d & w part 2

doorways and windows

Cambodia pictures--not angkor wat

it's almost christmas!!!

it seems i'm much more in the christmas spirit here than in the states. probably b/c it's not shoved down my throat since october. i made little christmas goodie bags for each one of my kids--chocopie, a pencil, some stickers, a piece of gum and a sucker. they loved them. even the older kids. i made 70, i'm really glad they liked them. then last night--i still can't believe i did this to tell you the truth--the foreign teachers from my school each had to dress up as santa claus and deliver presents that hte parents had brought in for hte kids. so i went with rebecca and jinny (korean teachers) to 12 different apartments. i had 15 kids total but some were brother and sister. i was amazed at how many were scared of me. i wasnt even wearing a beard! it was obviously me in a huge santa suit. some wouldnt even shake my hand whereas at school they are permantly attached to my leg. weird. outside each apt jinny would light 2 sparklers and rebecca would start the tape player with a horrible version of jingle bells. the kid or a parent would open the door and i would go in first (staying in the doorway of course, not need to take off shoes...) and say MERRY CHRISTMAS--i didn't have the ho ho ho in me after 8 hrs at work--and give the child his/her present frm my big red bag. the mom or dad would take a picture of me doing so and then take another pictuer of the kid with me/us. rebecca would shoot some fake snow at them and then we were off to the next place. another amazing thing to me--only one kids ripped into his present. and that was after i told him to open it. and i wouldnt call it ripping. what sort of 6 year old saves paper?! i STILL rip into my presents--each and every one. and right away too. thats how i've been wearing my vest gramma gave me every day to school! if i would have waited i STILL wouldn't be able to open b/c it's not the magical date. dates are just numbers people! 14 of the kids stood there with their present and looked at me strange while rebecca talked to them or handed the present to their parents. what is that all about?! so i only know that one kid got a chess game. and i could tell that 2 kids got books by how they felt in the wrapping. im just as curious about what other people get as what i get.
after 2 hours--the time flew by, surprisingly--we were done and i went home with a new pair of socks and a cake. came home and drank some beer with beard and keith. watched some john wayne, dispelled some myths/stereotypes of korea and koreans for keith, taught him how to squat, and went to bed.
today i'm thinking of heading downtown for xmas shopping. were going over to bryan and colin's (at least i assume that's still the plan) tomorrow night with tihva, kelly and alexis for a christmas meal and gift exchange. we're all spending the night there and then having a big breakfast on christmas morning. should be a good time.
photos to come!

you tube sunday

i've just spent about an hour watching this guy called zipster08 on youtube. i cant figure out why i'm so amused by him but i've watched a ton of his little videos. he's nuts. if you go to www.youtube.com and search for zipster08 you should be able to find him.

soooo. yeah. just wasted all day light hours on you tube. however i dont feel the least bit guilty b/c i have a bad cold and don't want to get out of bed. VERY happy to have wireless internet.

new roommate has arrived. keith, 38, montreal, bilingual. he got here at 2am friday morning. showed him the apt--he didnt realize korea is so frickin cold. yesterday was a big day--lotte mart, xmas party, and waegook cook. all super duper. probably shouldnt have gone out last night but i havent been to waegook yet and we wanted to show keith around so he could meet his fellow waegooks.

lately ive been downloading like crazy. got the new ipod so need to FILL IT UP. its a tough job. as a result, i havent posted here or uploaded more pictures. i DID get the laos pictures out though.

let me talk a bit more about my job. i love it. i only have one or two classes that are a bit difficult to control but NOTHING that compares to last year. (speaking of, I met the new teacher at my old school. Jenny, 24?, Southern Illinois, vegetarian.) we seriously play games all day. and even though im getting a bit bored of sticky ball and basket ball, the kids aren't. mind you i use the games as lessons. and at the end play ball game if they've been good. ball game--all the kids get together and i kick the ball at them while they run around screaming. great fun. and the school feeds all the little kids every day which means we get fed too. love it.
our korean teachers are nice too. although i don't think i'll get to be as good of friends with them as at my old school. we'll see though, theyre nice women.
i really need to learn more korean. it's sad that i've been here for over a year and i hardly know anything. i started making new flashcards for food. that's something. AND i started making flashcards for the GRE. but it seems like id rather read dumb stuff on the internet or watch videos than study. im blaming the weather--and my cold. i hope its not a season long cold...

more pictures from our vacation

Me and Luke

Me and Beard in the Skybridge

our packs in Joan's van

manatee

Beard with the fish he caught

at Niabi zoo with Brycen

the bird's loved Beard

Mom and Brycen on the merry-go-round

Lisa and Rosalie

Katie and Andy

pics of home

beard helping lexi into a tree

mya showing us how it's done

tay

Mom, Brycen and Mom's brand new vehicle

Brian, Dad, Beard

the end is nearing

well, vacation is almost over...this afternoon we leave cat ba island to spend our last night in hanoi before flying out tomorrow at 8pm. these 6 weeks flew by. its hard to believe we have visited 4 countries in such a short amount of time. Next time we go on a trip we'll stick to one or two countries. Or we'll be gone a lot longer. give us time to actually get to know a place instead of just the tourist places. except for a few suggestions we kind of feel like we've been herded most of this trip. spending most of the time with fellow travelers rather than locals.
i think living in korea makes it feel this way. besides english teachers and some military the only people to travel around korea are koreans. and except for some places in the bigger cities, you have to try to speak korean. in the countries we've visited i've only really learned how to say thank you, beer, and hi. sometimes just the first two because 'hello' seems to be universal. it was hard to even find a menu that didnt have english, in fact i can't remember one.
spending the last few days on the beach has been perfect. i feel fully relaxed and decently tan enough to go back to teach the kiddies in gumi. soon we'll have a quick internet connection again and ill get all my pictures uploaded and sent out. fun for everyone!

made it to Saigon

well, our sketchy visas let us into the country, hopefully they'll get us back out too! the visa is just paperclipped into our passports and they stamped that paper instead of in the passport...odd.
we had a decent time in cambodia. it was more expensive than we expected. seeing the poverty was astounding. and then the killing fields and s21. why were we not taught this in school? oh i know--b/c we never got past the 60s. whats sick is that one country killed 25 percent of its own people and left the remaining 75 percent in the stone ages--their words.
on the plus side there's angkor wat and the temples and palaces around it. for those english teachers out there who taught American Get Ready 1--we made up a new song for elephants and frogs, 123. palaces and wats 123. hello palaces hello wats...ill get pictures up when we get back to gumi. its hard to believe we only have 2 weeks left. at least we're in one country the whole time. but we'll still have hte LONG bus rides. the one here was supposed to be 6 hrs and turned into 10. we had to wait 3 hrs to cross a river on a ferry. 3 hrs of people sticking their hands inside the bus trying to get you to buy something you don't want for 3 times the price they offer it to cambodians. children moaning--money, money. i think someone teaches them all how to say it the exact same way.
we finally got to saigon and found a decent guesthouse--even though the electricity was out in the area. thankfully was we were standing outside waiting for caroline, an irish girl we met on the bus, it came back on. the room's pretty nice--hot water, 2 fans, a tv for 6 bucks a night. there's even a window, no screen...but a window is always nice.
today we're just going to chill out. we're going to meet caroline at 1-130 and walk to the reunification palace. our tour director told us there are tunnels under that palace that lead to the river. i'm hoping we can take them.
tomorrow is another sad day. we'll go to see hte war remnants museum and cu chi tunnels. the next day we head to the beach, for some much needed lay around time.

waiting for a bus

we were just on a 9 hr 45 min bus ride from Luang Prabang to Vientiene and now we get to be on an 11 hr bus ride to Pakse. YEAH! the first one wasn't so bad even with the super curvasious road b/c i took a dramamine and had barely slept the night before. unfortunately the little boy monk sitting in front of me had forgotten to take his dramamine (if monks can even take it) and was quite ill the whole ride. poor thing. he had his robe wrapped around his head the whole time. but luckily the bus didn't break down this time so we made it almost on time.
this ride will take us to pakse where we will get on yet anohter bus to go to the 4 thousand islands region of the mekong river delta. were going stay on don khong island and probably rent a scooter to ride around it. we might have to stay there longer than the 2 days we had planned b/c we need to get the visas into cambodia and assumed we could get them at the border with laos but we all know where assuming gets you. the book says there are no places to get cambodian visas over land from laos. humph.
luang prabang was great. we met a couple people to hang out with and went to a wat xieng thong and walked up phousi hill and of course hit the night market for some good deals! the 2nd whole day we were there my tummy wasnt feeling quite up to par so i skipped the waterfall and slept instead. beard went up with the crew and had a great time, saw bears, and amazingly enough, didn't get hurt.
im not sure how the internet situation is down south so i don't know when ill be updating again.

I DID NOT HIT NOR KILL A MANATEE

now that we have that out of the way.
we are now in luang prabang laos. very nice place. unesco heritage site. on the mekong river. got here after breaking down not once but twice. first time a tire popped and the second time might have been somethign with the transmission. a different bus picked us up and took us into town. instantly hounded by tuk tuk drivers and guest house peddlers. after the long winding ride we accepted the first guy's offer of a double room with fan and private bathroom for 4 bucks. however, now that weve been downtown we realize we probably could have gotten a nicer room for just as much. meh. were fine where we are. we rented bicycles today and rode by the mekong river and through the town. changed some money--took a LONG time and now we each have a HUGE stack of 2000 kip bills. 2000 kip is about 20 cents a beer is 8000-10000 kip.
tomorrow were going to waterfall and perhaps a cave...
in vang vieng christa and i went tubing in a cave. it was freaky at first, then ok, then freaky again b/c my light went out and christa thought it would be oh so funny to push me away, then fun b/c the guy towed ch and i so we didnt have to paddle with our arms, then tiring b/c he quit towing us, then fun b/c the current brought us back.
nap time

thailand

right now were in kantharalak, visiting with a friend beard's mom went to high school with. he has a nice house in the country with cows and ponds and kids. before this we were on the island of koh tao where i did 3 dives and beard did 6. met a nice irish couple there and had drinks on the beach after eating at an indian restaruant. then cam e the marathon tour north. one hr twenty minute boat ride to champorn, 7 hr bus ride to bangkok, 9 hr bus ride to here. got here at 7am this morning. les, ya and their kids, ben, jackie and tony picked us up, brought us to breakfast and then we came out to their farm. nice and relaxing. well spend tonight and probably tomorrow night here and then take off to perhaps vang vieng laos. do some tubing, check out luang probang and then back south to cambodia. we're trying to pick the best way now b/c we are really close to angkor wat cambodia right now, about 150km.
i thought this area would be a lot different from korea/the us/what i'm used to but it's really not. a bit more run down but not in a bad way. people smile a lot more in thailand. happy people must live here. it's more relaxed than korea and of course eating and drinking is cheaper. most of our meals come to between 3 and 5 dollars together. the dives were 20 bucks a piece. our bungalow was 8.
koh tao was wonderful. although much more touristy than we expected but you'll have that. outside our bungalow there were 2 roosters, several hens, 7 puppies and who knows how many other dogs. the puppies were the cutest things ever, til about 6am when they started whining. the food was great--lots of curries and noodle dishes.
i can't upload pictures here b/c itd take too long so i'll do that later.