Happy Lunar New Year!

This past weekend I celebrated Lunar New Year, also known as Seollal, here in Korea. Soellal is the beginning of the Lunar calendar. Koreans also celebrate solar New Years Day on the Gregorian calendar, which is January 1st. This is the day when everyone turns a year older. To explain this, the minute a baby comes out of the womb they're already 1-year old. Then at the turn of every new year, they become a year older. Sounds complicated, but it's very interesting. 

Thanks to this holiday, I had a 5-day weekend. It was such a great weekend to just relax and hang around Seoul. On Sunday, I went to The War Memorial of Korea in Seoul.  This is one place that I've been wanting to go to for the last six months. It was a really great museum/memorial dedicated to all of those who fought!

After the Memorial, I went to Gwanghwamun and did a little sightseeing. I saw the statue of King Sejong. King Sejong invented the Korean alphabet, known as hangul. I also saw the statue of Yi Sun-sin, who was a Korean naval commander during the Joseon Dynasty.

king sejong

Yi Sun-sin

That same night, a couple of friends and I went to the restaurant On The Border. I've never been to this restaurant in the states, but I heard rave reviews about how much it tastes like the On The Border back home. All I can say is that I don't think I've eaten that much food, nor have I drank so much tequila since I've been in Korea. It was blissful!

coronarita

Lunar New Year was officially celebrated on Monday, the 23rd. I decided to cross another thing off my bucket list for Korea and that was to go to a jimjilbang. A jimjilbang is a Korean style spa with saunas, hot/cool tubs for bathing, and body scrubs. Because these operate 24 hours, many people will go for a cheap place to sleep. Yes...sleep! They have mats, TVs, and a food area. The cost is about $8 and includes a "not so hot" outfit for you to wear and unlimited access to all that I mentioned above. Unfortunately no one was giving massages the day I went, but after spending a few hours in the saunas my skin felt like a baby's bottom.

such hot outfits

all the ladies make these little hats out of towels

As many of you may have already seen, over holiday I decided to take a risk and get myself some bangs. If there's anything the Koreans know how to rock...it's the bangs. 

Later that night I met up with some friends and played Korean monopoly. It was a little different then the normal monopoly I'm used to, but it was still fun. 

While walking around Seoul I had remembered I had forgot to mention one very interesting thing in my posts. Below is a picture of gas masks stored in glass cabinets, called "nation masks". Each of these cabinets are found at every station, because many emergency shelters or "bunkers" are located in the subway. It's very comforting knowing that there are almost 4,000 shelters just in Seoul, but it's also a little distressing at the same time.

It was so nice to only have a 2-day work week, but it's going to be brutal to have to work five days in a row next week. Next weekend I'll be going down to Haeundae Beach in Busan for my Birthday. I've recruited some really great people to join and can't wait to bring back some great stories.


Miss you all more than you know!


-Jenn x0x0

"The Dream" and Hanboks

This has been such a great week! To begin the week, our school went on a field trip to a traditional Korean manners school. The kids learned how to bow properly and have tea, the traditional Korean way of course. As always they looked so adorable in their hanboks.

On Thursday I went out to Travelers, my home away from home, for man vs food. Five of my friends along with three other guys decided to take on the Double JC Burger Challenge. The challenge: eat 4 1lb. burgers, 8 pieces of bacon, 8 pieces of cheese, chilli and fries in one hour. The prize: a free pitcher of beer (for your friends because there's no way you'll be able to drink it), bragging rights, and a belly full of meat.

the double jc burger

And the winner was Wassim "The Dream." During the last 20 minutes of the competition I started feel sorry for some of the guys, as their faces looked like they just lost their dog :(

Wassim "the Dream"

The next day at work I was feeling a little tired from all the festivities the night before so by the end of the day I was exhausted. My students reamed the benefits of this. I think the pictures below will explain why...

I have the next five days off for the Lunar New Year holiday. I'll be doing some sightseeing and touristy stuff, so I'll be sure to post all about those. I hope everyone has a great weekend!


Love you bunches!
Jenn xoxo

Another Week of Firsts

Whew! The time just seems to fly by so fast that by the time Friday comes, it feels like I just started my work week. Of course I'm not complaining about this, but I hate rushing good times. This past week was yet another week of firsts for me. I love that nothing is the same here in Korea!

For the past several weeks I've had a big craving for soup. Well SoKo doesn't exactly have a panera bread on every corner, so in order for me to get my hands on a bowl I would have to travel almost an hour into Seoul. My co-worker recommended that I try porridge one night. I was a little skeptical to try porridge because it resembles grits and I HATE grits. So I put nerves aside and went to the nearby "Traditional Korean Porridge" restaurant. Hands down some of the tastiest "soup-like" dishes I have ever had!

cute little sign in window
"Give thanks for the food and the joy of living"

Crabmeat with cheese porridge

Later in the week we had our monthly Birthday party for our kinder kids. I love Birthday parties not only because it gives me a break from teaching, but the parents bring pizza, chicken and snacks for all of us to share.

 Now as I have probably ranted before, I live in a pretty small town. It has is pros and cons, but the pros list JUST got longer. Every couple weeks my co-workers usually go to a movie at the local cinema. Well due to Korea's limited movie selection, we were forced to see "Puss and Boots". Lucky for us we discovered a whole new venue for Thirsty Thursdays. Our movie theater now sells beer. Woot woot!

To end my week, I went to a farewell party for a good friend that I have met in Korea. If there is anything I hate about SoKo...it is that the minute you meet a new good friend, you have to turn around and say good-bye. The only plus side to this is getting the opportunity to meet new, exciting people. Of course these new people could never replace the old, but at least I know I will go back to the States with even more amazing friendships.

Bye-bye Matt!

Bringing a little bit of the South to SoKo
shot gunning beers

I have a busy week coming up, so I'll have lots to update in the coming week. I wanted to post this awesome article my co-worker shared with me. It's 50 beautiful places to visit in South Korea. I hope to visit at least half of these places before I leave! (http://www.cnngo.com/seoul/visit/50-beautiful-places-visit-korea-873093)

I hope every has a great week! :)

-Jenn xoxo 

I'm Dreaming of a Thai Christmas

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a fabulous Holiday. I was lucky enough to get a week off for Winter vacation so I decided to hop a plane with my friend Sarah and headed for Thailand. I was really excited to see another part of Asia that I've always wanted to visit. 

While on the plane to Bangkok, I sat next to a guy who lived in Thailand for two years. His words of advice were drink as many buckets as you can, don't take your purse around monkeys because they'll steal your stuff, and if we spend more than 700 baht ($22) on a meal for the both of us, we're spending too much.

The first three days were spent in Ko Phi Phi. After three plane rides, taxi rides and a two hour ferry ride we finally made it. It was definitely worth the extensive traveling. We celebrated Christmas with a big party on the beach. It really didn't feel like Christmas since I wasn't around my family, but I met so many people that I never had the chance to feel homesick.

ferry ride

where we spent most of our nights

We stayed in a lovely bungalow looking over Phi Phi. 

Cant' forget about the buckets of booze.

On the last day in Phi Phi, Sarah and I decided to take a snorkeling trip to some of the surrounding islands. It was the best $16 I ever spent!

monkey beach

Maya Bay
(where the movie The Beach was filmed)

Lo Sama Bay

Later that evening we returned to Phi Phi for our last night out. It was such great ending to a few days in paradise. There is a bar on the island that holds Thai boxing. At this particular bar they ask for volunteers to fight each other for a free bucket of booze. While I was too much of a wimp to get my butt kicked, Sarah stepped up and entered the ring.

After a few days of soaking up some rays and relaxing on the beach we headed over to Phuket for a night. While there, we booked a trip for elephant trekking. Now if you don't already know this, I am in love with elephants and riding an elephant in Thailand has been on my to do list for quite sometime.

The next day we boarded another plane and headed over to Bangkok for the last leg of our vacation. It was a great way to end our last few days in Thailand and to ring in 2012. We were lucky enough to find a great deal on an amazing hotel right next to the Four Seasons. I can't even begin to tell you just how nice it was to see a bathtub and be able to dry my clothes in a dryer.  People might think I'm crazy but when you haven't seen these things in five months, you begin to forget just how nice they are.

As soon as we arrived in Bangkok we decided to hit the town and see as much as we could in the two days we had. Our first stop was the Grand Palace and the reclining Buddha. Pictures do not do these places justice.

grand palace

reclining Buddha

When visiting the palaces one must always wear proper dress. This includes no sleeveless shirts, shorts or sandals. Well silly me thought I could get away with bermuda shorts. I was certainly wrong! As I walked in I was hounded by the Thai police screaming, "No shorts, no shorts". After being scolded by the police man, I booked it the clothing rentals and got this lovely skirt, seen below, to wear around. I felt so Thai!

One night we decided to take it easy and booked a dinner cruise on the Chao Phraya River. The weather was perfect and the scenery was just breath taking. 

Our last day in Bangkok was New Year's Eve. Since we were in Thailand, we wanted to celebrate it in a different way than we usually do. Instead of the usual night club, we a went to Calypso Cabaret. Not only have I never been to a cabaret show, but this show was chalk full of Ladyboys. These ladies/men were something fierce!

 

I had the most amazing time in Thailand! I recommend anyone, who's able to travel, to at least make a stop here. The food is also fantastic! There is not one thing I ate that I didn't enjoy. I feel so blessed to have been given the opportunity to travel here! I never thought in a million years that I'd be spending Christmas on an island and ringing in the new year in Bangkok. Crazy!

Now it's back to reality. Luckily, I enjoy my reality! I hope everyone had a great holiday and cheers to 2012.

Love y'all!

-Jenn

P.S. - For anyone interested in checking out some videos I took, 

head to http://www.youtube.com/user/Jenn2186.