Life on the Ring of Fire

Monday, October 29, 2012

My Trip to the North AKA My AMAZING Adventure to South Korea

Wow, long title.. and warning! This WILL be a long post.

Seems like I was waiting for this vacation forever. It's what got me through Ramadan and all the slow days when I wanted to pull out my hair. The thought of escape! Hah no, more like the idea of an adventure. I never thought I would go to South Korea - maybe pass through the airport at one time or another - but actually seeing parts of South Korea.. never. Luckily one of my really good friends from college, Jordan, is teaching English there. Long story short, I bought tickets to visit, pretty much on a whim - best idea ever.

Day of my flight, I had to go to school before heading into Surabaya and ALL the teachers knew I was leaving. I think only one teacher said be careful and the rest told me to bring back gifts. Kinda annoying but whatever. I get to the airport and my flight ends up being almost an hour late.I was sure it was going to be cancelled and my trip would be over before it started. My friend Erin told me to calm down and that I was on vacation. Haha. So yeah, finally we left. I got to Kuala Lumpur - got some more stamps in my passport, and then continued on to South Korea.

Once there, I took an Express train to the train station in Seoul and then took a 3 hour train to Busan, where Jordan lives. Seoul is in the north, fairly close to the 38th parallel, while Busan is in the south by the Sea. I tried to sleep on the train, but I was too excited.

On the express train to the train station

views of the station in Seoul, it was huge!

After meeting up with Jo, we took the subway to her apartment and then we went to get some food. We went to a fast food Korean place and I got to try Kimchi for the first time. I love Korean food. Jo went to work and I napped. later that night I met up with her and 2 other teachers, Sabrina and Afua, and we went to have some food and drinks. We ended up at their friend's resturant, had some wine and I got to know some of Jo's friends. After finishing the night at another bar, we headed back to the apartment.

view from the apartment

inside the apartment

view at night

The next day we walked around and I got to see places around where she lives. Later, when Jordan went to work, I walked around by myself in the area around her school. I was a little afraid I would get lost and have no way to contact anyone/ I can't speak Korean... but it ended up being nice to walk around and see some things.

yum! breakfast of yogurt, granola and fruit

awesome coffee place called Droptop

city around where jordan lives

part of my walk around the city

We went to a burrito place for dinner, which resembled Chipotle (I know! Not Korean, but anything besides Indonesian... it was good) Saturday, Jordan and I celebrated our homecoming. This would have been the second homecoming we could have gone to as Alum, but seeing as we were both far away, we decided to make due. We started around 12 and I got to meet a bunch more of her friends. It was a good time and good drinks were consumed (don't judge.. I don't drink all that much). It was a fun night.

before going out

at the beach

having fun with billboards

this is haeundae

some korean beer..

jordan switched over to green tea..

me with one of jordan's korean friends

sorry it's blurry but this dinner was AWESOME

devoured

Sunday we went to see Beomosa Temple. There are a lot of cool buildings and ares for people to pray. The scenery was amazing. The leaves were starting to change and it made me a little homesick since autumn is my favorite season.

We decided last minute to take a cable car up the other side of the mountain that this temple was on. The view was amazing. I thought being up high would make me freak out but it wasn't that bad. At the top there is a bunch of nature (hah) so we walked around for a little but. On the way down they packed as many people as they could into the little cable car.. Always a fun experience :)

That night we had Korean BBQ (not quite sure why its call that.. maybe because of the grill?) It was the best food I had had so far. It was SO good! For those who don't know what it is, you cook the meat (and/or veggies) at your table and there are a ton of things you can dip the meat in. And of course there was Kimchi (AHHHHHH!) Love that stuff!

Afterwards we went to this really cute coffee shop called J Square. Jordan got a drink and then her friend decided he wanted to come and say hello. So he came and then we walked around for a little bit and then ended the night with some awesome deserts.

The next day, we went to the world's biggest department store. We walked around, and had lunch. It was interesting (sorry no photos.. kinda just looked like a mall but it was a department store 6 or 7 floors..) The next day, a Tuesday, my last full day in Korea, we went to the market by Jordan's apartment. It was very different from the markets here in Indonesia. It didn't smell quite as bad which was surprising because there was a ton of fish everywhere.

Later that day, I was trying to decide what I wanted to do while Jordan was at work. I found a temple that was by the water and it looked pretty neat online so I thought why not. I got a little turned around once I got off the bus, but heck! for not knowing the language, I think I did pretty well! It was a really nice temple.

Finally Wednesday, we went shopping for gifts. Before parting ways on the subway though, we decided to visit Busan tower. It was pretty cool.

Then I went to the train station and ventured back to Indonesia. It's hard to believe that the week is already over. I had a great time and will totally go back to Korea if I am ever given the chance. Now I have one more vacation to look forward to with this guy:

My friend Adam

and then! I will have 5 months left (starting in January). It's crazy how time flies!

I plan on posting again next week so check back! I promise it'll be interesting!

LOVE YOU ALL! :)

Thursday, October 4, 2012

my trip to blitar.. among other things

so ive been told that i need to update my blog.. which is true.. so

the last month or so hasnt been too exciting.. ive been busy with school and its amazing how fast september went by. it felt like august took ages to end but this month.. man.. its amazing sometimes how fast that time can go..

anyways the last exciting thing i did was to go visit my friend at her site in blitar. i took the train to her site and got chatted up by one of the conductors. I think im just going to play ignorant next time i travel alone. whenever people find out i know some indonesian they just don’t leave me alone. i know thats part of the reason im here, to show how ordinary americans are, but after awhile it just gets old. i think the worst thing is the personal questions/ statements that they. are you married? do you live alone? how old are you? you’re fat. what’s that on your face? ugh.. i dont think anyone likes people pointing out their faults, but to have strangers do it? yeahhhhhh

so anyways, i get to blitar and find brianna and start the walk to her house. she lives in a city so its easy to walk everywhere. it was nice to walk around because i dont do that that much at my site. we got some es buah (fruit n stuff) and then we went to her house. after settling down and talking for a little bit, we went to the warnet and looked up some stuff on imdb. its always fun to get together with brianna because we always get into these discussions about movie and music. its awesome. afterwards we went back to her house and had some grilled cheese, which was amazing. we then stayed, watched part of a movie and some other videos. it was a good night. the next day, brianna made some potatoes for breakfast. those were also really good (see photos). aftwards we went out and walked around blitar. we went to the alun-alun and then went to the first president of indonesia’s grave. it was interesting. its kinda cool how much they love their president. don’t see that in the states, but then again. indonesia is only 67 years old..

brianna cooking some breakfast.. yumm

just some onions..

deliberately getting in the way of my shot..

sorry for the angle.. but look at those potatoes!

the first presidents grave

awesome batik helmet.. of course had to get a photo

so yeah then i went home by bus which was thankfully uneventful. and now.. just sitting around.. starting to make flashcards of vocab for the GRE. yay! also only have 18 more days till i leave for south korea, which i am super pumped about! I also just got tickets to australia so ill be spending christmas and new years with my friend adam in and around sydney so that should be a blast. maybe ill actually have a fun new years! its been a couple years since i had a memorable new years so i think something fun is deserved.

looking cool in his awesome shirt..

yaaaaaaa hometown pride!

all the english teachers..

amount of words i have to write definitions for..

amount finished :(

my dirrrrtyyy room

it's a mess :(
*since writing this entry I have cleaned my room.. it is now clean and beautiful!

so yeah.. thats my exciting life. here in indonesia.. teaching annoying children and thinking about the future. 8 more months till i come home.. seems unreal..

where, oh where has the time gone?

stay cool my friends :)

love you all :)

Monday, August 27, 2012

Boring.. But It's an Update

So I am getting really bad at updating this.. I wish my life was more exciting and I could update my adventures every week, but alas.. its not so. I have class 4 days a week.. Which is nice I guess. I’d rather just have Saturday’s off like a normal school week in the States. I am sure once school starts again I’ll be happy to have a break.. But thats neither here nor there..

The last month has been Ramadhan. So that means that there has been a lot of time off. School ends around 12:30 instead of 2, the kids are more annoying because they are hungry and irritable.. I’ve been off school since August 10th.. That’s two and a half weeks! (As I’m writing this I still have a week off left.. yippeeee) Earlier this week I was able to go to Surabaya for a few nights. It was only supposed to be one night, to welcome Erin back. She had just gone home to the states for a few weeks. It was nice to see people that I hadn’t seen in a month. Some days it seems like time is going by so fast and other times oh man.. Felt like it was 5 months since I’d seen everyone for MST.

So we all just walked around a lot.. Ate some food, had some ice cream (which was delicious..) and procrastinated when it was time to go back to site. As it was, a few of us decided, fairly late in the day, that we were going to stay another night and heck go see the new batman movie (AWESOME) It was nice having a few days not having to worry about what we were going to do to keep us busy at site. The batman movie was totally worth spending an extra night in Surabaya for. I think it was one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. It was also only 3 dollars.. I think that’s one thing I am going to miss here is how the prices are still so low. Going to a movie at home costs at least 10 dollars.. Bleh.. so that’s one nice thing about coming into the city.

And now.. sitting here.. watching a tv show and listening to the fireworks that seem to be going off everywhere tonight. Almost like the crickets that must be sounding as you are reading this horrible entry.

:( Sorry my life can’t be more exciting.. October though.. October will be exciting. I just bought tickets to go to South Korea for a week.. So wait around for that entry please!

Love you all :)

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Going Home is Always an Adventure

so

trying to write an entry after weeeeeekkkkkssss of not writing. difficult. not quite sure what to talk about.

so the school year ended right before i left for home. one year down. it was amazing. to think that i came so far when there were numerous times i was sure i was done.

then home. home was good. i got to see pretty much everyone that i wanted to see. i was afraid that seeing some friends would be weird since its been so long. luckily, it was like things fell into place. it was like i never left. i had some amazing times with my friends and i cannot wait to come back and see them all again. in this case, distance i think has really helped some of my relationships.

ive stolen these photos from danielle :)

the four before the many!

all of us at the wine tasting..

love this girl so much!

one of my favorite pictures

the one thing that brought me down was two days before i left, we had to put down my dog karmen. thinking about it now, it was like closing a chapter in my life. she was one of the best dogs ever. i know people say that about their pets, but there was something about her. i think, in the end, she knew what was happening. she was never a very touchy dog. she could stand a few minutes and then she would bolt.. but when i was home she would paw you if you stopped petting her. its sad, thinking that she knew when we were trying to deny it.

enough of the sadness.

so i came back to indonesia on the 7th. but it seems like i never left. im back at site and it feels like ive been here the whole time. its weird. time is so fluid. it just keeps moving and its moving so fast that i feel like tomorrow i am going to turn around i will be at home again and this whole thing will be over. i have a date finally. june 1st. i have ten and a half months left. 10 AND A HALF MONTHS! this little tunnel is getting wider and brighter and scarier. this has been my life for the past 15 months. what am i going to do? gah!

right now i should probably concentrate on this school year and doing all the things that i didnt last year. i only have 10 months. i want to be an awesome teacher, i want to see more in my community, i want to figure out what im going to be doing.

so to end this here are some photos taken in and around my home town of Chardon, Ohio.