and then 5 months passed by...

You know when you're driving in a parking lot and everything is going smoothly then all of a sudden that person who is not paying a bit of attention turns right in front of you forcing you to slam on your brakes? I feel like that's how life was for a little while. Everything was going smoothly and then all of a sudden something pops up, out of nowhere, and forces you to stop. It's not always a bad thing, but just one of those things that makes you have to slam on the brakes and decide to either take a minute to chill out, laugh it off, and then continue on your way or completely stop and let it drag you down for the rest of the day or however long you need to get over it. Personally, I prefer option one, but life doesn't always work out that way, especially when life happens to be a series of those cars pulling in front of you.

Living life in another country can be amazing, but no matter where you are it is easy to get in your comfort zone and forget to actually experience every day. For a while, I got in my comfort zone. I thought I knew what was next and the adventures became less frequent. They didn't seem as important. Teaching was getting pretty dull as well. Then, the first 'car pulled out in front of me.' Actually, it was more like a monster truck. Suddenly, I needed to really and truly figure out what I was going to do next. My co-teachers were asking me every week whether or not I wanted to stay another year. At that point I felt I had no other option than to stay, even though, at the time, I felt it wasn't what I wanted. I thought I knew what I wanted, but that wasn't an option anymore. After that, well, you know...when it rains it pours. It took me quite a while to realize that if I really was considering staying in Korea another year, I needed to get out of my comfort zone again, start adventuring, work harder, and do the best I could to chill out, laugh it off, and continue on my way.

Traveling 1: I went to the Philippines with Maggie and was definitely taken out of my comfort zone. It was a bit interesting at times, but an amazing experience overall. It is just really strange going from a country where not even the police have guns to a country where almost every establishment has armed guards (including our hostel). Cebu was very eye opening and definitely something I needed to experience. I may not be as tough as I thought :P The streets were very interesting to walk around and for the most part, the people were very kind. It was just a whole new world I never had seen before. We went to Magellan's Cross and a market, but after being followed around for a bit by some guy one day, Maggie and I chose to scratch the plans for the rest of the day and take a taxi back to our hostel. Then we left Cebu for the remainder of the vacation and went to Bohol. We had had enough of the city and were ready to explore this neighboring island and beach. On Bohol we visited Tarsiers, the Chocolate Hills, adventured through the island, did a lot of snorkeling, and were able to relax some. I had been sick the whole week prior to visiting the Philippines and was not able to scuba dive. We still were able to see sea turtles, amazing coral, an eel, anemone and lots of colorful fish. We were even lucky enough to get stung by hundreds of little jellyfish...haha Unfortunately that meant on the last part of the reef we had to stop snorkeling. I thought it was pretty cool, not sure how much Maggie agreed with that. The place we stayed was a little back from the beach and so cute! We were visited by many geckos and ants and the people that owned it were able to take us around when we went on our day adventure inland. I am very happy I went and would love to go back to explore different areas another time.

School: I actually started getting a lot more busy. I was so bored with being "game girl" and just thinking of activities for every class during school. I started to work more on supplemented material and teaching more myself. Makes it much more exciting. After school was amazing with my beginners, but the intermediate kids decided to check out. The book we were using was crap, which didn't help me or the students be very motivated. I was able to make it more exciting for the beginners and do just enough to keep the intermediate kids working. You win some, you lose some. I've definitely learned that I need to sit down and read an ENTIRE book before teaching it. The book had many misspelled words and taught things that I, as a native English speaker, would NEVER say. haha oh well. Unfortunately, these afterschool classes are cancelled for the next year. I hear that we will have something else coming our way, but no clue as to what that is yet. I am currently working at my school's English Winter Camp for a week. It is very low-key and I'm mostly just playing and talking with the kids as much as possible. The three weeks prior to this camp I worked at the MOE overnight English Camp. It was a lot of work; we taught 10 periods a day and had to stay in the dorms at night. We were at a university so it was very nice, but I am definitely not use to having roommates anymore, let alone 5 girls. I did meet some amazing people both foreign and Korean that I am very excited to keep in touch with. I also absolutely loved the kids I was teaching and had so much fun at this camp. Despite the hours, I am so happy I did this camp! It has made me excited about teaching English for another year.

Traveling 2: I've been working on going around Korea more again. There is still so much I want to see here. It's easy to brush it aside thinking "oh I have an entire year to do that". One year has gone by already! I'm working on compiling my list of places I want to see and things I want to do. Within the last couple months I have been to Yeosu, Daejeon, back to Seoul, and had some lovely solo adventures to places I've wanted to go in Busan and Ulsan. More of that to come!

Oh Korea: Finally after a constant battle for months and changing my mind every day, I decided to stay another year in Korea. It was not easy and still isn't. I'll be missing weddings, my brother being ordained, new babies, babies growing up, and who knows what else! But as soon as I officially made the decision, I knew it was right. I feel very confident in staying another year and excited for what is ahead. I need to focus on paying off my loan, learning more of the language, traveling, and doing more at school. Once the new year starts, I am also looking into working towards getting a teaching certificate online. It will depend on what my schedule looks like and how much it will be. I am meeting up with a friend once a week to work on Korean and studying with my co-teacher once a week as well. I will also be moving in February. My apartment I have right now is fantastic, one of the best I have seen in Korea, but it is too big for just me. The bills are a little too much and the place doesn't hold in any heat. The walls are solid concrete and have no insulation. I really wish I could stay there, but alas, if I wish to actually sleep through a night in my home, I must move. Then there was the roach issue from last year, that I am just not looking to relive. My co-teacher is amazing and going to help me find another place, hopefully in the area. Added bonus to being in Korea: Reese decided to stay another year too : ) Off to a good start : )

Traveling 3: I surprised some of the fam and went home for Christmas. It was really nice to see everyone, especially since I have no idea when I will be going home next! Miss you all <3

Traveling 4: I am off as of Saturday to Taiwan with Hannah until the 5th of February. Then, I will be back to look for a new apartment, move, and watch the SuperBowl (ya, I know what is important in life :P ), and then it is off to Cambodia and Vietnam with Reese for 12 days! (note to reader...this was written and posted Jan. 28th, but something went wrong and I had to repost today...Taiwan already happened haha)

In conclusion: Bring it on year 2!

always a surprise

Only in Korea: I was walking home from grabbing lunch the other day and saw a bunch of my students playing with broom sticks in the car park underneath my apartment building. I was really excited, because I haven’t seen a lot of my students since I’ve been back with it being summer and all. I was walking up to say hi, when I noticed that they were pushing around and playing with a dead cat! UHHHHH! They saw me walking up and saw the look on my face and just laughed as I walked away. Kind of a given, that I didn’t eat my lunch when I got up to my apartment. The next day one of the parents in my class said her son saw me, but I didn’t say hi. When I told her why, she just laughed as well…She hates animals and thought it was hilarious how traumatized I was. Oh Korea : P hahaha

In other news:

We had a typhoon warning last Wednesday, but it didn't end up being too bad. They did cancel classes; it was extremely windy and rainy, but cleared up by the end of the day. My umbrella did that whole folding up breaking thing in my 30 second walk to school, glad they didn't make the kids do that! Apparently it was supposed to be pretty bad on Sunday again, but it doesn't seem like there will be any repercussions of all the rain and wind (except that my internet was out at home for a bit...many lame).

Last week I taught adults for 2 hours a day. Only 2 out of the 7 that signed up for my class showed up, so there wasn’t much teaching. We basically just sat and talked and they asked me questions. If we ran out of questions, I would just teach some sort of rule and start conversation from that (ex: past tense). Friday was the last day and one of the mothers walked 20 minutes to class to tell me that she couldn't be there b/c of a family tragedy. I was sad she couldn't stay. The other woman and I ended up talking, she brought in all the stuff and taught me to make gimbap (rice, seaweed, w/ vegetables roll type things), we made pb&j's, played kongi (traditional Korean game like jacks), and I taught her war and go fish! haha it was great. Both of them gave me gifts too, a pencil case, and a mini traditional mask. I just gave them notebooks and a pencil : / I think they liked them….It was so much fun and the two of them were really interesting! They both were so interested in learning another language, it was amazing! One woman was Mongolian, studied French, studied in Russia, and married a Korean man and now lives here. She knows Mongolian, Korean, and a bit of English, French, and Russian! The other woman volunteers in the library, so I’ll get to see her every now and again! It fascinates me how a lot of the older generations here still have such a passion and drive for learning!

This week and next week I am teaching an essay class with students. I didn’t think it would be so bad, but it’s a little tough. The level ranges from my most advanced student to students that cannot even write a sentence. Most of them are pretty low level; therefore, there is no way to get them to write individual essays. This week I’m just teaching the basic structure and collectively writing an essay. I’ll probably just teach a basic form for a movie review next week….that way I can show a movie one day too : P It’s also really difficult because I have one of my most disruptive students from any of the regular school classes in this class. Then there are 5 others who can be disruptive, but kept under control, but not with this boy as the ring leader! YIKES! Oh well, my goal is to just get them comfortable writing consecutive sentences, helping those more that have trouble forming the sentences.

Other than sitting at school from 9-5 and only teaching 2 hours of it, I’ve been reading a lot. Too much rain to do much else. Two weekends ago a friend took me on my first motorcycle ride to this really great beach. That was pretty fun. This past weekend was pretty low-key b/c of more typhoon warnings and such. : P Saw Toy Story 3 and caught up with some friends who have been away working at camps. I was trying to go paragliding or whitewater rafting, but that will have to be saved for another weekend. In exactly one month I’ll be in the Philippines, so I guess low-key and cheap is the way to go right now!

Hope all is well!

Many many good times - one not so good

First, I'll get the not so good out of the way. I had (and continue to have) a cockroach issue in my apartment. It's not as bad as it was before. My landlords are amazing and keep coming in to spray and put poison out for them. My landlady is coming back this Saturday to do more work and clean my cabinets. The first time they sprayed my apartment I came home to find 32 dead little buggers. I was completely grossed out and the smell of the spray was not hitting me well so I slept at Hannah's on her couch for a little while. My apartment is pretty big, but I do a really good job of keeping it clean. I think the issue is this one room that I really never go into. Going to have to get the toothbrush out and scrub every corner of that with the landlord this weekend!

Beyond that, everything has still been great. The World Cup is sadly over, but I think my coteachers are happy about that fact. The games were playing at 11 pm and 3:30 am and I, of course, was watching them. What they will soon realize is I didn't just stop wearing make-up to school because I was tired from watching the World Cup, I just don't want to put make-up on every morning! haha My cable stopped working about the second week into the World Cup. This was extremely tragic and I immediately called my landlord. Apparently, the school didn't want to pay it anymore, which is fine, I never used it anyway, except for right then to watch the soccer games! My landlord said he would share his cable with me and immediately went out, bought a cable, split his, and connected mine to his! The generosity and kindness in this country is amazing at times!

Lately, I've been trying to motivate myself more to work on the Korean language. I have a hard time with learning other languages and for a while found it very difficult to recognize their letters as sounds. I'm trying to keep motivated and not get discouraged. The office of education use to offer classes, but now with all the extra after school classes there just really isn't any time. It's difficult at the moment as well because everyone is on vacation or working at camps for the summer. I'm hoping when the next semester starts I can really get down to business and into a routine.

There is still a lot more I want to try and learn in this country, but I have now officially experienced the Korean Bathhouse. It was a little weird at first, and I may have been a bit nervous, so Hannah allowed us to go get a drink at the bar across the street first. It really didn't end up being too weird at all. It was just so normal and comfortable to them that I wasn't able to feel uncomfortable. It was nice and relaxing and well we already get stared at everywhere we go, so I guess it wasn't too different : P

I've been on a few trips recently as well. For Hannah's birthday we took her to the Cheongdo Wine Tunnel. It was really interesting to get to and the surrounding hillside was absolutely gorgeous! There were three types of wine made out of Persimmons. Two of them were very sweet and the dry wine wasn't too bad. Definitely got better after the first glass, but it was great fun! After the wine tunnel we went into Daegu where I hear there is great shopping and a lot of places to go out. We went out Saturday night, had some drinks in a bag, pizza in a cup, palyed pool, and met some interesting people, however, still kept it fairly chill. Unfortunately, due to a torrential downpour we were not able to shop. The rain was refreshing though. Warm rain that you can go outside and play in and not freeze your butt off!
The next weekend was spent at Boryeong for the annaul Mudfest. Yup, it is exactly what you think it is. The mud is brought over in trucks to Daecheon Beach and blow up obstacle courses and pools are filled with it! Apparently it is very rich in minerals and used in cosmetics...mud body scrub? Millions of people come for the two weekend event. I went with my friend Vanessa with two buses from Ulsan. The bus ride itself was extremely entertaining. We didn't get in until 5 am and only in Korea would they think to add a Karaoke (noreabang) system on the bus...that poor bus driver! It was quite entertaining to see, but also a very drunken weekend for most. Personally, again, I kept it very chill and had fun walking around, playing in a bit of mud and more extreme rain, and taking it all in. I woke up early both mornings and just walked around. Sunday morning, a friend and I went on a beautiful walk along the entire beach and then along the coastal path gathering shells and rocks along the way (don't worry madre, I did not keep them all. Learned my lesson from bags of rocks and shells we have gotten rid of from my childhood!)
The last trip was my adventure home, back to the states to visit family and friends and go to my best friend from high school's wedding! I won't lie and say I was looking forward to going home. There were certain things I was looking forward to, seeing people and the wedding, but I didn't feel ready to be there. It ended up being an amazing trip back though. I got to see more people than expected, went boating, to a Mariner's game, had a bbq, a day at the spa with my mom and gma, played pool, had good beer, and just enjoyed being in Seattle for a summer for the first time in 5 years! Working in Alaska for the past 5 summers, I forgot how perfect the Seattle summers are. It was an amazing trip home and Kelsey's wedding was senstational! She looked gorgeous, Newcastle was amazing, and I couldn't be happier for her and Scott. It was also great to see some old friends I hadn't seen in a long time...not to mention the reception which was way too much fun, if that's even possible.

I left the day after the wedding to head back to Korea. It's been a bit boring back here thus far. It's summer time and because I had special vacation time for the wedding, I could not be assigned to work at a camp. Unfortunately, I still have to be "working" so have been sitting in a classroom room from 9-5 since Tuesday. I can't even be in my classroom because they are remodeling it and creating an English Center. So far though, it looks absolutely phenomenal!!! I can't wait to see the finished product and hope it gets the kids more excited and interested to learn. The next three weeks I still have to be here from 9-5 but luckily have at least 2 hours of class each day. Next week I will be teaching a parents class with some of my student's parents and the following two weekends I'll be doing an essay class. I'm a bit nervous for the parent's class, but also realize that they signed up for it and genuinely want to be here so it should be fun. I also brought back many more books with me and recently purchased the new Planet Earth series "Life" to watch when I don't have any work. All I have to say though, is thank goodness there is air conditioning at this school! I can't believe how hot and humid it is, definitely not use to it. I walk out of my apartment in the morning and it just hits me; it takes a few seconds to adjust because the air is so thick! Humidity and I....not friends! haha

Well, it is almost time for the weekend and I'm still a bit tired from the jetlag (which I never was fully able to recover from back in the states....way too much to do while I was there). I was supposed to go to Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, Calvin Harris, and more this weekend, but unfortuantely there was no way to get there with train tickets sold out and not wanting to pay 60,000 won to fly there. It will be nice to have a relaxed weekend though, and I'm looking forward to seeing Oceans, hanging out with people, reading, going to a waterpark Sunday, and who knows what other random advnetures I can dig up in this country! It's always a surprise!

one last thing: bought my ticket to the Philippines last night! Officially going from Sept. 18-26!

Cheers!

"Shouting Korea" World Cup

"Fighting Korea" - the "Red Devils"

The Ulsan Bellinghamers in our jersey's getting ready to watch the game!

I have officially decided I will do everything I can to never watch the World Cup in the States ever again. I think I can get an international trip in every 4 years...? The World Cup Fever is absolutely incredible here! You can't go anywhere without seeing people wearing the South Korea teams shirts, devil horns (the team is known as the "red devils"), flag or some kind of World Cup red devils paraphernalia, which is sold in EVERY store from big department stores to the random street corner stores (even little vendors on the side of the street). They are constantly busting out Korean team songs and chants on TV...so many commercials have to do with the World Cup. This was before the games even started. Now that they have begun, replays of the game are played on TV's everywhere.

After staying up the previous night to watch the first World Cup game, South Africa vs. Mexico, I went to watch the game with a group of friends down by the Taehwa River. There was a huge stage set up with 3 jumbo screens and then another jumbo screened off to the side. Thousands of people were down there watching the game. Before the game there were a bunch of performances including some Korean rock group. Then a group came out to to sing a Korean fight song and get the crowd chanting. The game was extremely excited, the energy was fantastic! They were so into it. After each goal fireworks went off and people were jumping up and cheering! Koreans by the way are extremely friendly and love to share as well. One woman saw that I had a beer and gave me some dried squid jerky to go with it. I didn't want to be rude so obviously took it and ate a little bit "accidentally" dropping pieces here and there. Then they started sharing their beer with us and more squid jerky, which we promptly handed to Ryan who enjoyed it. It's really not that bad, just fishy. One of the coolest parts was there were tons of people sitting down who couldn't see the jumbo screens and were just watching the game from their own TV's on their phones! They really just came out to support the team and be in that environment. Even when it started raining a bit, there weren't that many people that left! Korea ended up winning 2-0 and the celebrating has continued on.

After the Korea game we moved to the Golden Eagle Pub to watch the Argentina vs. Nigeria game at 11:30 and then stayed there (and barely awake) to watch the USA vs. England game that started at 3:30 am. I left the bar to daylight and finally went to bed around 6 am on Sunday.

The next game is this Thursday, luckily at 8:30 pm again. They are opening up the big soccer stadium where the Ulsan Tigers play for people to go in for free and watch the games (one of the reasons i love watching the World Cup in Korea....they're not trying to make money off of everything). You can take in your own food and drinks too! I can't wait!!! It will be a good lead to my World Cup lesson I will be teaching the 5th grade on Thursday : ) I already did two lessons for the after school classes before the World Cup started too.

Hopefully South Korea will pull through, and I really hope USA starts looking a little better! Either way, I am loving watching the World Cup here....just wish the games weren't from 8:30 pm until 5:30 am....it's a little rough. : P

Some of the group in front of the stage....after the big win!
Ryan and Hannah with our beer and dried squid jerky...mmmmm
Even when it started to rain, spirits were still high!

GO KOREA!!!

the last few weeks

I actually forgot the password to my blog and haven't been able to access it for a little while, not to mention I have been extremely busy with school, visitors, and enjoying life! I called in sick today, figured it was a good time to update the blog

Open Classes - Once a semester we have class that is open to parents, teachers, the vice principal and principal. The teachers seem to be pretty terrified of them and I got a little nervous at first. Then, I just decided to treat it like any other class. My class with Kimmie went pretty well, but was a little rushed...may have had a bit too much planned. It was still fun. The class with Sam went REALLY well though. I think because we really didn't change much, it just seemed like any other day and we were both pretty comfortable. I guess the Vice Principal complimented our class and said something to the extent that I look comfortable and am a good teacher. That was really nice! The only part I did not enjoy too much was just having it video taped...I'm already not a huge fan of being up in front of the camera or people...except when it comes to teaching, I always seem to feel pretty confident and comfortable with that. All in all, I had a lot of fun with the open classes though!

Shay's visit - Shay came to visit for 17 days, which went by way too quickly! I had a lot of work to do and was at school from around 8:30 am – 6:45 pm. The first weekend she was here we went to the Performing Arts festival in Busan and caught two shows. They were both good and very interesting. The first one, Bertrand’s Toys, was from a Russian theatre group. This one was a bit scary actually, which was what they were trying to invoke. The second one was very random and I believe was Korean. Parts of it were funny, others almost sad, it was just very interesting. The next day Shay and I ventured to Boemoesa Temple which was absolutely amazing! We ended up doing this hike up to the top of the mountain without planning on it just because we wanted to see the view. Well worth the physical pain and weird looks from all the Koreans, we weren’t exactly in “hiking” attire. Literally at the top of the mountain I had one Korean man take a lot of pictures of my feet because I was wearing sandals on this pretty intense hike. I got many comments from the Koreans on my “slippers” that I wore hiking. Hahaha it was actually really funny. During the week Shay kind of did her own thing, which was nice because I didn’t have to worry about not being around. She even had dinner made for me a couple times when I got home from work!!! The last weekend she was here we went to Seoul. I had been waiting to go until she got here because it isn’t too cheap to get there. The first night it took us forever to find a hostel…there ended up being a very popular Korean pop artist show that weekend and apparently people from around the world came to see it. We spent the whole next day going from one place to the next and trying to fit in as much as possible. It was really great though. We went to Namdaemun (kinda…they were doing renovations on it due to a recent fire…so we didn’t really get to see it : ( sad day), the Namdaemun market, Dongdaemun, Insa-dong (got some fantastic Indian food there), Changdeokgung Palace, and then out at night to meet up with some old friend’s and go to the noraebang to do some karaoke! Sadly, she left me the next morning and I made my way back to my lonely apartment the next morning. Ryan and I had a little trouble getting back…taking the subway the wrong way and being extremely exhausted, it was actually pretty entertaining. WHOOPSI!

What else has been going on – The weekend after Shay’s visit was my co-teachers wedding. It was very different. The wedding was in a convention type center and there were just back-to-back weddings in these two rooms across from each other. You could hear the other wedding going on and there were so many people there, so if you didn’t get a seat or there was no room to stand in the room where the wedding was happening you could stand outside and watch it on a jumbo screen. Everyone talks during the wedding too. It was definitely fun to watch and Kimmie looked gorgeous! The next day I went to Busan to watch the Busan soccer game and finally go to the aquarium. The game was great fun, but the aquarium was a bit depressing….the tanks were way too small for most of the animals. It’s just easy to tell sometimes the different relationships we have with animals compared to other places. I’m definitely going to try and do the “shark” dive they have with the nurse sharks soon though. Baby steps to the sharks in the wild I guess…?

Besides that no major events, just been spending a lot of time at Jinha and Haeundae beaches whenever the weather is nice and I’m not at school. Went to the Sand Festival in Busan to see some pretty cool sand sculptures and a couple performances. Definitely did some sand sledding down a big mound of sand…oh ya, it was me, Melvin, and a bunch of kids. At least Melvin did the sand boarding.

Hannah and I have been trying to do some shopping for summer clothes. It is getting very hot and ridiculously humid….I am not going to enjoy this. Problem is all of the skirts and dresses are WAY too short for me. It seems Koreans have shorter legs : P should be an interesting summer!

School – classes are still going well. I love my after school kids. It’s nice to be able to build a relationship with some students. The during school classes are just so quick and I only see each grade once or twice a week. It’s been a lot of fun lately, at the same time, I am definitely ready for a break! Soon enough!

That’s all for now! I’ll work on keeping this updated now that I remembered my username and password!

Cheers!

Teaching

Figured I should post some about teaching as well!

Classes are still going pretty well. The classes during the day I teach with my co-teachers Kimmie and Sam. They're pretty short and I just work on making different activities than what the book provides for each lesson. Some of the book activities are good, but most of them are boring. I work on making them into more games and trying to get them speaking more. It's difficult because the English levels range so much within each class, so there are always those few that have more trouble than others.

Besides the hitting (which i sometimes just find funny) and whinning (which is never funny :P ) the kids are really cute! They have a game like pogs that they love to play and any time I say anything in Korean they get really excited. The downside is then they think I know Korean and will try to ask questions in Korean. I just look at them and say "English?" I haven't picked up much Korean, but it is something I really want to work on. I'm not sure how much I will be able to though...they use to provide Korean classes for EPIK teachers, but now that they have started after school classes every day until 6:40....I don't think they will offer them anymore. The after school classes use to only be 3 days a week. hmmmm Right now I need to work on memorizing the alphabet anyways!

After school classes are fantastic! I teach these on my own and can basically teach anything. We have a book that we use the first 2 days and then I just decide what else to teach the other 3 days. The beginners are difficult because their attention span is soooo short and they just need high energy activities....I don't always have the energy for it though! Luckily I've found a couple fall back games that they love. I also turn everything into a competition which makes them participate more and help their group members out.

I'm definitely enjoying the job....the after school classes are a lot of fun to me! And just like anything else it has its ups and downs. Luckily, my schedule works out nicely so that some days I have more prep time and can relax, and others are just go, go, go! Speaking of....I should probably get back to planning for my after school classes today : )

cheers

busy busy busy

well, it's obviously been a little while since I've posted so here's the short and sweet : )

Karate - I went to a Karate class and got my ass kicked...it was fantastic! Unfortunately the days of the classes are Thursday and Friday nights, and Saturday mornings....aka I won't be able to actually join the class and go regularly. Weekends are for adventures! : P

Ulsan Tigers - A group of us ventured to the Ulsan Tigers soccer stadium and watched their pro team! It's great fun, and I will definitely be going to as many games as possible. I miss watching sports!

Cherry Blossoms - It is the time of year for all of the Cherry Blossoms to bloom and they are GORGEOUS! Hannah and I ventured to GyeongJu and walked around for hours through the streets lined with cherry trees! It was beautiful. We then found this PERFECT little coffee shop. It was amazing...so cute, I felt like we were in Italy, not Korea....but then I wouldn't be able to order my beloved hongcha late!

April 14th - Black Day - this is a day dedicated to all those single out in Korea. You are supposed to eat Chinese 짜 장 면 (black noodles) and they will bring you luck in the dating world. I didn't have any black noodles....guess i'm screwed : P haha

Random - The weather has still been pretty back and forth between being nice, rainy, cold, warm, ..... Luckily the weekends have been really beautiful. I've been able to explore more of Ulsan now seeing many markets, Ulsan Grand Park, and running into numerous students on the street! It's great fun and I can't wait to explore more!

Korean clothing - Their style is pretty fantastic, unfortunately with more curves, it doesn't fit me too well. Whoopsi! They do have some very funny t-shirts though. Mostly just the English translations or sayings are hilarious. My favorite shirt I have seen thus far (and unfortunately I did not buy it...epic failure): It had a picture of a bicycle on it and said bicycle and underneath it was written:
"I don't even want this bike back
just made these flyers to tell
you that i hate you, bike thief.
Hope you ride my bike without
a helmet and get hit by a monster
hope my bike takes you."
hahahahaha what does that even mean!

Couch - I found a couch! It's blue and pretty and was only 30,000 won (less than $30). It was pretty dirty, but after Hannah and I carried it 6 blocks and up to apartment 401 we cleaned it off and made it all nice! We already get stared at all the time for being foreigners so just imagine the looks and laughs Hannah and I received as two girls carried a big couch down a busy street. This is also in a society where the boyfriends carry the girls purses and shopping bags and the girls carry nothing! assah!

Beach in Namchang - FANTASTIC DAY!!! Hannah, Ryan, Melvin, and I spent most of the day this past Sunday at a beach in Namchang. It was so entertaining. We couldn't go five minutes without Koreans coming up and talking to us. We had a group of Koreans stand behind us yell "ATTENTION" "ATTENTION" and then start taking pictures with us. The main guy was wearing a bright pink sparkly jacket and had clown face paint on. After that two men came up and started talking to us. They saw that we were drinking Makali (Korean rice wine) and decided that the Makali we bought ourselves was not good enough. Therefore, they went and bought 3 bottles of good Makali and procceeded to drink and talk with us on the beach for an hour or so! Completely random and so much fun!

Sports Day - We had a sports day at my school which was really entertaining. The kids were split up by grade and into two teams. They all had their colors and just did a bunch of random games and races. It was really cool to see the parents get involved in them as well! They had a dad race, mom race, and even a grandparents race! The grandparents were my favorite. They ran with their kid in a hula hoop around a cone and back. A lot of the kids didn't like it too much because there are so many students that they spent a lot of the day just sitting and watching.

Amethyst caves - Hannah and I went on a random adventure off to Eonyang to the Amethyst caves and it was definitely not what we expected. There wasn't a lot of amethyst to be seen in the cave, but what we did see was quite beautiful. Then there were some petroglyphs and different exhibits...? A dinosaur hall, human evolution hall, Egypt hall, Tribal Living display, and a really random acrobatic performance...what in the world?! hahaha I really could not believe what was going on down there. It all just seemed so out of place and didn't have much to do with Korea at all! Very very strange, but a great adventure indeed!

Ganeolgot Cape - This one time Hannah, Ryan, Melvin and I decided to go to Ganjeolgot lighthouse to spend the evening "sleeping" on the beach to watch "the earliest sunrise on the entire Northeast Asian continent." It was insanely cold, there wasn't much sleeping involved, but it was well worth the gorgeous sunrise in the morning. Even with the slightly overcast sky it was amazing!

Obviously more adventures to come!