This past week was a Korean holiday called Chuseok. It's kind of like Thanksgiving for Koreans, but it's a lot more family related,and there is a lot of prayer to ancestors. The best part is that it's a three-day holiday right in the middle of the week. The school decided to give us the Friday off as well. We all wished we had gotten the Monday as well, then we could have had 8 days to travel, but no dice. I decided to go to Thailand for the vacation because I'm getting a little sick of Korea right now. Plus my friend Tim from university lives there with his Thai boyfriend, so that meant no hotel costs!

I flew out of Seoul on Tuesday morning, I went to the airport with Alex and her mom (who were going to China). I actually flew through China, and I really hated their airport. The souvenir places would take my credit card, but not the food place, and neither would the ONE place that was selling water. I got into Thailand late, but Tim was there to meet me! We went straight to his place and then went and got food. Thailand is a pretty cheap place, especially if you know your way around. Being a foreigner, Tim said prices might be high for me, but I had him and Nate to help me out.

The next day I adventured out on my own. I had to take a bus, a sky train, and a riverboat to get to downtown Bangkok, but it was only like 30 minutes. I started out near Chinatown and went to a really big flower market. Flowers are big in Thailand because they are used for prayer. The market was huge, and wet. Oh and I forgot to say, the temperature in Bangkok was ridiculous, I was pretty much sweating my ass off for the whole day. Anyway, I walked past the flower market and wanted to go to the Museum of Siam. Apparently I looked lost because a very friendly Thai person came up to me and gave me good directions of some places to see, and then he put me in a tuktuk (a little motorized, open car). the driver took me around Bangkok for two hours for only 40 Baht (about $1.30). First I went to the Lucky Buddha, where I ran into another very friendly Thai who was telling me about the temple. A lot of the temples restrict pictures, so I couldn't take any of that place. Then I went on to Wat Benchamabophit. This was my first big temple that I had seen, and let me tell you, it was impressive. Everything was ornately designed, with lots of detail and gold embellishments. I can't even begin to understand how an ancient culture can make something so amazing without the technological advancements that present society has. It was really mind blowing. And it's not just the one temple, all the temples in Bangkok are like that. And they are all right in the middle of the city too.

After that I decided to go back downtown to the Grand Palace. I didn't actually go in because one, it was expensive, and two, they require that you wear long pants, close-toed shoes, and your shoulders must be covered. The thought of doing that in that heat almost made me pass out, so I decided against it. Instead I walked around for a while, I found a really cool amulet market where I bought a few things that I have absolutely no understanding of. Then some more walking,
I made it to the foreigner section and got some lunch. I wanted to try street food, but I didn't know what anything was, so I decided to wait for the next day when I went out with Nate. This place had a lot of souvenirs, and people selling stuff. One guy tried to sell me a night with a Thai boyfriend, only $10! I tried to find this curry market i read about, but to no avail. For the whole day, I drank four giant bottles of water (which, by the way, were only 20 cents each) and I only peed once! That's how much I was sweating. I eventually made it back to Tim's for a well needed shower.

Then, once Nate came back we headed out for my bachelorette party! I don't want to go into the details, but it involved alcohol, Mexican food, and a strip club.

The next day I had Nate all to myself. We started out with a  breakfast of green curry and begin our day at Wat Arun, which again I couldn't get into because I wasn't wearing appropriate attire. But it was fine, seeing it from the outside was still great. Wat Aurn is a really old stone temple, which again has great detail. I ran into a group of Koreans, and had a little convo with them, that was fun.

After Wat Arun, we went to Wat Pho, which is home to the Reclining Buddha. Again, housed in a huge, ornate palace, the Reclining Buddha was huge. Luckily, I was able to get in because they gave out ugly, over-sized shirt to wear for us people in tank tops. the Buddha is a 50-meter long, gold plated statue or immense proportion. We walked around the temple for a little while longer, it was a big maze of buildings and entry ways, and gold and Buddhas. After that we walked around the riverside, basically where I was the day before. We got some street food which was pretty spicy, and then to another temple called Wat Bowonniwet. More gold, more Buddhas, but this one had a great carving of Buddha's foot print (which I think is important), and withing the etched lines, people had balanced coins for good luck. A monk came up and talked to use for a little bit about it which was cool. We tried to find the curry market again, but we still couldn't find it.

We soon went back to Tim's house, and then set out for Ko Samet. We drove for a long time to a beach area where we got hooked up at a hotel for high ranking naval officers. Nate is in the navy, and it boss really likes him, so he made a reservation for us. The next morning we headed to the pier to go to Ko Samet (an island about 200km outside Bangkok). We had to wait for a while to get the boat, and the pier was really sketch. I've got this fear about walking over things that I can see through, especially when I see water underneath, especially when I'm carrying heavy suitcases. Anyway, the boat took about 45 minutes and cost 100 baht ( a little over 3 bucks) and our room was literally two feet away from the water. We got settles at about 1 o'clock and went straight for the beach. Nate and I got some food at the little place right by the room. Then I rented a chair (100 baht for the whole day) and camped out. I went in the water which was amazingly warm, it felt great. For a while we had to stay away because I member of the royal family was coming ashore. Oh, and I forgot to mention, in Thailand, there are just tons of stray dogs and cats, just chilling, walking around, causing no problem. I loved it. There were also a ton on the beach. How great would that be, to be a stray dog living on an island, hanging out on the beach, getting food from people all day. i was pretty jealous of the dogs. Anyway, back to the beach, it was great. There weren't a ton of people, just a big group of speedo-clad Russians. So we were on the beach for a while, then explored the in-land area. When night came along we wandered down the beach to this outside restaurant where we sat on mats on the sand. We got a HUGE meal, two meat skewers, two cobs or corn, spring rolls, ribs, noodles, two alcohol buckets, and a hookah, all for $45. Plus, there was a fire show! A bunch of fit Thai guys throwing sticks of fire into the air, pretty bad ass. We stayed there for a few hours, watched the fire show and partook in some on-stage dancing. After a while though I was pretty tired so I went to bed.

The next day was another day or fun in the sun. Tim got some pretty awkward sun burns on his leg, his belly button, and hear his speedo line. We stayed there until about 3 pm and then took the ferry back. I had to be at the airport by 10am the next morning, so we had to leave the night before in order to get there. At the pier on the way back I tried some strange fruit and got a few presents for my kids at school. We then drove to Bang Saen to stay for the night. This was another place on the beach. We got a pretty decent room for 500 Baht ($16) with two beds. After a well needed shower we went to get some food. Again, great meal for cheap. We got crab legs, a spicy mussel salad, and a sour-spicy fish soup, all for about $13. And of course there was an adorable cat who I had no problem giving my fish bones to. After the filling meal, we went to get a Thai massage, something I had been waiting for for days. Tim and I went together, and we got a full hour for only 250 Baht ($8). Nate told them to go easy on us because we were sunburned, but usually it's a bit rougher. It felt great though. And Tim was talking to them in Thai which was fun. On the way back to the hotel we stopped and got some more weird Thai fruit, it was all decent tasting, nothing spectacular though. The night sucked, because I swear the beds were made out of straight concrete, and in the middle of the night it felt like little concrete midgets were punching me all over my back.

We got up the next morning to go to the airport, and we stopped by a cool looking Chinese temple in Bang Saen, again I couldn't take pictures inside, but the outside was pretty fascinating. After another hour in the car we got to the airport, early, I had to wait for the ticket counter to open. I brought about $250 dollars with me, and i actually had a hard time spending it all. Even with the travel, paying for the hotels, food, souvenirs, gas, I still had about 1,500 Baht to spend at the airport. So i did my last bit of souvenir shopping, got things for my kids' parents, something for my grandma, and a shot glass for my collection. I never figured out what to get for Daniel, so I got him a bottle of Jack form the duty free shop (he loved it). I must say, it was only five days, but I missed him terribly. It was kinda annoying seeing all the cute couple on the island, and not being one of them. I was happy to finally get back (which didn't happen until 1am Monday morning because my freaking plane was delayed in China and I missed my last bus).

All in all, it was a pretty great trip. The weather was hot, but the goods were cheap and the food was great. The stray animals brought my heart up, but I missed my boo. It was great seeing Tim, and I had a fun bachelorette party. In the end though, I was ready to go home. I am definitely going back though!

You can see all my pictures here in my Facebook album!

So in case you live under a rock and haven't heard the news, Daniel and I are engaged! It wasn't really a surprise to me, we had been talking about it before he went away to Nigeria. I told him that I was ready though. He's been back for almost a month now, and we were talking about it over dinner the other night and we decided that we both wanted to go through with it. I told him though, that I required a ring and a proper proposal. The next day he left to do some business in Ansan. I didn't really know when he was going to propose, but I was certainly hoping he wouldn't wait too long! I didn't want to tell anyone until I had a pretty ring to show off, lol. So come Tuesday night, I came home and vented about the student who spilled coffee all over my desk, and how the Speech Contest was a waste of time. Then as we were sitting on the couch he said "Ok are you ready? Close your eyes." Haha obviously I knew what he was going to do, so it wasn't like a surprise proposal, but it was special none the less. And there we have it, he asked and I said yes.

We talked about what we are going to do, and neither of us really wants to go through the hassle of having a ceremony in Korea. So we decided instead to make it official at the Nigerian and US Embassies, and with the Korean government, and instead of a ceremony, we are going to have a celebration party afterward. We are going to start saving up money, so that when we move back to America in a year or so, we can have a legit ceremony in the states (Oregon, most likely). We are also going to go to Nigeria and have a celebration. Daniel wants to go for Nigerian Thanksgiving, so it will be a joint Thanksgiving-Wedding party. He says that in Nigerian society, the family pretty much pays for everything, so we wont need to save for that. Plus it's not going to be a legit wedding, just more like a party.

I think we are going to try to go to the embassies soon. He has to go back to Nigeria at the end of October, and he needs to reapply for his American tourist visa for Christmas, so we want to go soon. Plus, I figure, the only point of getting engaged is to give yourself time to plan the wedding, so if you're not having a wedding, there's no point in staying engaged for a long time. You need to just jump right in! I will be sure to keep everyone updated on when exactly we are going to go to the embassies, so don't worry.

I realized recently that I have been posting a lot of things about my life, and what I do on my free time. That's all fine and great, but when it comes to what I cam here to do I'm always leaving stuff out! I am a teacher after all. I mean, I'm not a full blown, spent five years in college, got a degree, licensed teacher. But I am educating children, so I consider myself to be one, and will put it on future resumes.

When I first came here, my class couldn't speak a word of English. Okay, maybe a few words, like "teacher" and "bathroom." Well, Thomas couldn't say bathroom, he would just say 시 (or, "pee" in Korean). My class had to start pretty much fresh, going from the alphabet, to small words, to simple sentences. I've been with them for 10 months now, and they have improved such a tremendous amount. I'll try to give you an idea of what class was like for the first four months. There was a lot of speaking Korean, even though it's kinda forbidden in the school, they were young and couldn't speak English if they tried. I got different kids starting at different months throughout the year, so after we finished a lot of the alphabet, Thomas and Daniel came in, so they were a little behind everyone. Elliot would barely even speak, and would slouch away if you tried to touch him. They could barely read any words, not even "the" or "and." We had a phonics book that would use words like "cut" and "tap" but they had no concept of rhyming words, or that rhyming words often had the same spelling. Every day I would point to the word "mop" and only a few of them could recognize it. It took most of them a month to learn how to spell their names.

And it wasn't like I was just teaching them English, they were so young they didn't even know how to write numbers properly, or deal with other students, or themselves for that matter. I've been having to teach them life survival skills as well. I've been teaching them not to cry in class, that they need to ask for help when they need it, not hit each other, not to freak out when something doesn't go right, some of them still can't write numbers properly. I've taught them the importance of sharing, and helping your friends with their work sometimes. For a long time, the girls would finish their work and would have to help the boys. I mean, the boys handwriting is still pretty bad, and nothing seems to help, but at least I can read it.

But they've come a long way since then. All of them can read pretty well (with the exception of Thomas, who can barely read "the" and "or"). We have book, and every Thursday they have to read a page that has about 15-20 lines, things like "Look at all the toys, they are on the floor. The blue ball is on the floor, the fast car is on the floor. Let's clean up the room, it is messy." So it's not the most advanced stuff, but I think it's pretty impressive. I probably couldn't read that when I was five. Side note, I recently saw a report that says that kids who learn a second language by the age of five are statistically smarter than students who didn't. Interesting little fact, no?

Anyway, my kids and I can have a pretty good conversation, they can tell me what they did over the weekend, what they had for breakfast, where they went on summer vacation, if there is a problem in class, if someone gets hurt the other students can explain why. Every once and a while they don't know a word in English, so another student will explain it, or I will look it up in the Korean dictionary, and try to explain it to them. I attempted to explain the word "born" to them, because Elliot was born in China, but they didn't understand. I was like "Ok, when you're mommy has a baby in her stomach, and then the baby comes out, and she can hold it, that's being born" but that concept still is a little too advanced for them.

We have started learning small bits of grammar as well, such as plural and singular, countable and uncountable, verb conjugations for "he, she, it" forms. They are too young for me to explain why we do things a certain way, so instead I'm just trying to ingrain in their tiny little brains to do things a certain way. Sometimes things just don't stick though. We just finished learning about the days of the weeks, the months, seasons, and "first, second, third...etc." Some of them understand pretty well, we have calendars on the walls, and I wrote the number of them month on them. And I've told them about 50 billion times that there are 12 months in the year, and it says "12" on the December calendar. But when I say "true or false: there are 7 months in the year" some of them still shout out true. It can be exasperating sometimes because I'm only given so much time to teach certain things. We just learned months, but unless we have time int he class to review, we won't really talk about that again. So I try to go over things enough so that it sticks, but sometimes, with some students, it just doesn't.

I have high hopes for them though, they have advanced a lot since they first got here, and I think they will keep up a pretty steady pce for the rest of their time here.

What a fun weekend I have had! First, on Friday, we had a pajama party at school, so all the kids came with their pajamas and teddy bears and blankets. We had a little snack party in the classroom for a half an hour, then I read them a few stories in a little makeshift tent the Korean staff put together. After that it was just sort of a free for all. We let the kids go to different rooms, they could watch a movie in the library with Jeff, or play games with Lindsay, or get their nails done in my class. of course all the girls wanted to be in my class, and a few boys! I probably painted about 20 girls/guys fingernails in that time. It was fun, but I started to get a massive headache which wound up lasting the rest of the day and night. Because I wasn't feeling well I decided to spend the night in.

The next morning, Alex, Megan and I went down to Hongik University to go to their Free Market. We got Mexican food before hand at Dos Tacos and the burritos were bigger than our heads! The market was really cool, it's nestled in a little park right near the entrance of Hongik University. There were a bunch of stalls with handmade jewelry on the street, then when you go into the park there were a bunch of vendors selling things like paintings, handmade leather goods, handmade notebooks, key chains, shirts, bags. There was so much stuff we had to circle around a few times to make sure we saw everything. And it was boiling hot outside, even in the shade we were sweating hard core. Nothing in America can prepare you for the humidity of the East. I wound up getting a few things, a cool tree painting that was also a clock, a notebook, and a few necklaces. Then on the way back through Hongdae, we decided to get piercings! We passed a shop with a bunch of Korean biker guys outside and we decided to go in. We ask how much, and it was only $10 which was cool. So I got my upper ear, Megan got her third holes on her lobes, and Alex got her nose.

We headed off to Korean class after that. I'm really excited because my teacher says that I should move on to Level 3 in September. I'm excited and nervous, because that class it taught in only Korean. My reading comprehension is pretty good, and my vocab, but my listening and reading out loud isn't too great. I can make small conversations, and try to piece things together, but listening to Koreans talk is hard!

After class we decided to go to Itaewon. We went to a cool little restaurant in Noksapyeong called Berlin, where we all got some drinks. I got a Frozen Key Lime, and it tastes exactly like key lime pie, it was great! We also got a few appetizers to stave off our hunger. Then Daniel and Lindsay met up with us for a while. After Daniel left we went back to Itaewon to a nice little Indian restaurant where we got to sit outside and eat. Drinks weren't good, but the Chicken Tikka Masala and the garlic Naan were. Next we went to a cool spot called the Bungalow. This place has this wooden swings to sit in, and the floor is covered in sand. It was like being on a tropical island. We met up with Ruth and Walker, along with Frank and Miguel. Here the drinks were good, I got something called a Cassis Frappe, and it is now my drink of choice. We stayed at the Bungalow for maybe an hour, then we all parted ways. Lindsay, Megan, Alex and I decided to hit up Ladies Night at The Loft (which is kinda a shady place, but the music is good and girls drink for free, so ti has it's perks). We met up with Daniel and some of his friends, we had some drinks and danced for a while. We left to go find Miguel up on the hill, but he was no where to be found, which was quite aggravating. By then Megan was pretty drunk, and Lindsay and Alex were tired, so they all went home and I went back to hang out with Daniel. We left sometime around 1 o'clock. It was a pretty fun night, went to a lot of places, had some good food.

And this morning I woke up and guess what I did! I bought a ticket to go visit Tim in Thailand! I'm so excited! I have a vacation for Chuseok, which is like the Korean Thanksgiving. So I'll be leaving on Tuesday morning, and coming back Sunday night. It took me a while to find a good ticket, because most of them were either really expensive, or the timing was bad. But I found one this morning, and after a little trouble with the credit card company I was finally able to book it.

So I recently found out that I live very close to the community center for my area, and they have a huge sports/exercise complex! It's just a 5 minute walk form my apartment. Rhea, Grace and I decided to start doing Taebo (태보) there two days a week. For two days a week, for four weeks, it's only $28, which I would say is a pretty damn good deal. I'm on my second week, and it's really fun. It gets hard, because we move around so much, and by the end we are all dripping with sweat. And the best part is, I can understand a lot of what my teacher says. A lot of the moves, like back kick, uppercut, side jab, are all Kanglish (English words slightly modified to the Korean language), and if you look you can basically follow him. But when I listen I can understand him saying things like "come forward, go back, 4 more times, other side" so I'm excited that I can understand that much! Next month I'm going to start doing it three days a week (for only $38 a month!), so hopefully that will keep me away from the night life on Fridays.

The place also offers classes like belly dancing, dance-aerobics, yoga, pilates. And they have a nice looking gym as well. Daniel is thinking about joining the gym, but I have to ask a head manager for approval because he doesn't have an ARC card.

After having a few free days in the Seoul area, Megan, Lindsay and I decided to go traveling around Korea. We all got 5-day Korail passes, which basically let us get on any train at any time for 5 days. We started our trip by going down to the southwest tip of the peninsula to an area called 목포 (Mokpo). We quickly found a motel by the harbor, and it actually wound up being a pretty nice motel. For $45 we got a double bed, and a mat, plus a big TV, aircon, and a computer. We started exploring right away. We went down to the harbor and quickly bought a ticket to go to Oedaldo, otherwise known as "Love Island". The boat ride took about 30 or 40 minutes, and we were a little worried because there were some ominous looking clouds on the horizon. By the time we got there we were all pretty hungry, so we figured we would find a restaurant and get some fish or seafood. Well, "Love Island" turned out to be a total bust. We couldn't find a restaurant for a long time, and when we finally find one they had about 4 menu items, none of which I wanted to eat. We ordered food just for Lindsay, and it took almost 30 minutes to make, and they wound up making food for all of us. I kind of felt obligated to eat it since there was so much food, we didn't want to waste it. We walked around for a little bit and there was really nothing to see besides a "flower garden" which was really just a shrub garden.

We waited down by the shore for the next boat, so that was nice dipping our feet in the water. On the way back on the boat, these two old Korean men (ajushis) came up and started talking to us in Korean. Of the three of us, I am the only one with any sort of Korean conversational ability. It' turned out to be quite funny trying to decipher what they were saying. Basically, they found out Megan was from New York, and Mr. Lee told us his son lived in New York, and that he wanted to travel with Megan to go visit him. Ha, then we though that he wanted Megan to date his son, but it turns out he has a wife. So we chatted for a little bit, telling them where we were from, what we did, that we were on vacation. The guys even paid for our boat ride which was really nice. At the end he gave us the coins in his pocket, and after he wrote down what he was saying, and we tried to decipher it on our phone dictionary, he understood that he was saying "Here are some commemorative coins" lol. It was really enjoyable. I gave Mr. Lee my phone number and he said next time he came up to Seoul he wanted to eat with us. Sadly, I have recieved no call yet :(

After that we decided to go to the "fun" part of Mokpo, but turns out there isn't one. We went to a few different restaurants and got food and beer, even some "dried accompaniment" as they refer to their dried sea food product. In the end, we decided to get the hell out of Mokpo before it sucked us into it's abyss of boredom.

From there we went to Busan, and honestly, didn't do much. We got a cheap motel where we slept on the floor, went to the beach every day, read some books, and ate good food. It was quite relaxing. I wound up getting RIDICULOUSLY sunburnt. I couldn't wear a bra for 2 days because it hurt, and lindsay had to put my hair up for me. Sleeping was absolutely terrible, I was hot and cold and hot and cold. Terrible. The beaches were literally lines with umbrellas and Korean. You could rent and umbrella and a chair for 10 dollars, which was nice. But really, you could hardly see the same because there were so many mats and umbrellas. Apparently on the last day we were there, there were over 1 million people on the beach.

The last day we were there Lindsay's friend Brett (WHO WAS THE OREGON DUCK MASCOT! To see him in action click here) came to hang out. I honestly don't think I've met a funnier person in my life. We had such a great time. We went and got grilled fish, which was delicious, and it came with fish head soup which was also really good. We had quiet a lot to drink, then got some coconuts filled with alcohol. I'll tell you what, I felt absolutely BAD-ASS walking on the beach drinking tequila out of a coconut. Then we all go these cheesey temporary tattoos that all the Korean men had on, we all got butterflies on our chests, and Brett was trying to get with the girl doing it, very funny. After that we went to a night club (which was my first one in Korea). night clubs are a little different in Korea, most people dance in a group or by themselves, and it's not nearly at inappropriate as American dancing. In fact, people don't really touch when dancing. When we got there no one was dancing, so we got our drinks and literally started the dance party. Soon everyone was dancing, and Brett was spitting out these moves that the Koreans were going crazy for.

All in all it was a fun relaxing trip. I like Busan, and I'm glad I had already been, so I didn't feel the need to do the touristy stuff and just relaxed with my skin cancer.

The link for my pictures on Facebook is here.

Again, sorry for not posting anything in a while, but really, life is not that exciting right now. After my first couple months here, where I spent all my weekends going out and doing stuff, I mostly spend the weekends at home now. I have Korean class in the middle of the day on Saturday which prevents me from doing some stuff.

But now I am on vacation from school, I have one week off, so I have to go do stuff. Yesterday was Saturday, and a lot of other coworkers were leaving to go to Borneo for vacation. I thought Daniel would have been back by now, so I didn't make plans to go anywhere, and by the time I realized he wouldn't be here, it was too late to book anything. But that's ok because I didn't really want to spend the money to go anywhere. So yesterday morning a bunch of us went to get our nail done at my favorite nail shop. Afterward, Megan, Lindsay, Grace and I went to Korean class. Grace decided to tag along just to see what class was like. We stopped at a great little cafe on the way up to Sookmyeong University called Froggy Cafe and had some really good pesto pizza.

After class we decided to go to Seorae Village, otherwise known as "Little France". We took Bus 13 from Exit 1 of Chong Shin University. We didn't exactly know where we were going, but found it eventually. I gotta say, although it was quaint and nice, there certainly wasn't a lot of French stuff. We were expecting coffee and pastry shops, French restaurants, wine shops. Really it was a main street about the length of a football field, and there was only one French restaurant and it was expensive. We saw two wine shops, but no place to get good cheeses or other French groceries. We actually wound up eating at an Italian restaurant. The food was really good and reasonably priced. I did pay $9 for a tiny cup of coffee though. If I haven't mentioned it yet, coffee in Korea pretty much sucks. It's either watered down, or milked down and really weak. Plus they don't really have fat free milk which was a bummer. So I was excited to go to Little France and get a good cup of coffee, but for the most part all there were were the typical Korean coffee places (which although the coffee sucks, there are at least 3 coffee places within eye sight basically no matter where you go in Korea). So I got coffee at the restaurant which apparently specializes in coffee. I'll admit that aside from "latte", "mocha", and "americano" I don't really know much about coffee or the taste of beans from different countries. But he recommended one for me at it was pretty good. Not worth $9 but still good.

All in all I was a little disappointed by "Little France" it was more like basic Korea with some wine and a French Restaurant. After that we walked to the Epxress Bus Station and took the subway back. Grace and Megan went home while Lindsay and I decided to check out Namdaemun Market. All the tour books rave about this market, saying it so big and great, especially at night. Well we went at night, and there was literally nothing special. It was just like the typical Korean market with food stalls, souvenirs, clothes, ginseng in big bottles. Lindsay and I were pretty disappointed, we couldn't figure out why the guide books would rave about this place. So instead we took a stroll down to Myeongdong, which was much better.

We went shopping at Forever 21, got some icecream, and went to this great 꿀타래 (ggul ta rhe) place. This was a little stand that I've seen a few times and finally decided to try it. There were three guys working there, and they went through this whole show for us, it was hilarious. Basically 꿀타래 is made by taking a frozen circle of honey, and stretching it into a million tiny strings using cold flour, then they put a nut mixture in the middle and wrap it up. So the guys had this whole show planned out where we watched them make it, and they would tell us about it, even using English. They would say stuff in Korean then say "In English-ey, Oh My Got, so delicious!" and then would repeat each other when they were talking. Even if the food was terrible, it was worth $5 just to watch the show. But luckily the food was good, it tastes better frozen, but still very good.

So all in all it was a fun day, although Seorae and Namdaemun were a little disappointing, we still had fun, and at least we got to see them. Megan and Lindsay and I are trying to plan a trip down towards the south of Korea next week, making our way to Busan.

The next day was Sunday, and Lindsay and I decided to hit up the Seoul Folk Flea Market. I've already been there a few times, but I was really in the mood to get some decorative stuff for the apartment, and I was bored, so I went again. It's beginning to get really hot here, and humid. So just walking a few blocks down the street gets really hot and sweaty, pretty gross. Plus in the summer I like to wear my flip flops, but they happen to be a magnet for dirt. Basically summer just makes me feel icky. But I'm on vacation, and I don't want to spend the whole time in my house, so I'm getting out as much as possible. Anyway, Lindsay and I met at the market and walked around for a few hours. We both found some good stuff, I got a tea set, Korean calligraphy brushes, and some decorative elephants. Lindsay so some calligraphy sets as well, and a few other things I can't remember. Some stuff there is cheap, while some is expensive. i really like all the old, partially rusted money coins form centuries ago, and I really just want to get a bowl of them, but they are $1-2 each, so a handful of them could wind up being pretty expensive.

After our little tour of the Seoul Folk Flea Market we decided to hit up Itaewon. We found a really great brunch place called The Flying Pan. They serve brunch all day, and the cafe is small and quaint, and best of all they have AirCon. i got the smoked salmon eggs benedict, and Lindsay got the berry french toast. My meal was delicious, and not to badly priced, I think $14 or so (p.s. since I don't have a Won button on my computer and its a pain to find it online and copy it every time, I am just going to round out the Won amount to dollars and list everything in dollars). After our filling brunch we went to What The Book, the local English buy/sell/exchange bookstore. I forgot that they moved so it took us a while to find the place, but the new building is so great. I bought a few books and a magazine to keep me busy. We finally went home after that.

We ventured out again on Monday. Megan came over and we planned our trip for the week. We bought a 5-day Korail Pass which basically lets us get on any train we want for 5 days. We are going to start the the south-western side of the peninsula, and work our way along the southern coast, eventually coming out at Busan. Although you usually don't get tickets until the day you are leaving, we knew that the trains back from Busan on Sunday would sell out quick, so we went down to Seoul Station and got our tickets in advance. Then we met up with Lindsay and decided to check out Samcheongdong (삼청동). We started out at Anguk Station and worked out way up Gyeongbokgung Palace wall through Byeolgung (별궁). This is a really great, although narrow, street lined with coffee shops, Korean restaurants, shoe stores and jewelry shops. We stopped at a great coffee place called Coffee Factory and had good coffee. I think I mentioned it before but most of the chain coffee stores have pretty bad coffee, but the small out of the way places are much better (although a lot more expensive).

We made our way through the area to the main street of Samcheongdong. Similar to Byeolgung, it's lined with coffee shops and shoe stores. There were also a few museums we saw: the Toy Kino Museum, The Owl Museum, the Chicken Art Museum. But unfortunately it was Monday so they were closed. We walked around the whole area, up a gigantic hill and back down again. After we got to the bottom we took a stroll through Insadong. Again we have all been there, but it's a fun place none the less. Remember how I said I found calligraphy brushes at the Seoul Folk Flea Market? Well, I found two sets in Insadong for the same price as the set I bought before. That always seems to happen when you buy antiques and traditional Korean goods, you always find it cheaper somewhere after you bought it. But I got them anyway, you can never have too many calligraphy brushes! So there is a lucky lady back home whose name starts with an "S" and ends with an "hayla" who will get to pick out her favorite set!

We also went to a traditional stamp shop. When we were at the Seoul Folk Flea Market, Lindsay and I got some wooden name stamps for people we know, but all the work was done on a machine. We stopped at a store that did them by hand, and they did them in stone stamps which was pretty cool. Only Megan got one, but I'm defs going back to get myself a nice one. They are a little pricey ($30 for the cheapest, while the wooden ones form the Seoul Folk Flea Market were only $5). I also found a really cool stone set with the zodiac symbols. I want to come back and get the whole set at a different time, it's only $100 for the set. They store was interesting, lost of stamps and calligraphy brushes. Even Queen Elizabeth came there and got a stamp! And, wouldn't you know it, while were there we met a Korean girl who goes to the University of Pittsburgh! I almost shat myself when I herd that!

We also went to another 꿀타래 shop because it was so good, and I got a video of the guys show, it was pretty funny, maybe better than the first guys. It was a long day, so we headed home, but not before stopped at Skin Food!

Finally, on Tuesday we decided to go back to the Samcheongdong area to go to all those museums. I was the first one out there, I went to Changdeokgung Palace (after first finding the wrong place, Jongmyo Shrine and finding it closed on Tuesdays). I went walking around there for a while, but it was freaking hot so I took solace in a coffee shop. I also went to the Tteok (traditional Korean rice cake) Museum, but that wasn't really interesting. After that I went to the Korean Museum of Buddhist Art which was really interesting. They actually had a pass for $10 that gets you into five of the nearby museums so I picked it up. Megan met me there and we went to find Lindsay (after traversing the two biggest hills in Korea to get there! I swear, we only find the tough paths when its hot outside). We then went to the the Chicken Art Museum, which was literally two floors of chicken and rooster art work from hundreds of years and many countries. The curator gave us a tour and explained some of the stuff, but his accent made it a little hard to understand. Afterward, we went to the Korean Embroidery Museum which was intersting as well. There were a lot of really big embroidery pieces with really intricate details, very impressive to say the least.

Then back to the Owl Museum, which was the 40-some of year collection one one woman who really liked owls. The place was covered wall to wall, floor to ceiling with different pieces of owl art including toys, sculptures, paintings and dishware. We had to pay to get into the museum, but we got a free cup of orange juice. Then back towards Byeolgung to get food and coffee at a place called Homestead. And after that we were all pretty much pooped to we all headed home to finish packing and take a rest. We are going to Seoul Station tomorrow at 8am to start our trip. And I will be sure to update about all the wonders that southern South Korea has to offer!