Half way there.

I can't believe we've already been in Korea for six months.  Our official six month "Koreaversary" (as our friend Jessica likes to call it) is on the 28th of this month, but we're practically there!  I know that leaving will be bittersweet, but I am honestly super excited to come home.  That's not to say that we don't like it here or anything.  There will definitely be things we miss about Korea.  I'll miss the fact that this will probably be the safest place I will ever live, period.  I'll miss the friendly and generous Korean culture where people will give you little gifts or start a conversation with you in the elevator, at the store, on the street, or pretty much anywhere.  I'll miss the fact that everything in Korea is extremely cute and I can easily find a spatula with a smiley face on it, pens in the shape of puppies, or kitten oven mitts.  And, I know that Doug will miss all the cheap street food and beef dishes here!

But....I can't wait to be back in sunny California where the avocados are abundant and our friends and family are just a drive or phone call away.  I'm counting down the days and we only have 192 more days till we're flying back to beautiful California!  That's not that far away, right?

Here's a few pictures that I feel really capture the beauty of Korea and the rural/urban mix throughout the country.

Jessica's Birthday!

A few weeks ago it was our good friend's, Jessica, birthday.  Celebrating birthdays away from home, our families, and our friends can be pretty tough, so some friends and I decided to plan something special for Jessica's birthday.  Plus, good friends in Korea are hard to come by due to the limited selection of people that speak the same language as we do, so we had to do something extra fun for her! Our friend Lisa decided to plan a birthday party around all of Jessica's favorite things-Harry Potter, Taylor Swift, and the Hunger Games book series.  We started out the night eating at our favorite Italian restaurant in Cheonan, Welcoming the Moon, and got yummy pizza, soup, and salad. Afterward, we headed to our friends' apartment and hung out and played games.  Lisa even made a Taylor Swift drink list with drinks that corresponded to different Taylor Swift songs!  She did an amazing job planning out all the details.  It was such a fun night!

 Before - The super cute birthday apple pie that Lisa and I made!

 After - demolished by chopsticks.

 Happy Birthday, Jessica! We are so glad to have met you!

Lazy weekend.

This weekend I really enjoyed just getting to relax after our busy couple weeks moving and settling into our apartment.  We still have some organizing and decorating to do, but everything is unpacked!

Yesterday, we were able to go back to Mt. Taejosan, which is a mountain that has one the largest buddha statues in Korea.  It's really peaceful, so Doug and I wanted to go back and check it out in the winter.  Luckily, now we are only a fifteen minute bus ride away, whereas before it took us about 45 minutes!  I think we'll be hiking there a lot more once the weather warms up, maybe we'll even bring little Yepps along :) 

One of the reasons we enjoy Mt. Taejosan so much is because it feels a lot more secluded and tranquil than some of the other mountains and hills we hike here.  I swear the national pastime for middle-aged Koreans is hiking.  Sometimes the trails will be busier than walking around town, so it doesn't always feel like your getting away from the crowds.  But, at Mt. Taejosan you don't have to constantly stop on the trail for passing and you can enjoy the beautiful views.

I thought this was interesting.  This is a frozen lake at the bottom of the steps that lead up to the buddha.  Someone made the Buddhist swastika with ice blocks on the lake.  Apparently,  Hitler took the Buddhist swastika and turned it backwards to make the Nazi symbol!  I didn't know that until we came here and saw all the swastikas on the temples!

Moving day!

We finally moved!! We started moving in our new apartment little by little two Wednesdays ago and officially moved in at the end of last week.  A few things I love about our new place are the huge windows overlooking the city and the mountains, being able to live in the same building as our friends, and living downtown close to everything we could possibly need.

It's hard though because I really want to decorate since it is technically our first apartment together, but I'm hesitant to buy decorations and furniture since we'll only be living here for six and a half more months.  I think I need to avoid Pinterest as much as possible so I'm not too tempted by all of the adorable home decor pins!

Here's some photos of our new place:

 

 

Busan, day 2.

Onto day two.  One thing that we were both excited to see in Busan was Yonggungsa Temple.  It is a beautiful Buddhist temple located up on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. To get to the temple, we walked up a large hill to make our way to the cliffs.  Once we got closer, there were a few booths of food and souvenirs lining the road.  I got a cute jade green bead bracelet and a little Asian cat charm that I may use as an ornament when we get back.  After the street shops, we came to the entrance.  There were two middle-aged Korean women rubbing the golden Buddha's belly by the entrance.  I was waiting to get a photo rubbing Buddha's belly, when the Korean women told me to rub his belly seven times, touch his nose, and then rub his hand.  They were really excited to be talking to me so I went ahead and rubbed the belly while they counted to seven for me.  They were so cute and definitely excited to show me how to rub Buddha's belly.

After that, we walked through a tunnel that took us to the cliffs.  Once we got to that side, we could see the stunning temple, ocean and view.  We've been to a few temples throughout Korea and Yonggungsa has definitely been my favorite.  There were these amazing rock formations off in the distance behind the temple area.  We walked around to tall the different statues and temple areas.  There was even a neat grotto where Buddhists go to to drink a sip of ocean water and light candles.  It was such a crystal clear, sunny day, which was so refreshing after some of the grey weather we've been having here in Cheonan.

When we were finishing exploring Yonggungsa, we went to Haeundae beach.   This is the first beach we have been to in Korea.  It reminded me a lot of Huntington, except it was winter so not many people were there on the main street.  I could tell Haeundae was a tourist place because of the many pubs and bars.  But, we were lucky enough to find a Mexican restaurant for lunch!  The place was called Fuzzy Navel Taco, which sounds sketchy, but it was actually pretty good.  Doug, of course, got a burrito and I got vegetarian tacos and a little side of guacamole.  It wasn't as good as real Mexican food that we get back home, but it did satisfy our Mexican food craving!

One thing that surprised me about the beach here was the large amount of people on the beach even though it was winter.  I feel like the beaches in Southern California in the winter are pretty dead.  Here, however, the were groups of students, families, and friends were down on the sand just hanging out and admiring the ocean.  

Busan, day 1.

Doug and I just got  back from our three day mini vacation to Busan. Busan is the second largest city in South Korea and is located on the southeast side of the country.  Since Busan is located on the coast, it is famous for its seafood and fish markets.  It's also kind of like the Hollywood of Korea.  They hold their international film festivals in Busan and on certain streets we saw golden hand prints similar to those in Hollywood.

We left for Busan Thursday morning and got on a four hour train south!  During the train ride, I finally was able to finish a scarf that I have been knitting.  It's actually the second scarf I've worked on, but the first one turned out horrible and was way to short and thick; it kind of looks like a cape!  So, I'll give that "scarf" to Yeppi for sleeping.  My second scarf turned out really well and is cozy and warm!

We arrived in Busan at around one o'clock in the afternoon.  For our first day their, we decided to check out Busan Tower, which has some pretty awesome views of the city.

Busan Tower is a really popular place for couple to take a lock with their initials on it and lock it to the fence at the base of the tower.  So, of course Doug and I had to take our lock up to the tower and take some Asian-inspired photos!

This is how a lot of my middle school students pose in pictures.  I thought it was an appropriate moment to test it out. 

After placing our lock on the fence, we got on the elevator for the top of the tower.  We got to see great views of the Pacific Ocean and of the city.

Next, we went to the Nampo and Jalgachi. Nampo is the big shopping district of Busan and Jalgachi is the fish market just a few blocks away.  The shopping was really great!  It was alleys and alleys of good knock-off wallets, purses, jewelry, shoes, clothing, dog sweaters, etc.

The sun was almost finished setting, so we decided to walk to the fish market.  It was really....interesting.  At first, we were walking along the outdoor market.  I'm always a little grossed out by the Korean food markets because the food is so close to the ground and it just doesn't seem clean.  Plus, the smells are always really, really strong.  I guess it's cultural, but to me it just doesn't seem sanitary.

Then, we went into the indoor market.  The indoor market seemed a lot cleaner, but it was still overwhelming.  Fish were falling out of the buckets and one wrong step and you could end up in with the octopuses!  Well, maybe I'm over-exaggerating a bit, but I still didn't think it was a good idea to have them in open containers.

Not surprisingly, Doug was pretty hungry by this point.  We went back to Nampo and got some street food.  I was really excited because some booths had corn on the cob, so there was something vegetarian I could get.  However, when I got my corn it was like chewing rubber!  It must have been sitting out for awhile.  I had to throw it away because it was so disgusting.  I ended up just having two doughy "pancakes" that were stuffed with a little bit of red bean paste and sunflower seeds.  It seems like a weird combination, but they were delicious!

This lady knows what she is doing!  I can't wait to go back to Busan and get another little pancake thing.  Doug went to another stall and got some dumpling and a chicken dish.  He said the chicken was gross because it had all the bones in it and you had to chew around it and spit them out.  They don't de-bone anything here.  I'm always amazed when I watch my students meticulously get the meat of their fish at lunch with their chopsticks.

Here is a picture of the stall where Doug ate.  Street food and snacks like this are really popular. The most popular dished are fish cake skewers seen at the bottom of the picture and tteokbokki. Tteokbokki is a rice cake spicy noodle that is extremely chewy.  It's nasty.

So, that was our first day in Busan.  Overall, I really like the city.  It had a much different vibe from the others cities we've been to in Korea.  I think since it was on the coast, it had a more relaxed atmosphere.  I'll post more about our trip later today and tomorrow!

Thoughts on winter.

Let me tell you something about winter here: it is absolutely freezing.  Before going outside, you need to put on layers upon layers.  Sometimes, even that is not enough.  To make the matter worse, we have to walk everywhere here.  So, it's not like it is back home where it's cold until your car heats up.  It's cold on your walk to school, it's cold at school, it's cold waiting for the bus, it's cold on the bus, it's cold at the subway station, it is just really cold!

I think winter is why I haven't been blogging much.  I just don't have much to blog about since going outside is dreadful.  To make up for my lack of blogging, I thought I'd show a few things Doug and I have been up to these past few months!

We went to Independence Hall and learned about South Korea's past.  I thought I could get away without wearing a heavy coat.  I was wrong! 

I said "goodbye" to my first set of students as they graduated from middle school.  It's sad knowing that I won't have them in the classroom next year.  The student in the second picture is one of my favorites.  She picked her English name as "Paris"!

 We snuggled and played endlessly with Yeppi (and fell in love with her over and over again each day!).

 One day, Yeppi got her bone stuck in her collar and searched the apartment frantically for it.  It was adorable. 

Lastly, I turned 23 and had a great time celebrating with my friends.  

So, to sum it up, it has been a long, cold, but really great winter.  We have made some really great friends here in Korea and have had the best addition to our family (little Yeppi!).  Now, I'm counting down the days till warm weather and can't wait to be back in California for summer.