what better way to escape all the stress, struggle, and strain of these past 2 months than to...take a vacation in france! ali and i are heading out friday night, parking the car on a massive ferry, which will travel through the night and land on the coast of france just in time for us to spend a much needed 3 days away! hooray! we're staying at a little apartment in the little seaside village of en fleur (it has a fire place! a fire place! did you hear me?!?!? a fire place!) and apparently it's one of the coolest places in france. i can't wait to practice all the french i've been learning. bonjour! merci! je vous drais un bottaile de vas rouge sil vous plais! (i would like a bottle of red wine please!) i've learned how to order wine...what else is there to know in france?
aur vois!
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
ouch! it bit me!
i feel very much the Christmas spirit starting to ooze into my blood. after spending saturday and sunday in downtown london hanging out with friends, i started to get that annual desire to fill my days with christmasy things. ice skating in the city, sipping hot cocoa bundled in mittens and a wooly scarf, shopping in a lit-up harrods for christmas teas and coffees, strolling through the famous london street of christmas lights (all of this which are on the agenda for next weekend...), and watching every classic christmas movie out there from it's a wonderful life to the polar express (on the agenda for tonight). i can't help it. i've been listening to christmas music non-stop. i'm about to head to the video store to pick up every christmas film in the building. i just sent an e-card where you get to create your own snow man. sigh. i've been bit by the bug.
to be honest, it's been a rather difficult time these days. we're really worried about me getting the visa, and it seems necessary to think about what we will do if i don't get it. which just leads to a lot of panick and stress. him getting a visa to the states is even more impossible and unlikely, and it would seem that in order to be together, we would have to go overseas. maybe there are more options, but being refused this visa definitely makes the future look a little bleak and unstable. we're trying not to think about it, and just enjoy being together at the moment, but, well, it's impossible to not let it sort of cloud over the moment. we did, however, go to a beautiful service at westminster abbey yesterday. ali's childhood friends' dad was doing the service. that may be the most beautiful church i've been to. and one of the most beautiful choirs. i just found myself praying the entire time that God takes care of me. and us. it's scary not knowing what the plan is for my life.
well, off to the video store i go, ho ho ho, let it snow let it snow let it snow, rudolph the red nose rein...oh wait, that doesn't rhyme.
to be honest, it's been a rather difficult time these days. we're really worried about me getting the visa, and it seems necessary to think about what we will do if i don't get it. which just leads to a lot of panick and stress. him getting a visa to the states is even more impossible and unlikely, and it would seem that in order to be together, we would have to go overseas. maybe there are more options, but being refused this visa definitely makes the future look a little bleak and unstable. we're trying not to think about it, and just enjoy being together at the moment, but, well, it's impossible to not let it sort of cloud over the moment. we did, however, go to a beautiful service at westminster abbey yesterday. ali's childhood friends' dad was doing the service. that may be the most beautiful church i've been to. and one of the most beautiful choirs. i just found myself praying the entire time that God takes care of me. and us. it's scary not knowing what the plan is for my life.
well, off to the video store i go, ho ho ho, let it snow let it snow let it snow, rudolph the red nose rein...oh wait, that doesn't rhyme.
Friday, November 14, 2008
visa nightmare.
THIS VISA IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!!!!!!
i feel as though it is starting to take over my life. a couple of nights ago i woke up from a horrible dream with undertones of my largely repressed (it has to be) but very powerful fear that i will not get my visa. i cried for a long time in a half asleep/half awake state and woke up the next day feeling like i got hit by a truck. last night, ali and i spent 6 hours doing more (sigh) visa research--reading forums, figuring out what needs to be written on the letter for my old boss (eeek! not another encounter with charlie!) to sign, if my bank records are on the right kind of paper, whether they count net pay or gross pay and from what starting date, and so many other terribly stressful concerns of which i will spare you the details. i couldn't sleep last night and when i did, i had unsettling dreams that left me feeling tired and anxious today.
i am starting to feel like this may be one of the most stressful thing i've done in my life. nothing that i can remember working toward has had such a strong outcome on the course of my life that i can remember. no test i studied for in college, no job application, no tangible goal i've worked toward in my life has been so full of tricky details that could be missed and so full of what feels like never ending obstacles!!! i feel like i'm climbing up a verticle wall. with spikes. and big angry chomping crocodiles below. it's hard to look past this and plan for my future or prepare or work towards any other goals i have right now b/c the outcome of this visa determines everything!
one month and one week from today, if all goes according to plan, i will be back in the states, i will have applied online, i will have had all my biometrcis done at the british consulate, i will have paid the WHOPPING $1,300.00 visa fee, all my checked and re-checked and checked again documents will be sent in, and it will all be out of my my hands. 5.....weeks.....
i feel as though it is starting to take over my life. a couple of nights ago i woke up from a horrible dream with undertones of my largely repressed (it has to be) but very powerful fear that i will not get my visa. i cried for a long time in a half asleep/half awake state and woke up the next day feeling like i got hit by a truck. last night, ali and i spent 6 hours doing more (sigh) visa research--reading forums, figuring out what needs to be written on the letter for my old boss (eeek! not another encounter with charlie!) to sign, if my bank records are on the right kind of paper, whether they count net pay or gross pay and from what starting date, and so many other terribly stressful concerns of which i will spare you the details. i couldn't sleep last night and when i did, i had unsettling dreams that left me feeling tired and anxious today.
i am starting to feel like this may be one of the most stressful thing i've done in my life. nothing that i can remember working toward has had such a strong outcome on the course of my life that i can remember. no test i studied for in college, no job application, no tangible goal i've worked toward in my life has been so full of tricky details that could be missed and so full of what feels like never ending obstacles!!! i feel like i'm climbing up a verticle wall. with spikes. and big angry chomping crocodiles below. it's hard to look past this and plan for my future or prepare or work towards any other goals i have right now b/c the outcome of this visa determines everything!
one month and one week from today, if all goes according to plan, i will be back in the states, i will have applied online, i will have had all my biometrcis done at the british consulate, i will have paid the WHOPPING $1,300.00 visa fee, all my checked and re-checked and checked again documents will be sent in, and it will all be out of my my hands. 5.....weeks.....
Thursday, November 6, 2008
two things to make for a great day:
#1. Yes we can!!! (watching this brought me to tears...)
#2. I get to see Dena in 2 hours!!!!!!!!
#2. I get to see Dena in 2 hours!!!!!!!!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
oh say can you see...
it's election day it's election day it's election day!!!! i can proudly say i voted for obama a few weeks ago when i was in the states. i am EXCITED!!!! i just hope i can catch the action on tv here. it's absolutely hillarious to watch the news in england. at home, even if you may be able to catch hints of bias from the station or news reporters, they have to remain relatively equal and balanced in their report and their coverage. but in england, there is no hiding the bias! any news channel i watch spends large chunks of their newscasts these days covering glorious barack obama glide through his campaign with a big shining light cast around his head, and they are not shy in stating that obama as president is basically america's only hope to not go down the tubes...and to not be forever hated by every other country in the world. and then after about 20 minutes of this radiating coverage, they'll show a 5 second fuzzy gray clip of john mccain saying "joe the plumber? are you in the crowd? joe the plumber where are you?" the transition goes something like this:
"barack obama climbs more points in the polls today, as america looks toward a brighter future under his leadership. look at him. he's glowing! look at that smile! it's radiant! he's oozing greatness and we like him over here! we like him!!! oh, and there's john mccain, confused and looking stupid because he can't find his plumber in the crowd."
it's something like that. anyway, go vote everyone!!!!
"barack obama climbs more points in the polls today, as america looks toward a brighter future under his leadership. look at him. he's glowing! look at that smile! it's radiant! he's oozing greatness and we like him over here! we like him!!! oh, and there's john mccain, confused and looking stupid because he can't find his plumber in the crowd."
it's something like that. anyway, go vote everyone!!!!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
i see london i see...
this weekend i went to london! it was my first time. :) london is coooooool. big time.on the left: mind the gap!!!
right: westminster abbey
left: in front of the parliament building
right: unmoving english gaurd
left: parliament building from the backright: cool english telephone booth!!!
here's the rest of the photos if you care to see more:
london photo album
along with seeing uber cool london this weekend, we also went swimming (i bought a new hot pink swim cap to give me more incentive to keep going), and played two intense games of monopoly on sunday. i luuuuurve monopoly! i haven't played in forever! we pulled it out, set it up, and suddenly i was looking at it thinking..."something's different here, this isn't exactly how i remember it, but i can't put my finger on what it is...now if i could only find broadway..." so it turns out the british have their own game of monopoly (and why wouldn't they? what incentive do they have to win american play money?) complete with locations all over england and the english pound. so it was a slight lesson in geography as well. but the point is, i won both games. :) he he.
i got my kindermusik license this week!!!! now if only i had a visa that let me use it...
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
england at a glance.
so....
i've arrived! i made it to england last thursday morning. ali picked me up from the airport and we headed to his house. where he lives is absolutely beautiful, full of nearby pastures and wooded areas and parks. i went for a run today and got completely lost, which i find is the best way to figure out what's around me. as well as the best way to get in shape since once i've gotten myself completely lost, i have to get home, which often requires about 3 miles more than i'd really planned. but his parents have been so gracious, and i'm working on finding my feet here. (kind of hard!)
england is very...er...english. sort of what you would picture really. the houses are all not really so much house-ish and more cottage-ish in my opinion. and everything is soooooo smaaaaaalll. the roads, the sidewalks, the cars, the cottages. everything just feels cute and dainty. oh, and old. everything feels really old. probably because it is.
i met a bunch of ali's friends this weekend. two of his friends dj once a month, so we all went out to that club and had a fun night out. i feel kind of like the new kid on the block. the new american kid on the block. i look the same (well, i sort of look the same. the girls here all look like they come straight out of an h&m magazine...good thing i've got heels and skinny jeans or i'd be an absolute fish out of water...), but i definitely don't feel the same and i'm not sure why. sometimes they're all talking and i have no idea what they're saying or even what the topic of conversation is. i'm not sure if it's the accent or the british jargon or both, but sometimes i feel completely lost! but i'll get it eventually.
so, i've mostly been filling my days with sleeping in, unpacking all my stuff and the boxes i sent from korea, trying not to miss korea, wishing ali would come home from work sooner, trying to understand his french mother's accent (oh! but i get to start french lessons with her this week!), and trying to orient myself! new places always bring difficult and sometimes sad adjustments. but the sad times always make the joyful times that follow all that much more joyful. as dad would say...it build character. :) he he.
ok, ali's done with band practice! toodles!
i've arrived! i made it to england last thursday morning. ali picked me up from the airport and we headed to his house. where he lives is absolutely beautiful, full of nearby pastures and wooded areas and parks. i went for a run today and got completely lost, which i find is the best way to figure out what's around me. as well as the best way to get in shape since once i've gotten myself completely lost, i have to get home, which often requires about 3 miles more than i'd really planned. but his parents have been so gracious, and i'm working on finding my feet here. (kind of hard!)
england is very...er...english. sort of what you would picture really. the houses are all not really so much house-ish and more cottage-ish in my opinion. and everything is soooooo smaaaaaalll. the roads, the sidewalks, the cars, the cottages. everything just feels cute and dainty. oh, and old. everything feels really old. probably because it is.
i met a bunch of ali's friends this weekend. two of his friends dj once a month, so we all went out to that club and had a fun night out. i feel kind of like the new kid on the block. the new american kid on the block. i look the same (well, i sort of look the same. the girls here all look like they come straight out of an h&m magazine...good thing i've got heels and skinny jeans or i'd be an absolute fish out of water...), but i definitely don't feel the same and i'm not sure why. sometimes they're all talking and i have no idea what they're saying or even what the topic of conversation is. i'm not sure if it's the accent or the british jargon or both, but sometimes i feel completely lost! but i'll get it eventually.
so, i've mostly been filling my days with sleeping in, unpacking all my stuff and the boxes i sent from korea, trying not to miss korea, wishing ali would come home from work sooner, trying to understand his french mother's accent (oh! but i get to start french lessons with her this week!), and trying to orient myself! new places always bring difficult and sometimes sad adjustments. but the sad times always make the joyful times that follow all that much more joyful. as dad would say...it build character. :) he he.
ok, ali's done with band practice! toodles!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
jolly good.
i find myself yet again writing from another airport. chicago o'hare this time. i caved and paid the stupid fee so that i could have wireless. 4 hours in an airport makes one do crazy things...such as pay for the internet. anyway, in exactly one hour and 23 minutes i'm moving to england! well, boarding a plane that will inevitebly lead to my move to england 8 hours later. :) and you know what that means??? I GET TO UNPACK MY SUITCASE!!!! i haven't done that for 2 months!
ali has been here the past couple of weeks, a week in chicago and 4 days in iowa, in a fantastic and at times comical trip i'd call "britain meets the midwest." if that were a book, i think the picture on the front would have to be ali, in his skinny jeans, blue rocknroll belt, and swooshy punk hair climbing into a massive green john deere combine harvester with my dad in complete farming gear. but i think he liked the midwest and i know the midwest liked him so HOORAY for two cultures getting along. and now i'm entering another book called "midwest girl meets england." :)
so i had a mcdonalds icecream cone tonight and OH MAN when did they get so good? seriously, why haven't i been eating those every single day? mmmmm. made the 4 hours in the airport more bearable.
next post will be from england! maybe i'll write with an accent. he he.
ali has been here the past couple of weeks, a week in chicago and 4 days in iowa, in a fantastic and at times comical trip i'd call "britain meets the midwest." if that were a book, i think the picture on the front would have to be ali, in his skinny jeans, blue rocknroll belt, and swooshy punk hair climbing into a massive green john deere combine harvester with my dad in complete farming gear. but i think he liked the midwest and i know the midwest liked him so HOORAY for two cultures getting along. and now i'm entering another book called "midwest girl meets england." :)
so i had a mcdonalds icecream cone tonight and OH MAN when did they get so good? seriously, why haven't i been eating those every single day? mmmmm. made the 4 hours in the airport more bearable.
next post will be from england! maybe i'll write with an accent. he he.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
rockin out the states
SOOOOOO......
i got home. (iowa home.) stayed a week and a half, then made my way east, spent a night in pella to see joy (college roommate) and my grandparents, and stumbled upon chicago last tuesday, which is where i am at the moment. iowa was restful, and chicago is sentimental. it's nice to be back in my homeland again and be able to eaves drop on other peoples' conversations and understand.
so to summarize my plans for the next while: ali (amazing boyfriend for those who don't recall) is coming to chicago on thursday!!!! WHOOP WHOOP!!!! he's never been to chicago, despite the fact that he's been to america a few times, so we all plan to show him a good time. he left for england the day i left for thailand and has been there since so we haven't seen each other for over 6 weeks! hopefully we won't have to do that again for awhile. so anyway, we're spending a week together in chicago, then heading to iowa for a long weekend (also a place he's never been. APPALLING huh. i mean who comes to america and doesn't go to iowa?!?), then he's flying back to england, and i'm flying back to chicago, and then two days later, i'm flying to london. and that's where i'm staying! yup, i'm gonna hang with the brits for awhile. i'll have to come back around christmas to apply for a work visa (don't ask why i couldn't apply earlier...MUY COMPLICADO!!!!), and then hopefully i'll be going back soon after to stay for good. and by "for good" i mean atleast a year. i must say i am getting tired of living out of a suitcase and always anticipating my next move, so God willing i get the visa and when i do and am in england, visa in hand, suitcases unpacked, i will be a HAPPY and RELAXED girl who will not be planning her next move anytime soon. (unless something really cool comes our way...he he...)
SO now that all the blah blah blah catch up is done, guess what i did today?!?!? MOVED TRICIA AND JEN INTO THEIR NEW APARTMENT!!!! it rained all day and their apartment is on the third floor, so needless to say, my arms are like jello! but they're in, we're done, and now it's only 2 days till ali comes!
oh AND i've been doing more than just...nothing...while i'm here. i'm getting trained in kindermusik! ya it's pretty cool cuz it's all online and i get to go as fast as i want. :) so hopefully that will give me a boast in the "yes i do have job skills in places other than korea" category.
i got home. (iowa home.) stayed a week and a half, then made my way east, spent a night in pella to see joy (college roommate) and my grandparents, and stumbled upon chicago last tuesday, which is where i am at the moment. iowa was restful, and chicago is sentimental. it's nice to be back in my homeland again and be able to eaves drop on other peoples' conversations and understand.
so to summarize my plans for the next while: ali (amazing boyfriend for those who don't recall) is coming to chicago on thursday!!!! WHOOP WHOOP!!!! he's never been to chicago, despite the fact that he's been to america a few times, so we all plan to show him a good time. he left for england the day i left for thailand and has been there since so we haven't seen each other for over 6 weeks! hopefully we won't have to do that again for awhile. so anyway, we're spending a week together in chicago, then heading to iowa for a long weekend (also a place he's never been. APPALLING huh. i mean who comes to america and doesn't go to iowa?!?), then he's flying back to england, and i'm flying back to chicago, and then two days later, i'm flying to london. and that's where i'm staying! yup, i'm gonna hang with the brits for awhile. i'll have to come back around christmas to apply for a work visa (don't ask why i couldn't apply earlier...MUY COMPLICADO!!!!), and then hopefully i'll be going back soon after to stay for good. and by "for good" i mean atleast a year. i must say i am getting tired of living out of a suitcase and always anticipating my next move, so God willing i get the visa and when i do and am in england, visa in hand, suitcases unpacked, i will be a HAPPY and RELAXED girl who will not be planning her next move anytime soon. (unless something really cool comes our way...he he...)
SO now that all the blah blah blah catch up is done, guess what i did today?!?!? MOVED TRICIA AND JEN INTO THEIR NEW APARTMENT!!!! it rained all day and their apartment is on the third floor, so needless to say, my arms are like jello! but they're in, we're done, and now it's only 2 days till ali comes!
oh AND i've been doing more than just...nothing...while i'm here. i'm getting trained in kindermusik! ya it's pretty cool cuz it's all online and i get to go as fast as i want. :) so hopefully that will give me a boast in the "yes i do have job skills in places other than korea" category.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
another goodbye...
i have once again found myself in an airport. our month journey of southeast asia has come to a close, and i'm sitting in the bangkok airport waiting for my flight out to korea. and then it's run run run through customs, run run run to get my bag, run run run to meet my friend lucy at my gate who has been keeping my suitcase for me this month, run run run to departures and then pray pray pray that i'm not too late to catch my flight out of korea. once i'm on that flight, i'm home free! atleast if you call a layover in japan, and then chicago, and finally reaching omaha about 30 hours later home free. but anyway, i'm staying optomistic. i get to go home! get out of asia for awhile! i really can't wait for showers that aren't infested with bugs, toilets that actually flush and don't require me to pour buckets of water in them after each use, toilet paper!, and not sweating about 7 tons a day.
our last few days in thailand were really nice. after koh tao, we headed to the nearby island of koh pa gnang where we met up with the friends we had made in koh tao, and their friends they had made elsewhere, which ended up being about a group of 10 of us. they were all such great people! i feel so lucky for the people we've met on our trip. i like to think we found the best of the best, but i always feel like i do. oooo, and one of the guys we met had just played in the olympics! he had just come from there with his girlfriend. he played on england's field hockey team. COOL huh? and he lives close to where i'm going to live in england, so i'm sure i'll be meeting up with them again. actually, a lot of the people we met are from england or ireland, so i'm sure i'll be able to meet up with them in the future...we can re-live the good times of southeast asia...
anyway, so in koh pa gnang, we went to the half moon party in the jungle, which may have been one of the coolest things i've done. eveyone covered in neon glow in the dark paint (which seems to be all over my stuff now, refusing to come off...) dancing the night away in the middle of the woods. other than that, i must say we didn't do much in koh pa gnang. the weather was crappy--the first bad weater we've had on this trip--and both jen and i got super burnt our last day in koh tao on our final dive so neither of us were up for a lot of activity unless it included air conditioning, loose clothing, and possibly a bathtub of aloe vera.
we got to bangkok this morning at about 4 am after an all night bus ride, crashed at a hostel, shopped a little in bangkok, decided we really hate bangkok cuz it smells and is hot and crowded, and spent the night reminiscing about the last month. goodbye thailand!!!
our last few days in thailand were really nice. after koh tao, we headed to the nearby island of koh pa gnang where we met up with the friends we had made in koh tao, and their friends they had made elsewhere, which ended up being about a group of 10 of us. they were all such great people! i feel so lucky for the people we've met on our trip. i like to think we found the best of the best, but i always feel like i do. oooo, and one of the guys we met had just played in the olympics! he had just come from there with his girlfriend. he played on england's field hockey team. COOL huh? and he lives close to where i'm going to live in england, so i'm sure i'll be meeting up with them again. actually, a lot of the people we met are from england or ireland, so i'm sure i'll be able to meet up with them in the future...we can re-live the good times of southeast asia...
anyway, so in koh pa gnang, we went to the half moon party in the jungle, which may have been one of the coolest things i've done. eveyone covered in neon glow in the dark paint (which seems to be all over my stuff now, refusing to come off...) dancing the night away in the middle of the woods. other than that, i must say we didn't do much in koh pa gnang. the weather was crappy--the first bad weater we've had on this trip--and both jen and i got super burnt our last day in koh tao on our final dive so neither of us were up for a lot of activity unless it included air conditioning, loose clothing, and possibly a bathtub of aloe vera.
we got to bangkok this morning at about 4 am after an all night bus ride, crashed at a hostel, shopped a little in bangkok, decided we really hate bangkok cuz it smells and is hot and crowded, and spent the night reminiscing about the last month. goodbye thailand!!!
Friday, September 5, 2008
aruba, jamaica, oooh i wanna take you to...koh tao.
so. back to thailand! we left vang vienne, rode a bus all day to the border, rode another bus all night to bangkok, got to bangkok at about 5 am, got on another bus and spent all day getting to the south of thailand, then took an incredibly dodgy and rusty boat all night to get to koh tao. fortunately, only two out of the three buses had screaming babies.
so we've been in koh tao all week and it is beautiful! such a change of pace from all the moving around we had done the first half of the trip. it's so chilled out here and everything is done slowly and without hurry. it took a couple of days to adjust, but we started our scuba diving course a few days in, and then our schedule picked up. i felt like i was back in school again! 9-12 everyday of classroom and then 12:40-6 out in the water, learning all the skills and how to, well...scuba!!! we finished our 4 day course yesterday, complete with a scuba certification card and everything. the whole experience was great...we loved our long-haired tattoed french instructor, we loved everyone at the diving place, we loved our group and all the people we met, and mostly, we loved all the colorful fishies at the bottom of the ocean!
tomorrow morning we're doing a fun dive at one of the best places in thailand, and then in the afternoon we're heading to koh-pa-gnang, where we will rock out the half moon party sunday night! and then back to bangkok tuesday and then...no...don't say it....we have to go home. :( however, i haven't been to america in over a year, and i can't wait to...go shopping! ha ha, and see my family. really excited for that.
ok, the ocean is calling my name..."carolyn...carolyn...come swim in me...i know i'm salty, but just keep your mouth closed this time and we will have great fun together..."
so we've been in koh tao all week and it is beautiful! such a change of pace from all the moving around we had done the first half of the trip. it's so chilled out here and everything is done slowly and without hurry. it took a couple of days to adjust, but we started our scuba diving course a few days in, and then our schedule picked up. i felt like i was back in school again! 9-12 everyday of classroom and then 12:40-6 out in the water, learning all the skills and how to, well...scuba!!! we finished our 4 day course yesterday, complete with a scuba certification card and everything. the whole experience was great...we loved our long-haired tattoed french instructor, we loved everyone at the diving place, we loved our group and all the people we met, and mostly, we loved all the colorful fishies at the bottom of the ocean!
tomorrow morning we're doing a fun dive at one of the best places in thailand, and then in the afternoon we're heading to koh-pa-gnang, where we will rock out the half moon party sunday night! and then back to bangkok tuesday and then...no...don't say it....we have to go home. :( however, i haven't been to america in over a year, and i can't wait to...go shopping! ha ha, and see my family. really excited for that.
ok, the ocean is calling my name..."carolyn...carolyn...come swim in me...i know i'm salty, but just keep your mouth closed this time and we will have great fun together..."
Friday, August 29, 2008
t-t-t-tubing...
sabaidee! (hello in laos...)
when we last left you, jen and i had arrived in luang prabang. we spent two nights there, which largely consisted of massages, facials, trying to bargan with little laos women at the market, (seriously, they are fiesty over here! i can't wait to get back to the western world where bargaining doesn't exist. or maybe i could introduce it to america...like, walk into the Gap and take a $100 dress to the counter and be like..."i'll give you $7"...and see what happens...), and visiting perhaps the coolest temple we've seen yet. the budhas were HUGE and plentiful, and we also spoke to a 19 year old monk for a good 45 minutes and learned all about the monk life. after i get home, i'll put the video i took of it on here. i felt very doing-a-documentary-for-pbs-ish as i sat there with my little video camera with the mountains and temples and river in the background as jen asked him all sorts of interesting questions.
our last night in luang prabang, we headed to the local (and only) disco a little out of town with our two friends stacey and jayne. there we rocked it out on the dance floor with the laos people, and i may or may not have even pulled out the worm. those who've seen this rare and highly unpleasant move know that in no way do i actually know how to do the worm, but anyway, it was a big hit. after the disco (which closed promptly at 11:30 as the laos people have a curfew), we headed to the local and also very obscure and "where-did-this-come-from" bowling alley, which was ofcourse packed as it's the only place open past 11:30. there i bowled a whopping game of 16, but more importanly had oodles of fun with all the other travellers.
the next day we took off for vang vienne in the afternoon in quite possibly the DODGIEST bus ride of my life! laos is absolutely one of the most beautiful countries i've been to, big mountains and giant rock formations everywhere, but this makes for very difficult driving co0nditions. the bus ride took about 7 hours, winding, curving, up, down, stuck in mud, almost hitting a girl on a bike in a village we traveled through, and several times, i looked over the edge at the vertical drop off and tried to figure out what our chances of survival would be should we fall off the edge. fortunately, we didn't, and made it to vang vienne in one piece.
so this is where we find ourselves at the moment: vang vienne! we've been here 3 nights and have decided that this is absolutely the craziest place we've ever experienced! the big draw for travellers here is tubing down the river. i really don't know how to explain it, and i'm afraid if i try all my readers will just do a head tilt, hair scratch, and say "huh?", but what happens is, every single day, about 250 people rent old tubes, get dropped off by tuk tuk up the river, and float from bar to bar (6 in total), all day. so really you tube for about 15 minutes in total (except at the end which is about a 20 minute tube ride back to town), and when you get near to one of the little bungalow bars, little laos kidsthrow tires and long sticks to you to try to pull you in. the river is as high as it gets at the moment, so believe me when i say if you miss what is thrown to you, there is no hope to getting to shore. anyway, so they pull you in, and each stop has rope swings, zip lines, dance floors, mud volleyball, or something of the adreneline rush sort. it's just. absolutely. nuts. i've never in my whole life experienced anything like it! all these random people in the most random place in the world doing the most random things on a river in laos. so we did two full days of tubing, and needless to say, my entire body feels like one giant bruise. jen's entire body IS one giant bruise. but quite possibly the most fun i've ever had!
this morning we tried to trek out to some caves and a lagoon and after about an hour of wadding through mud up to our thighs, turned back. and now we leave for bangkok in an hour on an overnight bus, then we take another overnight bus/boat to the island of koh tao in thailand! there we will be doing a 4-day scuba diving course (GET READY TO BE LOVED COLORFUL FISH!!!!), and then heading to koh-pha-ngan, another island, before heading back up to bangkok on september 10. i can't wait to chill on the islands, but i'm quite sad leaving laos. we've been travelling with the same bunch of people from place to place for about a week now, and now we're all sort of headed in different directions.
my next entry may be written with a view of the ocean!!!
when we last left you, jen and i had arrived in luang prabang. we spent two nights there, which largely consisted of massages, facials, trying to bargan with little laos women at the market, (seriously, they are fiesty over here! i can't wait to get back to the western world where bargaining doesn't exist. or maybe i could introduce it to america...like, walk into the Gap and take a $100 dress to the counter and be like..."i'll give you $7"...and see what happens...), and visiting perhaps the coolest temple we've seen yet. the budhas were HUGE and plentiful, and we also spoke to a 19 year old monk for a good 45 minutes and learned all about the monk life. after i get home, i'll put the video i took of it on here. i felt very doing-a-documentary-for-pbs-ish as i sat there with my little video camera with the mountains and temples and river in the background as jen asked him all sorts of interesting questions.
our last night in luang prabang, we headed to the local (and only) disco a little out of town with our two friends stacey and jayne. there we rocked it out on the dance floor with the laos people, and i may or may not have even pulled out the worm. those who've seen this rare and highly unpleasant move know that in no way do i actually know how to do the worm, but anyway, it was a big hit. after the disco (which closed promptly at 11:30 as the laos people have a curfew), we headed to the local and also very obscure and "where-did-this-come-from" bowling alley, which was ofcourse packed as it's the only place open past 11:30. there i bowled a whopping game of 16, but more importanly had oodles of fun with all the other travellers.
the next day we took off for vang vienne in the afternoon in quite possibly the DODGIEST bus ride of my life! laos is absolutely one of the most beautiful countries i've been to, big mountains and giant rock formations everywhere, but this makes for very difficult driving co0nditions. the bus ride took about 7 hours, winding, curving, up, down, stuck in mud, almost hitting a girl on a bike in a village we traveled through, and several times, i looked over the edge at the vertical drop off and tried to figure out what our chances of survival would be should we fall off the edge. fortunately, we didn't, and made it to vang vienne in one piece.
so this is where we find ourselves at the moment: vang vienne! we've been here 3 nights and have decided that this is absolutely the craziest place we've ever experienced! the big draw for travellers here is tubing down the river. i really don't know how to explain it, and i'm afraid if i try all my readers will just do a head tilt, hair scratch, and say "huh?", but what happens is, every single day, about 250 people rent old tubes, get dropped off by tuk tuk up the river, and float from bar to bar (6 in total), all day. so really you tube for about 15 minutes in total (except at the end which is about a 20 minute tube ride back to town), and when you get near to one of the little bungalow bars, little laos kidsthrow tires and long sticks to you to try to pull you in. the river is as high as it gets at the moment, so believe me when i say if you miss what is thrown to you, there is no hope to getting to shore. anyway, so they pull you in, and each stop has rope swings, zip lines, dance floors, mud volleyball, or something of the adreneline rush sort. it's just. absolutely. nuts. i've never in my whole life experienced anything like it! all these random people in the most random place in the world doing the most random things on a river in laos. so we did two full days of tubing, and needless to say, my entire body feels like one giant bruise. jen's entire body IS one giant bruise. but quite possibly the most fun i've ever had!
this morning we tried to trek out to some caves and a lagoon and after about an hour of wadding through mud up to our thighs, turned back. and now we leave for bangkok in an hour on an overnight bus, then we take another overnight bus/boat to the island of koh tao in thailand! there we will be doing a 4-day scuba diving course (GET READY TO BE LOVED COLORFUL FISH!!!!), and then heading to koh-pha-ngan, another island, before heading back up to bangkok on september 10. i can't wait to chill on the islands, but i'm quite sad leaving laos. we've been travelling with the same bunch of people from place to place for about a week now, and now we're all sort of headed in different directions.
my next entry may be written with a view of the ocean!!!
Monday, August 25, 2008
loving laos.
hello from luang prabang, laos! quite a journey getting here....
jen and i met at the bangkok airport no problem (whew), and headed to our hostel near koh san road in bangkok. we made the most of the late night with drinks and a hookah to celebrate the beginning of our journey. the next day we did the bangkok norm of the grand palace, some famous temples, and about 10 miles of walking before hopping on a train that night to chang mai. the train was air conditioned and had beds...sort of...and was packed with people. it was about a 15 hour journey, but we actually both had a pretty good sleep through the night, and it was cool to be on a train riding through the thailand country side. i like trains. they make me feel very dr. quinn medicine woman-ish.
we got to chang mai the next morning, grabbed the first hostel we saw, and rented some bikes to see the town. we headed up to (another) famous temple on top of this big hill, which we were adament we could bike up, but were told by the tuk-tuk drivers we most definitely could not..."15 km! too far! we take you! low price!" we were skeptical but decided to go with the tuk tuk and THANK GOODNESS! it was most definitely 15 km completely up hill. but we did make the most of our bike rental by heading out of town about 12 km to a lake reservior in the mountains which was absolutely beautiful! we were pretty much alone, other than a few thai kids swimming, and after such a long hot bike ride, we really deserved a swim and a lay in the little bamboo huts that surrounded the lake.
the next day we started on our two day hill trek into the thailand jungle, which in the two days included about 25 km of trekking through the mountains (calling it a hill trek is truly decieving because those were no hills my friends), sleeping on a slab of bamboo and getting eaten alive by mosquitos in a tiny little village of long-neck people from mynmar (you know where the women have those rings around their neck and their neck gets really long), elephant rides through the jungle, white water rafting, and bamboo rafting down the river. a busy 2 days! i loved the hiking, despite my poor aching legs, and mostly loved my elephant! we first nicknamed it horrace (jen's idea), then dumbo (too unoriginal), then elly. (also may sound unoriginal, but every time we said it he flapped his ears with approval.) anyway, he was a good elephant in that he didn't crumble to the ground through all the muddy uphill and downhill slopes along the river. seriously, elly was a champ! and the leader of the pack! he insisted on being first and shoved his way to the front. my kind of elephant.
the day after we got back from the hill trek (exhausted), we hopped in a crammed van and headed to the laos border to begin the long journey to where we are now. jen and i got slammed into the tiny little space in the back of the van next to about 12 massive bags of luggage. i took a dramamine and was pretty much knocked out (in that wierd not quite sleeping but can't move your arms sort of way) the whole 7 hour trip, but i think jen was a little worse off with no leg room and no sleep inducer. we got to the border in one piece, made some friends with a girl from ireland and a girl from england (who are still with us now), and the next morning, after a 3 hour long visa process, climbed onto what they call the "slow boat" which takes two days down the river to get to luang prabang. once again, jen and i got the worst seats in the house, crammed on a little plank of wood directly next to the smelly bathroom and in front of the hugest loudest motor i've ever heard in my life. all you can do is laugh! but again, we made some friends with some italian guys (i just have a hard time trusting italian men...a little too smooth...), and made the most of the 7 hours by charging people a bathroom fee since they literally had to climb over us to get to the toilet, which really consisted of an open hole with the river underneath. i think taking on the role of bathroom police, along with the fact that we literally had to shout as loud as possible the entire time just to hear each other properly (and later found out the entire boat of 130 people could hear everything we said) led to jen and i not exactly being the most popular people on the boat. but hey, i'd like to see other people have as good of spirits as we did seeing as our sense of hearing and smell will never be the same again.
that night we stayed in a little laos village right off the river. it was really really interesting. i loved laos immedietely, just because it seems so much more undiscovered than thailand. we kept the trend of "worst luck possible" going by staying in the most disgusting hostel ever...complete with an ant brogade taking over our toilet, a trickle of cold water coming out of our shower, mattresses from the stone age--in that they were literally made of stone--and the best part...the elecricity in the entire village shuts off from 10-6. so...no fan! wohooo! again, all you can do is laugh and chalk it up to a true laos experience. i didn't sleep that night as it was about 100 degrees in our room and i kept hearing different animal noises moving from corner to corner of our room. jen told me the next morning it was a gecko. who knew they could be so loud!
yesterday was the last day of the boat trip--another 7 hours--and we actually got seats! on the little wooden benches. seriously, i wish you could picture this boat! at one point there were about 25 laos people in the aisle, just picked up from another little river village, a baby screaming, a half naked little boy going up and down the aisle, and a wide-eyed bunch of foreigners not sure if they should laugh...or cry...or just make a dash for the life and swim to shore. but it was definitely worth it as we got to see laos in a really interesting way. it was really beautiful along the river, and there were several tiny villages we saw we cute little kids full of dirt all over their faces, half clothed, smiling and waving at the boat. i didn't realize how poor and undeveloped laos is.
so we got into luang prabang last night, another little river town, and we LOVE it here! we splurged on a hostel with an actual shower curtain, and immedietely got massages. this town is super friendly and chilled out, and full of history and interest. we may even stay an extra day. this morning we got up at 5:30 to watch about 300 monks make a walk around the temple walls. we bought sticky rice and little bananas and as they pass, they open their little bowl things and we put food in as some sort of offering. we aren't exactly sure of what it all means, but it was really cool. some of the monks were so young! not older than 10.
ok, jen's here now, so we're headed to see what this town has to offer. next we're headed to vang vienne for a little tubing down the river! until then...
jen and i met at the bangkok airport no problem (whew), and headed to our hostel near koh san road in bangkok. we made the most of the late night with drinks and a hookah to celebrate the beginning of our journey. the next day we did the bangkok norm of the grand palace, some famous temples, and about 10 miles of walking before hopping on a train that night to chang mai. the train was air conditioned and had beds...sort of...and was packed with people. it was about a 15 hour journey, but we actually both had a pretty good sleep through the night, and it was cool to be on a train riding through the thailand country side. i like trains. they make me feel very dr. quinn medicine woman-ish.
we got to chang mai the next morning, grabbed the first hostel we saw, and rented some bikes to see the town. we headed up to (another) famous temple on top of this big hill, which we were adament we could bike up, but were told by the tuk-tuk drivers we most definitely could not..."15 km! too far! we take you! low price!" we were skeptical but decided to go with the tuk tuk and THANK GOODNESS! it was most definitely 15 km completely up hill. but we did make the most of our bike rental by heading out of town about 12 km to a lake reservior in the mountains which was absolutely beautiful! we were pretty much alone, other than a few thai kids swimming, and after such a long hot bike ride, we really deserved a swim and a lay in the little bamboo huts that surrounded the lake.
the next day we started on our two day hill trek into the thailand jungle, which in the two days included about 25 km of trekking through the mountains (calling it a hill trek is truly decieving because those were no hills my friends), sleeping on a slab of bamboo and getting eaten alive by mosquitos in a tiny little village of long-neck people from mynmar (you know where the women have those rings around their neck and their neck gets really long), elephant rides through the jungle, white water rafting, and bamboo rafting down the river. a busy 2 days! i loved the hiking, despite my poor aching legs, and mostly loved my elephant! we first nicknamed it horrace (jen's idea), then dumbo (too unoriginal), then elly. (also may sound unoriginal, but every time we said it he flapped his ears with approval.) anyway, he was a good elephant in that he didn't crumble to the ground through all the muddy uphill and downhill slopes along the river. seriously, elly was a champ! and the leader of the pack! he insisted on being first and shoved his way to the front. my kind of elephant.
the day after we got back from the hill trek (exhausted), we hopped in a crammed van and headed to the laos border to begin the long journey to where we are now. jen and i got slammed into the tiny little space in the back of the van next to about 12 massive bags of luggage. i took a dramamine and was pretty much knocked out (in that wierd not quite sleeping but can't move your arms sort of way) the whole 7 hour trip, but i think jen was a little worse off with no leg room and no sleep inducer. we got to the border in one piece, made some friends with a girl from ireland and a girl from england (who are still with us now), and the next morning, after a 3 hour long visa process, climbed onto what they call the "slow boat" which takes two days down the river to get to luang prabang. once again, jen and i got the worst seats in the house, crammed on a little plank of wood directly next to the smelly bathroom and in front of the hugest loudest motor i've ever heard in my life. all you can do is laugh! but again, we made some friends with some italian guys (i just have a hard time trusting italian men...a little too smooth...), and made the most of the 7 hours by charging people a bathroom fee since they literally had to climb over us to get to the toilet, which really consisted of an open hole with the river underneath. i think taking on the role of bathroom police, along with the fact that we literally had to shout as loud as possible the entire time just to hear each other properly (and later found out the entire boat of 130 people could hear everything we said) led to jen and i not exactly being the most popular people on the boat. but hey, i'd like to see other people have as good of spirits as we did seeing as our sense of hearing and smell will never be the same again.
that night we stayed in a little laos village right off the river. it was really really interesting. i loved laos immedietely, just because it seems so much more undiscovered than thailand. we kept the trend of "worst luck possible" going by staying in the most disgusting hostel ever...complete with an ant brogade taking over our toilet, a trickle of cold water coming out of our shower, mattresses from the stone age--in that they were literally made of stone--and the best part...the elecricity in the entire village shuts off from 10-6. so...no fan! wohooo! again, all you can do is laugh and chalk it up to a true laos experience. i didn't sleep that night as it was about 100 degrees in our room and i kept hearing different animal noises moving from corner to corner of our room. jen told me the next morning it was a gecko. who knew they could be so loud!
yesterday was the last day of the boat trip--another 7 hours--and we actually got seats! on the little wooden benches. seriously, i wish you could picture this boat! at one point there were about 25 laos people in the aisle, just picked up from another little river village, a baby screaming, a half naked little boy going up and down the aisle, and a wide-eyed bunch of foreigners not sure if they should laugh...or cry...or just make a dash for the life and swim to shore. but it was definitely worth it as we got to see laos in a really interesting way. it was really beautiful along the river, and there were several tiny villages we saw we cute little kids full of dirt all over their faces, half clothed, smiling and waving at the boat. i didn't realize how poor and undeveloped laos is.
so we got into luang prabang last night, another little river town, and we LOVE it here! we splurged on a hostel with an actual shower curtain, and immedietely got massages. this town is super friendly and chilled out, and full of history and interest. we may even stay an extra day. this morning we got up at 5:30 to watch about 300 monks make a walk around the temple walls. we bought sticky rice and little bananas and as they pass, they open their little bowl things and we put food in as some sort of offering. we aren't exactly sure of what it all means, but it was really cool. some of the monks were so young! not older than 10.
ok, jen's here now, so we're headed to see what this town has to offer. next we're headed to vang vienne for a little tubing down the river! until then...
Sunday, August 17, 2008
thailand bound.
i'm currently in the seoul airport, just said goodbye to my little apartment, my friends, just watched ali get on his flight back to england, and am getting ready to say goodbye to korea. i take off for thailand in about an hour and a half, and will be meeting jen at the bangkok airport (oh please oh please God let us find each other...), and our southeast asia journey begins! it's been a bit of a rough week trying to pack, sort out terrible work situations and pay checks, saying goodbye to everyone and everything i love here (which ofcourse included a few late nights in hongdae and an up-till-4-am nuribong karaoke session), but i'm glad it's over and now i'm ready to move on to the next thing. like a month long vacation! :) i can't believe in just 7 hours i will see jen! family! someone completely unconnected to korea and completely connected to every other part of my life. it will be a nice transition into going home i think.
i'll try to keep the blog updated as much as possible as we make our way through thailand and laos. the plan for the first section of our travles is a day in bangkok, a night train up to chang mai (northern thailand), a couple day hill trek through the back country of thailand, and a 2 day slow boat trip into laos, where we will hopefully not get washed away by the laos floods (boo rainy season!), and will be spending a couple days doing the classic vang vienne river tubing. i'll let you know how it all goes!!!
i'll try to keep the blog updated as much as possible as we make our way through thailand and laos. the plan for the first section of our travles is a day in bangkok, a night train up to chang mai (northern thailand), a couple day hill trek through the back country of thailand, and a 2 day slow boat trip into laos, where we will hopefully not get washed away by the laos floods (boo rainy season!), and will be spending a couple days doing the classic vang vienne river tubing. i'll let you know how it all goes!!!
Friday, August 8, 2008
let the games begin.
THE OLYMPICS ARE STARTING THE OLYMPICS ARE STARTING THE OLYMPICS ARE STARTING THE OLYMPICS ARE STARTING!!!!! (i'd do the little circle olympic symbol thing but i'm just not that computer savy.) jolly good. i'm more than thrilled. mostly because the opening ceremonies tonight will give me a wonderful distraction from the fact that one of my best friends and college roommates is getting married tonight and all 6 of my college roommates have been together all week. :( so just a quick shout out to katie helder and nolan wiersma!!!! happy wedding!!!! but i'm also pumped to watch the olympics this year because i was at the olympic stadium in beijing just 6 months ago. infact, exactly six months ago. wow, really? i just realized that. yup, exactly 6 months ago. CRAZINESS!
i'll be off to thailand in a week and 2 days. i'm trying to chip away at packing and doing all those ending tasks that one must do when they are leaving a place they've lived a year and love, but running around with my head cut off the last 3 days i'm here just seems inevitable. i did, however, get two big boxes packed and shipped this week. yes, i've resorted to shipping boxes as i've found out i'm only allowed a total of 44 pounds on my trip from seoul to america (which i'll be doing right after thailand. in fact, i have about 2 hours to get off my flight from bangkok, sprint through baggage claim and customs, meet my friend who will have the rest of my luggage, and re-check in for my flight to america. it will be a miracle if that all goes smoothly...), yes that's right 44 POUNDS!!!! when i came here, i had two massive suitcases weighing 160 pounds. go ahead and make fun of me, but let's all keep in mind that i am not simply packing for vacation. this is my entire life in these suitcases. everything i own essentially. anyway, so hopefully i'm not over. (my friend was on the same airline as me and was over and got charged nearly 500 bucks...eeeesh)
wohoooo summer olympics 2008! go america! (who's excited for gymnastics? i've been watching you-tube clips on shaun johnson all week...)
i'll be off to thailand in a week and 2 days. i'm trying to chip away at packing and doing all those ending tasks that one must do when they are leaving a place they've lived a year and love, but running around with my head cut off the last 3 days i'm here just seems inevitable. i did, however, get two big boxes packed and shipped this week. yes, i've resorted to shipping boxes as i've found out i'm only allowed a total of 44 pounds on my trip from seoul to america (which i'll be doing right after thailand. in fact, i have about 2 hours to get off my flight from bangkok, sprint through baggage claim and customs, meet my friend who will have the rest of my luggage, and re-check in for my flight to america. it will be a miracle if that all goes smoothly...), yes that's right 44 POUNDS!!!! when i came here, i had two massive suitcases weighing 160 pounds. go ahead and make fun of me, but let's all keep in mind that i am not simply packing for vacation. this is my entire life in these suitcases. everything i own essentially. anyway, so hopefully i'm not over. (my friend was on the same airline as me and was over and got charged nearly 500 bucks...eeeesh)
wohoooo summer olympics 2008! go america! (who's excited for gymnastics? i've been watching you-tube clips on shaun johnson all week...)
Monday, July 28, 2008
squash. (the sport not the thanksgiving food...)
this morning i woke up, pushed the snooze about 8 times (mondays...sigh...), and attempted to slowly with eyes half closed edge down the stairs, when suddenly i realized my body was not moving as it should, even for a monday morning. i quite literally had trouble bending my legs (sitting on the toilet took great effort), and even found it hard to find the muscle in my right forearm to squeeze the shampoo out of the bottle in the shower. every inch of my body is aching in painful despair!!! reasons...
#1. ali and i played 2 hours of squash on saturday. i knew the gym near me had squash courts, and, assuming that sqaush and raquetball were the same thing (seriously, they look the same in pictures...), and keeping in mind that i've played numerous rounds of raquetball with my dad (completely non-competetive and for fun only. ha.), i thought to myself..."my chances of winning are high...the odds are in my favor..." and so ali and i had it out on the squash court. anyway, 2 hours of squash playing and fighting for my life and athletic integrity later, i walked out of the gym feeling like rocky balboa (appologies for the analogy...the movie was just on tv this weekend...) leaving his boxing ring. the important thing is that i won. barely. but i won. (there were very few words exchanged the next hour...)
#2. yesterday, mina, ali and i went to the incheon pentaport rock festival. it was no lollapalooza (HAVE YOU SEEN THE LINE-UP THIS YEAR!?!?!? the one year i leave chicago and lollapalooza pulls a fast one on me...), but it was seriously, seriously, incredible. crazy korean bands in the afternoon and hard-fi, feeder, underworld, and KASABIAN!!!! probably one of the best shows i've ever seen. i had this surreal moment during their show where i felt completely elated as i looked around feeling all the energy from the crowd, completely covered in mud from my knees down and thought..."i'm in korea! watching kasabian! surrounded my koreans! this is crazy!" it was just one of those moments. anyway, the jumping up and down and banging of the head and dancing didn't do much good for the body either. but oooooooh so worth it. here's some pics from the festival:
hard-fi...
reeeeeallly muddy...
hot, sweaty, and happy music lovers...
kasabian!!!! mina and i nearly jumped the stage and became their groupies dedicating our lives to go wherever they go, but we all saw how that turned out for kate hudson in almost famous...
Thursday, July 24, 2008
no way!
i'm stealing this link from amanda's blog. :) (thanks amanda.) gotta watch this...
heavy metal priest
heavy metal priest
Monday, July 21, 2008
roar.
if i have to walk out my door to a giant disgusting drooling monster of heat and humidty one more day, i just may build a cacoon in my nicely air conditioned apartment and not come out until the morning of august 17 when i fly out of this wretched sauna and into...the even hotter sauna of thailand. but seriously, every day i wake up and look out my window to the same thing. gray skies, rain on my windows, drooping koreans loathing every minute they spend in between one air conditioned building and the next. it's so depressing! go away rainy season!
so maybe it's largely due to the gloomy and oppressive weather, but i have suddenly been hit with this urgent longing for the next month to whiz on by so i can be off to my travel adventures and then home! my entire family is vacationing in seattle this week, and it's suddenly made me so eager to see them!
my new job is pretty good. since i'm only here a month, i've decided to be affected by the small annoyances of yet another new school as little as possible. i have no breaks today? oh well, shake it off, atleast the day will go faster. you want me to work till 8 even though i told you i can never work past 7? hmmm, that's irritating. but atleast i got to sleep in an hour later. you want me to work half my day at a kindergarten down the road? whatever, just tell me where to go, and i'll put my teacher face on. basically, i'm completely uninvested in this school, which makes it easy not to get upset about the unorganization..ness. :) (if i ever come back to korea, i will defintely only be working for a school that has been opened atleast 5 years...) the truth is that i'm just grateful i found a job the last month i am here! so i can stand to be a little flexible i think...
friday night ali and i went out to hongdae for dinner and dancing...we went to the same club that we danced at last weekend for debbie's birthday and i must say, hongdae and dancing may just be two of the things i miss most about korea. i figured out yesterday that i only have 3 full weekends left. next week we're going to a music festival to see the band kasabian, and the 3rd weekend will be my goodbye party, so i'm suddenly filled with this frantic urgency to do as much as possible in the time i have left combined with a sort of emotional seperation from this place to prepare myself for leaving. the ends of things are always so strange...
so maybe it's largely due to the gloomy and oppressive weather, but i have suddenly been hit with this urgent longing for the next month to whiz on by so i can be off to my travel adventures and then home! my entire family is vacationing in seattle this week, and it's suddenly made me so eager to see them!
my new job is pretty good. since i'm only here a month, i've decided to be affected by the small annoyances of yet another new school as little as possible. i have no breaks today? oh well, shake it off, atleast the day will go faster. you want me to work till 8 even though i told you i can never work past 7? hmmm, that's irritating. but atleast i got to sleep in an hour later. you want me to work half my day at a kindergarten down the road? whatever, just tell me where to go, and i'll put my teacher face on. basically, i'm completely uninvested in this school, which makes it easy not to get upset about the unorganization..ness. :) (if i ever come back to korea, i will defintely only be working for a school that has been opened atleast 5 years...) the truth is that i'm just grateful i found a job the last month i am here! so i can stand to be a little flexible i think...
friday night ali and i went out to hongdae for dinner and dancing...we went to the same club that we danced at last weekend for debbie's birthday and i must say, hongdae and dancing may just be two of the things i miss most about korea. i figured out yesterday that i only have 3 full weekends left. next week we're going to a music festival to see the band kasabian, and the 3rd weekend will be my goodbye party, so i'm suddenly filled with this frantic urgency to do as much as possible in the time i have left combined with a sort of emotional seperation from this place to prepare myself for leaving. the ends of things are always so strange...
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
LAST DAY OF TANGO PANGO!!!!
I'M FINISHED I'M FINISHED I'M FINISHED!!!! gotta watch this video. and i added just a few more pictures. i promise these are the last pictures of adorible korean kids for awhile...i just can't stop. :)
what's the weather like today? ask my class...
what's the weather like today? ask my class...
Monday, July 14, 2008
tick tock
i guess time FLIES when you're having...summer in korea. life is so crazy right now! and i just don't think it will settle down muchuntil...er.....christmas? hopefully by christmas my life has settled down. hopefully. anyway. so tomorrow is my last day of tango pango. whoop whoop! get me out of there! i will miss my kids dearly and in ode to the time i've spent with them, they get their pictures on my blog. what i will not, however, miss my crazy boss, getting paid 2 weeks late without warning, and working for
a school with no organization and no hope for a future. but other than that, i have wonderful memories! i've already started working for another school part time and i will transition right into full time this week when i'm finished at tango pango. it's a small school that does one-on-one tutoring (or in some cases on-on-two if parents want siblings to be taught together, etc.) from kids to adults. i really like it and am really grateful that i found a place to work my last month. it will be a really nice change. ooooo, and i get to play board games! there's two brothers who i basically just get to play board games with the whole time, and i LOVE IT. seriously, no matter how old i get, there's nothing like a good ole round of monopoly. last week we played uno for nearly an hour and the younger brother (highly competetive) kept cheating and
we all know how i feel about cheating (unless it's me who's doing the cheating) and then i couldn't keep them from talking in korean to tell each other what cards they have so they could gang up on me and let me tell you, i've never been dished so many draw-4s in all my years of uno playing, and that is a lot. what could i say? i wanted to throw my cards down, break out in angry tears, scream "IT'S NOT FAIR!!!!" and stomp out of the room with a big slam of the door. but i held it together and remembered that i was the teacher and was getting paid to not give into my competetive urges. but it was tough let me tell you.
so anyway, i leave korea in less than 5 weeks. BAAAA! i can't believe it. time seems to be in the olympic race of the 100 meter dash (speaking of the olympics, it starts in 2 1/2 weeks! and it's happening right next to me! and i saw the olypmic stadium when i was in beijing. COOOL huh...). but i've been filling my time with oodles of stuff to make sure i'm getting the most of korean summer.
things i've been doing:
eating hot dogs at baseball games.
watching koreans play baseball and wishing it was the cubs.
arriving to the symphony 20 minutes late dripping sweat from sprinting from the train to the music hall, and not being let in till the second half. and being very upset.
rockin out the back streets of seoul.
nuri bong!!!!!! (korean karaoke...)
and more nuri bong!!!!!!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
plane tickets and schools closing and boys and things...
sooooo much new:
1. tango pango is closing in 3 weeks. july 15 is my last day. a month and a half earlier than my contract stated. and i was just told. the school is just not making money i guess, so on july 15th it will close its doors. surprisingly, i didn't freak out. since i get to stay in my apartment until august, the plan is, i'm going to try to find a summer camp to do for a month or some part time teaching for a month until august 17 when i'm...
2. GOING TO THAILAND!!!! AND LAOS!!!! AND MAYBE CAMBODIA!!!! cousin jen is meeting me in bangkok and we're making our way around southeast asia for nearly a month. the itinerary is in the works. then i fly back to korea and immedietely i....
3. fly home! i've just reserved my ticket. crrrrazy that this year is almost over. the plan for next year is that i have no plan yet. :) but i might find myself in england at some point to see....
4. a boy! it's the guy i met when i went to beijing last february who was staying at my hostel and after spending a dreamy 16 hours together we kept in touch as he traveled around the world and a week ago, he moved to korea for the summer so that we could be together. :) so yes, i guess you could say i have a...errr...uh....boyfriend. from england! he he. very hollywood movie-esque isn't it??? :) anyway, he's wonderful, we're happy, and i'm grateful. wanna see pictures of him? i would if i were you. click here
and for more fun pictures, check out me with my kids in the little field trip we took to the playground...click here
1. tango pango is closing in 3 weeks. july 15 is my last day. a month and a half earlier than my contract stated. and i was just told. the school is just not making money i guess, so on july 15th it will close its doors. surprisingly, i didn't freak out. since i get to stay in my apartment until august, the plan is, i'm going to try to find a summer camp to do for a month or some part time teaching for a month until august 17 when i'm...
2. GOING TO THAILAND!!!! AND LAOS!!!! AND MAYBE CAMBODIA!!!! cousin jen is meeting me in bangkok and we're making our way around southeast asia for nearly a month. the itinerary is in the works. then i fly back to korea and immedietely i....
3. fly home! i've just reserved my ticket. crrrrazy that this year is almost over. the plan for next year is that i have no plan yet. :) but i might find myself in england at some point to see....
4. a boy! it's the guy i met when i went to beijing last february who was staying at my hostel and after spending a dreamy 16 hours together we kept in touch as he traveled around the world and a week ago, he moved to korea for the summer so that we could be together. :) so yes, i guess you could say i have a...errr...uh....boyfriend. from england! he he. very hollywood movie-esque isn't it??? :) anyway, he's wonderful, we're happy, and i'm grateful. wanna see pictures of him? i would if i were you. click here
and for more fun pictures, check out me with my kids in the little field trip we took to the playground...click here
Monday, June 9, 2008
to the east sea and back again.
ok. i feel like i've been a big blogging slacker these days. sorry to all my readers. i will try to do better.so. this past weekend we had friday off so me and 6 of my friends traveled to the east sea of korea, a province called kangwondo. we stayed in our friends' condo right in the most famous mountains of korea, saraksan. it was soooo beautiful. we did some serious barefooted rock climbing through
waterfalls in the mountains, we swam in the
way-too-cold-to-be-swimming-in ocean, we ate fresh sea food straight i mean STRAIGHT out of the ocean, as in i watched them kill the fish and about 10 seconds later i was eating it's insides...(who knew sushi could be so amazing?), and i got to spend 3 whole days with people that i really love. the downside was that i didn't really sleep for any of those 3 days cuz 4 out of the 7 people staying in our small little room snored (PET PEEVE!!!), but i managed to thoroughly enjoy the holiday anyway. click h
ere for all the pictures, which will hopefully be able to tell and show you what we got up to.in other news, summer has arrived in korea. last week there were signs of rainy season beginning early, as it rained every. single. day. causing seriously depression and sadness in the life of carolyn given the fact that i bike to and from school 3 times a day. i think i may need to invest in a big colorfully polka dotted rain coat and perhaps some of those cool rubber rain boots. but this week it's only supposed to rain a couple days, so perhaps we've still got a few w
eeks before rainy season is in full blast.the little devils i call my students are, well, still little devils which means i still love my job. :) (what fun is it if they're always good?) today i came to school and heard hysterical bawling all the way from the bottom of the stairs. (what a great sound to hear first thing on monday morning...) anyway, i opened the doors of the school to find little danielle sobbing i mean SOBBING like world had just run out of playgrounds. after 15 minutes of wondering what she was blubbering in korean to our korean teachers, worrying that perhaps something really dreadful had happened to someone in her family, or maybe she had had a big 5-year-old falling out with one of her best friends, i found out that the reason behind the record-breaking tears was that she didn't like the pants she was wearing today. right. i didn't really like the pants i was wearing today either. so i completely understood.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
happy birthday mina
last night was mina's birthday party in hongdae. lots of fun as shown below....
me and the birthday girl!
at bricxx...
chohee on the left (the poor soul who tries to color my hair) and mina and i...
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
ASA!!!!
this is my favorite korean word. it means "ALRIGHT!!! WOHOOO!!! HOORAY!!!" and i made great use of it this weekend. i spent my entire sunday at a tennis tournament with my friend lucy watching her friends' team compete. it was so cool! a big group of korean men re-living their glory days of university (some members are still living those days as the team was really diverse in age) and we cheered them on from 9:30 am till 7 at night! and they WON!!!! ASA!!!!!!!! i think i learned every korean cheering word this language has to offer. ASA CAHYOTEE! (cahyotee means sting ray so i don't really get why this is a cheering word) and CHATTAHSAYO! (good job) and WHITING (with a strong emphasis on the "h". this is the equivalent of "let's go!" which makes no sense because it's not a korean word but they got it from the english word "fighting" and then somehow it turned into "whiting" and then it turned into meaning "let's go.") anyway, enough of the korean lesson. the point in, i cheered my little heart out and totally felt like their groupie. and i think they all very much appreciated my presence if i do say so myself.
so, a green hair update. i went to my korean friend who's a hair dresser and via my korean friend who translated (hair dresser friend speaks no english) i tried to explain highlights. for 45 minutes. yes, for 45 minutes we sat there and i tried to explain that i just wanted strips of my hair dyed (especially over the green parts) and NO not dyed, just highlighted. the next thing i know, they are fully dying my hair, brighter blonde than it's ever been. sigh. i guess this will just be my hair in korea. there's no getting around it.
so, a green hair update. i went to my korean friend who's a hair dresser and via my korean friend who translated (hair dresser friend speaks no english) i tried to explain highlights. for 45 minutes. yes, for 45 minutes we sat there and i tried to explain that i just wanted strips of my hair dyed (especially over the green parts) and NO not dyed, just highlighted. the next thing i know, they are fully dying my hair, brighter blonde than it's ever been. sigh. i guess this will just be my hair in korea. there's no getting around it.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
yellow, green, and red.
yellow: the color of the sky today, which koreans have cleverly named "yellow sky." it happens in the spring due to yellow sand coming over from china. it's strange. how in the WORLD can sand travel all the way across the ocean from one country to the next and just sort of hang in the air? seriously.
green: the color of my hair. NO MOM, i didn't dye it green. the pool did. :( i noticed it a few weeks back but pretended it wasn't happening and kept on swimming anyway. but alas, there's no denying it anymore. actually, i would have kept on denying it but my korean co-worker today exclaimed for the entire school to hear "carolyn! (or actually calolyn--they still can't get the "r" thing) your hair is gleen!" and unfortunately, korea doesn't have those nifty shampoo products they do in america for blonde girls like me who go swimming and get green hair and can just rinse it with the anti-green shampoo and WALLAH! good as new. they wouldn't really have a market for such a product here seeing as 99.9% of the population could live in a bucket of a chlorine while still maintaining their jet black locks. sigh. what's a girl to do.
red: the color of my face when i discovered that my water is shut off tonight, not to be turned on again until friday at noon. THAT'S 2 DAYS FROM NOW!!!! apparently, it's a city wide water shut down. i guess ilsan is ok with everyone smelling and being in a really bad mood for the next couple of days.
green: the color of my hair. NO MOM, i didn't dye it green. the pool did. :( i noticed it a few weeks back but pretended it wasn't happening and kept on swimming anyway. but alas, there's no denying it anymore. actually, i would have kept on denying it but my korean co-worker today exclaimed for the entire school to hear "carolyn! (or actually calolyn--they still can't get the "r" thing) your hair is gleen!" and unfortunately, korea doesn't have those nifty shampoo products they do in america for blonde girls like me who go swimming and get green hair and can just rinse it with the anti-green shampoo and WALLAH! good as new. they wouldn't really have a market for such a product here seeing as 99.9% of the population could live in a bucket of a chlorine while still maintaining their jet black locks. sigh. what's a girl to do.
red: the color of my face when i discovered that my water is shut off tonight, not to be turned on again until friday at noon. THAT'S 2 DAYS FROM NOW!!!! apparently, it's a city wide water shut down. i guess ilsan is ok with everyone smelling and being in a really bad mood for the next couple of days.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
no!!!!!!!!
i have bronchitis. :( i've been feeling like there's a large angry animal in my chest for over a week now, and despite the fact that i've been going to bed at 7 pm every night for several days, i continued to get more and more tired and feeling like i was more and more not a member of planet earth and feeling more and more like my life was coming to an end and wouldn't someone please just put me out my misery now!!!! so i went to the doctor. and i have bronchitis. that would explain the inability to breathe and coughing up of the lungs this morning as i tried to go running (stupid) and nearly didn't make it back to my apartment. i'm so devestated and i've never felt more miserable in my life! i just want to be like one my little kids and have someone carry me into my bed and make me chicken noodle soup and put the thermometer in my mouth and rub my hair while i try to fall asleep and give me blankets when i get really really col in the middle of the night and then tear them off of me 10 minutes later when i get really really hot and in other words...mom, would you mind flying to korea and taking care of me please???
and at the doctor i got a needle in my bum. yes, i got a korean injection of who knows what in. my. bum. imagine the body language that went into the charade of trying to explain what they needed me to do and what they were needing to do to me. now i not only can't breathe and think my life is ending from exhaustion, i also have a sore right butt cheek. OH THE MISERY!!!!! WILL IT NEVER END!?!?!?!?
and at the doctor i got a needle in my bum. yes, i got a korean injection of who knows what in. my. bum. imagine the body language that went into the charade of trying to explain what they needed me to do and what they were needing to do to me. now i not only can't breathe and think my life is ending from exhaustion, i also have a sore right butt cheek. OH THE MISERY!!!!! WILL IT NEVER END!?!?!?!?
Monday, May 5, 2008
bukhansan
we had today off of school due to "children's day" here in korea. why didn't we have that in the states? it's one of the only holidays that's made sense to me so far in this country. anyway, i went hiking to a nearby mountain with lucy and sauul. lucky for us sauul has been to this mountain over 300 times and we spent 5 hours hiking trails that i'm pretty sure no one else has ever seen. it was so great. really rocky actually and a bit scary at times so 
it's a good thing i got 
NEW HIKING SHOES!!!!! wohooo! they were awesome! and if i may so, the best looking shoes on the mountain. they have pink laces, they got me down some of the steepest rocks i've ever climbed, and i named them lucy after my wonderful korean hiking buddy. anyway, at the end of the day as we were sitting on the ground eating accorn jelly with seaweed in sesame sauce and drinking rice wine sitting on a little mat
along a stream, i was flooded with gratitude for my life here, for the people God has given me here, the way koreans sha
re all their strange and shockingly yummy food, the way they sit on the ground with no shoes when they eat, the fact that i am able to climb mountains with new pink-laced hiking shoes named lucy, and i felt like i was smiling way deep down in my insides. that's a good feeling.
here's lucy and i enjoying our beer and rice wine and acorn jelly seaweed salad.
and here's lucy again. or half of her. she's the one with the pink laces. see, i told you she was the best looking one of the bunch.
Monday, April 28, 2008
shoo, korean translator. don't bother me.
so, today i taught my kids the muffin man song. you know "do you know the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man. do you know the muffin man who lives on drury lane. yes i know the..." and so on. and i even got REALLY clever and pulled out the lyric writing skills for some new verses, substituting muffin for pizza, bagel, and icecream on verses 2, 3, and 4. sometimes my pure genious astounds me. then just to make it a truly magical monday music class (wow! all the "m"s!!!), i pulled out the classic "shoo, fly don't bother me." so anyway, i called in jenny, the korean teacher, to quickly translate just so the kids knew what they were singing about and not just screaming out a bunch of meaningless syllables like i'm pretty sure they do most of the time. this is sort of how it all went:
jenny starts going through line by line. she says to the kids "do you know the muffin man" blah blah blah blah (a bunch of korean i don't understand.) then she stops and turns to me.
jenny: who is the muffin man?
me: uh....the guy in the song.
jenny: so he makes muffins then?
me: yup. exactly. he makes muffins.
jenny: so he is a baker? he makes bread and cake too?
me: um....i guess he just makes muffins.
jenny: so, he just makes muffins all day long? do people eat that many muffins?
good point, jenny. good point.
so moving onto shoo, fly. have you guys ever really thought about the words to that song? let me refresh your memory. "shoo fly, don't bother me. shoo fly, don't bother me. shoo fly, don't bother me. 'cuz i belong to somebody. i feel. i feel. i feel like a morning star. i feel. i feel i feel like a morning star..." you can IMAGINE all the questions.
"who does the fly belong to? a morning star is a star that comes out in the morning? how is that possible when the sun is up? what does a morning star feel like?"
right, so i think the screaming of the meaningless syllables is my best option.
jenny starts going through line by line. she says to the kids "do you know the muffin man" blah blah blah blah (a bunch of korean i don't understand.) then she stops and turns to me.
jenny: who is the muffin man?
me: uh....the guy in the song.
jenny: so he makes muffins then?
me: yup. exactly. he makes muffins.
jenny: so he is a baker? he makes bread and cake too?
me: um....i guess he just makes muffins.
jenny: so, he just makes muffins all day long? do people eat that many muffins?
good point, jenny. good point.
so moving onto shoo, fly. have you guys ever really thought about the words to that song? let me refresh your memory. "shoo fly, don't bother me. shoo fly, don't bother me. shoo fly, don't bother me. 'cuz i belong to somebody. i feel. i feel. i feel like a morning star. i feel. i feel i feel like a morning star..." you can IMAGINE all the questions.
"who does the fly belong to? a morning star is a star that comes out in the morning? how is that possible when the sun is up? what does a morning star feel like?"
right, so i think the screaming of the meaningless syllables is my best option.
Monday, April 21, 2008
mmmmmountain.
ahhhh, my weekend was so refreshing! i have been restless lately and my life has become too routine, and a weekend full of beauty and korean culture was just what i needed. saturday, i went with mina and amelia to this big hill top where you can look over and see north korea, and then to a little village nearby with ridiculously colorful and therefore awesome shops and cafes, then for vietnamese food, then to a water fountain show thing with cheesy korean music.
here's north korea. that land mass beyond the water. i got really close, huh? i think i saw some little lego-sized north koreans doing things people do when they're under an oppressive dictator. i shouldn't make jokes actually, it's a pretty sad situation.
sunday, i went with my friend lucy who to an island a couple of hours away with a hiking club and we climbed not one, not two, but three mountains on the island. a 12 hour days, with 6 solid hours of hiking. needless to say, i woke up this morning and could barely bend down to sit on the toilet without crying for help from my non-existant roommate. but it was oh-so-worth it.
the flowers you see are the korean native azalia flower. they were covering the mountains, and will only be around about a week. so we went at a good time!
i spent the day with my friend lucy (in yellow), and about 3 korean men, only one of which spoke a little english. it was not a day of deep conversation, but we still managed a lot of laughs! as you can see, i really fit with my running shorts, tanktop, and sneakers. (p.s. i'll never hike a korean mountain without climbing shoes again. i nearly broke my neck on the way down, slipping and sliding all over the lose dirt...)
anyway, those are just a few of the photos. click here to check out the entire album., with more descriptions!
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