We're Engaged!!

So the week after my birthday, I decided that Ian and I needed a weekend away to spend some time together and to decide what to do with our lives in the next year. I booked us one night at the Westin in Busan and we went and bought KTX (the bullet train) tickets. We left early Saturday morning. On the KTX it look just under 3 hours to travel down to Busan.

Once we got there we took a cab to the Westin and went out to hang out by the water. We wandered Haeundae Beach, found some food, visited the aquarium, and enjoyed sunshine and the ocean.

We went back to the hotel, took a little nap and decided to go for a walk at sunset. There is a large, park behind the hotel that has a small path along the coastline and a small temple on top. Ian convinced me to go explore the park to see if we could see the sunset instead of going to get some dinner. We walked to the point of the small little peninsula to watch the sunset.

It was a bit crowded but we saw a small path leading up the hill. We climbed up and found a monument to the ancient scholar Choi Chi-Won. There was a small little temple there and an overlook area in the trees with wonderful views of the ocean.

(moments before it happened)

No one was up there and we had the overlook to ourselves. We sat on a bench and were enjoying each other's company and talking. I was looking up at all the leaves and looked back down and Ian was on the ground on his knew. He reached into his bag and pulled out a beautiful engagement ring. He asked me to marry him and of course I said yes. I, by this time, was a mess of tears, smiles, and laughter. I couldn't stop crying for a good half hour and I think smiled the rest of the weekend.

(very happy and still crying)

(the bench where it took place)

We walked down the hill and found a nice restaurant to have some dinner and celebrate. I hurried Ian back to the hotel so I could call all my family and Ian's family to tell them. Much to my surprise, EVERYONE knew for quite some time that this was going to happen. He has asked my parents' permission back in November and had bought the ring in February. All my friends and family did a wonderful job keeping the secret since I had absolutely no idea this was going to happen!

The next day we checked out of the hotel and went and visited a temple north of Busan. It was a very beautiful temple and surrounded by a boulder filled forest.

We rested for a bit in the forest and then found our way back to the city and had dinner at a restaurant next to the water. That evening we boarded the KTX to come back to Seoul. It was a wonderful and perfect weekend.

Spring in Korea

Spring did not truly exist in Korea this year. It went from bitterly cold, to mildly cold, to summer. However I did have a fun and eventful spring. It started by having Ian come in early April. He quit his job in Denver and moved to Korea until I am done in August. The first weekend he was here we went and saw the cherry blossoms at Yeouido Island here in Seoul. They were quite beautiful. We walked back home along the Han river.

We spent the weekend of my birthday celebrating with friends and eating lots of delicious food. Ian and I went out to a fancy Italian restaurant for my birthday were I had some of my favorite Italian dishes I have been missing. The next night we all went to us girls' favorite restaurant for Shabu Shabu where they brought me a delicious cake.

The next afternoon, Ian and I drove with Ben and Bri and hour outside of Seoul for some great BBQ. It is a little restaurant where you buy huge slabs of meat on a skewer and they cook it outside on big fires in large metal cans. It was absolutely delicious and a great afternoon.

A couple of weekends ago we went out to celebrate Ian and I's engagement. We celebrated with good food, some drinks, and finishing out the night at a noraebong (singing room). It was a great celebration with good friends.

The next night we headed to the DJ festival of Seoul. They had music from all over the world, though mostly Korea and Japan. It was quite interesting and showed a very unique sub-culture of Asia. It was a cross between punk/rock/and techno...very interesting. It was a fun night and was the first weekend where it truly felt like summer.

Spring overall was a great few months filled with good food and good friends. There were many afternoons spent in the park walking Brianna's cat "Max", learning how to knit a hat (which was a big success) and enjoying spending time with Ian in Seoul.

Winter in Korea

Winter was a pretty cold and snow time in Korea. Records were set for the coldest temperatures, the longest periods of cold temperatures, and for snowfall. Despite the cold temperatures, I was able to take a couple of fun trips to various parts of Korea.

The first trip I went on was a hiking trip to Halasan Mountain which is the tallest mountain in Korea and located on Jeju island, south of the Korea peninsula. We took a bus down to Busan and stayed the day there, collecting some hiking supplies since the mountain was completely covered with snow. After buying 30 sets of crampons for the hiking crew, we then took an overnight ferry to the island. We started hiking right away in the morning. It had just snowed an inch or so, making the hike absolutely breathtaking.

I didn't have the appropriate footwear but I found the a set of good tennis shoes, a couple of toe warmers, and a set of crampons make an amazing set of winter hiking footwear!! We hiked to the top of the mountain, which was unbelievable windy, and then hiked down the other side.

I was with a group that finished the hike a few hours early so we took a cab into the town and saw the Jeju natural history museum. We also visited a Jimjibang (bathhouse) to clean up and relax a bit before boarding the ferry that took us all the way up to Seoul. It was a really great weekend that included some great hiking.

The second trip I did was a weekend trip to Seokcho with a few friends from school. Seokcho is located directly east of Seoul, on the coast of the Sea of Japan, or the East Sea if you are Korean. We took a bus over after work and stayed at a great hostel. It was kind of an overcast and cold weekend but we still had a great time. Seokcho was a pretty sleepy town being that it was the middle of the winter. It is the city that has the entrance to Seoraksan National Park, which is one of the more beautiful areas in Korea.

We spent a day in the park, not doing any of the hiking, but lounging by the river and taking the cable car up to one of the many peaks in the park. The top of the peak was believably windy and we quite literaly were fearing for our lives as we were being blown around by the wind on the tip top of the peak. That night we visited a great jimjabang to warm up and relax a bit. That night I got a phone call from my mom, saying that a huge earthquake hit Chile and that the whole pacific coastline was on aleart for Tsunamis. Being that we could see the ocean from our hostel window, we were a bit nervous but never saw/hear anything on the news channels so we figured we were OK. We did wake up to a full on blizzard the next morning. We made our way to the bus station and spend nearly 5 hours on the bus home, which should have been a 2 hour ride. it was a bit long, but we made it safely back to Seoul.

The rest of the winter in Seoul was basically just cold and snowy. I invested in a lot of warm winter clothing and found lots of great restaurants to eat in throughout the winter. Kept busy by hanging out with friends and eating a lot of great food!

January in Korea

Well after Ian and I got back from the Philippines, it was back to some of the coldest weather Seoul had ever had. We spend the week mostly just eating and staying warm. Ian relaxed while I was at work. We spent New Year's day hanging out with friends and then took Ian to a fish dinner for his birthday. We got to eat yummy king crab and a variety of other fresh sea food. Just after Ian left for the states, Seoul had the biggest snowfall in history. It completely shut down the city and made a giant, chaotic mess of things. It was pretty amazing. Being that his never snowed, people really didn't know what to do. They were using cardboard boxes to shovel and streets and the air smelled of burnt rubber because no one new how to drive in the snow. It was pretty amazing. Needless to say it did melt but the cold stayed. I guess I picked the best winter to come to Korea!!

January was also a fun month because my worked changed. The students in Korea get two big breaks a year, a one month break in the winter and a one month break in the summer. So during these breaks our school sets up a "Winter Camp" and a "Summer Camp." We get the students in the mornings and the afternoons and get to do more in-depth English work with them. We teach by doing fun projects, reading theater, etc. I worked a lot more but it was fun to be on a more normal schedule and see some of the kids every day.

It was also nice because we got an hour and a half lunch break everyday. We would go out for lunch each afternoon at a new restaurant. It was wonderful to explore the area I worked and ate fabulous meals every day.

Well Winter Camp ended and I got my mornings back again which was nice. The cold started to ease a bit and have started planning a few more trips to enjoy the country.

Christmas in the Philippines

I ended up having 10 days off during the Holidays which was wonderful. Ian flew to Korea to spend Christmas and New Years (and his birthday) here. We went to the Philippines for about 5 days which was a wonderful way to relax and spend some time together. It was also very very inexpensive. For both of our round trip tickets and tickets to a smaller city on a different island the total was just over $700...pretty amazing!!

So poor Ian came for some of Seoul's coldest weather that it has had in years. We went out the first day and bought him a hat and scarf so he wouldn't freeze to death. We ate some good food in Insadong and came back to pack. We left Monday night for Manilla. We were able to get there with no problems.

We stayed the first night in a hotel near the airport in Manilla. The Philippines was wonderfully warm and we thoroughly enjoyed being in the hot weather. Manilla wasn't anything special...just kind of a big city. We flew out of Manilla the next morning and landed in Cebu Tuesday afternoon. We caught a cab to our resort and relaxed in the warm sun the rest of the day.

The next few days we spent our time laying on the beach, reading, playing gameboy, and just relaxing. We ate some delicious meals and had cocktails every night on the beach. The highlight of the trip would have to be Christmas Eve. The resort held a dinner on the beach and for the kids staying at the resort they had Santa come visit. But since the Philippines is obviously too hot for his reindeer, he made his appearance on jet ski. Probably the best Santa entrance I have ever seen!

The Philippines was a very interesting place. The people are very friendly and everything revolves around family which is nice to see. It has a very laid back island lifestyle and kind of reminded me of a mixture of Mexico and Hawaii. It was a great vacation to escape the cold of Seoul and lay on the beach for a few days. We are already planning a return trip so we can see more of the country and go swimming with whale sharks!!

December in Korea

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted things. It has been a pretty busy couple of months. So here is an update about the month of December. I was mostly just working and hanging out with friends here. The Snowboard World Cup (or something like that) was held in Seoul this year. It was a pretty big deal...they build this massive jump in the downtown area of Seoul. It was pretty cool.

I also went to Dr. Fish with Garrick, a co-worker of mine. It is a cafe where they have a little tank built into the floor with all these little fish that come and nibble on your feet. They eat all the dead skin off your feet!! It is a pretty funny...a nice spa treatment for only about $5...I think in New York it is about $100!!! It tickles a lot but does leave your feet nice and soft.

December was beautiful in Korea. Lots of people celebrate Christmas and there were lots of Christmas decorations up and lots of Christmas music playing. Most of my students said that they did have Christmas trees in their house and exchanged presents...Santa also came.

I basically spend the month of December working, relaxing, eating, and hanging out with friends. It started to get a big colder and even snowed a little bit. December ended with Ian coming to visit, which I will talk about in my next post.

Fun Adventures in November

Over the past couple of weeks I have gone of a few fun adventures. One night we went out to eat at the fish market. It was an amazing place but also very sad. Sooooo many sea creatures that were there to be sold to eat. We picked out 2 giant kind crabs and took them downstairs where they cooked them for us. It was quite delicious but I was kind of sad during the whole dinner.

Another night I wandered with a friend down to Banpo Bridge to watch the light show. Banpo bridge is the longest fountain in the world. They have nightly shows displaying the jets of water put to lights and music.

I also ventured to another town for some authentic BBQ where everything was cooked on a gigantic skewer and cooked over a fire pit outside of the restaurant. It was quite delicious.

I also discovered the very new and impressive science museum of Seoul. It is a brand new place that is actually very scientific and had some very cool hands-on learning activities. There was a fun Dinosaur park outside along with other things to look and play on. We were able to only see the first couple of exhibits so many more trips will be made there.

Lastly I went hiking yesterday (November 16th) on an island just West of Seoul. It was a beautiful hike with amazing views of the Yellow Sea. A couple of places it got pretty intense where we had to use ropes an rappel ourselves down certain spots. All in all I have been having an amazing time and see