Homesick

Recently I spoke with my mum about my dislike towards my current job. Only...after speaking with her I began to really think about my job and everything - mostly why the last seven months haven't been the best.

When we came back to Korea for our third year, I was down. I blamed this on just leaving my family and friends but after a month it wasn't any better. So I assumed it was because it was winter (we all know I hate the cold). Our apartment was the best either which added to my initial dislike.

Finally warm weather arrived! We changed apartments too. Things were good for a little bit but then it struck again. That feeling of "blah" to which I stuck to the town. Visiting any other town is a pain because we aren't on the subway line (by the way, love subways - Come on America!). I don't like buses - motion sickness - so it sucks. Also, making new friends is hard for me. I know I make it look easy ;) but, really, I have a difficult time connecting with people. I always assume people are going to screw you over in one way or another but you can't have that attitude here. It's been a personal challenge to alter my mindset in an effort to make friends and I've succeeded (somewhat). I'm grateful to have met such wonderful people here.

My most recent complaint has been work. There is some uncertainty to my job which does cause a little stress, it isn't the cleanest work place I've ever been in (after working construction, I shouldn't complain!), I don't care for the ages I'm teaching, and I've learned that I am not an evening/night worker. But those are all small things. I get paid on time, my boss is fantastic, my coworkers are polite, and my hours are less than the last two years I've worked.

I've finally come to the conclusion that the reason I've been down isn't because of the town or the people or the weather or my job. It's because I'm finally feeling that thing that most people felt their first year in Korea.

  Homesick  

It took two and a half years for me to finally feel homesick.

Two and a half years.

Why am I writing this? Because it makes me feel better to put it to words. We have five months left in Korea and I'm not going to waste them. I'm going to accept that my job is fine, the town is great, the people are wonderful (which they are, we continue to make phenomenal friends), and the weather (as my mum would say) "is what it is".

BUT I will be looking forward to living stateside for a little while. We do plan on continuing our traveling after Jacob finishes college but it will be nice to be able to visit family more often, see my niblings (haha!) grow, hang out with old friends randomly, and be in the loop on the comings and goings of America. Oh and Jacob is looking forward to the abundance of Mexican food. Icarus looks forward to having sprawling lands to explore and a yard to run around in (safely).

Here's to enjoying our last (for now!) year in Korea!

Seosan

Last December we moved to a new town by the name of Seosan. It's about a 90 minute bus ride from Seoul. There is no subway here, something I am really not used to. It's a strange feeling to be more comfortable with a subway system than with the bus transportation as opposed to the car that I've known all my life.

We've ventured to Seoul three times now since we arrived and, two out of the three, it was a nightmare to get home. The first time we were graciously scooped up by an entrepreneur who hired a bus to take a load of Seosan folks home but the second time ended up being a very expensive cab ride. 

Seosan is different. It's a large city but an older one. It pretty much has every store you need to survive in Korea from all the different make up shops to tons of grocery stores to the common Baskin Robbins, Dunkin Donuts, and Lotteria. There's even a cupcake store and a meat pie shop! 

There are loads of foreigners here. Probably around 80-100, maybe even more. 

To get a better idea of Seosan, we hiked up a mountain. 

This was our view:

Left side of Seosan

Middle of Seosan

Right side of Seosan

A far cry from the tiny Bongilcheon we lived in when we first arrived in Korea. We went from being in a town with a single intersection to being in a town where you really don't have to travel far to do anything you want. My fingers are crossed for the ocean being decent as it's just a short bike ride away. Now some things we saw on our hike...

Take your shoes off and massage your feet!

Feet massaging rocks!

A temple we found on the mountain.

Wedding Dresses & Marathons

Before I left for America, back in September of 2012, my lovely ladies and I ventured to a Wedding Cafe named Princess Diary. A magical place where you sit and enjoy a drink served in a fancy glass before you are whisked away to the dressing room to find that special gown.

Menu for drink options

We all chose some sort of dress that peeked our interest before being brutally pinned into them by a seamstress. They had loads of choices - something for every shape, size, and style.

Afterwards, we pranced about the place and took hundreds of hundreds of photos of ourselves.

It was all I wanted and more. We had so much fun taking all sorts of random photos of ourselves in the different scenes with all the crazy accessories. A group of Korean girls kept wanted to have their picture taken with us. They obviously wanted to join my harem.

I couldn't ask for better friends. Those ladies made my final year in Paju amazing. Thank you, girls.

The weekend before I left Korea, I ran a marathon. Well. I finished a marathon. Definitely one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life - training and completing one. Six months of training for one event that you can either fail miserably at or finish. I finished but didn't do so well. Maybe, one day, I'll attempt another. For now, I'll stick with the half distance.

Visiting Home

Fresh from our holiday state side. I wanted to take a blog and just reminiscence about all the great craic we had. In the event that you don't receive a mention, my immense apologies. Our trip was ten weeks long and I don't want to make this the entry 'that never ends'. If you're interested, read on. I think this is more for my sake than anyone elses.

Our adventure started in California where my marathon-running brother lives with his way-too-magnificent-to-put-up-with-him wife and his imaginative son live. We did loads of stuff with them that seem trivial to some of you who do these things everyday. We went to Target, Starbucks, went driving/riding in a car, ordered things in English, and watched television (I miss all those English channels...). Highlights: the ginormous corn maze that we conquered in under two hours, Lime-A-Ritas, and looking at the photos from their wedding. We had two separate birthday parties - one for me with an orange dreamsicle cake of magic and one for Jacob with a chocolate chocolate masterpiece cake. Snickerdoodle cookies, too! Lots of walks in the sun and bright days. Bed time story with the nephew was unforgettable. 

We ventured to Las Vegas to see our good friend get married. We didn't gamble much, instead choosing to lose our money to arcade games. So much to do in Vegas. We did what we could - walked the strip, went to a Tiki bar, and did the whole picture under the sign. The wedding itself was a once in a lifetime event - Elvis married them!

Texas. Home of the Hegemiers. We had a fantastic time in their company. We went to the gun range, enjoyed multiple trips to Jamba Juice, witness a will-be-told-forever poop story, and prepared for our seven day cruise. The cruise itself was with Disney and was fabulous. We went to Costa Maya, Cozumel, and the Grand Caymans. Each and every place was special for different reasons. We had a good time just walking around the Grand Cayman Island. We sampled some local beer and long islands with our spicy fish and conch fritters. Costa Maya had a beautiful beach with lots of shops. Jacob had a great time searching through the water, attempting to locate random sealife.

Disney provided a number of shows to watch and I went to most of them. We got to see a ventriloquist, a production that told the Cinderella story differently, a show that featured villains of Disney, and one with the good guys too. We got to see Wreck It Ralph on board too. The Halloween show and Pirate day activities were great - everything was themed appropriately. 

The food was disgustingly delicious. I got to eat snails - my first. Everyone got to munch on whatever they wanted the entire time, it was a great time for all. Plenty of soft serve ice cream, pizza, fruit, salads, and meat. Loads and loads of meat. I was so close to my gout goal.

We moved on to Florida after that to spend some time with my daddio and mumsies. It was marvelous. We went to a Wolf Reserve where we got to play with cubs and walk into an actual wolves territory, we held skunks, and we fed raccoons too. We walked on the beach, enjoyed the sun, and ate plenty of everything. Mum made peach cobbler (Brooke style) and we introduced them to some new Korean food. We tried new beers and talked - a lot of talking. My favorite part was just sitting and talking - oh and the Sheetz coffee. 

Thanksgiving was spent up north with mum's side of the family. The car ride there and back was eventful with dad's seemingly never-ending chatter. Constant reminders of all the wonderful trips we used to take when we were younger. The random pile into the car last minute and drive to the beach to spend the weekend rides. Thanksgiving itself couldn't have been better. We ate so much food, all sorts of traditional and Italian things. Everything was delicious and it was truly grand to spend time with family. We even got to shoot with my cousin which is always a good time. 

The last leg of our journey was spent in Georgia where we got to spend time with more family and friends. I spent a much needed night drinking wine and catching up on VD, more than a few nights of drinking with some of my favorite people, days of watching horrible horror with mates, hung out with my little brother a number of wonderful times, made it to my good friend's show, bonded with Jacob's family, and did a bunch of things most people would consider boring but I found to be amazing. 

Right now Jacob is attempting to replace the screen of my phone, Icarus is asleep at my feet, and I'm enjoying a Saturday of doing nothing but enjoying the company of two guys I love. Our ten week adventure in America was glorious. A massive thank you to all of our family and friends for your generosity, kindness, helpfulness, and overall awesomeness. 

Until next time!

Thailand!

We get to the hotel, quickly change into bathing suits, and immediately hit the beach. Proud to say that I was the first in the water! While everyone else was standing around enjoying the absolute gorgeous scenery, I ran in - completely forgetting to take off my purple sunglasses given to me by my lovely Aunt Renee two years ago. Alas, Poseidon has them now. :(

We hit the pool and decide to walk to the beach again when BAM. Jacob points and I start screaming "ELEPHANT! BABY ELEPHANT!" Everyone runs up to catch a glimpse. Some guy is walking his pet elephant. We get some petting in and watch a little boy feed/ride the elephant then walk away feeling satisfied. Later, we are chilling at the pool when a different guy with a different baby elephant walks up. We swim over to pet the elephant and it starts giving Jacob and I kisses with its' tiny little trunk. The elephant pushes Jacob into the water and blows a trunk full of water onto his face. D gets a trunk full of water in her face too. Guess the elephant didn't like me as much cos I only got kisses.



We went to Surin Beach for D to take her surf lesson. As we were waiting for her to finish, Jacob and I walked the beach. We soon found ourselves on the porch of a bar that served  delicious mango sticky rice. D finished and we headed into the town where we partook of food at a halal restaurant with a pool in the back. Random.





After, we walked into the woods and found a tiny shack that served up some tasty cocktails. The best part was that the shack was located next to a Muay Thai boxing ring. We watched a Russian dude go in and attempt to show off - unfortunately for him, he was well beyond his prime



One of the days, we went for a bike ride for a couple of hours. We went through towns and found fields of coconut and pineapple trees. Every turn was picture perfect.

Bright sun shining day

Coconut tree field

We stopped at some fruit stand and bought a durian. In case you don't know, durian is known as the stinkiest fruit in the world. Restaurants, public places, and the like have banned this fruit from entering their facility. It stunk. Bad. We took it to the porch and each had a nibble. The texture was alright - it was soft and thick. However...the worst part comes after. Your breath reeks. REEKS. Durian smells a lot like rotten onions so imagine what it does to your breath. Will not be eating again. The taste is not worth the decay breath. I was burping up dead people smell all day.

Soi Bangla

We spent a day on Soi Bangla (a road) in Patong Beach to find some Ladyboys and see the famous Ping Pong Show. This is where everything happens. The night life here is insane. We found ladyboys and got our picture taken with them - they were all so beautiful!


Ping Pong Show. The first one we went into, the staff said we could stay for five minutes and see if we wanted to stay longer. To stay longer we just had to buy a drink. We went in, sat down, and discovered that the drinks were 500 baht each (18$). We said fuuuuuuu and walked out. Disappointed, we went in search of more beverages and street food to quench our desires.

At some point we found ourselves at Bar Alley. A collection of bars, individually rented, in one massive area. Almost every single one had a Go Go Dancer. We went to one with no dancers, just several cute Thai bartenders who wanted to play Connect Four, Jackpot, and Jenga with us. We met a couple who wanted to see a PingPong Show too. So! With eight people total in on this, we had great bargaining power and soon found ourselves seated for 200 baht (7$).

So here it is...If you don't want to know about a Ping Pong Show then STOP READING NOW.

Oh the things I've seen...I cannot wash my eyes of it. It started with me painting an Angry Bird on a woman's belly and smiley face on her boobie. Things went from I-Can-Handle-This to What-The-F@#! pretty quick. I watched a women pull a string out, she gave Jacob the end of the string - he quickly passed it off to me. I held my end and tugged. I pulled a fifteen foot long string from a woman's vahjayjay. Another lady pulled a string out too - but this string had needles attached. You could see the discomfort on her face. Balloons came out at some point. I held one up in the air and a woman shot a dart at it. She shot a dart out of her vahjayjay and hit the balloon in my hand. One put six ping pongs up there. You could pay to have her drop one in your hand. Two people in our party did this. They caught vagina ping pong. Then came the animals...fish. Six fish. Into a bowl. A turtle. A baby turtle. Two frogs. TWO frogs. Not small frogs either. Good sized frogs. No photography allowed.

After this...we got some more street food (mango and honey filled crepes, chicken kebabs with salsa verde sauce, and random meats on a stick) and went home. We knew nothing was going to top that experience.

We went to Phuket Town for shopping. It was fun to haggle with the shopkeepers and look at all the different items that Thailand has to offer. Jacob was super happy when he found the best meat on a stick - it had this spicy red curry sauce all over it. He couldn't stop talking about how delicious it was. He ate so much meat I was pretty sure he was going to be sick. D and Area got Thai massages - we are pretty sure they got a Happy Ending but they wouldn't admit it.

All in all, it was a glorious vacation. Every moment was legendary. Phuket is gorgeous - absolutely magnificent. I got to experience another country with great friends who traveled near and far. I was able to share this experience with the man of my dreams - one neither of us will soon forget. It was amazing.

As for Phuket, the country is poor, the people have very little, but everyone seemed to be happy. Bucket showers, squatting toilets, little to no air con, and no smart phones (didn't see a single one - only those little pay monthly ones). A great reminder of how little a person actually needs to be happy.

Deportation

Wow. Being deported really does blow chunks.

The story? Apparently, you can transfer through China without a Visa as long as you are only stopping ONCE in China. If you happen to have two layovers in China...you need that little square paper. This was unknown to us.

We step off the airport after our plane departed thirty minutes late and rush to immigration so we can hurry through in hopes of making our connecting flight (that is taking off in half an hour). Area gets to the desk and they ask the one question we all dread, "Visa?". After explaining we are just passing through, Chinese officials move us to the corner of the large room. There we wait for someone to come talk to us. A woman finally comes and chats with us for a moment before scurrying off. Our situation is unclear at this point. All we know is that there are a lot of guards suddenly showing up around us.

A gentleman in a clean blue suit, holding a walkie-talkie saunters over - our knight in shining armor. He speaks English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. He is our only translator. He explains that we have to have a visa because we have two stops in China. We explain we don't have one. We discuss options. Our Canadian friend, D, can go on ahead but she'll have to wait for the next flight because we just missed our connecting flight. Since we have two stops, two connecting flights, this would just put her in another part of China with no further flight. Thus our only real option is to purchase tickets back to Korea and see if we can get a flight straight to Shanghai to catch our connecting flight from Shanghai to Phuket.

This seems practical considering we have no other choice. Four guards show up and escort us to the ticket counter. Wait? What was that? No cash? Credit only? Damn. Another bump in the road. Thankfully, our lovely Canadian friend had enough money on her card to help us out - if she had gone ahead, we would have been stuck.

We board our flight, the same cabin workers that waved goodbye are now sadly welcoming us back.
Is it over yet? Nope. We get back to Korea and go to Korean Air to discuss compensation for any of the flights we have scheduled to get to Phuket and/or get back - nothing.

Waiting for CheapOAir to decide if they are going to give us a refund as they canceled all our flights. Apparently, if you have three flights scheduled in one day and you miss one, you cannot catch the last flight. So even though we could have possibly gotten to Shanghai by that night, CheapOAir canceled our flight from Shanghai to Phuket. Our return flight was canceled as well. We only just bought new tickets on Friday to get home Sunday. A very expensive trip to Thailand...we've bought two tickets each to get here and two each to get back. Hopefully CheapOAir will be refunding our unused tickets. Fingers crossed.

Another four years?

In two months, I'll have lived in another country for two years. Jacob, Icarus, and I are waiting to see if we'll be here another four. Jacob is trying to get into Kaist University. Kaist University was ranked the 90th best overall college in the world - 27th in Engineering and IT (the fields Jacob is interested in). If he gets into this school, it'd be a dream come true for all of us.

I've been contemplating the idea of living here for another four years versus going back to America. So I decided to write up a blog to help organize my thoughts.

- Health care. Going to the doctor in Korea doesn't result in living in poverty for a month whilst you attempt to pay off the bill. It's cheap, efficient, and always available. 

- Education. Education is valued in Korea. Parents work 12-15 hour days just to pay for their kids to go to tutoring classes after school. I know kids who can speak 2-3 languages, play piano/violin/guitar, and take extra math/history/language arts classes. This is good and bad. The kids have little time to actually be kids. But they stay busy, are bettering themselves, and aren't roaming the streets getting in trouble. 
.
-  Food. In America, you can get anything anytime you want it. If you want grapes in winter - no problem. Strawberries in September? You got it! You pay a little more but it isn't horribly over priced. Here, if the fruit isn't in season you are going to paaaaaaaay for it (if you can find it). Even the fruit in season is more expensive than in the states (unless you find a special) - watermelon is currently around $10 for a good sized one (got one yesterday for $6! Jacob dropped it on the floor D: ). That's low! But the fruit/vegetables have great flavor, garden quality.

- Transportation. Having owned a car with payments, paid full coverage (because you can't have payments on a car without having full coverage), and did the whole maintenance thing to make sure I wouldn't be stranded in the middle of nowhere with a dead car - I love Korea's transportation system. Yes, I miss driving - I love driving. But there is something to be said about safe, affordable public transportation. 

 - Family. Friends. I miss them. A lot.

- Frozen. Some days, I feel like I'm frozen in time. I'm not moving forward in the sense that my fellow KSU graduates are. They are decorating classrooms, acquiring a status within their school system, and continuing their teacher's education. Sure, I'm teaching. I am continuing my education in the respect of learning more about classroom management and activities. However, there is a lot more behind teaching. Theories that I am beginning to forget, standards that aren't required in my subject, reasoning skills, laws that aren't implemented here, and a complete lack of paperwork. I can pick a kid up and swing them around if I want. I give kisses and hugs all day long. These are things that won't fly in the states. I have very little paperwork and almost zero lesson planning. Sometimes I feel like this experience is going to bite me in the butt one day. I also miss talking to kids...kids that understand everything I say. Kids that I can relate to.

- People. The people here are wonderful. Jacob has lost his phone and tablet multiple times on the subway/bus and has always gotten it back. People seem more honest. I can leave my purse at an empty table and it'll still be there when I come back. Koreans have respect for themselves as well as others. Now there is a negative, the older generation can be a bit harsh when it comes to women smoking, putting your shoes on seats, and not moving so an elder person can sit in your seat on public transportation. Also, who knows if the younger generation will have this same sense of respect. Five years from now...who knows what might happen.

- Language barrier. This is more my fault. I can read hangul (Korean) fairly well. I mean, I can get by. I can order drinks, food, direct a taxi, talk about Jacob, give orders to a class, etc. But for having lived in a country for two years, my Korean isn't nearly as good as it should be. If we end up staying, I've made it a mission to become near fluent.

- Hobbies. More specifically, running. During the course of my seven year relationship with Jacob, I've never really developed a hobby. Sure, I would run on and off - it always ended up with an injury. My first venture into unknown territory (where Jacob wasn't interested), was when one of my best friends Tiffany asked me to work her at her wine bar. I spent hours washing dishes and cleaning tables but...it was great. I met new people and got to hang with my best friend and I loved it. That was the first real thing I did without Jacob (aside from go to school). When we got to Korea, I continued this branching out. I started reading about places to go in Korea, things to do. We went on random trips with unknown people, we hung out with newbies all the time, I ran my first race! This year, I vowed to finally train and finish a marathon. I have the time. I spent winter weight lifting to get strong so I wouldn't injure myself when running. I'm up to 15 miles now with two months left until my marathon. I don't think I ever would have done this in the states.

In conclusion, I feel that staying here until Jacob graduates would be beneficial to our little family. I know I'll miss everyone terribly and I hate being away for so long but...we have to do what will help us the most in the future now. If we end up staying, we will visit. I also hope that some of our loved ones will come visit us. ^_^