Erin and I went down to Osan today to meet up with some of our pilots friends, and to partake in the shopping that is rumored to be the best in Korea. It was absolutely freezing (and still snowing!) in Seoul, so we layered up and headed down to Osan. The trip took about one and a half hours by train, but we messed up the transfer, so it probably should have taken less time! When we finally arrived, we wandered our way to the base, met up with our friends and then let them lead us around finding the good shops. There are a lot of tailors and shoe makers, so the thing to do in Osan is to bring a picture of what you want and then have them make it for a fraction of the cost. Clever. I didn't know this, so I was unprepared, but next time for sure! The other popular thing to do in Osan is buy fake bags. They are pretty good fakes, but I will not buy fake designer bags, so I walked away empty handed. Erin got a treasure chest though - lots of Christmas presents for her family! :) Oh, I actually did get some bright pink tights.

After we were shopped out the boys asked if we wanted to get a late lunch on base to celebrate Erin's birthday. We said yes.... getting on base is actually pretty complicated (two forms of id, a million questions, and finger printing for the guy singing you in) -- so we don't usually go, but in Osan there is a CHILIS. Like baby back ribs and margarita Chilis -- aka, the most amazing sounding food I can think of right now. Once we were on base we had a glorious meal of nachos, quesadillas, ribs, margaritas and just when she thought she was safe -- a birthday milkshake and an embarrassing Birthday Song for Erin.

We had plans to celebrate Erin's birthday in Seoul that night, so we had to leave at 4pm, but it was hard tearing ourself away from the base. I felt like I was in Anytown, USA, and Erin felt right at home since she grew up an Air Force brat. We thanked the boys profusely and then headed back into Seoul. I don't remember how long this journey took us, because we were exhausted. As soon as we got back to my apartment we crashed. We napped for about an hour, and then quickly got ready for dinner at a Thai place in Apeugeong. We dressed up a lot because it was Erin's birthday .. but no one else did! Hah. I sat next to my friend Jessica's friend Alex. He is Korean and works in advertising and asked if I would like to do some advertisements here. Um, YES!! He was pretty funny and told me there are a lot of pretty girls out here in Seoul, but not many with blonde hair. We'll see where that goes, I am not holding out much hope.

We then went to our friend's bar for a drink, sang some karaoke, and then went to a late night hof for soju and snacks. We played kings until nearly 4am and had a blast. A slight twist on a Spring Break favorite!

One of my students and her family invited me and Justin to go to the Hampyeong Butterfly Festival and International Insect Expo.  I agreed to go but was a little apprehensive prior to going after I spent some time thinking about our other day trips with some of our other Korean acquaintances.  The general feeling on a Korean family outing is to rush around seeing as much as you can in as little time as possible because free time here is so limited. 

Thankfully, our experiences with Da Yoon's family was quite the opposite.  They picked us up at our apartment, we watched "Mulan" on their dvd player in their car and they treated us to a great shabu- shabu lunch once we arrived in Hampyeong.  For the next couple hours we strolled around the expo grounds viewing the sweet insect exhibits and random other side exhibits (such as the golden bat house where there were only plastic bats, no real ones were to be found. The highlight was a 162kg bat statue made out of gold. It was a bit overrated. And by bit I mean REALLY).  

The butterfly house was packed with expo visitors consisting mostly of families, middle school student groups and long lines of boy scouts.  Upon walking in we were hit by the warm, humid atmosphere and encountered dozens of cabbage butterflies fluttering around.  In certain closed off showcases were the exotic butterflies imported from Malaysia, the Philippines, and various other countries in Southeast Asia.  One of the best parts of the day was seeing the showcases with 8 inch long insects that look like they were straight of "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom."  Normally I'm not freaked out by insects.  I took a class in Entomology in college and loved it. However, some of these insects were big enough to eat small children and they gave me the willies! 

everland.. 90 minutes to it.. busy busy busy.. eagles fortress, boat vomit, t-express, nayoung the foreigner.. bus home on the back step

This weekend we participated in a templestay at Bulhoesa Temple in Naju.  The trip was arranged by the GIC.  Saturday afternoon everyone met at the U-Square Bus Terminal.  Justin and I were pleasantly surprised that we knew three people going on the trip.  We thought this GIC event would by like our trip to Namwon in which we were basically the only foreigners.  We were very glad that Bobby and Meena decided to go and Skye, a fellow American we had met in our first Korean class was going too. 

Our Templestay Itinerary consisted of the following:

Saturday

4pm-Arrive at Bulhoesa Temple in Naju, registration, tour of the temple grounds

5pm-Learn the proper eating etiquette for the dinner ceremony (Take only as much food as you can eat because you have to eat EVERYTHING, no talking, proper placement of bowls, etc.  The best part was when we had to rinse our bowls with water and drink the remnants- it kind of looked like vomit!)

6pm-Chanting in the main prayer hall led by the Chief Monk (It was a wonderful experience but the bows were hard to keep up with)

7pm-Group Introductions and Discussion of Buddhist principles

9pm-Bedtime

Sunday

4am- Rise and Shine!

4:30- Chanting in the main prayer hall

5am- 108 bows before Buddha (What a workout!  Most of us were panting and sweating by bow number 32!)

6am- Breakfast

7am- Optional hike down the road or relaxation (Justin and I were out cold on the floor of the sleeping hall-we were exhausted!)

8am- Meditation (aka Involuntary Nap #2- The point of the meditation was to reflect on what happiness is as well as attempting to forgive someone we dislike- unfortunately every time I tried to meditate I fell asleep. Apparently I wasn't the only one- someone else in the room was snoring!)

9am- Traditional Tea Ceremony.  One of the monks served us 5 different kinds of tea, all made at the temple.  One of the green teas he served us is sold for 300 dollars a bag.  Part of the experience was to use all 5 senses while enjoying the tea.  Another challenge was to taste bitter, sweet, salty and sour flavors in the tea. That part was a little difficult.

10am- Packing up our stuff, putting away bedding

11am- Hike around the temple grounds to see that naturally growing green tea.

12pm- Lunch (Thankfully it was just in the cafeteria- it wasn't a big ceremony like dinner was)

1pm- Buying Souvenirs from the temple shop, taking final pictures of the temple and departing for Gwangju.

Overall it was an awesome experience and I recommend doing a templestay for anyone who gets a chance :)

OMG!! Can't believe the day is finally here and I am seeing Toto live in Korea on their very last show of their two year world tour!!  It's their last planned show indefinitely!  While planning this trip to Seoul, I reached out to a fellow TBer that I knew was stationed in Seoul.  I told him why I was coming out there and he went and checked out Toto's website and music and ended up liking them so much, he bought tickets to the show as well!  How cool is that?!?! 

I've had several people ask me who Toto is or why I like them so much.  Most people know who they are, but may not recognize the band name right off the bat.  My parents listened to them when I was young and I sorta just grew up on their music.  Two of their very popular songs were Rosanna and Africa.....which in fact, I think there's a horrible Geico commercial right now making light of the Rosanna song!!  Bad Geico! HA HA HA

Anyways, I was to meet up with Josh before the show if possible to say hi at least!! LOL.  I was worried it might be hard to find each other so I emailed him our seat numbers so he could track us down.  There was a HUGE line to get in the venue and as I started to check out the people in attendance, I quickly figured out it would not be too hard to spot each other.  Before the show started, I went to restroom and Scott wandered around the lobby. When I came out of the restroom, Scott had found Josh already so we got to talk a little and goof off before the show!

I started looking around the theatre after we got inside and noticed 98% of the show attendees were Korean and there was only about 8 of us were weren't.  I am not sure why I was suprised but I just assumed with the US military presence in Korea, there might've been people off the bases.   I have to say though - this was without a doubt the best concert and the best crowd ever!  Everyone in that house stood up the minute they came on stage and never sat down again!  These were die hard fans and they knew every word to every song the guys played.  It made the whole experience even more rewarding for me because I realized how lucky I was to see this final concert with such amazing and enthustiac fans!

Anyways, I've included the pics and an entry here because it is the reason for my entire Seoul trip but I will be putting the full report of the show and all the craziness on my devoted Toto blog.....In Search of Toto Euphoria!  Whoo hoo!  

Let's just say this...it was the best show ever for me, I got to hang out with them for a bit after the show, AND, I ended up with a special birthday wish from Lee Sklar and he did one of his infamous mashcasts of me to put on their website, complete with birthday wishes from the band!! Here is a link to my 5 seconds of fame on the Toto Network:  http://www.totonetwork.com/node/5688481  I look like dork but who cares...I was on the stage after the concert!! YEAH!!!

OMG!!  Beyond dreams coming true....it was the best night of my life!!

At the beginning of the week our Sonsangnim, Park Hye Suk, informed our class that on the last day of our Korean lessons she would take us for a picnic in the mountains.  Everyone seemed pumped so she told us to pack some snacks and we'd head out immediately after class was over on Thursday.

When I woke up Thursday morning the sky was a gloomy gray and it had definitely rained quite a bit.  Nevertheless, I prepared a delicious feast of mini weanies, hardboiled eggs, carrots, apples and persimmon and headed to class in high spirits.  Towards the end of class Hye Suk asked us again who was going and everyone wussed out!  Justin and I were the only two that were still up for it so we hopped into the back of Hye Suk's car and headed towards Mudeungsan.  I had thought that we were going to a temple maybe fifteen minutes from downtown Gwangju but after half an hour and a dozen switchbacks (which left me on the verge of getting a second glimpse of my breakfast) we found ourselves in Damyang, a neighboring city which we had visited during our first month in Korea.   The scenery was quite different from our last visit in July.  The trees had begun to change colors and the crops in the fields were vibrant shades of gold. 

We headed to Soswaewon, a beautiful garden with trickling streams, bamboo stands, maple trees and traditional korean buildings and gazebos.  The only kick in the pants was the shock of finding 20 coach buses in the parking lot that we had thought would be deserted.  It turns out a few middle schools decided to hold their class picnics on the same day as our little excursion.  It would not have been a problem except that the several hundred students all tried to catch a glimpse of the foreigners, take pictures of us and yell, "You are beautiful!"  I wouldn't have minded except for the fact that I definitely looked like I had just rolled out of bed and I was in the middle of stuffing my face full of tiny weaners.

Despite the crowds of our adoring fans we had a very relaxing time while we snacked and breathed in the fresh mountain air. After an hour or so we headed to Sigyeongjeong where we explored the grounds of a nobleman's estate and took in the scenery of the countryside one more time before heading back to the city.  I ended up being just a teeny bit late for work but our little trip with Hye Suk was more than worth the severe beatings I got with a bamboo pole. Just kidding.  It was made of oak ;)

So we finally arrived in South Korea after spending over 50 hours without laying down. We got to spend 7 hours in Hong Kong airport and saw a re-run of West Ham v Wigan. We found out that England had lost and couldnt escape the obvious spiral of disillusionment with the whole world because of it.

Our flight from Hong Kong was great and got to watch the Simpsons movie....Spider Pig, Spider Pig, does whatever a spider pig does! We touched down in Korea at 6am still not really sure what we had got oursleves into.

We were met by a guy who spoke no English and driven to Osan. We were then taken to the school and met by a teacher called Mr.Kim who suggested we go for breakfast! Although all we wanted to do was sleep we couldnt really say no. So we went to a cafe and had Kimpab, kind of like sushi, and some unbeliavable spicy noodles. Welcome to Korea!

We were then taken to our apartment and dropped off our stuff and then went back to the school. Still wearing the same clothes we had worn for two days we were introduced to the Principals of our repective schools. We both had extremely weird and funny experiences. Matt being called handsome by two grown men, and Rob being told he was very young. Then taken home and allowed to sleep, finally, after two days of standing up.