Just A Box

"Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult, and difficult as if they were easy; in the one case that confidence may not fall asleep, in the other that it may not be dismayed."     --- Baltasar Gracian 

In preparation for moving back to Texas (at the end of February), I decided to pack up a box to send home on the boat. Shipping stuff back by boat takes about 2-3 months, but it is MUCH cheaper than sending it via airmail. So, the other week I went to the post office and bought the biggest box they offered, took it home, packed it up, and then taped the hell out of it!! I heard that the boxes get pretty roughed up so I wanted to ensure that it survived the journey.

I asked my co-teacher if he could assist me by coming by my house one evening to pick up the box and keep in it his car so that we could take it to the post office the next day. He agreed to come by last night and since I had an after-school class I stayed at the school until he was also off of work (he had two after-school classes).

By the time we left school it was dark because it was nearly 6pm. On the way to my place he asked if I would like to join him for dinner. Of course I said yes because it's been awhile since we got to just hang out and talk. It's funny how in Korea, asking a favor turns into the person offering even more things, such as dinner. Every time we've gone out to dinner in the past he always immediately says, "my treat" because he knows I'm going to say that it's my turn to pay for it. But, in Korean culture it is common that the oldest male pays for dinner. This makes it impossible for me to return the favor of dinner. I'd love to host a dinner at my apartment for some of my co-teachers, but alas my apartment is the size of a shoe box! 

Dinner conversation usually brings up many interesting topics. Every once in awhile (usually after one bottle of Soju between us) he'll ask me a couple personal questions. Of course, he leads this with asking if he can ask a personal question, lol. So this time he asked, "Since you've been in Korea, have you had the opportunity to find any sort of love here?" My response? Laughter! I honestly wasn't trying to laugh at his question, but it just sorta happened as I thought back to all the experiences I've had these last 9 months with foreigners in general. 

The foreigner community in Korea is very similar to any small town back in Texas. It's full of gossip, everyone knows everyone, and everyone know's everyone's business whether they want to or not. Something I've found unique to the situation of dating in Korea is the extra (somewhat valid) excuses, such as, "I just got out of a relationship before I came here, so I'm not looking for anything serious (aka they just want to have sex)" and "I've decided not to date anyone during my time here in Korea because it would make it too difficult when the time comes for me to leave (aka they also just want to have sex)." My attempt at explaining this to him was humorous in itself. I summed it up with, "I've been able to experience the dating world, and no I have not found love." LOL.

Also during dinner he informed me that "some of the students" told him the name of the teacher who I thought was the most handsome at our school. He then said that that particular teacher has always wanted to go out to dinner with me sometime. I switched the topic by saying all of the teachers who enjoy drinking should get together and go out for dinner/drinks before I leave. Sneaky middle-schoolers! They forced me to choose one "handsome" teacher and tell them who it was so I randomly picked a teacher. I don't even know half of my staff's names, lol.

Moving on to today. I'm sitting in my classroom (I don't begin classes until 11:20am on Wednesdays) and my desk phone rings. It's my co-teacher saying "Amanda, you must come to auditorium right away for yearbook picture." GREAT! Thanks for the advance warning, lol. So, I throw on some make-up in an attempt to look half-decent (I stopped wearing make-up to work a long time ago) and stroll outside into the rain to go take my picture. After the photographer was so kind to make sure I looked perfect (he kept pushing my hair out of my face, lol) Mr. Bahn says, "Let's go take your box to the post office."

I run back through the rain to grab my wallet from my classroom, then we drive down the road to the post office. He carries my ginormous box inside and tells the post-office workers what I'd like to do. They immediately say something in Korean that gives Mr.Bahn a concerned look on his face. He looks to me and says, "Your box is too big in size and weight." 

Lovely! So, in other words I had wasted an hour organizing the contents of the box, as well as taping every single inch of it! The next thing I know all of my stuff is laid out on the post office floor as we attempt to re-organize it into two boxes. Of course they didn't put as much tape as I would have liked, but I let the professionals do their job. Eventually they came up with a total cost and we rushed back to the school just in time for our classes. With insurance for both boxes it cost me about $80 to ship them to America.

What started out as "just a box" turned into many things. It led to an evening of hanging out with my co-teacher, as well as a 45 minute dilemma at the post office. Seems like the easiest tasks turn out to be way more than that! :)

XOXO,

Amanda

Breaking Bad Habits

"Habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity." -- St. Augustine

So, I have decided to give up my bad habit of getting on Facebook. I realized that I spent entirely too much time doing absolutely nothing! I mean I loved the site for keeping in contact with family and friends back home, and adding the new friends I met here in Korea, but at the same time I despised the site for consuming so much of my day!


I am well aware that I was not forced to spend that much time on it, but sitting in front of a computer at work all day made it far to easy to just hop off and on of the site all throughout the day. Also, since I don't have a couch at my apartment I find myself sitting at my desk alot. I started working out at the gym a few weeks ago, so I figured I'd try to spend more time there in the evenings than sitting in my apartment. Overall, I can't complain about all the free time I have living here in Korea, I just needed to adjust some things!


As far as other updates in my life, the last couple weekends have been spent in Daegu just hanging out with friends. Two weekends ago was my friend Lea's birthday, so we went out for dinner in Daegu Saturday night.

And this past weekend was of course spent celebrating Thanksgiving! While I wished I could have been home hanging out with the family at my parents house like we do every Thanksgiving, I was happy that I got to spend it with some great friends here! My girls in Daegu were invited to the army base where the guys cooked us teachers an amazing meal! I don't think they forgot any of the traditional foods. It was great! What was even more fun was that we played monopoly (which was turned into a drinking game, lol) and then afterwards we played spoons! Seeing as spoons is a game my family loves, I was so happy to be spending Thanksgiving just hanging out with friends. Of course, we went downtown afterwards! Here's a few pics:

ME & SOPHIA

PLAYING SPOONS!

YES, KRISTIN TOOK A PIE DOWNTOWN LOL

The following day was spent just taking it easy with the girls. We went to a cafe which I discovered has amazing yogurt smoothies and giant apple-cinnamon muffins! Then we ended our day with a late lunch/dinner at the Indian restaurant we love. I think all of us are obsessed with this place and we freaked out when we thought it had shut down. Turns out it had moved locations, lol. I never thought I'd be such a fan of Indian food, but then again I've discovered lots of new things that I love since moving to Korea!

As for next weekend I will be doing yet again another "first!" I am going snowboarding at a resort near Seoul! I'm going with a bunch of my friends through an organized group, so I'm curious to see how it all turns out. I signed up early so I got a discount price atleast! I just hope I don't injure myself too bad snowboarding! Lol. Anyone who knows me, knows how uncoordinated and clumsy I can be at times! Wish me luck!!

Alright, that's it for now. Maybe since I quit Facebook, I will be updating more on here!

XOXO,

Amanda

Work = Free Time

So, my school has yet again surprised me with the following convo:

Co-teacher: "Did you hear about today?" (a scary question, because you can never tell if it's gonna be a good thing or a bad thing, lol)

Me: "Umm...no. What is happening today?"

Co-teacher: "Grade 1 of high school will not be here. They are going on a field trip."

Me: "So, I don't have class today?"

Co-teacher: "No."

Me: "Ok." (with a look of concern on the outside & cheering on the inside, haha!)

I was convinced today would be horrible considering I hit the "off" button on my I-touch alarm instead of "snooze" and woke up with 3 minutes to spare, BUT it has turned out well!

I have spent most of my "work day" catching up on favorite television shows (How I Met Your Mother & Being Erica), watching random YouTube videos, playing "words with friends", skyping with Dewayne, Sarah, & Owen (who is soo cute & makes me want to get home even faster to meet him), listening to music, and of course the usual chatting/facebooking. 

Now I've decided to turn the day into productiveness. I've already found a lesson plan for next week, since my speaking tests are almost complete. That is, if any of my students will come to class. Seems that lately they have way more important things to do than come learn English. It used to bother me (the ever-changing schedule) but now I'm so used to it that it doesn't phase me. In fact I enjoy my free time at my desk. While it may bother some people to sit at a desk, I figure if I'm getting paid to decide how I wish to use my free time, then that's ok with me! 

And now that I've done some actual work, I figured I'd take the time to update my blog completely. Nothing too crazy, but I did have a nice random weekend recently.

Last weekend I went to Busan where I got the chance to finally go to the aquarium on Saturday. Of course, the only reason I wanted to go there was to see the PENGUINS! It cost me a whole 18,000Won ($18) but I think I got my money's worth. It would have been even more awesome if I had got to go inside and hang out with the penguins...but maybe some day. 

Ironically, earlier today I was looking at a YouTube video that a friend had posted about amazing marriage proposals, which led to watching more linked videos. AND I came across the best one yet...in my opinion:

Haha, like I said, that's the best one to me because it involves penguins of course! (And she got to go inside with them!) Moving on to other creatures I discovered in the aquarium:

Cool Jellyfish

 Happy Stingray

 Sand Fish?

 Shark Attack!

 Coral

After the aquarium I went to a salon that my friends recommended. The last time I attempted a haircut in Korea, it turned out bad! A trim turned into "I'm gonna cut your hair up to your chin" lol. So, to be safe I went to a lady who used to cut hair in Canada and even did hair for some TV shows there. She forgot to write down my appointment, so I got a discount...AND my hair turned out just how I wanted. You can hardly tell I got it cut, but that's what I wanted...a trim! 

Sunday was my random day spent with a friend who lives near Haeundae Beach. We started the day early with a mini-hike through a trail in some woods. The trail led to the best part...the ocean! Which next led us somehow to some random railroad tracks, lol.

Makes me wish I lived near the ocean

 Playing on the tracks :)

 Shortly before this picture, we had a train sneak 

up on us, so we snapped this picture fast, lol 

So the first picture above was taken by my crappy camera, but the rest are from my friend's camera. I really need to save some money for a professional camera! Anyways, we ended up taking random pictures throughout the day and I even learned a few camera tricks. This is the result of our photo session:

My attempt at "fake jumping" off a cliff

Then I got to be the photographer :)

After our random walking adventure Scottie wanted to go to a gaming expo. Korea loves their video games, and this event definitely showed how much they do. Lines of people everywhere just to play one game! But, they were giving out alot of free stuff! So, of course we stood in line a couple times as well.

Turns out I really suck at most of these games! They weren't like the old school Mario Cart or Mortal Kombat, lol. After the gaming expo I made the journey back to Gumi, which sums up my random weekend! 

Now it's time to work on my writing. A group of friends here are doing the 50,000 word challenge for the month of November, and while I would love to do that, I have chosen to do a more personal writing challenge. That is to see how far I can write a story by the end of the year. So far I'm at around 5,000 words! If I ever finish it, I'll post it on my Tumblr Blog that's focused on poetry, quotations, and other stuff I find interesting.

http://tuneurmind.tumblr.com/archive

K, that's all for now! Back to "work" for me! :)

XOXO,

Amanda

Hiking Adventure #2

So, thanks to Korea's equivalent of the S.A.T test being taken last Thursday, I was given the day off. Which reminds me how thankful I am that in America the S.A.T doesn't hold as much weight as it does here in Korea. I mean yes, the S.A.T determines if you go to college, but here in Korea it essentially determines your whole life. Mess up on the test and you just let not only your parents down, but your school and friends as well.


The parents even pray for their child's success on the test for something like 100 nights, every night, before the test. No flights were allowed to take place during the test time and if the students woke up late for the test, they got escorted by the police to the testing site. It was serious business here last Thursday.


On a lighter note, I chose to spend my day off in the mountains. I had been wanting to hike Geumosan (Gumi Mtn.) for a second time for awhile now. The first time I went was in the summer and the humidity about killed my friend and I. So, before it became too cold to hike, I decided I'd make the best use of my day off. What also encouraged me to go was that a friend of mine had posted some pictures of the beautiful fall foliage.


Even though it was really tempting to go back to sleep when I woke up at 7am that morning, I managed to get out of bed and start my day. I packed my mini-backpack with some fruit & water and headed towards the mountain. Since the mountain is about a 30 minute walk from my place, I chose to taxi it there. I wanted to start fresh from the bottom and see how fast I could make it to the summit. Yes, I timed myself on my I-touch, lol.

Since I've moved to Korea, I still have yet to become used to using kilograms, kilometers, etc. So I looked up the conversion and 3.3km is equal to a tiny bit over 2 miles. While 2 miles doesn't sound bad, keep in mind that parts of this mountain have you literally climbing straight up...using rocks like ladders. There are some pretty intense parts where you just look ahead and say to yourself, "How the hell am I going to make it up that?" But you do! And you say the exact same thing at the next blockade, but you somehow make it to the very top and it's all worth it!


So, here are some pics of from the beginning of the hike. It starts out fairly simple with a couple small uphill walks, then quite a few wooden steps, followed by some stone steps. The fall foliage was beautiful.

The first stopping point is the waterfall, which is as the sign says, 1.2km into the hike. It's your reward after the first set of hills and steps. However, I couldn't resist checking out the view from the cave, so I took about a 15 minute detour to go see it. The cave itself isn't spectacular, it's just a good view spot. Here are pics of the waterfall, the view from the cave, and the windy path you take to get up there.

After resting at the waterfall for a few minutes, it was time to start trekking up what seems like the "never ending" stairs. I should have counted to see if it was close to the 900 step part of the hike I did in Sokcho. Here are the stairs, followed by an example of how odd the rocks look at some points of the hike, and then a picture of the last easy part of the hike before the tough journey to the summit.

Along with an amazing view of the city of Gumi, you also get to take a picture with this rock. Purely for proof that you went all the way to the top. Other than that, not much else at the summit, lol. My time to the top ended up being 2 hours, after taking out the detour to the cave. Don't have anything to compare it to since I didn't time myself the first time, but I felt pretty proud of myself for only taking a couple stops to rest.

After soaking in the scene at the top of the mountain, it was time to head back down. You'd think going back down would be easier, and while it is faster, it definitely takes a toll on your knees and toes. This time was even more difficult because it was pretty muddy. I nearly slipped about ten times, but I survived! Actually to be honest, I did fall once but not in a muddy area, lol. It was when I was coming back down the steep path of the cave. I didn't quite have the grip I thought I did with my feet and landed on my bottom. I also bumped into the rail at the cave. So one bruised arm and scraped hand from trying to stop my fall were minor injuries compared to the ones I was imagining having on my hike down the mountain, lol. Here are a few pics of my journey back down. 

Once I made it back to the waterfall area I stopped to take some artsy pics, or should I say, tried to take some artsy pictures. 

After hiking I had a misleading burst of energy. I felt like I could have gone on a nice run after completing my task for the day. This is what led me to deciding to walk back to my apartment. As I said, it's about a 30 minute walk, which turns out to seem much longer after hiking, lol. About half way through the walk back home I had my eyes peeled for a taxi. Alas, it was meant for me to walk. I made it back to apartment and didn't move for a good hour or so. 

Here are a couple pictures of the view from the lake near the mountain to give you an idea of how far up I was. I was where the towers are in the pictures:

I ended my day off with a nice trip to the sauna to relax with a couple friends. Afterwards Ali cooked us a meal, which we followed with dessert at a nice little cafe that serves amazing mojitos and cheesecake! So, we split a cheesecake and I enjoyed a blackberry mojito. So strong, but so good! Eating blackberries reminded me of picking dewberries with my grandmother growing up. She would make the best cobbler, pies, and jams from them! :)

That sums up my day off from work! 

XOXO,

Amanda

Cultural Field Trip

"Bloom where you are planted." -- Mary Engelbreit

As I mentioned, this past week I was able to join about 170ish other EPIK teachers for a cultural field trip the province below us. We all live in Gyeongsangbuk-do, in which "buk" means northern, and we went to Gyeongsangnam-do, in which "nam" means southern. The technical name of the trip was "Tongyeong Culture Trip" but we realized afterwards that we really only slept in Tongyeong, lol.


Thursday morning brought me awake bright and early at 5:45am. I had to catch the only available train that would get me to Daegu on time, which was 6:38am. Turns out all my fellow Gumi people were on the same train. We all grabbed a cup of coffee from the train station & headed to our meeting spot to load the buses and start our adventure.


After finally getting on the correct bus (I forgot to write down the color of bus I was assigned to, lol) I settled in to what would unknowingly be my "home" for two days. A better name for this trip may have been "Social Bus Ride across Gyeongsangnam" seeing as we spent the majority of the time in travel to our destinations. But, since we were given two days off of work for this, we couldn't complain TOO much! :) Plus our driver let us watch around 5 movies on the TV in the bus throughout the trip. So between napping and watching movies, the bus ride was bearable.


Our first stop of the first day was to Geoje to see how they constructed a bridge to connect Geoje to Busan. In the past you had to drive or take a bus for 2 hours to get to Busan. Before the bridge was built the people tried using stepping stones that they placed in the water & then walked across. Seeing as this was a long labor-some process & they couldn't carry their crops that they were trying to sell in Busan, they needed something better. Eventually they constructed the bridge that only takes 15 minutes driving in a car versus a 2 hour drive to get to Busan. This cut down on travel costs and increased their income because they could get to Busan quickly & sell more goods/crops. By the by, this is my summary of what happened, don't hold me to this story, lol. They showed us a video on why and how the bridge was made, but we were too distracted by the robot-style voice that was telling the story in English to actually pay attention. The video kept emphasizing that the bridge "brought loved ones together." Since it was super foggy that morning I was unable to take any picture of decent quality of the bridge. They also created an underwater tunnel road when they built the bridge. So here's what I got...a picture of a picture of the bridge & what is supposedly under the water around the tunnel. 

INSIDE THE MUSEUM 

After visiting the museum about the bridge we were able to ride on the bus through the underwater tunnel road, as well as across the bridge. Then we headed towards the next stop, which was lunch. I was actually excited because they told us that our lunch would offer both Korean & Western style food. Turns out it was basically a meat buffet that you can cook yourself at the table. Before we ate we were told that there would be a fine for any meat left on the table, so as to prevent wasting it. Well, our table didn't come up with a plan before getting in line for food, so we ended up with way too much food & forced ourselves to try to finish it to avoid a fine. Needless to say we were so full we did not want to move. But, we loaded up on the bus to be taken to our next destination. This stop was called "Windy Hill". It involved quite a walk to get there, and an uphill walk back. I guess that was our exercise for the day! The only thing on Windy Hill of interest was a wind mill, a family of goats, and a path down to the rocks near the water.

WINDMILL ACTION

WINDY HILL

After "windy hill" we loaded the bus and traveled for an hour or more to what they referred to as "pebble beach." Before getting off the bus to see the beach of pebbles, we were told not to take any rocks with us. Well, this of course made us want to do JUST THAT! Lol. I don't think anyone really took any, but it was an on-going joke. Most of the people just skipped rocks into the ocean until they told us to get back on the bus. 

A KOREAN COUPLE "RELAXING?" ON THE PEBBLES

 BOYS WILL BE BOYS...SKIPPING ROCKS

After pebble beach we drove another hour or so until we reached our destination, "Tongyeong Bay" hotel. The sleeping accommodations were more than satisfactory. Not only did we have a bed, we also had a tv, computer with internet, a bathtub, and a nice size balcony! 

 BALCONY MORNING VIEW

While this may seem standard to my American friends back home, in Korea this is luxury. You are normally provided with a room, no bed, just blankets, MAYBE a pillow, and a floor which may or not have heating that works. AND you share it with about 7 other people. We were told before the trip that we would have uncomfortable, cramped accommodations. But, surprise! We only had to share with one other person and it was rather nice! 

The rest of the evening consisted of us eating a buffet style dinner, but this time we didn't have to cook it ourselves. Plus, I think most of us were still full from lunch, lol. After dinner a big group of people bought some drinks from the Family Mart beside the hotel and headed to the dock to hang out most of the night. Some people took a taxi downtown to check out the bars, but most people just stayed there and went to sleep at a decent time. We were scheduled for a ferry ride the next morning, so I felt sorry for the people who chose to drink too much the night before, lol. 

Day 2

Breakfast was served at 7am and we loaded the buses to the ferry around 8:30am. Of course we were on the bus for quite sometime, so we started watching the movie "Taken". Now I can finally say I've seen the movie that people were telling me to watch before I traveled abroad. And to those people who thought that would happen to me, I'm not a dumb 17 year old, lol, but thanks for the warning! Was a good movie though!

The ferry ride to the island was about 45 minutes because they went slowly and let people hang out on the decks. They also told us the history of the islands we were passing by. I chose to be lazy and take pictures from my seat inside the ferry. Seeing the people get splashed by waves confirmed that I had made a good decision! 

MORE ISLANDS

 OUR CHARIOT :)

The island we were brought to is known as Oedo Botania. It is basically an island turned into a gigantic botanical garden. It was beautiful! We of course had to hike a bit to get to the top for the best view, but it was worth it! I fell in love with all the many different types of flowers I discovered. The first picture in this blog is one of my favorite flower pictures that I took. Here are the other pics I loved:

KINDA LIKE A "GREEK" GARDEN

 SO MUCH GREENERY & FLOWERS!

 LOVED THE MULTIPLE COLORS

 NATURE :)

 ONE OF THE MANY PATHS

 AT THE VERY TOP

The ferry ride back was much faster because we skipped the touristy stuff and they just drove straight back. A few people got "sea sick" but I think most people were okay with the ferry rides. I've always loved riding on boats, so it didn't phase me at all. Back on the bus we finished the movie we had started and headed back the the same restaurant we had eaten at the day before for lunch. We knew better than to get too much food this time! Lol. 

After lunch we started our trek back towards Daegu. We were supposed to stop at some "swamp" on the way back, but they said we didn't have time for it. Honestly I don't think many people cared, they just wanted off the bus!! I felt sorry for the people who had to travel further to their hometowns by more bus or train once we got back to Daegu. I chose to stay in Daegu and went out with a group of friends. Yes, my home is only 30 minutes from there, but as usual I never stay in Gumi....unless it's to be lazy & sleep. Which is exactly what I did Saturday to Sunday...slept!! My schedule was so thrown off by the trip during the work week, but I'm glad I woke up early Sunday. I got alot of stuff done before noon! The downfall was that I had trouble going to sleep last night, resulting in me not wanting to wake up this morning!

Alright, that's all for now! I'm proud of myself for updating so quickly for once! I'm hoping I can copy and paste most of this blog for my 2 page essay that I have to write in return for the two days off work!

XOXO,

Amanda