopped on the subway, two stops to Shibuya and exited out into the world's busiest intersection; it is said that approximately 3 million people cross it everyday, and if you've ever seen pictures of bustling Tokyo streets, I guarantee this is the place. We made our way across the intersection and as our stomachs growled in anticipation of dinner, I promised we would find something just up ahead (secretly I didn't really know if we would find it). Sure enough, about two blocks down the street, fate brought us right to our conveyor belt sushi restaurant. It was like being a kid in a candy store, only this candy store had a really long line to wait on! That was okay by us, and we sat with mouths watering as we watched the sushi go round and round, waiting to get our chance to dig in. Finally, we got to the front of the line, and then it was heaven on a conveyor belt! Fresh, delicious sushi whizzed by and we giggled with joy as we grabbed each lovely little plate, opened wide and washed it down with refreshing beer and sake. The icing on the cake- the entire feast only cost $50!!

Stumbling out of the restaurant, stomachs full, heads a little hazy from the sake, I had one last idea for the night. A Japanese tradition that I knew Mom and Dad just had to try; a photobooth session! In Japan, young people always go to photobooths to take pictures with their friends during a night out. They take goofy pictures and then decorate them with bright, tacky, glittery designs, it's pretty hilarious. Mom and Dad happily agreed, but as soon as we got inside the booth, Dad said, "I don't know, I think this stuff is for girls." I told him it was too late, and he better just smile, so he did. The pictures turned out so funny and one of the best souvenirs from the trip; I know I will cherish mine forever.

After our photo session, we headed back to crazy Shinjuku station, which was still packed at 10 o'clock at night, and we picked up some more sake and snacks and went back to the hotel. We hung out, watched some funny Japanese TV, and called it an early night. There was a lot more in store for our Japan adventure, and we knew we would be needing the energy for it.

Adventures with Mom and Dad in Korea

2009-05-11T06:04:00.001-07:00

It's Monday afternoon and I'm sitting in my classroom feeling happy, sad and exhausted all at once. Mom and Dad's highly-anticipated trip to Asia has come to an end, and I have to say it was better than I ever could have imagined. We had such a good time sightseeing in Korea and Japan and experiencing the culture of Asia. This week, I'll give you a recap of our week in Korea and next week I'll write about Japan because there is so much to say! But first, I've made a little list of 10 things I've learned from this trip about traveling with parents.This list should be especially helpful for those of you living in Korea, and hoping your parents will visit, despite the fact that they've never been to Asia, or any other country for that matter, on their own. Here goes...

10 Things I Learned About Traveling with Parents in Asia

10. Not everyone is an adventurous eater. My mom loves ethnic food, but to my surprise, unidentified fish in spicy fermented sauce was just a little too much for her to handle.
9. Be prepared to constantly be saying, "I don't know, that's just the way it is." There are many things in Asia that you just have to accept as "different."
8. Sharing an apartment with your parents for several days is a valuable bonding experience. Watching "Dancing with the Stars" together on your laptop will only enhance that bond.
7. Anytime something goes wrong, just play it off as a "cultural experience." Whether the food is too fishy, you're stuck in the world's busiest subway station, or the only available toilet is a hole in the ground, you can explain that it's all part of the cultural experience.
6. When traveling from Korea to Japan, make sure your parents understand the exchange rate. In Korea, 10,000 is worth $10 but in Japan its worth $100. Although Japanese cab drivers don't usually take tips, they might not refuse a hundred bucks.
5. Beware of the allure of chanting monks. You may find that your mother is drawn to the beautiful sound of chanting monks. If you hear any monk music while hiking in the woods, be sure to keep a close eye on your mother, or before you know it she may run off and join the monkhood.
4. Adult Diapers may be required. When traveling in places with more exotic food such as Korea, you may find that your parents (in my case Dad's) stomache don't agree with the food. Rather than go on a tour of all of the public restrooms in town, you may just want to bring along some absorbant undies. ;)
3. BYOTP- While you may find toilet paper in classrooms, subway stations, or even hanging outside on the exteriors of buildings, you probably won't find any in the bathroom. It's essential to BYOTP, especially if you've already forgotten the adult diapers.
2. Beer breaks are essential. Schedule at least 3 beer breaks daily to refuel and reenergize your parents.
1. And finally, I learned that when your parents come to visit you can give your bank account a rest!! Be like a kid again and let the rents pick up the dinner, hotels, train tickets, heck even have them buy you socks on the street! Thanks Mom and Dad!!

OK, that was all in good fun. If it sounds like we had quite an adventure, then you're right, we did. After eagerly waiting for weeks for my parents to arrive, and even fearing that everything would be ruined due to swine flu taking over the world, I finally went to the airport last friday to pick them up. They arrived looking tired but happy to see me and excited to begin the adventure. I brought them to my apartment where they would be staying for the week and Dad immediately hopped on the bed, ready to pass out for the night. This was unacceptable to Mom and me, as we really wanted to go out have the first taste of Korean food. Fortunately, Dad was a trooper and got up. We met my friend Alexis and then set out to a korean bbq restaurant where we grilled delicious beef, sampled kimchi and drank aged soju, until finally calling it a night.

The first weekend was filled with sightseeing around my city, Busan. Our first stop was Jagalchi Fish Market, which is a rather shocking and exciting introduction to Korea, as you get to see the people, food and customs all in one, busy and fishy-smelling place. For lunch we had a delicious meal of fried red snapper, soup and vegetable dishes, cooked for us right on the main street of the market. We then headed to Busan Tower where we got a glimpse of the city from a birds-eye view. We headed back to my place around 5pm to refuel before going to a temple, but Dad was completely drained and decided to call it a night. Talk about the early bird special! So, Mom and I headed to beautiful Beomosa temple for Buddha's birthday celebration, where we witnesses thousands of worshippers and monks hanging beautiful, bright lanterns all over the temple grounds. It was a truly unique experience that only occurs once a year, so we were both really excited. The following day, we took a ferry ride around Busan and went to another beautiful temple on the cliffs.

On Monday, I went to work from 9 am to noon and my school was nice enough to let me leave as soon as my classes were finished. We had Tuesday off for a Children's Day, a national holiday in Korea, so we were taking a trip to Gyongju, the historical city which was Korea's capital during the Silla Dynasty. We hopped on a one-hour bus ride to Gyongju and made our way to the charming traditional Korean guesthouse where we would be staying. For grand total of $30, we slept on the floor of a tiny, one-room Korean cottage. Though it may have been a little shocking at first, Mom and Dad ended up loving the place. That day we visited many natural and historicals sights around Gyongju, and to my delight they loved everything. Dad was especially fascinated by the architecture of the massive palace temples, and Mom was of course into all of the Buddhist history. That night we had dinner at a traditional Korean restaurant where we were served many, many small plates as well as Korean milky rice wine infused with Ginseng. Dad and I loved it, and although Mom wasn't in to the strange tastes, it was still quite a good cultural experience. The next day we did more temple sightseeing, and went to the top of a mountain to see a buddhist statue in a cave. It was a great little trip that we all really enjoyed.

We got back to Busan on Tuesday night, and I was anxious and excited for school on Wednesday because Mom and Dad would be coming with me. After a brief introduction ceremony in my Principal's office, Mom and Dad came up to my classroom where I was teaching 5th graders a lesson on "Welcoming a Tourist." They greeted Mom and Dad with a loud and enthusiastic, "Welcome to Gumjung Elementary!" It was really cute. The class was fun and I think both parents and students had a great time, so I was satisfied. For lunch we had the best meal possible, bibimbap! It's a favorite korean dish, of mixed rice, vegetables, meat and sauce, so I was really glad they got to try that. It was a fun-filled day, and I was really happy that I was able to show them what my day to day life is like in Korea. We spent the next day and a half trying restaurants, shopping and hiking and then it was finally off to Japan on Friday! More on that next week!

Pics are up!!! http://picasaweb.google.com/lcurrie711

They're here!

2009-05-03T06:24:00.001-07:00

Mom and Dad are finally here in Korea and we're having a great time!! After 20 hours of traveling and successfully avoiding quarantine due to swine flu (thank goodness!), we reunited at the airport and it's been go, go, go ever since. Mom is really loving the buddhist culture and it's the perfect time to experience it as this weekend is Buddha's birthday. Dad is enjoying the food and getting a kick out of Korea and their design decisions. Tomorrow, we head to the city of Gyongju to see some Korean history and get a more traditional experience.

Yonggungsa Temple, Buddha's Birthday celebration

I'll give a full, detailed update after the trip, but right now I'm exhausted!! Much love from all of us in Korea! Annyong!

The road less traveled...

2009-04-24T00:19:00.000-07:00

As much as I disapprove of the bombardment of advertisements on the internet, I have actually benefited from the targeted advertising on both Facebook and Google. Each of these sites can detect words and topics in your profile and email, and they advertise according to your "interests." Though 98% of the time its useless junk that I don't click on, once in a blue moon something catches my eye that I find really useful. In fact, I first found out about teaching in South Korea from a Facebook ad.

The other day, I was on Google mail and there was a link to a NYTimes article. The catch phrase was something like, "Frequent Flier: Going to Every Country Before the Age of 35." Naturally, I was very interested in a person this ambitious, so I went to the New York Times and began reading about a man named Chris Guillebeau who traveled to 100 countries before the age of 30. The article spoke about his experience with traveling and volunteering, and briefly mention his blog and self-created social movement called "The Art of Non-Conformity." Now this was something that really caught my interest, so I went to the website and continued reading. In fact, what I found was so interesting that I read for over three hours.

Chris' blog tells the story of his life, volunteering in Africa, traveling the world, and being self-employed for his entire adult life. The social movement which he calls "The Art of Non-Conformity" encourages people to do what he's done; not to conform to the expectations of society and instead find a unique way to fulfill their dreams and help others while they're at it. That's not to say that he thinks you have to be different. He just wants to inspire people to do exactly what they want to do in life, and to truly live out their dreams while making a difference.

I am completely compelled by this idea and I've always wanted to do unconventional things, rather than take the safe road. It's not even about conforming or not, it's about doing what makes us happy, despite what others (friends, family, society) expect of us. If you love your 9-5 job than that's great, but if not, why not try to make a living doing something more alligned with your passions?

So far in my life, I've done things that I love and things that I don't love, and I've learned to make changes to improve my situations, rather than accepting something that doesn't make me happy. But, now that my contract is ending in four months, I'm really starting to think about what's next. I know it will include travel for a little while, but I will definitely be back home in time for the holidays. After that, I'm not really quite sure. What it comes down to in the end is, what will make me happy? Though it may be somewhat idealistic to think that I can attain the perfect job or be self-employed in this economy, I fully intend to take on the challenge. Maybe I'll start my own business, maybe I'll work at a non-profit for a cause I'm passionate about, maybe I'll keep traveling and helping others (if I can figure out how to afford that). Right now, I just don't know. But, when I do figure it out, my goal will be to do something that makes me happy, helps others and allows me to make a decent living, because that's what matters. Not what other people think. It's people like Chris Guillebeau that remind me that it is okay to take the road less traveled, and if you do, it might just make all the difference.

Further reading:

The NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/business/21flier.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

To see the blog go to: www.artofnonconformity.com

If you're really interested in this stuff (because it's definitely not for everyone) I recommend reading his manifesto "A Brief Guide to World Domination." Let me know what you think!

My new Korean loves...

2009-04-19T03:40:00.000-07:00

Spring is here and love is in the air. Yes, I am officially in love. With about ninety people. Ninety wonderful, tiny, Asian people.

Two weeks ago a bunch of us found out about the opportunity to volunteer at an orphanage in Busan and we were really excited to actually do some volunteering here in Korea. The orphanage just happens to be right up the street from my school. It is run by a nice old couple and their children, and they house 90 orphans from the age of one month to five years old.

I was a little nervous going for the first time because I didn't know exactly what I was going to experience. Would it be sad to see the children? Would they be well cared for? Would the adults be receptive to foreigners coming for two hours (the limit for visiting) or would they resent us for not doing more?

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the building and the grounds seemed very bright and happy and the smiling faces of the adults who greeted us told me I didn't have to worry. We met the family and signed in, and then went outside to the playground when we heard the pitter-patter and squeel of about 20 kids coming out to play. The children were mostly three and four years old and they were all dressed in matching red and navy gym suits, and they all (or most) looked very happy. We began playing with the kids and although some were shy or only interested in the shovel and sandbox, they all opened up pretty quickly. I immediately became attached to a beautiful little girl who was clearly part Korean and part Caucasian (I found out her mother was Russian). After a while, half the group took those kids for a walk and some of us went to the nursury to play with the babies. They were also delighted to see us and immediately began climbing all over us. They were just so fun to play with and hold and it really gave me such a sense of euphoria to be around them (don't worry Mom, I don't want any of my own for a long, long time...actually, you were probably getting excited)! Anyway, at the end of the two hours it was dinner time for the babies, and although we were sad to leave them, we knew we had to go and it was the perfect time to leave while they were distracted by yummy rice porridge.

playing outside

the little ones!

she's precious...and loving rice porridge!

Yesterday, I went back for a second time with Lex and Kate and I couldn't wait to see the kids again. When we arrived, we heard that the older kids had gone to the park and we were directed to the babies (yay!). We went to the two year old room and the moment we opened the door, 9 smiling two year olds came running over to us, with arms stretched out wide. The caretakers chose three children and told us to take them outside and play because they are too little to go outside in a group, they need one-on-one attention. When we got outside, I tried to put my little guy, Min Ji, down but he would not let go of me. He immediately began to cry at the thought of having to let go of me and I spent the next hour trying to get him to smile. We realized that they didn't get much one-on-one love and it was something that they craved so much. It made me really sad to realize this. I began to wonder if it was such a good idea to be coming for such short amounts of times and then leaving. I wonder if this could create lasting impressions and perhaps they would grow up to have some form of seperation anxiety.

Why so sad, Min Ji?

this guys always a happy camper

As the morning progressed and we took the kids back in to the nursery, Min Ji relaxed and began laughing and playing and climbing all over me. He was interacting with the other kids and just seemed to be having a really great time. By the end of the two hours, he was sitting against me like a lounge chair and just dozed off, so tuckered out from all of the playing. I had to wake him up for lunch and the caretakers gave us bowls of rice to help feed them. Min ji LOVED the porridge and I told him he was the number one eater of the day, not sure he understood though! Finally, it was time to go and we laid out floor mats for the bigger kids and put the smallest in cribs, shut off the lights and lullaby-ed them to sleep. Once again I left feeling completely happy and re-energized by the presence of such great little humans.

Though it was hard to realize the issues that the orphans will inevitably grow up with due to their unfortunate lack of parents, I learned a valuable lesson; Sometimes it's easier to avoid looking at sad situations, but if you can give just a little bit of your time, you can do something to improve them. Even if you can't do much, do something. These kids need any and all of the love they can get, even if it's not as much as they want or deserve. At least they can count on me to be a consistent visitor for the next four months!

happy Min Ji!

...and tuckered out

post-lunch naptime

look at that hair!

Check, Check, Check! And fun with ICEA...

2009-04-08T05:26:00.000-07:00

Taekwondo- check!
Dress in traditional Korean clothing- check!
See the cherry blossoms- check!

I have gotten right to work on my Sixth Month Countdown To Do List, and last weekend I was able to knock off quite a few things on the list! Here's a recount of how it all went down...

One of the luckiest things that has happened to me in the last few months was being invited to a group called the International Cultural Exchange Association (ICEA). One day in February, I was feeling a little down and overwhelmed at school and on the way home I had to stop in an art supply store to pick up some things for my classroom. I had my headphones on and was going about my business as usual, when a Korean guy about my age tapped me on the shoulder. Usually when this happens its someone just wanting to say a friendly hello or practice their English a little. But this guy said in perfect English, "Hi, do you mind taking off your headphones?" I was suprised at his fluency and I took my headphones off and said hello. He introduced himself as CJ and told me that he was a university student and the president of an organization called the ICEA. He began explaining how it is a group for foreigners and Koreans to meet and exchange culture and practice our languages. When he asked me to join, I was so happy because I had been looking for something like this the entire time I'd been in Korea and believe it or not it wasn't easy to find. Suddenly, due to complete chance, the opportunity fell in my lap!

So far we've had three meetings and they've been so much fun. Each foreigner is matched with a Korean buddy and my buddy is a guy named Edwin (Korean name is Gi Hyun). He is 25 and in his senior year in university, due to the fact that Korean men have to serve two years in the army. Anyway, he's really cool and has great English because he lived in Toronto for a few months. I also got Alexis and my friend Scott to join and they have cool buddies as well. In fact, Scott's female buddy thanked me several times for "bringing the most handsome foreigner in the ICEA."

Not only is the group great for meeting people, but it has also allowed me to fulfill many of the goals on my Six Month Countdown To Do list. The first activity was to go to Beomosa temple for a hike and picnic. Our buddies made delicious Korean food and we saw the cherry blossoms as we made our way through the temple and up the mountain. Then, this past weekend we had a jam packed Saturday, with a Traditional Korean dress fashion show in the morning followed by Taekwondo in the afternoon. It was so much fun! Trying on the traditional dress (called Hanbok) was amazing. Even for Koreans, it is rare to dress up in Hanbok (mostly at weddings and maybe Korean Thanksgiving) so it was special for them too. After having a hilarious fashion show, we ate lunch and then went to a Taekwondo studio down the street. We were there for about 2 hours and got to see a demonstration by two level-5 black belts and learned different moves and formations of Taekwondo. It was such a great day, definitely one of my favorites yet in Korea.

Spring is in full swing now and I am continuing to make plans to accomplish all of my goals in Korea. Next weekend, a fellow Cornellian will be visiting me from Seoul and he is signed up to go shark diving at the aquarium. Yes, he is willingly going to jump in a tank of man eating sharks, and hopefully I'll be there to witness the insanity (and take pictures, of course)! There are a few more festivals in April that I want to go to and before I know it, Mom and Dad will be here! Only three and a half more weeks! Can't wait!

First of a zillion group shots

My buddy Edwin, proud of the picnic he prepared

Wearing Hanbok!

I wish this was my camera! Great shot...

Taekwondo- this guy did a kick over us and broke the wood...
I'm the 2nd butt in from the right

Lex and Me

Level-5 Black belt demo

Hello, my name is Ta-jeong

2009-04-01T23:10:00.000-07:00

This semester, I not only have my regular 22 hours of teaching in which I have no co-teacher or curriculum, but I also teach an after school class. They decided that the after school class would be for the high-level English speakers because the in-school English classes are very basic and some high-level students don't get a chance to learn anything new. So, about 20 students interviewed for my class and I was able to pick the best 10 students. The class is twice a week, for an hour and a half each session, which makes for a lot of planning! I thought that this would be daunting on top of the planning I already have to do, but the class (called English Club) turns out to be an absolute delight. There are 10 girls in English Club (yup, no boys made the cut) and they are all great, dedicated students. It's definitely my favorite class to teach and one I know I will miss when I leave.

So, last week, my students asked me if I could give them English names. Having spent a lot of time memorizing their Korean names (which are very difficult to remember), I was a little reluctant. For example, So-young, Se-young, Sun-young, Tae-yun and Yu-jeong are just a few of them. But it's very popular to have an English name for when you travel abroad or meet foreigners and my students wanted me to be the one to name them. I told them that I would create a list of my favorite names and they could choose from the list, but on one condition; they had to return the favor and give me a Korean name. The excitement in their eyes to hear that I wanted a Korean name was unbelievable and I think they were way more excited about that than getting a name for themselves.

We decided that we would pick the names the following week in class. In the meantime, I saw the girls in the halls and in my regular English class. One of them told me they were still trying to think of my Korean name, but they already knew part of it would be "jeong." Personally, I thought that was not the prettiest of Korean names, but I wouldn't ever tell them that and of course I went along with it.

The next week, at the end of class I wrote all of the English names I had come up with on the board. Each girl immediately gravitated towards a name, and they surprisingly didn't fight over any at all. They chose Kelly, Eva, Emma, Hannah, Jenna, Courtney, Sasha and a few others that I can't remember right now. At first no one wanted Sasha, but when told them that Obama's daughter was named Sasha, one girl decided she had to have it. Anyway, it was so cute and I think the girls felt a sense of pride that they had really earned their names because they have improved their English so much this year.

At the end of class, one of my favorite students, Yu-jeong, reminded me that they still had to give me my Korean name. She stood up to formally present my name to me. "We chose the name Ta-jeong for you because it means "kindness" in Korean. But Jeong is the most important part. We wanted you to have Jeong in your name because our school is Gum-jeong Elementary and we always want you to remember us." At that moment I suddenly realized that I really care about these students and it is going to be so hard to say goodbye to them. I was very touched by the thought that they put into my name, and just as they felt a sense of pride as English students, it gave me a sense of pride as an English Teacher in Korea that I am doing a good job.

The experience also showed me how much I'm starting to love teaching. Though there are a lot of difficulties I face here, I really like the job and the results of my hardwork are definitely paying off. Now, I know that no matter what situation I'm in at school, whether I'm dealing with a problematic student or frustrated by the lack of communication, I can remember that moment and remind myself that it's all worth it in the end.

It's springtime in Korea!!...

Lex and Laura's Six Month Countdown To Do List

2009-03-23T03:50:00.000-07:00

I love making to do lists. I'm constantly jotting down little things like "pay bills", "email friends and family", "update blog", etc. because writing it out helps me focus and follow through with my goals. I don't just make to do lists for day to day things though, I actually have a "Life To Do list". About a year or so ago, I was living in New York and going through a post-college slump, not satisfied with my job or the general path that I was on, so I decided to make a to do list for my life. I didn't make the list just to write down my hopes and dreams, but actually to commit to doing certain things in my life, such as traveling and finding a career that I'm passionate about. Making this list has not only helped me commit to things, it more importantly has helped me visualize my future and start living my life how I want it to be now. In fact, that list probably played a huge part in me actually coming to Korea.

So, a few weeks ago, my friend Alexis and I went to Jeonju for a weekend trip, and while we were there we realized that it was the exact halfway point of our Korean adventure. Although there have definitely been moments where we've thought "I can't wait to get out of here!" those moments have been few and far between. For the most part, the first half of our experience has been amazing and we're determined to make the most out of these last six months (now only five months as I write this). So, seeing as how I love making to do lists, I suggested that we write one for the rest of our time in Korea. There are many things that we've already done, but there are so many more things that we want to see and do while we're here, so I wanted to get it all down on paper.

Lex and Laura's Six Month Countdown To Do List:
(to be completed by Alexis, Laura and company prior to August 31, 2009.

- Go to the famous and beautiful Jeju-do Island and rent scooters
- Go to the DMZ
- Go to the Green Tea plantations in Beosong
- Learn to make kimchi!! (take a korean cooking class)
- Do a camping trip
- Take a Taekwondo class
- Go to a lantern festival
- Cheer at a Lotte Giants Baseball Game (Busan's team)
- Do a temple stay
- Go to the Boryeong Mud Festivial...which is on my birthday!
- Wear traditional Korean clothing called Hanbok
- See the cherry blossoms (did it this weekend!)
- Experience the craziness of Haeundae Beach in the summer
- Travel to China and SE Asia before going home

So far that's what we have, but I'm guessing we will probably add more things as we get closer to leaving. I am most excited to see places in Korea like Jeju-do, the green tea plantations and the DMZ. Jeju Island is probably the most famous place to travel in Korea because it's a subtropical island south of the mainland and has a massive volcano in the center. It is known as the Korea's honeymoon destination, but you don't have to be a newlywed to enjoy its awesomeness. People go year round, but summer is the best time and the best way to see the island is by scooter, which I definitely plan to do. Of course, I also have to go to the DMZ while I'm here so I can take a picture making a peace sign next to a North Korean soldier. Then, there are the cultural things that I still want to experience. Alexis and I both love Korean food and want to learn as much about cooking it before we leave so that we can make it when we get home. I also have to do a temple stay (Lex has already done it) so I'll do that with another friend one weekend this spring (or maybe on my own to make it a truly spiritual experience).

There are a lot of things that I've already done, which were on my original Korea to do list. Those include eating live octopus and other bizarre foods, going to the cities of Gyongju and Jeonju, my trips to Japan and Thailand, taking Korean lessons, making Korean friends, experiencing Korean traditions and so on. So there you have it, the official "Lex and Laura Six Month Countdown To Do list." I hope you look forward to reading about my adventures, I know I certainly can't wait to start living them.

The sick mask phenomenon explained...

2009-03-22T16:48:00.000-07:00

Since I came to Korea, I have been absolutely fascinated with Asian people's seeming obsession with wearing sick masks. It is so pervasive that it's practically a trend. You can buy sick masks in every color and design, from polka dots, to animal faces, to all of the colors of the rainbow. When I first got here, I was very turned off by them, thinking that under that sick mask there was a contageous person. But, I quickly realized that people wear them for many different reasons. They wear them to prevent becoming sick, when they are already sick, to filter air pollution, to cover a nose job (for real!) and even to warm the brisk air in the winter when they take walks. The thing I've found the funniest is that Koreans are so careful to wear sick masks any time they think they could be exposed to germs, yet when they're not wearing them and they sneeze in public, they don't even cover their mouths! It's been fascinating to me to try to understand when and why people wear them, but this week, I finally understood. I can sum up my understanding of the origin of and obsession with sick masks in two words: yellow dust.

Yellow dust occurs each spring, when torential winds form in the Mongolian desert, picking up sand and carrying it South East towards Korea and Japan. It has been happening for centuries, and usually comes in the early spring with the changing of seasons. Well, sure enough, on March 16 we got our first Yellow Dust storm of the year. Viewed from space, it literally is a cloud of yellow sand moving from China, and settling right over Korea and Japan. While it doesn't exactly looking like a yellow rain cloud here, there is just a very dirty haze in the air. When its really bad, the dust actually collects on everything and you can see evidence of it if you were to swipe your finger across the hood of a white car.

So, all of last week I was sick, which is why I didn't update my blog. I didn't think I would be affected by the Yellow dust, but I definitely was. When I came to school on Monday morning, a teacher told me to keep the windows closed and make sure the children stayed inside at recess. Around town, many Koreans can be seen wearing facemasks. I certainly took the Yellow Dust seriously when I was told about it, but didn't much think that I would be effected as a young, healthy person. Boy, was I wrong! Within a day, I had a cold and allergies like I've never had before. My nose was constantly tickling with the oncoming of a sneeze.

Though I had my first experience last week, Koreans have been dealing with this for hundreds, probably thousands, of years and they've learned to adapt. Hence, the sick mask. I'm sure there are other reasons that they wear them so frequently (eek, remember SARS?), but I would bet that this is the original reason. I've been told we may have a few more dust storms this spring, but I'm not worried about it. I've had my eye on a pretty purple polka-dotted sick mask at the local market, and I think it's about time I invest.

Yellow dust storm over Korea and Japan

(picture from wikipedia.org)

Every cloud has it's silver lining...

2009-03-13T00:17:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks have been intense. While I can't say the first semester in Korea was really that difficult, it definitely wasn't easy by any means. But now, since the new semester started in the end of February, I have really been challenged in a way that I haven't been in a long time.

The reason that my job has become significantly more challenging is because in the new semester, I have been given my own class. However, with this new class, my school has also breached many of the agreements of my contract. Basically, I have no co-teacher, no curriculum, and no Korean disciplinarian...all things that we are guaranteed as foreign teachers in Korea.

When I first heard I would have my own class, I was both proud to be given the responsibility and pissed that my school was taking advantage of me. I resisted, and told the other teachers at school that it was not my responsibility to create a curriculum. I don't have the experience or the expertise to do that, I explained. Their response was to bring me one textbook (mostly in Korean) and suggest that I look on the internet. Great. Big help. I quickly realized that I'm pretty much on my own now.

So far, it's been tough, but getting better each day. For me, I love the actual teaching and I'm ok with the disciplining. Most of my students are absolutely wonderful. There is only one class of fourth graders that is completely unruley, so I have demanded that their homeroom teacher come to my class and discipline. The part that is challenging for me is planning and creating lessons. It is much harder than it looks to put together a good, cohesive lesson that the kids both understand and find fun and interesting. On top of that, try making three different lessons a week for 18 weeks! It's just plain overwhelming. I find myself dreading school on the weekends and in the morning before work because I am so anxious about whether or not my lessons will work out. I'm working at it though and dedicating a lot of my free time to it, and in just two weeks I already feel like I'm doing much better.

So that's the hard part. Now, I'll tell you about the brighter side, because there always is one. Though I'm still anxious before each day, once I get through my lessons I feel a great sense of accomplishment. When I provide the students with a fun and interesting class, they actually enjoy speaking English. I genuinely have fun, too! And, by having my own class, I am really getting to know my students. They come into my classroom in their free time and love learning about me as well as sharing things (in English!) about themselves. It makes me feel like I actually am making a difference.

The beginning of this semester has definitely had its ups and downs. While I could have stood up and fought, contract in hand, I decided that by doing so the situation would only get worse. So, instead of trying to make things easier for myself, I'm looking at this as a great challenge and one that I know will make me a stronger person. Being able to live in a foreign country and teach students of another language all on my own is something I will be proud to say I've done. In the end, I know that if I keep a positive attitude and try to the best of my ability, it will be a very rewarding experience.

Well, that about summarizes the last few weeks of my life. It's Friday afternoon as I write this, and I can safely say, I haven't been this excited for the weekend in a long time!! Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I don't have pictures of my new class yet, but here are some from English Camp in January:

Students performing at English Camp, January '09

English Camp Closing Ceremony

Some of my favorite students

Weekend Trip to Jeonju

2009-03-07T21:17:00.001-08:00

At the end of a long, grey winter my friend Alexis and I were getting restless in Busan and decided a weekend trip was in order. We were also dreading the start of the semester on Monday and wanted to do a little traveling to get our minds off of it. We picked Jeonju, a city in the southwest region of Korea, known for two things: having the best bibimbap in the country and for its well-preserved and fully functioning traditional Hanok village right in the middle of the city. Our goals were to eat some good food, sleep in a traditional Korean guesthouse, and have some new cultural experiences.

We left early on Saturday morning from the city bus terminal, just a few subway stops away from my house. It was a pretty long and expensive ride, at about $28 round trip ( I think I would consider that really cheap back home)! After three and a half hours on the bus, we arrived in Jeonju and hopped in a cab to the Hanok village. We couldn't find the guesthouse we were looking for, and quickly realized that this city was not at all English friendly so we were going to have to use our Korean language skills (the little that we have). We finally found a little inn, but it was all booked. Luckily, the owner was really nice called around for us, got us a room and then led us there herself. Now that's service, or "service-uh" as the koreans say. We ended up at an adorable little Hanok house and our room was simple but charming. We dropped off our things and set out for the day.

We spent the afternoon pretty much just wondering around, popping into museums and shops and snacking on the unique street food. The most interesting was the tempura fried ginseng root washed down with a cup of dong-dongju (homemade korean rice wine). It was surprisingly delicious, both sweet and earthy tasting, and we figured that the health benefits of ginseng more than offset the fattening batter it was covered in. My favorite part of the afternoon was when we went to the Oriental Medicine Museum, and learned about all of the wacky things people use to cure ailments. As we were leaving the museum we passed a massage room, where you could experience traditional massages and get all different kinds of treatments. There was a sign listing the prices, but unfortunately everything was in Korean. Using our fantastic skills, we were able to read that a 7 minute foot massage was just $1! We were so excited and obviously decided to do it, so we went up to the counter and showed them what we wanted. To our surprise, he pointed us to the computers!! We were extremely confused. We were like, did we just buy 7 minutes of internet time at an Oriental Medicine Museum?? It turned out to be a health consultation program for some kind of ancient healing system, in which you had to answer a questionnaire to find out which type of person you were and how you could best be healed. The questions were HILARIOUS. Some of my questions included, "Is your head big, in comparison to your body?" and "There are times when digested food come up through my throat for no reason. Yes or No?" We had a lot of laughs and decided that it was worth the dollar spent.

That night our mission was to have the famous Jeonju bibimbap and see a traditonal korean music concert. A women at the tourist center told us where to find the best bibimbap restaurant, so we headed there for dinner. It was a simple place but it was packed and we were lucky to get the last table. We sat down for dinner and they immediately brought us about 10 little side dishes to start. Typically in Korea, when you order a main dish, you will get 2 or 3 side dishes, usually kimchi and pickled radish. But in Jeonju, its what they're known for (along with the bibimbap), so it was something very special. My favorite of the side dishes were seaweed and clear noodles in a wasabi vinegrette and boiled sweet potatoes in a sweet sauce. It was all delicious, but the bibimbap itself was the star of the meal. For those who have never had it, bibimbap is a very popular korean dish and it means "mixed rice." Typical bibimbap is a bowl of rice with a vegetables, a fried egg and spicy red sauce on top. You then take your chopsticks and mix it all up into one mush of deliciousness. It's always good, but this bibimbap was something special. Served in a gold bowl, with a beautiful array of bright colors, it could be considered edible art. We dug in and came to the conclusion that it was definitely the best we've had. At dinner I had a thought, which I shared with Alexis; "If Korea is the best place to eat bibimbap and Jeonju has the best bibimbap in Korea, and this is the best bibimbap restaurant in Jeonju, then are we eating the best bibimbap in the world?" We decided that the answer was yes.

After dinner we walked to the Jeonju Culture Center and saw a wonderful traditional Korean music concert. The music was captivating and the people dressed in traditional attire were beautiful. It was a thoroughly enjoyable night, and when it was finished we picked up a bottle of Korean wine and went back to our little Korean guesthouse and stayed up talking until we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer.

The next day, we still had a a few unfulfilled goals- to hike up to a temple nearby and get a birds-eye view of the village, and to experience a tea ceremony. We grabbed some coffee and made our way up to the temple. It was really nice, but I'm sure once the leaves are out it will be even better. The view of the village, with all of the old asian style roof tiles, was great. We snapped some pictures and then made our way down to get some lunch. After round two of bibimbap (this time in a hot stone pot) we found an beautiful tea house, situated around a courtyard and garden. They didn't have a ceremony like we were looking for, but they were able to offer traditional tea in a perfect setting. The owner was really interesting, he looked like a mix between a monk and a hippy, with long hair and a beard and mustache and dressed in monk-like clothes. He showed us how to steep the tea and then offered to take a picture of us, which turned into a photo shoot of us around the tea house. It was pretty funny. After we finished, it was time to head home. We made our way back to the bus terminal and made the three and a half hour journey home. It was a nice end to the winter break and a great way to get refreshed for the new semester.

Oh and one more thing...I've finally added videos to my youtube page, enjoy and leave some comments!!

http://www.youtube.com/user/LCurrie711

Full Moon Party, Take 2

2009-02-24T20:58:00.000-08:00

Sarah and I didn't actually get to go to the Full Moon Party in Thailand because we weren't there at the right time. Instead, we went to the Black Moon Party, also on the island of Koh Phangan. It was great, but from what we heard, nothing like the original. I got my chance though about two weeks later; it was a Full Moon Party...Korean style.

Koreans have unique ways to celebrate just about every holiday, so it is always exciting when another one comes around because it is a totally new experience for us foreigners. We heard that there were going to be bonfires in various places on the night of full moon, so my friends and I decided to go to Haeundae Beach, where supposedly the biggest celebration was taking place. I had been told a little bit about it during school that day, as teachers talked over coffee break about what they were doing to celebrate and explained the traditions to me. They told me that in Korea, the first full moon after the Lunar New Year (also known as Chinese New Year) is a huge deal, and hence the cause of great celebration and prayer. It is the night when Koreans make their prayers and wishes for the year ahead. To do this, they write their wishes on paper and put the into the bonfire, or they write them on paper lanterns which are set off into the sky like balloons. So, I went to the event knowing a little bit about the holiday, but no idea what the celebration would actually be like.

As we got off of the subway at Haeundae station, we were immediately surprised by the hoards of people, coming and going from every direction. For some reason, we had pictured this as a quiet event, and it was anything but. As I climbed the stairs from the underground, I could see a massive plume of smoke rising up into the sky, and I realized that this wasn't going to be your average bonfire at all. As we approached the beach and the massive fire came into view and my friend Alexis took one look and said, "Wow, I think that's the biggest fire I've ever seen." I was pretty sure it was the same for me. We walked along the beach toward the fire and watched as people dug holes in the sand and placed candles, like their own little prayer alter. Others were gathered in groups with of family, setting off paper lanterns decorated with scribbles of their wishes for the coming year.

As we approached the bonfire, the sound of a beating drum and Korean folk music became louder. When we got closer, we saw that there were hundreds of people dressed in traditional Korean hanbock (kind of like kimonos), holding hands and dancing around the fire, with the bright full moon rising overhead. My friend Kelsey decided to get in on the action, and was probably the only foreigner dancing and singing to the folk music. We all got a lot of attention at the event. A group of older men and women (bottles of soju in hand), came up and asked to take a picture with us. Before we knew it, it was like the paparazzi swarming, there must have been 20 different people trying to either take a picture or get in a picture with us. They seemed just as fascinated with us as we were with them.

After about an hour or so, the blare of the bonfire began to calm, and so the dancing and singing quieted too. People slowly finished their prayers and made their way home. We were happy to have experienced yet another unique part of Korean culture. We hung around, watching the evening wrap up, but soon our attention turned to our stomachs which were growling with hunger for dinner. Though we probably should have continued the celebration with a traditional Korean meal, we decided to honor our own culture and went for some nachos and burritos at the new taco joint near the beach...nothing like the greasy, deliciousness of home sweet home!

Thailand- Chapter 4, Back to Bangkok

2009-02-17T22:15:00.000-08:00

It felt like deja vu when the time came to make our trek back to Bangkok, with all of the modes of transportation we had to take. Another ferry, multiple taxis and a plane (luckily we avoided all buses), and on Saturday morning we finally landed back in the place where we had started a little over a week ago.

We had a full day ahead of us and intended to use every minute of it exploring Bangkok and enjoying our time together. The first stop was to put our stuff down and we really had no plan whatsoever, but lack of planning hadn't been a problem so far, so we were not worried at all. We headed towards Khoa San Road, the infamous backpacker street where Leo (Dicaprio, that is) spent his nights getting lost in the movie The Beach. Anyway, the street was bustling when we arrived with vendors and restaurants and we couldn't wait to unload, get some food, and make our way around the city. Almost immediately, we located a Backpackers Inn and although they wouldn't just store our bags, we were delighted to find out that they had one room left and it only cost $10! They let me check out the room first, and although it was tiny and a little dingy, it was fine. We just wanted to put our things down, and I was happy to have a place to lay my head for a few hours as my flight wasn't until 7 am the next morning (Sarah was leaving first around 10 pm that night). Anyway, we happily paid for the room and found a restaurant nearby for delicious pad thai, thai iced tea (a new favorite) and some people watching, of course.

pad thai covered in peanuts, mmmMm

Around 1 pm, we left Khao San Road, planning to head towards the Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn), which we had only seen from a distance the first time around. On the way, we wandered into a much smaller temple, and found ourselves the only tourists among a crowd of Thai people, there to pray, be blessed by the monks, and make their offerings. It was amazing to see the people kneeling on the ground praying with a monk seated above them, chanting and sprinkling holy water as he gave his blessing. We tried our best not to disturb, and I think we did a good job of it, no one seemed to mind us being there. We left the temple and headed out through the streets of Bangkok. We came upon a huge festival where everyone (easily a few thousand people) were wearing red shirts, but we had no idea what it was for, so we kept moving. After a few stops to haggle some goods from local vendors, we made our way to the river and took a ferry across to Wat Arun.

buddhist monk blessing the people

As we got closer to the temple, we began to see that the structure which looked gray and drab from a distance, was not gray and drab at all. As we approached it, we began to see that it was completely covered in a complex pattern of porcelin. From far away, it just looks old, but up close it is truly unreal (Ben commented that it looked like one of those Magic Eye books we used to stare at when we were kids, and I think thats a pretty good description). Anyway, we paid about three dollars to get in, and were able to walk (and climb!) all around it. The base of the temple is a pentagon shape and then there is a steep tower jutting up in the middle. We climbed the steps or I should say ladder, which is a much more appropriate way to describe it, up the tower and were rewarded with a great view of the river and the city. It was fascinating in a different way than the Royal Palace which we saw on the first day. While the Royal Palace was gold and magnificent and a work of art, Wat Arun with its worn appearance felt more like a glimpse into the past. It was really cool to be there and to see the buddhist monks carrying out century-old traditions. Thankfully not everyone in the world is becoming a homogenized reflection of the western world.

Wat Arun- Temple of Dawn

Sar climbing Wat Arun

couldn't pass this up

Pleased with taking in one more famous temple, we decided to find some local action at a flower market on the river. We walked through the blocks and blocks of flower vendors, pretty amazed that these people can all make a living selling flowers. After taking in the bright colors and smells, we decided it was time to make our way back to Khao San for some shopping and maybe a little bit of relaxing. We still hadn't taken a famous Tuk Tuk vehicle (see picture below) because we had heard that they try to scam tourists, but we thought it was a steal at about $2 for a 20 minute ride! It was also great because we got a tour of the historic area of the city from a new perspective. Sitting in traffic next to the Parliament building and whizzing by the Royal Palace grounds was a great last way to see the city. When we got to Khao San, we did some last minute shopping and found some great deals. Just a word of advice, don't try to haggle too much in Thailand because the vendors are sticklers and you will piss them off! After a long day on a plane and exploring the city, we needed a little relaxation before the night, so we headed back to the dingy (but cozy) inn to take a rest.

50 baht (or about $1.75) for each bouquet

riding the tuk tuk!

Sarah's flight was at midnight, so she had to be in a taxi by about 9:30 and she had just one wish for her last night in Bangkok: to check out the posh roof-top restaurant Red Sky at the Centara Grand Hotel (if it sounds expensive, that's because it is). Despite my meager Korean teachers salary and my backpacker attitude in which I'd rather sample street food than eat in a western style restaurant, I agreed to dress up and dine like the New Yorker that I still had buried in me somewhere. It turned out to be a beautiful restaurant with stunning views and absolutely to die for drinks and food, so it wasn't all that bad...plus, the sis helped me out a little, of course!

Red Sky restaurant

Our sister adventure in Thailand was finally over. As we went back to the inn to pack up Sarah's stuff, I could feel the tears welling up behind my eyes. I had that awful mouth twitching, when you're trying to hold back emotion. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to my sister and go back to cold, family-less Korea. We didn't say much as we walked through Khao San Road (which was now hopping with music and party-goers) and when we got to the end we were quickly able to hail a cab. Suddenly, her luggage was in the trunk and the taxi driver sat waiting. With tears rolling down our cheeks, we hugged and said our goodbyes (even now it makes me teary to think about it). Sarah left and then I was alone again. I wiped away the tears, and decided to make the most of the last few hours with some shopping and listening to live music, and then finally headed back to my room to relax. Around 3 am I had the hotel call me a cab, and I was the first in line at the airport which was worth it because I scored the exit seat for the flight back.

It was a long trip back to Korea, and I thought a lot about the trip and how great it was. To be able to share that week with my sister, in a place neither of us had ever experienced before was really special. It was an amazing time, and we really better do it again (Matt, you can come too next time)!!

Thailand- Chapter 3, How many vehicles does it take to get to Phi Phi Island?

2009-02-11T21:39:00.000-08:00

Answer: 10.

When we woke up on Day 5 of the trip, we had no idea what was in store for us that day. What we expected was to take a ferry and connect to a bus, which would take us across Southern Thailand to Krabi town. We then planned to stay in Railay Bay for the night and we would catch another ferry to Phi Phi in the morning. Unfortunately, it turned out that it wasn't that easy. On the plus side, we made it in one piece.

Ferry in the Gulf of Thailand

What actually ended up happening was we took a truck to a ferry to a bus to another bus to a taxi to a bus to a longtail boat to another longtail boat to a ferry to one, final longtail boat (that's 10). It was an exhausting 28 hours, but we managed to see many beautiful landscapes along the way. Driving through farm towns and fishing villages gave us an entirely new perspective on Thailand, and it was really fascinating to have a glimpse of the real Thailand and its people. I only wished I could have stopped every few miles to get out and snap photos of interesting people, buildings, fruit stands, shrines, etc.

our crazy pink bus

view of Thai farmland

After a long day on the bus, Sarah and I finally arrived in Krabitown and were disappointed to hear that we still had quite a journey to go to get to Railay Bay. But from what we had heard from travellers along the way was that it was worth it, so we pushed on. We caught a taxi, which took us to a bus stop, and then that bus took us to a beach where we loaded into a longtail boat in the dark. As we sailed from Ao Nang Beach around to Railay Bay, we could see the dark shadows of massive limestone cliffs jutting up from the shore. We both wished we could have made it there in the day time to see it, but we knew it would be a great suprise in the morning. We finally arrived around 8 pm and dragged our things through the sand (no roads) and check into our hotel. We ate crab and squid curry and washed it down with tall, delicious Pina Coladas. That night, we went out to bars and tried to relax after a long day of traveling.

Delicious crab curry

Railay Bay

In the morning, we were up and ready to go by 8:30, as we had to catch the one and only ferry of the day at 9 o'clock. Of course, being that we were on "Thai time" we didn't actually end up leaving the bay until 10 o'clock, but while we waited we were able to take in the magnificent views that we had missed the night before. Finally, we took off and arrived at Koh Phi Phi (pronounced pee-pee) an hour and a half later. As we came into the port, I was amazed at the beautiful scenery in front of me. I really didn't think it could get much better than we had already seen, but I knew that we had definitely saved the best for last. Koh Phi Phi is an island made up of rocky cliffs, exploading with lush greenery, sitting in a sea of the most turqouise blue water.

our beach on Koh Phi Phi

When we finally arrived at our hotel (10 vehicles later), we knew for sure we had found paradise. Our hotel Phi Phi The Beach Resort, was a simple resort with a cluster of bungalows set on a hillside, nestled on a quiet, stunning beach, with a view of Koh Phi Phi Leh, a near by island. We didn't waste any time, getting into our bikinis and heading down for lunch on the beach. Our plan was to just chill out for the day and head to the famous Maya Bay the next morning, but when I went to talk to the boat tours guy, he suggested that we go in the late afternoon. He explained that it would be the least crowded time to go and that in the morning the bay was sometimes too shallow to enter. So we decided to go for it, and we each paid $18 for a 3 hour private snorkeling tour around Koh Phi Phi Leh, to Maya Bay (where The Beach was filmed) and finally to watch the sunset. It was a spectacular time. Sarah and I enjoyed snorkeling in a little cove and saw the best coral we had seen all trip. When we arrived at Maya Bay we were so happy to see that it was not crowded at all because it was the end of the day and the day tours had already departed. It was stunning, so I can see why so many people go to see it. We walked a long the beach, played with some sea cucumbers, and took in the beauty of it all. Around 5:30, it was getting darker, so we hopped back in the longtail boat, and Fin, our driver, took us out of the bay to see the sunset.

Maya Bay

After a long and exciting day, Sarah and I decided we had to get up the energy to go out in Phi Phi town. It was our only night there and we wanted to make the most of it. We had seafood dinner on the beach, and then went to find a reggae bar we had heard about. To our plesent suprise the reggae bar ended up having a Thai Boxing show, which we hadn't seen yet. We watched the Thai boxers and after an exciting match, they each came around and shook all of the audience members hands. It was really neat, but I think we were supposed to tip them or something...oops! Anyway, after that we found a club and danced the night away. We met some cool people too and it was a great one and only night on Phi Phi Island.

The next day, we woke up early to enjoy the breakfast buffet on the beach and gave ourselves plenty of time to relax and soak up the sun before our 2:30 ferry boat to Phuket. The island journey had come to an end, but luckily we still had time for a little more adventure back in Bangkok...

http://picasaweb.google.com/lcurrie711

Thailand- Chapter 2, Black Moon on Koh Phangan

2009-02-08T22:41:00.000-08:00

Sarah and I finally arrived at Koh Samui as the sun was setting. We had been delayed two hours in the Bangkok Airport, so we quickly grabbed our bags and ran to the information desk to find the quickest way to the harbor. We still needed to take a ferry to Koh Phangan, where we were staying, and where the infamous Black Moon Party was going on that night. We went to the taxi counter and told the women where we wanted to go. To our suprise, she laughed at us! "Hah, you won't be going there tonight," she told us condesendingly. She explained that the last ferry was leaving in 5 minutes and it would cost $200 to hire a private boat. We insisted on going to the harbour anyway (we had to try), so our taxi driver skeptically dropped us off at the end of a dirt road, leading down to the ferry port. We carried our bags down and saw a group of guys our age standing around. We began talking to one guy, who was German but had very good English, and he told us that he and his friends were also trying to get to Phangan and had already hired a speed boat. I immediately asked if Sarah and I could hop on and he was happy to let us join. We paid $30 and found ourselves on Koh Phangan island in less than a half hour!

We hopped off the speed boat, said goodbye to our new friends, and caught up cab that drove us up the hill to our hotel, the Blue Hill Resort. When we arrived it seemed like we were the only guests, but we checked in and were assured by the concierge that the party was going on that night. We had a wonderful Thai dinner on the outdoor patio and then settled into our rustic room (no furniture except a bed) and got ready for the party. The Black Moon Party was everything we expected; rage on the beach, lots of crazy people, drinks, dancing, fire tossers, etc. We danced the night away and met people from all around the world: Netherlands, Brazil, Australia, UK, Israel, etc. It was a great night but we called it quits around 3:00 a.m. so that we wouldn't completely waste the next day, and our first full day of our island experience.

Fire throwers at Black Moon Party

Sar & I at the party

We woke up to a hot, sunny Thai day and discovered the amazing view from our balcony room, over looked the Gulf of Thailand. After a delicious western breakfast of omlettes, bacon, toast, coffee, fresh juice and fruit (which I had been craving forever), we headed down to the beach and pool to relax for the rest of the morning. In the early afternoon, we decided it was time to make a decision about the days activities. I wanted to see the island and check out the Elephant trekking, but we realized that it was extremely difficult to get around the island. The only transportation was expensive taxis or renting a motorbike or truck. Motorbikes were out of the question for obvious reasons, and we decided that we did have the time or funds to rent a truck. So we settled on the Elephant trekking because they would provide transportation from the hotel to the site in the jungle, so we figured we would get to see a lot on the drive there.

About an hour later, a thai man in a pick-up truck came to get us. We hopped in the truck and set out across the island through the jungle. The old pick-up seemed to be "trucking" along, climbing up and down the steep hills, but suddenly, half-way up a massive incline, it just stopped. We didn't think it was a problem until he tried to start the truck a few times and it didn't work. He got on the phone and Sarah and I just looked at each other and laughed, both thinking, "here we go again." Through sign language and "Thainglish", he told us to wait and another ride was coming. We sat for ten minutes and soon enough a woman came riding up on a motorbike. We didn't think much of it until she stopped at the truck. Suddenly, I realized it wasn't a woman at all, it was a lady boy!! There are many lady boy's in Thailand, basically men who dress up as women, but are still men, anatomically speaking. Anyway, "she" was very nice and spoke great English and told us to hop on, the site was only a few minutes up the hill. We hopped on and sure enough it was just at the top of the hill, we could have walked! Anyway, when we got there we were the only tourists, so they brought one of the Elephants over right away. Immediately, Sarah and I both got that uh-oh feeling. Not because we didn't feel safe (it was perfectly safe) but because we both realized that this was in no way an animal-friendly business. The elephants looked sad, hungry and unhealthy. I won't go into too much detail, but Sarah and I made them cut our half-hour ride short and we both vowed to spread the word about elephant trekking in Thailand. If you're going to go, make sure its an animal reserve where they use humane practices! We wished we had done our research. After the ride, we bought some bananas to feed the poors things, and then headed back to town for dinner, a night out and a good sleep before our day trip the next day, snorkeling at Koh Tao.

Save the elephants!

Lady boy!

In the morning we caught a big ferry to Koh Tao, and after dropping off 75% of the passengers in town, the boat continued on as a snorkeling day trip. Our first stop was to Nangyuan Island, two tiny islands connected by a strip of beach and surrounded by crystal blue waters. Just as we were strapping into our life jackets and getting onto the long boats to take us to shore, we met two Singaporian guys. They were really nice and cool, and we ended up spending the whole day with them. We snorkeled and hiked around the first island and then the boat took us to Mango Bay on Koh Tao, which is also known as Diver's Paradise. And it was just that. The coral and the fish were colorful and stunning, I had never seen anything like it. I just wished I would be a diver and go deeper down where I could really see the stuff right up close. By the end of the day we were all exhausted, and we slept almost the whole boat ride back. We said goodbye to our new friends and went back to the hotel. That night we went to a nice spa and got Thai massages for a whopping $10!! It was amazing. And after the massages the women rubbed ointment on each on of my hundred mosquito bites on my legs (yes, one hundred!), it was great service. We went out and met some nice American's on the beach and then headed back for our last night at the hotel. So far, we had seen and done a lot in Thailand, but in the morning we would head to the westcoast, where we still had a lot more traveling and adventure left to go...

Nangyuan

Snorkeling

I counted over 100 mosquito bites...wear your bug spray, folks!

Thailand- Chapter 1, Bangkok

2009-02-03T19:43:00.000-08:00

After weeks of cold winter weather and teaching English camp, the anticipation finally came to an end; Sarah and I were meeting in Thailand for our first, and definitely not last, sister trip. We would be traveling through Bangkok, to the island of Koh Phangan, and then to the west coast of Southern Thailand to Krabi, Phi Phi Islands and Phuket. It only took a combined 57 hours of traveling to get there first! Finally, late on Friday night, we both made our way from BKK airport to our hotel and after a quick and happy reunion, we shut our eyes, hoping to be fully energized for the our first full day in Thailand.

We woke up at the Dream Hotel in the middle of Bangkok and whipped out the map of the city we got from the front desk. Usually, we are both intense planners when it comes to traveling, but for some reason we had both decided to be very relaxed about this trip. With no guide book and very few plans of what we would do, we opened the map and pointed to whatever looked cool. We decided to try to get to Wat Phra and the Grand Palace first. After loading up on some MickyD's coffee (it was all we could find!), we walked to the nearest subway station and realized that it would not be as easy to navigate the city as we thought. With station names like "Mo Chit" "On Nut" and "Phra Konong" we had to be a little bit more careful that we were going to the right places. We asked a station worker which way to the Grand Palace and she said (or so we thought) "Saphan Taksin" which took us to the end of the red line to the river. It was the wrong place. But, it turned out to be the perfect start to our day because we hopped on a river ferry and floated our way up to the area where the Grand Palace really was. On the way, we saw beautiful temples, hotels and markets, and got a taste for river life in Thailand.

Our first taste of Thai food came after the boat ride, when we sat along the river at a restaurant and order Seafood Green Curry and Spicy Thai Shrimp Salad. Both were delicious and almost unbearably spicy. But our stomachs were satisfied and decided to explore the neighborhood and make our way to the palace. The city was spectacular. With the perfect hot weather, the bustling people and a character that was so uniquely Thai, I couldn't get enough of the scene. I loved seeing the old, colorful tuk tuk cars and the orange clad buddhist monks walking around in a city of exquisite, Thai architecture. We finally found a massive, high white wall that reminded me of a mix between Greek and Indian design. We could see a golden tower emerging from behind and I knew that we were at the Grand Palace. The tower that we saw was actually a part of the temple called Wat Phra, which is on the palace grounds and is the most famous and sacred temple in all of Thailand. We made our way inside and were shuffled into line where we were given sarongs to wrap around our legs, as it is not acceptable to show skin on the temple grounds. We snapped some pictures of the tower and then purchase tickets to get onto the temple grounds. We never could have imagined how unbelievable the temple could be once inside. Everything was covered in gold and jewels, and the tower, temples and statues glistened magnificently in the bright, hot sun. We were both stunned. I had thought the Golden Temple in Japan was amazing, but this place had even more brilliance and omnicense than I could have imagined. We lingered for a good hour, snapping hundreds of photos and stepping into the temples for moments of silence, until we finally decided to move on. Pleased with our first Thai experience, we spent the rest of the afternoon checking out other temples, such as the Sleeping Buddha, and wandering the city. That night we ate amazing curry soft shell crab and then made our way to famous Khoa San Road (backpacker central) to meet a couple of my friends who were passing through at the same time. We had drinks on the crazy street and then listened to live music and went home smiling at the success of our first day.

On our second day, we woke up and got right to it as we only had until 1:30pm and then it was off to the airport for our flight to Koh Phangan. Sarah was a trouper for getting right on schedule with me, despite the jetlag she was feeling. We started with brunch and opted for Chinese dumplings as it was the Chinese New Year that day. After, we headed way up to the north of the city to the Chatachuk market. We only had 40 minutes to experience a place that I could have stayed at for hours! We did some quick shopping, checking out the beautiful silk tapestries, antiques, clothing and tried some Thai ice cream, but the time flew by and we had to head back for our flight. Had we known we would have been delayed for an unknown reason at the airport for an extra 2 hours, we could have stayed a bit longer. But of course, thats all a part of the adventure...and we were in for a lot more where that came from.

Chapter 2 coming soon, until then, pictures are up at
http://picasaweb.google.com/lcurrie711

Tales from Korean Kids

2009-01-21T19:52:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been a while since I've done an update. It's been a bit of a crazy month. Since returning from Japan, I have been teaching English Camp on my own for three weeks. English camp is during the winter vacation and its kind of like summer school, only more fun and all about english. So, I would see 4 different groups of 8 students a day and I would play games, do activities and discuss the stories they were reading on the computer program they use. The whole point was to use story telling to get the children reading, writing, and most importantly speaking English. Anyway, it has been fun but a lot of work because I have to come up with my own lesson without any curriculum or text book every day. Add to that that I'm leaving for Thailand tomorrow, and its been a little bit a stressful week! Actually, Sarah is already on the plane making her way there, so it definitely feels real now. In two days, I'll be in the sun and heat of Bangkok.

So instead of thinking of something to write and talk about, I thought I would just put up some of the stories my 5th and 6th grade students have written in my class. They are actually pretty clever and I'm proud because their English has come a long way. Here's three that I like the most...as you'll see these kids love drama!

"Two Dragons"
Once upon a time there was a good dragon and a bad dragon that lived in a cave. The bad dragon ate all of the people, but the good dragon helped all of the people. One day the bad dragon and the good dragon were fighting because they both wanted a cake. The cake looked delicious. The bad dragon won. So he ate the cake, but it was very very very hot. So he was dead. All of the people and the good dragon were very happy.

"Elephant Hero"
Once upon a time there was a lion and a tiger that lived in a cave. The tiger was very sleepy and hungry. So he told a lie to the lion that he was very sick. The lion went out to the jungle to the other animals. The lion asked the other animals for help. The other animals went to the cave to help the tiger. But the tiger wasn't sick. He was lying. He was hungry so he ate all of the animals. Then one day, the elephant heard about the tigers lie and he was very angry. He went to the cave and the tiger was asleep. The elephant sat on the tiger and killed him. THE END.

"The Opposite Frog"
Once upon a time, there was a mother frog and a son frog. The son frog was very bad. He always did the opposite of what he was told to do. Then one day the mother frog was very sick and dying. She wanted to be buried in the mountains, but she thought her son would do the opposite. So she told her son she wanted to be buried in the river. The son was very sorry to his mother because he thought he made her sick so he didn't do the opposite. The son buried his mother in the river. Now on rainy days, the frogs all cry because they think the mother's body is washing away.

...deep stuff, I know.

Discovering Kyoto...

2009-01-07T21:30:00.000-08:00

After two days in Tokyo, my friends and I pulled ourselves out of bed at 5 a.m. to catch the early train to Kyoto. We were taking the Shinkansen (probably the world's fastest and most expensive train) which took us a quarter of the length of Japan in under 2.5 hours. When we arrived, our hostel was only a ten minute walk from Kyoto Central Station, so we dropped off our things and set off to see the city. I call this entry "Discovering Kyoto..." not because of the how it sounds, but because Kyoto is like a treasure chest of history and everywhere you go and everything you see in the city has something to discover from the past, which was truly incredible.

Kyoto is the former Imperial capital city and with over 2,000 Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, it is considered the most well-preserved city in Japan. With just two full days to explore, we knew we couldn't come close to seeing everything we wanted to, but we made sure to pack as much sightseeing in as humanly possible, or at least we tried. Our first destination was the famous Kinkukuji Temple, also known as the Golden Temple. We hopped on the bus using our $5-a-day tourist bus pass (best deal in all of Japan) and made a quick stop at Nijo Castle on the way. Unfortunately, the castle was closed for the holidays which gave us a little bit of the "uh-oh" feeling that perhaps other things would be closed as well, but we didn't think too much about it. We got back on the bus and were dropped off at the entrance to the temple grounds. It was pretty crowded with tourists, which I was suprised about being that it was the middle of winter, but even with a lot of people walking around, it was suprisingly calm and quiet. This was a theme mostly everywhere in Japan (except on New Years Eve). It was worth the crowds though when we made our way down the pebble path and caught our first glimpse of the stunning Golden Temple, seemingly afloat on a beautiful pond in the middle of a lush zen garden. We snapped a few photos and then just hung around for a while, staring in awe at the magificence of the temple. It's hard to describe the difference between seeing something like the Golden Temple in a picture and the feeling you get when you're standing in front of it. It makes you feel insignificant and special at the same time. Like you're such a small part of this big, incredible world, yet you're also lucky enough to share in it all. It's the same feeling I had at the Colosseum, at the Grand Canyon, and at Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. And I think that feeling is exactly the reason that I love to travel so much.

After an exciting morning, we made our way back downtown and grabbed some delicious green tea ice cream which we had read so much about (and ended up having four more times during our trip). We then hopped back on the bus and set off to Nanzen-ji temple which was supposed to be a stunning temple set on expansive grounds on the side of a mountain. When we arrived, it was unfortunately closed, so I opened up my guide book to find something close by. I read about another temple that is off-the-beaten path for most tourists. We followed the directions and found ourselves in front of a gigantic wooden temple that looked it has never been restored. Next to the temple was a huge brick aqueduct that connected water through out the different temples in the area. We walked along the aqueduct and explored the temples for the rest of the afternoon. That evening, we headed to the downtown area, in search of some really good Japanese food. It was much more difficult than we expected because we were in the ritzy, commercial area. Everything was expensive or too westernized. After an hour of hunting around and asking locals where to go, we were finally directed to a little hole in the wall that didn't look like anything special at all on the outside. Inside was very simple too, but we were greeted with big smiles by the three chefs behind the Japanese style counter. We couldn't read the menu but the waiter helped us decide on Pork Ramien and we eagerly awaited our food. We watched as the chefs sliced the pork and floured the fresh noodles in front of our eyes, and we were served within 10 minutes. The ramien may very well have been the best soup I've ever had (no offense Mom, I really like your soup too)! The savory broth tasted like rich, creamy mushrooms and the pork and noodles just about melted in my mouth. We left the restaurant with full bellies and went home to rest up for another big day in Kyoto.

On Day 2, we began with brunch at a restaurant full of locals, inside of an old Japanese house. We asked for the lunch special (which my Lonely Planet book instructed) and the chef nervously asked us "cod? cod?" We nodded yes. I guess he wasn't sure if we would like it, but the beautifully displayed lunch of cod tempura, rice, miso soup and tofu was delightful. Next, we checked out some temples and museums downtown and then made our way to the old area of Gion, known for its antique streets and Geisha spottings. We wandered around for the entire afternoon, discovering beautiful houses, gardens, temples, shrines and even an enormous cemetery at the top of the hill, which over-looked the entire city. We had seen many people in kimonos but were disappointed that we did not have our Geisha spotting. Finally, as we were just on our way back to the bus stop, two Geisha's appeared at the end of the street we were walking down. We approached them and they happily took photos with us, and we bowed gratefully. I'm still not fully convinced that they were real Geisha's but I have no reason to think that they weren't! That night, we had sushi around the corner from our hostel (in which we had a fantastic japanese-style room where we slept on the floor) and then we finished the day off with a delicious sake tasting.

The next morning, we once again dragged ourselves out of bed at the crack of dawn and got on the Shinkansen to return to Tokyo for the New Year. This time around, the train ride was much more enjoyable. I didn't let myself doze off as I had on the way there, so I was able to take in the beautiful scenery of the Japanese country-side. About an hour from Tokyo, we had perhaps one of the best sightings of the trip, Mt. Fuji. For nearly a half hour, the train approached the mountain and the excitement continued to build and build, until we were right there in front of it. The bullet train got so close to the mountain that I honestly feel like I've been there. If I do go back to Japan, which I hope I will, I wont feel the need to visit Mt. Fuji (unless of course I decide to climb it) because we were so close. It was definitely one of the most beautiful mountains I've ever seen. After an great time in Kyoto, full of unique experiences and exciting discoveries, we headed back to Tokyo, still with New Years and a visit to the Imperial Palace ahead of us.

Domo Arigato Tokyo!

2009-01-04T22:05:00.000-08:00

I'm back in Korea after a week long trip to Japan that exceeded all expectations I had about the fascinating country. I think the thing that struck me the most, which is probably the same for most visitors, is the extreme contrast between the modern city of Tokyo and the rich history and tradition that the people still so strongly preserved. I was only there for 6 days, but there is soooo much to say about the sights, the food, the culture and all of my experiences, so today I'll write about Tokyo and then I'll do Kyoto sometime in the next few days.

I arrived in Tokyo by myself, as I had booked my ticket for a day later than my friends and would be meeting them at our hostel that evening. Coming into Tokyo Narita Airport, I was surprised at how efficiently I went through customs, and the train ticket office and on to the one hour train ride to Tokyo. I had expected to have problems finding my way through the chaos or communicating where I wanted to go, but everything was very calm and easy. After an hour on the train we arrived at Tokyo Metro Station and I got off to catch the subway to the hostel. It wasn't until then that the madness of Tokyo hit me. It was more crowded than anywhere I had ever been in New York and to make matters worse, I couldn't figure out which of the 5 different subway systems (yes 5, owned by all different companies) would get me to Akebonobashi Station, where I needed to go. But with all of my experience traveling alone, I remained calm and eventually figured it out. An hour later I was at our hostel, checked in and ready to get out and see the crazy city!

I had three hours to kill before meeting the girls, so I went straight to Harajuku, an area famous for the crazy youngsters who dress in elaborate punk rock costumes. There weren't as many of these characters there as I'd imagined, but it was a really cool shopping district filled with great clothes, cool people and lots of neon lights. After wandering around for an hour, I passed a big building that seemed like some kind of technology design center (it looked similar to a big Apple store). On the street there was a big screen TV showing a punk band playing, and I could hear that the music was coming from inside the building. I continued walking, but then thought, "why not go inside and check it out?" I was so glad I did. The crowd was full of gitty teenage girls, singing along with every Japanese word that came out of the lead singers mouth. It was such a Tokyo pop moment, and that's when I first really felt like I was in Japan. After the set was over, I headed back to the hostel to meet the girls and we decided to find a Kaiten-Sushi restaurant for dinner. Kaiten-Sushi is a type of restaurant where the sushi is placed on a conveyor belt and you pay for each plate you take. Most plates are between 100 and 300 yen ($1-$3) so you end up with a pile of plates by the end. We found one in Shinjuku, in downtown Tokyo, and tasted our first sushi in Japan. The eel, tuna and salmon were all out of this world, better than any sushi I had tried before. After a long and exhausting day, we went back to the hostel and prepared for a 5:30am wakeup, in order to catch the Shinkansen, the famous bullet train, to Kyoto.

Japanese punk rock band

Kaiten-sushi...sushi on a conveyor belt!

Shinjuku, downtown Tokyo

After two exhausting days in Kyoto (which I'll describe later in the week), we left historic Japan behind and made our way back to the center of technology. What better place to bring in the New Year than in the middle of Tokyo? On New Years day, we continued our sight seeing, making stops in the old quarters of Asukasa, which is full of temples and souvenir shops, and then tried to see the view from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building, but it turned out that it was closed, so we had to go back the next day. We went back to the hostel, allowing several hours to relax and get ready for the big night. We started the celebration off at our hostel, where they hosted a pre-party and we hung out with our new friends from Australia, England, Spain and New Zealand. By 10 p.m. we were all feeling "electric" as Pau from Barcelona put it and we decided it was time to head out to start the main event. We went to Shibuya Crossing, the intersection famous for having over 2 million people cross it everyday. We had specifically decided to go there over the clubs in Roppongi because we wanted to meet Japanese people rather than just run into foreigners at the clubs, and we were soooo happy with our choice! Standing in the crossing waiting for the countdown, we met so many interesting Japanese people. From Harajuku girls to Tokyo breakdancers, to college students who taught us to countdown from ten and say Akemaste Omeneto (Happy New Year)! We had a great night partying and wandering the streets meeting tons of different people, doing as the locals do.

Meeting some characters on NYE

Countdown in Shibuya Crossing

After New Years, we had two more days and I was determined to see as much as possible. It was easier said than done, because on Thursday, the city was completely dead as Japanese celebrate quietly at home with their family, but we managed to find some great sushi and went to the Government building where the observation deck was open. On our last day, I wanted to go to the Imperial Palace and I had heard that January 2nd was one of two days out of the year that the royal family was there. We decided to get up early and go, but had no expectations of any royal sightings. But when we arrived, we were stunned to seeing literally hundreds of thousands of people being herded through the massive gates, into the palace grounds. My friend Nat guesstimated that there were "at least a million people" but I convinced her that one-twentieth of Tokyo's population could not fit inside, and we eventually agreed that it was probably more like 20,000-30,000. Still, it was a lot of people! And to our suprise and pleasure we were some of the only foreigners! We were coralled through the gates and after about 45 minutes of slow, silent, zombie-like walking we ended up in the main courtyard, waiting in front of a large glass window of the palace. We still didn't know what to expect. It was eerily quiet for the amount of people that we stood with, and it was a perfect example of the reserved, quiet nature of the Japanese people. After about 10 minutes of waiting, the Emperor and Royal family appeared behind the glass and a faint sigh emerged from the subdued crowd. Everyone began waving their paper flags proudly, but no one clapped or yelled or jumped up and down. The royal family waved and then gave a brief speech (in Japanese of course) and then retreated back into the palace and it was over. We were all amazed. It was truly a magical ending to the trip; the icing on the cake. Japan was fantastic and I hope I get a chance to return and see more of the fascinating country.

Asakusa area

View of Tokyo city with Mt. Fuji behind

Making our way to greet the Emperor!

The Emperor of Japan and Royal Family

More to come soon about Kyoto. In the mean time, here are my pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/lcurrie711

Teacher's Workshop & Christmas Week

2008-12-27T04:56:00.000-08:00

I made it through the Christmas season! After feeling the homesickness on Thanksgiving, I was sure that Christmas time in Korea would be really tough. They hardly celebrate it here, you really only see decoration at department stores and hear really bad renditions of Christmas songs. But that actually helped because I didn't want to be reminded of what I was missing at home. But December went by so fast and Christmas turned out to be much better than I ever could have expected.

School ended on Monday the 22nd, and on the 23rd I went on an overnight teachers trip which was supposed to be a teaching reading workshop...turns out that's a complete coverup for a huge party. We left on Tuesday morning and made our first stop in the city of Gyongju to have some of the famous tofu soup and ginseng makaley. Makaley is a white korean rice wine which is home made, and this special type was infused with Ginseng root. I quickly realized that this trip would be an eating fest, so I asked my friend and coworker, Jolie, to teach me how to say, "No, Thank you, I'm full," and "I don't want to eat anymore." Koreans eat A LOT of food and they can't understand how I couldn't eat as much of them, so they insist on making me try things, even as I'm stuffed from the 5th course of the meal! After lunch in Gyongju, we made our way to the city of Pohang where we went to a famous temple. It was nice and we took a lot of group pictures with the teachers, including a "singles" pic of the 5 unmarried teachers, myself included. After an hour and a half at the temple, we hopped back on the bus and made our way through the mountains to get to the famous Jwangchung Mountain. On the way, our female vice principal provided entertainment by singing traditional korean songs and made us play some pretty funny games. I felt like I was on a teen tour for Korean adults! It was hilarious! When we finally made it through the mountain passes, we arrived at our motel the Dream Palace, which I can assure you is a misnomer. The "Dream Palace" was freezing cold and we got to sleep on the floor! We ate another huge meal and drank a bit more makaley (at least I did, many people drank A LOT of makaley) and then it was time for our workshop aka sports tournament.

The sports tournament was definitely the highlight of the trip. The female vice principal divided the teachers in to two teams and we each had to sign up for at least one round of the tournament, if not more. Since many of the games required Korean, I was entered into Crab Volleyball by default. First was the "acccent" game. The vice principal gave a word and each team had to have each of five players say the word emphasizing every syllable. For instance, one word was "mcDonalds" (of course this would be the one english word they chose) so they had to say Mcdonalds, mcDonalds, mcdoNalds, mcdonalDs or something like that. Anyway, it only got better from there. Next was the "kissing game." Each teacher playing was given a 3 inch long straw which they held in their mouth. Starting with the first player on line, they then had to pass a paper ring along the line using only the straw! This required very close mouth-to-mouth contact and the whole room was in hysterics watching! Notice my principal in the background of the picture, wishing he could get in on the action! Soooo funny. Finally, it was my turn to play crab volleyball, in which you play volleyball with a balloon and using only your feet and head. After three LONG sets, my team lost, but we put up a great effort! Finally, it was time for some karaoke and we called it a night by 1 a.m. The next day we went hiking at Jwungchung Mountain and then went for a feast of King Crab in the city of Yongda. I was finally home by 5 pm on Christmas eve.

The fun continued at a Christmas Eve party hosted by my good friends Heidi and Matt. One of the best parts was their suprise...a puppy they bought named Clancy! The toy poodle was soooo cute. We ate western food and drank red wine and then headed to a Noreabang (karaoke room) to meet our other friends and exchange our secret santa gifts. We sang Christmas eve night away, putting out of our minds the family we missed at home and instead enjoying the great friends we've all made here. It was truely a great night. On Christmas Day, I met my three best friends here for our own little gift exchange and then we cooked a western meal and spent the day watching Christmas movies. It certainly didn't make me wish I was home any less, but it was a far greater holiday than I expected to have here in Korea. I'm really lucky to have met such great people here. And now Christmas is over and I have New Years to look forward to! I'm heading off to Japan tomorrow with Kathryn, Natalie and Nisha where we'll spend 6 days in Tokyo and Kyoto, and party into 2009 in Tokyo. It's really cool to know that I've fullfilled my dream of being on the otherside of the world for New Years 2009! Hope you all had a great Christmas and have a wonderful New Year too. Love you all!

Korean Cuisine: First Edition

2008-12-21T21:08:00.000-08:00

OK, I'm finally ready to take a stab at my first Korean food blog. Where to begin? I never could have imagined before I arrived here how much variety there is in the Korean culinary experience. I absolutely love Korean food because its delicious, healthy, and always nice to look at too. I live in Busan where there is a special focus on seafood, which makes me soooo happy! In this blog, I'll try to cover some of the basic dishes and then talk about the crazier side of Korean food. There is so much to say though, so I'll be back with a second edition within the next few months.

The first and most important dish in Korea (which I'm sure you've already read about in my blog) is Kimchi. Kimchi is probably the single most recognizable Korean dish and they are crazy about it here. Basically, kimchi is white cabbage and red pepper paste, which has been fermenting in a large clay pot for any where from several months to years. It is served like salad (on the side) with every meal, and sometimes it is actually incorporated into the dish. Kimchi cheegay is kimchi stew with pork or tuna and sometimes you'll see kimchi wrapped around meat or stuffed in dumplings. It's not for everyone, but for people who have a taste for spicy and savory food, you just might love it.

Kimchi

Lots of small side dishes

Koreans, like many asians, love rice. Rice is also incorporated into every meal, whether it be breakfast, lunch or dinner. It is usually served plain with a meal, but it is also used in many types of dishes. Some of the most popular rice foods are bibimbap, gimbap, rice cakes, and bokimbap (bap means rice, fyi). Bibimbap is one of my favorites. It is basically a bowl of rice with tons of vegetables and meats or fishes mixed in, and topped with an egg and a delicious thick red sauce made from soy, I think. Gimbap is the korean version of a sushi roll, only they put vegetables, kimchi, and sometimes meat inside, instead of raw fish. Bokimbap is a very spicy version of chinese fried rice. THEN, there are all of the other rice products. You wouldn't believe the variety of things that can be made from rice! Just like we use flour to make bread, cookies, wraps, cakes, pasta, scones, etc. they use rice for all kinds of things. Songpyon is a delicious dessert rice ball with sweet sesame seed or red bean paste inside. The list goes on and on, so I'll try to describe some other rice dishes next time.

Bibimbap

Rice cake desserts

Then there are all of the different meat and seafood dishes. Bulgogi is a popular beef dish, Songyupsa is korean barbeque...my favorite! Korean barbeque is so fun. You sit around a grill and cook your meat yourself. You then take a delicious sesame leaf and wrap the meat with kimchi and yummy dipping sauces. So delicious. There are also a ton of different soups and stews. My favorite are pork bone soup (Gum Jae Tong) and Spicy Seafood Stew.

Korean barbecue

Seafood Galbi...spicy!

Pork bone soup

Spicy seafood stew

Now, for the weird and scary parts of Korean cuisine! In my time here I've enjoyed sooooo much good food, but have also tried some pretty scary things. Among them: silk worm larvae, jelly fish, pigs blood soup (GROSS!), and......wait for it.....wait for it....live octopus!!! Yes, I have eaten all of those things. Let's start with silk worm larvae, which you can find on the street at most street vendors and is sold in a paper cup with about 100 of the little critters. They smell very funky...a little bit like dirt and bugs! And when you bite into one it pops in your mouth. It was absolutely gross. But children love eating it for a snack...they pop it in there mouth like M&M's! Next, there's jellyfish, which is pretty delicious. I didn't even know thats what I was eating, but it was pretty good. The pigs blood soup was served to me unknowingly at school. I didn't know what I was eating and I didn't like it either, so I ate very little. It was just very gooey and bland tasting and dark purple in color, so I got bad vibes. Later when I found out, I was not happy! Finally we come to the live octopus, which is served on the plate still moving! It is cut up, yet somehow the tenacles continue wiggling around on the plate for over an hour. It was delicious. I can't really describe the experience other than it was so much fun, but you can watch below for yourself! Enjoy!

Jellyfish

Silk worm larvae

Don't try this at home...or anywhere!

Don't worry, be happy...

2008-12-11T00:24:00.000-08:00

The holiday season is here and I am beginning to feel the homesickness kicking in, and starting to ask myself why I came here, so far away from the people I love. It doesn't help when the closest thing I have to remind me of home is Starbucks. But as much as I miss you all, I know this experience is worth it, so I'm just keeping my chin up and reminding myself of the things that make me smile in Korea. Here are a few...

Things in Korea that Make Me Smile:

*When my principle says to me everyday at lunch, "Oh, Laura, nice to meet you."
*Being 10 minutes away from a beautiful mountain.
*Stumbling upon random temples in the woods.
*When my students pet me and say "Oh teacha, so beauteeful."
*When my favorite student runs in the room, hugs me and says "I LOVE YOU LAURA!"
*When my coteachers says to a student "Take off your clothes!" because he's hot from playing outside.
*Singing 80's ballads at norebang (karaoke) while drinking beer and eating dried squid.
*How all of the boys at school are obsessed with saying, "Fire in the hole!"
* Kimchi!
*Random English signs (see pic)
*Giant hula hoops (see pic)
*Randomly being invited to a picnic by a group of older Korean folks while strolling through the park.
*Being fed by the older korean folks at their picnic and being forced to drink homemade korean whiskey.
*Korean babies...so freaking cute.
*Korean hikers, they get all dressed up and take it very seriously, hilarious.
*Sitting on my warm heated floor...until it burns my tooshie!
*An 8 year old who doesn't know that his shirt says, "Shit Happens When You Party Naked."
*The secretary at my school who doesn't know that her shirt says, "Add Vodka and Stir."
*Last minute weekend getaways, and a bus ride that only costs $7 round trip!
*Finding ways to remember korean words like delicious (masheeshayo)..."my-sister-yo"
*Getting beer for $3, a cab ride for $4, and a t-shirt for $5!
* Planning for my upcoming trips to Japan and Thailand!
*Having my own apartment, meeting new people, and having the freedom to travel to the places I've always dreamed.

Norebang!!!

Being fed at a Korean picnic

The "I love you, Laura" girls

I live by this beach :)

Weekend getaways...always an adventure!

They didn't even try to use English on this sign

Stumbled upon a temple in the woods

MJ, my co-worker, with a giant hula hoop

making new friends!

a contemplative moment

Hanging out with the hikers...I fit right in!

Another thing that makes me smile is this video called "Where the Hell is Matt?"...you may have already heard him because he's gotten a lot of press lately. Anyway, this video inspires me to travel and reminds me that no matter where you are in the world you can always find a way to be happy and spread the love. WATCH IT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBZQ1G5RBA4

Korean Culture Top 10's!!

2008-11-30T21:42:00.000-08:00

Since coming to Korea, I have experienced many strange and different customs from my own. As I've said before, many foreigners get frustrated living in Korea and dealing with the cultural differences. Some people look at American or western culture as right and other cultures as wrong, but I think that that attitude is the only thing thats wrong. With culture there is no right and wrong, it just depends on your perspective. Having this mindset has helped me to better understand Korean people and it has saved me from stressing out about things I cannot control.

Though I know that Korean culture is not any better or worse from my own, I have certainly come to see how different it is. There are things about Korea that I think are great and there are things that to me are out right bizarre. Now that I've been here for over 3 months, I wanted to do a Top 10 blog about Korean culture. Once again, this is not a judgement on the culture, it's just a fun way of pointing out the differences I've seen.

Top 10 Strangest Customs & Beliefs
10. You should not go to a restaurant by yourself...ever.
9. Pregnant woman should not eat red beans. No explaination provided.
8. You cannot wear gloves until December 1st.
7. You should eat soup in the summer because it will make your body feel hot and the air feel cooler...eat soup in the winter because it will make your body feel hot and the air around feel warmer...??!
6. Drinking water during a meal slows digestion...hence, I'm always thirsty at meals.
5. You can only eat ice cream during summertime. :(
4. Rice for breakfast, rice for lunch, rice for dinner.
3. You cannot go to the beach after August 15...even though its hot through October! (seriously, no one goes!)
2. A dog can be your pet...or your dinner. :(

and the strangest belief I've encountered thus far in Korea...

1. Fan Death! This one is my favorite...Korean's believe that you can die if you have a fan on in a room with all the doors and windows closed. You can actually list it as the cause of death on the death certificate.

Top 10 Best Things About Korea
10. Koreans love fashion. They have great style and cheap clothes!
9. No urban sprawl. Koreans build up not out, so even though its a tiny country, there is so much natural beauty.
8. Chivalry is alive and well...need to find myself a Korean boy ;)
7. Heated floors! Koreans have used this efficient system for centuries and it really works...ever wonder why Asians sleep on the floor?
6. Koreans are so active. Their favorite activity is hiking and they are always on the move, hence one of the lowest obesity rates in the world.
5. Tokens of appreciation. Koreans always give random small tokens of appreciation to their friends, usually a bag of fruit or a pair of socks. It's great!
4. Hangul is easy! Hangul is the korean writing system. It was invented by a king who wanted a writing system for the commoner. There are only 24 characters so its easy to learn to read.
3. Konglish...Korean and English mixed together- its great for foreigners because there are so many words. ex: com-pu-ta, re-mon, chang-ee, hand-pone, note-a-book, lunch-ee, tak-shi...and on and on.
2. Norebang! This means singing room aka Karaoke. It's pretty much the national pasttime.

and the best thing about Korea...

1. Korean Food! It is delicious and so healthy (blog on food coming soon)!

Goofing around with my favorite 5th graders

Korean friends, and Gretchen on the right!

I was bored so I wrote an essay...

2008-11-20T22:37:00.000-08:00

This week, I had a few days off while my sixth grade students went on a cultural trip (of which I was not invited!) so my co-teacher and I decided to spend our time writing for an essay contest. The contest is being sponsored by the Korean government and is a chance for foreign and korean teachers to talk about their experiences and offer suggestions to improve the English program in Korea. Specifically, foreign teachers were supposed to write about the challenges of adjusting to life and work in Korea and how they overcame them. The grand prize is $500 and there are 12 other prizes from $300 - $50... it was thrown together pretty last minute and is by no means great, but I'm hoping for a little dough!

Below is most of my essay; I cut a number of paragraphs about my co-teacher and the english education program because it would be kind of boring for you all to read. But I hope the rest will give you a better idea of my first three months of work. Enjoy...

You Get What You Give:
Lessons Learned about Becoming a Teacher in Korea

Last New Years Eve, standing in Central Park in New York City, I vowed to change my life and travel. I thought to myself, "On New Years 2009, I want to be on the other side of the world." I kept this thought in my mind for a couple of months, but I didn’t see anything abroad that looked feasible so I just let it be. Then one day, I stumbled upon an advertisement for teaching public school abroad in South Korea. The job with EPIK had everything I was looking for; living in an Asian country, an opportunity to gain teaching experience, good pay, housing, airfare, and an orientation where I could meet other foreigners. I decided to go for it. And though it was a long and sometimes tedious application process, I finally found myself stepping off of the plane in Seoul last August.

The orientation in Seoul was a great opportunity to meet many new people, adjust to life in Korea and develop skills and ideas for teaching in public school. Over the course of the week in Seoul, we took many classes about teaching and life in Korea, took a field trip to a Korean folk village, and had several different cultural lessons to help us better understand Korean history and tradition. It was a good time; yet, at the end of the week we felt like we had been in a safe bubble and had no idea what challenges lay ahead of us in the real world of Korea.

Arriving in Busan, I don’t think there was a single EPIK teacher that wasn’t nervous about what would happen when we arrived. Would we like our co-teacher? Would our school have an apartment ready? Would we be allowed to go see our apartment or would we have to go out and meet the principle of our school on the first night? The nervousness and anticipation seemed too much to handle, and then in a moment we arrived at the Busan Education Office and our questions were answered. In what seemed like some kind of organized chaos, our co-teachers found us in a sea of people, helped us grab our luggage and whisked us away, unsure of where we were going or when we would see our friends again. And for the next week, some of us had smooth transitions and some of us had it a little more rough, but we all faced some kind of challenges. In my case, my school had not found an apartment for me (which was very disappointing), but when I learned that they were concerned for my happiness and wanted me to choose where I would be living for the next year, I felt relieved and knew I was in good hands.

For a week, I stayed with my co-teacher, Jeongim, who graciously offered her home and anything she had. While I was thankful and happy to have such a nice co-teacher, I felt overwhelmed living in someone else’s home, which I had never prepared for. For 8 days, my luggage could not be unpacked and I felt like this wasn’t my life, just a quick vacation and I would soon be going home. We went looking for apartments on several occasions, but nothing was ever good enough for them (although I would have taken anything, my school did not want me to settle). The anxiety began to affect me and one day at school, I let the emotions get to me. I cried to Jeongim and told her that I was very thankful for her hospitality, but I didn’t feel comfortable living with her anymore, and I wanted to find an apartment soon. She immediately got to work calling real estate agents and within two days I was moved into a great little apartment down the street from my school. Although the first obstacle was out of my way, I still faced many more in the month to come. Getting my life sorted out was no simple task, and it felt like I had to rely on my co-teacher for everything. From getting my medical check to opening a bank account to learning how to purchase garbage bags, I felt completely helpless. But with a little patience and a lot of help from my co-teacher, I finally my life sorted out, seven weeks after arriving to Korea.

I came to Korea with a desire to teach and had a lot of experience working with kids in a camp environment, but no real experience teaching in the classroom. I knew it would be tough, but no one could have prepared me for the difficulties of the first month of teaching. I arrived at school on the first day, feeling like a child on the first day of kindergarten; nervous and excited about the new life ahead of me and all of the lessons I was about to learn. Things went pretty smoothly at first. I met my co-workers and was greeted warmly by all of the faculty, students and parents. My first week of class was a breeze as I just introduced myself, showed pictures of my home and got to know my students and their English ability. And then I went to my second school, and it was a whole different ball game.

My second school is located at the top of Geumjeong Mountain. It is a very small, rural school somewhat secluded from the city, so they had never had a Guest English Teacher (GET) before. I was immediately thrown into teaching and was shocked to see that their style of co-teaching was very different from my first schools; it didn’t exist. The co-teacher just sat in the back of the room and watched me teach. On top of this, both the third and fourth grade had already finished the curriculum during summer English camp, so I would be responsible for lesson planning every week. There is nothing like the feeling of standing up in front of a class and realizing that you’ve finished your lesson but you still have 15 minutes left to teach. Having 20 sixth graders stare at you as if they are saying, “Now what, teacher?” is sure to produce anxiety in even the most easygoing person. At first, I was constantly worried about my two days a week at the mountain school and dreaded going to there. I did not come prepared for this kind of pressure. I tried explaining to the teachers why I was having such difficulty and asked them for help, but they were all busy with their own classes and they were very shy to speak English, so nothing ever got done.

After a few weeks, and many tearful hours at my desk, I came to the conclusion that the school wasn’t going to change, so I had to. I found an English text book that I liked called “Gogo Loves English” and I realized that I could use the book for both third and fourth grade, just by changing the difficulty of the activities. Soon, I began to gain confidence in the classroom as I put systems in place and used games, songs and activities that both excited and encouraged the children to speak English. Now, I am unfortunately no longer at the mountain school because the education office decided to place me in my first school full-time, but I have been given my own first grade class here which I teach four times a week. I no longer have any anxiety about teaching by myself; in fact I find that teaching my own class makes my job more exciting and worthwhile. Being in the classroom and constantly having to challenge myself to create a lesson or explain something difficult to my students has helped me to learn very quickly. For Halloween, I created an entire lesson plan for the sixth graders, which turned out very successful (I have provided a copy of the lesson below). I’m proud that over the past three months, I’ve become confident in my teaching skills and have become a leader and an equal partner with my co-teacher.

For any person teaching in Korea who is not happy with their job, my advice is to get up and do something about it. Sure, I am very lucky to have a great co-teacher, but my co-teacher is not the reason I’ve had a good experience, I am. If you feel like you’re not doing much in the classroom, ask to be given more responsibility. If your school doesn’t want to entrust you with your own first grade class, start small, and ask to teach 10 minutes of the class on your own. Then make sure those 10 minutes are fantastic. Whatever challenges you face at your school, there is always something you can do to make your situation better. It’s never going to be perfect, but with a positive, “go-get-em” attitude, you can be sure that you make your experience the best it can be.

Though I’ve been in Korea for just three short months, I’ve come a long way and have learned about myself and about teaching. I am grateful for the people that have helped me settle in, and so proud that I have achieved my goals. Life here is wonderful and if you come with a positive attitude and a little bit of patience, you can have the experience of a lifetime. This New Years Eve I will feel an incredible sense of accomplishment knowing how far I’ve come in just a year. I can only imagine what exciting things await in 2009.

Home sweet Home

2008-11-05T22:05:00.000-08:00

This week has been full of reminders of home, beginning with Halloween last Friday, which is definitely not a holiday celebrated in Korea. I made a lesson on Halloween for my sixth graders which they loved. I taught them all about the holiday; how we dress up, trick or treat and of all of the characteristic things like witches, devils, ghosts and black cats. I taught them to sing "Trick or Treat, Trick or Treat, Give me something good to eat!" and told them I would give them candy if they sung it to me in the hallway. Big mistake! I ran out of candy in about an hour and they're still singing the song a week later. Now, I just tell them to sing it four times and when they're done I say "Halloween is over, silly!" It's pretty funny, but at least they're speaking English! At the end of the lesson, I posted pictures of my childhood halloweens, and they absolutely loved them. It was a really fun lesson and I really enjoyed sharing some of my culture... even if it is a silly, meaningless holiday, it's still great.

On Friday night, foreigners took over parts of the city, surely scaring Koreans with our ridiculous costumes everywhere we went. My friends and I went to a bar crawl in the Pusan National University (PNU) area, which also happens to be my neighborhood... and one of the coolest areas in the city! There were some ridiculous costumes, which was quite impressive seeing as there is nothing Halloween-themed sold in Korea. One guy went as Dokdo Island (the controversial island that Japan is trying to claim from Korea). One girl was an ipod Nano, and some of my friends went as Busan Pants Party 2008 (That's a reference to the pick up line "Would you like to come to the party...in my pants?" in case you hadn't heard of it...eh hem, Mom and Dad). I went as an 80's pop girl, which I know is not very creative, but I found the coolest, vintage 80's dress and leg warmers so I had a lot of fun. It was a blast and we were all so partied out after Friday that I think pretty much everyone sat around and watched movies for the rest of the weekend.

This week, all of us Americans eagerly awaited the elections, which didn't take place until Wednesday for us! When I woke up on Wednesday morning, I immediately checked the news, but the polls were just beginning to close and nothing had been counted yet. So, at school I found myself sneaking over to my laptop every 10 minutes during class to refresh the NYTimes homepage, which I don't think my co-teacher appreciated too much (but I know she understood how important it was for me). By 1 p.m. it was getting very close and I was at the edge of my seat waiting in anticipation...but I had to teach my first grade class! I turned off my computer and decided not to check again until all of my students had left the classroom. Finally, at 2 o'clock the classroom emptied and I frantically pulled up the news. "OBAMA" popped up on to the screen and I let out an excited scream of happiness and relief.

Yesterday, I was overwhelmed with emotion thinking about home and the pride I feel for our country. I know not all of you reading this may have voted for him or voted at all, but I think we can all agree that change was desperately needed and that we have found an honest, capable man to do the job. I don't think anyone put it better than Barack himself when he said, "Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope."

It's been an interesting week, and I'm reminded of how great it is to live abroad, but at the same time how lucky I am to have such a great home to return to.

The Korean School System...the good, the bad, the crazy

2008-10-21T00:09:00.000-07:00

So, I had a request from my friend Ali to devote one blog to the Korean education system and how it is different from America. Sounds great! It's been pretty routine here this month, so I was struggling to think of a topic and that is a good one because the Korean school system is SOOOOO different.

Where to begin? I guess I can talk about the relationship between teachers and students and how much less defined it is in Korea. Students are extremely respectful of their teachers for the most part. Traditionally, being a teacher was one of the most highly regarded professions and a child was to give a teacher as much (if not more) repect as they would give their parents. Although teachers are not treated as well as they were many years ago, they are still very highly regarded.

Teachers in Korea can cross a line with students that would never ever be acceptable in America. Many times I will see male teachers playfully wrestling with their male students, but to the point where they are lifting them over their shoulders and dropping them on the ground. Its actually quite nice to see that they can take more of a role model position outside of the classroom with out having to worry about getting too close or making students uncomfortable. They just don't have those issues here. Then, there is another side to the teacher-student relationship, which is punishment and discipline. Until a few years ago it was perfectly acceptable to physically punish a student by hitting or whipping. Today, it is more likely to make a bad student stand with their hands over their head or against the wall for an extended period of time. But, physical discipline still happens! As much as I think my co-teacher is a wonderful woman, I was shocked and sickened on one occasion to see her wail a kid on the head and throw him to the ground. Granted, he was a very, very bad student, but I believe that it is not ever acceptable to hit a child.

In general, school is much more intense in Korea, too. From the 3rd grade students take national standardized tests, and they have a lot of pressure from their parents and their teachers to do well. They take studying very seriously, so anyone who can afford to goes to a private academy after school to do Math, Music, English, etc. Many students miss out on doing kid things because they are constantly studying. Overall, I would say that Korean students are well-behaved, happy and respectful, but unfortunately they have a lot of pressure from a young age. Add to that they have to go to school on Saturday! That's right, school is open 2 Saturdays of the month. Lucky for me, they know that western cultures don't do that, so our contracts stipulate that we don't have to go in on Saturday.

Maybe I sound negative about the Korean school system, but I actually feel that there are so many ways that its better than the American school system. In Korea, teachers have a respectable career, are paid well, and don't worry about crossing the line with their students. They also don't have to worry about verbal or physical violence from their students because that is rare. Being a teacher here is great. Especially as a foreign English teacher, its a wonderful job and I'm so happy going to work everyday. Occasionally things happen that are not the way I would like them to be, but thats when I just have to remember that phrase..."Welcome to Korea!"

P.S. Last weekend I went to the Busan Fireworks Festival and it was unbelievable!!! There were 1 million people and the fireworks were probably the best in the world...check out this youtube video, which is awesome, but doesn't even do it justice!

Busan Fireworks Festival: http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=9yA7C1t8BUc&feature=related

one million people waiting on Gwangalli Beach

Fireworks over Gwangalli Bridge

First trip out of Busan...

2008-10-08T22:48:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had three days off due to Korean Foundation Day, so my girlfriends and I decided it was finally time to get out of Busan and start seeing this country we live in. We wanted to choose a place that wouldn't be difficult to get to, as it was our first experience with public transit, so we took a 50-minute bus ride north to the city of Gyeongju. Gyeongju is known as the most historical city in Korea, as it was the capital of Korea during the ancient Silla dynasty, and when I saw pictures of it, I knew I had to go. The city is strewn with tombs of ancient kings, in the form of gigantic grass humps popping out of the ground. It looked unlike anything I'd ever seen, so I was really eager to check it out.

We arrived on Friday afternoon and easily found the Hanjin Hostel, which had been recommended in all of the travel guides due to its nice accomodations, great location, and crazy/eccentric owner, Mr. Kwon. When we got there, we were happily suprised. The hostel felt more like the home of some Korean grandparents...in a good way. They showed us to our large room with three queen-sized beds, which was through a back courtyard where we were told we could hang out or "have party" at night. The room was very uniquely decorated; a quilt of the last supper hung on one wall, while a massive painting (at least 5 feet long) of deer was on the other side, along with other asian decor through out. We decided to venture off right away, so Mr. Kwon gave us maps and brochures and pointed us off in the direction of the recommended sites. The first was Tumili Park which is regarded as an outdoor museum because of the many tombs, one of which we were able to go inside of. We then walked south to an ancient observatory, then to a beautiful temple in the middle of the city that is lit up at night. When we finally finished four hours later, we stumbled upon a little Korean restaurant where we were served pork and cabbage stew, which ended up being the best meal I've had in Korea yet. We went back to the hostel and made friends with some German PhD students, but called it a pretty early night so we would be ready for day two.

The next morning we woke up at 10 and found a restaurant that served western breakfast, yum! We decided to rent bicycles because Gyeongju is supposedly the only city in Korea where you can safely ride bikes (Busan is definitely not safe to ride in anyway). We headed off to Mt. Namsan Park because my travel guide said "riding bikes in Namsam park is the perfect way to spend a day in Gyeongju." We arrived in about 30 minutes and stopped to check out some ancient thing in the ground that was once to be used to play drinking games (I don't know how else to descibe it). Anyway, we decided to purchase rice farmers hats while there, so that we could "truly expience the history of Korea." Haha, no, actually we just thought it was funny. We then decided to continue our bike ride around the park, but soon discovered that its called Mt. Namsan Park because its on a mountain! It was full on mountain biking up steep, rocky terrain. So, we parked the bikes, and went for a little hike and then got back on our bikes and headed back towards Gyeongju to explore. It was a hilarious afternoon, but also very tiring. We went back to the hotel around 4 pm to take a nap, and then hopped on the bus and took a 30 minute ride out to a famous temple, called Bulguksa. At the temple, we wandered around until dark and then found a traditional Korean restaurant nearby. We went home exhausted, but happy at how great our first adventure in Korea turned out.

After our long weekend, I thought this week would be so slow, but its actually gone by so fast! I am really enjoying teaching and although I'm tired sometimes, I never dread going to work or teaching a class. I'm having a lot of fun with the kids, and my confidence in creating and giving lessons has really increased. I now teach first grade by myself four times a week, and I really like it. I have a good system down, and I've found games that are fun and exciting for the kids, but very easy for me to plan and do in class. This weekend, I don't have any definite plans, but there are a bunch of festivals going on in Busan, so I'm sure I will check some of them out. The Pusan International Film Festival will be ending, there is a global culture gathering downtown, and the Jagalchi Fish Market will have a festival. Should be fun! Well, that's all I can think to say for now... annyonghe keysayo!!

Dynamic Busan in Sparkling Korea

2008-09-30T23:51:00.000-07:00

A lot foreigners like to poke fun at all of the ridiculous English slogans in Korea such as "Sparkling Korea" and "Beautiful Korea, Wonderful Immigration," which is what the sign at the Busan immigration office reads. But truthfully, Busan really is a dynamic city. So many people have been asking me what its like, so I thought I would write about it this week.

I am so happy that I chose to come here over anywhere else. Korea is a strange yet exciting country, and the people are so much nicer than I expected. A lot of foreigners get caught up over Koreans being pushy on the subway or cutting in line, but if you can just realize that its their culture and to them its not rude, then you can really enjoy yourself here. Busan is a city on the south eastern coast of Korea, only 5 hours from Seoul and a 3 hour ferry ride to Japan. It has five great beaches, and is surrounded by large, lush mountains. From my apartment, which is in the Pusan National University neighborhood (the coolest place to live in the city!), I can walk to a cable car and go hiking to a temple in the mountains, or hop on a subway and I'm on the beach in 30 minutes. There is so much to do here; walk the Teajonde Cliffs, take a ferry to any of the near by islands, hit the beach (after August its empty because Koreans believe its too cold!), go to an amusement park, hike to a temple, swim with sharks at the Busan Aquarium (yea right!), check out the movies at the Pusan International Film Festival, go to one of the many museums, or take a train/bus to any of the near by towns for a quick getaway. Of course, the nightlife is pretty good too. There are a number of different neighborhoods with live music, clubs, and bars and you can find plenty of places to meet up with foreigners or mingle with young Koreans.

It's so easy to live here, too. A lot of people have been asking me if its difficult not knowing the language and is it expensive, things like that. It's not difficult at all. Although everything is written in Korean and everyone speaks Korean, the country still uses a lot English and everything is very westernized. All public transportation has English, so its never hard to get around. The only time it has been frustrating is in taxis because the drivers don't recognize our way of pronunciating words. If I say I want to go to Gwanalli beach, they only understand if I say "gwanAllI BEAchY" as if I'm trying to sound Korean. There have been a few times I've been taken to the complete opposite side of town due to miscommunication. Another thing is that although Koreans don't speak English or are too embarrassed to do so, they understand a lot. And if they don't, simple miming always does the trick! It's dirt cheap here too. A 10 minute cab will run you $3-4 and a 30 minute cab will be about $11 or $12. You can easily buy trendy clothes for under $20 (most shirts go for $5) and a big mug of beer is usually $3. As teachers, we don't get paid nearly as much as we would back home, but most of us can still send back at least $400 a month after traveling and spending all the money we need here.

So that's all I can think to say about Busan right now. It's a great, cheap city and I highly recommend anyone to come check it out. In other news, I have a three day weekend on Friday and some girlfriends and I are going to Gyeongju, a historic city about an hour away. It was the capital city of Korea during the Shilla Dynasty and is packed with temples, shrines, tombs and other cool ancient asian stuff. Definitely looking forward to it. Also, I FINALLY got internet in my apartment today! So exciting! I put all of my pictures up on picasa, so check them out: http://picasaweb.google.com/lcurrie711 ...enjoy!

Korean schools, oriental medicine and more...

2008-09-25T21:32:00.000-07:00

Hmmm, what to say this week??? I can't think of a specific topic for today, so I'll just talk about a few of the things that happened in my week. Overall, my job is going very well and I'm definitely in a routine. I'm still a little stressed about creating lessons for my second school (where I teach on my own) because they always tell me to do one thing and then change it in the middle of class! I think it's just something I have to get used to about Korea...they don't usually stick to any sort of schedule or plan!

So, earlier in the week I was feeling pretty sick. I could barely sleep for three nights and my stomach was not doing well. I'm pretty sure it was some spicy bibimbap I ate or just all of the chilli flakes that are in kimchi, but regardless, it was not good! I told my co-teacher at my first school because she is really into oriental medicine and seems to have a cure for everything. For instance, when I get bug bites, she puts tiny little bandages with aluminum points in them to make the bites stop itching. It works! So I told her about my lack of sleep and stomach problems. She explained how the two are related and she also suggested I turn my head around to face south when I sleep, "to be better in tune with the magnetism of the earth." So, I thought she would just give me some friendly advice, maybe stick a bandaid on me, but instead she told me to follow her to the nurses office. When we got there she laid me down, and asked if I'd ever had accupuncture before! I said no, and she proceeded to take out her accupunture kit! Now, I know you're probably thinking I'm crazy if I let her do it, but I completely trust this woman and I know she has done it on many people ( and yes, the needles were new and sterile!) So, she did accupunture on my hands, in the pressure points for the stomach and liver. I probably had 50 needs in my hands! And then she told me to just lay there in the bed, where any student could have walked in and seen! It was a little uncomfortable, but I stayed for twenty minutes and then she tooked them out and we went to class. Three days later I am feeling better, but I'm not sure that the accupuncture did anything. The foreigners here have a little saying that sums up that experience..."welcome to Korea!"

Well other than that, my first school had sports day which is the same as American field day, only a lot crazier. Not only do they do something like 30 different races, they also perform traditional korean dances and music for the entire day. It's quite a sight. I was only there for the rehearsal day (another full day off from school to practice for the actual thing), but it was still great to be there. I'll post some pictures soon!

This should be another great weekend. There is a block party right down the street from my apartment where all of the bars will have live music and free food. It's only$15 for 6 drinks and a pass for the whole night. I'm really looking forward to meeting a bunch of foreigners AND koreans. Should be a blast! On Sunday, we are hiking up to the oldest temple in the city called Beomsa Temple. It's over 1,000 years old. Looking forward to it. Next weekend is another holiday, so I'll be traveling somewhere, not sure yet! I'll keep you posted :)