Can I Have a Bite of That?

It is finally here. After days of hard work and weeks of procrastination, our new website is finally finished.....errr, well finished enough. Please continue to keep up with us as we move on to the next adventure in our lives...marriage.

www.canihaveabiteofthat.com

-Sam

Jetlaaaaaaaaag

Here are the times that I have slept since we got home. All in Dallas time.

Mar 7

5:15 pm - 11:15 pm

Mar 8-9

7pm - 6am

Mar 9

5:30pm 6:30pm

Mar 9-10

9pm - 2am

Sam

What Day Is It?

At this point, I don't think my body knows which way is up or down, and for darn sure doesn't know what time to think it is! That's right... we're officially on our way home... and it's taking a tad bit longer than expected, thanks in large part to one Mr. Kim Jong-Il and a certain airline's crappy international flight schedule.

Just for funsies, here's a time-line of our last I-can't-do-the-timezone-math number of hours:
- Thursday night 11:30pm leave Hanoi (the most crap-tastic airport known to man) for Seoul (3.5hr flight)

- Friday morning 5am arrive Incheon airport
- Take the bus into Seoul, rouse David from his slumber at 7am
- Last lunch with our besties 11am
- Pack it up, get back on the bus to Incheon airport at 2:30pm
- Notice sign that says our flight has been delayed at 3:45pm
- Spend 35 minutes shifting various items in our bags to make them all as equally overweight as possible, contemplate kissing ticket agent on the mouth when he finally consents to just let us take our overweight cabin bags on the plain and writes a note on the back of our boarding passes to get us through security at 4:15pm.
-Become mildly worried when we learn that said airline has already re-routed us through Toronto because we will probably not make our 1:55 flight to Denver due to the delay and the notorious length of time it takes to get through customs in Vancouver. Hold on to hope we will fly like the wind 4:30pm
- Plane gets in late and cabin must be cleaned... finally begin boarding an hour and change late 7:45pm.
- Passenger has medical emergency and must leave the plane. They also must root around on the underside of the plane for their baggage. Awesome. Plane takes off at, well, I stopped checking at this point.
- Notice that our flight pattern made quite the U-shape southward, which appears to confirm our theory that we were one of the planes re-routed to avoid Mr. Crazy Pants up north.

- Friday (take 2!) Plane touches down in Vancouver at 12:45pm. (10 hour flight)
- We make it to the ticket counter and find that the 2:15pm flight to Seattle is the last. plane. going. to. America. today. @%^&! Seriously? It's a FRIDAY. Does NO ONE need to go to the U.S. after 2pm today????
- Contemplate punching security attendant when we hand him our boarding passes for 11:35pm and he quips, "You're early". Decide to laugh instead because, well, it's kind of hilarious at that point. Giggle a bit at the security belt operator who takes a long look at my bag and thinks, "Can metal chopsticks be used as weapons?" Realize we are definitely not in Asia anymore :(
- Live like hobos in a corner of the domestic terminal (but hobos with internet and Starbucks non-fat lattes and Cosmpolitan in English!) for 9 hours.

So, instead of arriving home, oh, right about NOW, we're hopping on a 4.5 hour flight to Toronto tonight and then another 3.5 hour flight to Dallas tomorrow morning. And then we'll be HOME. And then Daylight Savings will start and we'll just tack another hour onto the delirium. Or, take it off, depending on how you look at it. And then we'll start updating you on our fabulous fabulous trip!

In Transit

Hello Everyone!


We are currently in Phnom Penh getting ready to head our for our third day here. We leave tomorrow morning for Ho Chi Minh. We will try to get some blog(s) and pictures posted tomorrow. So far our hostels have limited our internet access to little or none. We are having a wonderful time. We are getting used to the heat. We went from 0 centigrade to about 32 when we went from Seoul to Siem Reap. Ok, we are off. Check back in th next 36 hours for updates.

Sam and Alison

Last Post From Seoul

Alison and I are currently sitting a few hundred meters from our gate, awaiting the boarding call for our flight to Cambodia. Last night was a fantastic last night!! We went to small local bar that is just up the street from school, so many of our co-workers, friends, drinking buddies, traveling buddies, and neighbors came out to send us off. Saying goodbye was sad, and it was not forever, as we will see some of our friends again when we come through Seoul on our way back to Texas.

I guess our blog title will no longer be appropriate after today, but we will continue to post our travel thoughts and pictures here over the next two weeks as we travel through Vietnam and Cambdodia.

We are happy to announce that we will continue blogging about life in general after we are back in the states. Keep checking back in the coming months for our new website. We actually bought a domain name and I am working with Rapidweaver to develop our very own website. Keep checking back in the coming month or so and I will provide a link. Until then, keep checking back here to keep up with us.

Sam

You May Snow Fight with Firefighters...

I've had these gems saved on my work computer for forever and came across them while cleaning things up a bit on my break. (You know, since we're leaving and all... ahhhh!) I had one of my upper-level classes write poems about their favorite season and thought these 3 on winter were pretty amusing and a little odd...

Winter
by Han Ju

You may fly a kite in the white garden
You may make a snowman with man’s help
You many snow fight with firefighters
You may drive car to white garden.

Winter
by Daniel2

White snowy day
It is the heart by me
I want to get that white heart inside
I want to be a inside person in outside
I want winter because the snow day makes me to be happy
I think the sky is very beautiful

White Snow
by Daniel1

The winter come with witches
The witches come with a white snow
“Wow! What a white snow!”
One Wednesday everybody whistle
They wonder when the snow will stop.

Gross

Oh, Yu-Na Kim... you are an amazing figure skater, you running around and sweating is kind of inspiring, and the music is good... but I can't get past the concept of this commercial that's on all. the. time... just wait for the end!

Yeah, nothing's better than chugging milk from the carton after a tough work out... barf-o-rama!

(Have I mentioned that I will actually miss Korean commercials? Sigh.)

Japan Day 3

We started off a very busy day very early in the morning at the Fish Market. This place was nuts and so much fun to wander around! We spent a long time in the tightly packed aisles dodging minitrucks and motorcycles and workers carrying freshly packed fish. (If dead fish bother you, you might want to skip towards the end!)



Then we stopped for the. best. sushi. ever. I've never had sushi for breakfast, but this was seriously so delicious and fresh!

From the fish market we walked basically across the city. It took for-ev-er, but at least the views were nice! Here's the moat around the palace.

Our next stop was Yasukuni shrine, which is a bit of a controversial place. This is the memorial shrine to those who died in the Japanese military wars. Because of Japan's dicey history with many other Southeast Asian countries when dignitaries stop by the shrine during official visits it creates tension in their home countries.

At the shrine there was also a warm museum that focused heavily on WWII. Let's just say that getting the Japanese perspective on the pre-WWII "Korea incident" and the "American War" was interesting. No photos were allowed inside the actual museum, but here's Sam next to a steam engine they had on display.

Then we stopped off for a little bit coffee to refuel and hit up the Sony building, which was lots of fun. We got to see all of the prototypes for their newest stuff, play with cameras and computers, etc. After walking alllll day long and starting so early we ended up just heading back to the hostel and calling it a night!

Alison's Korean Favorites

We had our "official" going away party last night, and I think it made me feel nostalgic. So, I'm jumping on Sam's bandwagon and making my own list as a way to recap the year... and possibly to avoid packing. In no particular order at all, here are my fav. things about Korea.

1. Noreabang! This one is fresh in my mind since we were just there like 10 hours ago. I know they have them in the states, but these are literally on every street corner here. The noreabang is karaoke, but in a private room and with full control over the song selection. Glorious!

2. Public transportation. Dallas needs to get on this, stat.

3. Mandatory recycling. Most apartment buildings and public places make it ridiculously easy to do this, which has made me be more concious.

4. Our friends. I haven't had a job where I worked with so many people my own age in a long time. And with everyone living so close together it's a little bit like college again, and who didn't love college?? More than that, though, we were lucky to work with a really great group of people, all of whom I actually like! Plus we have some rad not-school-associated friends.

5. Korean kids. Sure some are punks, but so are 12 year-old boys everywhere. They make me laugh every single day. And while I don't think that teaching is my "calling" I have really enjoyed it this year. Plus Korean babies are THE cutest.

6. Not understanding what's going on around me. Sometimes this place still seems like an adventure. But mostly it's a LOT easier to deal with people yapping on their cellphones in public places when you have no idea what they're talking about. And also it's really fun to shock people when you DO know what they're talking about.

7. Olympic Park. I love having a park within walking distance. I'm really sad I won't get to enjoy another spring/summer there.

8. Sharing food at restaurants. It makes meal times so much more fun and festive feeling. And you get to try more food! It might not be the most hygenic, but it's scientifically proven (by me, obviously) that sharing germs builds community. I apologize in advance if we're at home and I randomly take things off your plate without asking.

9. Express buses. I guess this goes along with public transportation in general, but express buses have Greyhound beat like nobody's business. Big cushy seats, lots of leg room, they make a cross-country trip an actually pleasant experience. Plus, they're cheap and leave a convenient times.

10. The hoses hanging from the cielings at galbi restaurants. So genius! I mean, you can have 20 in-table bar-b-ques going at once in a relatively small space and it never gets smoky in the room. Plus, they are cool to look at. I also just realized that I've never really taken pictures at a galbi restaurant. We'll have to remedy that this week!

11. Markets. There just isn't really anything like Dongdaemun or even Insadong at home and I can wander these places for hours just looking!

12. Won. It's prettier than the dollar.

13. Pretty much everything Sam said, too.

Okay, after I eat some lunch I'm REALLY going to start packing. For real. Because we leave in a WEEK, people! Seriously, this time next week I will be waking up in Cambodia. And I haven't even finished the Japan recaps yet!

Sam's Favorite Things About Korea

As I was riding my bike to work today, I began thinking about the things I am going to miss.  Here are 10 things in no particular order.

1. My bike - I love my bike!! I did not buy it until about 4 or 5 months ago, but I can count the days I have not ridden it on 2 hands.  I am looking forwarding to driving again, but I will miss riding my bike everywhere.

2. The food - I got stuck on some dishes early on, but have since branched out, and just tonight tried something new still.  Food is the one part of Korea that I feel I have not adequately explored.

3. Drinking Korean beer on the sidewalk - There are no public consumption laws in Korea, so most convenience stores have plastic tables and chairs out front.  They sell beer in 2 liter bottles, as well as little paper dixie cups, and of course tons of snacks. Drinking beer on a summer night was relaxing and great times with co-workers, not to mention cheaper than a bar.

4. Alison - haha, I am not leaving her behind, but our relationship was different this year from the first two.  We went from living 30 minutes apart in Dallas, to two desks apart at work, and two flights of stairs apart at home, and now we are going home and will once again be separated until after the wedding. 

5. Ondol floors - I LOVE MY FLOOR HEAT!  and i pay for it.  My gas bill has been almost double Alison's some months because I love to turn on my floor heat and sit on the floor while eating, reading, surfing the web, etc.

6. Chopsticks - This is a weird one.  I eat every meal with chopsticks. Even most of my meals at home where I could use a fork, I now choose chopsticks.

7.  Cutting meat with scissors rather than a knife - It's just a Korean thing.  They cut their meat up with scissors while it is cooking, and then serve it.

8. Food - Wait...I said this already

9. My students - A few of my students, I will not miss.  But many of them I will never forget. 

10. Caramel World Cone - I have never eaten so much ice cream in my life.  Korea has the greatest selection of cones that are sold at every convenience store.  The Caramel World Cone is the Pinta Island Tortoise(click here to google it) of the ice cream cone world.  We only know of one store near us that consistently has it(but not always)stocked in their freezers.  It just blows everything else away.  If there was a way I could send home a box of dry ice filled with Caramel World Cones....I would send home three boxes of dry ice filled with Caramel World Cones.  David and I always stop and look in the freezers on the street to see if we can spot a green wrapper......Most of the time we fail, which makes the successes that much tastier.

2 weeks to go, 4 weeks til home.

Yep, that's right.  We just have two weeks left at our jobs.  Last week went by incredibly fast and were thinking that the next two will fly by as well.  Leaving is going to be bittersweet.  This has been our home for the past 12 months, and now we are in the process of packing it up.  Two weeks until we are finished with work and have to be out of our apartments, but that is not the end of our excursion.  I will post a detailed plan of our SE Asia travels later, but here is the preview.  Feb 20 is our last day at work.  The next morning we will be on a plane at 10:35 in the morning heading for Cambodia.  Over the next 13 days we will make our way down through Cambodia and up through Vietnam where our flight leaves Hanoi on the evening of March 5th bound for Seoul.  We get into Seoul super early on the morning of the 6th.  We will then make our way back into the city to claim the suitcases that we will have stashed at co-workers apartments, have one last meal with friends and say our last goodbyes, then back to the airport to catch a 6:30 flight to Dallas, through Vancouver and Denver.  If we live through March 6th, it might be a miracle.  Scheduling our flights into and out of Seoul on the same day was not intended, but we must make it work.  

We will spend next weekend hitting up the last few things we want to do here, and spending time with friends.  Surely our last week will be rather hectic.  Hopefully one more blog entry before we are off to Cambodia.

K-Pop

I know you were probably not expecting to see this blog come from me.  But I think it could turn out to be one of the more entertaining entries from this year.  K-Pop is the phrase used to refer to Korean Pop music.  When a song is big here, it is played everywhere, and all the time.  We have shared a-lot about Korean Culture historically, but this will give you a glimpse into the music scene.  All of these songs have a bit of English mixed in with the Korean.  The English phrases are always the catchiest part of the song, and every single one of these songs has gotten stuck in my head over the past 12 months.  There are also catchy dance moves that our students teach us(Alison will be glad to show you all of these upon our return) Please let me know if any of these get stuck in your heads. haha.  Enjoy.....

"Tell Me" by the Wonder Girls.

"So Hot" by the Wonder Girls

"Nobody" by the Wonder Girls(Let this one run its course, it starts out with a guy singing, but then he gets stuck in the bathroom.  This is when the girls come in and save the show.

"One More Time" by Jewelry

"Lies" by Big Bang

Big Bang is HUGE here.  Seriously, 99% of the kids at our school will say that they like them.  

If you hit this one up at 1:25 you will hear what our students sing to us every time they forget to do their homework.

"Look At Me" by Tae Yang

This is one of Alison's favorites. 

Japan Day 1

Look at me, getting this blog up just a week after our trip!! (If you saw exactly how many photos I had to sort through to bring you this post you would be excited for me, too!) Just to reiterate Sam's earlier entry, we had an a-mazing time on our trip!

So, here we are on the train to our hostel from the airport. The subway system in Tokyo is much more confusing than Seoul, but we literally had NO problem getting to Asukusa Smile!


Mkay, y'all, I'm not gonna lie. Our room was tee-niny. I would have had Sam stand in the room while I took this, but then the picture would have just been a photo of Sam's chest... let's just say I took this standing in the hall, and that suitcase is pressed all the way up against the wall. However, other than the small-ness of the room we really enjoyed our hostel. The showers were hot and clean, the lobby/lounge was nice, and the location was actually pretty good!


After we checked into the hostel we hit the road pretty immediately and headed out to Harajuku. It was packed on a Saturday night, and we had a lot of fun people watching. I couldn't stop staring at everyone who was dressed so differently from each other! I mean, I love Seoul's style, but things are pretty mono-chromatic here and everyone pretty much sticks to the same general style, but in Tokyo there was so much color and variation!
After passing like the 12th crepe stand we gave in. We went for the strawberry/chocolate/ice cream/whipped cream variation there.

I apparently loved it so much I had to make crazy eyes while eating it.

But Sam loved it enough to wear a tiny bit on his lip. Needless to say it was de-licious! (This picture also demonstrates that Sam is still really tall and I'm still short.)

The crepe served as a nice appetizer and as we walked we discussed what we should have for dinner. In the course of conversation we wondered whether Tokyo had different western chains than Seoul. Sam actually said, "Oh man, if they have Wendy's or Taco Bell I would probably have to eat there!" Well, wouldn't you know what we saw when we turned the corner! So, yes, we ate Wendy's for our first night in Tokyo. Feel free to judge.

Then we just continued to wander and wander and wander. Lonely Planet gave typically crappy directions, but we were having a good time just soaking in a new city so it didn't perturb us too much.

We were pretty beat by this point, and new that we were going to have an early date with the snow monkeys the next morning, so we headed back to our bunks for a good night's sleep... thanks to our ear plugs :)

"????" is to "Sam" as "The Great Wall" is to "Alison"

Can you tell I have been studying up for the GRE?

Well, when we went to China Alison fulfilled her lifelong dream of seeing and walking The Great Wall.  Japan was my opportunity to fulfill my lifelong dream of seeing the snow monkeys(or Japanese Macaque, if you want to be technical) I can't tell you when I saw my first documentary blurb on the snow monkeys, but I remember being fascinated.  There was just something about them that really caught my eye.  I have always loved monkeys, my very first "Animal Report" is Mrs. Hortzman's 3rd grade class was about Jane Goodall and her chimpanzees.  The monkeys are always a must see when I go to the zoo, and I still secretly look for jobs in Africa where you live and work on a chimpanzee orphanage and care for abandoned monkeys(shhhh don't tell Alison)  But I digress.  The snow monkeys are my favorite, and I have psychoanalyzed why, I will now explain.....  I love childhood/children/all that fun stuff.  I don't long for a lost childhood or anything, but man!!! being a kid was fun!!! My friends and I would just run around, go to the pool, play in the creek, dig around for animals in the ground, go fishing in a pond, every once in a while get in a little fight.  It was just good times, and nothing takes me back to being a kid more than seeing monkeys run around in the snow, chase each other, wrestle with each other, and swim around in a pool.  I mean seriously, MONKEYS and SNOW!!!  God has taken two of the most fun and endlessly entertaining things on the entire Earth and put them in one place!  WOW!!!  haha, ok, settle down Sam.  Alison will blog more about the rest of the Japan trip, but here are the links to the snow monkey pictures.

Click here for Album # 1

Click here for Album # 2

Click here for Album # 3

Hitting the Slopes

Well, I haven't done it since 9th grade (and we won't mention how many years ago that was, because some of you are all together too good at math) but last weekend Sam and I hit the slopes. Overall it was a good time. I might have cried a little bit once, but that was only from the humiliation of having to haul my skis back up the slope while a large group of Korean children laughed at me. But other than THAT :) Sam was an excellent ski-er and tore up every slope on the mountain along with Jordan on snowboard. David tried snowboarding for the first time and was such a trooper. He didn't cry at all!

Skiing here is actually a really sweet deal. 50,000 won got us a bus ticket there and back and an all day lift ticket. Then it was only about 14,000 won for the ski rentals. We went to Phoenix Park, which I can in no way tell you where it was geographically, but there were ummm... mountains... and snow... so, north? It wasn't too crowded and we got about 3 inches of snow over the course of the morning. So that was fun, but made seeing a bit of a challenge!

All suited up and ready to go! (What is wrong with my face??)

The mountain's many slopes.

Snowboarders just look cooler. Even if they do fall down more.

The cutest ski-er of all.

Aaaand to contine the trend of posting the most flattering pictures of myself as possible, me awkwardly holding Sam's skis and attempting to look "tough". I'll probably photo shop this face onto all the wedding photos... hott!

We plan on getting out at least one more time before we leave... in just 4 weeks... Ahhhhh!!! Also, our trip to Japan is this weekend, so instead of snow bunnies we'll be seeing snow monkeys. Hopefully I won't get my face eaten off! Have a good weekend and happy Solnal (Chinese/Korean new year) to you!

Food for Thought

If you're here for the pictures you may want to skip over this post :)

For those of you that don't know that me that well, I will let you in on a little secret. I am kind of a blog stalker (with the "kind of" being maybe the understatement of the year). My Google Reader regularly logs over 100 blog entries with the posts varying from weddings to cooking and healthy living to travel and photography to religion to motherhood to travel. It pretty much runs the gamut, and now, looking at it, pretty much sums up who I am pretty succinctly. (Well, except for the motherhood part... that's just more of a preperation for the very distant future!)

Wait, why am I writing about blogs on a... blog, you might ask. Well, in reading these blogs about other people's thoughts and other people's lives I find myself thinking, "Wow, that's amazing! I want to do that!" Some of these people, including people who are my actual real-life friends and not just people I stalk... errrr follow on-line, are doing amazing things and having amazing adventures. Today as I was reading one of their entries I got a bit jealous of their life and the places it is taking them, and then I got to thinking...

I am truly excited about my own life and where it is taking ME as well! It might be taking me in a different direction, and in some ways not the exact direction that I might have thought, or even picked, several years ago, but yet I am content. There is adventure in front of me including a marriage and reunions with family and friends, and yes, travel and food (and hopefully healthy living!). And the best part is that just as 2 years ago I never would have predicted that on this night I would be sitting in a TGIFriday's in Seoul celebrating the birthday of a friend from Canada there is no telling where I (we) will be in another 2 years.

What adventures are on your horizon right now?

A Blast From the Past

Are you ready for a seriously RANDOM post?? Good! I finally brought my crappy old camera home from school (where I angrily tossed it into my desk drawer on the last day of the semester because the stupid batteries died after I was able to take only TWO pictures of my classes, some of my favorites ever!! Single rolling tear.) Anyway, there were some real gems on the memory card, so I figured I'll cram them all into one post, because, well, why not?

First up: Classes Last Semester

The two measely pictures from last semester's classes. (Let's not mention the fact that it may or may not be my fault for waiting until the LAST day of the semester to take my camera to class... shhhhh... just look at the pictures of cute Korean kids!!!)

Hayden. The cutest nug of a kid you've ever seen. (This picture does not capture his tiny-ness)Sam stole him this semester, but is nice enough to share him when we combine our English Village intensive class on Tuesday/Thursday. (Yes, Sam and I are co-teaching a class. We're pretty awesome at it, I'm not going to lie. Or I just like doing less work. No, it's probably because we're awesome.)
Brian2 and Kai. Sam has Kai this semester, too. Ohhhh Kai. He's kind of a turd, but he sounds like a Muppet when he talks, soooo I heart Kai, too. I was also upset that Brian2 did not wear his bright red jacket and then claim to be cold and zip it alllll the way up with the hood on so you could only see 2 inches of his face. It annoys me whenever other kids do it (or when Sam does it to me in my hoodie sweatshirts) but for some reason he was super cute.

Topic 2: A-mazing Waffles

Before Kendra left we went to Cafe ImA in Gwangwhamun to have their famous ice cream waffles. There is ALWAYS a wait there, but it is TOTALLY worth it. Seriously, if you are in Seoul, I cannot stress this enough. Eat. These. Waffles.

Can you say holy yum? I mean, I don't even like waffles that much, but these were de-li-cious. You get to choose your two flavors of ice cream, or you can get fruit on top (which I'm sure is also good, but the ice cream seemed more appealing this day). We shared the waffle and had some really good soup before and were stuffed afterwards!

And finally: The Kimchi Museum!

The Kimchi Museum is quite tiny and located in Coex Mall (which means that you are practically obligated to have lunch at On the Border while you're there) and only costs 3000 won. It's quite informative, but I would recommend it towards the end of your time in Korea, because, well, I personally feel that it takes awhile to truly TRULY appreciate the gloriousness that is kimchi.

So many kinds of kimchi!

But cucumber kimchi is my favorite, hands down!

Did I mention that the museum is informative? It even has an entire hallway dedicated to how kimchi is good for your health! Here we have a depiction of how it cleans out your digestive system. (I would point out the pile of d-d-o-n-g, but I'm not 12 years old.)

Kendra learning about how kimchi is pretty much the same (but still different!) all over Korea.Different kinds of kimchi pots.

And now for quite possibly the least flattering picture ever taken of me. Obviously I had to post it on the internet. We watched a small child sit so that the woman was feeding her just before we got there. It turns out when you are full grown you have to sprawl across the scene, which I'm pretty sure is not what it's meant for, but when a wax figure wants to feed me a piece of delicious kimchi, who am I to say no??

It's official. I have no shame.

Seodeamun Prison

This weekend we continued on our quest to check more things off of our "must see" list in Seoul. We met up with several other teachers to visit Seodeamun Prison which is one of the more somber places we have visited to date. Seodaemun Prison was used by the Japanese as a place to detain and torture Korean resistance fighters during their occupation in the early 1900s. I actually don't have too many pictures, because in many areas of the museum they are not allowed, and honestly many of the vignettes they have set up to depict what happened to the resistance fighters were so graphic that I understand why they have the "no photo" signs everywhere. I found it strange as well that there were so many small children running around.

Anyway, here is a view of the prison from above. Most of the buildings were under construction while we were there, so a picture of a picture will give you the best idea of the layout.

Front gate.

The first building that you enter is an exhibition hall, where all of the vignettes are set up, to give you an idea of what prison life was actually like. It still amazes me that South Korea is what it is today with so much oppression and utter destruction in the very recent past.

We then entered the prison buildings themselves. Looking down a hallway that was under construction, with all of the cell doors standing ajar but deserted was eerie.

Such small cells.

Sometimes the human capacity for evil is more than I can take.

Overall it was a very interesting trip and reminded me again of what a resiliant nation South Korea truly is!

Happy New Year!

We hope you all enjoyed your New Year's Eve! Word is my parents actually managed to stay awake until 12pm this year... woowee! We decided to head downtown for the general melee, because, well, why not?

Do I look chunkier than normal? That's because I am wearing EIGHTEEN pieces of clothing. Literally. Have I mention I really don't like the cold?

The riot police were out. As usual. It's funny because we were with some people who are newer to Korea and they were a bit freaked out by their presence while we didn't feel like it was too unordinary! The girls were walking a little slower than the guys at the beginning and got cut off when they formed a line. There were a few tense moments but we managed to use our ninja skills to get through to reunite. (Or we might have just snuck through where an break opened up, but that's not really as exciting, is it?)

Laurie, Tom and Steve, do you remember this cow?? He was making the rounds again for NYE, but repurposed because 2009 is the year of the, you guessed it, cow! There were lots of hats shaped like cows, too.

The sign reads "Lee Myung Bak OUT". A lot of people still don't like the President.

Braving the cold and the crowds.

LOTS of people.

And as the clock struck midnight it was time to light the fireworks. In a crowd! Nothing makes the New Year more exciting than the possibility of being accidentally lit on fire!

Later we headed to Mike's Cabin in Sinchon to warm up. Can you tell I have 4 shirts on??? We didn't stay out too late as we're both still a tad under the weather, but overall it was a fun way to ring in 2009, a year that is going to be very eventful! Just 7 weeks 'til we bid "aneyang" to Korea... ahhhh!

Happy New Year everyone!