Angi's Adventures

Four Months Home in the States

2010-11-14T13:40:00.001+09:00

After my travels and a 2 week visit to Korea, I returned to the States at the end of July. I hadn’t been home in nearly 29 months. I planned to be home until the end of August, or maybe the end of September. Turns out God had other plans, and I’m finally heading back to Korea - here in mid November!

My time home was great… except for the large amount of debt I acquired. Oops. I’ll be spending my first 8 or 9 paychecks getting that all paid off again. However, it was wonderful to see friends and family! I got to spend time with almost everyone I wanted to, though a few I would have liked to see a bit more/longer. On the other hand, I got to spend a good amount of time with many, which was a blessing. I took surprisingly few photos as mostly my friends and I just, well, hung out. We didn’t really do anything unusual so I guess I didn’t think about taking photos as often as I do when living/traveling abroad.

So what did I do? Well, 4 months is hard to sum up quickly. Therefore, I’m going to write a list of things I got to do (not in chronological order)!

Let’s start with the bigger stuff:

1. Flew to Halifax, Canada to attend Allison and Tyler’s wedding (though they had already gotten married in Korea). I saw a few people I knew from Korea and met many more fantastic folks. It was a very fun 4 days!

Playing washer-toss... turns out I'm awesome at this game!

Beautiful setting for a wedding!

With Ty and Allie, the "newly"weds.

2. Took a few trips to Chicago. On the first, my mom, sister, and I hit up several museums and saw the Blueman Group (always great). On the second I hung out with a college friend, Micah, and her boyfriend. And I did some shopping J On the third trip, I met up with my mom and sister to go see the Lion King musical. Also great.

3. Took the Amtrak out to New York City to meet up with one of my good friends from Korea, Rachel. She’s from London and was visiting the States for a couple weeks, so I met up with her for her last couple days. We had fun hanging out - walking around a lot and doing some of the free stuff (walking the Brooklyn Bridge, the Staten Island ferry, Central Park, Times Square, etc).

Enjoying the fall foliage in Central Park.

On the Brooklyn Bridge.

On the Staten Island Ferry... it was quite cold!

Happy Hour... bottle number 2...

We made friends with the staff at the sports bar where we stopped for Happy Hour (and 6pm) and went out with them after they closed (around midnight)... it was a long, but fun, night!

Sign on our hostel's door.

Enjoying a sunny, warmer day after our long night out!

Final stop: Times Square. It's better at night.

4. Went out to Portland, Oregon for a week, with a day-trip to Seattle. I blogged about that previously, so check it out if you’re curious!

Smaller events:

1. Celebrated my aunt’s 50th birthday (we succeeded in surprising her).

Surprise!

My sister, Aunt Chris, cousin Shawn, myself, and my cousin K.C.

2. Went to my church’s campout. It was fun, but cold!

3. Experienced the Taste of Peoria for the first time.

Angela and I shared some delicious samples (and enjoyed a few individually, too!).

4. Went to the Pulse Fest; was very happy to see TobyMac in concert.

Yolonda and I played "pass the pigs" while we waited for Toby Mac.

Toby Mac!

5. Enjoyed a few First Fridays in downtown Goshen.

ND's Shakespeare in the Park

6. Attended a friend’s Halloween/fall party.

Day-to-day things:

1. Spent hours (as in, very many hours) at the Brew, my all-time favorite coffee shop. I also spent many hours at a few different Starbucks. And the Blend, the coffee shop in my parents’ town, know me and my order.

The Brew!

Starbucks in Peoria

2. Read at least a few dozen books.

3. Drove a lot. I was back and forth between Washington, IL and Goshen, IN almost every week. I rented a total of 4 different cars (a big contribution to my debt).

4. Bought a lot of clothes. Pretty much a new wardrobe. It was much needed after living in Korea for so long and not shopping often. (Also a large contribution to my debt.)

5. Ate at my favorite restaurants, some a few times.

Olive Garden in St Louis with Amanda and Becca.

6. Met many babies and toddlers and other youngsters. My friends have a had a lot of babies since I’ve been away!

7. Hit up the Spring a few times (the one cool bar in Goshen; it opened the year I first left for Korea).

Playing darts at the Spring.

8. Went to see many movies in the theater. Not really sure how many - maybe about a dozen (which is actually kind of a low number..).

9. Also watched a good amount of movies with friends at their homes. And on my computer.

10. Got a cavity filled, a broken filling fixed, and a root canal.

11. Enjoyed many lazy Sundays, sitting around with friends and watching football… Go Bears! Go Colts!

12. Before accepting my new job, spent many hours looking for jobs online, applying, and interviewing. Very stressful at times!

A few more photos:

Tiger Lily, the only cat I'll tolerate.

I made sure to enjoy some Chief ice cream a few times; looks like Jared is enjoying his dad's ice cream.

Laura and I had a couple girls' nights... on our first we ended up at Steak n Shake (due to a very quiet downtown Goshen!).

I LOVE the fall!


But I do enjoy the first snowfalls of the year, too.


With Laura Jo and April.


Family dinner at Chili's - Matt, Liza, and mom.

Rare photo of my dad!

It was definitely nice to be home again (especially since I didn’t have to work!), but I am very ready to return to Korea. I’m arriving about 12 days before I actually start teaching again, though I will have training at my new school for a couple days about a week after I get there. I’m moving into my new place the last weekend of November. I’ll be living in Guri, east of Seoul (but still on a subway line), teaching at POLY school there. After 9 months I’m very excited to be getting my own place again - and I’m even looking forward to teaching again! Can’t wait to meet all my new kiddos, though I still miss my old ones! It’s also going to be nice to pay off my new debt and knock off some more of my old debt (my student loans). Not to mention to start saving and dreaming about my next travel adventures ^^

Back in the USA: Oregon and Seattle!

2010-09-17T10:14:00.000+09:00

For the past couple of months, I've been home in the States. I've mostly been in Illinois and Indiana, but I've also taken a couple trips.

My second trip was at the beginning of this month. I flew to Portland, Oregon to visit my friend Amy Marsh; we went to the same church in Korea from 2006-2008. I was there for eight days. We had a great time going around Portland together; she was an excellent host! My time in Portland included a soccer game, tubing down the Sandy River, an improve show, a (surprisingly sunny) day at the beach (including a stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory and the purchase of too much fudge), the Saturday market (on Sunday ^^), waterfalls and short hikes around the Columbia River Gorge, and some great food – a Korean burrito and several delicious foods (and drinks) during Happy Hour (which, for those of you unaware of Portland happenings, is a big thing there; nearly every restaurant or bar – and even shopping mart - has Happy Hour deals). One of my favorite Happy Hours was spent at a place where not only can you get cheap food/drinks, but also watch a movie in a gymnasium filled with sofas/armchairs for your viewing comfort... So we enjoyed tater tots (and I had an amazing veggie burger) and ruby ale whilst lounging on a sofa, watching a semi-new movie… All for a low price!

While in Portland, I also visited with two other friends from Korea, Sarah Lee and Greg. We all worked at LCI; during my first 2 months at the Ansan branch we worked together (it was their last 2 months). Sarah Lee is quite pregnant (7 months) so we just hung out around their apartment, and their neighborhood a bit, catching up, watching episodes of The IT Crowd, and watching many movie trailers (and even one movie).

Amy and I also went up to Seattle for a day. Our day trip included the Pike Place Market (including the first-ever Starbucks store), Pioneer Square, delicious food at a French café, and the Space Needle (though we chose not to go up; it’s very expensive!). In the evening we visited Jackie and Kevin, two more friends from Korea.

It was sad to leave Portland, but, alas, it had to be done eventually! (go here for photos!)

TEFL International: Ban Phe and Ko Samet, Thailand

2010-08-21T12:31:00.001+09:00

After my 2 weeks in Vietnam I flew once again to Thailand, arriving in Bangkok on a Saturday morning. For some time I had been considering taking a TEFL/TESOL course to become certified in what I’ve been doing for a living… And if I’m going to spend a month studying, where better to do so than sunny Thailand?! Thus I found myself with 9 others in a small fishing village a few hours southeast of Bangkok called Ban Phe. Upon arriving I was actually able to unpack my backpack for the first time in months – what a nice feeling! It was wonderful having my own room for 4 weeks!

There were 10 of us officially on the course, and one other who participated in class the first couple weeks; she has already taken a TEFL International course and so was simply training to become a trainer herself. After the first couple weeks she became one of our observers for teaching practice, along with the director, Dave, and the director-in-training, Pete. We had a good mix of nationalities: 3 Americans (+2 if you count the trainers), 2 Canadians (though one didn’t make it the whole month), a South African, an Australian, a Swiss, a Frenchman, a Mexican, and an Indian. Counting the trainers, there were 10 guys and 3 girls. Most of us were in our 20s and we got along well, hanging out in the evenings, studying and practicing together, and watching the World Cup. I was quite thankful for the World Cup as it gave us something to do every night – and it was fun watching with so many countries represented! I myself rooted for South Korea along with the USA, of course.

Other than class, preparing for teaching practices, and watching the World Cup, we mostly just hung out and, well, drank – mostly Sang som (Thai rum). I also went out to Ko Samet – an absolutely beautiful island – several times. The first was through the course; 3 of us enjoyed a relaxing day, despite the rain that drizzled most of the time we were out at the island. The next weekend I headed out again, with 2 guys from the course, to enjoy the Full Moon party (a Thailand tradition!). That proved to be a craaaazy night which included a fire show, buckets of alcohol, World Cup games (I watched both Korea and the US lose – sigh), and a pillow fight. We slept into the early afternoon the next day before heading back to the mainland. The third, and final, time I went was actually the weekend after the course ended. I went out on my own, treating myself to a pedicure and delicious Thai food on the beach; unfortunately, it was drizzling again so my final attempt to get some more sun before leaving SE Asia failed miserably. Oh well.

Other highlights: karaoke (where we discovered one of the guys can NOT sing!), amazing food, lots of joking around, sitting by the beach at night enjoying drinks and laughs, laying out on the beach (when it was actually sunny!), and a hugely fun drinking game (a version of King’s Club) on the last night of our course.

On Friday morning we received our certificates and then we had to say our goodbyes as everyone went their separate ways – a few to Pattaya, a few to Bangkok, one to Chiang Rai, and a few stayed in Ban Phe. I myself stayed in Ban Phe for the weekend – crashed most of the first day (I was still recovering from the drinking game shenanigans on Thursday night….), Ko Samet part of Saturday, and a massage both Saturday night and Sunday morning. I headed off to Bangkok on Saturday afternoon and flew out that night – back to Korea. My SE Asia adventure was finished, but thankfully my vacation was not! I spent the next couple weeks in Korea, hanging out and catching up with my friends (and visiting my former students) before returning to the States. Now I’m job hunting and hanging out around North America. I’ll post about these couple months “home” sometime soon! ^^

In the meantime, check out photos from my TEFL International course in Thailand!

Good Morning, Vietnam!

2010-08-10T14:00:00.000+09:00

After my few days in Cambodia I took a bus from Phnom Penh to Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City. To me, this city felt more like Korea to me than the rest of SE Asia. I think it was due in large part to the neon lights everywhere! I spent a couple days in Saigon; I really liked the city. I spent one day just walking around and exploring part of the city. Another day I went on a Cu Chi Tunnels tour. It was quite interesting, and a little hard as an American. The tunnels were used by the Viet Cong during the American War (known to us, of course, as the Vietnam War). We had the opportunity to go into one of the tunnels. It had been widened for us, and they also added some lights... yet after just a couple of minutes (if that) down in the tunnels we were all ready to be back out and felt no need to go back down! I can't imagine spending hours, days, weeks... down in the tunnels - with no lights, and less space. Wow.
After the tour I headed to the War Remnants Museum, which was filled with photos and news clippings from the war. I really liked this museum; some people have called it biased, but I really don't see how it was - many of the photos and news clippings were from American magazines and newspapers! They were the very ones that our family members read during the actual war. I'm fairly sure this museum presents more of the truth than we'll ever read in our American history books.

After a few days in Saigon I took a sleeper bus to Nha Trang. Sleeper bus, you ask? Well, it's simple - it's a bus with seats that recline, allowing passengers to sleep while traveling between cities. I got on at night, and arrived at my destination early in the morning! I had a seat in the back of the bus, so mine actually reclined fully. I managed to get a decent amount of sleep. In the morning I walked with an Irish couple (who had slept next to me on the bus) to the main backpackers area, found a hotel, changed, and hit the beach! It's an absolutely beautiful beach! I spent about two days in Nha Trang. Unfortunately I spent part of it feeling quite ill, but at least I had an air conditioned hotel room to crash in and rest - and a beautiful beach to walk along (and a refreshing ocean to swim in; the water was the perfect temperature!).

Next, I took a sleeper bus to Hoi An. This sleeper bus was a lot more bumpy than the first; I was once again in the back, this time with 3 German boys to keep me company. We all bumped our heads several times, and were awakened often by bumps that landed us back on our seats that had several random hard places in them. Sigh. Just another joy of traveling! The destination, Hoi An, was great. The town is known for its tailors - you can get anything you want made! There are also many great little cafes. I enjoyed a couple days of walking around, reading at cafes, and had a skirt made (I wanted to have more clothes made, but didn't want to spend too much money - nor did I have enough space in my backpack for much more!).

My next stop was Hue; it's only a few hours from Hoi An so I took a bus in the afternoon instead of overnight. Upon arrival at my hostel I was given a free beer - definitely a good sign! The town itself was ok; the tourist destinations are all historical. I spent part of my day in town walking around the citadel. After a night and day there, I'd seen enough and hopped on another sleeper bus!

This time I headed up to Hanoi. I didn't like Hanoi as much as Saigon. For some reason it seemed louder to me, and the traffic definitely seemed to be worse! In Vietnam traffic often doesn't stop for pedestrians; instead, you just slowly walk across the lanes of traffic and it goes around you! I learned to time it when a car had just passed (harder to walk around) but before too many moto bikes (though they were very good at going around you!). Upon my arrival in Hanoi I went with a girl from my bus to the hostel. We had to kill a few hours before we could get into our rooms, so we decided to walk around a bit. We went to a museum and sat down by the lake for a while. We also signed up for a Halong Bay tour through our hostel. In the afternoon she took a nap, and I treated myself to a movie (have I mentioned that movies in SE Asia were only about $3-$3.50?). Unfortunately I had an awful toothache that night and went to sleep early.

The next morning we headed out on the Halong Bay tour. Our tour consisted of 7 of us foreigners and a Vietnamese family. Our tour guide was nice, and the bay was gorgeous! We walked through a cave during the first afternoon, then dropped the Vietnamese family off at an island where they spent the night. That left just the 7 of us, plus our tour guide and the crew. We went kayaking around sunset and then they anchored the boat for the night. We all jumped in for a night swim before eating dinner. The afternoon/evening on the boat must have made us all tired because we all went to sleep fairly early. The crew, however, had a party! They were very loud for a while, keeping all of us awake longer than we'd hoped. And they kept trying to get us to go join them. Andrea, the girl who I shared a room with, and I went up for a bit, but soon went back down to our room to get sleep. The next morning some of us went for a morning swim before breakfast. We showered and packed up our stuff. After breakfast we all lounged around on top of our boat as we made our way back to the mainland. It was a relaxing morning! I enjoyed the tour a lot, especially getting to know 3 of the girls fairly well. The other 2 girls and the guy were nice, too, but we didn't talk a lot (I think due to English being their second language).

We headed back to Hanoi after lunch. In the evening I met up with Andrea and Jasmine (one of the other girls from the tour); the 3 of us walked to the train station and caught a train to SaPa. We spent the next couple days there. SaPa is up in the mountains, near the Chinese border. Because of it's high elevation it's a lot cooler, which was a very welcome change! It also tends to be quite rainy. We chose to trek to Cat Cat Village our first afternoon there. The day was sunnier and warmer than we'd expected!! But the village itself was nice! After wards we headed to another village that had hot springs... or so we were told. This village was located further down the mountain, so it proved to be quite hot. Not exactly hot spring weather.. once there some lovely mountain women offered to show us the way (they are all over the mountains, dressed in their traditional clothing; they walk and talk with you, offering their help, etc, and then expect you to buy stuff from them - tourist trap!). They ended up taking us to a waterfall "where we could swim" - um, no - dangerous! Instead Jasmine and Andrea waded in a bit and then we hit the dirt path once again. This time they led us to the hot springs. Or, should I say "hot springs": a hole in the ground with a tap of lukewarm water. Not what we had expected!! We decided not to use the "hot springs" and made our way back up the path and around to the village where we drank a lot of cold water before heading back to SaPa. The next day was typical SaPa weather - cool and rainy. We had a nice breakfast and then the girls went to a waterfall while I tried to find medicine for my toothache (which had been bothering me for several days by that time). I had no luck with the meds, unfortunately. We met back up at a cafe that had delicious hot chocolate and then I took a shower before heading back to Hanoi. The girls stayed one more day and returned to Hanoi on Friday.

I spent Thursday in Hanoi. My train got in around 5am, and I couldn't get into my room until after 11... I slept a bit on the couch at the hostel until I could drop my bag off (around 6) and then went to a cafe until I could check in. Then I took a nice nap! In the evening I went to a water puppet show. On Friday I walked around the city a bit, took a nap, and then met up with Andrea and Jasmine. We ate dinner together on the roof of our hostel and then Andrea took off to catch her bus to Hue. Eventually I had to go back to my room and pack up... the next morning I got up bright and early to fly to Bangkok - my next post!

Here's the link to my Vietnam photos!

SE Asia Continued: Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia

2010-08-05T12:33:00.005+09:00

A couple years ago I spent a couple weeks in Thailand. During that time I explored Bangkok, Phuket, and surrounding islands. This time around I flew directly to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. Chiang Mai is a beautiful area. It was a walled-in city and parts of the wall, along with the moat, remain. The majority of the backpacker hostels, restaurants, etc are within this area, as are many wats (palaces). I spent a few (HOT) days walking around and taking in the city. And eating a lot of wonderful vegetarian food! :D

From Chiang Mai I flew to Luang Prabang, Laos. Amazing. Laos is now on the top of my favorite countries list. What makes the country so fabulous? Good question… let’s see… Beautiful scenery. Delicious coffee. Great night market in Luang Prabang (including an all-you-can-eat-for-one-dollar all vegetarian buffet!). You can actually walk in peace without constantly hearing “tuk-tuk, tuk-tuk?” or “moto, moto?”. Wildly fun tubing in Vang Vieng. Free whisky shots all day (and night) long in Vang Vieng – adding to the fun, naturally. Not completely overrun by tourists (yet). Honestly, you just need to experience it! Everyone I’ve met has loved Laos. I think if you’ve traveled a bit around other SE Asian countries first you’ll appreciate it even more.

I spent a few days in Luang Prabang: walking along the Mekong, shopping at the night market, enjoying great coffee at various cafes, chatting with a monk in a small temple, and overall relaxing in the peace and beauty of the town.

My next stop was Vang Vieng for a couple of crazy days! I arrived there in the evening and was soon out dancing and enjoying a bucket of whiskey coke. We followed the crowd and went to a few bars before crashing for the night. The next day we all slept in and took our time getting going. Eventually a group of us headed down to the river for tubing. Myself and Stephen, a guy from Sweden, were the only ones who actually rented the tubes and attempted to make it down the river (we didn’t start early enough, and it was low season – thus a very weak current – so we didn’t get to make it all the way down; just a bit further than the last bar). All along the river are bars that have various drink specials and different types of activities, like trampoline swings and zip lines. Due, again, to time (and also to lack of money) we only made a couple stops. How do you make a stop, you ask? It’s simple – you see a bar where you want to stop, you signal to someone working at the bar, they toss a rope to you, you grab on, and they pull you in! After our day tubing, we made it back up to our hostel (which, btw, was an awesome hostel called Spicy Laos – highly recommended!). A bunch of us bought our hostel’s tank tops (“same same but spicier”) and we all headed out for another night of drinks and dancing, being sure to grab any newcomers and bring them along with us. I ended my night with a banana pancake around 3am. Did I mention the pancakes? And the baguette sandwiches? Stands selling them, at all hours of the day, for very reasonable prices. Oh, also, one more thing to add about Vang Vieng. For some strange reason the majority of the restaurants around the small town show either Friends or Family Guy on a constant loop. We spent a couple hours each day just chilling, eating, and watching a few episodes of Friends. Odd.

My last stop in Laos was Vientiane, the capital. This city is not very impressive, especially after my first two stops. I only had about a day to spend there so I didn’t do much sight-seeing.

I flew from Vientiane to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Siem Reap is a pretty cool town; I wish I had stayed in a hostel closer to the main area. My hostel was very nice, and the people were extremely helpful and kind, but I lacked much communication with other backpackers. I headed into the main part of town after putting my stuff at my hostel and enjoyed some good food and shopping. However, throughout the town there are many, many children selling miscellaneous merchandise and begging for money. Heart-breaking. They know random facts about different countries and even states and will tell you what they know as they try to make a sale. It was really hard to ignore them, especially the ones that followed me around or that I saw more than once (somehow they always recognized me - even though they see hundreds of tourists a day). The next morning I was up early to catch sunrise over Angkor Wat. After sunrise I continued on to the other main temples. All of the temples were amazing. I called it a day after about 6 bottles of water, and it wasn’t even noon yet! Have I mentioned how HOT it was? It was around 40C (104F) almost every day I was in SE Asia!! I returned from the temples and then headed into the main part of town. I treated myself to Mexican, including a scrumptious mango margarita, before heading back to crash early at my hostel.

The next day I took a bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. I stayed in a nice hostel there, called Hostel Nomads. I met a guy from France at breakfast and we decided to spend the afternoon touring the Killing Fields and S-21 together. We hardly said a word to each other all afternoon due to the, well, horribleness of it all. Can’t believe I had never even heard of Pol Pot before moving to Asia. My last morning in Cambodia was spent chatting with other travelers; we talked through breakfast into lunch. That’s one of my favorite things about traveling – meeting others, from all over, and sharing experiences.

From Phnom Penh I headed to Vietnam… that will be my next post!

Go here for pictures from Chiang Mai, Laos, and Cambodia! ^^

Back in SE Asia: Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia

2010-08-04T12:51:00.001+09:00

After my fantastic trip down under, I returned to SE Asia. I arrived at the airport in Singapore about 3am and was flying out around 8pm that night. Singapore is a very small country - it's just one big city, really. The airport is quite nice; it won the "Best Airport" award this past year (unfortunately beating Incheon airport in Korea, which I still believe is the best!), but I wanted to do a little more than sit in airport cafes all day! Therefore, I headed out into the city for a few hours during the day. There isn't a lot to do except for shop and buy expensive Singapore Slings at Raffles... so I chose to go to the zoo. I wasn't super impressed by the zoo; it's a very nice zoo, but I've been to so many zoos nothing about it was new to me. It did, however, provide me with something to do for a few hours, and, hey, it's never a bad day when monkeys are involved!

After the zoo and sitting in Starbucks for several hours, I boarded a flight to Bali, Indonesia. Due to having only a few days in Bali I chose to stay in Kuta for my entire time there. The beach was disappointing, in my opinion, and the guys were, um, a bit more "touchy" than I care for... but I managed to enjoy my few days there: swimming and lounging by my hotel's pool during the day and (cheap but wonderful) massages at night!

I flew from Bali to Jakarta... then took a train overnight from Jakarta to Yogyakarta. If I had thought ahead I would have taken a bus from Bali to Yogya, but, um, it was a bit of a last minute decision to go there. The train was an interesting experience. The train station in Jakarta was very hectic and confusing, with many trains coming and going from the same platform. My train was late; over an hour. Nothing was in English so I had to enlist the help of some nice Indonesians to make sure I got on the correct train. The train itself was definitely old, but I managed to curl up in my seat (I had one to myself) and sleep for a decent portion of the night.
I stayed with a couchsurfer in Yogya, which was a good experience. She is married and has a kid so I got a little insight into an Indonesian family for a couple days, and ate some (free!) delicious Indonesia foods. There wasn't a lot to do in Yogya. The Kraton, or Sultan's palace, was a disappointment because you don't get to see much. The Taman Sari, or water castle, was small but nice. There were some cool temples, apparently, to see but they required some planning to get to as they are outside of the city and I only had about a day and a half there. I did, however, eat at a great place called the Ministry of Coffee which was recommended to me by some friends, and my couchsurfing host took me out to a nice little bar/cafe place one evening where we enjoyed some delicious banana desserts.

After a couple days in Yogya I took a train up to Bandung where another friend of mine from Korea (Melissia McGraw) now teaches at an International school. I spent a couple days with her, and sometimes a few of her friends. We enjoyed chatting at Starbucks, went to a peace-promoting concert (featuring an Indie Christian band from the States called North of Here), and also an Angklung performance (that also included a wooden puppet demonstration and some dances). We even got to try our hand at playing the Angklung ourselves, which was quite fun!

From Bandung I took a mini van back to Jakarta and caught my flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I stayed with another couchsurfer in KL. She still lives with her family so I once again got a fairly "authentic" Malaysian experience. I again got to eat some (free - again!) delicious foods, and even went out with her and her friend a couple times to the local restaurants that are popular for snacks at night. They typically serve Indian food and various hot drinks (like milo, coffee, and teas). During the day I had there I went up KL Tower and shopping at the mall located in the first few floors of the Petronas Twin Towers.

After a couple nights there, I headed to the Cameron Highlands for a few days. It was sooo calm and beautiful there! I went on a tour that included many places around the area: a strawberry farm, the BOH tea plantation, a butterfly farm, rose gardens, and a Chinese temple. I spent a lot of time just relaxing, reading, and chatting with fellow travelers.

I returned to KL after a couple days in the Cameron Highlands. I went with my couchsurfing host and her family to Pekan. Her dad led a workshop (or something like that...) at a church there, and then her friend gave the message on Sunday morning. After we returned to KL I had one more day to spend in the country. I actually returned to the shopping mall and basically wasted my day... but that night I went to see Iron Man 2 with my cs host and a couple of her friends before heading to the airport. I spent the night at the airport as I had an early flight out the next day.

From KL I flew to Chiang Mai, Thailand... but I'll get to that in the next post!

For pictures from the Singapore Zoo, Indonesia, and Malaysia, go here!

Two Weeks Down Under!

2010-08-03T13:17:00.004+09:00

One of the best things about living abroad is making great friends from all over the world... One of the best things about traveling after living abroad is visiting those friends!

After my mission trip to India I flew down to Perth, Australia for 2 fantastic weeks with my dear friend Katie Brooks. She was an excellent host and took me all around her city and even on a road trip a couple hours north of Perth to Cervantes (where we saw the awesome pinnacles) and New Norcia. We even saw kangaroos in the wild, which was pretty exciting!

I was there during the Easter holiday and ate hot cross buns for my first time ever on Good Friday. On Sunday we hid eggs for her younger siblings to find. I got to hold a koala, feed kangaroos, experience an Australian Football game (go Dockers!), see a hilarious show, do a fair amount of shopping, enjoy a street festival in Fremantle, take a surfing lesson, and overall enjoy some great quality time with Katie. Oh, she also got me addicted to an Australian young adult book series, the Tomorrow series and introduced me to a fabulous Australian movie, The Castle! We also watched another good Aussie movie, Samson and Delilah.

It was definitely a very fun trip… one day I’ll return to Western Australia and the rest of the country, too!

Go here to see photos from Perth and here to see photos from our road trip!

Also, if you want to watch a short video from the AFL game, go here. The Dockers pulled off a very unexpected win, making it quite the exciting first game to watch!

Mission Trip to Karnataka, India

2010-08-03T12:46:00.003+09:00

My wonderful church in Korea, Seoul International Baptist Church, has been a part of the ministry around Bangalore, Karnataka for a few years now. When I began to make plans for my travel, I sat down with Pastor Dan and discussed some mission options. One he quickly suggested was that I spend a week or two in India. I was happy to accept his help in planning a trip there as I always enjoyed hearing updates from teams that went there. In the end I had about 8 days which were spent with Pastor Enosh and his lovely wife Ruth in a village outside of Bangalore. They were great hosts; they fed me so much I literally felt stuffed for a large portion of my time there! They took me out to meet a lot of people involved with the ministry there, and I had the opportunity to pray for a lot of people in untouchable villages and churches around the area.

We spent part of a day in Bangalore so I could see a few places in the city.

We also went to Nandi Hills for an evening, which was quite close to the village where I stayed.

On another day I went with a couple of the other pastors and explored Mysore.

India

is a busy and colorful country and I look forward to returning one day to explore many other areas!!

To see photos from my trip, go here!

Southeast Asia: the Philippines, Round 2 (Palawan, Zambales, Makati)

2010-03-11T17:26:00.003+09:00

After 3.5 years of teaching English in Korea, I decided it was time to take a break – a looong break. I began my time off with a trip to the Philippines. After spending another week there (I first went there on a mission trip in January of 2008), I’ve decided I need to go spend several months there, island hopping and relaxing! As for this trip, I spent my first 4 days in Palawan. Palawan is a great island, about an hour flight from Manila. There is a lot to do in Palawan, but as I only had 4 days I opted to stay in Puerto Princesa. To be honest, there isn’t much to do in Puerto Princesa; it’s usually a starting or ending point for those traveling around Palawan as the airport is based there. However, it is a nice place to relax. The bay is a nice little area to walk around.

I stayed at the Banwa Pension, which has a very nice veranda where travelers can hang out, meet, compare adventures, give each other ideas, etc. I met a lot of people, and talked a lot about places to go (in the Philippines and elsewhere).

I also went on a couple of tours. The first was to the Underground River in Sabang. It was a great tour – good company, good food, and the river itself was amazing. There were lots of small bats, including tiny baby bats. We got a bit of insight into the Filipino culture on the tour, too, as myself and a girl from Calgary were the only non-Filipinos. One thing that was pretty funny was that many of the stalactites and stalagmites in the cave “resembled” something – whether vegetable, or Jesus’ face, or even the entire Holy family.

The second tour I did was of Honda Bay. If I’d had more time in Palawan, I would have headed north to El Nido, but instead I spent a day island hopping in Honda Bay, near Puerto Princesa. The tour was ok; I had the same guide, and once again it was mostly Filipino couples (and one old Korean guy). We had a lot of time to do what we pleased, which was nice. Our first stop was a large coral reef for some snorkeling. Then we went to an island for more snorkeling, plus swimming and relaxing. We went to one final island before leaving. We had a lot of time at this island; we ate lunch and swam more. A couple of us took advantage of the free (yes, FREE) massages in a shaded area on the beach. It was very nice, but shorter han I’d been told.

Coming back from that tour, we got held up in traffic. There was a festival going on all week (the Balayong Festival) and we’d come across a parade. We got out to watch for a bit and snap some photos.

On my last day in Puerto Princesa I spent some time at Itoy’s Coffee Haus (note: Americano there super sweet L), found a great vegetarian restaurant (Ima’s), and then watched part of the street dancing (part of the festival). I only watched 3 groups because by that time I was very hot! March is a hot month in the Philippines, and this year they are having hotter-than-usual temperatures, according to all the locals.

After 4 full days in Puerto Princesa, I flew back to Manila and then took a bus up to Olongapo. I spent the weekend at the Aeta Children’s Home where I had gone during my mission trip in ’08. It was great to see the children and teachers again. I swam with some of them (they put in a pool after I was last there), and watched TV with them. As it was so hot they didn’t run around and play much! So instead I just sat with them, and took naps in the afternoon when they were in their dorms resting. I spent my last night in the Philippines in Manila. I stayed at Our Melting Pot, which is a very friendly hostel. I walked to the Greenbelt mall both Monday night and Tuesday morning. It’s a huge place, and quite confusing, but I found some good food (and passed by many places that looked good), spent time at a bookstore, and made myself avoid entering any of the dozens of stores I saw offering me clothes in my size (as I’ll be backpacking the next several months, I’m not allowing myself to buy much, especially clothes that I won’t wear until next summer/fall anyway; I’ll shop in the States when I get there!).

The Philippines is a great place for traveling. It is often overlooked as most people choose Thailand over the Philippines (just as how most people visit Japan, but not Korea). I think it is unfortunate as the Philippines has a lot to offer – amazing rice terraces (I’ve only seen photos thus far, but hopefully on my next trip I’ll make it north of Manila to see them), hundreds of white sand beaches, a myriad of places to snorkel and/or dive, cheap beer and food, and friendly people. Oh, and they speak English! If you’re traveling around SE Asia I highly recommend adding the Philippines to your list of destinations! J

Oh, I was greeted by snow when I arrived back in Korea! Flip-flops + snow = cold toes for the taxi ride home!

East Asia: Japan, Part 3: Hakodate

2009-08-19T22:38:00.012+09:00

Day 6: Hakodate

On Thursday I woke up and hopped on my first of 3 trains. I took a train from Kyoto to Tokyo, then Tokyo to Hachinohe, and finally Hachinohe to Hakodate – a total of about 10 hours (including a few minutes between trains). I spent the train rides writing postcards, reading, and listening to music. I even saw a few Sumo wrestlers on the first train!

My friend Chellie, from Goshen College, greeted me at the train station in Hakodate. She’s been there for a bit over a year now, teaching English in public schools. We hadn’t seen each other for about 5 years, so it was good to see each other again! I spent my last few days with her, exploring her area and being a bit lazier than the previous few days (which was nice-uh!).

We went to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant for dinner then rented a movie to watch before crashing for the night.

Day 7: Hakodate

Friday was great as I got to sleep-in! We spent the afternoon and evening doing all of the touristy stuff around Hakodate (and, yes, we pretty much did ALL of the touristy stuff in one day ^^). We went to Goryokaku Park and then headed to a foot onsen. We did some shopping in an area down by the bay (but not where the watermelons grow…). They turned some old warehouses in neat little shops; I enjoyed walking through them and bought a few final gifts. We also hit up a small brewery so I could try some Sapporo beer!

the foot onsen

these little cars were running along the streetcar tracks in preparation for their upcoming Squid Festival

the old warehouse shops

We walked around the Motomachi District, on Mt Hakodate’s lower slopes. There is the Russian Greek Orthodox Church, the Old Public Hall of Hakodate Ward, the Old British Consulate, along with a few others. After walking through there we caught the cable car to the top of Mt Hakodate. According to the Japanese, the view from the top of Mt Hakodate is the 3rd best in the world... I would disagree, though it was a nice view once the fog cleared up! While we were waiting for the fog to clear up we got some drinks; I enjoyed some warm sake, and we both had fun setting our glasses (and my sake cup) on the little light-up coasters at the restaurant. Yes, amused by small things! After the mountain we headed back to Chellie’s apartment, watched a movie, and crashed.

the old Britsh consulate

Old Public Hall of Hakodate Ward

view of the bay

the Russian Greek Orthodox church

foggy view of the sunset from on top of Mt Hakodate

the clear view

Day 8: Hakodate

Saturday was my last full day in Japan. Chellie and I got up in time to grab some breakfast at Mister Donut (very popular in Japan) before meeting up with her Japanese teacher and others. We got to try on yukatas. Afterwards we enjoyed some Indian food (we’d gone there the day before, too!) and then met up with one of her friends for some karaoke. We sang some tunes for about an hour then headed down to the festival. It was day one of their big Squid Festival. That first night there were just a lot of booths with various street foods and random games. Chellie tried her hand at a couple games, and we all enjoyed some food (including delicious chocolate covered bananas!). When it started to get darker we met up with more of their friends to watch the big firework display. We got there a good hour or so before they were meant to start… and then the rain came. The fireworks were delayed a good hour or so; by the time they were started we were already a bit wet. Not long after the fireworks got going, the rain came down harder… after about an hour or so of some fantastic fireworks we were pretty soaked and cold. We made our way out slowly, walking during pauses and then stopping to watch a few more fireworks before walking during the next pause. In the end we got back to the train station and managed to get seats on the next train leaving. Back at Chellie’s we threw our wet clothes in the dryer and then headed to bed.

some signs on the train that I found to be funny

the group of us in our yukatas

chocolate-covered banana!

sittin' on the dock of the bay...

Mt Hakodate

Day 9: Hakodate… Tokyo… Incheon… Ansan!

Sunday was a long travel day for me… Her friend and I both had an early train to catch, so we had to leave Chellie’s apartment around 6:15am (it was about a half hour drive to the train station). I took 2 trains back to Tokyo, and then caught another train out to the airport to catch my flight. (Side note: I forgot to mention before. To get to Hakodate the train goes through the Seikan Tunnel, which is the world’s longest undersea tunnel.) Once back in Korea I met up with Allison, who was waiting for her mom to land (her mom flew in, from Tokyo, about a half hour after me). We took the bus back to Ansan, then grabbed a quick dinner. By the time I got back to my apartment it was about 11:15! It was a looong day of travel, but it was gooood week in Japan!

a good book... reeces pieces... coffee... and my i-river... ahhh.... ^^

East Asia: Japan, Part 2: Itsukushima, Hiroshima, and Kyoto

2009-08-18T21:17:00.014+09:00

Day 4: Itsukushima and Hiroshima

On Tuesday morning I hopped on another Shinkansen bullet train and headed to Hiroshima. I hopped onto a local train, followed by a short ferry, and visited the small island of Itsukushima, more popularly known as Miyajima. The main reason tourists flock to this small island is the Itsukushima Shrine. It is a Shinto shrine. What makes it unique is the “floating torii (gate)”. During high tide the gate and shrine are surrounded by water. Thus people would pass through the gate via boat. This torii is one of the 3 top photographed sites in Japan. The island itself was quite nice. There were once again deer wandering around, and a nice row of little shops selling all kinds of stuff. I bought a few wooden sake cups for a few friends and sampled “momiji manju”, which are pastries filled with red bean paste (a popular snack-filler in Asia) or custard. They are deep-fried and quite delicious when eaten warm! I ate one of each ^^

After a couple hours I took a ferry back to Hiroshima. Hiroshima has a great streetcar system that I used to head to the Atomic Bomb Dome and the Peace Memorial Park (including the amazing Peace Memorial Museum).

I walked around the A-Bomb Dome then crossed the river and wandered through the park for a while. My last stop was the Peace Memorial Museum. At times I actually felt sick to my stomach reading and thinking about the entire event.

After the Peace Memorial Museum I took the streetcar back to the train station, then hopped a train to Kyoto. I found my hostel and settled in for the night, getting some good rest before a full day in Kyoto.

the A-Bomb Dome

the building before and after the atomic bomb

the Korean A-Bomb Memorial; about 10% of those killed were Koreans who were forced labourers

the Children's Peace Memorial

Flame of Peace (couldn't go close as they were working around it); will be extinguished once the last nuclear weapon on earth is destroyed

the Cenotaph, containing the names of all the known victims

I found doritos in a convience store... you don't see the real ones in Korea!

Observation; You can smoke on trains in Japan, so you have to be careful to choose a seat on a non-smoking car if you don’t want to be surrounded by smoke for the entire journey.

Day 5: Kyoto

By far my favorite city in Japan was Kyoto. I’m not fully sure why, and definitely can’t explain it well in words. I think it had to do with so much traditional culture being mixed in with modern culture, in a big city that feels small (if that makes any sense!).

My first stop (after a disappointing breakfast) was Nijo-jo (castle).

(Side note: As I was entering the main gate I ran into a friend from Korea; there were a lot of us English teachers over there as many schools have vacation during the same week. I saw a lot of familiar faces in Kyoto!)

After the castle I headed over to Kinkaku-ji, more famously known as the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. It is a Zen Buddhist temple.

From there I headed down the road to Ryoan-ji, a Zen temple. It is a popular tourist attraction due to the dry landscape rock garden.

every temple I went to was surrouned by beautiful grounds and gardens

After that stop I hopped back on the bus (the bus system in Kyoto was fantastic) and headed to a handicraft market. Ended up not buying anything, and as I was tired from the heat and not really interested in seeing any more temples (after a while they are feel similar!), I decided to just head to Gion for the evening. Gion is well-known for being a geisha district, and indeed it became a goal of mine to see one. I walked around a great shopping area for a while (taking a break at Starbucks, naturally ^^) and then wandered the Shirakawa Canal area for a while. I saw someone who was possibly a geisha from afar, and decided it was silly to spend hours wandering alone hoping to spot a genuine one. So, I headed back toward the subway. I decided to walk down Ponto-cho, a really neat alley of restaurants and exclusive bars near the Kamo-gawa (river) that runs through Kyoto. As I was walking along, enjoying the ambiance, I saw them: 2 maiko girls! I snapped a photo of them after they passed (I felt too bad to take one directly facing them)… apparently I had my camera on the wrong setting because it came out blurry. Oh well! I stole a photo my friend took later that same night, in the same area; his was much better!

there were little objects that moved telling you when your bus got closer, and when it was arriving - very nice-uh!

Shirakawa Canal

Kamo-gawa

busy shopping area

Ponto-cho

my awful attempt at a photo of the two maiko

the photo I stole from my friend!

After spotting the maiko, I caught a bus back to Kyoto Station, where I snapped a few photos of Kyoto Tower. I enjoyed a scrumptious dessert + cappuccino before walking to my hostel and crashing for the night.

Kyoto Tower and its reflection in the windows of the massive Kyoto Station

Astro boy!

here is the display of desserts I'd walked by a couple times, and could no longer resist!

yummy!

East Asia: Japan, Part 1: Tokyo, Nara, and Osaka

2009-08-17T22:15:00.010+09:00

When I used to think of Asia, one of the first countries to pop into mind was Japan. Now South Korea tends to pop into mind first, though Japan is followed soon after. I’ve been in Korea for 3 years now, so I decided that it was about time to hop the pond and visit Japan. Plus I have a friend from college who is currently teaching there, so it was a good time to do so! I spent 9 days there (my entire summer vacation; one negative thing about my job is how little vacation time we get!). I tried to see a lot of the highlights in case I don’t make it back there (which is possible, as it’s so expensive and there are still many countries I want to see).

I ended up visiting: Tokyo, Nara, Osaka, Miyajima, Hiroshima, Kyoto, and Hakodate. Thank goodness for the JR Rail Pass; it saved me a lot of money and was also very convenient (and easy) to use.

Day 1: Arrival; Tokyo

I flew out (after a bit of a rough start: I stacked outside the bus terminal and scraped up my knee/top of my foot… and then had to take a cab to the airport as all of the buses were full) late morning and arrived in Japan mid-afternoon (yay for short flights!). I took an airport train into Tokyo, then hopped the subway a couple stops to arrive in Askausa, where I would be sleeping for my first 2 nights in Japan. I came out of the subway stop, attempting to orientate myself and locate my hotel. Turns out I arrived on the day of their huge fireworks festival – thus there were people everywhere, dressed in yukatas, and passing out fans (they had ads on them, but were also great as it was super hot!). It took me a while to locate my hotel; the sign was in Japanese, but I noticed the phone number and realized it was my hotel – I had to go down a side street to actually find it. Once there I discovered that due to this festival I couldn’t check-in until several hours later than planned. I ended up going with a nice French guy to an onsen in order to clean-up a bit, change clothes, etc. I tried to drop my bag off at the hotel afterwards, but they wouldn’t even let me up the stairs. Sigh. So I spent the next few hours attempting to actually see some fireworks (they lasted nearly 2 hours, but it was hard to get to where you could actually see them as there were lots of tall buildings blocking them), carrying around my backpack, and just trying to relax and enjoy the start of my vacation! My flip-flop also ended up breaking that night, which was sad, but I was thankful that I had my backpack (see, the hotel was closed for a reason!) so that I could put on my non-broken flip-flops.

After the festivities ended for the night, I made my way back to my hostel. It was actually a capsule hotel, which was a fun experience. I’m used to sleeping in small capsules as I do most Saturday nights at my favorite jjimjilbang, so it wasn’t really a very new experience for me – but still fun.

view of the streets below, about an hour after the festivities "ended"

Observations: not hard to get around (I’d heard a lot of scary stories regarding this, but turns out there was no reason to worry!)… however, no one spoke English. Not even most of the tourists; they were mostly European.

Day 2: Tokyo

I spent Sunday walking around Tokyo. My first stop was the Imperial Palace. I enjoyed walking around the grounds and snapping pictures for a couple hours before deciding to go find some food. Once I started walking I decided to just walk in the direction of Tokyo Tower, another “must see” site on my short list (I did only have one day!). I ended up at a café for a while where I looked through my great Lonely Planet guide a bit (and cool down…. It was super HOT!) and decided the course for the rest of my day. I did eventually walk past the Tokyo Tower, pausing long enough to take a couple photos. But I decided against waiting in the long line and going up.

inside the gardens

the music building

Tokyo Tower; modeled after the Eiffel Tower

My next stop was Ebisu, where there was a pretty cool mall/shopping area (the Yebisu Garden Complex). After spending some time walking around there (and going up in one of the towers there where I could get a nice, free, view of Tokyo), I headed to Shibuya. The main reason to go to Shibuya is to see the super busy intersection; so I headed into a nice little café where I could get one of the shaved ice + fruit desserts and watch the craziness below when the “walk” lights turned green.

Shibuya Crossing

After checking those areas out I headed back to Asakusa to check out the Senso-ji (temple) and do some shopping. There is a really nice (though rather touristy) area of shops by the temple there. Unfortunately, they close early so I ended up not doing much shopping. The temple did look pretty nice at dusk, though!

my boys are everywhere ^^

Observations: the subway was never busy (seriously). Also, there are a lot of really nice, quiet places to walk around in Tokyo where there are shaded paths and few people.

Day 3: Osaka/Nara/Osaka

On Monday morning I got up early to catch the Shinkansen train to Osaka. Once there I wandered around for a good hour trying to locate the hostel where I’d made a reservation. After sweating in the mid-afternoon heat for way too long, I chose a hostel I’d passed by that had good rates, booked a room, then headed back onto the JR trains and headed to Nara.

Nara was Japan’s first real capital. Thus, there are many sites worth seeing there. It’s also a small town, so it was easy to walk around and see the main sites. There were also deer walking around in a lot of areas; did you know they sound like sheep?! It was fun to pet them, and I took more photos than was necessary of them, too!

I only spent a few hours in Nara, but I saw a few places. The first place I stopped was the 5-story pagoda, which is the second tallest in Japan. This is also when it started to rain. Luckily it never rained very hard, and after an hour or so the rain was completely finished for the day. In fact, I was quite lucky for my whole trip; there was no more rain during my trip (save at night or the day I was on a train all day) until the last night… when I ended up getting soaked, but more on that later ^^

After the pagoda I headed over to the “main attraction” of Nara: Toda-ji, including Daibutsu-den Hall, the world’s largest wooden building. Inside, the Daibutsu (Great Buddha) is one of the largest bronze figures in the world. Also inside is a hole in a wooden column; the popular belief is that if you can squeeze through then you are ensured of enlightenment. I watched one girl go through; she was super excited to make it through! The things some people will believe…

here is the hole I mentioned

My last stop was the Kasuga Taisha (a Shinto shrine). I decided not to pay to go in, so just looked at it from as close as possible.

After that shrine, I headed back to Osaka. I grabbed dinner and walked around a busy shopping area for a couple hours (resisting the urge to shop; which, trust me, was huge a few times). Ended up not doing any real site-seeing in Osaka, but I’m ok with that!

East Asia: 4 Days in the ROC – Formosa Taipei

2009-06-19T22:55:00.018+09:00

Not too long after I first came to Korea, I began to hear wonderful things about Taiwan. I’ve had it my head that I wanted to go there since my first year; I actually borrowed a guidebook from my friend and thought about going on a few different occasions. Well, a couple years later, book still in hand (I doubt my friend remembers that I still have it; maybe I’ll return it to him next time I see him!), I finally booked myself a flight to Taiwan and spent a long weekend enjoying a culture that felt familiar, yet also very strange!

I left early on Saturday morning with my friend who was heading to Beijing. We took a cab to the bus terminal and then took an early morning bus to the airport, where we quickly found coffee, paid for our re-entry visas, checked in, then grabbed some breakfast before parting ways for our different flights. It was nice to go to the airport with someone; I’m always by myself on trips!

I arrived in Taiwan a few hours later. It took a long time to get through immigration as my trip took place in early May (during the Children’s Day holiday here in Korea) – the height of the Swine Flu pandemic. I stayed with a couple I met via couchsurfing.com. They picked me up at the airport and then spent all weekend showing me around Taipei. It was wonderful! Free lodging and free travel guides/translators. They were super nice and took me to several places I probably wouldn’t have taken the time to go to on my own, including one area that ended up being my favorite part of the trip. They also took me to, or gave me directions as to how to get to, everywhere/everything I’d mentioned I wanted to go/see/do. They even found me a church to attend on Sunday morning!

The first place they took me was the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. We stayed to watch the hourly changing of the guards ceremony and glanced around the grounds briefly. I ended up going back the next morning to see more of the grounds. It was a beautiful place to begin my Sunday morning, surrounded by nature and many Taiwanese doing their morning Tai-chi!

Here are photos from both visits:

After the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, my new friends took me to one of the famous markets (Ximending) where they encouraged me to try a snack very similar to patbingsu here in Korea. I also got a free portrait cut of myself by a guy in the street. Pretty sure it’s because I was the only foreigner around! Oh, on the way to the market we passed near the Presidential Office Building and through the 228 Memorial Peace Park.

After the market, we headed over to the Longshan Temple. It was ridiculously packed as it was Buddha’s Birthday. Incense, people, and food everywhere. Very sad to see everyone worshipping statues. After the temple we walked through another market (“Snake Alley”, Huaxi Street Night Market), and then made a stop in Gongguan for dinner (I tried – and shockingly enjoyed – stinky tofu!) before heading back to their apartment for the night.

my boys were all over Taiwan!!!

On Sunday I woke up early, returned to the Chiang Kai-she Memorial Hall for a bit, and then headed back to the Gongguan Area. This area is a cool area; if I ever decide to move to Taipei I would want to be near that area. One of the main universities in Taiwan is located there, which means there are many shops, restaurants, etc in the area. It’s also where the Grace Baptist Church is located, which was my reason for going there on Sunday morning. I arrived about an hour before church, so I stopped in at Starbucks where I ate some breakfast and read for a while. I made my way to the church, arriving just in time for the service to begin. The church felt like a mix of my church in IN and my church here in Seoul.

After church I met back up with my couchsurfer friends. We headed to the National Palace Museum. I’m glad I went, but I’m not really a huge museum fan so I wandered around for only an hour or so before grabbing a quick snack and heading out.

After the museum they took me up to one of their favorite spots, which was my favorite part of the entire trip. We went to the northern part of the Taipei, to the Danshui area. We went to the old hospital of the missionary George Leslie Mackay, the Fort San Domingo, and Oxford College. After walking through those areas, we headed down to the main market area. We walked along the river most of the way, which was relaxing and beautiful. Once we reached the market, they helped me find something vegetarian to eat (see the photo of my deep-fried sandwich below) then headed off to their own dinner. I also tried the tall ice cream cones, but was rather unimpressed. After dinner I drank coffee, wrote a few postcards, and took some pictures while I waited for my great tour guides to meet back up with me.

in the midst of this great market/river side area was a 5-story Starbucks. Sigh.

Our next stop was the hot springs! We went to one in the Beitou area. While we walked up the mountain to the hot spring destination of their choice, we could see steam rising from the grates as a result of all the natural water running under ground. Once we reached the location we had been aiming for (I just followed along!), I got my own private room and tub to enjoy for an hour. The water was sooo hot at first; I ran cold water the whole time I was in there and still had to get out of the tub a lot due to the extreme heat!

On Monday I was on my own as my couchsurfer friends both had to work. My first stop was the Taipei Zoo. I was excited to see the pandas, so was greatly disappointed when I arrived to see a sign reading that the panda exhibit is closed the first Monday of each month! Sigh. I did see Koalas, however, along with the usual zoo animals. It was also a nice walk – a lot of long paths through trees and such.

After the zoo I headed to the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. I walked around the grounds there a bit before heading over to Taipei 101. I headed to the top to enjoy the view, and so that I could say I’ve been to the top of the (current) tallest building in the world! Afterwards I headed over to the New York New York mall via a cool walk-way that connects a few of the major shopping malls in that area.

Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, as seen from the top of Taipei 101

This is a tamper inside Taipei 101 that prevents the building from swaying in the winds.

outside the New York New York mall ^^

Eventually I made my way back to the apartment. I headed to the airport on Tuesday morning and was back in the ROK by mid-afternoon! My short vacation in Taipei was a nice break from life in Korea. However, it felt very nice to be able to communicate again!! It was so hard not understanding even the very basics again, and it was hard to resist responding in Korean when I was spoken to in Chinese! I hope to make it back to Taiwan someday; there are a few places in the country that sound absolutely amazing and I would be more than happy to spend a couple days in Taipei again.

Southeast Asia: Thailand, Part 2 - Phuket

2009-05-31T21:50:00.012+09:00

As mentioned in my previous post, I took a flight down to Phuket a couple days into my Thailand adventure. Also, as mentioned above, I was quite ill during my travels. I sat, feeling terrible, for a couple hours in the airport at Bangkok. I managed to not throw up for the short flight down to Phuket, but, unfortunately, didn’t hold it off long after landing. While waiting for the bus from the airport to Phuket Town, I drank 7-Up, ate crackers, and sat with my head between my legs. As a result, I was able to survive the bus ride to town, but once I got there I was feeling pretty ill again. I would have loved to take off with some fellow travelers, but I felt it was more pertinent to find a hotel where I could just crash. And that’s what I did. I had some missionary contacts via a friend of mine from Korea, so I tried looking for the hotels they recommended. However, it was very hot, and my stomach was feeling, well, not good, so I stayed at the first clean, reasonably-priced hotel I found! I cranked up the air con and fell asleep on the bed for many, many hours.

I woke up with midnight feeling very thirsty, so tried calling the room service number. They told me I had to go downstairs and find the restaurant. So, I did. I was able to buy some juice, which I drank happily and quickly, but that was it. Luckily I had some crackers in my backpack, so I ate some of those and drank some water before sleeping through the rest of the night.

The next day I felt a bit better, so I ventured out and looked around at my surroundings. I found the hotel that the missionary contacts had said would be the best for me to stay at, so I booked it for the week I would be there, went back to the other hotel to check out, then carried my backpack to the new hotel. Then I napped. For a long time.

The only thing I actually did on that first full day, other than change hotels, was find an internet café. Exciting, eh?

My second full day was spent doing more walking around the town. I found an internet café that I really liked; it had a great menu and nice atmosphere, so I visited it a lot during my time in Phuket. I also gathered some information on various day excursions.
Here are some photos from Phuket Town:

this is the On On Hotel, one of the settings in The Beach.

the market outside my hotel

the Internet Cafe I liked; they even showed the movie Lonesome Jim one day!

Now, I can’t remember the exact days I went on my various trips, but I do have photos and some memories from each of them!

The first trip I went on was a snorkeling trip around the Phi Phi Islands, which also included the beach from the movie The Beach (I don’t recommend the movie, but the book was fairly good!). We also stopped at a place called “Monkey Beach” where we saw many, many overweight monkeys. It was actually very sad to see; they eat and drink anything the tourists give them, or leave behind. Seems very unhealthy to me. The seas around Thailand are absolutely gorgeous and I enjoyed sitting on sandy white beaches and snorkeling in clean, cool waters!

Another tour I took was out to Phang Nga Bay, including James Bond Island, so named due to its appearance in The Man with the Golden Gun. Phang Nga Bay is also featured in the film Tomorrow Never Dies. Guess it’s a popular spot for James Bond. We also had a meal at a muslim fishing village. I once again enjoyed amazing scenery, particularly the limestone cliffs and caves. Before we hit the water, we made at a stop at a place known as “Monkey Cave” where I got to see monkeys up-close and feed them peanuts. So fun! There was also a Buddha in the cave, but I didn’t care to see that. On our way home we stopped at a cashew factory and a gems gallery. Both of those stops were obviously meant to cause us to spend money; I definitely bought some delicious gifts at the cashew factory, but avoided spending any at the gems gallery.

The third, and final excursion I took off the island was with Anda Adventures. I got to feed monkeys (again at Monkey Cave), ride an elephant (perhaps one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever done!), hike to a waterfall and swim in its (very cold) waters, and go white water rafting for 5km. Unfortunately I have no photos from the elephant ride or the water-rafting – just a couple from the monkeys and waterfall:

Besides the three trips, I also spent a day at Kata Beach, on the West coast of the island. I spent several hours laying and reading on the beach. I also saw a lot of monks. By the end of that day, I had a pretty bad sunburn. Good thing you can actually find aloe in Thailand (unlike here in Korea)!

While in Phuket I experienced a ride on a “motor bike taxi” (a frightening experience!), did some shopping, and saw a couple of movies (they stand in allegiance to their king before every movie). For the last movie I saw there, I paid a bit extra (about double the usual price) for the “fancy” movie theater. I got free juice before the movie, and then sat in a recliner for the actual movie. I was given a pillow and a blanket, and they brought me cola and popcorn. It was all included in the price of the movie ticket. Fantastic! The movie was awful, but I stayed because I was so comfortable!

I also went to church on Sunday with the missionaries I mentioned before-hand. A couple young women who are also missionaries there translated the service for me (I was impressed with how well they already knew the Thai language!), and I was able to enjoy lunch and conversation with them for a bit after the service.

I was a bit sad, but also ready, to leave Phuket and return to Korea (the long lay-over in Bangkok was not very fun, but I spent it reading, drinking coffee, and doing a bit more shopping – so it wasn’t too bad!). When I landed in Korea there was snow on the ground… sigh, vacation over!

Southeast Asia: Thailand, Part 1 - Bangkok

2009-05-08T21:47:00.010+09:00

After my mission trip in the Philippines, I headed over to Thailand for a couple weeks of vacation. Almost every foreigner I know over here has either been to Thailand or is planning a trip to Thailand for their year here. I’m already planning to return and go to a few areas I didn’t visit on my first trip; it’s a wonderful country – fantastic food, amazing culture, friendly people, beautiful beaches… all for low, low prices.

I arrived in Bangkok late on a Friday night and took a taxi to my hotel, which was down a side alley off of the famous Khao San Road. The taxi wasn’t even allowed to drive onto the road, and had to drop me off at one of the ends. There were people everywhere, even though it was so late at night; the road definitely lived up to its name – backpackers, people selling all kinds of merchandise, bars, cheap hotels… there was basically a big street party all night long. I decided not to partake in the party, however, and instead made my way through the crowds to my hotel to get some sleep so I would have energy to explore the city the next day.

I only had one full day in Bangkok, and spent it exploring a couple of the most popular areas of the city, along with some random streets I found myself on (I decided to just walk all over instead of dealing with public transportation!). I made my way to the Khlong Saen Saeb and took a short ride on one of the many boats. I had planned to stay on longer, but it was super crowded and hot, so I began to feel a bit sick. I snapped a few photos as we traveled along, before hopping off and heading back into the smog and business of Bangkok.

View from the dock:

Views from the boat:

A lot of fresh fruit!

I spent most of my time was the impressive Grand Palace. I won’t even begin to remember all of the names of the places within the Grand Palace grounds, though one I do remember and will note is Wat Phra Kaew, or the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. This is the most sacred Buddhist temple in Thailand; that’s saying a lot as there are many, many temples everywhere you go (the country is 95% Buddhist). Interestingly, the Emerald Buddha is actually made of jade, not emerald.

I have a lot of photos from the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew:

Wat Phra Kaew:

The Emerald Buddha:

I wandered around the streets of Bangkok until I was exhausted and hungry; then I found a hole-in-the-wall vegetarian café that had been recommended in my Lonely Planet guidebook. After eating some delicious food, I began my walk back to the Khao San Road (making a stop for some fresh pineapple…). Here are a few photos I took along the way; the last few are from Khao San Road:

On Sunday I took a cab to the airport and caught my flight down to Phuket. Sunday ended up being a very long day as I was quite sick all day (and into the next couple) – not sure if it was the vegetarian café, the pineapples off the street, or something else, but it sure wasn’t fun! More on that adventure, and the fun I had in Phuket once the sickness passed, in my next post!

Southeast Asia: the Philippines

2009-04-25T11:37:00.028+09:00

After teaching in South Korea for about 17 months, I took 2 months off to do some traveling. I decided that I didn’t want to merely travel, but also to serve on a mission trip. After a lot of internet searching, I finally found one mission trip I could join in early January.

So, on January 1, 2008 I headed from Seoul to Manila to spend about 10 days in the Philippines with 2 lovely ladies from the States. Now, I could talk a lot about the amazing things I saw and experienced while serving God in the Philippines. However, as this is a “travel blog” I’m going to focus on the sites I saw while there.

We began and finished our trip in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines.

We didn’t do much tourist stuff during our time in the Philippines, but you naturally come across stuff while in a foreign country! One place we did take time to walk through was Rizal Park.

Within just a short time of being in the Philippines, I learned about, and experienced, the different modes of transportation used in the Phlippines, including jeepneys and trikes.

After a couple of initial days in Manila, our group headed to Zambales where we spent several days at a Children’s Home for the Aeta people.

Views of the Children's Home and surround area:

Cooking over their stoves:

In the morning they warmed-up and hung the flags before classes began (I was impressed with how they could just climb up the poles with just their own hands and feet).

Delicious food!!

On one of the days, we took the children to a nearby beach. It was a black sand beach, and the water was pretty rough. I got pretty scratched up by the rocks being thrown around by the waves, but the children had a great time!

We also visited one of the Aeta villages.

After spending some time at the village, the Pastor that was with us took us to see the area of Mount Pinatubo. In 1991 there was a massive eruption from this volcano that led to a lot of destruction. You can still see a large area that is covered by ash and dried lava from that eruption. The volcano is still active, and as a result only the very poor live near it (because they have no where else to live).

While there, we were able to go into the closest town a few times to help with grocery shopping and check out the Philipino markets. We also went to Subic Bay for part of a day to do some souvenir shopping.

Before heading home (or for me, to my next vacation destination!), we spent another day and a half in Manila. Something I didn’t know before going, but learned soon after I arrived, is that the Philippines, Manila in particular, is known for large shopping malls. We ate at the food courts of the various malls several times, and on our last day together in Manila we went to the SM Mall of Asia.

A final shot before parting ways the next day:

The Philippines was a great experience; I hope to return on a mission trip someday, and I also hope to go to one or two locations for a lovely beach vacation!

Semester Abroad: Guatemala, Part 3 – Santiago Atitlan

2009-04-18T21:45:00.004+09:00

After about 8 weeks of study in the city (and many fun weekend excursions), it was time to start the second half of my semester: a service assignment. I was sent to Santiago Atitlan with the plan to teach English for about 7 weeks.

Santiago Atitlan is one of several Mayan villages scattered around the amazingly beautiful Lake Atitlan.

This is a view of the village (sandwiched between the mountains) as seen from across the lake:

A closer-up view of Santiago Atitlan:

And here is a view from my bedroom window:

This view is from the back of the village, on the road down from the cemetery:

I lived with a family while there; the mom and one of the sisters helped me learn how to do back-strap weaving. In the end I didn’t spend much time doing it (which I regret now), but I did manage to finish one table runner. Maybe one day I’ll go back and make something else! I did learn how to wash my clothes the Guatemalan way, however, which was actually somewhat fun!

I was also there during the highly anticipated election day and watched the results on TV that night with my host family. Another event I got to witness and participate a bit with was the Day of the Dead. The cemetery was full of people decorating tombs and paying their respects... and also, naturally, there were ice cream vendors roaming the grounds to keep everyone happily fed...

One of my friends from the program was able to come down around the mid-point to visit. We spent some time wandering around a couple different villages, and went kayaking out on the lake:

Anyways, I mentioned above that I was meant to be teaching English… due to some different reasons (including scheduling conflicts and myself getting ill a couple times) I only ended up teaching the kiddos I was meant to teach a few hours. Mostly we played bingo. I really had no idea what I was doing! I bet I could do a much better job now (after teaching here in Korea for nearly 3 years)! So, basically, I was just there enjoying a vacation in the most beautiful place I’ve yet to see in this wonderful world of ours! To be honest, most of my time in Santiago was spent either sitting down by the lake, drinking cola and reading, or taking the boat across to Panajachel.

While drinking cola down by the lake, I met an artist who had a shop down by the lake; I ended up giving him a couple English lessons and then I gave several to one of his daughters. The two of them took me kayaking on my last night in Santiago and he even painted me a picture to take home with me!

My host family usually spoke their native language, Tz’utujil, which made it difficult for someone like to me to practice my Spanish. Apparently I did it enough, however, as my host family back in the city was impressed when I went to visit them at the end of my time in Santiago! All in all, it was a pretty nice adventure and experience for me – but I definitely could have gotten a lot more out of it if I had been more motivated! Hopefully I learned from my experience, and I definitely enjoyed all of my time spent in Guatemala. I've been wanting to return ever since I left! One day, God-willing, I will, and I plan to see more, do more, and learn more that time around!

Semester Abroad: Guatemala, Part 2 – Weekend Trips

2009-04-15T18:53:00.006+09:00

The first excursion we took out of the city was to Iximche. We spent the day walking around the ruins and hearing lectures by a Mayan priest. It was only for a day, but it was nice to get out of the city and see some countryside.

Listening to a lecture amongst the ruins:

Our next trip was to Nebaj. This was a longer trip; it was meant to be 3 days, 2 nights – but turned into 4 days, 3 nights due to all buses being canceled for Independence Day on September 15. The weather was often rainy and cool, and I ended up getting a bit sick. I also ended up getting fleas from the chickens that wandered freely around the home where Lori (another girl in the group) and I slept for the first 2 nights.
In Nebaj we met with an amazing organization that helps the kids and teenagers in the community. This is especially important as suicide rates are very high in the area due to effects of the Civil War. Nebaj was an area that was heavily hit; on one of the days a few of us went on a tour and we saw some of the mass grave sites. We also took part in some of the Independence Day activities, including a pageant and a parade.

I bought a lot of cool stuff from this lady:

These crosses have the names of many who died during the war:

A mass grave:

Watching some kids do back-strap weaving at the community center:

Playing with the kiddos:

Watching part of a parade:

They were marching in heels!!:

After a cold, flea-bitten weekend in Nebaj, a few of us decided it was time to hit the beach! We headed to Monterrico and spent a couple days in the sun and sand. It was a lot of fun and a nice escape from studying.

Playing ultimate on the beach:

On another weekend we went on a day trip to Antigua. Antigua is an old capital of Guatemala. They follow strict rules as to what colors buildings can be painted, and the city is still has a very “Spanish-colonial” feel to it. A few of us chose to stay the night and an extra day so we could hike Volcan Pacaya. This volcano is active, so it was pretty cool (but also quite smelly!) to get to the top. It also gave a great view of the surrounding country and we sat up there and enjoyed the view for a while before making the fun climb down (you pretty much “ski” down the ash portion of the volcano; which, btw, was not easy to climb up!).

View of the city:

Hiking up Volcan Pacaya:

At the top of the volcano:

At the end of the “study” term, we had a 5-day weekend to do whatever we wanted. Several of us decided to go up north (via a small, slightly scary airplane) to visit the famous Mayan civilization of Tikal before heading over to Caye Caulker, Belize for a couple days in the warm sunshine of the Caribbean. It was there where I first went snorkeling; we got to pet rays and nurse sharks, so it was pretty great first-time experience!

View from the top of one of the temples; this is actually a shot in one of the Star Wars movies:

My fear of heights was put to the test on this trip (which is why I only climbed up one temple!):

The central plaza:

Snorkeling in the Caribbean:

Swimming in the Caribbean!:

Arriving back "home" to the city, we were greeted by some of the Semilla staff:

Semester Abroad: Guatemala, Part 1 – Guatemala City

2009-03-28T13:59:00.011+09:00

Not long after I returned from my semester in Barcelona, I once again found myself looking for a way to leave the country. The solution? Another semester abroad! This time I headed for Guatemala to do a Study/Service program through CASAS. This semester proved to be much better than my time in Spain. There were only 8 of us in the program and we got along well. In fact, the first night I met someone who had graduated from my college – and had actually grown up in a town next to mine in Illinois! Her mom works with my brother-in-law’s mom, and we went to the same dentist! Small world, eh? We were all from different states, and one was even from Vancouver. We also had quite a range in terms of age – from 18-29. But, as I said, we got along well and had some fun during our time in Guatemala.

The first 8 weeks was the “study” portion of the semester. I studied at Semilla, a Mennonite seminary located in Guatemala City. I tested as “advanced” and got to have my own teacher one-on-one for 4 hours every day. This is me with my wonderful teacher, Violeta:

I studied mostly the Spanish language, but also a bit of anthropology and religion. It was in Guatemala where I finally learned how to read in Spanish. By the end of my 15 weeks there I’d read a few books in Spanish, including the first few of the Harry Potter books (I’ve now read them all in Spanish, along with a few other books). My speaking also improved a lot, especially with those with whom I was comfortable. According to one of the girls in the program, I speak fast in Spanish, just like in English ^^

Here are a few photos from my time studying at Semilla; the first was taken during one of our daily coffee breaks, and the second is a photo of some of us crossing the street from the bus over to the school:

While there, we celebrated Lori's 30th birthday:

On the final day of the study portion, all of the CASAS students, teachers, and staff posed for a couple final shots:

Besides taking class every morning, we also went on a lot of “field trips” to areas within the city and a few of us took some other classes, too (those of us who were there to earn credit for college; a few were there merely to improve their Spanish). Those classes required attending lectures and writing a few papers (I turned my final paper in about 8 months after returning to the States!!).

The National Palace and central plaza:

The "gorge", where a lot of squatters reside:

Salsa lessons:

On a croweded bus:

Mana in concert:

While studying in Guate, I lived with a host family in Zone 6. They were very kind, but unfortunately I didn’t get to know them very well. I was gone almost every weekend, either as a scheduled trip with the program, or on my own with some others from the group. But they were a fantastic family, and I did visit them after I finished my service portion of the semester (more on that later). They also had 3 terrier dogs, whom I loved (especially the puppy)!

Here I am outside my home in Zone 6:

I'm going to post a separate blog to highlight some of the places we visited outside of Guate. But before I end this one, a few more things about Guatemala: There are something like 23 national languages, the majority being Mayan dialects. Guatemala has had a sad history, including the Civil War which ended in 1996; I saw many of the affects of this war while living there. In spite of a hard past, it is a beautiful culture, with amazingly lovely people. It remains one of my favorite places on this Earth, and the number one place where I want to return. In fact I already have it in my head that I will return there sometime in the next 5 years to either study Spanish or serve in some way.

Here is a map of the languages of Guatemala:

Weekend Trip to Paris, France

2009-03-08T21:47:00.008+09:00

While studying in Barcelona (see previous post), my friend Jen and I decided to take advantage of a 3-day weekend in early December and hop an overnight train to Paris.

We arrived to a foggy, slighty rainy morning in Paris - with no set plans. I don't really remember the exact order of everything we did, but I posted the following photos in the order I had them in my "Paris" photo folder.

One of our first stops was, naturally, the Eiffle Tower; it was very cold at the top!:

We also made a short visit to Notre Dame:

And we went to the Chateau Versailles:

This is inside the castle, "The Hall of Mirrors" - a lot more impressive in person:

We wandered around the Champs d'Elysse, and enjoyed the beautiful lights at night:

L'Arch de Triomphe:

The first night we stayed in a hostel, where we had a shoe-box sized room; the second night we met up with a missionary family that Jen knew and crashed at their house (they even had a view of the Eiffle Tower, just like in the movies! Wish I had a picture of that...):

This is the Musee d'Orsay, which was my favorite museum we went to (we only went to two...):

And here's the Louvre (the two museums are basically across the river from each other):

Inside, under the pyramid:

You can't go to the Louvre and not see the Mona Lisa!:

On one of the nights we wandered around a bit and saw the Moulin Rouge. We also saw the Basilique Sacre-Coeur; both of these are located in Montmartre, which is a beauitful area:

We only had about 3 days, but we saw a lot!! I definitely want to go back and spend a bit more time exploring the city... preferably in the spring/early summer when all of the flowers and gardens are in bloom.

Semester Abroad: Barcelona, Spain

2009-02-07T14:01:00.014+09:00

My first “real” travel experience was during the fall semester of my third year at Goshen College (2002). It was also my first time flying; I had to fly from Bloomington, IL to Chicago, and then over to Barcelona, Spain. Once there I took a train down to Castellon de la Plana to meet up with my dear friend Marta. It was a long journey, especially for my first solo trip!

I spent about 10 days with her, her family, and her friends in her beach house (rough time, I know ^^). It wasn’t all I had hoped it would be, unfortunately, but it was still nice to have a taste of Spain before officially beginning my semester abroad.

When it was time, I took a train back up to Barcelona where I met up with the heads from my program, Brethren Colleges Abroad (BCA). Now, I admit, this was several years ago and I no longer remember everything we did, not to mention the actual order in which we did them. So this account will be a bit general, and by no means specific.

We spent our first several days doing orientation outside of Barcelona. We stayed in a small beach town and enjoyed walking along the beach, drinking wine in cafes along the streets, and beginning to immerse ourselves in Spanish.

We also took an art history trip to Gerona. Once there we traveled around a bit. We saw some monasteries (and learned about the architecture, as it was an art history trip!), saw the Roman and Greek ruins along the Costa Brava at Ampurias, and visited the Salvador Dali museum in Figueres.

Once we got to Barcelona, we were split up as we went to settle in with our new host families. We were never all together again, though it came very close with a Thanksgiving meal in November.

I lived with a single woman, and we didn’t hit it off. She was very nice, and cooked vegetarian food for me, but she got quickly frustrated by my low speaking Spanish ability. We did have one running “joke”, about me needing to go visit Parque Guell (which I did, eventually, when my mom came to visit me). Other than that, we just lived in the same apartment and saw each other on occasion.

I attended the University of Barcelona, attending classes at 2 of the 3 campuses. I took a couple grammar courses, a history course, and a reading course (I did very well in the grammar courses, but miserably in the other two; I didn’t even take my final in the lit class, and failed my history final!). All of my classes were with fellow BCAers, but the professors were of the university and spoke only Spanish. It was a huge challenge for me, but as this is a travel blog, I’m going to leave that all be.

Barcelona is an amazing city. I admit I had a huge love-hate relationship with it, but am pretty sure that when I return it I will simply love it! I was too wrapped up in my classes and lack of social life to really enjoy what it was. I’m sure I was also experiencing some culture shock, though I remember reading about it and not feeling like I was.

Barcelona is a mix of the old and new. There is something for everyone: bars, shopping, architecture, art, etc.

I didn’t see all I wanted to, but I did see a lot. I walked along Las Ramblas many times and was around Placa de Catalunya on lots of occasions (that’s usually where my friends and I met before a night out). I saw the Gothic Cathedral along with many of the famous architectural works of Antoni Gaudi. I also saw David Bisbal in concert and went to a soccer game. I also got to see Snowflake, the albino gorilla.

My mom came to visit for my last 2 weeks; that’s actually when I saw most of Guadi’s works, including, of course, the Parque Guell.

Barcelona is on my “most visit again” list. There is still so much to see there, and so many things I’d like to see again, and probably appreciate more than I did at that time.
If you are in Europe, and visit Spain, make sure to spend a few days walking around Barcelona! La Sagrada Familia and Parque Guell are two of my favorite spots. And not far from La Sagrada Familia is Michael Collins, a terrific Irish Pub . Also, be sure to walk down Las Ramblas and enjoy the human statues that line the street!

From Sea to Shining Sea: Chicago

2009-01-17T12:24:00.012+09:00

Chicago is one of my favorite places. It's a place with which I've become fairly familiar.

My first trip to Chicago was during my senior year (2000). Myself and 3 others skipped school one day (our parents called us in sick) and took a day trip up. I don't remember much of what we did... pretty sure that is because we didn't do too much. I do recall eating at the Rainforest Cafe and also wandering around a strange shop that sold various "scary" things.

I returned to the Windy City that summer, but again not for long. A group of us took our friend to the airport and then went into the city where we ate at Ed DeBevic's. Ed DeBevic's is a fabulous 50s style restaurant where the waitstaff is rude to the customers - and you get to be rude right back! I've been there many times and it is always fun.

Once in college, making day or weekend trips to Chicago become somewhat common. There's a train from South Bend (about 45 minutes from Goshen) to Chicago, which made it easy to go for a day or two. Also many friends from college ended up there after they graduated, which gave us another excuse to escape Goshen for a day or two.

A few of my friends and I headed to Chicago for a few days during our spring break from college in 2002. We ate at Ed DeBevic's, the Hard Rock Cafe, the Rainforest Cafe - all the classic "tourist" restaurants. We did a lot of walking, spent some time at Navy Pier, went to the Art Museum, went to the Sears Tower, and ate a few times at the Corner Bakery.

Right before I headed to Spain (August of 2002) my mom and I spent a couple days in Chicago. It was her first real visit, so I took her around to some of the main areas/streets of Chicago. I also introduced her to the Cheesecake Factory, which is one of my all-time favorite restaurants. She loved it, too, and we now go there whenever we hit up Chicago.

The first photos that I have to document my times in Chicago are from a visit in the summer of 2003. My friend Laura and I went to Chicago over the 4th of July weekend and stayed with a high school friend of mine. We enjoyed the Taste of Chicago, fireworks from my friend's apartment's rooftop, and Navy Pier. I know we wandered around and saw more (like the Art museum), but, seriously, all of my visits run together and I can only remember a few things that we specifically did! Here are some photos from our trip:

The following summer (2004) I returned to Chicago for the 4th of July weekend, staying with the same friend in his new apartment, but I went with 2 different friends, Micah and Chellie. We also went to the Taste of Chicago but we mostly wandered around Grant Park taking in the city sites versus tasting the food.

Along State Street there were many Mickey Mouse statues; we all chose some that represented us and took some photos:

It was a fun weekend. We did a lot of walking, saw some cool stuff, and enjoyed a nice escape from our lives in Goshen.

In the fall of 2005 I found myself going to Chicago for another weekend. My friend Jamie and I took the train, met up with a college friend of ours, crashed at her place, then attended a carnival at the Chicago Mennonite Learning School (where our friend was currently working); Jamie's family also came up. We had fun at the carnival then headed downtown in the afternoon/evening to check out Millenium Park. We also ate at a pizzeria that huge pizza slices!

That winter (or it could have been the previous... seriously, my memory is not good!) I went to Chicago for a day to visit my friend Julie. There was a lot of snow that day - we're talking whiteout! But we still had fun. We spent the afternoon at the Field Museum and then enjoyed dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

There were other trips to Chicago, during which times I saw many of the same things, and also the China Town a couple times (not really a big fan of that place; I've seen much better China Towns), but the next one from which I actually have photos was my last trip there, almost a year ago (the end of February, 2008). My mom and I spent a couple days there before I returned here to Korea. Our first stop was the Rainforest Cafe, which was located close to our hotel.

That night we went to see Wicked... it was amazing!!

On our second day we went to Milennium Park to check out the Museum of Modern Ice:

That night we ate at the Cheesecake Factory (of course!):

It was a short trip, but good. I'm sure next time I'm home I will be returning to Chicago for more fun!

From Sea to Shining Sea: Colorado Springs

2009-01-14T21:08:00.006+09:00

My first ever road trip with friends was to Colorado. It was a great time. I mentioned in my first post (the one about NYC) that we went for our friend's graduation. We took a van and a car from central IL to a small city about an hour out of Colorado Springs, where we surprised our friend at his graduation, and then crashed a party (or two) that night - where we taught everone how to do several group dances. We spent the next couple of days seeing a few sites, including "7 Falls" (which was a disappointment), the Garden of the Gods (absolutely beautiful), and the outside of the Olympics Complex (it was closed the day we went). After a few days of enjoying Colorado, we stole our friend and headed home (it had been prearranged with his parents that we would be doing so!.

A few years later I found myself taking another road trip to Colorado Springs. I headed there with 2 of my college friends, where we met up with another one of our friends, and then attended the wedding of a couple of our other friends (keeping up?!). We only had 3 days, as we were all working. We spent Friday driving there, stayed at a hotel, attended the wedding on Saturday morning, went to the Garden of the Gods in the afternoon, ate dinner, then drove overnight/most of the day Sunday back to Indiana so we would all be back in time to work on Monday morning. So, it was a quick trip, but a lot of fun!

From Sea to Shining Sea: St Louis

2009-01-10T16:45:00.005+09:00

In middle school and high school my only visits to St Louis were to spend a day at Six Flags. Once in college, a few of my friends moved down there, so, needless to say, I've been down there a few times to see a bit of the city (and spend some quality time with good friends).

Unfortunately, most of my photos were lost in the aforementioned computer crash. And my memory isn't great as I pretty much just went wherever my friends led me.

On my first trip I know I went downtown, saw the arch (though didn't visit it), ate at some good restaurants, and bought some amazing fudge (at Union Station - they dance and sing while they make it; really quite fun ^^). I also went to the zoo with two of my friends:

The zoo has a pretty cool penguin exhibit, along with all of the usual American zoo exhibits.

On another visit I finally made it to (and, up into) the arch:

I also returned to the zoo and wandered around other areas of the city - all of which I really don't remember.

Sorry for such a dismal blog on St Louis... it is a nice city (even though they are host of the worst baseball team). I'm sure I will return there again - and I'll try to post some better photos!

From Sea to Shining Sea: Holland

2009-01-06T20:38:00.005+09:00

Not the country, the city.

One of our favorite road trips in college was a day trip up to Holland, Michigan. To be honest, we never really did much - wandered around a bit, shopped, and ate at the 8th Street Grille.

I went there on two different occassions (I feel like it was more, but I think it really was only twice. Very strangee.).

The first was with Micah and Chellie, summer of 2004. The second was with Micah and Yolonda, summer of 2005 (or was it 2006?).

Here are some fun photos from my first trip:

These next 3 are from my second trip. We went to the 8th Street Grille, famous for it's soup bar. Unfortunately they had absolutely nothing on their menu (seriously - not only the soups, but their entire menu, which is a decent size) that was vegetarian. So I drank water (with lemon), and just settled for dessert afterwards.

From Sea to Shining Sea: New York City

2009-01-05T21:47:00.006+09:00

I may have spent over 24 years living in the States (and been a resident for almost 27 years now), but I have yet to see much of it. My family didn't travel much; we made it over to Branson, Missouri two years in a row when I was in middle school, but that was the extent.

In high school, my senior year, I finally began going places, albeit slowly. A few of my friends and I made it to Chicago for our senior skip day, and then right after our graduation a bunch of us made a road trip out to Colorado to surprise our friend at his graduation (he had moved out there about a year previously). We saw his small city and also took in some of the sights of Colorado Springs.

The summer after my first year of college (2001) my good friend Amanda and I road-tripped over to North Carolina to stay with her grandparents for about a week. It was my first time seeing the ocean!! We had a great time, hanging out in Wilmington, going to a small island, and even driving down to Myrtle Beach for a day. Before heading back to Illinois we went up to Washington, DC for about a day and a half, and then we went to NYC for one day. We managed to see quite a lot and a had a good time.

Unfortunately, all of my photos from those trips were taken pre-digital camera. Therefore, I do not have photos from those travels to share with you.

Instead I will begin my photo travel blog with a few photos from my second trip to NYC, which was about 2.5 years after my first day trip (Dec 2003-Jan 2004). My bestest friend ever, Angela, and I spent a week in NYC in the middle of my fourth year of college. She was getting married that spring, and we figured it may be our last chance to take a trip together. It had also been a dream of a few of us to celebrate New Year's in Times Square, so we wanted to make it a reality. The two of us stayed at a nice hotel (nice, but small room) not too far from downtown NYC. We went to some of the great museums (including the Met and the Natural History museum); painted our own trivets; saw the major sites (Empire State building, Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, Times Square - more than just on New Year's Eve, etc); went to a filming of the Today show (but they never showed us on TV :(); walked around Central Park; went to Harlem (and Spanish Harlem); meandered around the major shopping districts; went to a club; and even saw a musical on off-broadway.

I only have 3 photos from our trip; my previous laptop crashed in the summer of 2007 before I backed-up all my files, so I lost almost all of my photos taken since I first got a digital camera (back in 2002).

Empire State Building, ferry over to Ellis Island, and the Statue of Liberty: