Allllrrriiiiggghhhttt!!! So, it's been an unacceptably long time since I have contributed to our blog. I apologize. Here goes....
So, yesterday Steph and I returned from Jindo Island and its Parting of the Sea Festival. It was a group of ten intrepid English teachers who made the 4-hour bus ride from Busan to Jindo. We left Busan Friday and stayed the night in Gwangju. Some of stayed in jjimjjilbangs (sp?), and some of us stayed in Love hotels (Wikipedia and Google are your friends here). Both types of accommodation are....unique. That's all I'll say about that. Anyway, we got into Jindo Saturday morning. We stayed at a pension right on the water. The place was absolutely gorgeous with perfect views of the sea and neighboring islands. Everything was going well until we accidentally ordered two too many taxis to get us to the actual festival. The story goes like this. We weren't sure if anybody had called for a pair of taxis to scoop us up. So I said I would call the same taxi driver who drove us from the bus terminal to our pension. I did just that. I called him, asked for two cabs, and thought everything was good. I was feeling pretty good about myself actually because this was one of the easier phone conversations I've had with a Korean. Anyway, a few minutes go by and the lady who runs the  pension tells us that she has already arranged transportation for us. Okay, so we'll just call the other driver back and cancel. You know, "aniyo". We ended up calling him three separate times just to make sure he understood. We spit every 'no', 'aniyo', 'cancel', and generic request-cancelling Korean phrase we could at him. We thought we were good. We weren't. On the way to the festival, the taxi driver calls me. I ignore it because, really, if he didn't understand the first three times, he won't understand the next three times. So, he tries 4 more times to get a hold of me. I still ignore, and we all enjoy the Parting of the Sea Festival. It was great fun. There was food, drink, laughs, more drink, and even carnival style rides. Also, the sea parted. Okay, so we finish up at the festival and head back into downtown Jindo to get some dinner and pick up some drinks for the pension party. While waiting for our transportation, I get another phone call. I decide to answer, but instead of a Kimchi fried berating, the person on the other end asks to speak with Kasim, one of my comrades. Long story short, the taxi driver has been complaining to the pension even going so far as to demand a fare from us. Yeah. Okay.  We make it back to the pension and we're in the clear. The taxi driver isn't there waiting for us with metal chopsticks and a machete, as some of us were hoping. Everything was sorted out (Thanks Kasim! I'm stealing some of your pictures). We're good. GAME OF DEATH!
Anyway, this was a ridiculously awesome trip with great fun and equally great people. Check it out....

Gotta gotta get up get down.

This  is awesome.

Watch the sneakers, b.

Titanic!

Sea Walkin'.

Update =)

Sorry it's been so long since we've last posted! We have been so busy getting settled into our jobs and whatnot, that we totally forgot to update everyone. So here we go...

My school is working out pretty well for me. I have 4 co-teachers and they are all really friendly. Unlike Pat, I don't really do much of the planning for the regular classes. My co-teachers do all the planning while I sit on Facebook and Pinterest for hours and hours. I do,  however, have 2 after school classes that I really enjoy. I have a Storytelling class with 1st and 2nd graders (which would be kindergarten and 1st grade in the states) and a Conversation class with 3rd and 4th graders. I get to run these classes on my own which is a nice change. The kids are suuuuper cute, too! I'm constantly greeted by kids throughout the day saying, "herro teacha!", "hellooooo", etc. Lol It's pretty hard to have a bad day or get in a  bad mood with all these kids that are so excited to see you! I had to dance in front of one of my classes today which was pretty funny for everyone but me. But luckily 5 boys came up to dance with me lol. Candy may have been their incentive but I like to believe that it was so I wasn't feeling embarrassed. All in all, I like the school I work at. The co-teachers are really helpful whenever I need anything.

*On a side note*  Weirdest question I've been asking by a student: "What is your blood-type?". Pretty standard question here, I guess. Apparently, your blood type directly correlates with your personality type........

Our current issue right now, however, is our noisy neighbors to the north. This person stomps around their apartment slamming cabinets and making sounds that suggest he's dragging all of his furniture around the room on a daily basis. Every night I stand on our stairs that lead to the loft and bang on the ceiling with a mop. I was so fed up one night that I got out one of our Korean language books and had it opened up to the word "LOUD" and went upstairs prepared to try to communicate to this fool. I knocked on his door and said "hello" in Korean and he said "hello" back but never opened the door...fail. So, I had my co-teacher write me a note in Korean that basically says "I am asking you politely to keep the noise down after 10pm. If I can't sleep well, I won't work well the next day". That same night, I took the note up to the neighbor and he seemed to understand and said "Ok, ok" so I figured it would stop. Do you think it stopped? No. As soon as I got back down to my apartment he was being loud again. EVERY NIGHT at midnight it starts. This wouldn't bother me if it were earlier but at midnight...really?? My co-teacher has contacted the landlord and they said they would talk to the guy but I don't know when this will happen or if it already has and hasn't made a difference. I'm just going to continue to complain to my co-teacher and tell them it's affecting my performance at work. Hopefully that will get something done. They are telling me that they can not move me to another apartment but I have a feeling if I bitch enough, I might have a shot at getting moved. We have only been here a few weeks and it's already driving me nuts. I can only imagine what this will do to my nerves if it continues all year. I just had to take a little break from typing this to bang on the ceiling.

Aside from the idiot upstairs, we really love it in Korea. The people are beyond friendly and almost always go out of their way to help you out. The coffee shop that just opened up on the first floor of our apartment building gave us free scarves for no reason when we went in to get coffee one day.

A couple weeks ago we went to the Indian Holi festival in Haeundae Beach. It consists of alcohol and dry paint that everyone puts on each other while dancing around to music. So much fun!! One thing we definitely shouldn't have done is pay for the optional "lunch". We were told it would be a buffet lunch and the cost was 15,000 won (About $14). We get there and it took about 30 minutes to be seated and we got pita bread with dip. Everyone was walking around asking the other tables if this was the appetizer lol. No, that was all we go. We all got suckered in to paying 15,000 won for bread and dip lol. The festival was totally worth it though. Such a fun experience.

We are going to Jinhae next week for the Cherry Blossom Festival. Should be really, really pretty. And the weekend after that we are going to Jindo Isand for the Parting of the Sea festival. So, lots of pictures and updates to come!!

We love and miss all of you so much!! I hope life is treating you all well and everyone is happy.
xoxoxo

Apartment

BUSAN!

Well, we finally made it to Busan. Can't believe we are actually here. Since we aren't married, we got 2 apartments. Mine is really spacious and has a loft where the bed is. Lots of storage space, big living room area, nice size bathroom and the loft is pretty big, too. The apartment building is in a pretty awesome area, as well. There are lots of bars, restaurants, coffee shops and stores everywhere. Pat's apartment on the other hand...about the size of my bathroom and entry way. Pat said that he opened up his suitcase and had no more floor space. HAHA! So, we got really lucky that at least one of ours is big. All in all, we got a pretty good deal.

We met with our co-teachers on Monday. Mine is pretty cool. He jokes around a lot and knows quite a bit of English, so I'm really pleased. We start work tomorrow but it's Friday so we only work for one day and then have the weekend off. We have to prepare a PowerPoint slide to introduce ourselves. I'm having a hard time with finding pictures because so many of them have us drinking in them lol. Not appropriate for elementary school kiddos. I'm pretty nervous to start tomorrow but I'm just going to go into it confident and hopefully it all works out.

Last night, we went out with a bunch of people from EPIK that are also placed in Busan. Soooo much fun! We went to HQ bar which is owned by expats so they had a lot of our fav. cocktails. No Vodka Redbull =( but they did have Long Islands, so I was set =)  After the bar we went to a Nori Bang (karaoke place...sshhh) where you get your own singing room. Lots of soju, beer and bad singing lol.

Things I need to remember:

• Get used to getting stared at on the subway as though I have 3 heads
• Wear shorts over my leggings unless I want to get stared at as though I am naked
• Most restrooms require you to put all of your toilet paper in the trashcan next to the toilet...sometimes an open trashcan...with the toilet paper exposed
• I will get giggled at about a million more times due to my small ability to say anything in Korean
• More to come..

I will post pictures of our apartment tonight once we get back for the night! Miss and love you all!!

Steph and I just got back from our mandatory medical check. I feel like a million bucks, and I'm ready to start taking down some soju. I'm such a pansy. I started to get light headed waiting in line for the blood test. I thought that I for sure would pass out after they extracted my essence since I hadn't eaten since 9:00pm the night before. I actually made it out with only a bad case of wobble leg. Last night was fun. We walked around Jeonju with several of the other EPIKers. The stroll was real cool despite my ears and cheeks going numb half way through the walk. We're about to head out on our next venture outside of the University walls. Pics and updates to follow!

HERE!!!!

We are finally in Korea! It is super cold here. We need to learn how to dress for the weather. Someone asked us what the weather was like at home and it made us realize how unprepared we are for this weather! haha! We stayed our first night in a hostel called "Big Choi's" in Seoul. It was interesting to say the least. Somehow we got stuck downstairs with a bunch of really obnoxious, loud people while the rest of the EPIK teachers were upstairs being normal and polite. We were woken up a few times by people saying things such as "Can you paint my nipple?". When I realized they were not with EPIK, I was relieved. Not our type of people lol.

Early this afternoon we got a taxi back to the airport so we could catch the bus to orientation. We met a few really nice people on the bus. Bummer that they won't be working in Busan with us but good to meet new friends nonetheless. Had to take my nose piercing out today =( I took it out on the bus to orientation and just stared at it for like 5 min...didn't want to have to take it out but as soon as we get back to the states I'm getting it right back!

I can't get over how cold it is here. I need ear muffs or something because my spoiled California body is not used to this shit. All of the people we have come across, so far, have been very friendly. Definitely liking it here so far. But missing our family and friends already!

P.S. Pat is sooo scared for the blood test tomorrow lol. I'm hoping I don't have to revive him or get him to stop crying lol.

xoxoxo

One more day!

We leave in one day!!! My nerves are definitely getting the best of me. I can't believe it's all happening so fast! I remember the day we went to go get our fingerprints done for our background checks! We are going to miss all our family and friends so, so much. Hopefully we can get a few of you to go to Korea! ;)

There are so many thoughts going through my head...It really does help having so many supportive people in our lives though! We will keep you all updated once we arrive in Korea!

1 more day!!!! a;lskdjfga;slhgla;skjdhf;alsdkjf;askjldf!!!!!!!!!!!