so it's thursday night (almost friday morning) and it's still raining. it's been raining since last night, so over 24hrs. it doesnt seem as hot though so at least the rain's slightly cooling it down. the continuing update amidst writing tests/packing/doing laundry/prepping a kinder craft for tomorrow.
July 4-5 Busan
The first week of July we planned a girls weekend in Busan. So we left Friday night after work, straight from work so it was a fun walk in the morning with my suitcase and school stuff in my work clothes in 35 degree heat. we made it in time to the train station to meet the other girls and there were slight problems with the tickets. luckily, they got resolved 10min before the train left so we made it! once we got there we decided it was time to find a hotel (it was midnight ps.). so we cabbed to Haeundae Beach and started on the trek. We were lucky and the first place we went into was nice and cheap. It was called the 'special room' in A-One Hotel . it was reeally nice though! so we de-bagged there and then headed down to the beach to check it out since the other girls hadn't been there before. that was about it for friday night. we were hoping for good weather to beach it for the rest of the weekend (they called for overcast at best both sat & sun). so saturday we got up and headed out to find some bfast. it ended being really nice out so we decided to head back to the hotel and grab our bathing suits to attempt to tan. koreans are obsessed with umbrella's, so as soon as we made it down to the beach we were hassled by vendors trying to rent us umbrella's that they have set up all along the beach. we passed, since the whole point was to get some sun, and attempted to tan. unfortunately, it started to cool off and rain a lil so we had to pack it in. luckily, there's an indoor aquarium along the beach so we headed in there for the afternoon! funfun, we took lots of photos and watched a shark feeding. then headed back to l'hotel to get ready and head out for din at tgifridays. we met some fun koreans at the beach so they came over to our room after din for a pre-drink and then we headed off to the bar! fun night!
sunday, ended up being gorgeous! so we checked out and headed down to the beach to get some sun! by 4, we were done with the sun so we walked around and checked out the 'golden gate' bridge of busan and then headed to the train station. an excellent weekend and a great escape from the city :)
the next weekend was the Mud Festival! it's this famous festival in korea that attracts tons of foreigners and even some koreans :). It's in this place called Boreyeong which is about 2.5hrs outside of Seoul. They have this famous mud that apparently is really good for your skin (they were even selling their products there). So we left Sat morning on a bus with a bunch of other foreigners and then by the time we had settled in our hotel, it was 1ish. justine, becky and i went together but met up with friends once we got there. so we headed down to check it out. insane! they have mud stations with buckets and painbrushes where you can paint yourself with mud. mud wrestling, mud slides, mud massages, a mud pool you could walk through, mud prison..pretty much anything you could possibly imagine combined with mud. even the stores had muddy people walking through them and outside vendors for those who didnt want to go in. they had a huge stage with bands playing all day and night and it was all set up along the beach so you could just head into the water whenever you felt like de-mudding or cooling off. we ended up running into just about every person we know here just wandering around sat afternoon. so we got all muddy on sat and then hung out around the beach. after realizing you can rent ATV's (!!!) we decided that would be a good idea. so we atv'd until they ran out of gas and we had to be rescued, then we headed back to the room to shower and get ready for the night. there was a fanstastic firework show complete with music from aladdin and requiem for dream (ahah) and of course the night ended with a lil noraebang (kaaareoke). sunday was more beachy and we decided to not get muddy since we had to check out of the room and didnt really want to sit on a bus for 3 hrs covered in mud. so instead, we went banana boating! haha another fun activity that was going on (the long banana-esk tube things that boats pull) and then watched people get covered in mud from the hoses they had going that day. luckily i got attacked, so i ended up getting muddy anyway (which was fantanstic). then it was home time!
suuuch a fun weeekend, probably one of the best here so far.
last week we went swimming with the kinder kids on friday to an outdoor pool and that was lots of fun. a couple of the kids can actually swim so we got to go in the big pool with them and throw them around and splash haha. took it easy last weekend as i mentioned. and this week is all about making tests and getting ready for VACAY! i was at school late monday tues and tonight getting all my tests done so that i wouldnt have to worry about them tomorrow night. tomorrow were having dinner with all the teachers and ken because one of the korean elementary teachers is leaving (/quit) after being here since march. and then on saturday its off to THAILAND! im soo excited (and praying for good weather). the plan is bangkok, phuket then phi phi. i will definitely take LOTS of pictures and let you guys know all about it, just looking forward to being out of korea finally! and a week with out kids, MAGICAL!
i should continue on the to-do's so i can sleep at some point tonight
missss you alll
xoxox
Friday, July 18, 2008
rain rain go away...
June/July:
Ok so here's a little review of what I've been up to these past couple months. Right now, it's rainy rainy out so I'm just hanging out in my room updating. This is the first weekend in as long as I can remember that we're not away somewhere or seomthing is going on. Relatively low key. This girl we know from high school is visiting Korea so we're going out with her tonight and some other friends to Monkey beach since it's been a while. We're supposed to get pedicures and pick up last minute things for the trip next weekend too but I'm not so sure I want to brave this garbage rain. In case you didn't know, Korea has a rain season that starts about this time of year. It runs through July/August and it is reeeallly hot too, so something to look forward to. One of the Korean teacher's at school said that it gets so bad that your clothes won't dry once you wash them because of the mix of humidity and rain. Fantastic, can't wait for that hahah. The weather here has been pretty insane these past couple weeks. We don't have central air at the school and each classroom has an 'air-con' (as they call it here) but they haven't really been working so I basically just stand in class and sweat all day. Last week, there were a couple of days that were in the low 40s. Ridiculous!
Ok, so update time.
Last thing I wrote was the Sex and the city night wayy back in June. That ended up being fun, the restaurant was really nice and then we headed to the movie afterwards. Our friend Maddy wasn't able to make it, so it was me, Justine and Becky. We headed to the movie after din and I wasn't that impressed by it. I tend to read things when I head their making them and so I kinda knew a lot of the stuff that was going to happen. But even if I didn't, it wasn't as funny as I thought it was going to be. I missed Carrie narrating it with her column writing and didn't like the ending at all since Samantha didn't really talk about her age the whole series and all of a sudden she was celebrating her 50th. And to end the movie like that? Not cool. Anyway I could go on for a lonnng time about everything I didn't like. It was good to see all the characters again though and a fun dress up night!
Next was rafting and bungee jumping weekend! The 3 of us were supposed to go June 21 weekend but Sat was a tres late night and so that didn't happen. We ended up going June 28 and it hadn't rained all week and was predicted to rain Sat (the day we were going). It ended up not raining but that really wasn't good for the rafting. There was our big tour group of 2 buses of foreigners plus a bunch of Korean kids and some old Korean men. So the river was packed, to say the least. Everyone just kept getting stuck in rocks and then pile-ups would happen. It ended up taking probably 4 hrs to get down the river that was supposed to take 2.5-3. And our guide spoke very little and didn't really know what she wsa doing. The bungee jump was set to happen after rafting and I was looking forward to it to add a little excitement to the less than exciting day so far. Although, there were little sandbars that we stopped at along the way with rafting and one time they flipped some rafts and threw some water on them and then you could use them as a slip-n-slide into the water. That was very fun! and I only slightly cut my feet ahah. So after we made down the river, it was back to the buses and then to this change area/lunch spot. It was a korea 'buffet'. Soo gross I felt like it would be something that prisoners would get in jail. Some kind of meat with rice and then fish soup. Gross gross gross. After eating as little as possible (but still kinda too much since I hadn't eaten all day), it was time to head to the bungee jumping station. That red bridge once you come up to it is VERY scary. walking up the stairs even more so. i pretty much wanted to turn around after the 3rd flight of 'swively stairs'. then putting the ankle things (the only things holding you onto the rope, by the way.). they seemed kinda loose so there was a slight freakout about that too. questioning the pros putting them on making sure they knew what they were doing ahah. then came the walk out off this plank like thing. and waiting. waiting in line was a little bit scary. there were about 10 of us up there and justine and i and these 2 other girls were the last 4. only 1 guy backed out after looking down and waiting too long. one girl wanted to 'touch' the water so they adjust the bungee to make it longer. she ended up like plunking in, pretty much her whole top half to her waist went in. the guy told us not to look down and not to wait to long cause the longer you wait, the harder it is. i told myself to look into the mountains because i knew cause of my height thing that if i looked down, i wouldnt go. it took me a little while (as you can see in the video) and i kinda shuffled my way to the end but DID IT. scariest thing EVER. and i felt soo nauseus after. im not sure if you can tell by the video but i was spinning a lot at the end and i couldnt find the guy to grab his hand cause i was so dizzy. and it really cut up and bruised my feet too. besides that, well worth it and i might even do it again (australia perhaps?). anway at least its something i can say ive done.
Ok so here's a little review of what I've been up to these past couple months. Right now, it's rainy rainy out so I'm just hanging out in my room updating. This is the first weekend in as long as I can remember that we're not away somewhere or seomthing is going on. Relatively low key. This girl we know from high school is visiting Korea so we're going out with her tonight and some other friends to Monkey beach since it's been a while. We're supposed to get pedicures and pick up last minute things for the trip next weekend too but I'm not so sure I want to brave this garbage rain. In case you didn't know, Korea has a rain season that starts about this time of year. It runs through July/August and it is reeeallly hot too, so something to look forward to. One of the Korean teacher's at school said that it gets so bad that your clothes won't dry once you wash them because of the mix of humidity and rain. Fantastic, can't wait for that hahah. The weather here has been pretty insane these past couple weeks. We don't have central air at the school and each classroom has an 'air-con' (as they call it here) but they haven't really been working so I basically just stand in class and sweat all day. Last week, there were a couple of days that were in the low 40s. Ridiculous!
Ok, so update time.
Last thing I wrote was the Sex and the city night wayy back in June. That ended up being fun, the restaurant was really nice and then we headed to the movie afterwards. Our friend Maddy wasn't able to make it, so it was me, Justine and Becky. We headed to the movie after din and I wasn't that impressed by it. I tend to read things when I head their making them and so I kinda knew a lot of the stuff that was going to happen. But even if I didn't, it wasn't as funny as I thought it was going to be. I missed Carrie narrating it with her column writing and didn't like the ending at all since Samantha didn't really talk about her age the whole series and all of a sudden she was celebrating her 50th. And to end the movie like that? Not cool. Anyway I could go on for a lonnng time about everything I didn't like. It was good to see all the characters again though and a fun dress up night!
Next was rafting and bungee jumping weekend! The 3 of us were supposed to go June 21 weekend but Sat was a tres late night and so that didn't happen. We ended up going June 28 and it hadn't rained all week and was predicted to rain Sat (the day we were going). It ended up not raining but that really wasn't good for the rafting. There was our big tour group of 2 buses of foreigners plus a bunch of Korean kids and some old Korean men. So the river was packed, to say the least. Everyone just kept getting stuck in rocks and then pile-ups would happen. It ended up taking probably 4 hrs to get down the river that was supposed to take 2.5-3. And our guide spoke very little and didn't really know what she wsa doing. The bungee jump was set to happen after rafting and I was looking forward to it to add a little excitement to the less than exciting day so far. Although, there were little sandbars that we stopped at along the way with rafting and one time they flipped some rafts and threw some water on them and then you could use them as a slip-n-slide into the water. That was very fun! and I only slightly cut my feet ahah. So after we made down the river, it was back to the buses and then to this change area/lunch spot. It was a korea 'buffet'. Soo gross I felt like it would be something that prisoners would get in jail. Some kind of meat with rice and then fish soup. Gross gross gross. After eating as little as possible (but still kinda too much since I hadn't eaten all day), it was time to head to the bungee jumping station. That red bridge once you come up to it is VERY scary. walking up the stairs even more so. i pretty much wanted to turn around after the 3rd flight of 'swively stairs'. then putting the ankle things (the only things holding you onto the rope, by the way.). they seemed kinda loose so there was a slight freakout about that too. questioning the pros putting them on making sure they knew what they were doing ahah. then came the walk out off this plank like thing. and waiting. waiting in line was a little bit scary. there were about 10 of us up there and justine and i and these 2 other girls were the last 4. only 1 guy backed out after looking down and waiting too long. one girl wanted to 'touch' the water so they adjust the bungee to make it longer. she ended up like plunking in, pretty much her whole top half to her waist went in. the guy told us not to look down and not to wait to long cause the longer you wait, the harder it is. i told myself to look into the mountains because i knew cause of my height thing that if i looked down, i wouldnt go. it took me a little while (as you can see in the video) and i kinda shuffled my way to the end but DID IT. scariest thing EVER. and i felt soo nauseus after. im not sure if you can tell by the video but i was spinning a lot at the end and i couldnt find the guy to grab his hand cause i was so dizzy. and it really cut up and bruised my feet too. besides that, well worth it and i might even do it again (australia perhaps?). anway at least its something i can say ive done.
June 29 - CANADA DAY IN KOREA
Apparently, there's a canadian chamber of commerce in korea. so they had this event planned on sunday at this big campground park thing. there was canadian beer and outback steakhouse house food and games and bands. lots of fun. they had a tug of war game eastern and western canada vs the world and then central vs more of the world. we (central) lost but east west ended up winning in the finals so that was fun! and they had best costumes and stuff too!
On the actual Canada day, we wore the shirts we made to school and the hats from last CD and did canada related activities all day. aka the kinder kids made moose door handle decorators. apparently there is no 'korea day' which is kind of sad so they were a bit confused with our enthusiasm and spirit ahah. tues night we went to canadian bar and celebrated canada with friends!
i'll put up some pictures in the next couples days :)
xoxo
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