Gwangju in Stitch

Plans.

2009-08-30T01:59:00.002-04:00

Some of you may be curious about what we'll be doing for the next few months before we make our return to the homeland just before Thanksgiving. This is the rough outline:

I'm going to leave Cat Ba in the middle of September and head off to the Yunnan province in southern China on my own. Matt is going to finish September on Cat Ba trying to squeeze in as much climbing as he can. His friends, Gregg, from home is also coming to Vietnam to climb with him. I'll let them climb their faces off, while I explore a bit of China.

I'll meet back up with Matt (and maybe Gregg) during the first week of October back in Vietnam. We're going to make a fairly quick exit for Laos for about two weeks, then back into central (Hue and Hoi An) and southern (Saigon and the Mekong Delta) Vietnam for a bit. Then we'll cross into Cambodia to Phnom Penh and to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat. Then, last stop Thailand, we'll fly out of Bangkok and we'll leave tropical, steamy, fruity and spicy south east Asia for sweaters and pumpkin pie on the east coast of America!

A weekend in Hanoi

2009-08-04T01:30:00.005-04:00

This past weekend, we headed up to Hanoi for a few days. I basically wanted to get off the island for a few days to do a little sight seeing, shopping, and soaking up a little city life.

On Friday night, we went to a concert. We heard "the world's best beat boxer" was playing that night and decided we couldn't pass up a chance to see the world's best beat boxer, so we went. It was our first hip hop show and was pretty fun. I'm not convinced that Killa Kela is the best beat boxer in the world, but entertaining none the less. There was also a sweet break dancing dance off between two teams of boys from Hanoi.

Here's a video of some beat boxing, he's making all the sounds with his mouth.

Our hotel was on a little alley street in the Old Quarter. The street was a little bustling market in the morning, but very quiet at night.

On Saturday morning, we went to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. They keep Ho Chi Minh's body preserved and mummified in this shrine. It's pretty bizarre. You must silently and respectfully shuffle around the mausoleum in a line. You cannot take your camera inside. The mausoleum is chilled and dark and only open three hours a day. Imagine if you could go see Jefferson, Lincoln, or Kennedy or any or all of our president's bodies preserved for the public to revere. It's a very somber visit for the Vietnamese, but for foreign visitors it's so bizarre to us, it's almost like a side show. Ho Chi Minh wanted to be cremated and have his ashes spread across Vietnam, but those in charge after his death created this giant spectacle against his wishes.

Inside the Ho Chi Minh museum.

This is the one pillar pagoda, which is very near to the mausoleum. It's special because it's on one pillar!

Then we hit the next big tourist spot in Hanoi, the Temple of Literature. It is a temple dedicated to higher learning and where many Confucius scholars studied.

Then we did a walking tour of the Old Quarter. It was originally the merchants quarter with each street selling a different type of goods, from an herb street to a towel and tin box street. Now, the Old Quarter is the main district for travelers. There are many hotels and restaurants catering to foreigners.

There isn't actually too much to do in Hanoi besides drop money! There are plenty of shops and nice restaurants. We splurged on a few meals while in Hanoi (meaning we spent $15-20 on a meal for two rather than the $5-10 we usually spend in Cat Ba). I bought a new dress since the only dress I brought here got lost in the first week when our laundry disappeared from our hotel's laundry services. Matt picked up a few new books. We sought out a movie theater and enjoyed a movie resting in the cold air conditioning after a lot of walking around town.

Below is Matt whining about being hot and tired. "Aaaashley, my feet hurt, I'm tired, I'm sweating through my shirt..... don't take a picture of me!" Also, his beard is getting ridiculous. I threaten to cut it at night.

Korea friends visit Cat Ba!

2009-07-21T01:15:00.007-04:00

As a few of our friends from Gwangju contracts were up, they stopped by Cat Ba and Halong Bay on the beginning of their journeys through Southeast Asia. Caitlin and Justin were the first to arrive and we rented a boat for a day and a night to cruise around Halong Bay.

Justin tries his hand (s and feet!) at deep water soloing.

It's feeding time at the floating fish farm.

Kelly arrives after a storm delay and a detour to the north. We are rad on motorbikes. I kind of want one when I get home.

Enjoying some afternoon bia hoi and Justin cleans the mud off Caitlin's leg by spitting water on it.

On Saturday, we went Lien Minh, a village on the island where a lot of the climbing is located. We didn't get to climb long before we got shut down because the cliff is in the middle of lease negotiations. We spent the rest of the day lying in hammocks and trying to slackline.

This boy was very enthusiastic about having his picture taken and taking our cameras to try his hand at a bit of photography. I now have many photos of this water buffalo and his friend.

Trang's family was visiting Cat Ba from Hue. We were really lucky to be invited to a big dinner in Lien Minh with Slo Pony folks and all the people that help them here. Trinh and Nha facilitate climbers at Butterfly Valley. I teach their son, Tuan. Also, Quang and his wife. Quang is a very important man around Cat Ba and owns the boats Slo Pony uses for their bay trips. This dinner involved a food and a lot of homemade honey rice wine!

This is Dinh and Vu. They are Trang's younger brothers and Slo Pony rock climbing guides. I'm teaching them English and I just love them! They're really great guys and super cool, just look at Dinh's hair. (He's only 20, but I just found out he was a hair stylist before getting into rock climbing.)

The honey rice wine was flowing and Trinh and Slo couldn't help from dancing!

Caitlin is getting a Vietnamese lesson from Tuan, also a really great young man that I'm teaching as well.

This is Trang, Dinh, and Vu's youngest brother, Vinh. He is the cutest (and sneakiest) thing ever. Whenever my back was turned, my rice wine glass was suddenly full again. Usually, I want to steal children under three or four years old, but I would steal him.

Here's a group shot of our extended Vietnamese family dinner. It was really a great night and I'm glad our Korea friends got a chance to share it with us!

Rainy Season Begins....

2009-07-21T00:58:00.005-04:00

Last weekend, we were rained in all day and cabin fever set in hard. All the boats on and off the island were cancelled, which delayed our Korea friends a few days, but more on their visit later. They tell me that this past storm was hardly a storm at all, but it look like a whole lot of rain to me!

This was the bottom of the main street after the rain stopped. There was a huge pile of rocks from the steady stream of water running downhill to the harbor.

This isn't a very good picture, but where the water changes color is the line between where the water is brown from all the dirt runoff coming downhill and the regular water.

Brian's motorbike got a bit too soaked to start up again and instantly had a team of Vietnamese amateur motorbike mechanics. I believe they broke it while trying to fix it, fixed what they broke, then, in true Vietnamese style, asked Brian to pay them for fixing what they broke .

A few of the girls who work at the Noble House.

This is Llet (sounds like "let" with a long l and a hard t). She is the sassiest of Noble House girls. She is always hitting Matt and telling him his beard makes him look like a monkey. I'm pretending that she is tormenting me because she usually is. Here we are having a cabin fever photo shoot in the kitchen.

I'm pretty sure we will be rained in many more days before the summer is through.

Photo update....

2009-07-12T23:18:00.004-04:00

This is the giant neon arch in the center of town. Why an island that isn't exactly affluent spent a quarter of a million dollars on this neon monster, I don't know.

This is my classroom at the National Park.

Kayaking in a Slo Pony kayak.

I had to cajole Matt into letting me use his dry bag so I could bring my camera in the kayak. He doesn't like to let go of his dry bag.

Sometimes, it just rains.....

The view from the watchtower in the National Park.

The scary, rusty watchtower in the National Park.

Very very sweaty from hiking.

This is the entrance to Hospital Cave. It's a Vietnamese secret hospital they used during the American War (as they call it here, we know it as the Vietnam War). It's three stories inside a natural cave. I don't have any good pictures from the inside because it was so dark, but it was mainly empty concrete rooms.

This is a very tiny kitten that belongs to Trang, Erik's wife.

Vietnamese tourists. The beaches are beautifully quiet before 3:30pm, then the Vietnamese come out in force when the sun is a bit less fierce.

Matt is getting a massage from Mr. Vu, our massage guy.

An empty beach before the tourists fill it.

A few videos...

2009-07-05T01:30:00.004-04:00

This is a time lapse video that I shot from the roof of our hotel. It's about 30 minutes condensed into about a minute and a half. This harbor is where many of the tourists on the island board their Halong bay cruises and is quite bustling in the morning! The littlest boats are actually the loudest and start waking us up around 5:30am.

Cat Ba Update

2009-06-20T06:44:00.002-04:00

I have been a bit lax with updating this blog. I don't always have the Internet right in front of my face here!

Since my last update, we have been settling into our jobs and lives here. Matt has started guiding and working in the office for Slopony and I started both of my teaching gigs last week. Teaching here is incredibly different than in Korea. Here I'm totally on my own, which is both a relief and a challenge.

I started teaching my classes at the National Park last week. I went on Monday afternoon for a meeting to organize the group of 34 students into three classes. However, it seems there was some sort of party celebrating rangers visiting from another National Park. About half of my students were too drunk to show up! We organized the classes anyway, but now they are being reorganized because apparently drunk organizers don't organize classes well!

The National Park classes got off to a rocky start last week. Most of them have a very low English level. I have been telling them that we don't need a translator, but one of my classes went and retrieved one during the break. There seems to be several sets of expectations about what will be happening with English lessons at the National Park, which is difficult to balance. Our main goal is to improve their pronunciation so we are using simple vocabulary. Many already know these words, so they think it is not helpful and they are bored. I'm trying to get them to understand that if no one can understand you, it doesn't matter how many words you know! This coming week should be better as the classes are being rearranged by level. I go there three afternoons a week and meet each group for about 2.5 hours.

My other English teaching post here is to work with the Vietnamese staff of Slopony. They are the wife of one of the owners and two of her younger brothers who help belay and guide on trips. I'm also supposed to teach the son of the farmer who owns the cliff with most of the climbing on the island. He didn't come to the first lesson because he was sick, but I think he's worred he can't afford the lessons. I need to tell him that I don't really want any money from him. He's a sweet, smart kid from a poor farming family and I really couldn't take any money from him. He leads trekking trips for SloPony sometimes. They are all really nice and sweet. Two of the boys are about 20 and the younger brother is about 18. We have lessons three times a week also, but I see them all the time so I'm trying to verbally quiz them everytime I see them. If they can speak English, at least conversationally, they will have much better opportunities living on a tourist island. I think I 'll see a lot more improvement with this group.

In other news, I learned to drive the motorbike this week! It was the first step on my list of things to become badass. I can now drive myself all over the island. Also, I have somehow managed to catch a sneezy, snotty, sore throat cold in tropical conditions! I haven't been taking many pictures, but I'll pick up the slack on that too.

We're in VIETNAM!

2009-06-10T01:49:00.011-04:00

We left our home of one year last Tuesday afternoon. We headed to the train station and took the KTX train to Seoul. We stuck near the train station because it had everything we needed, an airport bus stop and a giant jimjilbang. We got a room accidentally in the red light district. I didn't know that Korea had a red light district, but our hotel was on a street with sliding glass door store-fronts and girls in tight pants and bikini tops. We were surprised that Korea could ever be that open about prostitution (or whatever goes on behind the store front). But anyway, we saw a movie and got our last jjimjilbang fix, slept then got on the airport bus early in the morning.

We arrived in Hanoi without any problems. Our flight was really good. We had the emergency exit row and they showed Slumdog Millionaire for the in-flight movie. Our visas went through without a hitch and our pre-arranged airport pickup was waiting with a white sign with my name on it!

We checked into our hotel and wandered around the Old Quarter of Hanoi a bit. We had some good food, walked around the lake, and dodged motorbike traffic. We watched a water puppet show. The stage is a pool of water and the puppeteers stand behind bamboo screens and operate these marionettes. The puppets don't have strings, but are on the end of a long bamboo pole. It was pretty cool. Pictured above is bustle of Hanoi and this cute boy about the enjoy a meal with me in Hanoi!

Thursday morning, we began our trek to Cat Ba Island from Hanoi. It starts by taking a 2.5 hour drive to Hai Phong, the largest port city near the island. In Hai Phong, we get off and wait for another bus to take us the the ferry port. Then we hop on a high speed ferry for about 30 minutes, and finally get on one last bus that took us to the center of Cat Ba Town. It sounds more arduous and difficult than it really is. You buy one ticket in Hanoi that covers all the transfers.
We walked into Slo Pony and met our boss and other Slo Pony employees. Our room was still being occupied for one more night, so we stayed in a hotel for the first night on the main drag of Cat Ba Town. There were speakers blaring with a karaoke contest. The Vietnamese are also huge fans of karaoke, like Koreans. However, Vietnamese karaoke seems to be better if everyone on the street can hear you.

The main drag along the harbor of Cat Ba Town. The bright orange building on the right is Slo Pony headquarters and Noble House, the restaurant that hooks us up! We've already befriended all the girls that work their. They are quite curious as the why Matt hasn't married me yet! He tells them that I am too dangerous!

On Friday morning, we were able to move into our permanent room here. We had to load ourselves and our heavy bags onto motorbikes to get there. We are staying in Ben Beo Harbor, which is only a few minute ride from the main part of town. Our room is very nice. We have our own bathroom, mini-fridge, and air-conditioning! It's pretty hot here. Our room has a waterfront view. We can throw a pebble from our front door into the harbor. It's by far the best view I ever had from a living situation. It's quieter than town because there is less traffic and people, but there are plenty of boat engines to get you up at sunrise. Ben Beo harbor is where most tourists board their Ha Long Bay cruises on the island. Above is Matt standing in our doorway, modeling the view from our room and below is our room is the state of unpacking!

The exterior of our new home.

As its our first week here and we are both working out the details of our working situations here, we've been going to the beach almost every day. The beach is quite nice and we are working on our tans despite slatherings of sunscreen.

(A view from our motorbike tour of the island- Jurrassic Park could have been filmed here!)

Our mode of transportation is no different from any other Vietnamese person. We ride a motorbike like everyone else. Matt is doing all of the driving right now, but soon I will learn to drive it myself. I will need to drive it to get out to my lesson in the National Park. Aaah! It's scary, but it's my first step in becoming badass. On Saturday, we rode the motorbike all around the island and did a tour. It only takes about two hours to drive all the main roads on the island.
On the days we haven't gone to the beach, we tagged along on the climbing trips Slo Pony offers. On Sunday, we rode out the Butterfly Valley (and the name doesn't lie, there were tons of butterflies). This is the main climbing spot on the island. It's a huge cliff on one side of a farm. Matt climbed, I watched.

Yesterday, we were able to tag along on a trip out into the bay! The climbing in Ha Long Bay is called deep water soloing. You aren't tied into a harness or with a rope, you just fall or jump into the water when you're finished climbing. I only watched this activity, too. I did a bit of kayaking, sunning, and beer drinking while the rest of them climbed up cliffs to jump back in. In the bay are fish farming villages. There aren't many fish left in the bay, so people have created fish farms on the water and grow the fish from babies in nets all around their small homes on the water. Entire villages live out there and there are convenient stores on small basket boats that paddle around selling chips, fruit, and drinks. Matt is swimming and browsing at the same time.

So, our life here is pretty good. We don't have a kitchen to cook in, but the restaurant below Slo Pony give Slo Pony employees fifty percent off everything, but booz. We'd drink them out of business if they did. So , we have been eating there a lot. We have been going to bed early and waking up early, which is a nice change from our previous hours in Korea. Vietnam is an early country and Korea is a late one. Not many things are open before 10am in Korea, but in Vietnam you are considered physically ill if you sleep past seven!

Our place seen from the harbor.

This is kind of a long update! We'll try to get on the Internet more than once a week!I'm still going to post to this blog. I'll have to change the title, I suppose, but I'll do that another time.

Leaving Korea

2009-05-31T21:18:00.002-04:00

We leave Korea in two days! This weekend was action filled with packing, organizing, and squeezing in a few more fun nights with our friends here. We've been eating our "last meals", repeating all our favorite Korean food in the last week. All of our things that we aren't taking to Vietnam are packed up in boxes. Today, we have to lug it all to the Post Office and then go to the bank to close our Korean bank accounts. Then we only have to clean our apartment for its next tenants, say our final good byes, and take the train to Seoul tomorrow afternoon. Aaah!

Things I won't miss about Korea...

- hagwon life

- lack of cheese and delicious beer

- no city planning

- certain Korean students

- stone cold adjummas

- "more work is better than efficient work" work ethic

- squid

- always standing out

- Summer and Winter Intensive session

- national inferiority complex

- communication fails

- mandatory over-organized fun

Things I will miss about Korea...

- excellent public transportation

- riding my sweet bike everywhere

- going out to eat and drink on the cheap

- certain Korean students

- generous adjummas

- no open container law

- safe cities

- cheap hotels

- yukechang

- shabu shabu / mongolian shabu shabu

- service-eu

- affordable health care

- JIMJILBANGS!

- the people who are our friends, neighbors, co-workers (and sometimes partners in crime) simultaneously.

Goodbye Gwangju Reading Town!

2009-05-29T08:05:00.003-04:00

I just left from last day at Reading Town. The other teachers and staff were kind enough to send me off with an exuberant farewell!

See ya later suckas!

Cute Goodbye Letter from Tom

2009-05-27T21:50:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, one of my cutest students shyly slipped me this letter after I told them on Monday that I would be leaving Reading Town after this week.

If you can't read it, here's what it says. It kind of made my day yesterday. I'm his writing teacher so I want to correct his spelling and missing periods, but I won't.

"To Ashely teacher

Hello? ashely teacher? This is Tom Thanks to study 3 months at 2D1.

I sad you going to return the United States. but I like you very much. I love you but usally I caN MISS you. but You have to live in U.S. Thanks for to teach in Reading town. Good bye!

(PS My gmail is ************)

2009.5.26

From Tom"

My favorite part is the "but usually I can miss you" part. I think he means "I will miss you."

Beard and Salad

2009-05-21T10:29:00.005-04:00

A few weeks ago Matt decided to forego shaving. This is his new beard-y face. He's working on looking rugged for Vietnam, I guess. Also, Matt can never make a normal face for a photo. Then he said that I'm supporting voyeurism.

Here is my version of Korean salad. It's pretty simple and easy. The Korean version is totally soaked so that the leaves are soaked and wilted. I took it down a notch by using bit less dressing.

Wash and rip up green lettuce leaves. Mince a couple of cloves of garlic. Throw on a little sesame oil and soy sauce. Shake on some red pepper flakes. Douse in sesame seeds (they are my new favorite thing to add to every thing). Toss.

We're going to the beach this weekend. Then we're down to our last week at school. Aaah!

Korean Wedding

2009-05-12T08:08:00.007-04:00

On Saturday, the foreign teachers from our school were invited to the wedding of a man who works for Avalon, Matt's school. Neither of us really know him and have never seen his wife before the wedding, but we were invited and took it as a once in a lifetime opportunity to see a Korean wedding. I was kind of hoping I'd get a chance to go to one while I'm in Korea. I'd heard what they are like (fast-paced, impersonal, cookie cutter princess-like), but nothing really prepared me for the real thing. It was interesting to say the least.

The wedding took place at the "Jeonju World Cup Convention Wedding Center". All of these words apply to this place and none of them would a westerner really want to associate with their own wedding. It was in a convention center for weddings underneath a World Cup soccer stadium. There were 6-8 halls for weddings, each having a different wedding every hour. Bam, Bam, Bam- three wedding in three hours in one large room. You are milling about in the lobby with guests, brides, and grooms from various other weddings.

Before the wedding, the bride just sits in this room for photos. We were lucky to get a photo opportunity with her even though we'd never met before. It was a little like a holding room for brides. Also, I'm really short when I stand next to Justin and Caitlin.

Finally, it was our wedding's time (strictly from 1:30-2:30). Their guests milled in and filled the seats and lined the walls. I doubt many of the guest knew each other. The guest list is not a personal affair. You're expected to invite most co-workers and anyone you know (hence my invitation). The groom had been in the military (as basically all Korean men have, but I think he was a lieutenant), so he had a military welcome down the aisle. All the flowers are fake and the candles are gas lit. In the above shot, you can see the liquor store-like security camera shot broadcasting the wedding on the wall to the left. When you walk in the front door of the convention hall, you can watch all the weddings happening on eight screens.

The guests came in all kinds of attire, from jeans to traditional Hanboks. People didn't seem to think much of taking a cell phone call mid-ceremony or having a nap (see the gentleman in the right back).

In your wedding package, you can have a stock wedding hall singer sing you a love song. I'm pretty sure this guy sings this song eight times a day. Also, note the dramatic fog machine. Artificial fog was dispersed several times for a dream-like fairy tale effect.

Foreigner reactions to this warped westernization of a wedding. Matt is open-mouthed, Lisa is W-T-F.

After the song, there was a drag-n-drop I-Movie-like slide show. The photos weren't even personal! They were all cheesy studio shot in wedding attire. Cue the fog machine.

After the wedding, you don't even eat with the other guests. You get a meal ticket and head to a buffet hall and dine with the guests of all eight weddings from the center. But hey- free beer and soju!

This was someone's wedding, so I hate to crack on it too much. However, they adopted the format of a western wedding and condensed it into less than an hour and removed the personal or intimate elements. It's pretty Korean to put things in a nice easy package that is suitable for everyone. They put all of their products into nice easy packages that include every thing and a wedding is no different. Koreans travel, shop and eat this manner, so why not a wedding?Maybe, they have a traditional Korean ceremony that is more intimate and they don't invite everyone to. Anyway, it was captivating to watch with the theme music and fog machine- a theatrical production of a fairy tale, stage lighting included.

Here are some videos-

Three weeks left.

2009-05-11T07:16:00.003-04:00

Matt and I have three weeks left in Korea. Three teaching weeks to finish. Three weekends to enjoy. Three weeks to get rid of a lot of stuff!

Three weeks of this....

Then this.....

Campus Couple!

2009-05-04T09:45:00.003-04:00

Matt and I finally joined the ranks and became a real couple. We bought matching t-shirts! Wearing the same clothes as your significant other is quite popular among young couples. We're finally Korean.

Gwangju in Stitch website is up!

2009-04-23T22:14:00.002-04:00

This week, I took my embroideries into work to use the scanner. I needed better images than what I had. Then I've put them together on this website, Gwangju in Stitch. This project was the motivation behind my blog title hence the same name. There are better and bigger images of the embroideries here and you can see them all together.

Climbing and Boseong Green Tea Fields

2009-04-22T11:09:00.003-04:00

On Saturday, we went to this little climbing spot that was basically empty. We packed a cooler with beer, chicken sandwiches, and my homemade salsa! Lisa and I went along for a day of relaxing, while Matt and Shane gushed the gnar! Haha- this is climber speak for doing hardcore and awesome things climbing.

Then Sunday was my turn! We went to the Boseong Green Tea fields, which are about an hour and a half away from Gwangju. It was one of the things on my "to do before leaving Korea" list.

It was very picturesque and more touristy than a practical tea plantation. I'm sure they make way more money from tourists than from selling the tea.

Obligatory cute couple photograph on the landing. (Sidenote: our school lunch lady said yesterday that Matt and I look alike. I scoffed, but there may be some freaky truth to that.)

Also, here is another striking resemblance!

Maekju Juseyo

2009-04-14T22:13:00.003-04:00

Maekju juseyo (beer please)!

Here is an embroidery that took me seemingly forever to finish despite its linear simplicity. I was working on it during winter and the winter doldrums had sucked the creative motivation from me! It's been finished for sometime now, but I haven't posted it. These are your basic beer choices in Korea. They are not particularly distinguishable in taste or quality. It's all about the same basic beer! While I miss Blue Moon, microbrews and the many seasonal brews of North America, sometimes there's nothing like simplicity.

Now that spring has arrived, I have been working much more diligently on my embroidery. Two new pieces to be debuted shortly. Also, I'm going to take all the pieces into work and scan them to get better images of each. Sometimes, my little camera doesn't do them justice even though I love it so.

Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival

2009-04-05T20:52:00.007-04:00

This weekend we went to the largest cherry blossom festival in Korea! Jinhae is a little town on the south coast about three hours from Gwangju. Jinhae is known for its cherry blossoms and that the Korean Naval Academy is there. It was kind of like a bizarro Annapolis- cute little town, midshipmen everywhere, they even had a bar names "Annapolis", which you'll see more of later. Jinhae is a really beautiful little city, very un-Korean in its layout. This is because this particular city was designed by the Japanese during their occupation. Don't tell Korea, but Japan is better at city planning simply because there is city planning at all (Korea does not excel in this subject). There were nice, wide sidewalks, rotundas, and cherry blossom lines streets. All the building were low, not towering concrete masses.

Before going this weekend, I read in different sources that Jinhae has anywhere between 70,000 and 340,000 cherry trees. I didn't count them, but there were a lot! It was very beautiful and I'll probably never see that many flowering trees at once again. Therefore, this post is really picture heavy!

Matt pouts on the bus saying, "there aren't that many flowers." We aren't there yet!

A prime example of an adjumma. She is a scary one.

This Korean man was fascinated by Matt's pull up. He walked up to the bar next to Matt and I think he was about to challenge him, but we left.

Holy Shit! Sarah is here! Eating Korean street food with me!

For many, the Cherry Blossom Festival is an opportunity to take ever so cute photos of one another. As you see below, I didn't miss this opportunity. Remember, for optimum cuteness you should put your hands near your face!

This is the view from the top of Jinhae Tower. All the pink you can see are cherry trees. Cherry blossoms are everywhere!

Matching couples' hoodies! They say "Mungky".

I'm trying my hand at a six foot, very heavy hula hoop. It proved rather difficult.

Photo op.

Matt made friends with a man who was eating a raw sea creature of some kind. He feeds Matt the first bite, which Matt said was kind of like a raw oyster. Then he fed Matt some of the tough outer skin of the creature, which was un-chewable. Matt freaked out, laughing, telling the man "no no no" and then spit it in the gutter. It was hilarious from across the street.

Delicious scallops grilled in their shell with onions, tomato, and more!

Bizarro Annapolis! Here I am harrassing some nice, young Korean midshipmen. Below is the bar called "Annapolis". It was a real dive and largely empty. I tried to tell them I was from Annapolis and they basically didn't understand or care even though I was quite excited to be in a bar called Annapolis in a tiny Korean town.

Naval Academy blanket inside the bar.

Cherry Blossoms at night outside our yeogwan, a simple hotel you share with several people and sleep on blankets on the floor.

On Sunday, we walked down the Naval Academy to tour a ship. However, it was done in the typical Korean fashion- wait in a long line to move slowly and in a single file around the ship. Matt was very dejected and disappointed. We didn't wait in the line, but hung around the harbor a bit. Korean sailors are funny to me.

Good weekend!

Happy Birthday Mommy!

2009-03-30T22:28:00.002-04:00

I want to wish my mom a happy birthday from Korea! I miss you, love you and hope you had a great birthday!

Hillside Campfire / Magnum Korea

2009-03-18T22:35:00.004-04:00

There is a hill/ridge that runs behind our apartment building and down through the end of our neighborhood. It's a nice place to go for a walk and is quite well-used during the day time. There is one spot about a fifteen minute hike from our place that has a small pagoda for sitting and and a clear view of the city. Friday night, we went up with backpacks of beer and snacks and enjoyed the coming spring weather (although it was still a bit chilly). We eventually built a fire and stayed up there all night. It felt like being back in Maryland if you ignore all the city lights!

That night, I also discovered that I can do extended exposures on my little digital camera! I've had it for three and half years now and have never used this feature. I took the above Gwangju city picture. Gwangju is really not that glamorous without the timed exposure. Also, fun with light writing!

On Saturday afternoon, I went for a little bike cruise down by the river. It was a little gray and windy, but I really enjoy riding my bike down there. It's pretty flat and the only traffic you have to dodge are adjummas and tiny dogs. I took this video while I was riding, so it's a little shaky. However, it ends with two old men having a dispute. Keep your eye on the left side of the screen towards the end. One man whaps another with a giant stick. A little afternoon soju, perhaps?

On Sunday, we went to see the Magnum Korea photography exhibit. If you are unfamiliar with Magnum, they are a group of excellent and highly prestigious documentary photographers. You have probably seen many of their photographs and not realize that they are by a magnum photographer. They did a project on Korea recently. Twenty photographers came to South Korea over the course of a year to shoot contemporary Korean life. It is an excellent visual description of South Korea. I bought the exhibition book because the photos are so indicative of what we see here all the time except better because they are done by highly regarded professional photographers!

Check out this link of the exhibit. It has many of the photos from the show. The website is in Korean, but you just need to scroll down a bit and click on a thumbnail photo. This will take you to a slide show where you can flip through the images.

This is my life.

2009-03-16T10:13:00.002-04:00

This video has been floating around on YouTube for a while now, but I think I should share it with everyone. Three guys are living in a small Korean Town called Geumchang and they made a really funny video and have managed to include a huge amount of ubiquitous elements of Korean culture. They include fish markets, adjumma visors, swim caps, Family Marts, norebangs, soju mixers, the inconsistent Romanization of Hangul letters and even adding the "eu" sound to every word ending in a hard consonant. For example, I live near a store called "Hi Mart" and this is how I tell a cab to get take me home. However, the driver will not understand me unless I say "Hi Mart-eu". Drinking Hite-eu, drinking Cass-eu.... All in all, this is a really clever and funny interpretation of life as a foreigner.

Cell Phone Pictures

2009-03-13T23:52:00.004-04:00

I have been neglecting the photos from my cell phone. Sometimes, I don't have my camera, but can't miss a photo op so I take it on my cell phone! So here is a little recap of events sans my digital camera.

These animal hats are all the rage with the kids! When the busses unload, it sometimes looks like a zoo running through the doors! Tigers, bears, ducks, and dogs coming running in. I got a koala one in a secret santa at Christmas time.

Here are some little Koreans who poured into the elevator with me.

Here is Matt having a good hair day at the Shabu Shabu restaurant one afternoon.

Last Friday night, we went out with the Korean teachers from school. Gumbai! (Cheers in Korean)

This is beef sashimi! Quite an interesting dish- raw beef on a pickle slice on a gob of mayonnaise on a sesame leaf!

Rebekah threatens to drop Shane's phone in a pitcher of beer. He probably deserves it! Also, Jesse loves Shane.

I confiscated this from one of my students this week. It's a gum ball machine container with three live bees inside! This student holds it up in class and proudly says, "Teacher- BEE!" I was like "what?!" and made him give it to me even though he really really wanted to keep it. It was probably not easy getting those bees in there. I kept it on my desk all day then threw it outside.

Fun cell phone feature!

Gwangju Soccer Game!

2009-03-10T22:04:00.005-04:00

Sunday afternoon was warm and sunny! We went to the World Cup Stadium for the opening soccer game of the season. The tickets are free because it seems to be difficult to get people to come, but there were many people there this weekend. Maybe because it was the first game. Also, last year the Gwangju team was a military team so there weren't many good players. This year they opened it up to anyone. Gwangju played Daejeon and won 3-0! I'm not much of a sports fan, but this was fun. Instead of eating hot dogs and drinking Budweiser we ate ramen and drank Hite! They shot off fireworks after each Gwangju goal. Gwangju is in the ever-stylish bright orange jerseys.

(Shane is not as bored as he is pretending and Stuart has a face under his hoodie! )

The half time show consisted of two groups of kids doing a tae-kwon-do choreographed dance routine- not so unlike to cheerleading, but with kicks and punches. It was pretty Korean- they love choreographed dance moves because they are mostly too self-conscious to dance on their own. If you go to a "dance" club, Koreans pretty much only do the choreographed moves from the music videos. Here is a video of the half-time show, probably the most entertaining part of the game.

(PS- I swear I didn't just copy Lisa's blog! Haha!)

Bali - Part 2

2009-03-10T07:58:00.005-04:00

From Ubud, we hired a car to take us to Sanur. This is a much quieter place to enjoy the beach and it is also the launching point for boats to Nusa Penida, our next destination. This beach was a relief from the many touts of Kuta. We rented these chairs from a restaurant that also kept us in fresh, cold Bintang beers.

There are many Indonesian tourists that travel to Bali as well. The day we sat at this beach we were approached by two different groups of people from Borneo and asked Matt and I to take photos with each of them! There were excited to meet Americans because not very many people travel to Borneo. Here's a shot of the scene! I'm taking a photo with a guy whose shirt says "Don't Worry. Be Wary!" I'm not sure he knew what his shirt said and I didn't heed his own warning apparently.

Thursday morning, we hopped on the public boat to Nusa Penida. Tourists rarely take this boat, you might be sharing it with a chicken. We were on our way out and were called back in to take on some more cargo. We waited about 45 minutes to load about 15 mattresses, some boxed furniture, and some painting of tropical flowers. Must've been heading to some hotel. It was like watching a mattress parade come down the beach.

Finally, we arrive on Nusa Penida, which is a small island off of Bali. Tourists rarely go there. There is really only one or two places to stay. We stayed with MM Diving. It's a motel, small cafe, and diving operation run by a few Czech people. They helped us with everything on Penida and had all of our meals there (there aren't any restaurants, only small stalls).

We rented a motorbike for about $7 and rode over to Crystal Bay, the most gorgeous beach I've ever stepped foot on. It's the only beach that matches up with its cheesy name. It's really out there. Villagers come and walk their cows down the beach. Boys fish naked with a hook on a string, women and girls bring their laundry down to wash on the rocks at the end of the stream that runs into the ocean. There is beautiful coral and all kinds of tropical fish there. We went snorkeling and saw some pretty amazing stuff.

At one end of the beach is a rarely used sea temple. A local man said they only use it about two times a year.

That night we ate, drank Bintang, and watched Czech diving videos at MM Diving with a bunch of Czechs. I was pretty beat and we went to bed early. We got up early the next morning, ate breakfast, had a box lunch made for us and rented a scooter again. This time we did a trip circumnavigating the entire island. This is maybe one of the most amazing, off the grid days I've ever had. We rode our motorbike (sans helmets- sorry Moms and Safety Girl, but no one has a helmet on this island) around this tiny, little roads that have very little traffic. We kept being passed by twelve year old boys and old men - we weren't going fast at all! Matt had never driven a motorbike before, but, as usual, was a quick study. I held on for dear life and drove him nuts by squeaking in his ear on a rough gear change. Soon, I also learned when he was going to shift gears and braced myself for it.

The main island road runs by the coast on the north and north west side, but then cuts inland over the interior hills. We kept passing all these beautiful little spots. We stopped to take some pictures and stretch our legs. We made one pit stop at a bat cave temple on the island. We walked up these huge steps to a little temple and weren't sure if we'd found it, but it was it. There were three men who seemed to live/always hang out up there. They really laughed at all of Matt's gear- they found it so ridiculous and probably totally unnecessary. Below is Matt and the man who guided us through the cave and laughed at Matt's gear. There were real bats in there!

The tiny person-sized hole you have to crawl into. Then you have to crouch and crawl through a low cave, which eventually opens up into a large cavern.

Matt and I have never been so famous! Children and many other people stop whatever they were doing to wave furiously and yell "Hello" and then any combination of any other English greeting if they knew it. "Hello nice to meet you what is your name by!" All while we are driving by on a motorbike. These boys had us surrounded when we came down from the cave.

Sweet sea temple.

Here we are heading inland over the hills. Deserted skinny roads.

We drove for hours around exploring. We took a detour looking for a waterfall. Our map showed one straight, easy road, but after about the fifth or sixth fork in the road we decided we were lost and didn't know how many more forks there were. We cut our losses and backtracked. Our detour took us off "the main road" and into some very small, out-there villages. It was probably the most National Geographic I'll ever get in real life. Old women crushing grains bare-chested, all the men working on building something together. Then we went back to Crystal Bay. Below you can see a naked boy fishing. Later he caught a long skinny fish and played with it by dragging it around the beach.

Matt is coming back from snorkeling Day 2. This time he got to swim with two 8-9 foot Manta rays. They came up and swam around him, played with him, touched him and let Matt touch them. He said it was one of the most awesome things that has ever happened to him.

We headed back to the hotel and giant Czech men who were staying there gave us a "Pena Penida" like a pena colida. They drank giant beers for breakfast, sat around talking loudly in czech, and a few wearing only sweaty tank tops and bikini brief underwear! Clothes are way over-rated on Nusa Penida. Anyway, these guys gave our stay there a lot of character.

This is a mutant gecko outside our room. It has two tails! The next morning we caught the boat back to Bali, spent the day sitting on the beach in Sanur, and then flew back to Korea late that night.

Bali - Part 1

2009-03-03T20:09:00.004-05:00

We arrived late Saturday night in Bali. We negotiated a taxi to our hotel and finally got to sleep around 4 am. We woke up in time for the free hotel breakfast, slathered ourselves in sunscreen (we both forgot our shins and paid!) and headed for the beach. Kuta is the main tourist beach and surfer hang out. It also very close to the airport, which is why we went there.

The beach itself was nice and the ocean was as warm as a bathtub here, but we could hardly enjoy it because of all the touts. Touts are people constantly bothering you and asking to buy their chintzy stuff or pay for whatever service they are willing to offer. "You want massage. I give you cheap price." Below is a Matt being touted by a guy selling temporary tattoos.

Bali is the only other predominantly Hindu area outside of India. They leave these offerings literally everywhere each day. You often see women sitting around and making these little grass boxes. They are placed in front of shops, in the street, on the sidewalk, and even on the hoods of cars. Then once placed, they are left alone and are often eaten by birds or accidentally kicked by someone walking by.

From Kuta we headed inland to Ubud, a city know for cultural performances and its lush surroundings. Ubud also has great eating. We never ate so well as we did in Ubud. We chose a hotel at random and found this place, called Warsa's Bungalows. Below is our private walled bungalow for only $25 a night. We were immediately wowed by the exterior and it was only later that we realized that it lacked basic amenities like toilet paper, soap, and towels. It was still a really nice place to stay.

All over Bali are temples that you can just wander into.

Monday night, we saw a Lembongan dance performance. These dancers were really highly skilled. All of their movements are highly controlled from their fingertips to their eye movements. This was set in the Ubud Palace with a live traditional Balinese orchestra.

On Tuesday, we set out on a walk around the outside of Ubud. We started in the Monkey Forest. This place is full of little rascally monkeys. They will find food if you have it on you. We thought we were safe, but it turns out that monkeys also like sports drinks. One jumped on Matt's back to pull his drink out of the side pocket of his backpack. That continued to open the bottle with his mouth. Tricky smart buggers.

This is the main temple in the Monkey Forest. Some temples require that you wear a sarong.

Then we did a long walk through villages outside of Ubud. Here is an entire road devoted to drying grain. The chickens are having a smorgasbord.

Also, in Ubud I had my first real massage. It was pretty amazing and only $12 for a full body, one hour massage. You can get even cheaper ones, but I "splurged" and went to a nice spa right next to our hotel. Matt was too sunburnt to participate and sat at the pool reading The Economist- sucka.

Tuesday night, we saw a different dance performance called the Kecak dance. I've read that it was originally invented by a movie director in the 1930s for a movie, but it seems to have been incorporated into existing traditions. Kecak has no instruments, only a chorus of 100 men making a variety of noises that often sound like "kecak".

Part 2 of our trip coming soon. Meanwhile, look at photos of our trip here :

Bali Bali

More Bali

February Update

2009-02-18T21:39:00.003-05:00

Last Saturday was Valentine's Day. Matt and I went out for a nice dinner. I ate so much raw red fin tuna- it was delicious! Thursday night I made Valentine's for everyone at work. It was fun to get a little crafty and I can't remember the last time I made Valentine's. My Korean co-workers were really surprised! In Korea, it's a holiday for kids and young couples, which isn't that different from the states I guess, but no one really gives valentine's - only chocolates.

Also, Matt recently departed with his mop. Justin came over and groomed Matt with his clippers.

Matt couldn't resist leaving one little curl hanging over his forehead. He kept it overnight and wore it to work to shock the Korean teachers. He then promptly buzzed it before class started. He had grown quite fond of the curl and , if I dare say, rather vain!

In other news, we're off to Bali on Saturday! Only two more days of teaching stand between me and beaches, tropical drinks, delicious food, and beautiful temples and forests! I'll update when we return next Sunday!

Good Junk

2009-02-09T20:20:00.003-05:00

Korea is full of good junk. When people don't want some of their belongings anymore, they simply discard them on the street or in abandoned lots/houses. Why give something to someone who may need it or a second hand shop when you can just put it on the street! While it may be more timely to find good junk in a second hand shop, it is much luckier to find good junk the Korean way- you can only happen upon it. Matt and I found our best good junk yet a couple of weeks ago- an orange vinyl couch!

I spotted this couch from our window in the old house that we call the Cat Castle because many stray cats live there. I knew it hadn't been there long because it had recently snowed and there was no snow on the couch. I went down to investigate and found it suitable for our apartment. I had to wait for Matt to come home, then we carried this heavy mother up four flights of stairs to our apartment. My forearms were sore for two days after, but it was worth it have a piece of furniture to sit on. Our "living room" was beginning to feel like its name instead of only a desk, a little table and floor cushions. Furniture can really make you feel like an adult! I am adult, I have a comfortable place to sit that isn't my bed. The vinyl has a few holes in it, but we have craftily repaired them with the standard green Korean duct tape (duct tape only comes in bright green) and put a throw over that end of the couch only.

Also, for your viewing pleasure- a view of my neighborhood, Bongseun-dong, from the ridge hike behind my apartment building. I knew there was a hiking trail up there, but I only just explored it this weekend. It's so close to my place and is a nice little escape. I plan to come back to the spot where I took this photo with friends and beers when the weather warms. It has a little pagoda for hanging and is only about 15 minutes walk from our building. I also plan to do lifestyle fitness there.

I live to the left of the tallest buildings on the far left.

Post Korea Plans- Vietnam!

2009-02-07T22:15:00.004-05:00

Matt and I are solidifying our plans for when our contract in Korea is finished in May. We are headed to Ha Long Bay, Vietnam! Matt got a job working as a rock climbing guide in Ha Long Bay with SloPony. They're running an adventure/rock climbing/kayaking outfit based on Cat Ba Island in Ha Long Bay. I will teach SloPony's Vietnamese staff English and maybe others on the island who want to learn. I'll also help out and be a substitute guide if they need me to. We're going to live in a guest house on Cat Ba Island. Below is Cat Ba Town, a little town of about 8,00o people on the island. Here is a little video of people riding a motor scooter through the little town.

This a panoramic photo of the harbor of Cat Ba Town, which you can see towards the left.

This is also a neat video of the island and the bay shot on 16mm film.

We're sad to be away from our family and friends for longer, but we couldn't pass this up. We're going to live on a little island in South East Asia! Ha Long Bay is a natural UNESCO World Heritage Site, it's beautiful. Also, SloPony believes in and institutes a four day work week so that everyone has enough time for climbing, relaxing or exploring. I agree! We'll be there in June- come visit!

Lunar New Year

2009-02-01T20:47:00.006-05:00

The last weekend in January is Lunar New Year, which is one of the most important holidays throughout east Asia. We had a long weekend so we went to Seoul with most of our friends from Gwangju.

Readingtown had Friday off, but Avalon still had to work. Caitlin, Jesse, Shane and I decided to go up early to Icheon, which is a little town about an hour from Seoul. Icheon basically has two reasons to visit and we did them both. The first is that its famous for its pottery. We went to a little ceramic village and shopped around in more little pottery shops than I have ever seen in my life. The boys quickly livened up this trip by drinking big beers and wandering through ceramic shops. None of the owners seemed to mind. One adjumma even gave them snacks to go with their beers. It was extremely cold and we were basically the only shoppers there. Some owners weren't in their own shops, but hanging out in others because it was so quiet there.

I bought these four tiny petal teacups and little wooden petal saucers. There were some really beautiful ceramics there, but I liked these little guys and figured they wouldn't be too much trouble to get home.

Later that night, we went to the other reason to visit Icheon- the Miranda Spa. Korean spas called jim-jjil-bangs are really awesome! We have recently become enamored with jim-jjil-bangs and have been going to the one in our neighborhood a lot. The jim-jjil-bang is separated by sex and you cruise around from hot pool to hot pool or to a jet pool or to a sauna or to an herb bath totally naked. This may sound scary, but in Korean culture this is totally natural. Everyone goes from toddlers to women in their sixties or seventies- all naked.

In America, this would never fly as it would probably attract weirdos and wouldn't be a place you would go with your sister, mother, daughter and friends to spend an afternoon or evening soaking, relaxing, exfoliating. In our neighborhood, it is only 4,800 won and you can stay as long as you want. There is a gym there too. The spa in Icheon was much nicer because it sits on a natural hot spring and there are outdoor hot pools. Caitlin and I sat outside in a hot yellow mud bath, drinking beer, and staying warm, but having ice-locks! Our hair was freezing out there.

The next morning, we hopped on a bus to Seoul, met up with the Avalon folks who rode the train up that morning, found a hotel, ate Mexican food, and headed to a Canadian Brewery. Matt and Jesse decided that the Beer Tower would be most appropriate for their beer needs.

Later that night we went a party called "Four Rooms", which meant that four (well really three) bars in one building threw a party together. One bar had a lingerie show and a Wii. One was a Canadian themed bar and one was called "Owl Bus". This was by far my favorite. It was the perfect bar for Kathleen. It had a design theme that was at the same time industrial, bohemian, and full of OWLS! It was pretty small and cute and a some DJs for a little dancing. I don't have pictures from this night because I put all my things in a locker.

On Sunday, we went out for more Mexican food! Then we tried to find a museum with a William Blake exhibition. We traveled long and far to get there for it only to be closed! The boys couldn't take this museum fail and re-gathered themselves by lying on the sunny ground.

From there we went to Namdaemun market. I heard there was a large wholesale jewelry market there and I was right, but this was also closed! Museums, markets, lots of things shut down for Lunar New Years. Sunday was mostly a bust besides the good food we ate. We went to an Indian buffet for dinner. Below are Jesse, Matt, and Simon testing the lady's race car wares at Namdaemun.

Matt and Shane had some fun playing crazy on the subway all weekend. Lisa looks to me for help, but I can give her none.

Monday was much less of a fail! We split up into smaller groups for people with different agendas. Matt, Lisa, Shane and I headed to Gyeongbukgong, the largest of the Seoul palaces. Most of the weekend, the holiday was a burden because of closings, but not at the palace! It was open and there was no admission fee! There were also lots of traditional Korean activities happening.

One of the fun activities was dressing up like a palace guard! For free! The boys didn't want to, but Lisa and I waited in the short line. I think they gave me the child's outfit. All the other ones had long sleeves and were longer in length.

The ponds in the palace were totally frozen and people were allowed onto one to play a spinning top games and to be pulled on little wooden ice sleds, but the children had a pretty good monopoly on those.

The palace was close to my favorite non-alcoholic beverage establishment of all time. The Old Tea Shop filled with antiques and live birds! We went there on our last trip to Seoul and I don't know if I can visit that city without coming here.

Then we were on a bus home with still one more day of the long weekend to relax. We went to our local jim-jjil-bang and cooked a fish dinner at home. Matt makes a delicious fish!

Korean Cutes

2009-01-17T00:35:00.007-05:00

January is Intensives at ReadingTown. This means that the kids are on vacation from their regular schools, so they now they have more time for English academy! These kids never get a break from school- pretty much ever. During this month, the kids come everyday instead of two or three times a week. It makes for a long month for teachers, but during Intensives we can have a few fun events. This is Shane and I taking our jobs really seriously.

The pictures below are from our Trivia Contest Day. Koreans call it a Golden Bell contest. I've selected a few of my students for your viewing pleasure of cute Korean kids.

Ok, well this isn't exactly a cute Korean kid. It's mean trying to explain something that involves the number eight- note the finger visual aide. (PS- I'm not pregnant even though this picture makes me look that way!)

This is James. He is not cute in your traditional sense of cute, but he reminds me of a baby lion and is very sweet. He tries very hard in class.

This is Jessica, but her Korean name is Min-kyeong. She's in my class called "Little Stars", which is a group of younger kids whose English is much better than most other kids their age. I think she is one prettiest little girls... in Korea... or maybe ever. She's quiet and likes to draw.

This is Dora. She is also a little star and quite spunky. This girl has sass and is really smart. I'd hang out with Dora if we were the same age.

This kid isn't even a student at our school, but his older sister is and he is always running around. Their mom sits in the lobby while his sister is in class.

This is Hero and Stuart. They are smart and rowdy. They can hardly keep the answers in their mouth before they raise their hands.

This is Yoony. I almost kidnap her everyday! She is just so sweet and cute- smiles like its her job.

This is Andy. He's a handful and I'm sure he drives his mother nuts, but quite a character. He thinks I'm thirty. He thinks I'm so old that my parents couldn't possibly still be living. His jaw dropped when I told him that not only are my parents alive, so are my grandparents.

Watching the kid below do what one of our Korean teachers described as a "sexy dance". We were shocked when he said that- we'd have all been fired at home for saying a kid was going to do a sexy dance! This kid put his shirt in his teeth and did a belly dance!

New Year's Day Ice Skating

2009-01-02T23:21:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year from Korea! We spent our New Year's Eve drinking too much and walking around in the snow trying to get a cab. However, the next day after we'd recovered a bit (well most of us) we went ice skating! I hadn't been ice skating in probably ten years. I don't think I've been since middle school. It was fun, cheap and pretty crowed- like any fun activity in Korea.

Matt is getting passed by tiny Koreans.

This is my cool ice skating trick.

ReadingTown/Avalon End of the Year Party

2008-12-28T08:42:00.004-05:00

Last night, our schools hosted an end of the year party. Our boss talked about the "history" of our company even though it's not that old and basically how he made it great. Then we had a super delicious buffet. It must have had fifty different dishes to load your plates with. I ate so much sushi and sashimi!

Me, Caitlin, Haewon, Rebekah, and Lisa

Here are some of my coworkers and Sue, the Director, is second from the right. (It's safe to say I have mixed feelings about her, but everyone else is sweet and really nice to work with).

Then there was the talent show portion of the evening. This past week was one of the most frustrating disorganized weeks at ReadingTown. Everyone was stressed because we were starting our Intensive session the day after Christmas and there wasn't a lot of time to prepare for it, which also didn't leave much time to enjoy Christmas either. So, this week we were all also supposed to prepare something to do with our group for the talent show. Yeah right. Our group decided to do an improvisational skit talking about what we should do for the talent show. It was meant to really jab at our boss and the insane idea that we were supposed to plan and practice something this week! WE WON! I thought we were going to get the "dead last" award, but we won.

Matt organized a skit with the other foreign guys called, "Making Beans". They were really funny and got second place. Here is a video of the award winning "Making Beans" and Matt's debut as a thespian.

Seoulllllllllll!

2008-12-28T08:07:00.006-05:00

Matt and I went to Seoul last weekend instead of exchanging gifts this year. We wanted to see some art, eat some international food, which is difficult to come by in Gwangju, and see the mega-city of Korea. One fifth of Korea's population lives in Seoul, it's huge.

I apologize for the lack of description in this post- I'm feeling lame. Here are some more pictures from the weekend.

Cell Phone Stitch

2008-12-22T21:04:00.002-05:00

Every cell phone needs a bauble.

Here is my newest stitch. These are our cell phones with their baubles.

2008-12-18T10:20:00.002-05:00

Christmas in Korea

2008-12-18T08:01:00.003-05:00

Unfortunately, being abroad for a year means even though you are exploring and doing new things, you still miss the good stuff about home... like Christmas.... with your family... and your friends.... and not much can be done about it.

Alas, there is still a bit of Christmas in Korea. There is the occasional tree in a store window, some kids are mentioning it at school unlike at home where every kid is hardwired into Christmas over drive right now. My foreign co-workers and I switch between groans about missing home and squeals when packages of presents and cards arrive from home. Groan- no real tree or ornaments, squeal- one week 'til Christmas! Groan- No roast turkey or grandma's baking, squeal- our first day off months! One of my coworkers has begun playing Christmas music in our teachers' room to try to feel Christmas-y. I think he has the Xmas blues the worst.

On the up-side, this will be my first of hopefully many Christmases with Matt. I've done a bit of holiday decorating around our apartment. Last Saturday, we went on a hunt for pine boughs. Unable to find any pine the woods behind our building (bamboo just doesn't feel so Christmasy), I made an ethical decision that I needed the pine from that apartment complex's landscaping more than they did and that they probably wouldn't miss the shopping bag's worth I took. I spent the rest of the day making a wreath, paper snow flakes and arranging pine boughs and candles in empty glass bottles.

This is the wreath I made out of fresh hijacked pine on our front door. It's a little lop-sided, but it gives it character.

This is my "Christmas Altar". I threw a blanket on our TV, which we hardly watch anyway and added a few festive touches. I found directions for making these snowflakes here. I made the little Christmas tree by balling up little pieces of magazine paper on a cardboard cone with double stick tape. Its intended size was about twice as big, but it was a slow process so I cut it down. Below are some presents from my parents and grandparents and a card from Utah! We are excited to open them Christmas morning.

Matt and I have decided to forego gifts for one another in exchange for a weekend in Seoul. We have been in Korea for seven months, but have yet to make it to the ultra modern mega city of Korea. We are going in search of art, western food, a theater show, and hopefully some Christmas lights and decorations. All of these things can be sparse in Gwangju. We will take the train up early Saturday morning.

On Christmas day, we will get together with our friends for some wine, food and probably a secret santa exchange. I miss you all at home and it'll be a blue Christmas without you.....

Norebang-ing

2008-12-15T20:18:00.005-05:00

This past Saturday a few of us decided to visit a local norebang (a small kareoke room that you rent with friends by the hour) in our neighborhood. We first tried one, the Tomato Norebang, that was across the street from our apartment building. Our building is on an essentially abandoned block, so we did not expect much. It was weird and kind of sketchy, so we left and walked to a more legit norebang.

It can safely be assumed that if you are Korean and drinking heavily with friends or co-workers, you might end up at a norebang. It is an extrememly popular activity and they are peppered along any street that has a bar or drinking establishment. It is so popular because it is so fun!!! You choose the song and level of embarrassment and then rock out. At the end of the song, the machine gives you a score out of 100. I don't think it goes lower than 80 to not hurt their users' self-esteem. We definitely should have gotten some Cs, Ds, and Fs for our performances. If only those karaoke machines could see our performances instead of hearing them, we surely would have gotten better scores! As you can see below, we were rocking out.

Here, I think, we are rocking out to some Led Zeppelin. Norebang rock star.

I think these could be a big hit in America. Matt and I have all kinds of plans for Korean things that would be really popular in America. Don't steal them!

Thanksgiving in Korea

2008-12-01T08:36:00.002-05:00

As we were all far away from our families and we all had to work on Thursday, we had a Thanksgiving get together at our place on Saturday. We pulled all over resources, pots, pans, and tiny kitchens together to come up with the closest we could to an American Thanksgiving. I think we did a pretty good job. We couldn't find turkey without going an hour an half away to a Costco, so we did with chicken. I made a potato soup, some chicken, and gravy. We also had stuffing, mashed potatoes, and a little Korean food and a little curry.

Here are Kelly and Nasil piecing a chicken in our very full tiny kitchen. Below is part of our Thanksgiving Spread. This photo is lacking a delicious salad Caitlin and Justin made and Kelly's pumpkin pie.

Here is Stu enjoying his plateful even though he's British and doesn't know a thing about Thanksgiving!

Then we drank too much wine and beer and were too merry for the rest of the night.

New Gwangju Stitch!

2008-11-23T20:18:00.002-05:00

Here is my most recent embroidery. It's the view from the rooftop of my school building. We have our lunch room on the roof. Korea has an interesting skyline. Most buildings are no more than four stories except for these giant high-rise apartment buildings. They speckle the skyline, which makes them seem more overbearing than if all the buildings were that tall, like in New York City. Korea has really lost their eye for architecture in the name of rapid growth.

Matt is a bum / It's snowing in Gwangju!

2008-11-18T19:17:00.007-05:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present evidence article number 1:

This is Mr. Raue sitting next to a very large heap of climbing equipment remaining from aforementioned climbing trip. Please note, that on this heap, is a note. Also note, that he is just eating some nuts.

This leads me to evidence article number 2: the note on the heap.

The defendant has "gotten home" several times since this note was laid. The court of Ashley's blog finds Matt Raue guilty on the charges of being a bum. Mr. Raue is now subject to being called a "bum" for an indefinite period of time.

In other news..... It snowed in Gwangju last night! It has hardly been that cold until this week.

(Not) Climbing Trip

2008-11-17T20:01:00.003-05:00

This weekend, Matt, our new friend and recent arrival to Korea- Shane, and I went to Seonusan Provincial Park to go climbing. Well, I didn't climb. I just tagged along to get outside and enjoy the end of fall while it's still not too cold and there are still a few colorful trees. Matt and I went to this park earlier this summer to try to find the climbing, but we failed to find it. This time we found the cliffs and the other foreign climbers that Matt planned to meet online. He was really psyched to do some outdoor climbing.

I spent most of the afternoon sitting on top of the rock that Matt and many other people were climbing. I ate my sandwich, worked on my embroidery, and even laid down and took a nap while sun was still warming the rock.

We stayed overnight at the base of the park. Matt stayed in the park Sunday to climb more, but Shane and I headed back to Gwangju. But before we left, we decided to check out Gochangeupseong Fortress. It was just a short walk from the Gochang bus terminal. Gochang is the closest city to Seonusan Park. The inside of the fortress was full of your standard traditional Korean buildings, but the wall surrounding the fortress was pretty cool. This fortress was built mainly by women, but I haven't found out yet why. It is said that if a woman walks the wall three times during a leap month with a stone on her head her life will be prolonged and will probably go straight to heaven after death. I was going to walk it three times, but I found out I need a stone and it needed to be a leap month once I got there. So we only went half-way around.

Below is the wall with a view of the little city of Gochang, known for its bokbuncha, raspberry liquor, and watermelons.

Stitchin' on Paper

2008-11-12T19:58:00.003-05:00

Here is a little experiment I did on some very grassy and fibrous paper I bought from a Korean paper store. It's holds up to stitching better than I would have guessed. Maybe my next project will be on this paper.

Pepero Day!

2008-11-11T20:48:00.003-05:00

November 11th is Pepero Day! Peperos are cookie-like sticks dipped in chocolate. The Pepero company invented this holiday to sell more of their snack candies and it worked! School children all over Korea (and probably Japan, too) buy tons of Peperos and give them to their friends or in my case- to their teachers. Pepero Day is on November 11th because 11/11 resembles the silhouette of the stick-shaped snack.

As an adult, this feels ridiculous and I think most adults feel this way, but the kids love it. Matt told some of his students last week that Pepero Day was invented by the company. A few of them realized that this was a ploy on children to make more money and were outraged. Matt may have started a tiny Pepero revolution, but it will take a lot more to take on this day- PEPERO DAY! On Monday night, I saw a girl buy about twenty boxes of Pepero at the little mart near my apartment. All day there were freezing convenience store workers standing outside trying to hawk more Peperos. I laughed at them wrapped in blankets selling these candies after work (Disclaimer- I didn't laugh at their misfortune, just laughing because it wasn't really that cold.) Below is a photo of my Pepero stash received from students. I have even given some away already. Matt said he ate all of his at school and doesn't want to eat any more Peperos.

Weekend of Not Boozing our Faces Off

2008-11-10T10:11:00.004-05:00

Almost every weekend in October was one our friend's birthdays or my birthday or Halloween. We did a lot of boozing and we were all starting to feel it. So, this weekend everyone independently decided to sober up a bit and get outside. Matt, Kent, and I went to Wolchusan National Park for a hike. It's only about an hour and a half from Gwangju and very beautiful. It's a pretty rough hike, for me anyhow, it was pretty up and down. Parts were steep. My thighs are still sore two days later. It was about a six hour hike. However, there were sweet views around every corner and there is also a sweet suspension bridge.

Koreans leave the cities in great numbers for hiking on the weekends. Well, middle aged adults do. Young Koreans are hardly interested in hiking for the most part. You are never alone on the mountain and everyone has better gear than you do. Anything short of head to toe breathable high performance gear from head to toe is pretty unacceptable. If you see anyone on the mountain with a sub-par gear ensemble, they are probably a foreigner. Despite their gear, they are rather friendly, or can be. One group of men sat us down on their rock and literally shoved food in my mouth as I sat down. They gave us cold beer and offered us a bunch of food and some soju.

What is this crazy miguk girl doing on this mountain in cotton?!?!? That is not gear! Also, the sweet aforementioned suspension bridge.

Hiker on top of the next peak.

Fall happening in a valley.

The gingko trees turn bright yellow in fall (on the mountain anyway- I'm still waiting for this yellow on the gingkos in my neighborhood).

This is Matt reading some of his poems at an open mic on Saturday night.

Also, because we didn't booz hard, I got out of the apartment before noon on Sunday and caught the things I hadn't seen yet in the Gwangju Biennale that were scattered at different locations throughout town. I went to a little museum on Mudeung mountain, the Gwangju Museum of Art, and checked out the installations at Daein Market- a traditional fish market near downtown. I took advantage of the free shuttle the Biennale offered and saved a bunch in cab fare. It was a pretty cool thing to have in Gwangju.

Halloween in Korea

2008-11-04T08:29:00.003-05:00

Halloween is a largely North American phenomenon. However, it is a greatly treasured N.A. phenomenon and foreigners in Korea are basically unwilling to give it up even though there's no Halloween in Korea. My friends and fellow foreign teachers around Gwangju wore our costumes to school on Friday and got the kids all excited about Halloween. Maybe in 10 or 15 years, so many foreign English teachers will have brought Halloween to Korean children that it will become popular. I think it would be a meaningful cultural exchange- Koreans probably need more zombies or "sexy ___(insert fun costume here)___".

(Here are my Gwangju friends. From left to right: Leah- pregnant; Caitlin- Eve; Song- Bar Owner who like Foreigners; Kelly- Doll; Haewon- Pirate Girl; Steve- Pirate; Matt- My Man Martian; Stuart- in a borrowed Lee Myung Bak mask, but originally dressed as his gf, Leah; Justin- Adam(to match Eve); and me as Martian. )

We dressed up and went downtown in costume on both Friday and Saturday night. We mostly headed to the foreigner bars, but also wandered the streets, hung out at the Mini-Stop, and scared a few locals. Speakeasy, the most-popular foreigner bar, was packed! We packed in with other waygeuks in costume and enjoyed a band dressed as Ghostbusters. We drank too much and generally had too much fun. I think this coming weekend will be low-key for everyone.

Oh this? This is some martian love.

Cross fingers for Obama!

My new favorite song.

2008-11-01T07:04:00.003-04:00

This is my new favorite song. It's by my friend, Stuart Beesely from Essex. It's called "Peanut Butter."

Ginkgo Embroidery

2008-10-26T23:30:00.002-04:00

My latest (kind of) project. I actually started this is June or July, neglected it for a long time, and then finished it September. Now it's late October and I'm finally getting around to posting it! Also, this picture is not very good. This past week, I did a small embroidery for my friend's birthday, but I didn't take a picture of it. This week, I'm busy working, yoga-ing, and working on my Halloween costume! I'm going to be a martian. Yesterday, I rode my bike down to the big market and bought some silver and shiny purple fabrics and gathered other necessary martian supplies. Then, I begin my next embroidery projects, which will be of Gwangju sky-rise apartment buildings. I'm going to try to be more on top of getting art projects done. We've been here 5 months now.

You can have a birthday in Korea and it can be longer than one day.

2008-10-23T10:47:00.007-04:00

As it turns out, ASHfest is an international festival. ASHfest 2008 was headquartered this year in Gwangju, South Korea. The day began with shopping at TIMEZONE, our headquarters of cheap Korean fashion. Actually, I think 99% of clothes I've bought in Korea have come from this fine establishment. My girlfriends and I met at 10 am and were there till almost noon. My prized purchase that day- shiny purple leggings that will somehow work into my Halloween costume.

At work, there was a delicious cake! It was coffee flavored! Surprisingly, Korea really does cakes well. Also, everyone gets at least one cake on their birthday sometimes more. My school buys everyone a cake on their birthday. No one makes cakes because no one has an oven and the store bought cakes are really well done. My first period class surprised me with a lights off "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" when I walked in. They also drew a lovely birthday montage on the white board.

That evening we decided to have a fairly quiet evening on our roof. (It turned out to be not so quiet and one of our mysterious neighbors who we never see left us a nasty note. Oops.) Leah and Stu stormed in with birthday cake #2!

Matt wrote me a sonnet, which I'm pretty sure he whoo-ed everyone with, not just me. He also promised me many beauty and bath products, a whole lotta lovin', a delicious sushi dinner, and bottomless respect and adoration. I got a certificate, which means it's real. Below, he is reading the sonnet by candlelight. Poet boyfriends have their ups.

Too rowdy for Korea!

(I stole the above photos from my friend, Justin- he has a neat camera.)

The next day was the Gwangju Kimchi Festival, one of Gwangju's most talked about festivals. Kimchi as far as the eye can see. I neglected to get a photo of the long and varied kimchi spreads, but these guys were pretty awesome. A: They are the only people I've seen with crazy haircuts to be crazy (not because they think they are fashionable) in Korea. One guy had dreads! There are no dreads in Korea. B: They were playing these sweet hand-made vegetable instruments! They hollowed out gourds, squashes, carrots, and radishes to make instruments. They must be from Seoul.

Ack! This photo is sideways, but it's Matt making kimchi at the "Foreigner Making Kimchi Experience". You basically rub red pepper sauce and a few other things on cabbage and they put it in a bucket for you to take home. Now, we have a lot of kimchi in our fridge. I doubt we'll eat it all.

Photo Op with a radish! (Note: I'm holding our bucket of kimchi.)

Saturday was Kent's birthday. This is Kent. We all went out to a steamed pork restaurant.

Then we went back to Stu and Leah's apartment for a fake facial hair party. Matt really fell into his character that evening, Fernando Fernando. I gave myself the ever-stylish chin strap.

Also, here is a video of my friend Leah singing her song, "Take Me From Behind on Tuesdays." She'd be CXXX material if she weren't so Canadian.

So, now I'm 24.

It's my birthday!!!!

2008-10-16T11:36:00.001-04:00

Asia makes you older because your birthday comes before you were actually born. This is probably screwing with some space time birthday continuum.

twenty-four.

This city is full of crazy.

2008-10-13T10:36:00.003-04:00

This past weekend was our friend, Stu's, birthday. He a pretty cool dude and makes fun of how frequently and improperly Americans use the word "awesome". He a Brit from Essex. Since he's pretty cool and funny, we thought we might celebrate his birthday. He is only 5 days older than me. We went to one of the many little outdoor restaurants nestled in the woods, along a stream at the bottom of Mudeung mountain- kinda Fern Gully-ish and sweet.

Afterwards, we headed downtown and watched the Chungchang-ro 7080 Remembrance Festival. It's supposed to a festival for nostalgia of the 1970s and 1980s in Gwangju. I'm not exactly sure why those decades are commemorated with a large festival, but it was fun nonetheless.

Here we are enjoying a strange combination of Disney, Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, and more characters I couldn't identify all dancing in some strange show. We also found these marred-up mannequin heads, which actually were the source of a lot of our fun that night. Below is a mannequin head puppet show with Korea's booz of choice- soju!

Stu walked through the streets of downtown, bent like an old man and turning around to scare young Korean girls. This one girl below was particularly impressed with this shenanigan. I'll say that many others were not impressed at all.

We went to a few of our favorite drinking spots and ended at Speakeasy- the foreigner bar. A few of the gentlemen decided that the stairs were too conventional of a way to enter a bar- my dearest included. They scrambled in, knocked off a few bricks, and were scolded laughingly by the management. Speakeasy is the black hole end of many nights in Gwangju for a miguk.

Is Korea College: Part II? Some weekends feel like it. But hey- college was fun.

Next weekend- MY BIRTHDAY! That post will surely be nothing, but wholesome, good, grown-up, responsible, 24 year-old fun. PS- I'm sharing a birthday weekend with the classy gentleman in the photo above. His birthday is the 18th although he says we have the same birthday because he was born in South Africa, which I'm not sure makes sense. His name is Kent and in the right light can be mistaken for Val Kilmer.

Gyeongju- Korea's old capital

2008-10-07T21:29:00.007-04:00

This past weekend was our last three day weekend until Christmas or next year, so we took advantage of the time and went to Gyeongju. Gyeongju is Korea's old capital city and is almost on the opposite or east coast of Korea from Gwangju. It's full of old cultural relics. Matt and I went with Caitlin and Justin, our friends, neighbors, and fellow Readingtown/Avalon couple.

Throughout Gyeongju, there are tumulis- large earthen burial mounds. They were mostly for royalty, but if you had enough cash you could buy yourself a mound. Most are single mounds, but some are double mounds for husband and wife- like the mound on the right in the picture above. These mounds are from about the 3rd-6th centuries.

We were saying as were walking around them that they felt both surreal and kind of made us feel like we were in a video game.

Sunset over almost thousands years old burial mounds.

This is Anapji, which was originally a much, much larger palace complex built in the 600s. However, like most historical and cultural relics in Korea, all we can see is the reconstructed version as almost everything was destroyed by Japan or China in their invasions. However, this was a nice place to see at dusk with the pond lit up and the sliver of a moon rising.

Satuday, we went to Bulguksa, which I couldn't say outloud without making it sound Eastern European. It isn't Eastern European at all- it's Korean! It's so Korean that UNESCO deemed it worthy of being a world cultural heritage site. It's pretty impressive, but as its one of Korea's most famous temples- it was crowded.

Inside the temple complex was this brass warthog or wild pig of sorts. There were many Koreans taking their while touching this animal. We don't know anything about it, but decided we probably shouldn't pass up the opportunity to have our photo taken with it.

Matt and a little Korean boy building cairns. Matt lost a fingernail last time he tried one of these, albeit it was on a much larger scale.

From Bulguksa, we rode a long stop and go bus ride up the mountain to Seokguram, which has a large stone Buddha in a grotto. We eventually got off the bus and walked up faster. This should have been a sign for what was to come. Once in the park, we waited in another long line to get into the grotto. Here you can see Caitlin and Justin and the line behind us to quickly walk through the grotto. There were no photos allowed in the grotto. All the Koreans were taking them, but Matt said I shouldn't, and he seems to know about when its ok to take a picture of a Buddha and when its not.

This excursion took a long time, but was not a loss. The grotto was really impressive. Also, we met this funny Israeli couple in their late fifties or early sixties. They basically asked us if they could cut in line with us by just doing it. We asked them where they were from and the woman responded, "We're Israeli. Americans wouldn't just ask to cut in line!" (Israelis kind of have a reputation as obnoxious travelers). But they were really funny! We talked in line and found out that this was their 3rd trip to Korea since the 70s. We picked their brains over how Korea has changed since then. They told us that they travel a lot, not because they are wealthy, but they made traveling the world a priority in their lives. The woman was really great, she was telling us stories about tripping on Peyote in South America accidently and other fun stories. We kept running into them in town for the rest of the day after we walked down the mountain and they hitch hiked.

Below is a lotus field. This photo is taken from a pagoda in the middle of it where we enjoyed beers after a hard day of sight seeing. Matt tried to start lotus plants early this summer, but due to several factors, they didn't make it. So, he was determined to gather as many lotus seeds as he could.

The problem was that other people had the same idea and all seed pods within arms' reach had been plucked and lotuses grow in water and mud. Matt and Justin rigged a tool and choreographed moves where one held the other as he leaned sideways and reached for the pods. They were surprisingly successful. Caitlin and I laughed as we watched this charade through the binoculars. Below, I think they are discussing a lotus-retrieval strategy.

On Sunday morning, we rented bikes and rode to the Namsan mountain. We had a for-real hike. We started on the east side, went up to the top, down the west side, back up to the top and down to where we started! It was kind of intense. I was definitely the slowest member of our pack so they kept making me be in front so I could set the pace. This is a good method because otherwise they would always have to stop and wait for me. I'm not in awful shape, I'm just not a mountaineer. The picture below is one "trail" we walked UP. We lost the "trail" and had to do a little scrambling up the rocks.

But all the huffin' and puffin' was definitely worth it. It was cloudy and misty, but otherwise a lovely day for going up and down both sides of the mountain.

(Check out my sweet gear. My pant legs are zipped off and tied around me head. Yeah.) Also, a sweet Buddha carved into the side of a mountain.

We rode our bikes back to the bus station. We had to take a bus to Daegu to get bus to Gwangju, but we couldn't get tickets on the a bus until 4 hours later. We passed the time by going to a DVD bang and watching "Michael Clayton", which was pretty good. We finally made it back to Gwangju at 2am. Good weekend.

(I realize I only make blog posts when I go away for the weekend. I know I need to write some posts about my regular life.)

We actually did some Korea things this weekend.

2008-09-22T09:28:00.003-04:00

I am a fool and did not take my camera anywhere we went this weekend, but I'll give you a brief update sans photos. On Saturday, we went to a Korean tea house on Art Street. I knew about art street, but wasn't sure where exactly it was. I had been looking for it and thought I'd found it before and was disappointed at its lack of artiness. It lacked artiness because it wasn't Art Street at all. However, the real Art Street is exactly as it was described- full of galleries and art supply shops. There are many shops with reams and reams of beautiful Korean rice paper. I didn't buy any on Saturday because I didn't want to carry it with me all day. Maybe I can do some embroidery on it.

Kent, a friend of ours, has befriended some Korean college girls with very very good English. They guided us to this tea place. It sells all kinds of tea pots and accessories in the front and serves tea in the back. For only $3 per person we sample, sipped, and enjoyed three different kinds of tea. A green tea called "jaksul", which means "sparrow's tongue" because the leaves are so tiny when they are picked. We had matcha, a powdered green tea mixed into hot water with a bamboo whisk, and what was described to us as a "yellow tea", but I'd never heard of that before. I was able to spout a bit of my tea knowledge and impress those who hadn't worked in a tea shop before. It was really cool and there are a few other tea places I'd like to try on Art Street.

On Sunday we went to the Gwangju Biennale. A biennale is a large international contemporary art show that happens every two years. The most famous of these exhibitions is in Venice, but our Gwangju holds its own. This exhibition is huge and takes place in several locations throughout the city. We bought season passes because it was way too much to take in on one day. Out five very large galleries in the main exhibition building, we looked at one and half on Sunday. Good thing it runs into November! We saw some cool stuff and I plan to go back one of my mornings before work when it won't be full of Korean children and tour groups. Koreans in a gallery setting are borderline awful according to what I'm used to in America. When we are in galleries or museums at home, we are respectful, quiet, and give space to others also viewing a piece or reading the plaque next to it. Koreans are all things that are not the qualities or behaviors I just mentioned. They are loud, stand right next to you, in front of you, in the doorway, let their children run rampant, yelling through the gallery, and are generally unwilling to take a step aside so that you may walk by or also enjoy what they are looking at. All of these things happen everywhere else in Korea, but in a major international art exhibit?!? I'm foolish to expect anything different, I know.

Aiigh, but it is a really cool thing to have in Gwangju, just a medium sized city in a tiny country. Jim Sanborn, the sculptor I worked for during senior year and the summer after graduation, was in the Gwangju Bienniale a few years ago. When I told him I was thinking about coming to Korea he recommended Gwangju to me. He says that Gwangju has this event because there is a lot of cultural guilt surrounding the May 18th Gwangju Democratic Uprising in 1980. Over 150 were killed in a protest against military rule. A lot of cultural importance is put on Gwangju in an effort to outshine the democratic uprising and massacre.

Strange fate twist- student uprising ending in massacre causes cultural guilt causes cultural importance in Gwangju causes Gwangju Biennale causes Jim Sanborn to come here causes him to recommend the city to me when I ask about Korea causes us to be here teaching English. Well.... maybe that's stretch, but not too far. Ok, this post began as a description of our weekend and ended as the history of how we got to Gwangju.

Next weekend, I'll take some pictures.....

Kyoto, Japan

2008-09-17T09:07:00.011-04:00

Over Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving), Matt and I bussed, ferried, and trained to Kyoto. It was kind of a long trip for a four day weekend, but we only had the time that we had. Our first day of travel and hotel booking was expensive and trying, but the trip was definitely worth it.

Our journey started on Thursday night. Our ferry left Busan on Friday morning, so we had to take the midnight bus after work to Busan. We got to Busan around 3am and had to hang out in the bus station until the subway opened at 5am. This was probably the most painful part of the journey. Those late night- early morning hours are rough in a bus station with no where to lie down. Busan's bus station is also strangely located far away from everything, so there wasn't anything to do but wait. We eventually got on the subway and found the international ferry terminal. We took a high speed ferry (3 hrs across the Sea of Japan - or as Korea calls it, the East Sea, they don't like to acknowledge that anything is Japan's). The boat was a hydrofoil, which means that something like a wing comes out of the bottom of the boat and the boat moves above the water, which is pretty ridiculous. Three hours later, we landed in Fukuoka, Japan.

We got through immigration and made it to the train station only to find out that our train tickets were almost twice as much as we thought they would be. We hadn't brought enough cash to even cover our train tickets, but luckily, I brought my credit card for such a situation. I signed up for a credit card before I left and hadn't used it yet, but it worked. We boarded the Shinkansen, Japan's super high speed train/spaceship on train tracks, and sped away to Kyoto.

We arrived in Kyoto only to find out that it was a holiday weekend in Japan as well and most hotel were full. The budget hotels were definitely full. We were lucky to find a room even though it was more than we were planning on spending. We ran into some other travelers stuck without a room. I don't think there was a single vacant room in Kyoto on Saturday night. Finally, by Saturday morning all of our hotel and travel arrangements were all taken care of and we could finally start enjoying Kyoto!

Kyoto used to be Japan's capital city before Tokyo and is a huge center of culture. Only Rome has more UNESCO World Heritage site than Kyoto. The Kyoto map is peppered with them. The United States only has 8 cultural heritage sites and we saw 6 in Kyoto last weekend and hardly put a dent in the Kyoto list. What I'm saying is that Kyoto is full of old, beautiful, important cultural sites. We started at Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion.

It was really spectacular, set in a reflecting pond. This was the residence of a shogun in the late 14th century. When he died, he requested that it was turned into a zen temple. Not a shabby pad, huh?

Then we walked down the street to Ryoanji, a famous zen rock garden. Intro to Art History professors use this slide as an example of a zen garden. It's pretty famous, pretty zen, pretty sweet.

People in traditional clothes walking into Ryoanji.

Kyoto (and Japan) is bicycles town! Everyone rides a bike around- business men, kids, grandma, hip young people. They are all on sweet cruising style bike with plenty of basket space for carrying groceries or your cute Japanese baby. (PS- someone tell Kate that I saw a little Japanese girl wearing a t-shirt that said "Harrisburg, Pennsylvania", but I was to shy to ask her mother for a picture). There are more bike parking garages than car garages. It's so cool.

This is us outside of Nijo-jo Castle in the center of Kyoto. I wasn't really allowed to take pictures inside the castle, but here is the giant stone wall and moat. Matt is really into dry stone wall construction as they are ubiquitous in Pound Ridge, though not quite as impressive as this one. One really cool thing about Nijo Castle was that the floors chirp when you walk on them. They're called Nightingale Floors and have little wood parts pressed into the floor boards that chirp when you step on them. They were so that no one could sneak around or into the castle. There were all kinds of security devices here. This shogun must not have been popular.

Saturday night, we set out for Gion, a neighborhood that supposedly Geishas frequent. We didn't see any, but we did find Yasaka Shrine, which was lighted and open at night. Most temples close before sunset. These are paper lanterns surrounding a pavillion in the center of the temple.

This is a shot from within the temple complex through the gate out onto Gion, the major entertaining district in Kyoto.

On Sunday morning, we woke up early, hopped on a train for a short ride to Inari. We went to Fushimi Inari temple. It's a fox temple most well known for its trails and trails of orange tori gates. You may recognize these gates from a scene in Memoirs of a Geisha, where the young girls runs through these gates. They were incredibly beautiful and quite an experience to walk through. We went through about 30 minutes of walking through them and that was only about half-way. This was my favorite part of the trip.

After Inari, we took another short train to the west side of town to an area called Arashiyama. It's further out and less developed than central Kyoto. Arashiyama backs up to a foot of a mountain and has several temples that you can walk to. We had a walking tour map and set out.

We first went to Tenryuji. While Ryoanji is famous for its dry zen garden, Tenryuji is known for its wet zen garden. The building was burned at some point, but the garden remains in its original state. Then we walked through a bamboo forest.

We went to several temples, all nestled away from one another in the woods or in the hills. This is Jojakkoji, which was set up on a hill and another one of our favorite spots.

Late Sunday afternoon, we headed to Kiyomizu. It's on top of a hill and you have to walk up these tiny streets to get to it.

This was by far the most crowded temple we visited on the trip, but it was cool nonetheless. It peaks out above the tree line. Maybe the end of day/ sunset is the most popular time to go.

Though brief, this was a pretty awesome trip. I wish we had more time, but I guess it's never enough time. I would definitely go back and hope I can someday.

It's like we live here now.

2008-09-08T21:42:00.004-04:00

So we've been here nearly four months now and have finally got some homely touches in our apartment! Below is our window box garden. We wired a few plastic window boxes to the railing outside of our kitchen window. Last month we tried to start some seeds in them, but nothing ever grew. I think they were duds. So, we went to one of the many local small plant vendors in our neighborhood. We bought the ones on the end because they looked like little evergreens and we hope will live during the winter. The middle plant is one that I have no idea what it's called. It has very cute button-like pink flowers. I also have one of these plants inside the apartment and on my desk at work. The plant closest to us is Matt's cactus, which he meticulously moves outside every morning so that it can get sun.

Here is another one of the cute pink button flower plants, but it is currently in a no-flower phase, but I think it will bud again soon.

And here is my good junk find! Last Saturday I went walking near my apartment building looking for a cinderblock to lock our bikes to, but I found this little dresser table instead! It sure beats the cardboard box draped with a cloth that were using before in our bedroom.

It was a sweet shell inlay.

Things I'm already sad about leaving behind in Korea next year:

-This dresser

-My bike- a.k.a. the cooolest bike in Korea

-Yukechang (spicy beef stew)

-Korean BBQ

-cheap, efficient local and long distance public transportation

YEsssssss! Japan!

2008-08-31T22:09:00.002-04:00

My school recently granted us an extra day off over Chuseok (like Korean Thanksgiving). Now with a four day weekend, instead of 3, we are headed to Japan! We are going to take the high speed hydrafoil ferry from Busan, land in Fukuoka, and then head to Kyoto! I'm psyched because I didn't think we'd be able to get ferry tickets on such short notice because, like Thanksgiving at home, its the busiest travel time of the year. Sweet!

Korea Cribs

2008-08-24T01:10:00.006-04:00

I know you have all been wondering what my pad looks like, just waiting to see what kind of design scheme I could manage in a foreign country. Well here it is. This weekend we put a few more things on the wall and cleaned so I figured I better do this now before the week comes and we get messy again.

Click here to watch the video on youtube.

A little trip to Imjado

2008-08-20T09:29:00.001-04:00

Last weekend, there was a Korean National holiday and therefore- a three day weekend. Matt's school still had to work like suckers, but the rest of us headed to a little island called Imja-do. We were the only foreigners on this lovely, little, uncrowded island. Six of us went and stayed in a minbak. A minbak is a really cheap place to stay. When split with others it's usually about $10-20 a night. It's a big empty room with blankets for sleeping on the floor. It also has a kitchen, so you can cook for yourself if you want. We cooked all of our meals while we were there and were pretty proud of our meals with little resources. Below, you can see us enjoying sandwiches outside of our minbak.

The beach was beautiful and incredibly tidal. Depending on the time of day the beach could be anywhere from 15-300 yards wide. We were often picking up our things and moving back because the tide snuck up on us.

These are some babes.

There were these little crabs that made these little sand balls around their holes. Upon further inspection, I concluded that they are eating tiny things in the sand and pushing the sand up through their mouth thing and when the ball fills up their mouth thing they spit it out and eat more sand.

Busan!

2008-08-13T05:17:00.017-04:00

The first weekend of this month was a long weekend for us. We had planned to go to Jeju Island, but due to our naivety of what Korea’s tourist season really means, we were unable to get a flight or a ferry to the island. We went to Busan instead and still had a great time. Busan is Korea’s 2nd largest city and the world’s 4th largest shipping port. It’s a pretty sweet city. I really like

Gwangju, but I think I could have been happy in Busan despite its huge size.
We arrived late on Wednesday night and got a cheap room (all of our rooms were pretty cheap- that’s just how we do it!) in this neighborhood. This is clearly the going out at night district- restaurants, bars, norebangs for blocks and blocks. We went to a place called “Chicken and Beer” and it provided.

On Thursday, we headed to Haeundae Beach, which is the most popular beach in Korean and holds the Guinness World Record for being the world’s most crowded beach. It was nuts! It may not be our or your idea of the perfect beach, but it was definitely an experience. People sit under umbrellas and float on yellow rental tubes for as far as you can see. This beach may have provided some of the best people watching I’ve ever had. We refused to rent an umbrella and sat in the sun like the crazy miguks (Korean for “American”) we are. Some Koreans go to extreme lengths to stay out of the sun.

Dense.

Sweet hat- 2,000 won. Matt’s face- free.

The umbrella ceiling.

Thursday evening we went to the Busan Aquarium. It got pretty good reviews from many of Matt’s students, but they have clearly never been to the Baltimore Aquarium. It was pretty good though.

Maybe these are the cutest jellyfish in the world.

The Busan Aquarium also has a pretttttty sweet shark tank!

We spent our evenings in Busan wondering around, looking at people, eating delicious seafood, and drinking beer on the beach.

Delicious sashimi dinner with a fried fish, green onion egg pancake, kimchi, and other Korean essentials. It was the most sashimi I’ve ever eaten in one sitting and so good.

Korea does a pretty decent fireworks show and they don’t even restrain awesome fireworks to one day a year. I’ve seen two huge displays this summer, which, I guess makes up for missing the 4th of July.

On Saturday, Haeundae was getting even more crowded, our hotel room rate tripled and there were rumors that Guinness Book of World Records was coming again that day to see if they were going to maintain their record. We were a little sun burnt and decided it was time to see what the downtown part of Busan had to offer.

This is our galbi (beef) grilled lunch. These places are everywhere in Korea and really awesome. Who doesn’t love grilling their meat on their table and putting it in little lettuce packets with garlic, kimchi, and delicious sauces. It’s also really cheap- I think this meal was about 9,000 won or $9.

We headed to Jagalchi Market, a very large fish market, after lunch. You want something that comes out of the ocean- you can get it here. This market is about 6 big jumps from the harbor. Here are boxes and boxes of anchovies sorted by size.
These are fugu- supposedly very delicious, but deadly is if the chef cuts it wrong.

Then we took a trip up to the Busan Tower, which offered some pretty sweet views of the city. Here you are looking at the harbor with all its shipping containers.

After coming down from Busan Tower, we stumbled upon a hip hop poppin’ and lockin’ dance –off! It was full of all these crazy Korean kids dancing their asses off. We drank some beers and watched it for more than an hour. Apparently, this was only one installment of a larger Busan hip-off dance off. These events happen every couple days in different places. This bumblebee had some crazy moves. The girl in the green vest is the reigning champion.

On Sunday, on our way to the bus station to head back to Gwangju we went to Beomeosa Temple. It’s on a mountain on the north side of Busan.

Proof: I did some cultural things while in Korea and didn’t just drink my face off.
These little guys live in this little crevice in a very large boulder next to one of the main temples. After I took this photo, an ajumma beckoned me from behind the temple and gave me a piece of watermelon. I don’t know why she picked me to have the watermelon. She motioned for me to stand behind the building so no one would see. She then motioned another white guy over because I think she thought he was my boyfriend and if he wasn’t, all miguks probably know one another. I may now be a member of the Very Secret Watermelon Behind the Buddhist Temple Club. I don’t know for sure, but I’ve probably already been kicked out for missing too many meetings.

All in all- I like Busan.

(You can see more photos here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2026764&l=fb37b&id=115200550 )

No Internet!

2008-08-11T21:32:00.002-04:00

The internet has been down in our apartment for about a week now. Sorry for the lull in postings, but ho0pefully I'll be back posting soon.

Sneak preview of postings to come:
-Our trip to Busan early this month.
-Upcoming trip this weekend to a tiny beach
-Maybe a video tour of our apartment

The coolest bike in Korea

2008-07-27T05:33:00.003-04:00

Today Matt, my friend-neighbor-coworker Caitlin and I set out to purchase some bicycles. We went to a particular bike store because they had some used bikes. However, once I walked in I saw the coolest bike in Korea and that no used bike could ever fill my cool bike heart. So, I bought the cool bike and it is pretty sweet. Now that we have bikes we'll be able to explore much more of the city.

Matt's bike, which, I guess is cool.

Caitlin painting her bike.

As promised, Mud Festival Photos

2008-07-24T09:36:00.006-04:00

Oh hey- these are my new Korea friends. We are sexy and fun! Haha!

Muddy Madness

Painting on mud at the "Free Self Massage" station

I don't know if this guy was mud meditating or what.

This what you do at Mud Fest.

The next morning...... this is our we-partied-very-hard-and-we-now-are eating-ramen-at-a-convienent-store-for-breakfast face.

Matt did not want to leave the mud festival or its cute and happy mascot.

PS- New Address

2008-07-23T23:02:00.002-04:00

Since my school moved, you need the new address to mail me things. I have my mail sent to school because someone is usually there to accept it, which is not necessarily the case at our apartment.

New Address:

Reading Star
Ashley Meadows
4th Floor
538 J Building
Namgu, Bongseun-dong
Gwangju City 503-060
South Korea

I like mail.

Welcome Aboard the Reading Star-ship!

2008-07-22T09:07:00.004-04:00

This week my school moved and changed its name from Reading Town to Reading Star, but I like the call it the Reading Star-ship. It's so futuristic and mod that I believe our English academy may take off at any moment.

This is our new front reception area. Compare to our old reception desk below. Light years in difference.

Below is a giant red, velvet couch in the lobby- totally cool.

Here is an old Reading Town classroom and a new Reading Star-ship classroom.

Basically, everything is now bigger, better looking, cleaner, and works better. My desk is now twice as large and in the same room as the other teachers, not the book closet. I have plans to get some house plants and liven it up. I didn't post a picture of my desk because it is not much to look at right now.

Yes, that is clearly me.

2008-07-20T21:49:00.003-04:00

This is a drawing from one of my students- Andrea, I think she is about 10 or 11 years old. It is clearly me.

Reading Town moved this weekend to a new building and we are now called Reading Star. The new building is amazing and I will take some pictures when I go in today and post them later. My school now could easily pass for the set of a mod spaceship movie from the 1960s. We even have a huge red velvet couch. Also, with a name like "Reading Star", I'm pretty sure we're preparing for take off always.

This weekend was pretty quiet. I spent the first half of Saturday unpacking things at the new spaceship building. Then we just spent the rest of the weekend drinking, eating, and hanging out with friends. Matt and I going to join a gym this week- too much beer, not enough exercise.

ps- I should get my photos back from MudFest on Wednesday.

Mud Festival

2008-07-14T08:57:00.003-04:00

This weekend a group of about ten of went to the Boryeong Mud Festival. It's a festival where everyone covers themselves from head-to-toe with mud, mud wrestle, mud slide, drink a lot, etc. It's pretty ridiculous. There are thousands of people there- 1.5 million people go to this festival over its 10 days. Boryeong is on the west coast of Korea about halfway between Seoul and Gwangju. Many foreigners go to this festival- mostly english teachers and military folk. I don't think there are many other kinds of foreigners in Korea. It took place on a large beach and we got to a little swimming. We realized we really missed swimming and vowed to come the beach more often this summer. There was also a sweet fireworks display, which kind of made up for the lack of fireworks on the 4th.

It's so nuts. If you can imagine mud-covered people, drinking, and dancing as far as you can see- that's what its like. It may even be what Caitlin Matanle might even consider heaven (if only there was a way to prevent frat-like boys from getting in). It was strange to see so many English speakers in one spot. The floors of convenience stores and restaurants were covered in mud. Everything was muddy, muddy, muddy. I'm honestly surprised that town didn't run out of beer. Matt and I and the rest of our party consumed a lot of it. Our hijinks included Matt helping military guys throw their commanding officer into the Yellow Sea, I ended my non-smoking streak with half a cigarette before Matt flicked it out of my hand, wandering the streets of Daecheon Beach with 1.5 liter bottles of beer. One of our friends couldn't find our minbak (a cheap place to stay that is a room with a closet of blankets, you sleep on the floor) until about 7am. Well, that was because we had to change minbaks mid-day because we originally checked into the wrong one, we had already paid one about a block over. Many people got a streaky sunburn due to uneven application of mud, but Matt and I foresaw that problem and always had a thick, even coating of mud.

The above picture is not mine nor do I know these people, I pulled this from the Internet. I took a disposable camera so I wouldn't ruin my camera with mud. Hopefully, I can find a place to develop it and maybe put in on a picture CD. I'll post our pictures later.

My favorite late night snack in Korea

2008-07-07T11:51:00.004-04:00

I have a new favorite late night snack. I'm not sure what my old favorite late night snack was, but my new favorite is dipping little sheets of seaweed in a wasabi-mayonnaise-soy sauce mixture. I'm posting this because I believe it can be easily replicated at home except in Korea you can buy credit card sized pieces of seaweed. It contains all the things I love best in a snack- salty, crispy, and involves dipping one delicious thing in another delicious thing. Here I will guide you through this very complicated recipe. I believe all these ingredients are available in Safeway or Food Lion, if not in your kitchens right now!

Step 1: First, you should put a little pea to 2 pea-sized amounts of wasabi and mayonnaise into a small sauce dish. This step is of course to taste and proportion of seaweed you plan on dipping. (Also, I'm pretty sure a cute dish makes its contents more delicious- just saying)

Step 2: Mix wasabi and mayonnaise thoroughly. For full authenticity, mix with a chopstick.

Step 3: Add a small amount of soy sauce and mix thoroughly.

Step 4: Then add more soy sauce. The quantity here is to taste and in proportion of seaweed to be consumed.

(This is so you may see the tiny seaweed sheets, perfect size for dipping. Sushi roll size sheets should merely be ripped or cut.)

Step 5: Fold seaweed sheet and dip in delicious.

Step 6: Enjoy the salty, crispy, dipped crunch. It is best served with a giant beer of mediocre quality and enjoyed between the hours of 11:00pm and 3:00am. If you are eating after 3:00am, chances are you are too sloppy to make and fully appreciate such an exquisite treat.

Embroidery, Moving Sushi, and other fun things

2008-06-30T09:05:00.005-04:00

New Embroideries!
These pictures aren't very good, maybe I can scan them at work one day.

Here is the Hangul alphabet and their romanizations. I can read! The motif on the bottom is taken off one of the Korean temples we've visited.

This one has nothing to do with Korea, but I did it while I was here. It's from our trip the Cape Cod in April before we left. So many chickadees landed on our hands to eat sunflower seeds out of them.

There are many ginko trees on the streets in our neighborhood. This will be my next embroidery project.

Haha- for fun. This is Matt pretending to sleeping with what we joke is a "traditional Korean blanket". It's just a bamboo mat and I hung it on the wall.

Here is downtown on a rainy Saturday afternoon. One must never get wet when it rains, so one must always carry an umbrella in the rainy season. Umbrellas are bug business in Korea and a major accessory. The other week, Matt's boss wouldn't let him walk home in the rain because he didn't have an umbrella. He insisted that he ride one of their school buses home with the students!

This is Yangdong Market. It's huuuuge and where you can get anything, especially seafood, vegetables, shoes, bedding, and kitchen ware.

Here is a video from our new favorite restaurant in Korea- the all you can eat sushi conveyor belt place.

Korea continues....

2008-06-24T09:24:00.002-04:00

Well... nothing too exciting to post about now and I don't have any new pictures, but I'm sure you are all just dying to hear from me. So, I bought myself a beer to drink in the PC bang and am updating (there is no open container law in Korea! You can drink anywhere, but you don't see a lot of people just drinking on the street).

I am rounding out my first month of teaching and getting into the swing of it. I now know almost all my students names and whether or not they are up to no good. I will be teaching the same classes next month, so not too much will change in my schedule. School has asked me to volunteer to do somethings that involve me being in school outside my working hours. I have politely declined.I am happy to do anything in my regular hours Monday-Friday, but since employment is trading time and skills for money, I don't think I should should give them extra time and skills for no money. Readingtown is a good place to work for, but if they can get you to do a little extra without paying you-they will.

Last weekend we did not do anything spectacular. On Saturday, we went downtown. It was rainy and we were kinda hungover so we went to a DVD bang. A DVD bang is place that you can go and watch a DVD in a private room with couches for less than the cost of a movie ticket. They are mostly frequented by young couples without any place to go that private, wink-make out-wink. However, Matt and I like them because you get your own room to watch a movie on a large screen with a reclining couch and you can bring in your own beer. It's the ultimate way to spend a hungover afternoon.

We also had our first norebang (karaoke room) experience. In Korea, if you want to karaoke, you don't have to do it in front of many strangers. You can rent a room for about $1 per person per hour with all your friends and sing away (also byob)! Matt has been dreading the norebang experience, but he actually loved it. I loved it too, but I knew I would. Norebang is an unavoidable aspect of Korean culture and he was going to have to face at one point or another. We spent two hours there on Saturday night. A co-worker of mine says that there are photos from that night that all include Matt singing loudly in the back. I don't know how I will get them, but I will, haha.

Ummm.... we also went to this sweet restaurant where for about $14 you can eat all the sushi you want. The best part is that the little plates move around a conveyor belt in front of your table. You just take what you want. Sushi is much cheaper here than at home. I eat it for dinner at work a couple times a week. There is good sushi in the "deli" department of big supermarkets. I love it. Sushi in Korean is chobap (조 밥).

Ps- I have learned the Hangul alphabet and can read Korean very slowly. Whether or not I know what I'm reading is another story.

Ashley Meadows in hangul is ㅐㅅ 리 멛 ㅗㅅ.
Beer is 맥 주 (maekju)
Thank you is 캄 서 함 니 다 (kamsa hamnida)
Norebang is 노 레 방.

That will be all for today's korean lesson.

Happy Father's Day Daddy!

2008-06-17T00:01:00.002-04:00

Happy Belated Father's Day! Sorry for the late wishes, but their is no Father's Day in Korea, only Parent's Day. Here's to my great dad!

Seonunsan Provincial Park

2008-06-16T09:20:00.001-04:00

Matt and I headed to Seonunsan Provincial Park on Sunday. It's about an hour and a half bus ride north from Gwangju. We were going because Matt had arranged to meet up with some other foreign climbers in the area for some climbing. I was basically along for the ride. Unfortunately, we never did find the climbers. Our directions to the rock weren't clear and the girl who Matt was meeting forgot her cell phone. Matt was bummer, but the day was not a total loss as the park was beautiful and we did a bit of hiking and temple-visiting.

Here we are on top of a "sick" rock. This was after climbing a serious metal staircase that got the better of my lungs and heart rate. The park is basically a valley that you walk up the middle of ans eventually head up the sides.

And... no outdoor experience would be complete without some serious gear. Although, this park had many more casual hikers than Mudeungsan. I think it is a city-folk thing to get all gear-ed up for a day hike.

The park has some sweet sights:

There was a sign saying that this tree was 600 years old, but I would think a 600 year old tree would be much larger. Shows what I know about Korean trees.

This is a 13 meter (about 40 ft) Buddha carved into the side of the cliff. Also, some gear-ites.

There is a large temple complex in the park. This is largest complex I've seen so far in Korea (out of only 2 or 3), but was cool none the less.

This was a large tea hall in the temple complex. I would've liked to have had tea there if I could speak Korean better. I didn't know the deal and couldn't ask about it.

Also, a sweet cave.

Choose Your Own Adventure! (or a weekend in Wando)

2008-06-09T09:07:00.006-04:00

This past weekend was Korean Memorial Day, so we had a three day weekend. Matt and I headed to the south coast to a group of islands called Wando. There are about 150 island in Wando, but most or small and unihabited. Above is Wando-eup, the main city on Wando Island. It's tiny compared to Gwangju- you can't get lost here. After getting off the bus, we began to look for a hotel and ran into two foreigners, who happened to be 2 of 5 foreigners in Wando. They had only been in town for three days, so couldn't recomend a hotel. We happened upon the Romance Hotel and for a low-cost of $30 got a room with private bath complete with a Battlestar Galactica bed- no corners!

It was a love hotel, but they are the cheapest and suited us just fine. That night we walked the wharf of Wando, ate, and drank beer on the wharf. No open container law in Korea! You can drink anywhere! On the street, on the bus, on ferries, on jetties! However, so can everyone else. This one inebriated gentleman took a particular interest on us while we drinking and playing chess on the wharf. First, he wanted our beers and we said "Aniyo!" (no!). Then he wanted to know if were American, we said we weren't just so he wouldn't talk to us anymore. He wandered away, vomited in the harbour and wandered off. We later went into the convientant store for more beer and he was there...drinking with someone else. He just kept yelling, "America, I love you!" America, I love you.

The next morning we set out in search of a ferry to another island. We found a ferry to Cheongsan-do. It wasn't listed in our guidebook the the information desk at the ferry terminal said there places to sleep and eat, so we went.

This seemed to be the picture to take on the ferry, every group was taking one, so did we, We are leaving Wan-do.

We just liked this guy, he was brooding, ignoring his wife, eating dried squid and wearing a straw hat.

This is actually leaving Cheongsan-do, but this is its harbour. We arrived and got off the ferry in search for a hotel and after choosing 1 of 2 options, we got a room-ondol style, which means no bed, you sleep on blankets on the floor. It was fun though.

After securing a room, we set out in search of a beach. We had a tourist map that was in Korean, but had pictures of beaches. We hailed a cab and pointed. The driver took us to where we pointed, but there was no beach! We communicated to him that we wanted to go to a beach and he brought us here:

It was not the busy beach that we were anticipating with all the people on the ferry. I don't know where they all went. After a cab ride around the island and arguing about the cab fare with driver- here we were. Not a whole lot happening, not even a place to get some drinks.

It was nice though. The water was suprisingly blue and we found a couple abalone shells. We weren't sure how we were going to get back to town, but as these two girls (high-school age maybe) were leaving in their car, we asked for a ride back to town. Well, we pointed to our map and they motioned for us to get in. We were very thankful for their generousity or else we would have been walking. They weren't even sketched out.

On our cab ride around the island, I saw more garlic than I've ever seen in my life and will probably never see that much again. It must have been a major export of the island and garlic harvesting season. These trucks are full of garlic and only a portion of the crop, I'm sure.

This is the ferry we rode to the island.

After eating in small restaurant (very small-one lady only, she even left to run errands while we were eating). We discovered there was actually not much to do on Cheongsan-do, which was fine by us. We walked out to a lighthouse on the harbour jetty and drank some beers. Then we watched some seriously boot-legged American movies in our hotel room. The boot-legger's PC desktop popped up in the middle of one movie. It was pretty lo-fi.

This boy was in the ferry terminal waiting room. I just liked his funny little striped out fit and dance. Also, he tried to steal Matt's book while he was buying our tickets.

Korean Island Hopping!

Mt. Mudueng

2008-06-02T09:24:00.010-04:00

On Saturday, we went to Mt. Mudeung, which is "Gwangju's Mountain". You can take a bus there from just about any part of the city. It's a very popular weekend destination. One should not even think about going on this serious day hike without the proper gear.

You may have heard me affectionately make fun of Matt and his gear, or outdoor wear and equipment. Koreans love gear and you can find a gear shop on every corner. There are two or three within a five minute walk from our building. You or I might just put on hiking boots, shorts, and a t-shirt for an afternoon hike, but Koreans wear gear from head-to-toe. I didn't get any specifically good shots of the gear, but I will someday. They wear these high-tech, high-performance outfits to walk in the city. Before you consider having an outdoor or athletic thought- you should probably change into your gear.

Here is Matt and Kelly, but notice the ajumma in her gear. We were clearly ill-prepared for our trek.

However, the mountain is beatiful and was a great way to get outside on a Sat. afternoon. We went with some of our co-workers at Readingtown and Avalon. It was rather steep in my opinion, but I have only been a non-smoker for a couple of weeks now. The damage has been done.

On the mountain in Jeungsimsa Temple. It was originally built in the 14th or 15th century, but was burned during the Japanese occupation of the early 20th century. The Japanese destroyed most things Korean during that period. This temple was rebuilt during the 1970s and 80s.

Hello Korea!

2008-05-29T09:44:00.005-04:00

Aaaah..... sorry for taking to so long to update! I don't have internet in my apartment yet and I feel strange posting at school. I'm waiting to receive my Alien Registration Card, after which, I can have a bank account, cell phone, and Internet in my apartment. Korea makes foreigner register their alienation!

Above is a picture of the lobby of Reading Town, my school. I only watched classes all last week and this week is the end of the month testing and beginning of new session. I will have two full weeks at school before I have classes of my own, which is pretty unheard of. I just arrived at strange point in the session. I like my school and all the other teachers and staff. They are super friendly and helpful. The other foreign teachers have taken me under their social wing. I'm excited to start teaching on Monday though.

Matt started teaching this week and really likes it. He's the new heartthrob in Gwangju. Middle school girls titter as he walks by or in his classes. My boss fluttered her hand on her heart when she met him! However, everyone thinks that he and I are brother and sister. Even strangers on the street ask us that! I mean, we both have brown wavy hair, little noses, and are white. Maybe that's enough.

This is a calm, empty classroom at Reading Town. This quickly changes at 3Pm. Our school is moving in July to the same building that Matt's school is in. It will be much nicer and I will have a desk there! The teachers' room is currently full and I keep hearing that they are going to give me a desk in the staff room/book closet, but that desk has yet to present itself.

These roses are on my walk to work. I love this little section of sidewalk, the road is about 15 feet below, which you can't see in this photo, but it has a neat effect. Our neighborhood is very nice. It's called Bonseun-dong in Nam-gu (like Soho or West Village in Manhatten). Bonseun-dong is one the wealthier neighborhoods in Gwangju and many of our students' parents are doctors and such. Also, they dress very nicely. There is not a wrinkle or stray thread to be seen. The neat appearance bug has caught Matt. He stresses over wrinkles in dress shirts now!

This is my kitty. Well, he's not really my kitty, but he mews at me everyday and is always in the same spot. Yesterday, I gave him a can of tuna. He is tiny and sassy and yells at any passers by. I think someone else also feed him because sometimes he has a little dish.

Above are just a few shots of Bonseun-dong. Most people live in these high rise apartment buildings. I currently find them rather strange. They are imposing in a way that buildings in NYC aren't. In New York, you can't see far. It's just building, building, building, but here these apartment buildings are the only tall buildings, especially in a residential neighborhood. I like the images they paint on the ends of them to distinguish them from one another. Some have cartoon characters.

Koreans love cake! There is always a cake for someone's birthday. Yesterday, was Katie's a Canadian co-worker at ReadingTown. This one was delicious. Everyone eats communally here. If you are eating with other people , everyone just eats off the same platter. There are no individual plates or servings. We all just went at the cake together. Later that night, we went out to celebrate Katie's birthday and were the only group in the bar. They found out it was someone's birthday and ran down the the bakery at midnight to buy her a cake! Cake is very important.

This picture is not very good, but neon crosses are another peculiar thing about Korea. Every church illuminates their cross in red neon. It's really strange to look out across the city at night and the skyline speckled with neon crosses. I guess we view neon as garish and would never neon a cross. I have yet to figure out why Koreans do it, other than to be seen better.

Oooh there is too much! We've been here almost two weeks!

We're Here!

2008-05-18T21:08:00.010-04:00

We made it into to Seoul on Friday evening after leaving New York on Thursday morning. It was the longest 30 hour day ever...... We chased the sun around to the other side of the planet. It literally didn't get dark the whole time we were flying. After arriving in Seoul, we took a four hour long bus ride to Gwangju. Two gentlemen from our schools were waiting for us at the bus station. They gave us a quick tour of our schools, took us to 7-11 so that we could get something to eat in the morning, then to our apartment. We were t-i-r-e-d. He tried to explain to us how our thermostat worked, but we half listened and now are taking hot showers with the trial and error method. Our place is small, but cute.

Our bed complete with cutesy girly duvet provided by our school.

Our "living room". It came with a desk and one chair and a tv with only Korean channels. We bought that little table so we'd have something to eat off of.

This is our little kitchen! (I'm in a PC bang and Windows is all in Korean so I can't rotate this image!)

We were lucky to arrive on a Friday so that we had the weekend to recover. Saturday, we went to E-Mart, which is akin to a Super Wal-Mart with several floors. We bought some food, pots, pans, etc. We found the 1000 won Store (1 dollar-ish) and wished we found it the day before. They everything we needed, but cheaper. It's now our new favorite store. We also bought a rice cooker. They have rice cookers that cost up to $450! Apparently, it's the most important appliance in a Korean kitchen. I guess it would be like a Cuisinart or SubZero fridge in the states. They looked like they were about to take off for the space station at any moment.

We ventured out for dinner on Saturday and ordered by pointing, which works well if there are pictures on the menu. We went out to for lunch on Sunday and walked into a restaurant that didn't have a picture menu. There were three waitresses talking to us in Korean and pointing at things and all we could do was give blank stares. The manager came over and pointed at one thing on the menu and said "steak-uh". We put up two fingers and food arrived shortly. It came with several side dishes and one tator tot! There are tots in Korea and you may only receive them one at a time, but they're here!

Two other teachers from our school live on our floor. Last night they took us downtown to see a movie. We saw Iron Man and then went out to a sushi restaurant. Downtown is pretty neat. It's full of cute little clothing boutiques everywhere. Ceci- I think you would freak out at the cute.

Today, we go into our schools for the first time. I think we'll just be observing classes this week.

Leaving soon.

2008-04-29T18:36:00.002-04:00

We are getting ready for take off! We had our obligatory in-person interviews today at our respective consulates and are expecting the fly out the 13th or 14th of May. About two weeks left, departure is happening faster and faster every day.

Here we go......

2008-04-10T15:36:00.009-04:00

Matt and I have found another ("another" because the first job we found fell through in a serious way) job in Gwangju. We found this job via Oxford Seminars, the company we took our TEFL certification through. We are slated to leave around May 15th and are going to be teaching at different schools. Matt will be teaching mostly junior high-high students at Avalon and I will be teaching mostly elementary students at Reading Town. Matt, with his English degree, is highly more qualified than I am with my Art degree. I'm just as happy to teach younger kids, it'll be fun (and challenging).

We're excited! We were hoping to end up in Gwangju because it's an arts-centric city that is metropolitan and urban without being overwhelming and as Western as Seoul. Also, there are rocks near-by.