Believe it or not, we have two three day weekends this month! Don’t get too excited though, we only have three all year. This past weekend, we ventured to Seoul, departing late Friday night after school and boarding the KTX high-speed train to our friend’s house in the capital city of South Korea. After the near three hour train ride and a while on the subway, we arrived well after midnight and went quickly to sleep.

The next morning, we set out to have a nice American style breakfast in Itaewon (the foreign section of Seoul). I had pancakes, but they did not stack up to my home made specialties : ( Afterward, we met our tour group at the Lotte Hotel downtown and departed for our trip to the Joint Security Area (JSA) in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North Korea and South Korea. Our tour guide was hilarious yet soft spoken and cracked some very funny jokes on the hour ride to the border.

Upon arriving to the DMZ, your bus is boarded by Korean Military personnel and your passports are all checked and bus is visually searched. After being waved across the barricaded bridge, we were in the DMZ. We soon passed the only village (South Korean) that is located in the DMZ. The villagers have to be direct descendants of people who lived there before the war and have very strict military control around the area. They cannot go outside at night and they are constantly guarded, even while farming by military escorts. The villagers are paid $80,000 per year to live there and farm the land and pay no taxes. Sounds like a pretty sweet gig, but there are many sacrifices to living there.

The next step in getting to the JSA portion of the DMZ is to arrive at Camp Bonifas. That is the most forward camp in South Korea. Their motto is, in fact, “In Front of Them All.” We again had our passports checked and we were given United Nations Military Command ID badges to wear at all times. We were given a military police escort that would not leave our side the rest of the tour as well. He made it very clear that he was not part of the tour and was there for our safety and to ensure that none of us did anything stupid. In addition to receiving our UNMC badge and armed escort, we then boarded a military JSA tour bus with a military driver and had an armed military vehicle escort on top of that. Did I mention the part that you (quite literally) sign your life away before starting the tour? The whole process is pretty intense.

After boarding our new military bus, went through a variety of military buildings on our way to the actual JSA. When we arrived, walked through the spot where a defector had been gunned down a decade or so ago trying to escape North Korea. The North Korean guards followed him across the border to shoot him, which led to both sides exchanging fire. We walked up some steps, through a building and all of a sudden we were right on the border. We were standing face to face with the elite of the elite Korean military, which were no question at the ready. They wear “JSA sunglasses” which are Raybans so as not to get into “eye fights” with the North Korean soldiers and it makes them look that much tougher. We were able to look across the border at the North Korean military guard, who had their binoculars out trying to catch something to take a picture of for propaganda use. We actually stepped into North Korea inside the UN conference room which is the room they actually hold meetings in. There were two guards standing inside – one to make sure we did not head out the wrong door into North Korea and one to make sure we did not touch the middle desk, whose microphones are running/recorder 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The UN buildings were blue and the North Korean buildings were gray. It was a really ominous sight, but was a really neat experience overall. We also were able to get a closer look at the North Korean propaganda town, which boasts the world’s largest flag and flag pole. The area is riddled with land mines, so you can’t just walk around – not that they would let you anyway, but it is extra incentive to stay on the marked path.

Upon returning to the base, we saw some Korean military personnel doing physical training and then we boarded our tour bus and headed back into Seoul. We had a great dinner at guess what? The Loving Hut Buffet! Yes, our favorite staple in Busan, The Loving Hut, has a buffet version of the restaurant in Seoul. It was amazing! I will let Ashley fill you in on the rest of our great weekend!

J

For Valentine’s Day/ Lunar New Year (a huge holiday in Korea) we traveled to Jirisan National Park for a break from city life. We took a local bus from the Sasang intercity bus terminal and 1 1/2 hours later we arrived in the small city of Jinju. We looked around for a short while and soon checked into a classy “Love Motel”. Love motels here in Korea are the equivalent of older Motel 6’s or any cheaper hotel. They also are what travelers typically stay in since they are affordable. To paint a picture of our accommodation, image an 80’s style decorated prostitution house. The ceilings were painted with a solar system theme in neon glow paint, the walls had scenes of naked girls posing with cars and other various backgrounds – also in glow paint. Each door had a mural of a different girl. To top it off, the elevator was all mirror-covered and the room key had a picture of a girl in a “swimsuit” on it. Contrary to what one might expect, however, and in keeping with Korean tradition, the rooms were quite clean and nice. In addition, the room had a computer with internet included in the $40 price for the night.

We spent the evening walking around Jinju, exploring. We passed through street markets, coffee shops, and every outdoor brand store known to man. Eventually, we decided on a delicious U don Noodle place that seated around 12 people. Afterward, we took in a movie called Valentines Day. The point of the movie was to keep adding stars. There really wasn’t much of a point other than that, but it was interesting to see who the next person to be added was.

We boarded a bus early the next morning and went the last 1 1/2 hours to the “mountains of Jiri.” After a series of stops in small little villages/towns, we were the last two on the bus. Our final stop was a large gravel parking lot down a dirt road overlooked by the mountains and a few small houses/stores that sold trail snacks, but were closed because of the holiday. We started walking towards the trail head, past a temple and eventually through a small little village where the trail began. We stopped for a few moments to get water and had some small children come out to practice their English with us while their grandparents looked on from inside. They were quite good, but were obviously in for the holiday from a larger town.

The road was icy as we walked up the hill, but quickly turned to a few inches of snow as we started the trail up the mountain. We followed along a small mountain stream as we climbed, then continued up towards the ridge along slick, packed snow. A few other Korean hikers passed us, giving us questionable looks for not having crampons (metal hiking cleats) on. The funny thing about this is that in America, we would never consider having crampons for conditions like those, but in Korea, it is the fashionable thing to do. The trail itself was pretty neat. At times, ropes were placed around trees to help us climb up or down steep embankments. There was a bit of bouldering that needed to be done to get over slick, rocky sections, but we finally reached a small hut with a great view of the valley below.

The snow at the top was considerably heavier than at the start of the trail and almost immediately upon reaching the top, the snow began to come down heavily. We were greeted by an older Korean man, also a hiker, who had a mug of Soju (the staple Korean acohol) oustretched in offering before we even sat down on our wooden block seats. After a short drink, the man departed on his way and we took a short – cold – nap before preparing some dinner. We had not brought our bag liners for our sleeping bags, not knowing it would be that cold or snow covered, so our nap was a shivering one. After waking, we broke out our camp stove and began cooking. We had a delicious meal of ramen noodles with tuna and some improvised spices. It hit the spot! We actually used our stove to warm up after dinner for a bit as we sat in a little room off the side of the cabin looking out at the snow. After a short trip by myself down a snowy embankment to gather fresh water in the dark, we retired for the evening with some rented blankets that were provided in the cabin. Our sleeping quarters were in a dual level bunk that had a large, lower platform for males and an upper platform for females.

The next morning, we set off down the mountain with only one set of footprints leading the way in the fresh snow layer. It was very nice as we were able to slide down the soft snow blanket easily for most of the trip. We arrived back at our original parking lot with plenty of time to spare to wait on the bus. While we were waiting, a Korean man, who had also been hiking, sat down near us. When his friend pulled up in a car to pick him up, he called over to us to see if we were waiting on the bus. Although they spoke no English, we were able to determine that he wanted to give us a ride to what we thought was the bus station. We agreed and loaded our bags in to the back of the car. After a while in the car, we realized that we were going farther than just down the street. As the signs were still pointing towards Jinju and we couldn’t communicate anyway, we just rode along. Over an hour later, we arrived at the Jinju bus terminal! The complete stranger had driven us over an hour – without us even asking – to our bus terminal, saving us a whole bus ticket and lots of time. Awesome!

We grabbed a quick coffee then boarded a bus back to our home in Busan where we had dinner at our local favorite, The Loving Hut, and headed home to get ready for the week.

J

J & A

The next day, we started a new yoga class that is led by Tiffany, one of Ashley’s friends here in Korea who is from San Diego, CA. We had a great class, even though I felt like I was going to break after climbing hard the night before. After yoga, a group of us decided to go out for lunch. We met our friend Ryan, which is Hyesook’s (Kate teacher – she teaches with us at SLP) husband (he is from Fort Wayne, IN) and went to The Loving Hut in PNU (an area in Busan near Pusan National University). We had a great meal, then parted ways. I headed off to Korean lessons to take an impossible test.  I am nearing the end of my time in Korean lessons, so I brushed up on a few things I needed to know, then joined the other teachers and students for some snacks to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

That night, we all headed over to Ryan and Hyesook’s apartment for burritos and to watch the new episode of the tv show LOST. Dinner was excellent and the show left us all on the edge of our seats, as it always does. Afterwards, we played Wii sword fighting and archery. I learned I am an excellent video game swordsman, but a very poor archer. To cap the evening off, we headed up to the roof on the 25th floor for a great view of Busan. At night, you can see the city lit up with neon lights and the outlines of the mountains all around town.

On Sunday, Ashley started her day like a good girl, heading out for an early run while I was lazy and slept in a little. We soon headed off to Philosophy club after Skyping with my parents. It was an interesting conversation at philosophy club, as always, and afterwards the group headed over to another Starbucks to see if we could find a more quiet space to hold our meetings. I felt bad for the baristas there. You should have seen the look on their face when they saw a group of 20 waygookeens (foreingers – AKA white people) walk in to observe, then leave just a few seconds later.

Ashley spent the afternoon auditioning for a comedy skit show. She randomly found the auditions on Saturday and thought it sounded fun. She landed a role in three different skits so she is very excited for the performance on March 13th. She then heading to quiz night with some of the coolest friends that we have made in Busan, Jon and Cory. Not only are they cool, they are very smart which makes quiz night super fun. I wasn’t there but I know they rip it up on all the difficult questions. While Ashley was hanging out with awesome Cory and Jon, I headed off to the book store with some friends, then headed home to chill out.  All in all… another great weekend, then back to the grind. We have our school play this Tuesday, which is the culmination of months of confusing and unorganized preparation. Wish us luck!

J

Since returning to work after our holidays, we have fallen right back into the groove of things. I think the biggest difference this month has been the feeling of home Korea has brought. On our way home to Busan from Japan, I really couldn’t wait to get home and relax in our apartment. It really brought peace to my hectic mind that I would know where to go if the mood struck for Thai food and to not have to think really really hard about what subway to get on (Japan was a maze!

I personally have been feeling extremely comfortable in our surroundings these past few weeks. Some of you ask if I miss home and the answer is always yes. I miss so many people and things very much. Usually I try to deny myself too many thought about the subject because it can be overwhelming to think about how long it’s been since I have seen most of you:(  We just had a very interesting topic at philosophy club that touched on the subject of “why travel.” I think we have now moved more towards living end of things rather than officially “traveling” on our little spectrum of life. We do work 40 hours a week, go to the grocery store, gym, dinner with friends…. it’s really not very different from our lives back in the states. Yeah, except we are in Korea. I often go through an entire day without truly realizing that yes, I am 6000 miles away in some foreign land where I don’t speak the language (very much!). I think being in an all English speaking school helps with the mirage and keeps me sane. There are many things that also contribute to a sense of normalcy, my favorite being 1) my new oven 2) our new spin bike 3) SKYPE!!!!

Overall, I have to say that after living in a foreign place for an extended amount of time, living in Korea can be comparable to being in a relationship and the typical stages a couple might go through over time. And just because I am a super nerd, some of the stages also remind me of the levels groups go through as they learn to perform together (thanks recreation degree!).  Let me explain….

Stage 1-The Honeymoon Stage-

This stage can last anywhere from 1 week to 3 months in my opinion. Everything is awesome, Korea can do no wrong. Even if there are little things that bother a person, they are likely overlooked because it’s all new and you are still getting over the shock of being somewhere completely new. I love this stage (obviously). I can vividly remember thinking that everything new was the most unique thing ever. It was constant eye candy walking down the street. Every face, weird English shirt, fashion statement and plastic food display brought a smile to my face. Wow, I’m in Korea. I thought about it all the time. Finding vegetarian food was a challenge at this point, not a pain. The little things from home were not too missed at this point. I probably could have passed up some American style pancakes at this point and been ok. Life is an adventure and Korea was our newest conquest.

Stage 2-STORMING

Ahhh everyone hits this stage. We have joked about it and have determined the average storming period happen  around 4 months into teaching in Korea. All of a sudden, everything is weird, you can’t believe they do this, why do they do that, the food is so gross, what the hell is kimchi anyways and why do the Korean’s love it (nation dish that is fermented cabbage), the kids are driving you nuts at school, etc. etc. This is thankfully about the time we got a 10 day vacation which enabled us to refresh and miss the craziness. We hit this stage a little early in Korea because we had been traveling for 4 months before-hand. Being vegetarians also expedited this stage because we really started missing all the wonderful foods that we had gotten used to while we were in Hawaii. I think every Korean teacher/traveler hits this point where you realize how much you miss the comfortable life of home. Now the adventure is still there, but you crave the ease of just knowing things and being able to do things on auto-pilot. I think Jason hit this stage and needed about 10 banana muffins to make him calm down. It’s official, we miss home.

Stage 3-Norming

I feel we are in this stage right now. We are feeling very comfortable in our surroundings, including the food situation. It has really helped us to feel more at home by getting out there and finding people with similar interests to us. We were really lucky to meet Hyesook and Ryan our first week. We work with Hyesook and she is married to an American name Ryan. Well, Ryan has lived in Korea for 6 years and he is a vegetarian! As soon as Hyesook found out that we were veg heads, she offered to take us to their favorite veggie place, The Loving Hut. Well it was love at first bite. They showed us all the great places to eat and helped us figure out where to get our favorite veggie stuff. We really owe our first 3 months to them. They also were part of the philosophy club that we joined. Again, we can’t ever thank them enough for helping us out the first few months and for being such great friends.

 Thanks to Ryan and Hyesook, we  joined a philosophy club that meets every Sunday morning at Starbucks. Sometimes the topics are deep but mostly they are useful for fun conversation and brain exercise. The best part about philosophy club is that we have met the most amazing people (both Korean’s and foreigners). We usually go to to lunch together after we meet and also do other activities like game nights and Thanksgiving dinner. We also joined a climbing gym which is a great place to make Koren friends. Put that with Korean lessons each Saturday and all of a sudden our schedule is full and we are feeling the Korean love.

Last weekend was the first weekend where I felt completely at home. It was a really busy weekend, but it was great. We went out on Friday night with all the foreign and Korean teachers at our school to say goodbye to our manager Lynn. After dinner, we hit up the singing room until 2am! The next day we were up early for a Yoga open house at our yoga studio “Ashanti Yoga.” We have been taking private lessons from Shanti herself for about a month and we were eager to support her. Well, it was an amazing turn out with about 40 people coming to practice together. We felt really honored because Shanti asked us to demonstrate some of the series. If you took one of her classes, you would know that she is very picky about everything so even though I have been practicing yoga for a few years, I feel like a beginner with her! Anyway, that night we had 8 of our friends over for a game night. We played “Apples to Apples” , drank wine, and had a ton of snacks! The evening was a hit and I really enjoyed the company of our new friends in Korea. Part of the “norming” has been meeting the most amazing people here from all over the world. The next morning, we were off to philosophy club, lunch with the club, and then climbing with some club members. Just when I thought the day couldn’t get any better, we were invited to attend a quiz night at a bar from 8pm-12am! Needless to say, it was a busy weekend.

So what’s the point and big deal about last weekend? No, I’m not trying to brag, but it’s hard to put into words the feeling I got being around all of our friends here. We are at the point now where people really know us and feel comfortable around us. We aren’t in the awkward “getting to know you phase” that can sometimes last forever.  It is much easier to feel comfortable in a place with wonderful people who help to take your mind off of the wonderful people you miss back home.

Stage 4-Performing

We aren’t full there yet. I think the last few months will be total bliss, knowing that a few months in the states is on the horizon but we still will have the opportunity to enjoy the summer months in Busan. All I know is that I can’t wait. I really enjoy spending my days smiling at the present moment but having so much to look foward to.

Ash

I apologize for the long lapse in time in this saga. We have been especially busy getting back into the groove of things at school. Plus, our school-wide play performance is just around the corner so all our extra time at school is being used. But the story must go on….

We left Busan at the International Ferry Terminal at 8pm. There are a few options for ferries to Japan but we chose to go on the longest one because we would be able to sleep on the boat, hence, saving us a night in a hotel. We boarded the boat and were led to a carpeted room with no furniture that held maybe 12 people. There was a little shelf to put your luggage and then just carpet. Each person got a bed roll, blanket, and pillow to sleep with, allof which was neatly at our sleeping “spot”. In true Korean fashion, you just layed on the floor and went to sleep. The boat took off around 9pm and it was smooth sailing. The boat wasn’t full at all so we had the run of the place. It could be compared to a mini-cruise ship complete with a bar, gift shop and slot machine room. We rented a karaoke room for an hour and sang the night away. When we woke up at 7:35am, we were at Japan!

We disembarked off the ship and flew through customs with no problems. We then just walked down a ramp right into the train station. I was not concerned about the language barrier in Japan because we had our phrasebook and even better, Kevin knew how to read Japanese from high school. We were quick to find everything we needed including the bank for money exchanging, the train station, and we discovered that we didn’t leave the sweet bakeries of Korea behind. They were all over in Japan too! We purchased the Japan Rail Pass so we could ride all the bullet trains for once price for 7 days. If not, our train costs would have been over $1000 dollars each! So after getting our passes in order, we were off on our first bullet ride to Osaka where we would stay for the night.

This story must be told. As you know, we were traveling with our family, adding 4 extra people onto our usual 2. It has been awhile since I personally traveled with 6 people, let alone my family. Nevertheless, we were confident that we would be able to stick together. We mostly worried about losing Deb, who is directionally challenged sometimes. So, we were really keeping a close eye on her. She did a great job the entire trip and didn’t get too lost (at least she would let us know when she might get lost!) Well, we were standing at the train station in Shimosheki, tickets in hand. Our cousin Cody (age 20) needed to go to the bathroom. We told him to hurry, the train would be there in 10 min. He took off down the stairs into a huge, busy, underground area that connects all 5 million tracks at the station. Well, he didn’t come back. Our Aunt Deb was calm on the outside, but you could see the panic starting to set it. Jason and I took one look at each other and secretly communicated in our special married language “we must find Cody NOW!” while still smiling and then set out to find Cody. We are used to getting lost and it happens to the best of us, so, we weren’t that worried, but you don’t tell a mother not to worry about her baby. After a few moments, out train came and went without us. So, now we weren’t really in a hurry to find him, we had another 30 min. until the next train. Finally, we recovered Cody who had gotten turned around after coming out the bathroom. He was a good sport about it and was able to laugh about it (ok, more like forced to laugh about it).

But we did make it to Osaka to our lovely hotel later in the day. We hit the town running, going out to “Geisha hunt” in the Gion district. If you have ever heard of a geisha, you have heard of Oskaka, which is the geisha capital of the world. Geisha’s are not prosititues, but highly trained musicians, singers and conversationalists. Although we could not afford to hire one for a night of entertainment (can be around $3000 for a few hours over dinner), Jessica and I had the unique opportunity to dress up in full geisha gear the next morning.

For only $65 bucks, we were taken away into a beauty parlor for geisha’s. They had the process down, similar to an assembly line but with more pampering. You were given white robes to put on and special geisha socks. Did you ever wonder why Asian people wear socks with their sandals? Well, their socks have a slit between the big toe and the other piggies that allows the sandal to comfortably slip right in. Go figure.

After we were in our robes, we were whisked upstairs to have our make-up put on. I say put-on because they literally paint it on you. The white is supposed to represent the geisha’s pureness. They have a huge brush and everything is covered, including your neck and clavicles. They leave the back of your neck exposed in the shape of a “W” to remind the men of something I can’t mention in this G-rated blog, but it’s refered to as your “peach”. After the white paint they set it with white powder. You could have touched my face and the white would have stayed. Then they expertly paint your new eyebrows on along with some almond shaped eye makeup. I was in love. The red lipstick and fake eyelashes complete the look. Well, I wasn’t looking too Geisha because as many of you know, I’m neither Asian or dark-haired. My geisha masters had thought of that. They had 30 full wigs (decorations included) that are so realistic it was kinda scary. So after I was transformed by the wig, I was able to pick out my own kimono. I chose a beautiful blue and red one. It seemed simple but again, I had no idea what I was in for. For the next 15 min. two girls worked to tie me into the kimono! Layer after layer was applied, tied, and tucked until there wasn’t much of a body shape left. In traditional geisha wear, there can be up to 15 layers!Then, to top of it off, they added to myback what is called an obi, which is really heavy and forces your shoulders back. If I had to go to the bathroom I would have held it till I passed out because there was NO way I would even fit in a stall let along get anywhere near my underwear at this point. I heard that once you wear a kimono, you would understand that a geisha couldn’t be a prostitute even if she wanted to. I stand by that statement.

So our geisha experience came with 3 professional pictures and a bunch taken outside by our own cameras. Deb had a great time shooting Jessica and I out in the streets. People were stopping to take our pictures and staring! You couldn’t have picked me out of a line-up because I looked so different with the whole thing on. After a little while, we were forced to come inside and start the hour process of taking everything off and using baby oil to remove our geisha face. Overall, I would say it was one of the best experiences I have had so far on our trip. If you really want to understand someone and their culture, you can just walk a mile in their shoes….but there is no WAY I could have walked a mile in the 6 inch platform sandals they gave us to waddle around in! My geisha wig is off to the real geisha women who do that everyday.

I am going to leave it there for Jason to add his experience in Japan……to be continued with Part 3!

Jason’s Aunt Deb, two cousins (Deb’s children) Cody and Jessica, and Jason’s brother Kevin all came to South Korea to visit. It was a long planned out trip and we were so excited to see familiar faces. We had to pick them up in style, so we made signs (in Korean and English) and made sure to wear our Swine Flu masks when they arrived. They survived the flight and they also survived security. Cody got stopped because of a Christmas gift I had ordered for Jason. According the airport’s website you can bring a small knife in your check bag but nevertheless, it was confiscated by the Korean customs agent. O-well, it’s the thought that counts.

We left no time for adjusting because the next morning everyone came with us to our school. It was the school’s holiday party so it was the perfect day for special guests. My Stanford class (1st graders) were so ecstatic to meet Deb because she is also a first grade teacher in Indiana. Not only that, but our classes had been writing letters to each other for the past 3 months. For the entire month of December we had a “Deb Teacher Countdown” on our board. My kids planned the whole period out with what they wanted to do with Deb Teacher. Deb and the gang arrived to huge warm welcome from Stanford class, complete with cards welcoming them to Korea. One of my kids wrote in his card “Are you sick? Ok, I am not sick too. I don’t like Swine Flu.” They loved meeting everyone and wanted more than anything to perform their play for a real audience. They also danced for them too! Deb was amazing and brought American flags and candy for my kids and a bunch extra for everyone else in Korea (no kidding). A really funny moment is when my class inspected the American flags and noticed they were made in China. Whoops! But they were celebrities among my classes for the whole day, answering many weird and wonderful questions from my students such as “what is your favorite plant?” and “Why do you have a beard?” The day ended with a delicious Korean BBQ dinner. To our surprise, a drunk Korean was really excited to see so many Americans together and decided to buy us dinner. Korean BBQ is soo good becaus you get to grill all your food on a mini-grill that’s in the middle of the table. Kevin and Cody were in heaven as they grilled pork and seafood for the whole group. Then, another table was celebrating and birthday and sent our table some cake. Got to love the Korean’s putting on such a good show for our family. I suddenly felt like we were in our own foreign version of Chevy Chases’ “Funny Farm” (for those of you who don’t know the movie, Chevy get’s the whole town to help sell his house by acting like the picture perfect people for potential buyers).

Not wanting to waste a moment, the next day was full of hiking and shopping. We got up early and decided to trek to the highest point in Busan (800m) which just so happens to be at a famous Buddhist temple, Bemeosa. It was a wonderful way to spend the morning/afternoon. We then went to Nampo-dong for some dinner and street vendor shopping. Can you say fake North Face puffy jackets? By the end of the day we thought we were too tired to go on but we were able to break out the soju (Korean vodka) and play a round of Apples to Apples with our good friend Leah. I will never look at Kevin the same way but have been sworn to secrecy as to what exactly went down in those wee hours of the night!

Christmas Day started off with a wonderful pancake breakfast provided by Madre and Padre Summers (thanks!) and cooked by yours truly. What made the day even better was getting to video Skype with our families. We called while my parents were having everyone over so I literally got to talk to my entire family for an hour for free. I also managed to squeeze in a few calls to my favorite ladies back home (Annie, Courts and Kristin) I love Skype!
Later that afternoon we went to Haundae Beach where it was unseasonably warm. We walked and took pictures with many Korean couples since Christmas is considered a “couples day” in Korea. Then, we went to a seafood buffet that was outrageously good. This wasn’t your old country buffet. This was fresh sushi and crab legs, still moving octopus and shark fin soup. Plus a bunch of desserts that rival some of my favorites from the states. What made Christmas dinner so special is that we were joined by some of our good Korean and foreign teacher friends. We had a table for 14 people and it was a perfect moment to sit back and watch all our new friends and family meet one another and enjoy the holiday. Although I was having a hard day with missing my family and friends back home, it really made my heart happy to know that we were still surrounded by friends in Korea.

The next few days went by so fast but we managed to get soo many things in. We had our feet eaten by Dr. Fish, hiked around the cliffs of Busan, ate a traditional Korean dinner, but best of all….we went and sang karaoke at a Nora Bong.

We have gone to a Nora Bong room with our Korean friends the first weekend we were here. Deb desperately wanted to go and so did Kevin (even if he wouldn’t admit it). Everyone kept saying that they wouldn’t sing but would watch. Yeah right. You can’t deny the music once you get there. We rented our very own Karaoke room for 2 hours. Our good friend Wonsep came with too make sure some K-pop got sung too (Korean pop songs). Well, Deb went first with “Dancing Queen” and soon we were fighting for the mic. Everyone had songs to sing and people willing to back them up. The biggest surprise of the night was Kevin singing in JAPANESE!!! He took Japanese in HS and was really into the music for awhile. Well, he blew us all away. Then, Wonsep and Kevin sang a very popular Korean song together. I don’t think I will ever get the image of Kevin and Wonsep singing and doing choreographed dance moves together out of my mind. 3 hours later we caught a taxi home…..I don’t think anyone had a voice left!

So that’s the end of part 1. On December 29th we left Korea for Japan by an overnight ferry………….to be continued.

After walking back and forth for a short time and pretending to read some signs, a Korean man approached me speaking in broken English. He led me to the emergency wing and we tried to communicate my problem to the front desk employee. The man informed us that he couldn’t really help us and we should try to go to the pharmacy to get some medicine.

The man was nice enough to walk me across the street to the pharmacy and help me explain my problem (or “disease” as they refer to every ailment) to the pharmacist. After she said she would not be able to give me anything to help without a prescription, she suggested we go back to the hospital. : (

As we headed back across the street to the hospital, I found out that the man who I had originally thought was a doctor or hospital worker was, in fact, a patient who was being treated with STIM therapy after a car accident he was in. We quickly made our way through the hospital line for the second time and I was seen by the doctor. The doc proceeded to tell me that he could not help me because they did not have a nose/throat doctor there. They suggested I go to a specialist at a Nose and Throat clinic. The nice Korean man offered to give me a ride in his car (I had no idea where the place was, so this was pretty lucky).

After a few minutes of driving, we found a parking spot and he accompanied me inside to find a sign that said they would be closed for another 30 minutes for lunch. The man waited with me, trying to make small talk. He had visited San Diego once two years ago and we spoke some about that in half English.

When the 30 minutes was up, he helped me check in and explain what was wrong. He also came in to see the doctor and help explain to him what the problem was. He waited until I was done and walked me to the Pharmacy to get meds, then made sure I knew where I needed to go, before saying goodbye.

This guy spent over 2 hours of his day helping a random stranger (and I looked like crap by the way). How many of us can say we are that spontaneously generous? I was so inspired, and thankful, I had to write and share the story with all of you. The opportunity to make an impact presents itself in many ways – keep your eye out!

I have been teaching about dinosaurs this week. The kids all love them. I remember when I learned about dinosaurs – I also loved them. These kids, though, know all the fancy names for different dinosaurs that you have never heard of in your life – most I cannot hope to pronounce. I have full classes again. Two weeks ago my first classes were down from 10 to 3 and from 8 to 5 because everyone was sick. This week everyone is back though and we are going full steam ahead again. I also got another 7 kids added to one of my afternoon classes so the class will finally talk…yeah!

Winter break is quickly approaching and Ash and I are both looking forward to seeing Deb, Kevin, Cody, and Jess! Our big winter play was rescheduled for February 9th because of the Swine Flu scare, which takes a lot of pressue off of us teachers : )

I have been climbing a lot and I am getting stronger. Still getting my butt kicked on a regular basis by the top Korean climbers at our gym, but I am improving nonetheless. I also went to a batting cage for the first time in four years and hit some balls. It was a lot of fun… and I only got hit by the awesome pitching machine three times!

I attached some pictures of our office at SLP (our school), of the climbing competition I went to and of our traditional Korean dinner with our friend Won Seop.

Cheers,

Jay [gallery]