Ireland

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The chilly month of january

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back in the U.S. of A

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

Fall is finally here....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good Morning Vietnam!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

August Adventures

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


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

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

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

Moving right along ;)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gathering 2007

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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