Hives update

Well I'm still sitting at home sick in bed. I have so much work to be doing and preparing at school, but here I am just laying in bed. This is so frustrating for me.

Today I woke up and discovered that my hives had gotten worse. I had them all over my face, the fronts and backs of my arms, my back, stomach, legs and feet. In fact, my hands had swollen up so big that my rings were cutting off the circulation so I had to force them off. (Not and easy task) My feet were also so swollen than I had trouble walking on them. How weird and frustrating! My fever was also up, so I decided I should go to another doctor.

I called my boss at school and he arranged for someone to take me to another doctor very close to my school. The doctor spoke surprisingly good English. He checked out my hives, asked me a bunch of questions and told me the hives weren't caused by a food allergy. Instead he said maybe I was allergic to something in my new apartment, or some other place I had been recently. Then he prescribed shots in the butt for the next three days, a bunch of pills and some cream to put on my hives. I am getting quite used to this whole butt shot thing now. haha!

So since my trip to the doctor this morning I have been feeling better. My fever is going down and my hives are looking a bit better. The swelling is going down in my hands which is making them tingle and it's a very odd sensation. I just hope that everything is gone and I am well again by Monday so that I can finish everything I need to do before Heather's and my trip to Thailand. The last thing I want is to be sick and swollen during travel.

I must say, it's pretty amazing to be living in a foreign country with your best friend. I can't express how much of a help and support it's been to have Heather here with me. She has been there for everything and for that I am forever grateful to her. I feel bad that I keep getting sick, but Heather always has a good attitude and takes care of me. I'm lucky to have such a good friend. :)

Other Things

So since I'm at home sick in bed I figured I would write another post. Writing is actually making me feel better. :)

Since my last post in November a few things have happened. My British roomate, Josephine, left Korea and moved back home. Right at that time my job found an open apartment right above Heather's apartment so I decided to move....again. This time though I was able to get two of my Korean guy friends (one has a car) to help me out. They were amazing and pretty much moved all of my stuff for me. It was my easiest move yet.

The apartment is amazing! It's one big room with a kitchen at one end, my bed at the other, a bathroom, and a closet for doing laundry. It is the perfect sized place for a single person. So I have been enjoying having my own time and space to do whatever I want. I wake up in the morning, drink my green tea and do some yoga. Then when I come home from work in the evening I blast my music and do art, or clean, or watch movies, or cook. It's wonderful! I may never live with a roomate again! I also now live within walking distance from school so it's nice to not have the hour commute on the subway.

My school is moving in January to Jamsil, a nice more busy and populated area of Seoul than where the school is located now. It will only be a short bus ride away from my apartment so that isn't too bad. I just received my new work schedule yesterday though. It changed drastically!! I came here on a contract saying I would work 2pm-8 or 9pm. I now currently work about 1pm-8pm. My new schedule though, now includes kindergarden so I will work 11am-6 or 7pm. It's not too bad of a schedule because I have lots of breaks, but it will take some getting used to. I will also have my own kindergarden class now called 'Kangaroo' class. That will be interesting because they will only be 5-6 years old and I'll have to have a lot more energy with them. I will also have them everyday. My classes now, are elementary to middle school students and I only have them once to three times a week. I am very curious to see how I will like teaching kindergarden everyday. I love the little kids, but sometimes they are just too wild for me.

This next week at school is a short week. We work Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (Christmas Eve) and then we have about 10 days off for Winter vacation. yay! Heather and I will be flying out of Seoul of Christmas morning first to Vietnam for a day and then to Thailand for the rest of our time. We have a few different things planed out for Thailand so it should be an amazing time. I just can't believe that it's almost Christmas! This year has flown by faster than any other year that I can remember. Now it's Christmas time and it doesn't even feel like it. I guess it won't feel like Christmas at all this year because I won't be with family and Heather and I will be traveling. Heather is my family here though and we have a little Christmas Eve planned together, so that should be nice. :) Then we'll be off on our adventure!

Well Happy Holidays to all the friends and family who are reading this. I miss you guys and all the fun festivities that go on during this season. Drink some eggnog for me, open your presents, sing your carols, enjoy your Christmas dinner and know that I am thinking of you all. :)

Hives...eek!

I am currently sitting at home in my bed sick as a dog. I have never been so sick in my life as I have been in Korea. It's beginning to bother me, because I am a healthy person. I even got a flu shot this year to try to prevent getting sick any more, but here I am, sick again!

Last night I was out eating dinner with a few friends when my right thumb started to swell up. It was strange but I ignored it so I could enjoy a good dinner and conversation. Later when I got home my whole hand was swollen and I had hives all over my back, up my neck and even on my head. I also started having horrible chills so I figured I would just go straight to bed in the hopes that it would be gone in the morning. All night long I itched from the hives and shook terribly from the chills. I drifted off and awoke in a pool of sweat. I shed all my layers and got up to go to the bathroom. When I looked in the mirror I was frightened to see that my lips had swollen up twice the size and my neck was covered in red hives. I took my temperature and it was 102.5 so I decided maybe it was time that I got this figured out.

I woke up Heather, who conveniently lives downstairs from me, showed her my problems and we headed out in the freezing morning air to the hospital. Lucky for us there is a hospital only about three blocks away. I felt extremily weak though so we hopped a taxi. I think the taxi driver realized we weren't in a good condition so he searched the front of his cab and produced a tangerine for us. HAha, it was some nice comic relief. People here in Korea are big on giving tangerines and hard boiled eggs to strangers. I have not gotten used to that yet.

So we arrived at the hospital. Heather got out her phrase book and figured out where the emergency room was. Once there, they sat me on a hospital bed and just looked at me. I think I had probably 6 Koreans just staring at me like they'd never seen a foreigner before. I was already sweating from the high fever, but having all of them stare at me like that just made me sweat more. I'm sure they thought I was crazy with all my sweat, wild hair, huge lips, and hives all over. Finally after relaying to them what the problem was, I was given two shots in the butt and a few cold compresses to put on my body. After a while of laying there I was able to leave. They gave me some pills to take which I have no idea what they are, and then Heather and I headed back home.

So that was my first visit to the ER in Korea. Since then I have been in bed feeling as though I'm dying. My fever has gone down and some of the hives have gone away, but my lips are bigger than ever. I look like I've had a lip job gone wrong! My joints are all swollen and sore though and my whole body is achey. I have no idea why all of this happened. It can't be the flu, because I had the flu shot. It could maybe be a food allergy, but I didn't eat anything different from what I normally eat. So who knows what it is and when it will go away.

Oh Korea and the experiences that I've had here!

Acupuncture and such...

Once again I got carried away with life and forgot to write in this blog. (sorry Mom) My life has been very social these days as well as busy with school. Last week was test week at school which means chaos and craziness. That explains it all.

Lately I've been having horrible back pain so I asked a teacher at school about a chiropractor. She answered by saying that the chiropractors in Korea are very expensive and that I should just get acupuncture done. Conveniently next to my school are two acupuncture places so I checked one out. I lucked out because the guy actually spoke a bit of English. I told him my problem and he said it was caused by my two hour a day commute on the subway as well as crossing my legs when I sit down. Then he prescribed me some herbal medicine and acupuncture. So I've been getting acupuncture done all week and it's great. It only costs $5 a session too!! So far it's helped a little, so we'll see if it will help more as the days pass. I love the whole oriental medicine thing here though.

Apartment life has been good lately and full of social activities. Josephine is always planning things for us and by Sunday night I find that I still haven't relaxed all week or weekend. This has been an ongoing cycle. I am feeling like I want to crawl in a hole and become a hermit for a while. I don't want to do anything social for at least a month. This timing is convenient though because Josephine is leaving Korea in a week. I am very sad that she is leaving, but at the same time happy to have some time to myself. Josephine has been my lifesaver in Korea. She found me all my current friends and pretty much gave me a social life while I've been here. With out Josephine things would have been very different. I will miss her dearly.

With Josephine leaving in a week and Rachel, the other roomate, leaving in January I have decided to move out of the apartment. Actually an open apartment kind of fell into my lap. The apartment is back where I used to live and is directly above Heather's apartment. The apartment is one big room and perfect for one person. Plus it will be closer to my school and right next door to all of my co-workers. I will also be away from the center of the city so I will have more time to myself and I won't be as tempted to be so extremely social. Overall, I am happy to move and think that I will feel better/more energized by this move. Haha, and yes this will by my fourth move in Seoul in eight months. What can I say...I like to change it up every few months. haha!

In other news, two friends Josh and Matt visited on their way to Vietnam and then again on their way back to Chicago. That was fun. It's always nice to have visitors to tour around Seoul as well as see a familiar face again.

Christmas is approaching fast and with it comes Heathers and my trip to Thailand. I am more excited every day. It will be the perfect time to be on a warm beach. I may not want to come back to Korea. :) I have been craving a visit to that third world culture. I am tired of these Koreans and their materialism. I want some strong culture, humble people and peaceful scenery.

News

I know it's been a while since I've written in this blog. I've been really lazy about writing these days unfortunately. I've done lots of stuff since my last blog entry and I have some news as well. The news is that I'm getting married and there's a little one on the way too! Yeah, who'd guess it'd all happen so fast eh?

Haha, just kidding. I just wanted to give everyone who's reading a scare...or a shocker. I am far from getting married and having kids. Right now I am enjoying the beautiful fruit of my youth and independence. :) Tis a wonderful thing!

As for the news, my school is moving! Right now I work at the very far eastern edge of Seoul, in fact it's almost out of Seoul. My commute takes about an hour on the subway each way to work. But where the school is moving to is a bit closer. Not too close, but every little bit helps. They just bought the space for the school in a high rise building in a happening part of Seoul called Jamsil. It's right near an amusement park called Lotte World, a lake, Olympic Park, and lots of shopping and restaurants. So the space is being renovated right now, but come January we should be in the new building. Plus, we are also becoming the Wonderland Headquarters. The hogwan franchise that I'm working for is called Wonderland and I guess our school is currently the most well run and successful that they want our school to be the headquarters, haha wow! The school has been undergoing a lot of changes in the last few months and I guess that is why. Anyway, I am pretty excited for this move and change.

Other news is that Heather and I are now the proud owners of plane tickets to Thailand for Christmas and New Years! YAy!! :) Our co-worker from Belgium's wife is Korean and was able to find us an awesome deal on plane tickets. So we are flying on Christmas day first to Vietnam for a day which should be fun, then to Thailand. So we'll see what kind of adventures we'll get into.

The third piece of news is that I have decided to backpack Africa when my contract is finished here in April. My friend Sheila has been wanting to do that for a while and our contracts finish about the same time so it works out perfectly. We're going to start at South Africa and work our way up the east side and then across the top to finish the trip in Morocco and Spain. It will be an epic adventure I'm sure. It also puts a stop to my high loan payments that I've been able to make since coming here, but I figure I should take these opportunities while I can. I'll just pay the minimum on my loans and come back to Korea for a few more years to pay off the rest of my loans. All the while adventuring where I can. :)

So other than that stuff, I have been keeping busy lately. School is busy and hectic as normal, apartment life is good with my wonderful and sometimes crazy roomates, and weekends have also been quite packed lately. The weekend before last I went to Busan (a city in the south of Korea on the beach) with Heather and Michelle. It was a nice low key weekend. We went to the International Film Festival, visited a temple, hung out on the beach and enjoyed being in a different city from Seoul for a few days. Then last weekend Heather and I went with a tour group called Adventure Korea to do a Buddhist Temple-stay. It was quite the experience. We wore temple clothes, learned a lot about Buddhism and Buddhist monks. We ate the food the way the monks eat, we took part in their services, we did their bows (over 200 full body bows), we woke up at 4am for meditation, we made lotus lanterns and monk beads and overall had a fairly interesting and relaxing weekend. The pictures will soon be on facebook.

Well thats a brief summary of what's been going on with me lately. Soon I'll write another blog based more on my feelings and thoughts that I've been having lately. I think I've done a lot of growing up since coming here, and it's been an interesting process to be a part of, to watch in myself and to experience. ...yeah those are all kind of the same thing... Eh, more to come later.

Cheusak and such

I meant to write this post last weekend since that is when Cheusak was, but I seem to be very behind on my blogs and updates these days...

Last weekend was the Cheusak Holiday and it was somewhat interesting. Here in Korea Cheusak seems to be the largest holiday that they have. Even larger than Christmas. A few weeks before Cheusak all the stores start putting out gift sets. These are gift sets ranging anywhere from toothpaste packages to spam packages. The spam packages were the funniest I thought. It would be a large package with maybe six cans of spam and a bottle of cooking oil, haha! The Koreans love it though! So right before the Cheusak holiday everyone goes crazy with shopping, cooking and preparing. I went into a coffee shop near my school to buy a simple cup of coffee and had to wait 20 minutes because the place was crowded with people putting in orders for Cheusak cakes. It was ridiculous. Then the last day of school before Cheusak I was called into the owner of our school's office. I thought I was in trouble because he never has anything to do with us, but then it turned out that he was giving all the teachers gifts of wine for Cheusak. I was relieved and surprised at the same time. The gift was a set of two bottles of wine and a wine opener. Despite the shadiness of the school, they at least know how to appreciate their teachers on the Cheusak holiday. :) It was nice and I was more than happy to take the wine home. The holiday lasted for three days (I hear it usually lasts for longer, but not this year because it fell on a weekend.) So I spent a wonderful weekend relaxing, drinking my wine, and hanging out with my roomates.

Roomates

Speaking of my roomates, they are awesome. Moving into this 'hole in the ground' apartment with them was the best decision that I have made since coming to Korea. My one roomate Josephine, from England, is miss social butterfly. She seems to know everyone and has been my social connection to all of my latest friends. I was really worried for a while before because I wasn't making many friends. I don't know if it was because I was living on the edge of the city and away from everything, or what, but now I am happy to say that I have more than enough friends. :) I can hardly keep track of them all. It is fun to have things to do every weekend and people to hang out with now. The only downfall is the coming and going of people. It's inevitable here in Korea since most contracts are for a year and a lot of people leave after that, but it's still difficult for me. I hate making friends just to see them leave. It's like a little heart break each time it happens. I think I will only be able to stay here for 1 more year.

Future

I have begun thinking about my future again. I love Korea, but I think that after this year I will only come back for 1 more year. The lifestyle here is just unreal and I think I don't want to make it a habit. It's like being in college again, but having money. The work is fairly easy, yet definitely draining on some days. The money is amazing. The weekends are crazy...as is the night life. It's almost too good to be true. And I meet people here in their 30's who have been doing this for 5+ years. It's a fun thing to do, but I don't think that it is really living life. In fact, I feel like it's avoiding life and the real world. I don't have any responsibilities here other than showing up for work. Besides that, everything is taken care of for me. It's too easy. I almost feel like I'm cheating in a way. I think the longer I stay here, the harder it will be for me to have a life anywhere else. So after another year, I will leave and try to adapt back to the real world of more responsibilities. :) Until then though, I'll enjoy it here to the fullest!

23 going on 30

So really I'm only 23 going on 24, but this year I feel like I should be at least 30... It is the oddest thing I have ever felt. Since coming to Korea I have felt 100% responsible for myself for I think the first time in my life. I'm sure that has something to do with feeling 30, on top of many other things...

A lot of my friends here and the people that I work with are all in their late 20s or early to mid 30s. They are a bit more mature and have a somewhat different mindset than the people I am used to hanging out with back home. I think because I know that they are all in their 30s I feel like I should be too. So when I had my 24th birthday, all I could think was...I'm too young, I should be at least 30 by now. It was a weird birthday...maybe I thought too much than one should when they turn a year older. Contemplating life is interesting. Especially now since coming to Korea. For the first time in my whole life, I don't have a plan. Me, the master planner, now doesn't have a plan. I'm not sure how I feel about that either. I guess it's good because this way I truly live each day for what it is. But it's also bad, because I have no clue of what I want or what I will do with myself... I guess right now I am just floating along the river of life waiting for a current to sweep me this way or that way. While reminding myself that I'm only 24, and even though I feel older I'm not.

So my Birthday was good. My new roomates are amazing, they make my life now!! I came home from work Friday night to Josaphine (the British roomie) telling me that I needed to get ready because we were going out to bring in the first hours of my Birthday. So thats what we did. :) We went to a local bar and at midnight the DJ played a happy birthday song and Josaphine bought me a wonderful fruity, girly, frou-frou drink called 'alice in wonderland'. All night long I met new people, had great conversations, danced and truly enjoyed myself. Finally at about 5am I walked home and stopped on an overpass walk-way. I stood there for about an hour watching the cars whisp by and thinking about life. It was exactly what I needed. :)

The next day I met Heather at a waffle shop in my neighborhood for brunch. I ordered a cinnamon waffle piled high with cinnamon apples, whipped cream, and ice-cream. It was an amazing Birthday breakfast! It was also great to spend some time with Heather since we now life in separate parts of the city. We discussed life, adventures, birthdays, books and families. The conversation was perfect and long overdue. I spent the rest of the day by myself wandering the Itaewon neighborhood that I life near. I window shopped, tried on fun/crazy dresses and outfits, people watched, and just enjoyed the nice day by myself. :)

The night of my birthday I met the wonderful friends that I have made here so far at an Italian restaurant. We ordered dinner and enjoyed the company of each other over pasta and wine. It was fun to eat something other than Korean food for a day. Afterwards we went to a nice bar where I met a few more friends. Then later, the roomates and I headed to a different part of the city for a dj concert by the British group Artful Dodger. Rachel (my Ausie roomate) was able to get free tickets for us from her Korean friend. So we went to the club, inched our way to the front and danced to the Artful Dodger. At one point Rachel grabbed the singer when he walked by us on the stage. She yelled at him that it was my birthday, so he stopped the show and said happy birthday to me, haha it was great! So we danced and danced and finally it was 4am. By that time it was only Josaphine and me because we had lost Rachel and our other friend Charlotte. So Jos and I headed out into the street crowded with the youth of Korea and bought street food. Then we settled into the sidewalk along with all the Koreans enjoying our street food and bringing in the morning of the next day. Finally we got home and crashed. 

It was a grand Birthday!! :)

August re-cap

Oh man, what a crazy month August has been! One of the longest months of the year, mixed with the hottest month of the year does not make a good combination. I am thankful for how quickly time seems to fly in Korea though, because despite all the stuff that happened this month it has gone by extremely fast. Just like all the other months here.

So re-cap:

-August begins with 98 degree weather and 98% humidity on top of that

-I get back from Jeju Island vacation

-Extra summer classes get added to our schedule

-Franzi came to visit for a week

-We lost Shay, a New Zealand teacher at our school

-We gain Sebastian, the new Belgium/Korean teacher

-Heather gets bedbugs in our apartment

-Baron, an American teacher from our school takes Shay's apartment next door

-We trade furniture, it's chaos

-I find an apartment in the center of Seoul with an American girl

-I get kicked out of the apartment because the landlady is crazy

-Monthly test happens at school, it's chaos

-I have to fill out student evaluations to send home with my students

-I move back to Heathers and sleep on a cot

-I find another apartment with an Ausie girl and a Brittish girl

-The weather finally cools off, fall is on the way

-I move in, I try to catch my breath!

Lots of other things happened in-between the cracks, but those above are the main points of my August.

The apartment situation goes like this: Shay who lived next door finished his contract, so I asked my boss if I could move into his apartment after he left. I was told that another teacher would be moving into that apartment, but that I could try to find my own apartment elsewhere and then just get a housing allowance. So I got on craigslist and after a few days of searching and emails I found a place. It was a 3 bedroom with another American girl. Everything seemed great and my boss gave me the money to live there. So I moved all of my stuff across Seoul via taxi and a friend's car. After living there a few days the landlady says that the guys who lived there before us never paid their bills and she wanted us to pay them. We got in contact with the guys and they said to tell the landlady just to keep their deposit money. The landlady didn't agree but finally said ok and then told us that we had to pay new deposit money. She demanded that money the next day and when we asked for more time to pay it she became furious and said that she wanted us to move out! Every day after that she proceeded to march into our apartment and sometimes into my room and scream in Korean that we had to move out. It was crazy and ridiculous. I spent so many hours on the phone with an interpreter trying to smooth out the situation, but the landlady was just ecstatic and crazy and wanted us out.

So all of last week I frantically tried to find another apartment in the neighborhood so that I wouldn't have to move my stuff all the way back to Heather's place on the other side of the city. I had no luck though and had to move all of my stuff once again back to Heather's and my old apartment. Heather was not happy, I was not happy, and while all of this was happening, it was test week at school which means that everyone at school was uptight and chaos was everywhere.

So then I found the apartment that I have just moved into. It is with two girls and it's in the same neighborhood as the last apartment. It's at the top of a huge hill, its a street level apartment and my room is pretty much a shoebox. I have come to the conclusion though, that this is truly all the space that I need to live. I don't need anything elaborate or huge. So this is perfect. The landlady is also very nice. She's Philippino, widowed, about 45, and treats me like the daughter she never had. :)

It's been a crazy time, but I have survived it and come out a better person. I almost wonder if life throws us these crazy happenings just to make sure we're not getting too comfortable. As much as I hate it when crazy stuff happens in my life, I do think I benefit from it. It's funny though, because next week I turn 24, but now I truly feel like I am at least 28. I feel much more responsible for myself and independent than I have ever felt before.

Summertime Heat

It's Sunday and I've been in Heather's and my air-conditioned apartment all morning. I leave the apartment to go buy water at the little store up the street. On the way, I observe many things that make me smile and realize that it's 'summatime and the livin is easy'. :)

It's hot outside, maybe 90 degrees with 70% humidity. I can feel not only the sun beating down on me, but the heat rising up from the blacktop of the street. It rained last night, so everything is clear today. The green trees on the mountains can be seen and the sky is clear blue dotted with fluffy white clouds. The cicadas sing loudly, then softly, and then loudly again. I pass a group of dressed up Koreans coming from Church. They are wearing their heels and their frilly dresses and pressed suits. They talk, smile, laugh. I wonder how they can withstand the heat with so many clothes on. Three boys whiz past me on their bikes. They are yelling to each other in Korean and laughing. The wind blows through their hair and I remember what it's like to be a kid on a bike riding through the Sunday afternoon. The sun beats down on my face and sweat gathers around my sunglasses. I lift them to wipe away the sweat and realize just how bright the day day is. Everything is so clear and the colors are vivid. I'm thankful for the rain that washes away pollution. I keep walking and come upon an old man. He is standing in the shade with his small, white, fluff ball of a dog. As I get closer I can see that he's bending over and talking to his dog. He's talking very gently with a kind look in his eye. It makes me smile. As I get closer to the store I hear faint sounds of techno music. I can see the brightly colored umbrellas shading the outside of the store. I walk under them and smell the sweet peaches that are displayed. I buy my large bottle of water and stop a second to enjoy the pumping Korean techno music that the store is playing. Then I walk home with the bottle of water against the back of my neck to keep me cool. I let the sun grace my face, enjoy the sounds of the cicadas and smile at everyone I pass.

It's summer time in Seoul and the livin is easy. :) Life is Wonderful!

A Big Week

August is bringing about many changes. Just the fact that it is August alone, is pretty crazy. Four months have already passed since I've moved to Korea and everyday I am shocked at how fast the time is passing. I guess time really does fly when you're having fun. This is now the longest I've lived out of the US since I was 12...and it feels good! I really don't know how I will every be able to go back to life in the US. At this point, it seems impossible after living here.

Lots of stuff has happened this week. First of all, it was the first full week of teaching after coming back from vacation. I had one day of teaching last week which didn't seem bad at all, but it was also Friday. Then having a full week of teaching this week was exhausting. I forgot how much energy the kids take out of me. On top of that, this week was said to be the hottest week of the year in Korea. So by the time I walked to work, the heat had drained a lot of my energy. Then I had classes to teach and the combination just made it a tiring week. I also had my first visitor this week! Franzi, my childhood friend from Switzerland came to visit for the week on her way to Papua New Guinea. It's been so much fun to have her visiting and get to show her all the cool things about Seoul and Korea. I just feel bad that she came during our hottest week of the year.

So on top of those things happening, it was also the start of the new month at school which means change. Every month the school changes things around a bit. They get more students, lose more students, change our classes, change the curriculum, get other teachers...etc. This month we lost Shay, one of the foreign teachers from New Zealand. He had worked for his year contract and finished so he went home. It's hard to constantly be saying goodbye to friends who finish their contracts. With Shay leaving we gained another guy foreign teacher from Belgium. It's been interesting getting to know him this week. There has also been some moving of apartments because of teachers leaving our school. Baron, another foreign teacher at our school from the US moved into Shays apartment next door to Heather and me. That was an interesting day because his stuff was out in the hallway of our apartment all day and for the next few days. We also took some of his stuff into our apartment. (like we have room...) So all week it's been Heather, Franzi and me, and a bunch of Baron's stuff all in our one-room apartment. It's been kind of crazy. On top of that, Heather contracted bed-bugs somehow. So now we're trying to figure out how to get rid of her bed-bugs and cure all her bites.

On another note, I found an apartment to move into. It's been fun living with Heather, but we share a one room apartment, have no privacy, and practically live on top of each other. Surprisingly in the last four months we really haven't fought much and have learned how to peacefully co-exist in this small living space of ours. I'm sure we could last the year out, but our contract says that we can each have our own apartment. So when I found out that I couldn't move into Shay's apartment next door after he left, I decided to find my own apartment. I would have preferred to find something close to Heather, but thats not how it worked out. I did, however find an awesome apartment with another girl (from the US) right in the center of Seoul. It's a large, real apartment with bedrooms, bathrooms, a full kitchen, a livingroom, a little balcony and even access to the roof-top! I really couldn't ask for anything better other than the fact that I will now have to commute to school about 45 minutes on the subway each way every day. I will get used to that though. I think it will be good for Heather and I to have this space. Plus I am more social than Heather, so this will allow me to sow my social oats a lot more. :) I move tomorrow.

Jeju Vacation

I have just come back from a wonderful and relaxing vacation to Jeju Island. Jeju is a good sized island right off the southern end of Korea. I went with Heather and Lena, a Korean/Canadian teacher from our school. We were there for six days and I hardly know where to start with what we did or how much we enjoyed ourselves.

Hotel

When we arrived at our hotel we were more than impressed. We booked it ahead of time online, but didn't know what to expect. (we booked it because it was decently cheap.) It was up a curvy jungle-ly road and away from the little town. When we pulled up in front of the hotel we couldn't believe it, it was like a resort. Inside the hotel all of the employees were wearing Hawaiian t-shirts and everything was so brightly decorated. When we got to our room there was a balcony so we immediately went out. The balcony looked out over the back side of the hotel and a gigantic pool with water slides. Beyond the pool was a green jungle and then a distant view of the sea. It was beautiful. The next morning we found out that our hotel serves a free buffet breakfast every morning so of course we took advantage of that. It was the best breakfast I've had since coming to Korea. They had just about everything that a breakfast buffet could have. So every morning we had a good full breakfast as we gazed out of the large windows facing and the sea. It was more than perfect. We also found out our first day that the hotel offers a free shuttle into the little town and back almost every hour. So instead of dealing with the hassle of taxi's, we were shuttled around for free by the hotel. I cannot believe all that the hotel offered us and for such a cheap price too!

Activities

We started our vacation off strong wanting to explore the island and see everything, but as the days went on the heat and humidity got to us and we took to just relaxing. Our first day though we took a little hike to a beautiful waterfall. There were lots of stairs going down through the jeju jungle trees and finally we saw the waterfall. It was huge and beautiful. From there we were drenched in sweat so Lena bought us some fresh pineapple on a stick to refresh us. It did it's job and we headed to the bridge. The bridge went all the way over a tree covered gorge with a river at the bottom. From the top we could see the whole surrounding area and a nearby temple. We were also able to get a nice breeze from there as well. Next we headed to the beach. The beach was crowded with beach umbrellas and Koreans wearing their clothes into the water. The Koreans are so modest, they hardly like to show their shoulders let alone their chests, stomachs and legs too. Although, a decent amount of the younger Koreans were also wearing bathing suits. It was just weird to see people swimming in t-shirts and jeans. Ugg, talk about uncomfortable and unflattering.

Another day we visited the jeju botanical gardens. The building was huge and made of all glass. It was kind of shaped like a spider. It had one central area and then off of it were lots of sections. From the outside it was an amazing piece of architecture. The inside was also very beautiful with it's exotic plants and jungle areas. In the center you could take an elevator and then lots of steps up to the observation area. From there you could see everything. It was nice to be able to get a good grasp of what the layout of the area was.

While walking down the street of the little town one day Lena was able to read a Korean sign that said there was a beer and music festival. We thought that sounded like a good thing to do in the evening. So after and amazing dinner of Korean barbeque we headed to the beer and music festival. It wasn't crowded so we found a table, ordered some beer and settled in. Right as we got our beer the band started playing John Denver's song 'Take Me Home Country Roads'. We were so shocked and at the same time thrilled! I think that one thing alone made the vacation awesome! We heard a song about where we were from, sung in English, on Jeju Island!!

Lena left a few days early to spend some time with her boyfriend so Heather and I just wandered around. One day we took a bus with good intentions of getting to another island off of Jeju. We missed our transfer stop though and decided to keep going just for the heck of it. We ended up in another little town. It was a bit larger with lots more shops though so we decided to check em out. After buying cheap shirts we found an indoor market. We explored it and found lots of fruits, vegetables, squid, fish, random kitchen and house stuff, shoes, mens clothing and other random pieces of things. After a while we were pretty hot and sweaty so we went back out on the street, bought some street food and peach smoothies from and old lady and sat on some steps. It was nice to just bum around for a day. Eventually we found our way back to our little town and then the hotel.

The rest of our time in Jeju it either rained or we sat by the pool relaxing, reading, swimming, going down the water slide, and listening to the blasting Korean pop tunes being played on the speakers.

Our last morning at the hotel Heather and I were eating breakfast when this good looking man who was obviously an athlete asked us if he could join us. We asked him to sit down and and were immediately in conversation. He said he was from New Zealand and is the coach/manager for their olympic triathlon team. They are in Jeju training for the Olympics because it's close to Beijing an the air is much cleaner. Heather and I were shocked, but had a great time talking to him and asking questions. He was very friendly. We were also finally glad to know about all the athletes then as well. All week long we had been running into Russian, Italian, Spanish, and New Zealand athletes in our hotel. We saw them every morning at breakfast, sometimes outside getting ready for training and a group of them even had rooms two doors down from us. We couldn't figure out why all these athletes were there, but we finally found out on our last day. Now we will for sure be watching the triathlete part of the Olympics.

All in all, Jeju is a wonderful, beautiful island and this has probably been my best vacation yet. And I didn't even spend much money to have such a cool vacation too! :)

Umbrella Culture

I know I have talked about weather a lot lately, but the weather here truly seems to be more extreme than in the US. So I find that weather is the center of my life these days...other than teaching, playing on playgrounds and learning the occasional Korean word.

With all of the rain that we're having (because it is rainy season afterall) umbrellas are kind of a big deal around here. They are sold on every corner and they are all the same black/blue and silver style. Except for the old ladies and a few others who have flowered umbrellas. The thing is though, there are so many people in Korea. I have never been in such a crowded place in my whole life! I have problems walking down the street with just myself, let alone an umbrella too. Walking down the street in the pouring rain with an umbrella while everyone else also has an umbrella is challenging to say the least. People are so close to each other that the umbrellas are always bumping and eyes are almost being poked out by the pointy ends of the umbrellas. Koreans also put up their umbrellas if is barely sprinkling out and then leave them up way after the rain has stopped.

Because it rains a lot and there are so many umbrellas there seems to be an unwritten rule stating that if you leave your umbrella unattended it's up for grabs. I have already gone through a few umbrellas because of that 'rule'. It's okay though, because I have also accumulated a few umbrellas through that rule as well, haha! Last weekend I was with a Korean friend of mine and it started pouring rain. We were on our way out so she said wait here for a second. When she came back she had an umbrella for me and when I asked her where she got it she said, 'oh I just took it from the umbrella basket." haha, so I guess thats just how it is. When in need, grab an umbrella indeed.

the sound of silence

In the last few days I have been eerily struck with the sound of silence while walking to work. Usually when I take my 15 minute walk to work at about 1pm is when the elementary schools are letting out. Between my apartment and the hogwan I work at, there are two large elementary schools and tons of apartments where I'm sure all of the children live. I usually walk right past the elementary schools and then through one of the large apartment complexes. On the way, there are probably five or so playgrounds that I pass as well as a mini soccer turf. Usually all of these places and everything in between are occupied with loud children. The children run down the street, bike down the street, walk with their mothers down the street, play in the playground until they are soaked with sweat, sit on the sidewalk and eat ice-cream that drips all the way down their arms, they play tag and chase, the boys play soccer on the turf, I usually get many 'hi's!!' or 'how are you?' comments, and for that short time that I am walking to work the neighborhood is filled with childhood chaos.

Public elementary schools have been out for two days now and my walk to work is so oddly quiet. I can now hear myself think. I can also hear the loud cicadas of summer singing their song in the trees around me. The birds chirp, the wind blows and everything is quiet. Now my walk to work is like meditation. It's peaceful and calm. I no longer have to dodge the flying children on bicycles, or say hello to groups of wide eyed Korean children, or get stuck behind mothers slowly walking with groups of children. It is all very nice, but after two days I must admit that I miss the children. Yes, I work with children for most of the day, but this is different somehow. It was sort of my daily tradition to try not to get hit by the kids flying by and I always felt like a celebrity when the children wanted to talk to me. I guess it also gave me an excuse not to think. I just walked and enjoyed the loud happy sounds of the children around me. Now though, I have no distractions and I am brought back to my thoughts and the singing cicadas. I have a month of this and I'm sure that by the time I am able to enjoy it is when school will start up again. It's funny how the things in life that you thought annoyed you, actually turn out to be enjoyable.

monsoon...typhoon...heavy rain

Whether (haha or weather) it's called a monsoon, a typhoon or just heavy rain, it's all the same thing. It comes down in buckets, it pours like it's never poured before.

On Friday afternoon the clouds rolled in and Seoul had a darkened foreboding look to it. All the teachers and students at school were talking about the big typhoon coming in. It was quite the buzz around school, especially when you say typhoon and not just rain. So I was very curious about this typhoon and figured that it was just a bunch of hype as most weather forecasts usually are. I was very wrong though.

Early Saturday morning I checked outside and sure enough it was pouring down rain. It rained hard all morning so Heather and I stayed inside, listened to music and watched movies. Finally around 4pm we decided to meet some friends for coffee, so we ventured out into the rain.  After getting somewhat wet through our umbrellas, we met up with friends and the rain stopped. It actually cleared up and we could see blue sky and sun. To myself I thought, sure...a typhoon, whatever. So It stayed clear all evening and then once 11pm hit the rain came pouring again. This time unfortunately I didn't have an umbrella and I was stranded outside a bar waiting for friends. When my friends came there were three of us to one tiny umbrella and it didn't end up very well. Lets just say that at least when we got to the next bar we weren't the only wet ones. Everyone was soaking from the rain!

It rained hard all Saturday night and carried into Sunday morning. At 8am this morning it was raining harder than I've ever seen it rain in my whole life. So of course I had to go play in it. I went out in the rain, ran around, splashed in the puddles and had the time of my life. I visited some of the neighborhood playgrounds which in the rain had turned into water parks and I played like a kid again. The Koreans would drive by on their way to Church and slow down when they saw me. They stared like they had never seen a white woman dancing in the rain before...well I guess maybe they really haven't. Anyway, it was the most fun I have had in a long time and now I can't wait for the next typhoon to come so I can do it again! :)

my midnight spot

First of all, I apologize for slacking off in posting blogs. It is not really that I don't have anything to write about, but mainly because I have settled into life and gotten lazy in this department.

Summer is definitely roaring here in Korea and I must say that it is more humid than I would ever have imagined. Even in the evenings when the sun has set it is still quite hot. Despite the hot humid nights, one of my favorite things to do is to take midnight walks and hit up the neighborhood playgrounds. One thing the warm weather in Korea is great for is all of the playgrounds and parks. They practically litter Seoul, I love it!

My favorite place to visit on my midnight walks is about a 10 minute walk from our apartment. It is an apartment complex composed of many tall apartment buildings formed in square areas. In the center of each square is a parking lot and a playground area. For some reason I was drawn to the most simplest of the playground areas within the center of four apartment buildings. It is a sand playground with swings, teter-tots, and a very small jungle-gym with two slides, a platform on top, and some chains to crawl up. This is where I go to think, to be by myself, to contemplate the world, my life, my future, the present... It is not the type of place that one would think to go to for peace and serenity, but for me somehow it is more perfect than I can even begin to describe.

The swings are where I go to free my mind. I swing and swing and swing to my hearts content. I pump my legs and swing as high (maybe higher) than the bar that the swing is on. On these hot humid nights the wind that I make from swinging is refreshing and wonderful. Then, when I want to think I head up to the small platform on the jungle-gym. I lay down and from that point all I can see are the four tall apartment buildings that I am surrounded by and the nighttime sky with it's grey clouds and occasional star. Here, I feel small, yet comforted and protected. The apartment buildings loom above me up into the sky. They remind me that I really am so small in this crazy big universe. They also make me feel comforted and protected though because they surround me and enclose me from the 'outside world' at least for the time being. I get the most wonderful feelings when I lay on the top of that jungle-gym and gaze upwards.

I enjoy seeing all of the windows in the apartment buildings and hearing the sounds that come from them. Some lights are on, some are off. Some are bright, some are fancy, some are dull. Sometimes there are people in the windows looking out, maybe at me, maybe not. Some of the sounds that I hear are families hanging out, tv's playing, babies crying, children laughing, the clinking of utensils against plates, the low muttering of conversations...etc. I enjoy laying there looking at all of these apartment windows and trying to think of each of their stories. Maybe they are a family, maybe a couple, maybe they just had their first child, maybe the grandparents live there too, maybe they have a dog or a pet fish. The possibilities are endless and I could entertain myself for hours just thinking up stories for these apartments. I usually get distracted thinking about life though. My life is kind of like all of the apartment windows, the possibilities are endless and there is so much to choose from. It's wonderful, yet somewhat daunting at the same time.

Weather

Before coming to Korea I had been told that the summers are hot and humid and the winters are cold and snowy. Ok, thats cool, I figured it would be just like Virginia weather...not!

It may be humid in Virginia, but at least it cools down at night and the humidity drops. Here it is humid 24 hours a day and the temperature doesn't drop much overnight. Getting up to jog at 7am seems like a good idea until I get outside and feel like I'm swimming through the air. The air is so thick that it hits you like a wall. I have never experienced humidity like this before. The weird part too, is that it may be a nice 75 degrees out, but with the humidity it will feel like 85 and I won't stop sweating. I try to tell myself that it's only 75 degrees and that I must have a sweating problem because this is ridiculous, but then I look around me and realize that even the plants on the side of the street are sweating from the humidity. (it's weird, something I've never seen before)

Along with the humidity, this is also the rainy season. That means that it rains at least four times a week, and when it rains, it pours. I really enjoy it actually...well, when I'm not walking to school that is. The walk from Heathers and my apartment to school is about a 15 minute walk. In the spring time weather it was a wonderful walk in the warm sunshine filled with rose lined sidewalks. Now in July though, it's the walk of death. If it's pouring rain outside and I'm walking to work, by the time I get there just about all of me is wet but my head and shoulders. I think maybe I should get a poncho or something...although, I don't see anyone wearing ponchos here. It is pretty funny to see delivery guys on their mopeds in full rain suits driving through the rain though. (I wonder where I could get a rain suit...) So then on the days that it's not raining, it's just plain humid outside. I have to wear one set of clothes to work, and then change out of those humidity soaked clothes into to a dry set of clothes at work. It's crazy!!! I think I'm just damp all of the time now. Especially in our apartment because all heather and I have between the two of us is one little fan and a window that opens into the back ally where there is no cross breeze whatsoever.

So far it's been a steamy hot and humid summer. At least in a few weeks we will be vacationing on Jeju Island where maybe it will be cooler and if not then at least the ocean can cool us off. Then I will dread August, the worst month of summer in Seoul, where apparently the humidity is unbearable. The Koreans say, 'oh this humidity is nothing, just wait until August!'

Life's dance

It's so great to be able to sit back and look at life on occasion. To just stop and take a moment or even a few hours to just watch life happening around you. So much can be seen and it's kind of like a dance.

Last Sunday, like every Sunday Heather and I headed to Olympic Park. Saturday night we had decided that we couldn't go to the park this week because it was supposed to be rainy and gross out. When we woke up Sunday morning though, it was the most beautiful day we have probably seen in Korea yet. The downpour of rain on Saturday night must have cleared everything up. It was incredible, everything was so clear and sharp, there were puffy white clouds in the blue sky and you could make out every detail on the tree covered mountains surrounding our part of Seoul. So of course off we headed to Olympic Park! We brought our blanket, books and snacks and found the perfect shady spot under a tree out-looking one of the big recreation fields in the park. It was there that I was able to sit and watch the wonderful dance of life happen all around me. So many things were going on. Children played, dogs were walked, lovers basked in the ecstasy of spending time together, families were picnicking, babies were being oogled by young mothers, bikes were ridden, kites were flown, ice-cream was eaten, father and child played soccer, friends gossiped and giggled, birds chirped, clouds passed, breezes blew, and everything was in rhythm. It was beautiful, far too beautiful for me to be able to describe any more than I already have. And that, I realized, is life's dance.

Other than watching the dance of life, I was able to spend some glorious hours reading and chatting with Heather. We were sprawled out on the blanket enjoying the afternoon to the fullest. We talked about life, faith, school, living in Korea, hopes and dreams, and ideas. It was the most perfect afternoon that I have had in a while. I am so grateful for the rain that makes things new and fresh again.

Saturday Night

Sunday was great and relaxing, but Saturday night is a whole other story. It all begins with my Korean friend Do Yeon. He called me up and said that he had VIP tickets to a very well known exclusive club in the part of Seoul that is called the Hollywood of Korea. Do Yeon used to be a model, so he has quite a few connections with the high-life of Seoul. (How I make friends with these kinds of people, I have no idea...) So I tell Do Yeon that I'm interested, but I had plans to hang out with a few other friends. At that he said no worries, I'll try to find tickets for them too. So he found tickets for me and my four friends. 

We began the night meeting at Do Yeon's friend's bar. There I met up with my friends, Do Yeon, his sister, and a few of his Korean friends, one of which is an up and coming Korean movie star. (haha?!?!) So we got some drinks, met everyone and socialized before hitting up Club Circle. Finally we headed to the club. 

While I thought that everyone in our group was dressed pretty nice and looked good, I was in for a shocker at the club. Never in one place have I seen so many incredibly beautiful people. I couldn't stop staring! Not only were there beautiful Koreans, but there were beautiful foreigners from all over the world. Once I got over the shock of all the amazing looking people I was able to get into the scene. There was a stage with a DJ pumping away some awesome house/techno'ish tunes, a dance floor, and a circle bar surrounded by tables and couches that were littered with beautiful people and lots of liquor. 

After I got a drink I wandered over to the dance floor and danced for a good long time. I finally realized that I should probably find the group that I came with so I headed back towards the bar. On my way, a group of good looking Japanese people asked me to join them at their table in celebration for one of their birthdays. So I did for a while, had some fun, and then continued on to find my group. When I found them, the group had grown. They were at a table with some couches and tons more Korean's had become a part of the group by this point. So I jumped right in with meeting people, socializing and dancing. It was one of the best times that I've had in Korea so far...and come the end of the night I realized that a lot of the people I was socializing with were Korean celebrities and bar owners, hahaha! Crazy Korea.

We have this saying called T-I-K...kind of like 'when in Rome' but for Korea. It means This Is Korea and while we're here we're going to do it all and experience it all. :)

Good News!

Yay, good news with school finally. So regarding pension and health insurance I emailed the recruiter that Heather and I came through and explained everything to him. I told him that our school was not honoring our contract and that I didn't know what to do. I told him maybe he should just help us find a better school. At that, he contacted the director of our school and talked some sense into him. I don't know what he said, or how he said it but it worked. We now have pension and health insurance. We are waiting for our health insurance cards to come in the mail and we won't know for sure about pension until our next pay day in about two weeks, but at least we feel better about the whole situation. Now we can stop stressing and stop looking into other schools. This whole situation has given us a good idea though of the other schools that are out there. Now when it comes to the end of our contract we'll know which types of schools to apply to next and in which areas of the city. Anyway, it's an amazing relief to have this worked out.

On another note, yesterday Heather and I booked our tickets to Jeju Island!! We have a week long summer break in the end of July so we figured it was time to take a trip. Originally we were planning on going to Mongolia, staying in a yert, and riding some camels...but alas, we opted for the cheaper route since we'll probably go to Thailand or Cambodia for Christmas. So Jeju Island it is! Jeju is called the 'Hawaii' of South Korea and is located off the tip of Korea. There are plenty of beaches, mountains, waterfalls and hiking so it should be a great vacation. I can't wait! :)

This last Sunday Heather, me and a bunch of other English teachers went to the North Korea vs. South Korea soccer game at world cup stadium. The soccer games there are always packed out and tons of fun. The fans dress up and go crazy. Everyone drinks beer and eats an array of food. The 'wave' is done by the crowd and is by far more amazing than any 'crowd wave' I have ever seen. We were really excited about this game though because it was against North Korea. We expected it to be an insane game. So here I am sitting high up in the bleachers squished between two New Zealand guys. It was pretty crazy because these guys were really into their cheering, their beer, and going crazy. Just the fun attitudes of these New Zealand friends of mine made the game worth while. In the end, neither of the teams ended up scoring and it wasn't that great of a game. We had a theory that North Korea and South Korea made a deal before playing the game. The deal being: no scoring, no nukes. Sounds pretty good to me. No matter what happens in the games we see there though, I always have a good time. :)

So the teaching life continues in sunny Songpa, South Korea. I am really quite content here. :)

Lots o stuff...

Wow, it's been a while. I keep meaning to write here, but then I feel drained and I'll put it off until the next day. I guess that 'next day' lasted two weeks. Ooops.

Things have been somewhat crazy with the school again. As I had mentioned before our school was not giving us pension or health insurance. Both of which are in Korea law that they must be given to foreign teachers. So we fought it a while ago and finally our director said, ok we'll give you pension and health insurance. Our next pay day came and still pension and health insurance didn't show up on our pay sheet. So Heather and I went to talk to our director. Now talking to your elders in a place of employment is a bit of an art here. You must be very respectful and act like you are so grateful to everything that they are doing. If you need something, in order to get it you must present it as a favor. Like they would be doing you a favor and you will return the favor to them eventually. It's all very twisted and complicated, but thats how the Korean culture is. So after talking with our director in this manner he said, ok give me two weeks and I will have your health insurance and pension. We talked to the other foreign teachers after that meeting and they said that our director said the same thing to them and it just ended up dragging out for the whole year with them never receiving health insurance or pension. Uggg!!

So in the last two weeks while we've been waiting for our director to get us health insurance and pension we have been exploring other possibilities. We've begun applying to other schools and checking out our options. Yesterday I had an interview at a huge hogwan (private school) chain. It went well, but the school is so much more rigid than my school and they are only interested in placing me outside of Seoul...no go on that one. So the search continues. In this whole searching process Heather and I have learned that in order to leave our school and start work at another school, our school must release our visa. If our school is mad that we are leaving they can refuse to release the visa and that would cause huge problems. If they do release the visa though, we have to go through the whole visa process again which will be a headache to do while not in the US. Either way we go, there is bound to be problems so we're unsure of what to do at this point. We could stay at our school with no pension an health insurance, but we think our school is being audited for fraud on taxes and pension so it could get shut down and then we'd really be screwed. Or, we could find another job and go through the whole headache of re-applying for a visa and starting all over again after three months. It's all been so frustrating, but also an adventure at the same time. I had no idea what to expect when coming here but so far it's been a great learning experience and I know that whatever works out in the end will be what is best.

On another note, the rainy season has begun and wow does it rain here!! The first day of the rainy season it down-poured all day long, never letting up once. By the time I had walked to school under my umbrella I was still soaked. My school also decided that it would be a good day for a teachers lunch out. So all of the teachers trekked out into the rainy streets to find some traditional korean food. Once we got to the restaurant we were all wet, but sitting on the warm floor and eating hot kimchi tofu soup was the perfect thing for a rainy day.

My students have given me a Korean name now. It's kim-ellie. They seemed to think that it was important for me to have a Korean name since they had to have english names. I'm loving my students more and more. Each day I get to know them a bit better and I feel that a lot of them are truly learning better english from my teaching methods. Some days though, I look at myself and can't believe that I am a teacher, what a privilege.

Mountain adventure

First of all I would like to say that I am all cured of my bird flu, or whatever it was. It took a good week and a half for me to get over it, but I think the majority of it is gone now. I've never been overly huge on cleanliness, but now I think I will be a crazy hand washer at least so that I don't get sick like that again. It was like the sickness literally took a bat to my body and wiped me out of life for a while. Ugg, but alas I am cured!

This weekend was a three day weekend and me with my recent desire for cleanliness decided that I needed to leave the pollution filled city and give my lungs some clean mountain air. After a tiny bit of research Heather and I found a cheap, yet cool looking hostel in the mountains on the east coast about three hours from Seoul. We decided that was where we would spend our weekend. 

Since we had Friday off we slept in, took our time getting ready and were finally at the bus station in East Seoul at about 2pm. We semi-figured out where we would need to go, bought our bus tickets and then realized that the bus didn't leave for another three and a half hours. Since we were already there, we figured there was no point in going back home so we found some chairs and camped out near our bus for the next few hours. After many people staring at us and a few men even trying to speak English to us we boarded our bus. As the bus left Seoul it immediately started climbing into some misty mountains. I already felt like I could breathe easier and soon I was in the deepest sleep that I've been in for a long time. 

After what seemed no time at all we arrived in Sukcho, a city in the mountains on the east coast of Korea. It was dark and about 9:30pm. When we stepped out of the bus we soon discovered that we had no idea how to find our hostel. We knew the name of the hostel and we knew that it was off in the mountains somewhere. We also had a phone number but it didn't seem to be working. So Heather and I found ourselves in a situation that we often somehow find ourselves in when traveling...we were lost and had no idea how to get to our destination. Right then as we were standing in the middle of the sidewalk looking into space hoping an answer would come to us, it did! A drunk man almost hit us on his bicycle and in the process screamed a bunch of Korean words at us. (profanities I'm sure) So this onlooker came over to us and in good English said, 'don't worry about him, he's a crazy man'. First we were shocked by his English and then we asked him if he knew how we could get to our unknown hostel in the middle of nowhere. He had no idea, but said he would try calling the number for us. After a few tries, he realized that we were dialing the number wrong (haha, oops!) and was able to dial it right and get through. He still didn't know where we were supposed to go, but got us a taxi and after much arguing with the taxi driver in Korean we were off. 

Once the taxi driver started driving he asked me for my phone so that he could talk to the people at the hostel and get directions. This was all in Korean of course, so that was just what I was guessing was going on. After the taxi driver talked, and argued and talked and argued on my phone we were officially off and driving out of the city. The time was quickly getting later and Heather and I now found ourselves in some random taxi driving out into the dark mountains where there were no other cars. Most other people probably would have been freaked out, but Heather and I just exchanged glances and shrugged our shoulders. I began thinking 'and all of this for some fresh air, geesh...'. So after about 20 minutes into the dark mountains, the taxi driver slows down, then speeds up again. Then once again, he slows, pulls onto the shoulder of the road, then pulls back onto the road and speeds up. By this time Heather and I are freaking out thinking ok, is he going to rape and kill us or not?!? Finally he takes an exit off of the highway, pulls into a parking lot and asks for my phone. I shakily give him my phone, he calls the hostel again (at least thats what I think he's doing) and then gives me my phone back and drives down the road. Soon he slows down, hesitates and then turns down a little dirt road. By this time Heather and I are doing everything that we can not to desperately hold each other for dear life in the back seat of the taxi. After going down the dirt road for a little while he pulls into this lit up parking lot and Heather and I realize that it's our hostel!! We just about jumped out of the taxi and hugged the people waiting for us at the hostel. Phew man, I haven't been that scared in a while. :)

So the hostel ended up being really out there, but it was a great place. Heather and I were given our own mud cabin complete with a kitchen, a bathroom and an extra bedroom which is way more room than we even have in our tiny one room apartment in Seoul. We spent our days exploring, enjoying the river, reading in hammocks, taking in the fresh mountain air and just relaxing to the fullest after our little adventure getting there. It was definitely worth it!

When it came time to come home we realized that the little fishing village near by actually had a bus stop where we could catch the bus straight back to Seoul. It was so much easier to get back to Seoul. Unfortunately though, the little girl who sat behind us puked her guts out the whole three and half hour ride back. Ick.

what wrong with me??

I just can't seem to get better. At first I thought I had the flu, then I thought the flu had turned into a cold where I lost my voice, then the cold turned into a horrifying cough that keeps me up all night long, I've had a temperature everyday, and now my eyes have turned red and glassy. (these are all the symptoms of bird flu by the way.)

It's been a week since all of this has started so I decided it was finally time to go to the doctor. Since my school has not yet gotten me health insurance, my director took me to the doctor so that he could pay for it. (thank goodness! Now for sure he'll get me health insurance.) So we went  to the doctor, I sat in a large dentist like chair, he asked me some questions in broken English, poked around in my mouth and ears, looked in my eyes with a very confused look on his face and finally said, it's probably just a cold. He wrote me a prescription and then set me in front of this tube and told me to breathe for few minutes. I put my mouth over the tube and breathed the steam for a few minutes, blew my nose and we were finished. It was an interesting experience. My director then went to pick up my prescription. Later I got my prescription. It ended up being ear drops?? and morning, afternoon, and evening pill packs of about five pills each for three days. I was expecting maybe one pill. Nope! It's a whole pill regimen that I have to follow, but only for three days. So far it has helped my runny nose but nothing else. My cough is still keeping me up at night, I still have a low fever, and my eyes are still a horrifying glassy red. I seriously don't know what's wrong with my eyes. At first I thought pink eye, but my eyes don't itch and ooze stuff. Then I thought allergies, but once again they don't itch. So who knows whats up with my eyes. I don't think the doctor even knows because he didn't prescribe me any sort of eye drops. I guess I will just wait it out and see what happens. My eyes have started freaking my students out though. It's kind of humorous because now they keep their distance from me instead of hang all over me. I'm pretty sure they think I have a disease. ...I still think it's the bird flu.

Attack of the yellow dust!!

Friday morning I woke up still feeling a bit sick, but since I didn't have a fever decided it was best to go to work anyway. Before getting dressed I checked the weather on weather.com as I usually do. Something different appeared though, it was weather that I had never seen before. The weather said 75 degrees and 'dusty'. Dusty...I wondered about that for a second, forgot about it and went about my morning routine. When I finally left to walk to work something seemed really weird. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something was weird about the day. When I finally came into a clearing where I can normally see the mountain behind my school I realized there was no mountain there. Then it hit me what was wrong. Everything was tinted light yellow. The air and everything I saw was thickly tinted light yellow. It was like living on some alien planet where stuff is only yellow. Thus weather.com's 'dust' type of weather.

Once at school, the day was pretty normal. It was Friday and I had six classes in a row to teach. By my second class though, I began losing my voice. By my fourth class I had lost it almost completely. I could squeak out a few words but it was painful. Being an English teacher, your most important teaching tool is your voice and without my voice I'm just a funny white mime. The students may enjoy it, but I don't. My last few classes were a challenge to teach that ended up in word search puzzles and uno games. It is currently Sunday evening now and I have some of my voice back, I just hope that I wake up tomorrow with my full voice booming and ready to go!

Because of all this yellow dust I have lost my voice and now gained some allergies. My nose and eyes have been running like crazy this whole weekend. It's been pretty miserable actually. I never get allergies, I never lose my voice, and I never get sick, but now within the last few days I've had all of those things happen to me. So I tried the usual drinking lots of water, getting lost of rest, steamy hot showers and what not, but none of it has really helped. Saturday afternoon I finally ventured out to the pharmacy to find some allergy medicine. I mimed to the lady what was wrong with me and she finally figured it out, got really happy, yelled antihistamines!, threw her hands up in the air and with such a pleased look marched off to fine me some. After taking those I began to feel much better which I was thankful for because Heather and I were off to see a soccer game.

The soccer game was a world cup qualifying match against Korea and Jordan. It was quite the experience too. When we arrived at the stadium it was swarming with red and people wearing devil horns. Heather and I waited in a long line and finally got in with our online tickets. The game had started right about when we found our seats. It was interesting, people didn't stand up for the national anthem. The stadium was packed out and the fans were wild crazy. The game was really interesting but after a while Heather and I began to notice the people around us. Everyone had food, it was like a picnic! There was the normal beer and pizza, but then there were bags of kimchi being passed around families, meat, seafood, hamburgers, chips. All sorts of food everywhere. Then a vendor walked by selling large pieces of dried squid. (bet the ball game vendors in the US would be shocked by that one!) So we decided we had to have food too. After finding some food we were set to join the rest of the Koreans in cheering, watching and eating. Some of the Korean cheers were even pretty sounding, like songs. At one point the whole stadium did the wave and it was the best wave that I have ever experienced in my life. Everyone participated and it continued around the stadium about five times. The game ended 2-2, a tie. It was a great game and an awesome experience to have while living in Seoul.

Tonight we had pot-luck dinner with our New Zealand neighbors, some other foreign friends and a Korean couple. It was fun to have the Korean's join us and I'm sure it was quite the experience for them as well. For pot-luck I baked banana bread in the microwave since none of the Korean apartments have ovens in them. It was completely experimental, but it turned out great. I can't wait to try other baking recipes in the microwave now!

On an ending note, a word from the wise...don't ever take anti-diarrhea medicine unless you don't want to poop for over a week. Uggg, next time I get diarrhea, I will just deal with it...in fact I will welcome it!

Bird Flu = A.I.

Bird Flu...gasp, what?!, oh no! Haha that seems to be the reaction of people around here when bird flu is mentioned. I guess it is a bigger deal in this part of the world because it's way more prevalent here than the US. I still can't seem to take it seriously though.

Here in Korea bird flu is called A.I. I learned this because my kids in class one day could not stop talking about A.I. Finally I asked what A.I. was and they all freaked out because they couldn't believe that I didn't know. (of course I knew what it was, just by another name...they didn't understand that though.) Then they proceeded to tell me all about it. This was all told to me in Korean, English and mime though. Let me tell you it was quite funny. They would say something like 'you eat chicken, chicken sick' (then they'd all mutter in Korean to each other) then they'd mime themselves dying. They would grab their throats and start gasping and then fall to the ground. They did a great job of getting the point across. If I didn't already know what A.I. was then I sure did after their interpretation.

In the last few weeks there has been a lot of A.I. talk not just amongst the kids, but the news and everyone else too. Apparently all of the chickens in South Korea were butchered and are now being fed to the army. I don't know if this is true or not, but everyone is talking about it. I do know though, that you can get A.I. from other birds too...so do they plan on killing all the birds in Korea??!?? I just can't take this flu seriously, maybe because I haven't seen it with my own eyes. Speaking of...last week it was on the news that a man in Songpa (my neighborhood) was diagnosed with A.I. Everyone around here was freaking out because that means that if one person in our neighborhood was able to get it, then surely others would be able to get it too. Wrong! It turns out the man just had pneumonia...false alert. These people are paranoid.

All was well with me and the bird flu until the other night. So far I had not eaten any chicken since coming to Korea. This was not because I had chosen to stay away from it, but because they don't serve much chicken around here. It's mainly duck and pork or just rice and vegetables. Until the other night when we went to a restaurant that served only chicken. We figured, ehhh whatever lets just get the chicken, screw A.I., or bird flu, whatever it is. So we got the chicken which was surprisingly very spicy, and ate to our hearts content. A day after eating the chicken I start to feel weird. I've got the runs like no other and my stomach feels like it's being tied in knots. Then I start to get sick. I get flu like symptoms. My fever gets up to 103.2, my head pounds, my throat is swollen, my muscles ache and I can't even get out of bed. Oh no, I thought, I've got A.I.!!!!!! The timing for my flu coming right after I ate the chicken was perfect for it to seem like A.I., especially with all the hype going on about it. I feel much better today though and I am for sure that it was just the plain old flu brought on by my grubby little students putting their dirty hands all over me. 

....Thus my close, but not really close encounter with A.I. :)

warming weather

The weather is really warming up here and I feel that if this is a preview for the summer, then we're in for a hot one!

Saturday was beautiful and about 80 degrees, with high humidity and a light breeze. Heather and I headed out to see what treasures we could find at an expat garage sale near the center of Seoul. After riding the subway for about 45 minutes and observing all the different Korean people getting on and getting off...as well as being stared at by plenty of people, we arrived. We had no idea where the garage sale was going to be so we were depending on the posted signs. After following a few of the signs there weren't anymore signs. We had no idea where to go. So we backtracked and found a hidden sign leading up a narrow street. Finally we found the garage sale. The sale was at a school and turned out not to be very good. It was fun to find it though, like a treasure hunt!

Since we were already in the center or Seoul we decided to check out this flea market called Dongdaemun. It's said to be very interesting so we were pretty excited. When we got off the subway there really wasn't much that looked like a flea market. The neighborhood was somewhat run down and industrial looking. By this time we were really hot and in need of ice-cream. So we went out of our way to find a little store to buy melon pops. Mmmm, that made my day. After we got back on track we rounded a corner and there was the flea market in all it's glory! It was a huge two story structure with a roof, but not really walls. As we got closer we were able to see all the treasures. It looked like people took all the odds and ends that they could find around their house and decided to sell them. It was so interesting to look through the stuff. I guess the saying 'one man's trash, another man's treasure' is very true. Heather and I walked around for probably two hours looking with curiosity at everything. I was able to buy a small, light tripod for 10,000 won which is about $10 American. I could have bought plenty of other things, but it all required bartering and I don't quite have my Korean numbers down so it was a bit of a draining process. Now I'm going to make sure I learn my numbers so that I can go back and really barter up a storm. :)

Today, Sunday was also a very nice day. Warm, about 80 and less humidity, yay! Heather and I decided to spend the day in Olympic park relaxing, reading on our blanket, basking in the sun, enjoying the breeze, and korean-people watching. It was the most relaxing Sunday I've had yet.

Tomorrow it's back to the loud, wild kids and disorganized chaos of school.

Oddities of Korea

Here are some interesting/funny/different things that I have noticed upon coming to South Korea.

Korean's don't j-walk. They will stand and wait for the walk sign to flash green even if there are no cars coming. Speaking of green walking signs...even if a light turns red for cars they don't stop. So crossing the street is a daily life and death situation. I've lost track the of the number of times I've almost been hit by a car or bus. 

Cars here are mostly black, white or grey so that if/when they run into each other there won't be huge streaks of color resulting from the scrape or hit. People also put these funny little foam things on the side of their car to keep other cars from scraping them.

When going to a bar or restaurant you can usually find a doorbell'ish looking button on your table. Thats because it is a doorbell. Haha, you ring it when you need the waitress and she comes right away. How convenient! You also don't have to tip here.

When eating out you are given a large spoon and chopsticks. They are each used for different things. What I can never figure out is which food you use which for. I will be eating my rice with chopsticks, then look around and see everyone else using their spoons. Or I will eat my soup with the spoon, look around and see everyone else sipping their soup straight out of the bowl... It is also polite to slurp, chomp and eat loudly. It means you are enjoying the food. Speaking of chopsticks, I am now a master. (almost) I can pick up a single soybean with my shopsticks! :)

When putting trash out you have to use special 'city certified' trash bags. Heather and I didn't realize this until lately. Apparently you can get in huge trouble if you don't use the 'city certified' trash bags. Luckily we haven't been caught, but now we will try to find out where to buy these special trash bags.

People here don't sweat. I will be out walking around on an 80 degree day with capris and a tank top on and all the Korean women will be wearing jeans and long sleeved shirts. Just looking at them makes me hot and sweaty, but they don't even break a sweat.

A lot of women wear heels for hiking. In fact they wear heels everywhere!

Spitting is normal. Everyday I'll be walking to school or somewhere and I'll hear someone behind me hocking a huge wad of spit and then spit it on the side of the road. I was really grossed out at first, but now I'm used to it.

All the dirty work is done by little old ladies. All the janitors, cleaning people and such are little old ladies. I don't know if they enjoy the work, or if it's the only work they can get, but they are the only ones doing it. They clean floors and bathrooms with only a rag. Often I'll see a little old lady on her hands and knees washing the floor with a rag.

When we reach a transfer point on the subway they will play classical music to alert you of the transfer. How classy, I love it!

Broom handles don't get higher than the waist. If you want to sweep something up, you have to bend over to do it.

Parking garages often have car elevators.

The word for white people here actually means 'beautiful'. Heather and I were walking into a subway station the other day and were confronted by a group of teenage girls. They kept saying 'ohhh so beautiful, beautiful!' Then they wanted to take our pictures. We get this a lot.

Teachers Day

Yesterday was Teachers Day, but really we've been celebrating it all week. It's been pretty cool having a holiday celebrating your job. :) All week the children's parents have been bringing us all sorts of food. Some parents brought us pizza, others brought fancy cakes decorated like no other cakes I've ever seen, tons of parents brought sweets, all sorts of cookies and little muffin things. It's been fun to see what kind of goodie will show up next. Aside from the food the children made us cards or brought us gifts. I was given flowers by a few students and among the more interesting gifts I was given a fancy mascara and eyeliner set. Hhaha. I will definitely use it, but it just doesn't seem like a normal gift for a teacher. I also had a class throw me a surprise party. They decorated the classroom and brought snacks. I've enjoyed being papered as a teacher for a week.
The attached picture is of one of the goddy flowers that I was given. That flower alone made teachers day awesome!

Boobs, Butt, & Hair

It has been interesting being a foreigner in South Korea. For the most part I don't feel like I look that different. The main difference is that I have light colored hair, a butt and larger boobs than most Korean women. (even though mine are still small)

Walking down the street people will either completely ignore me (which I find normal for city life) or they will stare me down. I don't mind when people stare me down because it makes me feel like I am different and exciting. It's a confidence booster in some ways. Sometimes though, I get interesting reactions when people see me. Once I turned a corner and the man on the other side was so shocked to see a foreigner that he snorted. It was a full out loud snort with a shocked look on his face. I couldn't help but laugh as I walked away. Another time I walked past an old woman who was watching the ground as she walked. When I approached her wearing my flip flops she followed my feet straight up to my face, stopped mid-stride and stared at me with her mouth open like she'd never seen a foreigner before.

Children here love foreigners. If they are very young they will usually just point and smile. If they are school age some will come up to me and try to practice their English. Others will just walk by, stare, and finally muster up the courage to say ''hi'' and then run away. The other day I was walking to school and this pink blur shot past me. Up the sidewalk a ways the blur stopped, it was a little girl. She stood there and waited for me to walk by. As I walked by she grabbed my hand and we began walking hand in hand. She just looked up and me and smiled the most wonderful little smile. She proceeded to say hi and ask where I was going. I told her I was going to school because I was a teacher. She just smiled and continued walking and holding my hand. At the next corner she let go of my hand, said bye and ran the other way, once again becoming a pink blur.

Today in my kindergarten science class the kids kept pointing to my boobs and saying ''chu-chu''. I ignored it thinking they were just being the crazy kindergarteners they normally are. This continued for all class. When class was over I brought the class into the hall to meet the other kindergarteners. When they mixed with the other kids, they spread the whole pointing and "chu-chu'ing". All the little kids in the hall were pointing at my boobs, laughing and saying "chu-chu". I couldn't figure out what was going on. Finally one of the teachers told me that chu-chu is when a baby nurses. I guess kids just aren't used to seeing young women with boobs unless they have nursing babies. It was definitely interesting and somewhat embarrassing.

I have another class of middle school girls who just can't keep their hands off my hair. They call my hair golden and beautiful. They are always wanting to play with it, stoke it, or just touch it in any way they can. They told me that if they were to dye their hair my color they would be beaten for it at their public schools. I asked why and they said that the teachers would call them unclean. Apparently there are a lot of Russian prostitutes in Korea and most of them have 'golden' hair. So now I'm realizing that people on the street may think that I'm a Russian prostitute especially because I wear flip-flops showing my feet and tank-tops on hot days. (Korean women don't show their shoulders) This crazy society!

Public Bath

I went to the public bath for the first time the other day and it was an interesting experience to say the least. Korean apartments are pretty small and the bathrooms only have showers in them, if even that. So a lot of Koreans just go to the public bath to bathe. You pay your five won and are give a towel and a locker key. The women go to the right and the men go to the left. Upon entering the door on the right I was in a locker room for only shoes. So I placed my shoes in a locker and continued into the next room. The next room was a loungish area and had more lockers. I found a locker, took all my clothes off and walked to the room with all the baths. It was a different experience being naked with a bunch of other naked women. I was definitely stared at by everyone, but I sucked it up and enjoyed myself. The room itself was interesting. There were maybe four or five bathing pools of different temperatures, two saunas, a massage area with two massage ladies, and then lining the walls of the room were mirrors, shower heads and little plastic stools to sit on. The women would sit on a stool and scrub themselves in front of the mirrors, then they would was off and go sit in one of the bath pools. I didn't realize this so I just went straight to a bath pool and was yelled at by one of the women. After that I did what the other women were doing and scrubbed myself off first and then sat in one of the warm pools. After a while people stopped staring and I was able to relax in the hot pool and observe all the people around me. A lot of the women brought their little girls with them. They would hold the little girls down, scrub them good, rinse them off and then let them run wild around the bath room. I think it'd be a great way to clean your kids because you've got plenty of space and it ends up being fun because after you are clean you can have fun in the water, all the while never having to wear clothes. One of the girls even had bath toys with her.

Fan-death

So here's a funny little tid bit about Koreans. When we arrived we had a fan in our apartment. Despite the easy workings of a fan we had a hard time figuring out how to properly make our fan work because of all the Korean characters. We were finally able to get it to work, but sometimes it randomly shuts off on us. We figured this was because it was a crappy fan. We were wrong. The fan actually has a timer on it, so we were setting the timer and then the fan would turn off at the end of the timer. We thought the whole timer thing was dumb, but we just recently found out why there is a timer on all Korean fans. Koreans believe in something called fan-death. HAha, just writing it makes me giddy with laughter. So anyway, they believe that if you sleep with a fan on in a room with all the windows and doors closed that it will suck all the air out of the room and you will die. Hahaha! I have never ever heard such a thing?!? So they are paranoid about fans, but still use them because of the timer. Oh the funny ways of these Korean people.

Wild Weekend

#1 Gate that burnt down a few weeks ago.

Finally we had a weekend of good weather and not being sick! :)

Friday night Heather and I decided not to go out. We figured we should rest it up because Saturday was going to be a big day. Come Saturday we headed out with our new friend Brandon to the Dongdaemun Market. Normally the market is held in a stadium and there is all sorts of crazy weird cool stuff, but unfortunately the stadium was closed so there was just a market in the area surrounding the stadium. Supposedly it wasn't as good as it normally is, but we still had fun walking around and seeing everything. Next we went to Namdemun. This is also a market. On the way to Namdemun we saw Seoul cities' #1 Gate which burnt down a few weeks ago. The story is that the government was trying to buy a man's land in the southern part of Korea for a very low price. The man was pissed off that he was getting screwed over so he burnt down the #1 Gate. People are pretty big on fire demonstrations around here. I just heard that last week during the processional of the Olympic torch a guy set himself on fire. I'm not quite sure what he was demonstrating but that is one way to relay a message.

Namdaemun was a fun market. It was pretty large and sort of set back from the street. We walked the ally ways of market and didn't have to worry so much about getting run over by a car. In the market we saw all sorts of things. There was ginseng everywhere. That is the latest health rave around here. People were selling ginseng roots, ginseng roots in jars of amber colored water, ginseng powders, ginseng candies...everything ginseng. Other than ginseng we walked down the street to smells of seafood and other cooking food, we saw tons of people everywhere, all sorts of clothes, shoes, illegally imported foreigner goods such as deodorant, peanut butter, cheese, american snacks like cheetos...and all sorts of other things. As the day wore on and the sun beat down we decided to stop for an ice-cream bar. I chose melon, which is pretty much the best thing I've ever tasted. So we stood in front of a vendor selling roasted pigs feet, eating our ice-cream and discussing the random pigs head and pigs feet that were being cooked and sold right in front of us. It was a good time.

Next we went to visit Gyeongbokgung Palace. Lots of cultural activities are happening this weekend and next weekend because this weekend is the festival of the Spring and next weekend is Buddha's Birthday. Upon arriving at the Palace we could see the outside of the Palace and hear the music coming from inside. There were people dressed up in traditional costume, playing drums and bells. We decided to wander around the outside of the Palace since the ceremony was almost over. Then as we were leaving everyone came out of the Palace and we were able to get all sorts of fun pictures.

Finally around 7pm Heather and I parted ways with Brandon and headed home for some dinner and relaxation before our big night out. We left our apartment again around 11pm, rode the subway until it closed at 12pm and then took a taxi the rest of the way to World Cup Stadium. We were headed to the World DJ Fest so we looked for the lights and decided to head in that direction. Soon we came upon some other foreigners who told us we were going the wrong way. So we decided to abandon our route and follow the foreigners who had been lost for the last two hours. We wandered around the park talking and getting to know each other. Finally we found our way to where the DJ Fest was. People were everywhere, the music was pounding, the strobe lights were going and it was AWESOME! The location was in a park right next to the Han River and the scene was pretty much an outdoor rave. Heather and I jumped in and started dancing right away. The first DJ was crazy. I think he was from Canada and he kept coming out on stage with different costumes. At one point a fire dancer came out and performed too. The music was loud and wild and everyone was dancing. I met some random guy who said get up on my shoulders so I did and I was able to see the huge crowd and the stage even better. I danced on his shoulders for a while, had tons of people take pictures of me and then got down. It was an interesting way to meet someone. After a while Heather and I met back up with Brandon and hung out/danced with him for a bit. He left at about 3am, but Heather and I stayed. We danced and danced and met so many people. Finally the sun came up, but the party didn't stop. A lot of people were camping out since the DJ Fest goes for a few days, but Heather and I decided that we should probably head home. We slept the whole subway ride home, got back to our apartment and crashed. It was an INCREDIBLE night!!