Finally.........so many months later...

Okay, so I'm feeling re-inspired to start up my blog after months of pushing it aside. So here it goes. After the summer adventure of backpacking around Central and South America Enda and I headed back to the United States of America...ahh... Between then and now we spent some time in Michigan, attended some weddings and spent some time in Kerry, Ireland. One of my dear friends was married this summer:

and Enda's sister was married as well. My first Irish wedding! My first sing-along experience...it's very nice. :) All the parents/aunts/uncles/grandparents go into an room and sing irish tunes acapella or with a soft guitar in the background. Very soothing actually.
Anyways, I then headed to Seoul, Korea where I am now. I'm teaching in Seodaemun close to some great universities and a city with a good night scene. So far it is going well. Weird to be back, but good. As soon as I got off the plane the smells and spitting brought back a flood of memories.
So now I am currently living in a small apartment...hoping to be moving again in a couple weeks. So far I've been trying to get motivated to do some running and climbing. Need to re-adjust first I suppose and get the basics under control before undertaking too much and overcommiting myself.
I went to a Craft's Fair in the COEX mall last weekend and tried to work with my computer (which you can view here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lpoortenga/ )
Anyways, other than that, nothing too new is happening. I've met some great people here and hope to meet many more throughout this year journey. Enda will be flying in tomorrow and joining me on this adventure.

Alright. That's my short and sweet Post for now...hopefully I'll be more regular with this all...

On to south america

Since I last wrote a lot has happened. I´ll try and make it short and sweet. :) We landed in Quito and overall it was a pretty nice city. We did however almost get robbed not once but twice all while in Quito. Oh the joy of travelling. Fortunately both times we caught them before they took anything. While in Ecuador we covered everything from visitng small animal markets (as pictured below) These guinea pigs however are not intended to be used as pets, but rather a $7 dinner) to floating down rivers in the Amazon to driving Dune buggies in Baños and most importantly.....watching male Humpback whales try and impress the ladies with their jumping and spraying!!! It can´t all be summed up in a blog entry but it´s been all amazing. We´ve been able to do some couchsurfing (staying at peoples´house for free) in some of the cities which has been great. Last week we checked out some pyramids and ruins in Trujillo. We also attempted surfing! First time for both Enda and myself. Nice waves, nice instructer, and beautiful sunset.


The picture below is dedicated to my brother Kyle. I´m going to bring one of these home for you. They are officially called....wait for it.... A Hairless Peruvian Dog (Creative, I know). This one is a mix breed therefore it has a mohawk on it´s head. Cute eh? This dog has higher body temperature than most therefore it is good for a snuggle before bed as well as people who suffer from arthritis.


One of the main highlights has been what we just finished this past week. We were in Huaraz, Peru this past week in the Andes. Ahhhh...the Andes. We did some mountain biking for a day which was gorgeous.

We ended up going on the Santa Cruz 4 day trek which was amazing. The group ended up being a little larger than we thought due to the bus strike, but the people in the group were amazing. It was good to be in the mountains with beautiful Southern Hemisphere Stars and donkeys to help along the way. A lot of Yanniv (Isreali card game) was played and a lot of good food was ate.

I´ll add pics to my flickr soon so check it out if you´re bored.

After the Trek we headed to the rocks for some climbing...ahhh...real rock face. It was our first time climbing outside. Amazing.... So much fun. Such a mental sport. And now.... well now we are in the great city of Lima. Just for a day and then we are off to Nazca-Ica area for some sandboarding and hopefully Paragliding. Good times. Time is flying by.

Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Costa Rica

So that is where we have been thus far. We arrived in Costa Rica and headed out to the Carribean side to see what that was about. Puerto Viejo. Good stuff. A lot of beaches. A lot of foreigners. A lot of sun. The bus rides were fine and had little trouble getting around. We stayed there for a couple weeks, then headed up to see my sista ;) Spent a couple weeks there. A lot a staring... a lot of "La China" calling..whatev. Arrived in her apartment complex but wait....oh yes...she didn´t tell me which apartment she lived in....oh man....But we figured it out in due time ;) Nice apartment. Nice roomates. Nice insects...

Anyways, Enda and I went on a fieldtrip with the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders for a couple days. We did a little Taekwondo workshop for the students which was fun. The heat was killing us though...oi. It was fun to see kate with her students both in and out of the classroom. Great teacher. Good fun.

Enda and I did some side trips while we were out there. We headed down to Masaya and did a night tour there. Had the experience of Bats flying at me as well as seeing magma and having my first volcano experience. Very cool. When looking at the magma there was a post we could hang on to so we wouldn´t fall into it. How sweet. It was an amazing experience. Sounds just like the ocean...amazing.

We also went to Mombacho and did some hiking on the craters out there. We were able to practice our spanish with our guide as we hiked the Puma trail...unfortunately we didnt´see any Puma´s or howling monkeys....sad day. (Later we did return to Mombacho and did a canopy tour between trees. Good times. We did some fun tricks while on the wire, oh and there we DID see howling monkeys! Lucky for us they didn´t throw poop at us....odd creatures...)

One of the highlights though was hiking Volcan concepcion. It is on an Ometepe Island and is an intense vertical hike. We went with a couple other people (as well as a guide) and started up it at 6 a.m. A couple days before there was a mini chemical erruption but we wouldn´t let that deter us from summitting...oh no... ;) We each had anywhere from 4 to 5 Liters of water each, which was needed. It took us about 8 and a half hours to hike up and down. we eventually all reached the top (after scrambling up hot and slippery rock) only wanting then to get down again due to the sulfur smell. Anyways, good times.

We also did some swimming/kayaking in a crater a couple days ago with Kate and some friends. Gorgeous area.

Now we are back in San Jose and are heading out to Quito in a couple days. If you want to check out pics, look at my flickr account! ;)

Quick stop at home

Well I'm currently making a quick stop at home in good ole' Michigan. Enda and I arrived about a week and a half ago after much chaos with late flights, paper work, and chasing trains. It gets a lot harder to travel when your travel partner is a different nationality...fingerprints...photos..oi....

The time here has been filled with family and friends though which makes it all worth the hassle. I was able to hold my new niece, Rachel Mae, adorable, and hang out at a baseball game and zoo with my other nieces and nephews.

I have also been planning a concert to raise money for my sister, but I've been realizing how out of shape both my fingers and my vocal chords are. It's hard to pull together a concert with within a couple weeks. Oh well. It's probably good for me.

There never seems to be enough time in a day.

Anyways, Enda and I are taking off on our next leg of our travels.
Next stop: San Jose, Costa Rica followed by Managua visiting the sister! Yay!

Let the traveling continue

So, again I realize I'm not the greatest at updating my blog, but I guess nothing too interesting has been happening by me and I didn't want to bore you with my ramblings and run-on sentences. But now I figure I have a couple interesting things that have been happening to me so, 'Yay' I have a reason to update it :)

Well to start off, Enda and I took a trip up to Northern Ireland to check out the scene there. We had the privilege of staying with our fellow Expat from Korea, Kevin, and his family in Belfast. Great to see him again. We only spent a couple days there, but saw a decent amount of scenery. The first day we checked out the city, but unfortunately it was rainy and dreary so we moved our adventures to a local coffee house. We then drove around the northern coast. Absolutely beautiful I have to say. The rain dropped on us here and there, but overall the weather was nice. We checked out a surfing competition. Yeah...that wasn't too cool. The only amusing part was, rather than have an proper air-horn to signal the surfers to paddle out, the man on the loud speakers imitated his voice to sound like one. Interesting... hmm..I think he was also doing some karaoke... hmm.

Anyways, we then checked out Giants Causeway which is a place of 40,000 mostly hexagonal basalt columns that came about through a volcano. Gorgeous. What more can I say. The waves only accentuated it's beauty I have to say. On the way back up from them, there was a quick downpour but it was worth getting wet due to the end result. When I turned around, there was an amazing rainbow next to us arching over fields and houses. Nature in it's prime.

When we were back in Belfast we decided to check out the World Championship Irish Dancing. Very cool I have to say. It was an all day extravaganza for us. Well, maybe not extravaganza, but it was entertaining nonetheless. The morning was mainly solos dancers, but when evening came around the groups of 8 (4 males, 4 females) and 16 (mix) started coming out. Amazing I have to say. The whole thing. Their outfits, make-up, wigs, dancing abilities. Good stuff.

Well, moving on. Then Enda and I took a quick trip to Spain (mainly for visa reasons, but also ryanair was doing $0.01 flights + tax. Cheap flight. Can't pass it up. Anyways, we landed in Santander and took the great advice of our friend and decided to take the bus to Bilbao right away. Awesome city.

The Guggenheim is there, the bridges are beautiful at night, the streets are quiet. Short and sweet time there. We stayed there for about a day and a half. We then headed back to Santander for the day (once we figured out how to get on the right bus--language difficulties) and checked out the sights there, or should I say lack thereof. We weren't really impressed, but it was fun nonetheless.

Anyways, we are now back in Dublin. Met up with some old friends, and are heading down to Kerry for a good-bye to his family and then we are off to N. Am for a quick reunion with my family. Should be good :) Anyways, hopefully I'll write more soon~

Cheers-

Happy Saint Paddy's

Things here have been pretty low key for the most part here in Dublin. Nothing too major to report. Just filling my time with a little work, a little play, a little running, ya know trying to keep life balanced, but wishing I could do a better job at it. :)

Anyways, for the major holiday Enda and I headed over to county Tipperary to watch the fireworks lighting up of The Rock of Cashel. Surprisingly there wasn't any rain! The weather was pleasant, and the show was amazing. I would have to say, it was proabaly my favorite fireworks display ever :)

On Saint Paddy's day, we headed downtown to check out the parade, but sadly it wasn't nearly as entertaining The R of C. I was a little disappointed. There was a lot of green. A lot of really tall hats, and a lot of tourists.

The parade itself was more like people just dressed up than anything else. I believe there were mad scientists, overgrown spiders, fishes, and cars....and a ton of American marching bands. I believe there were maybe 2 Irish bands and 6 U.S. ones.

Anyways, that's about all for now. We're going to be doing a little more traveling soon, s

o hopefully the next entry will be a little more entertaining! :)

Rain

Well, there's really not too much to report, so I'll keep this post short and sweet :)

Things have been going well. I've been able to do a part-time job which is nice, seeing that things in Dublin (and everywhere I suppose) seem to be twice as expensive as Korea and home. Anyways, the weather has been getting more and more rainy as well, but on the off days we have been able to take a couple road trips.

One of them was to Glendalough which is in Wicklow Mountains Nat'l Park. This was a monastery that was founded by St. Kevin in the 6th c. but was unfortunately destroyed in the late 14th c by the English army. Near the monastery there was a large graveyard where I took this picture. I'm always astonished by the elaborateness of the grave sites in Ireland. They seem to stand very proud.

Anyways, this area also consisted of 2 lakes. The upper lake, I think, is shown to the left...it could be the lower lake...but yeah... Anyways, the view was very peaceful and serene. It was a good trip.

Well, we're currently in Kerry (Enda's hometown), and about ready to take off. It was a relaxing trip. Spent some good time on the beach with the dogs...good times.


I guess that's about all that's happening here. Oh, and Happy Mother's Day! (This past Sunday is when Ireland celebrates their mother's day).

Ireland

So I made it safely to Ireland a couple weeks ago. Time is flying by. Where does it go? It felt good to be on a plane again...missed the traveling. The flight wasn't too bad; 7 hours I believe. I watched a wierd film...not impressed... Seats were small, food was edible at best... thankfully I had 2 to my self (including the window seat). Wahoo ;)

When I got off the plane, Irish immigration was difficult.bleh. They wanted to know who I was visiting, where I was staying, why i was here, how much money I had, what my IQ was, and when I would be leaving. I was thinking about pretending I couldn't speak English (put on the korean act...or start speaking german) Anyways. I figured that wouldn't go over very well.

After I got through all of that I finally was able to see Enda which was great! (He was a little overly excited as you can see below....)

It's different being in his country with him rather than both being in a foreign country together. It's been great though seeing where he grew up and the irish lifestyle.

I have been busy checking the sights and adjusting to life here Dublin. Things have been going well so far. Enda took me to the Ireland v. Brazil football game on my first night. Great night, great company. We toured Dublin. Slowly but surely I'll be able to maneuver around the city. It's pretty nice overall. Surprisingly it hasn't rained yet! Supposedly Jan. was rough for Ireland in terms of rain.

Let's see, I also went to my first horse race! Very exciting :) One of my horses won! Good times. Enda and I also took a trip down to Kerry. The countryside is gorgeous. Open fields with sheep and little houses (and some rather large houses). Narrow winding roads....beautiful.

The ocean was also nearby, so we brought the dogs out there a couple times and ran around. I "played" hurling with the dogs. It was more like me attempting to swing a hurley and failing to hit the actual sliothar (to the normal person that means "ball" hehe :) Anyways, it was fun. I think i'll stick to singing though....hmmm.

There have been some other outings but I realize this is getting rather lengthy, so i'll cut it. On the end note, my latest expedition was this morning to the Guiness brewing house :) Good way to start the day :)

The chilly month of january

Well, things have been going pretty well since I've been home. It's been nice to relax and spend time with family and friends. Kate left to go back to Nicaragua in the beginning part of January, and I've been living between Grand Rapids and home. I've just been chillin and working a little at the Gardens.
(The pic. to the right is of my cute niece trying to figure out how to use the whistle from Nicaragua.)

A week or so ago I was able to take a little road trip to St. Louis with my friends.
One of our friends was getting married there, so we all decided to take a trip down there and
celebrate the special day with her. It was a great trip overall. The wedding wasn't until a little later in the afternoon, so we were able to visit the infamous arch as well as the zoo. It was a good way to spend time with friends as well as see a new city.

The wedding itself was lovely. It's always exciting to see friends and family enter a new chapter of their lives. (This is a picutre of the bride :) Lovely :)

I'm currently preparing myself for my long journey on the Greyhound. I'm taking off to Oklahoma to visit another dear friend of mine in a couple days. I'm very excited to reunite and spend some quality time with her. It will be a long and cultural experience on the Greyhound...I believe the last time I was on the Greyhound, the man sitting in front of me continually talked about as well as showed me x-rays of his arm. Yuppers. And that was only like a 7 hour trip. This one is about 24 hours....i'm sure I'll come out with some great stories afterwards. :)

After that I'll be back in MI for the weekend and then off to Ireland to see Enda and his family! I'm very excited! Should be a good time....rainy.....but good. I'll be there for a little while, chillin, travellin, spendin quality time in Dublin and elsewhere. Hopefully I'll be able to understand everyone.....hopefully.........I guess I'll just smile and nod. Unfortunately I won't be able to blend in as well as I did in Korea. Back to being a expatriate. I think I'm getting used to it.

Anyways, hopefully once I get some enthralling adventures I'll update this blog more often. Until then Mind Yourself :)