Doota Ville A - Cribs Style

4th of July in Korea

By golly, we can celebrate America's independence anywhere! Last year was spent in Santorini, Greece and this year in Seoul, South Korea :) We gathered some friends together (American, Canadian and South African...bless their hearts for helping celebrate in John's favorite holiday!) and went down to a stream near by and let of fireworks and played with sparklers. 

We missed you all though! And we hope to be State-side for next year's celebration! 

Can 4 American English teachers spell U.S.A backwards and catch it on film...unfortunately no :) but here's a capture of the attempt!

I love celebrating these holidays all over the world with you!

Kaboom!

 Happy 4th everyone!

Bittersweet Transitions

We have recently had to make some very difficult decisions that affect our present situation as well as our long term future. We were scheduled to leave Korea in the middle of August. After considering various options including traveling more of Europe, living in Madrid, Spain for 9 months or coming back to the States... all had their pros and cons.We both feel truly blessed to have been able to travel as much as what we have in the last year. Each country and each experience has opened our hearts and widened our eyes to the diversity as well as the unity that makes this world so worth exploring!

John was recently accepted into UAS's MAT in Elementary Education program. This was fantastic news to find out that he would be able to start the 1yr intensive program this year. We were jazzed to imagine that he will be finished with his masters in teaching this time next year and start working in a field that drives him. A "sting" came with this exciting news however...he needed to be physically present in Juneau to begin the course July 25th!

Today marks our two week countdown. Though we are both looking forward to being back home, there will be many things here in Korea we will miss! I have a list of blogs I'd like to post in the next couple weeks that hopefully capture and bring closure to our experience here. 

Stay tuned! 

Busan Girls Weekend

A few weekends ago I went with my good friend Melissa down to South Korea's second largest city, Busan, which is on the southern tip of the country. It was a 3 hour train ride on the KTX, Korea's fastest train. It was really nice to have a girls weekend away. We stayed at a wonderful hostel located walking distance from the beach. The weekend was spent walking through the local markets, eating at yummy vegan restaurants, sharing a bottle of wine on the beach, a morning walk followed by massages and a little shopping to top it off!

I am kicking myself for not bringing our nice camera. I didn't want to carry it, so I brought our small Nikon and I was extremely frustrated with the quality of our pictures. (no mom Harvey, not because it's a Nikon but because of the model of the camera itself :) ). The picture quality marking the weekend was quite disappointing but at least we captured some of the fun :)

boarding the train!

our wonderful tour guides that insisted on helping us find a place for lunch :)

As we were enjoying a bottle of wine on the beach one night, a lady approached me and asked to use my cell phone in broken English. Without thinking and a few Dixie cups of wine in, I allowed her to use it. She proceeded to call someone and talk for several minutes. The only words I got out of her conversation was "nore bong" which is Korean for karaoke :) Apparently she was fixin' to have a good time! I politely asked her to end her call (as my phone is a pay as you go)...so weird though...as most things here are!

 

a nice morning walk along the coast 

With such a large population of foreigners who speak English in Korea you would think most businesses would consult someone about their grammar before paying to display their advertisements. You see mistakes like this EVERYWHERE and usually its good for a laugh :)

local fish market and a pink sky

Our lovely hostel!

Sokcho East Sea

We were invited to go on a weekend trip with one of our Korean teacher's family and a group of people from their church. The other families that came were from their English service. There was only one other American couple invited. The rest were Korean families whose kids are either learning English or the parent's themselves know English. The pastor is Korean but had raised his family in New York for many years. He had also traveled to Tanzania and Uganda quite a bit for missionary work. (In fact I think he said one of his children was born in Tanzania). When I told him my passion to someday go to Africa using my tools as a nurse, he said that the church is sending a group of doctors and other medical providers to Africa in January...and the church will pay for half. He informally invited me to join them. This tugged at my heart...and got me thinking!

Razer and his wonderful family Mira, Leah and Noah (most Korean's, if they go to English school choose an English name to be called while at school)

breakfast the next morning

the beach

I just thought this was bizarre...but, being in Korea it seems like you often come across things that make you turn your head and go "huh"  :)

making a sandcastle monster!

Most Sunday's Johnny has been playing soccer with Razer's church league. The team met us out at Sokcho and they played against the Korean Army team at that base. I wasn't supposed to take pictures while on the base but I snapped one while in the safety of our bus...shhh.

It's always fun to get away and out of the city every once in awhile. We also enjoyed spending time with our co-worker and his family and meeting more friendly faces. 

Buddha's Birthday

A couple picture's from a parade that took place in Insadong in honor of Buddha's Birthday two weekends ago.

Is it just me or do they all look really young?! 

Cat Cafe

We went to a cat cafe a couple weekends ago. It's a very interesting concept and different pet cafe's can vary in bizarreness :) The one we went to was pleasant. You sanitize your hands before entering and don a pair of slippers. You are encouraged to purchase a drink before sitting and simply enjoy the cats that meander around the cafe. It seems to be a win-win for the cats and city pet lovers who simply can't manage to have a pet of their own. They ask that you don't wake the cats while they are sleeping, they get fed well and get as much attention as they want. Johnny loves cats but is highly allergic. After pre-treating his allergies with medicine, it was quite an enjoyable experience. I can see how this concept would thrive in a big city where the majority of people live in minimal sized apartments and work long hours during the day.

apparently it's easy to loose your seat around here...

so relaxed

just hangin' out drinking ice tea and petting cats :)