The Fish Fry

M.I.A.

2011-08-30T21:15:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to say a quick hello and promise that more blogginess is coming! I can't even describe how crazy it has been coming home to America after living abroad for so long...let's just say reverse culture shock is a real thing. I've got a lot going on at the moment (ie the increasingly real need to fund my shopping addiction with a JOB) but I must not let my readers suffer because of this! I may not be globetrotting anymore, but let's face it, I'm still pretty damn interesting. :) Well, maybe we'll see about that.

Animal Farm

2011-08-17T01:50:00.004-04:00

One of our last days in the UK was Cassie's birthday and, to properly celebrate this momentous occasion, we headed to the nearest petting zoo. We didn't quite make it to the Highland Cows of Scotland, nor did we successfully pet any "wild" sheep or Shetland ponies, so this seemed like the next best option. I hope to spend my 31st birthday in just as cute a fashion. Happy Birthday Cassie!

Exhibit A: I am positive I've now seen the cutest horse in existence. Enter baby miniature Shetland pony.

I can't even handle this level of cuteness!
Exhibit B: Highland Cow!

Exhibit C: ALPACAS! I've pretty much decided I need one...or 3.

Cutey Patootey. Also, doesn't the close-up of the white one look like Falkor from Neverending Story? I'm pretty sure he does.
Exhibit D: Llama time. Cute, but nowhere near alpaca status (sorry, llama).

Exhibit E: Funny Donkeys

Exhibit F: Sheepies

Sigh, if only all days could be so cute!
Plenty more animal faces here.

Scotland Road Trip

2011-08-11T18:51:00.004-04:00

Last Monday we set out on a grand tour of northern England and Scotland. We packed up the car with tents, sleeping bags, plenty of extra blankets, and a load of groceries to sustain ourselves during outdoor adventures. I hadn't gone camping in many years and was only slightly wary... I guess I'm a city girl, after all.

The first stop of the road trip was Alnwick Castle, ie HOGWARTS!

We were lucky with the weather at first. Lovely day to explore a castle, I say.

Pretending to model for the new LL Bean catalogue in my new sweater.
100% lambswool XS-XL just $39.95. Get yours today!

Next stop was Bamburgh, where we climbed through sand dunes to make our way along the beach to another castle.

I love the photos I got there - it was amazing looking and very much worth the gale force winds we endured to check it out.

Freezing cold beach - we're not in Thailand anymore!

By the castle.

Flowers & Castle

Jayne and Cassie in the dunes.

Me too!

Now onto SCOTLAND!

Just a little excited :)

First stop across the border: St. Abb's, a small fishing village that was super cute, quaint, and good for even more photo ops.

You know it's all about the photos.
After a couple more hours of driving, we made it to our digs for the night: Linwood Campgrounds near Edinburgh. Little did I know this would be absolute luxury compared with the next night.

The A-Frame timber tent, all for us! It was better than sleeping outside, but not exactly comfortable... I basically punched a wall every time I moved.

Cassie expertly prepared a dinner of barbecued sausages, potatoes and carrots. It's good to have a girl scout around.
We hit the sack early that night and set out to explore Edinburgh the next day. The Fringe Festival was going on at the time (a huge arts festival) so there was plenty to see and do. We only had a few hours in the city, but it was enough to get a good feeling of the place and take some photos.

In the spirit!

Edinburgh Assembly Rooms

The Elephant House, the cafe where JK Rowling started writing Harry Potter. Can you tell that this trip has only been slightly influenced by the truest love of them all, Harry Potter?!

Now that's a Scottish piper.

William Wallace sighting!

Professor Quirrell look-a-like with Edinburgh Castle in the background.

We moved westward that afternoon past Glasgow to our next destination: Loch Lomond, a very huge, very lovely lake.

Birdies in the Loch

It was so beautiful there. Shame the weather didn't allow us to visit the most famous Loch of all - Loch Ness (and Nessie!)
That night, we set up camp in a little clearing off the side of the road. I'm not really sure how it works in the States, but in Scotland you can camp anywhere, as long as it's not private land. We found a nice little area, near a bubbling brook even, and settled down with some takeaway fish and chips and a few pitchers of cider. Camping wasn't bad at all at this point. We went to bed wrapped up in sleeping bags and extra duvets (the UK is cold!) and I got to sleep without a problem. Then it started raining in the night. Getting up to pee really sucks in the pouring rain. Waking up in a rain puddle is even worse. It kept raining so much throughout the night that the tent soaked through. Lovely. Not to mention the pitter patter all night kept me awake thinking of all kinds of horror movie scenarios. In the morning, I lied awake for a while hoping in vain the rain would suddenly stop and I wouldn't have to deal with packing everything up. No such luck. We all just had to man up, throw everything in the car soaking wet, and get the hell out of dodge.

To add to the experience, Cassie even had 2 tick visitors, one of whom was very reluctant to leave her calf. Yummy. One public restroom "shower" later and my uneasiness at the thought of camping had been solidified into outright dislike. No more camping for me.

Due to general misery, we decided to call the rest of the road trip off. Unfortunate yes, but I think we all enjoyed an extra couple of days relaxing and hanging at Jayne's house rather than suffering through 2 more nights of sogginess.

Jayne & Cassie walking towards Hadrian's Wall, ruins of a great wall built by the Romans. We stopped here on the way back to Jayne's place.

sheep chaser!
All in all, it was definitely an experience. I would have liked to seen a bit more, but I'm glad we cut the trip short due to nasty conditions. I got a nice little taste of Scotland and a reason to come back again! I'm coming for you, Nessie...

Check out the rest of the photos here.

Dubliners

2011-08-08T04:20:00.001-04:00

Like the Asia portion of this trip, my time in the UK so far has been quite the whirlwind. We got back super early yesterday morning from a short trip to Dublin. Now, most people know Ireland as one of the best places to drink and be merry. Let's just say we did not fail to keep with tradition on this point.

After arriving, we started off the afternoon with a pint at The Brazen Head, Ireland's oldest pub.

In front of Temple Bar, the most popular bar area. And let me tell you, I was quite popular as well that night!

Pints of Guiness, had to be done in Dublin.

We found this lovely black wig...it went a little too well with Cassie's hair :P

That wig got around.

Because the internet really needed more pictures of me drinking beer.
SO there you go...yes, it's true...we mainly just drank a lot in Dublin. But it was such a grand time! Today we set off on a little road trip through Scotland. I'll be away from the computer for the rest of the week, but when I get back hopefully I'll have lots of lovely photos to post. Ta!

Hogwarts Express

2011-08-04T03:25:00.000-04:00

Before heading off on the train to Jayne's house, Cassie and I got a few pictures at Platform 9 and 3/4 at KIng's Cross station. I WANT TO GO TO HOGWARTS! Now that I'm in England, it shouldn't be this hard...

King's Cross Station - that's St. Pancras in the back

Best to go at a bit of a run!

First trip to Hogwarts!
We had a nice meal with Jayne's family last night, and I think we all enjoyed being at "home", even if wasn't our own. Finally did some laundry and slept in a comfortable bed, how wonderful! Now we're off to Dublin...UK 2011 tour continues!

London Calling

2011-08-02T07:45:00.002-04:00

I've been hanging out in London the past few days and, well, I effing LOVE it here! You know I love Asia in its way (otherwise the past 3 years would have been completely miserable) but I've gotta say it's pretty wonderful being back in the western world, especially Europe. I visited London for a week when I was 15 and fell in love with European culture, and then studied for a year in Heidelberg, Germany when I was 20. I absolutely loved my year abroad and I think it did wonders for my sense of self and all that jazz. So returning to Europe with 2 great friends (one of whom is a born and bred, real life Brit!) has been a lot of fun. We're staying at a hostel in Russel Square, which is in central London, really close to a tube stop, and a great springboard for galavanting around the city.

After an overnight flight from Bangkok via Mumbai (the airport from hell btw), the very first thing we did after touching down in London town was go shopping. Yaaaayyy shopping!! Now this might sound a little strange...why must we shop right away, you say? Is it really that big a priority? Well, yes it is! After nearly three months spent backpacking around southeast Asia in the same few tank tops and shorts, we all felt really out of place (and cold!) in a normal city where people don't walk around in Aladdin pants. We all needed some new jeans, a few tops, and a sweater for the non-100+ degree, humid as hell Asian weather, so shopping we went. I didn't go overboard at all with the shopping mission....nope, not at all. Of course I needed that all of those tops and 4 pairs of jeans. London is cool, even in August! Besides, only the buzz I get from buying clothes could counter the effects of jet lag. Right? Right.

We started sightseeing the next day and got quite a few good pics. We headed to Buckingham Palace first and coincidentally caught a special changing of the guard ceremony that included a performance by the Coldstream Guards, those chaps in the ginormous black, bearskin hats. There were about a billion people all crammed together trying to take pictures, but I managed to get a video of some of the march.

Here are some more photos from around the Palace, and general touristy things...

so many people!

mounted guard

marching out

Us in front of Buckingham Palace. This is where William and Kate had their famous kiss.

climbing statues

Cassie and Jayne by the Victoria Memorial fountain

My new long hair is a pain in the ass, but I do enjoy it.

RED PHONE BOX!

Oh, London :)

Westminster Abbey

St. Pancras Station - When Harry Potter scenes set at King's Cross Station were filmed, they actually used this station for the outside view because it's much more attractive. Only the indoor scenes are really filmed at King's Cross Station. We'll be going there tomorrow and I'm DEFINITELY getting pics at platform 9 and 3/4.

St. Paul's Cathedral

Tower Bridge on the River Thames

Big Ben

Trafalgar Square

Love you, London!
Tomorrow we're taking the train to Newcastle, Jayne's hometown. I'm pretty damn excited to see what geordies are all about. From what I've heard, a night out in Newcastle is an experience to remember, or not as the case may be. I'll check in again soon! ♥

More London pics here.

See You Later, Asia

2011-07-28T23:37:00.000-04:00

Well, that time has come, and unbelievably quickly! The Asian portion of this adventure is over, and I'll be heading to the UK tonight. WHERE DID IT ALL GO?

I think the comparison between the very first night in Bangkok and the very last is pretty funny.

May 10, 2011, so white!

July 28, 2011

We all look much better with tans...and WHOA! I got hair extensions! What do you think of my new, ridiculously long and luxurious locks?

Well, there have been so many memorable, funny, and ridiculous moments on this trip; it's hard to figure out what to say to wrap it all up. What can I say other than it's been simply amazing. Amazing friends, amazing places, amazing time. I'll miss Asia dearly, but let's get this blighty party started!

Last Day in Chiang Mai

2011-07-27T07:50:00.001-04:00

This trip certainly has been full of new experiences. I'm really not sure if I could have done more throughout my travels. I rode an ostrich, an ATV, a motorbike, cuddled with full grown tigers, hiked down muddy cliffs, fed elephants, survived 24+ hours on a bus without food, drink, or a toilet...suffice it to say the list is pretty long. I am very proud and thankful to have experienced as much as I have this summer.

But...did you see anything snake-related on that list?

No?

Well, the situation has been REMEDIED! In case I hadn't had enough animal experiences, today we decided to visit a snake farm. Really, when you've been practically locked in a cage with an angry, hungry tiger, a few snakes are nothin'!

The python already trying to crush my neck.

Slytherin at heart...muahaha

snake smoochin'

little guy
We'd rented a car for the day, so in addition to spending time with serpentine friends, we were also able to check out a nearby waterfall and an orchid farm, where I got to partake in one of my favorite pastimes: macro photos. Yes!

Mork-Fa waterfall..was quite invigorating under there!

Water buffalo crossing

And now lots of photos of pretty flowers...

Yep, so that was our last day in Chiang Mai. Right now we're headed back to Bangkok for 2 more days in Thailand. I seriously can't believe this Asian trip is just about finished..! I've done a lot, yes, but it's gone so quickly. This Friday night I'll be en route to the next and last portion of my summer of travels: the UK.

End of Asian Adventure Extravaganza 2011 reflections coming soon...

Tiger Kingdom!

2011-07-23T06:52:00.001-04:00

Wow. I just did what may have been one of the scariest things IN MY LIFE. I willingly stepped into a closed cage with many fully-grown tigers. Who does that? Well, people who want some really cool photos do that.

Yes, today we went to Chiang Mai Tiger Kingdom, a place a bit outside of town where, for a mere 30 bucks, you can get a professional tiger photographer to take pictures of you and your friends with tigers of all sizes! We opted for the smallest and the biggest. EXTREME!

The baby tigers were so freakin' adorable!

But they could still seriously eff you up...just look at that face.

Who wouldn't love a couple of baby tigers?
That was kid stuff. I'll admit they freaked me out a little bit cause I know tiger "play" can involve copious amounts of flesh ripping and mangling, but how much harm could little cubs do? Our next stop was worlds more terrifying: the big daddies.

We stood around for a little while waiting for our photographer to be ready for us, during which time it started pouring down rain. So the normally outdoor photo shoots were moved indoors to a series of quite small cages. When your number got called, into the tiger chamber you went. It was obviously nerve-wracking...despite the best training, these animals are still wild and if something were to go wrong, there we are in the cage - easy tiger fodder! We watched a bunch of people go ahead of us, however, and nothing went wrong or seemed weird. Yeah, like going into a tiger's den is a totally normal behavior...

Once it was finally our turn, we headed straight into the cage, got ready to start taking photos...and the tiger started growling and looking really pissed off. "Wait, this doesn't seem normal! It definitely did not do this with any of the other people. What do we do?" we asked the trainer dude. "It's only a tiger!" he replied. Oh...right. SO Jayne went ahead and started to pose with Mr. Grouch, whereupon he stood up off the table, jumped down, and started walking towards us, still growling. WTF. I think we all nearly shat ourselves, and I was close to hysterical sobs. The trainer and photographer weren't really freaking out at all, but at one point they did stand in front of us, I guess as some sort of "protection". The trainer kept saying the tiger was just hungry, and maybe he needed to "go poo poo or pee pee". We were all like "Yeah, let him freaking go! Let's keep the tiger with the foot-long teeth happy!" Eventually, we all got a couple of photos with this cat without incident and moved onto the next one, happy to be alive.

Please don't kill Jayne!

He smells his next meal.

me running away in fear

This one was much friendlier.

sleepy tiger

SCARED! Although the tiger just looks super bored..

I'm spooning a tiger, no big deal.

We were feeling pretty sleepy towards the end, so we decided to use this tiger as a pillow and take a nap.
This was just one more slightly ridiculous and/or dangerous experience to add to the list. Certainly has been quite the trip!

Check out even more awesome tiger-ific photos here. They're GRRRREAT! (Sorry, I had to)

Thai Cooking Class

2011-07-22T05:58:00.000-04:00

We've been in Chiang Mai a few days now, and one of the highlights has been taking a cooking course. I didn't really know what to expect, but it turned out to be a really good time. The day started out with a tour of a local market, so we could try and identify all of the veggies and spices that we'd be cooking with. I don't think I got it all quite memorized, but I did get a bunch of lush pictures of all the fresh foods for sale.

lots o' veggies

chilies are a must!

And here we are at the school...aren't we quite the model students?

making green curry

steamed fish souffles

Tom Yam soup - beware!

All of my completed dishes: green curry, cashew chicken stir fry, fish cakes, red curry fish souffle, and the tom yam...I think it's safe to say I had enough to eat for lunch that day.
The day was very fast paced, as all of those dishes were made before lunch. After lunch, we made Pad Thai and spring rolls, as well as learned how to use a tomato peel to make a rose garnish. I wouldn't say that I got an excellent understanding of any of the dishes, but it was very helpful to know what spices/sauces go into each dish to give it that distinct sweet/salty/sour/spicy balance. I got the general gist of things. I think, with an arsenal of fish and oyster sauce, sugar, chicken stock, and dried chilies (in addition to all the fresh ingredients and curry pastes), I'll be able to customize any Thai dish to my exact taste preferences. I don't see myself grinding my own curry paste with a mortar and pestle, but hey, I did get a lot out of the day. I'll be very interested in testing out my skills when I get home.

BAGLUST!

2011-07-20T00:37:00.002-04:00

I know I'm traveling and trying my darndest to live a cheap and cheerful lifestyle at the moment...and not caring that I've been wearing the same groady, sweaty, worn out clothes for the last 2.5 months...but damnit I want this bag! This bag will fit perfectly with my future city girl lifestyle; the return of my leather 'n' chains look; and my general badass-ness.

I LIKE:

Ava Hobo by
Botkier

So umm, yea... anyone want to get me a nice homecoming present??

ha.

Northward Bound!

2011-07-19T19:40:00.000-04:00

Hiya, well I thought I'd post a little update since I'm currently stuck at Koh Samui airport for the next couple of hours. We all had an absolutely great time on Koh Phangan, as it was the first time in about 2 months of non-stop action that we got to sit and relax a while. We stayed at Haad Son for 10 days and, although some things weren't quite as great as the last time Jayne and I stayed (the food, motorbike availability, screaming toddler, etc), the rooms were still nice and comfortable, and we enjoyed plenty of pool time. Then there was the Full Moon Party, which was crazy as usual. I think we all got a little belligerent that night; some more than others...

Here we are with our first buckets, still looking decent.

Checking out a bit of fire dancing...luckily I managed to stay away from all forms of fire entertainment that night, although I admit I was tempted to try both the fire jump rope and fire blowing. The amount of people we've seen the past few days with mild to serious burns all over their bodies has not made me regret my decision.

Party PEOPLE

Rock out with your tutu out!

Getting painted with day-glo...a Full Moon necessity.

The result, and let me tell you, I followed through with that.
We all, of course, felt wonderful the next day and were psyched to have a day off before leaving the island. Today's flight from Koh Samui (a bigger island next to Phangan) was supposed to take off at 6:00 am, so we took the ferry yesterday to be ready to leave bright and early this morning. We're headed north to Chiang Mai, Thailand's 2nd biggest city and "cultural capital". I've never been there so I'm really excited to see what's supposed to be one of Thailand's most beautiful cities. Also, we plan on taking a 2-day cooking course where I'll get to learn the ins and outs of Thai curries, spring rolls, fish soufflés, and all sorts of other deliciousness. Believe me, I look forward to sharing my skills when I get home. If you're lucky, you just might get an authentic Thai meal prepared by a new master chef in the making... Well, you'll at least get some food out of my attempt to show off! I can't wait to get there and get my cook on. Now let's just get this plane delay over with and I can start my journey to culinary heaven.

Polyvore ♥

2011-07-14T12:26:00.003-04:00

I forgot how much fun Polyvore can be when you're thinking about how an outfit would look together. Enter 2 new sets, created by yours truly!

Day to Night Date Outfit by wandering_kind featuring goldtone jewelry

Not that I exactly have any dates lined up, but I thought this was quite the cute combo.

Sexy Biker B!tch by wandering_kind featuring hobo shoulder bag

And, since I'm a biker now, I figure I need pretty much all these things.

That's pretty much it...just me lusting after new clothes. I hope Tyson's Corner can even handle me when I get back home in August.

Thai Massage

2011-07-14T05:20:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, I thought I'd treat myself to a Thai massage. I came to a few conclusions during it.

Thai massage is basically yoga for really lazy people. And I mean really lazy. There's no oil or long, kneading strokes up and down your back to rid your body of its tension in a soothing, relaxing way. Instead, you get manhandled into various stretches and yanked until your joints pop like they've never popped before. Bear in mind that it's completely awesome and I came out feeling like I had actually done yoga, but it occurred to me how awesome it would be if other forms of exercise could be completed in this manner.

How about if I just lay on my stomach with my face against a pillow, and some small Thai woman bounces my body around until I've pretty much done calisthenics? No? How about if they hold my body up and throw my limbs at a punching bag while I hang there like a rag doll...it'd pretty much be the same as kickboxing. I think more thought needs to be given to this form of secondhand exercise. Maybe I'll invest.

Koh Phangan Again

2011-07-13T04:33:00.000-04:00

The past few days have been spent on Koh Phangan, the island I'd visited with Jayne a year and a half ago. Things have been so low-key and relaxing; I hardly remember the days of 30 hour bus rides and changing cities every other day! Not that that was a bad thing at all (I mean, who doesn't enjoy a day and two nights on the back of a bus), but it has been really nice to take it easy and just lay by a pool. I know, I know, I really needed a vacation from my vacation? Oh, the woes of Laura.

Anywho, the highlight of this trip to Phangan has definitely been riding my own motorbike for the first time. I'd always been a bit intimidated by a) just plain staying upright; b) driving on the left-hand side of the road; and c) basically asking for some sort of horrendous injury. Well, nothing horrendous has happened...yet. I was surprised by how quickly I got the hang of riding the bike. It seemed that starting off was the hardest part, and once I got going it was easy to stay mobile.

easy riders
I love the freedom that comes with the bike. Rather than paying 200 baht (6 bucks) for a round-trip into town by taxi, I can pay the same price for a full 24 hours use of the bike. Pretty good! I don't know all the ins and outs of the island very well myself, but the other day Jayne led us to an elephant "safari" place where we got to feed and pet some elephants. There's something about being able to ride up on my motorbike to some elephants, pet them, and then go on my way, which is pretty freakin cool. No tour needed; just ride, baby, ride!

Cassie's lifelong dream to play with an elephant is fulfilled!

Well hello there, Mr. Elephant.

feeding time

old hairy elephant
Other than some animal excitement, I've pretty much just been chilling out by the pool, becoming increasingly brown. I love it! This Saturday is the Full Moon Party, a monthly beach party that's known to be quite crazy. I was there for New Years' 2010, but seeing as it's now low season, I'm curious as to how this time will compare. Will check in again soon!

Zelda the Zebra

2011-07-11T04:48:00.033-04:00

By the way...I got my zebra tattoo!!!!!

"My zebra tattoo"? Yes, this tattoo has been in the works for many years! Well, at least 3! Why the zebra? Let me explain in bullet form why the zebra is, in absolute fact, my power animal:

Zebras are the jazziest animals around.

They have stripes (obvi), therefore they have a sense of style that can't be denied or overlooked.
Each zebra's set of stripes is as unique as a person't thumbprints, except WAY MORE AWESOME.

They can't be tamed (unlike all those other asses).
They get around, and fast!
Their beauty confuses other creatures.

The zebra is no joke. I'm in love with my Zelda, the power zebra who's taken up residence on my left bicep. She was brought into this world with help from Max Tattoo in Bangkok. I can only offer the most enthusiastic of praise to this shop; thank you for helping me unite with my animal alter-ego. Not that I'm a furry or anything. I just really like zebras.

Pretty Pretty Phi Phi

2011-07-08T11:09:00.003-04:00

Today's boat trip around the Phi Phi islands was quite eventful! Unfortunately, Jayne was feeling sick so she couldn't join us, but Cassie and I managed to have some pretty epic photo shoots on our own. We went to Maya Bay ("The Beach" beach) and it was absolutely freakin' incredible. Seriously, might be one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. We got there pretty late in the afternoon after a long day of snorkeling and riding on the world's most choppy, sick-making speedboat. The toil was worth it, though...just look at this place!

"The Beach"

We also saw some monkeys on the way.

rocky waters

Now that's some clear blue water.

beach looooovee...

me & Cass

whee!

frolicker

working on my victoria's secret pose...will post as I improve

Woot!

crabia

doesn't get much better
Check out more pictures here; seriously, i got several dozen potential desktops in there. Plus, more of Cassie and I "modeling"...and who doesn't want to see that?!

P.S. Tomorrow we move onto Koh Phangan, the island I visited with Jayne a couple of Christmases ago. We're even staying in the same (awesome) hotel, which I managed to finagle to owner into giving us a "repeat customer discount". Ohh yea, many more fantastic beachy pics are on the way!

Back to Thailand

2011-07-07T02:26:00.000-04:00

With fresh 30-day visas in our passports, it was time to say goodbye to KL and head back to Thailand for the island portion of the trip. We flew through wonderful Air Asia to Phuket in about an hour, sorted our hostel situation, and got some delicious curries to welcome ourselves back to good ol' Siam. By the way, I'm failing at the whole food blog idea, but let it be known that I now can't go a full 24 hours without some form of curry/coconut milk in my life. Thailand, you spoil me so!

Anywho, I honestly wasn't too impressed with Phuket. I quickly saw that it's more of a package-tourist and family destination than a backpacker's hub. Now, there's nothing wrong with package tourists or families (I happen to love my own quite a lot) but this all meant for much higher prices and less of that authentic "Thai" feeling. It felt kind of like Ocean City on acid: tons of bars near the beach, except here they had names like "Rock Hard a Go Go" and "Girls Girls Girls: about 20 Gorgeous, a few ugly and fat". No joke. Remind me again why so many Europeans love bringing their kids to Phuket again? Oh well, it just wasn't my kind of atmosphere. Our main purpose in visiting Phuket was for it to be a springboard for other trips, so it served its purpose well.

Patong Beach

Time to get the tan back up!

Parasailing on the beach.. We were very impressed with the helper dude who wasn't even strapped into the sail; he just lifted himself up and held on, helping people land all day without even breaking a sweat.
Now we're on Koh Phi Phi (Phi Phi island, pronounced pee pee), which is definitely a backpacker's haven. It's very small at only 28 square kilometers, so there aren't many cars or motorbikes clogging the walkways. It's easy to get around and there are tons of cute little shops and restaurants. That combined with a party atmosphere and a gorgeous beach - what more could a girl ask for? The main attraction around here is Maya Beach, the place where the 2000 Leo movie "The Beach" was filmed. I'm a big fan of the movie, so it should be really cool to see the place for myself. That's on the agenda for tomorrow, so I'll report back later with plenty of photos. Woot woot!

Kulala Lumpur in Action

2011-07-05T12:46:00.002-04:00

I ended up having a really great time in KL; here are some photos to prove it! [See my last post for some observations/impressions of Kuala Lumpur]

checking out the night markets - plenty of good shopping!

Jayne & Cassie in front of the Petronas Towers

Around the towers, there was a huge park area with this kiddie swimming pool we dunked our feet into for a while.

This butterfly flew by a girl and landed in her hands, so I got to take a close up.

We stayed right around Petaling Street in Chinatown at a place called Ribbon Stayyz. Best hostel in KL, methinks! It was pretty cheap, had great wifi, was in an awesome location, and everything was new and fresh. Well, excepting that one cockroach we saw crawling up the wall...but what are you gonna do? City life can be gross.

:)
Good spur-of-the-moment weekend.

Chasin' Waterfalls

2011-07-03T08:09:00.003-04:00

My favorite thing about Luang Prabang, our first stop in Laos, was the Kouang Si Waterfall. It was quite the natural beauty: clear blue lagoons and tiers of little rushing falls. We had ourselves a time swimming around and taking loads of silly photos. Here are the results of our camera-whoring...

Making our entrance.

This photo was achieved by slowing down the shutter speed, using a big F-stop, and setting the camera down on a rock. Pretty cool!

I want one in my backyard!!
After Luang Prabang, we went to Vang Vieng, a town famous for tubing on the Nam Song river. Unfortunately, the entire time we were there was dominated by torrential downpours, so no tubing for us. Sad face. On the other hand, we finally got a few days to do nothing and relax. Especially after that hellish bus journey, I think we all needed it. Being on the go constantly is pretty exhausting. Exhilarating, but exhausting.

Our final stop in Laos was Vientiane, the capital. It had a really cool vibe, was super laid back, and we managed to have plenty of fun despite the midnight curfew for businesses. In terms of sightseeing, the most bizarre place we saw was definitely Buddha Park. It's pretty much exactly what the name says, but this particular grouping of buddha statues was just plain creepy. The first thing I saw when I got there (other than a giant spherical building with what looked like wiry hair on top) was a Buddha with a crown of skulls. Weird.

Inside this building is a truly terrifying room filled with stone skulls, body parts of statues, and tons of cobwebs and insects. We all agreed that no amount of money could convince us to spend a night alone in there.

Of course we also managed to find some opportunities for silly photos.

Freaky deaky.
We took a sleeper train back to Bangkok shortly thereafter to see Brittny off. How have we lost our 4th traveling companion already?! Where has the time gone? Well, I guess it went all over SE Asia, but still. Rats.

Once Britt left, we set ourselves the task of planning the rest of our trip. We had a few issues to sort out and decide on, namely what to do about our visas for Thailand expiring. Turns out when you enter Thailand overland, you only get 2 weeks as opposed to a month when you fly in. We were talking about going to Burma for a week to check it out, but that plan got nixed as a week in Burma would barely be enough to see the major sights and would require near-constant bus travel. I think it's pretty clear that we've had enough of that by now, and we also weren't keen on rushing around like madwomen trying to see too much in too short a time. So no more Burma. We looked up where the cheapest place to fly to was that would be interesting enough, and it turned out to be Kuala Lumpur. I never planned on visiting Malaysia this trip, but a weekend in KL seemed like a fine idea. We flew over early on Saturday morning and we'll leave tomorrow afternoon, bound for Phuket. From there, we'll spend the rest of the month exploring the southern islands, heading to Koh Phangan for the full moon party, and then going north to Chiang Mai and Pai. Whew. Itinerary sorted!

So back to KL. I wasn't really sure what to expect at all, but I've been very pleasantly surprised my experience here. It reminds me a lot of Hong Kong, in that it's a mixture of cultures with a strong British influence. In this case, Islam is the official religion and you see lots of women wearing veils alongside other Malaysians, who aren't muslim and might be ethnic Chinese or Indian. I know the ethnic diversity has sometimes caused problems here in Malaysia, but it's really cool to see the different people all living and working together without any kind of segregation or hostility. The women who wear veils do so without judgment from the non-Muslims, and vice versa. These are, of course, an outsider's brief and superficial (perhaps even perfunctory) observations, but the melting pot feeling was immediate upon arrival. Me likey.

I'll post pictures of some of the sights we've seen in KL soon. For now, I'm taking it to the streets to find some good & cheap eats. Spicy claypot chicken and some fried noodles, perhaps? Maybe I'll report back and start a food blog since foodliness is next to godliness. No joke.

Worst Bus Ride Ever

2011-06-24T22:33:00.000-04:00

Here is a little videoblog update, one I hope at least hints at the misery that was our latest bus ride. Enjoy...

Last Few Days in Vietnam

2011-06-19T05:51:00.001-04:00

My time in Vietnam is almost up! Guess it had to happen, but I've had such a great time in this country. I am quite excited, however, to start the next phase of the trip. Tonight we board an overnight (well, make that a 24-hr) bus to Luang Prabang, Laos. From what I've heard, Laos is an amazing country with friendly people, great scenery, and lots of opportunities to have fun. I'm excited! Plus, I've got enough sleeping pills to blast myself to oblivion for this monstrous bus ride.

Let me recap what I've been up to in Vietnam since my last post. It's been quite the whirlwind! After Mui Ne, we stopped in Nha Trang, another beach town, yet more developed and resort-y than Mui Ne. The highlight of Nha Trang was definitely a boat trip we took called the "Funky Monkey". While there were no actual monkeys involved in the trip, it's safe to say things got pretty funky. We had a good time cruising around on the super blue waters, singing along to oldies, snorkeling, jumping off the top of the boat, and even being treated to an all-crew rock band performance.

On the sea.. in the background you can see the world's longest oversea cable car. We didn't actually ride it because it doesn't take you anywhere all that amazing, but still, pretty cool.

Our tour guide for the day, Mr. Bin (or Min?). And now, his most notable quotes of the day in ascending order:
1. Him proclaiming his Chippendale dancer skills and that free kisses will be given out.
2. "You don't have to worry about sharks in the water...only me."
3. "No money, no honey. No honey, no boom boom. No boom boom, no baby. No baby, no problem!"

Jayne and Cassie's response to the promise of Chippendale dancing

Us at the "swim up bar", ie a man in a ring buoy passing out dixie cups of a vile whiskey/orange juice combo
From Nha Trang, we had our first overnight bus experience. Whoo Nelly. This went down as one of the few truly terrible experiences of the entire trip. We were unlucky enough to have the most horrendous a-hole of an employee screaming at us where to sit on the bus. Now, there were no assigned seats on our tickets. We, along with everyone else, assumed that the seats were on a first come first serve basis. Apparently this was completely wrong. We had the bus nazi literally pushing people onto their seats, and if they tried to claim a different one, wrath ensued. Poor Cassie experienced the brunt of this man's cruelty, as he first wanted to make her sit in the "kennel" as I like to call it (the group of 3-5 seats at the very back of the bus that are literally in a hole, allowing for virtually no air flow and way too much intimacy with the stranger sitting next to you, also known as the "coffin"). Then he wanted her to climb up to the 2nd floor of seats, an act even the most limber of us have trouble with. When she requested to simply take one of the empty bottom level seats (which there were plenty of), he had an absolute fit of rage and started screaming at her and wanted to kick her off the bus. We all just about killed this man, but the fight was eventually settled and Cassie was allowed to sit in a more humane seat. Once we got to our destination, Hoi An, we were all completely exhausted from the ordeal that was the night bus. We only had a day or 2 to spend there anyways, so we all just hung out by the pool and relaxed before trekking it to the next stop: Hue. Luckily it was only a couple of hours by bus and they were free of psychotic workers.

I really enjoyed Hue because it had a lot of cool tourist attractions and interesting architecture. Vietnam in general is pretty cool to look at because of the French influence. There are millions of motorbikes and street vendors selling pho and all kinds of scary meat products, but you can also get a great pâté sandwich on a baguette.

The best thing we did in Hue was a day trip with the Hue Riders, guys who carted us around all day on the backs of their motorcycles to see the city's sights. It was a lot of fun riding those hogs and I think we all enjoyed the wind in our faces after a long night of dancing at Club "Browneyes". Let's just say we enjoyed it more and more as the day went on.

Brit and Cass on their bikes

peace!

Our first stop of the day was this Japanese bridge, the oldest covered bridge in Vietnam. Woo?

We also checked out some colorful handmade incense, and tried our hands at making it. Those weren't quite as pretty.

Next, we went to a US army bunker, which wasn't the most exciting thing ever, but this was the view from it. That's the perfume river, and the mountains furthest away are in Laos.

There we are.

Our last stop was this Pagoda, the Thien Mu Pagoda ("Heavenly Lady Pagoda").
All in all a good day on the back of a bike in Vietnam. Too bad we didn't have the time or money to do the "Top Gear Tour", where we could have ridden bikes all the way from Hue to Hoi An, stopping at all of the little, lesser known sights along the way. Oh well, then again maybe one day clinging to an older Vietnamese gentleman in the hot sun was enough.

After Hue, we took another overnight bus to Hanoi (this bus was a much better experience than the last one, even though we ended up side by side in the kennel). Vietnam's 2nd-largest and capital city, Hanoi is as busy as one would expect. The traffic isn't quite as crazy as Ho Chi Minh, but it's definitely got its own hustle and bustle. Our first destination was Halong Bay, the world famous bay full of thousands of little islands and mini-mountains. We were ready to party, so we decided to book a tour through our hostel called the "Rock Long Rock Hard" party boat tour. Unfortunately for us, this turned out to be mostly a waste of money as we ended up with a grouchy tour guide called "Chops" who acted like a worn out camp counselor who needed a smoke break. He was utterly horrible and spent most of the night yelling at everyone to be quiet so he could explain the rules of drinking games that involved getting hot girls to lick his nasty, scabby, disgusting 19-year-old body. VOMIT. Despite this 6-foot bag of douche, we did manage to have some fun. We were in Halong Bay, after all. Can't let one hurl-worthy college dropout ruin everything.

Halong Bay is definitely a must-see, but if I were going to do this trip again, I'd book a tour through a normal, non-fratty tour company. I like to party, but damn. There are some things I really don't need to see, and that's the rest I'll say about that!

Our very last destination in Vietnam was Sapa, an abso-frickin-lutely gorgeous town in the northwestern part of the country. We had to take an overnight train (I know, always with the overnight transportation!) from Hanoi since it's quite far away. Our tour involved 2 full days of trekking with hill tribes, in this case the Black H'Mong, an ethnic minority from various parts of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. This group of people faces incredible hardship due to political unrest and discrimination, and they make almost all of their money from tourism. The government does not support them or provide them with any refugee benefits, so they really rely on people's interest in visiting their villages and experiencing their way of life.

Well, experience their way of life we certainly did. Our first day of trekking wasn't anything too grueling. We visited Cat-Cat village and saw some of the countryside. It was strenuous at times but none of us had any problems. It was hard feeling too out of breath when the scenery was so beautiful everywhere we looked!

Rice paddies are everywhere in Sapa. The beauty of this area was simply astounding!

following the villagers

group pic

adorable baby in a bonnet

If we thought the first day was hard, whoa. The second day was straight up life threatening. It had been raining in the morning, and we quickly found out that we'd be trekking all day in the mud. Down gorges and cliffs. Now that may sound like an exaggeration, but let me tell you this was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life! I don't have the worst fear of heights ever; I have no problem going up in towers, riding rollercoasters, or anything like that. But if I have to walk or stand near a drop with no wall or handrail between myself and death or dismemberment, I kind of lose my shit. Funnily enough, that's exactly what we had to do.

I don't have pictures of most of it, but this was the first steep drop we had to maneuver down with nothing but petite tribeswomen and a bamboo stick to help us out. Now those women were extremely helpful and without them I don't think I could have done it, but still, I was utterly petrified. I don't know how, but I made it down that first drop. I thought that was the worst of it, but there were so many more rocky precipices to traverse, I felt like I was in Vertical Limit: the Vietnamese edition. Jayne and Cass both suffered a fall or 2, and they have the scabs (soon to be scars) to prove it, but we all made it. 10 miles from Sapa town to our guides' village, through treacherous mud, steaming piles of buffalo dung, and more than a little adrenaline. I'd never felt such a sense of pride...even when I got into college!

Victory!

The views at the end were pretty worth it, too.
Woo.
/longest blog post ever
So it's farewell to Vietnam for now. The land of Uncle Ho has been great to me, but now it's onto Laos for even more adventures. Wish me luck for the longest bus ride of my life...please no kennel this time!

Ostriches & ATVs

2011-06-08T07:25:00.000-04:00

The past couple of days we were in Mui Ne, one of Vietnam's many coastal cities. It was a nice place to chill out on the beach, go on a day trip or 2, and maybe even ride an ostrich (what???). Yes, a couple of days ago we embarked on an excursion to Mui Ne's famed Sand Dunes. It was a really beautiful place. I felt like I was in Egypt or somewhere desert-y. Anywho, on the way there we noticed that ostrich riding could be done. I've never heard of ostrich riding, but I guess the spirit of adventure moved me to want to try something unique and slightly crazy, so ride an ostrich is exactly what I did! The result was actually pretty terrible.. the ostrich either didn't want to move at all and had to be pushed, or it straight bolted, causing me to prepare for an imminent ass-bruising. Luckily, I managed to hold on and stay abird (harhar). I actually felt really bad for the ostrich once I got a closer look, since it didn't seem like the people trained it very well, and the saddle had torn out some of its feathers. :( Plus, I probably should have left this amusement to more petite humans, but oh well. I don't really recommend ostrich riding, but if you feel the need to give it a go, Vietnam is the place to be!

beach at Mui Ne

boats a plenty

We visited one area with a lot of houseboats which people live on. They use these funny little coconut-looking boats for getting around (or sitting on the shore as the case may be) and they leave their main boat out on the sea.

The ostrich, mid-sprint!
After that silliness, we resumed with the day's agenda of seeing the sand dunes. We decided to rent ATVs, yet another mode of transportation that was heretofore unknown. It turned out to be a blast, way better than the bird! Rather than walking up the huge dunes (walking is lame), we got to zoom around on our little vehicles up and down on the sand. I'll definitely be trying ATVs again in the future! Brittny already promised me a cool ATV tour when I go visit her in Oklahoma. I'm holding her to it!

Seriously, I'm in love with this country. Maybe it had something to do with not having any kind of expectations, and then being blown away out of the blue. I could stay here for a looooooong time. We're in Na Trang right now, and today we went on another boat cruise that was definitely the best one yet. We did some fun water activities, sang a lot of songs, and drank plenty of Tiger beer. Tonight we'll meet up with some of the people we met for a night on the town. Watch out, Na Trang!

Good Morning Vietnam!

2011-06-06T01:50:00.000-04:00

Before I talk about the wonders of Vietnam, here's a video I made about my time in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The music is by Dengue Fever, a really cool American band who sing old Cambodian rock songs from the 60s. Take a look at some of my trips to the temples and various other things I managed to video.

Woo. So far, Vietnam has really impressed me. I was expecting more of a 3rd world country, or at least a really busy and dirty place. Well Ho Chi Minh was busy, but it felt just as modern as anywhere in Thailand, and it was way cleaner than Pnom Penh. I was really surprised since it's supposed to be a communist country, but nothing about it seems that way (other than the hammer and sickle flags everywhere, that is). There's plenty of Western influence, and the shopping is out of control. I'm loving it here! We only stayed in HCM a couple of days, but it was enough to feel a connection with the place. Our first full day, we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels, passages the Viet Cong built to get around and fight during the war. It was pretty surreal being in a former war zone, and actually crawling through a short segment of tunnel (damn those tunnels are small!). Having an onsite shooting range also added to the effect.

The next day we took a tour on the Mekong River, which was a lot of fun. We took a few boat rides along the river, got to wear those silly conical straw hats, rode bikes for a while, and generally had a good time outdoors.

It's all about the good photo ops, you know. My next post will have even more of those, as yesterday I decided to try riding an ostrich. Now that was an experience.... also ATVs on the sand dunes of Mui Ne! All coming soon to an internet connection near you.

Pnom Penh: Pretty Damn Depressing

2011-05-31T04:07:00.000-04:00

We've been in Pnom Penh for the past couple of days. It's not the cleanest or most relaxed city by any means, so we've mostly just been chilling out by the pool of our hostel. However, yesterday we figured we'd do the obligatory sightseeing.

The day started out on a pretty light note with a trip to the shooting range. This terrified me, to be honest, but what we saw later on made this seem like a trip to the ice cream shop. Here in Cambodia (and Vietnam from what I've heard) if you have the money, you can shoot any gun you want. They had a "menu" with all of the available weapons and prices listed - you could even shoot a rocket launcher for $300! Seriously, who needs to do that? Well, I guess I can see the appeal (maybe), but I'm not much of a gun lover (ie I think they're terrible) so I passed on going buck wild at the shooting range. Brittny said she can shoot guns whenever she wants at home for free, so that just left Jayne and Cassie to go Rambo on all our asses. They chose an AK47 and an M16 and within a couple of minutes, they were shooting at coconuts. Both of them blew up their coconuts and Cassie even shot her target in the cheek...twice! I think we've all learned a valuable lesson here: do not eff with serious gun totin' ladies!

After playing with guns, our day got a little more serious. Our next stop was the Killing Fields, the place where the Khmer Rouge murdered thousands upon thousands of Cambodians during the 1970s. If you don't know much about this particularly grisly part of history, I recommend reading First They Killed My Father, a young girl's story of what it was like growing up under the Khmer Rouge. It's definitely not an uplifting read, but it tells an important story.

Visiting the Killing Fields and s-21, a school that was converted into a prison where Cambodians were interrogated and tortured, was akin to visting a concentration camp. Nobody really wants to get themselves all depressed and feeling shitty about humankind, but it's important to visit these places, at least so we can stay educated and aware of the atrocities that go on while the rest of the world isn't paying attention. It's not like I think I know how to save the world or anything like that at all, but I do feel that if I'm in a country where something major went down, I should at least see it. You know what they say, seeing is believing. Seeing the exact tree against which babies were beaten to death, in order to flush out a political opponent's entire family (or anyone suspected of opposing the Khmer Rouge in the slightest - even people who wore glasses)...let's just say that was an intense level of believing.

By the end of the day, we were all pretty much drained, physically and emotionally. Seeing the place of so many murders took it out of me in a serious way. I've been to concentration camps before, and it was a similar experience. Terrible. But something about this place was different. Maybe it had to do with the fact that it was only 30 years ago that Cambodia was liberated. It wasn't all that long ago. When I see older people on the streets of Phom Penh, I can't help but wonder what their stories are. Every single one of those people must have lost someone.

Monument at the Killing Fields. Inside are many levels filled with bones that were exhumed from the mass graves.

Victims' skulls

The Killing Tree

S-21, notorious Khmer Rouge prison
Well, hope I haven't depressed everyone too much with this post. I just want to share what I've been seeing/thinking about and this time it was pretty grim. Tomorrow morning we're all heading to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, so I should have some more stories to tell soon. And hopefully not all depressing things about the Vietnam War, either...!

Angkor Wat and Temples Galore

2011-05-29T07:32:00.000-04:00

This trip isn't even close to being halfway over, but I know that one of the highlights will have been seeing Angkor Wat, the eight wonder of the world. There's no other word to describe it other than amazing. We were there for sunrise, which meant a 4:30am wakeup call, but it was pretty much worth it. We saw all of the biggies that first day - the temples people usually think of when Cambodia or Angkor Wat comes to mind. So here goes, prepare for a big photodump.

Angkor Wat at sunrise

me in a long, long corridor

sunrise

me and Brittny

intricate carvings are the name of the game at the temples of Angkor

ladies

monk

Cassie and Jayne with Tom, their tuk-tuk driver

us in front of Bayon, the temple with the faces carved into stone

elephant terraces

Ta Prohm - one of the temples where Tomb Raider was filmed

so cool!

all of us in front of a really awesome tree
On the way to some more temples, we stumbled upon some monkeys. They were friendly to Brittny and Cassie, who were feeding them fruit, but I steered clear. One took a lunge at me, so I figured I'd stick to photographing the little beasts.

Onto our second day of temple seeing. For $40, we got a 3-day pass to see as many temples as we could handle, and we still probably saw less than half of them. That tells you just how big the complex is... it's a lot more than just Angkor Wat!

cuteness!
Unfortunately by the 2nd and 3rd day, I stopped being able to keep track of all the names of the temples, so it kind of ended up being a blur of ruins and trees. A very beautiful blur, but I can't give many details on what exactly I saw. Oh well, I just know I saw some cool shit!

Yesterday we left Siem Reap for Pnom Penh, Cambodia's capital and largest city. I could tell the difference immediately. Siem Reap had a much more laid back, see temples all day and chill out on pub street by night kind of place. It wasn't the hectic, dirty city Pnom Penh seems to be. Luckily we booked ourselves into a really nice hostel with a pool and its own bar and restaurant, so we can chill out away from the city grime before setting out on some of the most depressing sightseeing possible. Tomorrow we'll visit the Killing Fields, an area where the Khmer Rouge murdered anyone who was suspected of opposing the government, as well as their entire family. As if that weren't depressing enough, we'll also see S-21, a school that was converted into a prison. So I'll check in later with the results of that.

Buffalo Love Story

2011-05-29T06:17:00.000-04:00

One more thing before I move onto more important things....I may or may not have been proposed to (Ok I definitely was haha) by a man by the name of Buffalo. I guess he made me a pretty good offer of living on a farm with 5 cows and 5 water Buffalo (he really likes Buffalo). Who knows, maybe if he hadn't been about a foot shorter than me and half my body weight I could have had a nice future popping out half Cambodian babies... they probably would have been damn cute. Everyone knows asian babies are the best babies.

This is actually a really sweet letter. It just amuses me that it's from a miniature man named Buffalo.

A match made in...Thailand.

Big Ass Asian Adventure Update

2011-05-28T02:18:00.001-04:00

After some technical difficulties, I'm back to the blog! I have a lot to update about. I'm in Siem Reap, Cambodia right now and it's been simply amazing. I absolutely love it here! The people have been so welcoming and friendly, the food's fantastic, prices are cheap, and innumerable temples from the 11th and 12th centuries await my exploration. All in all good times…but I'll get there eventually.

Let me back up a second. Last time I was able to update, I was in Koh Chang. Ohhh, Koh Chang. That place is filled with a lot of memories now haha. Our days were mostly spent doing nothing on the beach - the way it should be! We did a snorkeling trip one day, and that was the high point of our activity.

One of my goals of the trip for me is also figuring out how to use all of my fancy camera's settings. This fire show provided a good opportunity to mess around with the shutter speed.

I ♥ the beach and the beach ♥s me!

snorkel trip boats

aquamarine

our last sunset on Koh Chang
Soooo...I had way too much fun on our last night and spent the next day traveling back to Bangkok in a pretty miserable condition. But I made it, and we were all ready for our 4th traveling companion, Brittny, to arrive. Her plane was delayed by a couple of days though, so we ended up having a bit more time to sightsee around Bangkok. We went to Ayutthaya, a historic city kind of like Thailand's version of Kyoto or Gyeongju. We took the train for about 2 hours, hired a tuk-tuk for the day, and checked out a bunch of the old temples. Plenty of good photo ops abound.

Once Brit got here, we set off to see Bangkok's big sights. The main things on the agenda were the Grand Palace and the huge reclining Buddha.

We could have seen more, but by the time Brittny finally made it, we were all ready to move along to Cambodia. We took a bus to the Thailand-Cambodia border and from there got a taxi to Siem Reap. We were aware that oftentimes the bus companies try to scam you by making you stop a bunch of times at random restaurants/rest stops just so you spend a bit of money there. We didn't like the look of it when our bus stopped about a mile from the border and wanted us to wait a while to change buses, so we ended up just walking to Cambodia with our big backpacks and all. Not too shabby being able to say I walked to Cambodia, eh?

Our first night in Siem Reap was really cool because we were able to meet up with some other friends from Korea who were also traveling: Nuala, who I went to Hong Kong with, and Clare, another teacher friend. The main place to hang out in Siem Reap is called Pub Street, which (funnily enough) is a street full of bars and restaurants. We met up with our friends at a bar called Angkor What? (yea, awesome) and had ourselves a good time.

It's all about the happy "special" pizza
My next post will be all about Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples, cause I've got about a million more photos to post :)

As always, all of my photos are on flickr.

Elephant Island

2011-05-13T09:29:00.004-04:00

After a few hours of travel by bus and ferry, we arrived on Koh Chang yesterday afternoon. We didn't have a specific plan for where to stay once we got there, but we ended up going to "White Sands Beach" to look for a bungalow. Within a few minutes we found an AWESOME place that would hold the 4 of us. It was a little pricier than we were hoping for, but it was just too nice to pass up. Our own bungalow within 20 yards of the beach, where there are plenty of delicious restaurants and cheap drinks to choose from? Yes, please.

walking to the beach

our bungalow for the next 6 nights!

beach at sunset - gorgeous

time for some Chang beer

and a rum, coke, and red bull bucket
We celebrated our first night on the island in style :)

Today has been spent doing nothing, which has been so completely wonderful. I've been working on my tan (don't worry, not burning!), started reading Water For Elephants (I like it so far), and eating delicious DELICIOUS food. We went to a seafood barbecue place for dinner that was out of control. Basically you just pick whatever you want from the table, then they cook it for you on the grill. We got red snapper, mussels, fresh corn, chicken shish kabobs and some fried rice. Holy mother was it good.

They had so much awesome, fresh food to choose from. I think we'll definitely be going there again before we leave this island.
Here are some more pics of the area nearby our bungalow...not too shabby, eh? :)

I ♥ Thailand. Lovelovelove it here!

We Have Arrived!

2011-05-11T06:39:00.004-04:00

I'm sitting in the lobby of our slightly ghetto hotel (but hey, free wifi) so I thought I'd give a little update on what we've been up to our first full day in Bangkok. We arrived late last night after a long day of traveling. We flew out of Incheon and connected in Guangzhou, China, a super commie-looking city that didn't seem to have much to offer. But maybe that was just the view near the airport...? Anyways, don't think I'll be going to check out that place anytime soon.

at the airport - ready to go!

above the clouds
Our flight landed around 10, and then we caught the airport bus to Khao San Road about an hour later. We were all exhausted but we did manage to have some Pad Thai, spring rolls, and a Chang beer before turning in for the night. After the free hotel breakfast the next morning, it was time to explore Bangkok for the day. We started by getting our nails done (Cassie even got a Dr. Fish pedicure) and then we went to sort out our trip to Koh Chang, an island not too far from Bangkok. Jayne, Cassie and I are planning on chilling out there until Brittny, our 4th member, arrives next week. We set off tomorrow morning at 8.

Most of today was spent on the roof of D&D hotel at their pool...so what if we weren't paying guests? What you've heard is true: Bangkok is effing hot and we needed to keep out brains from boiling somehow. My goal is to be so tan by the end of this trip people think I'm some kind of sexy sun goddess ethnicity that has no concept of the word "pasty". I think I've got a good start.

By the way, other things I'm really enjoying about being here, especially coming straight from Korea:

1. Makeup isn't necessary or even encouraged here. It's too hot and you look a lot worse with beads of makeup rolling down your face than you do with just a regular face.

2. Same with heels. If you wear heels you're pretty much putting yourself in the hookers and ladyboys category.

3. The general laid back atmosphere. Korea is the opposite of laid back. Holy shit, is it the opposite of laid back.

As I continue to travel and explore, I think I'll find plenty more things to add to this list. So far I'm loving the freedom of knowing I have 3 months of this to look forward to. I want to experience as much as I can before I head back to the real world and start looking for a job. But let's not think about that just yet. Right now the only thing I'm worrying about is how long until I can reasonably go eat more 60 cent spring rolls.

I'm loving my life right now.

Videoblog: Day 1

2011-05-10T00:21:00.005-04:00

Just a short message from the airport. Can you tell we're more than a little excited?

Anyong Korea

2011-05-09T11:42:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow is the day of days! I'm heading out of Korea FOREVER at around 2:30, connecting somewhere random in China, and then arriving in Bangkok late in the evening. Chang beer, spring rolls, ladyboys.. here I come!

In honor of the special occasion, I'd like to share my artistic artistry with the internet now.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOO!!!!!!!!
Next update: perhaps a little videoblogging from Thailand. Get pumped.

Jo & Ash: Favorite Students Ever

2011-05-03T09:45:00.000-04:00

Remember those awesome sisters who made me the cutest Christmas cards in the history of ever? I just got the sweetest gifts from them as a going away present. Since Thursday is a national holiday (Children's Day), today was our last day of class together. Ashley made me an adorable picture. Seriously, I am so impressed. That girl is talented!

Incredible!

And here's the card Josephine wrote me.

So freakin' cute.

I'm going to miss those girls. They made teaching fun and worthwhile. Leaving Korea... it's definitely bittersweet.

Spring is Here!

2011-04-17T09:42:00.002-04:00

After what felt like the longest, coldest winter in the history of the world, I'm extremely happy to say that spring has finally made it to Korea! I also know that it will last about 2 weeks, and I'll be sweating my face off in no time. So enjoy the season is what we did yesterday. We went to the park near Yeouinaru Station to scout out some cherry blossoms and, while there ended up only being a few cherry trees lining the streets and none in the actual park, it still turned out to be an awesome, springy, fun day.

I love the changing of the seasons :)

The Man's Guide to Love

2011-04-14T01:05:00.002-04:00

I can't stop looking at this website I came across this morning. There are some real gems in there! Enter...The Man's Guide to Love.

First of all, you. You speak the truth! Aaand I might love you.

The Man's Guide To Love #409 from themansguidetolove on Vimeo.

Second of all, these twins! So cute. They make me wish I had a sexy twin.

The Man's Guide To Love #210 from themansguidetolove on Vimeo.

Third of all, YES. Assault me with flowers!

The Man's Guide To Love #85 from themansguidetolove on Vimeo.

And finally, Barney always had some good stuff to say. In this case, his wisdom is unbelievable!

The Man's Guide To Love #213 from themansguidetolove on Vimeo.

Hahaha...omg love this site.

Vagina Love

2011-04-11T13:01:00.002-04:00

Hello! I come bearing a video of, well, coming. Don't worry. It's just my friend Cassie performing in the Vagina Monologues this past weekend. She was an awesome moaner, I tell ya! I don't think I'd ever have the guts to do what she and all the other women did up on stage. Well, not sober. Great job Cass!

In other news, I only have four more weeks at my job. Four weeks to pack up and ship out my life, say my goodbyes, and bounce out of this place that has been my home for the past 2.5 years. I'm full of mixed emotions, to say the least.

I Got a Ticket to Anywhere

2011-03-28T10:26:00.006-04:00

Excitement abound! Trip plans have been made! OK, so here goes my life's wanderings for the next few months: I'm leaving Korea on May 10th, heading straight for Bangkok. I'll be traveling with my buds throughout SE Asia for a couple of months, finishing up on July 29th.

Here's our itinerary. Starting in Bangkok, we'll make a counterclockwise loop through Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and then back to Thailand. The second phase (blue line) is a loop down through the islands in the south of the country. It's pretty epic, indeed.

Now, here's where things get extra exciting. As if that weren't ambitious enough, we'll be spending a final 2 weeks in the UK with Jayne. As I was browsing flights from Bangkok to home, I saw that a lot of them connect in London. That got me thinking...what if I could just extend that connection by a couple of weeks, allowing for the opportunity to see Jayne's hometown and more of the UK (Hello, Ireland and Scotland)? Well, the idea was a hit! We found some really good flights and the cost of getting back home in this roundabout manner is even cheaper than going straight from Bangkok to DC. Hell to the yea!

I know it might seem crazy, and I could be kicking myself by the time August rolls around (but I doubt it). I swear I'm not trying to squander all of my money. Just most of it...

This plan puts me back in the US of A on August 15th, probably poor but RICH in life experiences. Right?

Right.

Fresh Ink, Fresh Life

2011-03-20T23:10:00.001-04:00

This has been a pretty eventful weekend, indeed! On Saturday we celebrated St. Patrick's Day, i.e. we crowded into an empty lot in Insadong with 1823948912122 other foreigners and didn't buy beer. Wait...what? For some reason, this year's Patty's Day "festival" didn't include a place to buy beer, and of course the couple of convenience stores sold out within minutes; these are foreigners we're talking about here. I'm not the hugest fan of St. Patrick's Day in the first place, and if I'm gonna be denied the right to drink beer, what's the point?

Look at how festive I am....ok so I didn't wear much green, but I have cute hair!

All of Seoul's foreigners in one inconvenient place.

Green friends.

Cassie finally found the Irishman of her dreams! And she's not letting go, damnit!
Now onto the night out. We head to Itaewon for some drinks and some dancing. I'd now like to showcase some of the most attractive dance faces...ever.

Exhibit A

What did Wade just see?!

Exhibit B

He may have just seen a ghost, but he's choosing to dance through the fear!

Exhibit C

This one just makes me lol.

Exhibit D

This may not be a dance face, but it's Carl smoking a cigar looking like a baller.

Exhibit E

I go craaaazy on youuu, CRAAAAAZY on YOU.

OK, well now that I've done a good job of showing off my amusing chingus while conveniently excluding any fugly pictures of myself the night may have produced, let's move on.

When Sunday rolled around, I decided it was finally time for me to get a little more badass. I mean, you just know when you've gotta upgrade the fierceness in your life, am I right? I'd been thinking about getting a diamond tattoo on my foot for a while, and yesterday was the day. I did it!

I went to a shop near Gangnam called Tattoo Korea. It's the only shop in Korea that imports all their supplies from the States and adheres to the exact same health and safety codes as back home. That made for a considerable bump in the price, but I felt comfortable and confident in the staff there, so that's what really matters. Even though I booked an appointment, they were really busy and I had to wait quite a while for my turn. After cleaning and recleaning every surface at the station, my guy was ready for me. It was just a small outline tat, so it didn't hurt too bad at all. It was over before I could say "Diamonds are forever". Har har.

There I am, looking nervous.

Almost ready.

Ouch.

All done!
Sigh, now onto another week of teaching children.

Hair: It's Serious Business

2011-03-16T11:54:00.002-04:00

By the way, I got a perm for the first time since approximately 1994. I'm not so sure I'm in love with it..but hopefully I'll get used to it. I wanted the top of my hair to stay straight, and the bottom to have big, loose curls. Instead I got more of an overall, tighter wave effect. However, for the first time in ages I actually have big hair, which is pretty cool as I'm used to combatting flat, limp hair on a daily basis.

This isn't the greatest photo, but I was looking reasonably ok yesterday. Oh yeah, and notice the return of my sparkly nose!

I'm just trying to avoid looking like Elaine Benes on an extremely humid day..
OMG HAIR.

Scenes from Pyongyang

2011-03-16T11:36:00.004-04:00

This guy managed to discreetly take HD video of his guided tour of Pyongyang, North Korea. You won't see anything other than the showy, "extravagant" metropolis that is North Korea's capital city, but it's pretty interesting nevertheless. Notice the complete and utter lack of advertising (other than that for the Great Leader of course). Weird.

Pyongyang Style from Steve Gong on Vimeo.

If you want to check out another documentary from inside NK (there aren't exactly many to choose from), take a look at the Vice Guide to North Korea. It's really good and shows just how big of a show the tours are. I'm not sure who they think they're fooling, but man do they try.

Wow, Major Lazer...Just Wow

2011-03-09T22:42:00.002-05:00

I recently stumbled upon Major Lazer's music videos...and sweet cheesus. Wow is pretty much the only word I have for both of these. I still can't figure out which one is more terrifyingly awesome.

Exhibit A: infinite fun house humping action

Major Lazer "Pon De Floor" from Eric Wareheim on Vimeo.

Exhibit B: WTF

Major Lazer "Keep it Going Louder" from Eric Wareheim on Vimeo.

Thoughts? Questions? Concerns?

As of Late

2011-03-06T10:50:00.002-05:00

Another weekend is coming to a close and on this quiet Sunday night I'd like to do a little recap. In the last month or so, my life plans have changed again (as those feisty devils are wont to do). I'll be traveling sooner than I thought, and with friends. We'll make the traditional loop around Southeast Asia: Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. The trip should last about 3 months, landing me back home sometime in August. The plan gets pretty murky at this point; employment and housing are the only clear items on the agenda. Let's hope poverty and despair aren't.

I've felt ready to leave Korea for a while now. There are so many great things about this place and all of the experiences I've had here - in no way could I ever discount any of it; nor do I want to. Things have run their course, though, and I'm ready and excited to move on. I want to enter the next chapter of my life, smilingly. I'm not gonna lie and say that I'm totally confident. I'm actually scared sh**less about a lot of things. Majorly. But I'm optimistic, and trying to stay that way.

Hey ho.

This weekend my girlfriends and I decided it was time for a little body modification. And by a little, I mean between the four of us we all got at least one piercing, and two of us got tattoos. No new tattoo for me, but I did get my nose redone and a couple of studs in my ears. It was fun. I like having an extra-shiny head again. Plus, 10 bucks for a safe, clean & legit nose piercing? The price was right.

Shine on! ♦

Somebody to Love

2011-02-17T22:37:00.004-05:00

This makes me smile :) Yes, I know it's a Justin Bieber song, but what can I say? I love how those Glee boys work it.

Happy FRIDAY!!

Hong Kong Highlights

2011-02-17T00:11:00.006-05:00

Hong Kong was excellent. Man, we had ourselves a time! Now prepare for a large and in charge photodump.

On the plane from Beijing to Hong Kong..that there's some mountainous China below.

grabbing a couple of free plane beers

We made it! HELL YEA! Here's the beautiful HK skyline along the harbor.

On the Avenue of Stars, which is just like the one in Hollywood, but with a whole lotta Asians.

Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Chow Yun Fat.. OH MY.

Later that night, we stumbled upon the dress rehearsal for the next day's New Years Parade. Or so we thought...maybe we really stumbled upon a commune of pod people and were lucky to get out alive, and semi-conscious!
Now, onto the next day.. We decided to make it up to the Big Buddha man (Tian Tan Buddha) on the top of a mountain on Lantau Island. Little did we know going to see this Buddha was the number 1 activity of everyone in China and 18 of their relatives. Oh yea, they flew themselves over just to stand in front of us in line for about 89239023 hours. Well, maybe 3. We sure waited a long time, but I guess it was worth it in the end.

It already felt worth it when we made it to Lai King station. LAI KINGS UNITE!

After 3 hours of solid patience, we finally made it to the front of the line. About to embark up the mountain on a thrilling cable car ride..

Quite the steep drop!

There's that Buddha we've been longing to see.

Let me just reiterate how much I LOVE my sweet camera.

Well, aren't we just cute?
We were pretty exhausted after the Buddha trip. My Dad always said standing in one place is way worse than walking for hours and hours, and it turns out he wasn't lying. Our feet were in mortal pain by the end of our trek to see Mr. Buddha. Standing in that line pretty much did us in, in terms of energy levels and tolerance for walking/standing/being upright in any way. After that, we really enjoyed cab rides and chairs.

We wanted to see Victoria Peak the next day, but after scoping out a similarly terrible line situation to get onto the tram that takes you up the mountain, we opted for a cab. Not quite as charming or scenic, but once again, F standing in lines. Plus, once we made it to the top, we realized it's just a shopping mall with a terrible food court and a so-so view. Glad we went for the seated, instant gratification option on that one.

At the top.

Random "year of the rabbit" photo op.
After checking out the Peak, we decided to cab it again (thank mercy) to Stanley Market, one of Hong Kong's famous touristy attractions. In addition to the many shopping opportunities, we found some sweet rocks to take pictures on, some really cute dogs walking around, and an overall nice place to relax with a beer.

I ♥ Stanley.
After a relaxing afternoon of people watching, Kinder chocolate eating, and ewok dog coveting, we wanted to head back to our hostel (Hop Inn) to reconvene with Nuala, who had been sleeping off a late night out. Unfortunately, we missed our ferry by minutes due to the fireworks show which was going to be set off from the harbor itself. Blast! We wanted to watch the show from the other side of the harbor with Nuala, but there we were...stuck (didn't know how big of a theme that would become on the trip)! But ALAS! What did we find???? Drumroll, please.

The Power.
The Glory.
The Pirate.
Yes, folks, this beer is 8.5% of pure piratey PASSION. And they were like a buck each. SCORE! Suffice it to say, we managed to occupy ourselves despite logistical mishaps.

Arr, the life of a pirate for me!
Anyways, we knew trying to meet up with Nuala was a moot point since it had now been so long since our meetup time and none of us had phones. We decided to check out Temple Street Night Market and see what kind of goods they had available.

Cassie = FEELING IT

Some awesome signage.
Some of the stuff out for sale was amusing, but I didn't buy anything. Cassie and I did, however, get to see some action from the fake designer bag guys. It was pretty impressive. Imagine a mix of women from around the world shouting over Louis Vuitton bags and wallets (I saw them...they looked so real they might have really "fallen" off the back of the delivery truck). Then, when the scene gets a little too hot, the guys pack everything up back into black, plastic bags and tell us all to come back in half an hour. Very intriguing, indeed.

Shortly thereafter, we had our only yummy Chinese food experience in Hong Kong. We sat down to eat at an outdoor restaurant and ordered a plethora of fried noodles, soups, rolls, and bits of chicken. It was delicious, but don't expect Cassie to remember any of it. The Pirate will do that to you, matey.

Onto the next day...our last full day. We decided to take a day trip (so we thought) to nearby Macau to see what the former Portugese colony had to offer. We went to the ferry terminal early in the day to get tickets and were able to get a departure at 2pm. We were told to get our return tickets upon arrival in Macau (ha). We had several hours to kill, so we went to Kowloon Park to relax and take in the rare (to us lucky residents of Korea) joy of open spaces, greenery, and pretty flowers.

It was really nice to spend a couple of hours walking around a beautiful park and taking pictures alongside the hobbyists out there with their backdrops and water spray bottles. After not too long, it was time to go back to the ferry terminal and get ourselves to Macau!

After an amusing ferry ride (Cassie made friends with a Chinese boy), we made it to Macau, got our passports stamped again, and went to buy our return tickets for later in the day....only to realize that they're all sold out. Until 7am the next day. Scheisse. Unfortunately we couldn't quite swing the private helicopter ride back to HK, so we tried to prepare ourselves for a homeless night in Macau. It wasn't too bad at first. We hired a driver to show us the sights for a couple of hours until it got dark.

Cassie's bff

Macau's non-casino sights. The last one is the front wall of a cathedral, the ruins of St. Paul's, that burnt down too many times to keep being rebuilt. I guess enough is enough.
Our Macau experience really wasn't that bad until then, when we realized oh hey, aside from the couple of sights we just saw, Macau only has casinos. Huge casino after ridiculously huge casino. Our tour ended at the Venetian, where we quickly realized that we had nothing at all to do, since most of us had no interest in gambling, being short enough on money as it was. We had a meal at an Irish pub and plotted ways to make it through the night. It was only 8pm and I was already tired. Danger! We decided to go across to the Hard Rock for a change of scenery and a few cocktails (I discovered that I'm basically a senior citizen because I really enjoyed my Tom Collins). We managed to milk that place until around midnight and then they started closing up shop. We heard from a few locals that there was a karaoke bar not too far away, so we decided to give it a shot. Well, I can now say that I've sung karaoke for a Chinese audience. This venue only brought us to 2am, and we had plenty more hours to go. We left the awkward karaoke place and went to a restaurant to get some late night, last chance Chinese food. Oh dear lord. Words can't even describe the nastiness of this meal. Let's just say there were chunks of random pig flesh (except it was more bone than anything else), with skin and all, maybe trotters? And there was the worst tasting soup I've ever experienced. We think it was Birds Nest Soup. I don't even know, but it looked and tasted like bloody vinegar. With chunks. After this "meal" I think everyone wanted to just get to the terminal and wait, and not think about food ever again. We found the coziest bit of concrete floor available, curled up and tried to get a bit of shut eye before getting on the ferry. It wasn't so terrible in the end. At the very least, it was yet another bonding experience that we won't soon forget! Thanks, everyone, for a great trip.

There are even more photos of our HK extravaganza here.

Fancy Cats

2011-02-08T10:55:00.001-05:00

This video makes me laugh uncontrollably every time I watch it. Let's face it, these cats are talented. TALENTED! DAMNIT! GODDAMNIT!

Eat the bird. Eat the bird. EAT THE BIRD.

Anatomy of a Jump

2011-02-07T11:15:00.004-05:00

I'm back from Hong Kong! I had an amazing trip full of craziness and ridiculous memories that will have to be blogged about in full detail later on. Right now I want to focus on something awesome: the jumping picture. I thoroughly enjoy jumping pictures. I don't care if they're cheesy; I think they're fun. Plus, sometimes people make really weird faces when jumping.

When we were in HK, Cassie snapped a sweet series of jumping pics of Jayne, Nuala and me that I will now share. Video is cool and all, but let's freeze frame this business.

Here we are gearing up. It's all in the knees.

About to take flight. Jayne already looks terrified.

Perfect jumping picture! I love the faces.

Coming down for a landing.

Thud.

This picture makes me laugh. We're all swaggering like we know we totally just did an awesome jump.
More on Hong Kong to come.. Happy year of the rabbit!

Who's That Chick?

2011-01-31T06:47:00.000-05:00

Love this, although I kinda thought David Guetta shouldn't have been in the video. I love your beats, sir, but you're just not as pretty as Rihanna.

HK 2011 D-3

2011-01-30T02:19:00.001-05:00

2 more days of work until we're celebrating Lunar New Year in Hong Kong! WOOTWOOT :D

Real Life

2011-01-25T11:25:00.002-05:00

Man, I have been a terrible blogger as of late. Although, it is easy to feel underwhelmed by life upon one's return to work in cold, cold Korea after a glorious (glorious!) holiday in the sun. So yea, obviously Bali was great. I wish I could straight teleport myself there pretty much every time I'm forced to leave my apartment and fare the treacherous, snow-packed, "we don't believe in shoveling or salting the sidewalks" death zone that is Korea. I've been doing it though, and managing to have some fun while I'm at it.

I've been doing a lot of soul searching lately, trying to figure out what to do with my life. You know, that whole thing. I came across this blog about staying abroad for longer than a year. It made me realize that that time in my life (as far as Korea) is over.. the time when I'm living it up, completely into it and not satisfied after just one year. I've done that, is what I'm saying, and it's been amazing. I'm really glad I've stayed as long as I have - I don't regret it at all. But I think my time here is winding down, and I'm looking ahead to my next move. I've experienced the feelings this girl describes, but I don't want to continue just because it's comfortable.

Lately I've been considering grad schools again, mainly because I discovered I might get aid from the G.I. bill, courtesy of my poppa. The question now is what to study. Journalism? International education? Something else I haven't thought of? Should I just forget all my worries and move to Thailand, never to be heard from again? Ok, maybe not. I just know I want to do something cool and helpful for my future, but I don't want to give up on my adventures. I guess I'm ready for life's next phase.

I've got my plate full with life decisions. It's gonna take some time and serious consideration to figure it all out. In the mean time, however, check out these pictures of a penis-shaped bottle opener. Thanks, Bali.

Wrapping Things Up In Bali

2010-12-31T22:22:00.001-05:00

Well, today is our last day in Bali. It's been a wonderful trip - complete with its ups and downs, of course, but a really great vacation. You can only go for so long in Korea...there are plenty of things I love about the place, but seriously, most people need a break from that country every so often!

I got a little sick about halfway through the trip. Nothing too serious, but I had to get on antibiotics just in time for New Year's Eve. That was a bit of a bummer, but the overall theme of rest, relaxation, and suntan still managed to prevail for the whole trip. So I didn't have an epic NYE, that's alright. It's pretty safe to say I have plenty of epic nights out in Seoul regardless of holidays.

I don't really want to leave this place just yet...it's so warm and even though we did a lot of sightseeing, there's still so much more to see and do. However, I am actually excited to see all of my friends again. I'm not excited about going back to work, but so it goes. We have another cool trip to look forward to in February for Lunar New Year Vacation - a few of us are going to Hong Kong. So life's pretty damn good!

Here are some of the highlights of our trip I haven't yet blogged about...

One of the coolest sights we saw was Tegalalang, Bali's biggest rice terrace. Rice farming might not sound that interesting, but just look at how beautiful this is!

This same day, we also went to the biggest hindu temple complex in Bali: Pura Besakih Mother Temple. It was rainy and we kept getting hassled by super aggressive guides and "temple keepers", but we managed to have a good time and take some nice pictures at one of Bali's most famous sights.

On our last day of sightseeing, we went to Kuta, the busy, touristy hotspot, and Uluwatu, another really cool temple. We were supposed to see a kecak fire dance (another traditional dance that would have taken place at sunset) but unfortunately my throat was feeling pretty bad at that point so we called it a day. Maybe next time :)

Here we are on Kuta beach, a much bigger, more tourist-trappy version of our beach in Candi Dasa.

They have Starbuck's and Hard Rock Cafe in Kuta, both of which Carl is a big fan of.

We weren't sure what it was for, but we ran into a procession along the streets of Kuta to the beach.

shopping in the many markets

On the way out of town...motorbikes are the prime form of transportation here.
Next stop was Uluwatu, a really cool temple on the coast. We got there on a nice, sunny day which made for some really pretty pictures.

I like my sarong outfit.

Nice view.

Carl in his manly sarong.

pretty pretty

Even Domo-kun is enjoying himself here.

Monkeys hanging out.
So that's all, folks. This trip has come to an end and we'll be on an overnight flight back to the frigid land of kimchi and Cass in the morning. Hope everyone has a very happy New Year! ♥
You may peruse all of my snazzy Bali pics here.

Barong & Kris Dancing

2010-12-29T05:27:00.002-05:00

Are you sick of hearing about Bali yet? I hope not, cause I have a lot more to report on! One of the coolest things I've seen on this whole trip was a traditional dance performance. We had to get up early to see it (it started at 9:30 am in Ubud) but it was totally worth it. Don't ask me to explain what any of it meant...we had an English summary of the story and I still had no idea what was going on. All I know is that the costumes were really cool and it was one of those "I'm definitely in another country" moments. Sweet.

The music was all played live next to the stage.

A monkey and a tiger were key characters.

Beautiful dancers

Some kind of witch/demon thing..?

The performance ended with everyone violently knifing themselves to death...but I swear it was the most pleasant experience for us!
I put together a few videos of the cool parts. By the way, I'm loving the HD video quality of my new camera :) Enjoy...

More photos of the dance, as well as pics from the rest of the trip, can be seen here.

Ubud Sights

2010-12-28T09:29:00.003-05:00

Over the past couple of days, we've been checking out a lot of Ubud, Bali's art center located in the middle of the island. Yesterday we saw more monkeys than you can fit in a barrel, a wood carving museum, and an elephant cave. Today was also jam-packed full of sights, including a traditional dance performance, a coffee and cocoa plantation, rice terraces, and Bali's biggest Hindu temple complex.

Let's start with those cuddly monkeys.

This one isn't so cuddly, but this giant stone monkey guarded the entrance to the Monkey Sanctuary and let us know that around here, monkey is king.

This place reminded me a lot of Nara in Japan, the temple where a bunch of tame deer hang out and get fed a lot. Except, you know, with monkeys.

Baby monkey!

Monkey see, monkey do
Another highlight was the Elephant Cave, a really freakin' old and cool temple/bathing place that wasn't actually discovered until the 1950s.

Here we are in front of the cave. Can you imagine what it must have been like to be digging around in the 50s and find this business from long ago?

Fountains in the pool area.. a guide told us they're fountains of youth. How convenient to find so many at once!

Now that's a cool tree.

In our rented sarongs (to show respect at temples, men and women should cover their legs) by a rice paddy.
We've been doing a lot of sightseeing, which has been really cool, but I think the lay around and do nothing part of this vacation is nigh. I am loving life right now!

Check out plenty more pictures here.

First Day in Bali

2010-12-26T10:11:00.002-05:00

Bali is amazing! We're loving it here- it's indescribably wonderful to get out of Korea for a while, especially when it means getting out of the freezing cold straight into sunny paradise. Can't really go too wrong there. Here are a few pictures from our first couple of days (also, hooray for free wifi).

My brand new camera takes extra purty pictures of flowers.

Merry Christmas! Get in the pool!

playing on the beach

statue in the hotel

infinity pool

First sunset :)
More photos of Candi Dasa, the area we're staying in, as well as the rest of the growing collection of photos can be seen here.
Next post: all about Ubud!

Merry Christmas From Bali!

2010-12-26T01:27:00.001-05:00

Howdy everyone, greetings from Bali!! Here's a little video update from my Christmas tropical paradise.. Have fun in the snow! :D

P.S. I bought myself a really effing sweet camera at Duty Free. Expect awesomeness.

Have Yourself a Very Cute Christmas

2010-12-23T12:18:00.001-05:00

I got some of the cutest Christmas cards I've ever seen in my life today! I have these 2 students: a pair of really cool, smart sisters who also happen to be really good at art. These cards were not purchased, they were hand made! Too cute for life.

The first one was from Ashley, who's maybe 16 or so. She seriously drew this...I was in awe!

Cute message inside.

And an adorable walrus on the back.

Just look at this card made by Josephine! She even drew Lady GaGa down in the corner cause she knows I'm a fan. AHH TOO CUTE JUST TOO DAMN CUTE!

Awww! I feel like I'm actually doing something over here when I get stuff like this. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy knowing that there are at least 2 students out there who actually like me and listen to what I have to say. How refreshing!

Mom in Korea!

2010-12-20T12:00:00.000-05:00

My momma came all the way from D.C. to spend the weekend with me in Seoul! We stayed at the Hamilton Hotel, ate yummy food, and did some Christmas shopping in Insadong. It was short, sweet, and fantastic!

Friday night

On Saturday night, everyone got together for a delicious dinner at Chef Meili's, a German restaurant in Itaewon. The infamous GIFT GAME was played shortly thereafter.

Yay!

View from the Hamilton...oh what those streets have seen.

Walking around Insadong...now that's a hog.
Weekend visits to Seoul: pretty effing cool. I'm available for more of those, just sayin'.

Sonny Angel Brawl

2010-12-13T11:35:00.000-05:00

The following photos are what happened when I brought my 3 newest Sonny Angel dolls (and a camera) to class and did pretty much anything to avoid real teaching.

BTW, I don't even know what that brown suit is all about. It's supposedly a limited edition Halloween costume...of a brown T-shirt/cap combo? Someone please enlighten me as to what this costume is.

Apparently he's got what it takes to beat those shirtless angels, though.

Sally sets up the contenders.

That's some delicious apple baby.
Sometimes I really enjoy this job.

Birthdaaaaaaaaaaay!

2010-12-12T06:44:00.028-05:00

Here are some pictures of my birthday celebration (and pre-celebration). Friends gathered to eat some amazing Mexican food at On The Border, and then it was onto Hongdae to party like it's 1986! Good times were had by all.

Here I am before birthday beautification, plus my delicious pomegranate cocktail courtesy of Cassie.

And after....yes I am actually wearing a tiara. This night was like the prom I never had! But probably a lot cooler.
Now here we are on our way out, and of course parking lot pics are necessary. It's only one of the most important traditions ever.

Jayne standing in the alleyway next to a pile of hypodermic needles. Classy.

Me climbing over a pickup truck. Oh yes.

No, a majenta bird didn't fly through this picture and land on Cassie's ear. That's one damn fine headband.

Pit stop.
After amusing ourselves for quite some time in random hallways/bathrooms, we finally made it to the restaurant.

The whole crew.

me & Barbara

friends
Happy birthday indeed :)
See more pictures here.

Go Girl, It's Your Birthday

2010-12-09T00:26:00.009-05:00

It is, in fact, my birthday. And Trey Songz? You can serenade me anytime, preferrably now. OK, thanks.

Trey Songz - Say Ah

Yay! I cannot freakin' wait for the weekend! In celebration of my successful completion of 24 years on Earth, I'm chowing down on some delicious Mexican food at On The Border and then heading out for a night on the town. Excitement abound! And I promise I won't face plant in Kraze Burger again this year. hehehe.

But really though, what was with that mustache?

2010-12-08T00:04:00.009-05:00

One of the classes I teach is focused on writing, and I have to correct essays written by a couple of really smart sisters. It's a great class to have, because the girls are really good at English and they always do a great job, plus I don't actually have to do much - I just let them write during class and correct the stuff when they're finished. Score. Anyways, the essay topics are all kinds of things, this week's being "If you could travel back in time to meet a famous person from history, what person would you like to meet?". One of the students, Josephine, wrote a really interesting essay. So interesting I thought I might share it here. Here goes..

I would meet Abraham Lincoln if I could travel back and meet a famous person. As I live in a divided country, I really want to meet him. And I want to ask him some personal questions. The last reason could be that he studied at home instead of going to school.

Korea was divided into the North and the South on July 27th, 1953. And because of this, South and North Korea are still hurting each other. But even though America was once divided, America is now one united country. I think it was because of Abraham Lincoln, who was the 15th president of the United States. Because of this, I want to ask him how he unified the country and for some tips for South Korea.

A book that I read when I was young said that Lincoln was a Christian. I want to know more about his religous nature and I want to know why he grew his mustache. There are many guesses on the Internet, but I want to know the real reason for his mustache. I want to talk with him because I think I could get a lot of knowledge from him.

Abraham Lincoln was so poor as a child that he couldn't go to elementary school and he had to study at home. As I'm a homeschooler, I want to know how he studied without going to school and became a really famous person. As he was homeschooled, I have a lot of questions that I would ask. Many people might not go to school because they were poor, but Abraham Lincoln became a really famous person even until today.

I think there will never be another leader who was so wise and had such good leadership as him.

I thought Josephine's essay was really good, and it made me think a lot about Korean unification. The North is so completely separate from the South. It's incredibly close, but feels like it's on another continent. Plus, they hate each other so much it's near impossible imagining them under one leadership again. The Korea I know is a land where high technology, fashion, and the fastest internet in the world meets cheap street food, cardboard collecting ajummas, and a truck rolling by your apartment selling dried up fishies. I feel like I know my Korea pretty well, and it's nothing to do with the North, the place most people disregard as an insane family ruling with an iron fist over a ton of starving people. Sad but true.

This essay reminded me, though, that the North and the South are all Koreans who've just been separated by terrible circumstances. Reading about how Josephine wants a leader who can somehow unite these two completely divided groups made me a little sad. I hope for the same thing, but it's not going to be easy. I hope to see reunification in my lifetime, and I also hope that the mystery of Abe Lincoln's mustache is finally solved.

Pump Me Up

2010-12-01T22:49:00.009-05:00

So I've recently joined a gym in good old Hagik-Dong and, for the last couple of weeks, I've been working out before work. Having the time/energy to be productive before work is yet another advantage of working evenings. In an effort to keep up the motivation, I'm constantly trying to find music that pumps me up. I thought I'd share my favorite energizing songs, and ask for more recommendations. What gets you going??

1) Kara - Jumping

This song, like pretty much all K-pop, is all about the poppy dance beat. I'm into it.

2) will.i.am & Nicki Minaj - Check it Out

I love this song, and pretty much anything both of them do. Nicki Minaj = badass bitch. BTW, Korean is so totally in right now.

3) Rihanna - Only Girl (In The World)

Of course. ♥ you RiRi!

So yea, let me know about any tight beats that might be excellent for a training montage starring yours truly.

Expat Thanksgiving Extravaganza

2010-11-27T10:43:00.004-05:00

I just got home from one of the most intense Thanksgiving meals.....ever. Seriously, I ate about two entire mountains of food. The wonderful Cassie hosted the feast at her apartment in Mok-dong and did so much preparation and awesome stuff for us! I love you Cassie!!! The only downside of the night (if you can even call it that) was being so full I couldn't sit up for about 2 hours after the meal. We'd planned on doing some noraebang afterwards to sing off some of the turkey/stuffing/etc, but I couldn't even manage that. Sad face...but not really cause if there's ever a good reason to be physically unable to move your body, it's because it's Thanksgiving and you just stuffed it with as many carbs and delicious things as possible.

Our lovely host, with the longest stalk of celery any of us has ever seen.

The spread...there's turkey (already taken off the bird), parmasean veggie salad, broccoli salad, stuffing, shepherd's pie, corn, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese (hadn't been cooked yet, but was amazing when done), and gravy. Woo!

AND...rolls, homemade yorkshire puddings, and the completely essential and delicious canned cranberry jelly.

There's me with my first mountain of food. Yes, I actually went through 2 of those (plus dessert). YUM!

Aaaand here's us after eating. Totally happy, totally immobile.

Revelers!
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. To my family at home: I miss you! To my family in Korea: thanks for making life awesome! :D

More pics of a bunch of stuffed people here.

The Flaming Lips: Live in Seoul

2010-11-22T02:51:00.010-05:00

This past weekend certainly was eventful, some events better than others. The best of the BEST, however, was the Flaming Lips concert on Saturday night. I went with Carl, Brittny and Barbara and we all had a blast. I must say, I've heard a lot of hype concerning Lips' live shows. Now I know: it's legitimate. I had such a good time and the company was excellent!

Before the show started, Wayne came out with a translator to make sure everyone knew that intense lights/lasers were gonna be happening. He told us if we start to freak out, don't leave! Just shut those peepers.

I touched the bubble!

Giant Wayne face!

Froggy and dancers

Giant laser hands

I'd like a bear friend who'd let me ride around on his shoulders. Just sayin'.

giant, confetti filled balloon

Someone in the crowd dressed as a chicken.

happy!

There can never be enough balloons and confetti!

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. I swear I wasn't singing that loudly.
SO.MUCH.FUN!
All pictures/videos are here.

Bali!

2010-11-15T11:10:00.008-05:00

I'm going to BALI for Christmas! YES! EXCITEMENT! OHMYGOD! Barring any freak injuries, Carl and I will make a grand getaway to an island in the sun. Paradise, here we come!

Yea...just a little excited.
No joke, I downloaded this photo from our hotel's website. Infinity pool? Swim up bar? Welcome massage? Check, check, and check!

Warning: I might not stop talking about this until sometime in 2011.

Glee ♥

2010-11-11T22:47:00.003-05:00

OK, so I'm pretty sure I saw the cutest thing ever on TV last night. Enter: Glee.

Maybe the annoying factor of acapella groups at college was just too high and it tainted my view of them forever. And let's face it, most of the time they are annoying as shit. But wowzers, this is too adorable for words! Those blazers! The dance moves! Kurt! ♥♥♥

Miss A - Breathe

2010-11-10T22:32:00.006-05:00

I've had this song stuck in my head for the past 2 weeks straight. I'm only posting this so that others can share my plight.

Even after 2 weeks, I still can't tell if I like it or if it's the most annoying thing I've ever seen/heard. Thoughts?

Gao in Korea!

2010-11-10T05:38:00.011-05:00

This past weekend was amazing! My roomie since freshman year, Nicole, came and visited the Land of the Morning Calm. She arrived on Wednesday night and we were pretty much non-stop party people until early Monday morning! Well, there were those lame spots when I had to go to work (the lamest!) but the rest of the time was all Showgirls, teen movies, soju, dancing, and even some sightseeing! Beware of many, many CUTE pictures.

Photo documentation of her visit didn't start until Friday night, when it was officially time to party. Plus, Nicole got her hair did that morning and was ready to show it off. We went to Arts Center, the nearby bar/restaurant area for some delicious beef galbi with a cheese dipping sauce. Then we went to Garten Beer, possibly the best chain of bars in Korea. The tables have these ingenious refrigerated cup-holder things, keeping your big-n-tall beer nice and icy. Love Garten Beer!

Insert beer here. I wonder how much it costs to either import one of these tables to the US or build one.. Note: Learn carpentry/refrigeration skills.

Gao & Zhong

She's never been able to keep her hands off of me!

And apparently David feels the same way about Carl..!

INTENSE CONVERSATIONS!
Moving onto Saturday. What a day! Somehow, we were able to get an early start (imo) and head to Seoul to do some sightseeing and shopping. We stumbled upon a Lanten Festival and all kinds of festivities in preparation for the G20. I don't think either of us expected to take as many pictures with random high-school-aged Koreans as we did. Oh yea, and write "good luck messages" for the G20. Yea...

Here we are at the main gate in front of Gyeongbokgung, where we obviously spent a lot of time exploring and discussing cross-cultural significance.

We caught the Changing of the Guard Ceremony.

Here we are in front of King Sejong. Sejong, you the man!

Oh snap, traditional Korean clothes!

Lanterns a plenty!

Reppin' Amurrica
Saturday night consisted mostly of amazing dancing (push the baby out, anyone?). We started the night with the intention of completing a drinking scavenger hunt that a friend of Cassie's had devised. We lost focus at the beginning, however, and then proceeded to get crunk. Really, really crunk. I'll let you browse those pictures on your own time, if you're so inclined.

Sooo after a glorious morning of feeling like I'd ingested wet cement, we did some last minute sightseeing.

Here we are in Insadong!

At first I was bummed that my favorite stationary store MMMG was gone, but then I saw that in its place is a new purikura shop! In case you haven't noticed by now, we love us some cute pics!

Here we are at the Old tea shop, a must see for anyone visiting Insadong. We had some good tea and a very awkward experience getting out of our booth.

Tea shop birdy
After Insadong, we stopped for a drink with friends in Itaewon. The inescapable truth of Nicole's imminent departure brought this photo theme on...

CROOOOOOOOOOONIN!
All in all, it was a most excellent weekend with a most excellent friend!
See even more (oh yes, there are more) pictures of our reuniuon weekend here.

TONIGHT

2010-11-02T23:41:00.007-04:00

Gao, aka Nicole, is coming to visit me here in Korea!! HELL TO THE YEAA!! It's time for some BEACH CRUNK SEX! Ok well, maybe just the crunk! Anyways, I'm super excited (in case you can't tell) and am so ready for a Nomi Malone reunion.

Bring on the good times!

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-01T06:06:00.014-04:00

This year's Halloween celebration started out (of course) with a school party. It was actually pretty awesome, though. Last year's lasted about 11 hours and left me so exhausted I thought I might never wake up (when I was finally allowed to leave the place). The weekend was awesome, but damn was that day of entertaining kindergarteners and elementary school children tiring. This year, I only had about 2 hours of partying, ie making balloon spiders and overseeing spooky games. It was much more relaxed and I actually managed to have a bit of fun myself!

My favorite thing about the day was the game where the kids put their hands in a box and tried to guess what was inside. I'm used to playing this game with things like peeled grapes, spaghetti, and peanut butter. Well. My awesomely badass school played the game with these items...

How would you like to reach your hand in a box and jab a few chicken feet? No? Maybe an octopus, then. I got to corral the children through the darkened room, scream at them, and try to get them to shit themselves, basically. This amused me to no end.

Here are some more festive photos from the day..

Now, onto more important things, ie MY COSTUME. Do I make an amazing Gogo, or what?

Even Gogo has to ride the subway sometimes. Not without a can of Hite, though!
I thought Carl made a great Buck, even though a grand total of zero people recognized him. What's going on people, don't you remember the man who was whoring out a comatose Uma Thurman at the beginning of Kill Bill? Who then got his Achilles tendon slashed when she woke up?? Oh well, "Pimp Doctor" it is.

Gogo & Buck: baddies.
Now it's onto Sinchon. Who do we run into? Why, JESUS CHRIST of course!

Praise Jesus...or else!

The Holy Man's lucky he's got Rainbow Brite to keep him in line.

Rainbow Brite and Betty Page, having an intense conversation from the looks of it.

These 2 went as sexy ass bitches, ie they were lame and didn't dress up! But that's ok.

Hey, look! It's a crowdsurfing chicken! (aka Sophie)
After around this point in the night, my level of cuteness starts steeply declining. So we'll end it here. Time to start brainstorming for next year!

Check all the Halloween pics here.

Read This!

2010-10-31T01:06:00.007-04:00

Under the Skin by Michel Faber

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Freaky deaky!

View all my reviews

This is the freakiest book I've read in a while. It just kept getting freakier and freakier! I don't want to give anything away because it was really good and I recommend you read it and experience the freakiness for yourself.. I'll just say this story made me a lot more scared of hitchhiking. I really wouldn't want to try it after reading this.

P.S. Happy Halloween!

2 Years in Korea

2010-10-28T01:26:00.008-04:00

Today marks the two year anniversary of my arrival in Korea. Minus a couple trips home, I've been here for two whole freakin' years! It's really crazy thinking about time, and how sometimes it feels like I've paused for a second and then, whoa, two months have gone by. Other times, time crawls by at an impossibly slow rate. It's been a while since I've felt like that, though. I feel like the happier I am in life, the quicker things seem to go. It is a bit alarming in a way that it's been two whole years, but like my Dad always says, the older you get, the faster time seems to go. If that's a good thing or a bad thing, I'm still not sure.

Anyways, I thought this might be a good time to think (well, write) out loud about my plans for the next year or so. I don't actually want to live in Korea for the rest of my twenties (gasp!), so some planning is in order. Basically, my bf and I are planning the trip of our lives. We want to do some serious traveling after our contracts are finished: I'm talking Mongolia, China, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. This is very ambitious, so money saving is the name of the game right now. That's why we're extending our contracts a bit longer than we originally thought. We're going to stay at our jobs here in Incheon until about the end of September 2011 (and pray that we've actually accomplished our monetary goals). Then, it's off to Mongolia to start our backpacking trip through Asia. We want to be back at our respective homes by Christmas (seems about time to be home for the holidays) and then...? We haven't really figured out what's gonna happen after our travels. I've come up with a few potential "things to do" (aside from winning the lottery), but nothing has struck me as a definite YES! So far ideas concerning grad school, getting a TEFL to teach in Europe (Germany, please), and Americorps have been bouncing around my head. But I suppose I can't plan everything so far in advance...right? I've still got time. Time to enjoy life before the impending doom of reality beats down on me like a torrent of nervous shits and chest pains.

But I digress.

The point of this post is to say "Hey! I made it 2 years! I have a (little bit of a) life plan!" So let's see if I can actually make it happen...

Happy anniversary, Korea!

Kenny vs Bieber: WWJD?

2010-10-24T09:33:00.004-04:00

While standing in line at Starbucks, I noticed the selection of CDs for sale. Naturally, it made me think that this must be the CD selection in hell. So here's my question... If you could only choose one CD to listen to for the rest of your life, what would it be? What would Jesus do?

First Time in Japan

2010-10-23T23:23:00.013-04:00

Since this has been a very chill weekend, I decided today would be a good time to go through some old pictures and put them on the internet. Considering the amount of photos I have on my computer, this is no small task. I decided to start with pictures of my first trip to Japan back in 2005. I was only 18! Wow, things have changed since then. It's really fun to reminisce about my first time traveling without parents, and with college friends I had made just a few months beforehand. I guess it was a good sign for the friendship to come that we were willing and able to take this trip together, even though we didn't know each other all that well yet. I may cringe when I see photos of myself from back then (I didn't know how to dress myself and also didn't realize that there are other hairstyles besides a ponytail), but I like some of these a lot. Oh, nostalgia :)

Guess T House! My first hostel experience. It was very...pink.

Wow, look at us! We're in the Imperial Palace gardens.

Lovely picture of Tokyo Tower taken by Becky

Asakusa Temple and shopping arcade

Meiji Shinto Shrine

Oh hey, remember that ginormous ball of hair we found in our room at the New Sanno Hotel?

Crane Games: A love story begins.

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE!

"I'd sega that."

babies!
When I look back at all of the experiences and chances I've had in life to go places and pursue my dreams, I feel really happy and incredibly lucky. I feel even more excited when I think about the good things to come! I want to say thank you to everyone who's supported me throughout my adventures (especially my parents!). As an 18-year-old traveling to Asia for the first time, I never knew I would take it this far. It's hard being away from home for so long, but it's been worth it. I know I need to return to the real world and settle down at some point, but I'm having too good a time to quit just yet.

See all of the Tokyo 2005 pics here.

DIY Gogo Weaponry

2010-10-23T07:21:00.006-04:00

As it's now one week before Halloween, today I decided it was high time to put my costume together for reals. I'm going as Gogo Yubari from Kill Bill, so a badass flail is definitely in order. I wasn't sure how exactly I'd go about constructing this deadly weapon, but I ended up using a styrofoam ball, sharpened wooden dowels, some wire, and about 6 feet of chain.

Before spray paint:

And after:

In the movie, there's only one row of spikes, but I thought it looked cooler with them all over. Now let's see if I can make it through the whole night without injuring myself or others. Halloween, here I come!

Rye Rye - Sunshine

2010-10-21T08:47:00.007-04:00

Rye Rye is back! My uncle Jack tipped me off to her new video "Sunshine" featuring M.I.A.. As always, I am supremely envious of her moves. Come to Korea and open a dance hagwon!

This song is awesome. Hearts to Rye Rye.

Buddhalicious

2010-10-19T23:08:00.018-04:00

Here are some pictures from our daytrip to Gongju, one of Korea's lesser known attractions. I'm not sure why more people don't know about this place, because it was amazing! There were literally tons of Buddhas scattered around the hills. The town itself is really small and unremarkable, but the temple (Seonggoksa) was worth the trek.

Giant Buddha!

Jolly Buddha

Golden Buddhas

Those bells on the left were so beautiful and made the coolest noise in the breeze.

The girls in front of a zillion golden Buddhas.

This giant bronze Buddha is sitting on a lotus, surrounded by a grand total of 333,333 little mini Buddhas. Wowzas.

Hey look, even more Buddhas!

Most impressive.
Didn't get enough Buddha action? See all of the pics here.

Culture!

2010-10-18T11:37:00.006-04:00

This past weekend was one of the busiest in a while, and it hardly involved any booze! Yes, I had a very cultural weekend indeed. It was pretty amazing, in fact. Saturday was spent doing some sightseeing with Carl's friends Wade and Maresha, fellow Washingtonians who've recently arrived in Korea (teachers as well). We went to Changdeokgung, one of Seoul's old palaces. Unfortunately we got there a bit too late to get into the Secret Garden (the most scenic part of the palace), but we still had a good time and took some nice pictures. That's really what it's all about, right? Sweet party pixxx.

Main Gate

Carl and I somewhere inside

Maresha and Wade by a shorty-Korean-sized doorway.

This juniper tree is something like 750 years old.

I like this photo of me. I try to look badass (yet friendly) on a regular basis.

For some reason, I told them to frolic. This was the result.

Some pretty roof details

Afternoon sunlight

We love being cultured individuals!
After this fine excursion we went to Los Amigos, a Mexican restaurant in Itaewon. It was pretty glorious. You wanna know what else is glorious? The city of Gongju! 333,333 Buddha statues in one park! No joke! Get excited....I think I have too many good photos for this blog post so that's a'comin next time!

See more Changdeokgung pics here.

YES

2010-10-14T00:26:00.003-04:00

A nice day for a stroll around a palace

2010-10-13T06:44:00.007-04:00

The day after Global Gathering (Sunday), Carl and I went to Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul. I've been there a few times, but it's always nice to go back every few months, especially when the seasons are changing. I will now take this opportunity to post a bunch of "look at us being cute" pictures. Beware!

pretty pretty

Look, it's us!

We've been in Asia way too long.

YOOOOUUUUUU!

Shortly after this, Carl told me a giant cockroach was crawling towards my hand. It was actually a normal sized moth.

We caught the changing of the guard ceremony.

More pics here.
In other news, I have a cold. I already knew this, but teaching children SUCKS when you feel like ass. This fact has been solidly reinforced today. I just had a class of 13-year-olds who had the giggles for a half hour straight. I'm surprised I didn't try and bash my skull in with a board marker.

*Happy Days*

Global Gathering 2010

2010-10-11T12:51:00.006-04:00

This year's Global Gathering was great. I may have preferred last year's lineup (Royksopp, 2NE1, G-Dragon, MSTRKRFT, Underworld), but it was so much fun this year because all of our friends were there together. We got to Nanji Park on the Han River at around 3 and basically just started partying hard. The celebrated Jaeger bar was there again, as well as the Doc Martens stand giving out free swag. My favorite act was Justice, but everyone was great. Frankly, in the state we were all in nothing was gonna bring us down. We took a cab back to Bupyeong at around 3:30 or 4 and actually managed to be productive the next day. I LOVE GLOBAL GATHERING!

Check out this video I made of the festivities...

Oh, and see about a bajillion pictures (okay, 73) of the day and night here.

BEAST - Soom

2010-10-04T23:40:00.006-04:00

Yea, well, I wouldn't be able to breathe either if I were trying to keep my hair and makeup fresh while trying to deal with torrential downpours, fog, fire, random chicks passed out on the ground, and extreme chest-thrusting dance moves. There is so much going on in this video, I don't know how anyone involved meets their oxygen needs.

Happy October

2010-10-04T09:04:00.010-04:00

It's October and you know what that means...HALLOWEEN! WIGS! OUTFITS! Yes, so I happen to really enjoy Halloween. Any excuse to dress up as someone/something over the top and I'm all about it. I just wanted to share my enthusiasm for one of the best holidays ever. If you read this blog post, tell me: what is your 2010 Halloween inspiration?

Mine's going a little something like this..

AND..! I think I've almost got Carl convinced to go as this fine male specimen.

Happy Birthday Barbara!

2010-09-28T07:27:00.004-04:00

1st stop= dinner @ Outback

2nd stop = SHOTS! Oh yea, Barb..those are all for you.

Savor that delicious flavor. The birthday FLAVOR!

Random

2010-09-28T07:25:00.000-04:00

I love my babo friends.

Jurassic Park Bus

2010-09-26T09:27:00.002-04:00

Badass bus seen on the highways of Korea.

Chuseok Road Trip Recap

2010-09-26T05:49:00.010-04:00

Road trips need to happen more often from now on, cause this one was pretty amazing. It all started with one hilarious elevator ride in Guro Station...

hehe.
Our first stop was Sokcho, a beach town on the East coast. Along the way we drove pretty close to the DMZ, which was...um, interesting.

Nothing weird about a few mine signs on the way, right?

Just beware of getting horribly electrocuted and exploded.

We came across a War Memorial...with tanks!

Once again, beware. If you don't get blown up by a mine or the electric fence, you could always drive off a cliff.

One of our main attractions was, obviously, the Penis Park. F YEA THE PENIS PARK!

Oh, there's no place like the penis park.
On to our next stop... On Thursday morning we left the Good Morning Hotel (best place to stay in Sokcho) and headed for Seoraksan National Park.

Sweet Buddha action

The view from the top of the mountain

You can see the cable car cables we took up on the left.

Happy Chuseok, indeed. Can't wait for the next trip with my crew.

See all of the pics here.

Loveholic Lovetronic

2010-09-19T06:00:00.005-04:00

Question: Did you know human males could rock such fly hairstyles?

Answer:

Holy snap. In terms of ridonkulous hair, I had no idea 'Ring Ding Dong' could be outdone.

Chuseok Holiday Approaching

2010-09-17T11:26:00.011-04:00

It's that time of year again... Chuseok time! Yes, Korea's Thanksgiving is just around the corner and this year we get a super convenient Tuesday~Thursday off. To take advantage of this 3-day holiday, my friends and I are planning on doing a road trip in a rented SUV. Actually, we did the same trip last spring over a random weekend, but I'm pretty positive it'll be even better this time around. First we're gonna hit Seoraksan for some mountain action, then Sokcho for a good time on the beach, and finally (what we've all been waiting for) Samcheok for the Penis Park. Yes, the Penis Park! Expect about a billion inappropriate photos this time next week. Woot Woot!

This video, although neither Korean nor relevant in any way, accurately reflects my excitement about this upcoming holiday.

ARE U READY?!

2NE1 Love

2010-09-14T00:46:00.016-04:00

2NE1's official first album just came out and, can I just say, HOT DAMN. I love these ladies, and I love them even more when they're churning out sweet vids like nobody's business. This is my favorite of the new lot: Go Away. It's dramatic and badass to the extreme. Ever been through a bad breakup? Ever wished your ex would blow up in his/her car? Just watch this.

LOVE!
And, speaking of being badass, check out Can't Nobody. My favorite things about this video: Minzy's general apperance (her spiky outfits, all of her accessories, and her dog), CL's striped hair (and her blade), and the spaceship/slide.

And I officially need more dance parties in my life.

2NE1, please come to Global Gathering 2010!

Busan Again

2010-08-31T10:50:00.011-04:00

This past weekend Jayne and I went to Busan. We both wanted to get out of town for a little while and just relax. I don't think either of us expected our trip to be quite as epic as it turned out to be. It was a great & fantastic time, from what I can remember (ha ha). Thanks for getting me out of dodge for a little while, Brownsword!

Seeing this ad (for who knows what) in the subway was a good sign. Why would crying babies be a good sign? Well, you just have to know me to answer that one.

As soon as we arrived we went straight to Breeze Burns, a burger joint on Haeundae Beach. I got the "Amazing Burger", which was really just amazing in its size, not in its taste unfortunately.

Here we are walking back from the hotel pool. That's Haeundae beach in the background.

You can see here, in addition to my overall fierceness, that we got our nails DID.

Little did Jayne know what was in store for the night!

We met up with my friend from Heidelberg days, Ryan. Shots of Jaeger seemed appropriate.

We went to a few bars in different areas of Busan, but I'm pretty sure this one had the best promo ads ever. Be slutty! But don't be a slut...oh right, of course.

No sluts allowed.

Chingus :)
See all the weekend pics here.

Cosmic Love

2010-08-26T13:32:00.004-04:00

Can't..Get..This..Song..Out..Of..My..Head

I love it. Can't say much for her dancing (being honest), but I love this song.

That is all.

Rafting 2k10

2010-08-26T11:56:00.008-04:00

I knew rafting was a success by 7:00 am.

We made it on the bus this time! So there, already ahead. But really, rafting was cool this year. It was the same trip (through Adventure Korea) that I went on last June, so I knew what to expect. It's not too strenuous rafting - just a lot of "1! 2! KIM! CHI!" paddling and splashing other boats. At the end, though, you have to carry the raft up a hill. That part I remembered sucking, and it did this year, too.

Here we are in the bus, looking photogenic as usual

Thumbs up to not missing the bus!

The whole group. Can you spot me?

Someone else's photo of us.. I didn't manage to get any photos of the actual rafting. And yes, my life vest has a thong attachments, as should all vests/shirts/just kidding.

The river

Bungee Jumping bridge...NO I didn't do it! I don't know if I trust Korean thrill rides anymore...

See the rest of the pics here.

How Wonderful!

2010-08-26T11:21:00.004-04:00

Am I strange for busting out laughing when I read the back of a new storybook I'm supposed to read with one of my classes? Maybe. But is this book's description ridiculous sounding? I think yes.

With middle school classes, in addition to the usual speaking, listening, and writing textbooks, we have these short books. Usually they're dumbed down versions of classics like Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, or The Secret Garden. Not this time. Nope... this time it's all about old ladies who want to ride on aeroplanes getting hit in the street. And runaway bad boys! Oh, the intrigue.

Can't wait to get to work tomorrow.

CL!

2010-08-16T10:48:00.008-04:00

one year ♥

The Blog Must Go On

2010-08-06T08:47:00.010-04:00

Why have I been absent from the blogosphere for so long? Well, something bad happened. Something terrible! No, no one's dead.....yet. My bf broke his ankle a mere 5 days before we were supposed to go on our long-awaited, romantic getaway to the island of Jeju. It's never a good time to break a bone, but this was the worst timing ever! The trauma occurred at Mudfest, just an hour or two after we arrived in Boryeong. Carl took a nasty tumble in one of the inflatable obstacle courses and managed to break 3 bones in his ankle, promptly ending our muddy fun. We ambulanced it to a nearby hospital, where they said he would need surgery and a 2 week stay in the hospital. Ouch!

We needed to get back to Incheon, so I went with Carl for our second ambulance ride in Korea - this one was a hefty 2.5 hours long. Man, that was an experience. This whole thing has been an experience. Anyways, Carl had to stay in the hospital from that fateful Saturday (Incheon St. Mary's Catholic Hospital btw, complete with Jesus and Mary statues in every hall) all the way until the next Monday. That's 9 nights! And I was there for most of it. So I can attest, staying in a Korean hospital sucks. I doubt a stint in a hospital anywhere in the world is a-ok, but being a foreigner in this kind of setting is L.A.M.E. There's no notion of privacy and the nurses don't help with the day-to-day things. Sure, they administer shots and change your IV, but what about bathing and using the bathroom. Those are kind of important, right? Plus, it'd be nice to actually understand what's going on with your medical care. Arriving straight from Mudfest absolutely covered in mud really helped the situation...sike. We looked like we'd survived some kind of bombing or construction accident, and everyone we spoke with about how/where for bf to take a shower just didn't seem to give a shit. So there was that awesomeness.

I've learned how to be a caretaker, something I didn't have much experience with in the past. Man oh man. That's a topic for another day. But I'm happy to say Carl's on the mend. His surgery went well and he's getting used to using crutches. Next week he'll get his stitches taken out and a hard cast put on, which will hopefully help with being more mobile. Maybe? It's hard to stay positive all the time, but we're trying. I was pretty devastated about Jeju. I mean, how could anyone not be after building something up for months? English teachers in Korea don't exactly get tons of vacation, so you generally try to make the most of every opportunity. I wasn't planning on spending my holiday in a Korean hospital room shared with elderly, bed-shitting men, but hey! There's some good, old-fashioned character building, right? Oh well. Jeju will still be there, I suppose. Perhaps the stars will align and magically transport me to the Korean Hawaii someday soon.

Until then, I must continue to blog. I may have lost my vacation, but I haven't lost my spirit damnit!

I Love This Book!

2010-07-15T09:00:00.010-04:00

I just finished reading an amazing book called The Pillars of the Earth. It was somewhere over a thousand pages, but it flew by! Seriously, this is one of the best books I've ever read. It's epic - and I'm not just saying that. It's set in the Middle Ages and centers around the construction of a cathedral in Kingsbridge, a small English town. There are a lot of different characters whose lives we follow throughout 50 years or so. It's got history, architecture, love, action, class rivalries, royalty, monks, and major drama. Major!

I recently found out it's being made into a miniseries on Starz...just in time! It comes out sometime this month and looks pretty intense. I don't know about Starz shows, but I hope it can live up to the book. I've just started reading the "sequel", World Without End (not really a sequel because although it's set in the same town of Kingsbridge, it's 200 years later), and I'm already getting into it.

EDIT: I've watched the first 15 minutes or so of the first episode and...AHHH! BAD! OVERDRAMATIC AND TERRIBLE! I knew it probably wouldn't live up to my extremely high opinion of the book, but whoa. This here is some major FAIL.
Then again, if anyone has sat through more than the introduction, let me know if it ever improves. It would have to improve a lot though...at least seven metric tons of improvement.