Check out this cell phone charm!!!

Christmas in Korea

…was absolutely wonderful!!!

I really was not looking forward to the holiday season being away from home…I thought I’d be sad…all of us teachers thought the same. But it turned out to be one of the best days in Korea so far. We were lucky and had the day off from work. We were actually supposed to work…a lot of teachers at other schools had to work, but we whined, begged, kicking and screaming NOT to work…and got the day off!!!
So the five of us, Stephanie, Leanne, Daniel, David and myself spent the day sightseeing around Seoul. We started off at a wonderful ‘tofu’ restaurant and then made our way over to Gyeongbokgung Palace.

We got there just in time to watch the changing of the guards…and Leanne realized that all of the guards were tall and all the same height…David mentioned that it is the same at the Arlington Cemetary. I thought that was an interesting bit of information.

As Stephanie always says…”GOD!!! Korean kids are so cute!!! I want to eat them all!!!”
Then Carol says…”Yeah…and then they grow up and look like me! EWWW!!!! HA!”


Inside the walls of the Palace.



“La Mujares” Photo by David Alvarado.
So…David is the only one in the bunch that is not a teacher…he is a photographer for the US Army…and a fucking amazingly, brilliant, awesome photographer!!! Thanks to him…he got us all into the US Army base here in Seoul…and we had a fucking amazingly, brilliant, awesome American style Christmas dinner that night!!! All you can eat buffet!!! You have no idea how happy us teachers were to eat good ole American food!!!

I had ham, turkey, roast beef, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, beef casserole, cheese casserole, potato salad, cucumber salad, stuffing, veggies…THEN for dessert I had apple pie, cherry pie, pumpkin pie, carrot cake and coffee mousse cake. Personally…I thought the carrot cake was the best!!! OH!!! I can’t believe I almost forgot!!! I also had kimchee too!!! HA! I wanted to eat more…but I had already unbuttoned the top button…the middle button…and aside from taking off my pants to make more room…I just couldn’t take another bite…then the guilt set in…GOD! I shouldn’t have had that last piece of cake!!! ; )

We all spent the subway ride home telling each other our new diets for the new year…Stephanie is giving up all sugars from her diet…Leanne and Daniel are going to the gym…and I am going to…hmm…never eat that much again!!!
Anyway…moving on in our day….

Notice the holes in the rice paper door? Back in the day…people would poke holes to get a peek of the newly weds…on their wedding night!!! Some of the doors had A LOT of holes!!! HA! : ) Guess…the more holes you had on your door…the better?



This little girl was absolutely adorable…she was hopping around like a bunny!!! Again…Stephanie, “Get in my belly!”

So…Steph, David and I all took the same picture!!! David on his Nikon D200, Steph on her old, weird ass looking Canon, and me on my point and shoot. Stephanie is now yelling, “This is MY shot people!!!!” (It’s really hard to hang out with photographers sometimes…)


The palace feels like a never-ending maze…around each turn another beautiful building, wall or door.




I wanted to take more pictures…but I had no more memory on my card…and was editing and deleting photos at this point to make room for more!!! I got to the point where I couldn’t part with anymore photos…so my visual diary ends here…


After the palace we walked over to the “Blue House” which is where the president resides…yes…I know…funny…

Then made our way over to the Army base for dinner…stuffed ourselves silly, went home…that was our day…

Taean Oil Spill

check out the link below for pics of how it was before...a lot has been cleaned up since...
http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/articleslideshow?articleId=USSEO37024620071208&channelName=worldNews#a=1

an article...
http://www.physorg.com/news116407357.html

It's not easy to hula-hoop

ready...

...get set...

...go!!!

so...americans...they jog...lift weights...take a yoga class...koreans love to hike...as i've mentioned before and hula-hoop as a form of exercise...hmmm...strange...but loads of fun!!!! (quite tiring too!!!)

soul searching in seoul...part one:

Went hiking this morning…woke up early…got my gear…put my headphones on…and rocked out to Social D…made the short subway and bus journey to the mountain just outside of Seoul. It’s been my little new ritual…
Soon as I get to the beginning of the trail…I always turn off my music…and try to take in my surroundings…get all ‘zen-like’ …try to absorb the beautiful scenery around me…but I mostly get absorbed by my own thoughts…
Like…there was this old couple in front of me…(by the way…hiking is HUGE here!!! And VERY popular by the elders here!!! It’s like…in America…the old folks go to Florida and play bingo…well…here…the old folks get all decked out in mountain gear…like they are trekking the Himalayas or going on an expedition on Everest…and the cutest is when they wear matching ‘couple’s hiking gear!!!’) so…anyway…cute old couple in front of me…and the trail is quite difficult…I’m already sweating…can feel the annoying boob sweat trickle down…ew!!! So not comfortable! anyway…I digress…
And I was listening in on their chatter…so cute…and was thinking…as I was hiking up alone this really steep part…quite challenging…with ropes to help you get up…and it’s even more difficult as the trails are all snow or ice-covered...that when I am that old…I hope that I too will be wearing a hot pink “red face” mountain gear (they have ‘the red face’ mountain gear here…instead of ‘the north face’ get it? Its so funny!!!} and my unfortunate significant other will be wearing the male matching version hiking up this trail together…and I’ll get to talk his ear off…
Which got me to thinking…for some reason…the promises we made to each other when I was younger with my best guy friends in high school…two actually…of how we’d marry each other if we were still lonesome and pathetically single at 40…Anthony is now married and Brandon…well, I have not heard from him since I went to college…but…either they’ve failed to keep their promises…or I’ve thus far fulfilled mine.

note:pics are taken with a small Nikon 4 mega pix point and shoot camera...thanks to Barbarella, i have a camera...thanks to Korea, i want to take pics again...so i don't want anymore crap about how much my pics suck!!! YOU GOT THAT!!! : ) cheers!!!


rock sculptures...my dad makes these too...i always thought it was some weird thing that only my dad did!!!


drinking cups...fresh mountain water is amazing!!! one of the things i loved about Macedonia... :)


shoes outside a temple


the old gate to 'South Fortress' built in the "Three Kingdoms Period."


"South Fortress" wall

OH MY GOD!!! Carol LOVES Karaoke!!!

this is seriously the most embarrassing picture...more than the picture with all that crap on my face!!! but i thought it would make some of ya laugh... all the teachers and i love karaoke!!! we are CRAZY about karaoke!!! oh my god! i can't get enough!!! we were out till 4:30 in the morning! had no idea it was that late!!! it's so cheap too!!! 20 bucks for the room for the whole night!!! i can't wait to go again!!!