seoraksan/yongpyong photos

slacker. thats how i feel about now. especially since i still haven't posted the final entry to my vacation blog. and now i have so much more to write about. my weekend getaway with the taekwon do class was definitely something. however, i'm not going to get into it all now. instead i'll give you some highlights: snow, egg toast sandwiches, mountain climbing, the korean drama "winter sonata, and the birth of the raven + albino. stayed tuned because the actual post will come very soon. in the meantime here are the photos from this weekend. the first three photos in this group were actually taken in ansan but i didn't want to make a separate album. enjoy.

Links

• ansan/seoraksan national park/yongpyong ski resort

changes

i'm working on my final installment for my christmas vacation. seeing that i'm going snowboarding this weekend it looks like i won't have the final chapter posted until next week. well that is unless i get completely motivated on friday. its funny how i've had many opportunities to go snowboarding in the past while living in sf but never did. it took me moving to a different country to even think about trying it. although honestly who knows if i'll even snowboard. knowing me i'll be looking for an inner tube or trash lid to slide down on. or better yet i'll be planted at the bar drinking. i kept waivering back and forth about whether i'd go. the trip is with my taekwondo class and the thought of spending any attention time outside of class with the master is scary. however, the thought to see yet another part of this country that i might not see otherwise is foolish to pass up. so yes i'm going. i'm a little nervous to try either snowboarding or skiing. i don't want to end up on crutches. nor to i want to land smack down on my tailbone, although seeing i did that last night at class i have nothing to worry about. yes after weeks of feeling good about myself in class lastnight i took a wicked fall trying to kick. good thing for american advil and ibuprofine. it doesn't hurt as bad as i thought it would. i did sit on a pillow in class today. i'm getting old. next i'll be wearing support comfort shoes.

there are some changes coming my way next month. mainly our school schedules. the days of coming in at 10am and leaving at 7:05pm are ending as of tomorrow. starting jan 31 our first classes don't start until 2pm and we'll be finishing up at 7:55pm. that means we don't have to be at school until 1 pm. this excites me. now i'll have some time in the mornings to do all my errands that i usually have to do on the weekends. and the weekends will finally start to feel like a weekend. it'll also be easier for me to call folks since it'll be late afternoon/early evening for you all. YEAH!! of course it also means i'll be sleeping in til who knows when. which is great too especially since on the nights i have tkd i usually don't go to bed until 2am. since january has been intensives for the students i decided to show them a movie on friday. i'm going to bring in some superhero dvds to share with them. i thought that would be fun way to end a hectic month of study, study, study. i'm not sure who's more excited me or them. it is great though to see how some of them have progressed. i have one student "k" who was so quiet in the beginning and now he's the translator for all the other students. its a great feeling seeing this happen. i'm so proud. the only down fall with this new schedule is that we had to switch alot of classes around which means i'm losing 2 students: sally and lisa. this kind of makes me sad because sally was my first student here. i've also spent this month preparing lisa to join sally's class and now i won't be a part of it. thats life i guess and i'm sure once my new classes start i won't even have time to think much about it. also in the switch i'm getting a the problem child to teach. he's the one who we have coming to the school when no other kids are here because parents have been complaining about him hitting others. the sad thing is, is that he's really a good kid. he just has some problems. hopefully i'll be able to help him and get him to study more than he is now. i look at it as a challenge. thats really been about it for me. i'll definitely let you all know how the trip with the tkd group goes. it should be exciting. i'll take pictures too!

warm in your coat

yet another cold winter weekend here in korea. when speaking to vickie today she told me that many people are saying this winter is a lot warmer than normal. i can only imagine what a typical winter here is like. on saturday i found myself venturing into seoul again to meet a friend for a movie. while i was waiting for him outside a man approached me and asked if i spoke english. could my blonde, curly hair and white skin be giving me away. here i thought i was blending in with the locals. when i responding by say yes he talked to engage me in conversation. if i had only studied russian and spanish a little harder perhaps i could now be using these skills in times of need. he was asking me questions about where i was from, what i'm doing here, etc. he was a korean born man who has been living in new zealand and austrailia the last few years. i kept looking at my watching and hoping my friend would arrive shortly. the whole time this man spoke his breath reeked of alcohol. it seems my ability to attract crazies has followed me here too. during our small talk he finally got to the point of approaching me. he needed money to buy a bus ticket. i politely told him that i didn't have anything to which i figured now he would leave. he didn't. he continued to talk and finally told me that if i got bored of my friends and came to seoul that i should call him. like that was going to happen. he insisted on givng me his number not wanting to write it down or put into my phone i told him i had a great memory. i'm not sure if he seriously thinks i'd actually call but i'm not in the habit of hanging with strange men who talk to me on the street. whether he was being geniunely korean i'll never know. i quickly told him i had to get going and we parted ways. i met up with ahn and we grabbed some food before going to the movies. while we were ordering the woman behind the counter asked ahn something. he turned to be with an embarassed look on his face. i asked him what and he said that the lady wanted to know if my hair was permed. what is it with koreans and perms anyway. i told him that it wasn't and he turned to the lady and repeated it in korean. she then looked at me and smiled. it seems like the koreans favortie question for me is either "is my hair permed or did i dye my hair". wake up people! there's more in life than straight black hair. we went to see elektra which was almost as bad as catwoman. there were some cool things about the movie and alot of awlful stuff like jennifer garner. she should definitely stick to alias. after the movie we headed back to the subway terminal where we ran into mr. crazy who said hi to me. ahn looked at me and asked if i knew him and i told him that it was my stalker from earlier. that dude was still lingering. that night horace and i went to the western manhatten bar for some beers. it was dead. but the good thing they only charged us for two beers each. you gotta love that. this morning i was a pumped up to go to dongdaemun market which is suppose to be a good shopping spot. i'm not sure why but since coming back from thailand i have the shopping bug. i decided i'd set out after watching my korean soap opera "love's pinwheel" which is getting really good. while i was getting ready my sister called so i spoke to her for awhile and then i was talking to vickie since i hadn't really spoken to her since our trip. by now it was 1:30 pm and i started to get the lazy bug. the thought of heading out to dongdaemum which was at least an 1:30 subway ride didn't seem so appealing now. i guess my quest for a new coat would have to wait. i layed around for a little then realized i didn't want to waste my day doing nothing so i decided to take the subway one stop down to handae university stop to see what was there. the first store i went into i found my coat. a long white ski coat with a fur collar. the best part was that the jacket was on sale. i tried it on and instantly loved it. it wasn't quite the bomber jacket i thought i wanted but it was better. however, i decided to walk around some more before buying it. as i walked around i stumbled upon an outlet shopping plaza. for a minute i felt like i was back in florida doing the outlet malls. there were about 4 rows of shops that covered about 4 blocks. nothing really caught my eye but it was still good to know that it was here incase i needed cheap stuff. on my way out i stopped back in e-land, the store where i saw the coat. after trying it on again and admiring how chic i looked in it i decided to buy it. there was no way i couldn't. like i said it was a white down coat with a fur trim around the hood and it was only $49 dollors. the sales lady tried to get me to buy a sweater too but i declined and walked out with my new jacket. have i mentioned how much i LOVE it. it also has an inside pocket for a cell phone. now i'm definitely going to fit. especially since almost everyone here has a jacket with fur trim. the best part is that this store caters to college students and on the inside tag it says "empowering youth…it takes guts to make the right choice…" it sure does.

winter in korea

it's been cold, cold, cold here. so far we've had two days were it snowed. unfortunately it all melted an hour later. which means i wasn't able to make any blue-eyed devil snow angels. maybe next time. i told my students that if it snowed again and came up to our knees i'd take them out for a snowball fight. i don't think it will ever get that high. i took a few pictures of the first snow falling. there aren't a lot because thats when my battery died and i realized i didn't have a charger. the other pictures are from shinsegae department store. it was a good thing i found a charger now i'll be ready for anything. enjoy. thinking of you all.

Links

• winter wonderland

part 3: my christmas vacation by jethan

day 6 [snorkeling]

today was another early morning. as usuals all the regulars where there having their morning breakfast. it seems that we are always seeing the same faces. there's the gay asian couple who spend their days frolicing in the water placing seaweed all over their body, the italian family with the son who's sporting a mullet, the grumpy businessman in thailand looking for a wife and complaining about his eggs, and the rich family where the children are all wearing "cherry t-shirts". by now i've come to welcome these faces and many others in the morning. after breakfast i headed back to the room to gather my stuff and prepare for the days outing. all lathered up and ready to go we sat out front of the resort awaiting our ride. it was now 9:15am. since the tide was too shallow by our resort we had to take the infamous pickup taxi to another resort to catch the boat. once there we waited with some others until a small blue boat arrived to take us to the larger boat. we walked into the water like animals boarding the noah's arc and climbed into the boat. it was a short 5 minute ride to the other boat. we pulled up next to it and climbed into the boat. all i could think was wouldn't it be funny if i fell in trying to get aboard while all these people watched. lucky for me that didn't happen. before we took off the instructor told us that we'd be going to three different spots. the first would be for snorkeling, the second for swimming, and the third more snorkeling near a coral reef. i was very excited since this would be my first real snorkeling experience. i can't really count all those times i use to snorkel in my pool. afterall i ever saw there were dead bugs and leaves. the boat ride was amazing. the sound of the boat's engine was so relaxing. it reminded me of when i was younger and i went night fishing with my dad. i spent the whole time sitting on the edge. one leg hanging off the side that would occasionally get splashed by water and the other safely planted on the boat. the views were breathe taking. you really got a sense to how beautiful the island really is. it took about 40 minutes to get to the first stop. before we got there we lined up to get our gear. i got lucky mask and snorkel #13. it was blue with a pink snorkel. once we got to our first destination everyone line up and climbed down the ladder into the water. the water was nice an refreshing. we snorkel for 20 minutes. there wasn't a lot to see at this spot. i saw a few fish, some sea anemones, black sea urchins, and a few other things i don't know the name of. i get all excited and trying to dive down as far as i could go. my other problem and its the same problem i had in my pool is that my mask always fogs. i still haven't mastered that yet. but at least i didn't have to worry about swallowing a spider. when we stored our snorkels in the shed back in florida spiders liked to make their homes in them. i spent the whole time swimming around like a little fish. when the boat's bell rang we headed back, climbed out, and rinsed off with some fresh water that was in a big barrel. it was time to go to the next destination. on the way to our next stop they served a buffet lunch upstairs. i wouldn't say that the food was the greatest but it was good. our next stop was a private island wear volcanic rocks stood in the water. we docked quite a bit from it and we had two options: take the little blue boat or swim. we decided to swim. this time however we decided not to climb down the ladder but to jump off the side of the boat. it was so survivor like as we jumped and swam to the island. it was actually a bit farther than i thought and since we had just ate lunch i could hear my mom's voice in the back of my head "wait 45 minutes before going in the water after eating". of course we didn't have the luxury. the private island was gorgous. there was a lot of coral on the beach and the volcanic rocks were amazing. they asked that we don't remove anything from the beach because they are trying to perserve it. of course some people just couldn't obey. we swam over the volcanic rocks which were covered with crabs. it was so blue lagoon there. on the swim back i really didn't think i was going to make it. i can honestly say it was a tad tiring but i'm proud of myself for trying and actually doing it. now i know i could definitely be on survivor. our final stop was by far the best. before going in the water they advised us to stay on the left side of the boat and not to jump in because of the coral. the current there was fairly strong. the water was a bit colder here than in the other spots. i'm not even sure i can describe the experience or what i saw because it was so amazing. the fish were so colorful. like the ones i'd see in pet stores only this time i was swimming with them. everywhere you looked there were black and purple sea urchins hoping you'd get close enought to them so you could sting them. my favorite were the things that looked like barrels with flowers which closed up when you got close to them. diving down i saw hermit crabs and a starfish. now i now how aquaman feels. and for a while i felt like him swimming around with all of these wonderful sea creatures. i was completely sad to hear the ringing of the boat telling us it was time to go. i took my time swimming back trying to savor every last bit. the ride back was quiet. once again i found my spot on the edge and sat there staring out into the sea. at one point one of guys from the boat came over and started pointing to the trees. i didn't know what he was saying and i vaguely saw something moving which later i found out was a monkey. i guess sometimes when the tide is low they come to the edge and grab clams, mussels, etc. monkeys are cute. when we got close to sea view resort we once again boarded the blue boat. this time they took us directly back to the resort. nothing like front door service. i stood in the water and watched as the tiny blue boat rode off into the sunset and then disappeared. what a great day. it doesn't end there. i decided i wanted to get a massage so i went up to the spa to see if they had any time available. i lucked out because they had an openning at 9 pm. the massage was absolutely the best thing ever. this was my very first time getting one. i hated to see it end. when it was over my whole body was so relaxed. i spent the rest of the evening sitting on our balcony drinking a beer and enjoying everything around me.

part 2: my christmas vacataion by jethan

day 3 [venturing into town]
the morning started off with heading to the hotel buffet. seeing that this was included with our payment we felt that couldn't miss breakfast. looking back now i could have miss one or two. it was good though. there was bacon, potatoes, eggs, etc. nothing really knock my socks off but it was food. after breakfast we went back to the room for a minute then decided to head to the beach. with a short climb down the stairs we were on the beach. horace had gone down earlier to snag some chairs so i walked the beach until i found him. most of the day was spent laying on beach stairs and swimming. it felt so good to do nothing and knowing that there was nothing we had to do. the water was like bath water. i felt like a fish myself as i swam around picking up seaweed and tossing it into the air. the water itself was fairly swallow so you actually could go out really far. it was rumored that you could actually walked to the island that was in front of us. i never tested this theory. perhaps next time. after splashing around and sunning we decided to venture into town. i needed to find contact solution. we headed down the beach. along the way we passed several little restaurants, bungalows, and little tourist stands. it was pretty rad to walk along the beach. passing both locals and vacationers. we got to the little town along the beach which consisted of two long stores and a restaurant. unfortunately there was no contact solution but the lady told me that if we walked up to the main road and turned left we'd find a 7-11. before making that journey we decided to have lunch. i opted for the seafood pad thai. it was delicious. you can see it in the photos. loads of loads of seafood were in it. some of the things i didn't even know what they were but it didn't matter cuz it was tastey. now it was time to head to the street. along the way we passed the chickens, guienna fowl, and bunnies. i love seeing random animals. along the road were various shops and restaurants. when i finally did make it to the 7-11 there was no contact solution but they did have big gulps. this is something the 7-11's don't have in korea. i was so excited that i had to get one. lucky enough there was a pharmacy next to 7-11 where i did find what i needed. we walked back toward the direction of our hotel. instead of taking the beach way we traveled along the ride which was a mistake. it was one big hill after another. we did find on lookout spot which was cool. of course once we found that someone who works at our hotel drove up and offered us a ride. studpidly we said no cuz we were enjoying the site. as we continued on there was yet another hill and a giant decline to approach the hotel. once back at the hotel we headed poolside. the pool water was ice blue and cold. it was one of those horizon pools so you could watch the sunset from the water. thats just what i did. it was great. we had dinner at the hotel and afterwards went to the porn bar for drinks. this was the night we met monica from japan whose boyfriend is a bartender at porn. she was quite nice and she would soon be seeing a lot more of us.

day 4 [swim and sun and tsunami]
today was spent much like yesterday. laying in beach chairs and swimming. i'm usually so bad at just laying on beach chairs but for some reason i wasn't having much trouble here. a lot of it had to do with the fact that you could actually have your chair in some shade. that was sweet. seeing that i'm so fair skinned i can only spend so much time in the sun. however, having some shade meant that i could lay there all day if i wanted to and thats what i did. i had my walkman and the bar was right behind me. what more could you want. the only downer to the day was when we found out how bad things were elsewhere in thailand. as i said before we knew there was an earthquake but didn't realize there was a tsunami and all this destruction until today. while horace was having his massage vickie and i enjoyed cocktails and the sunset. the colors of the sunset were absolutely amazing. you can see them too in my photos. at one point the sky was so pink and purple that it almost didn't look real. the reflection off the sand was breathtaking. i went a little crazy with the photos. after we showered we headed up the hotel to try to get on the internet. we figured we should really check e-mails and let folks know that we are ok. it was quite surreal and very emotional reading all these e-mails. especially when so many of your loved ones are distraught. i quickly read through them and replied. i also decided to put something on my blog site to inform everyone. that night at dinner all we could talk about was what happened and how lucky we were that we ended up in koh chang. thats all because of vickie's friend. i don't even want to think if we had been else where. tonight we ate at porn bar. it was pretty packed so we got to eat upstairs. it was like our own personal tower. this was the first night i had a young coconut which was quite delicious. the food too at porn bar was excellent. for dessert we had fried bananas with a coconut cream dipping sauce. i thought i had died and gone to heaven. we spent the rest of the evening there drinking. back at the hotel i tried to call home but couldn't get the phone to work so instead i went on the internet to reread emails. back at the room vickie and i sat on the porch chatting. it was so peaceful.

day 5 [elephants]
today we went to the elephant camp to ride elephants. YEAH!! the taxi for the elephant camp came to our hotel and picked us up. i love how they call them taxis when really they're just beat up pick up trucks. vickie and i ended up on one elephant and horace had his own. the elephant that we had was dao, the star female. she was so cute. our guide who i wish i had gotten his name was great. he was like mogui from the jungle book. leaping and hopping from the neck to the top of dao's head. i was surprised that he didn't fall off. the trek went through rubber jungle and too a waterfall. unfortunately since its been very dry there was no waterfall. we did take a rest by the water where we got to watch elephants drinks, wash themselves, and even swim. yes dao decided it was just too hot for her and she needed to swim. i actually have video of her going under the water. it was actually quite cool to watch. at one point vickie dropped her camera case into the water and little miss dao retrieved it for her. after returning from the elephant ride we changed into our swim wear and headed for…yes thats right we went back to the beach. we sat there for a little bit then went into town to buy some stuff. dinner that night was once again at porn bar. our new home. as usual we spent the majority of the night there until we decided to go back to the hotel. i could have just sat there for hours. the night air was cool, the sound of the ocean was relaxing, and the smell made you feel alive. thinking back on it now i wish i was still there.

my christmas vacation by jethan part 1

here it is. the long and awaited jethan's christmas vacation. sure to be on the best sellers list any day now. i'm sure most of you are like "who really gives a rats ass". wasn't that like a month ago. but this site really isn't about what you are thinking. it's about me, so i'm going to subject you to it anyway. i'm not sure how many segments this is going to be since its still a work in progress but here's the first. it contains the first two days. enjoy. and don't hate. [smile]

day 1 [christmas day]
horace, vickie, and i arrived in bangkok late christmas night. it must have been around 11pm or so which doesn't sound that late but actually would have around 1am korea time. it was a day of non-stop transportation: bus to airport, airplane to taipai, airplane to bangkok, cab to hotel. the cab ride took an interesting turn especially when it turned down an extremely dark, deadend alley. its not really a good sign when your cab driver doesn't know where he's going. all i could think was "welcome to bangkok, give me all your money and get out." i had no idea where we were or even where we were going. all i wanted to do was sleep. eventually we made it to the hotel. while we were checking in they brought us some punch to drink. the only thing it was missing was some alcohol which would have been a nice treat about now. we settled in our room and horace and vickie wanted to get some food. i felt like staying in the room but they convinced me to go with them. afterall we were in bangkok. our first day of vacation. no more freezing cold weather. no children for a week. only warm weather and relaxation. we left the hotel in search of something. we figured we were in bangkok so how hard could it be to find some food. it was around 1am which should have been a sign for us. we found an alley that was packed full of people. before entering all these guys came up to us asking if we wanted them to take us to a "party". it was as if i was in the red light district of amsterdam again. the alley was lined with bars and drunks. although oddly enough their was no music coming from any of the establishments. it was pretty quiet except for the conversations of the people around us. i definitely didn't have a good feeling about this place. i felt like i was at a giant frat party with the average age 50 and up. everywhere i look there were young thai girls in the company of older men. halfway down the street was a baby elephant on display. i felt so bad for him. he looked completely at of place in this urban setting. all these drunks were petting and pawing him. i wanted to knock the rider off and let the elephant run but i didn't. there wasn't much for food except for the insect stand which sold everything from grasshoppers to roaches. i'm still think we should of gotten a bag of these tastely morsels to snack on. we reached the end and decided to head back to the hotel. i think at this point we were all feeling a bit sketchy about this area we found. once again we were asked if we wanted to be taken to the "party". i feel like we should have yes. we had to walk back through the alley to get to our hotel. people we getting drunker and drunker. i saw one thai girl sitting in the lap of her boyfriend for the night. out of the corner of my eye i say something red move. before i knew what was what their was a thai hooker in front of me asking if i "wanted a good time". i didn't even have a chance to respond when she put a death grip on my crotch. i pulled her hand off and said "no". she ran off to her hooker friends giggling. now i have a glimpse into what it's like for women when they get unwanted advances. part of me was pissed off and the other part felt somewhat violated. its one thing to get your ass grabbed but your crotch. yeah thats a big turn one. i'm sure had i not been so tired it wouldn't have bothered me as much. or it could simply be my own karma coming back to haunt me. after all i did laugh at bill when he was attacked by a hooker in prague. damn, did she have to pinch so hard. as the whole seedy incident was going down all i remember hearing is horace saying "watch your pockets". it definitely put me in a weird state of mind. korean live definitely isn't like this. i've been so far removed from situations like this that i almost forgot how to react. looking back now its actually quite comical. i wish i had been more prepare. on the bright side of things, it looks like i did get my christmas goose after all.

day 2 [destination: koh chang]
today we would make our way to trat and then to the ferry station to get to koh chang island. we got up around 8 am. as i was about to get into the shower i felt the hotel sway back and forth. i sat down for a second not realizing what it was. at first i thought i was experience some sort of odd motion sickness than i realized it felt like an earthquake. i popped my head out of the bathroom just as horace was telling vicky that it was a earthquake. having felt so many in california i really didn't think much about it. none of us did. downstairs at breakfast nothing was even mentioned about the earthquake and soon we'd forget all about it as we gorged ourselves with at the buffet. it was so nice to have eggs, bacon, sausages, pancakes, etc. all the breakfast things i've taken for granted especially the bacon. they had these potato things that were so good. and miny hamburgers too. after breakfast we checked out and caught a cab to the train station where we purchased tickets for trat. the trip down to trat was about 5 hours. we stopped at a couple of little places for rest. at one of the stops i caught one of the monks peeking into the women's bathroom. dirty monk. once at trat we had to get into a jeep/taxi that took us to the ferry station. this was about a 20-40 minute ride. it was pretty cool passing through all the little towns along the way. at the ferry station which was basically a bunch of little shacks that made up a tiny village, we purchased tickets then sat at a table and had some beer. we had to wait for the vans that were going to take us to the boat. we had about 20 mins. or so to relax. they loaded us up in three different vans. of course i got separated from horace and vicky but that was fine with me. during the van ride some guy was talking about the earthquake and how some people had died at phi phi island. he didn't really have any more information than that. no of us even knew about the tsunami at this point. the boat that was taking us to koh chang looked like an asian fishing boat. we threw our bags in the front with all the others and made our way to the back. since it was completely filled we decided to climb up to the roof like some others did. the ride over to koh chang was absolutely beautiful. it was so amazing to be on a boat, in thailand, riding across the water. i thought i was dreaming. of course i ended up talking to two lesbians who were also on the roof. will i ever escape them. the sun had set by the time we reached the other side. we now had to figure out which pickup truck would take us to sea view. it seems that the pickup trucks are the taxis here on the island. there were 19 people crammed into the back. that left 3 people to have to stand on the back. i just happened to be one of those lucky 3. it was actually kind of cool standing on the back. well except for the fact that i had to pee so bad. i'm still amazed that this truck made it up some of these hills. as we approached each steep hill i think we we going like 5 mph. at one point i was tempted to whip it out and pee off the side. but then i thought that might even be too trashy for me. finally after 40 mins. we arrived at the hotel which was amazing. i didn't expect it to be so nice. i left horace and vickie to find the toilet. of course as i was looking all over there were all these fountains and the sound of water. talk about painful. we were driven in a golf cart to our bungalow [3110]. there was an elephant head hanging over the door. the room itself was small but nice. we had a balcony that faced the water and we were set high in the hill. we put our stuff down and went to eat at the hotel restaurant. i had shrimp cakes that were very delicious. after dinner we walked around the resort area. there was a spa, a horizon pool that looked out onto the beach, a beach bar which closes at 7 or so [kind of weird since its a resort and all], and lots of swings and wooden chairs along the sand. it was like paradise. since the beach bar was closed we went back up to the hotel to have a drink. we managed to have one drink before they too were closing. it was only 10:30pm. whats up with this place. this one girl was giving us, especially horace, total attitude. excuse us if we'd like to have a drink while on vacation. we asked at the front desk if there was a bar nearby and they pointed us down the beach. so off we went down the beach looking for a cocktail or two. thats when we came across the "porn bar" which would become our new home while here. the whole thing was wide open and built on a deck. to enter the bar you had to take your shoes off. the tables were low to the ground and made of wood. around them cushions were placed on the floor for us to sit. it was great to sit outside, smell the ocean air, and listen to the water. the music selection was quite good too. the bartenders and staff were all very nice. we stayed for a drink or two and then headed back to our bungalow in the hill. the walk down the beach at night was awesome. as i climbed up the stairs of the loft, which went straight up killed your feet, i felt like i was back living on the haight. needless to say i slept like a baby.

i'm so korean now…

i'm now mastering the nap on the subway just like all the other koreans. i'm so korean. soon i'll be blending right in with them. the best thing about the subway seats are that they are heated. very nice for you butt. this weekend i found myself going into seoul twice. on saturday i met "j" from my taekwondo class and we went to yongsan. the place where on goes to buy electronics. i'm actually glad she came with me because it was quite overwhelming. i'm not sure what i was expecting, yes i do a best buy of sorts, but thats not what it was. instead i found 5 floorss of tiny shops lined up and down the aisle all seeing the same stuff. i didn't even know where to begin. the best part of it all is that there are all these koreans yelling to try to get customers to the store. my mission for the day: 1. camera battery charger 2. ac adapter for my speakers 3. harddrive for computer. the camera battery was taken care of in the first 20 minutes. after going to two different shops i realized the price was going to be the same. at the third place i actually bartered with the guy and got the charger for 5,000 won less then the other places. i guess all that shopping in thailand paid off. trying to get the ac adapter was a different story. at one point we had left the big building and walked around outside where we found a store called computer mart. thinking that this might be a good place we went inside only to find most of the place closed. we did find some guys sitting around so i decided to ask them if they knew where i could find an adapter. of course not only did i have my broken adapter with me but i also had the subwoofer and speaker. the nesxt thing i knew the spacepod that is my subwoofer was on the floor and there were 6 korean guys gathered around it talking. jenny and i just laughed cuz we had no clue what was being said. finally they told us to go the some bank which we couldn't understand what he said just that it was a green sign and across from that was speaker world. so off we went still not knowing for sure where we were going. luck being on our side we find "speaker alley". i went into a few places with no luck. finally i went into this one shop which had a lot of high end speakers figuring if they couldn't help me i might as well give up. i busted out the adapter, subwoofer, and speaker and explained the best i could about what i needed. one of the guys left and came back with a device that would convert my 110 to 220. i told them i couldn't use mine because i blew it up. in which they responded ok and then the guys went out the store again. so jenny and i sat there not really knowing what the outcome would be. as we sat there the guy that was helping us told me i looked like a movie star. see i'm famous in korean. i thought about telling him i was on some obscure show but figured he wouldn't get it. a few minutes later the guys returned with what looked like an adapter. now the moment of truth was upon us. did i damage the subwoofer when i blew up the adapter? they connected it all together and presto it worked. i was so relieved. now i can listen to music really loud. it looks like my luck is changing. the hard drive was another story. it looks like i might have to put it together myself which i guess is fairly easy. i decided to come back and deal with that another time. i'm thinking now i just might invest in an ipod since i basically want the hard drive to store my musice anyway. these are the things that are keeping me up at night.

today i went back into seoul to meet a friend for dinner. i went to shinsegae which is a giant department. there was a really cool ice fort infront of the building with a castle and a slide. i was very tempted to go down the slide but it looked kind of small so i decidced not too. there were so many people at this department store that it was sensory overload. its like being at the mall at christmas time. it was so crazy. i did find a learning korea book that came with tapes. hee hee. on my way home i stopped in at carrefour and bought a cassette player for $7. i can't believe i just bought a cassette player. didn't i just sell one at my garage sale. i took pictures of the ice fort so i'll post them this week.

i forget to mention that on friday i went out with the taekwondo crew again. like every time we go out one drink only turns into getting home at 4:30 am. its amazing how time flies but then i realized there is no last call to give you that alarm that says "oh i need to get home". at least thing time "tb" from class gave me a ride home. it was cold out. all right i'm yawning like noone's business so i must get off to bed. its almost midnight. i know i've been saying this for weeks now but i WILL have the travel blog posted this week. nightie night.

choco cream doughnut

after looking at the sign for the past two weeks of the new "choco cream" donut at dunkin donuts i finally caved. basically its the cousin to the boston cream donut but with a chocolate center. it was yummy!! they also have this other kind of donut called a tart which is basically a glazed donut with chocolate and coconut on top and a jelly center. of course i had one of them too. i'm going to be so fat. not much has been happening here. its been freezing but no more snow. it might snow again this weekend. i hope so but if it does i want it to stick. last night i became a blue belt. YEAH!! i was actually surprised i passed because i only just learned the form. the other two green belters learned the whole form while i was on vacation. i only spent two days trying to learn it. i messed up the first time but nailed it on the second. now i'm half way up the color belt ladder. next stop brown. school has been hella busy. it seems like with each day that passes we get more and more students. thats good for the school but it makes our job even tougher. so far two of my classes are maxed out. the bright side of it all is that they decided not to have kindergarten. how excited am i. very!! today sally's mom came to the school and she brought sally's brother. i know i say this about every child but he's is the cutest. i love when he comes to visit. i would definitely take him and zander back to america with me if i could. i played with sally's brother for awhile. i think we had ever ball from the playroom out and rolling down the hallway. it was a trip. i totally worked that kid up. i feel bad for his mom now. she'll have to deal with all his extra energy. children can be so much fun. especially when they aren't yours. it funny but since coming back from vacation i'm actually enjoying teaching so much more. a lot of that has to do with i'm just now getting to know the students and i'm starting to see more of their personality. its great. i really do like these kids.

elephants

i know you all have been waiting so patiently for the final installment of my vacation pics. well wait no longer for here are the last ones. i went a little overboard with the picture taking on this day so it took me a while to weed it down to 36 photos. it's amazing how one can take almost 60 pictures of elephants. but they so cute i couldn't resist. the editing process was hard but i'm quite happy with my selection. i hope you all enjoy them too. the elephant that vickie and i rode was called dao, which means star female. of course she was! so cute! i'm still working on my vacation blog [smile].

Links

• elephant trekking

happy new year and all that jazz

as i was watching the snow fall the other day i couldn't help but think that last week i was sitting on the beach in the sun. i think i wore my bathing suit all week. so nice. now i'm back in minus 10°C. to put a finishing touch on my bad week i ended up shrinking my wool hat. but never fear cuz i found a fabulous white hat in old ansan. i might not be able to find a camera charger in my neighbor but gloves, hats, scarves, and socks can be found everywhere. YOU GOTTA LOVE THAT!! we are now into the second week of the month and i've had 17 new students so far. one of my classes is maxed out and another is getting quite close. the best part of though is i got to name some of them. some of them already had names. boo. here are students i got to name: zander, ruby, paris, anya, cordelia. zander is absolutely adorable. today he air guitared for me. while he was doing it he jumped in the air. so damn cute. i know i shouldn't have favorites but he's definitely on the list. zander is also the one who told his mom that he met a foreign teacher who has his hair dyed and permed. yes apparently they all think i perm my hair. he kills me. if i could i'd bring him home with me. did i tell you all i spent my new years on a beach. well i did. our hotel had a little show. i thought it was kind of interesting. yes, it definitely had its lame moments but they were trying. we actually stuck around for awhile. that is until they were going to make people dance and since by this time the majority of people were gone and i had already participated in two games i knew we were going to be selected to dance. vickie and i looked at each other and decided it was time to bolt. from there we went down to porn bar where we rang in the new year. there were loads of people dancing, fire dancing, etc. it was great. which brings me to my reason for posting tonight. i uploaded some photos from news years eve. click the link below and enjoy. i got one more set of photos to go and those are from the elephant riding. YEAH!!! i also have some video but i haven't figured out how or where i'm going to post them since they are so big. once i do i'll let you know there are some good stuff like: vickie and i playing a game at the nye party, on the snorkling trip, thai dancers, and elephants bathing. MORE YEAH!!!

Links

• new years eve koh chang style

ozzy

have you ever had one of those days where you wished you stayed in bed. thats how i feel. not only did i realize that my camera charger was in the bag that i left on the bus but after buying a new plug adaptor and plugging my speakers into it the whole thing popped and started smoking. it blew out the circuit in my apartment. thankfully i was able to reset it. now i'm not sure if only the power supply is damaged or if it effected the subwoofer too. sometimes being in a foreign country is HARD. and to top it off today makes three days in a row that some korean man is making an announcement through that speaker in my ceiling. i really hope the building isn't being evacuated. its so strange not knowing what is being said. oh well. today has been a completely lazy day, well besides blowing things up and all. i went out with some people from tae kwon do last night to a blues bar in old ansan which is about a 20 min. walk from my house. it was pretty cool. we met the bar manager who's name is ozzy. really nice guy. he has a pretty decent vinyl collection from what i could see. i didn't actually get to see what all he had just a few selections that he brought to the table to show "r". there was a lot of ac/dc and metalica being played which is a nice change from all the korean pop. although at one point during all the ac/dc songs i felt i was in daytona beach for spring break. we were out til 4:30am. and let me tell you i'm feeling it today. tomorrow i'm going to attempt to find a camera charger. wish me luck.

i uploaded some for photos. check em out when you get a chance.

Links

• the adventures of mr. pez

• a day of snorkling

koh chang pictures

i'm not going to write anything tonight. mainly because i really don't have much to say and the other reason being i want to try to get the photos uploaded. i've been working on my vacation blog today. hopefully by this weekend it'll be finished. in the meantime here are some photos of koh chang for you all to enjoy. more to come.

Links

• koh chang/sea view resort

much ado about tkd

it took all my effort to force myself to tae kwon do. its been so nice doing absolutely nothing for a week. the thought of having to practice kicking, punching, and remembering force does not seem like fun. i am quite pleased with myself for the old me would have dropped this like a hot towel served on international flights. have you ever noticed that sometimes they microwave these towels so much you can hardly hold them. that happened to me twice this past vacation. back to what i was saying. which was what? oh yeah, tkd, i'm really glad i'm sticking with it and tonight i decided to keep with it for my duration in korea. there was a new girl in class tonight. i think i heard her say she was scottish so for now on she'll be known as the scot-girl. class was good. the master commented on how he was glad to see me back safe. that was nice of him. he was actually in a very mellow mood tonight. most likely due to the cold he has. even with a whole week off the top of my left foot hurts. i really think i might have broken something in there. anytime i have to put pressure on it or kick it hurt. i should probably have it looked at but there really isn't much that can be done for broken toes or feet. i'll probably tough it out for now. i keep thinking about my vacation and how i'd like to check bangkok out. we really didn't have much time there at all, 8 hours in total. and that was spent marathon shopping which for me turned out fruitless since i lost all my stuff but i already bitched about that. taking our taxi from teh main drag i saw all these temples and stuff. i'm sure exploring the city would be very cool. i'll have to wait til next time. i keep getting sidetracked. thats how my mind has been working lately. wondering from one random thought to another. at the end of class the master announced that ksb wanted to take everyone snowboarding. now it looks like i'm locked into going on jan. 22 with my tae kwon do class on this trip. and to make it worse they want it to be overnighter. lucky me. maybe i can come up with a good excuse. i'll start working on one. tomorrow there are suppose to be snow showers. so far everytime they predicted snow it never happened. i guess i'll have to wait and see.

dazed and confused

the school days seem to be flying by since i've been back from vacation. i spent this evening wandering aimlessly around carrefour. the idea of trying to throw myself back into the life i left before vacation is hard. there's a small part of me that probably thought the 3 months prior had been some sort of vacation and now i'm realizing that i'm here for at least 9 more months. nothing appeals to me in the grocery store. the screaming vendors are getting on my nerves. the thought of eating any more kimchi is making me ill. up and down the aisles i go. trying to find something for lunch, something for dinner. its so easy to get into the habit of eating out every night. i don't think i had one bad meal on while in thailand. so many different choices to choose from. all so very good. the same can be said for korea although like i said earlier i just ain't feelin' it right now. after throwing several things into my cart: eggs, milk, butter, pasta, vitamin drink [these things rock], juice, peas, corn [corn! i don't remember eating corn], various meats i decided it was time to get out of here. still avoiding any actual work i might have to do at home like cook dinner i opted to stop at mcdonalds. i'm loving the big mac these days. i'm going to start working on my vacation blog and photos. hopefully they'll be posted by this weekend. cherrio.

home sweet temporary home

i've made it back to korea safe and sound all expect for a bag of goodies that i stupidly left on a bus and are now somewhere in ansan. that's what i call throwing money away. but in the grand scheme of things it could be a lot worse. i am so very thankful to be here. thanks again to all of you who showered me with emails. its so great to know i have such wonderful people in my life. my vacation on koh chang was everything i hoped it would be. i'll write in more details later. at this point and time and it just doesn't feel right especially when so many people have lost loves ones. the whole tsunami/earthquake tragedy is just now starting to sink in espeically since i've been reading so much about it. my heart goes out to everyone affected by this great tragedy. for those of you who would like to help out here's a link to make a donation RED CROSS EMERGENCY RELIEF FUND any contribution would be a great help.

in light of what happened it makes it harder these days to be away from everyone i care about. this morning i woke up and wanted to be back home. a year is starting to feel like a really long time. although i know in a few days things will go back to normal. it was just very hard to get back into the swing of things. i spoke with my parents and my sister last night and listening to them each tell me what they went through brought tears to my eyes. its amazing what family and friends do in times like these. my dad had call everyone from my boss, the us embassy in bangkok, to the state governors offices. he told me he was going to board a plane for bangkok on thursday if he hadn't heard from me. my sister using her nancy drew skills was able to contact one of my dearest and closest friends misty and even though the two never met and never spoke they were able to find some comfort in speaking to one another. i'm really thankful that misty was there for her. i could probably continue to go on and on but even now thinking about it all brings a lump in my throat. am i getting completely sentimental or what in my old age. anyway thanks again for keeping me in your thoughts for those two days i was m.i.a.

school was complete chaos today. we started intensives this mornings. the power kept going out. after wearing nothing but a swimsuit for a week i found myself wearing a jacket all day. i got one new class. my class of five has now jumped to seven. i wasn't quite ready for korean food quite yet. spent most of my time on the phone with the airport trying to track down my bus. it was grey and rainy. went to the bus terminal only to find no bags and no answers. someone brought a chocolate cake that sat in the office teasing us yet no one opened it. and all i really wanted to do was sleep. which is what i'm going to do now. night all!