Back in the U.S. of A

So I realize it's been about 2 months since I've written...time passes all too quickly. Well, I guess I'll just dive right in...please...contain your excitement....

I finished up my time in Korea about 3 weeks ago. It was weird to leave...good and bad I suppose. It's like leaving one world in exchange for another world. I would like to take a piece of both of those worlds and combine them, but I know they could never work together, and it would take the uniqueness away from each of them. I guess you just take the good with the bad wherever you are.

Anyways, it seems like a dream now looking back on Korea and the places I went, things I saw, people I met. But it is also very real seeing how it has changed me. A year is a long but short time.

The culture shock wasn't too bad. I might still be going through it..who knows...It's weird to be around so many white people again....back to being the minority....the large grocery stores are also a bit much...seriously...why do we need a full aisle just dedicated to cereal...crazy. I miss the Korean food, the markets, the friends. I don't miss the pushy ajumas or the overwhelming amount of mirrors everywhere you go....seriously, you don't need them up and down every escalator.


It was a long flight back home. I flew from Incheon to Japan to Chicago (where my flight was cancelled) and then onward to G.R. In total, it took me about a day or so...i think...I'm actually still not quite sure (with the time change and all...I think I lived like 40 hours of Dec.5.)...My luggage actually made it home before me...surprising, but true :)

Well, I'm home for the holidays, which is nice. It's good to see the fam and friends. The nephews and nieces have grown way too fast.

(Titus, Blake and Levi on the Right) Hyper, but awesome nephews. :)

Currently I'm chillin in MI (with a couple road trips here and there) until Mid Feb. I've been working off and on.
From then on Enda and I will continue out travels together...we might be heading to the America's for a while visiting the sister, and somehwere in there we'll also be going to Enda's homeland of Ireland...then who knows.....I get restless very quickly.....planes and continents are calling me......... :)

Fall is finally here....

So this past month has been pretty low key. Just doing odds and ins around Korea. Enda and I went to check out the Incheon area and see what was good around there. We had the initially intended to head out East and do some relaxing in the mountains, but that didn't work out, so then we decided to head to an Island out West, but the ferry terminal was closed by the time we got there, so we decided to just chill in Incheon and finally something went right! :) We were able to see a nice sunset over the Incheon bay...watch some airplanes take off, etc...a good night.

I also attempted to do a little golfing at a driving range....good stuff..not my forte for sure though....anyways...

Teaching has been going well. It's crazy to think I'm only here for another month of so. Time has flown by as usual. I've been here over a year....crazy.

I've been trying to see a little more of Korea with the little time that i have left. I was able to make it out to Olympic Park ( the '88 olympics were held here I believe). I was blessed with a gorgeous day. The temps are perfect right about now with Fall here. I thought the rainbow in the fountain was nice...It's an interesting park. It was a pretty peaceful place given that it is in the middle of the city and all.

It's nice to see families getting out with their children...away from the apartment buildings and traffic...

I've also been keeping busy with Taekwondo. I seem to continue to injure myself in some form. First it was my back from soccer, now it's my foot from sparring...who knows what will happen next...I'm too young for all of these injuries....or in the prime age for them all...hmmm.

Well last weekend I was also able to catch some of the fireworks from the competition between U.S.A., Japan, and South Korea. They were each alloted 15-20 minutes of fireworks over the Han River. Good stuff..unfortunately, we were only able to catch the Koreans due to the immense traffic in the subway system. It was ridiculous! I've never seen anything quite like it. People were cramming themselves like sardines in the train and jamming their way on the escalator....they eventually had to turn them off so people wouldn't get injured. Korea always seems to continue to surprise me.

Well, this weekend, me and my girl Nari are heading out East to hike in Seoraksan for the weekend. Should be nice with all the colors changing and Korean's eating Kimchi with their Soju on the summit...yay :) Off to work I go!

Good Morning Vietnam!

So here we go again on the fun adventures of Korea :) Please, contain your excitement ;) Well, this past week has been rather exciting to say the least. It was Chuseok Mon-Wed, therefore we had a little vacation time...much needed. There was much fun that needed to be had. Enda and I took off to Vietnam on Saturday morning and were able to stay there until midnight on Wednesday...trying to enjoy the last possible second of our vacation away from Bupyeong. I'll begin the play by play of the journey...yay! :) If you get bored with reading the blog, you can at least look at the pictures and hopefully you can enjoy them :)

First and foremost, I have to say that Vietnamese children are extremely beautiful...gorgeous big eyes and wonderful smooth skin. Anyways, you will realize my infatuation with them as you go through this entry.

Vietnam is a very interesting country. It's a dream spot of backpackers...everything is extremely cheap! The food costs maybe $3 for a full meal...coke is about $0.45 for a bottle etc...I love it! Our hostel was about $5 for a night. amazing :)

When we first arrived, the myriad of motorcycles caught me of guard for sure! I was definitely scared to cross the street...I actually closed my eyes one time...just crossing my fingers that no one would hit me...crazy stuff for sure. Everyone has mopeds. They are rather cheap to buy...maybe $500 for an okay one (an imported one from Korea/Taiwan etc...might cost about a grand or so...) It was great to see parents waiting to pick up their children from school on the moped...lol ahh...good times.

So, we got there on Saturday and spent the day just wandering around Hanoi (the Old Quarter). We then took off early Sunday morning to Handspan. We planned to do a 3 day kayaking adventure...We took a 3-4 hour bus ride to Halong Bay which was enjoyable. It was great to get out of the city for sure! I really enjoyed this area. It hasn't been too built up with hotels or tourist attractions which I find rare nowadays. I kind of hope it stays this way for awhile...unfortunately we can already see some new places where hotels are going to be built.

There were only 8 of us on the tour which was nice. We got on a boat which was gorgeous and set out for Halong Bay by ship :) Yay! It was gorgeous weather as well so we were able to do a little sun bathing on the top of the boat. Halong Bay is has over 3,000 limestone karsts. I believe is was admitted as World's Natural Heritage by UNESCO and is on the nomination list for one of the new 7 Wonders...:) (TBD in 2008)

Anyways, it was gorgeous as you can see...we were able to go swimming during sunset...very surreal...nature is so breathtaking...

We spent the night on board and were planning on going kayaking all day Monday...well low and behold what gets in our way...oh yes...a typhoon...those darn typhoons...so we had to turn our boat around and head back to the bay...oi....a very sad day for me and the rest of the crew.
On the bright side though, we had an extra unplanned day and a half before us. We decided to take the overnight train to Sapa. It's about an 8 hour train ride...costing us a total of $6 each i believe...or something ridiculously cheap :) granted the toilets weren't the most wonderful experience to see but beggars can't be choosers! :)

Sapa was raining as well, but nonetheless it was gorgeous. Vietnam is such an agricultural society...the rice fields are breathtaking...the people are hard-working, laid back people that have the most winning smiles...honestly! When they flash their smiles it's hard to say no to them :) Here are some more pics from Sapa...

The women in the picture are obviously Sapa natives. I was trying on some traditional outfits (like they are wearing). They were giving me advice as to what other accessories I should wear with the garments. It was rather random. They just showed up at the door and were watching me try on an outfit. The little girl in front had great English and was my translator :) (I eventually did end up buying part of the outfit :)

I have a ton more pics but I'm currently rather computer illiterate, so if you are interested in seeing the rest of them, they are on my flickr account :)

Must hit the sack for the night...if any of you have a chance, I highly recommend visiting Vietnam... :)

August Adventures

So, let's see where to start. I believe I am getting worse and worse at this blogging as the months roll by. My contract officially ends in about 6 weeks which is crazy to think about! I do believe though that I might stay here until the end of November...finish out the term, deal with some business that needs to be taken care of, etc... :) I'm sure the time will fly by regardless and I'll be home before I know it. Amazing how fast time goes...


Well About a month ago, some of my girlfriends and I went out East for the weekend. We were able to play some soccer, do some water sports, and, of course, find time to eat some great Korean BBQ... :) Yeah for galbi!

It was nice to get away from Incheon and see some nice green grass...rice fields....new faces... refreshing.

I'm realizing how I'm not a city girl at heart...the pollution is hurtin the lungs...the acid rain is hurtin the hair line...the smoking...oh wait...yeah, I don't do that, but if I did I'm sure it would be hurtin me.

Moving right along ;)

I celebrated my b-day with some peeps from work/soccer/other exported Koreans etc... :) Good times. We went to Carnie Station, which is like a little piece of heaven I do believe. It's an all you can eat and drink for about 25 USD. You can stay there for up to 2-3 hours...ahhh...good stuff. (Pic to the right is my girls and I textin our peeps :) Trying to be as korean as possible :)

We then headed to a bar. Met up with some friends...laughed, dance, drank, hugged, loved, and cried...okay, maybe not the last one, but the other ones are pretty accurate.
Good group of people for sure..
Was able to get up the next morning for some soccer at Yonsei Uni. as well which

surprised me. Glad I did it though.
Oh and this is a pic of me blowin out the birthday candles...it was gorgeous cake though!Both of them..mmm good..

Let's see...a couple weeks ago I headed with Enda to Seoul tower to check out the city at night. It was nice to get the city into a better perspective...it's a huge city...love it. :) There were a couple too many foreigners for my taste though. Granted I was also with a foreigner but that's besides the point. Anyways, this pic below is what the tower looks like from the ground. It's me attempting to be artsy again...

Taekwondo is going well which is very nice. I'm starting to use some weapons. Always a good time. The fighting skills aren't up to where they should be, but I suppose it comes with time and practice. It's also been blazin how out here..it just finally cooled down.

I'll be taking off to Vietnam for a couple days come Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) in September, so I'm definitely looking forward to that. 5 days of Kayaking, the sun (hopefully), biking, beach, and chillin...much needed...very very excited...!!!

We also just started a new 3 month semester at the Hagwon. The students are good for the most part, but teaching is very tiring. I have a new appreciation for my teachers who taught me when I was young (or actually all teachers in general!) Cheers to you all.

My apologies on the uncreative blog entry. I'm not feeling that creative...witty...etc...tonight..not saying that I am naturally any of these..hmm..k I believe my bed is calling me. G'nite.

Gathering 2007

Well this past month has been a great one. The summer months are non-existent it seems. I just finished my last vacation days this past week. I spent the week in Seoul and attended the 2007 IKAA Gathering of Korean Adoptees from around the world. I think there were around 500 of us from Italy, France, U.S.A., Denmark, and many other countries. It was an eye opening experience. I've never been that involved in anything Adoptee oriented, so going into this week long convention I was rather oblivious and/or ignorant of many issues that are happening in the current (as well as previous) intercountry/transracial adoption scene. I was able to attend a couple workshops that covered issues on adoption in the media, politics, behavioral science, etc.. It was refreshing to have new issues to get me thinking again; challenge the mind.

I was also able to play in the 2007 Korean Adoptee World Cup. I was a member of the Korean Team which was fun. Unfortunately we only made it to the semi's (due to bad ref's but whatev...no grudge :) and...(unfortunately...) the 2 U.S. teams fought it out in the finals...

This is a pic of the power house of the team :) us 6 girls rocked it alongside our European men on our team :) The REAL Samgyupsal :) I love it. all of us are from the U.S. except one...while all the men are mostly from France...

Anyways, it was fun. I was able to sing the Korean Nat'l Anthem too so that was interesting :)

This is a pic of our first and only goal against the Danish :) We were all soooo freakin happy!

We also made time for some good ole drinking/noreabang outings as well. There's always time for singing and drinking with friends :)

For the convention I also found a place to stay in Seoul which was nice. The commute to and fro Bupyeong to Seoul is rather long. It was nice to be able to go out at night and not have to worry about time. But now I'm back to reality; work, taekwondo, some responsibilities...oi. :)

My contract also ends in October which is coming rather quickly. I'm tossing the idea of staying here longer, but who knows what will happen. I guess only time will tell...okay, well maybe not only time, but you can only control so much.

I'm continuing to love Taekwondo and the whole martial arts scene. Hopefully I'll be able to retain a lot of what I'm learning here once I move in the Fall...to wherever.....

Adventures with my sister

Okay, seeing that my sister has already put her post on her blog about our vacation trip together, I feel rather obligated to follow in her footsteps and do the same as quickly as possible in fear of never getting around to it until August rolls around. So here it goes...please, try and contain your excitement :)

Mine doesn't contain the interesting facts about the Silla Dynasty like my sisters, so my apologies. Feel free to check hers out though and pick up all the fun facts about Korea that I am leaving out... :)

**This picture above was taken in a traditional village on Jejudo island. In regards to the sign, I really shouldn't be near this gate any time soon...yup :) hmmm..**

So, I finally took my vacation (of which I haven't had since I landed on this country 9 months ago) and took a week off of school to go and travel with my oni (meaning older sister in korean). So we started in the great city of Incheon and headed down south to Gyeongju! It is one of my favorite cities in Korea i have to say...a lot of history, temples, palaces, tombs, flowers, etc...great place and easy to get around...well, sometimes. Anyways, we stayed there for a couple days and then headed further south to Busan/Pusan....We really didn't do too much there. Just chilled for a short time and then flew to Jejudo. yup...the semi-tropical island...not quite like the Thailand scenery I was hoping for, but beggers can't be choosers. I'll take what I can get.

**the Picture below is me on a seesaw that you stand on, not sit. I don't really understand my facial expression, so interpret it how you see fit**

We were able to see a decent amount of the island and were even able to hike the volcano in the middle of the island, only to arrive at the top and not be able to see anything due to the heavy fog and the great rainy season that it currently is. ahh..the joys of Asia.

The pic to the right is a typical scene on our adventures in Korea this past week. The lonely planet got us through a lot...

We ended our week though in Chuncheon where there was a Taekwondo Championship! YAY!! It was quite exciting I have to say. I have definitely missed it this past week and was ready to jump into the swing of things again. There was a ton of sparring going on, along with some gymnastics and taekwondo dancing...gotta love it :) Seeing the women fight and not being one of them kind of made me sad, but maybe someday soon I'll be out there throwin' some kicks and doin all that jazz :)

Okay so I realize this is getting rather lengthy again so I'll bust outta here. My sista is chillin here for another week which will be good; checkin out Seoul of Asia :) Time is flying as usual and it's crazy to think I'm out of here in a couple months. Ahh!!!

I'm on vacation with my sister in Korea!!! :) YAY!!!!

Heat wave

The heat is coming and I am not ready for it. Usually the nights and mornings aren't too bad, but the afternoons are deadly (maybe not 'deadly', but hot enough). Oh, and I heard it only gets more humid and hot when July shows it's face. I'm very excited. hmmm.

Well time has continued to fly by and I still haven't learned how to control it. I'm not holding my breath for that day..and yet I continue to try and conquer time and have my say at how fast or slow it should go by...

So last week my choir from Calvin College was in town. Unfortunately I was not able to hear them in concert, but I did meet up with them during the day in Seoul. It was great to talk to catch up with friends/professors. Great ladies. Good memories of being in the choir. It's always weird though when 2 worlds collide together...G.R. people and Korea.

(L. The wonderful Linda, C. me, R. the amazing Dr. Shangkuan)

Love them both dearly.

Last weekend there was a big festival in my city. It was pretty fun I have to say. There was some great drumming and traditional music. I have fallen in love with Korean Tradition drumming. It's amazing. Ari rang is turning into a person favorite as well :)

There was a viol inst there who was pretty great, but it was the most interesting combination; short skirt and top, Canon in D, and B-Boys (Break-dancers). Fascinating. (see pic. below)

I was thinking that Pachelbel was rolling over in his grave :) It was entertaining though. Anyways, it was fun. Good musicians, good friends, good times. Oh, my roommates and I got a family portrait done...yup. The artists wasn't very impressive though. I have a deformed hand, my friend has an odd shaped head and interesting facial hair.

This past week we also had a day off so my friend and I decided to go to the beach which was supposedly only 2 hours away on an island...supposedly.

Quick walk thru of the day:

no sun-

Bus: 15 min. to subway ($.60)

Subway: 1 Hr. to airport ($2.00)

Taxi (b.c. we missed the bus that comes once every hour) ($30 for a 10 min. ride)

oh wait...oh yes, the taxi ended up taking us the wrong way...yup

Wait for bus: 30 min.-

-no sun

Take bus back to airport (oh, and this is the bus that we supposedly missed but was going the wrong way anyway) ($.90) 1 hour-finally get to the ferry-

-clouds are rollin in-

Ferry ($2.00)-2 min. ride to island (me looking excited about the rain, wind, and cold beach)

-rain drop-

Arrive on island-bus pulls up right away, but wait...oh he doesn't' pick any of us up for some strange reason, so we wait....and wait....and the rain comes in.....and thunder...more waiting....

40 min. later...back on the ferry...

so basically hours of trying to get to this beach and never actually seeing it or the sun. oi.

Teaching on the other hand has been going well. I'm really enjoying my new students (we started a new semester about a week and a half ago). I have some of the upper level classes, which has been more challenging for me as well as the students. These students continue to amaze me with their intelligence. Very bright :) It's times like these when I wish I was trained to be a teacher so I could be more beneficial to them in a more efficient way. A musician knows only so much about teaching haiku, ballads, cinquain, onomatopoeia etc.

My Friday classes involve teaching logic, debates, oh and interviews...logic is a lot of fun..maybe more so for me than the students, but nonetheless it's good for them.

This past weekend I went out to hear some jazz in Hongdae. I am realizing how much I miss quality music..where's Wagner and Schumann when I need them. The good news is, I moved the piano into my bedroom finally! yay! more time to practice and learn some more Debussy and Chopin. I'm very excited :)

Soccer is going well. The guys are great. Good times, Hot weather though. My sister is coming next week so that is also very very exciting :)

Rainy days...

Things here are continuing as usual. We are finishing up our first semester of Avalon and diving into the next one in about a week. We are in the middle of our parent-teacher-translator meetings; the first one that us foreign teachers have partaken in. It's a good experience for me but It also reminds me that I am an extreme amateur at teaching...what do you expect though when I majored in Music and a German....hmm


I've been filling my weekends with sports and hanging out with friends in Seoul. Time continue to flies by...Soccer is going well. It's always a good time to play on the great gravel "fields" (and if we are lucky we can get field without too many potholes :) Actually we've been playing on some turf which is pretty fun. Rock climbing is going well also. I definitely need to work on my balance and strengthening my grip but it's coming along slowly. I tore up my hands this past weekend but no pain no gain right?...:)

There was a fun market right outside our apartment this past week. There were tons of stalls to buy food/spatulas/fish/yup...everything you need to survive in Korea :)

This past weekend there were some celebrations for Buddha's birthday (that is actually today). I was able to check out the Lotus Lantern Parade which was pretty fun and saw some cool sites in Seoul. Seoul continues to surprise me...


I had my taekwondo competition a couple weeks ago and have yet to find out if I received my black belt. It was one of the shortest tests I've taken. It must have lasted about 2 minutes...okay maybe like 5, but regardless, it was really really short. I had to spar for about 30 sec. and perform 2 pumsae's (a combination of about 15-20 punches and kicks) and do some other kicking (of which I didn't understand the commands and so I kind of messed that up...yup...) It was fun though and I'm glad I did it. When I was sparing, one of the refs was saying something to me in Korean and I just have him my confused look...it's a common look...
(The pic to the bottom is me with my sparring gear...:)

The weather is so rainy these days which can be nice but defintely plays a role on your mood.. The mosquitos have officially began to attack me though. The other night I ended up with about 5 bites from this one darn mosquito...oi. I can't escape them...

I guess nothing else too new has been happening. I'm just rollin with the punches and still trying to figure out what I'm going to do when I'm done.

My sister is also coming out in a couple weeks so I'm definitely looking forward to that! What a better place to chill with the sis :) I still dont' know what travel plans we'll be partaking off, but we'll figure it out.

I'm still trying to learn Korean on my own which is hard but I'm making slow but steady progress. The self-motivation is going surprisingly well...some days better than others for sure. The korean teachers that sit beside me have been extremely helpful. Great people.

oh ajummas...

The joys of Korea continue to appear.. i love it. God is continuing to show me His love and awesomeness. Let's see, over the past couple weeks the weather has been warming up with no signs of mosquitoes ....yet...(crossing my fingers). I hear they are brutal here in the summer. Not excited...they seem to love the asian blood..or something like that :) It's great to wake up to a sunny morning and some "fresh" air...maybe fresh smog would be more applicable...get some reading or soccer in before the school day starts...

Ever since the rock climbing trip I have been interested in getting into it a little more, therefore I bought some climbing gear last weekend :) yay! (Go big or go home right? ;) I met some Koreans a couple weeks ago at an outdoor climbing facility, so they have been coaching me. Good times. There's a lot I need to work on, but it's been fun so far :)

Last weekend there was a huge festival in Seoul so I checked out that scene. My roommate and I were able to see some musicians...yup not the greatest music....but it was nevertheless
fun :) We also saw some fireworks and b-boyz (break dancers..pic above) good stuff. There was also some traditional music and performances I was able to check out. I love it!

This past weekend my other roommate and I went on a hiking trip with Ad. Korea.

We went down South and did some good hiking and checked out some festivities down there. It was nice to get away from Bupyeong for the weekend, meet some new people, and most importantly, to be back in the great outdoors; see some real green grass/hear birds/smell the trees....ahhh....not deal with the pushy Ajummas oi...(ajummas are women over the age of like 35ish...pushy little gals...)

(pic to the left..sunset 2 nights ago in the mountains....after our crew got lost...long story) :)

The weather is continuing to warm up and there continues to be an increase of 'exercising' machines outside our apartment...possibly a subtle hint...these machines more or less are twisting and swinging machines...i haven't quite figured out what their purpose is....hmm

I guess that's about it for my main adventures over the past couple weeks. Time continues to fly by...the students continue to get more and more energy with the weather warming up and all. Hope you all have a lovely week!

6 months already gone by...

Well it's hard for me to believe that I'm already halfway done with my contract. It seems like it was forever ago that I came but at the same time it seems like I just arrived...weird. Everyone says that the last 6 months go by quicker than the first...crazy.

Well this past weekend some of my friends and I went rock climbing and hiking. It was my first time actually rock climbing outdoors and repelling...Great times :) I definitely wish I could have done it for a longer time, but you take what you can get I suppose. Anyways the hiking was great...it was mainly ridge hiking, so we hiked up one of the main mountains and then hit 6 other peaks and then descended; like a 5 hour hike so not too bad. The weather was gorgeous! Not too hot, not too cold...just right. It was great to be out in nature again...I definitely miss it. I'm realizing indoor jobs aren't very good for my sanity...:)

Anyways, this week flew by for sure. The kids were decent...I didn't send anyone to detention this week so that was good I suppose :) Things at Avalon are still disorganized...yup. We keep getting new teachers, losing new teachers, etc... what do ya do.

Last weekend we (my roomies and I) went to Seoul to check out the cherry blossoms some more. On the way we saw policemen in the park doing leap frog...or their version of it I suppose. Very humorous. I feel very safe in this country ;) Anyways the cherry blossoms were amazing to see at night in Seoul. Unbelievable. I stopped by the largest member Church in the world last week. Hopefully I'll attend a service soon. Should be interesting...

The weather has been warming up, but I think we are hitting the rainy season and possibly the start of mosquitoes....oi.....

Taekwondo is going well. It can be frustrating at times, but I enjoy it for sure. I have my test in a couple weeks so hopefully that goes well...I'm already getting nervous. They yell out commands in Korean ....ahhh! I need to work on my Hangul for sure....

Other than that nothing major has been happening. Just taking things as they come and going with it. I figure I should start thinking about what I'm doing at the end of these 6 months but a lot can happen between now and then...

"For I know the plans I have for you" declares the Lord. "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you hope and a future." :)

the weekend....ahh

It's already April which is hard to believe... time is flying by. Work has been going well. I feel bad for the kids having to go to school all day and night. They start at about 8 in the morning and some go to academy until about 10 at night...crazy. If we give them detention, they stay until about 11/11:30 I believe; and these are elementary students. The middle schoolers stay until about midnight M-Th. crazy. That's what they know though. To think that I could have grown up here and be one of the kids that had to go to school, academy, and wear uniforms.

The yellow dust is still here a little bit. (This is dust that comes over from China). Supposedly it was kind of a bad season and we might get hit again with it soon. Everyone wears masks to cover their mouths. With the sun coming out, the women are starting to get these visors that cover their entire face plus the face mask! hmmm...I don't think I'll be doing that anytime soon.

I started taking Korean classes in Seoul every Saturday and I've been studying on my own. Oh, and I do a language exchange with one of my friends. good times. It's a hard language but fun. Hopefully before i leave I'll be able to have an okay conversation. we'll see :)

After 3 doctor visits I'm finally somewhat healthy which is a nice change. I still don't know what I had but hopefully I'll get my test results back and see what the deal was.

The cherry blossoms are starting to come out which is making me extremely happy. They are gorgeous and all over!! :) Love it. I'm sad that they only last about 2 weeks. What do you do though.

Today I have a taekwondo event.....but I really have no idea what I'm doing. The language barrier is rather large. I guess I'm just going to show up, kick some boards, do some punching and that's that...hmmm...

So in Korea they do have Krispy Kream which is an amazing thing. I had no idea this was in Korea but yes, it is true :) After Korean class I took some of my friends to KK. Their first time!! :) It's truly a wonderful experience :)

I have officially decided that weekends go by waaay to fast. Just when you are beginning to relax it's already Monday. oi.

It's starting to warm up a bit which is nice though. I need sunshine! You rarely see it though due to all the pollution in the city. bleh.

So I realize again this is rather short but I need to get this day rollin:)

What's the crack?

One week left in March...crazy. Time is flying by as usual and things are going pretty normal around here. I haven't had any major trips lately which is probably good for my bank account :) The weather is crazy here. Sometimes it's beautiful, sunny and warm, and other days it's just rainy, dreary and cold. It's been good though. Teaching is going well. Everything is still disorganized but such is life I suppose. You just learn to adjust. My students are good for the most part. I have about 100 kids throughout the week that I teach but they all are fun.

I've been realizing that I haven't really had any goals while I've been here and it's rather necessary...at least for me. So my new goal is to study Korean intensively and hopefully become okay at the language while I'm here....we'll see how that goes...wish me luck! I think I finally feel settled enough and have a better idea of time management here where I can do a more effective job of studying so hopefully that goes well. I also need to focus on music and start writing more songs and practice the old vocal cords. ;) They're getting a little rusty...bleh.

Taekwondo is going well. I'm still going 3 times a week and have been working on Pumsae...yay! There's way too much to memorize but it's a good challenge for me. My black belt test is in like 2 and a half months so I gotta crack down on this.

I guess nothing else major has been happening. I'm still sick which is frustrating...it's been over a month now I believe, so hopefully I'll start feeling better in the near future. I don't really trust the doctors over here for some reason.

Here's a pic of my apartment's living room with one of my roommates (Enda-Irish Guy) and a fellow teacher/friend Ciara-Irish girl. We just re-arranged our living room a couple days ago. Anyways, it's a good place; roomie and nice. I like it. Okay I should get back to studying. I hope things are going well by you all and blessings :)

Dropping in on North Korea

I finally had my trip to North Korea this past weekend! It was a fun adventure and a good experience. I went with a group of about 90 foreigners. We left late Friday night, attempted to sleep on the bus, and got off and checked through in both the South (drove through the DMZ) and then the North Immigration office. You couldn't bring your cell phone, camcorders, cameras with too much zoom, etc...into North Korea. You were very limited on what you could take pictures of. There were soldiers spread out throughout the area we drove through either standing in fields or in little huts in their full uniform with red flags. If they saw anyone take pictures of soldiers or landscape from the bus they would throw up their flag and all the buses would have to stop (there were around 12 buses). They would go through all the cameras and delete all your pics if you were the one who took the pic. I believe you would also get a hefty fine. Anyways, there were some amazing shots that I really wish I could have taken but yeah...

We did a lot of hiking and went to hot springs on the first day in Geumgangsan area. The weather was rather chilly but it was a good time overall. There are a lot of people standing on guard throughout the trail so they could fine you if you did anything wrong...It was beautiful though and typical Korean hiking (waiting in line to get up the mountain). I believe this weekend there were about 1,000 of us Tourists in the area; last weekend 2,000.

When we were on the bus we were able to see some North Koreans but I definitely wonder how much of it was propaganda. Everyone bikes or walks everywhere it seems, including the soldiers, but the area is so empty. There were random clumps of shacks but they seemed miles apart from one another. Anyways, when you walked anywhere it seemed that there were soldiers watching your every move. One of my friends and I walked to the pic of Kim Jong-il -North Korean Pres.(a little ways from the hotel) and there was one path for the foreigners and a guarded off area a couple feet away for the North Koreans with guards everywhere. There were tanks sitting on some mountains too. crazy...

The trip overall has definitely raised a lot of questions for me about North Korea though. I obviously would have loved to see more of the villages and people, and see what true North Korea was like but you take what you can get I suppose. Anyways, I can't really describe the whole experience in a blog but the trip overall was good and I wish I could have stayed longer.

I'll put my pics on my flick account so if you're interested you can take a look.

On a random note though, I have been sick for about a month and I have no idea how to get over it. I've gone to the doctor but it hasn't really helped...hmmm hopefully I'll get better soon.

Teaching with Avalon-well, I'll write about that more next time. The new students are good right now but give them a couple weeks and I could be singing a different song. :) We are getting some new teachers pretty soon so hopefully that will be good. Okay I think I'm going to go to the doctor again so I'll write more later. I hope you all are well much love from Korea----

Happy Chinese New Year!

Well last weekend I finally was able to get out of Korea and check out Beijing. It was amazing...I was only there for 4 days but we fit a lot in. I went on a guided tour group with a size of about 10. We were able to see the Temple of Heaven, Forbidden City, Ming Tombs, Tianamin Square, Great Wall, and much more. I can't explain it all in a blog but I'll give a short summary at least:)

The 2008 Summer Olympics are going to be held there so there was a ton of construction going on. We were able to see the Bird's Nest (one of the stadiums for the Olympics that's being built) and a lot of buildings being torn down. It was great to hear another language and get a different feel of Asia. There are a lot more bikes, older cars, bargaining, and greasy food in China :) Beijing currently has 2 subway lines I believe, and they want to have 15 lines by next year for the Olympics...crazy!

The Great Wall was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. It was rather steep I have to say! whew! I believe we got to the highest part of the Great Wall out of the 4,000 Miles that it is...anyways it was beautiful and surreal. The weather was great, there were a ton of people, and yeah...it was wonderful. I didn't realize that it was so mountainous..I loved it.

One of the other man highlights was the White Cloud Temple. The people celebrate the New Year for 15 days (Spring Festival), so a group of us had the last day free and hoped to find some festivities in the city, and we did :)We saw a huge line of people and wanted to check it out. We figured it must be something good if all the locals are there.

It was amazing. Everyone was carrying incense and praying, monks were throwing the incense in the fire, there was security all over the place and hardly any tourists! yay! It was one of the most surreal and beautiful experiences I've had so far.

We also went to an outdoor market during one of the evenings. It was pretty sweet I have to say. I had silkworm on a stick and I don't' really recommend it...yeah...
The food overall though was delicious. I felt that the daily routine became :
eat, walk for a little bit, eat, walk a little more, eat, chill, eat, sit on a bus, etc...
but the food was good and very greasy/oily. I think I gained like 5lbs in 4 days...oi. :) It was nice not to have spicy food for a change. Okay well that is a very quick summary on my stay in China. Maybe I'll get back there before I leave Asia, but we'll see. :)
My only disappointment about the trip was that I didn't get to see any parades with dragons or any lantern festivals...sad...but I shouldn't complain.

anyways I'll post my pics on my flickr account so check em out if ya want.

I guess the only other news is that I am finally done with Pre-School! yay! I have my mornings back!They had their graduation on Friday and it was pretty darn cute. Even though they can be a pain sometimes, I'll definitely miss them, some more than others :)

Our Avalon program also starts in a week so all of us foreign teachers have some seminars we need to attend next week..fun fun fun...a good break from teaching though. Okay I believe this entry is getting a little long so I will depart. Hope all is well and I'll write more soon!

The Power of Avalon

So I realize it's been a little while since I last wrote in here, the reason being, a combination of both lack of time and lack of anything extremely exciting. I figure I would spare you all from reading a complete bland entry and wait until something at least a little entertaining happened. :)
Our school is switiching over from E.C.C to Avalon on March 5. The slogan is "The Power of Avalon" and yet I continue to associate it with Avon and Powerade...anyways everything here is blue and white and says Abolon in Korean (the Korean alphabet doesn't have a "v" sound). Our curriculum as well as length and size of classes are changing which hopefully will be good...hopefully :) We are moving into 80 minute classes and I don't know if I can hold students' attention for that long. We'll see.

The weather has been pretty warm. No major ice storms, snow storms, or any storms really, so I'm not missing the mid-west in regards to weather :) I'm still doing pre-school in the a.m. and el.ed in the evening. The kids have way more energy than me! oi.

Well I am feeling like I'm at my low with my stay here so far. The first couple months were great; full of new adventures, hikes, etc... but I think teaching these long days make me too tired on the weekends to do anything too adventurous. I have been visiting different churches in Seoul which has been great. There is a large English Ministry in Seoul called Onnuri so I've been checking out their 2 campuses. Hopefully I'll get more connected in the near future.

I still haven't had time to go to Holt yet but I have been involved with G.O.A.L which is an organization in Korea that helps connect Korean adoptees with fellow adoptees and also supplies a wide range of resources for adoptees (helping find families, jobs, community,..) So I've been getting a little more involved in that circle.

This upcoming weekend though is the main highlight of my week. I will finally be out of this country for a couple days and will be able to spend the weekend in Bejing with my girl Kychele over the Lunar New Years!! Great wall here I come! I'm super excited and hopefully I'll feel a little more refreshed when I return on Monday. I'm going on a guided tour so that should hopefully be good (less stressful....I get stressed out way to easily as most of you know! ) Anyways I should get rollin. I have taekwondo practice....I love it but man it's rough :)

Good Times...

This past weekend was culture packed, love it :) I was invited to my first Korean wedding which took place on Saturday. One of the Canadian teachers at E.C.C. married a former Korean teacher. The ceremony was pretty much as opposite from the traditional dutch weddings as you can get. I really can't explain it in a blog, but just so you can get an idea, it involved fog, confetti, and lasted about 15 minutes. Anyways, there was a nice buffet to follow which I took full advantage of :)

On Saturday one of my friends that I worked with in Montana arrived in Korea with her mother. They are here to pick up a new member of their family which is always exciting. Anyways, I was able to meet up with them on Sunday and spend the day together. It was a fun filled day in Seoul. We went to a Korean Theatre in the afternoon. It was great to hear some traditional Korean music and see some Korean dancing. There is so much to learn! The instruments they use and history of each form of music is very interesting. After the show we all headed outdoors and the performers formed a line and started dancing/skipping/and playing music. They invited some of us to join in so Jen (my friend) and I jumped it. Good times.

The performers wore Hanbok which is traditional Korean clothing; bright and beautiful! After the show we met up with a Korean family that they {Jen and her mom} knew from home. They were absolutely lovely. They took us to Korean House which is a very traditional Korean restaurant. It involved about 8 courses it seemed and a ton of side dishes. I ate eel for the first time, and I'm sure some other things I wasn't aware of.

Anyways I officially like Korean pumpkin soup and seaweed.

Great stuff. Korean food seems to be very healthy for you (for the most part), but extremely spicy. They also have different kinds of kimchi depending on the season. Winter kimchi is pretty good for the most part but I have yet to figure out what the differences are between the seasonal kimchi.

After we were stuffed we went to another Korean theatre show at the restaurant. There were some new acts that I hadn't seen in the previous show, but a lot of it was similar to what we had seen before. There were drummers, dancers, dancing drummers, singers, and many other musicians. It was great.

Work has been going well. I'm still doing pre-school which is going better. It's still pretty draining to do morning and afternoon/evening classes, but it's going alright. The children are starting to grow on me more and I think I'm getting a little more patient! (yay! ;)The weather has been alright. I'm a little disappointed I haven't seen much snow this winter but what do ya do. I guess that's about it for now. There's alot I still want to see and get involved in in the area but all in due time I suppose.

Oh, I also added a link to my photos on flickr, so if you're interested take a peak :)

Ho hum hum...

Well nothing major has happened this past week. Let's see, I'm still doing pre-school and middle school. Supposedly I'm done with Pre-school at the beginning of February but I'll believe it once it happens. This past weekend a new teacher/roommate from Canada arrived, so I'm currently living with an Irish and Canadian. I believe we are getting about 3 more teachers over the course of the next month or so which will be nice (more Canadian and Irish).

This past weekend I was able to check out a new church. It was a larger English service which was great and I enjoyed it for the most part. One of the downfalls though is it is about and hour and a half away by subway. I think I might check out a couple other ones closer to me. Hopefully I'll find one soon.

It's been a good experience to be the foreigner. I feel like I'm getting a taste of what my international friends in the states go through. And to think that I'm only doing it for a year and they do it years at a time. crazy.

I feel like it's finally hitting me that I'm here for 9 more months. I'm looking forward to it though. There's a lot of travelling I need to do (nationally and internationally), adoption info I need to figure out, songs that need to be sung etc...should be a good year.
One of my girlfriends that I worked with in Montana is coming this weekend (with her mother) to pick up her new baby brother. Asian babies are just too cute to resist ;)
Adoption is an amazing experience for both the adopters as well as the adoptees. I love it! Anyways, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing a familiar face!

Other than that I guess nothing new is happening. The weeks go by so fast and the weekends even faster. Crazy. I'll write more soon if something exciting is happening ;) Sorry that this entry is so random. I'm feelin kind of off right now... or maybe that's just an excuse. :)

New Experiences...

This past week was a relaxing teaching week. I only had 2-6 classes a day rather than the 9-12 (no pre-school for a week), but I got in the routine of going to bed late which made going back to my busy schedule this morning rather difficult. The students had a lot of energy today...or I should say more so than normal. It was good to see them again though. I am finally starting to feel like this is my home which is nice. (Don't worry, I'll still come back to America sometime :)

There's so much I want to do while I'm here. I'm rather worried I won't be able to get it all done within the year but I'll try. It's dangerous though because I rationalize my spendings here (and everywhere I suppose) by continually telling myself it may be a once in a life time experience...it's okay for small things but when it becomes a matter of plane tickets and such, well, that can be dangerous :) All my money should be going towards paying for my B.A. degree..but ya only live once right? ;) I'm still hoping my music/german degree will make me money someday...hmmm...:)

Well this weekend was pretty eventful. So the "once in a lifetime" mindset carried over into this past weekend. I pretty much will try anything once when it comes to food and so on Friday night a group of us went out and........ I had my first experience eating dog. it's true...and i love dogs too! here it is...yup. (sorry for those that have a weak stomach). We had dog soup and dog with veggies. There was a lot of fat, it was expensive, and it really didn't taste good at all. So basically I'll never eat it again but it was an experience (not necessarily a good one though :).

I also got a new hairstyle this weekend. I usually get my haircut once or twice a year while everyone here seems to get a new hairdo or cut like once a month. anyways, I 'm use to people taking like 30-40 minutes to cut my hair just for trim. Well I go into this little haircutting area on the 2nd floor of my school building and this lady sits me down and starts hackin away! crazy! No washing, no small comb to makes sure all the cuts are even, no careful eyeing of the hair, nope, none of that...just her fingers, scissors, a large comb, and a barrette to hold back some of the hair. The haircut took about 8-10 minutes. amazing. 10 inches off in under 10 minutes. crazy. anyways, it's decent for the most part..:)

On saturday night a group of us went to Hongdae in Seoul which has a great night scene. We went to an amazing which was....get this...all you can eat and drink for about $22 USD. I love Korea! :) As most of you know I looooove food so, yeah it was pretty great :) They had a ton of meat, seafood, kimchi (of course), soups, octopus..yup it was nice. Full of foreigners :) I'll be heading back there for sure :) I would still take grilled steak and potatos with special K cookies over the buffet though...ahh...nothing can beat that.

So those were some of the events that have been taking place this past week. We are having new teachers come this weekend and one current teacher is leaving this week. Crazy. I'm starting to study Korean (finally!) so hopefully I'll be studious and start crackin down on the language.

Alright, I'm calllin it a night. :)

Cheers to 2007!

Well 2007 is here! It's always interesting to reflect on 2006 and see the journey I've been on. 2006 has especially been an exciting year---finishing undergrad at Calvin, having great friends get married, working at FMG, working in the mountains in Montana, being blessed with another niece, and wrapping the year up in South Korea. Love it! I'm looking forward to see how I grow throughout this next year and hopefully get some more travelling under my belt. There's a lot of opportunities to be taken advantage of out here, so bring it on :)

I received the new year in Gyeong-ju, which is near Busan (South-East part of the country). This was the capital city during the Silla Kingdom I travelled with Kathy Teacher and checked out the country down there. It was great to see farming land again and get away from the city.

I was able to visit the famous Buddhist temple, Bulguksa. This temple contains 7 of Korea's National treasures and is on the World Heritage List. It is gorgeous. The roofing is beautiful along with the stone pagodas. yup. I'll hopefully post more images later on a website. The Seokguram Grotto is also nearby (large Buddha in the mountains) but I didn't have time to hike to it. I believe most of it was destroyed during the Japanese occupation though. The mountain ranges are a beautiful sight though. oi.

We also checked out the tombs where Silla Kings were buried. (It was a tomb park actually). I really liked this pic of the tree on the tomb... reminded me of the tree from Der Kleine Prinz.

anyways.

There is always so much to see and of course not enough time. I'll hopefully go back to this area during the spring so I can see the cherry blossoms! :) I'm already excited!

Kathy and I then headed back home. I had my first chance to drive in Korea...crazy. I realize I'm not an aggressive enough driver; my chevy use to be intimidating enough. Driving was fun but it was a long haul; I think it was about a 6 hour drive.

Well, this week I don't have any pre-school classes which is nice :) I can sleep in and relax. I guess there's not much more to write so I'll be signing off for now.

I hope you are all having a great start to the New year ;)