Amy

Amy is the top speller in the class, but also a student that I am constantly having to talk to about her behavior. I received a note from her mother on teacher’s day that translated as “here is a gift, love my daughter.”

Aaron

Aaron has an older brother Alex, who I also taught the first six months at SLP. He is always full of energy and for some reason really has a hang up on the second “a” in his name. His partner in crime is Alex (not his brother, but the other Alex in class) and they always are trying to talk across the room.

Daniel

Daniel has only been with us for a few months. He, however, is one of the brightest in the class an has an abnormal obsession with dinosaurs. This came to a head when we visited a dinosaur exhibit for our last field trip. He was talking about it for weeks. “Teacher… dinosaurs! Field trip! Dinosaurs!”

Esther

Esther is the quietest in the class and seems to have quiet little tiffs with the other girls in the class. Somehow these always seem to be resolved by the end of class and she gets along with everyone well. She is great to have in class because I almost never have to tell her to do anything. She does it by herself.

Chloe

Chloe came at the same time Daniel did, so she has only been with us for a short time. She is super cute and quite smart. I am not sure that she really fits in with the other kids, but she always seems to have a great time.

Ethan

Ethan loves the Lotte Giants, our local professional baseball team. He often wears his Giants jersey and his ball cap. He is pretty quiet in class and fairly immature compared to the rest of the class, but is still really cute and I love having him in class. He rarely smiles, but has an expressive grin that makes everyone love him.

Alex

Alex is Aaron’s partner in crime as previously mentioned and is usually found talking at all times of the day (and probably night, too). He is constantly worried about everyone else in the class and has taken on the important mission of informing me of everything that is going on in the class with other people…even if it just happened right in front of my eyes.

Eva

Eva is an interesting character. Her world does not seem to coincide with our own. I often spot her staring at the ceiling or wall and she sometimes tells some outrageously confusing stories. I have seen her get hurt in more ways than I could possibly invent in my own head, too. See has dropped straight out of her chair while sitting, fallen over while standing still, hit her head on the wall while lining up, smashed her finger between tables when she was writing, and the list goes on. Like I said, she’s quite a character.

Joseph

Joseph I might liken to Napoleon. He is a semi-outcast from the group, but when in charge (as line helper) he is a ruthless leader. He could care less about anything when he is not in control, but if it is his job, he will physically move people to line up straight and get quite defensive about people not following orders. His clothing choices, as seen below, are probably more hilarious than his personality. I have never seen shorter shorts or more low cut tank-tops than those worn by Joseph. I am pretty sure many of them are actually meant for girls.

Thomas

Thomas is a very funny student and can always be counted on to make a funny face or to laugh at anything slightly abnormal that I do. He also makes up some pretty interesting stories. He was obsessed with South Korea’s soccer (or football for you non-Americans) team and enjoys yelling out miscellaneous player’s names. The boys have become quite fond of calling out what team they are to represent what order they have finished their assignment in (Spain 1st, Netherlands 2nd, etc.). I was told Thomas is a little upset that I am leaving as he would not give me a smile for my pictures seen below : (

Branden

Branden is very reserved and pretty quiet in class…until we do spelling. Then, he becomes Mr. Competitive. At home, he quite literally only plays video/computer games. I feel very bad for him because his creativity is non-existent. I just wish his parents would have him do something other than sit and watch a screen.

Max

Max is the equivalent of Sideshow Bob. He can be counted on to follow whatever the other boys are doing and to try and make it slightly crazier. He’s a lot of fun to have in class. He’s not much in the academic category, but I think he could have a career with modeling because he’s pretty photogenic.

Kevin

Kevin is the most advanced boy in the class and also the newest. He is a big baseball fan and I can talk a little more with him than the other boys (at least in a sensible way). He just returned from a trip to the Philippines and brought me a big package of mangoes. Sweet!

Sunny

Sunny (yes, her name is sunny) is always asking me if her answers are right. She has not quite caught on that school is about her learning things and that it is not me doing her papers for her. That being said, she is also one of the brightest girls in the class. So, the answers she is asking me about are usually correct.

Lucy

Lucy is a semi-perfectionist. She is almost always the last one finished on assignments, but only because she is erasing every third letter to make sure it was constructed in the proper manner. She’s pretty quiet in class and mostly a watcher.

Grace

Grace is probably the most academic student in the class. She is very smart and never does anything wrong. Grace does have an uncanny obsession with reaching out spontaneously to grab and rub my arm. I will be sitting in a chair and she will come up behind me to rub her arm on mine, then run off. The kids are most definitely deprived of parent contact as they spend most time at school and finishing homework – yes, they are 6.

Our arrival in Shanghai reminded me of a story in one of my favorite books. When a farmer needs to introduce  new hens to the mix, he waits until all the veteran hens are asleep, and then slips them in. In the morning, none of the veteran hens even realize that there are new arrivals. It’s like they were always there. The new hens quickly adapt to their surrounds and soon, they forget they are the rookies. I felt similar to that, sneaking up on Shanghai in the night on a “sleeper” bus. We slipped into the actual city limits before the sun came up and by the time we unloaded from the bus, the city had a familiar feeling. Maybe it’s my deep-seated roots in Chicago that makes me feel at home among the hustle and bustle of a city, or maybe I was so tired I was delirious.

When one arrives in the 8th largest, fastest-growing modern city in the world, one may have certain expectations and concerns that the city won’t live up to its hype. As soon as we exited the bus, we were met by towering skyscrapers, crowds of busy people, and an overwhelming feeling that we were, in fact, surrounded by about 20 million people (give or take a few).  So, we immediately concluded that Shanghai wasn’t one of those cities that you knew were big, but felt small. We felt like two specks of dust floating along, and the only thing that made me feel visible was the fact that the backpack I was carrying probably was the size of most of the Chinese women passing me on the street.

We had arranged to Couchsurf with a Taiwanese women named Rebecca, but we weren’t meeting her until 10pm that evening. With time to kill, we did the most touristy thing we have ever done right out of the gate in a new country…..a double-decker bus tour. I can’t explain it, we were drawn to the bus like flies to honey. Or in our case, like two backpackers with no idea of the city layout and hours to kill before we would be able to separate ourselves from our large backpacks. For the next two hours, we toured all the famous sites from our lofty perch, and we learned quite a bit of the city’s history thanks to the audio guide. The most amusing part of our ride is that when our bus was idled, I suddenly became a tourist attraction. I would look down from my second-story seat to find a group of Chinese people  taking my picture. Since Shanghai is known to be very international, this perplexed me.  Maybe they were playing a game like “spot the foreigner” or ” spot the badly dressed foreigner” but I hope those pictures don’t get out on the internet. To be honest, although I was flattered by the attention, they could not have picked a worse day for an impromptu photo shoot. I was looking like a hot mess thanks to Shanghai’s 100% humidity and the fact that I tend to not remember that while traveling, photographic evidence will be made of all my fashion and hygienic failures.

When our brains couldn’t hold any more fun facts about Shanghai, we got off the bus. That’s when we realized that we needed a place to change before our anniversary surprise that night. At that point, we were both pretty ripe and in no shape for any type of dinner date.  We needed a place to change and ditch our bags ASAP. So, we did the only thing that we could think of. We went to the nearest hostel and booked a bed for the night. Shanghai may be modern, but China is still dirt cheap in some areas. A bed in an 8-bed male dorm was $11 bucks. We could also leave my bag at the front and have access to the bathroom to freshen up. I’m not going to lie, I was pretty proud of myself for the plan. The poor receptionist did get confused when we explained that we would be back to check out later that night after spending a total of 40 min. in the hostel. But that’s ok, it added to our foreigner mystique.

That night I had a very special night planned for our 3 year anniversary. I had secretly been planning this “outing” for the last two weeks and was crossing my fingers that the evening would go as planned. Jason is frustrating to the point of insanity when it comes to surprises because he is so relaxed about them. He can be so relaxed he could pass for bored.  He doesn’t try to guess, or ask questions… he just accepts and waits. So, while I’m bouncing off the walls, dying to tell him, he just enjoys the added torture his supreme control  brings me. As much as I prepared, I could not have foreseen the Chinese directions I printed from the internet being incorrect. We did manage to recover from that small slip up and we made it. To where?  To an authentic Chinese cooking class.

The Chinese style of brunch called “Dim Sum” (touch the heart) is served all over China. It usually consists of small steamer baskets selected by the customer from a rolling cart. Each basket contains small servings of many different varieties of meat, veggies, rice and dumplings. We arrived at the cooking school located in an abandoned warehouse in an artistic part of town. We hesitantly climbed the crumbling concert steps while Jason quizzed me on my background checking skills for Chinese businesses I randomly “found” on the internet. We were very relieved when we saw an elderly Chinese women wearing an apron on the third floor. We didn’t waste any time getting to work. The 70+ year old petite  Chinese woman started ordering us (in Chinese) to do this, that and the other right away. Her soft spoken granddaughter (she was 22) gently translated her wishes and suddenly, our flour and water started to take shape. We were making a type of dumpling that was known to be the hardest type of dim sum to make. We rolled, kneaded, and man-handled our dough until it was approved. Then we started the pin rolling, which everyone struggled with. The rolling pin we used bulged in the middle like a plump man’s belly. We had to hold it right, apply the right pressure and keep smiling. It was a very intense technique, but not impossible. I caught on a little faster than Jason and the instructor did not keep that fact hidden. She praised me openly and made Jason keep doing his little dumplings over and over. Being good spirited, Jason rolled on with the lesson and kept a great attitude. After about 11 pain-staking wrappings each, we all started to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  We spoke too soon. No sooner than our pins were put down were our perfect dumplings smashed together by the authoritative geriatric instructor. “Again” is all that was translated. The granddaughter sheepishly smiled at our shocked reactions and said in a cheery tone “practice makes perfect!”

Another 12 dumpling wrappers later, we were ready to stuff them with rice, mushrooms, and some other things I couldn’t identify. They had to all resemble a flower, blooming with soy saucy goodness. I managed to get about two of mine to look similar to the example. I’m afraid Jason’s were openly laughed at. Some anniversary gift this was for him! But in all seriousness, he was having a great time.  Not much later, our dumplings were steamed and we were snacking on our creations. Dipped in some red chili sauce, the combination of hard work, soy sauce and rice danced on our taste buds. Not too shabby. I do love to cook and we took many skills away from our two hour Chinese cooking class. Mostly, if you want round dumplings, don’t ask Jason to roll them:)

A short subway ride later, we finally connected with Rebecca. She lived in a quiet neighborhood on the north side of the river that divides Shanghai, called the Huangpu River. We were so exhausted that the small talk didn’t last very long. She was so friendly and considerate we immediately felt at home. She had an extra room in her apartment set up with a futon and computer which would serve as our bedroom for the next two nights. In addition to offering to make us breakfast, she also gave us tons of tips about the World Expo. So many of her extended family members had visited her to experience the Expo, she had been there a total of 9 times!  After a crash course in the Expo’s layout, we began to really feel the excitement for our own World Expo 2010 adventure which would begin the next morning.

To be continued…….

Ash

Little did we know that there wasn’t just a cute note inside. There were challenges. Some were harder than others, some were embarrassing, and some were for our challenger’s sheer entertainment. We sadly have not blogged about each one like we should have but I do not want our challenger to think we did not appreciate every thought and ounce of energy that went into creating such a fun challenges for us. So, we thank you Deb Stubbeman, for the most creative and loving treasures that we have had the pleasure of opening throughout our trip. Here you go Deb, our hilarious attempts at your challenges!  We love you and your challenges so much.

(In no particular order)
1)Scream “My aunt rocks” in a crowded airport. This was the first challenge and since I (Ashley) have no problem embarrassing myself, I took this hit for the team. We were in Lima, Peru. I was relieved that afterward, I was not arrested for being crazy. Just so you know Deb, I was not shy about it. The insane laughter that escaped me following my screaming probably kept the security guards at bay. Mission accomplished.

2) Find a red car and put a picture on your blog. We decided to have a little fun with this one. We saw plenty of red cars and we thought that was boring. So, we waiting until we found a red Lamborghini. That’s right, a Lamborghini. We were in Cuzco, Peru and it just appeared. A man was behind it, pushing it through the street. Ok, we are talking about the famous Peruvian ice cream….LAMBORGINI! Mission accomplished.

3)Find some kind of turkey and take a pic-
We were lucky enough by November 2009 in Korea to be friends with the most wonderful people. We were invited to spend Thanksgiving at our friends house along with 15 of our “Socrates Cafe” friends. It was a pot luck dinner full of fun, stories and a little football. Yes, there was a turkey but we didn’t eat any! Mission accomplished.

Little apartment, many friends

4) New Year, take a picture and send it to our parents. New Year was spent in Japan with our challenger so this challenge was witnessed by our challenger. We found the glasses in a shop pre-new years countdown but I love them!

5) Take a picture of a Korean  lunch-I’ll let this one speak for itself. This is the lunch that our kids get served hot every day. Sometimes it even has little dead fish on the side. All the kids eat it without complaining. It it was America, this lunch would not fly. No wonder Koreans are so skinny!

6) Have a candlelight dinner for Valentines Day-We weren’t in a fancy place for dinner on V-day but we were hiking in Jirisan National Park. We didn’t have a scented candle, but we did have our little camp stove. It’s the closest thing to candle light I can think of. It was a romantic dinner of ramen noodles with tuna. For dessert we shared hot chocolate. Then we froze our butts off in negative 4 degree weather through the night. It was fantastic. Mission accomplished.

Candle light dinner

7) Take a picture of some Korean writing- This was easy. Our lives now revolve around seeing Korean signs we can read  but have  no  idea what they say. Where’s the bathroom? It’s over there…or is it?  Mission accomplished.

The pictures are even better!

Soon I recovered from my momentary paralysis and took our first steps into the airport.  Those steps  would later get to be a nonchalant experience as we moved from country to country, but for that moment my feet seemed too heavy with my thoughts to move fast. Jason was still semi-unconscious from the early hour but the look on his face was reassuring. We were all nervous smiles and giggles. I remember the phrase “we’re really leaving” being repeated throughout the morning. I remember feeling caught between so many emotions but the dominant one overcame the meek. I was excited.What would happen on this year 1/2 long journey?

Fast forward one year. To put it lightly, a lot has happened. I am now sitting on my torn, yellowish, imitation leather couch in Busan, South Korea. I have a 40 hour a week job teaching 5 year old’s their ABC’s and not to dong-shim each other (butt sword). For the first time in my life I am living in a  true, hustling bustling city and I can see the ocean in 15 min. on my blue Delfino scooter.  I can’t speak much Korean but I have my students convinced I can so they don’t talk crap about me. A well-placed Korean “really?” into any of their conversations does wonders for my reputation. Each day my conversations with Jason revolve around “the next big adventure” which is referring to our 2nd leg of our trip that starts in November. I get excited when I get packages from home with protein bars in them. I can’t buy any shoes in Korea and most of their pants. Needless to say I have saved a lot of money out of sheer embarrassment of the shop keepers repeatedly telling me I am too big. I will probably cry if I can find a pair of pants to fit my amazon legs. I feel a true sense of community in Busan. I love my friends here and they have become my second family. I feel involved, active, social…..but what does this all mean???

I had all those things back home in Chicago. Well, not the 5 year old Korean children but outside of that, I was set. Why did we leave what most people would call “the perfect life?”

To tell you the truth there has been moments in the past year when I have questioned our quest. Usually those moments have happened because of a negative experience and I immediately sought comfort in the thoughts and memories of home. Home to me right now is comforting. Home is easy because I know where I am, where I can go, who I could see….it’s so comfortable. Soft around the edges with vegetarian food on top.

That’s why we left. We didn’t want to fall into the trap of comfort in everyday life. I thrive on variety and so does Jason. Although we both can be creatures of habit, we both agreed that we wanted to push ourselves on a marathon of a trip. We wanted to combine our passion for helping others with our other passion to travel. I do feel we pushed it to the extreme by being gone so long but with my best friend at my side, the world was ours for the taking.

I am not going to sugar-coat it at all. Many points of this trip have been extremely difficult. Tempers have flared (as well as my nostrils), time-outs have been taken, given, stomachs have shrunk, emptied and the sacred phrase “I wish” has been muttered about numerous things from food to turning signals. I have struggled. I have daydreamed about home, friends, family and little white dogs.

Why? Why travel for so long, be uncomfortable, hungry, missing home, missing a bed, my cute dogs and whatever other creature comforts that keep us happy in a normal everyday life?

I can’t pinpoint one moment when it was all worth it. There are so many. The amazing moments, sights, scenes, experiences, and people far outweigh the negative moments that we will someday laugh about. I do truly believe that because we focused our trip around helping others it in turn helped us. It was much easier to make the sacrifices necessary to live through the challenging situations that come while backpacking through an unfamiliar place when there was a drive and purpose behind it. Not having everything I want at my finger tips has made me forever grateful for the ease at which we can get whatever we want in an hour or less back in the good USA.

This year has been life-changing. There is no way it couldn’t have been. The lessons I have learned in the most unexpected places has brought true happiness to my heart the way buying material things never could and never will. Jason and I have grown closer than I think we have yet to realize. We have always been close but this trip has broken down any last barrier that have ever existed between us. I still can’t believe that he’s not sick of me but I do think it’s because we have learned to laugh about the disastrous moments that we haven’t ditched each other yet.  The shared moments and struggles have strengthened our relationship and focused our direction for our future careers. I have always said if you can travel with a person you are meant to be…well I guess we nailed that one.

Most of all, the best part of this trip hasn’t been getting to see the sights or do really adventurous cool things. It’s been about the people. Jason and I have been so fortunate throughout this trip to meet  people who have challenged us, taught us things and mostly, just been great friends. Some people we have met it has only been for a day but we are still in contact with them (thanks facebook and Skype!). Many of the people we have met didn’t speak any English but somehow we were always able to communicate and find the common ground of laughter. Some of the people we met were unable to talk but shared with us their smiles and spirit that we will never forget. Some people have become our second family away from home and made it possible for us to survive in Korea for so long. The list of family in Busan can go on forever but I must give a shout out to my SLP family Leah, Dianna, Bryan and Courtney. To all the people we have met along the way, we are forever in your debt for the lessons you taught us and the happiness you shared.

To wrap up 1 year being gone I am going to post some of my top 10 moments and experiences.

1) Holding a clinic with Jason  for the poorest people in Pisco, Peru where they have no education or healthcare about people with disabilities. I was able to tell a mother about her daughter’s disability and re-assure her that her daughter could do anything she wanted to do (which was to be a hairdresser).

swept away on sliding sands

2) While volunteering in Hauncayo, Peru at the special needs school I had a student Jahir who I gave physical therapy/occupational therapy to every day. For the first two weeks he threw a tantrum at the beginning because he didn’t like his atrophied arm touched, let alone made to do things with it. I worked extremely hard at setting a routine with Jahir and one day he showed up to the therapy room on his own and sat down on the mat. He then proceeded to tap the mat to get me to sit and place his arm in my hands to massage it. Then he successfully opened a jar by himself for the first time.

Ashley with one of her therapy students, Jahair

3) Spotting my first Leatherback sea turtle while on duty at 2am. Then getting to hold the egg bag as she gave me 120 eggs.

4) Waking up at 3am to hike in the dark to entrance to Machu Picchu. Then hiking up to Waynu Picchu for sunrise.

My first graders in Korea

5)  Meeting Sally, Anthony, Tonje, Mike and Lauren at the Casa Project in Hauncayo and getting to spend the month with them. Included in that memory is trying to fit 9 people into a cab and because it was Peru, the cabbie not caring. This happened at least every other day.There is too many memories to list but playing with the kids at the Casa project while being with this amazing crew is all rolled into one sweet package in my head.

Expand Peru crew

Baby Leatherbacks just before release

6) Pouring a cement roof in Pisco, Peru the old fashion way. Buckets and manpower. I had the biggest bruises on my forearms which I proudly showed off after we left.

7) Hiking the Haleakala crater in Hawaii with Jase for our 2 year anniversary.

Watching Jason work with the kids at the special needs school in Peru.

9) Being in the Busan Night Live Comedy Sketch show and the Vagina Monologues…in Korea

10) Getting dressed up at a Geisha in Japan with my cousin Jessica. Also added to this is the entire trip over Christmas with Deb, Cody, Kevin and Jessica.

10 1/2) My epic 26th birthday party in Korea. 7 people dressed up as the rainbow rejects (colors that didn’t make the primary rainbow). Enough said.

A little after the game we all met back up and headed to Haeundae beach where we enjoyed a tasty dinner at Tippy Thai. I love Pad Thai! Shortly after, we all headed to Club Makdem. The club was actually really neat and had green laser lights shining everywhere, with a couple different bars. They played a combination between house/techno and hip hop music. Not what I expected in Busan, but it was fun.

J

I started by taking a few pictures of the temple as they are preparing for Buddha’s Birthday (in May) and have paper lanterns and other decorations hung around the temple. I jetted up the first portion of the hike as I had done it before. At a family pace, it takes about an hour to reach the top. I was not up for spending my day on things I had already seen, so I did it in about 30 minutes. I must say having a stuffy nose, while quickly hiking up a steep mountainside is not an ideal thing. The whole time, I was somewhere between sniffling and needed to blow my nose. I am sure the Koreans around me thought I was making some weird sounds. Nevertheless, I reached the top gate and set off on a new route across the mountain ridge.

I was walking along the ridge line, next to an old – yet refurbished – wall that a century ago was to keep out Japanese invaders. Let’s just say it did not work so well. However, it did leave quite a site to see for visitors today. The wall is only nine feet in height and is made largely of mid-sized blocks. There are lookout posts at set increments along the top of the wall and a few large main gates that served as an entry way to the fortress the wall was surrounding. I very much enjoyed the peace and quite – much different from the sound of constant traffic everywhere in the city. The sun was shining and their was a gentle breeze, so I found one of the rocky outcroppings overlooking the valley and sat for awhile – in peace.

Eventually, I reached the end of one section of the wall and followed a small stream uphill to a place where the cherry blossoms and Magnolias were in full bloom. It was very pretty, especially with the sun shining and the gentle stream flowing below. After a while, I reached a small uphill to a somewhat hidden temple. I say a small uphill, but what I mean is the steepest road I have ever seen in my life. I literally had to walk on my toes for about twenty minutes to reach the temple. The temple itself was very neat. It was framed by a large block of granite behind the main temple, with a bell tower hovering over side of the mountain falling away below. The traditional colors were used in painting – vibrant greens, reds, and blues.

I realized after finding a small map (all in Korean, of course) that I was actually on the opposite (wrong) side of the mountain and had wandered into a small valley somewhere along the way. Though I was tired, I climbed back up to the ridge top and finally descended through a small village filled with small shops and dirt tennis courts. Adults were out playing a version of Nukem with their feet (I am sure it has a real name, but I don’t know it – anyone know?).

I finally reached town and was met with traffic congestion. Wow, it is night and day between the mountains and city! It took me another hour just to walk back to my apartment, even though it had only taken me three hours to hike all the way down the ridge line, including going up and down the mountain twice! Traffic is nuts.

All in all it was a great trip filled with amazing views and picturesque temples, cherry trees, and magnolias.

J

Ash and I departed via 6:30 am bus, along with our fellow foreign teachers and a Korean friend (Courtney, Leah, Diana, Bryan and Won Seop), so we could enjoy an early hike before exploring the official Cherry Blossom Festival. We arrived so early, in fact, that we had a hard time finding an open coffee shop. Anyone that has been to South Korea can tell you that it is unheard of not to be able to find an open coffee shop. We did eventually find a small shop that was just putting on their first pot of the day and we all sat and enjoyed a few tasty pastries and joe.

We started our exploration by scaling the “365″ stairs to the central temple, positioned atop a large hill in the middle of town. The funny thing is that there was also an electric tram car that shuttled people up and down the hill for a small fee. We decided to brave the stairs on the way up, counting the whole way.

The temple itself was surrounded by interestingly sculpted bushes in the shapes of animals and hearts as well as some festivities and vendors. We tried our hand at a few traditional Korean sports (basically a version of lawn darts with an arrow) and browsed some amazing wood sculpting pieces from vendors. From the top of the seven-story temple, we could see the surrounding town all the way to the outlying islands and warships in the bay. We also set our eyes on a small temple on a distant mountainside for our hike.

After making our way through town (which involved lots of questioning of locals) we came to the famous “love bridge”. This is a average, but nice, bridge over a small stream that is lined on both sides by cherry trees. Unfortunately, the cherry trees were not blooming!!! We could only see little buds on the trees. It was still nice walking down the pathway as it was lined by accu-pressure walks and foot baths. Another highlight was seeing the actress who plays “Sun” on the TV show Lost on an advertisement for a local musical.

At the base of the mountain, we found a wedding chapel that also doubled as a theme park – rides and all – and looked like Disney World from the outside. After a short time watching a rather odd dance by a Korean guy who was half naked/cross dressed and singing, we took a short break for a brown bag lunch.

The hike itself was pretty easy, but lasted a nice two hours. Jason decided to cut off from the group to reach the ridge (and the view) before catching up with the rest of the group at the temple. The view was amazing, looking over the outlying islands and the entire city, covering the valley on both sides of the mountain.

After Jason caught back up with the group, we explored the temple, which was precariously placed on the side of a very steep valley. The temple had the usually fancy gate, guardian statues, and statues of Buddha and other things.

We split for a dinner of Sushi before heading back on the bus to Busan. Great day!

J

Last weekend we were invited by the mother of one of my former students to go with her and her son to Gyeong Ju. Gyeong Ju is a historic town in eastern South Korea that is listed as a World Heritage site by UNESCO for its historical significance. Other than being very old, it is a beautiful town with blooming cherry trees lining many of the streets, temples dotting the mountain sides, and two-thousand year old stone carvings hidden within caves.

We started the 1 1/2 hour drive with a 3 hour trip in traffic…welcome to S. Korea. The entrance into Gyeong Ju off the expressway was a massive toll booth outfitted in traditional architecture with an arched, black slate roof and colorfully decorated sides. Upon arriving, we were all quite hungry so we stopped at a small, mom and pop bi bim bop restaurant. Bi bim bop is a bowl with rice and assorted vegetables with a dash of spicy sauce. It was delicious and came with tea and some other various Korean side dishes.

After lunch, we walked up the hill to a famous historic temple to see beautiful cherry blossoms and well-manicured grounds. We walked by the ancient statues and shiny, golden Buddha ornaments. Ashley was also able to get a painting of three horses painted by one of the monks at the temple.

We later made our way up another mountain, via car, to explore a temple that was situated on the mountainside and surrounded by colorful paper lanterns. After exploring for a while, we came upon an almost two-thousand year old carving of Buddha. It was awe inspiring to think that we were looking at something created that long ago. It was surrounded by other carvings that were done at the same time.

On our way home that evening, we stopped by the Korean equivalent of our interstate rest stops. Let me tell you that they are hoppin’. There are vendors spread everywhere and each stop was quite full of cars and people. Our host shared with us the Korean travel motto… “Eat first, travel after.”

Randomly back in February I came across an ad on a Korean foreigner website called www.koreabridge.com for open auditions. It was two days before they were to be held but it took me all of two minutes to decide to do it. I was really excited because it was for a sketch comedy show that would be held right in BUSAN! I knew that Seoul had a comedy group, but Busan??? I was shocked and really excited to do something different.

I attended the auditions with an open mind. I really didn’t know what to expect because the ad wasn’t very specific with the type of sketches, if they had been written already, how long, how many….the list goes on. But, I showed up along with about 25 other people to strut my stuff. I did have some experience acting and making people laugh but never in sketch comedy. I mostly dabbled in improv and just straight acting. But, if there’s any chance for me to use my accents, I’m there.  There were about 11 sketches that had been written over the past 2 months by a variety of people, including some Brits and Canadians. We basically just chose which ones we liked and went up on stage with about 2 min. to prep and read. I picked my way through a few and read to the best of what I thought would be funny. As it turns out, I can be funny and was casted in 4 different skits (one to be added later on). So began my life of practice 3 days a week, with a 40 min. subway ride each way.

Even though practices felt like a pilgrammage after a long day at school, I really loved getting to express myself and ideas with the crew. The director, Kady, was really open to other people’s ideas and opinions which made everything fun. All of the cast members were open and willing to take ideas and run with them. I immediately felt at home with people who seemed to have as many crazy ideas running through their heads as I did! Practices were long, but always rewarding and fun. We had 5 weeks until show time and we worked almost every minute. At the end, we had a great show with 13 sketches, two video clips, and a lighting and sound crew that any concert junkie would envy.

Everything was coming together. I was constantly practicing my lines and Jason was probably sick of hearing my different characters in the shower. I even would break into character on the elevator to random Koreans.  But, I felt pumped to develope some outrageous quirks just for a good laugh(hopefully). After 5 weeks, we were all getting nervous. Were we funny? Were people coming? Would we forget our lines? Who was bringing the soju?

Finally, opening night came. The official title of the show was “Busan Night Live (BSNL)” and it was run very similar to the TV show, Saturday Night Live. On the show’s facebook page we had over 200 confirmed guests for the first show!!!! There was a buzz in the Busan community, and I was so anxious to see it all come together. I was so full of energy the night of the show Jason sent me for a mandatory run. The show was held in a club called “Fabric” in the Kyungsung University Area, which had

a stage and very high tech lighting and sound system. Since it’s a club, there was limited seating for about 75. The rest was standing room only but people didn’t seem to care at all. Well, on opening night we filled the place with over 200 people who were ready to laugh. We were all backstage, ready to go.

The opening number had to be great so we had devised a special number. My friend Cullen was elected to dress like Lady Gaga and strut his stuff. Myself and 5 other girls were his backup dancers. We drug him out onto the stage and started dancing a sweet choreographed number to “Bad Romance” while he tried to run off the stage (out of embarassement that he was in 4 inch heels, a white skirt, pink wig, etc.) but we pulled him down into our clutches. He emerged a new Gaga, ready to go and belt it out. Cullen then danced his ass off and we rocked it out behind him. The music stopped, we froze in our finishing pose and we welcomed the crowd by screaming “Live from Club Fabric, It’s Busan Night Live!” The crowd erupted in screams and we knew we had a great show ahead of us.

After a 15 second costume change I was back on stage for the first skit. I felt a little pressure because I had the main part in the first skit of the night. I was the host “Dana” on a hardball type show with a panel of guests from the coffee world. We were to discuss the lack of coffee houses in Korea (which is the opposite of the truth). I couldn’t just do a host, I had to do THE HOST> so I decided to tape my entire face in clear masking tape to make it appear that I had too much plastic surgery. I also added vaseline to the mix to make sure that I looked nice and plastic. I delivered my lines with emotion and determination, all while not moving my face. I guess I sounded like Barbra Walters and Joan Rivers put together. I was pretty frightening but the crowd loved it. The plastic surgery face came into play at the end when I ask the audience to join me again next week “when we’ll discuss another pressing issue, is plastic surgery being unfairly targeted by ugly, poor people, simply because they can’t afford to fix their revolting selves?” I had never taped my face for Jason and he was more than shocked at the transformation. The skit was amazing and each member did a great job interacting and improving. We were a hit and the material was great. It hurt taking the tape off but it was well worth it.

I won’t go into detail about every sketch that I was in but I did play a career counselor with an obnoxious “ummmmmm” after everything I said, an Iphone application, and my favorite, Michealangelo from the Ninja Turtles. The Ninja Turtles skit was probably my favorite because it was really clever. The NT were being sent by splinter to kill a women…for $800 bucks. The NT had never killed before even though they are trained assassins. Very hilarious and many people said that was their favorite. Ninja’s don’t fight for honor we found out, that’s Samurai.

The first and second night of the show filled the club with over 200 people. We really made people laugh and so many people were asking when the next show was! I don’t know if it will happen soon, but I hope so. The whole experience was beyond my wildest dreams. The positive response that I got from my friends and co-workers who came was enough to make me blush from here until next year. Maybe I should pursue this?? Food for thought.

I wanted to give a special shout out to my new friends from BSNL. I really enjoyed getting to know you all and spending my evenings laughing with you. Also thanks to the many people who came out to see the show. All of my Korean teachers came with a cheesecake! I couldn’t have asked for better support. Now, I just need someone to hand me a fake award because that sounded like an acceptance speech. Wow, maybe I need a break from the spotlight.

Cheers, Ash