Double date!

Dates in general are wonderful, but having the chance to double date with another couple you enjoy being around, brings a whole new dynamic to the table, doesn't it!?

This afternoon, Aaron and I met our friends Brian and Amber for some Vietnamese cuisine at a new restauarant in Nampodong called Pho!   Hot Pho soup was the perfect remedy for my

crazy cough that I've been fighting for the past week!

After lunch, we headed over to play some screen golf on the 6th floor of a highrise building in Nampodong!  Brian was under the impression that he was supposed to look at this hands while he swung, instead of keeping his eyes on the ball!   So, Aaron graciously (and thankfully) gave him some pointers before we officially started!

Screen golf is a little like bowling, in that, when it's not your turn, you can sit back, relax, and talk with everyone!  It's the perfect activity for a double date!

We had lots of laughs!  It was Amber's first time ever attempting to golf, and on top of that, our sensor was out of whack and would send our balls in opposite directions of what we hit them...  This can be more frustrating than funny sometimes!  One time, it sent Amber's ball 150 meters when she had hit it so softly, it barely reached the screen!  

My goal was to get so close to the hole (without it giving me a double par and ending my chance at finishing the hole) that the floor would rise and I would get to hit a ball into the ACTUAL hole in the ground!  I only got a chance to do this ONCE in all the hole's we played, and I didn't even make it in!  ggrrr. But the fun part about screen golf is that if you pick up another ball and place it in the hole it thinks you made it!  :)

This is Amber and Brian.  (Amber is from Vancoover, Canada... and Brian is from Wisconsin.)  They have both been in Korea for 3 years and will probably be staying for a long time, too!  I'm telling you, this place is the place to be right now! 

Will someone please give this guy some A.D.D. medicine or something!  I can't tell you how many times we go to pose with a timer and he does something like this!  You can't see it, but he's throwing a golf ball up in the air!  I guess, if I think about it, it always makes me laugh... so I can't complain!  I love him JUST the way he is!

Cheers to a fun night with great friends!

Blondes have more fun!

...which is why I went back to it!  I've been thinking about how much I miss my blonde hair for a while now, so yesterday during my lunch break, I called and made an appointment with Gill's Korean hair dresser (Young Na)...

He is practically famous among foreigners in Busan; especially blondes, for being able to do highlights without turning his clients hair orange (or in my case bright yellow!  Remember that time?)!  He worked, and did his training, in London for 2 years, and has been back in Busan for the past 10 years!  He's probably the only hair dresser in Busan who had training with foreigners, which makes him a HOT COMODITY around here!  In fact, 90% of his clients are foreign, and unless you have an appointment, you can forget about it!  He's always fully booked!

This is his new place!  His salon is located upstairs in the ARK building... 

...and downstairs on the first floor, he built a hip and stunningly charming and art deco-ish cafe and bar for salon customer! 

Young Na met me at the door and welcomed me in with a smile!  We chatted for a little bit about what I wanted, and then he quickly got to work!  It's been a long time since I've had foils and bleach in my hair...

I had lots of time to relax while the bleach set in... but instead of sitting in an uncomfortable salon chair, I sat in the lounge area of his salon, where there's free wifi, ENGLISH gossip magazines, and all the comforts of home!   He handed me a menu while I was waiting and said, "drinks are on me this time, because it's your first time here!"   Ooooo!  So, I graciously obliged and ordered an iced caramel mocha, which was absolutely heavenly delicious!

After I was finished, Young Na gave me the grand tour of his new place!  It's such an amazing salon, which I recommend to EVERYONE living in Korea!  Granted, it's uber expensive, but completely worth it in my opinion!  You're paying for the hair, experience, and pampering, right?!

3 hours later, I said my goodbyes and headed home as a blonde! 

Tah dah!

Next time I'm gonna go even more blonde! Woot woot!

The Hair by Young Na

Busan Suyeong-gu Namcheon-dong 45-21

Tel. 051.612.8770

mobile. 010.4859.8770

e-mail. ben8770@hanmail.net

Why are you yelling?!

For the most part, my new apartment is nice and quiet, despite the fact that I'm literally right above a busy restaurant!  But sometimes, the fruit truck (similar to the ice cream truck in America) comes at a snail's pace, down my street, roaring it's pre-recorded-audio-sales-pitch, from loud speakers atop the truck!  It comes so often, I nearly have the pitch memorized!

Once in a while, I'll hear men yelling outside my window, while walking up and down my street!  It's the kind of yelling you would hear from the "Get your popcorn!!" guy at the major league baseball games!  I've always wondered what they're selling, so tonight, I opened my window, stuck my head out, looked down, and inspected the situation. 

I got caught inspecting when he looked right up at me!  I spoke to him in Korean, asking what he was selling and how much it was.  I was just curious, but the next thing I knew, he was walking toward's my apartment's entrance and coming up the stairs to my apartment.  I opened the door with my wallet in hand, feeling terrible that I had led him to believe that I ACTUALLY wanted what he was selling!
Luckily though, he was selling Korean traditional rice cakes, which I happen to like!  These are a rare (and more expensive) type because they are more sticky, served cold, and individually wrapped in banana leaves!

How could I resist a darling little box of rice cakes...

... from a man at my door, who had been yelling outside my window just minutes before!  Chalk that one up to a funny Korean experience and the first time I've ever bought something from a man yelling outside my window!

My 1st day of school!

Introducing Dae Gyo Elementary School!

Today was my first day of work at my new school, and it's fair to say, I ALREADY LOVE IT!  One of the funniest things happened as soon as I walked in the front door.  Monica, my co-teacher, met me by the shoe cabinets and said, "Jill, the principal can't say Alexis, so he wants you to pick a new name!  Can you pick a new name in 5 minutes?  You'll be introducing yourself and making a speech in front of the students and staff this morning!"  Talk about pressure - only having 5 minutes to chose a new name for yourself and come up with a speech!  Luckily, I'm quick on my toes after working in Dynamic Korea for 2 years!

5 minutes later...  (I'm standing at a podium in front of hundreds of kids and the staff)

"Goodmorning!  I am your new English teacher and my name is Chelsey!"  So weird! 

This is the beginning of the hallway, leading to my classroom!  Last year, my classroom was on the 4th floor.  This year I'M ON THE 5TH FLOOR!  If my legs don't look like a super model's by the end of the school year, I'm gonna be really dissapointed!

This is my classroom!  This classroom is soooo much brighter than my last one!  I can't help but smile when I walk in!

This is the view the student's have from the back of the class! ... and those are my 2 co-teachers, in the front of the room!

This is Ohk.  She is a part time English teacher at Dae Gyo, so I will teach six (5th and 6th grade) classes a week with her!  She's a doll and is so sweet, outgoing, and helpful!  I love her already!

and this is Monica!  She and I will be teaching 14 classes a week together!  She is, hands down, the most wonderful Korean woman I have ever met!  NO JOKE!  She laughs, and smiles all day long, and is such a positive a fun person to be around!  I'm completely and utterly blessed to get to work with these two rays of sunshine!  At one point in the day, we all met around my desk and talked about how fun the year is going to be, all working together and becoming friends!

In addition to having wonderful co-teachers, I also have a great office in the English library area of the classroom!  My desk is on the far right of the picture!  (This room is attached to the English classroom.)

...and I definitely lucked out with a great view out my office windows!  Last year, my view was of a mountainside lined with tombstones... and now THIS! 

As you know, my school is on an island, and it happens to be situated right on the port!  (This is the view, from the hallway outside my classroom.)

and as if that wasn't enough to completely sell me on why I love my new school... this completely sealed the deal - a FREE coffee machine!  That's right, I can have the most delicious, Korean style, milk coffee, any time of the day, as many times as I want (I'll be sure not to overdo it!)!!

Ordering supplies is as easy as cake, I can turn on the heater ANYTIME I want to in my class, there are drinking fountains on every floor, and there's actually toilet paper, soap, AND paper towels in the bathrooms here!  It's the little things that make me happy, I guess!

Oh, and the Principal took all the new teachers out to lunch today!  We had my favorite, bi bim bap!!

I'm over the top excited and happy about my new school!  The staff is wonderful, young, and most of them can actually speak English, which means I'll have lots of new people to hang out with!  I'm secretly hoping that the 2 gorgeous female teachers who look like they belong in the Korean pop group 소녀시대 (Girl's Generation) will give me make-up and fashion tips over the year!! :)

Can't wait to introduce you to my students!  That'll happen sometime next week, since my classes don't start till Monday (another reason why I love my new school!  They gave me the first 3 days to acclimate!  haha)

Goodbye vacation...

All good vacations must come to an end... as much as we hate for that to happen!  We both slept in this morning and then put our backpacks on and made the trek to West Railay for some brunch.  We sat down at a restaurant, looked at the menu, and then simultaneously said, "Let's get pancakes instead!"  The thai street pancakes are to die for, and we just couldn't resist taking advantage of our last opportunity to have some!  So, we put our menu's down and walked down the pathway to the pancake stand!

After brunch, we jumped on a longtail boat (for $2.00 each) that took us to Au-nong beach, a great little town with lots of shopping!!  We were both set on buying a thai style floor pillow, which is what thai people sit on when lounging or eating at a table on the floor!  We were sure we would be able to find them in Au-nong, so with our packpacks on, and the sun and humidity in full affect, we began our search!! 

Some charming little Thai statues in front of a restaurant.

There were many stores with traditional Thai statues, candle holders, picture frames, etc, mixed in with some uber touristy nik nacks...  This store even had fruit for sale! 

I don't know what it is with my knack for catching animals in the act while I'm on vacation!  Remember in the Philippines when I was catching dogs right and left... this this trip, it was the monkeys!   While I've never seen actual elephants having sex, I did happen to see a statue of it for sale in a shop!  I couldn't help but laugh, wondering who in the world would want to display this in their home?!

Bet you didn't know Thailand sold chiclets gum too!

It's only natural that a country with gorgeous beaches would sell bathing suits, right?!  Well, I'd bet my life savings that there are more bathing suits for sale in Thailand than there are residents!  They're EVERYWHERE!

There are also thousands and thousands of handmade pillowcases, head pillows, scarves, and "bedgovers" (bedcovers)!  :)

There is also jewelry galore in Au-nong... from beaded bracelets, to intricately crafted rings and necklaces, to feather earrings, cocount and shell charms for necklaces, and every kind of knock off watch you could ever want! 

It was so hot and humid that we actually stopped and ordered stuff at two different cafes just to cool off and put our bags down!  At one of the places, I accidently knocked my drink on the floor, which sent glass flying everywhere!  Oops!

We ended up finding the Thai pillows and getting the guy to let us pay 1/2 of his original asking price!  Instead of buying 2, we decided to split the price and have part ownership of the pillow! haha   

With the last of our Thai money, we paid for a taxi to take us over to the airport, where we hung out until our flight left.  Luckily, we had just enough baht left over to buy some drinks and little snacks, which in turn allowed us to sit and hang out here at this little cafe.

I love this picture of Aaron's travel feet!  This is what happens when you get off of a longtail boat in the mud and walk to the shore, then put on your wet leather rainbow sandals, and allow them to stain your feet brown!   

After 4 hours in the airport (which was better than walking around in the sun in Au-nong with our backpacks on), we boarded our AirAsia flight from Krabi to Bangkok!

The first flight was over and we had successfully made it to Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport!  Try to say that 5 times fast!  Unfortunately, we had another 4 hours to spare here while we waited for our next flight to Shanghai...

...so, we walked around for a while, scoping the place out!   I thought it was really interesting to see that the airport had a special Muslim Prayer room for it's Muslim travelers. I couldn't help but notice that this Muslim traveler had a bright redish orange beard!  I was intrigued by this, as I don't believe I've ever seen a bright red beard on a Muslim man!  After doing some research, I found this scripture in the Muslim books: Bukhari 7:786 Allah's Apostle said, "The Jews and the Christians do not dye (their grey hair), so you shall do the opposite of what they do (i.e. dye your grey hair and beards)." Apparently they are only allowed to dye it with henna too... So, there's a little bit of religious cultural history for ya!

When it was finally time to check in, we walked over to the ticket counter and grabbed a place in line with the hundreds of other people.  We got stuck amidst a crowd of Chinese tour groups, who for whatever reason, literally take forever when checking in for a flight!  After about an hour of standing in line, we were both feeling a little like this...

... but then, I noticed a group of girls congregating and staring at one of the Thai guys standing near a bench closeby... I watched for a while and noticed that the girls were acting really giddy and taking pictures, so I said to Aaron, "I'll be right back!  I wanna see what's going on!"  Being the sly one that I am, I scoped out the situation and noticed that the guys girlfriends were trailing closeby, so I went up and politely asked them, "Excuse me, Are those guys singers or actors or something?"  They proudly said, "Yes!  Come and meet them.  They are very nice and will be happy to meet a foreigner!"  Once again, the foreigner card works!!  The one on the left is an actor in Thai music videos and the one on the right is a famous TV actor in Thailand!   You should have seen Aaron's face when he turned around and saw me taking this picture!  He thinks it's ridiculous when I do stuff like this... but it's all part of the experience, right?!  I personally think he's just jealous that he didn't get to meet them! :)

After the flight to Shanghai, we caught our last flight (overnight) back to Busan!   I will say though, the travel bug has not been killed yet, we're already planning our next trip!  I found this group of lonely planet books at one of the airport bookstores and took this picture to serve as a clue to where we're headed next!   If you've followed our past trips, you should be able to figure out where we're going!