Its coming!

Ok its been way too long since I have posted anything.  I've been in one of those "my life has become too routine" phases.  But then I realize that day-to-day life in Korea is interesting to folks back home.  So...up next: soccer in Sangju, beach trips, and bungee jumping.  And I'll tell you about work, since after all it is ground breaking work...though boring and too Korean. :) 

Sickness. ugh.

Since moving to Korea I have been sick every month.  I blame the freaky Korean germs.  The positives are that doctor visits are dirt cheap as is medicine, also Koreans are freakishly nice and cook for you.  The negatives (aside from being sick) is that there is nothing to watch on tv!  The only English programming is on at night.    

Its weird, back in America I got sick maybe once a year if even that.  In Asia…different story…I am currently blaming the cold dry winter since I have never experienced that being from Georgia.  I am really waiting for this supposed “HOT and Humid” summer.  Maybe my health will suffer slightly less in weather that is normal for me. 

Well take care until next time!  And it will be soon.

Thailand Flashback #3: Chiang Mai, around town

I am way overdue for a Thailand update, so I figured I would give you a fairly decent account of my day-to-day life in Chiang Mai. Everyday started about the same. I woke up late morning unless I was going swimming with my friend Faang, in that case I was up and headed to the pool at 8. Otherwise it was down to a local coffee shop, then to Wat Phra Dhatu Chedi Luang to sip my coffee and read under one of the trees surrounding the 800 year old structure. Not a bad morning routine. Then lunch…one of the highlights of my day, I always ate at Salomjoy. It was a great resturant that was fairly cheap and had an awesome menu including a local specialty Khaw soi! And just about anything you can make with a mango. The family that owned it loved me and were a huge reason I always went back. They were so sad the day before I left…nowhere near as sad as I was though. :)

Daily cup of coffee. and yes those are monks.

So that was a typical weekday through 3pm, then it was usually a long walk or going to the guesthouse to pick on Faang and get online for a bit. I would meet my friends for dinner when they got off of work. This was always fun because I made them pick what we ate and they also taught me a few Thai words each night. I always enjoyed riding around on their motorbikes as well. This was what I loved the most about Thailand, the people. They work hard but have a lot of fun!

On the weekends…it was all fun and games! I played soccer with local college students, had beers with my friends, and danced more than I had ever. Saturday/Sunday night my friend Ryan, from England, and I would go to a cluster of covered outdoor bars to watch the English Premier League games. We always watched Liverpool (my team) and Arsenal (his) and all of the employees would be expecting us. They loved us because we always at least ordered and complemented them in Thai. Also we were definitely the only white guys there. It was great, They had big screens with the games projected on them. We would order a few beers an enjoy the game. Usually our friend Nong would join us but she was a Man U fan so she didn’t count! 5555 :) Other days some of us would go to a local lake and relax. And some nights I would head to a nightclub with my friend Bebe (Supinya) and a few others! No matter what I did it was always fun because of the people I was around.

Late night ride with a pack of motorbikes.

Its not just the natural beauty, or the history, or even the food. It’s the Thai people. They always have a positive attitude through everything and are so caring. They earned their slogan “The land of Smiles.”

Chilling at the lake with Nongers. (Mama)

USA Vacation and Japan quake experience

So many of you know I was able to visit home in the US recently, which was absolutely amazing! On my flight home I had a layover in Tokyo just as I had on my way to the US. On my way home the flight ion and out of Tokyo was great to watch from the plane, it was a massive and vibrant city, this was one week before the earthquake. On my next flight in two days after the earthquake and tsunami it was a completely different story, Tokyo was dead. Not to mention the airport that I was flying into had been closed just one day before I left. There was very little traffic in the city and the airport was in a near panicked state. Many of the airport shops were closed and a lot of domestic and a few international flights had been canceled. Everyone was glued to the tv. Did I mention that aftershocks were still being felt? I remember the whole place shaking for 20-30 seconds, something really unnerving.

After a great visit home to see so many people I care about and then being so close (even if for a short time) to one of the world's biggest natural disasters it is hard not to be grateful for everything good in life.




Good friends and their kids.  Are we really growing up?!? btw, Wyatt is totally wearing the 311 swag I gave him.

 

I am glad I got to see all of the folks that really matter. I'm so blessed!




The only photo of me on my camera...oops.

 

Vacation in Fukuoka, Japan.

  

My trip to Japan was great! We went to Fukuoka and Nagasaki which were both amazing. We will save Nagasaki for another time. Backtracking now...My mother went to middle school In Fukuoka while my grandfather was stationed there. So I grew up hearing stories about the place my whole life. This was the main reason that I have always wanted to go to Asia. So this visit was like going full circle for me. I was so excited the second I boarded the plane. We were only in the air for 30 minutes! We landed at Fukuoka at about 6:30pm, jumped straight on the subway then walked to our hostel. Our Hostel was Khao San Fukuoka and was the cleanest and best hostel that I have ever stayed in. The first night we just wandered around the nearby area and went to a rammen shop recommended by an employee of the hostel. The noodles were absolutely great! I had some spicy pork rammen that was quiet spicy but this stuff blew away the junk we eat out of a cup at home...freshly made noodles...yum. Then we literally just walked for quite awhile until just after 1am. It felt great to be in Japan and have nothing to do but relax and enjoy yourself.

So the next day we wake up and head to Saitozaki, the town next to the former US military base. I was pretty excited to finally see where my mom used to live. We got on the city train and headed out to the peninsula, it was a nice ride with tons of nice, new scenery. We got off at the last stop on the line, Saitozaki Station. This was a small former fishing village, it was still small but not much fishing was going on. There were a few large condos and nicer new houses but plenty of older homes and buildings giving it an interesting character. We walked to the bay and looked around and took pictures, then decided to walk out to Shikanoshima Island, then return to the Uminonakamichi area where my mom had lived. We eventually made it to the bridge separating Hakata Bay from the Genki-Nada Sea. It was so beautiful! I also had my first view of the area that my mom used to live if I looked back at the opposite side of the peninsula. We walked across the bridge to Shikanoshima Island to explore and find food. As you enter the island you walk into a small old village you can tell that everything has been there for awhile and the population seems aged as well. It was nice and peaceful. We decided to visit a shrine. It was a quick hike up the hill and we were the only people there. There were some nice super old buildings and nice views over the town and the ocean. Then we decided to head back and leave the island. We had a quick sushi break on the beach then continued the trek to Uminonakamichi. When we got there it appeared that not much was left of the base but we did get a look at the theme park that now resides in its spot.

We spent most of our other days in Fukuoka walking and riding bikes around town. We covered a lot of ground! We ate at an Italian restaurant and an amazing Mexican place, which are both things that we can not find in Andong. We also went up the Fukuoka Tower, a tall seaside building with a lookout, which was neat. We could see out over the entire city and over look Saitozaki as well. The trip was great and I can not wait to visit Japan again! Until next time...

New Year Korea update

So I realize that I have not had too many posts on Korea recently. Well here is a recap of the last 2 months.


I now work at the research institute and its great! I work 1-9pm which is great because I hate waking up early. I teach classes online of 1-4 students at a time. I teach all ages which is interesting but I love it. It is overall a very easy job. I have tons of breaks and my Korean co-workers and bosses are great and all like me. They tell me I am doing a great job and have not had any negative feedback so that is always good as well.

I've made tons of friends and traveled to a few other cities in Korea. Life in Korea is good, food is cheap which is good because I love to eat! The only negative is that I haven't learned as much of Korean language as I would have liked. After three months in Thailand I was really good at speaking Thai but My Korean kinda sucks. I just never spend much time on it.

I will be going to Japan for five days in February. I am actually going to the city that my mom used to live in years ago so that adds yet another element of excitement to the whole thing.

All in all my life is going great! I miss all of you folks from back home and in CNX as well.

Thailand Flashback #2: Railay to Krabi

After leaving Bangkok I headed to the beaches!!! I met up with some friends from my TESOL course (Logan, Charlie, Crystal, Justin, and Crystal’s friend Megan). We got on a bus on Khao San Road to head to Krabi the were getting on a boat to Railay. The bus ride was about 10 hours of pain, the seats were tiny and my legs were asleep the hole time! I never slept. About half way were were dumped off in the middle of nowhere and waited to switch to another bus...this was 4 or 5am. The 2nd bus wasn't much better. This was also pretty much the last time I rode the tourist bus...I stuck with the Thai bus system, they were always much better and fed you.

So we finally got to Krabi and waited on a small boat to come and get us, finally we got on the boat. It was great but I was so tired! We rode through a bunch of tiny islands and I was absolutely amazed at the shapes of all of the rocks popping out of the water, it was all pretty surreal. Finally we jumped off at Railay and were greeted by Charlie and Megan. We checked into a bungalow that cost 200 Baht per room, roughly $6.70 and split each room 3 ways. Yes, it was cheap but! We had to shower in cold salt water and the room was so damp! I honestly felt like we would fall through the floor at any moment! Not to mention having to douse each other in mosquito spray before going to bed. Back to the story...we took naps and then walked down to the beach, the girls layed around in the sand and the guys went exploring since it was low tide we were able to walk out and into caves, pretty neat.

The beaches were beautiful but the place was quite touristy and expensive for Thailand luckily for us we were there for the low season. On the second day we decided to find another place to stay with real toilets and walls. We ended up nearby at Diamond Resort, well it was at least a step up from the bungalow. The restaurant/bar there was actually really good, They had big tasty baguette sandwiches and good Thai food plus many nights they had big BBQs with fish, chicken and baked potatoes plus tons of other good stuff. Not to mention cocktails were 2 for 1 every evening and we got close with some of the staff there and ended up with a few freebies.

And then there was Last Bar. After one night on the island we were already well known, none so much as Justin aka. “JJ.” Last Bar was literally that, the last bar on the island and actually hung over into the water. They had a good DJ and fire dancer and his girlfriend was a bartender there. We drank, danced, and played games every night and also celebrated Justin's birthday there. I'll leave many of these stories to memory but we will surely never forget those nights! :)
So everyday on Railay we would ask locals where they would go to hang out, everytime the answer was “Krabi Town” so the last day before the rest of the guys had to go back to Bangkok we went to Krabi Town. We all loved it, so much more real the Railay. We got in another small boat and rode for 30-40 minutes then got in a van that was jamming out to old US pop songs and an hour later were finally in Krabi Town. Next we jumped in the back of a pickup truck and checked into a guesthouse and began to explore. We ended up checking out a place called Fubar, I walked in and was instantly sold on it. It was a Reggae bar full of random nick-nacks, reggae posters, and driftwood...most importantly there was a Liverpool FC scarf hanging above the bar. So we ordered some buckets of whiskey and Coke and started play Jenga. Side note: this was like 4-6pm. Before sunset we wanted to check out a place called Rooftop Bar, so we walked down to it and grabbed a beer and watched the sunset over the city. It was absolutely beautiful. The bartender there was a British guy who recommended a nightclub that we could go and dance. It was called Route 69. He called taxi's for us...and we saw a first: motorbike taxi's! It was fun enough just getting there. We found out that there was a popular Thai rock band playing at the club that night. Being foreigners they let us in with no cover and then gave us a table near the stage. The band was pretty good and it was a fun time. The next day I looked for a new guest house and everyone else booked a bus back to BKK. Good times with amazing people!

The rest will follow soon!