A Cowgirl In...

New Year, New Job, New Resolutions

2012-01-13T13:00:00.000+09:00

I made quite a good list of resolutions this year, and unlike most years, I actually set a time limit on them. It's so easy to say 'I'm going to lose weight this year', or 'I want to travel more', but it's another thing to actually DO what you say you will. So this year, my goals are:

1. Get a job by the end of January
2. Sign up for PADI certification with my first paycheck
3. Run a 10k in March
4. Finish my stupid book and get it up for sale by the end of April
5. Have at least 1 travel article published by the end of June
6. Move to L.A.
7. Travel to at least 5 countries by December

I'm already ahead of schedule! I started applying for jobs last Wednesday, I got a call on Monday to come in to a temp agency to interview, then I got another call on Tuesday saying I got the job I was hoping to get. I started today. So that means next week I will be signing up for my PADI class! 2 down and it's not even the middle of January yet!

Why is it...

2012-01-07T15:40:00.002+09:00

That the worse your trip is, the more fondly you look back on it?

Midnight in the Sahara

2012-01-05T03:40:00.000+09:00

I went camping in the Moroccan Sahara back in early October. We slept out under the stars instead of in the tents, which seemed like a good idea at the time and still seems like a good idea now, surprisingly. I didn't get much sleep that night because 1. it was freezing and 2. I couldn't stop watching the sky. There was a full moon that night, so we weren't able to see as many stars as you usually can, which was kind of sad. However, it was a blessing in disguise because it was soooo bright that you didn't have trouble walking around without a flashlight when you had to find a bush to squat behind when you needed to pee.

The sky was so big in the Sahara. I wished on lots of shooting stars that night (none of which came true. I'm lucky like that). You could see satellites orbiting the earth, which was really cool since I've never seen that before. The coolest part was watching the stars move across the sky as the earth turned. You could literally follow them with your head throughout the night until they dipped behind the dunes in the west. It was one of my favorite nights ever.

Breakfast at the Burj

2011-12-15T15:18:00.001+09:00

Rising majestically from the waters of the Persian Gulf, the Burj al Arab looks like a massive sail boat anchored just offshore of the coast of Dubai, UAE. It's the world's only 7-star hotel and their cheapest rooms are over 1,800 square feet and cost over $1,700 USD. As a travel snob, I knew i had to visit this hotel during my stay in Dubai. However, my bank account is a bit too small to keep up with my expensive taste, so I had to settle for a breakfast reservation instead of a room reservation.

Our taxi was stopped at the gate and we had to show our reservation number to even get onto the road that connects mainland Dubai to the artificial island the Burj al Arab is situated on. We felt a bit like rock stars as our taxi passed by dozens of tourists taking pictures from the gate. We pulled up to the door and hopped out. It was only 10am and we were eager to escape the already oppressive Middle Eastern heat.

We walked into the lobby and were greeted by a young man wearing a traditional white robe and headdress. He showed us to the escalators and gave us directions to the restaurant. We spent a few moments wandering around the atrium, gaping at the colors and the shapes that occupied every inch of the hotel. The breakfast restaurant is in the main atrium, which meant the elevators were off-limits for us. If you eat at any of the other restaurants, you have to take the elevators up and are able to wander around the upper level of the hotel.

You know you're at a fancy place when they have Hermes lotion in the bathroom.

We were greeted and taken to our table next to a floor-to-ceiling window that overlooked the water and the resort and water park across the street.

As a part of breakfast, you can order juice and coffee/tea/hot chocolate, then you get a platter of yogurt, muesli, little bagels and assorted fruit. After you finish that, your main course comes out. There were about 7 choices and I chose the eggs and hash browns. To finish off the breakfast you have your choice of pastries, but we were too full to eat them. Of course, the breakfast was much prettier than what you'd get at IHOP or Denny's and much, much more expensive.

It was tasty, but not $70 tasty, but we knew we were paying more for the location than the food. How many times in your life can you say you ate breakfast at the Burj al Arab?

(ps-the answer to that question: not many. You couldn't afford to do it again!)

National Novel Writing Month 2011

2011-12-02T09:15:00.000+09:00

This is why I haven't blogged in forever. A week after returning from my 2nd RTW trip, I started writing. It was so incredibly time consuming and exhausting but I finished! I'll try to put some new travel blogs up soon.

The Best Days of Our Lives

2011-11-09T15:16:00.001+09:00

I often think about some of the days I consider to be the best days of my life. Thankfully, there are quite a few that come to mind, but one has stuck out more than any other that I can think of in recent times. My first visit to Australia was life changing. I lived out my life dream of swimming with great white sharks (which I WILL do again) and I fell in love with the most amazing country in the world, so much that I had to move there and I hope to live there again sooner rather than later. Out of all of the things I did on that trip, the thing that feels the best was the afternoon I spent in Coffin Bay outside of Port Lincoln in South Australia.

When I try to conjure up good feelings, I am taken back to this deserted stretch of beach at the bottom of the country, a place I wasn't even planning to visit but ended up at thanks to a friend I met. It wasn't the most beautiful beach I've been to, it was hot and I was sweaty and wearing pants and was covered in sand, but I recall feeling the most free I've ever felt in my life. Standing atop a large sand dune, looking at the vast expanse of ocean, I felt literally like I was on top of the world.

Another day that really felt like one of the best days I've had was also in Australia, at a place called Pebbly Beach in the South Coast of New South Wales. I went there on a whim during a long weekend this past June. It was cold and rainy, but that didn't matter because there were kangaroos everywhere! I got to the beach before the sunrise and I was the only one on it for over an hour. I sat alongside the kangaroos in the wet grass and stared out over the ocean. It was so peaceful and surreal.

When I think of these days, it makes me long to be there again, to revisit the places that made me feel so happy. But then I wonder if it could ever be so good again. These weren't just places I liked going, they were places that made me feel something. If you were to go back to places like these, would you still feel the same emotions, or would it be not as significant the second time around? Would it tarnish your memories and your original feelings? Or maybe, are some places just so special you will always have this sort of relationship with them?

The End of Another Era

2011-10-21T00:19:00.002+09:00

I'm going home tomorrow. This is the second year in a row I've been in this position: ending a life abroad, ending 6 weeks of travel, going back to the familiar and comfortable. I am so excited I'm not sure if I will sleep tonight. I can't wait to see my family and my pets and my home and my friends. I can't wait to eat my favorite foods and drive my car and read Us Weekly. I can't wait to hang out with my sister and her dog, have pizza with my dad for lunch on Fridays, go to Target with my mom. I can't wait to play cards with my grandma and see my little dog I adopted for my other grandma while in Korea. I can't wait to watch Dexter, Walking Dead, Amazing Race and Survivor.

But with that comes the sadness. I'm ending another era, and it's hard. Just like Korea, living in Australia changed my life. I built a life there. I had a job, a routine, friends, love interests. I had some of the best times of my life and some of the worst. I met incredible new people and lost a very dear person to me: my grandfather. I'm afraid to go home and have to deal with those emotions I was able to push out of my mind because there was nothing around me to remind me of him.

I'm sad that this trip is ending. It's been an exhausting trip, but such an amazing journey. Unlike last year, I traveled with my bestie. I'm so used to spending all day with her it's going to be weird to not see her 24/7.

This is also the first time in years that I am going blindly into the unknown. Soon after I graduated from uni, I started working on the Korea application. When I left Korea, I knew I was going to live in Australia in 2011. But this time, I don't know what will happen. I'm going to let fate decide. There's a job that I am hoping to get back in the US. There are a lot of people I still want to see in Sydney. If I get the job in the States, I will take it. If I don't, I think I will go back to Sydney after Christmas, finish my work visa there (late March), then I may head to New Zealand. Or perhaps I will get sponsored in Australia, or meet someone who will fall in love with me and treat me well and will never break my heart. Who knows? I sure don't.

Running in Morocco

2011-10-20T19:07:00.000+09:00

In my last post, I waxed poetically about running through the streets of Dubai and feeling alive and free. Just days later, we were running through the streets of Marrakech, Morocco, feeling alive and...scared and disgusted.

Foreign girls get a lot of attention in Morocco. We had spent a day in Casablanca getting hollered at and men would blow us kisses and tell us we were beautiful. We even had 2 guys walk with us for 2 blocks saying they wanted to buy us dinner. It was annoying, but nothing compared to what happened in Marrakech.

We were walking along a busy street in the Old Medina. A guy in a cast bumped into me a few times. I thought nothing of it because it was extremely crowded and you couldn't really walk without bumping people. Then my friend said "this guy keeps bumping into me". We started getting a funny feeling, so we sped up. When we looked behind us, the creeper was picking up his pace as well, and bumped into my friend again. He started talking to us about some restaurant and we replied that we weren't interested as we already ate. He kept walking close, so we crossed the street and started heading back the opposite direction.

We looked across the street and saw Creeper had stopped and was now crossing the street as well. We also noticed his good hand was in his pants pocket and he might have been...well you can imagine what he might have been doing :x

He pushed his way through the crowd and caught up to us and he touched my friend again. She told him to leave us alone and stop following us. He didn't listen.

"Take my hand," I said. My friend and I held hands and as soon as there was a break in the crowd we took off running. He was still following us. We ran for all we were worth, finally getting to the corner back to the main square. We took a hard left, then another immediate left and ended up on another side street, where we ducked into an alley. We finally lost him.

We spent the rest of the day looking at burqas to purchase.

Running in Dubai

2011-10-08T05:49:00.000+09:00

Life is...sprinting across a busy highway in Dubai, your clothes so soaked in sweat they have become a second skin, to try to reach the marina in time to take a picture of the sun setting over the water. Even though you don’t make it in time, and you’re now dripping with sweat and gasping for air and dying for a drink, the effort was well worth it. In the middle of this hot, sticky city in this hot sticky little country, you are beautifully aware of how alive you are. These moments, few and far between, are what motivate you to take chances, to spend money, to travel. It’s not the tourist sites that you go to see, it’s the little things like running down the street like a maniac that you travel for. These are the real memories.

Packing...on the pounds

2011-08-29T20:36:00.000+09:00

I'm a major stress eater. Major. And the last couple weeks have been extremely stressful. I got very ill, got laid off from my job, had to scramble to find a new job with 4 weeks to go before my RTW trip, started a new job, have to think about packing, have to think about leaving the life I've made for myself in Sydney, have to think about starting again back in the US, as well as stressing about money (since I was out of work for a week and didn't know how long I would be unemployed). God, it's stressful just typing that out. I have been eating non-stop. I eat from the moment I get to work to the moment I brush my teeth at night. I am pretty sure I've gained at least 5 pounds in the past 2 weeks. This comes at a terrible time as I am going to have to wear my bathing suit in a little over 2 weeks. I need to get a hold of myself and try to deal with my stress in a less destructive way. I'm thinking of buying cucumbers and just eating them as snacks at work all day instead of eating candy and chips.

Great White Shark Dive Day 2

2011-08-23T21:21:00.001+09:00

We all woke up at 5am when the boat engines started for the 4 hour trip out to the Neptune Islands. Most of us managed to get back to sleep, although the ride out was a bit...rough in the open ocean. I took 3 seasick tablets before 10am! By the time the anchor dropped, everything in our room was in the middle of the floor because the waves had knocked it off the shelves or out of the closet.

After anchoring, the chumming began and almost immediately, the great white appeared! It was so exciting and we all rushed to get our wet suits on. There was only 1 surface cage going at that time, 4 people to a cage. I got in the cage with the second group. The cage is in the water off the back of the boat and you have to sit down on the platform and drop yourself in. I was freaking out while sitting on the platform because the waves were big and coming up to my stomach and I kept thinking that the great white shark could come up in a wave and grab me so I got in the frigid water as fast as possible.

We were in the cage just scanning the depths, seeing nothing but schools of fish. And then, out of the deep blue came a large shape. And there it was, in real life-a great white! Rodney Fox told Ben and me that we need to write 1 or 2 sentences to describe how it felt at that moment so we'll always be able to go back and read them and feel those feelings again. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to put those feelings into words, but I'll try my best. It was surreal to be just inches away from the greatest predator on earth. I felt no fear at all, only a sense of awe and wonder as I watched the 15 foot shark slowly glide past the cage. I couldn't move or even think. I was transfixed. It was and always will be the most beautiful creature I've ever seen and I will never forget how it looked up close.

The shark disappeared into the depths and stayed away for a while. A few curious bronze whalers came in to chase the bait:

As suddenly as the bronzies had appeared, they vanished. The great white was back! (We learned that great whites eat bronze whalers so they don't stick around of a great white is nearby). It was just as exciting to see the second time around. It swam near the cage, then turned and swam past the way it came. There was a big tuna head in the water and he wanted it. He chased it as they pulled the rope in and he came at it with his jaws open. Amazing! And those teeth are MUCH bigger in real life than on the Discovery Channel. His white belly took up my entire view, it was so massive! After the bait was gone, the shark flipped around and swam off.

We all got out of the cage smiling and cheering. I think we can all agree that seeing the great white shark is one of the top moments of our lives, if not the top (it is for me!). Seeing that shark changed everything. I've seen all the Discovery Channel shows about them (many, many times. If there's a great white, I'll watch it, even if I've seen the same show 9 times). I know that they aren't just mindless killing machines, but there was still a little part of me that thought they'd be aggressive and trying to eat us through the cage. But it seemed more curious than anything, just swimming around, eying us as we did the same to him. He moved so slowly, every movement controlled, very efficient. The bronzies are much quicker, less calculating and more impulsive. They're hyper sharks while the great white seemed very relaxed. But I guess when you're at the top of the food chain you probably don't move too fast if you don't have to. Although, we also learned that June-October are the best months for seeing great whites because that's their mating season. While the males tend to be passive, the females can get very up close and personal and are extremely aggressive. That's why I'm planning to go back, I have to see the girls!

After the shark dive, I had some lunch then went upstairs to the back of the boat-my favorite place. There's a little wicker couch at the edge and the rubber dinghy was behind that. The Canadian family was up there so I laid out in the dinghy and we had a nice chat until it was time for their submersible dive.

For dinner we had steak, potatoes, and carrots. After dinner, Andrew gave a talk about the sharks they've encountered and then did a scientific talk about great whites and when that was finished we all headed off to bed.

Great White Shark Dive Day 1

2011-08-22T18:05:00.002+09:00

Okay, it's official. My life is so awesome I'm jealous of myself. Seriously! The past 4 days have been like a dream and I'm still not truly convinced it happened. In short: I met amazing friends, came face to face with a 4 meter great white shark, witnessed a bronze whaler feeding frenzy, got deliciously sunburned, swam with Australian fur seals at sunset, got adopted for the day by a friend's family, went to the breathtakingly gorgeous Coffin Bay, climbed a giant sand dune, and to top it all off, I randomly met Rodney Fox. Rodney freaking Fox! I have never been so in love with life. I wish I could put these past few days in a bottle and keep them forever. There is SO MUCH to talk about so I will break it into days.

Day 1-I arrived in Port Lincoln at 2PM, 5 hours before check-in. I took a $40 cab ride to the Marina Hotel which is where all of us on the Rodney Fox Shark Expedition were supposed to meet. Because I was so early, I was going to check my bags at the hotel and explore the town a bit. Another guy on the shark tour got in at the same time so we introduced ourselves and had some drinks at the hotel bar and sat on the patio overlooking the marina. His name is Ben and he's an Australian teaching English in Colombia. There is a 12 person maximum on the boat, so it's crazy that I met someone else doing the same thing as me! We got on really well and took a walk to a beach then went back to the hotel for happy hour. As we were finishing our first drink we saw a seal right at the boat ramp so we ran over to see it.

He was so close people were touching it and feeding it fish. He was so cute and playful!

We went back to the hotel and met up with some of the other people doing the shark dive with us. There was a Canadian family, a father and son from Russia, two guys from Germany, and then us solo divers: Ben, Matt from Texas and John from Australia. It was a really eclectic bunch but it couldn't have been better! We got picked up by Andrew Fox, Rodney's son, and we went to the boat to drop our bags off before dinner. We were met on board by Jennifer and Ian who are the most delightful people to be around. As I was stepping off the boat, I missed the deck and was hanging off the railing and Andrew had to rescue me. It was extremely embarassing and hilarious. We had dinner and got to know each other and got back to the boat around 10. Andrew gave us a quick briefing about the days to come then it was off to bed!

What I'm Looking Forward To

2011-08-18T22:04:00.000+09:00

I am a big fan of the blog The Art of Non-Conformity, which is written by a guy who is truly living the dream. He travels, he writes, and he hangs out with all of the other cool guys who do the same things. Anyway, his latest blog post asked what are we (the readers) looking forward to in the short-term, medium-term, and long-term.

In the short-term, I'm looking forward to my travels which will begin September 10. Even though my financial situation isn't good right now (I got laid off with 4 weeks to go and am now scrambling to find temp work), it's happening. Great Ocean Road, Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef, Thailand, seeing Angkor Wat in Cambodia finally (my only regret from last year was leaving Asia without seeing it), eating breakfast in the Burj al-Arab in Dubai, walking around ancient medinas in Morocco, riding bikes past tulips and windmills (I hope there will be tulips anyway) in Amsterdam, and then what I am looking forward to the MOST OF ALL is seeing my family again in mid-October!!!!

In the medium-term I'm looking forward to settling into a semi-normal life. I don't plan to live abroad again anytime soon, but of course that doesn't mean my travels are over. Oh no. My plan is to find a job, live with the familia and save up some money so I can participate in the Great White Shark Research and Conservation Project in South Africa next June. That's the plan.

In the long-term, I'm looking forward to going to grad school, hopefully in the fall of 2012, and finally getting onto the path I feel I need to be on. Plus, when I am able to work for the school system, my travel time will be ridiculous :)

There's a lot to look forward to in life. Even when things seem bad (which to be honest, they do look bad to me right now due to losing my job). But you can get through it, and there will be light on the other side. What are you looking forward to??

Australia Round 1-Adelaide

2011-08-18T21:01:00.000+09:00

1/1/2010

I still can't believe I'm swimming with great whites this weekend. I'll be boarding the boat tomorrow. Right now I'm at the gate waiting for hours to board the plane to Adelaide. I feel bad for whoever sits next to me. I have a nasty sinus infection that will never go away and I haven't showered in 2 days (tmi?) I am disgusting! I can't wait to get to my hotel and shower! And change clothes for that matter.

.....

Adelaide is a lovely little city situated on the coast in South Australia. After getting to my hostel, I went across the street and picked up Subway then walked 2 blocks to the beach and ate on a park bench. It was windy as hell so it wasn't the most pleasant evening at the beach but I reminded myself that getting blasted by sand on an Australian beach is still much better than getting blasted by Arctic temperatures 24/7 in Korea. After eating, I took off my shoes and walked in the surf until the sun set. A few times I felt a little freaked out because the beach was so much like home. Everything looked the same-the sand, the water, the sunset, the fishing pier. It was a very comforting feeling. And I realized how much I miss the beach.

After dark, I set out on a fruitless search for a store selling alarm clocks. My Korean phone is all out of sorts. It says it's January 6, 1980 and the time is all wrong and I really need an alarm. I had to guess the time and set the alarm for 7:45 PM when I'm hoping to wake up at 9:30 AM. So we'll see what happens tomorrow morning.

Australia-Round 1, Day 1

2011-08-17T21:25:00.000+09:00

As my loyal, longtime readers know, I went to Australia for winter vacation last year while working in Korea. I journaled about my trip, but never posted it to this blog. I figured, since I haven't posted that much about Australia since living here, that I would at least post about my LAST trip.

1/1/10:

Before I left for Australia I said I was going to write everyday. Of course I haven't but I'm determined to start off 2010 on the right foot. I'm sitting in a beautiful country home in Buladelah, Australia (pop just a little over 1,000) listening to frogs, crickets and cicadas. It's the closest I've been to nature in a long while. The air is humid and still and the grass is still damp from the afternoon rain (my muddy sandals can attest to that!). It's so peaceful-a far cry from spending New Year's Eve in Sydney but exactly what I needed.

I've never met an Australian I didn't like and that holds true here as well. Everyone is so friendly and laid back. I spent the day with my friend's friends and her friend's parents and it was wonderful. We did nothing but eat and drink and gab. It was so fun to spend so much time with a new family. After being in Korea for so long, I've realized how much I miss families. It's felt so good to feel like I belong again. I haven't stopped smiling since the plane landed. Tonight I was sitting and listening and soaking it all in. I can be in a situation where I can understand the conversations, have a conversation without using small basic words and I don't struggle to understand what people are saying (unless they're using Auslish!) Author's note: I am now becoming fluent in Aussie. Mad!

And the food. OMG the food! Every meal is so amazing and it's funny because if I was back in the US it wouldn't be exciting at all. But after 4 months in Korea it's like gourmet food. I've had roast chicken and potatoes, a bunch of tacos, sausages and steak and onions. I'm in heaven. I love bulgogi but it doesn't compare to El Paso taco shells and beef! Author's note: I retract that statement now that I can no longer eat bulgogi on a daily basis. Man, I miss that stuff!!

It's also amazingly green here. I couldn't stop gasping the first day just seeing green grass and trees. Winter is tough in Korea.

Also-animals! Australia has loads of them. I get woken up at dawn everyday by the assortment of cockatoos and kookaburras in the yard. It's rare to hear birds in Korea and if you're woken up at dawn it's probably from a truck coming down your street advertising something with a megaphone.

We went to Featherdale Wildlife Park on Tuesday and I got to pet kangaroos, koalas and emus and yesterday we went on a bushwalk in Katoomba Nat'l Park. The trees in the bush smell amazing and fresh and the air is clean.

I'm flying down to Adelaide tomorrow and then onto Port Lincoln on the 2nd. I'm hoping to explore both cities a bit in between my shark dive. I'm really excited to see the Australian ocean!

Singapore-The World's Largest Shopping Mall

2011-08-03T19:26:00.000+09:00

I'll admit it-I did not have high expectations for Singapore. From what everyone had told me, it's small, hot and boring. However, after spending a few days in hot, sticky, buggy Borneo, I was so happy to be back in modern civilization.

Singapore isn't really that exciting. On most corners you will be surrounded by shopping malls. Everywhere you look. Everywhere. It did come in handy for me though, since I was suffering from my 2nd bout of food poisoning (from an open air food court that was literally in the middle of nowhere in Borneo). I saw more of the mall bathrooms than I did of the city. I also heard great things about Singapore's food stalls, but my illness prevented me from actually getting to try anything.

One thing I really enjoyed in Singapore was going to the top of the Marina Bay Sands, the swanky hotel that looks like a giant ship is straddling the building. Rooms start at $400 a night, but for $20 you could walk around the top floor and look at people who actually have money to stay there.

Another thing I liked about Singapore were the markets. I got a funky watch for about $5. The alarm clock is sketchy though, it's screwed me over enough times that I won't use it anymore.

Wednesday night ladies got a discount. Sadly, I wasn't there on a Wednesday.

I should have bought this shirt. Singapore girls know what's up.

This gorgeous mosque was down the street from my hostel.

Singapore also excited me because it was the first place I had been in about 5 months that had anything even remotely resembling modern architecture. Korea, Philippine islands, and Borneo are not really on the cutting edge of modern design.

A shopping mall. I don't know how to rotate the picture, sorry!

Another picture I can't rotate!

All in all, I enjoyed my few days in Singapore and was happy to have food poisoning in the country that is dubbed 'The World's Largest Shopping Mall'. The bathrooms were all very nice.

한국-50 Weeks Later

2011-08-01T19:36:00.000+09:00

Every so often, it hits me that not only am I not in Korea, but it's been close to a year since I left. While I was living there, I sometimes felt like I would NEVER be finished in Korea. Now it seems so long ago since I lived there, it's like it didn't even happen. And, as time marches on, I am finding that I actually MISS a lot about Korea. I don't think I would ever want to live there again, a year was enough for me, but I certainly have a lot of fond feelings for that kimchi filled country. Of course, what I miss most are all of the incredible friends I made there. Not a day goes by that I don't think of all of them and the wonderful times we had. Surprisingly enough, I miss a lot of other things too, things like:

My rice paddy. I hated living at the far end of this rice paddy because as you can see it's quite a small area and it took ages to get into civilization. However, I spent many countless hours exercising through here, walking around snapping pictures of wildflowers and birds and frogs, and getting away from the craziness of Korean day-to-day life. I probably miss this the most, this place saved my sanity sometimes.

The Wednesday Night Market in my neighborhood. Once I got over being intimidated by this, I began to pick up all of my fresh fruits and veggies here. In the summer, the watermelons were almost too big to carry and much sweeter than any watermelon I ever had before. The citrus fruits, garlic, and apples were to die for. And oh so cheap!

Haeundae Beach in Busan. A great place to go with friends and a few drinks.

This Asian temple thing. I don't know what this actually is (I think it might have been some sort of office) but I loved it. It was at the north edge of the rice paddy and sometimes when I would walk past it I would think 'HOLY CRAP I SERIOUSLY LIVE IN ASIA!' It was really cool to see stuff like this on a daily basis.

The kimbap shop across the street. I love this place hardcore. The food was always amazing and so cheap. I took the prices for granted when I lived there. I get bibimbap for lunch once a week and it's $8 here in Australia, but less than $4 in Korea. I've seen kimbap here for $7. I couldn't believe the price either. But the best thing about this place were the lovely owners. They didn't speak English and my Korean was super limited, but they were so kind and whenever I would come into the shop, all 3 of us would have smiles on our faces.

Jjimdalk. If you asked me, anytime, if I could have anything in the world to eat, what would it be? The answer would be jjimdalk without a doubt. I've scoured the world looking for this delicious steaming plate of chicken, rice noodles, potatoes, dokk and assorted other tidbits, and I have come up empty every time (if you know of a place in Australia or the US that has this on the menu, PLEASE let me know!)

Korean ice cream. To be fair, I can get this in a lot of Korean shops here in Sydney, but it's way more expensive. I would have an ice cream everyday when I got home from school.

The Naughty Cat. This store had the cutest costume jewelry in the world. I'd spend like 10,000 won a week there and have different earrings for each day of the week. And a week later when they broke, you could afford to buy an all new, different set for the next week.

Korean Costco. I'm not sure why I am putting this on the list because a visit to Costco would usually give me high blood pressure for the next week. I do have some fond memories of it, especially when my friend and I would go during the week and have pizza in the food court and buy snacks.

Gonee Cafe. This little place opened up in March of 2010 and was the only place in Daegu where you could get taro bubble tea. We were SO excited to find it and we would go at least once a week to get some, to the point where the adorable owner of the place wouldn't even have to ask us what we wanted, he would just confirm our order.

Cherry blossom season. They were everywhere you looked and it never got old.

Galbi night...and the free corn that came with it. One time we actually upset the waiters because we asked for so much corn.

Honey makkeoli. The most delicious alcoholic beverage on earth. Fermented rice wine with a generous serving of honey mixed in. Plus, for $5 you could be drunk all night long.

Downtown Daegu. The lights, the sounds, the near deafening K-pop blasting from every store, the people, the pushing, the dancing shop girls, the motorbikes, the traffic, the smells, the maze of streets, the endless coffee shops and hofs...it was never a dull moment.

My students. Well, the good ones anyway, which these kids are. I made some real connections with some of my students, despite the language barrier. I have no idea if I actually taught them anything, but they taught me a lot about myself and about their culture. I often wonder how some of them are doing...

An Idiot's Tale. This was my favorite blog of all time, written by a yankee nom who called himself Mr. Wonderful. His blog 'celebrated the mundane' and he talked about his family-his wife, The Dragon Lady, and his sons The Children of the Rice. Everyday would be almost the exact same-he woke up at 6 am and didn't dream that night, he went to the bathroom while reading the newspaper, he smoked his cigarettes and had coffee, he drove his Santa Fe to school, he taught the bad girls who smoked cigarettes in the hallway, and then he would spend his afternoons at he PC Bang writing his blog and drinking 10 cent cups of coffee. On weekends he would get skunked on 'toad juice', aka soju, or perhaps some Cass or Hite. Sadly, he closed down his blog, but the memories live on forever in our hearts. And Blian Golden Balls to all of you.

Stuck in a Moment

2011-07-05T20:13:00.002+09:00

As of last week, I'm now another year older and another year wiser, or so I hope anyway. My last two birthdays have been celebrated in some of the most 'exotic' places, Korea and Australia. I've packed a lot of living into my adulthood so far! But time flies when you're having fun, and it makes me feel a bit sad. I just wish that you could capture little moments in time and bottle them up and revisit them, but you can't. I try so hard to make the most of a happy moment. When I am completely and utterly happy, I always think to myself 'remember this moment, you're living it right now'. Whether it's with people or places or activities, I try to soak everything in and remember all the small things about it because once it's over, you will never get it back. I can still remember little details of some of my happiest moments, the way the sun felt as it burnt my skin, the way a certain hostel smelled, how the lights of Manhattan glittered on a clear night,the brilliant pinks and oranges in the clouds during a South Pacific sunset, breathing in salty sea air while watching sharks circle the boat you're in, standing atop a large sand dune hearing nothing but the wind and seeing only sparkling sand and turquoise waters below, stealing kisses on an elevator, texting someone day and night because neither of you can get enough of each other, the way someone felt lying next to them watching them breathe as they sleep. I revisit these moments on occasion, closing my eyes and pretending for a moment that I'm back there, completely enamored with life, satisfied in every way possible, without a care in the world, stuck in the moment.

Borneo Jungle and Kota Kinabalu Fun

2011-06-28T20:52:00.000+09:00

I am terrible at updating. I remember at the start of my trip last year, I said I would keep a diary every day. Well, this is the last entry I wrote on the trip and it was only day 10 out of 39. And it's been 10 months since I was there and I'm just getting around to posting it. Oops.

August 27

If you asked me what my worst nightmare would be, I would definitely say being in a big room full of cockroaches. And today, my worst nightmare became a reality…

This morning we had to wake up at 5:45 again to do a morning river cruise. We didn’t really see anything of interest, just a few birds and monkeys. No crocodiles. After that, we had breakfast then checkout time was 8:30.

Before leaving the river area, we were stopping at the Gomatong Caves, which are famous for their bird’s nest soup. It’s one of the biggest tourist attractions in Sandakan. My guide told me to make sure I wear long pants and long sleeves, but he didn’t say why.

The caves were a 45 minute drive away from the jungle lodge. You have to walk down this boardwalk and then you come out into a clearing and you can see a giant opening to the cave.

As we were walking to the cave, Larry told me that there ‘a lot of bats and a lot of cockroaches.’ Ummm, excuse me?? I asked him if he was lying and he said no. I then informed him that cockroaches are my biggest fear in life. BIGGEST.

There is a boardwalk that goes in a big horseshoe inside the cave, all the way to the back and out again. It’s birds nest harvesting season, so you could see the harvesters up near the cave ceiling. There are also a million bats living on the roof of the cave, and you can smell the guano about a minute before you get to the cave entrances. Wow I cant even describe how awful and overpowering that smell is. I don’t know how the harvesters can work in that. The guano came up to their knees.

No joke, the entire ground was 100% batshit.

The workers all wear these plastic bag things up to their knees because that's how deep the guano on the ground is.

I took a couple pictures at the entrance of the cave, then Larry motioned for me to keep walking. I walked about 10 feet into the cave and looked over at the guano on the ground and saw giant cockroaches walking around in it. Vomit. I pointed that out then Larry said “oh they’re everywhere”. He pointed at the cave wall, which was right next to the boardwalk and even jutting out onto it on some parts. They were literally fucking moving with big, giant, hideous cockroaches. Then he pointed his flashlight at the boardwalk post right behind me and there were probably 15-20 cockroaches just on the top foot of it. So I left. I told Larry I was not walking one more step into the cave because I cannot be around cockroaches. I think he thought I was joking, but I turned around and ran out to the opening of the cave. He followed me and tried to get me to walk through the cave and I basically told him I’d rather kill myself than go into that cave of horrors. It was then that he told me the reason they suggest you wear long pants and a long shirt is because of the cockroaches. Apparently they sometimes get on you and crawl up your arms and legs. That is so not my idea of a fun time. I swear to god I would die of a heart attack before I made it through that cave. Or I would pass out from an anxiety attack and wake up covered in bat shit and cockroaches.

After Larry wasted his breath trying to convince me to tour the cave, we left and went back into Sandakan. I had a reservation for a hostel in Sandakan but I decided to head back to KK today instead of wait 2 more days for the flight. I got to the airport and bought my new ticket to KK today, and Singapore tomorrow afternoon.

I got back down from the Air Asia ticket counter and saw these guys Afo and Dee who had been at the jungle lodge. It turns out we’re on the same flights today and tomorrow. We had lunch together and just hung around until the flight left.

Mee-hoon, one of the most delicious meals in the entire world. I have searched far and wide for this since I left Malaysia and have had no luck finding ones that look and taste like this.

When we got to KK we shared a cab and are staying at a hotel in ‘downtown’ KK. It has a/c and a private bathroom, I’m in love.

First thing we did here was go to the Laundromat. I got over 3 kilos of clothes washed for about $4. And they come pressed and in this nice little square package. Omg clothes that have been dried in a machine instead of a rack! I’m so excited!

We went to the internet café for a bit, then we were going to go up to Signal Hill, which is supposed to be one of the best spots to watch the sunset. Dee was on the computer for a while so he told us to go ahead and he’d meet us there. Afo and I asked for directions and it seemed pretty straightforward, but it was up a hill and we did not know which way to go. They said it only was supposed to be a 15 minute walk from our hotel, but we trekked for over an hour to get there. By the time we reached the peak, the sun was almost setting and we were both dripping with sweat and frustrated as hell.

After sunset, we walked back to the hotel and took a bit of a rest, then the 3 of us headed out in search of food. We settled on a delicious Indian restaurant right on the waterfront. I had mango lassi, garlic naan and chicken briani. Mmmm. It was the best naan I’ve ever had, no question. We wanted to go to the night market, but it wasn’t that impressive and we’re all exhausted, so we called it a night at 10:15.

Tons of durians, the foulest smelling fruit on the planet. It smells like an open, rotting sewer.

Hanging With the Roos

2011-06-26T21:14:00.000+09:00

2 weeks ago we had a 3-day weekend for the Queen's birthday. I had no plans and that made me sad because I hate wasting days off! So my friends in Korea convinced me to rent a car and go somewhere, so I rented a car online. I had no idea where I was going to go until 6 hours before I was due to leave. Ever since i got here I've been saying I wanted to see kangaroos in the wild, so at 2am I grabbed the ipod and Googled best place in New South Wales to see wild kangaroos. The consensus was Pebbly Beach down in the South Coast. With that, I made my decision and I pointed my GPS south.

It was my first time renting a car by myself, my first time driving in Australia, my first time driving on the left side of the road and my first time driving on the right side of a car. A lot of firsts! I honestly thought I would piss myself from fear before I left the Avis parking lot, but as soon as I got on the road it felt natural and I blasted the radio and enjoyed the open road.

I drove through a national park and then along the Grand Pacific Drive, which hugs the coast and takes you along some spectacular cliffs and seaside towns.

I stopped for lunch in Kiama and also saw their main attraction, a blowhole.

It said on the internet that kangaroos come out at dusk and dawn, and I still had about 200km to go before I reached my final destination of Bateman's Bay and it was 3:00. Pebbly Beach is 14km north of Bateman's and I thought I could get there before the sunset, which is around 5 these days. I did manage to reach Pebbly Beach before the sunset, but the road I turned down was the unpaved road (there's a paved one about a mile up the road). As you can probably imagine, off-roading in a teeny little Kia in the dark is not the best idea. The poor car! The potholes in the road were so deep sometimes I thought the car was going to break. I finally decided that this was a stupid idea, since the sun had already gone down and holy crap the poor car! So I turned around and finished my drive to Bateman's Bay. I would have to see kangaroos in the morning.

I stayed at the Best Western and it was amazing because it had a heater (Australia is not big on heating and air conditioning for some reason). I wish I had been able to enjoy sleeping in the warmth longer, but I had kangaroos to see. I woke up before dawn and drove up to Pebbly Beach and I arrived just after dawn. It was cold and rainy so I was the only one there for over an hour and it was amazing. Just like the internet said, the kangaroos were out and they were everywhere!

I could have spent all morning on that beach, but it started pouring rain so I ran back to the car and drove back to Bateman's Bay and had Macca's for brekky (I'm so Australian now!) I checked out of the hotel and started driving back and decided to just check Pebbly Beach once more to see if the kangaroos were still there. By now, the skies had cleared and it was sunny and gorgeous and the roos were still there!

The kangaroos here are very tame and I decided to sit down among them and soak in the feeling. It was incredible.

Eventually, I had to get back to Sydney. While stuck in horrific traffic, I looked in the side mirror and saw a rainbow behind me. I felt like it was the perfect way to end the perfect mini-vacation.

Also, if you catch a great white while fishing, you have to throw it back or you'll be fined by the government :D

It's a Dream, But There's a Real World Waiting

2011-06-11T21:36:00.001+09:00

What do you do when everything you ever wanted in life starts becoming things that you don't really want anymore, and the things you never thought you wanted start to look appealing?

That's sort of what's been going on in my head lately.

For years, I shunned the thought of a normal life and wanted to spend my life wandering the globe doing interesting things and meeting interesting people. I still want to do that, of course, but perhaps not to the same degree. I've spent the past 2 years traveling the world and living the dream and it's something I honestly thought I would want to do forever, but now I'm not so sure.

Life in Australia is very, very similar to life in the USA, but with a different accent and no Taco Bell. I wake up, get dressed, take the bus into the city, work until 5:30, take the bus home, eat dinner, get ready for bed, then go to sleep. Pretty standard. I enjoy working where I do and I love the people I work with and make decent money (super decent compared to what I would be making back home). Sydney is a nice city, very pretty, safe. There's a lot of good food.

I've been toying with the idea of staying longer, maybe trying to get my visa sponsored by my company and I've had a hard time figuring out why I was thinking this, but then I realized that it's because that would create stability. I'd stay in the same job with the same people in the same city, doing the same things. I realized that I am craving a normal life. The thought of uprooting again and again is making me upset and I just want to stay in the same place for more than a year. I want to form deeper relationships with people. I want to find someone special, if you know what I mean, someone to share life with and have a long-term future with instead of knowing your relationship has an expiration date. Sure fleeting romances can be fun, but eventually most people end up wanting something more. I want to have my own car, my own place, my own pets and maybe even a little potted plant. I miss my family and my friends back home. And I miss Chick-fil-A.

For the first time in my life, I am looking forward to getting a taste of real life. I can't wait to see what happens.

Huntsman Spiders

2011-05-03T00:49:00.000+09:00

The huntsman spider is not uncommon in Australia. The one in the picture is a really small one, actually. If you are in the mood for nightmares, please Google huntsman spiders. Actually, I did it for you. You're welcome.

Anyway, huntsman spiders are big and scary looking, but surprisingly non-lethal and non-aggressive. They're interesting to look at when they're outside in nature, but inside? Not so much...

I had assumed that huntsman spiders only lived in Australia, so I was blissfully unaware of the fact that they also apparently call Fiji home.

I was in bed in the hostel in Fiji, reading my book before I fell asleep. It was probably around midnight and there were 2 or 3 other people in the room sleeping. I hear this soft thud on the bed next to my pillow and see something dark out of the side of my eye. I look up from my book and am face to face with a huntsman about the size of the palm of my hand. For a second I can only stare at it, and then my brain processed what was happening: holyshittheresagiantspideronthebed!!!!!!

I dropped my book and gasped so loudly it woke up the girl sleeping 2 beds down from me. By that time I was standing in the middle of the room and the spider had run onto the wall behind the bedside table. She got up to look at it and we were going to kill it when it decided it didn't want to die and zoomed off in the direction of her bed. Literally, these spiders are so fast you can't even see them clearly when they're running.

We tore apart the bed in the middle of our beds, then we had to move her bed into the middle of the room and found the spider hiding in the corner by the floor. We smacked it with my shoe and it ran, but it was wounded so we got it the second time.

Huntsmans are pretty harmless so we did feel a bit bad for killing it, but I guarantee you would not want to wake up with one of these sleeping in the bed next to you.

I Think I Died and Went to Fiji

2011-04-07T22:01:00.001+09:00

My apologies for not blogging much lately. Between moving around the world again, traveling for a week on the way, looking for jobs, editing a book for a friend, and suffering from the cruel and unusual internet usage caps here in the Land Down Under, I have not found the time to blog much. So, without further ado, here is the latest travel-related post:

Originally, I had planned to visit Korea on the way down to Australia. I was going to spend a few weeks with my boyfriend and see my old friends and my old rice paddy. Then, the week I was going to buy my tickets, my boyfriend broke up with me. All of a sudden, the whole world was open for me to see! While looking for flights to Australia, I noticed that many of them leaving from LA had a stopover in Fiji. I checked prices to see if it would be about the same price to fly to Fiji, stay a few days, then fly on to Australia. It was only about $200 more so I decided that a South Pacific post-breakup trip was definitely the way to go.

The flight to Nadi was 11.5 hours non-stop from LAX, and it was one of the best flights I've taken. The whole rear section of the plane was virtually empty so I had 4 seats to stretch out on and sleep. I think I might have been awake 2 hours during the flight. That's definitely a great way to avoid the horrors of jet lag!

My flight arrived an hour early (4:30 am!) and the boat to the island I was going to didn't leave until 8:30. I spent a few hours at the deserted marina in the customs office (they told me to go in there because it was safer than hanging out in the dark by myself). It wasn't all that bad though-I got to see a gorgeous sunrise and was able to talk to some of the people who work for customs.

Let me tell you, Fijians are probably the nicest people I have ever met. They're known to be the friendliest country on Earth and I believe it. Everyone is genuinely friendly there and they will all smile and say hello. I was sitting at a picnic table at the marina and 2 customs officers walked by. One was listening to his ipod and he stopped his music, took off his headphones, came over and shook my hand and said hello, then continued on his way. If only we could all be like the Fijians, this world would be a much nicer place.

Finally 8:30 rolled around and the Yasawa Flyer departed Nadi heading for the islands! I made some friends on the boat and found out they were staying at the same resort as I was for the last day of my trip. We chatted and took pictures for the 2 hours they were on the boat. When they got off, I still had 2.5 hours to go, but time flies when you're in paradise!

Finally, after 4.5 hours, we arrived at the island I was staying at. The last stop on the Flyer, Nacula Island is a remote, beautiful, pristine place with 2 small resorts and a little town. Oh, and one of the most beautiful places in the world. I have never been somewhere so gorgeous in all my travels and I think very few beaches can compare, although I've heard some of the Tahitian islands are nicer because the mountains are more dramatic.

I stayed at the Blue Lagoon Beach Resort, which I would highly recommend. Of course I stayed in the dorm room, but it took all of 30 seconds to get down to the beach and it was about $20 a night. I spent my days reading books under the palm trees, walking on the almost deserted beach, and snorkeling and swimming in the crystal clear waters. It was one of those places that literally left me speechless. I cannot accurately describe how beautiful it was, so I will let the pictures do the talking:

On my last day in Fiji, I took a short trip to this island with a cave in it. This was no ordinary island. They filmed part of the movie Blue Lagoon (the one with a young Brooke Shields) here. This was where she got her period for the first time in the movie. You have to walk up some stairs and sort of enter the side of the mountain. Once in the cave, you got into the frigid water and swam across to the other side. A handful of freshwater eels live in this cave and I saw one, but my underwater camera died so I wasn't able to get a picture. Anyway, once you're to the other side of the little pond, you have to swim UNDER the rock wall and you come up on the other side in an enclosed cave. It was a little spooky!

After the cave trip, I went back to the Blue Lagoon Resort, said goodbye to the new friends I had made, then boarded the Yasawa Flyer and went back to Nadi.

Next stop: Australia!

The Maze-This is No Field of Dreams

2011-03-24T21:02:00.000+09:00

I love bad movies and I'm not afraid to admit it. I love bad movies so much that I sometimes go out of my way to watch them. Sometimes I find them by accident, like The Nun. So imagine my delight when I stumbled upon what I think might be the worst movie I've ever seen. If Mystery Science Theater was still on, they would have definitely made fun of this one.

My friend and I were looking for horror movies on Netflix to watch instantly and they do not have such a great selection. The poster for The Maze made it look decent, so we took the plunge and we are so glad we did.

The movie starts out with promise: A group of 'teens' (the youngest actor in this movie might be in their mid-late 20s) go to this corn maze in the middle of the desert. One of them is telling a story about this guy who gets murdered in the maze. While he's telling the story, you are seeing what ACTUALLY happened to the guy. It was kind of cool and looked intriguing. That's the only decent part of the whole movie.

The kids scatter around the corn maze playing a game of tag and then, one by one, they get killed by the guy in the red sweatshirt. Almost everyone dies within the first half hour. They rarely run from him and when they do they act as if they can't run through the corn and they stay on the path. When cornered, they put up no resistance, don't make any noises, and die rather unconvincingly. There is hardly any blood at all in this movie and you can clearly see that the blade of the knife isn't even touching them. God, it is such a terrible movie!

The last hour of the movie is completely boring since all but 1 person has died. The foreshadowing of who the actual killer is is so obvious they basically tell you "__ is the killer you guys!" My friend and I figured it out within the first 15 minutes. The best part of the movie is the terrible acting. 90% of the actors recite their lines like they're reading them off of cue cards. There is absolutely no character development at all. It's extremely unrealistic (the maze burns down at one point and a crowd of people are standing there watching the fire. The remaining teen staggers out and nobody even points or reacts at all).

The best part of the movie was reading the comments on imdb.com. We noticed that a lot of the comments were making fun of the fact that one of the actors had obviously reviewed the movie but even he couldn't give it 10 stars. I wonder who that actor might be...I wonder.

One review said: Once again one of the actors from the film must be reviewing his own movie. I can guess which one. Why not a ten star review? Because it was so horrifically bad even the person trying to skew the numbers to try to sucker ANYONE into watching this trash couldn't even bring himself to give it ten stars.

As bad as this movie was, it has provided my friend and I hours of entertainment. No matter how terrible a movie may be, we will always be able to say, "well, it was better than The Maze".

A Cowgirl in Australia

2011-03-20T20:21:00.002+09:00

The blog title has changed because I am officially living in Australia now! The link will stay the same, of course. I'm having some internet connection woes (my laptop isn't connecting to the wifi in the house) but as soon as that gets sorted out I will be updating regularly and re-designing the blog.

Borneo Jungle Cruise-Orangutans, Elephants, Sweat and Bugs

2011-02-23T14:27:00.000+09:00

Note: This post is terrible and disjointed. I wrote it after sleeping for 4 hours in the past 48 and it is really, really bad. I wrote it throughout an entire day, so it can be really random at times. I didn't want to censor anything that I had written previously on the trip, so for better or for worse, here's the original entry.

You know you’re in the middle of nowhere when the directions would include “turn off the paved road, stop at the shack, then get into a boat and cross the river”, but that’s what happens when you go deep into the Borneo jungle.

Sivi, Simone and I woke up a bit after 5 this morning and walked to the airport. The flight to Sandakan was only 45 minutes so I wasn’t able to sleep. Our bags came out quickly then we went outside and found people holding signs with our names on them, so we had to say goodbye. My guy introduced himself as Larry and led me to the van. I was the only one doing the tour today, so it was a little weird to be alone

Our first stop was the orangutan sanctuary. The video at the sanctuary started at 9 and we were there at 8:30 so we stopped at the little café there to kill time and Sivi and Simone were there! It was exciting to see them again. I had to leave them at 9 since I was going to the video and they were waiting to be picked up to go to Turtle Island. The video was 20 mins long then we went into the sanctuary. Feeding starts at 10 and I got to the platform at 9:30 so I secured my place and waited. Holy hell it was hot, it felt like I was back in Korea. The orangutans came around 9:50 and waited patiently for the guy to bring food out for them. There were 6 of them this morning, which is apparently more than usual.

After that, I got back into the van and we started the 2 hour journey to the Kinabatangan Nature Lodge. I slept for the first hour, then we stopped at this little roadside café for lunch. I felt like a skank wearing a tanktop and shorts because all of the girls working there were Muslim and wearing everything except the veil. I surprised myself again with my adopted Korean ways. I willingly used a squatter toilet (it seemed like a cleaner option…) and I got a serving of plain white rice. Larry was surprised and asked why I wanted plain rice and I said it just seems right to eat plain rice these days. I hate how much I actually miss Korea now.

We still had over an hour to go, so we got back in the van and continued on. I tried to sleep again but it just wasn’t happening, so I listened to my ipod and just rested my eyes until that became impossible…

We drove on a pebbly dirt road for about 10 minutes, which was bumpy enough that I think my brain is bruised. Then we stopped at this little shack and Larry got out and opened the door for me. I was a bit freaked out, wondering what the hell I got myself into. I thought we were staying in the 1 room shack, but it turns out we just needed to go down to the dock and get into a boat to cross the river to get to the lodge. Thank God. I felt really bad though, my bag is 17 kilos and I thought it would sink the boat.

The nature lodge is pretty cool. It’s an eco lodge and it’s surrounded by jungle. There’s no ac, which is unfortunate because it’s hot as balls in here, but it’s nice nonetheless.

My little cabin in the jungle

Later that evening....

We just got back from the river cruise. AMAZING! There are about 30 people at the lodge and we took 3 boats, so there were…8 of us on mine? Larry said that earlier this week they saw the rare pygmy elephants so there was a small possibility we might see them too. And see them we did! There was a whole herd eating and bathing on the banks of the river. It was absolutely incredible. I cant believe how many there were! Every few fee t there were more! Then we went down the river more and saw an orangutan in the trees. So fantastic!

There’s a night walk tonight but I declined. The bugs are freaking me out here. I hate bugs and it sounds like all you see on the night walk is bugs. Gross.

I was looking at my flights and I realized I don’t leave Sandakan until the 29^th because I was originally going to go to Turtle Island but it ended up being way too expensive. I really don’t want to spend any more time in Sandakan since I’ve seen all the sights. I’m going to try to get to Singapore tomorrow. I am not a wilderness person and after 10 days of being in relative seclusion, I am ready to get to a big city. And I am ready for air con and shopping.

Well I ended up doing the night walk afterall. I had dinner with some British people who convinced me to go, so I did. I guess it was cool…there were a lot of bugs and big spiders and it was quite terrifying. It was really muddy and we had to wear wellies and the mud went halfway up your calf sometimes. We saw some sleeping birds, but mostly insects. I was happy when we finally got out of the jungle.

Poisonous centipede

Sleeping bird

I'm not sure what this is a picture of...

How Do I Do It??

2011-02-19T01:30:00.000+09:00

By far, the most frequently asked question I get is "how the hell do you afford to travel like you do?" It's a complicated question to answer, because there are many answers. Do you want to know how I do it? Read below.

1. Luck. Honestly, a lot of it is luck. I'm very fortunate to have no student loans and I'm not drowning in credit card debt (although the latter is not so much luck as it is being smart with my money). I know that if I had student loans I wouldn't have been able to do as much as I've done so far.

2. Priorities. Right now, traveling is my #1 priority as far as money goes. Sometimes I am envious of my friends when I see their new cars, houses, shoes, purses, computers etc. I know that I could have nicer things if that's what I wanted, but I'd rather spend $250 to go to, say, Colombia, than buy a designer purse or some new jeans and tops. Many of the things I wear today I've had for a few years, some of it from all the way back in high school.

3. Limiting the Small Stuff. My favorite treat is bubble tea. It's delicious and only $3.50. When I first got home, I went a few times a week to get some. But then I looked at how much those little things add up. Just 3 bubble teas a week total almost $12 a week, almost $50 a month, over $600 per YEAR! That is a plane ticket somewhere, or a week at a nice hotel, a month or more in a hostel. Just for tea. I still get bubble tea, just once a week now.

4. Don't Drink Often. A night out can be really expensive. Going out for drinks can easily run you $50 or more. I drink on occasion, but I like to drink at places that do 2-for-1 drinks so I don't have to spend too much.

5. Using Awesome Credit Cards. This sort of ties in with #1. I try not to use credit cards that charge interest. Right now, my credit card has 0% interest until Feb 2012. That allows me to feel a bit better about charging travel related things since I have a while to pay it off. But I wouldn't advise doing this unless you're certain you can pay it off in time. I have never taken a trip that I didn't think I could pay off in a couple months or less.

6. Research, research, research. Researching my trips is sometimes a full-time job. When I planned my RTW trip after Korea, I would spend 6-8 hours sometimes looking at every possible hostel, every flight combination I could think of. On multi-leg trips, every stop is planned based on how cheap flights are to and from the previous destination to the next one. If a lot of flights connect in a certain country, it can be cheap to visit the stopover country, so I take advantage of that when I can. I research discount airlines in the region. I price flights on Kayak as well as the actual airline websites. I price flights on many different days to find the cheapest days to travel. I always look at hostel/hotel prices before booking a trip to make sure that I can afford to stay there and not just fly there. I look into public transportation and if it's possible to get to and from airports without using cabs. It's incredibly time consuming.

7. Spend Less, Get More. I rarely stay in nice hotels when I travel. I personally don't spend much time in my room, so I don't need to stay at an expensive place just to sleep. As long as a hostel has good ratings for safety and cleanliness, I am satisfied. Because I spend so little on lodging, I can do more during my trips and save more money for my next one.

8. Go Off-Season. Most places will have peak seasons and off-seasons and I usually travel during off-season because flights and hotels are cheaper. I also research this because there isn't much point in going somewhere during low season if it is miserable the whole time, but many times 'rainy season' is nothing more than an hour or two of rain and then perfectly sunny sky the rest of the day. I went to Thailand during their off-season in early September and I stayed in a 4-star spa resort for $22 a night (more than I would normally spend, but I thought it was worth it for being in such a nice hotel right on the beach). During high-season, the same hotel is $88 a night.

9. Live Abroad. The easiest way to travel a region is by living there. It's not for everyone, but if you're up for an adventure I'd say go for it. Working in Korea was very challenging, but super rewarding. I got to know a new culture and country and was able to save a significant amount of money to fund my travels around Asia (and more.) I'm moving to Australia for a few months so I can work and save up money to travel within the country and to New Zealand and a bit of the South Pacific.

So this is how I do it. I'm not rich, but I prioritize and work really, really hard to travel extensively on a tight budget. It's not something I will be able to do forever, at least not as often, but I'm making the most of my time on this planet while I can :)

Snorkeling in Borneo

2011-02-08T04:43:00.000+09:00

Sivi, Simone and I got picked up at 8:30 and were taken to the docks and boarded a boat for this little island just off the coast of KK.

With our rented masks and snorkels, we plunged into the aqua blue waters and were immediately immersed in the glorious world of Borneo’s undersea world. It was the best snorkeling I’ve ever done. There were thousands of fish and their colors were so vibrant they looked fake. I cant even count how many types of fish I saw. I kept a lookout for sharks, but sadly there were none to be found. I was out in the water for maybe an hour or so, then headed back to the shore where we waded until lunch.

Lunch was a delicious buffet on the beach. I had chicken wings, amazing noodles, fried rice, papaya, watermelon, potato salad and Pepsi, which I haven’t had in a while and actually enjoyed. I’m more of a Coke person.

We finished lunch around 1:30 and we had to leave the island at 3, so I went back in the water for a second round of snorkeling. I was about waist deep in water when I saw this pinkish fish darting around me, then I felt a sharp pain in my calf and shrieked, then I saw the fish going for my thigh and it bit me again. I ran out of the water and looked at my wounds. The fish made my calf bleed a bit and I had a nice little fish mouth mark on my thigh (both of which are still here a day later).

I went back in the water a bit later and the fish were in a pissy mood. They were all charging at me and trying to bite me! This sounds so lame, but the fish were starting to freak me out and I was tired of being bitten so I came back to dry land and walked up and down the beach for about 45 mins.

At 3 we left the island and went back to KK. We were picked up by the guy from the front desk. He and the guy who came with us to the island asked if we wanted to have a BBQ dinner and we said we would, so we went to the wet market to get food. The wet market is basically just full of meat and fish and fruit. I got a ¼ chicken for 5 ringgit, and the girls bought 2 kilos of snapper for around the same price.

We got back to the hostel and showered, then we ended up going to the mall to look for chargers and electric converters. I got lucky and found an awesome converter that works in 150 countries and actually will work with my laptop, unlike the Brookstone converter I bought back home. Some of the stores at the mall were advertising for sales positions and they paid 3 ringgit an hour, which is less than $1. I don’t know how people can actually survive on that little money.

After the mall, we came back to the hostel and had a lovely Bbq. The chicken was absolutely delicious. I have no idea why it was so good but I think it was the best bbq chicken I’ve ever had, and it didn’t even have any sauce on it.

It was Sivi’s birthday and Simone and the hostel workers surprised her with a birthday cake, so we got even more stuffed after eating gobs of cake. We sat around on the patio listening to music and talking and watching YouTube videos. They were watching clips from this British show called Fonejacker and it was hysterical. I want to see them all now! Then Sivi and I played a game of pool, which I painfully lost, then we went upstairs and did the dishes and went down and packed. We had to wake up at 5 to catch our flight and we ended up going to bed at 1.

I Survived Colombia (And It Was Easy!)

2011-01-04T07:41:00.002+09:00

Colombia: Not Really As Dangerous As You Might Think

The first thing most people would say when I told them about my plans to travel to Colombia was "Oh my god, it's so dangerous there! Aren't you worried about getting kidnapped or killed?" My answer was always no, which makes me wonder if I don't care enough about my life, or maybe I feel invincible. I think I've been around enough to know that most places aren't inherently dangerous. You just need to be smart and not wander around the ghettos at night (although my friend and I did that and we were fine, perhaps we got lucky.)

There's not really a lot to do in Cartagena proper. There are a multitude of day trips available ranging from island hopping tours to going to a mud volcano, but we ~~didn't wake up in time to go~~ decided to just stick around the city. Our trip mainly consisted of wandering around looking for food, drinking every two or three hours, getting horribly ripped off on a beach trip, and walking for two hours to get to the mall to see Due Date.

Cartagena itself is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to. Founded in the 1500s, the walled city is full of colorful, colonial buildings with cobblestone streets and balconies bursting with flowers and vines.

Some of the people were just as colorful as the buildings they live and work in.

The beaches in the city are nothing to write home about, but they were nice to look at for the six seconds you are alone before the street vendors and massage ladies swarm you.

Even though we felt very safe, there were still little reminders that Colombia isn't exactly the Disney World of Latin America. This sign was on the front door of the most upscale mall in town:

We weren't exactly sure what this sticker on a street pole was all about, but it was in an area with a lot of pregnant, smoking chicas malas:

We enjoyed our time in Cartagena but after 3 full days, we were definitely ready to come home. But as with every trip to Central or South America, I fell more in love with the region and I am already planning my next trip down there.

Countries Visited in 2010

2010-12-23T07:53:00.000+09:00

2010 is coming to a close next week, so I wanted to take a moment and reflect on my travels this past year. Friends, I feel I have truly peaked. I don't believe I will ever have a year where I travel as much as I did this year. It's been a dream come true to do and see all that I've done and seen over the past 12 months. And I still have so much to blog about! In true Cowgirl fashion, I will be closing out 2010 in Spain with my boyfriend.

Where I've Been this year:
Australia
South Korea
Hong Kong
Taiwan
Philippines
Malaysia (x2)
Singapore
Thailand
India (spent the night in the Delhi airport)
Nepal
Bahrain (spent 6 hours in the amazing airport-a cultural experience all on its own.
France
Spain (x2 after next weekend.)
Germany
USA (x2, first was a 6 day visit in Feb and then I came back for good in September) I visited Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC, Delaware, New Jersey, New York).
Colombia

More travel blogs to come soon. Happy holidays to all of my readers!

Leaving Philippines and Going to Borneo

2010-12-09T06:26:00.000+09:00

Borneo sunset

Brian and I went to the mall together at 11:30. We went to a few stores before I found a camera I wanted. It turned out well because I finally have a waterproof camera. I bought the camera and an 8 gig memory card and it was less than $200. We then went to a pizza place for lunch and got the high protein meat pizza and the waitress came over with a comment card and asked us to fill it out. Brian asked her what she wanted us to say and she said to say that she was great. We filled out the comment card. It was hilarious; the waitress took the card over and showed it to all of the other servers.

After lunch, we went back to the good ol HI and had to say goodbye. Then I took a cab to the Clark airport (which sucks, btw). Then it was off to Borneo! The flight was good, it was only about 1/3 full so I decided to give myself a free upgrade to the more spacious front seats. I slept most of the flight. Once in Kota Kinabalu, I made my way to the hostel (which was like a 2 minute drive and they charged me 25 ringgit.) The guy at the front desk informed me I’d be sharing a room with 2 girls from the UK and they were doing a snorkeling tour the next day, so I signed up for that, then went down to the beach, which was a 3 minute walk, and saw the most beautiful sunset I think I’ve ever seen. I stayed at the beach for a bit, then went back to the hostel and showered, then I met my amazingly awesome roommates. We had to wake up around 8 so we went to bed around 12 or 1.

Philippines-Leaving Paradise and Going to Rapeville

2010-12-02T07:14:00.000+09:00

August 23

Today started out bad, but ended on a high note, and a sobering one as well. A crazy ex-police officer hijacked a tourist bus full of South Koreans and Americans and killed some of them. It was an all day standoff that ended with the kidnapper being killed by the police. It happened in Manila and I am less than 100km from the city. Suddenly, my bad day didn’t seem so bad anymore, for I was able to have wine and ice cream for dinner and play darts with an awesome new friend, when it could have easily been me on that bus. It could have been anyone, nobody expects that sort of thing to happen.

My cold was worse this morning when I woke up. I checked out then took the cab down to the ferry pier. When I got inside the guy who worked there said I needed to pay 50 pesos to check my bag. I asked him if I really had to check it and he said yes, but then when I got on I saw that others were carrying their own bags on for free :/

I don’t mind getting ripped off. You have to go to certain places with the mindset that you’re going to get ripped off, it’s just a fact of life. But goddamn, it certainly gets annoying after a while.

When I got off at the Cebu port, I looked for a cab. They charged me 300 pesos to get from the pier to the airport, which was like 10 minutes away. The guy was trying to get me to do a Cebu tour and go to the airport later but I said no way. After spending a week in the paradise that is Bohol, the last thing I want to do is tour some grotty old city.

SO I get to the airport at 1. My flight’s at 5 and I can’t check in til 3. I ate lunch first. I ordered a club sandwich and I’m not really sure what was on it. The only thing I recognized from sight was bacon. It tasted like there was some relish, maybe tuna or chicken, and something I found out was egg. I was halfway through when I came to that realization because the egg was tinged green. My stomach was unhappy, to say the least.

I went to the duty free store at the Cebu airport to buy a new camera since mine was taken (I hope whoever has my camera has bad karma forever!). But they didn’t have any cameras, so I just checked in for the flight and sat around. They had free wifi at the airport but Tony didn’t remember to pack my voltage converter for my laptop when he used it last night, so I can’t plug my comp in.

The flight was uneventful. I passed my time by playing ‘who’s the sex tourist’ with all the white guys flying to Clark. Angeles City/Clark is the number 1 place for sex tourism in all of Asia. Woohoo. There were some pretty sketchy people getting on that flight, lemme tell you.

After the flight, I get my bags and go out to the taxi stand. I asked for a metered taxi and they said there are no metered taxis. No meters=you will get ripped off. He said 500 pesos to take me to the Holiday Inn and I said no. According to the website, HI is only 4km from Clark airport. I went to the bathroom and talked with the sweet attendant there who told me I have pretty eyes. She said they were ripping me off and it shouldn’t be more than 2-300. So I went back out and then oh what do you know they can take me to HI for 300 pesos. So I sigh and get into the van. The guy was like are you sure you want to stay at the Holiday Inn, its very expensive, I know a place that’s near that’s only 1,500 pesos. I said sure why not as long as I’m in the general area of HI and the airport…..WRONG.

We leave the airport gate area and turn down this side street that is nothing but bars, strip clubs and whores all over the place. And when I say all over the place I mean ALL OVER THE PLACE. You could hardly drive on some parts of the road bc the women of the night were all lined up on the side of the road waiting for their night’s boyfriend.

So we keep going down this road that is getting darker and darker and I’m feeling quite uncomfortable with the area so I say ‘can you just take me to the Holiday Inn afterall?’ He got all offended and said I wanted him to find me a good deal and if I want to go to Holiday Inn then I must pay another 300 pesos. We had stopped in front of some shanty town looking neighborhood with guys walking around in no shirts and other sketchy looking characters loitering outside of the ‘hotel’, although I’m sure it was a whore house since there wasn’t even a hotel sign. I said ‘we are very close to the airport gate, I don’t see why I should pay 300 more pesos when we’re so close.’ Blah blah, something about how we already left the gate so now it starts over. They had me though because they knew I wouldn’t say let me the fuck out in Rapeville, so I said fine, take me to Holiday Inn, I’ll pay the damn 600 pesos.

So off we went, out of Rapeville and back to Clark, where I was dropped at the lovely Holiday Inn. It got bad reviews on Expedia but I guess they’ve cleaned up a bit because it’s pretty decent. They better have for the price they charge. At Alona Tropical, I paid about 16,000 pesos for 3.5 nights, plus food for 6 days. Here, I paid 6,000 pesos for 1 night. Blah. The girl at check in was so nice and said I was so pretty and she loved my eyes. I love the Philippines because it’s doing wonders for my self esteem. Everyday you will be told no less than 3 times that you are beautiful. The girl asks how my day went and I said it was okay except for this evening and she was actually shocked when I told her that the cab driver wanted me to stay at a ‘hotel’ that didn’t even have a name and then got mad when I wanted to come back to HI. She said ‘of course, you need to worry about your safety especially since you’re alone. I’m so sorry!’. She gave me a discount rate on the room (although I think I still would have saved more if I had booked online). Then she gave me a coupon for a free drink at the bar. I put my crap and went down to the bar and got my free glass of red wine then watched the news as the hostage team tried to break into the hijacked bus.

During that time, a guy came over to me and said I looked bored, did I want to join him and his friends? They looked like good people so I said yes. His name is Brian and he’s a Navy pilot. We had a really good time getting to know each other at the bar, then around midnight we left and took a walk to a pub up the street where we shot a game of pool (I won) and then played darts (he won….). I almost won both dart games, but he’s a dark horse and comes out of nowhere to take the lead. The stakes were high for the 2^nd game.

One of his bosses was there and called him over to try this pork sandwich. He gave me a bite and neither of us liked it. He asked me what we should do with it so I said to just put it on the table. Why not? So then after the first darts game, we made a horrible bet: whoever lost the 2^nd game would have to eat the nasty pork sandwich that had been sitting on the nasty bar table. It was a high stakes game and every shot counted. We taunted each other with the sandwich, trying to break concentration and break the will to live…or at least the will to not eat that shit. But in the end I lost by 1 point. He said I didn’t have to eat it but a bet is a bet, so I had a nibble on the inside part. It was terrible and I will probably get a disease from it, but I am a woman of honor. I’ll have to mention that to my doctor when I get back with stomach parasites.

After that, we walked back to the Holiday Inn bar again and were going to say goodbye but we both enjoyed each others company, so we went back in for 1 more drink (sprite for me, water for him), then we said our difficult sad goodbyes, which is silly since we’re having lunch tomorrow. There’s a Korean place down the street that I want to try (ugh I cant believe Im saying that). But hopefully he’ll want to go to the SM Mall because I need a new camera. Well it’s 3am and I’m supposed to call him at 10 so I need to get to bed.

I've Been Busy!

2010-11-28T14:49:00.000+09:00

I feel like I haven't posted as much as I would like to. I was in Colombia last weekend and it was quite beautiful. I have a post planned for that trip, although I haven't written it as I have been recovering with a lovely little bout of salmonella that I think I got from a grotty chicken restaurant in Cartagena. I think I've finally gotten over it, so expect a good post sometime this week!

Mt. Everest

2010-11-17T07:16:00.000+09:00

I have to say, seeing Mt. Everest in real life definitely rates in the top 3 things I've ever done in my life. It was an experience that is even hard to put into words. But I'll try.

I'd wanted to visit Nepal for many years for 2 reasons. It had always intrigued me because it was so far away and foreign. Even its capital, Kathmandu, sounds exotic and almost mythical. My second reason for wanting to go was to see Everest. I've always wanted to an Everest Base Camp trek, but due to time and money constraints, I decided to take the lazy way up and I booked a flight on Buddha Air.

The flight was early. I had to leave the hostel at 5:20 am to get there and checked in for my 6:30 flight. I was pretty exhausted and I was afraid I would fall asleep on the flight, but as soon as we got in the air I was awake and more excited than I'd been since, well, feeding monkeys in Malaysia a few days earlier.

We flew over the lush green Kathmandu Valley and were over the Himalayas in minutes.

The Himalayas are home to some of the highest peaks in the world and I wondered how I would know when we were near Everest. But as soon as I saw that distinct peak in the distance, I knew.

Seeing Mt. Everest in real life brought tears to my eyes, it was so beautiful and literally the top of the world. I thought about all the dreams the mountain inspires, and how many lives are given up each year in hopes of standing on the summit.

We flew past the mountain for a few minutes, until everyone on the flight was able to get a few good pictures out the cockpit windows, then we headed back for Kathmandu. I left the mountain with a sense of awe and a nagging thought in the back of my mind: I have to get to Everest Base Camp someday.

Godzilla Washington

2010-10-27T09:59:00.000+09:00

My friends and I took a bus up to NYC and spent 14 hours there on Saturday. Exhausting.

We were down on Wall Street and were sitting on the steps across the street from the NYSE. A camera crew came up and asked us to move because they were filming a Russian movie there.

One of the Russian guys on the staff sat down next to my friend and said "I know everything about these buildings, ask me anything."

"Okay, what's this building?" my friend asks. The guy says the name of the building. It's the one with the big statue of George Washington in front of it. I don't remember the name.

"Who's that guy" my friend asks jokingly.

The guy mumbles something. She asks again. He responds, "Godzilla".

Oh.

I Love Colombia! I Hope!

2010-10-20T11:49:00.000+09:00

Because that's the next country I am visiting! I'll be going to Cartagena, Colombia for 4 days next month and I am quite excited. I've wanted to go to Cartagena for over 3 years now ever since reading an article about it in Nat Geo Traveler. We got a killer deal, $250 RT!

Day 6- Bohol, Philippines Island Tour

2010-10-19T12:27:00.000+09:00

August 22

This morning I woke up at 8 with Tony’s alarm. I was so tired and I had no voice. I slept in til 8:30 then dragged myself out of bed. Our driver arrived at 9 and we embarked on our Bohol Countryside Tour. The driver was listening to depressing ‘soft rock’ in the am. Our first stop on the tour was the Chocolate Hills. They weren’t that chocolaty though, because it’s wet season, but they were really cool. There are over 1,000 hills here, just randomly in the middle of the island. The first thing we saw was a group of Koreans taking peace sign pictures in the parking lot. Oh Koreans!

We had to walk up like 250 stairs to get to the top of the observation platform and I realized what good shape I’ve gotten into! I went up with ease and was hardly even breathing harder when I got to the top. We were passing all sorts of people who were huffing and puffing and stopping for rest breaks (although one was a kid, so I will give him a pass.)

Next up was some suspension bridges. You just walked across and back. 10 pesos. It sort of felt like we were paying a toll to a bridge troll.

Then we went to lunch on the boat restaurant. The food was meh but the ride was nice, it felt like we were in the jungle. I mentioned that and Tony said ‘you feel like you’re in Virginia?’ and I laughed, but then the guitar player on the boat started singing ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’, that song about West Virginia, so I had a good laugh, and then I almost cried because the lyrics really hit home for me. Take me home to the place I belong…32 more days...

Anywho, after lunch we went to my favorite part-the tarsiers! They were the cutest things I’ve ever seen in my entire friggin life. The guy who worked there let me feed 2 of them. He put worms on sticks and I tickled the tarsiers’ noses with the worm. They woke up and nibbled the worm, then they’d pull it off the stick and shove it in their mouths. Omg so cute I almost died. I gave 100 pesos donation to the ‘feed the tarsiers’ fund. I’m not usually that generous but they’re too cute.

After that, we went to this church which is supposed to be one of the oldest churches in Asia. I got kicked out because I was dressed ‘indecently’. I was in a tank top and shorts and they wanted me to put these shawls on my shoulders and wrapped around my legs and I didn’t want to so I had to leave. I think that’s a first, getting kicked out of church.

The last stop on our tour was to this lookout point. Our driver explained the significance of this place, but I only heard something about Magellan and drinking blood. So I had to get a picture with the statues because they were toasting to…drinking blood I guess. The original vampires!

We got back to the hotel at 3, which was awesome because that gave me 3 more hours of beach time. I finished my 2^nd book this week, took some walks and went out into the water to watch the sunset. I got teary eyed because it’s my last night in Bohol and I love it here so much.

Day 5-Bohol, Philippines

2010-10-18T14:33:00.000+09:00

August 21

Well fml, I lost my camera. I think I left it at the beach when I was manhandling the hermit crab. I was pretty pissed, but it’s hard to stay upset when you’re in the Philippines. I went snorkeling before lunch. It was amazing. Apparently there is coral here ( I didn’t think there was at first) and the fish were unbelievable. So many colors! There were angel fish looking things, black and yellow and white sea snakes, lime green fish, black and white fish, parrot fish etc. And neon blue starfish. I wish I had an underwater camera, although I guess I can pick one up in Duty Free when I have to buy my replacement camera tomorrow L

I spent the afternoon doing my usual Philippines routine of: nothing. Life is so hard here. I am getting a cold though, so I went to bed early. Well actually, I went to bed at my usual Philippines time, around 10 pm. I don’t know what’s happening to me, I’m so used to going to bed at 2 and waking up at 12, but here I go to bed at 10-11 and wake up around 8. But I guess that’s what happens when you don’t have clocks. Just wake up, eat, and sleep whenever you’re awake/hungry/tired. It feels like Survivor without the sleeping outside and starving part.

There was this kid here, probably like 8 or 9, and he goes snorkeling everyday and I’m like ‘wow, if I had a child I want it to be like this one’. He’s so enthusiastic and his parents always have to yell at him to get him out of the water. He comes running out talking excitedly about the fish he’s seen, and how to tell one fish from the next. I love it. He reminds me of myself when I was his age.

8 Ball

2010-10-13T04:07:00.000+09:00

I have a good plan for the next year. I've been thinking long and hard about what to do-Korea or Australia-and I thought I finally made my decision. So I asked the 8 ball:

Am I doing the right thing with my life right now?

Its answer?

Without a Doubt

Bahrain

2010-10-11T11:50:00.002+09:00

I really enjoyed my brief stop in Bahrain. Sure, I didn't leave the airport but it was still an awesome cultural experience and it left me wanting to see more of the Middle East.

I didn't want to seem rude, so I didn't take any pictures of the people in the airport, but it was so cool. Everyone was decked out in the long robes. The men were all wearing turbans, and the women veils. People had their prayer mats out and were praying to Allah in the middle of the airport.

You could buy burkas in the duty free store. They were sparkly and very chic, at least for a burka. I should have bought one.

And of course, the golden arches, in Arabic.

Spain

2010-10-08T03:06:00.000+09:00

One of Gaudi's awesome houses

For years, all I ever heard anyone say about Spain was how much they loved it. "Oh Spain is great. It's so cheap and wonderful! It's amazing!!!" So I decided to end my round-the-world trip in Barcelona, soaking up the culture, food, and general awesomeness. Except that didn't really happen.

The shopping was fantastic, I will say that. I had a blast spending the afternoon shopping. I bought a shirt at some Spanish store, then went upstairs to the H&M and found a fab grey dress that I had to have. I was checking out when I realized holy shit, my wallet is gone. I retraced my steps and asked around and nobody had seen it. I think I was pickpocketed since my bag wasn't zipped.

Well, that sucked but I felt okay because I still had my trusty debit card at the hostel. I had 1 day left of the trip so I didn't need much money. I got the card and went down the road to Banco Popular. I put my card in, put in my pin, selected the amount to withdraw, then a 'we're sorry, contact the bank tomorrow.' The machine ate my ATM card. WTF.

I went back to the hostel and the girl called Banco Popular and they said since my card was a foreign card, I wasn't allowed to have it back. So now I have no credit card, no cash (it was in my stolen wallet), and no ATM card. I cried. Then my poor old father had to wire me money through Western Union so I could actually leave the country instead of becoming a squatter at the Hello BCN hostel.

How Well Traveled is Well Traveled?

2010-10-05T13:26:00.002+09:00

Where I've Been so far...

I was having a conversation with a friend who is a fellow travel enthusiast. I was saying that even though I've been to 25 countries now (22 if you don't count the ones where I had to languish for hours and hours in airports), I still don't feel well traveled. I feel well traveled in the sense that I have been to countries all around the world, as opposed to just a bunch of European/Asian/etc countries. I've been to 5 continents, and I will get to Africa somehow next year, dammit!

My friend made the remark "well where will you have to go to feel well traveled?" and that's a good question that really got me thinking. I think I will feel well traveled after I've been somewhere in Africa. And definitely when I eventually get to Antarctica.

I'd like to visit at least 100 countries in my life, but first I want to do some 'important' places first, the places I REALLY want to see. So here are the top 10 places I'd like to visit, in no particular order:

1. Romania. It's the last place in Europe I want to visit. I've wanted to go there my whole life. I've always been a big vampire fan (not of the Twilight persuasion, however.) Romania is probably in the top 3.

2. Egypt. I love everything Egyptian. I love pyramids, mummies, Sphinxes, ancient curses, and the thought of seeing King Tut in real life.

3. Antarctica. Antarctica is #1 on my list. It's also probably one of the hardest places to get to in the world. Cruises will run you around $10,000 with airfare, if not more. But I will get there before I'm 30 somehow. I'm just trying to figure out how...

4. Kenya/Uganda. One of my biggest dreams is to take a safari and see mountain gorillas.

5. Argentina. I want to see Buenos Aires, Patagonia, and Iguazu Falls.

6. Brazil. I'd love to visit Rio, especially during Carnaval. I also want to do an Amazon cruise.

7. Cuba. Mainly because it's illegal to go there. I like to push the boundaries. I think if the US did away with the travel ban I wouldn't want to visit Cuba as much.

8. Papua New Guinea. I've heard PNG is one of the 'last frontiers' in regards to travel. It's hard to get to from most places, expensive to get to, and pretty primitive. I read an EXCELLENT article called Sleeping with Cannibals which is about a guy who goes deep into the heart of New Guinea and visits a tribe which still practices cannibalism. Not that I want to go there, but I would love to see some of the less cannibalistic tribes :)

9. Cook Islands. It's one of the most beautiful looking places I've ever seen. It looks even nicer than the Philippines, which is saying a lot.

10.United Arab Emirates. Dubai. That's all I have to say about that.

An Ode to Dexter

2010-09-28T09:41:00.000+09:00

Dexter is my favorite show. I watched the entire first 4 seasons in less than 2 months. If the show was a person I would marry it. Season 5 started last night and I am in heaven. I freaking love this show.

This is probably the best scene from Dexter. So unexpected!

I loved Doakes.

What is Wrong With Me?

2010-09-18T18:06:00.000+09:00

I am considering going back to Korea instead of Australia. Of course, I could always go to Australia when I'm done in Korea (I think I would only stay 6-8 months instead of a full year). I hated working in Korea. But I liked living there because I have a lot of friends there. Plus the money is good and I really want to go to Africa and I'd be able to afford it if I did another year in Korea.

Oh what am I thinking?!

3rd World Countries

2010-09-16T05:30:00.000+09:00

If you're reading this, you're lucky. You're sitting at a computer, probably in your house or at your job. Your stomach is full, or it will be after your next meal which is coming up in a few hours. You'll sleep in a warm bed tonight and bathe and change into clean clothes. It's really simple things we don't even think about which we should really appreciate. I know I have a new appreciation for life after visiting Nepal.

I've traveled to a few places that some would consider '3rd world'. I'm not exactly sure what the criteria is to distinguish 3rd world from 'developing', but needless to say I have SEEN the difference in person.

Nepal is a fascinating country, and one of the poorest in the world. The literacy rate is only around 50% and I believe I read that the average person makes less than $200 a month. The buildings are rundown and the streets are filthy and the tap water smells so rusty I couldn't even smell my shampoo while lathering my hair. Power outages are widespread and happen on a daily basis. Every night the power would go out around 7 and we'd have to light candles in our rooms. The streets have no lanes or traffic lights, and it's a free-for-all on the road. 40% of traffic fatalities in Nepal are pedestrians.

There are a lot of homeless orphans on the streets of Kathmandu. The ones by my hostel sleep on the sidewalk with the stray dogs. They piss into the gutter. They eat out of plastic trash bags. They spend their days huffing superglue out of small paper bags. I was in the cab on the way to the airport today and we were stopped at one of the many traffic jams in the city. This little homeless boy came up to the open car window and started talking to me, putting his hands together, making gestures like he was eating. I tried to ignore him but my heart ached. Maybe that's the point. I gave him my last package of Pop-Tarts. He needs them more than I do.

The Nun-Pray You Never See Her

2010-09-12T22:35:00.000+09:00

If you're ever in the mood for a good laugh I would HIGHLY recommend this movie. I watched it at my hostel in Kuala Lumpur. It's in English and the Malaysian version also had 'Engrish' subtitles. An example of the great translating:

Actual line: Fucking bitch!

Engrish subtitle: Shit prostitute!

Even if you can't watch the version with the amazing subtitles, it's still one of the most awesomely bad movies you will ever see. The acting is terrible, the story is terrible, the characters are terrible. Combine all of those factors and you have one amazing film.

Elephant Trekking Blows

2010-09-06T17:58:00.001+09:00

I went elephant trekking this afternoon and disliked it very much. Want to know why? Sure you do.

I'm a big animal lover. Riding an elephant has been on my life's to-do list for years. I remember a few years ago I mentioned elephant trekking to my mom and she said something along the line of "that seems a bit cruel to ride a captive elephant." And, in my opinion, it is.

I arrived at the elephant place at 2 and you have to walk up this big platform to actually get on the little bench that is strapped to the elephant's back. You have to step on its head just to get on the bench, so I tried to do it as quickly as possible because that can't feel good.

There's a guide who sits on the elephant's head, holding a big bamboo stick. He knees the elephant in the head to get it to go certain directions. He screams at it and if it's not cooperating he'll beat it over the head with the stick. At one point, the elephant stopped to scratch its butt on a tree (which was quite terrifying seeing as how this tree was on the edge of a very steep hill). The guide yelled at it and kicked it and it kept scratching. The guy whipped its ear, then beat the shit out of it's face. The elephant blew its nose (I don't know what that sound is called, trumpeting?) I wanted to cry. Then the guide hopped off and let me sit on the elephant's head on the way back down the hill and he walked behind us, smacking the back of its legs if it was going too slow.

I thought that maybe smacking elephants with sticks was just the way it's done and it doesn't hurt them, since their skin is so thick. But when we got back to the elephant place, I saw that was probably not the case. The poor elephant's face (as well as the faces of the other elephants there) were peppered with angry looking pink scars, some old and some fresh. Beating them with bamboo sticks is obviously not just a harmless little motivator. I petted my elephant's head for a bit and looked into its innocent little eye and my heart broke. After seeing elephants in the wild in Borneo last week, I felt like this beautiful creature should be free in the jungle and not chained to a post waiting for Western tourists to ride it like a horse.

In the front of the elephant place, they have a juvenile elephant chained up that you can take pictures of. They asked me if I wanted to feed it bananas and it was 100 baht. I had 0 baht so I said no, then they just gave me the bananas for free. The poor little guy could only walk about 2 feet in any direction because the chain was so short. Apparently it can play the harmonica too, but the whole situation made me too sad to want to watch it do tricks, so I asked if we could leave.

No wifi in Thailand

2010-09-06T15:01:00.001+09:00

Hello loyal readers...I have a lot of blog posts coming up, but unfortunately there is no wifi in my room here in Thailand so I will have to wait to make a new post, since I have all of my trip entries on my laptop.

As for now, I'm just getting massages, eating Pad Thai, and relaxing. It's a good life.

The relaxation will be coming to an end soon. I go back to Malaysia on Wednesday, then to Nepal, then onto Europe, then home.

I also changed the name of the blog to A Cowgirl in the World. I'm not sure I'm totally loving it, but it'll do for now. The link stays the same.

Day 4-Bohol, Philippines

2010-08-31T22:53:00.000+09:00

August 20

Another day in paradise. Tony came in the afternoon and took a long nap. I did the usual, reading and walking around on the beach. We went out to dinner, then found a hermit crab. Tony was taking pictures and then I leaned over and started playing with it, then we found out that there’s wifi at the beach bar so we spent some quality time online.

Day 3-Bohol, Philippines

2010-08-28T20:15:00.000+09:00

August 19, 2010

I woke up this morning. I don’t know what time it was, nor did I care! I got into my bathing suit and went to the beach and found a chair. I pulled it out into the sun, then I went to the restaurant and ordered mango juice for breakfast. It was delicious, as usual. I laid in the sun for…an hour? I don’t know how long that was either. Like I said, I don’t care about the time anymore. After I was good and burned, I went into the water. It was amazing. It was so warm and clear and calm. There were so many giant starfish and you could see them just standing there. I felt like I was snorkeling but I wasn’t.

I got hungry so I decided to get lunch. I got a ham and cheese sandwich, 7 Up, and a mango shake, then I ate some Cool Ranch Doritos that I got from Camp Humphreys. After lunch, I went swimming again. I met this lovely family. It was a mother and daughter from Toronto, and the mother’s mother’s nurse (her mom had just died in Manila and that’s why they are in the Philippines now). We talked in the water for a long time and picked up starfish and then we went over to this Filipino family that was catching sea urchins for dinner. They cut them in half with a big knife, poured out the guts, then scraped out this yellow stuff inside and put it on rice. Then they’d throw the urchins back because apparently cutting sea urchins in half doesn’t kill them and they’ll just grow back. Interesting stuff.

I forgot my contact solution, so I went to the gift store and they said they don’t have any, and nobody on the beach does either. Fml.

After my gift store fail, I went down the beach to the Thai restaurant. This time I took my ipod so I didn’t have to be bothered by the people trying to sell boat tours. I was really excited when I got there and asked for Pad Thai, but they were out of noodles so I got this rice dish instead, which was pretty delicious as well so I can’t complain. The sunset was even more beautiful tonight than last night and I watched the sky turn from pink to purple to black as I ate.

After dinner (and going online for 25 mins), I laid my towel down on the dark beach and watched the stars for about an hour while listening to my music. I’d almost forgotten what it’s like to see stars. It was so beautiful and I was brought to tears. I cant believe how lucky I am to be doing this. My life is so amazing right now.

Day 2- Bohol, Philippines

2010-08-22T21:31:00.002+09:00

I woke up on my own today. Since it was light, I decided I could take a shower. I didn’t see any roaches, but I certainly did not enjoy the shower! It was a beautiful, sunny day so I decided I’d go to Bohol today as planned even though I’m alone. I took a cab to the pier and bought a ticket for the Cebu-Bohol ferry. As soon as I got my ticket, these 2 guys come up and take my bags and start walking down to the pier. I was not so excited about this. Then we got halfway there (like 20 seconds of walking on a sidewalk, like I need help for that) they said I had to pay 200 pesos each. I said no, I will take my own bags, then they were like okay, you can give us 100 and we’ll share it. Ugh whatever. So I gave them 100 pesos. I only did it because pesos are so cheap, it was like $2. So I get to the boat and this guy wearing the ferry company’s shirt took my suitcase and brought it onto the boat, and then I had to pay him 50 pesos grr. It’s really frustrating. I know this happens all the time but it’s still annoying. I am going to have to work on getting tougher with people. But it’s only day 1 so it’s okay.

On the ferry, they were playing movies. They started playing Funny Games and I was like holy shit they are actually playing this movie on the ferry with children around? I couldn’t even watch the whole thing once the violent rape scene came on. But apparently they just show the first 5 minutes of EVERY movie. I don’t understand it at all, why anyone would just want to watch a bunch of 5 minute clips from different films. I had my ipod so I just listened to music. I took a pill which I thought was Dramamine but it was actually a sleep aid, and then I took 2 real Dramamines so I was knocked out the entire ferry ride. I honestly have no idea how long it was. An hour? Two?

As soon as you get off the ferry, you are swarmed with people trying to get you to take their cabs/bikes to your destination. They do not leave you alone. They asked me where I was going and I said Alona Tropical. They said it would be 1600 pesos and I said no, where is the bus terminal? Then lo and behold, they could take me for 800. The bus is a lot cheaper, but it was a nice day and I just wanted to get to the resort and the beach so I agreed. It was about an hour ride from the port to Alona but it was a cool ride. I was basically in a tuk tuk and we went through a lot of small Filipino villages. There was also a lot of wildlife hanging out on the side of the roads. I saw cats, dogs, cows, goats, chickens, and deer. We went up a hill and when we got to the top I saw this crazy gorgeous teal color which I thought was just a colored roof but it ended up being the water! I was so excited, it was amazing!

We got to Alona Tropical and I checked in. I only had a 1,000 peso bill and the tuk tuk guy didn’t have change, nor did the hotel, so I just told him to keep the change. Oh well, I was feeling generous. The guy took my bags to my room and it is literally a few seconds from the beach. And no bugs! I changed into my bikini right away and headed down to the beach.

Question time #2! What can I never do without medication? The answer is sleep. I can’t ever fall asleep without sleeping pills, and I certainly do not take naps. Ever.

The resort has a bunch of lounge chairs under palm trees so I found a chair and sat there reading for a couple hours. I haven’t been this relaxed in years. Seriously. I understand why people vacation instead of travel now. Traveling is amazing, but taking a vacation is niiiice. I was so relaxed I took a nap. Yes, a nap. I don’t know how long I slept for, but it felt good to wake up listening to waves lapping against the shore and a warm breeze rustling the palm fronds. I was pretty hungry so I went over to the beachfront restaurant at the hotel and ordered beef tips, French fries and mango juice. Sooo delicious.

I took a walk along the beach and got harassed by people trying to sell dolphin and snorkeling packages. That was a little annoying. Next time I’m walking with my ipod. But the sunset was pretty and I found out there’s a Thai restaurant right down the beach. I’m so there tomorrow. By the time I got back to my hotel it was dark so I went to the internet café and checked my FB and emails. Internet is a bit expensive here so I just stayed on for like 20 mins. It was the first time I’d even seen the time since I left Korea. Clocks have no place in my life anymore! It’s almost 8pm and I am totally ready for bed. It’s time to really relax.

Beach Bum

2010-08-21T20:13:00.002+09:00

I'm sitting at a beach bar in Bohol. Bob Marley is playing and the bartender and guy next to me are talking about smoking weed. Love it here.

August 17- Korea/Cebu Philippines

2010-08-21T11:20:00.000+09:00

August 17 was my last day in Korea and the first day on my trip. I hadn’t been home all weekend (literally, I didn’t even sleep at my place 2 nights, including my last night in Korea). So I hadn’t really packed or cleaned at all. I was exhausted and thought I was going to drop dead with all the last minute cleaning I had to do! But then I left around 3:30. It was weird leaving the apartment for the last time, but I was ready for a change. I’m a little weirded out that I actually am thinking of going back to Korea again. If I could live near downtown I think everything would be different.

Anyway, I took the KTX down to Busan and met up with Tony and we got to the airport about an hour before our flight. Unfortunately, Tony forgot his passport! I had to go alone. I wasn’t afraid though. Even landing in Cebu was exciting. Perhaps I’m mentally prepared to be alone since I’ll be traveling alone for a while.

One of my favorite things about traveling is the first night taking a cab to your hotel. It’s your first glimpse of this new place and it’s really exciting. It just struck me hard, I am totally not in Korea anymore! It couldn’t be a more different place.

Question time! What is my biggest fear? If you said cockroaches, you win the prize!

I got to my hostel and checked in. I had booked a single private room so they took me back to the room. As the guy was leaving I shrieked ‘cockroach! Oh my god kill it!’ There was a giant roach on the drapes. The guy shook it off and it ran and hid under the table but the hostel guy chased it down and killed it. As he was closing my door, another roach ran in and I wanted to cry. I had to chase it and step on it, but then it was laying on the floor on its back wriggling around. I took out my Australian Gold sunscreen spray and sprayed it a bunch trying to kill it but I don’t think it worked. I turned around and looked at the bed and there was this massive cockroach crawling on the wall above the bed frame. Okay, I’m done! I went to the office and said that I cant sleep in that room because there are tons of cockroaches and can I upgrade my room? They put me in a dorm room. It was 10 beds, but there were only 3 other girls in there, plus there was a/c and I didn’t see any roaches. I went to the bathroom in the hall because I was going to take a shower and brush my teeth, but when I turned on the light there were roaches all over. So I spent another night being smelly and not taking my contacts out or brushing my teeth.

Cool Feet

2010-08-10T16:07:00.000+09:00

I'm starting to get scared. A few months ago I had an epiphany. I realized that as fun as globetrotting is, I wanted something real. I wanted a stable life, to go back to school to do something I love, to have a real apartment (hopefully in NYC, so it will probably be smaller than the hole I live in now), I wanted to get married and even have a family someday.

But now, as my time in Korea comes to a close and I'll be back home in 45 days, I'm starting to have second thoughts. I'm wondering if I can handle that sort of life. It just seems so...boring. The life of an expat can be extremely difficult, but the good times can make up for a lot. I feel that I've done so much more than 90% of people will ever do in their whole lives. By the time I get home, my 'countries visitied' list will be 23-25. I am truly living my dreams (and sometimes nightmares!). Can I really go back to the way things were before?

I still have another year to figure things out since I'll be in Australia for a good portion of 2011. I want to go back to school, but I also want to travel through Africa, live in Latin America and find some way to get to Antarctica. I'm not sure I can do it all.

Hostel

2010-08-09T22:37:00.002+09:00

I had to deskwarm today so I put my time to good use and booked the rest of the hostels for my insane 37 day trip home. This will be my first experience staying in shared rooms in hostels, so let's hope I don't end up like these guys :p

Night and Day Tales

2010-08-06T10:53:00.001+09:00

I've been doing a lot lately. Here are some things I've done:

1. I went to 2 movies by myself last weekend. I saw Salt and Oceans. I looked online and it said Oceans was narrated by Pierce Brosnan, so I happily plopped down my w8000 for a ticket for 1. In Korea, they have some English movies at the theaters. They are in English and have Korean subtitles. I thought this would be no different. Nope. Totally in Korean. It was sad. What was worse, the narration was awful. It was a father and son talking and they kept shrieking and whining as they spoke. I had to listen to my ipod and just watch the video. I couldn't take the narration anymore. At least the video was nice.

2. I finally got piercings. My friend needed to go to the piercing place to get hers checked out, so I went with her. We'd had some kiwi soju so I was all about getting a piercing myself. It took a long time to try to decide what to get so I decided to get my navel pierced, since I'd wanted it so bad back in the day. I picked out my little jewel and laid down on the couch. The guy was leaning over me with the alcohol cloth and the needle when I freaked. I just couldn't do it. But I did want a piercing so I decided to get a 3rd hole in each ear. I used to have 3 holes for a few weeks when I was 19, but I took them out and regretted it ever since. So I sat there about to pass out from fear and he shoved the first needle through and I smiled. It hardly hurt at all! The second one hurt much more, but it was still not too bad. Oh god they hurt afterwards though. I was practically in tears on the bus home, but after 2 hours the stinging went away and I couldn't feel them at all unless I was touching them. I definitely want more piercings!

3. A few weeks ago, my friends and I went to a Korean night club with our Korean friend. The club was huge and lavishly decorated. Most of the club is filled with tables and people sit down talking, drinking and smoking. There's a dance floor in the front and a 'live' band. I'm pretty sure they don't actually sing or play their instruments. The one guy's guitar wasn't even plugged in. If you're sitting at the table, you can sign up for 'booking'. When you do booking, you can look around the room at people at other tables. When you find one you like and want to talk to, you press the buzzer on your table and the waiter comes over. You tell them the table number and who you want, and the waiter will go over and get the person and bring them to your table. Of course, I didn't sign up for booking since our table was the only one with waygooks, but my Korean friend and one of my other friends did a bit of booking. It would probably be fun if you could actually talk to the people.

4. I have been in the process of editing my vampire novel. I ordered a proof copy and it looked amazing and it was so exciting to see my name on the cover of a book. There's quite a long waiting list of people who want to buy the book. Sadly, it'll be a while before it's for sale. I wrote most of the story during Natl Novel Writing Month, so it was written in less than 30 days. The book was more focused on the plot than the characters, so I'm left with 1 dimensional characters even I don't care about. So I am going back in and changing the characters and writing more about them and their relationships with each other. Hopefully I can finish up in a month or so. I'll put the link up when the book's for sale.

5. I've been working out like crazy. 1-2 hours a day. I can feel a difference in my endurance and my muscles. I love it! But...I dislike working out outside sometimes because of the bugs. Last week, I went to the mountain trail to hike. It was so hot and humid. I was almost at the top when I walked into a spider web. I stopped to pull it off and make sure the web owner wasn't on me too. Then the mogis (Korean for mosquitoes) descended upon me. Literally, in the span of 2 seconds, there were about 10 on my arms and legs. I killed a few and started walking back down the hill, but a cloud of mogis were now following me so I ended up running back down the hill, occasionally shrieking when I'd stumble or run into another spider web. I'm glad there were no other people there to see me being an idiot.

Since I don't hike anymore, I've been working out near my house. I live at the north end of the rice paddy and there's nothing north of me, so I just walk along the big road that circles my area. There's one part of the sidewalk that gets much more narrow. The big 6 lane highway is on one side, a guardrail and a river are on the other side. At night, that guardrail is infested with giant mutant spiders. No, seriously, these spiders are massive. Their bodies are plump and furry and the biggest ones are probably not much smaller than the palm of my hand. There are HUNDREDS of them. I certainly do not want one of those spiders to get on me, so I take great care in avoiding anywhere where they might decide to make a web. That means I walk in the street a lot to go around light poles and utility boxes. I'm playing with fire, I know. Korean drivers are crazy and I've got a good chance of becoming road kill, but that's the chance you have to take if you don't want a monster spider on you.

6. I've been keeping the desk warm this week. Sort of. The English coversation teacher is forced to deskwarm as well. I have no idea why, and neither does she, but she's here with me everyday. She thinks deskwarming is really stupid, so she keeps cutting our hours everyday. We leave between 2:15 and 2:45. Yesterday we left at 12:30 and got jjimdalk for lunch then we went home. Today we didn't come in until 10. It was so nice to sleep in! We've really become friends over the past month and I wish it had happened sooner, but it's a great way to end my year in Korea. She loves the show True Blood and we talk about that a lot. How can you not like someone who likes True Blood?

7. I'm busy planning my trip home. I have all of my flights booked, and some of the hotels, but I still have a lot to do. I guess that can be its own post.

Finally in Love!

2010-08-06T10:21:00.000+09:00

I have so much to say because I've said so little in the past month. I had a special request to start blogging again so here it goes. There may be a lot of posts all at once!

So, I think I finally feel the love I've been missing. I'm talking about Korea. Now that I have less than 2 weeks here, I realize that I actually love many things about this country and I will really....miss it. Perhaps not enough to stay another year, but I love it all the same.

I'll miss taking 1-2 hour long walks near my apartment.
I'll miss having to cut through a rice paddy to get to the grocery store.
I'll miss jjimdalk. A lot.
I'll miss my little kimbap place across the street, and my daily runs to the won mart.
I'll miss riding the bus and seeing people sleeping slumped over, or with their heads leaned back and their mouths parted open. How can you sleep so soundly on public transportation?
I'll miss Gonee and their taro bubble tea.
I'll miss hiking in the afternoons.
I'll miss the Naughty Cat jewelry store where I can get adorable earrings for w1000.
I'll miss seeing couples wearing matching outfits.
I'll miss seeing the guys holding their girlfriends purse.
I'll miss the chaos.
I'll miss the KTX.
I'll miss the Chinese place with Richard the monkey.
I'll miss the Vietnamese place.
I'll miss The Holy Grill.
I'll miss being able to joke with friends about daily life in Korea, or talking about certain places around the country. It's like an exclusive club that we belong to over here, and I'm about to cash in my membership.
I'll miss all of the wonderful friends I've made over the past year and being able to see them so often.
I'll miss mountains.
I'll just miss Korea.

I have 11 days until I leave. I'm trying to soak in everything I can, because it will be over before I know it.

Mudfest Highlights

2010-07-19T21:38:00.000+09:00

Some highlights from Mudfest:

1. It wasn't as muddy as I thought it would be
2. Some girl had the most awesome tattoo ever-a triceratops!
3. Group tour packages are sort of a ripoff.
4. Try to eat at off-times like 1:00 for lunch and 5:00 for dinner. You'll save a lot of time and you'll be a lot less frustrated.

Some Fun Answers

2010-07-09T10:24:00.000+09:00

When you ask questions or having conversations in Korea, you're bound to get some answers that make you scratch your head or even laugh out loud. Here are some of my favorites:

Teacher: Are you okay?
Me: Yeah. The air is really dirty this week and it gives me a headache and stuffy nose, but I'm okay.
Teacher: The air in Korea is very clean! There is no pollution!
Me: But you can't even see the mountains or the buildings down the street. There's a lot of smog today.
Teacher: The air is very clean here. You just have summer allergies.
Me: o_O

(talking about illnesses)
Me: I've been sick 15 times this year. Anytime one of the students gets sick, I get it too because I don't have any immunity to the germs here.
Teacher: I think the students don't make you sick. I think you've been sick because you've traveled to different countries outside of Korea.

(as I'm taking ibuprofin)
Are you okay?
Me: I have a headache.
Teacher: (turning my fan off) It's because of the fan. If you have the fan on too long you will get a very bad headache.
Me: (turning the fan back on) I don't think so. It's hot out and we don't have air conditioning on. I think the heat gives me a headache.

Me: I'm going to Thailand for a week after my contract is over.
Teacher: But Thailand is so dangerous! They have a lot of fighting.
Me: I have friends who live there or have visited recently. There was a lot of fighting a month or two ago but it's settled down and it seems back to normal now, so I think it will be okay.
Teacher: I think that's because Thailand people are excited about the World Cup. Once it's over they will start fighting again.

(watching the little cartoon on the CD rom where the puppy pees on Julie)
Teacher: How do you say that in English? Piss?
Me: (laughs) Well, that's one way to say it but it's not the nicest way.
Teacher: Oh piss isn't correct?

Teacher: You always drink cold drinks. You should only drink hot drinks. Cold drinks will give you diarrhea.

It's Getting Hot in Here

2010-07-07T20:20:00.001+09:00

It gets hotter everyday in Korea. Since it's getting hotter, my school has decided that we need the a/c on LESS than before. Now we get it from about 10-12. Afternoons are brutal. Today I decided I was done being hot. I went to the bathroom and dunked my head under the sink. My hair was dripping wet. I also dumped water all over my shirt. It felt so good, like I had just gotten out of the swimming pool. I will do that everyday from now on. The only downsides are: 1. my hair looks like shit and 2. it dries so fast I have to go to the bathroom every 15-10 minutes to re-wet.

I watched TV for the first time while in Korea. It was a real pain to do it since I had to take everything off of my little desk and lift the giant TV up on it. It's probably not worth doing again unless we get Shark Week here. I watched a movie about some Australians who are somehow stranded in the swamp (I missed the first part so I don't know how they got there). They're being stalked by a killer crocodile and most of them get eaten. They said 'fuck' a lot, but when there was a dead body it was blurred. I laughed. The TV channel called the movie "Violent Water" but that is apparently not the title since I looked it up online and found nothing. But then again, Wolverine was on another channel and they called it "Wolf Man".

I have 42 days left in Korea. I can't believe how close to the end it's getting.

Camping Out

2010-07-02T13:59:00.000+09:00

I thought I had gotten off easy with summer camp. The official camp list went out a few weeks ago and I only had to do 1 at my own school. Then my teacher got a call yesterday-I now have another week of camp. At a middle school. I have no idea how to teach middle school. I don't even understand the directions I was sent:

we require you to prepare 5 lesson plans, 2 cultural classes, 2 speaking classes, and 1 game/activity, with each 2pages(A4 size, 1 for lesson plan and 1 for worksheet) and to teach 4 times with one.

Does this mean I do 2 days of 'culture class', 2 days of 'speaking class' and 1 day of 'game'? Does this mean every day I have to do all of these things? I have no effing idea and it's really making me frustrated.

Abused Little Boy Update

2010-06-29T14:27:00.000+09:00

It's been a week since I saw the beaten boy in my class and I finally learned what happened.

His father did it to him. He was angry because he came home late. The principal and homeroom teacher made the father come in for a conference and said that was unacceptable. But since he's only done it once they are letting him off with a warning. Next time they will call the police (insert eye roll).

The poor child constantly has a stomachache. My teacher said that the father and step-mother are both bar singers so they are gone all night and they don't feed him properly. She also thinks he's stressed, and why wouldn't he be, especially after this beautiful fact:

"His father told the principal that he doesn't want him. He wants to give him away to an orphanage."

Well if that's not a good father, I don't know what is.

Abused Little Boy

2010-06-22T12:47:00.000+09:00

Today was a very difficult day. I was teaching 5th grade. There's a boy in one of the classes who is one of the most memorable kids I have. He's not a good student, but he doesnt act bad in class, he's just mischevious and he always has a little gleam in his eye like he's up to no good but it's all harmless stuff. But he's always smiling and lively.

Today he was in class and I hardly recognized him. His eyes were glassy and emotionless and he was covered in bruises. I have never seen anything like this. There were bruises on the sides of his face, his ear was bruised and ripped, the entire outside part of his arm was just this giant ugly red bruise and he had large bruises of fingerprints on his other arm. His legs were just as bruised as his arm and the poor kid could hardly walk. It was heartbreaking and I cried after class. My co-teacher came into the office looking upset and she asked me if I saw the boy and I said I did and did she know what happened to him. She said he was absent yesterday and she saw him this morning and he said he had fallen down the stairs (isn't that what they all say?) I said no way, the kid was beaten by one of his parents because a fall down the stairs wouldnt have those giant finger marks and his ear wouldn't have been messed up like that. She said she was going to call his homeroom teacher and tell her about it, but likely she already knows.

I've just been so upset today, I wish there was something I could do to help him :(

Korean Ice Cream-Ice Cream Cones

2010-06-17T13:10:00.000+09:00

Welcome to the first installment of Korean Ice Cream. This time I'm reviewing all of the ice cream cones I was able to get at my local Mart. There is actually 1 other kind of ice cream cone that I'm not reviewing because it's coffee flavored and that's just gross. All the ice cream will be rated on a 5-star system, with 5 being the best.

Choco Latte

*****

I was a little nervous of trying this (and the strawberry kind) because the had Latte in the name and I was afraid it would be mixed with coffee, but they aren't. I bought this one last night. It was the last cone I tried and I wasn't prepared to love it. I'm not a big chocolate ice cream fan but OH MAN, this one is delicious! There is chocolate syrup swirled in the ice cream. I think this is my new favorite ice cream in Korea.

Shooting Stars

When I saw this, I got excited because it looks really good on the package. It looks a lot like the birthday cake ice cream you can get at the grocery store back home, and I love birthday cake ice cream. I was really eager to try it, but it was AWFUL. Those blue specks on the top are pop rock type things that explode in your mouth. The ice cream tasted like tangy cotton candy. I had 3 bites then threw it in the sink to melt.

Strawberry Latte

****1/2

This was going to get a 5 star rating but the chocolate one was just so much better than this one so I had to settle for 4.5 stars. I'm a big fan of strawberry ice cream, and this didn't disappoint. It was swirled with vanilla ice cream and tasted really smooth.

Vanilla

***

It's a pretty good, basic vanilla ice cream cone. It got 3 stars because it's nothing too special, although it is really good. The chocolate and strawberry cones are much better.

The Ice Cream Princess

2010-06-14T18:05:00.000+09:00

Summer has definitely settled into Korea and it's here to stay for a while. I love summer because it gives me a great excuse to eat ice cream everyday, something I have done year-round here but at least now I don't feel so weird going into a store and buying tons of it. Ice cream is probably my biggest weakness when it comes to food. I have literally eaten a 1/2 gallon of it in one day. My friend joked that I should blog about all the different kinds of ice cream here and I thought that was a good idea. So for the next few weeks I am going to eat a different ice cream bar everyday and write about it. I will try every kind I can get my hands on (except coffee flavored ones because I hate coffee). I'm looking forward to the next few entries, to say the least.

The Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

2010-06-04T15:52:00.000+09:00

I haven't logged into Blogger in over a week, which I think is a record for me. I've taken some time to reflect on recent events and learn from my mistakes and a bad situation. I feel like I've been beating a dead horse here for some time now and the blog has strayed far from what it was intended to be: a travel blog. I've done a lot of soul searching and I feel like I'm in a much better place right now. The world is beautiful, and that's what I care about.

Speaking of the beautiful world, I've been very emotional lately about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It literally hits home for me as I grew up on its shores. Every Sunday in the summer months my family would go to the beach in the afternoon and we'd bring food and have a picnic as the sun set. When I'd be going through tough times, I'd drive down to the beach and sit on the jetty staring into the waves, or walk down the beach until my feet had blisters. Many of my most cherished memories from high school are of late night walks on the beach during summer vacation or weekends spent looking for cute boys. Whenever there would be a hurricane in the Gulf my sister and I would go down to the beach and walk against the gale force winds as we watched the die hard surf fans attempt to ride the angry waves pounding against the sand.

Of course, like most things in life, you take it for granted until it's threatened or lost. I've seen so many dolphins in my life they rarely excite me anymore. I've waded among schools of fish, stingrays, pelicans, sea gulls, a couple of manatees and even a shark or two. But now I don't know if I will ever be able to do that again. The oil spill is being called the worst man made disaster in US history and its effects are already devastating. There are few pictures that have ever made me cry as hard as this set from the Washington Post. Those poor, poor animals. I wish there was something I could do to help.

There are many amazing people on the Gulf coast who are volunteering to save injured animals, clean up tar from the shores and setting up barriers to try to stop the oil from coming ashore. This is definitely going to be an ongoing effort for a long time and I hope to help somehow when I get back home this fall.

HUGE Paycut

2010-05-24T14:08:00.000+09:00

The won is dying a painful death right now. We looked at the currency converter. Usually we make about $1800 USD, but now we're down to $1600. People are predicting the won to be at 1500 by this summer. It's fun to be working for less and less.

Recent Accomplishments

2010-05-18T11:58:00.000+09:00

I've neglected to blog about some stuff. So here's a random collection of things I've done recently:

I have a stamp card at the bubble tea place downtown. I filled the entire card up and got my final stamp Sunday night. The girl said I'm only the 2nd person so far to finish a card. I don't know whether to be proud or ashamed of how bad my addiction is.

I adopted a dog last month. At first I didn't know if it was a good idea or not. The first week was very stressful, but now I am loving it. I love this dog and I don't know what I'm going to do when I have to send her to the US next month.

I found a dogsitter online. She's an awesome Army wife. She got my friend and I on Camp Walker this past weekend. It was amazing. I got to eat Taco Bell and Subway and key lime pie. And I finally joined the 21st century and bought an 8gb iPod. $145, tax free! Can't beat that! I also found a pair of shoes on base, and stocked up on some supplies like makeup, shampoo, food etc that you can't get out here in the Korean world.

On Saturday my friends and I went downtown and went to the piercing place. My friend got her neck pierced and it looks so cute. I never thought I would say it but I want one! My other friend got his ear pierced. I chickened out because I'm scared of needles and pain. I need some courage.

My co-teacher for 3rd grade used to not get along with me. I thought she hated me. Then, at school dinner a few weeks ago, we got drunk and had a great time. Now we're good friends and she even wants to go to Busan with me next month. Alcohol is great.

My Australian work visa was approved. I'm going back in January!

And the most exciting thing of all: I'm debt free! I paid off all of my credit cards last month! Of course, I'll be buying lots of airline tickets soon, but I got to enjoy the feeling for a month.

Teacher's Day Letters

2010-05-17T14:19:00.000+09:00

Saturday was Teacher's Day. I wasn't here, but this morning I had two letters and a flower on my desk. I almost cried, these kids are so sweet.

This one is from one of my favorite students. She's one of the kids I do morning broadcasts with. I really love this girl because she's smart and even she knows what's lame and what isn't. She rolls her eyes when she has to say the name of our broadcast.

To Miss Cowgirl
Hi Teacher.
My name is Young-a
I'm 6 grade. My class is 6-1. 6-1: 6 grade first class.
I write letter because today is Teacher's Day.
Thank you!
My English level is up because of teacher.
You were take 'Fun Fun English' *^^* (the name of our broadcast is Fun Fun English)
It's very shinee.
My English writing is very bad. Sorry ^^;;
I have a present. It's a flower. Do you like flower?
I don't know this flower English name Korean is (kanaition)
Is it Teacher's day in the USA?
You come this school, my English is good! Thank you very much! Then bye!

I got another letter from a student named Jeong-In. I wish she had put her grade because I don't know what class she's in. I will find out though.

Hello Miss Cowgirl,
My name is Moon Jeong-In. How are you? (I'm always fine). First time I think you are best teacher in my life because you are my first American teacher! I wanted meet American teacher and talk to each other and it's complete! I want to write more but I can't write. I learn more and I'll talk to you as soon as......thank you to teaching me! And In-Sun said he likes you! Bye bye <3

These are the sweetest, most adorable notes I've ever gotten and I'm keeping them forever.

ZzzZzz

2010-05-10T18:13:00.000+09:00

I had plans to blog today. I was going to write about my Children's Day excursion and then I was going to write about a topic. That will have to wait though, because I'm exhausted.

I had a hard time sleeping last night. Have you ever laid in bed and thought "this feels disgusting?" That's the only way I can describe last night. Laying in bed just felt so gross. I had already taken a shower earlier in the evening but I got up at 1am and showered again, then I hopped back into bed and felt much more refreshed. But still, I only got a few hours of sleep.

Today was long. I had the 3rd graders and it was a frustrating class trying to get them to say "open your mouth. Close your mouth." Hard stuff.

After classes were over my teacher told me I could go to the gym and watch the teacher volleyball practice and maybe they'd let me play. I didn't have appropriate shoes on so I said I'd go tomorrow, and then I put my head down on my desk. The next thing I knew, it was 4:35 and time to go home. My teacher said "Wow, you must be so tired! I've never seen you sleep so long here!" She's right. I don't usually sleep at school. My other co-teachers will be sitting there, their heads tilted back, mouths open, dead to the world and I just stare at my computer screen. Not today.

I'm wondering if 7pm is too early to go to bed. I'm not sure if I'll even make it to 7 though.

Sports Day and Makkoli Night

2010-05-06T17:16:00.000+09:00

There's a lot that I've been wanting to post about lately, so I'll start with Monday.

We had Sports Day at our school on Monday and I was really excited. I dressed in my workout clothes and tennis shoes and sunglasses and got to sit outside for 3 hours watching the kiddies and their parents play games and do races. I got to join in 2 of the races too. It was a really hot day and I was dripping with sweat but it felt good after having 6 months of winter. I had my sleeves rolled up to my shoulders and I pulled my leggings up to my knees. Of course I got a lot of weird looks, but that's to be expected. Most of the parents were dressed like it was winter, I assume to protect their skin from the sun. Some people went to extremes by wearing these insane sun visors, looking like long lost Korean cousins of Darth Vader.

안녕하세요!

I really, really enjoyed Sports Day, not just because I didn't have to teach any classes, but because I got to see my kids outside of the classroom setting. They were laughing and animated and just looked so much like children instead of bored students and it was really wonderful to see. I teach around 1,000 kids a week so I don't really get to talk to the kids one on one and get to know them. I wish I could but it's not possible with that many students. During Sports Day, though, a lot of them came up to me and talked and it was just really special to get to bond with some of the kids a little bit.

After sports day ended, we cleaned up the field and then went to the cafeteria. I forgot my lunch so I was going to eat the food, but then I heard that some of the subject teachers were ordering takeout. My teacher said that one teacher always complains about the food in the cafeteria so he doesn't want to eat it. My new best friend! I don't feel so alone anymore!

After lunch, I was informed that I had to go to school dinner after work. Of course, nobody told me about that in advance so I didn't have a change of clothes and I had to go in my sweaty workout clothes. We went to a samgyupsal place. I was expecting to get galbi, so I was disappointed, but hey, free food is free food.

Earlier in the day I mentioned to my co-teachers that I love makkoli and the word spread quickly. The music, art and PE teachers were all slamming soju and asked if I wanted makkoli. I said sure, why not? So the bottle comes out and they pour me a big glass and I am drinking it by myself. I didn't realize they ordered it JUST for me. So I drank it and they kept pouring. I did a 'one shot' (the Korean phrase for chugging the whole glass) and the subject teachers said I "looked very beautiful doing that". So they poured me another glass and then one of the teachers filled his glass with beer and we toasted, then he one-shotted his beer and I was doing the same with my makkoli but they all shouted no, stop! Apparently you're not supposed to one shot too much makkoli.

Pretty soon I had finished off the bottle. Bottled makkoli tastes like weird beer and is really awful, but drinking at school dinner is really the best idea. School dinners can be long and painfully boring and since I was drunk I didn't mind at all! It's actually amazing what alcohol can do to a table of people who can't really speak to each other because of the language barrier. Sure, I barely speak Korean and they barely speak English, but we managed to have a fun night.

Drink Drank Drunk

2010-05-02T21:16:00.001+09:00

Fuck I love makkoli. Way too much.

Super Friendly Skies

2010-04-27T18:16:00.001+09:00

Edit: to get home on the weekend, I had to add a brief trip to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. It's part of Borneo and it only added $20 to the total.

This is just me being super excited about airline prices!

I've been trying to figure out my itinerary after Korea for the longest time. I think I have finally settled on one and it's only going to cost $1,360 total.

Seoul-Manila
Manila-Singapore
Singapore-Phuket
Siem Reap-Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur-Kota Bharu (RT)
Kuala Lumpur-Kota Kinabalu (RT)
New Delhi-Kathmandu (RT)
New Delhi-AMERICA!

The Sweetest Thing

2010-04-26T12:58:00.000+09:00

This weekend I tried honey makkoli for the first time. I feel depressed that I didn't start drinking it sooner. One time at a teacher dinner, they made me drink this terrible rice wine that was sickly sweet with tons of rice and ice chunks in it. After that, I refused to drink rice wine again. But I caved this weekend and I am so glad I did. It's the most delicious drink in Korea.

A year or so I got beyond the point of drinking just to get drunk, so I don't drink often since I don't like the taste of most alcohol, besides for some delicious frozen cocktails. But makkoli was amazing. It tasted so good I couldn't believe it had much alcohol in it. But it does. On Saturday I was drunk by 6pm, and yesterday by 5. This was a good weekend.

Fresh Air For Your Braincells

2010-04-23T15:33:00.000+09:00

For the past 6 or 7 months I've had an ongoing war with my main co-teacher. Not about school, not about clashing personalities but about the fucking windows.

Anyone who has worked here knows that Koreans love to have the windows open no matter how hot or cold it is outside. They'll tell you they can't turn the heat/air on because it's too expensive and the school will only do it when it reaches a certain temperature. So it gets really fucking hot/cold and the heat/air comes on. And then the windows open. Perhaps the school would have more money for electricity if there was a seminar on how opening the windows when the heat/air is on is going to make the poor heater/aircon work a lot harder, thus you'll be spending more money on energy.

Every morning I get to school and the windows in our office are open. Or if I'm the first one there, she'll open all of the windows as soon as she gets in. Maybe I'm just colder than usual because I actually have to walk to school and she drives. I don't know.

Then we'll start class. She'll open the windows in the front of the classroom and the classroom doors, then she'll go out in the hall and open the hall windows so the frigid wind can flow freely through our classroom. Sometimes when she's not standing in the front of the room, I'll close the windows. I kid you not, those windows will be open again faster than you can say "it's fucking freezing in here!" Today the kids were looking depressed. They looked at me with their sad little eyes and said "Teacher. So cold!" So I closed the window and they all smiled. "Thank you teacher!"

My co-teacher and I have actually indirectly discussed the window issue. It was a few weeks ago. The weather outside was frightful. I closed the office windows and huddled close to the space heater. It was Friday afternoon and I had taught 25 classes that week, and had spent the whole afternoon writing little stories for next week's class. I was exhausted and my head hurt. I put my head down on my desk to rest my eyes.

"Are you okay?" My teacher asked.

I sat up and rubbed my temples. "Yeah, I just have a really bad headache right now. It's probably from working on the computer for too long, eye strain."

Her eyes lit up. "No, it's because you like to keep the windows closed." She got up and opened all the windows. "When you close the windows for too long, there won't be enough oxygen. When you lose 10% of the oxygen, it will start killing your brain and your head will hurt. I think that's why you have a headache."

While it's true that hypoxia can kill your braincells and give you headaches, you aren't going to get it while sitting in an office in a well ventilated building that's probably 40 feet above sea level at the most. But instead of saying that since our school isn't located on Mt. Everest we probably don't need to worry about hypoxia, I just smiled and nodded. My poor, dying brain.

SWF

2010-04-22T11:06:00.000+09:00

Too bad Kim Jong-il's number is unlisted...

Well, I made it 1 day before making a new blog post, however I'm sticking to my no complaining rule for the next few weeks, so I'll use this time to talk about love. Again.

I've been single for a year now. That fact usually doesn't bother me. I like the single life. But I've recently come to the realization that I'm lonely. This realization hit me at the strangest time, the only time I haven't slept alone in the past 2 months.

My friend came up and stayed with me for the weekend. Because I have insomnia and because he's a fucking bed hog (if you're reading this, just kidding, bb. Well, not really, but that's okay, you can hog my bed whenever you want...) I was lying awake in the dark and then it just dawned on me. Damn I really miss being with a man. This is the first time I've lived alone. I really enjoy it sometimes because I do what I want when I want and I don't have to answer to anyone. But I've really begun to miss having a companion. My friend has been single for even longer than I have. I asked him "don't you want something longterm at some point?" I sort of felt like I was asking the question to myself though.

I recently downloaded Imogen Heap's new CD (she's best known for singing that song that was on Garden State. You know the one.) The first song, First Train Home, has a line that I can really relate to:

I want to get on with getting on with things
I want to run in fields, paint the kitchen, and love someone
And I can't do any of that here, can I?

That's pretty much how Korea feels. I didn't come here expecting to meet 'the one'. In fact, I was surprised I even found one person that I actually liked. I didn't want a relationship back home because I wasn't sticking around, and I felt the same way going to Korea, although girly emotions clouded my good judgement for a while. But I finally feel like I am ready for something serious and real. Doing things alone is awesome, but so is sharing your experiences with someone.

This is pretty much the opposite of what I usually say. I say fuck love, I'm done with douchebags and cheaters and drama. After my first broken heart 2 years ago, I swore I'd never let myself go through that mess again. And then I was sitting here in Korea crying over a boy again. Lame. Not broken heart crying, but disappointed crying. There's nothing worse than hearing "I don't want to be in a relationship with anyone right now. I just want to be friends." Ouch that one hurts. But I suppose for once that line wasn't just said by some douchebag who was too scared to tell the truth. He really doesn't want relationships with anyone, and we've actually stayed good friends. I guess it is possible to still be friends after the dating/romance part ends.

Provided I don't have TB, I'll be moving to Australia in January 2011. Then my quest for love will begin. Not like I'm moving there to find a husband, but I am definitely open to meeting lots of new people and seeing what happens. Maybe it's because I love Australia so if I met someone there I wouldn't mind staying. Or maybe it's just because I find that Australian accent the most irresistable of all. I want to take a holiday in the Whitsundays with someone. I want to scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef with someone. I want to go skydiving and bungie jumping and swim with sharks and sit on the benches overlooking Sydney Harbor with the man I love. Sappy? Yes. But man, I've waited so long for it. I want it now.

Good Morning Korea!

2010-04-20T21:08:00.000+09:00

I can now add another job to my resume: morning news anchor. Well, at least morning announcement anchor.

Last week I was quite ill. I had to spend the afternoon in the nurse's office, and then had to stay home the next day. After essentially a day and a half off, I returned to school feeling more rested than I have in the past 2 months. That's sad considering I spent 2 evenings vomiting up my soup.

When I returned, my co-teacher said, "when I first started teaching, I had a lot of classes just like you. I used to throw up and have to go to the hospital all the time. I think you were sick because you have a lot of classes to teach every week. When you feel sick, you need to rest full time." But resting full time is not on the agenda for me. I've just had 2 more classes/duties added this week. I started off the semester with 18 hours of classes. 7 weeks in and I'm up to 24 teaching hours plus my new job doing English broadcasts every week (no overtime even mentioned, of course!)

I don't really mind the broadcasting, though. It's probably the easiest thing I do at school. The school wants me to read a book on camera and ask questions to students, make them do listen and repeat drills and teach key words. I don't think this is actually going to teach kids anything, but I just do what they say. Last year, they wanted me to do broadcasts too. I showed them some YouTube videos of my friend's broadcasts, teaching stuff like how to make a hamburger or talking about the weather, but they said that is too hard for the students. Everything is too hard for the students, according to my teachers. I don't think so but again, I've learned to just do what they want because I'm just wasting my breath at this point. I did 1 episode of English Announcements and that was the end of that.

My teachers told me about the broadcast Monday around 11am. So not cool to spring that on me on a Monday morning. I wasn't even wearing any makeup. I had to do it right after 6th period, so what did I plan to do for it? Ummm....how can I have a lesson plan already when you just told me about it 2 seconds ago? I went out to our little library and found a book that didn't have very much writing in it. I was supposed to find one easy enough for the 1st graders. Not that they'll understand a word I'm saying.

My teachers brought in two of the 6th graders, a girl and a boy. I was supposed to read the book and then ask them questions about the book. They're good, smart kids who speak English really well. The girl is one of my favorite students. I felt bad for them because I don't think they volunteered to do this and now they're stuck doing it every week for the rest of the semester (or until the school decides not to do it anymore). My teacher made them do this lame, overly enthusiastic opening where they had to throw their hands up and say "It's fun time English!" The poor kids were so embarrassed. I got second hand embarrassment just watching them. I wanted to give them both hugs. Instead, I just gave them sympathetic looks when my co-teacher told them they weren't excited enough and they needed to do it again.

We had to rehearse for over an hour. The kids were troopers. After we finished, I gave them candy because I was proud of them for doing such a good job. I really like those kids, and it's situations like these that make me like what I'm doing. Not the task itself, but working one on one with kids who are open to learning and don't give up when it gets difficult. If all of my students were like them I think I would really love teaching.

One Step Closer to Australia!

2010-04-14T21:28:00.003+09:00

Sick Again

2010-04-12T20:59:00.000+09:00

I was going to write about the cherry blossom festival and my new dog today, but I am quite ill. I threw up last night. I felt crappy today but went to school and ended up sleeping in the nurse's office after classes. Then I got home and ate a little bit of chicken noodle soup and then threw that up as well. My head is killing me and I feel like death and I've had goosebumps for hours. Even worse, I just got a dog yesterday and I feel bad for neglecting her while I'm sick. She's totally going to crap and pee on the floor tonight because there's no way I can take her out tonight.

I'm using a sick day tomorrow.

Another Day, Another Won

2010-04-09T13:32:00.000+09:00

On Wed. night I watched The Sopranos as I ate. It was the episode where Janice beats up a soccer mom and then goes to anger management. She changes her perspective and is totally calm but then at dinner Tony tries to piss her off and she flips out and tries to stab him. I feel like the universe is trying to do that to me and my new optimistic lifestyle, so I flat out refuse to give in and be negative.

Yesterday I decided I was going to have a great day. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping and I was smiling. I was so bubbly in class and tried to be as easygoing as possible. It was a very annoying day, but that's okay because I was having a great day no matter what.

I had teacher's class yesterday afternoon. I decided that we'd discuss the situation with Google and China and then talk about cencorship. Nobody had a clue what was going on with Google and China. Maybe because they only use Daum and Naver, which in my opinion, suck ass. I make a lot of Power Points and I've gotten so many comments from teachers like "wow those photos are so good, where did you find them?"
"I just searched on Google Images."
"Google?"

Anyway, the discussion was not very productive. Afterwards, one of the teachers said she didn't like the topic because it was too heavy and difficult to discuss. One teacher said she liked it because it's something people don't normally think about so it's good to expand your mind. She's my favorite student now.

Class ended and the teachers left. I went to the bathroom and came back and the whiny teacher was still there, talking to my co-teacher. She was saying that she wants me to read children's books to the class because the discussion time is too long and difficult. She and my co-teacher were talking and they left the room. I went into my office and my other co-teacher was there.

"So, what was she talking about?" I asked.

My co-teacher shook her head. "She wants you to read the childrens books to the teachers class. I don't know why she wants you to do this. If she wants to read books she can come in on her own time. I think it's stupid."

I agreed. But my main co-teacher thought it was a brilliant idea. Not only do I have to read kids books to the class and teach them "techniques of reading books to children", but I also have to plan 8 lessons by the end of the day because that one teacher wants to know what we will be covering every class.

But you know what, if they want me to read kids books, then I'll read kids books. What do I care? They'll stop showing up faster than if I had a regular class. So it's not all that bad for me.

Today I was told that I have to teach a new class for kids whose English is very poor. I cringed. Teaching those kids is really frustrating. But again, whatever. I'm almost past the point of caring how many classes they make me do. I'm too tired to care.

I get through the days by smiling and nodding.

I'm going to the Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival tomorrow, so it should be a good day. Then on Sunday I'm going to the animal shelter to pick up my dog!

To See or Not to See?

2010-04-05T22:05:00.002+09:00

I've been planning an epic journey this fall since, well since last spring I suppose. It's been a long time coming. I thought I had it all hammered out. 2 weeks in SE Asia, a week in Nepal and then a 3 week African safari to see mountain gorillas in Uganda. I was even going to book the safari this week until I saw that you have to purchase gorilla trekking permits in Uganda. For $5-700 fucking dollars. For a 1 day journey into the mountain to look at them for maybe an hour.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to do it, even if it's outrageously expensive. But this year doesn't seem like the year I should do it. I have to have AT LEAST $5,000 for my move to Australia in early '11.

I'm not that disappointed because I know I will go one day and perhaps even live in Africa for a while (it's something I've always wanted to do. But really, what HAVEN'T I wanted to do?) So I've shifted my focus onto seeing all that Asia has to offer.

I am probably going to Thailand for summer vacation. After the contract, I want to see the Philippines, Hong Kong again, Macau, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia and possibly Indonesia. I really want to see the Great Wall but the visa to get into China is $150, plus airfare in the summer is really high. Can I leave Asia without seeing it? That is the question.

Actually, the most important question is what the fuck to do about Nepal.

I've been saying that I'm going to Nepal after my contract since the day I applied for EPIK. It's probably either 2 or 3 on the list of places I want to go. But Nepal is not exactly located anywhere near SE Asia. So far, the cheapest route to Nepal is going to be about $8-900. And it's quite out of the way, so I'll be going way west, and then coming back down to SE Asia. I thought about not going to Nepal this year. It's not exactly going to be a convenient stopover in my little journey. But then my dad said "it's not like it's going to be any easier than it is right now. This is probably the cheapest and easiest time you can get there." Plus I NEED to go to Nepal.

So this is a proposed itinerary: Seoul to Manila. Philippines for a week. Manila-Kuala Lumpur. KL-Nepal, a week in Nepal, then back to KL. Then fly down to Ho Chi Minh City and do Vietnam, then cross over to Cambodia and see that. Then fly back to KL (it seems to be Air Asia's main hub) and possibly go to Indonesia, or else just go to Hong Kong/Macau and fly back home from there. Maybe stopping in Hawaii if the price is right.

So basically, I'm just frustrated trying to find the cheapest way to do this. My head hurts from looking at airline websites. I'm going to bed. Maybe it will just book itself for me.

Animals in Korea

2010-04-04T21:07:00.001+09:00

Yesterday I went down to the animal shelter with some friends to pet cats and walk dogs. It's a really great organization in Daegu called Korean Animal Protection Society and you can go there just to play with the animals and get word out about their organization or you can adopt an animal if you're looking for a friend.

I've never been much of a dog person. I have a dog at home, but I prefer cats. Easier to deal with, they don't bark and they don't smell. So I never thought I would fall in love with a Korean dog. But I did.

She's so ridiculous looking you have to love her. They think she's a pug/shitzu mix. She weighs about as much as a box of cereal and you could probably fit her in one as well.

I've resisted getting an animal for 8 months. I'm planning to travel for 2 months after my contract and then head to Australia next year for a while. But sometimes fate intervenes. Lately, I've been longing for a companion. I don't usually mind being single and living alone, but I've been awful lonely lately. So maybe this little dog is what I need.

I haven't actually adopted the dog. Kaps lets you foster dogs for as long as you want, basically to give them a better home while they're waiting to be adopted. So right now, I'm just a foster mom to this little girl. But she is so sweet and her story is so sad. She's been at the shelter since November. Her tail was cut off and she's missing a bone in her leg, but you'd never know because she loves to run around and play. They said she was deathly ill when she was dropped off and most dogs that get sick when they're first at the shelter end up dying, but she survived. I'm thinking of adopting her and shipping her home after my contract, then hopefully my parents or grandparents will take care of her until I come back from Australia.

It's so heartbreaking to visit the shelter. The dogs are all so sweet. I went up to this one dog's cage because it was crying and then I put my hand in through the bars and it just rested its head in my hand, wagging its tail and whimpering. There are so many dogs there that deserve a loving home.

Animals in Korea don't really mean much. Not many people have pets and a lot have no need for one. There are a lot of strays. The girl who works at the shelter said the other day some lady came in with a dog and basically threw it at her. She asked the woman if this was her dog and she shrugged and ran off. The dog has a skin rash, but other than that it's in good health. The woman just didn't feel like taking care of it anymore. I think that's probably the story of a lot of dogs at the shelter. There are some gorgeous dogs in there and it makes me wonder why they'd end up in the pound. Probably because they became too much of a hassle. There was this angry white dog yesterday. It was wearing a pink dress and it was barking and snarling at everyone. Last night they cut the pink dress off and it had been on the streets in the dress for so long all of its fur had worn off. Poor thing.

So if you're interested in adopting or volunteering or just playing with some animals, you should really look into Kaps. There are a lot of animals that could use some love.

Taking a Rest

2010-03-26T18:06:00.000+09:00

The phrase I love most in Korea is "take a rest". They say it all the time. And nobody takes a rest better than Korean teachers. They're always sleeping in the office. One of my new co-teachers is just out of college and on Monday she was telling me how tired she was and she wishes she could take a nap. I told her she could take a nap at her desk when we got back from lunch. She said she was too afraid to do that and I wanted to laugh at her. I told her never to be afraid to take a nap because we all do it. She'll learn.

I got to leave school early today to go home and "take a rest". I didn't even have to use sick time.

I'm full of snot. It's awful. I was blowing my nose in the office before class and my teacher asked me if I slept good last night. I said no, not at all. I was up half the night blowing my nose and trying to breathe. She said it sounds like my cold has gotten worse and I don't look good and I'm very pale. Usually I get miffed when I'm told I don't look well because it's usually when I'm not wearing makeup and then I feel like a fuggo, but I had to agree with her today. I even have some sweet bags under my eyes. Then my teacher said "maybe after all the classes are finished you can go home to take a rest." Sounds good to me!

Somehow I got through the next few classes. I was a little afraid I was going to die at one point because this weird sensation would wash over me and it was hard to take a breath. But I think it's because I had to do so much talking today and my nose was too stuffy to breathe.

So I snuck out of school during lunch and went home and took a 2 hour nap. I tried to resist it as much as I could, but I had to use some Afrin so I could finally breathe.

This stuff is like a miracle drug. No matter how bad your congestion is, it will cure it in seconds. It's also highly addictive and they warn you not to use it for more than 3 days or you'll get rebound congestion that's worse than before. Just a little piece of advice: listen to that warning or you'll be sorry!

I think I might have had a fever today because I was so cold I couldn't sleep. I had to change into my flannel pjs and turn the ondol on almost all the way. I'm supposed to go to Jeonju tomorrow to see my friends from Muju but if I still feel this shitty I may have to postpone the trip.

The Ghosts

2010-03-24T23:46:00.000+09:00

I've been feeling melancholy this week. The weather has been bad and the school week has been long. And I was told I have to work next Saturday for an open class (which i'm totally not doing unless they guarantee me overtime pay). I've felt like crying all evening but I'm not really able to. It's a weird state of mind.

The ghosts of the past have come back to haunt me. I try not to dwell on things that are finished and that I cannot change, but sometimes I think about them and then I get sad. I think to myself "what if I had said this instead of that, what if I had done this then instead of doing it later, what if...Sometimes you say and do things you can't take back. Whether that's the cause of a relationship crumbling, I don't know. But when those ghosts come back, you can't help the what if's.

I'm in a good place in my life now but I occasionally wonder what my life would be like if things had happened differently. What if things had been more balanced? Less complicated? More convenient? Where would I be then? Where would we be?

They have nothing to do with my future, I don't think, although anything is possible, but they're impossible to forget.

Is love like a drug? Is the first time being in love the best, and then you're chasing the high for the rest of your life, trying to find someone who will make you feel as good as you did with your first love? Or does it get better after time and you find someone that blows the others out of the water and you wonder what the hell you ever saw in those jackasses anyway.

And even when that happens, can you really divorce yourself from the ghosts of the past, or will a little part of you always be haunted by the what if's, by the one that got away?

There's a line from a song that gets me every time.

And that last kiss I'll cherish
Until we meet again
And time makes it harder
I wish I could remember

But I keep your memory
You visit me in my sleep
My darling, who knew?

Anyway, I've been thinking about someone. And I really miss them sometimes.

Paradise Found: Hong Kong!

2010-03-23T20:07:00.002+09:00

I just got back from a whirlwind weekend trip to Hong Kong. All I can say is WOW!

First, I'll start by pointing out all the bad things about Hong Kong.
1. The air was terrible. In fact, this past weekend was some of the worst air pollution in Hong Kong history.
2. I don't live there.
3.....there is no 3.

I always, perhaps unfairly, compare every city I visit to NYC. I want to be wowed and dazzled and all that good stuff, but I never am completely. I love huge cities with tons of skyscrapers, bright lights, great food and shopping and a diverse population. So far, no city has ever come close to wowing me like New York does. But I've finally found its equal. It might even be better, because Hong Kong doesn't have much winter. Hong Kong is amazing. I love it because it feels like the best of the east and the west. It's exotic enough so you don't feel like you're in a Western city, but there is enough diversity and English speakers to make you feel comfortable. The best of both worlds.

Comparing Hong Kong to Korea would be like comparing apples and oranges. The only thing they have in common is they're both in Asia. And both have bad air pollution. Almost everyone there can speak English, most of the buildings have unique designs instead of being just one of thousands of Soviet bloc style apartment buildings. Their stores and street markets have Western size clothing. There are Chinese people, white people, black people, Arab people, Indian people, Southeast Asian people etc. The food is delicious and the ethnic food actually tastes like it's supposed to! The air was warm and humid and for the first time since my Australia trip I was able to wear a t-shirt outside. My nose has been bloody since November and after 1 day in HK it was totally healed. Of course it's bleeding again.

I don't really know what it is about Hong Kong that I liked so much. We were only there for about 36 hours and therefore weren't able to even scratch the surface of it, but I love its energy and the vibe you get from being there. And the fact that they have at least 2 H&Ms doesn't hurt either. Plus they have a really cute flag.

There Goes the Neighborho-I mean, Dong

2010-03-16T20:01:00.000+09:00

Back in September, I wrote about the noraebang across the street. Their neon sign is pretty bright and it flashes all night. I thought about investing in some curtains, but I didn't and I got used to the light. I should have bought those curtains.

I slept like crap on Sunday night so last night I wanted to go to bed early yesterday. I was lying in bed, trying to sleep but I just couldn't. It was so bright I had to put my arm over my eyes. Then I thought 'why the hell is it so bright in here?' So I looked out the window.

A pool hall just opened up across the street, above the noraebang. And really, that's just what this place needs, a pool hall. It's not like there's one right next door...oh, wait, there is. And now there's one across the street. And this place is open all night. I ended up having to tape these big sheets of brown packing paper on my windows so I could finally get some sleep.

I really hate my apartment.

It's like living next to a stadium.

This is as dark as my place can get without the paper over the windows.