Islands In The Sun (And Sore Legs)

I promise to use this week to get you all caught up on my doing the last few months.  And I shall begin the monstrous challenge where I left off with my trips.  I have had two beers tonight, there is a Korean gentalman singing hymns outside my window, and a fluffy kitty cuddled against my back.  Iam ready to dig and get this going.  That being said.... I have trouble remembering the details of this trip because it took place over two months ago.  I know, I am a horrible person.  Slap me.  I swear though it is because life has been to awesome to stop and still is.  But I a forcing myself to take some downtime and catch up before I totally forget everything in my life form the past months.  Before you read this, please keep in mind I often have trouble remembering what I had for breakfast this morning, but i shall do my best my friends.

Well, after my last biking trip was so much fun I decided to go on another.  This time to the relaxing .  I ran into a friend from a previous trip on the bus, so I had lots to look forward to on this trip.  We arrived at the ferry in Gunsan early in the morning, around ten, and prepared to take the ocean trip to the island.  The ferry was really more of a boat, and myself and several other people found it much more refreshing and interesting to sit out on the back of the ferry and take pictures of passing fishing boats and indulge in a beer or two on the hour and a half long ride to the island.  The views were spectacular and for someone still not used to the ocean, it was amazing to see the huge ships docked as we pulled away.
Seonyudo Island

Though a bit rocky, the trip went by quickly and we arrived at the island too soon.  on this string of three islands, there are no cars, other then the golf carts used to transport goods and old folks around the island.  Upon arrival we grabbed out bags and some bikes and biked about five minutes to the motel we were staying in.  Rooms were decided and beds made, then we headed out to explore the island.  we decided to bike and drink more beers (something I don't recommend though it was fun) and found ourselves stopping often for pictures, rests and simply to sit and enjoy the beauty around us.  It was a really different experience being on this tiny island chain with old fisherman and small houses. We soon discovered some difficulties when we went looking for food and entertaint ment at night.  With no bars, and no bonfires allowed on the beach, we had to get creative.  After a dinner of kimchi jigae and various sides, we all seemed to find ourselves wandering to the nearest beach to sit on the shore and relax for a bit before the sunset.  we got to do lots of talking and absorbing the precious sun, which now seems less precious   at the time though it was one tof the first 80 degree days we had and after a long, cold winter, it felt splediferous.

The sunsets here are famous, and we made sure to get good seats among the tide pools on the rocks to watch the world turn pink, orange, purple, and finally dark blue before we headed back to the beach to set off the fireworks we had bought at the local store.  We spent a few good hours drinking beer, eating snacks, and setting off fireworks on the beach before most of us drifted of to bed.  We were supposed to wake up at about 6 and go watch a miraculous sunrise, but When I dragged myself from the floor and warm blankets and looked out my window, I saw only fog and decided to take the spare three hours to collapse back the the floor and pass out again.  Three hours later I was showered and fed and ready to begin day two of the trip.

This day started with a hike up to the highest peak on the island, which wasn't that high but was still quite the scary hike over loose rocks and steep ledges.  I made it to the top where the wind almost blew me off and then made it down, all without dying or breaking a limb.  I then went to check out the "Moses Miracle  that occurs each day as the tides go out.  I had never seen tides in action before and I was amazed how far the water disappeared.  We took advantage of the withdrawn water to walk out two a few small rock islands and then took to hunting razor clams.  many people eat these, but our purpose was more one of curiosity turned shear determinations to catch one of the tricky bastards.  It involved digging a hole to locate a small hole in the sand then pouring salt on it to get the clam to surface.  We then had to snatch it like a Jedi ninja and not kill the clam in the process.  After hiking and clamming and a huge lunch of fried chicken, we wandered a nit more and lay on the beach relaxing before we had to collect our things and leave this little island paradise   We grudgingly packed up around 2 pm and made our way back to the ferry.  The way back involved little talking and a lot of napping until we arrived at the bus and then headed home.  It was a wonderful trip.  Relaxing and fun and different then I had imagined.  Dash was happy to see me when I got home and I was happy to see my bed.  I have a few more pictures to share from the trip and then I am heading to bed.  In the morning I get a bike!  Finally after two months of searching I have found one, I think.  Fingers crossed.  It would certainly help out my work out routine.  Tomorrow.... The tail of the three day island adventure, I think.  Night y'all.

Opps, Sorry. I Blame Life

I just checked out my blog for the first time in way longer then I thought it had been.  I am sorry guys.  I really thought it had only been a couple weeks, not a full freaking month since I wrote a new entry.  I blame summer starting and the awesome time I have been having.  I fully intend to update you in the next week or so.  I will tell you all about the amazing bike trip over near Gunsan, and the super fun trip to Nahmae Island over the three day break, and even about paragliding in two days.  I may even add in bits about my trip to Spa Valley and Suseong Lake last weekend.  Again, I am sorry for sucking at the updates, but I promise I will make it up to you all.  Have a wonderful evening!  I am going to teach my last class, then head home to make a yummy meal of chicken Alfredo, cheesy garlic bread, and salad.  Maybe a veggie if I am really inspired to show of mah skillz!

Twitchy Butt And Clean Cabinets

The last couple weekends I have taken a break from traveling to stay home and catch up stuff around here.  No, I have not fully caught up, but I feel a bit less stressed out then I was.  Two weekends ago a friend came to visit and we braved internet directions to try out an Indian restaurant here in Daegu called Handi.  Turned out the directions didn't do much for us, but the address written out in hangul sure helped me tell the taxi driver where to go. We found the restaurant with very little trouble.  Though we did do as my friend suggested and "followed the Indian."  Not the best thing to say, but it ended up being the right place.  The food was pretty good and also cheap, which is always great.  I unfortunately did not bring my camera *GASP* and so I have no pictures of our random adventure.  I think my favorite part was listening to the Indian man take orders in Korean and wonder at how it is he has better pronunciation then me.  Really, I was not that surprised.

 It was actually a pretty cool area of the city and with all the international grocery stores, I will be sure to go back soon.  I think I may have even found cilantro, be still me heart.  And even bigger.... I found what I think are real, really really real pickles.  They only come in a party sized glass tub, but at ten dollars I have decided they are worth the risk and I am going to buy them next time I go there.  If they turn out to be false dill pickles, well, my students will get some awesome pickles in class.  We also found a strange alcohol that had a bunny in it.  Do not freak!  It was a glass bunny, not a real one.  At $30 I couldn't bring myself to buy it, but I may go back this week when I go for the pickles.  Maybe on Saturday.  I am not even sure what kind of booze it is, but the bunny wins me over.  And before you ask, yes.  I am fully aware that buying things for the label generally most often most certainly turns out not good.  BUT  IT IS A BUNNY!  We also wandered around and did some shopping and then had an okay cup of coffee.  Overall, a decent relaxed Saturday.

Last weekend I finally had nothing to do and no one visiting for an entire freaking weekend.  I used this time to do some serious exploring around where I live and I found a bunch of places I can't wait to try out.  There are a ton, ton, tonny-ton ton of galbi and other types of meat restaurants near my place, as well as a bunch of cafes and bars and other little places to check out.  One place in particular I can't wait to check out, a little cafe called Mustache.  There is also a bar down the street from there called Led Zeppelin Rock Club.  I shit you not party people.  I have put this on my list of must-sees along with the place with the pirate out front and a place that is crazy busy every single night I walk past it.  I found lots of other little interesting things, and I will be going out and taking a poo load of pictures one of these days, but this last weekend I was mainly seeing these places when I went for some runs.  That is correct my nutty friends, I said runs.  I ran so much on Sunday that when I got home my butt was twitching like it was a'dancin.

When I wasn't out enjoying the super duper weather, I was in my apartment getting into the nitty gritty of cleaning.  I was inspired to do a real spring clean and even emptied out all my cabinets AND fridge and cleaned them with super cleaner.  It smells super good in my apartment right now.  I also got all my laundry caught up and my dishes.  These are a big deal because without a dryer I have to wait for the clothing to air dry and usually have acquired enough clothes for another load by the time they do.  With the weather getting all warm and toasty, however, my clothes are drying speedy quick and I can actually go a day or two without clothes on the drying rack.  Dishes are a big deal only because I flipping hate dishes.

In the next couple weekends Ihave a truckload of people visiting, am going paragliding, island biking, deep sea fishing, cliff jumping, hiking, swimming, and more.  This is going to be a beautiful couple weeks.  I would also like to thank Buddha for having his birthday the day after mine.  All the lanterns and the day off make me feel like Korea really loves me.  I knew they did!

A Break And A Bike

The last two weekends I have been focusing on a little relaxing and resting the mind.  The weather has been great and I have enjoyed to outdoors and the indoors equally. Two weeks ago, A friend came to visit, and we ate good food, had some good beer and spent the day relaxing and watching some nice nerdy fantasy movies.  Not much to say about that weekend, other then it was nice to do nothing and have no where I needed to be.  Very relaxing.

Last weekend I went on another weekend trip to Upo Wetland and Daegaya Kingdom Festival.  Rather then deal with trying to figure out the iffy bus schedule to a tiny bus stop it podunk no where, I took the one am bus to Seoul, then grabbed some coffee and charged my phone in the bus terminal for a few hours until I went to meet up with the bus.  Once I got on the bus, I noticed a very strange thing.... All of the other people on the bus were female.  Normally, this is something that would freak me out.  I need a guy around to run to when the females loose heir heads and go all backstabby crazy.  But I have found that, on these trips at least, I enjoy hanging out with females on the weekends.  It is a chance to have a little female time and get a bit girly without the guys complaining about having to watch chick flicks.  There ended up being about 20 or us ladies on this trip and three guys (the bus driver, one of the guides, and one other guy who didn't seem to want to talk to any of us)

We bused down to the wetland and made a few stops to pick up the last people.  Once we got to Upo we rented bikes and then spent the next four hours biking and hiking around the area in the beautiful 70 degree weather.  We took a lot of pictures and did a lot of talking about a lot of random stuff.  We also stopped in at the store for some ice cream and discovered a warren of cute bunnies eating potatoes in a really awesome enclosure.  They told us we would see lots of wildlife while we were there, but besides the bunnies, I saw a few birds and nothing else.  I really wanted to see an otter.

After the wetland, we loaded back on the bus and napped for the hour it took to get to the little town we were staying in for the night.  We ended up having a few rooms we could choose from to sleep in in our very own building in the town.  We laid out the blankets and partnered off two to a blanket for the night.  Then we explored the cute little village we were staying in with it's traditional homes and fun games.  After exploring a bit, we went to the town hall and had a pretty good dinner.  However, I don't like cooked fish, I steered clear of the whole cooked fish.  This would have meant spending the rest of the night hungry and grumpy, if it weren't for the secnd dinner of samgyupsal the group had planned for us before the bonfire that night. I have never eater so much samgyupsal in my life. It was wonderful and yummy, and toasty from the grill.  I don't think we actually ended up finishing it, there was so much.  We ate our fill and then headed over to the bonfire pit and stayed warm by the fire while we had some drinks and talked.  About midnight we went off to bed and slept on a heated floor, my least favorite thing in korea.

In the morning, we woke bright and early and went down to the river to play on some rafts that where

floating around and then headed back to the house for a quick breakfast and to get packed up to leave.  We sleepily got on the bus and headed to the festival grounds.  Once we arrived, we were informed that there would be a group of men photographing and filming us while we were there.  It was a little odd, they told us where to go and had us pose for all these pictures, by the end I was feeling like a movie star and couldn't get Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" out of my head.  There was a lot to see and do at the festival. I made an iron print, a toy bow, threw a pot on the wheel (which was the first time in years and was amazing) we also got to dress up like a dead person and get shut in a coffin so we could experience what a funeral would be like.  There was a ton of food and crafts for the little kids (which we gladly partook in as well, including the stick on tattoos) and I made a t-shirt that says the festival name in korean and has an outline of Charlie Chaplin as well, random and beautiful at the same time.  I also bought soe new purses because I have been looking for a new small purse and korean purses just ain't my style.

I rushed to the bus carrying my still wet painted t-shirt and we made our way to the strawberry fields to pick some fresh, organic strawberries that were pretty much heaven on earth.  We were encouraged to eat as many as we could before filling our plastic containers.  They were warm and juicy and delicious and after going through the field I was almost sure I had overdosed on strawberries.  At this point another girl and I were shuffled off to the photographers car to hitch rides to the nearest bus stop because it made no sense to drop us off with the giant bus.  We figured out our tickets, though my didn't even have a departure time, and said our goodbyes.  I got home, dropped my shit, and passed out for the next 13 hours.  It was a great time, and I learned a lot.  Always a good combo.  This weekend, plans have changed, but it is all good.  I am actually looking forward to weekend at home with nothing to do.  A friend is visiting, we are going shopping, getting food, and just nothing.  Sunday is cleaning day.  This is actually feeling like a good weekend to come.  Peace out and love long folks!

Human Easter Eggs? Yes Please!

The last weekend in March, I went on a trip to Busan to go to some bars and attend the Indian Holi Festival. It was a pretty good time, although it started a bit rough.  I was supposed to meet the bus at Dongdaegu Station at 10:30 in the morning on Saturday  but got a text at 9:00 to say that the bus was going to be twenty minutes early, and was going to pick me up 30 minutes further away then planned. This meant I was going to be late even if I left right then and I still needed to get in a shower before I left.  I made it to the bus about fifteen minutes late, but on time for the original meeting time, so I didn't feel too bad.

After an hour of sleep and watching Cool Runnings on the bus, we arrived in Busan and at our first bar.  It was a nice little foreigner run place called Sharkey's and had the best burgers I have had in a long, long time.  They even had and avocado burger, in which I gladly partook and felt myself enter food heaven for a bit.  The side salad, with dried cranberries and black olives, left me unmoved, and so did the bloody mary, which was mainly Tabasco and tomato juice and in no way measured up to the art form that bloody marys are back at home.  After lunch at the bar we had about 6 hours to just wander around the beach and the surrounding area.  I took off my shoes and walked in the water for a bit, picking up beach glass and shells, then headed over to check out the cherry blossoms.  I wasn't super impressed by them, but I walk by a bunch every day on the way to work and after awhile flowers are just flowers.  After the walk and a short nap on the beach.  I headed to the love motel we were staying in to meet my three roommates and got ready for the night.


We got back on our bus around seven and headed downtown for dinner, drinks, and dancing.  The bus turned out to be a karaoke bus, with flashing light and screens and we made good use of it on the drive o the bar where we were having dinner.  Dinner was okay, nut it was saved by the pulled pork and the decent drinks.  We sat around talking and drinking for a few hours before heading across the street to the next bar and more drinks and talking and hookah.  There happened to be three birthday people on the trip so midnight was a big moment of drinks and singing and back patting, followed by all forty of us spilling out of the bar and onto the street for some pictures, regrouping, and heading to dance away the rest of the night at a club.  That is correct friends, after a year of managing to avoid clubs, I was dragged to one for a few hours of dancing my ass off to music I didn't know or had thought I had forgotten.

The next morning we woke bright and early, guzzled some coffee and snacks from Starbucks to try and tame the hangovers, and got back on the bus for the ride to the Holi festival site.  Once we arrived, we stumbled around in a confused mass waiting for someone to tell us something about what was going on and why we were there at 9 am when the festival didn't start for two more hours, and why were those crazy Indians already dancing like professional Bollywood dancers out on the sand.  A brave few ventured into the fray and located the trip leader and our super splendid hats, and our paint packets.  We were then informed that we had to share one packet with a partner.  This did not seem fair, but they soothed our ruffled feather with free samosas and beer, the perfect way to get the hangovers to abate and keep us entertained until the festival started.

At about ten minutes to eleven we wandered over to the festival area where a surprisingly large crowd had gathered and counted down to the start of the festival.  As we hit one in the countdown, the air exploded with puffs of brightly colored, powdered paint that reeked of patchouli and the screams and laughter of people decorating each other like human Easter eggs.  Then came the dancing, with more paint throwing and drinking (and getting hit in the eye with powdered paint which was even less pleasant than it sounds.)  The party continued until we ran out of pant, which actually took longer then I thought it would, due to the lack of paint for each person.  After the powdered paint ran out they busted out buckets or acrylic paint, which was cool until you got hit with a faceful of it and it started to dry and turn into a mask of skin tearing torture.  After the painting subsided and dancing cooled off, we sat around on the beach talking and drinking for a few hours, wishing it was just a little sunnier and warmer.

Eventually we got to be too cold and too uncomfortable with our bodies and faces being covered in drying paint, and headed to the bathroom to wash off the Easter decorations we had covered ourselves in.  Of course, Korean bathrooms don't have toilet paper on a normal day, so we had to switch over to plan B and wander over to the nearest 7-11 covered in paint, and buy out their entire stock of wet wipes and tried to clean off at least some of the paint before we grabbed some quick lunch and hopped back on the bus and headed home.

I was the only one to get off the bus in Daegu, and while I have had some fun subway rides before, never have I been stared at quite as much as I was that day.  At least this time they actually had a reason to stare.  I got home, showered off the filth of the bars and beach and sun and sand and paint and who knows what else from this weekend of just letting go and having fun.  It was a good trip, but I don't think I will go on another one with that group.  I liked the people and I had a great time, but I wish we could have done more and spent less time drinking and wandering with no purpose.  Overall, 8.9 out of 10 my fine friends.  And I have also decided that someday when I have kids, they will celebrate Easter this way.  Minus the booze and bars.