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!

Boglido Island

So another weekend in Korea has ended. It was lovely and full of new experiences. Or well, just one new experience: Korean Camping. Actually I have rarely even camped. Besides that one time when I was 12 years old when I went with my friend Ali and her Mom. That trip was rudely interrupted by my first period and needless to say that was NOT an enjoyable experience. The other time was for Hip Hop and Harmony, a music festival, and I hardly count that as camping since there were concessions and stages and mounds of people all around me. But finally I was ready to conquer the Korean wilderness, and even that failed a bit.

Friday night Dom headed to my hood and we made our way to Home Plus, aka heaven. We picked up the final supplies and stumbled across some tasty goodies: Beddar Cheddar brats/sausages. Granted they were 8 dollars for a 6 pack, it was well worth it, especially since the cost would be divided by 4. Dom also picked up a waterproof camera case that would come in handy during the trip. We then hit up the local McDonalds and treated ourselves to some Big Macs and Nuggets and went back to my house. We packed, she prepped the food, and I tried to fall asleep early for 6:10am bus ride out.

We arrived at the bus station about a half hour before that time and met up with the handful of random foreigners that had made it out to this trip. Of course I knew my 3 girlfriends, and a few others, but besides that the total count was about 20 people, most of which I hadn't gotten a chance to know yet. We boarded the bus to Wando and fell asleep for the 2 and a half hour ride there.

Once we arrived in Wando we knew that our final destination was Bogildo. Both Wando and Bogildo are islands ("do" means island) but we crossed a bridge to get to Wando and had to take a Ferry to get to Bogildo. We just shared a cab between the four of us to the ferry station but it would have only been about 50 cents if we waited a bit longer for the bus. Oh well. Taking the ferry out was nice, the weather was amazing in the morning and the water was literally bright blue and transparent. Another 35 minutes later we arrived on another island, I think it was called Nohwa? From there we took a shuttle to Bogildo, and once on Bogildo we took a bus to the beach. All in all it ended up being quite the trip. I think we landed on the beach around 11:30. However, if we were to go again I'm pretty sure we would get there a bit faster and with a lot less stress since basically none of us knew where we were going.

The beach was sunny and HOT. The thought of putting up a tent anywhere around there seemed almost ridiculous, not to mention it was a lot more populated than any of us had expected. After some of us went on a hike to find a more secluded place and failed, we decided to hide out in a shady area where some Koreans were having a big pot luck party. There must have been about 40 of them and food for about 150 people. Luckily, Koreans are the nicest people in the world and as we were making our brats they came over with a nice big plate for us to have!

While we were setting up our tents Felicity realized she managed to forget to pack her tent poles, so me being the nice friend, said it was okay for her to stay in my tent. That was if she set it up for me, because I may be nice but I sure am lazy. And while we may have found a shady place, we also managed to immediately set up our tent on an ant hole so that sucked.
Finally, after what seemed like the worlds longest morning, we made it to the ocean! The water proof camera case worked seemlessly and we managed a handful of water pictures and that's about it. I took my camera but once again managed to take like zero pictures. I don't know if you can tell here but the water really was quite transparent and also really warm. I spent a lot of time in the water and some of my friends literally did not leave the water the entire afternoon. Here's a glimpse of our fun time:

Finally the day ended. We retreated for a tasty dinner of chicken and veggies and drank the night away while the boys played songs on the guitar and I realized I REALLY should buy a guitar here to try and practice again. I eventually made it to my tent and hoped for no mosquitoes but I know I could never be so lucky. I woke up and counted a whopping 53 mosquito bites on my legs. It was horrific and painful and it didn't make my hangover any better.

So all in all it was a good trip. I think I would have enjoyed staying at the nearby beach side motel for 20 bucks a night a lot more. But, you live and you learn. I also wouldn't have minded going somewhere a bit closer. We could have been to Thailand via a plane by the time we arrived there. But it was definitely a lot better than staying in the 'Ju for the weekend.

In other news, I have now paid off two credit cards, totalling about $2,000 dollars (minus the 40 I still owe on it, that's annoying). I also am highly annoyed because my computer has suddenly decided to not turn on. So, this means until I get it fixed I will not be making any US calls. I'll still be able to update and be on Facebook on my breaks at work so don't worry too much.

The Good Life

Well well I must apologize to Gwangju after my last update. As you can imagine, I had some post Sweden depression and I wasn't able to fully appreciate the life I live here. Now that time has passed a bit and Sweden is turning into a memory I have plenty to be thankful for and also to write about. Among the most important is my finalized plans for 2011!

So, to recap the last few weeks. I came back to quite the surprise on Thursday morning when my only coworker abruptly quit. I found out that she told the director she was so sick that she couldn't work, which worried the shit out of my boss. However, that was far from the truth. She wasn't happy at iSponge and had actually been bringing me down with her too. She made it seem like this was such a hard job, but in reality, it's the easiest and funnest job I've ever had. I also got blessed with another teacher, one who speaks English, and it has made this job 100 times better.

On my Birthday (the big 25!!) I came to realize this even more as I celebrated with my closest friends who had nothing but bad words to say about their employers. Felicity, also known as the British version of me, had been having an especially hard time at her job. Not only does she work way harder and longer than I do, but she has just a fraction of the vacation and makes about 200 bucks less than me each month. Moments after we met in Korea we had decided whatever we do for our second year, we want to do it together. First it was Japan, then it was Gwangju, then it was Busan or Seoul, and on Tuesday this week we made our final decision!

Since I've come to realize how great my job is here, in comparison to all the first year teachers in Gwangju, I wanted to see what I could get out of a second year. I talked to my boss and explained to her how important I was at iSponge. If she kept me a second year she wouldn't have to pay for a recruiter, she wouldn't have to worry about the "what ifs" of a new teacher, and she wouldn't have to worry about not being able to find a teacher either. Also, she wants two foreigner teachers, and I just happened to know someone looking for an awesome job (Felicity, duh). So after a pretty smooth and effortless talk with my boss I was able to secure a $700 a month raise, an extra 3 days to my vacation (which puts me at 5 and a half weeks) and a brand new 2 bedroom house all for me. This of course comes with the standard round trip airfare and the non-paid time off to go visit Minnesota for 3 weeks during Christmas. Oh, yeah, and the severance pay too. That means on my last day of working this year and next year I'll get a bonus of one months pay. She agreed to hire Felicity on for the same deal too! It's basically like, one of those situations that sounds too good to be true. But she's followed through with everything else, so I don't see why she would stop now. She knows I do a good job and the students/parents love me and shes extra happy that my new coworker will be someone that I know and trust.

In other news, I swear I'm FINALLY going camping on an island this weekend. The rainy season seems to be coming to an end and I bought a new tent after a drunken-rooftop-rain-party mishap. It's pink and I think it has cartoon characters on the outside. It was only 13 bucks, so I'll take it. Also, I have a week off in September where I will be traveling with my girls and Dom's Mom to Jeju island, better known as the Korean Hawaiian islands. I feel as though something bad needs to happen soon because shit is just going too good. Oh well, maybe it's just my turn.

No pictures this post, but I'm sure after this weekend I'll have some gooduns'.

Gwangju Vs. Gothenburg

The G-Town rivalry has begun. First, I guess I should inform you of the happenings in the last week. I left off on Monday morning where I spent a good portion of it sitting by the kitchen window, absorbing the beautiful natural sunlight, drinking coffee and internetting away. I suppose I will start off with one point for Gothenburg there, because in case you were unaware, I don't even have a kitchen you can sit in, let alone natural sunlight. Not that this amenity is exclusive to Sweden, but it definitely puts a damper on my current living situation.

After relaxing like that for a handful of hours we finally decided it was time to go to town and get our shop on. Or should I say, my shop on, since I was the one on a mission. Oh boy, it was love at first sight. The fashion in Gothenburg is obviously better than Minneapolis and definitely more diverse than Gwangju. Every store had a good variety of clothes and the crazier the better. Oh, and they also had MY SIZE! So, let's see, that's another two points for Gothenberg. Oh and sales galore, which I could give a point to Gothenburg for, but I'll let this one slide. Here's that lovely mall:

Next came lunch. I don't quite remember which lunch date this was, because there were two quite delicious ones. Both on lovely outdoor patios. OHHhh wait, I think that's another two points for Gothenburg. There is maybe one or two patio spots in Gwangju, neither are very cute nor as delicious. Anyways, on the first date we shared an amazingly tasty, huge and refreshing shrimp salad and a pasta. At the other, a Spanish restaurant, we shared a nice helping of pallela which made me want to literally die that day.

So, by the end of Monday I was already stuffed with an amazing meal and had purchased roughly 6 dresses, 2 pairs of shoes, 2 pairs of leggings, a sweater, and a cute hair bow. See below:

Tuesday was more relaxing, enjoying the day with some face masks and television shows (True Blood to be exact). We finally hit up the liquor store for some box wine and drank while we enjoyed these activities. By the time it was late evening we were off to meet up with Annie's friends and enjoy another night out on the town.

By Wednesday, more relaxing was due, and we headed down south to the rocky "beaches" for some sun bathing and sleeping. I should probably just stop and give Gothenburg another two points (sun bathing is acceptable and easily accessible).

What's the score now? I don't know, I'll figure that out later. I'm pretty sure that's all we did Wednesday, the days of nothingness seem to blend together. Also, if you're expecting any great sight seeing shots or cultural explorations of Gothenburg, you might as well quit reading now, or set your expectations low. I decided moments after landing that this vacation would be about me relaxing and shopping and drinking box wine with one of my best friends. Damn it was good too. But here's a few random shots of the city for you to enjoy:

Anyways, by Thursday we had an Art Show to go to. Annie's best friend in Sweden, Mailind, is an artist and had recently got a piece accepted at a gallery. There was a show/opening (I don't know what you call it?) and we were very excited to go. It was really cool and her piece was definitely one of the best. Another highlight of these events is unlimited free beer. Since all of us were on a budget we sat there for a few hours drinking, talking to some new people, and I eventually ended up meeting the gallery owner and Annie met some crazy old man.

Friday, was, you guessed it, more relaxing. I think we enjoyed some good pizza or something that I should give out points for. So, two more points for Gothenburg.

By Saturday we were able to leave the house again, and we went down to her friends house to cat sit and listen to records. This obviously was accompanied by wine and more good company and lasted well into the evening. One of Frederic's friends was having a clothing line release party not too far away so we decided to go there and show our support (without paying to get in). It was a crazy mix of people and it was really cool to see some good diversity again. Oh yeah, that's another point for Gothenburg.

Sunday, as you can imagine, was spent watching the first season of Mad Men, eating Pizza AND Indian Food, and sleeping all day. Damn life was good.

Monday, my final day, was sad. I got my last minute shopping in, sat in the park, met up with Annie's friends again and decided the most logical way to prepare for a flight that leaves at 6:00am Tuesday is to stay up all night drinking and crying. As you can imagine, the flight home was hell, but I'm here now, in one piece, and the all nighter was definitely worth it.

So. How many points does Gothenburg have? I counted 10, but I only skimmed. It's weird because I've spent the majority of this blog talking about how much I really love Korea and how great it is (and yes, some of its downfalls as well) but now after experiencing ANOTHER country, I'm starting to second guess. I think I may just be a bit Korea'd out after 7 months. Everything here is, well, so Korean. I'm also starting to see how little I've traveled and how much more there is out there that could interest me. Annie has been all over Europe (most of it anyways) and she says Sweden is the best, but she could be a bit biased. I don't know though, the architecture, the weather, the constant sunlight, the diversity, the English speaking abilities with cute Swedish accents, the clothes, the food, the awesome people I met. The list goes on. But I'll give Gwangju some credit too. I've met great friends here, I've lived very nicely for very little money, my job is good, and hell, what would I do without rice for lunch everyday?

I think it's fair to say the grass is always greener on the other side, especially if you're seeing that "other side" on a vacation. I hope to visit Sweden again, maybe even very soon. Tickets from Minneapolis are a third of what I paid to go from here. I really don't know what my plans are. I've pretty much secured a life in Korea for the next year and a half. I want to buckle down, see so much more of Asia, and hopefully return to Minneapolis with a plan that involves Europe after all of this. It's a good thing I named the blog Mobile Molly.