March Madness!!: It's Been A Long Long Long Time

Wow!  I bet some of you thought I might have given this blogging idea up, due to the long periods without any new posts.  The truth is nothing quite as awesome as a trip to Hong Kong and Macau or Thailand has happened recently.  Believe it or not, the winter vacation has ended and it's back to reality for me.  I know it was quite the shocker for me as well that I had to go back to work and do what I came here to do: teach English to elementary school students.  Yet here I am, 3 weeks into the new school year.  So again, I apologize for my prolonged absence on the world wide web, I am alive and well, just busier than I was the last few months.  So let me start with news from the new semester.

This year our school got eight new teachers because of the contract restrictions they have for teachers in Korea.  I think I explained this last year when I got my new co-teacher, but I'll go over it again.  Teachers can only work at one school for five years at a time, and as it turns out, after last year, our school had a few more teachers at the end of their terms than the year before.  One of the 6th grade teachers became a vice-principal (a situation sort of like in checkers when you make it to the other end of the board and get "kinged") and per tradition, we went to go visit her at her new school and got fed delicious fruits and rice cakes (a good use of a free afternoon if you ask me).  Another great tradition here is the goodbye dinner to wish all the departing teachers good luck and well wishes at their new schools, which is followed up by the welcome dinner the next week for the new teachers.  Both dinners were great, we went to the same place both times, which was fine with me, just lots of sushi.  I found out at the welcome dinner that most of the new male teachers were in their younger 30s and could speak pretty good English.  We bonded pretty well over dinner.  I now have a teacher who I can talk sports with at lunch, which is great.  We both love baseball and I can't wait to discuss the finer points of Choo Shin Soo's hitting abilities over some kimchi jjigae.  Another new male teacher graduated from Seoul National U. of Education a.k.a. Korea's Harvard so all the other teachers have been in awe of him since he started.  He's actually a really nice guy and speaks really good English, which is great because we're able to have some real conversations at lunch.  All in all, it's shaping up to be a good final 6 months at work.  Badminton has also started up again, which is good, although I've been quite rusty so far.  Hopefully I can get my swing mechanics back. 

In other news, the competitive frisbee season has taken off and we now have only a month to go until the Jeju tournament, so we're working hard to get in as many practices as we can before that date.  I've also been able to catch up on all the Oscar buzz worthy movies, which made it to Korea post-Oscars just like last year.  I've seen Black Swan, The Fighter, 127 Hours, and just saw The King's Speech this afternoon.  I enjoyed them all but I didn't think The King's Speech should have won Best Picture.  Don't get me wrong, it was very good, a little slow in the beginning, but it wasn't quite as good or different as Social Network or Black Swan.  I've been busy studying for the 2nd part of the GRE's, 3 months to go, and working hard to expand my vocabulary.  I forgot how hard it is to learn new words, but I'm back to making note cards and making good headway.  On the concert front, the MGMT concert is coming up soon, April 1st, and March was packed with quite the variety of shows in Korea, the Eagles, Santana, and Iron Maiden (I didn't see any, too expensive). 

And how could I forget March Madness?  Robyn-  So sorry your Trojans had to bow out in the play-in round (you can't win them all, right?).  I woke up a little early this morning to catch the Badgers second round game against Kansas State and what a game it was.  I personally didn't expect them to make it to the Sweet 16, but here they are and I hope they win what should be a tough game against the Butler Bulldogs.  Also very excited for the baseball season to start, happy to hear that Mauer caught his first game yesterday.  We have our Korea crew fantasy baseball league all set to go, and the league drafts next Sunday night, which should be a lot of fun. 

I've also been busy reading the last month and a half, flying through Keith Richards' autobiography, a Mickey Mantle biography, and now I'm currently reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the final book in the Millennium trilogy and it has been even more of a page turner than the first two books. 

Finally I want to give an enormous shout out to ma maman, mi madre, my mom Randi, who completed her radiation treatments last week and has done an incredible job persevering through many tough months.  Mom, we all love you and are extremely happy to know that you've made it this far with only minor discomforts. 

That's all from this end, GO BADGERS!!

What I'm listening to: "Let It Down" by George Harrison
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6sPkLm0pWU
Other good music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yvbrw_RjwI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX1PwkgwsG0

Clapton Comes to Korea!!

Hello blogosphere!!

It's been a little over a week since the last mega-post about the Hong Kong and Macau trip, but I'm back with a new and most likely shorter post.  The past few weeks in Korea have gone off without a hitch.  We wrapped up the last two weeks of the school year and had graduation last Friday.  I got suited up for the occasion and was getting compliments left and right, which was an added bonus!  Some of the teachers commented on how I looked like a soon to be groom (very premature, might I add).  I don't think that's in the cards anytime soon, but I'll take the compliments, however they come.  This year's graduation definitely meant a little more to me than last year's because I actually knew the students, as opposed to last year, where I had only taught them for half a year.  The 6th graders that graduated had been my students for 1 1/2 years and I got to know most of them pretty well, especially the students who were also in my advanced class.  I even got a bouquet of flowers from a few of my students and took the requisite pictures with them.  Last week I was also busy signing yearbooks, which was kind of funny for me.  Elementary schools go all out for 6th grade graduation, including the yearbooks, which are nothing like my elementary school yearbooks from glory years past.  Ours were very flimsy collections of class and individual pictures with a few pages for comments.  The yearbooks that my 6th graders had this year were top notch (think high school yearbook, except just for 6th graders).  All the students had individual pictures taken a la senior photos and many of them were hilarious and ridiculous.  There were boys wearing sun hats and girls throwing footballs, both of which are obviously commonplace at school.  I guess it ends up being a pretty nice memento.  If I recall correctly, if I still have my elementary school yearbooks, they are probably shoved away on a bookshelf somewhere in my bedroom.

Outside of school, life is settling back into a routine of sorts.  As I wrote in the last blog post, the competitive ultimate frisbee season is underway, which means practice once or twice a weekend in addition to conditioning during the week.  January and February have flown by and it looks and feels like winter is fading into spring, which is great!  The weather for practice on Sunday was awesome, in the high 40s F and no follow up blizzard, like back home (sorry to rub it in).  The first big tournament is in Jeju during the third weekend in April, which everyone is looking forward to.

This past weekend, in addition to frisbee, I also went to my second hockey game in Korea.  I saw the same two teams play, the Anyang Halla and High One (both Korean teams in the Asia League).  Once again, the Halla were victorious in front of the home crowd and it was a sloppy but enjoyable game.  I went as part of a birthday group for a few friends and after the game, we ventured into Seoul, where I broke off to meet up with frisbee people for a going away celebration.  We started off at a concert for friends of friends, which was actually really good.  The band we went to see, Hit the 9, was an interesting mix of musical influences, probably not something that would work necessarily in America, but it worked here.  The instrumentation and sound was closest to hard rock, but then there were three singers, like the Ronettes or the Supremes (or more modern version: Destiny's Child), and they had choreographed dance moves.  Sunday after frisbee was the day I'd been waiting for for a while:  Eric Clapton in Korea!  The show was amazing!  It definitely helped that there were huge HD screens up on either side of the stage so that people sitting in the 2nd level (us) could see everything; these screens weren't there for Dylan last year and probably would've helped at least a little.  Clapton played a good mix of classics and new songs and went from electric to acoustic back to electric on the guitar.  I think my favorite song of the evening was "Badge," a song that's always been near the top of my list.  He played it right after the acoustic version of "Layla" and in my opinion, it brought the crowd fully into the concert.  I'll post the setlist at the end of this paragraph.  All in all, it was another good weekend and I can't believe I'm at the 1 1/2 year mark teaching here in Korea.  Later this afternoon I'm going to get a travel visa for China, which you need to do at least 6 months ahead of time, so this is the first step in the post-Korea travels and the first stop.  Nate and I haven't decided how long we want to be there for, but my guess is 1-2 weeks then onto Southeast Asia.  Here's the setlist and a video of "Cocaine" from the show.
http://www.ericclaptonmusicnews.com/eric-clapton-tour-2011-olympic-park-gymnastic-arena-seoul-sunday-february-20-2011/

Also, new Radiohead album came out digitally last Friday and that's what I've been listening to.

What I'm listening to: "Lotus Flower" by Radiohead
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfOa1a8hYP8

Death by Dim Sum: Lunar New Year 2011

Where to begin, where to begin?  There truly is no better place I can think of to bring in the Lunar New Year (aka Chinese New Year) than in China.  Well, as my luck would have it, I was able to do just that, even if Hong Kong doesn't really feel like China, we'll still count it.  Last week really was an incredible vacation.  I know it probably feels like you've been reading that last sentence a lot lately, but it's the truth.  Everything seemed to work out perfectly for us leading up to the trip and especially while we were in Hong Kong and Macao.  Let me rewind back to last Monday (January 31st).  I had just found out that I didn't have a plane ticket for Hong Kong yet, but somehow, I was able to find one for pretty much the same price as the other guys on Orbitz.  Going through that experience isn't something I'd try and repeat in the future, but it was reassuring to know that less than 24 hours before our expected departure time I was able to find a ticket.  Call it luck or fortune, the ticket situation set a tone for the rest of the week.  So with the ticket situation solved, 3/4 of our group arrived in Hong Kong last Tuesday (February 1st) evening and within an hour of arriving at our hostel in Mong Kong (an older area of Kowloon), we sat down for dim sum meal #1.  For the Wolfish family reading this, the dim sum references may be excessively mouth-watering so make sure you don't drool too much on your keyboards.  Having access to late night dim sum, within walking distance from our hostel, was a dream come true.  Nate and I got to introduce Keith to dim sum and set him off on a week of culinary exploration.  There was plenty of shrimp chun fun, hargao, shumai, cha shu bao, ham su gok, and other delicious plates eaten over the course of the week.

Sufficiently rested and satiated from our first late night dim sum run, we awoke to a great day of weather on Wednesday and after some dim sum for brunch, we made our way to the market.  Going to a market in Hong Kong on New Year's Eve is quite the experience!  People were definitely stocking up on all sorts of goodies (fruits, meats, candies, etc...).  Check it out!

After touring the market place sufficiently, we made our way down to Tsim Sha Tsui, which is the area down by Victoria Harbour.  We took a walk down the Avenue of the Stars and got to look out on a pretty smoggy Hong Kong skyline, but the area was definitely very cool to explore and after walking along the waterfront we moved up to Kowloon Park, which is an awesome urban park.  I've slowly become a huge fan of big spaces of urban greenery, probably because there isn't much of that in Korea.  Anyways here are some more pics of that area, which is where we returned to take in the New Year's Parade on Thursday.

Wednesday evening the last member of our team arrived and we took him out for the requisite dim sum meal, where we had an order specially made for us and a dim sum item I've never had before: a special ham and cheese crepe, which was delicious!  After dinner we went to scope out the local flower market, which was bustling with people, even as late as 1 am!  On Thursday we went to go explore Hong Kong Island during the day and took a very touristy double decker bus ride around the island, but honestly, it was probably the best way to see the area.  The contrast between Kowloon and Hong Kong is vast but also pretty interesting to see.  Kowloon is definitely the older, more traditionally Chinese area and Hong Kong Island is a modern metropolis.  Both offer very unique experiences and I'm glad we got to stay in both areas.  After the parade on Thursday night we went back down to the harbourfront and headed to the Intercontinental for a drink (a recommendation from our good family friend Mike Eisenstein).  What a view of the skyline!  From there we headed back over to Hong Kong Island to check Lan Kwai Fong, a pretty interesting area where many foreigners go out.  It was definitely a good time.  Friday it was time to get suited up and make our way from hostel #1 in Kowloon (Geo Home Hostel if you were wondering) to hostel #2 in Hong Kong Island (Yesinn).  We were quite the ridiculous sight, all four of us in our suits carrying our travel bags.  Here's us with the first hostel owners:

After another awesome dim sum lunch (see photo above), we made our way to the ferry terminal to catch the ferry from Hong Kong to Macao, the beginning of what can only be described as an incredible Friday all-nighter.  We arrived in Macao around dinner time and after exploring the Grand Lisboa (the oldest casino on Macao, but too rich for our blood) we sat down for a nice Macanese meal that included duck, African baked chicken, and other delicious local goodies.  Apres le diner, we went for a nice walk around the city, which was very interesting.  Macao is a former Portuguese colony (until 1999) and the Mediterranean/European influence is evident everywhere, but especially in the unique architecture of the city.  It has a town plaza that if you didn't know any better, could be in Lisbon or Madrid instead of Macao.  Take a look at the New Year's decorations in the square:

 

After a nice walk around Macao, we made our way back towards the casinos to begin the rest our night.  We started off at the Wynn for a drink and some great Cuban cigars, here's a picture of the boys living the high life:

We roamed around the casino looking for the cheap tables, but the Wynn wasn't looking good (at least for our wallets) so we continued onward to the MGM Grand, which is where we found a home for the next 5 hours.  The tables all over Macao are a little more expensive than what all of us were used to back in the U.S.  Usually we can find the $3 or $5 dollar blackjack tables, but the least expensive tables in Macao were 100 Hong Kong Dollars (HKD) or roughly $12-13.  Our first go around at the blackjack table went all right then we moved on to craps, which didn't end well.  But, the night was still relatively young and after clearing our heads we went back to blackjack (except for Keith who learned how to play baccarat).  I've never gone to the casino and have everyone come out winning, but that's exactly what happened for us, which was amazing.  It meant we were able to enjoy an incredible 5:30 am dim sum meal as evidenced below:

Quite the successful evening!  We caught the first ferry home on Saturday, but we couldn't check into our hostel until 2 pm, so we wandered around downtown Hong Kong for a few hours, still looking great in our suits.  We were able to grab a good brunch in Soho, another cool foreign area on Hong Kong Island, and finally we arrived back to our hostel where we proceeded to crash for a few hours.  Saturday night, seeing as it was our last night, we went back to Kowloon and Victoria Harbour to check out the very cool Symphony of Lights display that goes on every night at 8 pm over the harbour.  After that we grabbed a pretty delicious Mexican dinner and enjoyed one last night in Lan Kwai Fong, which included checking out the view of the harbour and the Hong Kong skyline from a club located on the 29th floor of a hotel.  We all made our flights back home on Sunday, so no worries there.  We even indulged in some massages during our layover in Shanghai.  The aftermath of this trip is that now my passport is currently at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul getting an extra book of pages put in because I've filled mine up!  It's pretty cool to say you've filled up a passport!

This week is the last week of classes for the semester.  6th grade graduation is on Friday and then I have a week off (well technically desk-warming and prepping for spring semester).  I take the first half of the GRE a week from Friday and I've been studying hard in preparation, but this first part should go just fine.  It's all essay writing, which I'd like to think I'm pretty good at by now.  In other local news, the frisbee season has started up, even though the weather is not the best.  It's finally warmer at home than it is here in Korea, which says a lot about how chilly practice this past weekend was.  It was good to get back out there and I'm pretty excited for frisbee becoming a part of my weekly schedule again.  Also, concerts galore are coming to Korea, which is super exciting!  This Sunday, Mr. Clapton is playing at Olympic Stadium, which should be a great concert!  The following week, Elvis Costello is playing a more intimate show in Seoul, which I'll hopefully be able to go to.  Santana comes here in late March (undecided whether I'll go) and MGMT arrives here April 1st (and yes, I triple-checked, the concert is for real, already have tickets).  So, good work Korea and musicians worldwide for getting this done, up the music profile of the country.  Lastly, congrats to the Badgers men's basketball team for knocking off #1 Ohio St. again, I love it!  That's all from here, I hope everyone enjoys the pictures!

What I'm listening to: "Southbound Train" by CSNY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4880aISQYc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4hv_8TXFWg

 

Thailand Pt. 3: Back in Bangkok

Inside the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew

Ok, we're back with the final post of the Thailand travels trilogy.  After spending the better part of a week down south in Phuket and Ko Phi Phi, Judy and I arrived back in Bangkok, where we spent the last few days of our trip.  Since our flight back was in the evening, we didn't do much our first night other than check-in and grab a quick dinner.  We started off the next day with the always enjoyable breakfast buffet and a few hours of relaxation by the pool, which had great views of the city.  In the afternoon we went out and explored the neighborhood around our hotel.  The area is called Bo Bae and there are little markets pretty much everywhere you walk nearby.  Eventually we made our way to the Golden Mount, which is a temple/shrine semi-close to where we were.  There were bells lining the stairs up and down to the top of mount and we were told that it was good luck to ring the bells so that is exactly what we proceeded to do.  That evening we decided to get dinner in Patpong and explore the surrounding area.  Patpong is famous for its night markets, which we scoped out after another great Thai meal.  The great thing about these night markets is that it seems like every place sells the same goods and I suppose that makes sense, and like all markets, the price depends entirely on how well you can haggle.  I was tempted to get something, but in the end, I was able to walk away empty handed.  Patpong is also a pretty Western-friendly area and there are many restaurants and bars/clubs, but we decided to forgo those evening activities and made our way back to the hotel to rest up for a big day on Friday.

Friday was our big sight-seeing day in Bangkok.  We decided that this was the day we would go see the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew.  When we got to the palace gates, we found out that there was a special ceremony taking place in the morning and we would have to come back in the afternoon if we wanted to go inside.  We had a couple of hours to kill before we could go back and see the palace so after a little bit of haggling, we hired a tuk tuk driver to take us around on a mini tour of some temples/shrines relatively close to the Grand Palace.  Basically this meant more Buddhas and extremely ornate and colorful temples and now you can have a look at them as well.

 

Wasn't sure whether we could try this

After hitting our first three destinations our driver took us to his friends "the tailors."  As is the case in most countries in Southeast Asia, the tuk-tuk drivers get certain perks, like gas stamps, for bringing in customers to different businesses, like the tailor, etc...  So we ended up at two different tailors, staying the agreed-upon 10 minutes and doing our best to act like interested customers.  In the end, I'm pretty sure our driver didn't get his stamp and tried to change our agreed upon fare, but when we got back to the palace, I gave him the 40 baht we had originally agreed upon and said "Thanks" and that was that.  Just outside the palace we grabbed some excellent pad thai for lunch, definitely the best pad thai I had during the entire trip.  One of the rules for entering the temple is mandatory pants.  Friday was another 90F+ degree day so we decided we would just rent pants outside the temple.  These pants were amazing!  Very light and breathable, and pretty much parachute pants a la M.C. Hammer or Aladdin.

Can't Touch This!

 The Palace and the adjoining temple, Wat Phra Kaew, were very impressive and I'm glad we were able to get in to see them.  Check them out here:

Saturday was another day full of sightseeing adventures.  We made our way to Wat Arun, on the other side of the river, and Wat Pho (home of the massive reclining Buddha, man did he look comfortable).  Saturday was also another example of just how small the world is.  I found out about a week before we left for Thailand that one of my teammates from frisbee back in Madison had a roommate, Dan, who I had met many times before, that was teaching in Bangkok.  I let him know I was going to be in town, but we didn't really make any plans, because it was going to be a little difficult without a phone (crazy to think that 40 years ago people were able to meet up without any problems without using a cell phone or the Internet; also, scary to think how much we rely on technology now).  Wat Pho is in the same area as the Grand Palace, which is where Dan and his girlfriend were.  I was wearing one of my Madison Ultimate Summer League jerseys and as we crossed the street I was spotted by Dan.  Judy and I lucked out and we spent the afternoon with Dan and his girlfriend, who gave us a mini-tour of Khao San Road and the surrounding streets.  Khao San is pretty much foreigner/backpacker central and we just picked out a good bar where we could people watch.  It was a great way to spend our last day in Bangkok and it was wonderful to see Dan, who I hadn't seen in a few years, as well.  Eventually we arrived back at the airport to catch our 1:55 am red-eye flight back home.  Unfortunately our flight was delayed and the departure time was pushed back to 3:20 am, awesome :(.  We also ran into some other friends from Korea that were flying back on the same flight as well.  Finally we touched down back in Incheon at noon on Sunday.  All in all, a great vacation and I'm super excited to take off again tomorrow afternoon for Hong Kong!  Dragon parades and dim-sum here I come!

If you haven't seen them yet, my Thailand photos are posted on Picasa online.  The link for the album is on the right side of this blog under the "Links" section.  That's all from this end, hope everyone has a wonderful Lunar New Year, looking forward to bringing in the Year of the Rabbit (it's my year!).

What I'm listening to: "Come Running" by Van Morrison

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAsxK7JOs74

Another great Van performance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIiUwZfqMSU&playnext=1&list=PLAC8A93F365644289

     

Thailand Pt. 2: Ko Phi Phi-nomenal

So here we are, back with part two of the Thailand highlights/recap.  Let's begin with Ko Phi Phi.  What an incredible few days we spent here.  We took the ferry from Phuket to Ko Phi Phi Don (Ko Phi Phi consists of two different islands; Ko Phi Phi Don is where most of the beach bungalows, cafes and restaurants are located).  We stayed in the Tonsai Village part of the island, which was a pretty happening area for an island known for being somewhat remote compared to Phuket or Ko Samui or Ko Pha-ngan.  Ko Phi Phi and Phuket were both hit pretty hard by the Indian Ocean tsunami back in 2004, but most of the damage caused by the tsunami is non-existent, which is a credit to the tremendous amount of work the government and the locals put in to rebuilding their homes and the tourist areas (which both areas depend upon to sustain their economies).  The only downside of this is that trying to find a relatively cheap and decent place to stay is somewhat difficult but we managed with our bungalow.  Our location was great, just a five minute walk from the beach and views like the one in the picture above.  Longboats were everywhere and the beach was lined with cafes, restaurants, bars, and massage parlors.  The weather continued to be fantastic and we got our beach time in and explored the village in the evening.  I don't think I've ever been as relaxed as I was when we were in Ko Phi Phi, it really is an incredible place.  Fantastic scenery and an awesome laid-back vibe, which is all one can ask from the island life.  The food continued to be fantastic; on a side note, I don't think I'll ever get tired of Thai food, the flavors are so good.  Our last night on the island we were able to catch one of the many fire shows going on at our local beachside bar, check it out:

When we first arrived, the performers (doubling as the bartenders and waiters) were just warming up and there were plenty of drops, but they honed in their act once the night got started.  One of the performers/servers was wearing a 1993 Toronto Blue Jays World Champions t-shirt, which was certainly a highlight for me.  The whole time on the island was great and I can see why many people end up staying there longer than they originally planned to.  I know I could have stayed there much longer than the two days we stayed.

Adios Ko Phi Phi, we'll be back soon!

After two days of island life, we headed back to the ferry to go back to Phuket, where we arrived far too early for our flight, but we wanted to play it safe, and as a result, spent most of the day at the Phuket airport (which meant more GRE studying time for me).  We got back into Bangkok that evening and made our way to the Prince Palace hotel, our final destination on the trip.  I think I'd be doing everyone a dis-service if I attempted to do a Bangkok write-up right now, I'm slowly falling asleep at my computer right now, so I think it's best if I cut this post short and give you a proper part 3 on Bangkok tomorrow.  Can't believe I'll be back traveling in less than a week (Hong Kong and Macau here I come!)!

What I'm listening to: "Don't Carry It All" by The Decemberists
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHYsBE9OdhI

Also check out this awesomely ridiculous list compiled by Rolling Stone:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/photos/the-20-most-memorable-duets-of-all-time-20110118/david-bowie-and-cher-0579718

Thailand Part 1: Goin' South

Hey everyone,

I know it's taken me quite a while to get up any semblance of a blog post about my winter vacation trip to Thailand, but I promise you it hasn't been for lack of trying.  It can be difficult to try and get all your thoughts (and photos) together concisely.  Anyways, without any further delaying, here is part 1 of the Thailand Winter Vacation 2010 travel posts.

Judy and I left for Thailand on December 30th, just as the winter weather in Korea was turning from mild to cold.  Luckily enough, our destination, was averaging 90 degrees F (or 30 C), so we were able to bring out all our shorts and t-shirts, clothing items that hadn't seen the light of day in a few months.  Both our flights to/from Seoul were connecting through China, so now I can say that I have a Chinese stamp in my passport!  That being said, the whole process of going through customs even though you're only connecting flights is a bit of a hassle.  On our way to Bangkok we connected through Beijing and we got to hang out in the airport there for a few hours.  I guess the airport staff were trying to conserve energy because the temperature in the airport was freezing!  Eventually we were on our way to Bangkok and we got in shortly before midnight, grabbed a cab and made our way to the hostel.

What we didn't realize when we landed in Bangkok and awoke the next morning was the time difference between China and Thailand.  The flight attendants on our flight incorrectly announced the time and Judy and I  ended up waking up an hour earlier than we had wanted to.  We decided to go exploring around our neighborhood for a little bit, since we didn't really have enough time to go see anything on the other side of the city; we were flying to Phuket that afternoon.  Unfortunately, because we woke up early and maybe also partly because it was New Year's Eve, there wasn't much going on in the area surrounding our hostel, but here are some pics of everyday life.

Modern Home Security System

  

After grabbing breakfast and lunch at our hostel and getting some friendly pointers and guidance about where to go in Bangkok, we made our way back to the airport to go to Phuket.  We got in around dinner time and made our way to our next hostel, near Kat Karon and Kat Kara (the southern part of Phuket), which was a 5-10 minute walk from the beach...nice!  Phuket was definitely in full NYE party mode when we arrived and after getting situated, we grabbed some dinner and joined in on the festivities.  The fireworks started going off around 8 and didn't stop until around 2 or 3 am.  There were pretty wild parties happening everywhere you went and it was a definitely a good way to bring in the New Year.  The next morning we woke up and got Western-style breakfast! (incredible eggs, toast, hash browns!), something that's incredibly difficult to get in Korea if you aren't staying in a hotel, and even then it can be challenging.  We made our way to the beach, where the sun was beaming down and the water was incredibly inviting.

After a few hours in the sun, and probably feeling the effects of the sun (even with multiple coatings of SPF 50+), we headed into Phuket Town, which is known for having a pretty excellent night market.  I couldn't believe how many aisles of clothing, accessories, cosmetics, and food they had there.  Everywhere you turned there was another stall.  My favorite part of the market was going up and down food section, looking at everything out on display.  Many things looked good, some things (sushi) I don't think I would ever try and touch, let alone eat.  The best food (aside from the noodles and dumplings) had to be the fruit.  There were so many different exotic fruits that I had never had or hadn't had in a while and everything was delicious, especially the guava!

No thanks...

 

My meal of fried noodles and chicken.

Guess what fruit that is?

The finished product:
tasted like citrusy-banana

The next day we got up early to go on an elephant trek out in the forest, which was really fun!  Basically how it works is when you get there, you walk up to a platform where you get on the elephant's back (there's a carriage to sit in) and you have a driver.  But, the driver hops off about 5 minutes into the trek and then you get to sit on the elephant's neck.  Fortunately, the elephant is more or less just following the driver walking in front of him so there isn't too much skill or technique involved.  Here's a look at what it's like:

After the elephant trek, we made our way back to the area near our hostel, grabbed lunch, and then hired a tuk-tuk to take us to Wat Chalong, a pretty big temple just outside Phuket Town and to the famous Big Buddha.  Both were very interesting to see.  The Big Buddha sits on top of a large hill that overlooks most of Phuket and out into the Andaman Sea.  Here they both are:

 After a busy day of moving around Phuket, we decided to relax and take it easy that night because we had to  wake up early again the next morning to catch our ferry to Ko Phi Phi, which is where I'll leave this part for now.

What I'm listening to:  "All Die Young" by Smith Westerns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpukSgrqYxU&feature=related

Remember the link for my Thailand pictures and future photo albums is now on the right side of this blog.  It's called "My Picasa Pics."

Welcome to 2011!

This is just going to be a brief post.  I know most of you are probably more interested in reading about my trip to Thailand and no worries, that will come in a succession of posts over the next few days, but I figured I'd probably let my valued readers in on a new addition to this blog/maybe a new blog as well.  Some of you may remember that when I first came out to Korea I was in the middle of running through all the songs on my iPod in alphabetical order (much of the credit for this project goes to Dad who was doing the same thing, and as I've done many times before, decided that if it was working for Dad, it must be a half-decent idea, and did the same thing, with much of the same music as well).  Anyways, out here in Korea, the doldrums of winter have set in.  I had my first day of winter camp this morning, which went pretty well, but the afternoons = desk warming.  So, here I am, currently writing to all of you about my next little musically-influenced project.  Even after my GRE studying (don't worry parents, I am doing it.  You'd be happy to hear the book came with me on vacation and was opened and used.) I still have more time to use.  So, I've decided to go through each album on my iPod in alphabetical order and write a post for each album.  I'm thinking, now that I've gone through this post, that it's going to have to be a new post so after I set it up I'll post the link here.  That's all for now, look for the Thailand posts in the next few days! Also, thank you to Aunty Holly and Uncle Michael for the Badger trivia, I'm holding off looking at it for a little bit.  I finished reading Trinity while I was in Thailand and I guess here would be a better place for my short review than in another post so here it goes.

Trinity was a very well-written and intriguing novel based on the Irish struggle for independence from the UK that takes place just after the Great Potato Famine of 1846-47 and ends around 1917 with a short epilogue that stretches the timeline out to the early 1920s.  I'm guessing many of you have read Exodus, which is also by Leon Uris, and another great read.  As he does in Exodus, in Trinity, Uris is able to weave many characters and plots together while not straying from the historical facts and the events that he writes about are described as they actually took place.  He is able to craft a very enjoyable historical narrative and I definitely recommend this book to anyone that hasn't read it yet.

What I'm listening to: "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" by the Move (originally by Jackie Wilson)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7oUwPIWCYI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aXZDKb5fHw

New music blog link:  http://myazalbums.blogspot.com