A weekend Exploring

A few weekends ago, some friends and I set out to explore the southwest coast of Jeju. There are so many beautiful places that I have yet to see, and since my time left on the island is running short, I am trying to get to as many of them as I can.

On Saturday we explored a beach called Hwasun. It is a black sand beach. At this time of the year it is dead because to Koreans, even if it is hot and sunny outside, that does not mean that you go to the beach. You must wait until it is official beach season. That is great news for the rest of us because we can spend the time really exploring the beach.

We found many little coves off of the main beach. Some were very small and had little to no sand and others were decent in size. All of them were a little harder to get to as they were off of the beaten path. But the short hikes and small amount of rock climbing was well worth it!

On Sunday we decided to go to the Sangban-san Mountain area. While we did not climb the mountain or go up it at all, we enjoyed all the things we found in the surrounding area.

First we spotted a huge Viking ship carnival ride. Why would such a ride be in this beautiful place with no other rides around it? Well my answer to that is "Only in Korea". After the carnival ride I ran into a small black goat. He was tied to a tree and had a green bandana tied around his neck. He was very cute and friendly.

Second came another huge ship. This one was meant to be a Dutch ship. I have no idea why it was there. You could climb inside of it and what not but it served absolutely no purpose. Again "Only in Korea". There was a statue sitting on a park bench that was the Dutch captain of the ship. And another small wooden boat in the grass opposite the large ship that had flower painted all over it and said "Netherlands" on the side.

After that area we decided to head to the are called Songakson. It is another small mountain in the area. We were able to drive to the lookout point and do some exploring. There was a small cave that we spotted along with a rough looking staircase that could lead you down. Of course when we got to the top of the staircase we saw the "enter at your own risk" type of sign in Korean and simply stepped right over it. The stairs lead us most of the way don, but in order to get to the cave we needed to climb the rest of the way. I was no expecting all this climbing so it took me a bit not t slip in my shoes. But I made it safely down and was able to get some great photos looking out from insdie the cave. Once finished, we needed to climb back up! Again had to take our time!

It was a great day! We ended it with going to Oedolgae which I think I have posted about before. It is an amazing rock place on the ocean where my friends and I spend lots of time relaxing, swimming, snorkeling and cliff diving.

My 25th Birthday

"A Black & White Affair" was the theme for my 25th birthday! At first everyone was a little confused that I was doing a theme birthday. Most birthdays here on the island consist of the same thing: dinner, bars, then norae-bong (karaoke). So I decided to mix things up a little bit.

I have become good friends with a Korean woman here named JuYoung. She is the owner of an Indian restaurant called "Bagdad's". All of the foreigners for the most part love the food. It is a little on the pricey side compared to the Korean places eat, but well worth the extra cash. JuYong loved the idea of having everything Black & White. She also said that she would pay for all the linens and extras to decorate the outdoor (heated) seating where she would put all of us! It was so nice of her.

When I arrived at Bagdad's I was in aw of everything. It was beautiful. About 25-30 of my closest friends came to dinner. All were wearing black and white of course and most of them were dressed up! It was wonderful. The food was amazing and the company was too.

After dinner we proceeded to a newer bar in the area called "Stone Island". I had never been there before my party, but heard it was lots of fun. That it was! The bartenders did this awesome show for us including a fire part. Since it was my birthday I got to pick out what cocktail I wanted :) Also at this bar you could wear wigs, hats and other costume type things. It was so much fun.

My birthday cake was amazing too! Here in Korea there are two different candles. The tall candles are each 10 years and the short ones are a single year. So instead of having to blow out 25 candles I only had to blow out 7! The bad part about the cake was that there were no plates or forks! So everyone went and washed their hands and then ate their piece of cake with their hands. It was a great end to a fabulous night!

New Classroom

Over the winter break most of the public schools here on Jeju received an enormous English budget to make "improvements" for the English influence in each school. Most schools built new classrooms all together with top of the line technology. My school was one of these schools.

I received a brand new English Classroom. The classroom size itself is amazing. I don't feel cramped for once. The students have room between groups and plenty of space for games and role-plays. I have a "Virtual Studio" as well. This is an area that has yet to be used by me, but I plan to use it in the near future. Each window has a special English shade. Some of the shades have: world maps, body parts, family trees, directions, etc.

The best part of my classroom by far is my Smart Board. If you are not familiar with these, they are nothing short of amazing. It is a computerized white board. No markers or erasers needed. It has its own set of fake markers and erasers and the markers come in all the basic colors. It is completely touch screen as well. The down side to that part is that the kids walk by and touch it. It can confuse the Smart Board if too many things are going on at one time. To recalibrate these Smart Boards is very expensive and I have a feeling that my board will need that pretty soon they way things are going. You all know how kids are, if you tell them that they cannot touch the Smart Board, they do it MORE! Ha ha ha.

I also have two computers at my desk (one just for the Smart Board), a small row of 6 computers for the students to use, a laser printer and surround sound. My classroom makes me smile every morning when I walk in. It is frustrating however that everything is in Korean. Why would they spend all this money on English equipment and then put Korean versions of all the programs? It is VERY annoying as the Native English teachers at every school are the only ones for the most part using these computers and programs. I guess some things will never change!

One interesting thing about my classroom is that the students are responsible for cleaning it. Twice a day students come in with their little brooms and dust pans and proceed to sweep the entire classroom, and empty the trash. I LOVE this idea. Since the students are the ones that make the mess I see that it is only fair that they be the ones to clean it up. The classes each rotate cleaning the English room.

Phu Quoc, Vietnam

Phu Quoc has to be one of the most beautiful islands I have ever been on. It is a small island and in the shape of South America. We were lucky enough to get a direct flight to the island. As luck would have it, there were 6 seats left and 5 of us that were going! YAY for that guy we met in Hoi Ann that helped us so much.

The first day was mostly cloudy and that had us in a down mood. Most people caught up on sleep. Finally after lunch the sun decided to come out and stayed out for the rest of our trip.

One day we took a scooter ride to the southern most point of the island. It said in the Lonely Planet that is had the most white sand beaches. It was a little difficult to find the public access to the beach but once we did it was well worth the horrible road we had to drive down. We had to walk through a restaurant to get down on the beach. I thought that was pretty interesting. The beach was gorgeous. The water was crystal clear and the warm sun was shinning high in the sky. It was an amazing day trip.

I have to tell you about the two monkeys that were at our hotel. Well before I tell you about them, I should note that we stayed in Bungalows. Liz and I shared one and ours was infested with mosquitoes. I had never been bitten by more mosquitoes in my entire life. They only bit me on my lower legs. I looked like I had the chicken pox! EEEEK. After a couple days and tons of mosquito incense burning in our bungalow the mosquitoes learned that our bungalow was no place for them. It was the first time I actually had to sleep in a mosquito net.

Back to the monkeys. There were two of them that lived in a cage at the hotel. The cage was not nearly big enough for them and that made us all sad. We thought about buying wood and volunteering to make a new cage while we were on the island. I mean we had 4 days to do it! I never learned the names of the monkeys. They were very smart of course. They loved anything you gave them. It was funny to try and watch them un-do the lid to a water bottle. The hotel was nice enough to give us small bananas to feed them. We all enjoyed that.

The day after our day trip to the south we decided to go on a fishing/snorkeling tour. So we got up early and got on a fishing boat. The fishermen showed us how they fished. Not with poles like we do int he US. Instead they had spindles. It was the first time in my life that I was sea sick. I am not sure what my problem was. So I caught my one fish to contribute to the meal that came later.

After fishing we dove off of the ship with flippers and snorkel masks. We were surrounded by gorgeous coral. The water was so shallow in certain spots that you could stand on the coral (being careful of course). I stood on a piece of coral long enough that the fish started swimming all around me. It was like being in an aquarium that you would visit in the US. AMAZING!!! I saw so many wonderful bright colored fish and coral. I even saw some large fish which can be difficult to find at times. The waves were a little rough on us all but once we got our "fins" everyone seemed to do just fine.

While we weer snorkeling the fishermen were preparing our lunch. This included the fish that we caught. We also got the chance to try sea urchins. I decided to bite the bullet and go for it. The texture is what causes most people not to enjoy them. First you put salt and pepper into the shell and then squeeze a lemon or lime. Then you take a spoon and scrape around the edges, then down the hatch. I think what freaked me out the most was that even though they were supposed to be dead, they were still moving on the outside of the shells. EWWW. Almost everyone tried them. I am glad that I did, although I will know to pass on it if it is ever offered to me again.

We spent our evenings and nights drinking on the beach and enjoying each other's company. We found a pretty fun bar next to our hotel that seemed to be decent enough to be our bar on the island. They even served their version of a bucket, but much larger so they called it a trough. Ha ha ha. We had to share that one, as it was way too much alcohol for one of us to have in one sitting.

"Teht" is known as the Lunar New Year. For those of you that aren't familiar with this holiday, it is very important in the Asian cultures. All countries in Asia celebrate this holiday. It is said to be the equivalent of Christmas in the United States. We were in Vietnam the entire time of the Teht celebration. However we were on Phu Quoc when most people vacationed during Teht. We had a huge problem trying to get off of the island when we needed to. Luckily we got on a ferry, although we left a day earlier than we wanted.

Our route back to Saigon (Ho Chi Man City- the capital of Vietnam), was not a short one. We had to take an hour van ride to the port to catch our ferry. From there we took the ferry for 2 hours.

After the ferry we were shuffled onto a bus. The bus was the worst. There were dogs in bags shoved under seats, no air conditioning, and people were crammed in. I had to "share" a seat with a very large man. I say share because he took up part of my seat and part of his small wife's seat. Most of the trip they were all over each other!! The seat was so high up off the ground that my feet couldn't even reach the ground! So I had to put a crate under my feet so that I had some balance. Mind you I had to be careful because there was a dog in a bag under my seat. Oh and all the old men on the bus decided that it was ok to smoke as often as they wanted! The bus ride took two hours!

When we finally got off the bus, we needed to find a way to Saigon still. It would be about a 6 hour drive. That was another mess. They wanted up to pay upfront and we not very trusting people. All the tickets for the sleeper buses were sold out. We had to finally suck it up and get in a van and pray that we wouldn't be kidnapped. I have to say it was one time in my life that I was seriously afraid of what was going to happen to us. On the positive side, we were all together. I would rather be in a group of 5 than alone that was for sure. After another van change mid way through the drive, we finally made it to Saigon. I think that we all sighed a HUGE sigh of relief when we got into the city limits :)

Na Trang, Vietnam

Na Trang is said to be one of if not the top tourist spot in all of Vietnam. It was supposed to feel like South Padre beach. I have never been to South Padre, but I felt that there was a fair amount of tourists there. Why not? The beaches were gorgeous!

We arrived to Na Trang again early in the day. Unfortunately we did not book a hotel in advance so we spent part of the morning looking at rooms in various hotels. I have to say that I was no impressed with the rooms in any of the hotels. I guess the hotels thought that eventually people had to pick a place to stay because all of the really nice hotels were either booked or way out of our "young backpacker's" budget. We ended up getting a great deal at an empty hotel that was right on the beach. Pure luck!

We spent our time in Na Trang on the beach and taking lots of scooter rides. There are lots of small islands that you can do daily tours of, but they left too early in the morning for our group of late nighters. We were quite happy with our scooter excursions. One day we drove through the mountains and into a small fishing village. On our ride, we ran into some cows just hanging out on the paved roads. It was sort of dangerous! When we got to the fishing village, we saw how impoverished the country really is. The interesting part was that all the people were smiling and so happy. The children were running dirty and skinny throughout the streets, just happy to be alive. Seeing things like that really put your life into prospective and you learn to be very thankful for all that you have.

The last full day that we had in Na Trang, we spent in the mud baths. This was an amazing experience. The mud baths were in this small mountain. It was very difficult to find but well worth the trip. We soaked in mud and had mineral baths. There was also a huge heated swimming pool that had minerals in it, waterfalls, steam rooms, the works. All of us decided to get traditional Vietnamese massages. It last 45 minutes, and I thought it was the best massage I had ever had. The woman are so small that they actually do a "dance" on your back. There are poles that run along the ceiling that they hold onto while they jump on your back! I don't have any pictures from this part of the trip because it wasn't a place that I trusted having a camera because I knew it would get wet and muddy. Bad idea.

The night life was pretty good in Na Trang. We found out that the city was known for these drinks called "buckets". Everywhere served them and they were always the special for the happy hours. It basically was like a mason jar filled with lots of liquor and maybe Red Bull and a juice. We decided that the best bucket had: Vodka, Whiskey, Rum, Pineapple Juice and Red Bull. After one bucket, you were pretty set for the night. Although we were there for a few nights so every night we could drink a little more of the buckets. It was GREAT!! I fell in love with the buckets and think that more bars in the US should serve these. They were cheap too. I think it worked out to be $3/bucket!

One of the downfalls with Na Trang was that the theft was really high. Us girls had to wear our mini pack on the front of us. While it might not have been the most fashionable thing to do, it was the safest. One night Anna and Dave were harassed by a group of Vietnamese people and Anna ended up having everything in her wallet stolen. After that we all locked our passports and traveler's checks into the hotel 's safe.

Overall I loved Na Trang. I thought as a group that we had more fun in Na Trang than anywhere else at that point in our trip.

Hoi An, Vietnam

The next city on the Vietnam tour was Hoi An. This city is along the cost but farther south that Ha Long Bay. It is known for its tailor made clothing shops. We took a quick one hour flight from Hanoi to Hoi An. We reached Hoi An mid morning, and headed straight to our hotel/resort to drop our backpacks and hit the city.

It was a beautiful day. The streets were busy with people ducking in and out of tailor shops. We were so overwhelmed by all of the shops that we decided to head to the river where we heard there were great markets and cafes, to grab a bite to eat and make a game plan. After getting lost trying to reach the river, we finally reached it and went into the first place we saw that had balcony seating where we could chill out and watch the people and the boats on the river.

We were in luck because that cafe ended up doing more for us than just providing excellent Vietnamese cuisine and cheap wonderful beer (10cents a glass). We met a man that worked there and spoke excellent English. He sat with us and talked to us about our trip and where we were headed next. it just so happened that he was a travel agent for Vietnam airlines. Long story short, he booked our flights for the rest of our trip, including the impossible flight to the island of Phu Quoc. We were so ecstatic. After that, we asked him where a certain tailor shop was that we had read online had the best reviews. Not only did he take us there, but his girlfriend worked there! At that point, we made his cafe our meeting point.

Getting tailor made clothing was quite the experience. There are so many decisions that have to be made, and you have to make all of them. After deciding what I wanted made and had all my measurements taken and material picked out, I had to step into a photo booth that had a grid on the inside. They took pictures of me to help the seamstress be able to get a feel for what I actually looked like and my shape. That was it for day one.

The next day we had hoped to take a scooter trip up and down the coastline there in Hoi An. That ended up not being possible, because our day was filled with fittings and adjustments. You had to get over the whole being embarrassed of changing in front of people, because the ladies came in the dressing room with you to pin things and make adjustments. Also the fitting rooms and about 3 other ladies with their workers in there as well. There was a sheet that acted as the door and well every time someone came in you just hoped that you were not exposing yourself to other shoppers that were walking by your "changing room". Wearing a swim suit at all times helped me get past this. I mean if I can wear it on the beach I don't care who sees me in it when I am trying on clothing right?!

It amazed me how fast they made the clothing. I had a wool coat made in about two hours! All in all the prices were very cheap. I spent $30 on my coat and it is 100% wool with Vietnamese silk lining! I also had two dresses, two pairs of shorts, and an authentic Kimono (robe) made.

The architecture of Hoi An reminded me of Miami. All the buildings were bright yellows, pinks, greens, and blues. It was clean and the people were so friendly. Some of the best and cheapest meals I had in Vietnam were in Hoi An. I think that it was one of my favorite and the group's favorite cities.

Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

The second stop on the Vietnam trip was more of a day trip to Ha Long Bay. It is said to be one of the newer Natural Wonders of the World. We booked a trip through our hotel for about $23. It included transportation to and from, boat ride, lunch, and caves.

It took 3 1/2 hours on the bus each way. It was the longest bus ride that I had been on in quite a while. We only got to stop for once. The place that we did stop at had restrooms but nothing to eat. There was plenty of souvenirs to buy. Most people bought candy just to have something to eat!

Once we got to the Bay and boarded our ship, it was nothing short of amazing. Most of the ships all headed out at the same time. So you look around and you are surrounded by other boats. Then everyone sort of disburses all over the Bay. The weather was perfect. It was a bright sunny day. Perfect jeans and a t-shirt temperature.

The Bay was gorgeous. All the wonderful rock formations in the middle of the Bay were really neat to see. Our boat tour stopped at a fisherman's dock. We got off the boat and looked into his nets that had what he had caught that day. I am not sure that we ever met the fisherman as he was busy drinking and playing cards at that point in the day! After the visit to the docks, we had lunch. It was quite the lunch of all sorts of seafood and veggies.

The rest of the day was spent sailing around the bay and soaking up the sun. We paid $5 more to get to go on a smaller boat that took us into some "caves". They were not caves at all more like lagoons. The openings into the "caves" we pretty cave-like, and we did need to be in the small boat in order to get through. The boat also docked and we got off to see an actual cave. This is a newly found cave that just started to become a tourist site in 1999. It was pretty interesting to see all the special lighting that they had done in the cave to make certain formations stick out.

We also saw the one school that is located out on the Bay. It is a one room school house where all the children that live on the fishing boats attend school. I included a picture of it (blue building). The school is actually funded by the USA. I thought that was amazing that the US is involved.

The ride home was another 3 1/2 hours. It felt a lot longer going back to Ha Noi, even though the distance was the same as the morning ride. I think it was because we were all ready to get back and enjoy the water puppet show.

Ha Long Bay was definitely one of the best things on my Vietnam trip. It was one of the most beautiful places I have seen in my life thus far.

Ha Noi, Vietnam

As most of you know, I recently went to Vietnam. It is still considered a third world country. I went with a core group of about 5 people. My friend Anna decided to give us the nickname of "Team Awesome"! Ha ha ha. Everywhere we went we referred to ourselves as Team Awesome! There was another couple that joined us off and on throughout the trip and I also knew two other people that we randomly ran into. We decided to fly into Ha Noi (which is in the north) and work our way down the country and fly out from the southern part. I have so much to say about each place that I thought it would be best to start blogging about each city. First up... Ha Noi.

Ha Noi is the second largest city in Vietnam. It is in the north. When we first arrived at the airport, we decided to take a taxi van into the city to our hotel. We were stuffed into a van with quite a few other Vietnamese people. It was the most cramped hour of my life thus far! It is all about the experience though!

The city was full of scooters. I have never seen so many scooters/motor bikes in my life. Minda you Venice, Italy had quite a few, but nothing compared to Ha Noi. Not only were there scooters everywhere, but there was hardly ever just one person riding on a scooter. Most scooters had 2-4 people. I couldn't believe that 4 people could fit on a scooter but Vietnamese people are tiny so it works. It was like the scooters were the family vans/SUVs that we would have in the US to tote our families around. The kids were squeezed between the two parents. One kid would usually be in the front standing and holding onto the handles, then the dad, another kinda and a mom. Sometimes there would be a kid behind the mom and sort of strapped to her. It was crazy! everyone but the children are required to wear helmets. I am not sure that they even make helmets small enough for the tiny kids.

We spent the next day exploring the city. There is a walking tour that is outlined in the "Lonely Planet" (the guide book of all guide books). It was nice to be able to go at our own pace. There were so many shops with cheap clothes and shoes. In fact there is an entire street that is lined on both sides with shoes stores. It was on the walking tour! I ended up buying some really cheap sandals ($2) to wear for the rest of the vacation. We walked through an enormous market where they did sell roasted dog (put a picture of it). I did not try it as it is not a meat that I am curious to try. I also was able to eat one of my favorite fruits called Rambutans. They are red, orange and yellow spiky balls. They are delicious! I was excited to see that Vietnam had them the time of year I was there!

The day after we left early to head to Ha Long Bay (Blog post to follow). After we got back from an all day trip on the Bay, we headed to the water puppet show. This is an ancient Vietnamese art form. It is a show with traditional live Vietnamese music that has marionette puppets on the water. At first I thought it was going to be really cheesy. I was shocked by the movement of these puppets. There also lots of special effects like fireworks and colored smoke. There were about 10 short stories. The entire performance lasted one hour and cost us $3. It was really neat and now I know why everyone that has been to Vietnam told us that we had to go see this show. There was only one theatre and we had to purchase the tickets one day in advance!

Next stop on the Vietnam trip....Ha Long Bay

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

"We Wish You a Merry Christmas" seemed to be the theme for this year's Christmas at my schools. All the students loved learning that song.

My Christmas was actually not that great. I got sick a few days before Christmas and it lasted until a few days after. Not to worry I am well now. I am just glad that the holidays are over. It was really difficult to be away from my friends and family over the holidays. I knew it would be hard but I had no idea it would be as hard as it was. I was lucky enough to get to talk to both sides of my family on their Christmas day! It was through the great video technology of Skype that I saw all of the family that was gathered on my mom's side. Thank goodness for Skype!

My students wanted to sing for my family and friends. So I have posted two videos with this post. One video is a second grade class. They actually sing the verses in Korean but the chorus in English. The other video is three of my third grade girls. We spent a few days practicing the words so that they could sing the entire song in English! Enjoy and I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!