yeah it was perfect and i hold it in my mind

as i sit in the back of my classroom at my make-shift desk (because my actual office is freezing and the computer decides it doesn't want to work half the time) the cleaning girls come into the empty classroom and take it over cleaning. first with opening all the windows, sweeping the floors, mopping the floors, wiping down tables, cleaning the whiteboards and wiping down both my desk and my co-teacher, jungwha's desk. all while this is happening i sit here and still can't believe i decided to stay a second year in korea. 

i remember during my first year about half way through... i was talking to my friend jennie. she was getting excited to go back home to america after being in korea for almost a year. she asked me if i was staying another year and i remember telling her a definite "NO". i was so sure that i was going to leave korea at the end of my first contract and go back to america and be done with my experience of living abroad. but somewhere between august and december something changed. i don't know if it was that i was scared to go back to america when it's in such an economic crisis and with the presidential election looming over the countries heads. or if i was nervous to go back to america with no place to really call my own, no car, no job or income to pay my loans, and no real plan in mind. either way i told myself that i couldn't go back to the states. i wasn't ready to go back. 

after going through the hassle of moving my life from daewha to hwajeong, preparing all my documents for my new school i have situated myself into somewhat of a routine. my new apartment is set up differently from my other place. it's probably a tiny bit smaller, i have a smaller bed, but i have a couch now, i have less closet space which is actually fine cause it's just what i need, and i have a ton of storage space, like way more than i would ever need. *if i find the time, i will maybe make another video to show my new apartment* i take the bus to and from work everyday. i'm teaching 3rd, 5th and 6th grade, with two kindergarten classes on monday and two after school classes on tuesdays as well. this means the only grade i am not involved with at this school is the 4th grade. they keep me pretty busy.

on top of teaching i still have my grad school classes going on. as of now i am on my final week of my 3rd class. this means i only have 6 classes left until i am officially done with my program. which means 6 classes till i have my master's degree. so far it's been good, i've had a good time with it. and i've actually learned a few things along the way. my current class, Child and Young Adult Literature has actually been a lot of fun, except for the fact that i became the tech guru for my class. how I became the tech person i am not entirely sure, but i guess i'm not half bad when it comes to technology. on top of grad school i also have some extra stuff i have been working on. so between all of it, i keep myself pretty busy. and since i decided that this second year, i was going to be saving money/paying off some of my student loan debt, the extra workload comes with a nice extra pay increase that is helpful. i just hope i don't spread myself too thin or run myself into the ground in the process... 

as of now i have my trip home in august for a visit to look forward to. i had two other trips to look forward to as well; a long weekend trip to DC to visit a friend, but since we aren't really speaking as of now it looks as though that's out of the question.  and then there was the trip that my sister was supposed to take in june to come and see me. but she refuses to save her money and would rather visit her so called "boyfriend" than come and visit me. so after two failed attempts and planning things, i'm refusing to plan anything else, cause the way i see it, they aren't going to work out even if i want them too. 


as of now i'm just keeping myself busy. i'm looking forward to what this year is going to bring me.

 

one year ago...

the 28th of february marked my one-year anniversary of living here in korea. it feels like time has flown by. it doesn't feel like it's been a year. some mornings i wake up and it feels like the first day, other days it feels like i have been here for ages. no matter how long i have been here, i have enjoyed my time here. sure there have been ups and downs, hard times and easy times, times where i have been homesick for friends and family and familiarity, and other times where i don't want to go home. below are some of the things this past year has brought me. these aren't in any date or specific order... 

zip-lining. for someone who hates heights i have now done this and bungee-jumping while in korea

jennie and i completed ziplining!

we spent a weekend playing in the mud at mudfest 2011!

dani and i at the north seoul tower near the wall of locks.

our first weekend as rooooooommates in korea!

st. patrick's/dani's birthday weekend out in seoul.

school hikes with my co-teachers

a long weekend trip to jeju island!

iain visited and we headed to the DMZ

at the freedom bridge in between north and south korea

got to see sara bareilles live in concert in seoul!

adventured to thailand with stephanie for summer vacation!

water balloon fights!

jennie and i went to her co-teachers family reunion. this is supposed to be the yellow sea.

i've eaten plenty of traditional korean food...

plenty of girl's nights out in seoul!

winter camp meant plenty of time to play with my kids!

spent chuseok (korean thanksgiving) in busan at the beach!

Santa-con 2011 out in Hongdae!

adventured to indonesia for winter vacation. anything to get out of the freezing cold winter that is korea.

 i'm starting year number two working at a new school, living in a new apartment in a new city, and i'm ready for new adventures. this second year is all about saving though. i didn't do so well with that the 1st year. i have added to my debt with doing grad school instead of making it go down. in the end though it will be worth it cause i will have my master's degree and be done with school. 

so this year's goals: 
- save as much as i can
- pay down my loans at least a little 
- continue with grad school 
- actually work on my speaking/reading korean

here's to another year of amazingness... 

indonesia... part two

so it's been a few days, instead of hours, since i posted my first part about indonesia. so much has happened in those few days, but that's for another blog post to come later. er... i think it's been a week at least. oops... 

so we left off with dani and i in kuta and getting the hell out of there as fast as possible! we took a bus inland to ubud, which was my favorite part of bali definitely! once we finally got off the bus and actually to ubud we walked around for 30 mins or so looking for a room that was reasonably priced for a few nights. after going off the beaten path, i finally found a place for a us to stay. 

where we stayed for a few nights :) 

 while we were in ubud we were able to relax as we didn't have to be anywhere at anytime. pretty much perfect! there were a ton of little shops all around that were selling all these wonderful batik fabrics, little trinkets and so many other things. there was a giant market where the shop owners harassed us over and over to buy something from them. and let's not forget the food.... oh the food! 

while we were there, we finally got to enjoy some LEGIT mexican food. after living in korea for a year and not having access to mexican food on a regular basis. and what we do have access to is not the greatest mexican food at all. you can barely call it mexican food. so to have mexican food was very exciting! 

rooooommate at mojo's! 

MEXICAN FOOOOOOOD!

such a good burrito!

i could eat this everyday and be perfectly content

while we were in ubud we went to the monkey forest. let me start this off by saying... these monkey's are assholes! they steal peoples things; including sunglasses, camera, shoes, backpacks, etc. so you have to be pretty careful. we met up with nick and jessica and headed to the forest... 

he refused to let me take his picture...

it was so pretty here

 also while in ubud, dani and i went and saw some traditional balinese dancing. their outfits were absolutely amazing, their make up was over the top. when they were dancing their eyes were so intense... it was crazy! 

from ubud we flew down to java and stayed in surabaya. this is the area where dani lived while she was on fulbright in indonesia. we were able to go to her old school and see the teachers and some of her students there. we were also able to see the areas where she explored while she lived there.

one of the teachers. seriously reminded me of sharone

 while we were there we went to the taman safari. it is exactly what it sounds like... a safari with a ton of animals. these animals pretty much roam free around the land. so we had random animals coming up to our car ALLLL the time. zebras, camels, antelope, monkeys, emus... there is a part where you can walk around too and see the animals as well. we had an orangutan consistently throw rocks at us while we were walking around that area. i was also able to play with a baby tiger. and dani was able to play with an owl. 

just a zebra coming to say hello

just me playing with a baby tiger

he really wanted the carrots

these birds are sooooo ugly!

he would not stop throwing rocks at us

 after a few days in surabaya i bid indonesia farewell and headed back to the freezing land that is korea. i was on the plane in shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops. needless to say i was freezing when i got to korea and it was SNOWING! but i did capture this awesome sunset. 

 

now that i'm back, i have moved and started at my new school. so far so good... we will see how things go.

indonesia... part one

so because i am procrastinating on my homework (typical i know) (BUT... i am halfway done with it) i figured i would go ahead and finally work on my blog updates from indonesia. since you know... i've been home for almost a whole month now! this trip will probably be broken down into two blogs... two weeks of vacation, two blogs. 


*warning you now, there will be a lot of pictures*

sooooo.... dani and i left for indonesia on the night of the 14th. we took a midnight flight out of incheon, flew to kuala lampur, malaysia and then finally flew into denpasar, bali on the afternoon of the 15th of january. after getting out bags, finding a taxi and FINALLY finding out hostel (after the taxi driver got lost a few times), we unpacked a bit, changed out of our jeans into shorts and swimsuits and headed for the beach! 

Sanur Beach

we got into bali a day before our friend jessica, so we walked around on the beach and then boom.... rainstorm. we tried to wait it out in a restaurant and eat. we met an adorable older couple from australia there for a wedding while waiting. after deciding the rain wasn't going to let up, we decided to head back. after the rain stopped, we grabbed dinner with a few people from our hostel. the next day we did a bit more exploring down by the beach, ate some good food and wasted time till jessica go in. once jessica arrived, the next morning bright and early around 6am we headed for the airport. we were flying out from bali and heading to flores. 

view from the plane to flores

beach right outside our hotel

harbor at labuan bajo

sunset outside of our hotel

gorgeous sunset... terrible sunburn

after getting to labuan bajo, finding a driver and a hotel to stay in we ended up booking a two day, one night trip on a boat. the boat was going to take us to komodo island, rinca island and a few other islands to do some snorkeling. so the next day, our driver picked us up and took us to the harbor. we set sail for rinca island first. 

jessica loving the view

 
we made it to rinca island first. this is one of the two islands that is inhabited with komodo dragons. these things are pretty ugly looking, very dangerous and extremely lazy. we took a tour around the island with a guide who told us a lot of information about the komodo dragons and how they live. 

basking in the sun

huddled under the house waiting for food

 from there we got back on the boat and headed towards our first snorkeling site. with my fear of the water, i had a major panic attack when i got in the water and attempted to snorkel the first time. i ended up getting out while the girls continued. afterwards, we headed towards komodo island, the big island with the dragons. we slept on the boat in the middle of the sea between the island. 

sleeping on the boat

the next morning we woke-up and headed towards komodo island. when we arrived, we went through another tour, this time the komodo dragons were spread out through out trek instead of all in one place. 
 

reppin' my blazers jersey!

just hanging out in the middle of the walkway

so lazy. they all just laid there

our boat was the one on the very left

after komodo island, we headed back towards the flores. along the way we did some more snorkeling. determined to actually complete the snorkeling, i took an excedrin migraine to help with my splitting headache, told myself to suck it up and jumped in. 

with water like this, who wouldn't want to jump in

perfect snorkeling water

jessica, dani and me ready to go

second snorkel site. had to dock farther out.

me and dani at last snorkel site.

 did i mention how amazing the food was... because it was! the crew on the boat did all the cooking for all of our meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner. it was delicious. except for the avocado/mango smoothie. sadly i couldn't enjoy that, cause you know dying isn't high on my priority list while on vacation. 

one of the amazing meals we had on the boat

 we finally reached land again and docked after our two day trip on the boat. after parting from our boat, our driver picked us up and we headed back into town. we needed food and dani wanted to find a place that was going to book scuba diving trips. my christmas present this year from her was her paying for me to go scuba diving. we found a place, booked, grabbed dinner and then headed back to our hotel. all we wanted to do was go home, shower, unpack a bit and go to bed... that didn't happen. i saw something scurry across the floor into the corner and me being me, panicked and made dani come deal with it. turns out it was a cockroach. for the next 30-45 mins dani, jessica and i squealed and screamed as we tried to get rid of all the cockroaches that kept appearing in our room. we were apparently so loud that a (excuse my language) very bitchy italian woman came and knocked on our door and proceeded to yell at us for being loud and told us to stay home next time. she was so angry that she went and got the manager. thankfully he got rid of the last one that wouldn't leave. after that, we were all terrified of the walls. we sprayed down the room with bug spray, moved my bed away from the corner and called it a night. 

scuba diving the next day. jessica and i went to a different island than dani since she is already certified to dive and we had never done anything before. 

soooo sunburned, but so worth it!

our awesome dive instructor from poland celebrating after finishing the day!

 after our day diving, we had one last day in labuan bajo before heading back to bali and separating from jessica. we slept in, slowly packed up our rooms, checked out and headed into town. we went and found food and then decided to get a creme bath for our hair. after a nice and relaxing hour creme bath we headed to the airport. we arrived back in bali about two hours later and headed to kuta to find jessica's hotel. she was waiting for nick to get in later that night. after finding decent mexican food, dani and i decided we would stay at the place for one night.... what a joke. our air conditioner didn't work and we were miserably hot and sticky all nght. the next morning we checked out to find something better. we ended up staying in a place that was RIGHT down the road, was way cheaper and the air conditioner worked! 

lesson learned over those two days. don't go to kuta. it's the big touristy area where all the surfers from australia come and hang out. lots of tourists, lots of shopping areas, it's disgustingly dirty, the beach by kuta is so gross. we booked it out of there the next day and headed to ubud. which will be the next blog post to go up... after i find food. i'm starving.