Welp, the last month or so has gone by way too fast...which also means that once again I've been horrible at updating this thing. Whoops. So this post will be kind of an update on what's been going the last month-ish and what's to come in the next month or so!
Nolan, my little bro, came out here to visit for a week during his Thanksgiving vacation! It amazes me every time that I see him how much of a little brother he isn't. He's HUGE. And I think at this point I could easily convince people that Kyle, Molly, and maybe even Nolan and Claire are all older than me. Kyle's a given since he looks like he's thirty lately. And Molly definitely looks older than me. But my 16 year old brother and sister are growing up so fast it's crazy. The other thing that is just so stinking awesome besides the fact that he gave up a week of his high school life to come see me is that he paid his own way out here! I don't know any 16 year olds that would do that which proves that both he and Claire are such solid and amazing kids. He was also here for my birthday which was so great. It was kind of a bummer that I had to work the whole week but it worked out well because he stayed with my boyfriend Timmy who is an R.A. in the dorms so he works from 3-11pm which made it so that Nolan was able to hang out with him and my friend Will most days instead of having to come to work and be bored to tears! He of course came to school with me for two days (I lucked out and didn't have to go to my boy's school on that friday-PHEW) and gave the girls a coronary. It was so funny to see them go absolutely nuts over him and constantly scream "Handsome!" down the halls. We stayed in Daejeon for most of the week and headed to Suwon on Friday to meet Timmy, Kir, Will and some other people who were at a conference up there so that we could go hang out in Seoul the next day. It was just so much fun to be able to experience things over here with Nol especially since he is such a goof and was so comfortable with my friends. I definitely envy him for his ability to adapt and be comfortable in a new environment...and even more, that he's himself regardless of whether he just met a person or has known them for 10 years. I was so sad to see him go and I loved being able to crack up at just about everything he did for an entire week:) Here's some pics that he took during his visit: So, its almost Christmas which means my contract here is up in about 2 months! Crazy to think of how fast much of this year has gone. And I know the next 2 months will go by even faster which is exciting but also kind of scary. (Sidenote: Since I'm a public school teacher here, we basically don't get any time off for Christmas since they don't celebrate it here. All of my friends from TCIS get 3 weeks of for vacation so they'll all be leaving....so if you would like my address to send me anti-depressants then let me know. And I'm only kind of kidding...) I am so excited to come home and see my FAMILY! and amazing friends...as well as Red Robin, Sonic, Panera, El Toro, Olive Garden...and the list goes on. But it also makes me so sad to think of having to leave people here so it's a weird, weird feeling and I have an inclination that I might go a little nuts at some point after I get back. Luckily my friend Heather's husband is a nurse and knows how to restrain crazy people. My contract finishes on February 25th but on the 23rd my friend Anella is coming to Korea! Sheesh. It's amazing that I will have had 5 visitors during my year here. Amazing. But she will be here for about a week and then we are going to Thailand for 3 weeks! Wooooo! So a lot to look forward to but also just a lot to take in period. Then when I get back, who knows what. There's definitely some anxiety about that but I'm just relying on the Lord's direction for that as well as what I'll be doing next year! So if you all could keep that in your prayers that would be so osom.
This one is long overdue...but for our APAC volleyball tournament this year (pretty sure it stands for Asian Pacific Activities Conference?) we got to go to Kobe, Japan! It was such a neat experience first of all just to be able to go to Japan, but also to be able to coach in a volleyball tournament there AND get to go there with my friend Kirsten who actually grew up in Japan. Just a cool deal all-around. We got there on a Wednesday after having left the school at 4:30 a.m. (woof) but it was nice to have a good part of the day once we got there. The school hosting the tournament was the Canadian Academy so we went straight there so the kids could be picked up by their host families. Then the next three days were filled with lots of volleyball. We played teams from Korea, Japan and China, all of them being international schools as well, so it was really fun to watch the games during our downtime for both boys and girls.
On the first day they had an opening ceremony and in the elementary, there was a class assigned to each team at the tournament. So our girls got to go and meet our class and answer questions and they were so awesome with the kids:) Throughout the tournament, the class would come watch and cheer for us during our games and they were so so so cute!
Some of our wonderful girls
and some more:)
They gave the coaches these awesome 80's/early 90's waterbottles so Will and I thought a pose was necessary...
Our boys team getting ready to play. In the Asian leagues, teams bow to each other before and after games and I think it might be one of the coolest things ever.
The area around our hotel was gorgeous
including the spaceship...
One night they took all of the coaches out to an awesome dinner in Kobe. Afterwards we wandered around for a couple of hours so here's some pics from that night.
At one point, Will and I started walking down this one street and we soon realized we were in a red-light kind of district...haha oops.
Don't go down this street if you're ever in Kobe
Apparently Larry is a big deal
It was kind of a bummer to come back, especially since we didn't get to see a ton of Japan. But it was such a great experience! Not gonna lie, based on the 5 days we were there I definitely could live in Japan. Even though it's so expensive that even McDonalds will make you broke I thought it was a really neat place. I love Korea but it definitely had a "cleaner" feel to it and I liked the architecture alot more...less neon too if you know what I mean. Anyways! It was such an amazing opportunity and I'm so glad I got to hang out with a bunch of amazing girls for 5 days in Japan! I mean seriously, who gets to go to Japan for a volleyball tournament? So awesome.
I've been super bad at updating this diddy, mostly because I've been super busy with volleyball...but it's a really good kind of busy because I looooove it. I'm so glad I've had the chance to coach out here this year. It's crazy how God worked that all out and I loved every minute of it. We finished our season this last Saturday and finished 3rd out of nine in the league and also took third in the conference tournament so all together an awesome season! We also got to go to Japan for our APAC tournament a couple weeks ago which was so super sweet but I'll save that one for another post. Anywho. The week that we left for Japan fell perfectly in line with my school schedule so that I could be away from school since we had a festival that took place from Tuesday through Friday. We left for Japan on Wednesday morning but I was able to be here for one day of the festival which was probably the best part by far. The school rented out this huge theatre in downtown and we had a giant talent show. About two months ago, students went through two seperate phases of auditions to be a part of it and eventually it was narrowed down to just 20 acts. Classes were cancelled for the day so everyone just met at the theatre in the afternoon for the show and it was pretty sweet. I took my video camera and recorded almost the whole thing but here are a few different ones:
This was the first act of the day and the two MC's are two of my favorite students ever. The one on the right is Donald Duck and the one on the left is Blair (named after Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl, haha)
So I recently realized that with the exception of a few pictures I've not really posted anything that can give you a real idea of what my school is like. I started taking my video camera with me to school occassionally though because there are so many days where something totally random and crazy happens and I don't have anything to document it with. I was walking into school the other day and and I was thinking about how I probably know what's going on about 10% of the time while I'm at school. No joke. It's actually kind of awesome because I'm constantly in lala land which is pretty normal. I've taken some videos during random times throughout the school day though and this is one from a day where I wandered around during lunch/breaks. Be warned that you might get motion sick watching it since the kids did alot of the filming:)
Sometimes I think it's crazy that I'm a teacher. Well, my job right now is more of an "edutainer" but teaching is what I'll probably be doing until I marry someone rich enough to let me do P90X and watch Real Housewives while eating Cheetos all day. If you would've asked me when I graduated from high school if I would ever be a teacher I would have said "No thanks Tom Hanks" because during high school I spent a lot of time after school in academic detention...or just plain detention. Actually that was my Junior year only but still, Sister Sue a.k.a Mr. Sue (got kicked out of her English class for saying that one out loud) totally ruined any small desire I ever had to teach. Then I started coaching and realized that teaching is pretty much a variation of coaching and I actually LOVE it. Who would've thunk?
Also, just want to throw this out there: I have OSOM friends. Seriously. When I left the U.S. I was convinced that a lot of my friends were going to completely forget about me and I totally did not give them nearly enough credit. I've gotten so many awesome messages, texts, packages, etc that have absolutely made my days here. I got an email from my friend Jordan a couple weeks ago and it was hands down the most encouraging/awesome message I've probably ever gotten. Two of my friends have figured out how to send texts from their phones to my email and some of them are the funniest one-liners I've ever read in my life. Totally original too. So when I get back I'm publishing a book with all of their funny texts since I've saved them and it's gonna be a best seller at Urban Outfitters. Be ready. Here's a couple for you to preview... *Scientists are baffled with the age old question... How is it that two minutes after a water break, one is dying of dehydration. *I will marry ____ under one condition... That there are no conditions. *Well where is this battle happening? Because if It's on land you're screwed. *My eyes are fake you tosspot! They're glass. *I've always wanted to be famous. *Nah, i like flabby arms and calves... *Ya a happy life starts with arranged marriage. *about my outfit... my donut tshirt. it is soooo right. *homework = not done and im feeling great about it *How? I dunno. Runner than I expected? Yes. *I did sing livin on a prayer karaoke at the top of my lunges. *Just stood behind the hottest dude in Costco that was signing with his mother. Shall I learn sign language? Perhaps. *good thing i brought an extra shoe to the gym Hahaha, love them.
Welp that's all for now folks. Hope all is well with everyone! And just a sidenote: if you ever do P90X don't plan on walking for a week afterwards. I've done it for two days and am seriously thinking about quitting.
Welp, it's been a while since I've done one of these thingys but I've actually surprised myself with the fact that I'm still posting stuff 7 months later! So, I'm going to be positive and say "good job Ash!" instead of telling myself I stink at keeping up with stuff like this. I could very well be writing to myself because all of you back home got bored...or because you whine that my posts are too long and need to be broken up into days in order to finish them...Darby, you're a turd:) But since school started in August I've been pretty busy and I'm pretty stoked about it! As I've told most of you, I'm coaching volleyball at an international school here in Daejeon which is the most amazing thing ever. First of all, the story of how it all came about is kind of crazy because back in April, my friend Christi told me about this church that meets at Taejeon Christian International School so I started going. The first day I went I met a teacher from the school who was also the assistant volleyball coach. She told me that she was leaving Korea at the end of the school year in May and that if I was interested in helping out I should get in touch with the head coach who happened to be one of her good friends. Sooo, long story short, the head coach somehow decided I was cool enough to not only coach BUT be her friend too! Double win! I'm super good at fooling people.
The girls that I coach are an amazing group of girls though and I love that I get to hang out with them after school everyday. Since it's an international school all of the students speak english and while it's primarily Korean students there's also kids from a bunch of different places which is a pretty cool experience. As much as I love my students, it's so nice to be able to go to practice and be able to talk and joke around with them. The head coach has been there for the past 5 years since she graduated from college so her program is really solid. And she runs it really similarly to how Kev runs things at PLU...it's just a super positive environment and the players have fun while still having really high expectations set for them.
It really is crazy to me though how small this world is...and how lucky I've been since I've been here. Actually, I take that back, I definitely don't think it's luck at all but rather God being super intentional and awesome with the people he puts in my life. First, I get placed in the same city as my friend Christi who also went to PLU but I had never met before I came here. So weird that we went to the same college and never hung out but then become friends all the way in the middle of Asia. Then, I'm walking along some random street in a beach town back in April and meet my friend Bethany who is the sister of a friend who I went to college with and she lives only 30 minutes away from me so it's so super easy for us to visit each other. That one honestly blew my mind-what are the chances of being on the same street in the same teeny city in Korea and finding out that you not only are pretty much from the same place in Washington but also know the same people? Insanity I say! Then, I go to some random church and meet the volleyball coach who is one of the coolest people on earth AND coaches volleyball AND actually knows how to play volleyball (not that you have to have played to be a good coach but you know what I mean...hopefully...she's super legit and makes me look like a bumbling fool as a d.s. which isn't hard but still) AND wants me to help her coach? Craziness.
Also, Im gonna have some pretty awesome videos to post here in a couple of weeks. My girls' middle school has this school festival coming up next month where one day is basically a talent show. Last week I got to help judge the auditions to determine who got in and these girls are INCREDIBLE. Most of them did some kind of choreography for a K-Pop song (Korean pop...think Backstreet Boys or NSYNC) but they are stinking amazing dancers and so so entertaining. One group did a skit based on a Korean drama and they were so funny that I had to sit there with my legs crossed to make sure I didn't pee in my pants. These girls are definitely another thing that I've been so blessed by. Although I catch myself complaining about the Korean school system (mostly because the kids are driven into the ground and rarely given a real break) my school is awesome, my main co-teacher is wonderful, and I'm excited to see my kids everyday...especially the girls, mostly because I'm with them 4 days a week and by the time I get to the boys on Friday I want to throw them out the window...occasionally. But since we started a new semester, I decided to do with all of my classes what I did with my three 3rd grade classes (8th grade-ish) last semester which is have them all pick english names. I know the kids in 1st and 2nd grade who already have english names from their english academies but other than that it's been hard for me to learn Korean names. All of the girls I've talked about before, Donald Duck, Crazy Minzy, Elderly, etc are third graders and so it's been nice because I remember their names which I think is kind of an important part of being a teacher obviously, it's just hard when you have 800 students. ANYWHO. The second week of classes we choose names and I gave them lists and lists of suggestions for popular english names so I have a ton of Sarah's, Elizabeth's, Kelsey's, Melissa's, Erin's (a ton of them named themselves after my PLU girls that wrote pen pal letters last semester, haha) Ashley's, Katie's and the list goes on. But, I have some that are so ridiculously funny. The girls sit in teams of four for my classes which is out of the norm because in every other class they sit in rows. I have one group who named their team "team baby" and their names are baby dolphin, baby bear, baby cat, and baby dog. Three girls in one team are named Tom, And, Jerry. I have a Beyonce Gaga, Marilyn Monroe, Lisa Simpson, Spongebob, Peter Pan, Lady Gaga, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and a bazillion others. My favorite though is one team who's names are Cream, Cheese, Spaghetti, $1.
Sorry no cool pics of anything crazy this time! Hopefully soon though I'll have some amazing vids for you:) Adios amigos! And go watch some PLU volleyball if you're in Tacoma!
So if you ever come to Korea one of the first things you'll notice is that couples match each other. Like reeeally match each other. Sometimes it's just their shirt and other times they are dressed head to toe and are probably wearing the exact same pair of jeans. And carrying the same purse...or murse (short for "man purse"). So when Beth and Hannah came it was funny all over again because they were seeing it for the first time and we saw some pretty crazy matching couples. I mean, it's totally ok with me just not something that would fly in the states which is why it seems so weird. Guarantee you would get eaten alive for wearing the same jeans as your girlfriend. Anyways, when we were in Jeju, Beth and I both bought the same t-shirt and didn't really think anything of it. When we got back to Seoul though we thought it would be hilarious if we threw our shirts on one day and posed as a matching couple. After they left I sent the pic along with a googled image of a matching couple to my good friend Heather who is a photoshop genius and this is what she sent me. Most awesome thing ever? Yes siree Bob. It's not really supposed to look like we're pointing and laughing we were just trying to look natural when we felt kind of...unnatural:)
So I'm a little slow...both in terms of blogging and mentalness (which isn't a word I'm sure of it) but here's part three of the best trip ever. Speaking of mentally slow though, I've been whining for the past 6 months about how I have such a long walk from the subway to my house but just figured out when my friends were here that I can transfer onto a bus right off the subway for free that gets me to my house in 30 seconds. I knew that you could transfer for free, and there are a bazillion buses that go down my busy street constantly, it just never clicked. So silly.
Day 8: AIR CONDITIONER GIRL. I almost killed her. So, at our guesthouse we had our own room with two bunk beds so we had an extra bed for 4 nights. On our last night there were 2 Korean girls who I think just kind of showed up last minute so one of them slept in our room. There was no AC the previous 4 nights and it was roasting but they had it installed that day so we were stoked. We went to bed around our usual 8pm bedtime since we're a bunch of grandmas and around 10ish our new roommate came in and I heard her turn off the AC but I fell back asleep. About 30 minutes later though I woke up literally in a pool of sweat. Gross I know but it was horrible and I think Beth and Han didn't really wake up b/c they were on the bottom bunks and were a little cooler. So I got down, grabbed the remote and turned it back on. As I'm getting back into my bed, she gets down from hers, looks at me and turns it off. So I got back into bed and after about 30 minutes couldn't stand it anymore and got up to turn it back on. Got back in bed and about 5 minutes later she climbs down and turns it off. I sat up and said something like "You've got to be kidding, it's so hot in here. Turn it back on please" and I knew she understood me because I had heard her speaking English in the lobby earlier. So I got back down and turned it on. Then, about 20 minutes later she gets down and pushes a bunch of buttons so that it stayed on but barely any air was coming out. I knew that if I got back up I would probably have jammed the remote down her throat so I just sweat it out for the night. When we got up super early to catch our bus to the airport she was still sleeping and had the remote in her hand right next to her face in her bed. She's lucky she's alive.
We jumped on a bus, headed to the airport, and within a couple hours were back in Daejeon. The rest of the day was pretty chill which was great. We went and worked out outside in the 7,000 degree heat then went to dinner at my FAVORITE place in all of Korea called BonBon that has salads (can you believe it??) and all kinds of awesome stuff. In every downtown, there are always all kinds of posters and ads taped down to the streets so it's literally covered/littered with random stuff. Beth decided to take everything she could get her hands on so I'm sure her basement at home now is going to look like a true Korean street:)
Day 9: We got up and went into what we call the "old downtown" of Daejeon. It's basically a crazier version of where we had been the previous night. We met my friend Bethany who came down from Cheongju for the day and spent a couple hours in the underground shopping mall. After that we went back to BonBon. Yes! Bethany was the one who showed me BonBon and every time she comes to town we have to go. Then we went to Dr. Fishy which is a coffee shop in the other downtown where you sit around these pools and little tinsy fish come and eat the dead skin off your feet! I had done it once before but it still kind of freaks you out at first. So fun though. Then we headed to Holy Cross coffee shop which is this super great coffee shop in downtown. I would move in there if I could. After that we went and saw Step Up 3D (YES!) and went home to watch Jersey Shore before we went to bed. If anything makes for a good before bedtime show it's Jersey Shore. Knowing that even though sometimes you might be a little bit of a space cadet there are people that are 392,929,392X more dumb than you are makes for a very peaceful slumber.
Day 10: We were CHAMPS on this day. We got up at 6am so we could pack all of our stuff and get on a train so that we had an entire day in Seoul. We went back to Insadong and shopped our socks off. After that we went by Red Mango so Han could get a lifetime supply and then we went to COLDSTONE. Now, this could be a seperate blog in itself. Coldstone is one of my favorite things on earth. We're not just talking food...it is a huge priority in my life. I want it at my wedding. I want it at the birth of my first child. It's where you go when you want to celebrate, mourn, or just be a fat kid. And there are a couple of people in my life who have been my Coldstone buddies now for years. We've shared billions of calories (literally) worth of memories. Ok, too much? Well anyways, Beth is one of those people. She can eat an entire Coldstone before you can leave the parking lot. So since I've been here I just have had no desire to go because no one here shares in the same kind of joy that I do. So while Han ate her Red Mango (which is ALMOST as good...I'm not dissing on you Hanner) we had the best Coldstone that I have ever had. And the guy that served us looked like my friend Jonah. Maybe it was Jonah?
Next we went to Hongdae and continued to shop our socks off, find weird things which is pretty normal for Korea, and went for some osom Korean BBQ. On our way back, some creeper guy kept trying to take pictures of us when we weren't looking and when I accidentally put us on the wrong subway, he even followed us on and off of it and continued to be a major creeper. Nothing else really happened so it's not a great story but he was definitely creepy. On the subway though, Beth had an excellent presentation of her alter ego also known as "Deb" which was hilarious. Beth and one of my favorite people on earth, Erin Bremond, have had this ongoing skit for the past couple of years now where they completely change their voices into this hilarious tone and pretty much do the most amazing improv you've ever heard. Erin's character is "Kath" and they are two older women, maybe in their seventies, who live together and have been best friends forever. But they have never had boyfriends, (although Deb has a son so I don't know how that happened,) and the only thing that really matters to them is their garden. Really, it's something you just have to hear. And if you don't think it's funny then I'm pretty sure you were born without a sense of humor. Last year they got in an argument as Deb and Kath when we went to the Mariners game and it was probably one of the top 3 funniest things I've ever seen. So anyways, we got a little video footage of Deb on the subway.
After Deb made her appearance we headed back to our amazing hotel, worked out and crashed.
Day 11: The minute I woke up I immediately felt kind of nauseous. Even though I had joked all week about how depressed I was going to be when they left I had really tried to avoid thinking about it up until that point. We got up, ate Krispy Creme, worked out (horrible combo I know) and then just lounged around. When we got onto the bus to go to the airport I cried the entire way but it was one of those cries where you try so hard not to cry that the tears just kind of sit there on your eyeballs and only fall down if you move really fast. Not gonna lie, this day just really sucked. So tough. I just didn't want to say goodbye to them, didn't want to be left here without them...just didn't want to be in Korea period. I cried the whole way home. Got home and cried. And it was a weird thing because yesterday I was talking to a friend here who's boyfriend just left and he had gotten here the same day Beth and Hannah had. I asked her how she was and she just said "I don't want to be here. Having him here makes me wonder what the heck I am doing here" and that is exactly how I felt. When we first left our homes it was different because we were excited and nervous which kind of cancelled out some of the sadness. This time it was just pure sad. And I did think "What in the world am I doing here? This is insane." because it's hard to be reminded of what you're missing at home and the people that you wish so badly you could be around all day. So to have that for two weeks straight, I almost forgot how different my life is here, and it has been really really hard to adjust back to that. I think even when my mom was here it was a little different because things were still a little new. But I guess that is the challenge of living on the other side of the world.
It was so amazing to have them here. I am so unbelievably blessed to have family AND friends that would come visit me in Korea. Seriously, I can't get over it, it's just that cool. Thanks so much Beth and Han for coming! I love you guys!
Welp, it's gonna be a week-ish before I get part three up from Beth and Hannah's visit, which might be a good thing since it will probably take some people that long to read because it's so dang long (aka Melissa DeWalt). I don't have pictures from our last couple days so in the meantime I figured I would throw a little blurb in there. As most of you probably know, I both played and coached volleyball at PLU so that has kind of been my life in the fall for the last 8 years. I miss it terribly. But I figure instead of writing an entire blog about how I wish I was there I thought I would just inform you that like previous years, the team this year is going to be BOMB.COM. If you are in the area I would encourage you to go to some of the games even if you don't have a connection to PLU or know anyone on the team. Guarantee they'll rock your socks off. And if they don't I'll give you your money back...even though it's free...but that's not an issue anyways because they will. As the head coach says, "It's the best bang for your buck" hahaha. A bunch of amazing girls playing some dang good volleyball for a super awesome program. Going into the preseason they're ranked 17th in the nation and picked to win the conference so if you want to know more or get the games schedule go to www.golutes.com. GO LUTES!
Day 4: JEJU! So there's this island off the southern coast of Korea called Jeju-do and it's considered the "Hawaii of Korea" since the climate is more tropical and there are palm trees, lava tubes, bomb beaches and pretty much everything that is wonderful. Even dinosaurs. Yep, there's a dinosaur theme park there. So we got to the the bus station around 3:30pm to catch our bus to the Cheongju airport which is only about 40 minutes outside of Daejeon. We got there though and after being told to get on and off the wrong bus twice, they tell us to get on another bus on a totally different platform...that has 15 more people on it already than there are seats for. It wouldn't be a big deal if it was a city bus but there was zero room and I came semi-close to wanting to punch the bus driver. Yes, I know this is one of those situations where it would be good to practice some patience but this is a prime example of how after a while the frustration of living in a place where common sense doesn't exist a lot of the time eventually builds up until you wanna blow a fuse. Luckily Beth and Hannah kept their cool and were positive as always:) Whew, thank goodness for that!
I had been told when I booked our reservations that we "must be there three hours early" but we got there about two hours before our flight and when we checked in the woman at the counter goes "Wow, you are here so early!". So far, this was one of those days where I would have loved to hold a press conference for anyone in Korea who would listen on easy ways to make life more efficient. And not to rag on Korea because I love it most of the time and goodness gracious does America have it's flaws, but this is one of the reasons why it was so great to be able to have friends here because now when I have those days where I want to pull each of my arm hairs out one by one there is someone on the other side that understands. Not gonna lie, there were times that I worried that they thought I had turned into a heartless turkey because of the frustration that creeps up in those moments where the language barrier is impossible to break or when pushing your way past an old woman is necessary if you don't want to get trampled on the way to the subway. Beth got smacked by an old man with a cane though on the way to the subway one day so I think they understand:) Anyways, while we waited we ate at a traditional Korean restaurant where we ordered bulgogi and got the normal side dishes, one which is always these little fishies (can't remember the name...you'd think I would know this stuff by now) that have eyeballs and everything. So Hannah tried one and was a champ...
We got into Jeju and had been told beforehand that our guesthouse was hard to find so the owner had emailed me a map and told me to print it out for the taxi driver. About 10 minutes before we had left though I realized I forgot to do it at school and had to draw it out by hand! I'm sure it was equivalent to a 3 year old writing in Korean for the first time but I was hoping it would get us there...but it didn't, haha. The driver took one look at it and started laughing. Luckily I had the phone number and when he called the owner all I understood him say was "I have 3 American girls in my car" and probably something along the lines of they have no clue what they're doing! We got there just fine though and our guesthouse was pretty stinkin sweet! Not to be advertising on my blog or anything, but if you're gonna go to Jeju stay at the Island Guesthouse. It's TIGHT and the owner is amazing plus she has fresh baked bread for everyone every morning. And it's a ten minute walk to the beach. Perf.
Day 5: We got up and got directions to the beach via bus. It was soooooo stinkin hot so by the time we got to the bus stop we were already dripping. Sidenote: If you hear people say that it's so hot in Korea, believe it. Its so crazy hot and humid in the summer. Anywho, we got on the bus and of course missed the stop because I lack any skill that has to do with navigation on buses. We heard one stop that said "tourist" something or other though so we jumped off at that stop which turned out to be the perfect location. We were right smack between the Cheonjeyeon waterfall, the Seonimgyo bridge and a super-resorty area with a sweet beach. So we walked down to the beach which was quite the trek but it was super gorgeous. I'm pretty sure this day was the hottest day so far this entire summer because even going in the water didn't help much. We all got fried, which is normal for me, but even Han got burned after caking on the screen and so did Beth who I'm pretty sure is 99% Hawaiian and doesn't know it. So kind of a big deal. We saw a skinny white guy puke his guts out on the beach too which at first we figured was probably from a few too many beverages if you know what I mean, but after observations and some pretty good detective work Beth concluded it was probably blue Powerade...mostly because we saw him barf and it was bright blue. That was kind of our cue to leave since we had been there all day and didn't want to puke so we decided that since we were in the middle of a resort area, we would just sneak into a hotel and sit by the pool. So we trekked back up and eventually made it to the Hyatt where we walked in like we owned the place, only to find there was only an indoor pool. Blast. So we decided we would go into Seogwipo which is the other bigger city on the island aside from Jeju city so we jumped on a bus like we were hotel guests. When we got off we expected to see the usual things you see in a city...you know, shops, restaurants, whatever but there was pretty much just beach and a traditional Korean restaurant like every half mile. They took this opportunity to tell me that they really didn't like Korean food all that much...actually not at all...which I was so relieved to hear because I didn't want them to feel like they had to eat it! I've grown used to it but I can honestly say that when I go back to the states I doubt I'll have a craving for Korean food. Bring on the fatty stuff and give me a freaking salad! Anyways, we ended up going to E-mart which is the equivalent of a Walmart/Target. I don't want to say it's like Walmart because it's much less trashy but nothing compares to Target. So ya, we ate at E-mart for dinner but we were totally cool with that. We jumped on a bus to go back to our guesthouse but remembered that we had no idea what our bus stop was so right as we recognized where we were supposed to get off the bus goes flying right by it. The next stop was at least a mile from ours so we got off and figured we would be able to get a taxi no big deal. Wrongo. We were basically out in the boonies and a car passed by about every 2 or 3 minutes. Finally a taxi drove by, we waved him down, and he flew right by us. Then it happened twice more. So we saw this taxi coming towards us a couple minutes later and I ran out in the middle of the street waving my arms like a crazy drunk bum just to make sure he stopped. He flies by us, screeches to a stop, and sticks his head out the window and says "May I help you?!" Hahaha, I don't know if it's because we were standing in the middle of nowhere or what but for some reason he was super confused that we were waving him down. We finally got back to the guesthouse after a super good day but unfortunately something really sad happened next. The night before I had caught a little ladybug and named him Kanye and he had been just flying around the room while we were away for the day. For some reason though Beth decided to try and kill him making it so that he was practically paralyzed because his poor little wings wouldn't work. I had to set him free hoping that his ladybug family could help fix him up but here's some video footage of the last precious minutes I had with dear Kanye. I'd like to think Hannah wasn't in the room because she felt so bad for my bug that she couldn't watch. And as you can see he is really struggling while Beth has zero remorse for her actions. Zero.
Day 6: This day was OSOM. I mean every day was awesome but this day was way awesome. We decided the night before that we were going to research the resorty hotels and find out which ones had outdoor pools so that we could dominate one of them for the day. In the process we found out that the Hyatt did in fact have an outdoor pool we just didn't look hard enough. So we had a whole lineup just in case we happened to get kicked out of one...
Haha. Before we began our total domination of the Jungmun resort area we went to check out the Cheonjeyeon waterfall and Seonimgyo bridge which was pretty stinkin sweet and we definitely felt like we were on the set of LOST...which may or may not be our dream come true. Well, not Hannah's because everytime we referenced it during the trip she would remind us that it's "just a tv show"...which I'm sorry to say Han but that's totally false. Jack Shephard is real:) Then we moved on to the Lotte Hotel which was the classiest of the hotels on our list so I think we were kind of expecting to get booted. We found the pool which was saweet and stuck in through a side gate, found chairs and some used towels and chilled out all day! We ended up eating at a place called Herb Berger near the hotel which served burgers that could be shared by three people...they were insanely huge. Then we jumped on a bus and went into Jeju city and found some tight stores and an underground shopping mall. We decided to find the bus that took us back since we were told by the guesthouse owner that the last bus leaves at 9:30 so we popped into two stores to ask which bus we should take and since they both told us the same thing we assumed it was the right one. We got on the bus and about 30 minutes into our ride we realized we still hadn't left the city which wasn't normal so since we were the last ones on it by then I went up to the front while the driver was still driving and showed him our address. I could tell by his response that we were on the way wrong bus but all of a sudden he pulls the bus over, puts his hazards on, jumps out of the bus and runs out in the street to wave down a cab. He told the cab driver where to take us and we got back to the guesthouse after a 30 dollar cab ride. There are things that drive me bonkers about Korea like anywhere else but one of the most amazing things about this country is how generous the people are. Seriously, where else in the world can you get on the wrong bus and have something like this happen? So cool and definitely something that's been so awesome to witness during the time that I've been here. When we got back to the guesthouse we walked in the door and saw the most huge spider we've ever seen. Aside from the tarantulas that I've seen back home (my little 11 year old sister's pet tarantula that she caught herself being one of them) this was hands down the biggest stinkin thing ever. So we caught it and threw it outside but about an hour later when everyone in the guesthouse was sitting in the living area the mother appeared and she was absolutely enormous. HUGE. One of the owners who was this hilarious French guy was on the phone with a person trying to make a reservation when everyone started freaking out and he put them on hold saying there was a "Giant spider emergency". We all basically had nightmares every night after.
Day 7: We met this guy at our guesthouse who was from Spain but living and working in China and had come to Korea to travel around so we had decided earlier in the week that we were going to go on a hike. There's two craters in Jeju, one is smaller and called San Gomdori while the other one, no clue what the name is, is much bigger. We decided to do San Gomdori though because it was closer and our Spanish tour guide had figured out all of the details of how to get there. That morning though, another guy from the guesthouse who was Korean decided to join us and told our Spanish friend that basically how he had figured out how to get there was entirely wrong. Of course, being that he was Korean we all trusted him. Well, we found out after we had gotten on the wrong bus to start that he hadn't been to Jeju in 15 years and had never actually been to San Gomdori. After 4 buses and almost 5 hours, we got to San Gomdori (the Korean guy had decided after bus #3 that he was tired and wanted to go back to the guesthouse but had told us that San Gomdori was a "short but very difficult hike") and were so stoked and ready to hike. We paid the 3,000 won entrance fee (since when are people charged to go hiking????) and started walking up a path and about 3 minutes in there was this crater on our left. We figured that must have been a mini crater before we got to the real deal so we kept walking for about 5 more minutes and all of a sudden realized we were back where we started! That was it! It's like a 10 minute walk around the stone path which was obviously so disappointing because we were ready for a hike. It was pretty humorous though so we took some pics and took off for a 30 minute walk to get the bus. Yep, our bus was a farther hike than the actual hike, haha. Im mean, it was cool but I was expecting first, a hike obviously, and second, a giant crater with like lava and dinosaur fossils. Moral of the story: If you ever go to Jeju don't go to San Gomdori. It was a beautiful day though! We split off from our Spanish friend and went back to our hood a.k.a the Jungmun resort area so we could go chill at the Hyatt's pool. We finally found it and it was a super gorgeous evening. The funny thing about the day was that we had stuffed an entire days worth of stuff into my big hiking backpack so we had everything in case we got lost in the jungle when we ended up needing none of it so we had this huge pack that we had to alternate carrying. Anyways, we headed down to the beach and hung out while we took some sweet pics:) This is mine and Beth's attempt at recreating a scene from LOST. She's playing Kate because Kate is a wuss and I'm Jack because I'm much braver as you can see based on the fact that my right arm is missing because of the black smoke monster. We hauled our huge pack back up the hill and for the first time got on the right bus and off at the right stop. Woo!
