Spring!

Before I write anything else, I should officially appologise to my Mom. For two reasons actually. First, last I wrote that Mom better not forget about our skype date again or she'd owe me an SLR camera. She didn't forget. I slept in. Oops. Instead I got to talk to Stanley when I finally woke up at 7am. I still think Mom should owe me a SLR camera. Just because.

The second reason is because I played the best April Fools joke on her. I'm not actually sorry about that one though because if I had to do it all over again, I still would do it. To make a long and hilarious story short, I sent an e-mail saying I just signed a contract to stay in Korea another three years and wouldn't be coming home. She read it while I was on skype with her. The look on her face...priceless! I almost wrote the same thing in a post on my blog, but decided that would be too much damage control to do afterwards.

Rain sucks:

For about a week it rained and rained and rained. My co-teachers said that it usually doesn't rain this much in the spring. Lucky me for getting to experience a rainy Korean spring! So far though, I think it's still beautiful. My dong is full of cherry trees and they are all covered in blossoms right now so it looks gorgeous! It looks like it's snowed on the trees only.

The road leading down to my apartment.

The past week has been beautiful though! In preparation of a hot day on Monday I wore 3/4 pants and a t-shirt to school. It didn't take long to notice every Korean gaze would slowly move down to my bare legs. They thought I was insane. My students joked that I thought it was summer already. The next day though, I got sick and I could see them thinking that it was because of my outfit choice when it was still "cold" out. It was 21 degrees. What would you wear? That's what I thought.

What I learned in March:

- You can't make whipping cream in a blender. It turns out looking like milk from a cow with really bad mastitis.

- If someone calls you and you don't hear their name properly and they're not on your contact list, ask them to say it again. If you don't and then they say it's very important to meet with you that week to discuss something, you won't have any idea who you are meeting until you show up at the agreed meeting location. Before you freak out, I knew it was someone from church. He wanted to take me to dinner to ask if he could put my picture on the new church business cards.

- Don't take on more extra classes than you can handle. I'm insanely busy this semester.

- Don't agree to teach genius kids classes until you know exactly how smart they really are. That way you can prepare yourself for them to be better at English grammar than you are when you start teaching them.

- After seven months of trying to find the best way to avoid eating all the food Korean's serve, the easiest way (other than straight out refusal, but that's sometimes hard because refusals go in one ear and out the other. It's like they think I'm joking when I refuse) is to surreptitiously hide the rice in the soup bowl while you are talking to them. So really, what I actually learned then is not to eat the soup because if you do you have no where to hide the food you don't want to eat!
- Don't give your number to random Korean guys who want to practice their English. They will call you everyday for absolutely no reason at all other than to speak in English.

- Clean your apartment more than once a month or you'll forget what the floor and table top look like.

- When you start to clean, finish cleaning because vacuum cleaners hurt when you trip over them in the middle of the night.

- Don't leave lesson planning to the day of or two minutes before class. Oh wait, I didn't learn that. I still do that.
- If you don't want it to rain when it forcasts rain, take your umbrella to work.

- Don't blog when you should be lesson planning.

Damyang bamboo park:

I have Wednesday and Friday off this week because of two of my schools going camping. Sinheung isn't though so I teach tomorrow. I went to Damyang with Jae Kyung (Cindy)today. We walked through a bamboo park (different than previous ones I've been to) and texted our co-teacher bragging about the beautiful weather while she complained about the cold weather in Wando where she was stuck with our 300 adolescent students.

At the park entrance.

Carving our names into the bamboo.

We wished Kris was there with us so I carved her name in as well.

Trying to get the best self photos to send to our co-teacher. We wanted the sun to shine off our faces so she'd be jealous.

Classroom stories:

Yesterday in class my principal came to my class to talk with me. His English is alright, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out what he was asking me. Then when I got back to my desk after class and had no computer I realized what he was asking me. Guess they finally decided to fix my stupidly slow computer and he wanted to know if I had anything to save on the hard drive. I understood that much and had said I use a USB. Good thing too or it'd have all been erased.

Also, yesterday in the same class I was walking around the class taking up a handout when I looked out the door to see six or seven of the most misbehaving kids in grade one being punished in the hall. They were all on their knees with their hands in the air. It made me laugh in the middle of class to which my students were utterly confused. I was quite happy to see the grade one's being punished. They are a pain in the ass. Grade one has no respect for any teacher and we all complain about them on a regular basis.

Accupuncture:

You probably all know about how Asians swear by accupuncture. Well, this past week Kristen and I have been getting accupuncture. I never thought I'd actually do it, but I'm sick and tired of my stupid heels (yes, both of them now) hurting that I'll try anything. Kris sprained her ankle a while back so that is why she's there. It's really cheap too. 5,000won a visit (about $4.50). It's actually really cool what they do. So far only my one heel is showing progress though.

Air Force:

I love planes. I love how I work in a military town. I love watching the fighter jets tear through the sky. Today, I'm home from school, but I guess they are practicing over Gwangju because I've been hearing them all afternoon. Maybe we'll start seeing tanks driving around again too. Unless that was just a one time deal. Who knows. I've only seen that once.

Sick:

I am sick. It's gotten worse after getting better. I think I accidently took night pills this morning because I crashed for three hours around lunch time. I didn't actually know what med's I was taking because it was from a previous time I was sick and it's all in Korean so I just guessed. Oh well.

Stay or go?

I have until May 3rd to decide if I want to stay another year. I hate decisions.

Church:

I love church. I love the people, the fellowship, and the things we do. I especially love worship band and decided that joining was the best thing I did in Korea. This Sunday we're having another picnic. Last week we decorated easter eggs and handed them out to people on the streets (also attached were the business cards with my face on them!).

Kris and Joel decorating the eggs. I managed to convince some Koreans I knew Korean by writing Korean on my egg. They didn't know I copied it until Joel told them.

Daegu. Kris, Gab, and I went to Daegu last weekend for two days. It's the last of the six largest cities in Korea that we hadn't been to. Now we've been to them all. Seoul, Incheon, Gwangju, Mokpo, Pusan, and Daegu.

North Korea:

- North Korea told South Korea they needed to stop conducting tours to the DMZ or something might happen. This happened after it's been speculated that the explosion on a South Korean navy ship and the death of many soldiers was thought to be from a torpedo from North Korea. I don't know what they're saying now though. Kris and I quickly decided we need to get to the DMZ SOON! I think we're going in May.

Strawberries Strawberries and more Strawberries

It is the beginning of strawberry season in Korea. There's been strawberries for quite a few weeks now, but they were really expensive. They are now down to a more reasonable price. Reasonable that I would buy them at least. Which I did. Tonight. And made strawberry bavarian for our church potluck tomorrow. I'm actually surprised it turned out because I don't have beaters. My arms got sore after using the wisk the whole time, but now I'm all made of muscles so it was worth it I guess :) In case I never mentioned it before, I LOVE strawberries. I can't stop myself from eating them. Last Wednesday at Samseo my school ended an hour earlier so that the teachers from my school and the elementary school next door could play volleyball all afternoon. It was awesomely intense. Anyway, the point is, afterwards we had an early dinner meal and there were plates of strawberries. My principal realized after a bit that I loved them and gave me the plate. Not a good idea. I almost ate all of them. Or maybe it was a good thing because me and Kris are having a No Munchies March competition and I'm losing majorly (thanks to my co-teacher) so I needed the healthy food rather than the rice cakes. Although he also wanted me to eat a cow's head which normally would be fine, but Korean's don't take the fat off anything. 3/4 of half the meat they serve is fat. Ugh.
As we all know, Canada beat the United States in the Olympic men's hockey gold medal game. Being in Korea, that meant we had to wake up at 5am to watch the game. Kris and I went to Laura's place in Hwasun and along with Amanda we had an Olympic party.
We were rather hyper the night before because we all had vacation stories to tell. Laura went to Norway to visit a friend and Amanda went to Mozambique to help out at a Christian centre there.

Needless to say, we missed each other and pigged out on pizza and snacks the night before and pancakes and strawberries and bananas the next morning (hence the reason Kris and I did a No Munchies March. We were feeling fat)

Laura doing the cobra pose of the men's speed skating team. Was is team pursuit or relay? I forget. But that's not the point, the point is Canada rocks. Enough said.

Fast Forward a week.... GAB'S BIRTHDAY BASH! Kris and I threw her an awesome party. Poster signs on her door, balloons, cupcakes (that I couldn't eat...sad), awesome presents, and a night out with friends.

Unam girls hanging out at Seoul Train in downtown Gwangju.

Kris and I almost did a record picture run. I stole Kris' camera for the night (because mine has no flash. I'm going to keep reminding you guys about that. Maybe someone will eventually catch on and buy me a digital SLR...? I'm still hoping...) and apparently took hundreds. Becuase I'm awesome like that.

The second three coolest people at the party (Note: Kris and I are part of the first and second coolest groups. In case you didn't notice.) Our awesome personal photographer (yes, he's now become our personal photograher. No matter what he or anyone else says).

Kris and I at Seoul Train.

I didn't really take many pictures in March. Partly because we didn't do a whole lot. Ok, that's a lie, I did so much this month, but not all of it was picture worthy. Especially the school stuff. I have been so insanely busy this month with school I'm about to get grey hair. I'm not quite there yet. If I was, you'd start mixing me and my Mom up :)

Anyway, I've really enjoyed being back in school. I missed my students. They have grown SO MUCH! I can't believe it! I also have a new batch of grade one students who I have a love/hate relationship with. They are so polite in the halls. They do full bows to me (which the grade 2 and 3's have stopped doing) and still say "Annyeonghaseyo" to me. Which I reply "hi" they get a confused look on their face until they realize they're supposed to speak English to me. That's the love part. The hate part comes in class. They are so noisy! Every teacher has complained about them so it's not only in my classes. Both Cindy and I freaked on them last week and so many students apologized in their diaries for the day. I hope it worked. They also have a habbit of speaking to me in Korean. HA! Like I know what they're saying! most of the time at least. I know enough classroom Korean to understand some stuff. My problem is, if they say something in Korean that I know, I answer in English forgetting to make them ask in English.

One of my grade three boys is convinced I speak Korean now fluently and always jokes around by speaking to me in Korean. He's not the only one though. My devil boy from Sinheung is also convinced of it and says stuff in Korean, a lot of which I understand so when I accidently answer, he thinks I know more than I do. I really don't know all that much. Just basics. But once you answer once, they think you know it all. I need to work on NOT answering.

I am teaching two more extra classes this term as well. One being genius classes from all the surrounding schools. I start on Thursday and have NO idea what I'm supposed to be teaching them. I meant to spend all day today lesson planning, but Heejae invited me to a wedding of a friend and I really couldn't pass that up. The wedding was just as insane as the one I went to with Cindy and much better food than the other one I went to with Heejae.

Back in January, Kris and I joined the worship band at our church, but couldn't start until we got back from vacation. We've been in it now officially for about a month and have practice Saturday nights. My morning was spent cleaning my apartment since after the wedding Heejae was coming to my place for guitar lessons and I haven't cleaned in a while. Like, a long while. Probably since I got back from vacation really. I've just been so busy. No time.

I found real cereal in Korea! Cereal that isn't frosted! Healthy cereal! It made my month.

I haven't had the heater on since I got back. My stupid apartment doesn't heat properly so in January it cost an arm, leg, butt, and hair for that bill. There's a breeze coming from somewhere, I just can't find it! All the windows are locked, doors to the balconies closed. Where it's coming from I have no idea. It comes and goes. Maybe it's haunted? That would be cool! So yeah, no heater for me. Instead I wear sweaters and blankets when I'm home. Which these days isn't often. Last bill for me was 13,000 won!! About 100,000 won cheaper than January. So worth being cold for. But then, it's actually not that cold in Korea right now. Spring is coming!

I went bowling last Saturday with Samgye. My co-teacher runs the bowling club activities once a month and asked if I wanted to come. I gave up my Saturday and going to the blossem festival with Sam, Gab, and Kris to go bowling. It was a lot of fun. We learned proper techniques and my students kicked my ass. Cindy and I with four grade three boys. Two of which who bowl regularly. They tried teaching my properly, but I still failed. The instructor laughed at me a lot. Probably because he could only do so much to correct me seeing as he didn't speak English (other than 1,2,3 go!)

It snowed once two weeks ago. Enough for a snowday, but NOOOO my co made sure we made it to school. Took 2 1/2 hours and I missed first period which I was supposed to teach grade three. Though my school was so thoughtful and changed the schedule so that I'd teach them second period instead. lucky me. I still missed some of it though. My co said it was because they missed me (Yeah, sure. Another teacher probably just didn't want to teach their class).

There's more I could write, a lot has happened and I haven't exactly been blogging this month. After Gem died I had the worst week of my life. All the teachers noticed. I didn't exactly try to hide my mood (other than in class, although I think some students noticed as well) and kept to myself a lot. My co-teaachers knew what happened though and one (disco from Samseo) decided to tell all the teachers. The rest of that day I could feel the eyes of the teachers on me checking up on me. Maybe to see if I'd break down crying, I'm not sure. This past week though, I told myself I'd have an awesome week. Cindy's boyfriend Min moved to Germany to work as well and we had both been in sad moods. So we made a deal, sealed with a totally awesome handshake we came up with and danced around The Cave (our name for the English lab) to music. It worked because we both had an awesome week. Again, the teachers noticed and commented on how I didn't look depressed anymore. Nice of them....

Well, now it's past midnight and I have to wake up at 6am for a skype date. Mom, if you forget this skype date, you owe me a digial SLR.

Gemdar, my best friend

March 11, 2010 When I said goodbye to Gemdar on August 12, 2009 I promised him I would be back in a year. I told him going to Korea was something I had to do. That I wasn't abandoning him or leaving him. I would be back and I would never leave him again. I promised that he'd be taken care of, groomed, and ridden. He wouldn't even notice I was gone. I told him it would be like when I was in university and could only come home once a month, only this time the month would last a lot longer. I told him Classy would keep him company and they would become friends. I told him all the new things I wanted to teach to him. I didn't know that the last time I hugged him, smelled his neck, pat him, and kissed him goodbye that it would be my final goodbye and I would never again see my boy.
Almost exactly seven months to the day I said goodbye - only off by one day - my Mom broke the news that Gem had suddenly died. No warning, no signs, no indication he was living his last day. An otherwise perfectly healthy horse dropped dead. My horse. My boy. My best friend. The one I told my secrets too. The one I cried on. The one who I enjoyed company with the most was gone.
the past seven months, whenever someone asked me if I missed my family I'd say "not really". Usually they were surprised and I'd tell them that I get to talk to them on webcam quite frequently and being able to see them and talk to them helps me not miss them as much as I would if I never got to talk to them. The next question would usually be "what do you miss most then?" My answer: Gem. I had three pets of my own when I left for Korea. My fish, Alex, died three weeks after I left. Dustie, my cat, I get to see on webcam and though I miss her, seeing her helps. Gem, I haven't seen for seven months. Now I'll never get to see him again.
That night was the worst night of my life. It was the news I least expected to hear. It's torn me up inside. I've cried all the tears I have. There's nothing left. The bond between Gem and I isn't something that can come overnight or even in a few meetings. We spent a lot of time together over the years. I know his every mood, how he'll act in every single situation, and what's best for him. No one knows him like I do and yet, I wasn't there for him in his last months. I regret that. But at the same time, all those years we had together can't be traded for anything.
I'll never have another horse like Gem.

The Second Half - Thailand!

So I keep putting off writing the Thailand post. Partly because it takes effort and partly because I am being seriously distracted by the olympics. They actually showed the women's hockey gold medal game here! I was so happy! 8:30am game for me. The men's will have at 5:30am though...that'll be an early day for me. South Korea's Kim Yu Na won skating gold and they have now showed the entire long program 8 times in a row since she won it less than an hour ago. Same goes for the speed skating dude who left the Netherlands in the dust and got an olympic record. And I thought America showed too many of their achievements over and over and over again! ah well.
Anyway, guess it's Thailand you want to hear about, not the olympics which you can read about or watch on your own time!

Thailand Day 1: Landed, went to hostel, pretty sure we got ripped off on the taxi ride, definitely knew prices were too high for the hostel's meals, walked to a street side place and ate a massive meal for less than half the price at the hostel (40 baht!), had the restaurant owner want a picture with us, went back to the hostel to plan the next few days (we only planned one day, our first night), went to bed. That's it.
Day 2: Went to the train station to book a train down south (after much arguing I gave in to Kristen. She wanted to go South to the beaches, I wanted to go North for the elephant trekking. Once we found out we could ride elephants in the south, minus the trekking, I agreed to go South as well). Sleeper trains were booked so we got stuck for a 12 hour over night bus to Krabi. Lucky us. Anyway, we left our bags there and spent the day traveling around the cultural and historical section of Bangkok. Place number one was the golden Buddha. We had to pay to get in and since we weren't properly dressed (tank tops. oops) we had to pay for a shawl as well. We said skrew this we don't care about seeing a solid gold reclining buddha and left.

We tried going to the Grand Palace, but it was closed for ceremonies and were told to come back in a few hours. Before we knew it we ended up on a Tuk Tuk to see a bunch of other sites as well as them taking us to tailored made clothing stores and diamond places trying to get us to buy them. We nearly laughed in their faces, it was so bloody expensive! but apparenly our Tuk Tuk driver would get free gas if we stayed at them for ten minutes each and since we had nothing better to do we indulged them. Our driver was nice and took us to other cultural places too (like the largest buddha. I am at the bottom of the picture if you can see me!) so we figured we'd be nice and help him get free gas.

Back at teh grand palace for some reason we couldn't get in again and he took us to the smaller one next to it and said the ever dreaded "same same" and left us. Since we wanted the Grand Palace and not the concubine palace (ok, I don't know if it was or not, but what else would it be?) we weren't planning on paying to go in so we walked around, bought some stuff, ate some 10 baht mangos (I am in LOVE with mangos) and went for dinner at China town.

My lack of memory skills came into play about here and continued for a while. I thought we had to meet at the bus place to get our tickets at 7pm for our 8pm bus. I was royally confused when Kristen was practically sprinting back when it was only 6:55pm. Turns out our bus LEAVES at 7pm and we were supposed to be there at 6:30pm. Who knew? anyway, then we can't find our ticket which after looking through all our stuff concluded that we weren't given it. They found our recipt though and let us on the bus. The guy was being all serious and saying he'll let us on only if we pay again. I was not impressed and my face definitely said "please please please we are stupid blonde and poor tourists, don't make us pay again!" guess he read that in my face because they let us on without paying again. 10 days later I'd find out ticket stuffed inside my passport. No wonder I couldn't find it!

oh, we also got told by a million different people that we were stupid for not planning where we're staying while in the south because being Tet and Chinese new years, everything was booked. Our Tuk Tuk driver took us to a travel agency and we ended up booking 8 days worth. four near Krabi on the western beaches of Ao Nang and four on the other side of Thailand on the eastern island of Koh Phangan. We were told there were no hostels down there, which turned out to be true. Our bungalo's weren't expensive though so that was ok.

Day 3-7: Ao Nang Beach and Baan Suan resort

Lets just say, when a resort says they're "close" to the beach, ask if it's within walking distance. Ours was within 10 minutes of moped driving distance. At first we weren't impressed, but then it turned out to be fun. We slept in the middle of the jungle which was awesome, and got to drive mopeds to the beach. The moped lead us to an Indian man who led us to so called "real" Indian food which was amazing. How did the moped lead us there? Tara forgot how to start it, didn't know that you need to push in the break to start it and we had to ask people how to start it. When he told us and I realized my mistake, I told him I was American. Bad mistake. He had an American flag on his belt and said he wants to go there SO BADLY and where was I from? I froze for a split second realizing I didn't make up a place and just before I was about to say Buffalo, NY (figured with my accent and having been there, I could make a good case for it), Kris jumped in and said Portland, Orgeon. We don't even talk like them! But thankfully he didn't ask anymore about it and we took off.

More moped problems, the resort expects us to fill them with gas, but people run them as low as they can to avoid filling them. Our resort dude said we'd only have enough to get to the beach, but he doesn't know I am champion of knowing how far I can get on my gas tanks and consistantly getting in the drive way just as the gas light turns on. We had enough to get back to the resort, plus getting lost in between. The next time we rented it was a different one that was almost below the red line. We actually looked for the gas station this time, but couldn't find it so drove back at night anyway. Figured it'd be easy to push if we needed to. We didn't.

Part of Ao Nang beach.

First day on the beach. lots of long boats returning from day trips with tourists.

The next day we did a snorkling tour all day. This beach is where the movie "The beach" was filmed. I couldn't care less, but that is the attraction of the island I guess. The beach was beautiful though!

This was Bamboo Island that no longer has bamboo on it because the Tsunami destroyed them all. Although there is speculation there's some at the top of the island.

Money Island. I hate the stupidity of people. Everyone thought this was "so cute". I wanted to kill the person who gave him this.

Open water snorkling at Hin Klang. You could stand on the coral, that's how close it was! It was beautiful! You can only snorkle here at low tide.

At the resort restaurant that was a ripe off, doesn't know how to make mango, watermelon, nor banana shakes and take an hour to make your meal. We ate here three times out of all the meals we could eat in four days. I was NOT impressed with their service.

The resort monkey that Kris and I named Mr. Kim. He climbed all over me and destroyed the tables. It was so cute! I had to catch him for the lady because he kept running from her.

He has good taste though. That my friends and fellow Dutchies, is a bottle of Maggie.

Just after sunset. I kept missing sunset because we were always eating. Boo!

The fourth day at Ao Nang we did an elephant riding and hot spring trip for the day. Elephants are SO SLOW! I prefer horses by a long shot! It was still fun though. Our guide was funny and took a million pictures of us.

Just after I took this picture, the elephant threw the branch at the guy who was taking our picture. It was hilarious! It almost took him out too.

My friend.

At the hot spring waterfall. The waterfall was hot, obviously, but the river it fell in was freezing cold. Going from one to the other was killer!

Then we went to this other buddha place and climbed 1,237 insane steps to an incredible view!

We were warned to watch our hats and glasses because the monkey would take them. They were climbing all over the stairs and even tried dumping a bottle of water on Kris. It just missed. some of the steps were at a near vertical incline. It was intense. We were told it would take us an hour and half to climb up, take pictures, and climb down again. It took us 45 minutes. Once again, our guide underestimate the physical ability of girls. We proved them wrong.

At the top.

Baan Suan resort bungaloo. It was cute, but the mosquitos were killer! thank goodness for the nets. I felt like I was a prisoner under them though. As soon as it hits dark in Thailand, the mosquitos come out in full biting force. Going to the washroom was an ordeal. You'd have to jump out, close your net, run to the bathroom, run back, jump in, and close it before they got to you or in your net. Annoying really.

Koh Phangan: Days 7-11

Walking into town.

Day two in Koh Phangan we went to Haad Rin which is known as the party section of the island. Koh Phangan is well known for their full moon parties. Basically it's an excuse to get tourists there for a reason to party. They now have a full moon party, half moon, black moon, and blue moon. That is one party a week. Makes sense since tourists come and go all the time. That's the reason we didn't stay in Haad Rin though. We like our sleep. So we visited during the day. The beach was so beautiful! We also tried Mars/Banana shakes which is a ground mars bar in a banana shake. I am dreaming about it now. It was SO GOOD! Bad idea to try it though because shakes are healthy. Just the fruit ground with ice. Good for you. Add a mars and suddenly it's unhealthy. Oh well. I only had one. Mango shakes were my addiction in Thailand.

This place had it's own private beach which was cool, but it was small and they didn't clean the beach regularly.

The beauty of Southern Thailand. Just before this we went to go get a pedicure. I know I know, after getting one for Adelle's wedding I swore I'd never do it again. However, Kristen wanted to AND it was only 100 baht which is about $3.25. I wasn't about to argue. However, We decided to go to an outdoor place near our resort, but they sucked so in the end, it wasn't worth the $3.25. There was a creepy man there trying to convince the lady to convince us to get massages. Not a chance.

On the beaches I got the pleasure of watching Kite Boarding. I was so jealous! the place that did it though was too far to walk to and I wasn't sure of the cost or if it was a course you had to take. I didn't want to bore Kristen for a day while I did that. Plus, I was running out of money. In a way I regret not doing it because how often are you at a beach where they do kite boarding? I've wanted to try it since they invented it. But alas, I didn't get to. Next time I will for sure though. I have already promised myself.

The last mornign I woke early to take tons of pictures. This was one of the last ones after the sun was well risen. It was a beautiful sunrise.

Day 11-12 we spent on another bus trying to sleep the 12 hours back to Bangkok. Arrived at 4:30am and spent the next few hours in bugar king reading books and eating breakfast. We called Adelle for cheap, tried calling my parents but whoever answered hung up each time before they heard me, then headed to our friend Ice's house about an hour outside of Bangkok. Got ripped off by the taxi guy again too. Stupid Thai taxi drivers.

The next few days, and also last of our trip, we spent with Ice and her boyfriend. We ate TONS of delicious Thai foods and saw some of the city. Her family is loaded so her maid made up our rooms, another maid made us food, met her brother in their own personal gym/weight room that over looks a gorgeous river and park, laughed about old high school memories and the people we liked or didn't like, and generally had a good time.

We went for Thai massages that we didn't have to pay for because her Mom did. We ate coconut ice cream in a bun that has sweet sticky rice at the bottom. Weird combination right? Not a chance! best ice cream I've ever tasted! One dinner with her family we went for what they call porriage which is rice soup basically. We also ate pig intestines (it's weird when it's not in sausages) and chicken feet. Not joke. They look like fingers and I kept joking about that while I was working up the nerve to eat it. Then when you eat it you have to spit out all the little joints so I really felt like I was eating a human hand. It was fatty, but it didn't taste that bad. And I thought eating sparrow and swan in Vietnam was weird! This took the cake for sure.

We also tried the biggest shrimp I have ever eaten in my entire life. This this was massive! probably from the tip of my fingers to my elbow if straightened out. It was delicious though. So was our dessert of mango with sweet sticky rice. Sigh. I wish Korea had sweet sticky rice. It's really amazing. I'd eat it as a snack. Our last morning there Ice's personal driver took us to the airport.

Now that was an experience!

On our way back to Korea our plane went via Hong Kong. Ten minutes after stepping off the plane Kris and I were already in trouble with the Chinese authorities! We were taking pictures of ourselves, but apparently we were doing it in a high security no picture zone and the dude runs over to us and demands Kristen's camera to see what we were taking pictures of. He ok'd them though. He didn't see me drop my camera into my purse before he could check out mine. Now the Chinese government is going to be after me, I just know it!

On the level up we were waiting for our plane and what do we see? Air Canada!

Kris and I both wanted to jump on the plane because it was heading to none other than Toronto. Alas, we could not and had to board our plane heading to Korea.

Being back now is really weird. I was so done with Korea once we left. It was like I was finished all my teaching, doing some traveling, then going back to Canada. I know I'll readjust though, it'll just take a few days. I don't even want to pick up my guitar and play it which is really weird! usually I can't get enough of it! My phone also doesn't work. Cindy is saving the day tonight and hopefully they'll reactivat my number. Apparently it was "disabled at the request of the customer". I requested no such thing. I think it did it just because I left the country so it automatically does it. But now I can't contact anyone! oops. guess my school can't tell me to come in early!

It's also warm in Korea. It rained yesterday. First precipitation I've seen in 25 days! It was nice. We missed the last of winter in Korea I think. It's warmish from here on in I've been told. I'm no complaining!

This is also the home stretch. I'm past six months. It's a count down from here. Ok, I'm done. Back to watching speed skating.

The first half - Viet Nam

Where do I even start to describe the last 25 days of my life? It's not something I can write about in a single blog post so I am doing two. One for Viet Nam and one for Thailand. I have gone to so many places, experienced so many thing, and have hundreds of memories of these last few weeks. Thankfully, I had a camera to capture many of these memories or I'm not sure I'd remember them all (partly because my memory is equal to that of a goldfish). So here is a VERY small sample of my Viet Nam pictures. Check facebook for the rest once I have time to put them up.

Day 1:

Our trip began January 30 at 12:00 am. We left our home of Un-am Dong for the Gwangju bus terminal where we caught a 1:00 am bus bound for Incheon airport in Seoul for our 10:00 am flight. We arrived around 5:00 am and spent the next three hours on the benches sleeping as Kristen is below. It was actually quite confortable. More than the bus we were taking that's for sure. little did we know that would be a welcome place to sleep compared to some of the other places we slept over the next 25 days! After checking in I told Kris how it would be funny if we met other Canadian Connection English Teachers at some point in our trip. Not ten minutes later we ran into Chris and Ashley (who also happen to have gone to Redeemer) and found out they were on the same flights as us! So random!

Our flight took us six hours from Incheon to Bankok where we had a few hour layover before taking the oldest, rattiest, dangerous plane I have ever been on to Hanoi, Viet Nam. Longest hour and half of my life and I'm not afraid of flying or turbulance or anything and it still scared me. At our layover we found out another girl, Nicole, was on the same first flight as us, but was going to India and was on a different plane leaving Bangkok.
Anyway, we eventually got to Hanoi around 9:00 pm after about an hour or so delay. Stupid me, as soon as I got my massive backpackers backpack from the plane I broke the main clip that goes around your hips keeping the pressure off your shoulders. Go figure that happens to me!
We found our ride to Hanoi backpackers hostel that we booked for two nights and set out into Hanoi for the start of our adventure!

Turns out Hanoi is moped/motorcycle central. You can buy a brand new moped for $100. That's about all they drive. Hardly a car in sight.
And to cross the road, you just walk.
Scariest moment of my life was following some local old guys cross the road. I was watching the old man so I wouldn't have to dodge the mopeds on my own, but right in the middle of the road I decided to look and nearly shit myself. There was hundreds of mopeds coming at us and we were in the middle! However, since that's the normal way to cross the street, pedestrians and mopeds have an understanding how not to get killed while doing it and we all survived the street crossing.
Funniest moment was watching a group of about 20 old western people cross the road. They looked like a pack of ducks shuffling across the street in a big close pack together. To my amusement, we weren't the only people to stop and watch to see if they'd make it across alive. They did. They may have shed the last few years of their life on the crossing!

Day 2: Army Museum

I LOVE military museums! I can't get enough of them! I didn't think this display gave an accurate depiction of what it would be like to be gored by one so I joined in the picture.

The flag tower that Kris and I climbed. It was so old and so cool! it was like a dungeon inside on the way up and the view was amazing!

Partly because we could see this display in full view. The crashed plane is part of an actual U.S plane that crashed during the Viet Nam war (which in Viet Nam is called the American war. Say the Viet Nam war and they'll have no idea what you are talking about). They took the plane here and set it up for display. It was so interesting to read about the Viet Nam perspective on the war rather than the very skewed version the U.S talks about and that we learn about.

Ho Chi Mhin's Mossoleum! The guy on the far left blew a whistle and yelled at people if they crossed the white line that I am standing near. He blew it right after this picture and I thought it was at me and nearly took off running. It was at some other dude though so I was safe. We didn't go into the actual mossoleum part which you aren't allowed taking pictures, talking, and slouching (our friends told us about it). We weren't appropriately dressed....tank tops aren't allowed.

Day 3: found a place that serves all you can eat buffet ICE CREAM on the first friday of every month. That would be in four days. I was excited until I realized we'd be in Halong Bay that day. Sigh. That would've made Rach jealous for the rest of her life. Have you ever hear of buffet ice cream? and I missed it!!!

We also took a Vietnamese cooking class this day. It was really interesting learning to cook Vietnamese food. Even better that we got to eat it all afterwards. We got a cooking present of cooking chopsticks and the full recipes of what we made. Hopefully, if I can find the ingredients, I can make it back in Canada. I can't wait!

Day 3-6: SAPA trekking!
Kris and I planned a grand total of two nights out of our entire 25 days and that was the first two. Once we got to our hostel we found out they arrange day and multiday trips. We took advantage of it. Not to mention the hostel offered free breakfast. How could we leave?

We spent the night on a sleeper train (not comfortable by the way) going up to Lao Cai (5 am arrival) which pretty much sits on the border of Viet Nam and China. From there we back tracked a little to Sapa. We pretty much drove for 2 hours up and up and up the mountain on the curviest roads you could imagine. No guard rails. By the time the sun was rising we got into Sapa which is basically a small tourist city nestled in the mountains. It was beautiful!

The mountain in the background is part of the Fansipan Mountains, the largest in Indochina. That's what we'd spend the next few days climbing.

Start of the trek. The local ladies who are with us try to sell you stuff in the town. They walked with us until they got to their villages that we passed. Currently they don't have much work to do because it's after harvest and before planting season so they sell handmade stuff in the town. They can be very pushy for you to buy things which can be annoying or fun to talk in circles with them. Sometimes they just like to talk with you though. Their English is very good.

Our water buffalo friends were everywhere. One was close enough for us to pet even. They use them for planting and working in the rice fields.

One of the farming spreds out in the mountains.

A view of some farms from above them.

Side view of some more farms. The view was spectacular!

Our group with our homestay Mom. Really comfortable mats with mosquito nets over them. Delicious food, excellent homemade rice wine, and lots of fun company! L-R: Abe, Mario, H'mong Lady, Me, Kris. Abe was from Seatle and Mario from Austria.

Our guide and the rest admiring the view.

I was in awe of God's awesome artistic abilities everytime I looked up from the pathway/"pathway". Usually when I looked up I had 3 miliseconds to determine it was the most beautiful thing I have seen in a long time and the God was amazing before I tripped over a pothole, rock, branch, or my feet.

This waterfall is tiny now. It's actually massive, but only during the rainy season and February is the month with the least precipitation so no waterfall for us. Maybe that's a good thing. I'd probably fall down it or something.

Guess how old she is? I'd guess about 8 or younger, but I got the advantage of seeing her face. Young girls right up to older women carry these all day long to bring to their homes and farms.

Usually pictures can't capture the moment in landscape, but you can't take a bad picture along the Fansipan Mountains. It's just not possible.

At the end of our trip a cast off army jeep left over from from WWI picked us and took us back to Sapa on a partially washed off road with no guard rails with the nearest ground hundreds of meters below.

Day 6-8: Halong Bay

After our trekking adventure we took the sleeper train back to Hanoi, got back at 4:30 am, navigated the streets to find our way back to the hostel, switched clothes around from our larger backpack to our smaller one, checked the internet, ate breakfast and at 8 am left for the Halong Bay trip, again, organized through our hostel.

This is the top of our "Junk", the boat we spent day and nights number one on. That's our group there. Some were awesome, some I never really met, and some I don't care to meet again.

Our anchor spot for the night. There are other Junks from other tours. Probably none as cheap or as cool as our tour. We went Kayaking here and saw the Monkey Mountains that didn't have any monkey's on them. This is also where I met my archnemesis. By default we ended up kayaking partners.

On the beach searching for seashells. I have an obsession with seashells. They are so pretty and each one is so unique! Too bad I can only take a limited amount back with me. Or maybe that's a good thing. Here is Kris and Laura. Unfortunately for us, we got the worst weather they've had in weeks. It was overcast and a bit chilly at times. It rained during the night, but over all didn't ruin the trip at all! Just meant no suntanning.

From the boat a look at Castaway Island. It's a private beach owned by the hostel. They have two guys who live there for two weeks then have two days off. There's a speed boat for skiing, tubing, and of course my favourite, wakeboarding!

Lucky for me the guys I went with for wakeboarding had already been drinking and couldn't take good pictures so this was the best they got and it was blurry. I put it up to rub it in Stanley's face :) So I told my brother and Dad this story, but Mom was on the phone so she didn't hear it and I guess I have to repeat it here.

We had to sign up for wakeboarding or tubing. Our group was big so 30 people in a single afternoon meant only 15 minutes each. To a girl who has grown up on the water her whole life spending entire days tubing, skiing, and wakeboarding - 15 minutes was like blinking. But that was what I had to deal with.

The night before I made the mistake of telling my archnemesis that I had wakeboarded before. Of course the guy ended up being another Jon Mosterd. I didn't know this at the time though. He just asked what I was planning on signing up for and before I knew it I was trying to convince him that I DIDN'T say I was a world class wakeboarder. The effort really wasn't worth it though because he definitely wasn't listening. I just hoped that I could avoid him the rest of the trip.

So the day of signing up was there and of the seven people who signed up for wakeboarding, I was the only girl. That seems to be a trend with lots of things. Sometimes I wish other girls would go the interesting, more physical, more likely to get injured way, but at other times I enjoy showing up the guys. This was one of those times. Until I realized the guy I told about wakeboarding the night before was also on the list.

I determined that I wouldn't be in the boat with him. Thankfully his three other friends were also wakeboarding so the four of them went first and me and the other two guys would go second. Secretly, I got pleasure watching them from shore and seeing them struggle getting up.

When our turn came the instuctor asked if I would go first because I had been before and I could show the guys how to get up (he had asked me when I signed up if I'd been before. Probably thinking he couldn't believe I was signing up and that I'd leave injured, crying, or both). When he asked, the other two guys stopped dead and started complaining that they couldn't believe they were going to get shown up by a girl and that they wished they had been in the first heat of guys wakeboarding.

The only problem I had was the wakeboard itself which my feet I inherrited from my wonderful father were too big for the girls wakeboard and too small for the mens. Since I use Stanley's all the time I figured I'd be ok with the mens, but it was a little too bit no matter how I tightened it making my feet slide around a bit while I was boarding. Not enough to not show off though.

This was my first time boarding with a tower, in salt water, and with someone driving who doesn't know my preferences in boating speed, direction, turns etc. He caught on quick though and after one time getting up he knew I liked to go as soon as the rope was tight in my hands and figured out the speed well as well. Anyway, I did some basic jumps and grabs, one pretty sick fall where I swallowed more salt water than is heathly. I would rather swallow the Grand River water than salt water! It burns! dirt is much more preferable to that feeling. I also got slammed in the chest pretty hard, but I wasn't about to say that to the guys. My head was rattled a bit. It's a good thing there was no helmet though because if there was I would've tried a few of the tricks that have given me concussions before. I just figured I wanted to leave the island with the same amount of brain cells and bones that I came with. The hospital wasn't exactly close and I bought the cheapest health insurrance possible which didn't cover "stupid decision" accidents.

Anyway, despite the lack of impressive wakeboarding, it was still better than anyone there. Heck, all I needed to do was get up for longer than 10 seconds and I was better than everyone else (instructors excluded of course).

So these two guys, having had a couple drinks already, told the entire beach that I had said I did some wakeboarding before but wasn't good and then suddenly I was up "and doing my hair, then fixing my boots, doing my makeup etc before I did backflips and everything else". The rest of the night the alcohol talked and any time I introduced myself to someone they'd say "oh! you're wakeboarindg Tara!". News apparently travels fast. So while they were telling people I was doing backflips, I was telling those same people I wasn't. Unfortunately for me, not only did they take pictures of me with my camera, but they did with theirs as well. Everytime I'm up I adjust my bathing suit bottoms, fix the boots if they're uncomfortable, push the hair out of my face and then go. I just didn't realize others noticed that. They also took pictures so despite the fact there were definitely NO backflips, people belived them over me.

The instructors told me I was the best female wakeboarder they had seen on the island though so that was kinda cool.

Anyway, I'm sure most of you don't care, but I love wakeboarding so that's my highlight of the trip. Although a certain person might beg to differ, but I choose to ignore him.

Day 7: Maison Centrale: Hoa Lo Prison

This is the prison in which John McClain was held during the war. Vietnam is filled with French influence. This used to be a torture prision by the French for their colonized Vietnamese people, but during the war it was a prison for downed American pilots. It was so cool! It's a mini museum full of interesting facts and info. I didn't want to leave!

Day 8: Day trip to the ancient capital, Hoa Lu and the three caves stream, Tam Coc.

First we went to two ancient Chinese temples. They were small, but really pretty. The scenery was beautiful. I'd live there. This waterbuffalo was outside the stone fence. His hole pretty much covered him completely.

The we went biking for "40 minutes". More like 1 hour 40 minutes. At least, it felt like it in the insane heat. Beautiful countryside of Vietnam though. I got burned. Go figure. First burn of the trip. They got worse each time. I suck.

After a delicious lunch buffet of amazing Vietnamese food we went in row boats that took us down the river and through three caves. This is emerging from one of them. It was so dark in them you could murder someone and no one would know who did it. It echoed though so the shot would ring louder than usual. You could use a knife I suppose, but that would be more obvious it was you.

On the boat. We thought that being on the river we'd be rid of all the lady's pushing in your face to sell you junk food, but alas, even on the river we can't escape! they were waiting in boats at the end of the river and guilt you into buying stuff for your guides. We refused to buy them pop or red bull so we bought them water. Then the lady shared sugar cane with us. mmm. so good!

Our last night we met up with our 2 Welsh and 2 American friends who we met on the Halong Bay trip and went out for some good 'ol Vietnamese street food. It also turns out that my archnemesis is another Jon Mosterd who relishes making fun of me and twisting my words to sound like I mean something else. Who knew I'd actually miss making fun of someone? All my friend in Korea are either Korean and they don't understand when I make fun of them or they're western and aren't impressed when I do it.

And that my friends, is the end of my Viet Nam trip. The following day we flew out of Hanoi for Bangkok. Again on a death plane, but not as bad as the previous one. Somewhere in here I am confusing my days because we definitely spent 12 days in Viet Nam. Which reminds me of another funny story. Kris and I knew we were flying out on the 10th for Thailand, but for some reason we thought the 10th was Tuesday. On Monday, the 8th, we figured out we were stupid and the 10th was Wednesday, not Tuesday. Thankgoodness we figured that out BEFORE we went to the airport! Hence the day trip we took to fill space. I had a lot of blonde moments on this trip needless to say. I won't mention them all here or you'll really think I'm a dumb blonde...

I have a million more stories, but not enough time or space to tell them all so here is the first half of my trip. Second half, Thailand, will come tomorrow morning hopefully.