http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/joncasssouthkorea/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from joncasssouthkorea en-us Sun, 20 Dec 2009 06:58:00 +0000 Sun, 20 Dec 2009 06:58:00 +0000 While Cass and I were away my brother moved to Calgary Alberta Canada with his wife. Irsquom psyched about this move for him for several reasons 1 itrsquos loads closer to Montana a 6 hour drive 2 maybe now hersquoll understand why I love the mountains 3 I have a great chance to hang out in the Canadian Rockies. With the extra free time that wersquove got now that wersquore back http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Alberta/Calgary/blog-460508.html Wersquove been back for over a month now and this will most likely be the fitting final episode of Blogabration. Irsquom sure yoursquove all seen this one coming wersquore back our trip finished. I also saved this topic for a few other reasons. First home is something wersquove carried around with us while we were away comparing and contrasting the different societies wersquove e http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Montana/Butte/blog-455363.html The first 24 hours in Korea no the first week in Korea were some of the most difficult in my life. You are exhausted and jet lagged you are expected to work the very next school day whether that is after a weekend or within hours as we were so lucky you havenrsquot eaten anything in roughly a week because either you canrsquot find anything tolerable or you canrsquot stomach any of t http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Montana/Butte/blog-450521.html Welcome back to the Blogabration Celebration you didnrsquot forget about this did you of our year in Korea and of everything Korean. Cass and I returned to Montana safe and sound an are getting some semblance of normalcy back to our lives more on that will come. I have a plan for two more final Blogabration posts after this and Irsquom sure the anticipation is killing you all yeah r http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Gyeonggi-do/blog-448416.html We had to delay our plans a bit getting to Tokyo because of the aftereffects of the typhoon that ripped through Japan the night before. Nagoya a city we would pass through on the way back to Tokyo saw the brunt of the storm major flooding in the area eventually killing two people. As Kyoto settled down and the rains stopped there were still delays in the train travel due to high wind. We bumme http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/blog-445024.html The minute we touched down in Tokyo we heard rumors of an impending typhoon headed this direction. Irsquom not going to lie as expensive as Japan is the best 1000 Yen we possibly spent was on umbrellas at the first train station. You canrsquot rain on this parade. Or as we soon found out you canrsquot rain on this parade of temples.Kyoto was the ancient capitol of Japan and still the ce http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Kyoto/Kyoto/blog-444179.html Good bye We love you KoreaIrsquom going to interrupt just before the last of the Blogabrations to let you know what wersquove been up to lately. Lots have been going on plus a week in Japan so for the last installments of Blogabration I know yoursquore all on the edge of your seats please stay tunedhellipOne last going away party if you can call it that was two days spent in http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Gyeonggi-do/blog-443355.html Before coming to Korea we couldnrsquot find any information on the designated town we were to call home for the next year. Literally the only two solid bits of information if you can call them that in which we knew for sure was that Yeoju is the home for some kind of world ceramic festival and there is a premium outlet shopping mall in town. You could say we were going in pretty blind but i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Gyeonggi-do/blog-441867.html Itrsquos no secret Korean food is a lovehate relationship. It never really allows any room for indifference definitely one or the otherhellip or bothhellip or neither. For Cass and I itrsquos both but more along the lines of love and Irsquom not too proud to say so. Wersquove actually evolved to be somewhat of connoisseurs of the cuisine this last year and it has been a wild rid http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Gyeonggi-do/blog-440578.html Count down is now under twenty days until we shove off from the Hermit Kingdom and itrsquos starting to hit us that wersquore actually leaving. We are leaving Korea on October 5th officially and spending a week in Japan exploring Tokyo and down through Kyoto and beyond if we have time. Then on the 10th we will be jumping back on a plane to head back to the western hemisphere changing p http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Seoul/blog-438306.html So wersquore back another awesome vacation abroad finished and we had a pleasant surprise waiting on our phone when we arrived at the airporthellip more vacation Yes while we were gone the Korean ministry of education issued a mandatory one week quarantine for any teachers that traveled out of the country a precaution for the H1N1 flu virus. Since we arrived the night before we were to g http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Gyeonggi-do/blog-435616.html The greatest city on earth Asiarsquos Las Vegashellip Whatrsquos not to love about these two right After a day of bumming that included the famous lsquowater puppet showrsquo we left the friendly confines of Hanoi for the modern marvel that is the existence of Hong Kong. We had almost 3 days there to check out all we could not enough to discover all of the wonders our friend Laurel http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/blog-433729.html Before we took off for the urban jungle of Hong Kong we felt it necessary to get the most out of Hanoi that we still could since wersquove both grown quite fond of the minimally organized chaos cluttered beauty and labyrinthesque streets of the Old Quarter the heart of downtown Hanoi. It was raining as we arrived on the train from Sapa and welcomed with open arms yet again to the hoste http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-432252.html A quick turnaround literally like 4 hours in Hanoi showering at the guesthouse we werenrsquot even staying in that night how nice of them and we were right back in a taxi heading to the train station for an overnighter to a small village in one of the farthest reaches of the country Sapa. We had two days planned sandwiched in between to overnight train rides really looking forward to sle http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Northwest/Sapa/blog-431471.html We knew before getting to Vietnam this place was absolutely breathtaking but when you actually are immersed in the beauty in all directions it is hard to put into words. Halong Bay is about 160 kilometers east of Hanoi and home to more than 2000 Dr. Seussian shaped islands. We spent three days and two nights in the bay that could possibly be voted as one of the new lsquo7 Wonders of the Natu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Halong-Bay/blog-430321.html Well more like Crazy pause Beautiful. Yeah we made ithellip so... Happy well deserved Summer Vacation everyone fist pump and Gooooood Moooorning Viet... no thatrsquos just too cheesy even for me But seriously It really feels great finally getting our well manicured plans underway when starting an extended trip like this. Not only have we been looking forward to this because of the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-429445.html Jeju Island Korea Honeymooners Islandhellip Korearsquos Hawaiihellip A Tropical Paradisehellip ldquoVery Famous in Korea.rdquo All those adjectives and more have been used to describe Jeju no matter who or when it has come up in conversation since wersquove been here. Obviously curious to see what this tropical utopia is all about my friend Tom and I decided to take advantage of http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeju/blog-427731.html Over the last 10 months Irsquove come to realize that being an adventurous person in this part of the world is a relative term. A huge step that both Cass and I have taken is becoming a bit more adventurous with what we eat. The majority of the time we have no choice in the matter i.e. teacher dinners or basically any time Jon G. is with us but wersquove emerged on the other side with some http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Gyeonggi-do/blog-425821.html Recently we're just putting in our time are our required 'summer camps.' I have lucked out and only recieved a sentence of 8 days of camp while Cass is being locked up for three weeks. For whatever reason her school counted our days off a bit different than my school but as it is with the majority of things in Korea everything is circumstantial and we just do what we're told. Regardless all http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Gyeonggi-do/blog-423745.html Months ago things started popping up on facebook like ldquoKorean Mudfestival 1 friend is a fan.rdquo More recently Irsquove had conversations like ldquoDo you know mud festival Very famous in Korea.rdquo Even more importantly sandwiched between Turkeyrsquos Camel Wrestling Festival and the UKrsquos Cheese Rolling Festival the Boryeong Mud Festival ranks 3rd on a London newspap http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Chungcheongnam-do/Boryeong/blog-418419.html