This is a really random picture but a huge sign fell at Byeongjeom subway station, where we always go to catch the metro. It fell right at the beginning of the area where you get a taxi, crazy!



Katie, Amy and I right after getting off at the subway station before our big hike!! That's Dobongsan mountain in the background. I didn't believe Katelan when she first said that is what we would be hiking!



Beautiful area and bridge at the foot of Dobongsan mountain.




Beautiful temple at the beginning of the hike! That's the mountain we scaled in the background, we made it all the way to that peak!



Us in the entry way to the temple.



All of us hiking, the trails were pretty crowded! Must have been because it was such a beautiful day. And I mean I won't lie, I was getting passed by people 3 or even 4 times my age. They are decked out too, with their miniature chairs and backpack and poles. We were by far the youngest people on the path most of the time!



This was another cool bridge about halfway up the mountain. Everything was so cool and beautiful!



Chase off the beaten path... figures! He insisted on this picture! Too funny.



Us at the very tippy top! We made it!! I thought I was going to die but we actually made it. The white part in this picture is the most amazing view of the mountain range behind us, too bad it didn't turn out.



Katie, Katelan, Bri, Amy and I along the way.



A marker along the way, couldn't tell ya what it says though!



This is a picture of another peak by the one we climbed. I'm not sure if you can tell, but those black dots on the mountainside are people rock climbing!! It looked so awesome!



Looking down from the very top point of the mountain. We had to pull ourselves up that railing for the last 50 feet or so. Hard work!!



Bri doing something dangerous, haha! It looks so much higher than she actually was! Cool picture though.



The mountain range behind Seoul, the pictures just don't even do it justice. It literally took my breath away. I was chatting with this lady who had also hiked Do bongsan that day on our walk back to the subway station, and she told me about how Seoul is the only city of that size completely surrounded by mountainous area. Pretty cool!



AMAZING view of Seoul!



The group at the Cherry Blossom Festival in Yongsun, a part of Seoul. The festival goes on for a few weeks in April and was really beautiful! We went on a perfect day, it was so nice and sunny out.



Some of the artists lined up on the side of the festival, trying to get you to sit for a portrait. They were all really good!!



One of the artists' drawing of President Obama. It caught my eye!



Just a little nourishment on the side of the street while walking around at the Cherry Blossom Festival. Two different kinds of bugs, take your pick!



Sorry, random picture, but I just want you all to know what I have to deal with! This is a nice example of the public restrooms, a hole in the group. I'll let you imagine how you use it and let me just say this one is sparkling clean. Not fun!



We saw this little guy on our walk to school last week, isn't he cute?!!



Katie on her 23rd birthday! A group of us went out for Mexican food in Songtan and of course I had to make her wear the sobrero!



I gave in! Bri and I had to, I miss Starbucks! I have to say though that will probably be the only one I get all year, it was more than $6.00!



This little girl was so adorable! She got on the subway with her mom and brother, stared and giggled at us for a good 10 minutes, and then came up to us to say hello and practice her English.



Look how crowded the subway can get!! I have even been on when it's worse than this, and let me tell you it is not fun. I'll just say deodorant is not a hot commodity around here. I'm not looking forward to subway rides in the 100+ degree summer weather!



Koreans always sleep on the subway, they get mad at us if we are talking or laughing loud or anything like that. This guy almost fell straight out of his seat!! It was so funny!



This lady almost fell out of her seat also. First she almost fell straight forward onto the floor, then she jolted away and then almost fell into the empty seat next to her. And to top it all off, she ended up on that guy's shoulder to the right, but he got off a stop before her so I don't think she knew him. It was hilarious.



Cool sculpture outside the Seoul Olympic Park stadium. There is plaza area, lots of park, and 3 or 4 different stadium around the Olympic Park area. On the same night we were there for the Boyz II Men concert, Yuna Kim was performing in the ice rink next door!



We went to the Boyz II Men concert a few weekends ago! It was so fun! Kind of funny to hear some songs I haven't heard since grade school. The concert was in the Seoul Olympic Park Stadium so it was fun to hang around there for a while and check things out before the concert.



This is the group that opened for Boyz II Men, I guess they are the Korean equivalent of them. Their name is 4Men... but as you can see there are only 3 men!! A fourth guy came out for like 2 songs, which just happened to be when Katie and Bri were in the bathroom so I don't think they believe us that there really are 4 men!



Boyz II Men! This concert was so much fun, it was kind of random that we went and who even knew Boyz II Men still toured?? I knew most of the words to most of the songs though, from back in the day when they were cool haha.

Where do the days go?!

So we're coming up on the end of yet another month, it has almost been three months since we left! What?? Where has the time gone? It almost feels like yesterday, sometimes I wake up thinking for a second that I'm in my bed at home. That may just be wishful thinking though, Koreans are used to sleeping on the floor so my bed here pretty much feels like that. I just invested in a nice pad thing and now it's even harder to get out of bed in the mornings!

Speaking of, I am thanful to be getting used to a normal work schedule. Before I left, I was working at a golf course and the hours were not very regular and unless I opened for breakfast on the weekends, the earliest I had to be there was 10am. These days I am waking up at 7am and starting my day at 8:15am. And even though every morning when I wake up I wonder if there's any way I can get out of work that day (haha), I appreciate a normal schedule and have gotten used to waking up so early. Granted, that morning (and mid-morning, afternoon, sometimes evening :) coffee really helps!!

We have a very full weekend coming up, it is Katie's 23rd birthday on Sunday so we will be hitting the town Saturday night to celebrate her! We are also waking up VERY early (for a weekend) on Saturday morning to heard to Seoul for a hike. Our friend Katelan has done this hike before and apparently it takes about five and a half hours because theres so much to see along the way. She says there's a lot of lookouts, small temples, and other sites along the way to check out. I'm really excited! I like to hike and I think it will be a great chance to see some parts of Seoul we may not otherwise. So after that we are going to stay in Seoul and get a hostel to shower and change in, then head out in the area for Katie's birthday. Sunday will be devoted to the long subway ride home from Seoul, relaxing, and pulling together a birthday gift for Katie!

Last weekend was also busy! The Cherry Blossom Festival in Yeouido, an area of Seoul, started at the beginning of the month and goes for a little over two weeks. We went last weekend and it was so beautiful! There a 3 km walk that's lined with the trees on both sides and they are all in full bloom. I guess if you can catch it on the right weekend, the petals are falling everywhere and it's really nice. But it was just as beautiful when we went and it was a nice sunny day as well. There's all sort of vendors and other things set up along the way. A lot of artists come out and set up shop, drawing people as they sit and wait. There were also a ton of photographers wanting to take your picture with the trees! We did pretty well on our own though. Our group was a little lost at first trying to find the actual "festival" part of the area. We came across this huge open field with a bunch of people in it, a basketball court with some people playing, and a couple stages. Turns out though that was some demonstration, there were a bunch of people with huge flags gathered there. Also, I noticed it was only men. I am still so curious to know what they were protesting! I asked around but they either completely didn't understand what I was asking or just said "hello" to everything I asked. Quite the language barrier!

Well it's the end of the school day for me, so time to go! Sorry such a short note this time, I will have much more to write about after this weekend... that is if I don't pass out on this hike tomorrow.

Love from Korea!!

Look what I found at Insadong Market!!! Had to take a picture for all you Husky fans back home! It's so funny seeing shirts like this, the Koreans love US sports and cities and things like that. There are a lot of clothes items with NYPD or Boston Red Sox or UW colors on it, for example. A lot of the time certain words or letters will get lost in translation so they come out sounding pretty funny. For instance, I got a shirt the other day that says "There are big ships, there are small ships, but the best ship is FRIEDship" haha I'm pretty sure it's supposed to say FRIENDship.



Goofin around at Insadong Market, cool shades!! Haha! That's Katelan on the left, Katie in the middle, and then me with the sweet red sunnies on. We went to Insadong Market one weekend with a few people, the market there sells a lot of knick-knacky things and great stuff for traditional souveniers. Vendors also sell a lot of homemade items that are really cool. I got a few things for gifts that I can't wait to send home!!




Suwon Stadium, where we went to see a soccer game for a friend's birthday. So much fun!



We were rooting for the blue, the Suwon Bluewings! Suwon is a city not far from us, only about 2 subway stops. It is fun to go to sometimes after school for dinner or shopping since it's not too far away.



The soccer group, we were all there for John's birthday... he is the one in the front on the left side in the tan jacket. The guy to my right is Andy, the only guy teacher at our school!



The final score, 0-2. We lost :(



Someone got proposed to at half time! I guess that's a pretty famous Korean singer down there with them.



The "hooligans" in the bottom section, closest to the field. They had a bunch of huge flags they would wave together every once in a while. Also, I guess they are called the "Skull Crew"!





HOW CUTE ARE THESE LITTLE GUYS??? Oh my goodness the pictures just don't even do them justice. We were walking around after dinner one evening and came across this guy in the middle of the street selling these bunnies... for only 2,000 Won! Thats less than $2.00! They were so cute and he told us, in very broken English, that they would stay that small and not get any bigger. Four of us girls had them and we seriously came so close to buying them, my mind was made up and his name was going to be Thumper. But I had a last minute moment of clarity and was like ok, it's not just cute you're going to have to feed it, clean up after it, find someone to watch it when we go on vacations, etc etc. So I decided not to buy one and everyone else kind of followed suit, but I just cannot even describe how cute they were! I think they were maybe a cross between a bunny and a hamster or something, thats the best I can describe.










This picture is the view from where we were sitting at this really amazing Korean restaurant. We went as a group for Ta-Leahs sort of going-away dinner with just us foreign teachers. All of us were sitting on the top level and there was this middle level, and then another lower lever. The food was that same style where it comes out in a big pot in the middle of the table and you get 3 or 4 people on one and share. So delicious!



Apparently, this is what teenage guys do to each other on their birthdays! We came across this guy after the soccer game and no joke, all of his friends were kicking him and taking their shoes off and hitting him with it. It was ridiculous! I mean everyone was laughing though so I guess its all in good fun! (?) I told Bri and Katie not to even think about it come July 30... haha



We wandered into a restaurant to kill some time at the train station, and look what we found! The restaurant was named Benigans, not sure if we have those in Washington?! Regardless, a little taste of home! Made me miss everyone!

Chris and Tom, best buds!!




Haha this picture is too funny, Im laughing right now just remembering this moment. Ok so we were doing a science project with stamps, and Gavin used his stamps to write the word "hat" on his piece of paper. Everyone else made pictures and so I asked him, "Gavin why did you write hat?". And Gavin just goes "Teacher, tape" and he proceeds to go get two pieces of tape and tape his paper to his eyes so that it became a hat. If you look closely you can see the tape on his eyelids. These kids are creative!!



About half of my afternoon elementary class. These kids are 8 and the oldest/smartest kids I teach throughout the day. Its easier to teach them because they can actually understand some directions in English instead of me having to do charades to explain!



Lily and James actually working! This is a rare, quiet moment when the class was actually working on their practice worksheets!




This is Lily, tell me she isnt one of the most adorable little girls youve ever seen?! She is so sweet I just love her. She is so well-behaved and smart in a class full of crazies!



Haha! I caught Mike on the chairs!!



We're learning colors in this class so this picture is of the kids running around the room trying to find me something 'red'! I will yell out "ok find me something RED!" and they all go crazy looking for things, then I yell "FREEZE!" and they all stop and I yell out a new color. I try to tire them out sometimes because this class is just crazy, they are always messing with each other and cant sit still. And at some point in the class I have to have them do real work, like writing worksheet practice or something, so I try to play games with them first.



Jason, such a character! He has short hair and then this one long piece that hangs down the side and it is a different color each week. This was after I said "Find me something BLUE!" haha



Kathy, one of my favorite students!! She always hugs me when I come into the classroom. This was right after I said "find me something YELLOW!"



Angela, Julia, and John.. a few of the kids in one of my afternoon classes. Can you tell John is the class clown? He will never just smile for me, he's always making a funny face!!



Trying to play hangman with the kids! Only they dont like the idea of a "hanging man" here, so we usually play with different things. Not sure what Paul is drawing here, maybe a bunch of circles?? The kids recognize a lot of the same games that we play back home, just always with some sort of Korean twist!



All sorts of sea creatures in a tank outside a restaurant. Really appetizing huh?! Makes me want to walk right in and try to octopus!! haha



Some girl dressed as a tiger and selling green balloons on a stick for St Patricks Day. She was so random we had to get a picture with her! I swear, everyday I see just some of the funniest and random things walking the streets.



Haha this is a picture of the horse-drawn carraiges lining the street after the St Patricks Day parade! How tacky are they?? Haha I went and talked to the driver and thought he told me that each carraige ride was 3,000 won (only about $2.75) and so I went back inside and rallied like 10 people to come take horse drawn carraige rides around the block. Turned out they were actually 30,000 won (about $25) so everyone bailed and I never got to ride in the carraige!




Korean folk band that played inside the bar on St Patricks Band. They were really good and played a lot of really traditional Irish songs. Everyone inside was doing an Irish jig! I have a video of the dancing but I cant get it to upload on this site.



Some of the crew for St Patricks Day. I think all the foreigners in Korea assembled in the same area of Seoul that day, it was like I wasnt even in Korea there were hardly any asians around that day! This picture was right after we arrived and everyone else had just gotten back from the parade.



Katie, Chris, and Chase on St Patricks Day. People went all out with the decorations...including face paint as you can see!! :)



This is only about half of the WSU crew in Korea! These are our friends, Katelan Chase and Chris, that live in Pyeongtaek, only a few subway stops away from Dongtan. We get to see them quite often so it is always fun to get together.



They love kareoke in Korea! There are places called nori bombs here and its basically like kareoke except you and your friends can just get your own room and sing kareoke all night... pretty funny!



A little March snow!! Pretty beautiful but not so fun to walk through 40 mins to school. And I don't think Koreans know about snow days, haha there were a couple times when I would wake up and expect school to be cancelled! No such luck.