March Madness

March hasn't panned out to be the best month. After my birthday trip things went downhill, but not to worry because things are looking up. Anyways, I got pretty sick for a while, with what I'm assuming is the flu. I spent 2.5 days in my bed literally not leaving my house and sleeping more than any normal person could force themselves to. The "sick" part faded after a few days but I have had a cough that refuses to go away. It has driven me crazy for about 2 weeks now. Just after getting over being sick I went to play soccer with some friends on a Sunday afternoon and sprained my knee. My teacher took me to the doctor and through some translating basically told me to just stay off it for a few weeks, do some physical therapy, and take some mystery pills. Unfortunately, I signed up to run in a half marathon this coming Sunday the 5th, and between being down sick and then my knee, my training has gone to hell. The thing that really made me angry is that before I got sick I was doing really well with my training and getting into some really long runs; I was hoping I could make a good time (for me anyways!) I think I'm going to attempt the run nonetheless with a brace and a few extra drinks of water. I think I can will my way across the finish line, though I know I won't be setting any records, I still really want to do it. I'll do another one someday to redeem what I'm already predicting to be a poor finish. I will say though, that my knee is feeling much better and my cough is fading ever so slowly, so I am feeling better. Though too little too late for the race I'm afraid, I am glad that I'm getting my health back.
Here are some random pictures of some going-ons. The first few are from a night out in Seoul (though these might actually be from Feb. I can't remeber): dinner, a cool cafe with coloring and tons of pop-up books, and ending in a lounge with a crazy decor.


These next few photos are from a Saturday afternoon in Seoul doing some touristy things. We went to the Deoksugung, a palace. The weather was amazing that weekend showing the first signs of spring. It has gotten a bit colder these last few days, but I have hope that my jacket will go back into my suitcase soon.

Quarter Century and so on

Since my last trip, I've stuck pretty close to home. I had to teach another English camp at work for 2 weeks and then this past week was the start of the new school year (much different system then the one I'm use to). Up until this week, the pace of life slowed down a lot. I was only working a few hours a day and then had long weekends where I would hang out with friends day and night, played soccer once (so fun!), watch movies, and sleep in late! But, life has started again, so I have to get use to business. Also, my birthday was last weekend (March 1st) which was also the last weekend before school started. I got a small group of friends together and we went on a weekend getaway to Seoraksan National Park, about 2 hours east of Seoul. My teachers had mentioned that I should go there sometime because the mountains are beautiful and there is a beach. They were right and the trip was a much needed change of scenery and really great before starting back. We did a bit of hiking in the park as well as rode a cable car to one of the peaks. We went to the beach the following day, and though too cold to tan or swim, it was nice to see the ocean and sand. We also did a bit of celebrating me turning a quarter century; and I still can't figure out how I got so old? They got me a cheesecake, yummm! and we stayed in a motel where I shared this amazing circle bed with my friend Rebekah. (We were so excited about the circle bed; hence the photos of us jumping on it). I had a really great birthday and I've enjoyed all the cards, emails, and packages too. Thanks! For some reason on my birthdays it seems to hit me hard that I'm near near home and family, but I stayed pretty occupied and didn't get too home sick. And now... I'm 25! yikes!


This last picture isn't from my birthday weekend, but just from a random subway ride in Seoul. I had a few friends from another city called Ulsan come up to visit and so I helped show them around Seoul a bit. This picture is a candid shot of me and Mallory and an old Korean man making our way across town. A pretty typical scene, hehe!

Winter Vacation 3: Bangkok, Thailand

The last stop was Bangkok. All of my friends had to be back to work for Monday, but I didn't have to back until Wednesday, so I went to Bangkok by myself. The first day I was there I took a water taxi (a feat to understand in itself) to see the giant Golden Buddha and the Golden Mount.


The next day I went to the Grand Palace, the main attraction in Bangkok, and to Wat Pho. The Grand Palace is HUGE and everything is golden and sparkly, and just WOW! You had to have your shoulders covered and pants on, but luckily I had all of the above. Wat Pho is known for its huge reclining Buddha that was, of course, golden as well.

I also went to the weekend market, which was probably my favorite part of Bangkok. It was a maze of stalls and shops with street performers and musicians on every corner. I wandered around for a few hours, bought a couple of things and enjoyed a Phad Thai lunch (I ate Phad Thai just about everyday I was in Thailand.) This picture doesn't do it justice, because it's difficult to photograph a market's feel.

I had a couple of others things I had planned to do in Bangkok, but a few unfortunate transportation mishaps made them not possible, but it's ok, because I enjoyed what I did get to do. I didn't want to walk around much after dark so every night I went to the movies and watched whatever they were playing in English. They had the nicest theatre I've ever been in with reclining leather chairs. And, it cost only about $4US per movie! I've been asked if I was ever scared or nervous when I traveling over there. I have to say that in all, I felt really rather comfortable. I, of course, played it safe and didn't go anywhere where I knew it would be sketchy, but everyone was nice, most spoke some English and whenever I asked for help, everyone gave me legitimate help. So, in all, my trip was... AMAZING! It was really difficult to come back to school the day after I'll admit. My teacher told me she could tell I was "different" after coming back. I think she meant that the vacation had done me good! It definitely did!

Winter Vacation 2: Phuket, Thailand

Phuket is paradise. Greece is the only other place I can think that I've been that I was at an equal level of awe. So after Cambodia, Rebekah and I met our friend Candice down in Phuket. On our first day we went on a tour of Ko Phi Phi. If you ever saw the movie, "The Beach" and thought it was beautiful, well it was filmed here. It was actually filmed specifically at Maya Bay which is where we went to first. We also went to a place called Monkey Beach, where as you'd expect, there were monkeys. They were probably the most well fed monkeys ever because everyone tried giving them some bread or a piece of fruit or something. We then anchored off for about 45 minutes and got to go snorkeling in the reef. They had some really beautiful fish; the kind you see in aquariums that are every color. We also passed by some viking caves while on the boat (6th photo) on our way to Egg Island. On Egg Island we got some time to just hang out, swim, snorkel more, and tan. You just rent a chair and then relax!

We happened to have a couple of friends who are also teachers in Incheon who were in Phuket at the same time as us. So, we met up with them a few times during our visit. They had been there for about a week, so they showed us good places to eat and good beaches to chill on/bury each other on. The first picture is another kind of tuk-tuk, but it's kind of just like sitting in the back of a truck, not a scooter.

The next day we went on another tour, but this time a sea kayaking tour by night. It started mid-afternoon and lasted until about 9pm. We rode on a big boat and then would go to different locations where a guide would paddle us around. We went into a few lagoons only accessible during high tide and into a few different caves. One of which was a bat cave; a little scary! We ate a really nice dinner and then we made flower offerings to release at sunset. It was made out of all plants and flowers and then we put candles on it. When we put it into the water we made a wish. I'm not gonna tell you what that was. Anyways, Phuket was amazing and beautiful and I finally got a little bit of a tan. It was pretty perfect!

Winter Vacation 1: Cambodia

The first stop on my 10 day SE Asia adventure was Siem Reap, Cambodia. I actually flew into Bangkok, Thailand arriving at about 11pm and then Rebekah G. and I left at 4am to take a bus to Cambodia, so I didn't really see Bangkok until later. We had to take a bus to the border where we had to walk through border control and get our passports and visas stamped. Then we had to take a taxi to the city. In all the trip was, I think, like 9 hours. But we made it!

The first thing we did was check into our guest house (which was nice and only cost like $4 each per night; Cambodia is cheap! Picture above) and then we went on a boat trip to see the floating village. It was a real village, not just a tourist trap, where people actually lived. It was a mix of Vietnamese immigrants and Cambodians. There were floating schools, a basketball court, stores, a bar. The people used the water they lived in to drink, bathe, go to the toilet in. It was pretty incredible to see. We stopped by a school for orphaned children and brought them some pens. That's the last picture. When we were on the boat the drivers threw a rope out and we dragged some kids behind us because they were trying to get to the other side of the village using oars. It would have taken them ages.

The next day we rented bicycles and took ourselves around the Angkor temples. The main one is known as Angkor Wat (first 3 pictures). The next one we went to was Angkor Thom. It was cool because there were faces all over the temple, in every direction (pictures 4-5). It felt like I was in Indian Jones. Actually, the movie Tomb Raider was filmed in these temples. My favorite temple was Ta Phrom. Trees were growing on top of the stones and the roots blanketed over the walls. It looked surreal and because I have always really loved trees this was my favorite. (pictures 6-7). The last few pictures are from the bicycle ride. There were gates and statues spread all about between the temples that were worth a visit in themselves.

After a fun and hot day of biking, Rebekah and I decided we were in need of a massage. (I'm sure you've heard of Thai massages. Even though we were in Cambodia, massages are just as popular .) We went for a full body oil massage, not truly knowing what that entailed. They led us upstairs to a big room divided into smaller"rooms" by curtains. We went behind a set of curtains with 2 pads laying on the floor and they tell us, "Take everything off." At the same time we said, "...Everything?" We looked at each other and after a few laughs we were laying on the pads butt naked. We had an hour long massage that was truly full body, haha. The funniest thing was though, since we were just in one big room we could hear all the other people. It was mostly foreigners, so every time a new person would walk in you'd hear, "...Everything???" haha!

On our last 1/2 day we went to a silk farm. This first picture is a guy picking through some silk worms. I honestly had no idea how silk was made, so it was pretty interesting. Plus, the place we went hires many Cambodians that are disabled and then they donate a lot of their profit to education, so it was a cool place to see. Besides all the sites, being away had other benefits. We got to eat a much bigger variety of food then is available in Korea. We ate real western breakfasts. We also had Mexican food with cheap margaritas, found a vegetarian restaurant, and drank all the fresh fruit smoothies we could find; even more it was all so cheap.


This is from my first tuk-tuk ride. They're the carts attached to the scooters. We rode them a lot over the trip. We made friends with a lot of the drivers too.