I know it’s only been a week since my last post but with Bali, Indonesia coming up in a few weeks, I need to do some catching up for you guys! One of our co-workers (Dave) had only a week left on his contract and he was not extending. There were a lot of things that Dave had not done and Daniel and I were willing to do whatever he wanted to do in his last couple weekends. Korea is somewhat known for a few of their theme parks and water parks and we figured that the weather had been getting nicer and it was a chill weekend, Dave could experience his first Korean theme park on one of his last weekends. This place is called "Everland" and is said to be Korea's most famous theme park. If you don’t know me, I love theme parks and all the crazy rides more than anyone, so I was stoked to say the least. I become a little kid at places like these.
On Saturday night we figured everything out about how to get there, what subway line to take and then what bus to take. The three of us woke up early on Sunday morning with quite the day ahead of us. We took the subway to the bus stop which was a non-stop, to and from bus to Everland. When we got there, it reminded us so much of Disneyland. From the entrance to the themes and whatnot. We went to get our tickets and we knew they were supposed to be 35,000 Korean Won and that translates to about $30.00 which is very cheap compared to Disneyland. For some reason, using our bank cards, we were given a 50% discount and it turned into a really cheap ticket and day. Instantly when we walked in we were all taking pictures and just taking it all in. It was not long until we walked by this crazy ride we had never seen anything like. It is really tough to explain (I have some pictures of it) but you are sitting in a seat side by side with others in two rows and the ride goes in circles and spins you upside down and was extremely jerky. Just when you thought you were going upside down, it would jerk you and spin the other way. I loved it but Dave and Daniel were not willing to do it again. After the welcome ride to Everland, we began walking around looking for the roller coasters and there she was.....this HUGE wooden roller coaster that looked amazing. We ended riding this roller coaster three times. It was maybe one of the best roller coasters I had ever been on. It is known as the roller coaster with the steepest drop in the WORLD! It honestly looked like the drop brought you even more than 90 degrees. It was so intense. Daniel and I tried to bring our camera with us and take a video for the blog but there was a sign that said if their camera's sensed an object like a camera, they would stop the ride instantly. Now who knows if they really would have done that but it was a risk not worth taking. You never want to be known as "those foreigners" in Korea. Needless to say, this was the best ride that Everland had to offer. After lunch we did some walking around, checked out the landscape of the park and just enjoyed ourselves. I am pretty sure that this day was the first day in Korea where it was really hot with full humidity. No joke, just walking around, the three of us were sweating profusely. We did a few more rides on the day but nothing too special. I have a few pictures of a Dave and I on a ride and it is really funny. I took it mid ride and we were doing a ton of spinning and I am loving it and Dave looks like he is going to throw up. It is one of my favorite! After that ride, Dave was not going to join me for many rides and Daniel had already given the nix to that ride and most spinney rides with Dave and me.
One thing I noticed about Everland and probably Korea in general is that it is so safe. At each individual ride, they had lockers for each ride seat for you to put your belongings into. There was no lock and no worries about anything being stolen. We put wallets, camera, cash, phones and anything valuable in them and had no worries. I don’t think that would be the case one bit back home. You are better off getting a locker with a lock (maybe even your own lock). All in all, we spent about 8 hours or so at the theme park and had a blast together. We were glad Dave was able to do something like that before he left because on his actual last Saturday in Korea, we had to work from 10AM-8PM and he flew out early Monday morning. I think you will see that we had an awesome time together in all the pics.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
May 29th Baseball Game
So, as always, I have a lot to catch up on my blog. I am sure happy I said "I would no longer promise it wouldn't take me long to update this blog." Seeing the current date is July 2nd and I am blogging about our first professional baseball game we went to on May 29th.
One of our co-workers' husband works for a professional baseball team named the "Heroes" and he was kind enough to give us 5 free tickets and as always, we made an adventure out of this experience. The game was on a Saturday, so Daniel, Tate and I decided we would head to the game early to be able to party on the way up to the game and to go to a bar before the game as well. Most the professional baseball teams play in Seoul somewhere (The size of Seoul is unbelievable) so we took the bus to Seoul and then from there we took the subway the rest of the way. It was probably around noon and we had already cracked the beers for a good time. When we finally reached the town the stadium was in, we tried to find a bar close to the stadium but for some reason they do not open up until after five. We though that was lame but instead we headed to the stadium and there were some street vendors that sold food and beer and we posted up outside the stadium to have some chicken and beer. It is funny because when you go to a baseball game back home, you think buying the drinks and food right outside the stadium is the best idea because you will be ripped off inside. In Korea, that is not the case. I believe it is possible to pay more to the street vendors than inside. A beer at the Seattle Mariners game is nearly $10 and the beers at the Korean professional games are less than $3. Cheap is definitely good but it also can be a problem if you are getting my drift. The game started off with it just being myself, Tate and Daniel having a blast together watching the game, drinking beers and taking the whole experience in itself.
The experience alone was awesome because it was not like being at a pro game back in the states. The stadium we were in was not as big but most the seats were filled which made the stadium really loud. On the first base side of the stadium it was the away teams fans and cheerleaders and then on the third base side it was the home team’s fans and cheerleaders. It seemed like it was almost a battle between the fans and who could cheer louder. All the cheers were synchronized as if they practiced or something. It almost felt like being at a softball game with all the cheering but 10 times better.
For the game itself, (yes, I do remember it) it was an awesome game. We were cheering on the Heroes’ who record wise, are not very good. The heroes’ were playing the Giants who are a very popular team in Korea and are very good. The game was awesome. The final score was 9-7 in favor of the Heroes’ and we were able to see a few homeruns and other big hits. I have some pictures and one or two video's I will post after this blog to give you a better idea of what I am talking about with the stadium, the fans and the experience we all took in. Hope you enjoy!
One of our co-workers' husband works for a professional baseball team named the "Heroes" and he was kind enough to give us 5 free tickets and as always, we made an adventure out of this experience. The game was on a Saturday, so Daniel, Tate and I decided we would head to the game early to be able to party on the way up to the game and to go to a bar before the game as well. Most the professional baseball teams play in Seoul somewhere (The size of Seoul is unbelievable) so we took the bus to Seoul and then from there we took the subway the rest of the way. It was probably around noon and we had already cracked the beers for a good time. When we finally reached the town the stadium was in, we tried to find a bar close to the stadium but for some reason they do not open up until after five. We though that was lame but instead we headed to the stadium and there were some street vendors that sold food and beer and we posted up outside the stadium to have some chicken and beer. It is funny because when you go to a baseball game back home, you think buying the drinks and food right outside the stadium is the best idea because you will be ripped off inside. In Korea, that is not the case. I believe it is possible to pay more to the street vendors than inside. A beer at the Seattle Mariners game is nearly $10 and the beers at the Korean professional games are less than $3. Cheap is definitely good but it also can be a problem if you are getting my drift. The game started off with it just being myself, Tate and Daniel having a blast together watching the game, drinking beers and taking the whole experience in itself.
The experience alone was awesome because it was not like being at a pro game back in the states. The stadium we were in was not as big but most the seats were filled which made the stadium really loud. On the first base side of the stadium it was the away teams fans and cheerleaders and then on the third base side it was the home team’s fans and cheerleaders. It seemed like it was almost a battle between the fans and who could cheer louder. All the cheers were synchronized as if they practiced or something. It almost felt like being at a softball game with all the cheering but 10 times better.
For the game itself, (yes, I do remember it) it was an awesome game. We were cheering on the Heroes’ who record wise, are not very good. The heroes’ were playing the Giants who are a very popular team in Korea and are very good. The game was awesome. The final score was 9-7 in favor of the Heroes’ and we were able to see a few homeruns and other big hits. I have some pictures and one or two video's I will post after this blog to give you a better idea of what I am talking about with the stadium, the fans and the experience we all took in. Hope you enjoy!
Monday, May 18, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
May 1st-2nd
Life in Korea is still a blast. Every time we have a good weekend we wonder if we can possibly out do it. We as a group are having so much fun together whatever it is we are doing. About a couple weeks ago we were told we were going to have a workshop with all of the foreign teachers and the Korean teachers. By workshop, most of the teachers had to perform their class the way they do it in front of all of us other teachers so we could get ideas on how to do things in our classes. It was actually very helpful for someone like me because I am NO teacher and still learning new things everyday. This workshop took place on Friday night directly after work. Once everyone went through their routines, we headed to this restaurant right next to the school in which our principal paid for. It was a Korean BBQ duck restaurant that was delicious. Once we finished dinner, we got on one of the school's school buses and drove to a resort about an hour and a half away. We were told that the resort had a theme park that we would go to on Saturday if it was not raining. If it was raining, we were going to do pottery instead. When we got to the resort, there were the six of us foreign teachers (Tate, Jillian, Daniel, Dave, myself and our new teacher Ta-Leah), and maybe 6 of the other Korean teachers and it was already close to 11:30 PM but we all stayed up and sat around a table and chatted about so many different things. It was actually something that was so good for us because a trip like that breaks the ice between the foreign teachers and Korean teachers. The next week at work, I noticed a difference in the way we interacted with one another in the workplace, so I can say it was an awesome thing for us.
We finally got to bed around 4:30 in the morning to only wake up around 8. It was little sleep but not bad because we knew we had a fun day ahead of us. It had not rained so we were heading to the theme park after breakfast. When you think a theme park, you are thinking of fun rides and roller coasters and what not. But that was not the case at this theme park. I would call it a park. Don’t get me wrong, this place was gorgeous and we had to walk up a very steep inclined hill to get to the highlight of our weekend. They had a 150 meter zip line at the top of the hill. We were able to go on the zip line two times and it was an awesome experience. I have never been on a zip line before but had always wanted to go on one. My plan was to have my camera going the whole way down the zip line because I knew it would be awesome to put on the blog but for safety reasons, they would not allow me to. So when I got to the bottom on my first run, I gave my camera to Dave to film me but that didn’t work out as well either. There are some really awesome pictures and a short video clip before I took off that will give you a view of how high up we were and how gorgeous or surroundings were. It truly was a very gorgeous piece of land that was very well kept.
After everyone went on the zip line their two turns, we walked down the hill and stopped at a foot bath (It is pretty much a hot tub for your feet) for ten minutes or so and soaked our feet. It was a little interesting but relaxing I guess. We then went to the pottery barn and were able to do pottery. I again have never done pottery and was a little excited to try it out. The man that helped us out was incredible. I am a very artistically challenged and very nervous to see what I would make. I started off making this huge bowl but could not decide what to do with it and what shape I wanted it to be in. I became extremely restless and decided that I would rather do something that meant something to me than "just a bowl". I don’t think any of you reading this will be surprised with my bowl once you see it. I won’t ruin it by telling you what it was but will let you see for yourself in the pictures. Once we finished pottery, we hopped on the bus and headed back to Dongtan for a mid-afternoon lunch and then back home to enjoy the rest of our weekend.
Lately, Jillian, Tate, Daniel and I had been talking about getting a BBQ to put on our rooftop. As we were leaving from the school after the workshop/resort trip, we asked Jade if maybe the school had an extra BBQ they would let us barrow. Sure enough, she called her dad and he said we could take one to put on top of the roof. We were so excited that we planned a BBQ party on the rooftop for Sunday and had a few people over. We barbecued lots of steak, chicken, turkey burgers, and vegetables and enjoyed our Sunday in the sun with good company and some beers. The BBQ was so much fun that we knew it was going to be something we would do very often. We have had the BBQ now for about 3 weeks and would say we have barbecued around a solid ten times. In fact, I barbecued chicken tonight by myself for dinner (5/17/09). As we are becoming more and more professional with the BBQ, we decided we needed a change up on the rooftop and we made a beer pong table that we use for beer pong obviously and other games. Our next investment is going to be a table that can stay outside at all times. It has been a blast barbecuing up there with everyone in the apartment. I see nothing but good from this BBQ and a ton more good times to come on our rooftop in Dongtan, South Korea.
We finally got to bed around 4:30 in the morning to only wake up around 8. It was little sleep but not bad because we knew we had a fun day ahead of us. It had not rained so we were heading to the theme park after breakfast. When you think a theme park, you are thinking of fun rides and roller coasters and what not. But that was not the case at this theme park. I would call it a park. Don’t get me wrong, this place was gorgeous and we had to walk up a very steep inclined hill to get to the highlight of our weekend. They had a 150 meter zip line at the top of the hill. We were able to go on the zip line two times and it was an awesome experience. I have never been on a zip line before but had always wanted to go on one. My plan was to have my camera going the whole way down the zip line because I knew it would be awesome to put on the blog but for safety reasons, they would not allow me to. So when I got to the bottom on my first run, I gave my camera to Dave to film me but that didn’t work out as well either. There are some really awesome pictures and a short video clip before I took off that will give you a view of how high up we were and how gorgeous or surroundings were. It truly was a very gorgeous piece of land that was very well kept.
After everyone went on the zip line their two turns, we walked down the hill and stopped at a foot bath (It is pretty much a hot tub for your feet) for ten minutes or so and soaked our feet. It was a little interesting but relaxing I guess. We then went to the pottery barn and were able to do pottery. I again have never done pottery and was a little excited to try it out. The man that helped us out was incredible. I am a very artistically challenged and very nervous to see what I would make. I started off making this huge bowl but could not decide what to do with it and what shape I wanted it to be in. I became extremely restless and decided that I would rather do something that meant something to me than "just a bowl". I don’t think any of you reading this will be surprised with my bowl once you see it. I won’t ruin it by telling you what it was but will let you see for yourself in the pictures. Once we finished pottery, we hopped on the bus and headed back to Dongtan for a mid-afternoon lunch and then back home to enjoy the rest of our weekend.
Lately, Jillian, Tate, Daniel and I had been talking about getting a BBQ to put on our rooftop. As we were leaving from the school after the workshop/resort trip, we asked Jade if maybe the school had an extra BBQ they would let us barrow. Sure enough, she called her dad and he said we could take one to put on top of the roof. We were so excited that we planned a BBQ party on the rooftop for Sunday and had a few people over. We barbecued lots of steak, chicken, turkey burgers, and vegetables and enjoyed our Sunday in the sun with good company and some beers. The BBQ was so much fun that we knew it was going to be something we would do very often. We have had the BBQ now for about 3 weeks and would say we have barbecued around a solid ten times. In fact, I barbecued chicken tonight by myself for dinner (5/17/09). As we are becoming more and more professional with the BBQ, we decided we needed a change up on the rooftop and we made a beer pong table that we use for beer pong obviously and other games. Our next investment is going to be a table that can stay outside at all times. It has been a blast barbecuing up there with everyone in the apartment. I see nothing but good from this BBQ and a ton more good times to come on our rooftop in Dongtan, South Korea.
April 18th and 19th
Ok, ok so I know what you are all thinking. In most of my blogs I apologize for how long it has taken me to update and I always throw out the line, "The next one won’t take as long, I promise." As I am sorry for how long it takes me, I will no longer tease you by saying it wont be as long. It has been about a month and a half since I have updated and it has been an awesome month. We have done a lot and had tons of fun on the weekends. To start off, on the weekend of April 18th and 19th, there was a paintball trip planned for the weekend by the Dongtan Clan. The Dongtan Clan is a group on facebook that is made for foreign teachers who live in Dongtan or the surrounding cities as well. There are over 100 people in the group and about 25 of us went on the paintball weekend excursion. There was only about 5-6 people that I had actually met before so I knew I would be meeting a bunch of new people that live in the area. On Saturday, April 18th we all met in the morning at our Central Park and headed off to paintball. In Korea they call paintball, "Survivor" which actually makes sense. It was the first time I had been paintballing and oh my goodness, it was a blast! We were split into two teams and battled for about 2 hours. I have a bunch of pictures that you will be able to see. I was doing good and dodging shots the whole day. I think for the first hour and a half, I was not shot once. But I tell you in that last half and hour, I probably got shot like 10 times. I was shot on the top of my head I think twice and that was terrible. Once we finished and cleaned up, we all couldn't believe there was still more fun to be had. We didn’t think it was possible to top the paintball. I don’t think we have ever been so wrong.
One thing you realize about the other foreign teachers here, they are all looking to have a good time just as we are. After paintball, we went to lunch where we ate Korean BBQ, had plenty of beer and soju. At this point we are all starting to actually meet one another because during paintball it was a little tough as you are shooting others and dodging shots yourself. The group was really awesome and we could tell we were going to have a wild day/night at the resort we were heading to. Once we got to the resort, I think all of our eyes widened and our mouths dropped to the floor. The place was huge and beautiful. We got our rooms where there were three rooms and about 8-9 people in each room. There is only one bed if you are lucky because Korean resorts are more known to have lots of blankets and pads to sleep on the floor. I have been to three resorts so far in Korea and all three I have slept on the floor. The balcony of our room looked out to the backside of the resort and we couldn’t believe what we were seeing. There was a huge mountain/hill that we knew we would be on all day. We all met down in the lobby, went to the market in the resort and loaded up on lots of beer and soju. You were able to do two things on the mountain. You have to take up the chairlift to the top and you could either golf a par three 9 hole course the whole way down or you could ride the alpine slide down the mountain. We wanted to golf but it was very pricey and you got to remember, we are just poor teachers. Instead, we decided to take the chairlift up to do the slide. The slide was at the top of the mountain and you sat in this little sled looking seats that had a stick shift. The stick shift could be used to push forward to accelerate or pulled towards you for a brake. The brake was the least of anyone's worries. We actually did not to the slide right away because it was so gorgeous at the top and about 15 of us just hung out on top, drinking our beers and still getting to know one another. We finally took the slide down and it was so much better than I thought it would be. I actually took a video while I was on it and will have it uploaded for everyone to see what it was like. The slide went a lot faster than we expected. Many of us including myself had situations where we fell off our slide because it was going too fast. Had a couple wounds but they are all taken care of now. A girl that was with us, her sled actually flew off the path and she had to wait for the next person coming down and hop on her sled.
After doing the slide a couple times, the whole group met up in the lobby to then go bowling. This was very interesting because you had about 25 foreign teachers at a Korean resort (I wonder if we stood out?) who had been drinking all day and were going to attempt bowling. I like to think of myself as a pretty good bowler and let’s just say my score was about a 58 or so. I like to tell myself the lanes were too slick. To say the least, no one bowled well. After bowling, we all went to a huge cookout that the resort puts on and we BBQ'd and hung out with one another for a few hours. After dinner, the party resumed and we took it into one of the rooms where we hung out and played some games before we attempted to go to the Karaoke bar but were denied by the owners. It would have been a lot of fun and also really funny to see some people sing karaoke but it was probably better that we were denied. At this point, the group started to taper off and people were ready to call it a night. It had been a very long day and we couldn’t even believe that paintball was that same day. It felt as if it was yesterday. The next morning a few of us woke up to get breakfast and reminisce the day before and how much fun we had. It honestly was the best time I have had in Korea so far. Everything worked out smoothly; we met some amazing other people and cannot wait for the next Dongtan Clan trip to take place.
Again, sorry it took me so long to update you. There is still a few more blogs to catch you all up.
One thing you realize about the other foreign teachers here, they are all looking to have a good time just as we are. After paintball, we went to lunch where we ate Korean BBQ, had plenty of beer and soju. At this point we are all starting to actually meet one another because during paintball it was a little tough as you are shooting others and dodging shots yourself. The group was really awesome and we could tell we were going to have a wild day/night at the resort we were heading to. Once we got to the resort, I think all of our eyes widened and our mouths dropped to the floor. The place was huge and beautiful. We got our rooms where there were three rooms and about 8-9 people in each room. There is only one bed if you are lucky because Korean resorts are more known to have lots of blankets and pads to sleep on the floor. I have been to three resorts so far in Korea and all three I have slept on the floor. The balcony of our room looked out to the backside of the resort and we couldn’t believe what we were seeing. There was a huge mountain/hill that we knew we would be on all day. We all met down in the lobby, went to the market in the resort and loaded up on lots of beer and soju. You were able to do two things on the mountain. You have to take up the chairlift to the top and you could either golf a par three 9 hole course the whole way down or you could ride the alpine slide down the mountain. We wanted to golf but it was very pricey and you got to remember, we are just poor teachers. Instead, we decided to take the chairlift up to do the slide. The slide was at the top of the mountain and you sat in this little sled looking seats that had a stick shift. The stick shift could be used to push forward to accelerate or pulled towards you for a brake. The brake was the least of anyone's worries. We actually did not to the slide right away because it was so gorgeous at the top and about 15 of us just hung out on top, drinking our beers and still getting to know one another. We finally took the slide down and it was so much better than I thought it would be. I actually took a video while I was on it and will have it uploaded for everyone to see what it was like. The slide went a lot faster than we expected. Many of us including myself had situations where we fell off our slide because it was going too fast. Had a couple wounds but they are all taken care of now. A girl that was with us, her sled actually flew off the path and she had to wait for the next person coming down and hop on her sled.
After doing the slide a couple times, the whole group met up in the lobby to then go bowling. This was very interesting because you had about 25 foreign teachers at a Korean resort (I wonder if we stood out?) who had been drinking all day and were going to attempt bowling. I like to think of myself as a pretty good bowler and let’s just say my score was about a 58 or so. I like to tell myself the lanes were too slick. To say the least, no one bowled well. After bowling, we all went to a huge cookout that the resort puts on and we BBQ'd and hung out with one another for a few hours. After dinner, the party resumed and we took it into one of the rooms where we hung out and played some games before we attempted to go to the Karaoke bar but were denied by the owners. It would have been a lot of fun and also really funny to see some people sing karaoke but it was probably better that we were denied. At this point, the group started to taper off and people were ready to call it a night. It had been a very long day and we couldn’t even believe that paintball was that same day. It felt as if it was yesterday. The next morning a few of us woke up to get breakfast and reminisce the day before and how much fun we had. It honestly was the best time I have had in Korea so far. Everything worked out smoothly; we met some amazing other people and cannot wait for the next Dongtan Clan trip to take place.
Again, sorry it took me so long to update you. There is still a few more blogs to catch you all up.
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