Seoraksan

Went on an adventure to the city of Sokcho this weekend to do a 14 hour hike on Seoraksan. The plan was catch the bus at 7:10am, take a 3 hour bus ride and meet from friends in Sokcho (they were coming from a different location), then hike.  Well, let's just tell you what really happened, I love Korea more and more!

Wake up at 5:30 to meet Stephy (the friend I'm going with) to take a city bus to the subway and then the subway to the bus terminal to take the coach bus that will take us to Sokcho. Everything is going smoothly. We are both on time, we get the bus, catch the subway, we are good on time, right. Well. Then, we go out the wrong exit out of the subway. Apparently we looked really confused because a Korean tried to help us with no English. Finally found the bus terminal. Sweet! Our platforn is 17, we are at 3, um, ok. Let's find 17! Hmmm...it only goes to 9. Uh... Ask some one for help. They point us in a direction that goes out of the bus terminal to who knows where...ok, let's try some one else...Time is narrowing down at this point. Go a different terminal only to find this only goes to 13. Starting to be really stressed only have a few more minutes. Ask another information booth, have two minutes, he's telling us to hurry but the guy he tells to take us is leisurely walking, UM, let's go buddy!! We are speed walking, kinda figure out where we are suppose to be and break out into a run. Finally get to our platform only to see the bus leaving. Awesome. Next bus, 10:30 (3 1/2 hrs later).

Turns out we have LOTS of time to kill so we park it at Dunken Donuts to get some breakfast in the bus terminal. Instead of a donut I decide to get a breakfast sandwich. I tell the girl I want the number 3 (it's a lot easier to order a combo then to order a specific item) and I put up three fingers. Easy, right? My order comes up and I have 3 number 3s. Seriously?!? I guess we are here for a while...

My food...

3 1/2 hours later....on the bus!!!

Our seats in the very back....good thing we packed a couple bottles of soju! :)

Traffic....lovely. Our 3 hour drive turned into 5.

We finally arrive to our destination 9 hours after we left. Steph calls her friends to find out where we can meet them since we didn't get there when we were suppose to. Luckily, Steph found out that they were heading to Water Pia (a spa) so we were just going to take a cab there and meet them. In the process of telling the cabbie where we needed to go and getting in, Steph left her phone and her wallet on the bench. After we get in the cab and start heading to the spa she realizes she doesn't have them. So, we tell the cab driver to pull over. Did I mention we don't speak Korean...so we are motioning for him to pull over though he doesn't quite get it, a minute or so later he finally figures it out as Steph's door is open! She gets out to try and get it. Gone! Awesome. No phone, means no numbers. I don't have any of her friends. So, we go on a blind mission to hopefully find her friends, other wise, we are own. We go to this spa, which is huge! Foreigners are fairly limited if you venture out from the areas where they flock. We are the only ones, so it should be easy to find her friends if they are here! A hour or so later after we ventured around the place....got yelled at for not wear swim caps on, soaked in the spa (which is awesome by the way, message tubs, hot tubs, cold tubs, sauna, grooming stations, messages if you want one... don't find them. Decide to leave so we can figure out a place to sleep. As we are leaving we see them! They have been there for 2 hours, but in the outside hot tubs which is basically a maze of hot tubs out side. Huh?!! ...if you knew we were coming to meet you, why would you go in the MAZE in the very BACK of the spa?!!! Anyhow...we found them!

Our sweet, and not to mention our super sexy swim caps!

After we hungout in the tubs for a little longer we left to go back into town to go get some food.

Local market of every dried seafood available.

The street we went to get food at. There was a gap between the mass amount of people so I took a picture.

Dinner! :(

Sokcho is the city closest to the South eastern border of North Korea. It's on the coast so seafood is big here. Restaurants offering the same seafood are lined up, one after the other. We pick one that a couple of the people we met up with had gone to. It was full so the Lady who owned it took us down the road to where her son also worked. Check out the pictures below.

Our table was cardboard wrapped in tin foil and placed on a stool. 

Stuffed Squid....delicious! Apparently this is the only place you'll find it.

Our dining space...there was 6 of us, maybe 7.

The kitchen where he cooked our food.

A huge King crab selling for w250,000 = roughly $250

Finally, made it to the Mountain we thought we were going to climb.  We needed to take a picture just to prove we made it! Conclusion of the trip, our 14 hour, 2 day hike turned into a 1, maybe, 2 hour hike to a waterfall.  It was beuatiful though!

Everyone else who wanted to climb. Imagine Multnomah falls on a busy day, times 3.

Made it to the waterfall...not that exciting but watching the Koreans priceless.  

Just incase you want to send me some goods!!

If you feel like sending anything.... :)

Jamsil- LCI Kids Club
2nd Fl. #228-8
Jamsil-Dong, Songpa-Gu
Seoul, Korea (138-863)

Its my school address, I have no idea what my actual one is...

A piece of my life.

Ok. Finally had the patience to upload some pictures of what I have been up to. Enjoy!

I've watched a some soccer.

Buckets of Gimchi at a local street market on the way to the subway from my place.

Veggies.

How about some fish?
Fish is displayed like this all over, most places have minimal ice since it has been hot here, don't quite know how they keep it from not smelling,  I actually think the Gimchi stands smell worse then these.  I'm sure I'll eventually buy something but not so excited about gutting my fish before I actually eat it. :(

A little night scenery on my walk back from the subway. My neighborhood isn't  nearly as crazy busy as some.

You never know what kind of toilet you are going to get. ..a womens urinal or an actual toilet, another mystery is if there is toilet paper. This might be TMI but I'm still curious if you can poop in these....I mean if you've got to go you got to go right?!?

A little taste of home! Not so cheap tho...

A little funny story for you....I got myself a late night snack of a corn dog, the guy asked if I want something on it (I couldn't understand him) and since I'm in Korea why not, right? so I say yes, then he askes if I want ketchup, well, of course, it's a corn dog, right!  I take a big bite and find out the mystery stuff is sugar! haha, Seriously?!! It was pretty disgusting and delicious at the same time....lesson #67, saying yes, is not always a good thing!    

A nice sign I walk past everyday for work (apparently it's suppose to represent peace or something like that.. nice).

Subway when it's not busy.

View off the pier in Woldimo

Taking a ferry ride to what we thought was the right island....but not really. Made it to the tiniest island that had absolutely nothing on it. We walked around and through the island in about an hour. 

Dinner!

We cook it ourselves.

A side dish that comes with the meal, silk worm larvae (I think)  Yes, tried one...will never try one again.

bellies full!! Though, 4 hours, 2 beers, 2 ice cream cones  and a ride later from a carnival close by, I  decided to vomit all the way on a 2 hour subway ride. I managed to puke off the subway, in the subway, and in the corner of the subway station, awesome.

Korea's fast food

A huge park that's not to far away from me

Let me just tell you that this did not look like a thumb from further away...

I love my life. I love my life. I love my life.

My break is sadly over and had to go back to work today. Not only did I have to go work but my day started out awesome! Woke up last night with a horrible headache after taking an Ambien to sleep siince the night prior I decided to stay out til the sun was up and slept til 3pm (oops). I, of course don't have any Ibprofen because I eat it like candy and I'm out from what i brought from the states and I don't know what they use here in Korea yet to buy some AND I'm out of water because I drank it all to nurse my hangover from my late night. AWESOME. I finally fall asleep and get up to take a shower only to find out I don't have any hot water, WTF?!!! Holy hell, that was a cold shower, though, it did wake me up. I don't understand why i don't have hot water so I fiddle with my thermostat (which is all in Korean) thinking I hit something to turn off my water heater (which technically I'm suppose to turn off and on to save energy but screw that!). I go to work, to have an actually not to bad of day (which is a miracle) only to come home to a house that is 90 degrees because I apparently turned on the floor heater... Jes-us! On the bright side, I do have hot water, but now I don't know how to turn off the floor heater and keep the water hot....URGGGGGHHHH. To drown my sorrows, I made myself a cold tuna fish sandwich on white (franz like) bread with processed cheese (think kraft singles)and iceburg lettuce with a side of buggles, thank you Korea.

Meet my thermostat.

Pictures from my vacation to be posted soon....

Chuseok Celebrations

It has almost been a month and I got my first week off for the Korean holiday Chuseok. Though, I'm bummed because i don't have any money to go anywhere since I don't get paid a full paycheck until Oct. 10th but I'll make the best out of it.

Chuseok is Korea's biggest holiday, their Thanksgiving. They get 3 days off and they celebrate it with their family, specifically their grandparents. The children wear traditional Hanboks (see below) and bow in front of their grandparents and then receive a present(s). They make Song-pyun which is rice dough filled with a sesame sugar combo or raisins and then formed into a half moon shape then eaten.

The week before the  holiday the children during school got to wear their Hanboks and participated in making song-pyun and Chuseok games. 

My AM kindergarten class in their Hanboks with their song- pyun  they made. (from top left; Eileen, Kevin, Jay, Jinnie, Alex, Tom, Mark, Peter, and Daisy)

Every "special" activity we do in school, they have to have pictures. For this they had professional photographers come in to take group and individual shots along with the korean teachers taking pictures of there own. Oh, and note that this activity is done in a total of 45 minutes and that include putting on and taking off the Hanboks. Which by the way, they all put their hanboks on in the class room and this is done by them all dropping down in there drawers, all boys and girls! Not something I was expecting...

I'm officially Curl-Ean! :)

Haha, Funny, right?!! :) Thought you all might have missed my jokes!

Been here a little over two weeks now, and I finally got my "green card," moved into my apartment, John took me to get a cell phone (thanks John), AND I got a bank account yesterday! whoo-hoo, I'm moving up in the world people, watch out! I'm not struggling to get around as much either...I've learned how to say the basics (or at least I think I do!), haven't taken any taxis to any place I don't want to go, I've ventured places on the subway, haven't managed to transfer but haven't had to either. Still haven't done anything that doesn't involve drinking, but lets be real here, it's not like I did do that back in the states. :) Though, the bars did close at 2am making it easy to know when to go home....here I seem to make it out just in time for the sun to rise...awesome. FYI, if you want an awesome skype call in the Afternoon your time, 7am my time, keep your skype on! I'm still doing horrible with taking pictures but here's a few to give you a little piece of my life!

My Kitchen

My living quarters

Your bed for when you come visit!!

The Bathroom

They don't use shower curtains just a head shower, and notice no bath tub, it's kinda like an all-in-one bathroom.. Not so bad except once you take a shower the floor and toilet seat are all wet.

My place is nice. It's the largest one out of all the teachers who teach at my school and they say it's the newest (yay, me!). The apartments usually only come furnished with a twin bed, dresser, table, tv, phone and gas range, wash machine and a fridge but the teacher before me left a bunch of stuff so I didn't have to go out and buy it. She left me the basic house hold items plus a futon, chair, lamp, exercise ball and weights, and a bunch of other random crap AND instead of a twin bed I have a full!! It's not the most comfortable thing but I'll take it! SO...there is lots of room for who ever wants to come to Korea!! :)

Here are some other random pictures for the last few weekends...

I have arrived...

My hotel room that I had to stay at unbeknownst to me for a week before I got to move into my apartment.  Super small, lots bigger in the picture then it really was. Id probably say it was a 7x7' room.

Nice view though

Of course I meet up with John. First ride on the scooter, holy hell....I'm not in America anymore!

A little late night street food action, a moroccan sandwich...delicious!

Welcome/ goodbye dinner with my school. We ate Shabu shabu, it's a mulitiple course dinner but basically its like how you do fondu but in a broth and you cook all your veggies, and meat in it, then after it the server puts in noodles, then after the noddles, the server makes like a rice porridge. I liked it! 

Went to a mall to check some electronics with John and a friend, needed to kill some time so did a little shooting at the shooting range next to the food court...no big deal. 

Gangnam

You can drink anywhere....

Met some Korean friends...John and I beat them at shuffle board earlier!

Went out in my neighborhood with some girls from work, found a hof (a sports bar) this one happened to be a baseball one. Koreans love their baseball...who knew...