Now I have THREE posts this month!

I noticed I was lacking in updates, so I figured I could do a general post since nothing too spectacular has happened to write about, and I have a long break at work right now.

I ended my Chuseok holiday actually looking forward to work. I have to say, that never ONCE in my life have I looked forward to work (unless it was because I desperately needed the money). It's strange though, because I truly wanted nothing more than to hang out with my kids, have a set schedule, and go back to normal. Unfortunately going back to normal wasn't possible because as soon as Monday morning hit I was sick. Not as bad as my last two Korean sicknesses, but a good solid chesty, snotty, headache filled cold. I instantly changed my mind about wanting to go to work and spent a portion of Tuesday laying in our library on break. It's now Thursday and I can feel myself getting better but I really just want my normal Monday through Friday life with work, gym, Molly time, and a good nights rest.

Besides being sick, I can also update that I am now the Korean speaking MASTER. Juuuuust Kidding! But I have studied so much more and worked so much harder since my computer has been gone. I think this is also pretty strange because when I had my computer I had so many more tools to study with (multiple websites). Now, I just signed up for one web site (and I even have to pay $22 a month for it!) and I download the audio files to my MP3 Player and print out all the lessons and study at home. I think it's because there is literally NOTHING to do at home besides watch TV so I have to keep myself occupied somehow.

I was also informed by my awesome boss that I can have the entire month of December to go home. This isn't set in stone yet, because the ticket isn't purchased, but that's still pretty awesome. I do have to say I am a bit worried because I know it's going to be a non-stop eating/drinking festival. Regardless, I can't seem to stop thinking about it. It's strange because I have no desire to move home or leave Korea, but damn am I excited to see everyone.

I also am contemplating the options of doing a bit of travel while I have that 1 month off. Maybe a week somewhere else, preferably where I have free stay, but I don't really want anywhere in the U.S. I suppose we'll see how the finances are, but I'm sure after I purchase an entire years worth of clothes and shoes I won't have money for all that.

Anyways, I should get back to work. Buh Bye.

Destination: Jeju

This week is a special week in Korea. It's called Chuseok, and us foreigners just call it the Korean Thanksgiving. For us this means a minimum of three days off and a chance for you to join your friends in some much needed travels together (since most of us have different vacation times). I quickly Googled Chuseok to get a fast easy explanation of it, and the handy dandy Wikipedia gave me this:

"Chuseok (Korean: 추석), originally known as Hangawi (한가위) (from archaic Korean for "great middle"), is a major harvest festival and a three-day holiday in Korea celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. Like many other harvest festivals, it is held around the Autumn Equinox. As a celebration of the good harvest, Koreans visit their ancestral hometowns and share a feast of Korean traditional food such as songpyeon."

While our Chuseok did involve a lot of eating, which isn't far from any weekend get together, we also pumped it up a notch and visited Jeju Island. I would like to make a special shout out to my number one stunner, Dom, for getting all of the travel arrangements together and making my life much easier. But don't get me wrong, there were a few bumps in the road.

I'd say the first one came when Dom, Jocelyn (her Mom), Fliss, and I decided that the night before our travels we should go out for drinks. This turned into showing her Mom all the spots in the city, drinking like fishes, and of course ending up at a Noraebang by 4am.

The next morning was dreadful to say the least, and it didn't get any easier as we discovered that our ALL DAY travels could have been reduced to a half an hour in a plane. Oh well, you live and you learn. So around 11am we left Gwangju to Mokpo. The bus ride was about an hour long and it never fails that I fall asleep 10 minutes before we arrive, no matter how far the bus distance is.

Mokpo

Once in Mokpo Dom and I approached the reservation counter to get our tickets. While we had only been traveling for an hour or two at this point, we were already quite irritated with our lack of sleep and stomachs full of stale beer. So when the ticket lady told us that our reservation was no where to be found our jaws dropped. Not only are they out of tickets for that day, but they would likely be out of tickets throughout the entire holiday week (thus the reservation). After a few minutes of persistent existence of our reservation she finally looked it up through Dom's name instead of the reservation number and we were set. Woohoo. We waited around a bit and finally hopped on the Ferry.

The ferry was, well, packed to say the least. We made our way into a little spot where the four of us could plop down our luggage and take a rest. Unfortunately the air conditioner was set on "ice age" so getting any sleep was hard for fear of hypothermia. That and the flagrant smell of the world's oldest Kimchi being eaten by the men next to us didn't help. Speaking of those men, I was quite surprised to see them plop out a picnic style lunch moments after being seated and then somehow make it last for a good 4 hours while they drank soju and consumed Kimbap, mushrooms, and a shocking dozen hard boiled eggs. It definitely didn't resemble the way my friends and I would eat, consuming as much as possible as fast as possible to ensure we all got enough to eat.

We finally arrived in Jeju around 8 or so and Laura (who was smart and took a plane a half hour before) was set to meet us at our hostel. We got in a cab who outwardly denied our request, most likely because it was too far, but took us to another cab who would bring us to our destination. We soon found out that yes, it was quite far. While 30 bucks is not much in American standards, that 30 was an arm and a leg from what we were used to, but we were in the cab nearly an hour as he took us to the other side of the island. Lesson #2: Find public transportation ahead of time.

Meanwhile, poor Laura also took a cab, hers reaching 40 bucks and she was alone. She somehow also made it there before us and the cranky hostel worker wouldn't let her get into our room without all of us there. Once we met up there was one thing on all of our minds: Food.

View from the room.

Now, living in Gwangju I've become accustomed to food literally EVERYWHERE. You can not go more than a few steps without finding something to eat, and something GOOD at that. So we all were thinking of the delicious seafood this island would have to offer, especially maybe some good sashimi style tuna which usually comes for about 20 bucks unlimited here. We asked our hostel worker dude where to go, got in a cab and arrived moments later at a sashimi restaurant. Unfortunately, though we had asked Laura if she wanted "Chamchi" (the Korean word for Tuna) and she agreed, she was not fully aware that this would be raw fish. Soooo that took a bit of convincing on our part. Our next hurdle came when the menu was quite unfamiliar from our regular tuna spots and I had to spend a good 10 minutes discussing in my broken Korean what to order AND I even got us a discount. On the downside, it wasn't exactly the unlimited we wanted, but it was delicious, and somewhat scary because some of our dishes were still alive and moving. See below:

The night ended with a hefty sum of money missing from our pockets, but hey, it's vacation.

The next day we had one goal, and one goal only: Beach! So we did just that. The beach was beautiful, the weather was lovely, the sun was shining, and the waves were fun. It was also a bit of culture shock to see other foreigners that weren't teachers but legit tourists. The only foreigners I've ever really seen here are teachers or military so when I hear a language besides Korean or English I can't help but be shocked.

That night we consumed many beers at a local pub and fell fast asleep around 2am. Waking up early was definitely not fun but we had a beautiful waterfall to go see. Once again we piled in a cab (minus Fliss because she was going Scuba diving *jealous*) and headed towards the falls. As you can see below, those were also quite lovely.

After that, we realized we were scorching hot and needed another beach fix, because well, if you're on an island and it's a vacation, why not?! So we headed back and enjoyed some more water. The wind was a bit more vicious that day and I frequently got tossed around by the waves, but it was worth every bump, bruise, and burn.

Our final day we woke up bright and early and headed for the Manjang-gul Cave and Love Land. The cave was, well, a cave. It was neat but really more of a cold dark walk. Love Land was an outdoor sculpture museum of sex filled dirtiness that brought about a handful of giggles and silly pictures.

We finally made it home around 11pm on Tuesday night and here I am on Thursday still happy to have the next few days off. I do regret not visiting Jeju earlier in the spring, and as I said to Dom, I also regret not doing more this summer. Then she put it into perspective and asked how much I would have done in Minnesota, and she was right. I can finally feel the summer winding down, the weather is getting cooler and Fall is setting in and man, I did have a good summer. From camping to Sweden, Mudfest to Jeju and every random weekend fun in between, I think I've done quite well. I'm looking forward to my next year here because I still have so much to do and I'll also have more vacation time and money to do it with, so hurray and Happy Chuseok!

I'm becoming a farmer

No, seriously I think I could do it. Minus the crazy temperature and hard labor and stuff. I basically am just really good at eating whatever I manage to pick. Anyways, last Friday we had a field trip, and it was quite fun as usual. We were going out to Damyang again, a close by town where my director lives, to pick grapes. As you may recall I've already done some strawberry picking and even picked some watermelons! This field trip was a bit shorter than the last because basically you just cut off a group of grapes (or two) and that was the extent of it. So I played photographer and took a million pictures of the kids and my coworker and managed to sweat my ass off. Have a look:







After the picking we came back to the school and I had a very relaxing day. I think all together I worked 2 or 3 classes and then messed around on the internet. Now that I don't have my own functional computer at home my time at work has been less productive. Woops. I have actually been doing a bit of research on something Felicity and I are talking about possibly doing in 2012. Basically a 4 month travel across Africa. If you're interested in it take a look here: http://www.africantrails.co.uk

I just would really have to practice being okay with being dirty and smelly for 4 months. I think the only reason I really really want to do it is because it's something I think I would NEVER ever want to do (originally) or think about doing, or be able to do it. It's the challenge that makes it exciting, yanno? Who knows though, I could be all talk. Plus, I need to really start saving more money if I'm going to do that.

In other news, I'm getting really excited to visit home in a few months. I know I'm not ready to move back home, but I want to see some faces and take part in the Holiday season with friends and family. I also found out that a friend from Minnesota is moving to Korea and most likely Gwangju, so that will be exciting to show off all the great stuff of Gwangju to someone new SINCE NONE OF MY FRIENDS HAVE CAME TO VISIT COUGH COUGH.

I'm still patiently waiting for my one week vacation Sept 20-24th. As I said before I'm going to Jeju Island with my girls and am totally excited. I'm lucky I have friends who are good at planning shit, because otherwise I'd probably just sit on the beach all day. It also looks like the weather will still be quite stunning then so that's even more exciting! Anyways, I have to go do some work. I won't be making an America calls any time soon, but you can always get my number on Facebook and give me a call for like a cent a minute through Skype! Bye bye!