inch by inch

Sorry i suck at updating, folks. and by folks, specifically, i mean MY folks. Here you go mom and dad.

First, Happy (late) Father's Day to all the big papa's.

okay I still need to post the rest of the pictures from the Seoul and Jindo trips, which happened like a month ago. . . I'm going to try and make this brief so I can get to more entertaining things:

RECAP: We are in Seoul for the Buddhist Paper Lantern Festival celebrating the big guy's birthday.

This is inside the ancient palace in Seoul. Some kid dropped something inside and they actually let him climb over the barricade to get his trinket/pamphlet/fan (basically it was something worthless).

Beginning of the Buddhist parade. Maybe this is where our paper lanterns were supposed to be. . . they wouldn't let us keep them and then we never saw them in the parade (where they were supposed to be used). They are probably using them to make some weapon against N Korea so it will have all American fingerprints on it.

Pouring water on a statue of Buddha to pay homage. I'm glad people don't line up to pour water on me every year at my birthday.

A couple of friends and I at the ancient palace we went to in Seoul.

Some friends and I at the DJ Festival Encore in Seoul

Okay, moving on. Here are the rest of the pictures from the Jindo trip, which was the weekend after Seoul. If you'll remember, so far, we had gone to the beach and visited the place where Moses' Miracle happens.

This is the statue marking where the original Moses' Miracle "happened". I think it's just an old story to explain the tide. But that is the lady who got left behind, I believe. And her pet tiger, obviously. There is another statue on the island facing this one that is the woman's family maybe. I clearly don't remember the story all that well.

Oh! and that's Nicole and I in front of the statue. (using the auto-timer on my camera woo!)

Good old fashioned Jindo Countryside - forget the ABC game or punchbuggy, the game we played on the bus was always "hmm what crop are we passing now?", "oh cabbage and rice", "i see"

More countryside! There were actually some western style houses in Jindo (you know when I say western, I don't mean cowboys. I just mean, not part of the "far east"ern).

Apparently I felt like all of these country houses and rooftops were important to commit to memory. So here you go, there will be a quiz later.

We went and got, what else, Chinese food one night. This is my boyfriend. He doesn't talk much. So, that helps with me being right all the time. But he's kind of a brickhead. . . . har har. (Something my dad would say)

Saturday in Jindo we were supposed to go do a boat tour and see a lot of the smaller islands. This is what the weather looked like, so we opted out of that. PS - these trucks are everywhere. Literally, I walk past at least 10 of them on my way to work every day. They don't have pickup trucks, it's these flatbed things in stead. These are the trucks where you will see people selling fruit, vegetables, and tiny asian children. I kid, I kid.

blaaaaaaah. rain rain go away! i'm in jindo for buddha's birthday! (and probably won't make it back there)

The local elections were coming up (not just in Jindo, all over Korea). The way they campaign is so totally different to the way we do. They still have signs up everywhere. And on each busy street corner, they have this stage and middle-aged women in gloves doing dance moves reminiscent of the Macarena. EVERYWHERE. And they all have different theme songs. In Jindo, we kept hearing the same songs a lot. The only recognizable words were the politician's name, Jindo, and Kim Jong Il. I'd love to know what they were saying!

Got me a first class ticket back to Daejeon. . . literally. We had to get first class, because the regular seats were sold out. So, this is what first class looks like.

Okay, everything else is just random. And then I will be TOTALLY caught up with blogging.

i hate the squatter toilets !

thats all.

But I loooooooooove Subway in Korea! It's funny sometimes. You think you move somewhere across the world to experience new strange things, but you always end up searching for a little bit of home wherever you are. mmmmmm subway.

Like this purple and gold tie dye dress I found. I was more than just a little tempted to buy it. Simply because it's purple and gold. Not like I'm going to be able to see any LSU games while I'm here. (Luckily one of the bars has NFL Network. So I can buy all the black and gold clothes I want!!!!!)

Me and Alice hanging out in the back of the school bus on the way to a field trip. Yea, we're cool the cool kids.

This sweet restaurant called Bon Bon. They have tons of pastas and pizzas (made on buttery phyllo dough). Delicious. I've been here 3 times already.

So Brenna-teacher isn't that observant. I just realized the "don't burn your fingers" wrapper says "Freshly Roasted in Korea". I wonder if that's true, and they actually do roast their own coffee beans, or if it's just another thing that they claim is theirs. . .

Last, but certainly not least. Actually kind of most. I saw this crazy man walking around the subway. He was a Korean, surprisingly. He wasn't doing anything too crazy by American standards. Just walking up to random people having conversations. But the subway went crazy when this guy got on. Everyone in a 100 meter radius seemed to pull out their cell phones and start sending pictures around of this dude. Old people were holding their loved ones close. Children were shielding their eyes. It was armageddon.

Updates:

I'm heading to Seoul this weekend. I have to go to a workshop for school. But I'm going to take advantage of the free KTX ticket and head up early with some friends. We're making a weekend of it and doing some touring and sightseeing. (maybe in 2 months you can see pictures from that)

July has a lot in store. First, we have the Boryeong Mud Festival (click here). Literally, every foreigner I know is going. We got the whole weekend, transportation and accommodation, for like $40. So I expect we'll be sleeping "Korean style" - on the floor.

The last week of July I will be heading to Bali, Indonesia (click here) (where Couples Retreat was filmed). And it will be freaking amazing! It's not the cheapest place possible, but everywhere north of the equator has it's rainy season then. I am super excited about this trip though! Hopefully do some scuba diving, and visit the black sand beaches (it's a volcanic island). I can't put into words how stoked I am. This is somewhere I would have never been able to afford back home.

aaaaaand I think that's it for now. Once I think of more, I will update. Hopefully I'll remember to do a little at a time and not give you a novel next time.

peace, love and kimchi.