the sun (winter break, phase 2)

just got back from my two week trip to vietnam (hanoi and halong bay), malaysia (kuala lumpur), and indonesia (bali). it was a great trip. there weren't really any problems. the locals we encountered were real friendly and helpful. stayed at some amazing hotels, for cheap too. and we soaked in a ton of sun too! which we were so lucky to have seeing as how it's rainy season down there right now. but aside from one night where it came down pretty hard, it only drizzled on us maybe a total of 5 times, and always for only like an hour or so. all of us got burned (some worse then others). this has to be the darkest i've ever been in my life. i came home and my host bro was like, "you look like you are from singapore."

not only was the sun great, but the food was amazing too! pretty much every meal was amazing and the food was so cheap! in vietnam we were paying dollars to eat. and then in bali i was ordering two dishes every time and the most i ever spent was probably $15. (and that's with ordering expensive food such as ribs and lobster AND steak. my lobster and steak was $10. $10!) i ate so much!

interesting fact about the three places we visited: all are dominated by different religious groups. 85% of the vietnamese are buddhists. 60% of malaysians are muslims (the malaysian constitution actually requires all malays to be muslim), while 20% are buddhist (the chinese), and 6% are hindu (the indians). it was so interesting to see how these three religions coexisted. in Chinatown, for example, centers of worship for all three can be found. considering how less than 2% of the entire indonesian population is hindu and how 86% are muslim, it was especially ironic that 93% of the balinese would be hindu. in all three places, religion was clearly an integral component of daily life.

anyway, on to the pictures:

partial solar eclipse during our layover in beijing (our layovers in china were probably the worst part of our trip, but i won't say anymore then that lest the chinese govt. come knocking...)

.hanoi + halong bay

best pho place i have ever been, and will ever go, to where they give you a TON of meat and the broth is amazing

every second on the street, i feared for my life...

so many bikes

water puppet show, which was good for the 15 min or so that i was awake lol

on the marvelous junk boats in halong bay

some cave in the bay

playing some volleyball with the vietnamese boat crew. we would get to play a couple more times in bali too, but no pics from that

yeah, i still got it

hoan kiem lake, literally across the street from where we stayed

charcoal painting of halong bay

sweet oil painting i picked up in hanoi. should've bought more. they were so cheap

.kuala lumpur

petronas towers. we were even fortunate enough to pick up some of the free tickets up to the skybridge

batu caves. huge hindu shrine carved into some mountain side. we were about a week or so early for some huge annual festival here

at the central markets in chinatown, instead of shopping like normal people, kate and i designed our own batiks. i made a baby tiger

kate's elephant

i take it back. i did pick up this bruce lee fan at the central markets

the kuala lumpur international airport has a jungle inside of it

.bali

kuta, where the surfers go

@ the kuta lagoon resort and pool villas where you can swim right up to your door

sunset in kuta

nusa dua, where the rich (and kelly and meghan) go

random cows right off the street

basketball at the novotel

the girls got serenaded to

sanur, where the old people go

@ the mercure resort with beachfront access

dinner at a beachfront cafe

sunrise in sanur

new friends

the two weeks went by so quick! i could've stayed in bali forever. beautiful beaches. warm ocean water. mildly hot weather. cheap food. sigh... it's only been two days and i already miss the sun and not having to use a heating pad when i sleep. at least it's hotter in korea now, it's supposed to hit 50 degrees tomorrow.

also, i just found out that what i had been planning on doing for phase 3 of my winter break is no longer happening. so now i have no idea what i'm gonna be doing with this last month before school starts up again. i guess i could start lesson planning...

jet lag (aka winter break, phase 1)

the first 1/3 of my winter break is now over. tomorrow i will head to seoul and then i'll be off to Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, Kuala Lumpur, and Bali for 2 weeks! it's gonna be soo hot! which sounds exciting at first, but honestly, after being in korea for the last few months, i think i'm gonna melt haha. (as i write, jinju is 23 degrees while seoul is a straight 0...).

but anyway, here are some highlights from phase 1 of my winter break:

-prepared the most xmas presents in my life! (and these aren't even all of them!) i wrote merry christmas in korean on those pastry things to give to the teachers i like but am not close enough with to give a bigger gift.

-spent christmas eve at Club NB with 2PM who, of course, encored with heartbeat (the last clip in my school festival video).

-went to the war memorial where a portrait of the great battle of jinju exists
-finally took a pic with my ad, which can be seen throughout seoul
-went to Urbana in St. Louis. which was amazing! my main reason for going was to try and figure out the next steps in life and some options definitely arose so that was sweet.

-being at urbana also meant getting to kick it with kyle, emily, and damata. not to mention also getting to be in chris harry's bible study with hundreds of other people. and sharing a room with kenny wong and jon liu.

-spent new years eve worshiping with 17,000 people at urbana

-hit up the gateway arch in STL

-shot a shotgun though i failed to hit anything, which was a little bruising to my ego, i'm not gonna lie. i'm usually pretty good at shooting games. ahh well..

-went home to LA, which meant going to the beach! twice! (pics taken from tiff) where some of the boys (anton "studied," though he made up the exercise by running to the factories or wherever he went, crazy kid) participated in the great Manhattan Beach Triathlon, which consisted of push-ups (winner: me), sprinting (winner: tay), and yoga (winner: yang). yang came in last in both push-ups and the sprint, yet outlasted everyone at yoga by like 10 min lol

seriously... how is this possible in january? i love this place

-then kate and her host-bro came out to LA (after they spent a week in jeff city, missouri). took them to Venice Beach, Beverly Hills, K-Town, and Disneyland. and, maybe more importantly, took um to eat In-n-Out, K-BBQ LA style (with beef and rice paper), and Hawaiian BBQ (Shakas).

these two are so weird. there's no question they're related.

it is a small world after all... smaller than you think, yet somehow bigger at the same time...

-lastly, here's a pic of the cherry of a car that i'm borrowing for the year... ballin!


out: the reason i am calling this phase of my winter break, jet lag is because my sleeping patterns have been soo jacked these last three weeks. my first week in the US, at urbana, i woke up at 7am the first morning, then 3am, 3am, 4am, and then i didn't go to sleep until 4am. and then these last few days back in Korea, i've woken up at 6:30, 7, 4:30. it is now 3am and i'm supposed to wake up in 5 hours to catch a 4-hour bus ride up to seoul. i'm surprised i'm not dead yet.

it's a new year! which means it's time to try to accomplish our goals in life again! and to maybe not give up this time.. man, there is so much to work on!