I know, I know. I´m not in Korea anymore...

Hola from Bolivia...not Korea anymore!

By posting a blog from Bolivia, I´ve officially made this my travel blog. Veronica and I made it safely to Bolivia. We arrived very early Thursday morning (4:30 a.m. Chicago time, 6:30 a.m. local) and spent most of Thursday drinking obscene amounts of water and being tired.

La Paz is roughly 4,000 meters above sea level, so our number-one goal was to avoid altitude sickness. We decided that the best way to do that was to sit around and drink water and coca tea - a native drink used to reduce the affects of the altitude - like it was our job. I have to admit, as soon as the plane landed and turned off the pressurizers, I felt like I was going to hurl. I felt dizzy and disoriented and thought, with a sinking heart, ¨Oh no, I´m one of the unlucky ones with an affinity for altitude sickness.¨

Don´t worry! After spending a few minutes repeating to myself, ¨You´re fine, you drama queen, you.¨ I was better. We sailed through customs, caught a cab to our hostel, walked breathlessly up two flights of stairs (We had to stop to catch our breath midway up) and spent the next two or three hours drinking water and tea. The tea is an absolute godsend. It completely wiped out all traces of discomfort.

Hungover with fatigue from the sleepless overnight flight and trying to convince our bodies that the lack of oxygen was OK, we spent that entire first day napping and drinking water and tea. We walked around La Paz some but...the hills!!! Couple the hilly terrain that puts San Francisco to shame with the lack of oxygen and you get two tired gringos (gringo essentially means white tourist).

We slept like babies Thursday night.

Friday we spent getting a handle on the city that is La Paz. Mastering the bloody hills, we found our way to the central plaza where La Paz´s main government building (attached to their main cathedral) is. I would say that the highlight of our day was the Art Museum. The museum featured Bolivian art from the beginning to the modern day. It was very cool, and the museum itself, once a palace, was stunning. (Pic of the courtyard of the museum below)


Saturday, we kicked off the day with an authentically local breakfast. We sat elbow to elbow with La Paz natives and feasted on Api tea (a purple corn tea flavored with ginger and other spices...de-lish) and ¨pancakes¨(basically a funnel cake without sugar). (tea pictured below)


We spent the afternoon in the Contemporary Art museum (Since we know nearly no Spanish, art museums are the only types of museums we really don´t need English translations to understand), which was cool, but not nearly as cool as the first art museum.

Tomorrow we are saying goodbye to our lovely hostel (which has an internet connection, free coca tea and sells water by the gallons) and La Paz and are taking a bus to Lake Titicaca. Should be fantastic! I will keep everyone posted as the internet access allows.

The weather has been awesome! Sunny and blue skies, typically around 65 to 70 degrees. Today a front moved in in a matter of minutes and dropped the temps to 40s with wind, clouds and rain. Thankfully, Veronica and I were back at the hostel in our new Bolivian sweaters (so warm! Made from alpaca fur...NO ALPACAS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF MY SWEATER.) :)

Until next time...

Letters to a Teacher

My days at Gurye High School are numbered. Literally. We're down to 3. ><>

I wrote all of the 2nd graders goodbye notes. For one of my most "challenging" students, I wrote in Korean, "Sometimes you give me a headache, but it's okay because I can joke around with you." Yep. he liked that. Whatdoya know? Giving me a headache was probably his daily goal.

Anyways, here are some excerpts from letters my students wrote to me:

"I think you was in hard time during teaching students for about 1 year because I know our school students are ... very... childish." haha

"I joined Facebook! I will leave message for you in everyday! I can promise with you."

Youngmee, this one was particularly touching/sad:

많이 이야기를 하진 못했지만 그래도 쌤 가니까 너무 아쉽고 슬퍼요 나름 정들었어요! 안가면...안돼겠죠? :(

Also this week, I made two huge posters with pictures of my students from the year. It's been a good year.

That's all on my end. I'm busy as heck with Camp Fulbright and trying to tie up loose ends. But, keep pushing through. In exactly one month, I'll be home. :)

Jeju Half Marathon!

Haha, sorry! I forgot!

The half marathon went well. My time was 1 hour 39 minutes. It's a good time, but I was shooting for 1:37:00. Oh well, maybe next time! ^^ I finished 6th in women overall. Happy 4th of July, everyone!

Fashion Week

20 Days of living in Gurye remain.

My how time flies. I am currently writing notes to all 120 2nd graders and select 1st and 3rd graders. (1st graders are the devil, I don't teach 3rd grade, but taught them last semester as 2nd graders) I've gotten pretty close to some of the kids, and some of the notes are pretty hard to write; I get pretty sad. I was really surprised. I guess friendship is kind of like that...it just sneaks up on you.

I have 3/5 classes done. Only 2 more! (50 students!)

News flash: I live in a farming community. AKA, the middle of a rice field. Saturday was the first day of rainy season. Result? Monster mosquitos. I've never seen any as big as these. They're, like, Amazonian! Thankfully, the fat suckers are slow. But the bites are painful! I sleep in pants, a long sleeve shirt, socks, gloves and a shirt wrapped around my face. My host mom gave me insect killing spray, so tonight I chased a mosquito around my room, spraying the death-spray all around my room until the thing dropped to smacking height. Needless to say, there is a cloud of poison lingering as I type this.

And the bug-killing-spray trucks make daily rounds in the evening. The residents here like the poison fog. As the truck passes, kids run to play in the fog and the older people go for walks in it. My co-teacher (an older gentleman) said, "Of course. It is a great place for walks because there are no bugs."

of course. duh.

Anyway, here's what I've been doing to contribute to the conversational English growth at Gurye High School. I taught "Fashion" words (such as pants, shirt, suit, leotard, heels, hat, etc.). Students had to then make two outfits: for men and for women.

I did this project with 3/5 2nd grade classes. My first graders don't deserve to have fun. The tall, skinny boy - In-ho - is dressed up as "Lady Gaga." You'll know when you see him. He was so funny. I've never seen any boy so excited to dress up like Lady Gaga.

I'm always amazed how into it they get.

Aren't the cute!? See why it's hard to say goodbye!?

This weekend is the Fulbright ETA final dinner, so I'll be going to Seoul for that. It's the last time we'll all be together. Officially. Wow. Sorry, it's just a little surreal (and painful?) for me.

Thanks for reading!

Oh My, What' you've missed!

I've been very busy and haven't updated in a while. So here's a little summary of everything that's been going on!

City Officials Elections

June 2nd was election day for smaller city positions. Thank god. I can't imagine what it would be like for a major election. Two weeks before the election, I was finishing up a run on a quiet Wednesday morning. Then, suddenly!! "oldies" Korean pop music blaring from the street! It's probably the worst "pop" music I've ever heard. Turns out, the most common method of campaigning in Korea is for (a) the candidate to make a propaganda song and (b) have the song play 13-14 hours per day from speaker-rigged trucks.

Me on a damn music truck.

It was hell on Earth. For 13-14 hours a day these stupid trucks blared terrible, annoying music and blocked roads. Sometimes, two or three different candidates would compete on the same corner, so you had THREE stupid trucks blaring terrible, annoying music at the same time and place.

It's over. And for this, I'm grateful.

My Birthday

It went really well! Thank you everyone who called and sorry for everyone who tried but didn't get hold of me. ><>

Mad for Ads Lesson

I taught ads to my Juniors. I gave them weird inventions to which they had to make an advertisement. (Goodbye, American magazines!) Here were some of the best.

Invention: "Portable Pet Potty"

Invention: Mouth Mask

Saying Goodbye

My time in Gurye/Korea is running out. I'm starting to realize that I'll have to say goodbye to everyone. Oddly enough, I think it'll be especially tough with my 2nd graders (Juniors). This past Wednesday, I was walking with two 2nd graders in the hall when one of them started tearing up and said, "Teacher! I don't want you to go!"

Gosh. Don't make this any harder than it already is.

Salac Waterfalls

This Friday (11 June), I came to school and barely had my computer on before a non-English-speaking teacher said, "KBS [Korean TV channel...like NBC] come Gurye! You, Students, TV show!"

Oh boy.

Turns out, the show features off-the-beaten-trail things to do in Korea. And, sure enough, Gurye was next on the list of features. There's a waterfall just outside of Gurye that's a popular swimming place in the summer. So, KBS wanted to film some students playing in the water. Oh. And me.

It was really fun! Here's a short, ROUGH, video summary!

Jeju Half Marathon

Not sure if I mentioned this, but I'm running another half marathon in Korea.... tomorrow. ^^ Sunday (13 June) morning I'll be running 13.1 miles in Jeju (the island off the coast of the mainland) with a few other Fulbright friends. Wish me luck! I'll let you know how it goes!

Anyways, thanks for reading! Have a great weekend!

Happy Birthday, Buddha

For those that missed it, Friday was Buddha's birthday! Yay! That means, no school. Three-day weekend! Double yay!

A lot of my friends were planning on going to Seoul for a fun, laid-back weekend. I was about to go... but...

Me: Buddha's birthday is next weekend...

Host mom: Yes. You we will go to chicken farm?

Me: [pause, choosing my words carefully] Okay.... Um. Why?

Host mom: Ah! We will look at chickens and take the eggs.

So, not knowing much more than that, I climbed into the car around noon on Friday with my mom, bros and Jae-gyeong (younger bro)'s friend - Ji-hwan.

Well, we drive 10 miles into the sticks of the sticks, the last 2km being up a mountain road. Very windy and steep. (It also smelled like farm animal ... uh ... waste, which Jae-jin labeled as "nature smell.")

Finally, we get to the "chicken farm" ("산하산장" ... I don't know what it means, but I know 산 means mountain...which is repeated, and 장 means "place" or "point")

Well, initially, there weren't any chickens. Just a completely stunning view. We were up pretty high, and kind of in the elbow crook of a mountain. The sky was big and blue, and off in the not-so-distant-distance, I heard the babble of a small waterfall. Don't worry, the "nature smell" was gone now.

To the right of the picture, is a patio-like dining area, where I had kimbab while my family had Korean BBQ. There were three women about my mom's age also eating with us. I think one of them owned the place, which turned out to be a restaurant and hotel.

After lunch, I found the chickens! They were down the mountain a little way. Host mom said that "chickens too not-tall to eat." Thank god. We also didn't take any of their eggs.

Isn't he adorable? He made faces at me and my big, scary blue eyes all throughout lunch.

Now, in real life (AKA: my life in America) I've never had a brother, even though Kristin comes pretty close. ;) In Korea, I've had four. Boys are weird. It's like, if there's a rule, they have to break it. It's an unsaid challenge. After lunch, mom gave us permission to walk up to our knees in the river. Me and the bros (Ji-hwan spends so much time at our house that he's like my third brother) went down to the river. Like I thought, there was a small water fall. The water was the cleanest water I've ever seen. And ice cold! "Mountain spring water" has new, definite meaning for me now. How many places in the world can you still drink straight from the stream? Sitting there on that rock in the middle of the beautiful mountain river, overlooking a stunning valley, and skipping the occasional stone, I realized that this is perfect.

Then boys become boys. One dare led to another. Before you know it, all of their pants were off (they held onto their underwear, thank god) and they were dunking each other. I made it very clear that their lives would become a living hell if they dunked me.

Mom was "nor so happy" about my wet bros. So, we kicked around the soccer ball and I taught them the game "500" until they dried off. I also reached deep and brought out my inner brother and kicked the ball down the hill, where all three boys ran after it. While they were down the hill, I grabbed one of Jae-gyeong's shoes and hid it behind a bush.

Everyone thought it was funny except for Jae-gyeong. He, too, was "nor so happy."

So, that's how I spent my afternoon on Buddha's birthday. Meditating and thinking about life in a slice of paradise.

Jae-jin, Mom, Jae-gyeong, me

Ji-hwan, me, Jae-gyeong

On the way home, we stopped at an eco-museum. It just had fish and stuff. I'm not sure what the point of these bikes were, but my brothers took joy in getting each other wet....again.

That night, host mom brought me to Hwaeom Temple to pay our respects to The Buddha. The temple is beautiful during the day, but even more beautiful at night on Buddha's birthday. There were hundreds and hundreds of lanterns lit throughout the temple.

Level 1

Level 2

Closer

Host mom and I did our bows to Buddha. Afterwards:

HM: What did you ask for?

Me: [oops, I just bowed and meditated, I didn't really "ask for" anything...] Oh. Um. World peace.

HM: Oh! [laughing] You are so good! I asked for Amy to find good husband and have good job and many money.

Damn. If I knew it was wish day, I would have been more prepared!

I asked mom if I could buy one of the lanterns (they were so pretty!) to which she replied, "Oh. No. But, tomorrow, I will call king monk and take one for you." Sometimes the language barrier provides the greatest small joys in the world. So, we'll see if my mom has as much pull with the "king monk" as she says.

That was a busy day, huh? But really, an awesome day. Anyways, thanks for reading!

Cebu City, Philippines

It's been one week since my return from beautiful Cebu City. Oh, how I wish I was still there. I loved it. It was probably my second favorite trip of this year (behind kayaking in Thailand).

My co-worker, Mi-young, and I arrived in Cebu City late Saturday night. Mi-young actually studied English in Cebu City for two months, so her friends - Gail and Elsie - met us at the airport and helped us find a hotel for the night.

Sunday, Gail, Elsie and another friend - Kathy - showed Mi-young and me around the big attractions of Cebu City.

1) Bascilia del Santo Nino: Oldest cathedral in Philippines. It's over 400 years old and was burned down twice.

We actually came right as mass was ending.

Mass exit.

2) Magellan's Cross. Cebu City is famous of being the landing spot of Magellan, who brought with him European influence and Christianity. True to Westerner's nature, he claimed the land to be his, introduce "the right" way to do things and planted a huge cross. Culturally sensitive, huh?

Anyways, here's Magellan's Cross. The actual cross is supposedly encased within this one to prevent further damage. Many think that there's actually nothing left of the original cross. Whatever, it gives people hope and comfort. That's all that any physical icon can do.

3) Fort San Pedro. The fort is shaped like a triangle, with two sides facing the ocean and one facing land. (The ocean use to be right up against the fort, but, for some reason or another, this is no longer true.) It was used first as a Spanish fort to defend against "the Muslims" but later became a stronghold for native Philippines during their revolution and emancipation. haha.

Wee!

4) "Tops." Basically, a sunset lookout point.

Monday was the Philippines national Presidential Elections, so everything was closed. Mi-young and I hung out at a pool all day. At night, we went to the Casino!

The best part? We won! About $150!

What to do with the money? ... ^^

5) We decided to think about it at the major Taoist Temple in Cebu City.

Tuesday night, we knew. We were going to go snorkeling off the coast of a remote island followed by para-sailing followed by a spa followed by our plane home.

Yay!

We went to an island called Nalusuan for snorkeling. It was awesome! Mi-young had a water-proof camera, so there are some good snorkeling pictures on Facebook. Check it out!

So, that was my trip! Thanks for reading!