Hello Neeeew Teeeeacha!

I made sure to take some pictures this weekend of my new haircut. I am posting a picture of the Heidi Klum because this is the photo I gave the hairdresser when I got it cut. I think it turned out pretty good... I mean come on, who can actually look like HER?

i am now a millionaire.

and that's no joke. I am now a millionaire... in Korean won!! Woo payday. I was paid on Monday for all my hard work the last month. I have now been making plans - going shopping all day Saturday, buying a cell phone, treating myself to great dinners, looking to buy a bicycle (more on this later). It has been a great week!

Tomorrow, Friday, we have a field trip - my first one at school! I am excited, I'd say almost more than the kindergartners are. :) We are going to a blow up (inflatable) play land. Looks pretty cool. If I wear socks, pants, and a long sleeve shirt, I can go down the slides too. It's supposed to be 91 degrees tomorrow. hmm.. maybe I won't go down the slides with the kids..?

Lastly, I have unveiled the new title of my blog. I figured I have earned this title, Seoul Woman, now that I have been here over a month. Hope all is well in the States. Miss everyone and I welcome any and all visitors.

Reaching the Peak - Day 2 Seoraksan Photos

Almost to the Peak!

View from the Top.

At the Peak.

1708 M. :-)

A view on the walk back... that very tall, large rock face in the center of the picture is the one with the cave on it, where we had hiked the day before

Seoraksan Day 1 Photos

Buddha at the Entrance to the Park


The Buddhist temple in the Park



The travelers




Waterfall





Look closely at the rock face...
you can see the stairs and platform up to the cave we went in. VERY steep!

Since when is summer vacation only 1 week?

Well to answer that question, since I moved to South Korea. Summer vacation has long came and gone but I have yet to post on my blog about it. So, here is how I spent the beloved one week I get off the entire summer~ About 2-3 hours east of Seoul, right on the Sea of Japan (or the East Sea, depending if you are Korean or Japanese - confusing, I know. Besides the name of the sea, they also fight over a rock island where 20 people live... ok?) anyway, out this way lies a beautiful national park (Seoraksan), home to the 3rd highest mountain in all of South Korea, Mount Seorak. We, Taylor, Elyse, and myself, decided to check this area out.

(At the East Sea)

For the first part of break, we stayed in the town of Sokcho right on the sea.

Sokcho had a beautiful, but very busy beach where Koreans go swimming in clothing instead of bathing suits. Very entertaining. I find myself asking on a daily basis, Why? WHY? WHY? And have found no answers to many things. :-) I have decided it is just part of living in a foreign country. Besides the beach, Sokcho is famous for fresh sashimi -yum. These few days were spent in total relaxation, eating fresh fish, laying on the beach, and checking out Sokcho.

We stayed in a lovely little motel called The Black Box. Pretty sure it was a love motel (these motels are where Koreans go to have a secret meeting, if you know what I mean). Our room came with a black light, a circular bed, and a awesome picture that lit up with the black light. Great experience. How many people can say they stayed in a motel with a black light??

Our sashimi meal was quite interesting. We walked down a road with many, many restaurants. All had a couple fish tanks outside with different fish in them, I even saw a sting ray! Not sure how that would taste. Anyway, we eventually chose a restaurant, even though they were all looking the same to me, and sat down for one of the most unique meals ever. After we ordered, we watched out the window as our meal was literally plucked from the tank in front of the restaurant. I tried many different types of fish, including octopus, clams, sea urchins, and others I couldn't recognize. Our entire table was covered in fish in little dishes!! (See picture) Sadly, there was no tuna or salmon, my two favorites.

Lunch BEFORE Lunch AFTER

After a couple days in Sokcho, we headed to Seoraksan, the national park. SO SO GORGEOUS. We spent two days in the park area, one night sleeping in a hostel, Korean style. This means mats on the ground. I definitely prefer Western style. Our first day we just explored a couple different trails. We hiked for about 4-5 hours in total, seeing a couple waterfalls, a Buddhist temple, breathtaking views, and a cave. I do need to explain this cave though. It was in the center of a rockface. To get to it, we needed to climb extremely steep stairs. It was so steep that I am not scared of heights and I was a bit scared with this climb. When we reached the top, there was a very small space where you could crawl into this little worship area. You would kneel on the wood floor and there were candles lit all around with a Buddha staring back at you. Very interesting. The weather this day was nice, not too hot. However, the next day was beautiful. The sun was shining and it turned out to be a hot day. We decided before we even left Seoul that we would hike to the peak of the 3rd tallest mountain in Korea so that was our mission for a second day at Seoraksan. The 14 mile round trip hike took us only 11 hours! We were all very tired and sweaty. Most Koreans do this hike in two days, one up and one down. Us CRAZY Americans did it all in one day, 11 hours at that! All the work was worth it when we reached the top. The feeling of accomplishment was wonderful! The peak called Daecheongbong Peak is 1,708 meters (5,603.7 feet) tall and was above the clouds when we arrived there.

I took so many beautiful pictures that I cannot even decide what ones to share with you all on the blog~

I'm now back at school wishing I had another summer vacation to look forward to. I would have August 15th off because it is Independence Day here, however it is a SATURDAY! Just my luck.

Celebrating 22 Years

I'm 22! Ha, well as usual I have felt like I have been 22 for a while. THANK YOU summer birthday, NOT. anyway, I had a very nice birthday here in Korea. I did miss celebrating with family and friends. My friend Taylor came down from Ilsan and stayed here in Seoul to help celebrate my birthday. We started the day off by going to Myeongdong for the day. It is about 20-30 minutes away from where I live. It is a very popular shopping area (it felt like there were a million people in this small area - see picture) with an awesome market where you can find anything from socks, to sunglasses, to tall ice cream cones dispensed right from the machine on the street (only 1,000 WON! or .82 cents). We were on a mission to find a Dr. Fish but were unsuccessful in our search and will have to go another weekend. Dr. Fish can actually be found in the states as well. I have seen it on a talk show not sure which one, Ellen, Tyra, Oprah, can't remember. Anyway, you put your feet in a tub with a bunch of little fish and they eat the dead skin from your feet!!! AHH! I hear it tickles a lot but I am all about the experiences so I said, "Let's Do It!" The plus about experiencing it here in Korea is that is costs a little under $2 for 15 minutes, while I just did the research and found it in the US for $35 for 15 minutes. That will just have to be for another weekend.We pick a very cute Italian restaurant for dinner. I shared mushroom calzone and a creamy salmon pasta with Elyse. She mentioned to the waitstaff that it was my birthday and I was brought a very large free salad! So nice! The food was delicious and was a nice break from Korean food. After we headed back to our own neighborhood to hit up a few bars. I think my new favorite bar on our block will be Garten Bier. You get very cool cup holders built into the table for your beer that are set at 4 degrees C so your beer NEVER gets warm. great idea really.

My birthday happened to be the night that I got to experience my first noraebang. I will help translate that. Norae = Song, Bang = Room. This means that it is literally a song room. For around 17 dollars an hour (second hour is cheaper) you can rent your own private room with your friends and sing karaoke. It comes with 2 mics so duets can be sung and 3 tambourines so the other friends can still participate when they don't have a mic. I believe I have fallen in love with this ingenious idea. Some of my friends know how much I love singing, especially in groups (BWCA :) ) The best part is there was NO shortage of English songs. They had way way way way too many to pick from, so many I love. 1 hour just did not cut it so we bought a 2nd hour. It was just too amazing. I plan to go many, many times during the next year. We were so wrapped up with singing that we ended up heading home at 4 AM! It was a very wonderful birthday spent with people whose company I enjoy. :)