Watch me whip, now watch me Namhae

When I first decided I was going to move to Korea, I was leaning hard towards a public school job. I was researching the different provinces I could work for and easily narrowed my search down to the south. The first application I sent would have landed me a job smack dab in the middle of this beautiful little island. There wasn't much about it on the Internet, other than it being a hidden treasure of Korea. Decades behind the overdeveloped, high rise cities scattered throughout the rest of he country. I had to decided between working in a place this this, where I would likely be the only foreigner, and working in a bigger city where I would have more of a community. Things worked out in favor of the latter. Regardless, there was a good month of my life that I spent imagining what it would be like living there. I was in love with the idea of it. 

I was so happy when I was finally able to visit the place that I had spent so much time thinking about. A weekend filled with activities and camping and the beach, surround by my favorite people. It has been one of my favorite events of this year thus far. From being featured on a big screen while eating carne aside (and pretending to eat carne asada), riding around on lawn chair peddle boats, beach bonfires, temples, kayaks, banana boats, and makin new friends from all over Korea - the memories are endless. Instead of taking account of all the details, I'll just leave these pictures here. Hopefully they will do this island justice. 

Footage

I've been doing pretty poorly keeping up with my blog. To be honest I had my previous post written out for a whole month but never got around to adding pictures to it. Took me a month! Psssh.

Anyways, I put together a video of some of the things I was able to capture during my first 6 months in Korea. I love my gopro and am thrilled it has been put to good use. Next on the agenda: Scuba diving in Thailand - I will get to cross something of my life list! (check the experiences page if you haven't yet! )

I am exciting to have these memories for when I am a little old lady and want to relive and share all the amazing experiences I've had in life.  Or even in 5-10 years, when this all seems like a distant memory. I am so lucky to have these memories embedded onto YouTube, hopefully forever.

Catchin' Up

Leena and I at Daewangam Park near my home in Ulsan, Korea

I have been a busy little bee since my trip to Japan. It seems as though I haven't had a chance to slow down, and I definitely haven't had a chance to blog. Instead of writing an individual blog post for everything I've done these past few months, I decided to sum everything up in one. No need to drag things on, right?

                                                                                                                                                              
I visited the DMZ and got to step into North Korea. As interesting as it was, it was still a tour. A touristy tour. The only really exhilarating part was when we were in the JSA (Joint Security Area). We got to look into the North and see the soldiers staring at each other at the line of separation, step into the conference room, and get a pretty cool history lesson. I would definitely recommend going on the USO tour, it is the only one that allows access to the JSA. Honestly, it made me want to peer deeper into the North. As unrealistic and unmoral as a tour may be, I can dream - can't I?

The Captain of Our Ship

I spent Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) on a little camping road trip with friends. After spending our day lounging at Gwangalli Beach and tossing a rugby ball around we hit up the jimjilbang for some much deserved soaking, bathing, and scrubbing. We camped on the beach that night in Busan, Korean style. Seolwi (my Korean angel) prepared a dinner complete with BBQ and Doenjang Jjigae, one of my favorite Korean Stews. Waking up to the sounds of waves crashing that next morning was so peaceful. Tranquility at it's finest.

Then we were off to Geoje Island for another round of drinking and beach camping. Despite being cramped in the back seat between two guys, I loved the road tripping portion almost as much as the beaches we visited. Jamming out to music, funny conversations, and Korean rest stops are my idea of a dang good time. We set up camp, did some exploring around the island, and settled down to drink and swim the day away. Seolwi had chicken delivered to the beach and we chowed down while watching the sunset. That evening was quite eventful; there were fireworks, sausages with cheese, and streaking ;)

I visited my Ride or Die in Daegu and we went hiking with Seolwi. Leena, a friend from Vegas, recently moved to a city near mine. Best coincidence of my life. Having a friend from home to share things with is a rare phenomena. Blending my "home" life with this fairy tale that I have been living makes it more real. Plus, she is my favorite person in this world and we have so many adventures ahead of us, I get butterflies in my tummy even typing about it.

I went to Global Gathering in Seoul. Man, I love Seoul. I wouldn't necessarily want to live there, but boy do I enjoy visiting. We ate a South African lunch in Itaewon with Andrea, the token South African, before we headed to Gangnam to do some (not so high end) shopping at Forever 21. Face masks, nail painting, yoga, and tea were in store for us that night in preparation for the festival the next day.

The festival itself was much different from festivals back home or in Europe. Just a big soccer stadium lined with food and drink stands with a big stage in the middle. It did the job well enough though. We were all there for the music anyways. We danced and sang and lost each other and had one hell of a night.

Camp Lee

I can't explain how good for the soul it is to not have cell service - to be cut off from the world for a few days. It helps bring you back to yourself, your purpose in life, and what's important.

What's even better for my soul is being in the mountains. As long as I'm entwined with nature, it doesn't matter what I'm doing - I'm happy.

I've been working for a catering company while in limbo between graduating and finding a real job. I've been working speratically with them for 5 years and the family who owns the company are some of the greatest people I know, which makes the job even better. Not to mention we work events that usually feature live music and GREAT people watching. Have you ever interacted with mass amounts of people who LOVE monster trucks. Those are fun people haha.

Anyways I've been up at Mount Charleston working a camp, feeding loads of rambunctious children. We have a full kitchen and a bunk area attached to it and I am in heaven. Not to mention the camp is HAUNTED. Which for some reason just excited the crap outta me, until I woke up in the middle of the night with sleep paralysis hearing voices. I'm almost certain I started sitting up by means other than my own, because I couldn't for the life of me get my brain and body to work together. 

It's about 40 degrees cooler up here than it is down in the Vegas valley. Thank The Universe. I am not ready for the Vegas heat, but I am however ready for monsoon season in Korea :) 

We have a lot of downtime in-between cooking meals, which usually involves napping or sitting outside with the boys and watching the kids do their thing outside. The first morning we were sitting outside our dining hall and my boss points out a herd of wild horses. I was off that porch quicker than you could imagine. Running through woods, jumping over things. I was worried about scaring then away but it became apparent that these horses were quite used to being around people. The kids were on a tree-rope course, screaming and making plenty of noise. About 50 meters away is a small pond, and the horses (and two ponies) walked right up to the water to drink. They were so calm, checking the kids out. I sat and watched them as long as I could, and then followed them a little ways back. Wildlife makes me so happy, I definitely don't get enough of it.

After we serve our last meal, the boys make a fire and get themselves a "baba". Vodka for Mikey and beer for John and I. Puts us right to sleep, only after a few hours of man conversation and watching the wood burn. I couldn't even begin to explain some of the conversations we had - but lesbian midget sex was a recurring theme. And currently I am being told a story of a opossum crawling out of a dead cow, from his rear end. Men are lovely, aren't they?

There aren't a lot of great things about leaving the mountains, especially when I'm driving back down to Las Vegas. One thing that I love is watching the scenery change from massive pines to fields of Joshua trees.