Out:Seoul

Vientiane

2011-12-07T11:56:00.000-08:00

from Vang Vieng, we took another bus to Vientiane, the capitol city of Laos. and definitely the most uneventful place we visited.

visiting more temples..

not sure what this is, but it reminded me of an ice cream cone!

i believe this is the presidents house...or some sort of governmental building..

so the only real attraction in Vientiane is Buddha Park. it's about a 45 minutes bumpy tuk tuk ride outside of town, but it was worth it. this park has statues from 3 different religious backgrounds, most of which are massive.

it was incredibly hot this day..my camera was actually hot to hold..

this reclining buddha is what the park is famous for

it was almost eerie being here, there was almost no one around, it was blazing hot, and very quiet.

in the first picture of the park i posted, you'll notice there's a stature with an open mouth at the bottom of a spherical structure...this is the view from on top of that. i had to take it about 7 times because there was one guy wandering around, in a red t-shirt, and i really didn't want him in my photo.

(prior to going up top)

inside were all these statues...felt like we were walking through a tomb

on top..

tuk tuk ride back to town..

dinner on the boardwalk..

and that wraps up Laos...now a 60 minute flight to Hanoi, Vietnam..

in Vang Vieng

2011-12-07T10:45:00.000-08:00

after 6 wonderful days in Luang Prabang, it was time to move on. we bought a bus ticket to Vang Vieng, Laos...and arrived 4 hours later.

we travel in style..

this was what my bus seat looked like..

arriving in vang vieng...a ghost town in the afternoons..

this is a town we only stayed in for 2 days. there is really only one reason you spend time here, and it's to go "tubing" along the river. basically a non-stop party where anything goes...anything..

more Laos: Luang Prabang, Pt. 3

2011-12-07T10:26:00.000-08:00

Today we decided to rent bikes and check out our friend Sommay's village.

i liked how the driver was holding the umbrella, not the passenger..

Ban Hat Hein Village

kids in the village..when we arrived there wasn't much to see and we weren't really sure if we were in the right place. we parked our bikes, and walked down towards the river, but then someone started yelling at us back up in the village. we thought maybe we were definitely not supposed to be there, but it turned out it was our friend Sommay! the kids were running around yelling about how 3 foreign girls were here, and Sommay knew it must be us.

as we walked through the village the kids would follow us, and run about. Sommay, in Laotian, would make sure they all stopped to great us properly.

Sommay gave us a tour of his village temple, the school, his own house that he shares with his brother, and one of the houses where they makes knives (they are a blacksmith village). this is Black, the temple dog.

as always, beautiful temple paintings..

some more gruesome than others..

Sommay telling us the story of the paintings..

a seashell serpent...very cool!

more kiddies..

jacki, sommay, margaret and myself

sandwiches are all over laos...which is nice coming from Korea where i basically didn't each a sandwich for an entire year.

yum! that owl in the background is Margaret's purse..

Laotian barbecue...good, but nowhere near as good as korean barbecue

not spending the last year living in an asian country..margaret's chopstick skills weren't up to par with mine and jacki's..

tuk tuk to the waterfall!

entrance..i think the entrance fee was 3 or 4 times as much for foreigners as it was for locals..

kouang si waterfall..

there was also a sun bear park at the waterfall..?

margaret and the panda..

there were different levels of pools, all leading up to the source of the waterfall...breathtaking.

this pool had a rope swing..pretty funny to watch foreigners like us climb up the tree and grab the rope, and then watch the locals run up the tree..

top of the 'fall..

the 3 of us decided to hike up to the top of the waterfall...we got a decent ways, but ran into a few too many vibrantly colored snacks and decided it was time to go back down..

only temple in Luang Prabang with silver serpents (nagas)

monks robes out to dry..

night market..

sandwich lady

fruit or oreo shakes...

this was posted in our guest house room

our guest house...run by a very nice family, and we had a great room, probably the nicest bathroom of all the places we stayed...can't beat that @ $6/night!

Luang Prabang, Laos Pt. 2

2011-12-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

Some things we learned about Laos:

the average person can live off of $1/day
the average income is less than $1000/year
Laos is one of the world's 20 poorest countries
no roads from bordering countries lead to Laos until the 1990's (I believe they opened to tourism in '87)
they have a curfew of midnight..shopkeepers face a large fine if they're caught operating their business after hours..

on our way up to phu psi temple

there were serpents at the entrances to almost all the temples

jacki

from phu psi we saw this golden temple in the distance..this is how we met our friend Sommay. He was at the temple studying, and we asked him what that was across the way, and how do we get to it..

buddha's footprint

sticky rice..

coconuts!

a lot of the tuk tuk drivers had hammocks in the back...

BeerLao Dark...much better than BeerLao, but half the size and twice the price!

water buffalo burger..BEST burger i've ever eaten, hands down. send guy fieri here.

a local Laos food...Lok Lap...fish and tons of cilantro...i was told this was also very delicious

naturally, we did a bit of shopping before sightseeing..

marge and i with our awesome bikes..i can't remember exactly but they were less than $2 for the day..

motorbike/pedestrian bridge that i mentioned in the last post..

it took us a few tries to find this place...we were in the right area, but rode past it a few times without realizing it...at one point we found ourselves on a dirt/gravel road, and asked a school girl on her way home for lunch if we were close...she just laughed and pointed in the opposite direction..

BUT...we made it! [jacki and marge]..i should also mention it was 100°F

Phon Pout

when we finally arrived here, we found it was closed. they're only open during certain hours of the day...the ladies in side must have seen us wandering around the grounds and poking around, because we weren't there 5 minutes, and they opened the doors..

this woman came up to us with neon orange string bracelets from the temple, and while she put them on our wrists she said a prayer...and then asked us for money.

my bracelet...and awesome tan..

this stuppa was multi-level and had gorgeous paintings all over every wall..as you got higher into the stuppa, it got narrower and narrower..

Slow Boat to Luang Prabang, Laos Pt. 1

2011-11-30T14:08:00.000-08:00

So after our terrifying van ride...we arrived to the border at about 4am. Our housing for the night was included, and was pretty much the equivalent of sleeping on a ping pong table. At 7am, we were up, loaded into the back of a truck, and on our way to get our Laos entry visas. Once we purchased our visa, we took a 1 minute boat ride over the water that separates Laos and Thailand. Once on the Laos side, we went to have our visas put into our passports. From there we were then taken to our final boat...the 2-day slow boat to Luang Prabang, Laos...our final destination for the time being.

When we first saw the boat, and all the backpackers we were with, we all thought there was no way we were all going to fit on that boat. Each backpacker plus their gear is essentially 2 people, plus there were tons of local people riding the boat as well. At first glance, the boat itself looked like it wasn't going to make it. They're very long and narrow and filled with old seats from cars/vans/buses, etc. It's exactly how it sounds. We sat on these boats for 6-8 hours at a time for 2 days, stopping for the night in a town that is literally there for the purpose of a night stopping point for these boat trips.

Besides the longs days, the uncomfortable seats and the interesting bathroom...the Mekong river sure was beautiful.

we all piled on to the end boat..the boats are definitely larger than they look!

on the boat..notice the seats..

this adorable girl was backpacking with her parents..

along the Mekong..

look who we found! for those of you who don't know..this is one of my roommates from Chicago, Margaret (she's from Philadelphia). While I was working in Korea, she was working in Australia and we met here at the Laos border!

trying to get comfy on the boat..guess who's sleeping on the floor?

on the boat..

something to entertain ourselves with..hair-braiding!

monks getting off at their stop..

locals waving as we passed..

our first BeerLao

margaret and me at dinner..

this is the boat next to us on the second morning..

my ticket..

more locals getting dropped off..

a temple within the rocks..

finally in Luang Prabang..

everything was so lushly green..

the school yard in town..

as you probably all have noticed in my photos, i like pattern details and texture..

everywhere you turn in this town there's a perfect photo waiting to be taken..

the Mekong..

we bought some coconuts..

tuk tuk

drying rice patties

there were many stray dogs..

bridge across the Namkang river..

view of the pedestrian/motorbike bridge towards the airport..

Pai, Thailand

2011-11-27T20:24:00.000-08:00

Ok, so after 2 days of trying to sight-see, getting soaked with freezing water was becoming tiresome. We booked a bus ticket to Pai, and splurged on a $3 taxi ride, so we wouldn't get soaked on the way to the bus station. It was a beautiful, but very curvy 3-hour bus ride to Pai. We thought since we arrived in Pai early evening we'd avoid the water...nope. I got a bucket dumped on myself and my backpack. I was a target. During the entire festival, no matter who I was with, I got the most water thrown at me.

bathroom sign at the rest stop..

vendors at the night market..

arriving in Pai..

Rim Pai Cottage

we spent our first night in a room with a GIANT spider. so for the next few nights we splurged on this lovely little cottage..$15/night. The staff was very friendly, and when our time was up there, the manager let us shower in her room before our bus ride to the Thai/Laos border.

our first day in Pai we rented bikes and decided to ride to a waterfall...no one told us the entire ride was uphill..oh, and the water festival was still going on, so we got soaked..!

beautiful country side..

we finally made it to the waterfall..

kids would literally block our path so that they could soak us with buckets of water, they'd also swipe us with some sort of white paint..

totally soaked.

not the best bikes to ride 6 miles uphill...

banana waffles!

you can rent these lovely huts by the river..we checked them out, but decided to go for a more bug free accommodation..

Asian packaging is the best.

Sangsom Thai whiskey, $3

we rented motorbikes and rode to the world war II memorial bridge..

Pai was the best place to rent motorbikes..there was a lot of open road, and very little traffic.

the korean in us had to stop and pose for pictures..

stairs to Wat Pra That Mae Yen temple

view of Pai

best pad thai i've ever eaten..

After this delicious meal, we boarded our van that would take us to the Thai/Laos border, where we would then get on a boat. This was the most terrifying ride of my life. Never before have I ever felt like I might not make it to my next destination. Not only were we driving through the curvy mountain roads at night, but there was a terrible storm, and we were actually stopped for a bit by the police due to weather. After the storm had faded a bit, we were back on the road, following the road crew that was clearing the road of trees. Trees big enough that multiple car loads of men had to get out to get them out of the road. After awhile, our driver decided that he was sick of following the road crew and passed them. Anyone he came across, he passed. He was going a steady 110/kmh, the van was literally screeching around turns, many of which were U-turns. When many of us asked him to slow down, he said, "We are late." And we said, that's fine, we'd like to live to eat our breakfast. Some people started to feel sick, and asked him to slow down again, his response,

"You sick. You sleep."

Chaing Mai, Thailand

2011-11-27T19:30:00.000-08:00

Chaing Mai was my favorite Thai city. The people were more friendly, the city was more laid back, and our guesthouse was a blast. We also got to participate in the Thai New Year festivities..

first American breakfast since leaving home.. (other than the wonderful pancakes Jacki would make us from time to time) + Thai Iced Coffee, which is always sugary and delicious. Our room looked like a crime scene and had scratchy blankets, but they sure made a great meal.

one of the many mystery meat-on-a-stick vendors

thanks to a poster of different fruit in one of my classrooms in Korea, I knew that these were durians..

Jacki and I in the back of a Sawngthaew (no idea how to say that). These were red covered pick-up trucks, with benches in the back, that drove around town, and would take you wherever you needed to go, for less than $1, as long as it was going in the same direction you were.

through our hostel we booked a jungle trekking tour..prior to entering the jungle we visited an orchid farm..

all of these orchids were hung, and didn't grow in dirt..

fried rice in a banana leaf..

the beginning of our jungle trek..

one of our guides, Mr. T

it was about a 2 hour hike to our campsite..

..our other guide, Rocky

little girls swimming in the small creek we passed..

we're almost at the elephant camp!

the view from above..

elephants! this one stuck it's trunk out right at me!

this is the pool for the humans..it didn't really look different than the one for the elephants..

bath time!

we got to go for a ride on the elephants..this camp has tons of land, but they chose to take us up a steep hill..it was not comfortable..

our elephant and driver..

our elephant..

Jacki and me on our elephant..

there was some downtime between our rides and dinner, so we fed the elephants!

Rocky cooked us dinner, green chicken curry!

our bed for the evening..it POURED rain that night. i was just hoping our hut wouldn't slide down the hill it was on..

bath time!

breakfast: toast with some sort of neon colored jam, and hard boiled eggs..

jimmy...the elephant camp dog..

after we left the camp, we spent the day at a waterfall and white water rafting.

we also visited a small village..this lady was selling trinkets..

Jacki and me with Rocky. This is what you look like after 2 days in the jungle.

Chiang Mai Sunday Market. This place was a mad house, you could find just about anything here..

banana spring rolls

one of many foot massage tents..

break dancing kid..

we stumbled across this church while at the market..

Mojito Garden. This was my favorite guesthouse. Boom, who ran the front desk, also did the laundry, did the cooking, and took us out at night. He was a wonderful host.

we had the only air conditioned room..totally worth the $6.50/night.

monday morning we attended a wonderful yoga class here..

then enjoyed a thai iced coffee

city walls..

inside the reggae bar we frequented..pretty sure our guesthouse was affiliated because they always suggested we go there..

Jacki and me

Wat Phrasingh Temple

Thai hipsters

the detail in these temples were amazing..

a little girl writing a prayer for the new year..

if you notice the strings throughout the temple..they're for people to hook their gifts too..

money gifts..

there were musical guests (because of the new year)..

i liked that they put glasses on this guy..

this monk was meditating and we honestly couldn't tell if he was real or not.

i found this fairly straightforward..

the best part about Chiang Mai, was the Thai New Year...it's a 3 day water festival...literally a 3 day water fight. You can't go anywhere without getting soaked.

there was a lot of, "Welcome to Thailand!" SPLASH!

more temple details..

golden reclining buddha

in our experience, canadians were generally hit or miss, but nick, ryan, jacki and myself had a lot of fun with our super soaker squirt guns during the new year..our host Boom also let Jacki and I stay in the air conditioned room a few days extra, even though these guys booked it!

jacki and ryan

Southeast Asia Adventure: Bangkok, Thailand

2011-11-27T14:27:00.000-08:00

The cold and gloomy weather outside has inspired me to bring the blog back! These photos are way over due..Here's where mine and Jacki's backpacking adventure began, in Bangkok, Thailand in April 2011. We only spent about 2 days here..

our first tuk tuk ride...this guy totally scammed us.. (tuk tuk = a motorbike with a trailer-type thing with benches hooked to it)

boat ride

boat merchants selling tourist crap..

fresh fruit everywhere! vibrantly colored and delicious!

thai coca-cola. you can drink it from the can, or from a bag of ice..yes, a bag.

khao san road, the backpacker's main drag.

pad thai for $1.25!

YUM.

their electrical wires are out of control. could you imagine being the cable guy?

fresh coconuts were a life saver on those hot days. mmmmm..electrolytes!

Jacki

tall standing buddha..he was under construction, but still pretty neat to see.

his feet were HUGE

dinner in Silom..

more fresh fruit..

walking through the market by Khao San Road...I have no clue what most of the food items were..

fresh orange juice..

pink taxis...taxi fares were negotiable..usually best to just go by the meter though. sometimes it took a few tries to get a driver that would actually agree to that..we found that the younger the driver (tuk tuk or taxi) the less likely they were to scam you.

tuk tuk traffic

this lady makes a mean green chicken curry..

beer lady..

green chicken curry

after finding out the Thai new year was quickly approaching us, and we would be stuck in Bangkok for the next 6 days, we booked an overnight train ticket to Chaing Mai. it was a 12 hour train ride..

Bangkok train station

..to Chaing Mai..

our bunks...I had the bottom, Jacki the top, and some other guy had the bottom bunk across from us..

farewell

2011-04-03T19:54:00.000-07:00

my last days in seoul have flown by. there were so many last minute details that needed to be taken care of. first, packing. packing is not fun. i lived in the tiniest apartment that was bare when i arrived and somehow over the course of the year i accumulated many many things. i avoided packing for days because everytime i started i didn't know where or what to do with something, so i'd just stop and watch tv instead. but when i was told i finished work at 2pm on friday, and had to move out of my apartment by noon on saturday, i knew i had to get down to business.

my last day at school was great. the new teacher taking my place, alfie, was with me all day. the kids were in a very excited, but sad mood, so i'm sure they terrified him a bit. we've all had a "why did i come here moment" when we first meet our kids here. i told my kinder kids on monday that friday would be my last day, which led to me being attacked and the center of a group hug and lots of questions and "don't go's." everyday we'd talk about it, and go through the same thing. one day we were reading a story about a girl who had a special backpack. she had this red button that turned her backpack into a rocket and my class decided they were going to get one of those to come to my house in america.

on friday all the kids gave me cards. most of them just read something like, "mallory teacher, i love you. don't go." lucia's said "have fun with your mom in usa." justin's card read, "i love you mallory teacher. i like you. you are so pretty. i miss you." when it was time for me to say goodbye and unleash them to alfie, my little favorite eric was all over me. and even cara, who is so unemotional and even keeled wouldn't let go of me. i was sad to say goodbye, but it still hasn't all sunken in yet that i'm leaving.

it took my 5 hours, with a post office trip included, for me to organize and pack for my trip and also for what i was sending home. on friday night i attended my last yoga class at mikyung's studio, and had my last night's sleep in my tiny little korean apartment.

saturday morning i skyped a bit with friends and family before carting all my belongings to jacki's apartment, where i'm staying until we depart on tuesday morning. luckily, her apartment is not as small as mine. we spent most of saturday lounging before we figured it'd probably be a good idea for jacki to pack too!

on sunday night we went to our friend's john and beth's apartment and they cooked us a fantastic farewell meal. it's a bit of a hike to get to their apartment (1 hour and 30 minutes by subway), but it was well worth it for the meal and the company. jacki and i have been lucky to meet a lot of great people here in seoul. many that we'll stay in contact with when we're all back in the states.

here's a few photos from my last week:

a note from lauren.

mikyung's homemade tteokbokki..yum!

spring.

the old men by my apartment put their chairs out since they weather's been nice.

how does she do that? and, walk through car and pedestrian traffic?

me with brenda, tina and clara. these girls are my oldest students (13 years old). they were not happy about getting a male teacher because they think boys are "oily and ugly." clara asked if i could move chicago to korea. on friday, i thought i was going to teach all day, but i only had to do kindergarten, so when i didn't show up for this class, brenda called me, "teacher, where are you?"

farewell dinner with the korean teachers

back row: may, katie, connie

front row: kaylah, me, amy, scarlet, jenny

it's been a great year here in korea. i've gone back and forth this whole month on how i feel about leaving. but i've decided that i'm ready to come home. there are many things that i'll miss, and a lot of people, but i'm very excited for my upcoming travels, and also very excited to land in chicago in a few short weeks.

because i'm not carrying my computer with me through southeast asia, i won't be able to upload any photos, but i will still be updating my blog with text when i can. the pictures will have to wait until i'm home. thank you to all of those who've kept up with me and my adventures this year. i really appreciate your support, and interest, and can't wait to see all of you when i get home!!

안녕히계세요 대한민국

(goodbye korea)

this is because you didn't study.

2011-03-24T07:02:00.000-07:00

in effort to avoid studying, the past week, two of my 9 year old students have been giving me korean tests (and even "assigning" me homework). sue is quite the stickler, and won't repeat words once she said them, and doesn't react if i write something wrong, whereas emily will repeat and sound things out a few times, and squirm a little if i make an error (and then sue scolds her for helping me)..here's my test from today. i did ok on the first 7 questions, but when i had to write a sentence it all went south... as sue was grading the test she told me,

"teacher, you did a very bad job. this is because you didn't study!"

always, sometimes, never

2011-03-20T02:40:00.000-07:00

in one of my afternoon classes (7 years old) we were practicing sentences using "I always...," "Sometimes I.....," "I never....," i was going around and asking the students to make one sentence to share with the class. andrew raised his hand first..

"teacher! i never eat poop."

final weekends..

2011-03-20T02:36:00.000-07:00

my time here in seoul is winding down, and fast...i can't believe how fast..i have 16 days left here!! here's a few pictures from this week:

lion class (from left): danny, lucia, eric, cara, justin, lauren

lucia.

arts and crafts class--we (I) made pipe cleaner flowers that they glued to a frame..these are not my ideas, we have a book we have to follow..

justin

awww...my eric

on saturday morning jacki and i were up bright and early and on our way to itaewon (foreign part of seoul) to the international clinic. because we're traveling through various countries in southeast asia, we need to get vaccinated for certain diseases. we got vaccinated for typhoid fever, japanese encephalitis, and got some malaria prevention pills. quite an exciting morning. since we were already up and out, we wandered around itaewon which is quite different during the day than night. we relaxed over a coffee, went to the used english bookstore, (what the book?) where we each got a book to start our travels, and then found a great little place called "the flying pan," where we ate an american style brunch.

"the flying pan." we're not sure if they meant to call this place, "the frying pan," because it's common for koreans to mix up the letters "r" and "l." in the korean alphabet, "r" and "l" are the same character.

all-day brunch...brunch is something koreans don't do, and i can't wait to eat brunch or just a real breakfast when i return home..

i had "the flying pan special," which was a poached egg with sauteed mushrooms over pesto toast with spinach, a tomato and hummus...very very delicious.

on sunday, jacki and i headed back to insadong, a traditional korean street to pick up some last minute souvenirs and just take it in one last time..we, again, got some coffee, and also enjoyed a great snack of tteokbokki...i will miss this snack..

mmmmmmm.....spicy rice noodles and fish cakes...

art class

2011-03-16T05:52:00.000-07:00

it's my last month and i FINALLY get to teach art class. this week the students had to draw their teacher. since this is a pretty effortless class, and i don't do anything but chit chat with the kids, i decided i would draw them.

their hair is really the only accurate thing about this photo..

road trip!!

2011-03-16T05:47:00.000-07:00

on friday night, around 10pm, mine and jacki's friend joyoung called and asked if we wanted to get out of the city on saturday, do some sightseeing, hiking, and possibly a picnic. he had access to a car for the weekend, and wanted to do something nice for us before we leave korea. joyoung has been a great friend to us here in korea, he's our "brother." in korean culture, when you have a friend of the opposite gender, you refer to them as your big/little brother/sister, depending on your age. so at 10am saturday morning, joyoung picked us up and we were off to the northwest coast!

"i'm just a beginner!"

joyoung and jacki

"home of the whopper," joyoung pronounced it "hu-pper" (WHO-pper)

driving through jongno

me in the backseat..

top cloud

we stopped at a restroom that had a TINY bathroom stall, so tiny that we couldn't close the door..

driving through seoul, not on a bus, or in a taxi, is always fun because i haven't gotten a chance to do it often. it's just a different way to see the city, and also cool when we're driving across the city and i knew where i was, and how to get from here to there. joyoung told us he "has a license, but doesn't have much practice.." and whenever we'd shout at him to stop, or turn or whatnot, he'd say, "i'm a beginner!!" so needless to say, it was an interesting day!

after picking us up, we had to pick up joyoung's college friend, daeyoung (english name: dale), grab some road trip snacks and then we were westbound.

doesn't he look delicious?

lunch.

once we finally made it to ganghwa, we stopped for lunch to enjoy what the area is famous for: eel. it was pretty similar to a traditional korean bbq meal--you grill the meat yourself and you get a variety of sides. to feed 4 people, we got 3 orders of eel. each order comes with about 5 inches of an eel tail, skin in cluded, and they throw it on the grill while it's still moving!

eel (장어 chang-aw)

our eel is on the grill, the three tails at the far end. this came with a variety of sides, probably the most i've ever seen. there was ginger, cucumbers, carrots, hot peppers, mushrooms, radishes, sweet potatoes, dried fruits and nuts, mini shrimp, onions, a creamy apple salad, broccoli, dried eel bones, a few varieties of kimchi and greens for wrapping.

the red sauce in the circular container next to the grill is a red pepper garlic sauce---SO delicious. great for all types of meats.

my first eel wrap. these particular green leafs are very special. they come from the east side of korea and each plant only produces three per year!

mmmm....soup. koreans eat soup with just about every meal.

after our amazing lunch, we were back in the car on our way to seokmo island. to get there, we had to drive our car onto a ferry, and enjoy a ferry ride for about 10 minutes.

on our way to seokmo island (seokmodo)

sambo ferry

our road trip vehicle..small enough that when our wonderful driver forgot to slow down or tell us he was about to go over a speed bump, jacki and i would hit our heads on the roof!

when we were back on land, our mission was to drive to bomunsa temple, a buddhist temple. on our drive there we saw a lot of south korean soldiers in look out posts, as we were very near to the north korean border. it's not as though we were knocking on their door, but we could see their mountains, and were very close the the red "do not cross" line on our map.

when we got to bomunsa we were greeting by a steep inclined walk (easily a 45 degree angle hill), and then just when it plateaued, we found ourselves at the base of a stair case that took roughly 15-20 minutes to climb. the view was definitely worth it though.

entrance to bomunsa

up we go, part 1.

jacki and joyoung

up we go, part 2.

view from the top.

people praying to the giant buddha at the top.

our climb..

we made it!

back down the stairs...

it's said that 300 of buddhas disciples worshipped at this temple..

joyoung..."don't you want to take a picture of me?"

back down the hill...

ajimas selling produce and assorted other things (ah-ji-ma=old lady)

ajima selling drying dried fish.

our last stop before heading home was a mud beach. we saw it driving in and it looks really bizarre, at first it was hard to tell it wasn't water because of how the sun reflected off of it. if we had more time, and weren't in joyoung's company car, we could of had a lot of fun playing at the mud beach..

mud beach

and then we sat in traffic for four hours to get home...

don't they look happy?

2011-03-07T07:16:00.000-08:00

me and the kiddos backstage at our graduation performance..

also...

"meow, meow. i'm a cat."

"hello, i'm a duck 1!"

"hello, my name is.......................duck 2!"

tv

2011-03-06T07:32:00.000-08:00

i can't wait to watch tv in the states...if it's not ironman, transformers, or one of the bourne movies, this is what's on:

kinder graduation

2011-02-27T01:45:00.000-08:00

on saturday, we had our kindergarten graduation. it was 3 hours long. 3 hours, for a kindergarten graduation! i think that my university graduation was only half that! it was more of a performance, and then they gave all the kids certificates and such.

my students performed a korean song/dance together, and then each class separately did a short play. lion class did "the scary dino," about a lonely dinosaur in the jungle looking for friends. they all did a great job, everyone remembered their lines, and issac was a great scary dino. i think little aidan, the hippo did the best though. panda class performed "the gingerbread man," which was so great. they all did a great job, and danny, as the gingerbread man was outstanding. i have a video of "the gingerbread man" and will upload it soon.

our gym/taekwondo teacher was the MC of the graduation. he kept making the parents clap in patterns, shout things, get involved, and even had some dads come on stage and dance (they won laundry soap and tissues as prizes). he also was commentating throughout performances. i'm not sure what he was saying, but for example: during the gingerbread man, danny would shout "can't catch me!" and then the MC would say "ahhhh gingerbread man, korean korean korean korean korean.." here are some pictures...

sally. first my kids did a korean song and dance in traditional korean hanboks.

danny and cara. danny seems to be a natural performer..he loved every minute of this and asked me to take his picture 20 times.

eric and danny.

typical aidan and jeff. aidan not smiling for photos and jeff doing something annoying. jeff was too small for his seat in the auditorium during the graduation and it kept folding in on him.

lauren.

jenny, lucia and nicole. lucia's mom went real heavy on the make-up for lucia today.

eric. he's trouble, but still my favorite.

isaac. he can spell the most ridiculous english words on his own. i will just sit there feeding him words and he'll spell them back to me. things like "congratulations" and "dangerous."

koala class waiting to go on stage..

jessica and heidi. their class performed a latin dance. to see the dance, click here. these girls will move on to elementary school and only come to our school for a class after school.

josh, patrick, alvin and andrew. they're also moving on to elementary school.

jenny the toucan.

matt, the giraffe.

aidan the hippo.

jeff, the elephant.

nicole the bee, and jane the peacock. jane is so sweet, and so smart, but the stage terrifies her (or so it seemed). she wouldn't smile, and she never looked happy up there.

eric the fox and cara the cat.

lucia the duck.

ashley the horse.

this costume was just so great for ashley. i can't really explain why without you knowing her, but it just suited her in a hilarious way. all the teachers were chuckling about it.

danny the gingerbread man.

i love this photo. justin is supposed to be a grandfather, and sally a grandmother. they both did an excellent job during the performance.

gifts for mallory teacher. we've been seeing little carts and shops set up around town this month selling these fiber-optic fake flower and candy bundle things. it's something that parents or friends give to students that graduate, or the teachers. i got one with chocolate, and another with lollipops and a witch pen.

"the gingerbread man"--video coming soon.

taiwan~Day 5

2011-02-20T04:02:00.000-08:00

on our last day in taiwan, we didn't do a whole lot. we only had a little bit of time before we had to head to the airport. we tried to take the gondola up to a temple, but it was VERY busy and we didn't really figure out how the line system worked until we ran out of time, so we went next door to the zoo. it only cost $2 to get into the zoo. it was pretty much your standard zoo, except the animals didn't seem to be barricaded from the public too much. it seemed as though if the monkeys wanted to, they could get out.

we saw a monkey drink from the straw of a fountain soda cup that was floating in the water by it, and then when he was dissatisfied with that, he started to eat the cup. we saw another monkey, in another habitat, eat a rubber band...maybe they need a janitor?

we thought this was a great sign to tell one how to get from here to there..

"zoo poo poo"

apparently this bathroom is powered by poop..if you'll notice the pig is using its poop to power its hairdryer...

a coke zero before our flight..

this woman clearly wearing a shirt that she has no idea what it says/means..

"visions of swastikas in my head plans for everyone"

i had a great time in taipei, but i can't say that i'd go back. it didn't feel terribly foreign to me, and i'm not sure if that's just cuz i've been over in korea for awhile and traveled to a bunch of other major asian cities, or what, but it definitely seemed less foreign to me than korea...maybe it's the fact that people don't just push you out of the way on the sidewalk, bus and subway? or that cars and scooters don't drive on the sidewalk?..or that there was mcdonalds/starbucks everywhere? or that people just didn't seem to be as in much of a rush there as they always are here...can't really put my finger on it..

myogaksa (묘각사) templestay

2011-02-20T03:41:00.000-08:00

this saturday, jacki and i participated in a templestay program at myogaksa buddhist temple. there's programs like this all over korea, and they're popular with koreans and foreigners a like. there were 16 people in our program, 7 were foreigners, 9 were korean, and everyone spoke english. the program was done entirely in english, with a few things said in korean that were gladly translated by the other participants.

we arrived at the temple at 2:30pm on saturday. the temple is located at the base of naksan mountain and is only about a 30 minute subway right from mine and jacki's neighborhood. it's pretty neat because this temple is right amongst the city.

walking up to myogaksa temple

myogaksa temple entrance

during our stay we:

introduced ourselves, and met the others in our program
learned about buddhism and it's principles
participated in a bell ringing ceremony
participated in a ceremony in the main chanting room
learned and performed the 108 bows
ate dinner: dinner is all vegetarian, eaten in silence, and you must eat everything that's on your plate
learned about and practiced meditation
yo-yo compared buddhism to various movies (kung-fu panda, lord of the rings, avatar)
bedtime: lights out by 10:30
wake up: 4:30am to prepare ourselves for the bell ringing ceremony at 5am
practiced 45 minutes of meditation, which is incredibly challenging
learned the history of buddha, and yo-yo gave us a quiz
breakfast: all vegetarian, eaten in silence, must eat everything that's on your plate
a hike up naksan mountain, and walking meditation
closing tea ceremony where yo-yo taught us the proper etiquette and also how to make tea

this is the room where we slept and learned about buddha's life..

jacki and me in our temple clothes..

this was the room where our nun, yo-yo, taught us about buddhism, meditation and where we had our tea ceremony..meditation was by far the most challenging part of this program. you'd think sitting still in silence wouldn't be so difficult, right? not the case. you sit up straight, legs crossed, hand in hand with your thumbs creating a circle (if you break the circle the zen master will know you're sleeping, and can hit you on the shoulder with a bamboo stick). you're supposed to have your eyes open, but not all the way, and focus 1 meter in front of you on the floor. you're supposed to concentrate on your breath and nothing else..the room is completely silent.

this great painting was in the meditation room

we rang this bell at 5pm and at 5am..this bell is very powerful, and it's supposed to reach all the way down to hell and pause those down there who might be feeling pain and free them of it for a moment..

this was my mat for the 108 bows..and the making of my own 108 prayer beads..yo-yo taught us how to breath properly and go through the bowing process. it was rather exhausting..

we made prayer beads..

my dinner: rice, soup, kimchi, mushrooms, broccoli, 2 types of korean style pancakes, fried potatoes and asian pears..

our sleeping mats...no one really slept well. it's tough to go to bed early when you're not used to it..

after the morning bell ceremony we saw a beautiful sunrise..

my breakfast: rice, 2 types of kimchi, soup, mushrooms, fried tofu, orange and apple slices..

temple shoes that everyone had to wear..

ceiling detail in the room that we slept

lotus flowers on one of the temple doors..

yo-yo, during our naksan hike. she is probably the happiest person i've ever met. she was a wonderful leader, had such great stories, and really made the program great.

on top of the mountain there is a huge swing (the largest in korea). it's said that "beautiful girls" would swing on it, and then "handsome men" would look on from the forest, and come out to meet the girls and fall in love.

yo-yo and our new friend yeong tae (david), he did a lot of translated for us.

this buddha at the temple faces directly east so that the sun rises on it every morning.

yo-yo explaining the tea ceremony to us..

david, our groups tea master, made us delicious green tea. david is 25, speaks korean, english and japanese, he hopes to get a job with a japanese trading company.

david and jacki

jacki made our second round of tea..the tea is very expensive and the temple buys it from another nun who grows it outside the city. it's about $40/bag..

tea ceremony..

this is a group of friends that made a "university" (club) that promotes enjoying life, and not just devoting their life to their studies, and what everyone says they should be doing. they were all very fun, and it's nice to see some koreans, especially at the university/job-seeking age that have a different idea of success and happiness than getting the best job in a major company.

a temple member donated cakes for our stay..

my name tag, between "myogaksa templesay" and "mallory gru" is my name in the korean alphabet--the character that looks like a backwards "S" is the character for both L and R, that's why there's so many..

overall this was a great experience. do i want to live in a temple and become a buddhist nun? no. but this was a great way to learn about the religion and life of someone who devotes themselves to it. we also met a lot of different people who were all participating in this for different reasons. there were the university kids just trying to do something fun together, there were students trying to escape the stresses of graduating and trying to find a job, there was a US military soldier who had a weekend free, some girls from the netherlands here on vacation, and army therapist stationed up at the DMZ, and then jacki and me. yo-yo and her assistant yo-ma-soong-nim made our experience very enjoyable. they were both so knowledgeable and full of life, and just genuinely happy, and if there's one thing that they stressed over and over about you and your life is that only you can control your happiness and only you can control your choices and your path in life..

taiwan~Day 4

2011-02-15T16:46:00.000-08:00

we attempted the chinese handicraft market again, but it was closed, again. so instead we just wandered around until our scheduled tour of the northeast coast and chiufen village. we got picked up at our hostel in a mini van by a chinese man who looked like danny devito.

when we crossed the river on the expressway, not a beautiful river, just a dirty thing under the overpass he was sure to point that out. he also told us about how we didn't have to slow down when we went through the toll booth because of an electronic pass, and not to worry, it's included in our tour..

kate and me in our mini tour van. there were 3 other couples that joined us.

northeastern coast of taiwan

fishermen..

there were a lot of older women collecting things off the rocks..

northeastern coast of taiwan

we read a lot about the history of taiwan everyday. at one point the dutch had claimed some of the island so i was acting this out (i can't exactly pass for chinese or japanese, who also claimed taiwan at some point in history)

walking to "ice cream rock"

"ice cream rock"

this 2-color bay that we passed on our way up to chiufen village was golden in color, and when it reached out to the rest of the ocean it was back to the normal color. on the other side of the bay used to be a gold mine, and that, and other minerals got into the water staining it gold. the water fall through the hills down to the bay was also slightly gold in color. when danny devito said 2-color bay, we figured it would just be another variation of blue or green..

chiufen village: 7-11 and crowds, shocking.

we were here on a saturday afternoon, so i'm sure that made it that much more crowded..

they're making famous molasses cakes..

mystery balls for your soup..pretty sure the orange ones are sweet potato..

i chose squid. pretty delicious.

molasses cakes...just OK.

the view from up top..

kate and me in chiufen village

tea houses in chiufen village

a far away temple..

this place accepts everything..!

new years lanterns..

taiwan~Day 3: it's a long one.

2011-02-15T03:55:00.000-08:00

we had a busy day friday. after breakfast, kate and i walked to the chinese handicraft market to find that it was closed...we had planned to spend some time there, so we had to sit down and re-group. we ended up talking a nice walk, came along a part, and the chiang kai shek memorial (he was the dictator of taiwan) and museum.

this street reminded me of one i might find in california or florida..

this small park had a lot of rules..

entrance to chiang kai shek memorial--absolutely massive

there was a theater on either side of the entrance..

me@the memorial

looking back at the entrance..

korean tourists in front of chiang kai shek

chiang kai shek

there were 2 soldiers guarding this statue..i can't even imagine how boring this job is--this guy was swaying back and forth a bit..

guard #2

in the base of the memorial was a museum about chiang kai shek

he had 2 bullet proof cadillac's..

there were lots of photos of him with US presidents

i took a photo of this for a few reasons, one being, "take a rest." it's a common phrase here in korea. for example, if you ask someone about their weekend they might say "oh, it was great! i just take a rest." i don't think i've heard someone use the word "relax," other than native english speakers..

bulletproof cadillac # 2--mirrored back windows

after walking around all morning, kate and i met nathan a few MRT stops away at ximen (shimen). ximen is a big shopping/pedestrian area. again, people everywhere, mostly younger, and lots of restaurants and food vendors. and of course a few starbucks, mcdonalds and plenty of 7-11s.

here's where we ate lunch: modern toilet.

my chair.

my lunch. chicken curry, rice, soup and black tea.

kate's lunch.

nathan's tea.

one of these lovely decorations was on each tray..

we even got ice cream! served in a squatty potty..

pretty interesting theme for a restaurant, and not at all as disgusting and i imagined it being. plus, the food was great!

after lunch, kate and i walked around ximen to do some shopping, and then headed to the 228 peace park.

there were lots of stores that just contained "claw" machine games..

this guy was overseeing this store..

fresh fruit

228 peace park..in 1947, a group of protesters used the radio station located here to broadcast about police brutality against taiwanese citizens..this started a chain of events at led to a lot of people being killed and injured.

bubble tea...so delicious, and put in a plastic bag. most places that serve you some sort of drink, put it in a plastic bag if you're taking it to go.

bubble tea-- tea, milk, and balls of tapioca

taipei

our next stop on the list was the confucius temple...turns out that was closed, but just down the street was this gorgeous temple. it wasn't really that busy, and it was cool to check out a temple at night..

dalongdong temple

gifts offered to the gods..

shrine..

after the temple we stopped for a quick snack at....7-11..and then we were off to meet nathan at the shilin night market.

lonely god potato twists..

this is what we call the 7-11 mystery pot..

shilin night market is busy. busy with people, busy with food vendors, busy with carnival-style games, and busy with shopping. busy everywhere. imagine going to eat dinner at the taste of chicago every friday..that kind of busy.

shilin night market--if you've watched "bizarre foods" with andrew zimmerman, he was here. (if you haven't, i recommend you check it out. you can find episode segments on youtube.)

some stalls you buy and eat right in them, and some you buy and walk down the way to a seating area. or, you just walk and eat.

oyster omelet..this is a terrible photo...looks like it should be on a diner menu. this wasn't bad, oysters have a weird consistency, and there was a lot of oyster.

shilin night market

deep fried crab--you eat it all.

no IDEA what this is..we asked, but still couldn't quite figure it out..

next up, stinky tofu.

(30 taiwanese dollars is about $1)

it's hard to miss the stinky tofu, for one, the smell overwhelms you, it smells like a garbage truck. this is the local treat, so we had to try it. it doesn't taste like much...kind of like cardboard...not sure why people love this..we each had a bite.

we saw these at every fruit stand and i still have no idea what they are..if you do, please tell me.

this guy made our next treat.

nathan got lamb with greens and a bbq type sauce, mine was crab with onions in a bbq sauce, and kate got pork and greens in the same sauce. a very light sauce, and it was all cooked right in front of us.

taiwan beer

we also tried a crab..

and finally, shaved ice. this was DELICIOUS. fresh fruit, flavorful ice creams, so so good.

we were all curious as to what this was, because to us, it looked like vomit-covered fruit.

after our own bizarre foods tour, we walked through the rest of the market..

this was a cork gun game. if you broke the paper the money was hanging on and it fell, the money was yours.

kate, me, and nathan

shilin night market

egg cakes in any shape you like...car, motorcycle, gun

cocks combs, anyone?

WOW frog eggs was some sort of drink. we didn't try it..

we also played a bow and arrow game..these were pretty serious bows and arrows, yet we were only standing 3 feet from the target.

shilin night market

she was tired.

mmmmmmm...chicken feet and goose tongues!

taiwan~Day 2

2011-02-12T18:31:00.000-08:00

on thursday we woke up to a lot of sunshine, and 65 degree weather..our first stop today was the national palace museum. the place was huge, and filled with a large variety of chinese artifacts. the museum also had a beautiful garden on the grounds...

outside the national palace museum

taiwan's flag

garden entrance

in front of the national palace museum

after the museum, we grabbed some street food for lunch..

meat dumpling..

veggie dumpling

next stop: longshan temple.

as you can see, this place was PACKED!

me@longshan

outside the temple there was a small market street, packed with vendors and people alike..

stinky tofu--the local snack...you can smell this from a block away, it's very pungent, and kind of smells like a dumpster..

ear candling. this is supposed to remove excess earwax and toxins from your ear, and overall better your health..

monks sitting in the crowd looking for donations..

fresh squeezed juice

another monk

pigs blood on a stick. the vendor saw us looking on and tried to force feed nathan some of his product while the rest of us laughed..the vendor was not successful..

the taipei 101

this guy was entertaining people on the street..

double decker dog stroller with 2 brown long-haired dachshunds inside. all the dogs i saw in taipei were either stray, wearing clothes, being held and carried around (even dogs as big as ruby) or pushed in strollers..but they were all calm and well behaved

this guy was doing some children's street entertainment and wearing a very classy shirt that read, "to drunk to f***"

i found this sign amusing

the taipei 101

scooter traffic

Taiwan~Day 1

2011-02-12T04:42:00.000-08:00

kate and i got to taipei with no problems. a nice smooth flight, decent airplane food, and found the bus that would take us to our hostel very easily. also, we found our hostel fairly quickly. our hostel was located near taipei main station which is a huge transportation hub for buses and trains.

we stayed at the hostel for four nights and each paid less than $70 for our entire stay. it was clean, had a nicer comforter on the bed than i have, better water pressure and warmer water!

our hostel room

our first meal was at the food court on the second floor of taipei main station. food courts our very popular here, and this was actually the first place that our hostel recommended to us. it was pretty delicious too. i had some sort of beef noodles with edamame, soup and tea.

after re-fueling we ventured to the MRT (subway system) to start our sightseeing. when you buy a single ride, you get a plastic coin, on your way in you swipe it, and on your way out, you put it back in the machine.

taipei has a great subway system. out of all the cities i've been to here, seoul, hands-down has the best, but taipei's is still pretty great. it's clean, efficient, and they have painted lines on the floor where people are supposed to wait in line to prevent rushing and pushing, and people ACTUALLY wait in the lines. we saw one man who didn't, and just got on the train, and he got an earful from some angry line-waiters. it only cost about 60¢ for one ride on the subway. why can't chicago work out a system like all these asian cities??? they also have this:

this area, also designated by painted lines, is just as it says. it has security cameras all around it, and a panic button nearby. i asked someone about this, curious if crimes against females on the subway at night were common, they said no, it's just a prevention thing.

our first stop was a temple. i forgot to write the name down, so i will update this as soon as i find it. the temple was small, but crowded with people paying respects and burning incense for their deceased family members for the chinese new year.

he was guarding the pond

the decorative rooftops were really quite elaborate and beautiful. i also always like seeing the very traditional and older architecture amongst the city buildings.

upstairs shrine

orchids--this is for you dad..

this guy was the temple welcoming party...

after our visit to the temple, we were trying to find on of the gates of the city. taipei used to be surrounded by a wall, and the gates still remain. this ended up being quite a hunt because none of our maps seemed to match up. a woman approached us on the street, asked us what we were looking for and finally sent us in the right direction...after all that walking, we came upon this:

north gate. very underwhelming. there was a homeless guy sitting underneath picking his nose..

one of the good things about our failure, was that it gave us our bearings of this part of the city. although we took the subway here, we found out how near we really were to our hostel. it's also nice to just wander around..

in ximen

billboards in ximen

all of the traffic lights had countdowns until the green..

mopeds everywhere...not uncommon to see a family plus their dog on a moped!

while trying to find the north gate, we stumbled across another temple..

sponge bob is very popular in taipei..

so is milk tea...and it's delicious.

the taipei 101 from a distance..

we didn't get a chance to go here, but this exists..

dihua market. this place was very busy with people buying new years gifts..

another temple..

looking out from the temple..

this guy sells sausages off the back of his bike. we saw him riding around and finally caught up with him..

shark fins and jaws. shark fin soup is an expensive dish here..

extra large shark fin

chinese herbs

this guy was putting up a new years sign while his dog looked on..all the dogs we saw wore clothes

i love sidewalk details..and i take pictures of my feet everywhere i go..

taipei main station

after we walked through the market it was about 5pm, and the city shut down for the new years holiday. NOTHING was open..so this was our new years dinner:

mcdonalds, 7-11 and starbucks are EVERYWHERE. you can be in a 7-11, and see another 7-11 from the window.

me and ronald, just hanging out..

taiwan long chuan beer, bought from 7-11

7-11 has their own beer! "the beer"

after our disappointment with the north gate, and then coming to find that everything was closed for the evening, we were exhausted, and decided to try some local beers and hang out at our hostel, where it seemed that a family was also living. my other co-worker nathan booked a ticket to taipei at the last minute (he lived there for a few months), and he and his friend met us there.

kids jumping out of windows

2011-02-07T06:08:00.000-08:00

many of you know that i had quite an eventful week leading up to my lunar new year holiday, but for those of you who didn't, i'll catch you up briefly...

during the last week of january a meeting was held at my school to tell us that our school was closing (this was on a tuesday). the owner basically told us he had no money, and friday, january 28th would be our last day. the american teachers were told that we were not getting our flight money home, or our bonus, we were going to get our january pay late, maybe get our housing deposit back, and that we had to move out of our apartments by february 15th. that's a lot to take in when you're not expecting it, and when it's coming to you in a foreign language and then being poorly translated.

we still had to teach wednesday/thursday/friday, so we spent most of the time playing with the kids and just having fun. i wasn't really ready to say goodbye to my kids. the school didn't even send a note home to the parents until thursday night saying that friday would be the last day---the school received A LOT of angry phone calls, rightfully so..

we were in and out of meetings for the remaining 3 days, and then were finally told on friday after 6pm, that if we would all agree to stay, some guy with a lot of money would buy our school. everyone agreed, the korean teachers called the parents, and we were back to business as usual monday morning (minus a few students that had extra angry parents, or students that were older and going to elementary in a few weeks anyways...i lost 3 kinder students). nothing has really changed yet, as we're still in a transition, but i'm expecting some good changes.

also, that same tuesday that our initial meeting was held, one of our kinder students jumped OUT OF the second story window of our school. apparently he had wet his pants, and without telling anyone went in a back classroom to change. he got locked in, was scared, so he opened the window and jumped into a pile of snow on the sidewalk. no one knew he was in there, no one knows if he tried knocking or getting anyone's attention before he resorted to the window. of course he's the cute, quiet kid you'd never know was missing (this was during his korean kindergarten time at the end of the day). he was OK, just scared, and a little bruised up. luckily my co-workers kate and dan happened to be walking down the sidewalk at the time he jumped, so they found him immediately, notified the school and called an ambulance. the poor kid told our receptionist that he "thought he could fly.."

so after all that excitement, i was looking forward to my trip to taiwan that i booked in january...on wednesday (feb 2), my co-worker kate, and i flew to taipei, taiwan. taipei was never really on my radar when i was researching travel, but it happened to be the cheapest air ticket out of seoul this week, so we booked them...we ended up having a pretty great time. can't really complain about 65 degrees and sunny in february...

pictures soon..

watch this.

2011-01-21T18:17:00.000-08:00

from pbs on january 21, 2011...very accurate.

Click here to watch video.

jenna.

2011-01-21T17:41:00.000-08:00

from nicole..

2011-01-20T05:16:00.000-08:00

nicole, who is one of my favorites, has started writing/drawing me notes everyday.

on wednesday i received this note before lunch:

after lunch, nicole asks me, "mallory teacher? mallory teacher? note, i give it to you. it's pretty. mallory teacher is pretty." (notice the princess she drew is headless, but the heart background has eyes, a smile and earrings..)

on thursday before lunch i received this:

after lunch nicole asked me again: "mallory teacher? note, i give it to you. aurora, and looks like mallory teacher, pretty."

jenna's pencil.

2011-01-20T05:10:00.001-08:00

this was written on my new student jenna's mechanical pencil:

"Friend is...

we gathered acorns,

took a walk,

and ran a race.

What's your favorite word?

Friend is..

nice love."

kimchi will save you.

2011-01-20T05:08:00.000-08:00

this was in one of the books that i teach my oldest group of kids...eat your kimchi!

david's secret garden: part 2

2011-01-18T03:41:00.000-08:00

david was back at it again today with another outfit from the korean drama, secret garden. once again, the girls in panda class with swooning over david, who frankly is letting it all go to his head and is becoming annoying.

david

i was a bit curious about the show, so i've been asking some of my co-workers and older students about it. it's a korean drama, that is comedic, involves a love story and has a happy ending (the season is over). the main male actor is a big heart throb. my 9 year olds were shocked that i hadn't seen it.

secret garden, korean drama

david

2011-01-17T17:00:00.000-08:00

david wore this yesterday...

i'm told it's an outfit from a popular korean drama, "secret garden."

david

i'm not exaggerating when i say, the ladies were all over this. we had a lot of bickering and jealousy about who got to sit by and be partners with david today..

sledding and the circus: just another day in seoul.

2011-01-16T02:52:00.000-08:00

on friday we took our kinder sledding. around 10am we all piled into our buses and headed on our way. turns out we went to the same place that is a swimming pool in the summer. they had 2 sledding hills set up. one large and one small. each of our kids got a small tube, and were basically corralled up the small hill where they'd sit on their tubes until they moved to the front of the line where someone would push them over the edge and down the hill. a few of the kids were scared, but most had a great time, and were running back up the hill as soon as they got to the bottom. but most were just happy to be outside and playing in the snow.

koala class

back row: vivian, isaac, me, tim, danny, nicole, katherine teacher, matt, eric, ashley, and jenny

front row: anna, jane, lauren, amy teacher, cara, jeff, aidan and david

the hill directly behind us that looks busy is the one we were sledding down. the park was also blasting k-pop music, and some of the other teachers there from other schools where wearing heels.

lauren

eric--he wouldn't open his eyes for photos

jeff--he had his evil little smirk on his face as soon as his hands touched a tube

nicole--she told me that even though we're on a field trip she was only going to speak english. also that she was going to have her mom buy me hello kitty mittens just like hers because they have big ones at the store..

jenny

david

aidan

danny had a GREAT time at the sled park. he was up and down that hill more times than anyone..

anna

after an hour of sledding we went to the cafeteria for lunch. now usually, one of the best parts of field trips is that the kids bring homemade lunches and are eager to share, but this time we were eating food at the park. it was cafeteria style, spooned out of big vats, but it wasn't bad.

lunch..seaweed soup, jajang rice, radishes, sausage and onions, and kimchi

after lunch and a bathroom break we headed back to the adjoining room of the cafeteria to see "the circus." ended up being a low rent chinese acrobat show, no animals. it wasn't bad, and the crew was very physically talented, but you could tell some of their props were fixed. either way, the kids enjoyed it. we got up to catch our buses just as an asian guy with a blonde mullet in black and purple flame patterned spandex was juggling...i'm thinking we missed out on that big time. the pictures are from my co-workers iphone, so they're not the greatest..

these girls were spinning plates on wire poles...

we also got clara's golden shell backpack in this photo..

this was an impressive balancing act..

speeches

2011-01-13T06:49:00.000-08:00

in february we have our kinder graduation ceremony. my kids are moving up to the next level of english kinder, but technically not graduating. since the school didn't want anyone to feel left out (aka anger any parents) my kids get to memorize a bunch of stuff they don't need to. they each have to give a one minute speech about themselves. i practice these with them a few times a week, and they also practice at home to a tape of my recorded voice reading the speech. here are some videos from our practice today (i apologize that they're not upright--i don't know how to do that..)

Justin-he wants to be the "greatest scientist in the world!"
keep in mind, these kids are only 5 years old, and this is their second language..

Eric- his "dad is tall and fat."

i felt like i should edit that out, but it's just so cute when he says it. eric has some pronunciation problems, and mashes some sentences together, but he's already exceeded my expectations on this assignment.

most of the kids froze up a bit when i had the camera, which is unfortunate, but i figure it's good practice for when they're on stage.

fun time..

2011-01-13T02:18:00.000-08:00

a student gave this cookie snack to me last week...it was ok..

specially for you for the lunar new year holiday....a spam gift set..

i get memos like this at work: part 2.

2011-01-13T02:08:00.000-08:00

tomorrow we're going sledding with our kinder kids. this is the memo i received about our day..

apparently there's a circus at the sledge park?

north korean beers

2011-01-12T05:19:00.000-08:00

on saturday night a group of us went out to the university area called hongdae. we came across this closet-sized basement reggae bar, so we decided to stop in for a beer. and on their menu is taedonggang, a beer brewed by north korea. while we don't want to support the north..seemed like an opportunity not to pass up. i didn't know they were allowed to have beer up there.

taedonggang beer

[named after a river that runs through pyongyang]

when i got home i googled it because i was curious as to why it's being imported into a country it's constantly bothering in one way or another. according to wikipedia, it's no longer being imported now because the price went up 70% with no notice. i also found a commercial for the beer. if you want to waste two and a half minutes of your life feel free to watch it. it might be the worst commercial i've seen...worse than all those peter francis geracy commercials that seem to air on every commercial break at home.

Taedonggang Beer Commercial

i'm also very surprised that their fearless leaders picture isn't on it. did you know that when he was born a new star appeared in the sky and there were double rainbows atop the mountains?

jenna and michael.

2011-01-05T07:03:00.000-08:00

this week i got 2 new classes. one class speaks ZERO english, the other is very very basic (how are you? i'm fine, thank you....my name is mark...etc.). in the class that speaks no english, there is one boy and one girl. i'm sharing the class with dan, so we decided that i got to give the girl an english name and he got to name the boy. so because of her enthusiastic love for small asian children and because i love her, i chose jenna for the girls name. dan chose michael for the boy (after some character in the tv show, the wire).

on their first day with me, i walked in, introduced myself, and was just trying to be funny at get them comfortable with me, and they just stared, bug-eyed at me...it was then, that i realized, these kids speak no english and had NO idea what the heck i was saying to them. (of course no one at school mentioned that this was the case) luckily...with the very very very basic korean skills i posses, i was able to tell them my name (i wrote it in korean) and name them. then we worked on "what's your name?" "my name is..." because my school couldn't find another korean teacher before this months classes started, there is no korean english teacher for this class, only dan and myself.

my second new class has three 10/11 year old boys, at a very basic level, that just stared at me for 40 minutes, and didn't really have a whole lot to say to me. this is always fun.

today, with jenna and michael, we had such a great time. they both speak to me in korean a lot, and i feel like they're asking good questions and looking for answers, and all i can say is "i don't know." (which i'm not certain they understand) but they're very enthusiastic, and we played some fun games that had them moving around and laughing.

and today, the three boys spoke to me! i may have bribed them with candy, but who cares, it got them talking.

it's days like this where i absolutely love what i do.

NYE: HK 2010

2011-01-04T06:55:00.000-08:00

hong kong hostel, 47 paterson street, causeway bay, hong kong

group shot from the hostel: USA, United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Netherlands, Germany and Hungary

hong kong~day 4

2011-01-04T05:50:00.000-08:00

on sunday we didn't have time to do anything but grab a quick bite to eat before we started our trek home.

sunday morning breakfast: spicy beef balls

after that we hopped a bus to the airport, checked in, took a tram to our terminal, got on a delayed flight to shanghi. in shanghi we again went through security, waited an hour before boarding our flight to seoul. when we got to seoul we had to ride another train to the main airport terminal, went through immigration and customs, and then bought a bus ticket home. home sweet home. it's cold here, but it's good to be back. i really can't say enough great things about hong kong. i had a fabulous time there, and would go back in a heartbeat. anyone interested?

we met this guy on our flight to seoul. we all thought it was funny that the in-flight beer that china eastern offers is bud ice...maybe one of the more terrible beers out there.

hong kong~day 3

2011-01-04T05:40:00.000-08:00

our mission for new years day was to find and eat dim sum. dim sum is cantonese for a typical type of chinese meal that involves eating a lot of small steamed dishes that are usually served in steamer baskets, and is accompanied by tea. we found a famous place in our trusty lonely planet book..it was just a matter of finding it...

before dim sum we stopped at a local market...i have no idea what these are

luk yu tea house

when you walk in they say "sit anywhere." you'll notice it's busy. the management here worries nothing about the seating, and what potential customers do is go stand and wait out a table. you literally sit there, and watch a table eat, and when they decide they're done, you grab their table. so we separated to scouted tables, before settling on one that looked promising and then we all stood around and took in what was going on around us. a couple was getting up, so we grabbed their seats, sat down, and really had no idea what to do. luckily we say in between a couple from hong kong and a couple from vancouver, both spoke chinese and english. they filled us in and also helped us order. most of the food was being pushed around on carts by little old ladies and you'd just flag them down and they'd stop, give you your dish and stamp your receipt, but some food you could order.

chicken neck

beef balls

this is us being told that we were eating not just chicken, but chicken neck..

some sort of sweet and spicy pork..

fish balls..not my favorite, but not terrible

shrimp and pork fried rice

this was some sort of dumpling filled with a peanut butter like substance and something that looked like boiled pumpkin...can't be sure that it was pumpkin, though it was orange..

luk yu tea house, which had a bakery in the front on the first floor..

i had to buy a moon cake because i enjoyed them so much when i was in beijing..this one is a red date moon cake

after our dim sum experience, we walked a bit through the neighborhood markets..

there are cable cars running through a lot of the city~we finally rode one on saturday night, it's only $2 hkd to ride it!

after the market we hopped on the subway (after being slightly lost in a mall that connected to the subway), and took it under the water to the other side, kowloon. we got slightly lost here, again, in another mall connected to the subway, and finally ended up out by a large group of apartment buildings and restaurants.

after having no idea how to get where we wanted to go, we stopped for a beer..

dan ordered one of these~there's liquid nitrogen in it, and the top freezes over..

dan was quite comfortable with his coldest martini in the world, so nathan and i went to explore more markets and the popular shopping area "nathan road"

nathan road

this area was completely packed--exactly how i imagined hong kong would be

saturday night's dinner: pork balls with thick egg noodles, and coffee

part of the menu.."combination of balls" is what nathan ordered

saturday night we went to the top of the famous peak. we took a double decker bus up the winding and hilly roads, and the view was incredible. a little terrifying when you're on a huge bus, and to one side of you is a cliff, and you bus driver has to slam on the breaks because he almost hit an oncoming bus, BUT we made it safely! up top, we went on the roof of a shopping center (it's free, you have to pay to get to the top of the actual tower, but can enjoy the same view from the shopping center roof) it was windy and cold, but this is hands down the best city view i've seen from above. my picture doesn't do it justice at all.

me@the peak

on the way down we took the peak tram. we had to wait in a very very very long line, but we just had to do it. the tram went down at a pretty fast pace and a very very steep angle. if you weren't paying attention, you could easily go tumbling down through the tram. this sign was on the tram.

at the bottom

this made me laugh..

afterwards..we enjoyed delicious bubble teas..