bungee jumping!

a lil bungee jump over a 500 foot bridge in korea!

treasure island photos

the rice fields that are all over the country.

close up on the rice fields.

me pointing up to the rock we climbed on the hike.

the view from the top of the rock (from where we were, note the people, to where we climbed.)

its a longg way down.

crazy views.

the destination. we never quite made it there.

in large part due to these ridiculous stairs. and the heat.

the folk village we stopped at on the way home

some houses in the village

some ladies selling veggies in the village

all the girls posing with the fun totem poles

gigantic swing

i was kinda surprised to see a car here.

especially since their houses were made of straw.

the view of the village

random parade that was going on as we walked in

caught in the middle a lil bit

this was lunch after not eating for a day and a half. well, this was what i didnt eat. (the fishheads)

dinner that night. assorted plants and the fish dish in the middle. mm mm

the local probably cutting up our dinner.

brunch sat morning. the soup was actually good. tofu and spices.

cleaning and cutting octopus on the street.

the accomodations for the weekend.

the beach! post tide.

the view of the island from the 'hotel'.

one side of the island.

the other side.

the beach pre-tide.

some locals looking for something. not sure what exactly but they were in there for hours.

more searching.

water/beach shot. not bad.

the docks near the hotel. fishy fishy area.

street vendor. korea style.

mmm dried fish

more of the island

the tour of the islands.

rocks and more rocks.

the water's soo blue though

andd i managed to get my suitcase closed. niiice.

Treasure Island Trip

so a couple weekends ago we had a long weekend for 'memorial day' its called. the plan initially was taipei but since its crazy rain season there we figured it would be better to just save the cash and go somewhere in korea where it wasnt rainy. so we decided on Baekdo Island aka Treasure Island. It was a good choice in the end since we ended up meeting up with friends who were also on the trip and the weather was gorgeous. We left Thurs night from Seoul and then the bus drove through the night to the ferry (we got there about 6) then off to the island. Once we arrived at the island we hopped right on another ferry for the 'islands tour'. this was a boat ride around all the little islands aka rock formations. it was reeally nice and there was even a nice korean tour guide who didnt speak any english ahah. it lasted about 2 hours i think . i was up on deck for most of it until the tippy'ness and the waves started to get to me and i thought i was gonna be sick. thank god for seasickness pills somehow remembered to pick up before we left. so after the tour we headed back to the island and to get settled into the 'hotel'. see, they dont really have beds here in korea at hotels so they give your a pile of blankets and a pillow and you get to enjoy the floor. also, apparently there was a trip cancelled before this wknd so there was double the people who need a place to sleep. so we ended up at this scuzzy place. our friends were at the nicer one. pretty much a palace compared to ours. i never thought i'd be describing a bed less hotel as a palace, who knew. the bathroom was siick. so after leaving our stuff in the room and meeting the roomie (aka a 30something lady from ausbeckistan who has been in korea for 10yrs) we headed to the lunch place. usually the food here comes with 'side dishes' aka leaf like plant things and kimchi to go with either lettuce sandwiches or something else. the side dishes were lunch. that was it. maybe about 10 mini dishes of plants and then some 4 slices of fish in the middle. and i dont eat fish. oh and soup with fish heads in them. mmmmm. so it wasnt quite what i expected after not eating since dinner thurs night (its was like 3 sat afternoon). so after lunch we just headed down to the beach and then met up for dinner later which was more of the same. the island is a fishing island so i guess why there was so much fish. we just met up with friends for a drink after dinner and then im pretty sure i went to bed at like 930 cause the seasick pills did something funny to me and i was off all night. it was nice to get a good nights sleep anyway since bus travels are never fun. so sat morning was hiking time! we met up for breakfast at 10 which was, if you can believe it bigger than both previous meals combined and deelicious surprisingly. it was this hot soup with tofu and various other things in it. with rice. yumyum. so after that the hike began. i think koreans like to stretch the truth a little bit when to comes to answering questions you ask them. i think a lot of it is because they think we (aka foreigners) will freak out on them if they tell us the truth or something that isnt what we expect. which is also why they apologize a lot. i think 'sorry' is the first english word most of them learn. so we were told the hike was 40min to the lighthouse and 40min back. i think it took about 40min to get the first peak. like it wasnt even close to what he said. the views were insane though, ive never seen anything like it. once we got to the first peak, we had the option to climb up one of the rock formations. the other girls didnt wanna do it but justine and i figured, WHY NOT! so we did. the climb up actually wasnt that bad and the views were out of this world. soo gorgeous. so once we made it back up we continued on the journey. i think it was about 3 hrs in, after going down stairs for 20 min we made it to a water area. and at this point the lighthouse seemed about halfway. ridiculous. so we figured there was no point continuing, so the 7 of us decided to head back. i forgot to mention the weather, it was at least 30 degrees outside not counting the humidex and no wind. so about 5 min in this wonderful pickup truck drove by and we hopped into the back and got a ride back to the beach. fantastique. so we spent the rest of the afternoon chillin in the sun, waiting for the beach to form. when the tide comes in every morning, the beach goes away. it re-appears around 2 or 3. so when i couldnt stand the heat anymore it was time to test out the water. it was pretty cold but tres refreshing. after that we headed back to shower and get ready for dinner. no need to elaborate on that meal, back to thursdays style, aka gross. after din, we headed to the other girls room (in the palace) and drank there and watched the csi marathon ahah. when we couldnt handle anymore csi, it was norebong time. whats norebong you ask? KAREOKE. you should remember from now on since i do it pretty much every weekend. there was a wait, the people before us we lovely old ladies. i am not even kidding they were like 60-70. kareoke was soo fun, the lady had to kick us out. sun morning we just got up, packed and headed to the ferry to journey back to seoul. on the way we stopped for a buffet lunch. ive never had a korean buffet before but it was pretty delicious. lots of selection. then about an hour after that we stopped at a korean folk village. i'd never been to one before so it was cool to see. lots of little shops and straw houses where people actually live. and a gigantic swing. too bad the kids were on it so i couldnt try it. funfun though. then it was back on the bus..it started to rain, got stuck in traffic. finally made it back about 10ish and then cabbed it home. overall a nice relaxing weekend!

A SATC Night

So tonight the plan is to have a girls night with some friends. We're all getting dressed up and done up (ahah) and then heading out to this nice restaurant called The Island in Ilsan. Then the plan is to see the Sex and the City movie finally! It came to Korea thank god but since we were away last weekend and it came out a week later here than it did everywhere else in world we figured we would all get together and make a night of it. I am beyond excited to see this movie! and its gonna be such a fun night i predict. I have this dress that randomly found here a couple months ago and have been dying for a night to wear it. It's a super cute grey short dress with a little flower thingy on the left corner. And it goes perfectly with this belt that i got for christmas from my lovely canadian relatives :). I actually managed to find shoes in my size, shocking i know. they are black peeptoes. very exciting! anyway, lots of pictures will be posted im sure.

last weekend we went to these islands south-west of seoul (near Jeju island) called Treasure Island and met up with some friends there. It was amazing and a very nice getaway for a long weekend, didnt find any treasure though. I'll write more about it later and put up some pictures too! Gotta get ready :)
hope everyone is doing well i havent really heard from anybody recently.
xoox

A Night Out with the Michigan Teachers

so a couple fridays ago we had a teachers dinner after work. usually they are very lame and occasionally involve raw fish so we kinda try to avoid them. when ken mentioned it though he said all the teachers were coming which meant nickie was coming. she's probably the korean teacher were closest to at the school because she's pretty much bilingual and is very typically korean by being so blunt and just not really any censor which makes her hilarious without even really knowing it. her kids go to michigan and we taught erik in kinder and now i teach him in pear class and justine and i both teach sue in special 2 class (2nd highest class). she always makes us cocktails ahah (aka beer and soju) mixed and make sure we dont hate the food too much. so we decided to say we weren't busy. we ended up at this random restaurant in the middle of nowhere. i have no clue how they find these places. seriously, it was in the middle of rices fields and the only building around for a long time. the food was lettuce sandwiches though which are deelicious (as i have previously mentioned) and the drink of choice was korean rice wine (which is what we had for lunch after the hike too). nickie mixes it with the korean version of sprite and it is very tasty. after we finished we all hopped back into the michigan bus with bus driver ken and headed back. we figured they would drop us off but then they turned in the direction of the school so we figured we were walking. so i hopped out and said bye and thanks and they were like 'noo we're going in there, to sing kareoke.' hahah. so then we headed upstairs to the norebong. with the teachers. this place was by no means even comparable to the one we went to hongdae with 2 floors, but a norebongs a norebong. you get snacks with each room and off of course drinks and beer. so the drinks we flowing and the korean songs we sung. then there were the english songs. soo fun. we did mr brightside, bohemian rhapsody, some beatles songs, a lil madonna and a few others. ended up being a lot of fun. you never really know what its gonna be like with other co-workers who you dont really know and dont really speak english. it was a lil awkward with ken there at first but he had a few drinks and was doing this ridiculously funny dance and singing like it was his job. so we finished at the norebong and figured that was it. not according to nickie apparently. she wanted to go for a drink after hahah. (if there was a who the tipsy'ist contest i tihnk she would have won). so we went this place with ken and nickie and another korean teacher jennifer. we started with 11 and were down to 5 now. it was really funny nickie just ordered all these appetizer things (one of which was snail, which i tried for the first time) and entertained us pretty much the whole time. telling us her life story, she lived in new york and met her korean husband there. and then she brought up how until she started teaching kinder (she taught elementary before) she never realized how hard it was for us. which was insane that someone at that school finally realized that this is not an easy job. especially considering the super teachers we were replacing. anyway she kinda said it all in front of ken so i think he got the point a little bit to take it easy on us. she also suggested this massage place that she goes to every weekend to relieve tension build-up. interesting someone else at this school finds things a bit stressfull at times. hahah
anyway, it ended up being a crazy random fun night!
more updates to come soon, je suis slow, i know.
xoxo


the famous lettuce sandwich (complete with kimchi, a lil garlic, some meat, and some mystery hot sauce)

the table of teachers (and food)

part 1 of the meal (sausauge and veggies)

the side dishes

norebong time! nickie (in the purple) and susie teachers

just hanging out, loving life

jerry not so much loving life since he's a) with adults b) with teachers c) with his mom (susie) d) probably exausted cause its like 1am ...

jennifer (left) with mida (shorts) and lily (white shirt)

nickie singing

oh look its ken teacher! he loved being the only male there (besides jerry)