girls' generation

girls' generation (pretty much korea's hottest pop group) has dominated my life for the last few months. this story begins when i was given a girls' generation poster. my host-fam got super excited when i showed it to them and my host-dad took it and put it up in the hallway right underneath their family portrait. he then asks me which girl is my style and we all go around choosing our type. when it gets to host-mom's turn, she looks at it for a few seconds then turns around saying, "none for me."

every morning when i wake up and go into the hallway, i see this poster and it makes me laugh.

then, one weekend in seoul, i just happened to pass by seoul plaza in a taxi, when i noticed there was some huge ceremony/festival going on. i saw the olympics logo and jumped out of the cab! sure enough, it was some olympic ceremony. i was thinking to myself, "what if i get to see kim yuna?!" but it got kind of boring (too much korean) and i was thinking about leaving when i heard the glorious words "so nyeo si dae..." girls' generation was there!

next, kate picked up some jessica (the blonde one) socks for me. but they're like half the size of my foot. so i started wearing them as mittens instead. and what do you know, everyone starts commenting on my style.

i am a leader of korean fashion.

my dad come to korea for a few days. we spent the weekend up in seoul before coming down to jinju. here we are with the principal, vp, and a few of the other english teachers. i'm not sure how much he liked korea... haha

here are some pictures during snow season

the jinju fire/new moon festival. this was ridiculous! they built this giant statue and then set it on fire!

just as it was starting to get warm, the very day that i bought a new basketball, this happened... that's the bruising from my sprained ankle. at least the weather sucks right now otherwise i'd be so tempted to go out and play.

it is a pretty comical situation though. since i sprained my right ankle, i now drive using my left leg with my right leg elevated on the passenger's seat. i'm surprisingly talented/comfortable with my left.

lastly, we are now in the 3rd week of school. it's been a blast! i'm still only teaching 8 hours plus 2 teachers' classes and possibly an English club once a week. the new students are really cute and their english ability might actually be better than the 2nd graders... only 4 more months now.. crazy! my principal told me that he wishes i could stay for another year.

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...