Home from Korea

After spending 10 days in Amsterdam, Munich for Oktoberfest, and around Germany, we flew to Minneapolis last Wednesday. We have spent the last week visiting Jared's family and friends, sorting out cell phones and bank accounts, and repacking all our stuff. We set out a couple days ago to visit my grandma in rushford, MN, then to decorah, IA to visit my aunt and uncle. Today, we are driving to St. Louis, where I will stay and visit my family and friends before flying to baltimore on thursday for the half marathon, then driving back to Washington. Jared is leaving from St. Louis tomorrow to drive back out west.

Thanks for following us this year. Hope to see you all soon!

Time's a flying'

How is everyone doing? We are doing 1, 2, 3...excellent!!

We have been practicing for open house with our kids at school for 2 weeks now, and have another 2 weeks (until we leave) to practice the same thing every day. 1, 2, 3, excellent is something we say after every section of the open house, so many many times throughout a day. Besides the kids getting slightly bored and rowdy from doing the same thing for 3 hours a day, it has been fun. There is no stress from trying to get the kids to learn phonics… it’s just singing, dancing, and practicing a script.

Last weekend, we had a group of 7 foreigners going to Jirisan, a large mountain range about 4 hours from where we live. We left early Saturday and when we got there at 1pm, it was down pouring sideways. We sat around for awhile, waiting for it to let up. It didn't. Instead, it was classified typhoon weather. Since we were still in a beautiful area and there was chance of the next day being nice, we decided to get a minbeok for the night. Its just a large room that has blankets and pillows. They also had a restaurant there, and we were all hungry. We ate a long, relaxing late lunch, accompanied with beer, rice wine, and some really sweet grape wine. After that, we went for a short hike in the rain. Then we bought some cards, went up to our room and played card games for the rest of the evening until about 830p when we were hungry again. We walked down the stairs, intending to make some ramen on our stoves on the front porch, and 3 of our climbing group were standing there, like they were waiting for us. They decided they were going to night hike, get up to the mountain hut and surprise us in the morning...except that alarms for mudslides were going off when they arrived. They figured we were smart enough not to go, so they called all the hotel places around there and asked if 7 foreigners checked in...then they found us, and walked up to it just as we were coming down to cook. It was such a trip! They cooked us a huge meal and brought more drinks..

Then next day, we got up early and took a 2 hour drive to the other side of the mountain. The climbing guys had brought a large van that could uncomfortably fit all 10 of us. Everyone besides Maureen and I, who were not feeling well, went on a 2 hour hike, and the rain finally stopped. On our way home, we stopped on the side of the road at a little park and made ramen. It was so nice of them to show up, take care of us, then drive us home...a fun time!

This weekend, we had plans to go to a different mountain with some friends, but instead decided to stay here in Ulsan, get some delicious pizza and take it easy. Today, we took our scooter for its longest ride yet, about 40 minutes away to a temple. It was a beautiful ride through lush mountains, then we took the coastal rode back following beach after beach.

We are starting to get organized for packing. I can't believe it's come already. I've been waiting for this for a long time, but now that it's here, I'm getting a bit sad! But ofcourse we are really looking forward to Europe and exploring!

Happy Birthday Jared!

Last week, we celebrated Jared's birthday with a bunch of friends. His birthday fell on a Wednesday night, and the climbing guys insisted we celebrate that night. We started with dinner at a meat restaurant, followed by hitting some balls at the bating cages conveniently located across the street from where we were eating. Then we continued on to a makalie house (rice wine), then to a hof, which is a place that usually has closed off booths and serves alcohol, but you are supposed to order food too...mostly snacks. They gave us "service" (free) sausages, fruit, and chips. It was nice of them, and we never did order food. Overall, a fun night. Jared had many friends come support him!

While spending too much money recently, we have gone to a baseball game in Busan, the beach a few times, saw Inception (loved it!), keeping up with karate 3-4 times a week, and have been eating many social bbq dinners with friends. I have been pushing my running time up and last week did 80 minutes one night. I have been running with a good friend, Ann, who is training for a full marathon, and running with someone else is so much more enjoyable than running alone.

School is going well. Our morning classes (5, 6, and 7 yr olds) are now practicing for open house, which they do in about 3 weeks. They spend a full month practicing the same thing every day-a couple songs, a poem, and a skit. Then they perform it all for their parents. We have been and will continue doing this in the mornings, pretty much until we leave, which for me makes the day much less stressful. We don't have to try to teach them phonics, or get them sitting down..it's much more fun.

So after open house in 3.5 weeks, we are pretty much out of here. Down to 28 days here, but only 20 days teaching. Wow, getting nervous about what to do at home and putting many thoughts that direction now.

My mom asked me to think about the first home cooked meal she would make us when we get home. I know I want fresh bread and corn on the cob, but I'm still developing the main meal. It makes my mouth water to think that we will be able to eat cilantro, pesto, black olives, feta cheese, and fresh bread and pizza in just about a month!

I miss Thailand!

Last week, we went to Thailand, and I wanna go back! The food, beaches, massages, and shopping are stuck in my mind.

We arrived in Bangkok on a Sunday night. After taking a taxi to KhaoSan Road, the foreigner block, it was after midnight, but we were so excited to be there. We walked around a bit..the night was going strong-people all over the streets, food and clothes being sold, and everyone seemed to be happy. We found a quieter side road, had a beer, then found a room for the night.

The next day we took a 6 hour bus south east to a small, sleepy town called Trat. We found a room, then walked around this tiny town. We had the most amazing green curry and chicken pad thai at a cute place called Cool Corner. We then went to check out the night market, but it started downpouring, so most things closed up. Instead, we found a indoor jungle-type place, and had a few drinks..

The next morning, we took a ferry to Koh Chang, the second largest island in Thailand. We walked down a long shopping strip, spent hours looking at endless amounts of clothing and doo-dads before stopping for some delicious naan at an Indian Restaurant. After that, we deciced to take a taxi further down the coast to a less touristy strip for the beach. Our co-workers had recommended staying at some beach huts, so we went to check them out. We ended up getting our own bungolow literally on the beach for $20 a night, which is a lot of money to spend on a room in Thailand, but we kinda splurged..We rented a scooter and rode down the coast further, checked out some other beaches, and took pictures of elepahants. When we got back, we had dinner at a Thai place, run by an ex-Jamaican seeming guy. We had wonderful Curry and Pad Thai, and spent a long time hanging around there. The man was the cook, his wife preped the food, and their 7 year old (maybe) son served the tables. They were pretty busy, and it was fun to watch the boy. He even poured people shots, and delivered beers...I guess Thailand doesn't have an age restriction for serving alcohol!

We spent the next day on Koh Chang, taking a mini hike to check out a waterfall, swimming, eating delicious food, and getting amazing Thai massages on the beach. It was also a wonderful sunset that night, so we walked the beach and took tons of pictures, and collected shells.

The next morning, we took a scary 2 hr. boat ride (quite big waves-had a family of 5 with us on the boat, and the twin 3 year olds were crying and throwing up the whole time!) to a very small island called Ko Maak. We heard that most things would be closed since it was the rainy season, but we found a place to stay at Monkey Island Resort, a cool place on the beach run by a bunch of dread heads. Again, we had a bungolow on the beach, but only paid about $12 for the night. We spent the day walking on the beach, getting massages again, and checking out the tiny town strip, made up of 4 buildings. The beach wasn't as nice at Koh Chang because it was the time of year when the currents bring trash up, and only the resorts that were open cared to clean. But it was nice to walk the beach and not see anyone else for a long time. We collected lots of cool shells!

In the morning, we took an early boat back to mainland, then the 6 hr. bus back to Bangkok, getting us to the foreigneer street with enough time to drop off our bags, get a quick delicious dinner, then head off to a night market...where we shopped for a few hours. Everything is so cheap, it's hard not to buy it all!

After sleeping a few hours, we got up early and headed to the Weekend Market, which has between 9,000 and 15,000 stalls. We spent many, many hours walking around, shopping, until our feet were hurting and we could officially say we were tired of shopping. We headed to a large famous temple, the Wat Pho, and saw the big reclining Buddah, amoung a bunch of golden buildings. Afterwards, we headed down to the riverside, and had dinner cross river from the Wat Arun, another famous temple. The sun set behind it, while we were eating, and it was a lovely, romantic dinner. When we finished, we only ahd about 3 hours til the bus was coming to pick us up for our flight, so we quickly headed back to KhoaSan Road to do last minute street shopping. We shopped until the last possible minute, before heading to our room, quickly packing, then catching the bus to the airport. We left at 1am and got back to Kora, via Beijing, at 1135A Sunday. We had Sunday to nap, unpack, and mentally prepare for 7 more weeks of school.

It's been almost a week since we've been back now, and we are down to 6 weeks. We ahve sent home 4 big boxes of stuff, and have at least one or two more that we still need to pack up. We have spent today cleaning things out, and making piles of things we need to send back. I know we still ahve 6 weeks, but our weekends are packed, and I'm sure time will fly between now and leaving.

Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

Temple Stay

Last weekend, Jared and I did a temple stay for 24 hours. We, and 16 others, left at 11am on Saturday, and took a bus to a beautiful temple in a lush, green forrested valley. It was a promotion to get foreigneers involved in temple stays, so it was free, but they had hired 3 camera men to follow us around all weekend and film our experiences. When we arrived, we got our temple clothes (monk pants and vests), got our rooms, and went to our first buddist service. It was really interesting. We did the bowing and chanting for awhile, then explored the temple grounds. After that, we made lotus flowers out of cups and crate paper. We explored the temple grounds a bit more, led by our monk, while he told us stories and we stopped to learned how to meditate a few times. For dinner, we learned how to eat like a monk. We were completely quiet and had 4 bowls, and everyone set up and served themselves exactly the same way. We each took a bite, then chewed it quietly until it was gone. Then another...and again, it was really interesting to see how they do it 3 times a day. The food was slightly hard to eat-kimchi, roots, potatoes, rice, and acorn jelly stuff. Not bad, but very strong flavors. Afterwards, we poured water in our bowls and drank the grey water. I didn't mind it, but some people were absolutely disgusted. After dinner, we had another Buddist service, and watched some cool drumming stuff done by the monks, then went to bed at 9pm.

The next morning, we woke up at 3am (ouch!), went to a Buddist service of more chanting and bows. After that, we practiced meditating again, which was incredibly hard to do with video cameras in your face. By the time I got out of my mind and away from thr cameras, we had finished. Then we had more free time to wander, but it was pouring outside, so after a quick and wet walk, I took a nap for a few hours. When I got up, we made necklaces with 108 beads....108 for the 108 sins that monks bow for, 108 times. After craft time, we observed, then had, a traditional tea service. It was beautifully presented, and we had tea and delicious rice balls filled with suggar. After that, we had a quick closing closing ceremony, then left on the bus back to Ulsan.

That was a really quick run-through. It was a good weekend, and we learned a lot. We had a monk with us for 24 hours and we able to ask him questions about Buddism.

We have one more week of school, with lots of fun activities (so not real, real work), then we are off to Thailand for a week. We can't wait!

Karate is still going well, although I don't really stop getting sore. And I'm still training for my half marathon. I finally hit an hour the other day...I was pretty proud of myself.

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the summer. We are down to 8 teaching weeks..yay! See everyone soon!

So Sad!!

So in one night, the two teams we were rooting for in the World Cup got eliminated! We watched the Korean vs. Uruguay game at a bar with some friends...it was shown at 11pm! The energy accross the city was high, people are cheering and chanting all day up until the game. They ended up losing 2-1 and was a very good game, with Korea outplaying Uruguay most of the game. Too bad they lost, though, cuz I thought they deserved it, but that's just how it goes.

The US game was set to start at 330am here, and we wanted to watch it. I ended up watching about 5 minutes before falling asleep. Jared watched most of it, and I heard the tragic news when I woke up..both my teams were finishie!!

Well, my brother lives in Germany now, so I guess I'm rooting for them. We are going to watch the game in a few minutes with some friends...hopefully a good one...although I was born in England and we are going with an English guy, so who knows...maybe I'll root for them. :)

Jeju Island

Last weekend, Jared and I took a much needed vacation from the city. We left school on Friday and took a bus to the airport to take an hour-long flight to Jeju-do, an island off of southern coast of Korea. This island is known to be the "Hawaii of Korea," with lots of Korean honeymooners going there. We arrived at 10 pm, and set out to find some food and snacks for the next day. We ended up getting some snacks and hanging out in the hotel, watching the US soccer game.

The next morning, we got up early and took a bus to Hallasan National Park, which has the tallet point in all of Korea (1950 meters). We hiked to the top in about 3 hours, had some lunch, then came down...it was super foggy, but once we got above the clouds, it was really beautiful and quite hot. After our hike, we went back into Jeju City to look for a scooter to rent and take around the island, but apparently you need a Korean liscense...too bad. Instead, we took a bus to a nearby beach town, got a hotel, and went out for a western dinner of burgers...I even treated myself to a tequila sunrise after a tough hike!

The next morning, we took the bus to a cool lava tunnel, then to a place called "Sunrise Peak," which supposedly has really great views, but it was too foggy to see anything. It was there that we loaded up on chocolate. Jeju makes their own chocolate, filled with different flavors like orange, pineapple, ginsing, green tea, cactus, and many more...even kimchi! Their pretty good, so we got a bunch to take back home when we leave. The next place we set off for was another beach town on the south coast of the island. We walked along the beach, collecting some fun shells, then decided to go back to the main city for a late dinner, and to watch more soccer. We found a good little Mexican place, and watched a game before getting a hotel. We had a 630am flight, getting back into Busan to take an hour long bus, getting us home with about a half an hour to spare before school started.

It was a great weekend, but I wish we would have been able to see more...less fog would have been nice. But it was still beautiful!

Dae-Han-Ming-Guk!

The last two weeks have been really fun here with the World Cup going on. Koreans are VERY proud of their country! They sell red, Korea shirts everywhere, and devil horns, stickers, and tatoos are now worn daily here. The first game was played at 830pm two Saturdays ago. We had a couple friends running in a half marathon starting at 4pm and we went to watch them start and finish, in a big park downtown...after they finished, we picked up dinner, then everyone set up blankets in the big field and they showed the game (vs. Greece) on a bunch of big screens...the energy was awesome, and we ended up winning 2-0. Good start for Korea!

The second game was last Thursday at 830p. Jared and I were wandering around looking for a bar to watch it in, but everywhere was full and turning people away. We finally found a place that had a few spots at a table in the back. We walked in, wearing our red shirts and accessories, and everyone started applauding. They were all impressed we were supporting Korea. We had some other foreign friends meet us up there, and we had a fun, exciting evening...although we ended up losing to Argentina 4-1...the energy was still pretty high.

The third game was this past Wednesday at 330am. We set our alarm and watched the second half of the game. Almost everyone of of my elementry kids also watched the game...their parents woke them up...some even took them to the World Cup Stadium here (from 2002 World Cup I think), where they were playing it on the big screen. I was amazed that so many kids woke up in the middle of the night for a soccer game. They ended up tying to Nigeria, which put them through to the next round. When Jared and I turned off our TV to go back to sleep at 530 in the morning, you could hear tons of people cheering and chanting throughout the city...

So we are down to 16. We play Uraguay tomorrow night, and if we beat them, we may play USA, depending on US beating Ghana...pretty exciting stuff here!

We have our red, devil horns, tatoos, bandanas, and good spirits ready to cheer on the Koreans in tomorrow night's game! Dae-Han-Ming-Guk!! (KOREA!!)

My Crayons Talk

Here are my babies (3-4 yr. olds) doing My Crayons Talk! They're so cute, although the back table isn't preforming very well! Hope this works for ya'll.

Kates birthday and more!

Last week, we had Wednesday off school because of National Voting Day, which happened to fall on a wonderful day because we could celebrate my birthday the night before. We told our climbing group, all the the teachers at our school, and the few foreign friends we have, but we didn't know what kind of turn-out to expect. We reserved the back room at a Korean meat restaurant, where you sit on the floor around a long table that has multiple grills throughout it.

It turned out that almost everyone we invited ended up coming. We had over 30 people, and we were definitely the minority with less than 10 of us white...it was such a fun time! Inevitably, when you have that many people, it is a good time, right? I even had 3 birthday cakes!!

This past weekend, we ran an English camp for our climbing groups' children. There were 17 kids signed up (ages ranging from 5-15), and 4 of us "white people" running it. On Saturday, the guys picked up us at 230 and we headed out into the mountains to a beautiful valley that was just amazing....rivers, paragliders, tons of trees, gardens everywhere.... We had a large campgroup to ourselves, and the parents camped a few campgrounds away from us.

Going into the day on Saturday, we had it all planned out...games, times, meals..but it turned out to go very differently than expected. I guess we didn't account for the wide range of ages, but every time we tried to do an activity, it was quickly over, as many kids got bored or tired easily. We ate dinner (mac n cheese from scratch...a new one for the kids)earlier than we had plan, then scrabbled for more things to do. When it started getting dark, we made s'mores, which they loved as none of them had tried it before. They were all in their tents at 930 when their dads came over with beer, soju, and makalie...haha, I guess they know how stressful it can be to take care of children. Also, throughout the day we had 22 kids and just thought more kids came along...but apparently we picked up kids from neighboring campgrounds...haha, and we had no idea!

The next morning, we were planning on the kids sleeping in til around 8. They had stayed up chatting until around midnight...but no, they all woke us up at 620AM!!! We were not very happy, as we had also stayed up late hanging out with their parents.

When we got up at 620, I decided to take them on a run. On my training schedule, I had only a 15 minute run scheduled for that day, so I figured I'd punish the kids and make them run too...haha! It went pretty well, and we stopped for stretches, and other exercises to make it longer. When we got back, Jared and I made them breakfast (eggs n toast), then we took them on a LONG walk...it was so beautiful...there weren't many people living around there, but the ones who did had huge gardens, rice patties, and greenhouses. We sung songs and talked about different things. It was really fun. When we got back, it was already 10am, and was hot, hot hot! There was a small river behind out campsite, and for the next 2.5 hours until the parents came with pizza, the kids played there, as well as painted with Jared (they loved that!)..A nice, relaxing day compared to the day before.

Like I said, the parents came around 1230, we had pizza and cake, then we played joke-goo, the soccer-volleyball game that I love so much. We were in the sun for the rest of the day, and running around...so tiring. After playing, we had dinner and drinks, compliments of the parents, and they gave us gifts for taking their children for the past 24 hours. They gave us a really nice swiss army knife, and a woven model of a traditional rice planting tool, now used for goof luck. It was very sweet of them.

When we started the English Camp, we were a bit nervous. We did have some incidents with a few boys, but nothing too big. Afterwards, I was really happy we did it. It was a great way to support such a great group of guys who have been really helpful and wonderful to us for the past few months.

We are now well on a way through another week, with tomorrow being Friday again. (wohoo!) On Saturday, we are going to a Korean baseball game, then finding a bar to watch the first World Cup soccer game for us here, Korea vs. Greece!

Good luck, USA in the World Cup!!! It should be an exciting next couple weeks.

We started a karate class this week and are going three times a week for a little over an hour each time...it's been awseom for our bodies so far...very hard, but great exercise, and good for the mind (I think). We will let you know how that comes along.

SeorakSan

Last Saturday night at 1030pm, our climbing club picked us up in a big bus...it was all decked out with party lights, frillies, and a water/coffee table. Our destination was Seorak Mountain and half of us would climb, and the other half would hike to the top (different peaks). I was still undecided but leaning towards climbing at that point. Jared was defintiely climbing.

After they picked us up, there was one more stop before we were on our way. Afetr that, there were announcements and introductions, and more announcements, all in Korean, mind you. Jared and I watch them and nod like we understand, but they know we have no idea. Around 1230, announcements were finished and they tunred the lights off. We rested for a few minutes before they stopped the bus for a bathroom break, around 1am. When we got back on the bus, I was tired. We fell asleep until 3am, when the bus stopped again. I got off to the go the bathroom, then was planning on getting back on and sleeping for a couple more hours. When I got back to the bus, everyone had got off and were huddled together. Apparently it was breakfast time, and there's no better breakfast at 3am than rice, soup, and kimchi! We were told that we would drive about 30 minutes and then the hikers would start...then the climbers would be drivie another 30 minutes and they would start. Wow...2 hours of sleep was all we were going to get! We were also told that it was going to rain.

So when we got back on the bus, I had to figure out what to do. The climbing was going to be 10 pitches...very long, but not too hard. But it was going to rain, and be very windy. Hiking was 16km up to the tallest peak in the park, and all I had were my knock off NB tennis shoes, which I thought might give me blisters....

Well, in the end I chose to hike. I talked to a few other people and they said it was pretty scary to climb, even though you're obviously strapped in the whole time. With that, and it predicting to be rainy and windy, I figured I would be more comfortable hiking.

So we started out hiking at 430am, and went up, up, up til 830, when we reached the peak. It was a tough hike, but I was going at a slower pace, staying with one of the 9 yr. olds, that it wasn't too bad at all...it was also beautiful...starting below the clouds, and rising up above them, with moutain tops peaking out. The side that we climbed up was rolling hills. Once we got to the top and went over to the other side to go down, it was a valley full of jagged mountains, which is what SeorakSan is famous for. It was so nice! So when we got to the peak at 830, we had to wait for all the hikers to get there, about 20 of them. I bundled up in all my clothes and layed down in the sun, out of the wind. I was so exhausted, and just fell right asleep for about half an hour, a much needed nap. Around 9a, I was summoned to take pictues, then go down about 6oo meters to a hut for breakfast. It was here I understood why two of the guys had huge, heavy packs, while the rest of us had little day packs. They pulled out mulitple beer cans and started passing them around. So yes, at 9am, I had a beer! We hung around there for awhile, then at 10, started hiking again, just a couple more kms down to another hut for lunch at 1130. I took abother nap since I wasn't too hungry, and then left to hike down at 1230. It only took 2 hours for the last 6 km..and was one of the most amazing hikes I have ever been on....and it never rained! It ended up being a beautiful day, with lots of sun and perfect cool hiking weather. On the way down, it was waterfall after waterfall with a 360 degree view of jagged mounatins all around..I had my camera out the whole time and took tons of pictures, but still managed to get down the mountain wihtin the first few people. Here, we met up with the climbers who had been finished for about an hour and were at a makalie resturant (rice wine). We joined them for a few more hours until everyone was off the mountain. After getting us good and buzzed, we got back on the bus, promptly fell asleep, then were restled awake again about 45 minutes later to get off the bus and have dinner and more makalie..they made cooked rice, had some pig, kimchi, and greens. Around 6, we were able to get back on the bus to head home. It only took us 4 hours to drive to SeorakSan, so we thought we would get home about 10p, a reasonable time. I guess there was a lot of traffic, and we ended up getting home at 1230am..and after eating (we were both startving), didn't get to sleep until around 130a, with school the next morning at 930a...ahh! At least we slept a bunch on the bus.

Jared had a fun time climbing. There were 8 of them total, and he said it wasn't too cold or windy. He also got some great pictures. Even though it didn't rain, I didn't regret hiking at all. I got to see so much more of the park, and was very impressed the whole day!

The next day, we were tired, but not too bad. My calves (I think from waering tennis shoes instead of hiking boots) were ridiculously sore and stayed that way for 4 days. All in all, great trip!

Next blog: Kate's birthday party, which happened a few days after SeorakSan.

Jirisan National Park

Last weekend, we had a three day weekend (wohoo!) and we decided to go to Jirisan National Park, which is one of two famous parks in the penninsula of South Korea. (The most famous NP is on an island south of the penninsula) A couple nights before we left, we went to the climbing gym to get advice from the guys there. We planned on doing the long trail (about 20 miles) along the ridge of this park, hitting the biggest peaks along the way. They told us we were only allowed to stay in the huts (which we all reserved) or to sky camp (no tent) outside of the huts. They lent us a tarp, beacause it was in the forcast to rain on Saturday night.

Thursday after school, we took a 2 hour bus to a city called Jinju, where we had gone before to get pizza and beer. We got in at 10p, got a hotel, then headed out to hopefully get pizza again. But they were closing down!! We were bummed. Next door was a wine bar owned by the same guy as the pizza place, and it smelled good, so we went in there...lucky we did, cuz we had one of the best meals since being in Korea...we had a delicious chicken salad, and some basil pesto nooodles, accompanied with warm bread and a bottle of wine. It was great!

The next morning, we caught an early bus to another town, where we transfered to a different bus, then to another town, then took a taxi up to the starting point. We starting hiking at around noon and it was hot!! For the first mile or so, the trail was very manicured...a flat peppbled road, which I was thinking (but not hoping) might be the trail the whole was acorss the ridge. A lot of things here seem to be manicured and it wouldn't have surprised me if the whole thing was like this...but after awhile, it changed...for the rest of our day (about 7 miles total), it was up and down, up and down, watching each step we took over boulders, loose small rocks, and pretty difficult walking terrain.

When we got down to the last 2km, I could barely walk...I have been running a lot recently, and blammed my sore legs on that, but I think it was just hard. The last 2 km took, literally, 1.5 hours...they definitely had their signs messed up, and it was very, very frustrating. I came close to tears, but right when I didn't think I could go anymore, we started hearing voices...

At about 7p, we came down a steep trail to a big space, a shlter (mountain hut), and probably 200 people everywhere...some were getting into sleeping bags, some were asleep, some were getting water from the mountain spring in the middle of camp, some were cooking dinner, and many were drinking and laughing. But it looked totally packed and we didn't know where to go. We filled up our water, which we had been out of nearly all day(another reason why I was having a hard time), and looked around a bit. We had kindof decided to keep walking until we could camp on the side of the trail, when a foreigneer came up to us and offered for us to sleep in the place he and his friends were hanging out. They had reservations to sleep inside the shelter, but were cooking and socializing outside...saviors! We went and cooked dinner and hung out with them, before setting up and getting into out sleeping bags around 9pm. As you can imagine, this was not a quiet night. Luckily Jared and I had brought earplugs, but it was still a very restless night. People were up partying late, others were getting up early (3am) to go hiking...then we were sleeping head to toe along a walkway, where people were shining lights in our faces all night. It was a long night, but I think I managed a few hours of sleep. We were up at 530a for a quick cup of coffee, then on the trail by 630a.

As we started hiking, it started to drizzle...nothing to worry too much about. We didn't get on raincoats and didn't worry about our packs...by about 9am, when we stopped to have a proper breakfast, it started raining pretty hard. We stopped at another mounatin hut and got out of the rain, but it was coming down pretty hard by this point. We hung out for about a half hour before getting our rain stuff out, covering our packs, and moving on...now with even more difficulty from slippery rocks...

Soon after starting out on the trail, we were soaked. My raincoat is not waterproof, and even if it was, I don't think it could have been avoided. The wind started picking up, and before we knew it, we were numb...I was carrying a hiking pole, and could no longer grip it because my hands were too cold.

Around 123p, we got to another shelter, where TONS of people were PACKED into a large room, and we were quickly ushered over by a group of nice Koreans who saw how cold we were. They had me sit down next to someone cooking and put my hands on the pot. They gave Jared space to put our packs, and he was able to get out our stove to start making lunch. They gave us coffee, and tried offering us meat and alcohol, but we politely refused.

**[By the way, Koreans pack a lot of stuff on the trail. Jared and I each had a big pack with stuff for three days and two nights for camping, but our packs were not even half the size of most everyone else on the trail. We couldn't figure out what they needed that we didn't bring...until we got to the mountain hut that afternoon, and saw people pulling out coolers full of frozen meat from their packs, and two-liter sized bottles of soju and other alcohol. They brought enough food to feed way more than the amount of people they came with. Just a side note.]

Our plan, in this shelter, was the eat lunch, warm up, dry our raincoats as much as we could, wait for the rain to slow down, then keep going to the hut before the highest peak, which we would do for sunrise the next morning. We only had 3 more km, but were told it took almost 3 hours to do, which meant it was steep. After waiting for an hour and a half, we decided we neaded to do something. The rain wasn't letting up any, and was coming down completely sideways. We talked to a few Koreans who spoke English and they said everyone was going down because it was suppossed to rain for the next few days...We decided there was no way we would be able to camp comfortably (not wet) that night, and that we better take the 6km trail down from there too.

After a pleasant trail down, along a river with many waterfalls, and warming up a ton, we got to the bottom, very wet and muddy. We were waiting around for a may-be bus, which there were rumors might come there at some time, when a man who also just got off the trail asked where we were going. We told him Jingu, or Ulsan, and he said he would take us to Jinju, a 2 hour drive. He was going there too and spoke a little bit of English, and didn't mind that his nice car got all wet and muddy. He was very nice. We got to Jingu and immediatley, still wet and muddy, got on a 3 hour busride home to Ulsan. We arrived in Ulsan around 1030p Saturday night. Right when I walked in the door, I got the shower going and finally got our of my wet, smelly clothes and got warm! It was amazing, one of the best showers I have taken!

Although we did not get to the top and do the full 20 miles we had hoped, we had an interesting experience, and were probably much safer and more comfortable by coming down early. We still did about 16 miles, and got some great exercise, and were sore the next few days. We also had some many people help us out throughout the weekend...the foreigneers at the campsite, the group in the shelter, and the man who drove us home. Out weekend would not have been as smooth if it wasn't for them. Overall, good trip...but I'm glad we came down early. We are planning another trip to go from the other side, to get up the highest peak, in September. Apparently now it is starting monsoon season that lasts through July.


It is now Saturday again. Tonight, our climbing group is renting a bus and we are leaving at 10p to go to Seorak Mountain, which is the other famous park here. We will drive 5 or 6 hours throughout the night, get there early morning, and start hiking/climbing to the peak. We finish early evening, then drive back and get home Sunday night...I'm pretty nervous to climb it, and may opt to go with the hiking group, but we will see...that will come in the next blog.

Weather here is colder again, with rain coming every few days. We often think of Chelan and miss the May/June wonderful weather is has to offer. Hope all is well!

Another week

Last Thursday, we had dinner with our climbing group. We all went to a seafood resturant where we sat on the floor, and they brought out big pots of seafood and they boiled it in front of us. It was clams, oysters, and full octopuses. If you know me at all, you know that it was even tough for me to sit there while so much seafood was around. I ended up trying a few bites of things, but ultimmately just drinking. We spent about 3 hours socializing there, while people kept showing up...after dinner, we went to a Nori-bong (the private karaoke room) and we ended up partying for a few more hours. It was a really fun night and I felt like we got to know the other climbers much better, although we still can't communicate well...like they say, "hand motions" are how we mostly get by.

The next day, Jared had a follow up doctors appointment, so he got to sleep in and skip the classes before lunch. I, on the other hand, had to wake up early and go to a school picnic. Luckily, I felt okay. I spent the day with my January class, the youngest, running around and herding them together. There were 13 of them, and they definitely were interested in just about everything besides getting together for picnics or lunch. But it was a lot of fun and I got tons of good pictures.

This week, our directores took us to an all you can eat buffet. It had tons and tons of seafood, and quite a bit of meat. Jared was so happy to see so much sushi...between us, I think we ate 7 plates of food...we kinda went crazy! It was delicious...afterwards, we went our for a beer with our foreign coworkers, spending some outside work time together. Another fun night. Seems like we've had a lot of little events recently.

Also, I cut Jared's hair the other night. It was getting long and he was starting to feel sloppy for work. I think I did a really good job cutting it, although I don't know how Jared immediately felt about it. I think he felt reassured after going to school the next day and getting many compliments on it.

This weekend, we are planning on climbing on Sunday.

Last week, we booked our ticket home! We are flying to Frankfurt, Germany, on September 20 to visit my brother. From there, we will go to Amsterdam for 4 or 5 days, then to Oktoberfest in Munich for a few days, then back to Josh's house for a fews days before flying to Minneapolis on September 29th. After that, I don't know how I will get back to St. Louis yet, but I do plan on taking a trip out east with Katy to visit Susan and run a half marathon, which I started training for about a month ago. So yeah, lots to look forward to there.

We are still planning to go to Thailand for our summer break at the end of July, but haven't booked the ticket yet..hopefully we will get to that soon.

Miss everyone so much! Hope these blogs aren't getting too boring...I feel like I ramble a bit.

fun in hospitals

So 2 weekends ago was the fourth and final rock climbing lesson/boot camp. We had a long day in the hot sun climbing a shorter, vertical wall. We were also learning how to lead climb and it was pretty nerve wrecking for me. We ended around 4 and headed down the road for our finishing ceremony and dinner/party. We started by playing joke-gu, a fun Korean game. It's like volleyball, but with a soccer ball, and using your feet. It can bounce once in between hits...it's so fun. And I turned out to be pretty good at it, with my soccer background. As I was playing, Jared was sitting on the sidelines being encouraged to drink, drink, drink...but he wasn't feeling very well. He eventually asked someone to go sit in their car. I thought maybe he was dehydrated from the sun and needed a little rest, so I stayed for the final ceremony (I got MVP and a nice backpack as a reward!), then went to check on him. He was having a hard time breathing, and was really hot. He was feeling really bad at this point, so we decided to head to the hospital.

2 hours later and after Jareds temperature went from about 103 degrees back to normal from an IV, they let us go home. Jared was feeling fine...we took the scooter out, got pizza, watched a movie, then went to bed around midnight. At 2am, Jared woke up shivering. He was so hot to touch, but was bundled up in two blankets and a hat. We were deciding whether or not to go to a hospital again when he started throwing up...this made our decision. We caught a cab to the ER and spent the rest of the night there, with Jared hooked up to another IV. They had to wait until morning to take a ct scan, so we slept for a few hours until morning. The scan showed that Jared has semi-serious pneumonia and had to be transfered to a larger hopsital that specialized in the respiratory sytem, as he had started coughing up blood. We spent the morning in the ER there, until after noon, when they checked him into a room and said he would be there at least a week...wow! So it was Monday afternoon, and I headed back to school to work the last few hours of the day. We have to pay people to cover our classes when were are sick, and I knew we would be paying a lot for Jared to be out, so I figured I should work as much as I could. After work and picking up stuff from home and snacks for Jared, I headed back to hospital for the night. We watched "The Office" and ate cake and doughnuts from people who came to visit. In the morning, they woke us up before 7, and I headed to work, then came back after work for more tv shows and treats. This is how the whole week went. On Friday, after being on an IV for a week and taking multiple chest X-rays, they let Jared come home with a weeks worth of pils...and lots of them. I think he has 22 pills a day to take, without knowing what any of them are!

So yes, it was an interesting week. Jared had 5 other roommates (men) and a couple of them spoke a little English and were very into helping Jared with anything and everything he needed or didn't need. One of the men's wives stayed there all the time and slept on the floor, and I stayed and slept on the floor, so there were 7 of us in all...we watched a lot of "The Office" and ate a lot of food, and it wasn't too bad, but it was nice to come home and sleep in our bed again on Friday.

This past weekend, we took it easy. We scooted out to a few beaches, walked around town, and had dinner at a few new places.

We are both back in school full time now, and enojoying every minute of it (maybe an exaggeration). :)

More climbing!

Another two weeks of rock climbing have gone by, and I've been slow on the blogging recently. Two weeks ago, we left Saturday night to camp out about an hour from here, in a bigger city called Busan. We were up on a hill over the city, and it was much warmer than the week before. It was supossed to rain Sunday afternoon, so the leaders decided we needed to wake up at 5am to get going earlier and avoid the rain. Good thing was, we didn't have to run and do exercises when we got up. We instead hiked for awhile up the mountain til we got to a long rock wall...we ended up climbing up all day. It was maybe 10-15 shorter climbs, all different types. The climbing part was pretty fun, but it was so windy and absolutely freezing up there. We were split up in smaller groups, but still had a lot of waiting around time. I was wearing a tshirt, two long sleeve shirts, a heavy fleece, and a rain jacket, and was still very cold...I ended up getting scrapes and bruises all over my legs and hands and didn't feel any of them happen because my body was numb...so I guess that was a plus. The rain held off and we ended a little early...nice to get home and make dinner and get a good nights sleep before school the next day. We were exhausted and were both asleep by 930p

This past weekend, I got sick. A few people in our office had the flu last week, and I think I got a bit of it. I decided to skip camping Saturday night (after laying in bed all Saturday) and ended up waking up early Sunday morning, to Jared's call (he did go camping) and felt a little bit better. I took a bus and a taxi and met up with the climbers here in Ulsan, at Munsu Mountain, a place Jared and I have been hiking quite a bit. I arrived around 9am and watched during the morning. I didn't feel strong enough to climb but wanted to be there to learn anything new. During the afternoon, I climbed a few times. It was one very tall vertical wall and it was really hard for both Jared and I. They had him on a harder route that was rated 5.10a. When I went, they basically pulled me up parts where I got stuck. It was interesting that they didn't give me much time to try, but like I said, I didn't have much energy...maybe they felt that. We got home around 6, not as tired as the weeks previously, but still tired enough to be in bed by 10. I felt much better and was fine by Monday morning.

I forgot to metnion a few weeks ago that we got a scooter. When our friend Daniel left, he sold us his 125cc scooter that we have been scooting around town with. It's pretty fun. I'm too scared to drive, so it's only been Jared so far, and he's handling it well.

School is still trucking along. I still enojoy my young class, and a few others. The days are getting warmer, but it goes it cycles of warm, rain, then cold...all for a few days. We are waiting for it to stay warm.

Our director gave a us tickets to a symphony orchestra tomorrow night so we will go to that...something exciting mid-week...so weird!

Hope spring time is beautiful back home!

Rock Climbing and Goodbye Daniel Teacher

We've had an eventful past week or two. Two weekends ago, we went to archary on Sunday. It is free for a couple hours every weekend and they have all the gear for you to use. When we started, I didn't like it much cuz I hit the side of my arm a few times. By the end, I enjoyed it a lot and got a lot better. On our last few shots, I got mostly in the bulleye...granted, we were only 10 meters away, but still...

This past week, one of our closer friends in Korea (and coworker) left to go back to Utah. We had a big teachers dinner for him one night, then went out to a bar the next night where he was playing music. We didn't like to see him leave, but he may be coming back in a few months.

This past weekend, we had our first rock climbing lesson. On Saturday, we met at the climbing gym at 5:30 and got a ride to where we were camping that night and climbing the next day. When we got there, it was a bit awkward as we were the only two who didn't speak Korea in about 50 people. We stood around until our other foreign friends got there, then played a bit of cards and waited until dinner was ready. After dinner, we had song practice, where we were (and still are) required to yell out Korean songs that we have no idea what they're saying. We instead make up lyrics or sounds...hahaha, it's interesting. But for this week, we had someone write out two of the songs in English letters (romanized Korean), so we are trying to memorize that.

We went to bed around 11pm, while many of the men stayed up drinking heavily until after 1am. Everyone was up again at 530am to go for a run and do other exercises...the physical part wasn't too bad, but not fun to do at 6am! When we finished, we had about an hour to break down camp and eat breakfast (rice and soup).

We were climbing on a 60-80 degree slab rock. It was a lot of flat hands and feet pushing up, as opposed to holds and pulling up. We were there until 4pm and got 3-4 climbs in, as well as staying on top for awhile and doing some skills things. We had to do some thing called a body belay, in which we had to wrap a rope around our back and hold with two hands in the front, while the biggest guy in the club (not big at all to US standards) climbed up, then yelled "anchor!" and fell, and we had to hold him up...wow, it was so tough. He did it a bunch of times, and by the last, I had tears in my eyes and didn't think I could do it any more. Luckily, it was when he decided I had passed the test.

Climbing was fun, but very tough on the feet, wearing new climbing shoes that are made to be extrememly tight for you.

We go again this Saturday and camp and do it all over again, but this time with a vertical wall. I'm looking forward to it, but hopefully won't be so sore the next day..I think it can be avoiding if we don't so the body belays again. I never want to do that again in my life!

Halfway home!

We are officially halfway home! Yay! Today marks our 6 months and it now seems like it's going by much faster. School is mostly enjoyable for me now. I have pretty good classes, and LOTS of breaks throughout the day, which is nice. Two teacher are leaving soon, so we will be given many more classes, so hopefully getting overtime, which will be nice.

This past weekend we went to Busan, a big city about 40 minutes from here with another couple we met recently. We spent all day shopping (I got some red new balance knock-off tennis shoes for about $22) and checking out the "World Famous Fish Market." It was interesting, but pretty gross. A HUGE indoor fish market is bound to get a bit messy and smelly. After walking around all day, we went to a Mexican resturant (oh, how we have missed out Mexican) and had a few drinks while waiting for more people to join us. A couple hours later, we finally had a delicious dinner or burritos and fajitas...wow, it was amazing. The bus is only $1 each way, so I may have to drag Jared back there this weekend!

After dinner, we went to a casino...one of a few in Korea I think. It is illegal for Koreans to gamble, so there are only foreigneers in the casnio, and most of them Japaneese it seemed. We stayed for a few hours and didn't lose too much money compared to others in the group...two of the people we were with each actually won over $100, so it was a pretty sucessful night overall. After the hour long busride home, we didn't get to bed until after 3AM...very late for Kate teacher!

I am learning more and more each day, as far as teaching goes. I moslty like my babies...the youngest kids in the school. They are 5 years old Korean age, so between 3 and 4 American age. They are so fun to sing a dance around with.

One of my babies is named Blue. His Mom wanted his English name to be David, but he insists on Blue. He is incredibly smart. While the rest of the class has recently learned "Hello Kate teacher," he reads the name of the current book I'm reading (which is "Lamb," and is amazing, if anyone is interested). He is so funny and smart. It always puts me in a good mood to go say hello to him.

My terrible child, Kevin, has finally mellowed out a bit, and I'm learning how to work with him more. I still have to constantly remind him to speak in a quiet voice and to stop speaking Korean, but he hasn't spit on me or stuck his tongue out at me in almost two weeks. So theres is progress.

Jared brother sent us a Nintendo Wii...it's been really fun so far. We have downloaded Super Mario 3, Super Mario World, Pacman, Tetris, Dr. Mario, and Mariocart...all old Super NES games. I don't know anythign about Wii games, so if anyone knows anything good, let us know. I am planning on getting Wii fit, as my gym membership is running out in a few days, and I'm not one to make up my own routine.

We find out today if we are accepted into a rock climbing club that will start in a few weeks. Regardless, we have ordered shoes and harnesses that should arrive in the mail next week...exciting!

Hope everyone is happy! I'll try to attach more videos.

Awhemawhey!!

Here's my 6 yr. olds doing...in the jungle. They are soo adorable, aren't they?

Bad Day!

This is video of my 8 year olds singing "Bad Day, by Daniel Powter...they got pretty into it.

We are now over two weeks into our new semester and still have yet to get all our books in for our classes...frustration is a daily emotion now, whether or not we try to avoid it. For most classes we have to come up with busy work, or find something to teach the kids...or like some of the teachers, just talk to the kids for 25 minutes. Luckily, there are a lot of us in the same boat and we can share resources. I think after this weekend, all the books will be in and we can finally start a more normal routine with the kids. Yay!

I have really enjoyed my classes this semester, for the most part. They gave me the problem child again, but this time in a smaller classroom that gives him no room to get up and down from his seat. He also has better classmates that encourage him to stop speaking Korean, and to behave better. He has still been somewhat of an issue, but he hasn't hit me or spit on me...yet. He has, on the other hand, stuck his tongue out at me and a number of occasions, but now that he has a meaner Korean charge teacher, he is starting to figure out he doesn't want to be kicked out of class...it's starting to work better with him. So that's good news.

I also have the babies of the school. They are 5 yrs. old, Korean age...so that is between 3 and 4 American age. It's pretty tough because they don't even know how to pick up a pencil, yet the school has ordered them books that has them tracing full words already...ahh, again, frustration with the school. Luckily their Korean charge teacher is great and has allowed me to make them an alphabet book that consists of coloring and tracing one letter on each page. After this, I hope to slowly start their phonics book. They are adorable and I love singing songs and dancing around with them, but it's definitely the biggest language barrier I have throughout the day. I get by with a lot of hand gestures.

This past weekend, we went to Jingu, a city 2 hours away. Our friends Hannah and Daniel had been there previously and told us they had delicious thin crust pizza and Red Rock Oregon beer at a cool Italian-style Restaurant. We went with them, and had a great time. The restaurant had a live jazz band, and we ended up staying for 3 hours, eating tons of pizza, drinking beer, and playing games. The pizza was no Local Myth, but it was better than anything we've had in Korea. The beer, same...not amazing, but better than anything we have had here. We also spent a few hours at a huge fortress and an interesting museum about some Japan-Korean war. We spent a lot of time in the kids room and made some awesome artwork, using some ink pads and patterns...all in all, really fun weekend.

This weekend, we plan on hiking on Saturday, then going to see 3D Alice in Wonderland on Sunday. Oh, how I love weekends!! Tomorrow, we have bus duty in the morning, which despite the fact that we have to wake up a couple hours earlier, is actually pretty fun...then only 9 classes (for me) til finishie!!

It snowed a few days ago and has been cloudy/rainy for over a week..back to cold weather. But today was sunny and beautiful, so hoping it'll stay nice. Jared's back is feeling better and he is looking forward to getting back on the trail this weekend.

My parents said it was 70 degrees in STL a couple days ago...I wonder if Washington is getting warm already too??

Miss and Love to All!