Happy New Year!

I literally "rang" in the New Year in Seoul. ^^

In Korea, it's a Buddhist tradition that you ring giant bells on the new year to "wake up" the world. I like the sentiment. It makes me think of creation singing praise to God. So for the new year all around Korea people are ringing humongous bells in the temples all at the same time. And we STILL couldn't hear the sound. :( Too much shouting. haha

We were in a very crowded area of Seoul for the event. Kinda like the "Times Square" of Seoul. Before the event the streets were closed off and police buses lined the sides. You could see police everywhere in preparation for crowd-control. (Or so I thought.)

When it event was over, of course everyone tried to leave at once. So the crowd became a mob. And the police did nothing. They stood there on the side watching people get pushed and shoved and carried. They only smiled and laughed about it. Useless! Worse than useless! (Like the "net neutrality" bill...)

BUT despite that (and the frigid temperatures) I had a wonderful time in Seoul~ and the thought that I will be back home soon cheers me even more.

Merry Christmas!

My Christmas in Korea:

My Charlie Brown Christmas tree and dollar-store decorations

Decorating the tree!

The finished product, complete with Christmas candles

Even better at night

Christmas eve get-together with friends at a "game room"

The punishment for losing the game was getting "bopped" by a stranger (hehe)

Merry Christmas from Korea!

Love and miss you all

Thanksgiving: Take 2

Thanksgiving meal at church again this year. Always a pleasure to have a little taste of home with my "Korean family." ^^

Bonus: I got to have some even BETTER thanksgiving food in a real home with my friend and former co-worker Nancy! Yay!

Her husband is from FL, so even though she's Canadian they pulled off American thanksgiving American-style. = YUM

They even had candied yams... the one thing my church thanksgiving was missing. hehe

It's a little sad that this will be my last Thanksgiving in Korea, but then I remember all the joys of American living... ;)

This year (and this moment) I'm thankful for:

-friends that are stand-in family

-candied yams

-being able to live so "extravagantly" in Korea

-being able to travel on a whim

-friends from home that miss me

-my mistakes not coming back to bite me in the butt

-God's faithfulness, love and grace

~*~

For my classroom celebration, I had the kids make hand-turkeys. It was SO cute. ^^ Not only had they never seen a turkey before in their lives, but they were not aware of the "hand-turkey" Thanksgiving tradition. I had a lot of fun teaching them how to do it. It's nice to pass on the tradition. ;) Ahhh... nostalgia.

Halloween 2010

Last year we were able to have a Halloween party at our apt... this year, we're all in different places and it makes me sad.

Also, I'm not able to participate this year due to being really sick from something the doctors keep saying "isn't serious."

Happy Halloween yall

Beijing, China

The best thing about Beijing was sleeping on the Great Wall. With a bunch of foreign English teachers (like us), from Korea (like us), mostly from Daegu (like us).

What're the chances, right??? haha

The second best thing was the Summer Palace. It is HUGE. We didn't know how huge it was until we got there and realized that we weren't even going to cover half in the few hours we had. We hardly covered a quarter! And they have a map... but they don't have any signs, so you just kinda hafta guess where you are all the time. haha. I thought the most amazing thing was that it was all built for one woman. She had it practically all to herself. THAT was an amazing thought. If I had a "garden palace" that size... wow. Jeeeeeeeeaaaaalous!

The third great thing was the shopping. Beijing's markets are fantastic! You really can find "name brand" stuff there for less than $10. Bargaining was an absolute must, and usually it

worked out pretty well.

The best thing I got was a warm Abercrombie jacket for $15!

The Forbidden City was also pretty amazing. It had a lot of things to see on the side, so it was possible to get lost in it! A lot of areas looked the same too, with maybe one or two defining features. I think I was expecting it to be a little more "forbidding," but I'll take what I can get from one of the most historical sites in the East.

Beijing was not my favorite, but it was definitely different enough to warrant going.

Hong Kong: The Low-down

Traveling with people is always tricky. Traveling with people you don't know is even more so. Traveling with people you know can also be surprising.

As for the places, Hong Kong was really nice. Such a difference from Korea! The culture was mixed... and I saw so many interracial couples I almost didn't know what to do with myself! People actually spoke English and were so helpful! The public transportation system was so easy that by our second day there we felt comfortable with it. And their system is really extensive! There's no place you can't go, by bus, subway or ferry! Truly incredible. ^^

The sites in Hong Kong were really cool. Tall mountains with equally tall buildings on top of them. (yeah, that's right Korea... they BUILT on their mountains!) The view of Hong Kong harbor was really amazing, as was the architecture there. My favorite place to see it that way was from Victoria Peak. It's one of the "hot spots" in Hong Kong and I could see why, with its view and nature all wrapped into one. It was a really modern city with a lot of natural charm.

Thanks to my dad I was also able to go to Hong Kong Disneyland! :D It was fun and short; we finished it in about 5 hours. It's just the basic "Magic Kingdom," but they added their own "Hong Kong" twist. For example, some of the Lion King show was in Cantonese, and they had a "Tarzan" tree house instead of Robinson Crusoe. I'm really glad I got to go; I think Disney is truly magical. ^^

A kind of seedy underside of Hong Kong was the immigrants. They were mostly Indians and Nigerians. I don't know much about the politics of it all or the reasons why so many immigrants were there, but the area they lived in was stereotypically low-income with a lot loitering about and trying to scam any tourist that walked by. It was a little frustrating at times because the hostel we stayed at was in the middle of that area, so it felt a little skeazy and dangerous.

Hong Kong is also famous for its shopping. Although I'm not exactly sure why because it's all freakin expensive stuff. I have to say though, that the markets are definitely worth going to! They were fun, cheap and had lots of knock-offs. haha

Anyway, all in all I really enjoyed Hong Kong. I would even consider living there for awhile!

Next topic: Beijing

What a trip...

So much to say. SO much happened.

Pictures soon with details. ^^

One thought, though: I'm VERY homesick after that.

Next up: Andong (안동) for the mask festival, and then Kyung-ju (경주) for the historical sites!

Thailand Highlights

To see more:

Thailand and Thailand Cont.

MudFest / Birthday

MudFest and my birthday were incredibly fun with my roomies and Suzanne. They made it so much better than I could've expected or hoped for!

I was even sung happy brithday in Afrikaans! How awesome is that???

Funny, ridiculous, frustrating thing was the "mud rides" there. They shut them down early after we stood in line for over 2 hours! So we didn't really get to ride anything! The only thing we rode was something we begged to go on / snuck on to. haha. Fun... but not fun. More like unbelievable!

My birthday dinner was delicious! Like with Jin last year, we had the grilled fresh seafood. (It really make a difference having seafood buy the ocean you know they caught it in!) So delicious! Then afterwards we got a cake, and celebrated my birthday with drinks and card games on the beach.

Absolutely PERFECT.

We also did have a few surprise visitors while we were playing... random drunk foreigners and Koreans. haha. We did have a few guys that stopped by though, and were "normal" in general respects. They taught us a Korean "Kings" game, and definitely made the night more interesting! We played pretty much the rest of the night. hehe

Yay birthdays!

The only thing I didn't really enjoy (again) was the bus ride. Drunk foreigners are drunk foreigners no matter where you go. Yuck.

JUMP!

For our long weekend, during Buddha's birthday, we decided to go to Seoul!

We stayed at Windflower Guesthouse by Hyae-hwa... and it was ok. We did wait a bit too long to book it, so all the "nice" hostels were already taken. I don't think I'd recommend Windflower for a long stay. Even three nights was too long. The set-up of the rooms is pretty bad... we had to walk through a "mixed" room where 4 people were sleeping, to get to our "private 4 person" room. They hated it. We didn't exactly like it either.

ANYWAY~ besides the sleeping arrangements, our time was pretty fantastic! We went to Everland on Friday (which was the craziest idea we've had in a while), and then went shopping on Saturday and watched JUMP!

It's a comedic martial arts performance. Basically, the best slap-stick humor you'd ever see! ^^ Afterwards, we bought this poster and lined up for their autographs. Assa! hehe

The show is about this martial arts family, and the boy the grandfather brings home to marry the granddaughter.

...And the drunk uncle. hehe. I don't know how he managed to act like that! It was incredible!

--More pictures on Everland coming soon--

Family Holidays

Today is "Children's Day" and this Saturday is "Parent's Day" here in Korea.

They really celebrate family here because the kids treat Children's Day like Christmas! They get all these gifts from their parents and grandparents, and their parents spend the whole day with them! (Which is rare in Korea, especially for fathers.) The families go to amusement parks, movies, and zoos to play. The day before Children's Day, public schools have a Sports day (similar to the American "Field Day") with races and small, fun competitions. The parents come and watch and cheer their child on.

I just recently learned how "Children's Day" started in Korea. Apparently a man named Bang Jeong-hwan, who wrote childrens' books, wrote "An Open Letter to Adults." In the letter he asked adults to "speak to children with respect, and speak softly." One translation of Bang Jeong-hwan's letter says:

"Children are the future of our nation. Let's show respect for children. Children who grow up with ridicule and contempt from others will become people who disrespect others, while children who grow up with respect from others will become people who respect others in turn."

I think Korea, more than most nations, realizes the value of their children. The mothers especially help their children in whatever way they can. They would probably even walk over glass!

I'm glad the kids have a day to relax with their family and just play like kids are supposed to... even if it's only one day. Sometimes I think the value that's placed on the kids can be too much pressure, since they're expected to succeed in all they do.

I think being a kid in Korea is hard, so this one day is like a breath of fresh air!

HAPPY EASTER!

Happy Easter everyone! The weather is starting to warm up a little bit! (A little.) The sun is also starting to shine earlier in the day. ^^

In Korea it seems that Easter is similar to Christmas. Christians celebrate it, but not the culture. There's not really any Easter candy and hardly any Easter decorations. BUT apparently it is Korean Christian tradition to decorate eggs!

At my school for the last two days I showed the Veggie Tales "An Easter Carol" to introduce the idea of Easter and give everyone a day off from work. They enjoyed it, but I was a little surprised at how many children didn't know what Easter was! In America there's hardly a kid who wouldn't know. Such a big culture difference...

Easter one year ago is when I first came to Dong-shin Church... and met Jin! Yay for 1 year anniversaries!

I'll Be Home for Christmas!

With only one more week to go before I'm HOME... I can't stop thinking about it. It's weird being in a culture that doesn't celebrate Christmas.

PEOPLE here celebrate Christmas... but the culture doesn't. There's a few decorations up in some stores, and one or two major streets have lights on them... but it's SO not the same. It makes me REALLY miss America. And so glad I'm going there soon!

I've been sinking a little into culture shock once again. (Not sure if that's possible...?) But getting definitely homesick with each passing day, and less tolerant of things I don't understand in Korea.

The first thing I'm going to do (besides see my best friends and family) is go to Best Buy and get my freakin computer fixed! I tried to figure out the process of getting it fixed overseas... WOW. It sucks. I'd have to pay for all the costs and then they'd pay me back in about 2 months. Yuck. I'm just praying they can get it fixed before I leave!

And then the next thing I'm going to do is go shopping at a drug store for necessities... that are in ENGLISH! And then I'm going to have something amazing for dinner. And then grocery shopping. And then Christmas.

Ugh... I am so homesick... I can hardly wait!

Halloweeeeeeeeeeeen

Since it was two of our dear friends birthdays, we decided to throw a party for Halloween! However, it ended up having to be on Friday night the 30th instead of the 31st... no matter how fun it was, I am never throwing a party on a Friday night after I finish work at 10 pm again.

Koreans don't really celebrate Halloween. It's definitely a Western holiday (and South Africans don't celebrate it either!). There was only one costume shop in the whole of Daegu that had some decorations and outfits. However, since they were the only supplier... they could charge whatever the hell they wanted. :( Needless to say, we made do with tons of black trash bags and candles. haha.

We did have some pretty great drinks though. And enough snacks to last us into next week!


But people's costume's were fantastic! And it was great giving everyone a reason to dress up and have fun with us!

Me, Tharine, and Eli