The journey

Brrr....

2009-12-05T01:49:00.000-08:00

December has arrived and it brought it's windchill with it.

Today was the first sign of snow flakes. They only lasted a few minutes and melted before they made contact with any type of surface, but they were there...

On Monday I started my last semester at Chungdahm. Where does the time go. It's been over a year now that I've been in Korea. It's always interesting (and can be depressing or inspiring) to look at what I've accomplished in the past year. "What can I do to make next year better?" "What am I thankful for that I did this year?" "What have I learned about myself, friends, family, and strangers this year." I find it overwhelming to think about the year ahead of me though. Where will I go? How will it all work out? Where will I be in December 2010? How can I be a better person? But then I just breathe.... :) (and grab hot tea and biscuits.... :)

Anyways, things are going well in Korea though. Enda will be taking off in a couple weeks to do an ice trek for 3 weeks in Leh...(a little envious... but thankful he gets to have this experience!) I will be staying here and finishing out my semester. Then I'll be off traveling with my little ole backpack and passport.... :)

Here are a couple pics to show what I've been up to. Some are of a lantern festival from a couple weeks back, and others are of Jongmyo park, and randomness. Check out my flickr if you want to see more.

Busy man....too many people to call....

Jongmyo....gorgeous place.

The lantern festival was cold, but beautiful. It was good to practice with the camera again... Practice makes perfect....or just a little bit better in my case :)

Why I like living abroad....hmmmm....

2009-11-18T00:13:00.000-08:00

Well I'm writing this post partially because I' haven't written in about 2 months....and partially in response to an e-mail I received from Aclipse Chungdahm Learning, which requested that I write about 5 reasons why I like living overseas. Well...let's see. I've been living in Korea (mainly Seoul) off and on for about 2 years now. There are times where living in this city and culture can be very tumultuous. This may be more so the case for me because I'm a country girl at heart...but who knows. But in response to living overseas in general, it definitely has it's pro's.

1. You're constantly learning and observing a new culture. Even if you don't speak the language, just by observing the people and their demeanor fills you in on a lot. How the youth act around their elders, boyfriends around girlfriends, children around parents, natives around foreigners etc... Granted, your conclusion may not always be accurate due to the cultural barrier, but you can still learn a lot. Everyone has a different experience.

2. It's an achievement. The fact that you went to a foreign country not only to visit but to live in, is quite an accomplishment in and of itself. It takes guts.

3. One thing I've really enjoyed is being in a country with a long and interesting history. Coming from a country that was only discovered roughly 500 years ago is nothing in comparison to one that began in 2333 B.C. It's interesting to see how the history is integrated into the modern society.

4. New experiences...obviously. It's great to learn new sports, experience new food, new drinks, new ideas. It was great studying a martial art in the country where it was orginated. The fact that you are living in the country gives you more time to fully embrace the new experiences.

5. Easy access to other countries. The worlds your oyster. While I've been living in Korea I've had the opportunity to travel internationally during vacation. Granted it depends where you are living, but Korea is a great central location to access other countries. A lot of teachers go to Japan for a couple days. Personally I went to Vietnam, China, and N. Korea when I had time off.

Okay, this has been a longer entry than I anticipated. I'll write a new entry in a couple days when I have more time and more pics! :) Hope this entry helped for those that are debating about living abroad!

New semester :)

2009-09-13T21:01:00.000-07:00

So half of September has disappeared already. I don't know where it went.
The new semester has begun at CDI. Fresh faces, fresh curriculum, freshness all around. I'm only teaching 4 days a week now, so that's been a nice break. A lot of the students are coming back from their international trips, so it's always great to hear their improvement on the English language (as well as their adventures).

These past couple weeks have flown by. I don't really remember all that I have done...I'm currently training for some 10k's that are coming up in a couple of weeks, so that's been keeping me busy. Enda and I will be running our first race together, so that should be exciting! (the nike human race in Seoul-10k).

The weather has been cooling off a lot, which is great! I'm actually currently wearing my hoodie for the first time this season! Yay! It can't get much better than tea, internet, and a hoodie :) Everything else in Korea is going smoothly. I have about 5 and a half more months here, so a long but short time.

Enda and I will be taking a vacation over chuseok (Korean thanksgiving) in about 3 weeks, so it will be a nice break from the city and work. Hopefully the leaves will be out by then and I can get some nice photos. The ones below are a couple I took this past weekend...walking around...ya know, trying to feel inspired :)

I guess that's all that's really happening here. Work, sleep, play on weekends :) I'm trying to practice my pool skills in the picture below....working on accuracy...oi... :) I believe the 1st pic is actually Enda's hand...not mine...

August breeze

2009-08-25T18:53:00.000-07:00

Well things are starting to cool down here finally. The showers are bringing a freshness to the air and the mosquitoes are subsiding. Life in Korea is going on as usual. Intensives at CDI are finished. No more Catcher in the Rye for me, and the semester is about to come to a close. It will be sad to see some students go, but it is always refreshing to get see fresh faces and new curriculum.

I had a relaxing birthday this last week. I will never understand where all the time goes. It's amusing to think back and remember where I imagined I would be at this age. Oh how life never seems to go as planned.

While walking around a newly finished pedistrian lane on Gwangjin-gyo Bridge (Gwangnaru st. L. 5 ex 2) I took a couple of pics.
There is a section in the middle of the bridge that you can walk under. It is like a flight of stairs that circle around and brings you to an observation like room. There is a little concert hall and a section where they have windows on the ground where you can see the beautiful green han river water :) (See below)
Anyways, it's something different I suppose :)

Enda and I enjoyed a nice evening of dinner and a Korean show (Part of the Korean Fringe Festival in Hongdae). Both enjoyable. And this past weekend a couple of us went to play in the Poker Tournament at Walker Hill. I played my share of Black Jack as well. Good fun all around. It's amazing for me to see crowded Black Jack tables with a min. 200,000 Won Buy in. (I played at the 5,000won buy in table:)

Enda also bought me a new lens for my birthday, so I've been having fun with that. I finally got my Flickr account up and running again. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lpoortenga/

Amazing that Fall is fast approaching. Hopefully next semester I will be teaching 4 days a week and will be able to take more photos while hiking/traveling on the weekends. Should be good.
Ta ta for now :)

August...here and hot.

2009-08-01T21:40:00.000-07:00

Well, amazingly enough August has arrived. Rather quickly, but expected. I'm currently spending my Sunday in a cool cafe, drinking my ice caramel macchiato, listening to Norah Jones, and looking at the hotness outside...

July flew by. I think each month disappears much more rapidly than the previous. How does that work? .Work is dictating my life, but that is what I signed up for I suppose :) We are in the intensive month of the year. Korean parents continue to send their children to Hagwons during the summer..oh and why not have them take an extra class in the morning? Brilliant! :) Oh Korea.

Anyways, Monsoon has passed of which I am grateful. I'm looking forward to the cool autumn weather with the gorgeous mountain leaves.... This past month has been good though. Exploring Seoul one section at a time.

Random pic of the day:
Okay. Short and sweet entry.

Unexpected but welcomed

2009-06-07T02:10:00.000-07:00

Well the month of June is here along with its mosquitoes and sunburn. Since the last writing much has happened. The end of the semester was much welcomed. We had an unexpected 9 day vacation with our Institute, so no complaining there! :) A perfect break for both the students as well as teachers!

So I spent most of the vacation catching up on the "To do" list and crossing out as much as possible. Overall, pretty productive. I was able to spend a good deal of time experimenting with my much neglected camera. I enjoyed a good game of Monopoly with some friends---over a nice brownie and ice-cream while I built houses and motels on Boardwalk.... I forgot how long that game takes... We were at it for 2 hours and just starting our infrastructures.

This picture I was just experimenting with water...and how to take pictures of it.... Still need to work on that :)

Anyways, there was also a good deal of exploring Seoul more. The city continues to surprise me. There are so many people. So many places. So much construction!

I was also able to stay up and watch the United vs. Barcelona game with some buddies without having to feel the effects of the 4 a.m. game too harshly. Unfortunately the results didn't come out as wished or hoped, but such is life. On the up side I was able to work out my play station, fussball, and photography skills that night.

This picture was taken in an alley way near my friends' place....around 2 in the morning....or three.... Still working on night shots as well.
Enda jamming on the guitar. Me, jamming on my camera.

Enda and I were also able to hang out in a couple parks in Seoul. The weather has been nice out and it was great to finally be able to enjoy it rather than just see it.Enda took a nice picture of the bee below. The guy kept hidding from him, but Enda found him eventually :)

Anyways, that is about all for now. My third semester has begun. Let the games begin!!! :)

pics

2009-05-20T18:08:00.001-07:00

So for some reason the pics are uploading fine now so here are some from this month.
It's a rainy day. Perfect for posting up pictures... :)

Let's begin with Busan. Enda and I took the train down (the slower...roomier one...that took 6 hours :)

Us chillin at the Busan Giants game. It's fun to be a Busan fan. Even though their team was losing by 6 in the 8th inning, the fans were still strong. Cheering away with their newspaper pom-poms....ahhh

Can't go wrong with Baskin Robins....mmm...chocolate.... :)

Here are are some pictures of my experiments with the camera last night... This is of a flower on the overpass...working with random zoom experiments..That's all for now folks...Adios-Aufwiedersehen....Ahnyeong

May Heat

2009-05-19T21:17:00.000-07:00

May is making its swift exit, similar to its entrance. It's hard to take the much needed side-step from life. The time where you can reflect on where you are in life. Your Joy. Your pain. Your Faith. God is good through it all.

May had a great start. The crutches are not a part of my daily life anymore! Took my legs for granted. My left leg had to learn how to walk again though...weird feeling...

anyways Enda and I took a trip to my birth-town, Busan. I did a little more research on my birth family search, but unfortunately to no avail. The search continues God-willing.

The beach city contrasts Seoul in many ways...which is nice. Life seems to be more laid back...slower paced. We did some couchsurfing with some folks there. (Actually it was coincidentally another Calvin Grad! We are everywhere!)

Free place + great company= no complaints here :) I would upload pics, but for some reason the Blogger won't let me....

Now the new semester is about to begin. Looking forward to it. Another 6 days/wk work schedule, but it's a blessing to have a job. It would help if the exchange rate was a little better though....can't have everything in life. Anyways, I'll try to upload some pics soon. Until then, Blessings--

Spring is coming...

2009-04-02T00:10:00.000-07:00

Well to start off the great month of April, I decided I should do it in style, i.e. on crutches. Yuppers. As of a couple hours ago I'm officially stuck with aluminum crutches with a wrapped left leg. Thank you Taekwondo. I had decided a couple hours before the incident that I was going to run a half marathon too.....there goes that idea. Anyways, such is life. Take the good with the bad. Become grateful for what you do have I suppose :).

Last week I was able to accomplish a 10k with my friend Brittany. It was a beautiful day in Goyang and a lot of fun. Hopefully later this spring/summer I'll be able to do some more. (Got a little lost finding the place but all is well :)

I haven't been doing too much this month besides working 6 days a week, running, taekwondo, and chilling. But hopefully the month of April will bring nice cherry blossom photos (hopefully not covered with yellow dust :)
Blessings.

March already....

2009-03-09T18:50:00.001-07:00

Well, I've been slacking on blogging these past few months. No excuse. But here I am now. Making the most of my Tuesday morning :). Currently I'm training for my first 10k. I realize when I run I feel like I'm going at a snails pace, but I suppose it's a better pace than none. It's been good for me though...not as nice as the fresh country air, but it'll have to do.

Anyways, I'm currently in my second semester of working with CDI. I have some upper levels students which is a nice break from the little ones. Interesting students that work way to hard! Yesterday I had a student tell me he didn't get to finish all his online homework because he was in the hospital getting is gallbaldder taken out. But his mom was kind enough to bring him his CDI homework while he was recovering at the hospital....wow.

The weather has been warming up slowly but surely. Just when I decide to pull out the spring jacket it decides to be blustery. I also purchased a tripod so I've been trying to pull it out around town a little at night...but my fingers tend to become numb.

We took this picture downtown Seoul. Just messing with shutter speed and f/stop settings...Needs improvement. Practice practice practice... :)

This traffic picture is taken close to the apartment.

This past weekend we also went with some friends to a B-Boy battle (Breakdancing). Very cool. Amazing things people can do with their body. Supposedly Korea has a pretty good reputation for quality B-Boyz. Talent. It's nice to see some variety of people in Korea as well...

Anyways, for Enda's birthday/Valentines Day, we headed downtown for some ice-skating and dinner with friends and then took off to see Nanta! (Cooking/drumming/comedy/non-verbal performance). He was pulled up on stage, dressed in some whacky costume, ate some soup and was 'hypnotized'. Good stuff. They always find the foreigners in the crowd. At least I get to blend in a little :)

Well, I guess nothing else major has been happening around Korea. The relations with N. Korea are getting worse..but no surprise there I suppose. Some airlines have had to change their flight route as to not fly over N. Korea....oi. Time continues to tick away. Life continues to pass all too quickly. God has been good. Even through turmoil and joys..He is my constant.

Blessings-

Lunar New Years... ;)

2009-01-29T16:21:00.000-08:00

Well this month has been a hectic, but good month. Beginning with work: It's frustrating at times. Seems like it is being run more with money in mind rather than the betterment of the students English.

Anyways, for the Lunar New Years I had Monday off (even though it is celebrated over Monday and Tuesday), so it was nice to have a small class size on Tuesday. I definitely would prefer to teach 5 students rather than 18 but what do you do. The intensive month is finished though so I am free on Wednesdays again...ahhh... Next term though I will most likely be working 6 days a week rather than 4. For our Lunar New Years present from our manager we all received 2 bottles of red wine. Unfortunately I'm not a huge wine girl but whatev I suppose. Enda received some instant coffee and coffee beans...unfortunately we don't have a coffee maker. It really wasn't our holiday for receiving useful gifts. Oh well.

Anyways, on the way to Church this past weekend, we passed a Mc Donalds, and seeing that they don't have drive thru's here, they deliver! I had no idea this existed...maybe I've been in a bubble though. Anyways, I thought it was class. Thinking about getting one...hmm...

Anyways, on to the weekends. Nothing too crazy has been happening. We went with some friends to watch Incheon vs. Seoul in a basketball game. Good times. The cheerleaders did YMCA as one of their cheers. Class. Anyways, it was a good time.Then headed to On The Border which is just as expensive (if not more) in Korea as it is in the States. For some reason I was hoping it would be cheaper....disappointment. But amazing food as usual.... :)

This past weekend Enda and I went Ice skating. His first time...I just assumed everyone ice skated on frozen fields in the country when they were young (thanks dad) but ah, not so in Ireland...Anyways, it was fun to teach him how to skate. I didn't realize how hard it is to teach someone to skate. My instructions were something like this: "Push off of one foot and glide and continue altering feet.." Not extremely helpful...

So this upcoming week I will finally be starting Taekwondo! Ahh...finally...I'll be in bits I'm sure, but it will be good. The weeks continue to fly by as usual. The weekends don't seem to exist. Anyways, that's about all for now. Nothing too crazy :)

January events...

2009-01-14T19:33:00.000-08:00

Well after bringing in 2009 we began our Intensive classes. No rest for the students. School. Computer games. School. Kimchi. Study. School. Sleep. oi.

Anyways, for adventures in January...not too many to take note of. Enda and I did some hiking in Bukhansan National Park which was nice. Good to be out and in Nature again. The view was rather depressing though. Pollution. Fog. But regardless it was a good day. Enjoyed some Kimbap at the top of one of the summits. The signs for trails aren't laid out the best, so we ended up exiting the mountain in the backyard of some apartments. Hey whatever works I suppose :)

This past weekend we decided to take a snowboarding trip. Enda's first time! :) Yay! It was a lot of fun. Some bruises and aches, but well worth it.. A familiar position for both Enda and myself for most of the day...A couple hours though was plenty of time on the slopes for us though.

And to top of January thus far, one of the teachers at my school did a runner and headed back to the States so I spent all yesterday moving furniture from one apartment to another...finally getting settled...

Well that's all about it for now. Will write more in the near future....

Holidays in Korea

2009-01-02T16:07:00.000-08:00

There's truly is no place like home for the Holidays. Korean Hagwons (and maybe Korean's in general) like to make their teachers work every day possible. That includes Christmas as well as New Years Eve. Thankfully though, the bus drivers wanted to have Christmas night at home with their family (or with soju) therefore our boss moved our regular evening classes to the morning. You can see where the teachers end up in the heirarchy. Hmm.. Anyways, amazingly enough I did have a good share of students show up. I have to say though on behalf of my boss, she did order in a turkey dinner, stuffing, bread, and pumpkin pie for dessert from the Army base.
For Christmas Enda and I went to a Thai restaurant in Hongdae with some friends. Not the home made potatoes and bread that I'm used to, but it works. Following that, we stopped off at Paris Baguette and picked up a couple Christmas cakes and Christmas hats. (No pictures with me now, but I'll get them hopefully soon). Finally we headed to a friends' place and hung out for the night. Good times. Good people.

For New years Eve Enda and I took off to VIPS. An all you can eat place.. ahhh...sooo good....mmm.. then we headed to City Hall for the countdown and made our way to a concert. See picture below...Enda with the desserts.

The picture below is of a Korean couple wearing...that's right, green cow hats on their head. Supposedly this is the cool thing to do. Enda and I didn't get that memo of which I'm rather thankful.

Enda and I also made a journey to the Horse Racecourse this past weekend! Good times. After we figured out how to read the scores and buy our cards we went crazy! You can actually bet 100 won if you want (that's like .10 cents) Amazing. Anyways, I always start off good and end off bad. You would think that I would learn from it, but no. I don't. The Koreans are also very quiet when it comes to horseracing. The place has 5 floors but each floor is dead quiet with hundreds of Koreans walking around placing their bets. Only when the horses are coming around turn 4 do the Koreans start to make some ruckus. Even then it seemed unified. The picture below is of Koreans squatting. That's how they roll. No chairs, just your own legs... :) Where's the heater? (Above picture)

Sleeping on the subway. I just liked this picture so added it to the bunch. :)

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

2008-12-08T19:54:00.000-08:00

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

2008-07-11T13:54:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-03T05:38:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-02T16:42:00.001-07:00

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

2008-04-11T10:05:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-03T03:30:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-16T08:58:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-21T11:52:00.000-08:00

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 :)

Back in the U.S. of A

2007-12-26T07:37:00.000-08:00

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....

2007-10-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-09-28T09:16:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-04T06:47:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-07T09:32:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-02T07:09:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2007-06-22T22:21:00.000-07:00

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

Heat wave

2007-06-11T17:57:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-05-24T00:38:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-05-02T06:58:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-04-20T01:55:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-06T19:45:00.000-07:00

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?

2007-03-25T18:58:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-11T17:50:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-02-24T04:15:00.000-08:00

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

2007-02-12T02:27:00.000-08:00

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...

2007-01-23T05:28:00.000-08:00

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...

2007-01-15T04:43:00.000-08:00

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...

2007-01-08T05:41:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-01-01T17:13:00.000-08:00

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 ;)

Holidays in Korea

2006-12-26T04:21:00.000-08:00

This past week has flown by once again, but not without draining a lot of energy from me. It was a very tiring week with the preschool and middle school students, but I made it surprisingly. Let's see where do I even start with this past week. Well, our hagwon went to a Christmas party at a hotel where we met about 10 other English Schools. There was great food, good company, and entertainment of which we took part in. We {our schools} competed against one another. E.C.C. sang and danced....yeah, it was interesting :) I directed our 'choir' and about 12 of us danced to Mary Mary's "Shackles". yay ;) It was fun. We placed 3rd which was good given the fact that the mic didn't work for part of the choir portion, and we forgot about 5 seconds of the dance...hmmm.

This is a pic of Joanne teacher, one of the lovely Korean teachers I work with, and myself at the dinner party on Saturday. Good times.

For Christmas Eve and Day I ended up going snowboarding in Phoenix Park (same place I went last weekend). This time though I went with a program called Adventure in Korea. They set up trips throughout the year for foreigners who want to go out see what's out here. Hiking/snowboarding/fishing/camping trips

Anyways, I went boarding Sunday afternoon which was great! The place was crowded on Sunday-all day, which was weird seeing that it was Christmas Eve and all, but Christmas in Korea isn't really that big of a deal. Some of the people I met went to a concert that night on the slopes and saw some fireworks. Pretty good show if I may say so myself :)

The band we heard was called 'copy machine' and this is a pic of the girls i went with and the band. yup.. the Koreans looking like true Koreans...:) love it.

After that we took off and hit up some bowling because what else do you do on Christmas Eve? :) I believe my score stayed in the double digits :) yay for bowling.These are my Room 307 youth hostel roommates. good people.

It was also great to have the hostel right on the slopes. I think people stayed on them until about 2 in the morning. Hard Core.

I decided to snowboard on Christmas morning which turned out to be the most painful (literally) Christmas I've ever had. Yay! Okay, so it started off as a great morning; the slopes were empty, there wasn't any music blaring from the speakers, it was just me and nature, the way I like it.

Well, soon after that moment of tranquility I was rudely awakened by truly becoming one with nature. I was doing a run and was practicing my turn and had my back to the downside of the slope when I fell backward and totally flipped/rolled/tumbled whatever you want to call it, and landed extremely hard on my ars. It left a nice bruise. oi. Anyways, I continued for another 3 hours. Gotta learn from your mistakes and push through the rough times regardless of how painful they may be. (or something like that). Here's a pic of Danny, Kevin, and I Christmas morning on the slopes.

Well, this week is only a 3 day work week which is nice. I think I'll take this weekend away from the slopes though...

Hopefully I'll be contacting Holt soon in regards to starting the research for my parents.

I'm also going to be starting language courses somewhere in Jan. Either at a school or church or something. I realize though I need to get that together asap. I'm sick of not being able to communicate. oi. okay, I should get rollin'. Hopefully this weekend I'll get together a link that has more of my pics from Korea on it. Okay, Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I with you all a great New Year. Crazy how time flies by...

Oh Korea :)

2006-12-18T07:20:00.000-08:00

So I started pre-school last week monday which has been very interesting to say the least. :) me teaching 4 year olds that don't speak English...good times. I now have about 10-12 classes a day (10a.m.-9p.m.ish) of children from the age of 4-16. I'm learning a lot about patience (or maybe realizing I lack in that area:) It has been a necessary learning experience for me I suppose :)
Things here are growing on me by the minute which is great! I am finding my place here and have been able to get out of the Bupyeong area which is very nice. I went to church with a friend this past sunday and met the music director who is trying to convince me to sing in his church choir. The pastor at the church went to Calvin Seminary and all 3 of his children went to calvin as well! Small world :) It's crazy to talk to him about familiar streets with him. I'm having difficulty finding an English service that I enjoy which is frustrating, but it's nice to have different musical opportunites to choose from. :)

So after the long week of teaching I took off for the weekend. A couple of us went snowboarding/skiing on the east side of the country. Yeah :)....hmmm where do I start with that adventure. I attempted snowboarding for the first time, which was a sore but fun experience. I had 2 different teachers throughout the day, neither of which spoke fluent english...actually hardly any english at all...but I learned a lot!

This is a pic of my friend Mason and myself taking a breather (I can only take so much falling in one day!) Everyone out here snowboards and are VERY fashionable while they do it. Gotta love Korea. :)

I then went to a concert at Seoul Arts Center with a friend and was able to hear some Mahler pieces, one of which was an excerpt from Goethe's Faust Act II! yay! :) ( It was great to hear classical music again. It involved the voice faculty from Seoul Nat'l Univ. along with a full orchestra, a children's choir and about 200 other voices...a little taste of heaven ;) ahhh....

So this weekend we have a big work christmas party which involves all the English institutes/Hagwon's in this area and supposedly we have a talent competition between all the schools. We are singing O holy night and I'm giving a voice lesson to the faculty tomorrow..hmm... :) We are also doing a dance routine...hmmm...should be interesting. Supposedly there will be around 2,500 people...I'll let ya know how that goes ;)

We only get Christmas Day off which is too bad, but I'll take what I can get. The plan is to go on a snowboarding trip for the weekend with some friends. Should be good :) Not as good as being home by any means though :(

Alright I'm callin it a night. Teaching takes a lot out of ya!

oh, we had our first major snow a couple days ago...it made me really happy :) This is right outside my apartment :)

Good-byes

2006-12-10T05:39:00.000-08:00

Well I had my first couple good-byes this past week and I have more to come throughout the next couple months. One of the hard things about teaching out here is that everyone comes and leaves at different times throughout the year. The school year really never ends and everyones contract starts at different times. Just when you are finally getting to know peeps they all leave ya. Crazy. I guess I need to start getting use to it.

Anyways, this is a pic of Maive and me (she's from Ireland) and she left this weekend. Great girl. Very Irish :)

Also this weekend I switched apartments. E.C.C. (my school) doesn't do a very good job with organization or communication (which are kind of essential to run a school I thought), so really none of the bosses told me I was moving, but I found out through co-workers. oi. Anyways, I'm in and the place has pro's and con's like everything else in life :)

I did a little more shopping this weekend which was good. I love the markets in Seoul; great food, cheap everything, my kind of place ;)

Tommorrow I will be teaching pre-schoolers along with my other classes, so that should be an interesting experience. (We'll see what happens when you put me with 4 y.o. It'll be fun :) I'll probably be working from 9:30-9 at night for the next couple weeks. It'll be rough but the paycheck will be nice and hopefully I'll be able to visit Japan or China with that money...we'll see.

I've also been checking out churches in the neighborhood which has been good. I actually sat in on a Korean service today and didn't understand a lick of it, but the music was good ;) I then went to the English service at the same church and the music wasn't that great and neither was the pastor....the praise team leader is trying to finagle me into joining their worship team but I don't know...we'll see...

Taekwondo is going well. It's always an adventure to say the least. There are about 10/11 of us in the class (I'm the only female) and I have a lot to learn!! The instructors can't speak any English so it can be frustrating, but it's good.

The language studies haven't really begun yet. I'm thinking within the next couple weeks I'll start studying more intensively. I'm getting sick of not being able to say anything except "hangumal obsiyo" which is "I can't speak korean". yup. oh, and I can count to 10 in both numbering systems....yeah...that only gets you so far in a country :)

alrighty, I'm turning in for the night.

Blessings.

December is here :)

2006-12-04T16:48:00.000-08:00

Well, December truly is here whether I like it or not :) The weather has been fluctuating throughout the weekend. Currently it's about 48 Fharenheit during the day and 28 during the night, but this weekend it was extremely chilly! supposedly it snowed but I never saw it. oi :) I hear there are usually only 2 seasons in Korea, Summer (very hot and humid), and Winter (very cold and not a lot of snow). Should be a good year :). The length of days is about 10 hours (7:30-17:30ish); it's rather nice.

Well this past weekend we had a going away party for some of the foreign teachers. It included Irish, Americans, Canadians, British, and Aussies with a couple Koreans. I've learned that the Korean teachers usually party with their fellow Koreans, and the internationals usually stay by internationals. It makes sense to hang out with those you are most like, but I wish there was more intergration between the 2 groups.

It's weird to be surrounded by so many people that look like you but are soooo different from you. I feel as though I'm in a position where I'm wrongly perceived by both the Koreans and Foreigners. The Koreans physically see me as one of their fellow Koreans until I open my mouth, and the foreigner sees me as one of the Koreans. I feel so dutch on the inside but I'm so Korean on the outside.

Itaewon is a place where ALL the foreigners teachers, GI's, etc... go to bar hopping, dance, and be around other foreigners and westernized places because clearly that's what you should do while your in Korea....doesn't make sense. Anyways, I went a couple weeks ago and I was talking to some white people who were surprised that I spoke fluent English...weird. hmmm..alot to adjust to.

Anyways, as most of you know I have many reasons as to why I am actually here in Korea. Here is a quick summary to refresh your memory because I know you all really want to remember :)
1. Grad school wasn't working for this year-basically I wasn't good enough..hmm..
2. I have no idea what I want to do with a vocal performance, german minor degree anyways...(if anyone has ideas, let me know :)
3. Financial reasons (big one)
4. Get some more travelling under my belt
5. Hopefully pick up another language, and lastly and probably most importantly
6. attempt to find my biological parents (or have closure to that situation).
In regards to the last one, many people have been asking me how exactly I'm going to start this process...I usually say I'm going to go around knocking on the each door in Seoul and see if I find anyone that looks like me.
They just kind of look at me in a confused sort of way...yup.

I am planning on going to Holt Childrens Serive in Seoul (whom I was adopted through), and see if they have any more information about my case. I figure I should get some closure to that part of my life (I say closure becasue I'm feeling they won't have any more information). In the rare case that they do have more info, I am excited/nervous to see what comes of that. I've been avoiding going to Holt mainly because I don't know if I'm ready to deal with the reality that I might never know who my biological parents are. I know that my true family that I love deeply are in MI (and my sista in Nicaragua ;) but I don't know if I'm ready to get that closure to my questions/hopes about my "family" here. Anyways, I can't really explain all my thoughts here and I don't want to bore you all, so I will end this topic here :) I'll keep you updated though on when I go to Holt...it will most likely be sooner rather than later.

Well, again my apologies for the scatteredness of this entry. I hope you are all doing well and i would love to hear from ya ;)
Peace.

Some more randomness :)

2006-11-30T20:05:00.000-08:00

Well, I just talked to Boss James yesterday and supposedly he wants me to take up some Pre-school classes come December. We are at a shortage of teachers (as usual) and nobody really knows what's going on (as usual). Anyways, it will be nice to make overtime wages but not so nice to do overtime hours :)

Random thought: So at E.C.C the students refer to the teachers as "(first name) teacher", so the students call me Laura teacher etc...Even our colleagues refer to us that way...it's kind of odd...hmm.

Last weekend Kevin, Danny and I went to Bukhansan nat'l park again (in the middle of the city) and hiked Bukandae peak (the highest peak in the park, but it really wasn't that high). This is the one that Danny and I tried to do a couple weeks ago but ended up on the wrong side of park due to the taxi driver dropping us off at the wrong end. (all the gates sound exactly the same anyways). There were a lot of people at the top which was rather discouraging, but it was still a decent view. Behind us is another mountain which is where the hard core rock climbers like to go. I unfortunately won't be going there anytime soon...hmm..

This weekend we are having a going away party for the 4 girls leaving within the next week. Other than that I think I will take this weekend off from hiking and buy some Christmas gifts for the family, attempt to find a half decent coffee shop, and maybe hit the sauna. pretty chill.

It's easy to spend a lot of money here with things being so cheap (I just bought a wool sweater for $3 last weekend). Food is relatively cheap as well. yay :) I'm getting use to sweating while I'm eating (food is sooo spicy!)...my taste buds will be shot by the time I get back though, but then again I was really never that picky of an eater to start with as most of you know :)

Oh, so here is a pic of some of my students with their true colors coming out . This was during the Halloween party fiasco. Basically a day full of chaos. This is a class that I actually love :) Great students, decent English, and a long attention span :)

Okay, so I think that is about all I have to say for now:)

My journey thus far

2006-11-29T19:46:00.000-08:00

Well I have been here for about a month and a half now and figured I should start a blog rather than the mass e-mailing. I'm going to apologize ahead of time for the scattered/randomness of this blog. I'm hoping I can give you a quick summary on what has been going on so far...I hope you don't get bored! :)
When I first arrived it was an interesting transition to go from the grizzly bear, granola eating, backcountry life of Montana to the apartment surrounding, kimchi obsessed Bupyeong, South Korea.
The first couple weeks upon arrival were difficult/interesting for me. One of my friends from back home was here visiting some friends, so it was nice to see a familiar face. Basically though I felt overwhelmed by my job, lack of friends, people that looked like me etc...
I guess being surrounded by Koreans has been the most difficult experience thus far. Taxi drivers, pedestrians, sales people, students etc....all assume that I can speak Korean and I just stand there staring at them, it's really great...hmmm.
Let's see, the weekends have been great. I've been able to hike basically every weekend, mainly in Bukhansan Nat'l Park (in Seoul). On my off days I also have been taking the subway into Seoul, checking out markets, sights, bars, and coffee houses (or lack thereof).
(Buses and Subways have also been a new experience...not the same as my great '85 chevy cavalier...:(
Work has been getting better, yay!! I'm starting to understand the students a little better and how they work. I usually work about 30-35 hours a week and have anywhere from 4-8 classes a day. The children are anywhere from the age of 6-16. Crazy...I love em...at least most of em ;) I start work at about 2 or 3 p.m. and go until 9. We have a new curriculum starting this month, so it's a nice change.
Oh, I also started studying taekwondo about a week after I got here. I am loving it more and more. I go with my friend Mason 3 times a week. Seeing that there is a language barrier between my instructors and me, I've been learning a lot through observing.

Everything here is about trial and error and learning from my mistakes. I am figuring out what personalities I am clashing with and which I get a long with, what food I like, what teaching style works for me etc...it's good for me but it can be a frustrating process.

Okay, I gotta get ready for work. I'll write more later :)