A quick recap on my life for the past couple months!!!

Since Christmas a lot has happened and changed and life has been very busy, in a good way.  We spent the entire months of January and February doing things before a few of our friends left for the wonderful life of being world travelers.  Among some of our goodbye festivities was a dinner in the dark, which was exactly what it sounds like.  We literally ate dinner in a pitched black restaurant with one other Korean couple, listening to the sound of the ocean, it was the theme that night, and sticking our fingers in our food course after course.  At the end of  dinner the hostess read a "love letter" I wrote to our friends that were leaving.  In her really bad broken English she butchered my loving words and left Dan confused and convinced the couple next to us were having a special moment. I also planned a bar crawl through Itaewon, which is where we frequent most weekends and consists of all expats, way too military creepers and the Korean locals looking to brush up on their English.  The bar crawl was a great success, leaving us all miserably hungover, but with wonderful and complete memories of the entire evening.  We all really I impressed ourselves to say the least.  We also took a second trip to DMZ, per Azzurra's request as she is completely obsessed with NK.  Our trip pretty much consisted of me making two cocktails Friday evening and blacking everyone out the night before our tour, needless to say North Korea is way more interesting when you don't feel like death while visiting it.  

Azzurra ready and willing to sleep with the Vampire dear in North Korea!

A group of us also had a very belated Thanksgiving dinner, compliments of the Army base in Seoul and finally got to cure our craving from turkey and stuffing.  We each brought a few bottles of wine totaling in around 15 and we were 100% positive we'd have plenty left over.  Well many servings of turkey later and a few pieces of pie all the wine was gone and our Monday morning was one of the worst of all time.  Next time we will have our turkey day celebration on a Saturday, so that we will have at least one day to recuperate. 

This one didn't exactly make it to work the next day...you can see why!

We also went a snowboarding trip to YongPyong, where the 2018 Olympics will be.  The mountain was decent, but the resort was as American as I believe is possible to find in Korea.  They really like to night ski because the mountains are so insanely crowded, but luckily in March it wasn't too bad.  I impressed myself with how well I did for not having boarded in a year or so.  I'm definitely looking forward to getting on the slopes a lot more next season, especially at $60 bucks for a left ticket and rentals!  Korea pretty much can't do anything right, but how cheap things are here is really nice, especially coming from a place where ur  constantly overpaying for everything, such as an $8 bagel and coffee!  

YongPyong.  It's not exactly the Rockies, but I've learned to not be so picky here!!!

We also finally went to Namsan Tower (Seoul Tower) and locked our love!  It's a tradition to lock your love, literally, at the bottom of the tower.  Not exactly sure why or what it means, but we did it regardless.  The sights from the top weren't nearly as cool as the tower itself, but it's definitely a must do when in Seoul.  

Namsan Tower

Pretty much the basis of this post is that we've been doing an excessive amount of partying, some things never change haha!!!  There are a lot of fun plans and trips that await us and I'm extremely anxious for the spring weather that's hit all of America to finally make its way to Korea, it's starting to finally happen thank god!  We are planning a trip to Busan at the end of May, which is a beach city all the way down south, as well as a trip to Singapore this fall, which is going to be amazing!  The other extremely exciting thing that has been going I is that I'm an aunt to two beautiful baby girls!  While its been pretty tough being far away during both my sister's pregnancy and missing the birth of both Olivia and Emma, I'll be home this July to meet the newest members of the fam!  I'm looking forward to a trip home this summer, I'll have confirmed dates next week, so keep your eyes out!!!!

Until next time!!!

xoxo
Ashley

Thailand, we WILL be back!!!

It's been a few months since my trip to Thailand, but I figured it's never too late to talk about one of the best trips of your life!!!

Carrie and I left Seoul right after work on Friday evening, we were a bit delayed due to a rare snowstorm, but finally made it to Bangkok around 1am on Saturday.  We had a layover for around 5 hours, so what else would we do, but go to the bar and have a few cocktails to celebrate our freedom from work, the upcoming holidays and being in THAILAND!!!!!  We flew directly to Koh Samui, which is located in the Gulf of Thailand, directly south of Bangkok.  We hung around enjoying the first of many tropical cocktails while waiting for the ferry to come and take us to Koh Phangan, which was our first official stop in Thailand.  Prior to boarding the ferry we met a guy name Ashley, which was pretty exciting for me, and he told us a story about how the first time he went to Koh Phangan the ferry they took sunk.  Needless to say it made us a bit nervous, but luckily we didn't have the same bad luck!  We arrived to the island of Koh Phangan and went directly to our hotel, the Cocohut Resort.  The resort was amazinggggg and we were instantly in heaven!  The weather wasn't very nice, so we decided after our first order of pad thai, we'd hit the spa, which became a regular occurrence for us.

First pad thai of the trip and boy was it delicious!!!!

Soooo many buckets!!!!

Christmas Eve on Koh Phangan

Koh Phangan is known for hosting the Full Moon Party, which is one of the biggest beach parties in the world!  The island is very touristy and everyone is there pretty much to attend one of the many beach parties the island hosts.  We walked around the island a bit, but the majority of what we saw on the island of Koh Phangan was the nightlife, which was everything we hoped it would be!  There were mostly people from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, it seemed we were the only Americans, which we kinda liked.  We went to the beach where the Full Moon Party is the night we arrived, which was Christmas Eve, and scoped it out.  Luckily we took plenty of pictures the first night, because we all decided to leave our cameras and any important property at home the night of the actual party.  The real Full Moon Party was on Christmas day and was so fun!  It consisted of thousands of people dancing on the beach and in the ocean all night long, drinking buckets of booze and did I mention dancing?!?!   Carrie and I stayed out dancing until around 8am and were the last ones of our crew standing.  After we had been dancing for what seemed like an eternity, we finally went home and took a short nap before beginning our third day in Thailand.

Full Moon Party beach on Christmas Eve

Lovin the buckets!!!

This sums up the nightlife in Thailand in a nutshell...

We took the ferry back to Koh Samui, which is where we spent four nights.  Koh Samui is a bigger island, a little less touristy, but JUST as fun as Koh Phangan, which we weren't necessarily expecting.  Our hotel, while not as amazing, was nice and in the town of Chaweng, which was definitely the place to be. We explored a good amount of Koh Samui, going on an elephant trek, touring the Angthong National Marine Park and we even went to a Muay Thai fight!  The island was so beautiful, the people were so nice and the food was amazing!!!  We ended up doing a few fancy dinners, but I felt that the best food we had was at places that were cheap and random, even the street food was to die for.  Banana pancakes anyone!?!?  The weather ended up clearing up the day after we arrived to Koh Samui, so we were finally able to get some sun, which was VERY necessary!

This is Bank!

Our elephant trek was one of the coolest experiences of my life!  We took a guided tour which took us to learn how to make curry, then we went and rode the elephants.  Jay and I rode an elephant named Bank, he was 25 and was very cool.  After our ride we went to check out where they tap rubber trees and ended the day at a restaurant on the beach and watched the sunset.  It was one of the best days and coolest experiences ever!!!!

Elephant Trek tour

Angthong National Marine Park tour

The boat tour to Mu Ku Ang Thong National Marine Park was also amazing!!!  Mu Ku Ang Thong National Marine Park consist of 42 islands, most of which are limestone mountains and look like piles of wet sand on the oceans surface.  We took a speed boat around a lot of the islands and stopped off at various points to explore.  One of our stops was Mae Koh Island, where we climbed some serious stairs to see an amazing lagoon.  After checking out the lagoon, we went to another island where we had a delicious Thai lunch and stuffed our faces.  The next stop was at a private island to go kayaking and hang out on the small beach.  Emily and I went kayaking for about 10 minutes, but after the fifth time our boat shifted to face the beach, we decided we weren't meant for water sports and the beach was clearly calling our names!   The boat ride home took a little over an hour and was so beautiful and really fun, since we were sitting in the front of the speed boat.  After our "exhausting" day, we decided some cocktails and massages were in order before we began our evening out on the town.

massages anyone?!?!

Koh Samui had very similar nightlife to Koh Phangan, such as multiple beach parties, lots of buckets and lots and lots of dancing!!!  We enjoyed exploring the town of Chaweng, which was really fun and would definitely be a place I'd return tp!  After exploring Koh Samui, it was time for us to leave and head to Bangkok to ring in the new year. 

Muay Thai fight

Koh San Road NYE

While we were all so sad to leave the islands, we knew we had a few more days of fun ahead of us.  We got to Bangkok Friday early afternoon and enjoyed the rooftop pool that Jay, Jose and Carrie all had, and decided touring was low on our list of things to do that day.  We explored the area of Sukhumvit, which was the area we were staying in and also an area we were not very fond of.  It seemed that it was filled with old Western men and Thai women aka hookers, which disturbed us a lot.  On New Years Eve day we explored the heart of city, found a food market, which made Emily's day, walked by the palace and took the water taxi through the main canal of the city.  Seeing the city from the water was much more appealing and we were anxious to check out the another cool part of the city that evening.  We read that Koh San Road was a fun spot and decided that would be our NYE plan, which was a fabulous idea!  Koh San Road is where all of the backpackers go to party and everyone there was around our age and not on the hunt for Thai hookers, thankfully!!!  We got a few buckets, some street pad thai, danced our way through the street and bounced from bar to bar until  around 8:30am.  Needless to say it was a VERY successful New Years and a great way to end our trip!

Exploring Bangkok

Water taxi through the canal

After a few hours of sleep, we headed back to the pool for some necessary relaxation before our flight.  While we were so sad to leave Thailand, Carrie and I had decided after only a few hours of being there that we would most definitely return and Emily decided she needed to figure out a way to move to Asia STAT!!!  All in all it was a very successful and amazing trip and if I couldn't celebrate the holiday with my family, Thailand was for sure the next best option!!!

Falling in Love with Asia

Hi all!  It's been a VERY busy fall and I've been out and about doing a lot of exploring!  I also haven't felt like I've done anything significant to write about, hence how long it's been since I've last posted.  Here's a bit of an update of what I've been up to lately and what life has been like here.

My class is doing very well!  They are able to speak and understand a lot more now, which makes things a lot easier and more fun.  We have a field trip or some sort of school event almost every month, so it's fun to be able to have some fun with my kids and enjoy them, rather than scold them for speaking Korean.  We had a garage sale last week, where the kids brought in 2,000 won (like 2 bucks) and bought random items.  Eric, the student of mine who was nicknamed Lurch and is a bit flamboyant, purchased a lovely blue purse, the same one as Amy (see below).

I had parent/teacher conferences a few weeks ago and received so many treats, cakes, brownies, waffles, it wouldn't stop!  It was a very different experience from PT conferences back home, that's for sure!  The moms kept telling me how pretty I am and how her child loves me because I'm so beautiful.  While it was lovely receiving so many compliments, it was interesting to see how my teaching capabilities were more about my looks, rather than the fact that their child was actually progressing in English.  We have a songfest concert in February and now the focus of our class is learning Justin Bieber "Baby," they really like the song, obvs!!!!!  I'll be sure to send videos of them singing/dancing soon!!!!

Exploring Seoul has been amazing the past few months!  I've been trying to check out a new spot every weekend, which is so easy because there is so much to do and see!!!  Last weekend we went to the Seoul Fish Market, where Azzurra's friend, who was visiting from the States, ate a live octopus, head and all (please notice the black ink in his mouth).  It was pretty painful to watch, but apparently is a MUST DO when visiting here...I will opt out on this one though :)  

My Sunday's have been consumed by the flag football team I joined with Azzurra, we're playing in the championship game this Sunday!  We are actually pretty good, I mean specifically Azzurra and myself.  We've had quite a few game changing plays, although it took us half a game of running around aimlessly and me sternly asking the QB to actually throw us the ball to show our athletic abilities!!!  It's been a fun way to meet people in our area and actually leave our apartments on a Sunday.  While I whine the entire way to the game, mostly because I'm so hungover, it's been really fun and lately has been my only taste of football, which is terribly sad.   

Here is Azzurra after a close win!!!

Last weekend we also attended a Korean wedding, interesting is how I would describe it.  We arrived at a convention center type place, where people were waiting in the "lobby" for whatever wedding they were supposed to be attending and the doors were open so that the noise from the lobby was interfering with the ceremony.  The bride was very shiny, in a big, pouffy dress and the family members in traditional Korean hanboks.  The aisle was called "Virgin Road," dead serious.  After the ceremony, which seemed to be hosted by a game show host, we went upstairs to eat.  We received an entry ticket and began to roam the all you can eat Korean buffet, which was filled with people from various weddings, not just the one we attended.  The bride and groom came to the dinning hall after changing into hanboks and thanked the table of their guests for attending.  It felt very impersonal and made us all thankful to never have a Korean wedding.  After we ate we went home.  The end.   No dancing, no fun, just eat and leave, bizarre.   Azzurra was able to check it off her bucket list, so at least we accomplished something by attending!

My first friends from Korea left, so that was weird and sad and gave me a little taste of what's to come.  I have a few very good friends leaving in March and I can't even begin to think how much harder that will be, but it's the nature of the game and luckily the friendships that we built will continue once we all go home!!!  It's been an amazing four months so far, I can't believe how fast time is going by and I'm excited by all that I have left to do on my journey here.  There are so many places I want to explore and see and I can and will do it all!!!!  So far, life in Seoul has been everything I hoped it would be and I'm very happy here.  I of course miss everyone from home, especially my dogs and the delicious NYC food, but living here has been such an easy transition and so much fun, that it makes being away a lot easier!  I'm getting ready for my trip to Thailand for Christmas and NYE and am beyond excited!  Two of my friends from home will be there, which will be wonderful, and a few friends from Seoul...bring both my worlds together for the holidays!  There are a lot of exciting things coming up and I'll be sure to keep you all updated!!!

xoxo

Ash

Teacher, Teacher!!!

Below are some pictures and videos from my teaching job in Seoul!  My morning Kindergarten class, in the pictures below, is great!  I have 10 kids, half who already speak a bit of English and the other half don't understand a word I say, which can be very frustrating!!!  They are all really great kids for the most part, very sweet and work pretty hard, but they definitely push my buttons as any 5 year olds would!  We are together from 9:30am until 2:20pm, with a few breaks in between and an hour lunch.   My new name is "Ashley Teacher" or just "Teacher." The second they finish their work they scream, "TEACHER FINISHED, TEACHER FINISHED, TEACHER, TEACHER!!!!"...how very annoying!!!  I'm trying to get them to raise their hands quietly instead, some are catching on, others not so much.

This is a video of them doing freeze dance before they left for the day...

This is my class during playtime, they get loud and wild and drive me a lil bit nuts!!!

They created a congo line during freeze dance lol

 This is Amy, she's one of my favs...so smart and sweet.  Although, the other day she cried because she couldn't draw a map well, even though Ashley Teacher's map was a nightmare as well!!!!

 This is Olivia and Joseph.  Olivia is great, she is very smart and is doing so well!  Joseph on the other hand doesn't understand a thing I say and just blankly looks at me, but he's adorable so it's ok...for now ;)

 Here is E class!!!!

After Morning Kinder (MK), I have PK, which is technically second grade.  I started with four girls and now have five girls and a new boy.  The new boy, Jason, lived in America for a while.  He speaks really well and understands everything, but can't read well or write at ALL...and often drives me insane because he asks the dumbest questions (I know, no question is a dumb question, but his really are!!!!).  It's 100% the language barrier that confuses him, so I'm learning how to be the most patient human I can possibly be.  For those of you that know me well, you know this is proving to be the biggest challenge of MY LIFE!!!!  Sometimes this class likes to just gaze out the window and completely ignore me, so I've been bribing them lately...pizza party, ice cream party, cookies, candy...what do you want...just please PAY ATTENTION!!!!  We shall see how that goes!

My PK class, just the ladies...

 Amy and Jasmine, two of my brightest stars :)

The PK class had to write a short paper on an animal they like the best, memorize it (in true Korean fashion) and present it to the class.  The two best presentations competed against the other PK kids in the school...neither of my girls won, but they did really well and made Ashley Teacher very proud!!!

Here is Sue's presentation on puppies...

Teaching here has been amazing so far, very different, sometimes challenging, but overall a wonderful experience!  I look forward to updating you all with funny stories, more pictures and videos to give you a taste of life as a teacher in Korea!!!

North vs. South

The DMZ and North Korea in the distance 

The borders and the DMZ (not the same thing!!!) 

This past Saturday I took a trip to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), which is the border of North and South Korea, scary I know!!!!  A group of us went with the USO, which is a US organization that supports our troops; they also sponsor trips for Expats such as the one we took.  So we were safe, or as safe as you can be while visiting the border of a pretty hostile, communist country.  Anyway, the bus ride took about an hour; along the way we saw where the South has put up posts to protect the border, after failed attempts of the North trying to infiltrate.  We began our tour at one of the many tunnels that the North built in an attempt to gain access to the South.  Apparently the North tried to pretend these tunnels were created for mining, but after realizing there was nothing to be mined and that the path was clearly coming from North and heading South, it was determined that these tunnels were built by the Northern troops to weasel their way into the South and attack.  The trip down to the tunnel was a fairly steep hill, which was cold and wet.  I was afraid my Toms wouldn't provide the proper traction, but thankfully I stayed on my feet!  We finally got to the tunnel, wearing yellow hard hats and walked down it, having to duck the majority of the way...clearly built by tiny Northerners (apparently it is known that North Koreans are smaller in size due to the lack of nutrition they receive).  When we got to the end of the tunnel we were able to see a concrete wall that the South had built in order to prevent any Northern troops from entering.  They built three walls, only two of which we could see.  The hike back up was pretty rough, I was thankful that I had started working out again, although it was still pretty rough!!!

Our next stop was a look out point where we weren't allowed to take pictures except from really far away, which was pretty stupid and I snuck one anyway :)  We were able to see the DMZ, which is actually just an area of land that is between both the North and South borders and apparently is very appealing to scientists because the land has never and can never be touched because of the location!  Up next was the train station that takes you into the North, it is used for Southern citizens that go to the North to work...yes people actually go there to work, crazy!!!  

After the train station we headed to Camp Bonifas, where US Army soldiers are stationed.  We were met by a solider from the US Army and escorted into a conference room to watch a brief slideshow summing up the history of the Korean War and the state of the present day border.  We signed a waiver that pretty much said that if war breaks out they can't guarantee our safety and we could easily die...very reassuring!!!  The US solider and US Army bus took us to the JSA (Join Security Area), which is where both sides stand face to face on a daily basis, it is also where military negotiations between the North and the United Nations Command are held.  The UNC is a council that supports the South and consists of other countries that try to prevent future attacks on the South.  When you are at the JSA you are told to be very respectful because anything that visitors do on the South can be used as propaganda against them, so we couldn't point, or speak toward any Northern guards or anything of that nature.  We all kinda just stood there because we didn't know what was and was not allowed, so we opted to be safe and keep our mouths shut and just take pictures.  The Southern guards stand facing the North, with half of their bodies behind the building to protect them from potential gunfire.  One Northern guard stands at the top of the Northern Welcome Center with binoculars, watching us all.  We were brought into the room where negotiations are held, which was also very creepy.  Both sides use the building, but when the South uses it two guards protect it.  It was originally protected by only one, but one time when a Southern guard was locking the door that led to the North, a Northern guard tried to pull him out of the room onto Northern soil, so now two guards go in together and when they lock the Northern side door one guard holds the other incase anything happens.  

The JSA.  The blue buildings belong to the South and the UNC, the big building in the background is the Norths Welcome Center 

Always facing North 

Creepy Northern guard watching us

He's in front of the door that goes to the North.  This is where the Northern guards tried to pull a Southern guard onto Northern soil, not cool!

The guards always stand in a martial arts "ready" stance and the guards that are posted at the JSA are the best of the best!!!

After we left the JSA we went to another area where we could see the North!  We had a good sighting of Propaganda Village, which is a fake village that the North set up to lure people to.  There is nothing but empty buildings and an ENORMOUS NK flag.  The South has an area called Freedom Village, which was a village setup in the DMZ for Southern citizens.  The people that live there harvest crops such as rice and ginseng and make around 80k a year, regardless if they sell all of their goods!  The people that live there must live there for 240 days a year in order to maintain citizenship, unless you are a student and decide to continue your education outside of the village.  If you leave for school the government pays for your education, pretty nice!  ALTHOUGH the people in Freedom Village live by strict rules, have a curfew, etc, etc.  

The village in the South called "Freedom Village"

The Northern village that is empty

The ENORMOUS NK flag in Propaganda Village

Next and final stop was the Bride of No Return, which was where they had the POW exchange after the Korean War.

The Bridge of No Return

The DMZ overall was amazing, so informative, so creepy and so very interesting!  If anyone ever comes to Seoul I recommend going!  We all really enjoyed our trip and even more so, enjoy living in the South!!!!

North Korea, very pretty actually!

Doin it like a local

Sooo wanted to steal him from the dog cafe!! 

 Check out my restaurant above my head...

 NOLA or Seoul?!?!?!

Clearly I'm a pro at this Norebang-ging stuff!!!

Today was my first day teaching my own kinder class, they’re around 5 years old, 6 in Korea because you are 1 when you are born…confusing!!!  So far I only have 4 girls; there is Jenny, she's super smart and already speaks English pretty well, Amy, she's very quiet, but also knows a good amount of English, Seri, pronounced Sari and is a little behind the other two and Rose, who cried from the moment she stepped into the classroom and ended up leaving after less than an hour :(  My Korean co-teacher, Sarah, helped me with them a lot today guiding me in what exactly to do.  We began by introducing ourselves, going over the ABC's, numbers, read some books and did some singing-alongs (yippee).  Overall I had a pretty successful first “official” day!  It's very interesting teaching such young kids, I have to remember to speak slowly, which I am NOT good at, and need to keep reminding myself they don't understand most of what I'm saying!!!  We are hoping to get more students come September, but we shall see!  My afternoon class, which is like 2^nd grade and I started teaching last week, is pretty good, but are having difficulty focusing, so I need to do some serious crackdown on stars! That is the way they motivate the kids to do work at my school…3 stars equal a stamp or sticker and like 25 stickers/stamps equal a prize, think like a koosh ball or something!  It’s all about the little things in life I guess!

This weekend consisted of participating in various Korean traditions; the first was attending a bathhouse otherwise called a Ginga-bong.  It’s pretty much a place where you can sit in various temperature jacuzzis, saunas, as well as get a full body scrub, massage, get your hair washed, etc, etc.  Everyone is completely naked the entire time and most of the Koreans gave us some serious stare downs, which we happily ignored.  The scrub, which we all participated in, consisted of a large Korean woman in a bra and underwear scrubbing layers of our skin off, leaving you feeling like a babies butt…it was pretty amazing and quite the hangover cure!  We decided it would become our monthly pampering ritual from here on out!!! 

Despite the constant rain, this is apparently the worst rainy season in forever, we did some sightseeing as well this weekend.  We explored a few different areas that have some serious shopping, that’s what Koreans seem to do best, besides boozing!  We went to a dog café where you pay $8 get a free non-alcoholic drink, I’m pretty sure we paid 8 bucks for a Peach Snapple, and hang out with random dogs.  I fell in love with a Randy look alike, except he was a black lab pup, hence his smaller size.  They have cat cafes as well; the one we found was like $15 although they provided you with toys to play with the cats…fun, fun! 

I also participated in the Korean tradition of Norebang-ing (pronounced noribong-ing), which is karaoke…my FAVORITE!!!  It was insanely cheap, like 30 bucks total for a private room for like 10ish people and you can pretty much BYOB!  We belted out some tunes for about an hour or two and then continued our night out, such a fabulous way to begin an evening if you ask me!

That’s all for now, time for me to get into my new LARGE bed…apparently all you have to do is ask and you shall receive!!!!  So for all you soon to be visitors, there is officially plenty of room for you to crash with me!!! :)

Lots of love!!!!

xoxo