Weekend with Jess and Carlos!

Aaron and I met up with our dear friends Jess and Carlos this past weekend, up at Elf Pension in JangPyeong! It had been a while since we'd all been together, so it was a great reunion weekend!  (They live up in Seoul)

Elf Pension is definitely a gem as far as I'm concerned!  The staff is fabulous (Mr.Chang especially), the accommodations are big and comfy, the scenery is gorgeous...

 and the little details like having your name written on the chalkboard on your front door just make it that much more charming!

Jess and Carlos just got back from 1 month in Sri Lanka and 1 month in India and are completely hooked on yoga!  Jess is a master and was teaching us all kinds of crazy moves!!!

She taught Aaron a move where you sit indian style, pick up your legs and swing them through your arms into a push up position... follow?  Regardless, it was hysterical, and he actually did it!

Yes, this is the face of a man who's persistent, determined, and a little bit dramatic! haha

I put my gymnastic limbs to work and did the yoga headstand!

We stayed up late playing around and talking till about 2am, then woke up to this delicious room service breakfast!

We talked about getting out and taking a walk in the snow, but then the guys found a soccer game on TV and Jess and I played on pinterest!  We didn't feel all that bad though about staying in!  If you're paying $200 a night for a cabin, why not take advantage of it, right?! 

We did decide to get out and have a proper lunch though!  We headed to the front office to find out what was around the pension.  Carlos found this interesting bathroom sign!

 Mr. Chang told us about a great Korean beef restaurant! (very rare and expensive) PERFECT!  I'd actually never even eaten it before!  Mr. Chang called the restaurant and the owner came in a van and picked us up at the Pension and drove us there!  Love the service around these parts of Korea!

The beef was top-notch-delicious!!  Not to mention, the owner's daughter acted as our own personal cook and cooked it to perfection at our table!

Jess put it perfectly when she said that being with us is like being with family!

These boys are like brothers from another mother!  

...And Jess is one of my sweetest and closest friends... and the one I've known the longest in Korea!!

It's a shame we live so far from each other!

Speaking of family... in almost 5 months, I'm going to become part of the Osteen family!

Can't wait to officially start my life with this guy!

We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging in the cabin!

At 5:30pm we made the treck down our 65 stairs (Yes, there were 65 to climb up to our cabin in the clouds!) to the main office where we caught a van to the ski resort!  

Since Carlos recently had knee surgery, he and Jess played screen golf while Aaron and I braved the slopes at Phoenix Ski Park!  I was much better this time, but accidentally ran into 2 people... one of which was a young guy who I tumbled down the hill with and landed right on top of!  Oops!  Luckily he was able to laugh with me and told me it was okay and to have fun!  The other girl wasn't quite as gracious! LOL.  Aaron was a great coach and was so encouraging, which kept me going! :)    

We had a great/ late night again and woke up just in time for lunch!  hahaha.  Jess, being the amazing healthy cook that she is, made tofu spring rolls and the 4 of us took in our last couple hours together before we headed back home.

At 2:00pm, we bid farewell to Elf and Polly, the resident husky's and loaded Mr. Chang's van to the bus station.  The time passed way too quickly this weekend and it seemed like we were saying goodbye right after we had first said hello!  Luckily, we have some plans to get up to Seoul soon for Aaron to take some photographs of Jess's yoga friends, so we'll see them again soon!

Tomorrow is my first day of teaching, and I'm super excited to get to teach with my new co-teacher, Loola!  She's a little bit younger than me and such a sweetheart!  She smiles a lot and is really positive.  I know the kids are going to fall in love with her, which will make this year nice and enjoyable! :)

Coincidence?!

Aaron was just told that his grandparents (Gran and Pa's) wedding anniversary was Feb 23rd (the same day he proposed to me). This year they would have been married for 68 years!!!

Aaron told me he wasn't aware that that was their wedding anniversary at the time, but rather that he was just waiting for the right day when it felt right!

A coincidence?! I like to think not! ;)

Celebratory Dinner!

Last night, Brian, Gill and Sam treated Aaron and I to a fabulous celebratory engagement dinner at our favorite restaurant, The Pan, in Nampodong!  They were so sweet and picked out a fancy champagne for a toast to us!

Gill and Sam got the champagne for everyone and Brian picked up the tab for mine and Aaron's meal!  Ssoooo sweet!  We have such wonderful and thoughtful friends!

And I have such a sweet and thoughtful man to soon call my husband!

How did we get so lucky?!

"Cheers to a lifetime full of love, laughter and lots of kids!"

Since Koreans don't get engaged, do proposals, or give diamond rings, it was so nice to have friends to celebrate with who knew just how special this type of time is for Westerners!  Thank you Brian, Sam, and Gilly!  We love you three so much!

Day 14 Goodbye Boracay. Hello Manilla!

Today was the day we had to pack our bags and turn our keys into Spider House.  Boooo

But before we packed up, we both had a little swim and Aaron dove down for these beautiful little sea treasures!

... and I ate my very last plate of tropical fruit...

...while I laid in my favorite hammock on the deck!  Aaron cocooned me and said he hoped I came out a butterfly! lol

Luckily we had some money left to get back to Caticlan for our flight, and for taxi's in Manilla to get us to the hotel!

At 2:30pm, we said our goodbyes to the Spider House staff (a very sad moment for me!) and jumped in a tuk tuk back to the port.

We paid 50 pesos for the mandatory terminal fee and 35 pesos for the boat fee to get over to Caticlan. (That's a little over $2.00 total!)  

We made it to Caticlan airport with about an hour and a half to spare, so I bought some yummy Philippine style 3 in 1 coffee and caught up on the Bachelor!

Then, the weirdest thing happened.  They told us our flight had been canceled and that we would be shuttled 2 hours to Kalibo where we would catch a plane there.  Ugh.  We went with it, because what else were we supposed to do.  So, we, along with all the other passengers on our flight, loaded into minivans.

Then, just as we all got comfy in our seats, they said, "Never mind. Your plane is here.  Please go back in the airport and identify you luggage" and we all got back out!  

haha  Only in the Philippines!  

After traveling so much, we've definitely learned to just go with the flow!

And before we knew it, we were flying away, off into the sunset...

We spent the night at a little hotel in Manilla called Victoria Court Cuneta Boutique.  It was in a fairly dodgy area, but what area of Manilla isn't!?  We dropped our things and took a taxi to the Mall of Asia where we did a little grocery shopping 

for things we can't get in Korea.

like Graham Crackers, spices, natural peanut butter, and rolled oats!

We walked around in the mall for an hour or so.  It's HUGE and had an ice skating rink inside!  Unfortunately, we only had enough Philippine pesos to get back to our hotel and to the airport in the morning, so we didn't actually buy anything!

We decided to be adventurous and skip the overly expensive taxi's and do as the locals do, and travel back to the hotel by jeepney!  haha.  It was only 8 pesos per person!  That's .18 cents!

***Pic taken with my iphone.

It was the perfect experience to cap off an unforgettable vacation! :)

Tomorrow morning we'll be back in Korea.  We have a special dinner plan with Gill, Sam, and Brian to celebrate our engagement, which we're all very much looking forward to!

DAY 13: Emma and James!

Last night, I was walking back to my room when I saw a frantic young couple standing outside their door yelling, "watch out for the snake!!"  ...And that's how I met the darling duo of Emma and James from London!  Emma and I ran downstairs to get Diniwid to come up and find / kill it (or move it somewhere far far away!), but it had slithered itself into one of the guestrooms where luckily no one was staying.  As we were talking to Diniwid, asking if the snake was poisonous, Franny (the darling young def server) was nodding her head yes.  Emma didn't know she was def, so while everyone else was saying the snake was fine, Franny was nodding that yes, it was poisonous!  haha.  Long story short, Diniwid didn't find the snake, so Emma and James were up all night!!

We saw them this morning, down on the deck and they said they didn't sleep a wink!  So funny!  We asked if they wanted to share a boat to do some snorkeling off the coast today!  Luckily they said they were in, and thus the beginning of our day with James and Emma began!

The 4 of us hung out on the deck and did a little swimming until the boat was ready to come pick us up and take us away!

     

Coco, being Coco!  :)

Heidi and Michelle (Spider House staff).

At 1:30pm, our boat pulled up to the deck...

and we all jumped on and got cozy!  The boat trip was 1600 pesos for 3 hours. (split between the 4 of us, it was only about $9.00 a person!)

Marne, Michelle, Coco and Diniwid bid us farewell, from the deck, as we headed off on our little private boat adventure!

... Bye bye Spider House!

We headed down south, past white beach...

We had to wear these ugly life jackets while we cruised past white beach, just in case the coast guard saw us!  Aaron and James didn't mind.  They were just happy with their 75 cent beers in hand, enjoying the ride!

We rounded the South end of the island and anchored next to Crocodile island where we jumped in for some snorkeling!  This was our attempt at a snorkel kiss!  :)

Michelle had given us a bag full of bread to feed the fish with, so the boat driver threw some in, right as I was about to jump in.  I put my mask under the water and came back up squealing!  I had never seen that many fish before!  It just shocked me a bit! lol.  We all got in and had the best time playing with all the gorgeous fish! 

***Check back in a couple days!  I haven't downloaded my underwater camera pics yet!  SORRY 

We rounded the island on the north end and stopped here on Puka Beach for some shell searching!

I love, love, love that Aaron looks for shells with me!  He grabbed huge hand fulls of corals and shells and then I sifted through them until we came away with these little treasures!

We forgot to snap a picture of the beach where Aaron proposed, the night it happened. Lucky for us, we got to go right past it on our way back to Spider House today, so Emma got a picture for us!

As if snorkeling out on the boat wasn't enough, we docked back at Spider House and Aaron jumped back in for another round!  lol.  He came back with this gorgeous shell and lil crab!  We tried for about 30 minutes to get him out, so we could keep the shell, but he wouldn't budge!  So, we ended up putting him back in the water, where he was happy!

Since today was our last night in Boracay, we wanted to go somewhere special for dinner.  After talking to Signe (Zena), Aaron, James, Emma and I all headed to Talipapa, her recommendation! 

Talipapa is a local market, where most of the Boracay residents, restaurants, and hotels buy their produce and seafood!  It's at least 1/2 the price of buying it somewhere else, and definitely worth the experience!

As you can see, it's a popular spot amongst the locals... and it's hidden a bit, so you can only find it if someone tells you where it is!   PERFECT in my opinion!  :)

James and Emma, picking out some tuna, giant prawns, and a squid!

Aaron got about 10 giant prawns and I went with a live grouper fish for $9.00!

My poor little fish was flailing around in the pink bag!  SAD!!!

After you buy your seafood, you take it to one of the many little restaurants, tell them how you want it cooked, and wala, it comes out PERFECT!  We chose this little joint!

We decided to do dinner, Korean style, where everyone just shares everything!!  

We feasted, big time, on...

giant prawns!

squid...

 

... a huge slab of tuna!

MORE giant prawns...

...and a lovely and delicious grouper fish!

We were so happy to have experienced such a great dinner with our new friends!

We were all stuffed to the brim and very happy campers!!

After dinner, we walked along White Beach.  Emma and I picked out some MORE freshwater pearl earrings!  They're so gorgeous, we couldn't pass them up!

Emma was dying to see fire dancers, so the four of us walked up to station 2 of White Beach to see them!  We took her to where the Phoenix Fire Dancers perform on the beach (a group of 2 guys and 5 very flamboyant LADYBOYS!) They're, hands down, the best on the beach... and the most entertaining! 

We ended the night with a little coffee date at Starbucks and then jumped in a tuk tuk and headed back to Spider House!

Today was so much fun, and we were so happy to have shared it with James and Emma!  Tomorrow we have to board our plane and go back to Korea.  It's bitter sweet.  Leaving here is terrible, for obvious reasons, but being home and seeing my students and friends makes it okay. :)