Taebaek Snow Festival

Yesterday I had a chance to go to the Taebaek Snow Festival...it was lots of fun, but COLD COLD COLD! The wind was blowing, and there's one thing about Korea...when the wind blows here it's really really really cold. Did I say it's cold? HA! I think the wind from Mongolia or something must come down here sometimes, just to bother us. Anyway, Taebaek is about 3 hours from Cheonan, I had a nice ride up there...the sun was out and so I thought it might be a nice winter day (like last week skiing) but I was wrong! As soon as we got out of the car, the wind hit me in the face and I immediately felt like an Otter Pop.
I imagined there would be quite a few people there, but I had no idea that it would be basically the same as walking around Seoul. Taebaek is a small little country area, and although this is the 17th year they've had the festival, I had no idea it would be this popular and crowded. When we arrived in the parking lot (the bottom parking lot, all the others were full I suppose) there was a nice shuttle bus to take us to the festival. There were quite a few cool snow and ice sculptures all over the park...and also a little sledding hill. The people were just sledding on a plastic sheet (sort of like I did last weekend) and it looked fun, but the thought of getting snow in my pants or shoes yesterday was just not appealing. So, rather than participate I just watched. It looked like all the people sledding had a cool time. There was also a huge igloo with ice tables and chairs that sold coffee...it was MUCH warmer inside the igloo than outside.
We walked around for maybe 4 hours, and at that point I couldn't feel really any of my body, so we decided to go eat an early dinner (samgyeopsal Mmmm Mmmm) and head back to Cheonan. It would have been fun to stay a little later since there were fireworks at 9PM, but it just wasn't worth it...I can watch fireworks on the internet! HA!

Hyundai Sungwoo skiing

Last Saturday I went with some friends to Hyundai Sungwoo Ski Resort, my first skiing experience in Korea. We left SUPER early from Cheonan at around 6AM, which of course for a Saturday was awful! HA! The drive there was nice and as the sun came up in the morning it was a beautiful morning. It was about a 2 hour drive, I think there are a few closer slopes to here, but we met another friend who lives around Seoul and so I think that was kind of a meet in the middle kind of thing. My friend BK planned the trip out, he picked Sungwoo because he said that was where he had learned to snowboard, and so that was his favorite place. We stopped at the rental shop, and I'll tell you, rentals in Korea are 10 times nicer than anywhere I've been in the States. I remember the old days at Powderhorn standing in line with 1,000 other people getting their poles, skis and boots. Well, around Sungwoo there were literally 100s of rental shops, and the price wasn't bad too. They also had coats, gloves, etc. that you could rent. Fortunately I had everything I needed excepts skis, so that's all I rented. I think most young Koreans think skiing is old fashioned (probably American kids do too) but I CAN NOT snowboard...so I decided to just accept my role as the old man of the group and ski. BK found a good deal on tix, buy one get one free, so the lift ticket wasn't bad, around 30,000 Won or about $27. I envisioned 1000s of people everywhere on the slopes, but truthfully it was pretty similar to the States as far as total people there. The ski are was pretty easy really I thought, but still a lot of fun. It was well maintained and they had a nice gondola lift. We had a good day skiing, I was happy I still remembered how since it had been 5 years since I'd strapped on a pair of skis. After skiing we went to a nice restaurant and had a good dinner, then went to a condo that we rented. We stayed up late talking and playing cards. We left even earlier the next morning, at 5! HAHAHA! So, both days on my weekend I was up before 6AM, way too early for a weekend.
Anyway, I had a great time, and will certainly remember my first ski trip in Korea. I had meant to take a bunch of cool pics, but once I got there I didn't feel like lugging my camera around on the mountain. BK took some pics on his phone, but they didn't turn out he said...he also got a few on his regular camera, but they were just in the parking lot. Oh well, I'm sure most of you can imagine what the ski area looked like...some snow, some trees, some people. There, I painted a perfect picture for you! HA! At least here's one pic for you.

Thailand!

Ok, I'm excited to tell everyone about my trip, but fear I won't do justice to you all via my pictures or the information I will try to give, but I shall do my best.
Firstly, I have to start by saying that it has been snowing here every day since I got back from Thailand, and according to my friend Dana, this has been the most snow that Korea has received since they started measuring depth over 50 years ago. So, within one week I've experienced mid 90s to below 0, and it's been quite a week!
I left Christmas morning, same as last year, so for two consecutive years I guess that's been my Santa gift to myself. The trip didn't start as well as I'd like though...I got to the bus station around 8:30 AM and bought a ticket to catch the 9:20 bus to the airport. After getting my ticket I was starving and decided to run the McD for some breakfast. The bus station is in a large 6 story building which includes two department stores and a movie theater. Well, apparently every person in Cheonan goes to watch a movie on Christmas morning, because the place was PACKED! The elevator line was long, and so I decided since I was loading up on carbs I'd take the stairs. Well, for anyone who knows me well, I am always all about securing my belongings, whether it's patting my pockets 20 times a day to check my wallet and keys, or checking my zipper 5 times to make sure it's still zipped. Well, this particular time I was aloof and put my bus ticket in my back pocket. Well, apparently as I climbed the stairs the ticket fell out of my pocket, which I didn't realize until a good 30 minutes later (BTW, McD hadn't opened yet, so I didn't even get to eat!) So, as I was standing waiting for the bus I patted my pocket...the ticket was gone! ARGH! So, I headed back to the counter to get another ticket from the same girl...well, of course the girl had no idea what I was trying to say (as I spoke in my pigeon Korean) so I just decided to buy another ticket (15,900 Won or about $18) but she said "no seats." I tried to explain that I KNEW there had to be a seat, MY seat, but of course she just kept saying "no seat, no seat." The people behind me in line were ancy, but I KNEW I had a seat on the bus, so finally her manager just came over and said "open seat" and sold me another ticket. So...fortunantly that was the only awful part of my trip, before I even left town. So...caught my plane and had a nice flight to Bangkok. I arrived around midnight, and got a taxi to my hotel, which by the way was wonderful, and got some sleep. I woke up the next day and headed out as soon as possible...I didn't even have a map, but had looked at a map and was sure I could find my way around. Well...if anyone has ever been to Bangkok they can attest that that city is NOT laid out well, and the map I looked at (that was engraven into my brain) matched nothing I was seeing. So...I had no clue, and just started walking. I have to say I was very unprepared for this trip as we've been very busy at the school and I just didn't take the time I needed to prepare. So...finally after some aimless wandering and a tuk-tuk ride I ended up at the Chao Phraya River (which was my destination) I caught one of the long boat rides up the river and I have to say it was amazing to see the temples and other building peering up over the horizon as I headed up the river. The temperature was great and I was enjoying the sun on my face, much different than 24 hours previously. The driver took off up some little canals and was showing us all the different sites along the way. He was very kind and gracious (which, for the price I paid to take his long boat, he should have been!). He took us to a snake pit place which was very touristy and stopped the boat. There were only two other people on the boat besides me and they both went in to check it out. I hate snakes, and felt like it was a rip off, so I just sat out by the boat and soaked in the sun. When the other two came out, I asked them how it was, they said it was great and the guy was milking the snakes and putting them by his face. I could tell that one of the guys had a southern drawl and so I said "you must be from the south!" He laughed and said yes, he was in fact from Tennessee and he was just there for two days, renewing his visa for his job in China. I have to say, travelling alone can be in some ways more fun as I think you are forced to open up and talk to others, unless you just like to sit alone in silence like the weird kid in the corner, and that, of course, is ok too. But, we struck up a conversation and by the end of our boat ride, we were like long lost friends. He was quite a bit older than I was, but a fun guy to talk to nonetheless, plus...he had a map! HA! So, I asked him "what are your plans for the rest of the day?" and he said he just wanted to do some exploring, which of course, was right up my alley. So, we headed off, map in hand, to check out all kinds of sights. We wandered here and there and meandered here and there. We followed the map for a while and then just took off on our own. It was a lot of fun...we checked out some of the famous sites around Bangkok including Wat Pho, the Grand Palace, Wat Saket, and a whole bunch of other places we either meant to bump into, or just got lucky seeing. Now, as cool as Bangkok was, I must say, it was one of the dirtiest cities I've been too. It was a mixture of ancient beauty mixed with today's garbage. I also have to say, if you are a pet lover (like me) be prepared if you ever go there to have your heart broken. I have never seen so many stray dogs just walking around looking for food and shelter. Frankly I really upset me...I hate to see animals that aren't taken care of. But, all in all, it was a cool day, and by the evening I think we had walked about 10 miles at least (no joke). Around noon it had started pouring down rain, so my shoes were wet (even after the sun came out) and I hate hate hate wet socks...more than I hate tomatoes, and that's a lot. So, finally we spotted an A&W Rootbeer, I told him "I haven't had root beer in ages" so we hit that up and I enjoyed a really good chicken sandwich with a big frosty mug of rootbeer! Delicious!
I had all these trips planned when I headed there, and I'm glad looking back that I did them, but I'd not really thought that almost each day of my vacation I'd be waking up several hours early than my normal days here. The next day I had scheduled a trip to Kanchanaburi, which is famous for the Burma Railway which was built by the POWs during WWII. In 1942 the city was under Japanese control and almost 250,000 people were used to build the railroad. Almost 110,000 people died of all kinds of horrible diseases. Of course the railroad was made famous by the 1957 British movie "The Bridge on the River Kwai" which I can still vaguely remember watching at Shawcrofts on one of our movie nights! HA! So, I arrived in Kanchanaburi and went to the JEATH War Museum and then caught a boat up the river to the bridge. It was really fascinating seeing the bridge and it was another beautiful day. After seeing the bridge I went to another railroad museum and checked that out for the while. It was awful to read of the conditions that the forced laborers had to work. After lunch I went to the railroad line and actually had a chance to ride the railway for about an hour, back towards Bangkok before catching the bus back. I was a little disappointed with my pictures, as the train (which is still used daily) was of course quite bouncey...but I think you can still get the basic idea anyway.
The next day I had a trip planned to the Khao Yai National park. It was a nice ride up there, and along the way I was able to see some monkeys just chillin on the road, in fact, cars had to slow down and drive around the monkeys! HA! There was a really pretty waterfall named the Haew Narok Waterfall, and so I got a lot of pictures there. I also met some other teachers that were here in Korea and so it was cool to talk to them and hear about some of their experiences, since I rarely, if ever, try to meet other English teachers here in Korea. Oddly enough there were also a group of four Korean-American kids (well, mid 20s, but I'm old now) that were living in Korea and studying Korean...so, it was a pretty cool group. After stopping off for lunch I had a really cool experience. We got to ride an elephant in the jungle for about an hour, and I have to say, that thing was really well behaved. The trainer would call to him (or her, I have no idea...) and the elephant would stop on command. They took us into a little river and the elephant sucked up some water and blew it out through his trunk. It was really cool, and one of the more amazing things I've had the chance to experience. The National Park was quite a way from Bangkok and by the time I got back I was so tired, but craving some Korean food, so I wandered around and ate some Korean food (I ate there twice, very good!) Oh yeah, on the subject of food, Thai food was really delicious too...I tried several of the street vendors food and all of it was really tasty and cheap, usually less than a dollar (maybe 20-30 Baht).
So, on the next day I had another trip planned to Ayutthaya, which was the ancient capital of Siam (aka Thailand). Along the way I stopped at one of the kings summer palaces, and it was one of the most beautiful places on the trip. I have to say, the Thai people LOVE their king, literally everywhere you go you will see his picture (often accompanied by his wife's picture). I guess he is older now, maybe in his 80s. But, you will see pictures everywhere of the guy, and I could easily identify his picture after going there. Not sure where there's so much love for the guy, I tried to ask some people (maybe rudely, although I didn't mean it that way) why they love him so much, and of course no one knew an exact reason. But, regardless...his summer palace (which had been the Thai king's palace for years) was amazing, and very well kept. After that, headed up to the city of Ayutthaya, and saw some of the ruins of the old city. If I understood correctly, the city was attacked by the Burmese (now Myanmar) around 1765 and pretty much destroyed and was then burned in 1767. There are some really cool remains of the city, and it was a very interesting place to visit. That was another all day event, and so I was worn out once again!
The next day I headed back out in Bangkok, and pretty much just wandered around, looking at whatever I saw. I had really hoped to take a day trip to Cambodia, but not only were the logistics a bit tough, but the kitty was running low...so I opted to just venture around the city, seeing some different minor temples and buildings.
By this point I was pretty wore out, so my last day I opted just to relax (what a novel idea) and hang out by the pool and the area around my hotel. Bangkok has some great shopping, and although that wasn't my intention to go shopping there, how can one pass up some $3 shorts and $1 t-shirts? HA! I didn't do much for New Year's as I had an early flight out the next morning (had to wake at 5:30), plus...hate to say it but I'm one who believes that New Year's Eve is one of the most overrated holidays, but that's just me.
So...I had a great time. The hotel was great, great breakfast buffet that even let you order your food! Amazing! HA! Bangkok was fascinating and like nothing I've ever seen before...but I think I had my fill of the area, at least for now. It was a great trip and I hope you enjoyed (and actually made it all the way to here) reading about it. I'm sure I left out chunks, and maybe some fun stories, but I tried my best to remember everything. I hope you enjoy the pictures!
Thanks to all my friends and family who read this thing and actually care enough to request pictures and a story...

Happy New Year!

Hey everyone! I hope you had a happy and safe New Year's Eve! I had an OK night, actually hit the sack a little early since I had to wake up at 5:45 AM and catch the plane back to Korea! So...nothing special.
Anyway, just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has read my blog, I appreciate you caring enough to come on here and check it out!
So...my goal (yes, I still believe in setting a few goals) this year is to do better at posting on here, even if it's nothing too exciting (like this one!) HA!
I will try tomorrow to get on here (or the next few days) and let you know about my trip to Thailand and post some pics. I had an AMAZING time there, it was so cool, in every way. So...I will try to get on here and get some pics and info about the trip, promise!
So, thanks again to everyone who has been on here the last year, and I will try my best to make it more often and interesting in 2010!
Happy New Year!

The school and some leaves...

I hope everyone is doing well, and thanks to all the veterans who have served the country...sorry, I missed it by a day I think. So, to anyone who reads this and has helped to keep the world a safer and better place...thank you.
I am doing well...just enjoyed a nice Pepero Day yesterday. In Korea November 11th is Pepero Day...pepero are little snack sticks covered with chocolate. They are skinny and look kind of like a piece of dry spaghetti, so since 11.11 looks like 4 sticks, they celebrate by giving pepero to each other. It's mostly a newer holiday, and usually just celebrated by kids, or people involved with kids like teachers. Usually the teachers give them to the kids and vice versa...I got quite a few yesterday, so I didn't even have to eat supper! :) It's funny, some of the older people hate Pepero Day, they say it was just made up by the company that makes pepero to increase sales. I usually have the comeback of "sort of like Valentine's Day?" and that catches people off guard! HA! Or Halloween...anyway, I think if kids want to give snacks back and forth...what the heck old people, let 'em! Some schools are so against it that they won't let the kids bring them to school...a little extreme I think. So, anyway, now you have the run down on pepero! If you care to be even more enlightened, feel free to check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepero
HA!
Well, things are going well at the school...so for my usual readers who have requested some info one the school, we are doing well. We have just over 35 kids...it's been holding steady, we exploded the first month and it's been just a gradual climb the last month plus. A few here and there. A lot of Koreans are terrified of H1N1, and so I think that has kept some people from joining academies...Dana seems to think that after the new year that things will get busier. Apparently there are quite a few people talking about our school and have had some nice things to say. We are branching out a little more too...which has been nice. The first little bit, all of our students were from the apartments right next to the school...unfortunantly we are still too small to have a bus and so we've had to rely on most of the kids walking. Well, we've had a few higher level kids who live about 3 or 4 miles from the school, and their parents just drive them to and from school. That's really nice, because that's quite uncommon here. Usually most schools have a bus and they make the rounds and pick the kids up for English, piano, math, taekwondo, etc. So, I'm hopeful if we can ever afford a bus that we can get some more kids, maybe a little further from the school. I think it's been huge having a foreigner (me) working full time, as I've said before, Asan is kind of a smaller area, so most of the schools either have no foreign teacher, or if they do have one, they come by once a week, which isn't really that helpful. So, Dana and I are still the only teachers at this point, we're hoping someday to have enough students to warrant hiring another Korea and/or foreign teacher. We had a fun Halloween party, and the kids really liked it. Halloween isn't celebrated in Korea, well...I take that back, until recently some of the English schools have started celebrating them with the kids, and so at EMart you can see a few Halloween costumes, decorations, etc. but if the kids went door-to-door trying to get candy, I don't think they would score much! HA! So, the kids had a fun time doing that, we allowed them to invite 2 friends if they wanted, and we played some games, carved a pumpkin and did some trick or treating. So...that's pretty much the update. We still just have one adult student, he's really cool, about the same age as me and I teach him M/W/F. I actually enjoy teaching adults much more than kids...so hopefully some day we can get some more adult students, it's just hard with a lot of people's schedule.
This past weekend, Sam and I went to Mt. Kyerangsan so take some pictures of the leaves, it was really beautiful. For those of you who follow my blog, my trips with Sam usually involve just getting in his car and going somewhere. Sometimes if I think ahead I will draw a little map on a piece of scratch paper in my pants or something...but even that's rare. So, this time I did make a crude little map and so I was ready to roll. We left out and headed to the mountain. I had the road numbers down, well when we got to the city about 20 miles from the mountain, there were signs saying to exit to go to the mountain. I was a little surprised, and so Sam exited. It was well marked, and so I figured it would be easy to just follow the signs (the signs here for things like that are usually brown, and the regular road signs are green). So, we got off, there were three or four big signs...then we got to a major intersection and wham...no more signs. We just guessed and drove for about 20 minutes and realized we were going totally the wrong direction. So, Sam suggested just getting back on the highway and going the way I had marked. I concured and that's what we did. So, we were back and cruising along...as we were getting close...we noticed that the exit we were supposed to take was completely gone, and they were doing road construction! HA! Apparently that's why they had the signs to exit earlier. So, we were close to Daejeon at this time. Daejeon is a really big city, so Sam suggested just finding a bookstore and (novel idea here) buying a map! HA! :) So, that's what we did...so now he has a nice sturdy map...it cost around $30, but he said that will help us avoid any future problems traveling. So, my blogs might not be quite as interesting in the future...we'll see!
Anyway...we got the map, found an alternate route and made it to the mountain. The leaves were beautiful and I was glad we got some pictures that day...there was a big storm that night, with a lot of rain and wind, and I think most of the leaves were about gone the next day...so I hope you enjoy the pictures!

November, really?

Wow, I can't believe that 2009 is basically over...where did it all go? I feel like an old person (which, I guess these days I am! HA) saying it, but 2009 has just flown by, seems like just yesterday was Christmas 2008, and here it is almost Christmas 2009.
I hope everyone is doing well! Things have been going well for me. I had a nice Chuseok holiday (a month ago! HAHA). I went with my friend Sam down to Busan, it was gorgeous...the weather was amazing and we had a nice trip. We had planned to go to a lantern festival...I had seen some pictures from last year, and it looked quite amazing. As usual, when the two of us take a trip we usually just wing it and go...we hadn't really planned anything out, and just went. In fact, we didn't even have a map when we left Cheonan, so we stopped at a 7-11 and asked the lady there if they had a map we could buy. They didn't, and so Sam asked her where the closest place was to get a map. She told us that most things would be closed for Chuseok, and so she gave us her personal map! Koreans are so kind. It was funny though, the map appeared to have been used quite well...as I unfolded it, it fell apart into about 5 different sections. That was a bit of a challenge to navigate, but, oh well! Anyway, we chose to take some back roads as Chuseok holiday is know for INSANE traffic. Just imagine Thanksgiving AND Christmas traffic combined, and keep in mind Korea is a small country, so there are literally millions of people all trying to drive to their hometown...suffice it to say, it's a mess! So, we took all kinds of back roads and finally made it down there. It was a beautiful drive, and as I said, the weather was amazing! Crisp and clean air, nice sunny day, and probably about 75, hard to beat that. So, we get down there, all excited to hit up this lamp festival...Sam hollars at a taxi drive at a stop light. "Where is the lamp festival?" "There isn't one," he replies. (Of course, this didn't take place in English, but I figured if I typed in Korean this would be a less interesting exchange!) Sam and I looked at each other, "what?" So, Sam decided to go into a store and ask someone...sure enough, the lantern festival had been cancelled due to H1N1...ugh! I was a little upset, as was Sam. We had just driven about 5 hours...now no festival. The ironic part to cancelling things like this is that the city looked everybit as alive as if there WAS a festival, so why not just have the thing? Not like people were sitting home and not out and about...but anyway. So, yeah, no lantern festival. But, we usually try to make the best out of everything, so we headed down to the beach in the evening and sat down there and talked for a while. There were a lot of people there shooting off fireworks, and the night was beautiful, so we still had a great time. We got a hotel and stayed the night in Busan and decided to drive up the east coast the next day. The next day was even nicer (Saturday was actual Chuseok)...it was amazing and a really really nice day to be out and travelling. We made our way up the east coast and back to Cheonan by around 10PM, I think we had driven around 1000km in two days! HA! Anyway, it wasn't what we anticipated, but we had a great time, and got some great pics. Sorry the night pic is a little blurry, I don't exactly have steady hands, and good thing I wasn't born in the 1800s in the west, or I'd more than likely have been killed my first duel!