First off, Happy Easter to all! We hope you had a wonderful, relaxing Easter weekend and enjoyed the fantastic weather!! Here in Korea, as with most holidays we are used to celebrating, this weekend felt nothing like Easter to us! After a colder and rainier than usual March, April has brought us some warmer and sunnier weather and we could not be more thrilled!! After being cooped up for the winter months, we are anxious to get out and explore more of this beautiful country. For me, the weekend started on a sour note as just after lunch on Friday my school informed me that they needed lesson plans for both my before-school and after-school extra class for the entire semester. Only, they needed them by the END OF THE DAY! Needless to say, I was ... read more

This past weekend was a truly Korean experience with the annual Cheongdo Bull Fighting Festival and a tour of the persimmon Wine Tunnel. As the warm weather begins to arrive in South Korea, so too does lots of festivals and events to mark Spring! This weekend we traveled by train to the nearby city of Cheongdo for a day trip we will never forget! Before I get started on Saturday, Mike and I spent Friday night having dinner with an English teacher from his school and her family. It was awesome to eat in a Korean home (apartment) where we all sat around a tiny table on the floor and had a noodle/soup dish. Sandy, the teacher, has 3 kids, the oldest one in grade 1 and the youngest one 17 months and they are so ... read more

We don't want to make it seem like we don't do any work around here, but we had the last week in February off school so we decided to make the most of the week (well, half of the week - the first half we spent watching Olympics at every possible moment - which was difficult with a 17hr time difference, but we managed to see most of the important things!) and rented a car for a little 5 day road trip with 2 friends, Eric and Moiz. We left on Wednesday morning in our shiny new Kia Forte Hybrid ready (and a little worried - I mean, Korean drivers?scaryyyyyy!) for the road ahead. We packed the trunk with all our hiking gear and hit the road with Eric and Mike alternating driving as they were ... read more

01/29/10 - 02/02/10 Alright folks, we are just about finished our trip! It's been a long and crazy adventure but it is about to come to a close (sadly). So here we are at 4:45am, left at an empty bus station in Luang Prabang, dirty, hungry and tireeddddd beyond belief. It was at this point that we both ready to go home or at least have a few solid days of rest. I mean, we were having an amazing time, but I think all the sleepless nights and long days had finally caught up to us, and we were exhausted. We sat at the bus station for a bit trying to gather our thoughts, check out maps to find out where we were and decide on an action plan. In hopes of saving money, we decided ... read more

01/26/10 - 01/27/10 Oh Vientiane... the great capital of Laos. Or maybe just the capital of Laos. For the capital of a country, Vientiane is one of the least visited capital cities. There is not a whole lot to attract tourists to the city except for the excellent ambiance and beautiful French colonial buildings and cafes. We had originally intended to spend only one day in Vientiane but the more we talked to fellow travelers along the trail, the more we discovered really how little Vientiane had (unless you have days and days to really explore the city and get a feel for it, which we didn't!) and so in the end we spent about 4 hours in the city, on foot, and we saw all the main sights and had breakfast! But first, our trip ... read more