Sat Jan 23
Got to Chennai late b/c the plane was delayed b/c of engine trouble in Kuwait. A guy in Kuwait came up to me and asked me where I got my boarding pass because he didn’t get one when he boarded in Washington DC. I told him I got mine in NY. He told me he lived in Charlotte, so we struck up a conversation. When we got to Chennai, he helped me get to my flight, which I was a few minutes late for. So, I got on the next flight that night at 7pm and he told me I could go home with him. I was SHOCKED. I mean here’s a guy who hasn’t been home or seem his family in 2 years and he’s asking me to come along with him. What sort of thing is his family going to think? Geez… weird. So, of course, I went. We had a BLAST the whole day. Started with him introducing me to his dad, then mom, then uncle, and grandfather, and then a whole bunch of extended family. I showered out a bucket in his aunt’s house. I was just glad to have hot water though. We had breakfast with idly and chutney and some other Indian stuff and then went driving around. I really wanted to go on the motorcycle; he was skeptical, thinking I’d say I never wanted to ride on it again after a few minutes. But, I had sooo much fun! At first, we were a little wobbly and had a few near collisions, but no big deal, we both got the hang of it and I took a few videos to try to capture the moment. We went shopping for a new shirt for him and then tried to go to the movies, but there weren’t any movies in English, as it was Saturday. Then we got me a long Indian style shirt, which I got a lot of compliments around at the ashram. I think red must be a good color on me. Then we had Italian food and went to the beach for a while. He kept saying that if I were there for longer we would go to Pondicherry and his friend’s beach house nearby and stuff. I guess he must’ve liked me hahaha.

I finally got to Madurai around 9pm and got in a taxi. I started to feel super duper tired around 6 when I was at the airport. I mean I really hadn’t slept very much since leaving Raleigh and stopping in NY, London, and Kuwait. I got in the taxi and just went to sleep, but then I started to get worried b/c it was quite clear that the taxi driver had no idea where he was going. After stopping about a million times, we finally made it to the ashram.

Sun Jan 24
We did a fire ceremony thing at 6am and then got our uniforms and had to introduce ourselves to the group. Most of the group was super altruistic saying things like, “I work for peace and this will help me because….” I got up there ad aid that I wanted to teach so I could get instate tuition when I go to to grad school… to my disappointment, only a few people laughed.

That afternoon, we had our first asana class and I thought I was doing to DIE of boredom. I mean seriously this is the most boring class I have ever taken. There was entirely too much relaxation in it. I thought I was never going to get a workout in.

Mon Jan 25- Thurs Jan 28
Who would have thought sitting on the floor cross-legged would be so difficult? I was dying like the second day. My back has never hurt so badly, so to alleviate that you try to shift and then your butt hurts like no other, so then you shift again and your knees and feet and ankles hurt. Reminds me a little of West Point with all of the rules and you are always a little nervous that you are doing something wrong that you didn’t intend to do incorrectly. At West Point, my feet had never hurt so badly from some much standing… but here it’s like every other part of my body is in severe pain and that’s so much worse than just your feet. My roomie and I seem to be the only ones who are able to sleep through the night. She’s so funny. I think we are perfect roomies b/c we both go to sleep right after satsang at 10pm and then we both get up right after the first bell at 5:30. She’s Italian but lives in Spain now and teaches kids circus tricks. I’m not exactly sure what kinds of circus tricks. Some of these crazy girls around here are getting up at like 4 or 4:30 who knows why?

Fri Jan 29

Day off. Thank goodness. We got up at 5am and went to a temple on top of a mountain. The hike was beautiful. At the top, monkeys attacked a few people. I was terrified. We went to another temple and told a bull our wish and he then went to Shiva to tell him to grant us the wish. At another temple, we chanted a bit- it was a HUGE temple, like a maze. Then we had lunch in some place off the side of the road and then I finally got to go to the pool at the taj garden inn with Evalina, Marvina, and Harriet. We hung out at the pool and got lots of fruit and yummy juices. Ahhh it was so great and you could see the mountain we hiked in the mo

Mon-Thurs
Also went by quickly. I started writing notes with a guy in class, so that makes the lectures go by a lot faster. We did a purification thing on Thursday. I feel sick now. Uggg.. sooo sick! You were supposed to drink glasses of salt water quickly and then vomit them up to get phlegm out which supposedly makes you gain weight because your body absorbs too make nutrients when you have too much phlegm.

mexico 2009 and 2010

I had a great time in Mexico this year. The first two days were kinda slow with just wandering around the city and visiting my grandmother. On the 16th we went to Valle de Bravo and Julian and I water skied. On the way back, we unfortunately did not find the toll road and took a much longer route. Instead of the 2 hours it took us to get there, it took us about 5 hours to get home and we also had to cross through all of Toluca.

The following day, Julian and I got up early and went running at CU. After the run, I layed on teh grass and read my book and got interrupted by some really rude guy, whom I pretended I didn’t speak Spanish to, so he would go away. We then talked about what to do next and decided to go to the MUAC- a new modern art museum. I really didn’t think it would be that far away, so I said we should walk there. LIttle did I know, it WAS a pretty long walk. We played around in a talc room and a red room and on some scales. The exhibits were pretty neat. We wanted to take the shuttle bus back to the car, but apparently the busses don’t run when students are on vacation, so we had to walk back yet again. On the way back to my grandmother’s house, we stopped at Flor de Lis for some tamales. I used to HATE tamales. We had to eat them at every family event, like first communions and I aways went hungry because I couldn’t ever eat them. These, however, I’ve decided I like. That night we went to Julina’s friends’t b-day party. She’s his age- 26 and already has a 10 year old sone- wow. I”m so glad that’s not me. The party was fun b/c Julian is not afraid to ask people to dance with his cousin. Before I knew it, it was 2:30 am.

On Saturday, we went to the Bazaar del Sabado and I had an awkward lunch with Sofia and the Canadian…. uggg. so awkward. We listened to the famous marimba players and I don’t think anyone bought anything, but it was fun to look at all of the amazing crafts they have there. That night we went to Vero and Ivan’s apartment and played charades. My aunt Leo played and she was hilarious trying to act out abortion.

On Sunday, I can’t remember what we did during the day, but at night we went to Maga’s friend’s house- Yoshiro. His house is the most beautiful house I’ve been in in Mexico. I played on the wii all night- it was great! We had to get up pretty early to go pick up my mom at the airport. After picking her up, we went to this terrible restaurant- 100% natural. On the way there my aunt got rear- ended by a mini van that did not have insurance, so that was a hassle. After dinner, Julian and I went to the parque hundido and roller bladed.

I decided to stay the night at my grandma’s house because Julian and I got up early and went to the zocalo to line up to skate on the ice rink there. We didn’t get a slot until 5pm, so we tried to do one of the itineraries in the Chilango magazine. Unfortunately the Mexican Medical History museum was closed, which we really wanted to see. We wandered around until it was time for us to skate. When we finally did, about 85%  of the people skating had no idea how to. People were falling all over the place. I talked to one of the workers there b/c I wanted to find out more about their jobs and I found out the following: they make 1000 pesos every 2 weeks, they work 8 hours a day and get one meal provided, they can work as many or a few days as they want, they are provided with their uniforms. That night we got home and made a cake for Sofia and then went over there to celebrate her early b-day. The traffic on the way there was just terrible, but we eventually made it.

The following day, I went roller blading with my aunt at the parque ecologico de xochimilco. At night, I went with Maga to her friend Claduas house. It was a pretty uneventful day, but we were tired from the previous day’s activities.

The 24th- the long awaited xmas eve party…. well not really long awaited. Maga and I decided to stock up on alcohol, to releive ourselves from the boredom. I was able to bond with the Canadian a bit and Gras and Joseph got there. The last of the night is a bit of a blur… but we had to get up early the next day to hike the Ixta.

Fortunately on our way to our meeting point, the guide called us and told us he could not meet us until 930, so we decided to postpone until the next day. Instead, we went to xochmilco and ate quesadillas and then went to Tepozotlan. We wandered around a bit, Julian spilled coffee on himself- that was hilarous and then we hiked the mountain up to the pyramid. Joseph was DYING and I think he started to reconsider whether hiking the Ixta was a good idea. Strangely enough , when we got to one particular part, I vividly remembered hiking the mountain when I could not have been more than 4 or 5 years old. I remember how mad I was that I could not keep up with everyone else and how my mom had to stay back with me and we were the last ones up there. I think maybe that’s the first and last time I have been the last person up the mountain. hahhaa. Joseph looked rather despondent the entire day, like he missed Maga or something. He looked rather miserable and it was hard for me to be around him.

Saturday- Joseph decided to go to the spa with Maga and her family in stead of hiking the Ixta. The Ixta was amazingly difficult b/c the air is so thin there. My heart was beating soooo fast even before we started any hiking. I immediately felt terrible, but I kept going. We made it to the first alberge must faster than our guides had expected. I felt like we were going at a snail’s pace, compared to how I normally walk. We decided not to push to the summit because people who were on the way down said they had to get on all fours because the wind was so strong. Gras and I didn’t think the view would get any better, so we were also content to stay there and hike down and get home at a decent hour.

Sunday- we had to take Gras to the airport. Gras and I slept on the same twin air mattress in my grandma’s living room- it was pretty funny.  After gras left, we went to a bull fight. It was my first, and probably last. It was sad and brutal, but interesting none the less and something I felt I needed to experience to complete my Mexico experience.

My mom’s b-day- the 28th; she turned 62- wow! We went to breakfast with my cousin, Fausto. Then he took us to the two places he works- nutrition and cardiology. After that, we went to Coyoacan to celebrate her b-day with the whole family. I ordered grasshopper tacos- they were far to condimented- seemed like they had poured a bottle of old bay on there.  After the restaurant, I went with Maga to Claudia’s house again for a little mini party. I drove us home and we got stopped by the alcohol police. I was so relevied that I was able to pull away without jerking, since I didn’t drive stick ever.

The next day, Julian, Raul, and I went to the dentist. They only charged us 100 pesos for the cleaning- wow so cheap! After the cleaning, we ate and took a nap at a church in San Angel. Then we met Ivan and Vero for a party at their co-worker’s house. They had amazing tacos and boleros and the clown was not too funny. We had to leave early to go and visit with the Pipines- another part of my mom’s family. When we got there, maga was upset with me for leaving her with Joseph all day again. She complained about his boringness and monotoneness.

On the 30th, we went to Mallorca. This was challenge b/c we only had the 30th and the 31st to use up the passes for the YMCA and Joseph had no desire to go. So, I pawned him off on my mom- they went to Polanco- the ritzy area of Mexico City. We met up with them later and aand ate chicken at a park in the Condessa- my favorite part of the city. We then took him around the Zocalo to a carnival and stuff, but he looked bored the entire time.

On the 31st, we went to Vero’s job and had the strength in our legs tested. I have a 14% difference between my right and left hamstrings, which is cause for concern. YIKES. After that we sent Joseph off on his own on the Metro bus to go to the museum of anthropology. Sure enough, I got a passive aggressive message from him about the bus stop being in the wrong place on the map that we drew for him. Hey, we didn’t remember exactly where it was and we told him that. He should have asked if he didn’t see it after a few minutes, it’s not our fault that he waited 40 before asking someone. Julian and I had a great workout at Mallorca again and then went to the new years’ eve party. On the way, we had to get grapes- they were all out at walmart, so we had to pay 60 a kilo and got some of the last and worst ones at this stand on the street.

The next day, I had to get up to take my mom to the airport. I was so tired, I slept on the couch for essentially the rest of the day and then went to Yoshiro’s house with Maga at night. I played wii again and beat him at golf, but lost at tennis.

The next day, we left around 6am to got to Chiapas- Tuxtal Gutierrrez.  It ended up taking a lot longer to get there than the internet had told us. 12 hours instead of 8. We found a hotel in Tuxtla and stayed there the night. The

The following day, we went to the Canyon de Sumidero and then to San Cristobal and spent the night in Ocosingo.

The following day, we went to Tonina and then to Agual azul. I really liked Tonina. I think it beats Tula, which had been my favorite ruins for a long time.

The next day, we went to Misol Ha and to the cave above it. Finally , we got to Palenque before heading home. The pool at the bottom of that waterfall seemed to be really really deep, but very beautiful. We got home at 4am from the trip.

On the 6th, we didn’t do much of anything but recover. We went over to tia Leo’s house for the rosca and tamales. I got the baby jesus. At 1am, we took Joseph to the airport. He seemed to be really hesitant to take a taxi- I’m not sure why…. so weird.

On the 7th, my last day, I met Julian at Chabacano metro and we went to Chapultepec to roller blade and run. Then we went to an exhibit on reforma. We got cast for some public service announcement commercial and then ran short on time, so we had to take pictures of each of the cartoons to read later. we made it over to near metro Chilpancingo for carnitas and then headed home to take me to the airport.

Discoveries about my dad

The past few weeks have been very hectic. I’ve had many mixed emotions about things. I thought my dad was deathly ill and then when he didn’t look that dire, I felt some resentment for coming home. Then when he did take a huge turn for the worst, I felt extremely remorseful and sad about losing him. I felt awful for my impatience toward him in the past and apologized for it.

The 5 days that he spent at home under the care of hospice, I hope were some of his happiest moments. The number of people that called and came by was truly amazing. I hope that he felt truly loved during this time. I think that these 5 days were the surge of energy that the book that the hospice nurse gave me talked about. I think that once his energy was gone, after holding on for as long as he could, he had to leave. My mom said he squeezed her hand in the morning and then took his last breath.

We had a beautiful ceremony for him after he passed away. From talking to his co-workers over the past few weeks, I have really come to realize what an extra-ordinary guy he was. One of my favorite radio shows is This American Life. In one particular episode, they talk about group dynamics and how there are three particular personalities that can cause groups to fail: the depressive pessimist, the jerk, and one other that I can’t remember right now. The episode also talks about how there is only one particular type of personality that can turn this around. Only people who have strong leadership skills with energetic personalities that bring optimism to the group can turn it around. By talking with his friend, Ed, that has worked with him since 1977, I discovered that my dad was one of such people. Ed said that my dad just had the ability to bring people together on a project. To have them work together well even when things were not going well and people were getting frustrated. I suppose that this gives me one more thing to aspire to. I think I tend to be one of those people that feeds off of the energy of others and if one person in the group is a bad apple or has a negative attitude,  then I tend to feed off of that and it crumbles the positivity I was originally feeling.

At the visitation, I was shocked by how many people from his work showed up to pay their respects. Each one of them basically told me the exact same thing. They said that he was always the nicest guy and that he always had a huge smile on his face. When we visited the office today, we found the dissertation that the last student he worked with wrote. He dedicated the dissertation to my dad. He always loved working with his students and they also loved working with him. It’s really sad that he didn’t get to work with the two new ones that just started. He had to give them to his friend Bill Lonneman. I only wish that I can someday find a job that I enjoy as much as my dad did. I think that he truly never wanted to retire and that he would have continued working as long as he could still function.

The funeral and the burial ceremonies were truly amazing. I was very pleased with the hospice pastor and the people who made remarks. The entire ceremony flowed very nicely. The burial ceremony was also very beautiful and we had 3 national guard guys there for the taps playing and the flag folding.

Here are some of the things people said about him on the care pages blog that we kept during this time.

Dearest Robin and Family,
Your father supported you through many times in your life and I know you will miss him with all your heart.
Tim and I enjoyed getting to know him when you girls were planning that fateful trip to Europe when you were only 18 years old. We had to support each other during that time, when our little girls headed out into the world. He was very knowledgeable about world travel at that time and helped alot in your planning. He also helped to set our minds at ease, some.
I know you will all miss him greatly, he was too young to be taken, but sometimes our God has a greater plan, and we all must put our faith in a greater power and rest assured that our loved ones are in a better place.

You are all in our thoughts and prayers,
Candy and Tim

Seila Family,
May the love of friends, family, and God comfort you during this sad time. I’ll miss seeing Bob at work, especially his trips to the pesticide lab to borrow or return something.
–Elin (EPA)

I share in your saddness with the loss of Bob. His gentle smile and kind nature will always remain in my thoughts. Please know my sincere prayers are with his family during this challenging time. Marshall, EPA

I will always cherish the memory of Bob’s smile. Every time I saw Bob he had something nice to say and smiled. I will keep his family in my thoughts and prayers. By Beverly (EPA)

Yesterday I was bless to have the chance to see Bob one more time. He surely will be missed at work, he was an excellent researcher, colleague and friend. My thoughts and prayers for all the family. “Mi mas sentido pesame”, Maribel, EPA

Dear Seila family,
Thank you for allowing me to come into your home and spend some time with you and Bob on friday. Please convey to Bob that I miss his smiling face and quick humor here at work. My thoughts and prayers are with all of you.

Mark EPA

Hi, this is Francyne, Jodies’ friend from Athens. I haven’t seen your family for several years but I keep up with your activities through Jodie. I was devastated to hear about Bob and my thoughts and prayers have been with him for months. May you all have strength at this difficult time in your lives and remember the good times that you have had together as I remember our attempt to have a picnic many years ago as we travelled from one park to another trying to find a place to cook our little dinner. It’s one of my fondest memories.

Here are some pics from the ceremony:

Catching up after being back home

June 19th-

My friend Barabara from Capoeira had a going away party. She is going to get her masters in photography at some university in NYC. I don’t remember too much about the night except that we ate far too much galbi and drank too much soju and beer. The next day, I had to go to two more going away parties. One was for Ryan- a Canadian guy in the running group and the other was for the guy that Charmaine had been dating. She broke up with him and he was acting kinda strange about it.

Earlier in the week we went to the Korea vs. Iran game. I think Korea won 2 to 1. It was much harder to get in arriving late than I remembered from the S. Korea vs. N. Korea game.  Here are a few pics from the game.

June 27th-

I went to Japan with the rugby team. We lost by a lot but we didn’t have our best players. I got to play the whole game and most of the people that played didn’t play in their usual positions, so everyone was a little confused. Aroha kept asking if she was in the right place the whole time. It was soooo annoying. Amanda and another girl organized a scavenger hunt for the night before the game. It was hilarious. I was so glad that Terri and Claire were on my team b/c they were both ridiculous. Terri tried to get a guy at the apple store to squat down in front of a dog for our lewd picture. It started attracting too much attention though and the guy chickened out. The theme for the night was barbie. I attempted to dress up as goth barbie, but I didn’t want to be ugly, which I didn’t realize was necessary. I thought my dress was super cute and I’m sure I’ll wear it again.

July 4th

To celebrate independence day for the US and Canada Day for Canada, my friends organized a scavenger hunt around Seoul. I asked Maxine and Charmaine if they wanted to join too. We were paired up with two other girls and a guy and we had a blast. Our team name was ‘freakin orangie’.  The theme for the scavenger hunt was apparently freakin. So you had to try to say that as many times as possible throughout the day. Our team came in second place. I think that the only reason we lost is b/c we didn’t streak down hooker hill. I still can’t believe that one of the teams did that. I was NOT about to do something so drastic. I was also not about to swim in the Han River.

July 11th

Mudfest. It was cold and cloudy. I finally met some guy who apparently had been asking about me…. I was not impressed. Terri and I re-enacted the ghost scene with the clay when we walked by a station that had wheels and clay ready to go on it. It was pretty funny. The funniest part of the day was when Terri broke to the front of the line and proceeded to tackle the guys who were working in the inflatable mud pit. I woke up in the hotel the next day next to some random guy. I think we both woke up around 5 am and looked at each other and then he sprinted out of the room. It turns out he went into other people’s rooms too. I guess he was completely drunk and didn’t know where his hotel was. Annessa slept in a boat that night and some other guy my friend knew ended up on drugs and got in fights with people. I guess mudfest is a lot more fun when it is sunny and not raining the entire time.

July 18

On Sunday, I went to the pool with Deirdre. That was and interesting experience because the Koreans like to dress up to go to the pool. They also have funny rules about no jewelry in the pool and you have to wear a swim cap and you have to take a 10 minute break every hour. We aren’t sure why you have to get out of the pool. I’ve heard that it’s because they want to let the pool clean itself for 10 minutes and I’ve heard that it’s because it’s just too strenuous to be in the pool for more than 50 minutes at a time. We walked back from the pool and she took lots of pictures in sepia mode.

July 25th-

Hong Kong for 2 days. We landed in Hong Kong on Saturday and left Monday morning super early. On Saturday we went up to Victoria peak and walked around the night market that was fairly close to our hotel. We were all enamored with Hong Kong. The double decker buses, the tropicalness, the English speaking people; everything was so great. The only down side was the air-conditioner that was blasting in every single building. It is absolutely imperative to carry around a long sleeve shirt/sweater if you are going to go in anywhere. On Sunday, we went up to see the largest Buddha in the world. We also ate the most delicious vegetarian meal at a monastery at the bottom of the hill. Then we went shopping at the outlets and Maxine bought at computer. Apparently Hong Kong is the cheapest place in Asia to buy electronics.

On Monday, we went to Borocacy. Our flight kept getting delayed at the Manila airport and we are not exactly sure why. They were telling us there was sand on the runway and then they told us there weren’t any lights at the airport. We ended up having to go to a different airport and then we were shuttled to caticlan to take the ferry to borocacy. I later found out that a plane had run off of the runway and that a recent inspection had revealed that the runway is in fact too short. I’m not sure why it suddenly became too short because planes have been flying there for years. We finally got to our hotel at around 11pm… we were supposed to get there at 5pm. Oh well. The next day, we awoke to a beautiful view from the hotel. Kristy’s boyfriend, Manny, who is Philippino paid for 2 nights and we paid for 2 nights. He is apparently still very smitten with Kristy and wanted to make sure she had a good time. She did seem to be a a lot more high maintenance than the rest of us, who would have been happy sharing a hotel bathroom with other people.

We went parasailing, then flyfishing, and then island hopping on our one sunny day. Parasailing was fun. Maxine was worried the thing would break… it did creak a bit, so that was a little cause for concern. Fly fishing was amazingly fun. The inflatable thing dragged by the boat went up to almost vertical and I fell off 2 or 3 times and was about to fall off for most of the ride. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as hard as I did at my ridiculousness there. Maxine was in the middle, so she stayed on the whole time and just laughed at me and Sara on the two ends. Then we went island hopping. First we went snorkeling at one location. There was nothing too spectacular there. It started to rain, and we were worried it would rain all day like it had the day before. Fortunately, by the time we got to the second spot, the rain had cleared up a bit and we fed the fish. That was by far one of the coolest things I have done. I was amazed by the colors of the fish and I didn’t have to touch any of them. It was like being right inside an aquarium. We also went snorkeling inside 2 caves on an island that you can rent out for the day for about $1000. We were told that people sometimes rent it out for weddings. Our final stop was more snorkeling, but instead, we got life jackets and floated on them. That was great. When the ice cream boat guy came by, we bought some ice cream too.

yes, people eat this. I couldn’t do it. It’s baby duck.

The next day, I went on an ATV up a mountain with 2 of Maxine’s co-workers. The view from the top was beautiful and you could see the whole island. We also got to see strange animals and got to hold a bat and an owl.

I went to yoga 2 days I was there. I was really impressed with the yoga instruction and they told me that the course in Madurai is amazing and that I should definitely do it. The day we went back to Korea, a boat sank on the way back to caticlan. I was really glad we were not on that boat, but I was worried about the boat we were on. It seemed to be quite a bit less stable than the one we had taken to the island and when we were trying to dock, we were on top of another boat.

The next week, I spent agonizing over making a decision about going home to my father who had MDS but has now progressed to leukemia. My school was not supportive to say the least  and I left on Saturday afternoon. I had a great Saturday morning and Friday night and I was really sad to leave.

Again.. I haven’t written in a while

 

 

May 16- Ali had her b-day party. The theme was Scottish stuff…. here are some pics from the party-

 

Dancing on the roof in the rain

 

me and dierdre.. i look terrible cuz i didn't go home after rugby practice b/c i got lost on the way there in the rain... it was terrible. i cycled like 10 extra miles... oooops. i'm much better at getting around Seoul now.

I recently got a bicycle. I LOVE it! OMG I wish I had gotten one sooner. Seriously.. it’s so much better than taking the subway everywhere… well most of the time. I spent about a week getting lost allllll the time, but now I can get around just fine. I’ve figured out that you can basically get anywhere in an hour and a half even when you get lost. I tried getting to capoeira, which is south of the river… and I ended up getting on an expressway instead. The map at the subway station was really misleading. I thought I could go straight after crossing the river, but little did I know, the expressway curves to the left and there’s not an exit for a really long time. Fortunately, there was a traffic jam, so I was faster than any of the cars. When I finally got off, I was able to follow signs to the subway stop that I wanted. On the way back, I was able to find an alternate bridge to cross on, and that was much better. 

 

May 23- Icheon half marathon. I came in at 1:50:07. 7 seconds slower than I would have liked. The course was super hilly and really hard. Those of us who ran the 10k, half, or full got a nine piece ceramic set. Icheon is where a lot of the ceramic in Korea is made and they have the ceramic festival here in May and part of June. 

 

Charmaine and Jamie

 

The ceramic village we stopped at

May 30- Gumi

Gumi was soooo much fun!!! It’s the most anticipated touch rugby tournament of the year because everyone knows how fun it is. It’s an overnight tourney and lots of teams sign up to play on the beautiful grass that a farmer in Gumi lets us use. I wrote an article for the Korea Herald about it. Here’s the link- http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/06/02/200906020062.asp

I scored my first try by miraculously running through two guys on the opposing team about 4 meters from the try line. I’m still not sure how it happened. It caused those two guys to get the blooper moment of the tourney and in turn, that got me a 20,000 won bar tab that night. Here are some pics from the hilarious night.

 

from left to right: Liz, Loz, me, Mel

me and emilie

 

not sure who these guys are, but I liked the pic.

 June 6-8- Shanghai. 

I love Shanghai. I think I feel that way about every place I visit in Asia haha. It was so nice! It had lots of green park areas. It was very walkable, yet spread out, and everyone seemed to be really nice and happy compared to the people in Seoul. We met up with some Colombians that my friend Maxine met in Seoul a few weekends ago. They were super nice. Apparently there are a lot of Spanish speakers in Shanghai. Everyone at the club that we met up with spoke Spanish. Some people were from Spain, most from Colombia, and I think there were a few Mexicans there too. 

 

Me and Maria- from Valencia, Spain. She was super nice, and only has her left arm. I can't imagine.

group shot.. I can't remember everyone's name

Sadly the Bund was under construction.. I will have to go back.

delicious Taiwanese pizza

Near the people's square

wow! sanitation grades; the definitely don't have those in Korea

 

We went to the circus... these were all motorcycle drivers and they drove together in a tiny cage. It was amazing!

At a tea shop. We bought sooo much tea. It was all soooo good.

 

lots of kite flying going on in the park. Some of kites were soooo high in the air! This guy was funny b/c he's all relaxed chillin with his cig and his kite.

 

We all agreed these park benches are the most comfortable we have ever sat on.

May 12- Loz and Nancie had going away parties. I got to the restaurant before Nancie and sat down at the table where I didn’t know anyone. They asked me how I knew Nancie, so I explained that I went to the Army Ball with Tyler and met here there, but that we had also cheered at West Point, and had met, but I didn’t really remember meeting her. Little did I know, I was sitting next to the girl that had originally been Tyler’s date to the ball, that he had fired a few days before. oooops! Needless to say, it was a little awkward for a while. She’s super cool though! I can’t figure out why they didn’t get along! I think she’s great! We are meeting for brunch this weekend. I met up with Loz after Nancie’s dinner, and we went dancing and then had a sleep over in Ali’s bed. When I got home on Sunday, I had a message from Loz letting everyone know that Tom proposed to her on their first night in Thailand! I’m so happy for her! We all knew it would happen, it was just a matter of when. The wedding will be in Feb 2011, in New Zealand; I sooo hope I can make it! They said they have a bed waiting for me. 

 

Nancie, Mandy (Tyler's original date), Ashley, me

On Saturday, I went to Jeremy’s going away party. He has a super nice house! He’s moving to Shanghai, after being here for 5 years. He’s very sad to be leaving, and so is his family. He’s in charge of touch rugby in Korea, so that’s how I know him. I also met some other Koreans at the party, that speak really good English, so I’m happy to have more Korean friends now! 

On Sunday, Charmaine and I rode our bikes to Jamsil for a race that a few people were doing. After the race, I went to a bbq for the male and female rugby teams at Emilie and Dan’s house. Emilie had a company in Hong Kong, that she recently sold, that did really well, so she was planning on not working for 3 years in Korea, but she’s getting bored, so she’s planning to get a job of some sort soon. My little crush was there… and I spent the entire day being too shy to talk to him. But, finally most people left and there were only 7 of us left, we talked for a bit and joked around. Dan is hilarious! He was telling us about how he got beat up in Vegas by bouncers after he got mad at some people who didn’t know the difference between Chinese an Philippinos.  When I got home, I had a text message from him asking me if I wanted to go out for a drink the next day. I was so excited! I even told my parents.. they both said, “oh good!” I was thinking… are these my parents?!?!? Then I said, “yeah.. I’m so surprised.” My dad said, “I’m not.” Again, I thought… who am I talking to? Are these really my parents who are saying this? It’s so out of character… and very out of character for me to say anything in the first place. We didn’t end up going out on Monday because he unexpectedly had to get up early on Tuesday and he’s going to the Philippines this weekend, so he’s too busy to meet up this week. I hope he’ll text again next week. 

Today, I went to the Iran vs S. Korea soccer game. I guess the S Koreans are pretty tough because like in the N Korea game, in the second half, the players were dropping like flies. Stretchers were out of the field like every 5 minutes. A lot of the Iranians were wearing shirts that said, “Does our vote count?” We saw a fight between a Korean and an Iranian at the end of the game. The police were trying to monitor it, and they were so scrawny compared to the Iranian. 

 

Charmaine at the race on Sunday

 

Iran celebrating after scoring the first goal

We had a day off on Tuesday. It’s rather annoying because we had Friday off and then Tuesday. Why they couldn’t have changed it to Monday is beyond me. Things never make any sense here. Elle and I wanted to go to the beach, so we went to the island that the airport is on- to the west of Seoul. We got there and unfortunately it was cold and windy and cloudy. It’s such a bummer because it was a really nice day in Seoul. I’m beginning to wonder if it ever gets sunny on the western islands of Korea. 

On Wednesday, I interviewed with a head hunting company to give a lecture on resume writing and interviewing skills for a group of MBA students. I was confused during the interview, to say the least. The man interviewing me spoke extremely limited English, so Grace was basically the interpreter. Grace got me the job. I worked with her on a winter camp a while back, so she calls me from time to time when jobs come up. It seemed like they had decided to hire me and that the ‘interview’ was just a formality. When we got up to the office, two other girls came in, who were supposed to be helping out and then a third girl, whose English is actually pretty decent came in. I thought the whole meeting was very bizarre. I thought that one of the girls looked completely lost and confused the entire meeting. It also kind of seemed like a contest to see who could say the least… there were a lot of long periods of silence. It’s like no one could decide on anything. I decided that it was best if I just made the presentation myself and emailed it to them. I presented on Friday night, and it went really well. I’ve decided that I think that I really enjoy presenting in front of a group of people. I also thought it would be good practice because it was relatively low stress since there were only two native English speakers in the audience, so no one would be able to tell if I messed up or not. It went really well though; I had several people come up to me and tell me that it was really interesting.

On Saturday, I went down to Suwon to get a bicycle that I found on craigslist. It was only 45,000 won… by far the cheapest I’ve seen. I rode it to city hall today and it took slightly less time than it would via subway. That night, I hung out with the rugby girls… we had a team bonding activity at our sponsor’s. Today, I went to an information fair in the city hall area to promote rugby. There was also an international fair with amazing food. 

The beach.. mud flats all over the place.

Sooo cloudy

Some festival on a random weeknight in the city hall area.

The agricultural college of Korea

Our bonding activity

Ali getting ready to dance on the table.

Rugby and Dokjokdo

We had our first real rugby game on Saturday. We hosted a team from Hong Kong. I actually had a really fun time playing. I thought I would be really apprehensive to tackle people, but the adrenaline really gets going and it’s pretty exciting to try to tackle someone. I caught one really good ball that bounced and if they had caught it, they probably would have scored and won the game. The final score was 17 all. After the game, we had a party at our sponsor’s. I had to get up to meet people at 6 am to go to dokjokdo (an island on the west coast) but I still ended up staying up until around 4 am. Needless to say, I was super tired the next day. Here are some pics from dokjokdo… I had a great time and I hope I can go back soon.

Carla and Dierdre- they are officially girlfriends as of Saturday night! yay!

It was really cloudy early in the day, but it cleared up as the day went on. 

Lotus Lantern Festival

Elle and I went to to my half marathon race in Hanam City on Sunday. We only had to go about 4 stops from my house on the subway and then we got on the free shuttle to the race. I was a little worried that they might ask for proof of registration for the race or something. They didn’t and Elle and I both got snacks even though it was obvious that she was not running. The race was at the same spot on the river where they have boat races. I was a little nervous about running the 13.1 miles because I haven’t been running all the much lately. The course was kinda hilly and my other problem was that I didn’t know exactly how long the race was… I knew it was more than 20km and less than 23km. I’m not very good at judging how far a km is either. I managed to finish in 1:51:15. Elle was supposed to take pictures, but as soon as we got there, she realized that her camera had run out of battery. 

When we got back, we decided to go to the lotus lantern festival. They have this in honor of Buddha’s birthday on Tuesday. We got there and found out that it is definitely geared toward kids. Still, we both thought it was pretty neat that we got to make our own lotus lanterns. It is a lot harder than it looks. We also traced a design on really thin paper with ink and a paint brush and we were both shocked at how difficult that ended up being too. 

 

 

Elle was obsessed with this man's skinny legs. She was like how can he even stand up?

 

The guy who helped us make lotus lanterns. He went to the University of Missouri.

The flowers on the stick were really hard to make. This woman had to help me and I don't think she was very happy about it.

My classroom and the things I make my kids do

 

 

Sean is a boy scout

 

My favorite afternoon class being silly. I couldn't stop laughing at them.

Sean's diary about Guam

 

June's diary entry- he copies everything Albert does

Judy's diary

 

Sean's skeleton family

 

 

Sean was supposed to draw his family but he drew skeletons instead

Sean

 

Sean's bloody monster for his parents

another funny diary entry

 

Aileen was trying to teach Albert how to use a yo-yo... she's actually really good at it

 

I gave Sean a little pony tail one day... he got a super short hair cut a few days later

I made leprechauns with them to kill time one day

 

 

 

 

Nick and Eric acting silly for the camera

Jacob- the dumb kid in the class

Not sure why the all suddenly felt the need to lick their shoes

 

Judy- she said her mom would hit her if she didn't get 100 on her test, so she was scared to death to fill it out. She's like the mean cheerleader in the class. One day she said, "Oh Minnie doesn't know anything." I just had to laugh because it is so true.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aileen

 

 

 

Albert

 

 

Judy

Cherry Blossom Festival

 

We went to the Cherry Blossom festival on Yeoido Island as a school. I was perplexed with the way the whole thing was organized. Two people drove- and it took FOREVER to get the cars. By the time we got there, it was like 2 hours after we left the school. Gord and John got beer and lunch and then took the subway and beat us all there. Charlotte and I were annoyed with all of the standing around that was going on. It was just strange. We walked and saw some cherry blossoms and ended up at a cute street where you could get food at a number of restaurants. I had the best sandwich I have ever had in Korea. I was pretty impressed with that place and I will probably go back. After lunch Charlotte and I couldn’t take it anymore and left the group. When Gord and JOhn caught up, we asked where everyone was and he said that they all left. He said that as soon as Anna (the academic director) left, everyone else left too. I felt like everyone, including Anna did not want to be there, so I didn’t understand why we went in the first place. The whole thing was just very odd. I guess that it is important for the Korean teachers to participate in the group functions since it is their career. I think it is kinda sad that this is their career though; I just can’t imagine… anyway, here are the pics.

 

 

Couple shirts