Lunar New Year and My Birthday

It has been awhile since I last posted a blog.  Maybe a little too long.  The weeks after Christmas break were pretty laid back with not a lot going on during the weekends.  Two weeks ago we had a 3 day weekend because of the Asian lunar new year.  This time of the year is very important to Koreans.  It may be even more of a celebration in China because people will celebrate for the entire week around the new year. This year the new year was on a Sunday.  Normally on holidays you get the day before, the day of, and the day after off of work.  It was too bad that this fell on a Sunday.  It would have been nice to get more days off.  Emily and I had planned to visit either Shanghai or Japan but the prices were a little expensive and the flight times weren't the best.  Instead we decided to venture around Seoul some more and visit places we had not seen yet.

On Saturday we went to a popular mall named Coex.  Among all the stores there was an aquarium and a kimchi museum (which I definitely want to see someday).  The aquarium was really cool.  It took us about 1.5 hours to walk through it.  The aquarium had many types of fish from all around the world and some land animals.  The path to follow in the aquarium took you through different parts of the world showing you fish from that region.  One cool part of the exhibit was that fish tanks were created using household or things you might see outside.  There were fish tanks inside of a refrigerator, washing machine, phone booth, toilet, mail box, etc.

A very interesting looking fish

Washing machine fish tank

Spider Man mailbox fish tank.  That was my favorite.

Traditional Korea next to a Coke machine

A pig-turtle

Shark tank

Emily and the jellyfish

The last part of the aquarium was the penguin habitat

Sunday happened to be the Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day.  We started the day off by going to Gwanghwamun, a region of Seoul.  I have been here before to look at some of the palaces.  This time there was a big festival going on on the street to celebrate.  Along the street there was different concerts going on, an ice skating rink, and many people flying kites.  Emily and I decided it would be fun to fly kites like all the Koreans were.  After flying the kites and walking around the area we went to a little sandwich shop for dinner which was delicious.  

Kites in the sky

Emily flying a kite

After the street festival we went to Seoul Tower.  This tower is in central Seoul and has a great view of the city especially at night.  The tower is 777 ft. tall.  The tower sits on top of a big hill so in order to get to the base of the tower we had to take a cable car.  When we got to the base of the tower there was a few restaurants, gift shop, and things to look at.  The cool thing about the tower is that along the fence that surrounds the tower at the top of the hill people who are dating or married put padlocks on the fence and then are supposed to throw the key over the side.  All of the fence space is full of locks that couples have put over time.  We were able to find a spot that was open.  We put a padlock on the fence that we had bought from the gift shop.  Putting the locks on the fence is supposed to bring good luck to those people so hopefully it does! After doing that we went to the top of the tower.  Knowing my fear of heights I was surprised that I wasn't freaking out.  I did get a little scared however, when walking to the window to look outside.  I made sure to stay about 2 steps away!  Who knows if I'll ever get over that fear or not.  On the windows around the top of the tower it showed international cities and countries that you are looking out at. Going to Seoul Tower was really cool and it was a cool way to spend Valentine's Day.  I plan on visiting it again in the future but during the day this time so I can see how much different the city looks when its light outside.  

View from the spot where the cable car left

Base of the tower.  I liked this picture because in the corner is a traditional Korean structure.  It looked cool to mix a traditional and modern styles. 

The fence that went around the base of the tower.  As you can tell it is full of locks people have left.  Our lock it behind the while pole near the Korean couple. 

Somewhere far, far, far away is Des Moines!

Lastly, Saturday was my birthday.  The plan was to go out to dinner with Emily and then meet up with friends in Sinchon and Hongdae (two places very close to where I live.  These places have universities so many people around our age hang out there). Little did I know that Emily secretly planned a surprise party for me. The restaurant was On the Boarder.  A Mexican restaurant from America.  We got to the restaurant at 8. Not expecting anything we were walked to our table which was in one of the big rooms set for larger groups.  As we walked I finally saw all of our friends sitting at the table.  I was extremely surprised and excited!  It was a great way to spend the night, eating and going out with all of my friends here in Korea.  A few of my co-workers and a bunch of Emily's came.  As we all know at restaurants when its someone's birthday they sing happy birthday to you.  They gave me a poncho and sombrero to wear.  After dinner we went to a bar owned by two Canadian men and we watched some of the olympics.  It's been cool to be able to watch the olympics here. Also, it has been interesting to see the focus on the athletes from a different country.  All in all it was a perfect way to spend my birthday.  I had NO IDEA that Emily was planning a surprise party for me!  It was much appreciated.  Thank you to all my friends and family back home that wished me a happy birthday! Also, congrats to the SJU swim team for the great job at the conference meet this past weekend.  I was able to stream the swim meet for parts of 2 evening sessions.  It looks like everyone swam well which is great to see.  This weekend Emily and I are searching for places to go.  Hopefully we will be able to find a flight somewhere, in or outside of Korea. 

My attire for the birthday song

A shot of most of the people at the table.  Apparently I have one blue eye and one red eye.
(Thanks Nicole for the pictures!)

90 degree weather in Thailand....OR....low 20's and snow in Korea??? Hmmmm

Merry Christmas and happy New Year to everyone!! It was quite different this year not being home for Christmas.  What stunk the most was that we had to work on Christmas Eve!  But, I did get a lot of presents from students ranging from a winter hat, gloves, lotions, etc.  As much as Christmas is celebrated in Korea it didn't really seem like Christmas time.  Maybe the lack of snow played a part in that.  Although it did snow a little on Christmas Day when our plane was taking off and while we were gone.  Figuring that staying in Seoul for our winter break would be very boring I went to Thailand with Emily and three of her co-workers (Matt, Cindy, Elyse).  We left Christmas Day around dinner time.  Our flight stopped in Taipei to pick up some more people then we headed to Bangkok.  In Bangkok we stayed at a little hostel.  We stayed in Bangkok for 2 full days.

On the first day in Bangkok we rode a boat that took us through the canals of Bangkok to one of the many palaces the city has to offer. It was a fun trip.  At random times people in their little boats would float up to us and try to sell us something. Water taxi's are very popular as we saw many people on the river/canal.  After getting off the water taxi we walked through a local market.  The market had all kinds of food and goods to buy.  Our plan was to go to the main Palace in Bangkok but it was a special day so that palace was closed so that the monks could pray.  Instead we went to a few smaller ones.  We went to one that had a massive Buddha statue.  In order to get to this place we had to take a tuk-tuk.  This is a type of taxi you can take in Thailand.  I recommend that if you ever to to Thailand, only to ride this ONE time!  Here are the reasons: 1.The drivers like to take advantage of tourists and try to rip you off as much as possible. Our hotel was very helpful when we asked them how much we should be charged when going from one place to the next.  Of course the price that the tuk-tuk drivers told us was outrageous.  You are able to bargain prices with them and we always got our price down to what our hotel had told us, or even lower in one case.  2.  The drivers try to make you go to more than one location so that they can coerce you into making a "stop" for them which allows them to refill on gas.  The drivers claim that the government gives them coupons for gas if they take you to either a jewelry or tailor shop.  In the 3 times we took a tuk-tuk we went to 4 tailor shops!  Compared to America tailor shops are VERY VERY cheap.  Around $300 for an Armani suit.  Obviously we didn't want to get a suit but we had to go into the shops for about 10 minutes each so the driver could get his coupon.  Riding in the tuk-tuks wasn't a bad experience since our hotel helped us in telling us prices we should demand.   Also, it was fun to ride in one because they zipped in and out of traffic.  In Bangkok driving would be a nightmare.  I though a lot of people in Korea rode little motorcycles.  Thailand has thousands more and they are driving every which direction.

Boat trip through the canal

See the little green motorcycle/car? Those are the tuk-tuks!

Standing Buddha

Emily and I in front of the statue

A shrine to Buddha in a small temple

One of the various palaces at night

The 2nd day in Bangkok we went to the Grand Palace.  This was the one that was closed the day before.  The Grand Palace covers a massive amount of area and has many palaces and temples inside its grounds. To go into the palace grounds men have to wear pants.  Women have to wear dresses/pants that go down to about the middle of the shin and their shirts have to have sleeves.  We were allowed to wear sandals which was the only good part about the dress code!  It was at least 90 degrees outside with little breeze.  I've never worn jeans in that type of heat.  It was crazy.  I can't imagine the people who do this everyday in Thailand.  This area had many smaller palaces that we visited, some  you could go inside and others you couldn't.  We did go into a pretty big temple but we weren't able to take pictures inside.  Inside the temple you had to either sit on your feet or point your feet/legs diagonally behind you.  The reasoning is that pointing your feet at anyone is offensive.  I would not make a very good Buddhist because I had a hard time sitting in both of those positions!   The look of all the temples/palaces in this area and all over Bangkok was awesome.  Most are covered in gold (not sure if its real gold or not) and have cool architecture to them.  There are also many cool statues, such as Buddhist demons, angels, etc.  After leaving the Grand Palace we walked about 20 minutes to the "Reclining Buddha".  The Buddha statue lays on his side inside a palace.  He is 150 ft. long and 50 ft. high.  It is a popular tourist attraction in Bangkok.  It is one of the worlds largest Buddha statues.  The 2 days we spent in Bangkok were a lot of fun.  It was neat seeing a lot about the history of the city and Buddhism in general.  The last 5 days of our trip we went to the beach in southern Thailand!!

Outside the Grand Palace wearing pants on a 90+ degree day!

One of the many statues

A palace inside the Grand Palace grounds

Palace with a very modern look to it

Almost like the Buckingham Palace guards.  They couldn't move.

Reclining Buddha.  I tried to get his entire body in one shot.

A temple that we were allowed to take pictures in.

After Bangkok, we flew down to southern Thailand and stayed about 2 hours north of Phuket, which is a popular tourist area.  Our hotel was on an island called Koh Kho Khao Island.  The first full day in Thailand was December 26.  Many people might not know but that day marked the 5 year anniversary of the tsunami that occurred in the Indian Ocean.  southern Thailand, especially Phuket and Koh Kho Kaoh (where we stayed after Bangkok) was hit very hard.  On TV that day there was a ton of coverage marking the anniversary and showing all the memorials people were holding.  It's strange to think that 5 years ago most of southern Thailand was gone but today it has all been rebuilt.  One of Emily's co-workers, Elyse, went to the area where we stayed in southern Thailand to help with tsunami relief in 2004.  We all stayed at the same hotel she stayed at when she came.  At one of the markets Elyse was able to find a Thai girl that she had met in 2005 when she came to help rebuild this area.

Our hotel was very nice.  The rooms were pretty big, the food was very good and everyone was very nice.  For the most part we laid out on the beach.  We did go to 2 excursions.  The first one was the day after we got there.  We went snorkeling out about 30 minutes from our beach.  We went to 2 different spots to snorkel  then we went to a little island that was nearby.  The island was pretty cool.  It was FULL of hermit crabs!  The water where we snorkeled at was pretty clear so we were able to see many cool fish.  After getting to the little island we hung out for about and hour.  We ate some food and laid out.  The second excursion we went on was my favorite part of the trip.  We started of the day by going on an elephant trek.  This was a lot of fun.  I've always wanted to ride an elephant.  The trek took about 1 hour or so through the Thailand "Jungle".  Each elephant carried 2 people.  On the first half of the trip Emily got to sit on the elephants neck/back.  After a break for the elephant to wash off we turned around an went back.  The way back I got to sit on the elephants neck/back.  At first it was hard to keep balanced.  Whenever we were going up or downhill the elephant would pin his ears back against our legs so we wouldn't fall off.  These elephants were very well trained.  After leaving the elephant camp we went to another site to have lunch and go on a canoe trip.  The trip went through a river and took about an hour.  It was nice to relax and hang out in the canoe while someone did the rowing for us!  The last part of this day trip we went to the "Monkey Temple".  Literally.  We went to this place that had mini temples and there were hundreds of monkeys around.  We were able to feed them nuts or bananas that we bought.  Our guides said that their favorites were nuts not bananas.  I bought 1 bag of nuts and 1 bunch of bananas.  I'm guessing our guides told us that they like nuts more because they went crazy when I pulled out the bananas!  I had monkey jumping up and chasing me trying to get the bananas.  The nuts they didn't care for as much, since everybody had them.   There was definitely an excess amount of nuts so at times it was hard to get the monkeys to take any.  It was funny watching them swing from tree to tree or attacking each other.  At one point, a little monkey jumped on Matt and Emily while they were trying to feed them nuts.  Sadly, I didn't have a monkey jump on me.  On New Years Eve our hotel had a buffet dinner and some shows/games for everybody.  Our group was the life of the party, taking part in all the games and winning all the prizes!  The day we checked out the lady told us thank you for making the party fun because nobody else wanted to take part in the games or activities like we did.  A tradition on New Years Eve is to light up paper lanterns and let them go over the ocean.  I am in a picture below with the lantern.  The point is to put all of your worries into this lantern and then let it go and watch your worries sail away!  Hopefully everyones worries sailed away that night.  This is also the case on the anniversaries of the tsunami.  People light the lanterns and let them sail away like we did on New Years Eve.

The boat that took us snorkeling and to the island nearby

Those are all hermit crabs.  This island had them everywhere.

One of the elephants

Starting out the trek

Emily and I riding the elephant.  She is riding on his neck.

Top of the hill just before we walked down to the river to canoe

On the canoe

2 of the many monkeys we saw

New Years Eve

About to let my worries sail away!

Overall, the trip was a ton of fun.  I couldn't have though of a better way to spend the week off from school.  I've traveled to a part of the world I would probably have never thought of going to until coming to Korea.  The trip to Thailand definitely ranks up there in my top 3 trips ever!  Now its back to teaching again tomorrow.  I did however wake up this morning and look out the window and there is about 3 inches of snow which is awesome.  I was told it doesn't snow too often in Seoul since its such a big city it melts away.  Hopefully the snows stays for a few days!  I'll have to start planning another trip.  We have a long weekend over Valentine's Day in February.  The Orange Bowl is tomorrow, go Hawkeyes!!! I'm going to do my best to find a way to watch and follow the game at work tomorrow, since it starts at 10 a.m. for me.  Happy New Year!

I'll be wearing my Hawkeye shirt under my work clothes tomorrow!

Not the last station from the South, but the first station toward the North

Things at school have been going pretty well recently.  The H1N1 flu has scared the entire country and tons of people have been getting it.  There has been over 108,000 "confirmed" cases here in South Korea, with 104 deaths. Needless to say many kids have been gone from school.  Students can take "breaks" whenever they feel like, I believe they still have to pay the tuition so their spot doesn't get filled by a new student. I have had classes where a handful of students have been gone this entire month.  In one class, there are 6 students but in November only 1 girl has come to class each time.  I feel really bad for her because she must be bored out of her mind to be the only one in class.  I guess one positive for her is that we usually get all the work done in class so she does not have homework that often!  A few weeks ago our director said that a kindergarten class would be shut down for 1 week if any of the students in that class had the flu.  At the beginning of the week one of the classes were closed for the entire week.  Later that week our director made the decision to close all kindergarten classes on that Friday and following Monday, giving the kids 4 days to get better.  I know of at least 2-3 kids in my class who got the flu so my class was closed from the Thursday-Monday.  It was really nice only having to teach 1 kindergarten class on the Thursday (I teach reading/library to another class).  Then, on that Friday and next Monday we didn't have to come to school until 2 p.m.  It was awesome to be able to sleep in 4 days in a row! My director had also brought to our attention that if the government shut down all the schools in Korea for 1 week that our winter vacation from December 25-Jan. 4 would be moved to the week when our school closes.  Thankfully by closing down the kindergarten for those few days we got around that situation and our winter vacation will remain the same.  I was worried for a few days because we had just booked our plane tickets to Thailand for winter break only a couple days earlier.  Other than the flu scare at school, things have been the same.  We had another birthday party on Friday celebrating the kindergarten students who had B-days in November.  Sometime in December we are having an open class for 1 period of kindergarten classes.  This is where the parents can come and watch us teach!  From what I have heard it's kind of stressful since the parents just sit there and stare at you.  I'm curious to see how well my class behaves, since they want to impress their parents.  I can only hope they are all perfect angels! (which happens very rarely).

This weekend I went to the DMZ with Emily and 8 of her co-workers.  It was an awesome experience.  Hundreds of thousands of tourists/Koreans visit the DMZ each year.  We went with a company called Adventure Korea.  This group hosts a ton of weekend adventures through out Korea, such as skiing, DMZ, hiking, weekend trips to Jeju (the korean hawaii), ice fishing trips, etc.  We started off the morning by driving to a town named Imjingak.  This is the furthest point that civilians can go.  Our passports/ARC cards were collected by the tour guides and they had to ask permission to allow us to continue closer to the actual DMZ. In Imjingak there were a few statues and a peace bell.  People come here often and say prayers that peace will eventually come between the 2 countries.  All around the fences of this area people have put peace ribbons up.  Many of them say things on them, written both in English and Korean.

A few ladies had little shops set up next to the fence selling DMZ souvenirs and ribbons which cost 1,000 won (about $.80).  The shops had a lot of cool traditional Korean goods.  I ended up buying a plaque that has a small piece of barbed wire taken off a fence at the DMZ on the 50th anniversary of the Korean War.  The city of Paju guarantees that the wire is legit.  I also bought some commemorative Korean stamps. Those 2 items were the first souvenirs I've bought since being here.  Next, we found a train that had been traveling between North and South Korea and was attacked by the North.  The train has over 200 bullet holes and a couple of major holes, probably from an explosion.

 A little Korean soldier

Next, we walked to Freedom Bridge.  This bridge had been the site of the recovery of over 12,000 Koreans after the war had ended.  It is not open right now, and many more ribbons, and clothes offering prayers cover the entrance to it.

The bridge from a distance

Entrance to the bridge with Emily

After receiving permission for our tour group to go further we went to a very tiny town named Paju.  Here we ate a traditional Korean meal.  Our group had over 100 people and we took every single spot in the restaurant.  Traditional Korean restaurants have the tables very close to the ground, so you sit on the ground. Also, shoes are not allowed inside.  You have to take them off in the entrance and set them in a little room.  I have been to a few restaurants so far where you sit on the ground.  It's really tough on the legs especially if your tall like I am.  The meal consisted of rice (who would have guessed), kimchi, porridge that had no taste (first time trying that), seaweed squares, a soup with tofu that had clams and noodles (also first time trying clams), a spicy tofu, some nut gelatin thing, and fish cakes.  The food was very good.  Here are a few pictures of the food and all the people eating.

 The restaurant had 3 long tables from one end to the other.  I sat at the end of the middle table with our group.

After leaving this small town we went to the 3rd tunnel.  So far, 4 tunnels have been discovered.  They range from the far west to the eat side of North Korea.  There are speculations that 10 more tunnels exist.  Everyone had the chance to go into part of the 3rd tunnel.  We had to wear hardhats and could not bring cameras down with us.  Since I couldnt take my camera I found this picture from Wikipedia.

The tunnel is only 6.5 ft high and 6.5 ft wide.  It is 1 mile long.  The walk down to where the tunnel begins was a very steep walk.  The entrance to the tunnel is 240 ft. below ground.  The entire time we walked through the tunnel I was forced to crouch because there were many poles, and only a few points was it actually about 6 ft. high.  At the end of the tunnel, well as far as we were allowed there was a door with barbed wire on it.  You could actually see into the next room.  More of the tunnel for about 50 ft. and then there was another door that looked exactly the same and had a hole in the middle so someone, whoever it may be can look through it.  That part was rather creepy.  After finally getting back to ground level a few of us bought North Korean beer from the gift shop.  The beer was pretty good, it tasted like the Canadian beer Molson.

Emily and I in front of the DMZ sign

People of North and South Korea attempting to push the 2 countries back together.  On one side South Korea is raised up and on the other side North Korea is raised up off of the sphere.

After leaving the 3rd tunnel we went to Dora Observatory.  This is the spot where you can actually look into North Korea.  The front of the viewing area had binoculars that you could use.  If you wanted to take pictures  you could only do so in a certain area.  There was an official photo line painted on the ground that you couldn't pass with your camera.  The place was full of Korean soldiers.  It kind of stunk because it was pretty foggy so we couldn't really see much.  The only thing I was able to see was the North Korean and South Korean flags on huge poles.

Looking into the abyss a.k.a. North Korea

Finally, we went to Dorasan Train Station.  This train station is the the very last train stop in South Korea.  I really liked this part of the tour.  The train station was absolutely immaculate looking.  Very few people actually take a train to this station so everything is very clean there.  It's also kind of weird being in the station because everything has been set up and it appears that it's a normal train station, which is not the case.  In order to ride this far north in South Korea you must apply for a train ticket.  Starting in 2007, one time per day every weekday, a train from this station goes into North Korea with materials and takes them to an industrial park.  The train then returns later that day with finished goods. We had the chance to buy a train ticket and have it officially stamped.  We were allowed to go outside to the train tracks where some soldiers were standing.  While outside and train came from the second to last stop in South Korea and maybe 10 people got off.  It was weird to see a train actually come.  On February 20, 2007 (my birthday) President Bush and the Korean President at the time had a peace meeting here and they both signed their names on a big piece of concrete which is displayed inside the station.  The motto of the train station is, "Not the last station from the South, but the first station toward the North."

When/if this station ever opens into North Korea, the plan is to connect this line with the rest of Asia and Europe.

We have our boarding passes for the first train into North Korea!!

Waiting for the first train....I might be there awhile.

This Korean Soldier took pictures with many of us.  When I stood next to him he stood on his tippy toes in order to be a little closer in height to me haha.

Entrance to the train station.  A little empty?  Perhaps