The Freeburgs

Packing for home

2011-02-20T20:09:00.004+09:00

We have begun packing up all of our things for the move home. We started last week, figuring that two weeks was ample time to prepare for this massive endeavor. The pro of packing for back home is that it is a lot easier than packing for Korea. There are no uncertainties of what to bring or worries if the US has anything we will need. The biggest issue we have is only being allowed two suitcases apiece of 50lbs. We bought a lot of souvenirs and a lot of clothes (i.e., Kelly). We already sent an 18 pound box of books and things via ship that will take about two months to get to America.

Kelly doing the mandatory cleaning

Trying to figure out how to pack all the breakables into a duffle bag that will suit as a carry on

Our apt is slowly becoming more and more bare. (This is Ben, enjoying watching us pack while watching Wedding Crashers on TV. He's also enjoying his plunder of apartment goods we are giving away.) The bookcase is already gone and many other things are slowly getting snagged by other co-workers who are staying in Korea. It's sad to say goodbye to some of the things, and it is even more sad to see our apartment that we made so comfortable become less enjoyable to stay at (we only have 7 more days in this place). I will not, however, miss those pink curtains our boss so kindly bought for us.

A bigger challenge we are having is simultaneously packing and planning for our 13 days in Cambodia and Vietnam. As if packing our lives into suitcases for the US wasn't stressful enough, we have to worry about finding accommodations and transportation in unknown countries. Woof. Good fun.

SLP and iPod Touch

2011-02-13T19:13:00.001+09:00

For Christmas I bought a new 4th generation iPod. Among many features the ipod has, the camera has been one of my favorites. The camera has allowed me to capture many moments in the classrooms at SLP that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to capture. While the pictures aren't the greatest quality, there have been times that either made me chuckle or laugh hard and I had to take a picture of it. It's only too bad I haven't been able to do this earlier in the year.

Sean has a full jump suit dedicated to the Minnesota Twins that he frequently wore in the fall months. When I asked if he knew who the Twins were his only response was a dumbfounded look. After explaining that Peter Teacher lives where that team is from, he got really excited.

Having the first name of Peter and teaching kindergarten means you have many nicknames. Peter Pan, Peter Rabbit, Peter Piper and Peter Hammers (most frequently used). Ryan was the first one to use my gamer tag in college. PeteMan.

Another example of Peter Hammer. It is starting to affect the kids work, and they write my nickname in places they shouldn't. Technically he is right, humans are animals and I do eat plants to a certain degree. I didn't tell him he was wrong but to change his answer.

Rachel couldn't understand why I was laughing at her shirt.

I took a picture of a similar SLP ad. I just found it funny because students don't think like this. Not my students at least.

Korean children love to wear animal hats. They are all awesome. I only wish that it was socially acceptable for adults to wear these in the States.

This woman depicted above is ice fishing in high heels. That wouldn't surprise me over here.

Every month if there is a student with a birthday, the mothers will buy heaps of birthday cakes. Some spend upwards of 60,000 won $54.00 to spoil their kid at school. They also spoil Peter Teacher. This wasn't a birthday cake, however, it was a going away cake for Sally.

I think Peter Teacher was more happy about Sally leaving SLP than Sally was.

My last evening class (7:20-8:20) consists of 5 13 year old boys and 1 girl. Nobody wants to be in that class, including Peter Teacher. It can be hard to teach these kids because of everyone's apathy. They never do their homework or follow the simple rule of not speaking Korean at SLP. Several months ago I began the punishment of writing "I will not speak Korean" or "I will do my homework" several times. The max one kid had to do was "I will do my homework at SLP" over 100 times. It took him the entire class hour. It still didn't' get my point across, so I am resorting to longer passages they need to write.

Longer

My frustration is getting more evident the more I have to write these down for them to copy.

Jack (forward) and Harry (back) have to write these down the most. Jack never does his homework and I have been trying to convince my partner teacher and the afternoon manager to kick him out of school since August. He is just too resilient.

Harry is a clown but we laugh together sometimes.

Ted is hilarious. He is loud but funny and witty. He gives me a hard time too. Once we were playing hangman and it was his turn to write something on the board. After we solved the puzzle it was "Peter Teacher. Is he good for his wife?" Made me laugh for some time.

Back to kindergarten. This page they had to draw their favorite dinosaurs and name them. Christine cleverly named her dinosaurs Monster, cutey (later I helped her change to cutie) and of course, Peter.

Ryan drew a Stegosaurus and cleverly named him "Crazy Stego". What made me laugh is that under "likes" Crazy Stego likes to kick Henry, Sean and Roy (the illustrators friends).

Henry drew a Pteranodon. His name selections were my favorite. Top was Supersaurus, middle was Peoplesaurus, and finally....Rob Peter (first name Rob, last name Peter). Clever.

buzz Korea - CGV Theaters-4D

2011-01-14T08:24:00.021+09:00

I feel as if there is one (or several) set of particular experiences here in Korea that are worth noting for both Kelly and myself (more myself). These experiences should come to no surprise to many of you who know my interest in movies AND the movie going experience. 4D. CGV is a Korean theater chain, similar to AMC Theaters (also my favorite) back in the States. The theaters are very nice and offer great selections of movies in English (which isn't unique, most theaters in Korea offer movies in English, I'm just highlighting CGV). What puts CGV above the rest, however, is their ability to show movies in 4D.

Don't mistake me, not all CGV theaters have a 4D plex in them, nor is every theater room capable of 4D. There are only a few 4D Plexs' in Korea (and the world). When Kelly and I wanted to go see a movie in 4D, we would need to travel into Seoul and go to the I'Park Mall in Yongsan to watch. Now, the CGV in WesternDom out in Ilsan boasts a 4D Plex in their theater, making it even MORE possible to watch MORE movies in 4D.

What exactly is 4D? 4D, in addition to the already craved 3D offers a wide variety of other stimulus. These stimulus include wind (highly realistic), smell, sometimes lasers, sometimes bubbles, sometimes water and above all, moving and vibrating chairs. These added stimuli increase the movie going experience to a near maximum. The moving chairs are by far the best feature, as the movement coincides with the story almost bringing you into the movie itself (more than 3D already does). If the camera pans in the frame, the chairs move with the camera almost making it feel as if you ARE the camera. If Sam Flynn is fighting Rinzler in the arena, the seats move violently, and air shoots in your face when the identity disk flies past you. Wild stuff. The most recent movie we watched in 4D, as the reference suggests, (and I watched it twice) was Tron.

The special effects were already stunning in this movie (along with Daft Punk) and the 4D enhanced the movie even greater, making a potential B, B+ movie into an A, A+ movie. It was so much fun. Tickets aren't cheap at 18,000 Won ($16.00), but it is totally worth it, especially if you are already going to pay 16,000 for 3D. Why not pay the extra 2,000 for moving seats?

*Do note that the movie company itself did not create 4D. CGV created the 4D and designed it to go along with the movie.*

We've seen several other movies in 4D, including Iron Man 2, Toy Story 3, The Last Airbender (terrible) and Tron. One thing we have realized was this. Pick your battles with 4D. Nothing will ever beat your first experience (ours was Iron Man 2). After we saw Iron Man 2, we thought we could/should go to every movie in 4D (at least I did). That is not true. Some movies that are picked to be shown in 4D can be terrible (i.e., The Last Airbender/Resident Evil). 4D cannot help terrible movies. If you want to go see a movie in 4D, make sure it has potential to be epic, like Tron or Avatar. Moving chairs cannot compensate for a bad plot or even worse acting.

I know some of you say "hey Pete, 4D isn't new. I've seen a 4D movie before." To which I then ask "Where?" to which the common response is "in one of those movie boxes that you see in malls or amusement parks. I've also been to one at Disney World." My next response is "False, this 4D is in an actual theater that seats 100+ people and shows the top movies for the public."

CGV was the first place in the world to show Avatar in 4D. Chances are you didn't see Avatar 4D at Disney or in a 6 seater moving box in a mall. You probably rode a roller coaster through space that ended up in the bottom of the ocean being chased by dinosaurs. I've been on those too, and I can tell you it isn't the same thing.

If you live in Korea and haven't checked it out, do it before it's too late (i.e., before you go home). It's a pretty fun experience.

BUZZ KOREA

2011-01-13T16:21:00.000+09:00

KTO, aka Korea Tourism Organization launched a website called Buzz Korea. It's a great website that links many bloggers together to share their experiences in Korea. It's also a great to way find out about new events in Korea, as well as get ideas about great things to do that other people have done so far.

Recently they just launched an event that promotes various blogs that they have selected. One of my entries was picked. Boo ya. They recently just contacted me saying...

"The blog content that you have given permission to publish on KTO's buzz KOREA project Website, buzz-korea.com, has been selected as one of the top contents. In order to spread knowledge about your excellent contents to more people, KTO has prepared a "Find the blogger with the best post" event. If your content is voted as the top blog content by internet users, you would be given a generous prize. Also, the voters that have chosen your content will also be given a wonderful prize. Therefore, please take a look at the Event description below and we would like to ask for your active participation in having as many people take part in the voting event."

So, if you feel so inclined to vote for me, go to this website http://www.buzz-korea.com/eng/together.php?e_layer=1

and look for my blog post "Seoraksan" and vote. You will have to register to the website (which is what they want, the purpose of the contest). It's easy and takes only a few minutes.

Boracay

2011-01-09T19:41:00.000+09:00

Over one year ago we arrived in Korea 14 days before Christmas. We were like deer in the headlights with no knowledge of Seoul or any sort of presentable plan for Christmas. We had virtually no money and were plagued with early onset of homesickness. What we achieved last year during Christmas vacation was basic knowledge of our home for the next 14 months. We decided after that week that we were going to commit to something 1 year in advance...Boracay.

We attribute the choice of Boracay to some co-workers of ours who had gone there the Christmas we stayed in Ilsan. Having no former knowledge of the existence of Boracay, and a long time of mispronunciations of the island, we knew we wanted to go after seeing pictures and hearing tales.

This trip was very different from any sort of trip we did this past year. All the other trips I have ever done, including travels in college, involved a very active itinerary. Even as a married man, our honeymoon last October required a lot of activity. Our trip to Tokyo and our two trips to China also involved a lot of "on-the-go" behaviors in order to ensure maximum absorption of culture, sights and good times. Very rarely have I ever been on a vacation where we stay in the same place for 7 straight days. We knew this going into our trip to Boracay and we were both excited and weary of this fact. To the trip!

The day started off just right waking up at a ripe 4:45 in the morning after 5 hours of Skyping and 2 hours of sleep. We left Incheon International Airport for a 4 hour flight to Manila. Once arriving in Manila we had to board a domestic flight to Kalibo, which is an airport on Panay Island in the Philippines (note the map below).

There are two airports on Panay Island, Caticlan and Kalibo. Caticlan is much, much closer to Boracay Island but our travel agent sought it necessary to book us through Kalibo. Anyway our hotel arranged for us to be picked up at the airport and ride a 1.25 hour charter bus to the Jetty Port, where we took the 10-15 minute ferry to the island itself. Boracay Island, as mentioned previously I'm sure of it, is only 7 km long and is composed of primarily beaches and resorts.

Kelly getting ready for the ferry...in her winter clothes

Our ferry to Boracay Island. We were so glad that we packed in backpacks. Other tourists brought their rolling suitcases with them, which provided them with many obstacles and difficulties on this leg of the journey.

When we finally arrived to the island we had to ride on a tricycle, which was a little three wheeled apparatus attached to a motorcycle to cart us around the island. Our first impressions were not what we had in our mind of Boracay, but those thoughts would soon be thwarted.

Our hotel from the 25th-29th. We stayed at a place called Erus Suites. It was a nice place but wasn't exactly in the greatest location. We were, however, happy with our room and the service was great.

That Christmas evening we spent walking along the beach. We were not prepared for what the beach had in store for us that evening, but it was really fun. There were dozens of barbeque buffets feet from the shore, resorts opening their doors to wondrous buffets that rival Robin Williams and The Lost Boys.

There were Christmas lights in Palm Trees and fake snowmen on the beach. There was Christmas music being played from restaurants and bars as well as children singing carols. We were hardly able to swallow the fact we were celebrating Christmas in a tropical paradise.

Many locals specialize in making ridiculously large and detailed sandcastles. This one clearly was on New Years Eve, but we also had one from Christmas day.

That evening we were pretty tired from the long day of travel. So after an incredible Christmas special buffet at Regency Resort, we went and got a full-body, 1 hour massage in D'Mall, the touristy shopping area. The two of us spent a combined 600 Php total on the massage for one hour ($14).

The next morning (and ensuing 6 days) we tackled the White Beach. Prepare yourselves.

Boats abound the White Beach, offering limitless services for the tourist.

The White Beach had such crystal clear waters, it looked like pool water.

Clear.

We were also able to enjoy the sunset just about every night.

On either day two or three we took a special trip to the north side of the island called "Puka Beach". This part of the island held no particular form of importance. There were supposedly a lot of shells (all to which have been picked up by now), a lot of waves and hardly any people. We took a tricycle ride to the beach (15 minutes and 150 Php) and spent the greater portion of the morning and afternoon there.

Behold Puka.

Kelly zombied out on the beach.

One thing about Boracay (that's either its blessing or its curse) is that there are a lot of locals who offer their services for water sport activities. There are tons of things that you can do if you have the cash to burn, which is what most people have if they go to a place like Boracay. Services include sailing, parasailing, jet skiing, scuba diving, snorkeling, tubing, banaboat, etc. The list never seems to end NOR does the amount of Filipino men who want you to pay them to take you. We were able to use that to our advantage, however, and utilize those services for a few different occasions.

The first of which was parasailing. I had told Kelly prior to our arrival in Boracay that I'd like to do one of the following. 1.) scuba dive 2.) snorkel 3.) parasail

We finally were able to choose option 3. One thing that is great about so many people wanting to charge you to go out on the boat is that they constantly undercut their competitors. The first guy we talked to about parasailing wanted to charge us 1,500 Php/person ($68 total). We went to another guy and he wanted to charge us 3,500 Php/person ($158/person). We told him that was an outlandish price and the "other" guy was going to charge a whole 2,000 pesos less per person! Realizing his folly, June (the guy who was overcharging) sought this auspicious moment to drop the price and charge us 1,300/person. We took that deal and made a reservation.

June and I. Thumbs up for parasailing. Way up.

Here is a video of our parasailing adventures.

On December 29th, 2010 the year of our Lord, we moved from Erus Suites and transferred to Tonglen Beach Resort where we would meet Winnie and Joel for the duration of our time in Boracay.

With Winnie and Joel we were able to tackle the White Beach more furiously. We were also able to go sunset sailing which was incredibly relaxing for only 1,000 Php for the 4 of us.

Kel on New Year's Eve

Winnie and Joel

We made a sand fish.

We ate Tostitos chips and salsa on the beach New Year's Eve whilst waiting for the fireworks.

I got another massage on the beach.

At OLE Spanish/Mexican/stomach problems restaurant. It was a good place the first time, but I got sick the second time.

They got it right.

A Year of Reflection

2010-12-12T22:35:00.002+09:00

It's my turn...and it's also my debut! After one year in the books, I was asked by my husband to post a blog about being in Korea for one year. I think I know what he was thinking now as I sit here and wonder just how someone gives a brief overview of a year. Moments stand out to us, but even then, those don't do justice for what our minds and hearts have experienced. One year of anything is always significant. Although we signed a 14-month contract, one year is still important to us.

And so we celebrate.

It was one year ago that we were shaking in our winter boots a little bit as we were dropped off at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport at 5 a.m. with a one-way ticket in our hands to Seoul, South Korea with a time-frame in mind of over a year. Woah. We were off to teach English to we didn't know quite who and well, where we were going to live? We didn't quite know that, either...

14 month's worth packed away in bags

Ready to go, but not before falling flat on my back on that dang big, black bag!

Our boss picked us up at the Seoul-Incheon Airport. We drove to Ilsan, South Korea late that night to meet his wife who had been prepping our one person, studio apartment in an office-tel shared with restaurants and other businesses. After meeting her and listening to a quick tutorial about the place, we went straight to bed only to wake up at 3 a.m. and unpack. You know... stay a while.

Apt. 504 after some minor re-arrangements

It was the next day that I distinctly remember. Our boss' wife came to pick me and Peter up to take a look at the school just down the street. Before we headed there, she brought us through the bakery in the lobby of our office-tel. That morning I heard Mercy Me's, "Here With Me". I reflected on those lyrics later and journaled about them that week. These were words that I thought were so affirming to hear that morning, but that also have dictated our time here thus far.

And I can feel your presence here with me.

Suddenly I'm lost within Your beauty...

You're everywhere I go.

I am not alone.

It has been so evident that we haven't been alone, although the distance has caused its challenges and heartaches throughout certain seasons. We've clung to the promise that God does not sleep. He has watched over us by day and night for the past year and we trust He will continue to do so as we wrap up this chapter in our lives. We've been able to see His beauty in so many different things here that it's almost overwhelming. We've been blessed and there's not a week that goes by that we don't pinch ourselves at least once or twice and say, "We're living in Korea right now."

Come, allow me to take you down Memory Lane as I sift through so many pictures it's not even funny. It's actually confusing.

First Korean BBQ at "Hole in the Wall Palace", named by foreigner co-workers

Crazy Namdaemun Market in Seoul

Me and my gals, Chloe and Charlotte

Trying to keep up with our little guys daily (Taken at an SLP field trip)

Pete's first time skiing

Hiking. Nothing I did before...something that I'm becoming accustomed to!

Creeping on some joyful families in Tokyo, Japan. We had loads of fun traveling to different countries around Korea.

Entertainment in Ilsan. The Spectacular Musical Fountain.

I couldn't have made it without this place-Lake Park. It was my Minnesota, a 5 min. walk away from our apartment.

Guests. Couldn't have made it without them, either! -Devin and Brooke in August-

-Drew and Meg in April-

My parents, Nanc and Ran, in August

Michael Bumann and Caleb in October

We are never disappointed when we have a chance to get out of "the city".

There's no time nor the energy to look through all of our pictures to find all of the incredible people who have come into our lives this year. Many have gone, but we're becoming used to the fact that that's life as a foreigner in Korea. We're so thankful for our co-workers who were so hospitable from the first time we met them and who we continue to have great Friday or Saturday night dinners with. We're incredibly grateful for the church family that we have in Seoul and the lasting friendships that have formed within that body. We have had a blast this past year reminiscing old times and experiencing crazy, new stuff with fellow Bethel alumni who have made the trek themselves to pay off student loans while teaching English in Korea. I think we're up to 9 now?! We've fallen in love with Korea, its people and its culture. Many, many Koreans have reached out to us despite our stupidity involving getting around their city and our lack of knowledge about their language.

We don't want to say we're anxiously counting down the days here in the remaining months ahead, but we're very much looking forward to reuniting with friends and family back in the States. The last year has exceeded our wildest dreams about living overseas and has allowed us to accomplish goals and take in more of this planet. Our contract isn't over yet. We have open classes, Christmas celebrations and parties, vacation in the Philippines, a celebration of another new year, weeks of more teaching and graduation for "our babies", as we like to refer to them as, and hopefully a bit more travel.

We're excited for the journey ahead!

Pete has also made a video commemorating our one year. As the file is too big for blogger, click the link below to see the video. You may need to wait for it to load.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3656051/Korea%20one%20year%20video.m4v

Good Weekend

2010-12-04T15:45:00.002+09:00

Last weekend Kelly and I, along with Joely-mon and Winnie Shi embarked on a weekend trip across Korea to Donghae in Gangwon-do province (subject to change because I'm not 100% on the location). We took a bus that was originally intended to last 3 1/2 hours. That Saturday, however, proved to have much peril as it began to snow. The snow almost completely crippled all traffic flow. The traffic was at a dead stop at times on the highway, extending our trip by 5 1/2 hours. We didn't get to Donghae until 5:45pm. Our original arrival time was to have been 12:30pm. It was still a somewhat relaxing trip on the bus, when we didn't have cabin fever.

The premise of this trip was simple. Get out of Seoul and go camping in a camper. What was cool about this particular campground was that you can rent small campers that are on the beach. The campground affords views of the East Sea such as the one below.

A mere 40 meters from the waters edge, we were able to sit back and relax whilst we watched the sunrise. Don't be deceived by the pure beauty as it was very very cold being the last weekend in November. Nevertheless, it was really cool. Below are some sunrise photos.

After we watched the sunrise in the bitter cold (totally worth it), we went back to bed for an hour or so. Then Winnie made the most delicious banana pancakes to which we indulged with great delight.

Here is are some quick shots of the inside of our camper.

After breakfast we cleaned up and checked out of our campers around noon and went hiking. We really wanted to hike Saturday AND Sunday, but since we arrived so late on Saturday, we settled for a Sunday afternoon hike instead. We went to a nearby national park (the name to which I'll add later) and went hunting for some waterfalls.

The waterfall is beginning to freeze over. Would have been cool if it was completely frozen.

Winnie and Joel. This is a big step for Joel, as it might have been his first non-photo bomb. Good work.

Around 5pm we took the train all the way back to Seoul. The train was incredibly comfortable and we all pretty much slept/zombied the entire way home. It was a great weekend to get out of Seoul.

To the curb with the broken.

2010-12-03T23:00:00.001+09:00

As been stated before, Kel and I recently bought a Macbook Pro at our own expense this past Monday. As you can see from the pictures below, our Vaio (to which I grew fond of in the past year) looks like it got caught in the middle of a fight between Wolverine and Magneto. The upper right is completely shattered with some tastefully placed cracks throughout the entire monitor.

Luckily the computer is still functional. With enough squinting and patience, you can access files on the Vaio. I've utilized the fantastic online program "Dropbox" to where I uploaded most of our files that were not pictures, videos or music. I also backed everything up on my external hard drive and was able to put it on our Mac (which we hope to get it back off because I have over 100GB of pictures alone). We do indeed plan on keeping this computer. Once we get home we hope to buy an external monitor and use it like a desktop. For now, however, it serves no functional purpose while living and traveling Asia.

I never thought I'd go Mac but I've got to be totally honest in saying these are so much fun to have. Yes they are way different than PC's but once you get to learn them they are pretty fun. I really like their hot keys. There have been so many moments this past week where I've said "man...this is way better than PC."

Not to say that I didn't jump on the Apple bandwagon, because if you know me I certainly hate bandwagons, but I jumped on this one and I'm having a good time.

China and Japan movies

2010-12-01T08:29:00.011+09:00

China

(click the link to view higher quality on dropbox. Allow ample time to load.)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3656051/China.m4v

Kelly and I recently bought a new computer in lieu of my carelessness with our past, new and perfectly nice Sony Vaio. We bought a MacBook Pro and have been spending the last couple of nights trying to figure out how to work it. I discovered imovie and have really been enjoying it. It's fairly simple and intuitive to use if you are willing to spend 4+ hours with trial and error (i.e., my entire Tuesday night). These are also the first videos I have been able to download to blogger. I'm a little disappointed on the time lost in doing so. Be prepared to see a sudden influx of videos on here from the entire past year.

Japan

(click the link to view higher quality on dropbox. Allow ample time to load.)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3656051/Tokyo%20imovie.m4v

Recent Blunders

2010-11-26T12:41:00.003+09:00

This past weekend I was able to feature my blog on Arirang TV (more on this later). While I waited for the camera crew in a subway to do the shoot, my bowels overcame me. I dashed in long strides to the bathroom. I had my camera backpack, with a pocket specifically for laptops (this is important to mention). I did not want to expose any part of my backpack to the grotesque, volatile floor of the public bathroom, so I did what anyone else would do... I hung my bag on the hook on the back of the stall door. Not but two minutes later, the backpack came hurtling to the ground like a meteor in our atmosphere. I finished in the bathroom and ran outside, ripped open my backpack to assess damages. Ironically, the much more expesive and insured camera was perfectly fine. Phew. The computer that I just bought last year, however (note one of my first blog entries talking about when I got the Vaio), had a shattered screen.

I've sent this past week in turmoil over the potential costs of getting that thing fixed. We haven't been able to see our complete dependence on our computer until it was taken away from us. We are now plotting our next move. Keep your fingers crossed that we make a financially wise decision.

Current Events

2010-11-25T13:22:00.002+09:00

The artillery attack on Yeonpyeong island certainy gives reason for concern here in Korea. While this is considered the greatest non-wartime act since the Korean War, attacks and conflict between the two countries are not rare. Throughout the past 60 years, there have been several instances where North Korea have pushed the boundaries trying to get international attention.

Since we've been here, this is the third (knowing) conflict exchange, starting with the sinking of the Cheonan, the gun fire exchange during the G-20 and now the artillery strike. It's easy as an American to get frustrated with North Korea, especially when South Korea seems so submissive. I hear all the time and have often times thought it myself that they should just go to war and "end North Korea". The fact of the matter is that all of Korea has a lot to lose if that were to happen. Seoul is not far from the border and is well in range of the hundreds and hundreds of North Korean artillery already pointed at Seoul. If there was a war, Seoul could in fact be obliterated within hours. Thinking of all the people I have met, living in the culture as well as teaching many children, I'd hate to see or hear of them die in a war. There are 12 million people within the city limits of Seoul and several million in the surrounding area. Only a few artillery shells would be catastrophic...imagine thousands. That is something that is hard to picture to outsiders who do not live here.

North Korea also has a lot to lose. Countries, as an outsider, are usually always seen as a whole as opposed to the sum of its parts. North Korea is always portrayed as an "axis of evil" (good work Bush) but never seen as an impoverished enslaved nation. It's a shocker to think that while I feed my students lunch, less than 30 miles north are very similar children who are malnourished, starving and dying.

There are a lot of unknowns in the weeks/months/years to come, the biggest fear now is how China and or U.S.A responds to all of this. If a war does happen, then North Korea would surely collapse because China could not afford to support them in a war. Without China's aid, North Korea amounts to nothing.

Seoul Lantern Festival

2010-11-14T23:18:00.003+09:00

The Seoul Lantern Festival is something that recently fell into our laps. For as big as Seoul is, there is a great sense of community in this city and something awesome is always going on. If Kelly and I even knew half of what was going on in this city, we'd lose our minds. This past Saturday a group of us went ice skating at Lotte World, an impressive indoor/outdoor amusement park. The ice skating was fun, but was packed beyond expectation. There were four types of skaters on the ice. 1.) The speed skaters in training, 2.) Figure skaters in training, 3.) Terrible, terrible couples who were giggling and falling everywhere, and 4.) The waeguks (aka the foreigners, us, the outsiders, the idiots who weren't any good at skating and got in everyone's way). I'm mostly speaking on behalf of myself, as I may or may not have knocked down two kids. Due to my lack of skills stopping on the ice, I could only say sorry as I skated past them offering no services of help (laughing to myself).

I don't really know a whole lot about the Seoul Lantern Festival, so I will copy and paste what the tourist website says.

"Under the theme of ‘Seoul, a source of beaming hope’, the festival will feature 15,000 lanterns of 213 variations and from 25 countries. Unique pieces of work from ‘Sibaraku Nebuta’ of Aomori, Japan; and ‘Iryongsangtu’ and ‘Byeongeomgamyeon’ of China will be invited for the exhibition and a range of other creative local works such as ‘Door of Hope’, ‘G20 Lantern’, and ‘Lantern of Global Harmony’ will be on display."

Anyway, there is this stream in Seoul called the "Cheonggyecheon" and it was recently opened in 2005. According to Wikipedia, it required $900 million to renovate. That's a lot of cash, but it's a money stream. A large portion of this stream had massive lanterns in the middle of various kinds. Observe below.

There were tons of lantern-esk things adorning this stream. It was a great time with some great people. We had a blast. You can check out some more pictures on our flickr page.

Pepero Day

2010-11-12T16:57:00.003+09:00

There are many holiday seasons that we as humans love to partake in to uphold tradition, show love and gratitude towards others, give thanks and so forth. Some of these holidays are cleverly spread throughout the year to make life more interesting and enjoyable. There are some holidays that seem routine and pointless while others just seem so right. I have found one of those holidays that just. seems. right.

Behold Pepero Day. A holiday that exists only because of it's numeric intrigue. November 11th (11/11). Now, a casual outsider may challenge the notion that every month would possess the capabilities of offering entertainment with double numbered dates (9/9, 10/10, 12/12 are just a few of the 12 possibilities). This is where said outsider would fall into the ranks of ignorance. What makes 11/11 so fascinatingly unique is that there are chocolate covered sticks, that when put in groups of 4, resemble the magical calendar date of 11/11.

but what exactly is Pepero?

A box of Pepero from a student (not wife).

Pepero, as I've stated before in my complex description, are cracker-esque sticks covered in chocolate. They come in many sizes and other variations. The one thing remains constant, however, is that it is always shaped like a stick.

Now, I've had to dive deep into research to know more about Pepero Day. My research went as deep as Wikipedi, where I learned that Pepero is a product of Lotte Confectionary, a large company based in Korea (also the 3rd largest chewing gum manufacturer in the world). Lotte was inspired by Pepero by a like Japanese product "Pocky" back in '83, and had the genius notion to start a holiday based off one of their products (despite their claim they did not). In fact, so genious, that %55 of Lotte's Pepero sales occur on or around Pepero Day (for those who forgot 11/11).

Now, this Pepero Day isn't obviously only about chocolate sticks. It's a romantic holiday as well. Similar to Valentines Day, youngsters observe this day to give their loved ones chocolate sticks, kisses and more chocolate sticks. Yesterday most of our students brought enough Pepero to school to build a small cabin down south. The day went from pleasant treats to gluttonous binges on Pepero. At one point I would charge my students one pepero stick in exchange for help on their science experiments. I've had my fill of pepero sticks....as I finish my last one at the end of this sentence.

I'm not going to spend any more time on Pepero Day, but before I go, please click this link to get a better understanding.

One of my biggest regrets so far in Korea is that I did not know about Pepero Day prior to Halloween. I would have killed to make a costume similar to the ones in the flash site above. Maybe next year, but people would be more offended than entertained of the costume.

Wine Train

2010-11-07T22:32:00.003+09:00

The Wine Train

(sung to the tune of "Love Train" by The O' Jays).

This past Saturday, Kelly and I, along with Winnie-SHI and Joley-MON went on Korea's finest Wine Train. About a month ago I noticed that an acquaintance of ours had posted some pictures of their adventures on a mysterious wine train. I was instantly curious about this so called, "wine train", so I spared no hesitation in calling Winnie (my co-teacher at SLP) to investigate further.

After Winnie did her thing on NAVER, we all came to the conclusion that this must be done with no reservations. We pretty much instantly booked within the next couple of days (as this train gets sold out and only runs twice a week). While the high price of such adventure would (and did) have its repercussions later in the month (i.e., payday needs to get here), we're glad to have done this.

The concept of the wine train is quite simple, it was a normal KoRail train that had 4 cars tagged on the end which were lavishly decorated to serve wine. We rode the train one-way for about three hours throughout Korea (where we actually went, we do not know).

They were giving us instructions on how to properly smell and taste wine as well as the proper way to make a toast.

Joel waeguk doesn't know what's going on.

fruit and cheese platter provided

While on the the train we were able to sample four different types of wine. One being white and the other three red. All the wine was from the vineyard we were heading to "Chateau Mani". Mani being the name of the mountain the vineyard was near.

After three hours on the train enjoying the country side (as it is always great to get out of Seoul once in a while), we boarded a bus and went to the vineyard to eat lunch and tour the place.

The vineyard provided a pretty tasty lunch, and of course, lots o' wine.

Wine on tap.

Free wine is the best wine.

In front of the Chateau.

While on the tour, we had a foot bath in grape water. I was a little curious but the water had the aroma of grapes and felt great.

A small portion of a fairly large wine cellar

View from the Chateau

Grapes and things.

After a couple hours at the vineyard, we boarded the bus once again and went to a Ginseng museum. Here we learned about the process of ginseng production, as well as the health benefits. We were also able to try some ginseng makali.

Following the interesting, yet menial portion of the trip, we visited a large cave where they store a lot of their wine. This cave also had some interesting background to it as well. During the Korean War, people would hide and seek shelter in caves such as this one during air raids and so forth.

Lots of wine is stored in this cave.

Following the cave visit, we went back to the train station and boarded the train back to Seoul. It was a pretty long day, actually. We left Ilsan around 8:00 am and didn't get back until 10:45pm. The entire duration of the tour was about 12 hours. A long day and a lot of wine, but still quite a bit of fun. Kelly and I would probably put it in the top 10 things we have done IN Korea thus far.

Also, we just might be put in Korea news in a couple of weeks. There was a news team that was following the train and they interviewed Kelly and myself a couple of times. They caught me sayin "Cho-eye-yo" (I like) and they had to get that on camera. Quite awkward but I hope it gets aired. I'll probably never know...

Website for the Wine Train

Seoraksan

2010-10-21T18:41:00.003+09:00

Ulsanbawi-the rock that brought me to Korea

Once again I find myself a couple weeks behind the times and have failed to be as precise and punctual as possible regarding blogging. The aforementioned Reuben Haggar has once again enabled me to find passion and desire to publish yet another blog within an unheard of week after my last post. After work, I was sprinting down the road and/or sidewalk, dodging people and cars like Will Smith in virtually all of his movies, to recount my experience in Seoraksan National Park. The only downfall of my maniacal running display was that I was not chasing robots, aliens, hippies who steal bone density scanners or drug cartel in Miami. That, and I'm nowhere near in shape as Smith.

(Get on with this already)
While it seems to have taken that turn (AGAIN), this blog is not about Will Smith . It is about Seoraksan National Park as the title suggests. Before I go any further I must tell you a little more about Seoraksan and Pete Freeburg. Two short years ago, when the idea of moving to Korea was only a fearsome whisper to only a select few in my inner-circle, I began researching about Korea. Upon doing research I came across some facts and websites that instantly lured me into moving here. This website, as you have probably guessed it, a website about Seoraksan National Park. Two years ago I stumbled across the link listed below and it hooked me instantly. I saw the pictures below and said to myself "I want to go hike that" and then instantly came to the conclusion to "I need to move to Korea". Thus the proverbial pieces were put in motion.
http://www.pbase.com/image/26382821

A few weeks ago, perhaps a month ago, a friend of mine, Reuben the Incorrigible and I decided enough was enough. We needed to get to this park if it's the last thing we did this month!

Reuben the Incorrigible (1 of 2)

Reuben the Incorrigible (2 of 2).

Due to Reuben the Incorrigible's esteemable determination, we possessed bus tickets for Saturday morning, October the 9th, two thousand and ten, the year of our Lord. Sails were set for Seoraksan, near a town called Sokcho in Gangwon-do province. Aka the other side of Korea on the ocean, about a three hour luxurious bus ride from downtown Seoul.

Sokcho, in my humble opinion, possesses the best of many worlds. This little city possesses the mountainous beauty of Seoraksan National Park AND the beautiful sea. If you want to face public execution and ridicule in Korea you can call it the Sea of Japan, otherwise you can get away with calling it the East Sea.

Reuben the Incorrigible and I left Seoul at 7:10 am and arrived in Sokcho at approximately 10:30 am. After a few erronious blunders on our part, we found the bus to Seoraksan and started our hike around 11:45. We went on the hike to reach Ulsanbawi, the same peak in which the website which lured me to get hitched and move to Korea in the first place (the one you can find on the website referred above). Consider this a glorious pilgrimage with no religious undertones.

Prepare for a photo montage of epic proportions.

Reuben the Incorrigible

This hike was a lot harder than expected and slightly more claustrophobic than expected. There was a series of stairs on this trail, like the one above, in which the staircase was not more than 4 feet wide and handled throngs of Koreans, Pete Freeburg AND Reuben the Incorrigible. There was a point if you were tired and wanted to take a break, then you would forcibly cause dozens of Koreans to break as well.

After Ulsanbawi, Reuben the Incorrigible and I found the sunlight to be running away from us. After some great converstations down the trail, we decided to go on another trail (getting dangerously close to dark) to see some waterfalls. The only thing I can offer is another montage.

Brace yourself.

At the end of this hike, Reuben the Incorrigible and I had to almost run back the main park grounds because it was near pitch dark outside. Luckily we got to the bus on time to get back to Sokcho. However, we got off the bus way too early and found ourselves upon a very interesting fish market. While I have no pictures to recount this experience I can just say it was cool. Reubs and I then walked what seemed like 10 more miles to find a restaurant and finally a jimjil-bong where we could rest our heads (the worst night of sleep I might add). The following morning we went to the ocean and saw the remains of a sunrise and then got on the bus back to Seoul. A very productive weekend.

New Washing Machine

2010-10-16T10:59:00.000+09:00

Our humble abode just got an upgrade. The story goes like this. Yesterday before school we were doing some laundry. A certain Peter Freeburg, prior to his departure, observed a raging river scampering across the floor in desperate attempts to flee its duty washing our soiled linen and sought refuge somewhere else. To no avail, I desecrated the waters feeble attempts with a towel. The washing machine proved more resilient relieving itself of the contained fluid than I had hoped.

Listen, I didn't want any trouble. Clearly out manned, out witted and late for school, I decided to abandon all efforts. I skirted along to school and told Ann (our boss's wife//boss) of my woes in a trembling voice filled with anxiety and fear.

Ann, observing the fears and trepidations in my stammering voice told me she'd take a look at it. I'm presuming that it's just an old, leaky hose and figured I'd have to figure out how to replace it on my own. Nay, two hours later Ann said she was going to buy us a new one and it'd be installed the next morning. Wow, that was fast. This morning a man came, woken us (me) up from a slumber. It's always embarrassing to have someone walk in on you when you're sleeping, so I threw on some shorts and shirt and scrambled to make the bed while Kelly opened the door. 15 minutes later he left. It's a nice machine and even has flowers imprinted on it. As Ann says "it's cute".

September

2010-10-12T18:31:00.002+09:00

Time has run away from us providing certain difficulties to have an elaborate recapitulation of the past month of September. There indeed have been important events that have occured, most of which may appear seemingly meaningless to the non-Freeburg living in Korea. My lack of diligence in blogging in September has created a black hole of ambition. Every time I have sat down to write this blog, the black hole deprived me of all my desire--hence the reason for blogging about September nearly midway through October. HOWEVER, due to a certain Reuben Haggar's (note picture below) persistent encouragement, I will begin to move forward.

Reuben's attempts to motivate me

I believe that in order for me to accurately recount September, I must chunk it into weekends. That is, by the way, one of the best ways the brain retains information (through chunking.).

September 4th

On September 4th Kelly and I, along with three other lovely ladies decided to explore some islands near Incheon Int'l Airport. This particular island is called Sido Island. It isn't that far from our place in Ilsan, albeit it is near the airport, which is roughly a 45 minute bus ride away. All to say, it's still close considering how long it takes to use the transit systems anyway.

The day turned out to be awesome. On the 10 minute ferry ride to the island, like most ferries in Korea, we were bombarded by seagulls, a fowl I have grown to loath growing up on Lake Michigan. It doesn't help the situation when people buy bags of chips specifically to feed the seagulls. I indulged.

When we arrived on the island, Ms. Dawna Diamon, Holly Schoephoerster and Lauren Zuckermann met us with newly acquired rental bikes. They were creative in renting us a tandem bike, which is fun, but this tandem bike had one gear and virtually no breaks. Not exactly a great combo.

After a few hours biking around the wicked sweet island and poking around for some seashells, we headed home for some deliciously cheap pizza. A productive Saturday.

Chuesok. September 19-24

A word should be said about the remaining events of September. There is a holday in September in Korea called Chuesok. Chuesok in Korea is like Thanksgiving in America. There is one day allocated to Chuesok (so I think) and there is almost a week off of work and school. Those who work at international schools have the luxury of a guaranteed 9 day vacation whilst those who work at Hagwons or other private institutions hold their breath for their time off. We were so lucky as to receive 6 days off whereas other Hagwonians were only allowed 3.

Chuesok, unlike Thanksgiving (from my understanding) is very traditional. For example they wear these flamboyantly colorful, hot, yet still comfortable outfits called "Hanboks". Hanboks were apparently the choice of wear ages ago for everyday life, but now only serve to be worn on special occasions such as Chuesok or a wedding. At a wedding, however, the bride and groom may only wear Hanboks during the reception.

The Friday at SLP, before Chuesok officially began, was dedicated to traditional lessons for Chuesok. All of the kindergarten students came to school decoratively adorned in their hanboks and other accessories. Some of the mothers went. all. out.

The boys in my class used this day to be as rambunctious as possible.

Tae Woong getting Punched. In. The. Face. Ryan did something everyone wanted to do that morning, including Peter Teacher. My hat's off to you, Ryan. Extra stickers.

A lot of the day consisted of playing traditional games and learning how to bow the proper way (there is a big difference in the way boys and girls bow to their elders). Peter Teacher even had the opportunity to get some bowing in, to no elders however. There was also tea time in which everyone was able to learn the proper way of receiving and drinking tea.

Getting their bow on

Drinking tea and eating Songpyeon. Songpyeon is also a snack of choice during Chuesok. Songpyeon is very unique and you either love it or hate it. Songpyeon is usually consumed heavily during Chuesok because it commemorates the first rice harvest of the year. It has a texture and taste that can only be experienced, not explained. I ate enough Songpyeon that day for 100 7 year olds, another reason why I need to get back to exercising.

During our time off, Kelly and I were able to enjoy some things around the Seoul area. One day we went down to Suwon, which is an area south of Seoul and were able to see the great fortress. There is an ancient fortress in which the entire wall is fully intact. Within the walls there is a city which is pretty interesting. I'm completely downplaying it and neglecting to tell more but I don't know that much more about it. Ask Dawna Diamon.

Bits-O-the wall

Followed by walking a good portion of the great wall of Korea, we went to Seoul Zoo--a zoo which is one of my most favorite zoos.

This zoo, unlike other zoos I have barnstormed through, had an awesome feel to it. After just completing the second book of Jurassic Park "Lost World", I felt like I was in Costa Rica. Not really but you get the point. The zoo was snuggly wrapped in lushly covered mountains. The exhibits were also large for certain animals. The lion pit, for example, housed 9 lions (the most I have seen in one zoo) and it was basically a small field. Como Zoo in MN is almost depressing, but it's also free.

On another beautifully cool day we went back to Bukhansan Nat'l Park. As mentioned before, this park is relatively close to our place and I wanted to go back at least once more when it was cooler. Bukhansan is always a great getaway.

....and Kelly falls.

Till we meet again...

"In Front of Them All"

2010-09-06T23:33:00.001+09:00

The JSA T2 room where officials from the UNC meet with high ranking officials of the North Korea Government. The horizontal table in the center of the room marks the line between the North and South Korea. Behind the South Korean solider is the door to the North.

August has been set as the pinnacle of our summer here in Korea. The previously aforementioned summer events in China, Kelly's parents and our friends Brooke and Devin have subdued us to critically low energy levels. The chronological events of the recent blog posts and the few to come are still sporatic and out of place. While these misplaced accounts of August may leave you scratching your head more than Memento, bear with me.

As mentioned before, Kelly's parents arrived at the Seoul airport before us after our excursion in China. They visited us for about a week. From my personal stand point I would consider their visit a success. I will, however, have to leave their experiences to be told by them, not I. Unfortunately neither Randy or Nancy have a blog....yet.

With that being said I'm going to fast forward their visit to the end when we went on a tour to the DMZ. The DMZ to us was one of those places where we knew we had a responsibility to see. It would almost be foolish not to. I'm totally kidding, but Kelly and I do regard historical, cultural and significant places in other countries important to see. The plus for us is that we had 1 of 60 weekends to choose when to go. Kelly's parents, however, did not.

This history between North and South Korea is NOT simple (note previous posts). This tour was very educational and above all, tense. From the moment we got on the tour bus in Seoul, it was business. Even though the tour guide tried to ease the tension, there was no way getting around the facts, we were going somewhere that didn't accept horseplay.

Our tour guide first started off with some basic rules.

1.) Do not take a picture unless you are told you can. If 1 person, 1 PERSON, takes a picture when they aren't supposed to, the JSA security (not the tour guides) will shut down the tour of 100 people.

2.) Do not point if you see a North Korean soldier. The guide expressed this more than once. He said it is very natural to want to point out a North Soldier or North Korean building. He said that if we were to point, the North Korean soldiers would mistake that as a gun and open fire.

This is a South Korean ROK soldier standing guard for us.

3.) There is also a strict dress code. One of which involves wearing tennis shoes or other closed toed shoes. The reason for this is because if there were to be a violent outbreak we would be able to run for cover.

When we arrived at the JSA we were sent to a debriefing room. In this room we were able to get a crash course on the Korean War and the resulting tensions since the 50's. We then had to sign a waiver that we were not to hold South Korea, USA or the United Nations responsible for an unpredictable hostile attack, and our being there could jeapordize our lives (paraphrased). I signed it then gave a heavy, weary sigh.

World's dangerous backstage pass

This is the Joint Security Area (JSA). The brown/gray building in the distance belongs to North Korea. The blue buildings are where the meetings are held beween the United Nations and North Korea. In between these two blue buildings was where the Major Henderson incident occured. It was very discomforting watching a North Korean soldier staring at us through binoculars noting our presence. It was very quiet and tense. The only sound we could hear were our own footsteps and the cicadas in the trees.

Inside the building was a little more comforting becuase we felt safer with these guys. These are South Soldiers and are always poised for an attack. All ROK soldiers are highly trained and are at the highest level of Taekwondo. They are dangerous. If I were to have crossed in front of him or touched him he would have hurt me, badly. These guys stand in a still position, but are actually guarding something. The reason they are wearing the sunglasses is becuase they are watching you and do not want you to know it. In other words, more legitimate than The Queen's Guard.

Outside of the MAC buildings. The two South Soldiers to the right are staring at the North Soldier and the guy facing us is staring at us, waiting (as if he were expecting) for something to happen.

We were able to stand on the North Korean side of the conference table which technically placed us in North Korea.

On our way out of the MAC building

This is the infamous "Bridge of No Return". This was named after the war when North Korea possessed thousands of POWS from the war and the South had North Korean POWS. In the exchange, the prisoners were able to choose and walk their respective ways. North Koreans could go home and South Koreans and other allied forces could leave the North. Once they crossed the bridge, they would never, ever, be able to return.

This was the last freely functioning train that operated consistently through all of Korea. It was blown to bits during the war and is covered with bullet holes.

It was very comforting to leave the DMZ. Even though Ilsan where we live is about 15-20km's away from the border, it still feels a world away. One thing I also learned, was that Seoul is designed for an attack from the North now. One way of doing this is through anti-tank walls. This is actually a very interesting defense strategy. Occasionally along the highways there are overpasses. One would think nothing of these overpasses as they are highly useful for two major roads to cross without impacting each other. These anti-tank walls blend into these overpasses. The entire overpass on the highway is composed of huge slabs of concrete. These slabs of concrete are designed to be blown up in time of invasion. These blown pieces of concrete would render the highway useless to tanks and other military vehicles and would significantly delay attack. Very, very interesting where we live over here.

China Chronicles: Closing Statements

2010-08-31T19:03:00.001+09:00

My best attempt at offering a picture that alludes contemplation of China while in China.

Alas, in an attempt to make the blog current, I will make an even more feeble attempt to close the books on China by offering some closing thoughts. Throughout this post I may or may not clutter and disrupt fluid reading with random pictures of China to keep/gain the interest of the reader(s).

In order to justify some of my/our (Kelly's) opinions of China, I must first admit assumptions of China prior to our visit. China is one of the bigger countries in this world and therefore holds a lot of mystery and beauty (i.e., rich history, beautiful landscape and interesting people). China is like America in the sense that the country is so big and there are vastly differing landscapes and scenery which directly affect those who live in those areas. People who live in the woods of the Pacific Northwest are different than those of the swamps of Georgia. The same goes with China. Those who live in the Himalayas (i.e., Tibet) are different than those of the Southeast (i.e., Hong Kong). In China, however, these differences are considered more extreme. For example, the booming cities of Bejing, Shanghai and Hong Kong might make the ignorant traveller believe that China is a booming economy that can't be stopped. However, 200-500 miles inland, China is considered a third world country comparable to Nigeria or Ethiopia where 500 million Chinese do not have access to clean drinking water.

I/we have also always been raised on fear and/or resentment towards China. We as Americans are aware of the fact that most of the things we possess are "Made in China" and we have built up resentment for that. China, to the average American, is considered cheap.

The scare of communism has also been beaten into the lives of every American, especially the Christian American. Not only is Communism, from America's standpoint, the worst form of government everywhere, it also outlawed religions. When Mao was in power he outlawed all religion and inacted a state religion. Religions such as Christianity were outlawed and things got nasty over there (note: this is not current China).

So, with all of these things considered, the scare of Communism (our first experience in a Communist nation) and the violent history of China, our defenses were naturally up. We have been to a few different Asian countries this past year, Korea the obvious, and we noticed some big differences between Korean and Chinese cultures.

Another factor, and this was a large factor, the Chinese language was uncomfortable. The writing and characters are beautiful but the spoken language is ugly. Not to say that Korean is much prettier, but when the Chinese speak, it is a much more violent, erradic, staccato and to the foreigner or tourist, comes across as angry. Plus, the Chinese are more prone to wear their emotions on their sleeves and speak louder, getting into more confrontations (we've been in enough subways to make this generalization with relative accuracy.).

We also could not trust the Chinese as much. For the select few who have been able to stay in Korea and experience the true culture, you know that it is a very trusting culture. In China, however, people CONSTANTLY try to rip you off. It was a place where you had to be on guard. We didn't like that feeling of mistrust all the time (note that we realize there are nice Chinamen out there, and we certainly met some, but for the average stranger trying to push some product on us or give us a "deal", we had our guard up).

With that being said, we loved being in China. China possesses beautiful landscape...

Beijing

Hong Kong

Fascinating old history....

Great Wall, Beijing

Temple of Heaven, Beijing

Forbidden City, Beijing

And amazing cities....

Shanghai

Hong Kong

While there is always more to see in China, we are glad to have seen what we have seen and can, with confidence, close the books on China. If we get the opportunity to go someday, we will gladly go. But we have now officially marked China and many of its wonders off of our bucket list. We now have other destinations to fulfill...TIL THEN!

China Chronicles: Beijing

2010-08-25T21:44:00.001+09:00

I will have to apologize for the sudden influx of blogs for this month, there have been several happenings since mid-July (many of which have gone unnoticed). While Beijing is coming out of turn compared to the other events that have occured these past couple of weeks, I thought it only fitting to add Beijing to the China Chronicles.

To preface our trip to Beijing, I will first need to note as to why we decided to go when we did and the reason for the duration of our stay. Our good friends and roomates throughout college Devin Foley and Brooke Foley have been planning a week trip to South Korea since April. It was nearly a year ago, before we left for Korea that the four of us sat in Rochester fantasizing about adventures abroad. We toyed with the idea of Brooke and Devin visiting us and flirted with going to China (Beijing) while they were in Asia. Since Seoul is less than a two hour flight from Beijing, this was a practical and relatively inexpensive idea.

Devin, Brooke, Regina (tour guide), Kelly and myself at the bottom of The Great Wall.

So here we find ourselves in Beijing. Devin and Brooke flew to Beijing on Friday and Kelly and I met them on Saturday. We arrived at the Beijing airport at approximately 10:00 am. After we got off the plane, we had to take a bus taxi to the main terminal. While we were driving on the tarmac, I noticed an airplane with "Koryo Arilines" on it. That name sparked my curiosity as I have never heard of that type of airline before. I soon found out why. As I observed the airplane further I noticed the North Korean flag painted on the tail wing of the plane. I quickly and eagerly shouted to Kelly, "Hey Kelly! That plane is from North Korea!" While I was not surprised by the presence of the plane (as we know that North Korea and China have a close relationship), I was curious as to who would be on that plane. As Kelly and I proceeded down some long hallways to arrive at China immigration, I stepped in line behind a man of whom I assumed was Korean. I noticed that he dropped his immigration paper and I saw the last name "Lee" on it. My assumptions were correct, as Lee is a very common last name in Korea (somewhat like Johnson or Smith in America). I picked up the paper for this nice man and gave him a head nod. He seemed indifferent and took it from me with a slight head nod (common gesture for Koreans). As I stood behind this man I remembered the North Korean airplane and begun to put two and two together. For the next 10 minutes I patiently waited for him to reveal his passport. Then finally, I saw his passport. Sure enough, his passport said "Democratic People's Republic of Korea." I can't believe I just had had a small exchange with a North Korean. This trip was starting out just right.

After about two hours, we finally arrived at our hotel near The Forbidden City. Devin and Brooke were waiting patiently for us and we were overjoyed to see them. We checked in, ate lunch at the hotel and around 1:30pm, Regina picked us up for a trip to The Great Wall. We went to a somewhat secluded area of the Wall called Mutianyu. It was great. Although it was raining, it stopped at certain intervals allowing the perfect amount of exposure to the wall. It was also great to keep the heat down and keep us cool.

We hiked around this mighty long wall for about 3 hours. Towards the end of our time on the wall, as you can probably gather from most of our pictures from The Great Wall, we were virtually the ONLY people on the Wall, something that is very rare.

The Great Wall tops as one of my all-time greatest experiences I have ever had. Devin, Brooke and Kelly would also rank The Great Wall as their top 5. The particular mountainous terrain we were at was amazing. It was so fascinating how they built this wall across this terrain, and that the wall is 10,000 km long! It was exhausting just walking the 1km section we were at, let alone construct it! It made it even better that we were the only ones who were on the wall, too.

We bought shirts. "I climbed The Great Wall."

Following our trip to The Great Wall, all four of us went out to dinner to have the world famous "Peking Duck". It was pretty dang good. The restuarant had some pretty interesting selections of food. I'd repeat some of the entrees, but I figured I'd save you the upset stomachs.

After dinner, Brooke and Devin, who were in Beijing a day before us if you'll remember, wanted to take us to Olympic Park to see the area at night. We were overly pumped to see this place, (especially lit up at night) however, we were too late and got there after the park closed. Fear not my friends, Kelly and I went back the next day.

After a depressing farewell from our friends Brooke and Devin, Kelly and I went to bed that night for a very long, action packed Sunday in Beijing.

Our "12 hour sprint" in Beijing first consisted of visiting the "Temple of Heaven." Since the taxis are very cheap in China (not Hong Kong) we decided to take taxis everywhere since they were easy and quick. We took the taxi to Temple of Heaven and were awestruck by the vastness of the surrounding area. The Temple of Heaven has a massive wooded park (like Central Park in New York City) and had this cool palace thing in the middle. We enjoyed ourselves.

Following our 1 1/2 hours at Temple of Heaven, Kelly and I went to a massive pearl market nearby. There are several main exports China is known for. Silk, Jade, China and Pearl. We decided to spend some $$ and buy some real pearls from China. Booyah.

After our trip to the Pearl Market, Kelly and I then took a taxi to "Tian'namen Square." This is the main square in central Beijing. Here we were able to see the massive vastness of the square, as well as government buildings and the ever so popular, "Forbidden City."

The entrance of The Forbidden City.

Wavin' Flags

Inside the Forbidden City

One of the many "gates" within the city.

The Forbidden City is absolutely massive. We have seen some big palace grounds here in Korea, but The Forbidden City is larger than many small cities in the US. We did not buy an audio tour, but what we do know is that many Emperors dwelled within these walls and it was Forbidden for any common person to come within the walls for over 500 years.

After The Forbidden City, we went back to our hotel to pick up a bag of ours that we had stored there so we wouldn't have to lug it around Beijing. We then departed to Olympic Park to see "The Birds Nest" as well as the "Water Cube."

The Birds Nest is huge.

Olympiads

The Water Cube. Cool structure.

Following our visit to Olympic Park, we boarded the subway to the airport. We left Olympic Park around 5pm and got to the airport around 7pm, just in time for a 9pm departure. Overall it was a great stay. It was sad to say goodbye to our friends, but we had a great time.

I'll write one more "closing thoughts" blog on China so I can finally close the books on China.

Stay thirsty my friends.

China Chronicles: Hong Kong part 2

2010-08-24T21:17:00.002+09:00

Forgive me for my time of leave, these past 3 weeks since the return from our epic China trip have been busy (stay tuned for it). After our time at Stanley Bay, we returned to the city life where we found it apropos to enjoy a stellar night view of the city. We ventured across the bay near the Avenue of Stars for views such as this.

After we stayed at this very spot for nearly two hours, mostly consisting of me taking roughly 100 pictures of the same skyline, we decided to go find some dinner. However, since it was raining, we thought it to be a good idea to see the hit movie "Inception". This task proved to fail us this night, however, our resiliency was too great for the ticket box of any Hong Kong theater to deter us from seeing this movie. We saw it the next evening.

The following day we decided to take the highly recommended Victoria's Peak Tram up a mountain side for other stellar views of Hong Kong. To miss Victoria's Peak while in Hong Kong would be like missing the birth of your first child (so they say...for the purposes of this blog). The first thing we did that morning was to ride the tram to the peak. We were a little nervous because the previous day, as noted in part 1, was a torrential downpour for nearly the entire day. The morning looked promising for us and we decided that rain or shine, we would take our chances.

Upon arrival to the summit of Victoria's Peak, we realized that while the view was still amazing, it was not what we were anticipating. While the day prior to Victoria's Peak was filled with a typhoon too great for even Storm to conjure, this day was filled with dense fog. There was a point where we could not even see 5 meters beyond the observatory. Despite the heavy fog, there were moments of clarity where we could truly grasp the coolness of the peak. We consider it a success.

After Victoria's Peak we went to eat lunch. This was no ordinary restaurant, however. The name of the restaurant was "Modern Toilet" and as you can see from the picture above, the theme was a bathroom.

Shower heads lined the walls.

Tastily placed toilets as seats.

Porcelain urinals as "specialty drink" holders.

Very excited to eat here. It was great!

After our delicious lunch, we went a few hours outside of Hong Kong to the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car to see a large Buddha. This cable car ride was the real deal. A one way trip lasted about 30 minutes and offered awesome views. We went over oceans, mountains, cliffs and waterfalls. Jaw dropping views to say the least.

The ride could not have been long enough.

On the way to the Buddha, we opted for a slightly more expensive, yet luxurious glass bottom car.

After the cable car ride, we arrived in a small village-esk tourist town dedicated to this guy perched on a mountain top. There was a very long stairway leading up to him and there offered excellent views of the area.

The surrounding area.

After our trip on the Ngong Ping 360, we made it back to our hostel around 8:30, just in time for some dinner and a 9:45 viewing of "Inception" (resiliency). The movie was fantastic and needs a blog of its own. A blog I will not spend the time to write.

The next morning we parted ways with Miss Holly Schoephoerster and toured Hong Kong alone. The day started off with seeing the Jade Market, where Kelly was able to buy a jade ring and I was able to buy a jade piece of something. Jade is one of China's biggest exports and something unique to China. Naturally, I'm going to buy some of it then.

After our trip to the Jade Market, Kelly and I wanted to visit a beach. The weather in Hong Kong was really nice the last couple of days, and it was incredibly hot our last day. We waited for a ferry and took a 1/2 hour ferry ride to an island called Lamma Island. It was a sweet looking island where there were no cars.

We did not exactly know where to go for a good beach, as we concluded from Lonely Planet that there were a plethora of beaches at this island. We decided to walk a direction where the thought necessary to find a beach. We walked about 40 minutes on a path like the one above. We were amazed by how cool this island was. Finally, after nearly passing out from a heat stroke, we stopped at the first beach we saw.

We decided to settle at this beach, but only for a dip. This was not to be our final destination and sought after another, more popular beach. However, the water did feel great.

Now here is where our trip to Lamma Island took an insanely quick decline. After gulping down a bottle of water and a brief conversation with an island local, we learned that the good beaches were in the opposite direction from which we came. Shoot. So we began our trek to where we came from. While this news was disappointing, we still had high spirits of the prospect of a great beach to come. HOWEVER, almost immediately starting our walk Kelly noticed a spider.

I cannot explain to you what emotions this particular spider elicited in me. This spider was enormous. It was roughly the size of a fully out stretched hand. The web itself was big enough to bring down birds, probably even airplanes. Seeing this spider sent a vehement shudder down my spine and I put my hand on the small of Kelly's back and quickly urged us to move on without hesitation....here is where our perils increase 10 fold.

The saying "ignorance is bliss" could not prove to be more true in this instance. The first time we walked the path for 40 minutes we were completely ignorant of the deadly spiders presence. We joyfully and merrily skipped along the path like two lovers with a childlike sense of adventure. Our return trip, however, was torture. It turns out that Lamma Island is notorious for housing these spiders. These spiders are known as the "Golden-Orb" spiders or "Nephila" and are monstrous. They have been said to be highly venomous and their bites are similar to those of the Black Widow (although not quite as potent). In a span of 20 minutes ON THE SAME PATH as before, we counted 15. They. Were. Every. Where. They were also massive. My manhood was put into question when my wife observed me ducking my head and running in sporadic movements along the path out of pure fear. It did not help that these things built their webs above the walking path, 2 feet above my head. After we walked for an hour, trying to find a beach, we saw so many of these spiders that I couldn't take it anymore. I wanted off the island. It would have been one thing to see one or two of these spiders, but I did not have to look for more than 5 seconds to find another one of these things. It ruined my experience on the island. We did meet a very outspoken Hong Kong kid of 7 or 8 named Kenneth who thought it necessary to follow us for the next two hours. Don't worry, he was afraid of the spiders too. I had someone to bond with and something to hate with Kenneth. He also likes Michael Jackson and showed us his moonwalk.

I show you this picture again for reference of how narrow our trail was compared to the growth surrounding the trail. These spiders were dwelling everywhere. Even in this picture there are several of them lurking in the shadows.

Click here for a Youtube video of these spiders. *Note, this isn't' my video*

Despite living in fear, we finally left the island around 4:30 and toured the comfortable, spider free city of Hong Kong. We stayed at the harbor for a while and walked around Hong Kong for a bit longer. The following day we had some Dim sam and the took the journey back to the Hong Kong airport to go home. Immediately upon arrival at the Seoul-Incheon airport, we met Kelly's parents who actually beat us to Korea.

China Chronicles: Hong Kong part 1

2010-08-14T11:18:00.008+09:00

Fear not weary readers. The few of you who have followed this blog like the Twilight Series will be happy to know that yes, there are about 3 more installments to the China Chronicles (including this one). Those who have stumbled into this blog expecting nothing but a quick refresher will find themselves more than overwhelmed with the daunting task of getting caught up.

On Tuesday July 27th, we left the Astor House Hotel early to catch a glimpse of some old people dancing on The Bund. To our disadvantage it was raining, so we were unable to catch a glimpse of elderly Chinamen and women dancing to the sweet sound of jazz in the morning. We were then faced with the decision to loiter in the rainy streets with our luggage or to just go to the airport. We quickly decided the latter. We arrived at the Shanghai airport for an 11:30 am departure. We were happy about this becuase it is only a 2hr flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong, and we would essentially have almost a full day in Hong Kong. We played it safe and got to the airport about an hour and a half before departure. Check in went smoothly and we even had enough time for some woman to try to sell me a rip off version of Rosetta Stone. After I expressed no interest in learning Chinese, we proceeded to our gate. To our luck, wouldn't you know it, our plane was broken. We were overjoyed to stay in the Shanghai airport for about 7 hours. We both figured "Screw Hong Kong, this airport is way better." So instead of taking off at 11:30am we were able to leave at 5pm. To me, it was a great use of a precious day of vacation that was long in the waiting. Thanks Dragon Airlines! We'll be sure to use you again.

So now we arrived in Hong Kong at 9pm instead of 1:30pm. Some would say it was a setback but others would count it a blessing. Why would it be a blessing? Because at 9pm, on Tuesday July 27th, there was a typhoon! For those who are not aware of monsoon season, a typhoon is a rain storm of biblical proprotions. Our raining woes that evening and the proceeding day could be comparable to Forrest Gump.

We arrived at our hostel in Causeway Bay around 10pm. It was not as nice as Astor House, but it was doable and certainly cheaper. After all, it was a hostel.

The next day we met up with Holly Schoephoerster who was in Hong Kong the same time as us AND stayed in the same hostel (hostel was not coincidence, but Hong Kong was). We decided to poke around Hong Kong a bit. We first started with the our immediate area of Causeway Bay and we expanded outwards. While I've never been to San Francisco, Hong Kong had a feel of San Fransico because of the tram/trolley systems.

While these were not the fastest nor most efficient means of getting around Hong Kong, they were fun to ride on once or twice. Subway always prevails.

Most, if not all buses in Hong Kong are double decker. This was taken on the second level on with a slow shutter speed.

After an hour or so of poking around, we took a bus to Stanley Bay (per request of cousin Leigh) Leigh, we did not take the 2 bus, we took 6X. There we were, able to see a market, see some of the ocean and have lunch. Kelly and I bought a painting of downtown Hong Kong, and I found my flag patches (an explanation for another time). The typhoon also decided to stop raining for our portion of Stanley Bay, but quickly resumed once we got back downtown.

Stanley Bay

More of Stanley Bay. Note the break in clouds. That didn't last long.

Holly and Kelly behind a sweet backdrop. Also seeking shelter from the rain.

Posing.

This was hanging in front of the restaurant where we ate lunch. Nothing gets my appetite going faster than a roasted duck hanging by its neck.

A more suitable lunch.

Deliciousness.

Bits-o-pieces of the market.

Kelly at the bay.

This is a good/misrepresentation of how hard it was raining day one. They were standing under a gutter, but it still was raining stinkin hard!

Hong Kong is uber cool. Part 2 coming soon.

China Chronicles: Shanghai Part 2

2010-08-10T20:29:00.024+09:00

Shanghai is a very unique city. Shanghai is a city that lives in about 4 time periods. Ancient, really stinkin' old, modern and future. In Shanghai you can find ancient street quarters, old French and English concessions, and "futuresque" architecture. Like Hong Kong, Shanghai was somewhat a product of the British and French. During the Opium Wars, the British opened their first concession in 1842, and the French followed in 1847. By the 1930's Shanghai was the busiest ports in all of Asia. Opium, silk and tea were the main exports that drew people from distant lands to Shanghai. Business was a boomin' (and still is). The Western influence is very evident here. There is one very unique area called "The Bund" which epitomizes this influence.

Along the strip of "The Bund". Here you can see some European architecture along the road.

More along The Bund.

"The Bund is symbolic of old China."

During our first day of our stay in Shanghai, we first went to the Shanghai World Financial Observatory (see Part 1.) Following our stellar observations from the only building in the world that can achieve such a view, we galavanted throughout the city (with our Lonely Planet in hand) with hopes of running into the Jade Buddha Temple. This task proved more difficult than originally intended, but we prevailed and found the place.

This temple was interesting, offering different perspectives on the Buddhist religion. We were unaware of the different gods involved with the Chinese variant of Buddhism.

A plethora of incense was burnt on this day. They burn insense and offer prayers in all four directions.

Inside of the main temple.

One thing that has not gone unnoticed by the Freeburgs while living in Asia is the ever present cicada, locust and other type of insect that flies, lives in trees and bellows their penetrating sound into the depths of the ear canal. Korea is full of them and reaches the decible level some doctors would consider harmful to the human ear. Here in Shanghai we find that they enjoy making little homes for these insects so they can rub their legs and make their peculiar mating call all night long.

Following our visit to the Jade Buddha Temple, we attempted yet again to trek across Shanghai with our Lonely Planet book and serious inhibited sense of direction (that place is a labrynth once you get off the main streets) to the Shanghai Museum. Once we realized we were lost, we hired another taxi to take us to the museum. While we have no picutres of the museum, all I can offer is a picture of us kissing in front of the city center, after all, love was in the air.

The next day, Kelly and I decided to take the grueling subway ride to the ends of outer Shanghai to Qibao Ancient Town (it's really only 11 miles, but that is pretty far outside of a city on a subway). After we concluded the subway portion, we then hired a taxi for a 20 minute excursion to finally reach Qibao. Prior to visiting the ancient town, however, we decided to take a walk through a PORTION of the French Concession. Here we were able to see how an entire district was influenced by the West. Above we can see an old, yet still functioning Catholic church.

Back alleys of Qibao Ancient Town.

The center of the ancient town.

This ancient town was very interesting. It took a long time to get out there, but I think we would do it again with different intentions. We aren't exactly sure what those intentions would entail, but we would have a different game plan upon arrival (we really didn't have any expectations before getting there). One thing we did enjoy, however, was watching Kelly figure out that drinking Coconut Milk out of a coconut that has been sitting in the sun is not very good.

Post ancient town, Kelly and I, after a journey that only Sam and Frodo can rival, made our way to "Old Town" in Shanghai. Old Town is exactly what it sounds like. Old. It is a very large market with amazing renovated, old architecture. While we did not buy many things at this market, because we were ballers on budgets, we did however buy a very nice tea set.

We spent some significant time in a tea shop prior to buying our tea set. We sat down for 30-40 minutes while this very nice woman gave us a lesson on different types of loose leaf teas. We sampled several different teas and had a great time getting to know the owner of the shop.

Samples.

This type of tea can be used for display or drinking. The tea leaf literally bloomed in the hot water and there was a flower. It was one of the best samples we had.

The tea set served on a bamboo coaster. Of course we bought the coasters with the set. Who wouldn't want an authentic Chinese tea set with bamboo serving coasters? What made us more comfortable with buying the tea set was that we knew it was a credible store with quality products. There is a large difference between buying a tea set on the side of the road for $5 and buying from a shop who spends 30-40 minutes educating you on differing types of tea and differing types of tea sets. We're happy with our purchase.

Kelly: happy with our buy in Old Town.

We had to cross this bridge everyday to get to the Astor House Hotel. It had some sort of significant but we never thought to look into it.

Downtown Shanghai from the bridge.

The rest of Shanghai is history. We only spent about 3 days there. A full evaluation and comparison of Shanghai to Hong Kong and other cities will come on China Chronicles: Part 5, so expect to see that then. After our three days in Shanghai, and a very long delay in the airport, we spent the remaing duration of our vacation in Hong Kong. Until next time...

China Chronicles: Shanghai Part 1

2010-08-09T22:20:00.002+09:00

Alas, the culmination of anticipation for our biggest vacation yet in Korea has come to pass. It was a mere five months ago when I had uttered the phrase, "Let's go to China" into Kelly's ears. The sweet, sweet allure of such an idea, festering in our hearts and minds built up increduously. We applied a lot of resources and energy into planning for this trip. Now, like the sweet fondness of childhood memories, China has too passed into memory only to be remembered by pictures that will allow for fabricated memories of the true accounts.

The journey begins July 24th, 2010. A date that has been circled on the calandar and at the heart of attention since April 5th, 2010 when we finally bought our plane tickets. We arrive at Incheon Int'l Airport at 8:00 for a 9:30am departure. Despite a peculiar flight itinerary (a connetion in Taiwain and Hong Kong, ultimately to end up in Shanghai), which will be considered next time we use this particular travel agency, we arrived in Shanghai at a decent hour.

Our adventure begins upon immediate arrival of Shanghai. When leaving an airport to go to an inner-city, there are usually 3 options. These options include bus, taxi or train. Shanghai offered all of these options, but there was a 4th dimension to the Shanghai metro system that proved too alluring even for the shallowest of billfolds. It is called the Maglev. This train operates on magnetic levitation and can reach speeds of 431 km/h. These speeds help create very smooth, pleasant trips from the airport to nearly central Shanghai in just 7 minutes (as opposed to about 45 minutes to an hour via subway).

When finally arriving in Shanghai, we hired a taxi to take us to our hotel. A brief but detail explanation of our hotel is in order, as it has quite a historical footprint in Shanghai and China. The name of our hotel was called the Astor House Hotel. Our friends at Lonely Planet recommended it for us, and we decided to spoil ourselves a little bit with this hotel. We didn't know what we were getting ourselves into until we arrived.

According to the hotel, (which what it says I base as fact because it knows it's own history better than I do) it was constructed in 1846 with its original name as Richard Hotel. It was the first well known, luxurious hotel run by Western businessmen in China as well as in the Far East and has a long history and proud significance. The first electric light in China was lit there; the first telephone of China was installed there; the first stock exchange of China was declared open there; Western films were first shown there after they were introduced to China. There also have been many distinguished guests who have stayed at this particular hotel. Some include President Grant in 1879 and Albert Einstein in 1922. This. Place. Was. Awesome.

It was a very old, but very nice hotel. Our room was the executive business suite and we utilized everything we could. Including mini-bar and terrycloth robes. What was most appealing to us was its location. We were right on the Bund with about a 20 step walk to.....

...this view. The Shanghai skyline boasts of fantastic modern architecture. There are three towers worth to note here. On the far left is the Oriental Pearl Tower. This is a unique tower where a tv and radio station are held. It is well lit at night and very cool. To the right of that with the bright,white crown on top is the Jin Mao Tower and the behemoth blue "bottle-opener" behind the Jin Mao Tower is the Shanghai World Financial Tower. The Shanghai World Financial Tower, up until recently, was the second tallest tower in the world (now third). It is China's tallest, boasting a ridiculous 492m (1, 614 ft) height. I mean, this thing is big. It was recently completed in 2008 so it is a very young tower, as well.

Oriental Pearl Tower (468m: 1,535 ft)

Jin Mao Tower (421m: 1,380ft)

Shanghai World Financial (494.4m: 1,614.2 ft)

Shanghai World Financial and Jin Mao together.

Amongst the behemoths stand other beautiful buildings in the cluster of central Shanghai.

This is a view from the observatory in the Shanghai World Financial Tower. It cost us $50 USD, but it was worth being in the world's tallest observatory @ over 100 floors up.

The Jin Mao Tower appeared to have been of equal hight of the Shanghai World Financial from the ground, but it's a much different story looking at the roof of the 7th tallest building in the world.

There is still much more to be said about the remaining nature of the city of Shanghai, including the Western European influence in the early 19th century to today. This, however, remains for the next posting later this week. Stay thirsty, my friends.

Bukhansan

2010-07-15T17:16:00.003+09:00

This past Saturday Kelly and I decided to hike some mountains. I have always had an affinity for mountainous terrain, and I have been desperately trying to stretch that affinity towards Kelly. Kelly has only been on two other hikes with me in the past, so I thought I'd start the "immersion" process here in Korea.

Bukhansan National Park is relatively close to our humble abode in Ilsan. From the minute we left our doorstep, the short journey on the subway, a quick pit stop at a very, very busy restroom and a ride with a very fast and erratic taxi driver took us roughly an hour. Of course, if we had the pleasure of owning a car and the sanitiy to drive in Korea, the trip would probably have only been 15-20 minutes.

Considering that we have never lived so close to a national park with mountains (less than 20km), we have always had Bukhansan on our list of things to do, but have always put it off because of the simplicity of going there (it seems a bit backward I know). Last week I finally decided that we have put it off long enough, and should go in the middle of July. For those of you who do not live in Korea, and are unaware of what a July feels like here, you wouldn't understand the insanity involved. Mid April or late May would have been perfect, yet we decided to go mid-July when you practically drown in humidity. I never knew I was capable of so much sweat and have likewise never seen a female sweat as much as my lady.

I will give a brief rundown of Bukhansan from what Wikipedia can give me. For starters, Bukhansan averages 5 million visitors and is/was/still is in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the national park with the highest number of visitors per square foot. It was evident on Saturday as well. There was a grip load of people there.

While Bukhansan National Park was only established in 1983, the activity in the area dates much farther back. This wall in the picture above, for example, has some foundational remains from way back in 132 AD. Most of the wall was rebuilt and expanded in the 12th century for protection from outside invaders. That's stankin' old and stankin' sweet.

The area served more purposes than just building walls that keep out the bad guys. There are also a lot of temples riddled througout the rough terrain, making very serene and surreal areas for temple getaways.

This was about 3/4 of the way up on our hike (some of the wall from 132 AD behind as well). We thought it was the top and only realized that it was a resting point, and we had about 45 more minutes to climb. You got to have a lot of persuasive skills if you have a wife who was not expecting to hike for nearly 3 hours in constant incline. She did great though and I'm proud of her.

The peak in which we climbed was called Baekundae and was the highest of the main three. It was sitting at around 836.5m (or 2,744 ft) and offered spectacular views of the park. It took us about 3 hours to hike up and about 1.5 hours to hike down. That was really nice. We left around 9a and got back around 5 pm, a great day of hiking.

This was actually the road that we walked on to get to the trail head. It was a really nice walk until we had to climb boulders.

There was this weird, village type thing that did not look like it belonged in the park, but it was there and it was cool.

There are more pictures available on our flickr account.

Recent Happenings

2010-06-20T21:34:00.001+09:00

June has been a fairly inactive month for us for a few reasons. The first of which is finances. We spent a lot of money in May going to Tokyo, and we are now financially preparing for our summer vacation to China. This vacation (which will be expanded on later) includes 3 days in Shangahi and 4 days in Hong Kong. We will then return to China late August for a weekend in Beijing. There are a lot of expenses going into this trip. One of which is the dreaded visa fees. Americans need to really open their wallets if they want to go to China, having to fork over 190,000 Won per person. So just for us to enter the country, the two of us forked over 380,000 Won last Thursday for this upcoming adventure. Which we will say is roughly $300.00 (give or take). While June has been inactive, there have been several fun things to report on. Here it goes.

World Cup

The World Cup has obviously began and there has been a lot of excitement over here. I have never seen such excitement for a sporting event than here in Korea. Last Saturday, during SoKo's opener vs Greece we went down to City Hall to watch the game on very very large screens outside.

A word that gives this experience the best (yet still undermines the night) is pure pandemonium. I am not exaggerating when I say this, but there were about a trillion people packed in the streets of Seoul that night (as well as the next Thursday, in which we decided to go back). We stayed in the crowd for the first half of the game and there were moments of actual claustrophobia. There were so many people it was overwhelming, and this was only to watch the game on TV. Korea won that Saturday vs Greece (2-0) but lost the next Thursday to Argentina (4-1).

Photography

Recently, I have been trying to expand my horizons in the photography world. There are a few steps that I have taken. The first of which was done a year ago, which was to buy a DSLR. In May, I decided to buy two extra lenses (I will not get into detail about those, as they will not make any sense to a non photographer). I have also joined two photography groups here in Seoul. The first group meets about once a month and we get together and learn more about our cameras and take pictures. We actually had a meeting yesterday at the fish market here in Seoul. It was great meeting like-minded people and utter geniuses of photography. There is so much to learn about photography that it is so overwhelming it makes me just want to forget about making good pictures and to just take pictures. Fear not my friends, I will not give up (too much of an investment!) I have created a flickr page to upload some of my better shots (as opposed to my Picasa Web Albums), which can be accessed through my Facebook page. I have also joined the Seoul Photo Club, which consists of about 500 members. Every week the group admininstrator picks the best photo and it is published in the Korean Herald (fingers crossed here, guys). This is one reason why living in Seoul is so great. There are many groups that cater to the foreign population (as well as Korean) which offers great opportunities to meet people and do some amazing things.

My Green Thumb

I have always wanted to plant flowers and vegetables. If you ask my brother Dave, he will tell you how I tried to grow an avocado tree from an avocado pit in his backyard. I gave up after a week and he makes fun of me for it. In May I had similar ambitions. We bought tomato seeds (with no idea on how to grow them) as well as seeds to other eye appealing flowers. I've learned some things about growing flowers. Flowers, among other things, represent the beautiful and intricate life cycle.

The first stage starts at the seed. Life is beginning for the seed to make the journey into full bloom.

The flower is now into the world, soaking in all the elements have to offer.

I had another picture of the life cycle of a raging, beautiful pot of flowers. Things were looking good for my plants. They then decided to take a turn for the worse, and went straight too...

Death. I don't know what happened, but they suddenly started to die. Some flowers just can't hack it in the real world.

Aunt and Uncle

On a more positive side of life... Kelly and I are now an Aunt and Uncle to a beautiful baby boy. Finley Nathan Freeburg. He was born on June 14th. There were no health problems or pregnancy complications (at least what we know of) and he is residing at home with a happy mother and father. It is situations like these where it makes living in Korea difficult.

*photo courtesy of David and Elizabeth Freeburg*

Tokyo

2010-05-30T20:14:00.001+09:00

Alas, the culmination of excitements and anticipations for the month of May have come to a close. Last weekend, in lieu of Buddha's Birthday, we ventured beyond the boundaries of Korea to a much different and similar culture, Japan. During the Tokyo weekend, the four of us (who have been previously mentioned) toiled in the biggest city in the world. Fortunately our experiences in Seoul helped prepare us well for this weekend. Culture shock was to a minimum and nearly non-existent which allowed us to experience a much different side of Japan.

We left Seoul at 6:45 pm on Thursday night and arrived in Tokyo at 8:45pm, a lovely two hour flight (which, I might add, is insufficient if you are watching Forest Gump. I guess that was my fault and should have watched something else). The picture above perfectly encapsulates our curiosities, and above all, confoundedness with the Tokyo metro. Throughout the whole weekend we were (purposely and inadvertantly) comparing and contrasting Tokyo with Seoul, using a point system. If we found something in Tokyo that pleased us which lacked in Seoul, we gave Tokyo a point and vise versa. The Tokyo metro system racked up about a total of -(negative)100 points. The problem with the Tokyo metro is that it is not the Seoul metro, arguably one of the nicests metros in the world (from my standpoint, which could be correct). Tokyo had a great idea to make a enormous metro system way back when (a no brainer for all large cities), and in doing so, created an enormous deficit. In order to relieve that deficit, they decided to privatize their metro system. A privatized metro system means that if you buy, say, an all day ticket on metro A (for $12.00, which is exactly what we did) that all day ticket is rendered worthless on metro B. Lamezoids. Taxi cabs in Tokyo also are ridiculously expensive. More on expense later (note our trip to Ireland, I get bitter with expensive countries and lame currencies).

Capsules

During our stay in Tokyo, we had the privilege of sleeping in a hostel which consisted of capsules in an area of Tokyo called Asakusa. These capsules, as the reader can gather from the picture, are bunk bed style capsules. Each capsule is equipped with their own TV, light, clock, and radio. We also had our own personal locker. There were about 8 beds in a room. You also had your own personal draw shade for privacy. Hostel experiences are always interesting, and while you sacrifice some luxury, they offer the cheapest means to travel. These cost about $15.00 a night. In a city like Tokyo, you need to cut costs where you can, or else you're going to spend a literal fortune.

A 'Pete's Eye View' from inside my personal capsule. The TV's were worthless because, well, I don't speak Japanese. I thought these were very comfortable, once I accepted the fact that it was possible I was going to get attacked by bed bugs (I didn't, however).

Ueno Zoo

The first leg of our Friday morning consisted of visiting Ueno Zoo. This was a very large zoo in Tokyo and had several interesting animals. They also had a Giant Panda but it died of heart failure last year. I felt a piece of my life fall apart when I heard the news.

Watching an elephant.

Lemurs.

This is a Japanese Macaque. Do not be fooled by this deceptive picture of one joyfully playing on a swing. There was actually an epic battle in the Japanese Macaque ring. There were about 30 of these things and there was a showdown. This Macaque was either fleeing from aparent danger, or creating havoc on the rest of the clan. It was fun to watch.

Sumo

We were really intentinal about going to a Sumo Wrestling match while in Tokyo because Sumo is very cultural in Japan. It is a very old sport and one of the only sports in the world that verily holds on to its traditional customs thousands of years ago. The only Sumo arena in Tokyo is in Ryogoko. A ticket to a match was about $50.00 for the nosebleeds, but that ticket lasts all day. Wrestling starts at about 8:00 am and finishes around 6:30pm. It is up to you when you want to go watch the matches. The beginner uber noobs wrestle early in the morning and the heavyweight champions wrestling later in the day, starting at 4:30pm.

One of the things I liked so much about Sumo was how traditional and old the sport is. Every movement in the ring seemingly had some sort of significance. Before wrestling while they are in a squatting position they clap very loud to "get the attention of the gods". The very famous "large stomp" as you see in the picture above symbolizes the wrestlers attempt to "rid the wrestling ring of evil" before the match. The more experienced wrestlers, who have more respect, are able to throw salt in the ring to "bless and prevent any injuries."

The coolest aspect about Sumo was also it's lamest. When you think of a typical sport, especially in Western civilizations, it is very fast paced. Sumo wrestling is almost more ritual than actual wrestling. Up until about a decade ago (possibly more) they put a time limit on the 'pre-rituals' of each match. The time limit now is 4 minutes, whereas there used to not be a time limit. There is a lot of 'face off' and intimidating between the wrestlers and it is actually a very calm sport to watch. The matches themselves only last about 4-7 seconds. The wrestlers only aim is to either make his opponent fall on the ground or push them outside of the ring. A very simple concept.

Tsukiji Fish Market

On Saturday morning, very early in the morning, we went to the biggest fish market in the world. Tsukiji Fish Market. We left our capsule around 5:30 am and got to the market around 7am or so and watched the literal insanity.

There was fish everywhere and a lot of death. Fish heads were a flyin' and blood was spilled in the name of the sushi gods. There were a lot of interesting fish, dead of course, to look at. The most interesting, were, the ....

Tuna. These fish are pretty massive and I have got to credit these guys for the efficiency of the way they clean them. First they gut the unfortunate beasts, then they freeze them, and then cut them to pieces on a large band saw. They cut the head off then cut right down the spine in a matter of seconds. There are a lot of tuna that go through these parts on a daily basis. Japan loves fish.

Tokyo Tower

After the fish market, we meandered around Tokyo for a few hours until we decided to go to Tokyo Tower. Tokyo Tower, interestingly looks very similar to the Eiffel Tower, and is actually 9 or so meters higher than the Eiffel.

What we liked so much about Tokyo Tower was that it was in the heart of Tokyo, offering excellent views of the city. It was a beautiful day and very clear. You can find more pictures on the web albums.

City Night Tour

On Saturday night we went on a city night tour. This tour was about 4 hours and we were able to learn a little more about Tokyo and see some of the night life. We were able to go up to Mori Tower and get some excellent night views of Tokyo. The tour also included a delicious meal at the top of the Washington Hotel.

It was a fantastic short trip. This past weekend got the sweet taste of travel in our mouths and we are already looking forward to the next place of adventure to take place. We already have tickets for Hong Kong and Shanghai at the end of July and we are now anxiously awaiting that trip as well. It was good to finally experience one of the reasons why we decided to come to Korea in the first place, which was to see this part of the world at an affordable price.

Caving

2010-05-13T19:51:00.004+09:00

May (as will be noted in future blogs) has been a long time coming for several months now. Not only did I finish the swashbuckling epic "Three Musketeers", but we were / are able to be a pair of swashbucklers ourselves (I understand I have used this term in past posts, however, it is a sweet use of older lexicon). The weekends of May are nonstop, packed, action / adventure thrillers that Michael Crichton or Dan Brown would salivate over. Unfortunately, the former has recently passed. The month unfolds as this. Weekend 1: (baseball game. FUN and an apropos debut to the month). Weekend 2: Caving trip (expanded below). Weekend 3:Pete Freeburg's Birthday. Ok, not that big of a deal, but we are going bungee jumping that Saturday. Keep your eyes peeled for some epic videos. Weekend 4: Buddha has given us the courtesy of having a birthday that is worth noting in the far east. This birthday has given us a free Friday and a long weekend. Therefore, we 're going to Tokyo from Thursday night-Sunday. It's about a 2 hour flight from here and a perfectly expensive weekend getaway. More on that when time permits.

Allow me to ramble on a more suitable subject. A subject that inspired the creative title of this blog.

As I have just said, we went caving this past weekend. We went with Adventure Korea, the same group we went on the ski trip with in mid-February. This trip took us to the Chungcheongbuk-do Province (central Korea), which was about a 2.5 hour bus ride from Seoul. Another great getaway from the city. The first leg of the trip included a 2.5 hour ferry ride on this river. The day was perfect and the ferry ride on the river spared very little beauty.

There has been a recent fad here in Korea among the foreigners. When I say foreigners, I mean Pete Freeburg, Erik Johnson and Reuben Haggar.I understand that the Lonely Island song "I'm on a Boat" is a bit old, but we've been singing that song a lot lately, and putting us on a ferry for 2.5 hours won't help us stop. That's the reason for the pose, cuz "I'm the king of the world on a boat like Leo."

Near the end of the ferry ride. Note the greasy hair. I ate a bag of Korean knock off "Bugels"And my greasy fingers probably found their way into my fair hair.

After the ferry ride we went into a cave with even greasier hair. The cave was called Gosu Cave that runs up to 1,300 meters deep. This cave was not what I was expecting. I have been in a couple of touristy caves in my day, so I had some reservations prior to entering the cave. When I say this cave was not what I was expecting, I mean it was much cooler than what I thought. It took us about an hour (possibly hour and a half) to walk through this cave. There were spiral staircases galore. This cave was huge and pretty awesome. Data from "The Goonies"was behind me and was chomping at the bit to rig some booby traps to stop the Fratellis.(I hope Data was Korean, or else I just made a gross generalization.)

If I ever had any doubts about the existence of faires, they were foiled this weekend. I found their bathing place. Next time I see an oil company trying to cut down a rainforest, I know where to find the last remaining defenses.

I'm reluctant to put any more pictures of the cave on this blog, as the average onlooker who was not there would begin to think they all look the same. Regardless, if you are still interested in more pictures, you can verily look on our picasa webpage.

After Gosu cave we came here, Dodamsanbong Peak. In order to give you more information about this place, I shall briefly cut and paste what Adventure Korea told us it was. "These areas were visited many times by numerous scholars during the Joseon Period ( 1392-1910), and contains many historically and culturally important relics. Three rocks create a large "S" figure as it stands tall in the middle of Namhangang River. This is the only place in the world where you can see such three longest rocks protrude in the middle of a river. "

I say "sweet" and get a picture taken in front of it with my lady.

FYI, this was our ferry boat. If you were "on the shore, then you sure ain't me-O

Recent Happenings.

2010-04-22T22:21:00.003+09:00

There are many times I find it difficult to convince myself that I need to publish a blog post. On one hand it makes it easy to tell people who care/know about my blog/know how to use the internet what we are doing in SoKo in one fell swoop as opposed to telling roughly the same story numerous times. There are also times, however, when I am too lazy to write a post and I feel like I don't need to update on much. One thing that I find to be true and most common for all travelers is that there is an air of arrogance and boasting between them. Most travelers have this incessant need to tell other people where they have been and what they have done. If you get a handful of travelers around a cocktail table you'll know what I'm talking about. While I find myself in that category I try to curb my enthusiasm when sharing stories with people who have never left state side. That is why I decided to write a blog in the first place because I can brag all I want and nobody has to listen.

I digress.

The month is April, and the last I have written a post was April 1st. Twenty days has been a good break for me but terribly long (I'm assuming) for my readers. While my writing style hooks a reader faster than J.K. Rowling, I figured it would be apropos to allow some time to pass before anything significant happens in our lives. With that being said, I will start this epic post.

The Others

At this point Kelly and I have been living in Korea for about 4 full months and the possibility of having people come visit us was about as mysterious and unpredictable as "The Others" from Lost. We have had the pleasure of having Ms. Meghan Donner and Mr. Drew Gernand visit us for about a week. The living quarters were tight but it was comfortable. Drew visited us from Thailand and Meghan flew all the way from Minnesota for the week. It was a great time.

Cherry Blossom Festival

One cool thing about coming to Korea in the winter time is that we are able to see the sweet transformation in the spring. Blossoming trees are a boomin. Two trees in particular are in full bloom and they look beautiful. The first of which is the magnolia and the second is the cherry blossom. Cherry blossoms, like in Japan, are everywhere. The cherry blossom festival is a pretty big festival, however, Korea is having their worst/longest winter in a long time rendering a late blossoming season. One of the perks of living here is that we are able to see them regardless of how late they are.

A couple enjoying the festival.

This is a common food vendor stand. Octopus. I will never eat it, but will certainly take a picture of it.

Korean Baseball

We were able to experience our first baseball game this past Saturday. We have heard a lot of good reviews about baseball in Korea, and let me tell you that it is an experience much different from the MLB. The first aspect of this game that I very much appreciated was that it was my first outdoor baseball game. I know that sounds crazy but I have only been to Twins games in the Metrodome, not an ideal place to watch baseball. The second aspect was that we went with some good people. We were able to go to the game with Mr. Reuben Haggar, Sir Erik Johnson, Miss Holly Schoephoerster, Count Drew Gernand, and Mme Kelly Freeburg.

The enthusasim at this baseball game was unlike anything I have experienced at a sporting event. Well, I have experienced a lot of energy and excitement at a baseball game, but not for 9 straight innings. Before we went to this game a fellow coworker of ours stated "every pitch is like the final pitch of the World Series." While I took that comment with a mega huge grain of salt, he was not too far off. If the batter made contact with the baseball, I thought people were going to charge the field, only to find out it went foul. There were cheerleaders and guys who flamboyantly stood on a deck and led chants. People were going crazy. It was the most fun I have ever had at a baseball game. (Those bags were our version of rally caps. They were passed out to everyone and the visitors side was a sea of orange bags.)

Lake Park Musical Fountain

As mentioned in a previous blog post we live near a big attraction called Lake Park. It is allegedly the largest man made lake in Asia. At one end of this park lies, what I believe, the 8th wonder of the world. Not really, but it is incredible. There is an enourmous musical fountain. When Kelly and I first got here in December, we noticed this attraction. We have been greatly anticipating the debut of this musical fountain for 4 long months. The show is 1 hour long and from April-June it is only on the weekends. Througout the summer it is everynight.

The debut of this musical fountain from a lifetime in hypernation lied on the same weekend that our friends visited us. The first night we missed the show by an hour, coming at 8:30 which was the exact same time it ended. We then decided to come back the following night but it got cut short. We were, however, able to go back the next weekend and were able to watch the full show.

The show was amazing. It was very relaxing just to be able to sit and watch this show for an entire hour. If we were not mesmerized in the streaming lights and flowing water we could just relax with good conversatoin.

We certainly will make regular visits to this fantastic show. Click to view a short clip of the fountain, or look on our web album.

Or click this one.

Scouring the land

2010-04-04T16:52:00.003+09:00

Make no mistake for those who know me well, know that I am an advocate of adventure. I'm also an advocate for documentation of adventure in a skillful and craftful manner (I mean photography, a world in which I do not fully understand but am beginning to consider). One reason why Korea is a perfect match for Pete Freeburg is because it caters well to my obsessions. I love being married, check (wife is here). I love traveling, check. I love hiking, check. I love taking pictures, check. I love awkward moments with people I cannot communicate with, check. I love trying to observe cultural complexities and mysteries that seem to make no sense, check. Korea houses many of my opiates.

Korea's national sport is Taekwondo. I know this because I see gyms all over the place and nearly all of my students practice Taekwondo. They even wear their uniforms to school to prove it. I am convinced that one of my students has his Taekwondo uniform sewn onto him, because I have never seem him in anything other than that uniform for weeks. The reason I'm discussing Taekwondo is because hiking, as it appears, is more popular than even their national sport. Boo ya. I love hiking, too.

Korea is a very mountainous penninsula such that you do not have to look very far, nor travel very far to see mountains to hike them and enjoy their beauty. North Korea is actually more mountainous and scenic in that dimension, which is why prior to the Korean War, North Korea was actually more prosperous than their democratic counterpart on the basis of natural resources. North Korea had more natural resources and factories (such as ore and so forth), which made it appear that they were the prevailing country, where as South Korea was doing miserably. It was up until the 60's or 70's when South Korea realized they needed to funnel their energy into a working economy to prosper, specifically in technology development. To this day, North Korean leaders have also lost their minds, which in no part aids an already failing economy.

Regardless, I knew that hiking was popular in Korea but I just didn't know how to get my hands on it. I could see the mountains and I knew if I got on the right subway or the right bus, I could get to them. I just have the problem of not being able to talk to anyone who knows the answers. **Introduce a legitimate functionality of Facebook as a powerful networking tool.** There are many Facebook groups that cater to foreigners in Korea, one that I found (with direction from Holly Bonnema and Kaley Eastman) is called Seoul Hiking Group. This group does a lot of hiking and adventure type things on the weekends and are very cheap. So cheap, in some instances they are free. Boo ya. It is also a great way to meet some other cool (and sometimes lame) foreigners in Seoul.

Suraksan and Bulamsan

The last weekend of March we got our first taste of hiking in Korea. We went to Suraksan and Bulamsan, about 1.5 hours away from our apartment but about 25 mintues via subway outside of downtown Seoul. So it is relatively close. We met some great people and had some amazing hiking. It was really awesome. One problem, I might add, is that whenever Kelly and I plan to do something fun outdoors on the weekends it usually is very cloudy and hazy. This is OK, but usually 9 out of 10 times the next day in which we are not planning anything, it is really sunny and about 10 degrees warmer. Korea is playing hard to get...and I like it. We are very much anticipating Spring and Summer, as it will be a completely different experience. While it pains me to say this, I cannot upload any photos on this blog of that trip because I shot all my pictures in RAW, rendering the file size very large. They are, however, up on the Picasa Web Album. If you are not too lazy to click on the link on the right of the blog then you can see them there! :)

Yeosoo, Suncheon Man, odong do, Youngchi San

This past weekend I went with the Seoul Hiking Group to southern Korea for a day of hiking. We left a subway station in downtown Seoul at 11:30 p.m. on Friday night and rode a bus for about 5 hours through the night. We started a sunrise hike at 5:20 am and hiked until around noon when we had lunch. It was so nice to get outside of Seoul and see some more landscape of Korea and some smaller towns.

What makes this particual trip so appealing to many hikers is because there are some areas of the mountains that are completely covered in Rhododendron flowers. In full bloom, the hills appear to be purple. It was very beautiful for us even though they were not in full bloom. Still, there were many blooming flowers.

After lunch we went to this island that was completley tourist-ized. It was a beautiful island, very small but developed. It was more of a big park but covered in trees.

The shoreline of this island. The island itself takes about 30-45 minutes to walk around.

This is the singing fountain. I have a video of it, but I can't seem to find it. The fountains were, at one point, in rhythmical coordination with Queen's, "We Will Rock You." Remember cultural oddities I try to observe? That was one of them. Why Queen with a musical fountain on a tourist island?

After the island we went to a nature reserve. It was once a huge bay but has since dried up. It is now, according to our hiking leader who organized this trip, the 5th largest swamp in the world.

The view of the wetland from the highest observation point.

Once again, all of the pictures are on the Picasa Web Album. If you want your life to be changed forever, if you want something to tell your grandchildren, if you are looking for ways to acheive world peace, then I suggest you check them out.

Hypothetical Situations

2010-03-26T21:48:00.002+09:00

One of my evening classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 6:20-7:20 consists of 9, 13 year old girls. These girls can be very loud and can be obnoxious, at times. Today, during class we had to go through a list of several hypothetical situations, and we had to make up our own answers. The situations started off simple, but as we went on, we were required to make our own answers. The first few were simple. "If you were on a crowded bus and you saw an old woman standing, would you give her her seat?" These questions then turned into more imaginative ones such as, "If you were invisible, what would you do?" These girls, to me, had some hilarious answers. While there were a host of strangely humerous answers, I only chose a handful (as my memory permits) to share. Keep in mind that these are all girls.

me: "If you won a million dollars in the lottery, what would you do with it?"
student a: "I would buy everything in the world..."
me: "That's impossible. A million dollars is not that much if you want to do that."
student a: "I would buy everything I want."
me: "What if you want something that's more than a million dollars?"
student a: ".....I would buy a computer."

me: "If you could travel back in time, where would you want to go?"
student c: "I would want to go back to when I was 1."
me: "Really? You could travel to any time in history. You could travel to see the dinosaurs or live during the Jaeson dynasty. You would really want to go back to when you were 1?"
student c: "Ok ok I would want to go back and see the dinosaurs."
me: "What would you do once you saw them?"
student c: "I would find a tyrannasar and (in a boxing motion) fight it."
me: "You would want to travel back in time to box a T-Rex?"
student c: "Teacher, how old are you?"

me: "If you had any superpower in the world, what would you do?"
student b: "I would punch Peter Teacher."
me: "That's the first thing you would do?"
student b: "Then I would fly."

me: "Ok, if you were able to turn invisible, and could do anything you want, what would you do?"
student d: "I would travel to Boston to see my cousin."
me: "But you would be invisible, he wouldnt' know you were there!"
student d: "That's ok, I would just play with myself."

Birthdaypalooza

2010-03-16T17:41:00.003+09:00

March 15th was Kelly's birthday and we had an entire weekend of festivities to celebrate her day. Living in such a large city such as Seoul has its many perks. There is much availability of fun things to do. This weekend, like a couple of swashbucklers, we spared no expense in celebrating Kelly's 23rd. On Saturday we spent the day with some friends from our alma mater. We met at Gwanghwamun Square and visited the Gyeongbokgung Palace (see below). We spent several hours walking around the palace. It was much bigger than we thought it was going to be and involved a great deal of walking.

The entrance of Gyeongbokgung

This is "The Blue House". It is the President's home. It is not quite as cool as The White House, but it is still a beautiful home and at the base of a mountain. Security is not as crazy as The White House, but it's up there.

Kelly and I in front of The Blue House. It is the only place you can get a picture shot of it.

Cooking Nanta

In the evening we met up with a couple of ladies of whom we met on our Adventure Korea ski trip. We went to a show called Cooking Nanta. Essentially, this show was like STOMP, the Broadway rendition. There was a cast of 4 and they were all chefs. They made rhythmic music from their kitchen utensils while following a story line and cooking real food. The premise of the show was simple. They had an hour to make an entire meal for a wedding, and throughout that whole hour they had to rhythmically deal with romance, rilvary and numerous other perils involved in a kitchen.

Kelly and I bought matching sweatshirts. Photo courtesy of Holly Bonnema.

Waiting for Cooking Nanta to begin

Kelly had the privilege to participate in the show. The audience was divided into two teams. Red team and Blue team. The cooks needed to make some mandu for this wedding party and they needed the audiences' help (clever). They picked two people out of the audience and Kelly was the one picked for the red team. We won. Whoop.

Riverdance

On Sunday night we went to Riverdance at the Sejong Center. This place was huge and the show was amazing. Kelly had seen the show once before and she claims it is what made her fall in love with Ireland. The show was amazing and we had a blast. No participation from our end this time but we still enjoyed ourselves.

Kelly getting pumped for the show.

In the lobby of the Sejong Center

This was a very big place. If you can see them, there are TV monitors behind every seat in the lower level. I think it mostly serves for subtitles during various shows (Riverdance included). They also show some commercials during intermission. Crazy, right?

Outside of Sejong.

Feel free to look at more pictures in our Picasa Web Albums.

Pete's Run and Jump

2010-02-15T21:45:00.000+09:00

Pete's Run and Jump

Lunar New Year

2010-02-15T20:17:00.002+09:00

"Lunar New Year"

(sung to the tune of The Mamas & The Papas)

Lunar New Year. A such important holiday for the Koreans to celebrate. The custom in Korea during Lunar New Year is for everyone to leave town and visit their families, taking a day or so off of work to do such. Kelly and I used it as an excellent excuse to do something fun with our 3-day weekend. There is an organization in Korea called Adventure Korea, and it caters to the foreign crowd here in Korea. Adventure Korea offers many trips around Korea doing special, unique trips such as the Lunar New Year Ski Trip. Because everyone is visiting their families, ski resorts such as Pheonix Park is not as populated (although still very busy in Korea standards) as most weekends.

This ski trip was my very first time skiing, and Kelly's second. Regardless, we went into the slopes for the first time not knowing what to do or how to do it. Kelly and I picked it up very fast and the trip turned out very fun. We skiied from 12:30-4:30pm and 6:30-9:30pm on Saturday, and from 8:30am-4:30pm on Sunday. So we skiied for about 15 total hours. Towards the end of the ski trip we got very good. I attempted a few green squares and one of the slopes I went on was actually part of a black diamond. The max slope I went on was 25 degrees. It's hard not to be a little proud when I was able to do a semi-real black diamond.

This was just before my green square/black diamond run. I only fell one time after going down this slope 4 times!

I didn't really know what to expect from the mountains in Korea. I was unaware of the mountain range being in Seoul since we are only able to see a little bit. Pheonix Park is about a 3 1/2 hour bus ride out of Seoul. When we arrived at the resort I was surprised to see the beautiful mountains. My best comparison of these mountains would be the Appalachian Mountains? They were pretty tall. Regardless, the slopes were much higher and steeper than Minnesota. After talking with other foreigners, from what I understand, the rating system of slopes in ski resorts are very inconsistent. A black diamond in Minnesota could be similar to some beginner/intermediate slopes at Pheonix Park. Some of the runs were pretty long. There was a gondola at this ski resort that took you to the top of the mountain. It was about an 11 minute ride and it was almost twice as fast as the normal chair lift.

For lodging we stayed at a youth hostel. As you can see the rooms were bunkbeds and housed 8 people. We met some really cool people during this trip and shared a room with them. You could walk outside of the hostel and be within 100 feet of some chair lifts. Our window overlooked the slopes. We were able to see some sweet tricks in the extreme park (half pipe, grind rails, etc.).

Our hostel group.

In conclusion, Kelly and I shredded some serious gnar. I was happy to spit some powder from my skis once in a while. I think Kelly and I fell less than 15 times between the two of us during 15 hours of ski time. We cannot wait to get home, buy some skis for ourselves, and hit up the gnar again. More pictures of the ski trip are on our Picasa Web Album. Feel free to check them out.

Classroom frustrations

2010-02-10T20:17:00.000+09:00

I love teaching here in Korea and there are sometimes when teaching is better than others (i.e., the kids are not as wild, they pay attention and they are pleasant to be around). There are other times, however, when teaching can push your patience to the limit where even the Dalai Lama could not resist an explosion or two.

Here are some examples from this last week alone.

me: "what continent do you live in"
students : "....................."
me: "do you live in Africa?"
students: "Mexico."
me:" Mexico is a country, you don't live in Mexico, look at the map. What other countries are you near on this map?"
students:".....Australia."
me: "oh come on, you live in this continent. Don't you know what continent you live in? You live in Asia, you are Asians."
students: "yes yes teacher."
me: "ok, so China, Japan, South Korea, the Phillippines are all in what continent?"
students: "..............teacher.....what?"
me: "YOU LIVE IN ASIA!!!"
students: "teacher what?"

*same class*

me: "ok, were going to play some hangman (to kill some time). I will think of a word and you guess letters."
student 1: "amphibian"
me: "no, thats not the point, do not guess the whole word, just guess letters."
student 2: "zoologist"
me: "no, do not guess the entire word, I know we are reviewing the unit words, so don't just go through the word box and guess the words. The point of the game is to guess the word by guessing letters."
student 3: "microscope"
me: "ok I am going to start deducting points to the next person who guesses the entire word without guessing a letter first."
student 4: "Q"
me: "just out of curiosity, why would you guess Q? We are reviewing our unit words and none of them have a Q in them?"
student 5: "X"
me: "again, there are no words with an X in them. Do you guys understand what we are doing here? Here's a hint, try guessing either A, E, I or U. There is a good chance the word has one of those letters in them."
student 6: teacher me teacher...V."
me: "didn't you just hear what I said?"
student 1: "reptile"
me: "ok, we're doing something else..."

Billy: "Peter teacher do you live in Korea?"
me: "Billy, do you think I commute to Korea everyday from America?"
Billy: "....no"
me: "then where do you think I live?"
Billy: "....I think you live in Korea."