The first 6 weeks (Part 1)

I've been in Korea for 6 weeks! And since I've been so bad at updating what I've been up to, I'll do a massive update with pictures!

June 25, Happy 24th to me!!! I had a pretty chill day, and then went out to dinner for some Bo Sahm (yummmmm) with some relatives in Bun Dang and they got me a pretty cake :) I ate a looot, definitely a sign of things to come this year. Strangely enough, I've actually lost some weight since I've gotten here, probably a combination of the amount of walking and stairs I climb up and down everyday, sweating, and a sporadic eating schedule.

After my first hectic week of teaching, I went out to celebrate the birthdays of a couple of the other teachers at my Academy. We went to the Hong Dae area, where there are a lot of bars, restaurants, and young people. Also, a place where you can get mixed drinks in a bag and drink them on the street. AWESOME. We went to an ex-pat bar where they played bad rap and hip hop, and capped the night with some karaoke at the Luxury Noraebang - good times :) So there are about 20 other English teachers at my Academy, which is great because I don't have to go very far to find friends and people I can converse intelligently with. Everyone at my school is really nice, I think I got pretty lucky. The management isn't perfect and its not super organized, but overall I think I should be good here for a year.

Sarah and Sarah came to Seoul on July 12th, Sarah W to visit for two weeks and Sarah L to move to Korea for 2 years! The first weekend they were here, we went to Gyeong Ju with two of my cousins, who acted as our tour guides/travel agents/Korean history tellers. Gyeong Ju is a city near the southwestern tip of Korea about 4 hours away from Seoul by train that has a lot of historical Korean stuff like the tombs of royalty from the Shilla dynasty, a 1000 year old Buddhist temple, and a biiig old stone Buddha statue.

Me and two of my fav cousins, Jae Un and Jae Hong aka James aka Secret aka Secret James aka JaeJong aka my punching bag. Jae Un was a superstar and booked all our train tickets, found a hotel, and in general rocked. James came all the way from the States to be our comic relief :) Here we are standing in the middle of a large lotus blossom field, there was some kind of festival going on.

There really wasn't that much to do in Gyeong Ju, but it was nice to get away from the city for a weekend and experience pollution-less air, lots and lots of greenness and rice fields, and a lot less people. We went to a museum where there was a big old bell that had some kind of historical significance... James felt this was an appropriate response.

We went to the Bulguksa Temple and were greeted with these lovely fellows.

It was really beautiful and nice and there were some actual monks there doing some kind of service.
Right outside our hotel there was a big lake where people were paddle boating in duck boats! Of course, the moment we saw them we knew we had to take a spin.


We were paddling really, really fast.


After our adventure in Gyeong Ju, we came back to Seoul to sightsee and shop and all that fun stuff. We took a trip to Bundang to visit and have dinner with my aunt and uncle and cousins and Sarah and Sarah were introduced to the deliciousness that is Sam Gyeop Sal, Korean pork bbq. Look we're all wearing matching aprons!!


Sarah and Sarah experienced more relativeKim funness (Mom's side) when they came with me to my cousin's house (far right) for my 2nd aunt's memorial. There were a lot of people who were either out out of the country or couldn't make it, but the place was still pretty full and my aunts insisted that I introduce them to everyone. I think they might have been a little bit overwhelmed. We also ate a lot of good food :) I love my family!! I still haven't seen everyone yet, a combination of busy people and just a whole lotta relatives.

Part 2 to come soon!