Spring 2010

MArch... NO- wait.. APRIL?!?!?! (8th)

Um... wow... can’t believe it’s already April!!! I know “time flies” but time REALLY DOES fly over here... maybe it’s b.c. I’m constantly “ahead” of the actual time... 

1. January- APAC 2010 in Shanghai, China (Asia Pacific Activities Conference) Basically the HS swim team trained from November- January for this one 2-day competition...  all the big international schools throughout Asia get together and swim agnst. each other..  I met coaches from all over- mostly China... (one real hot Chinese guy that was an Olympian!!) and it was a great experience.. The kids had a great time and... well, yeah- good experience... didn’t see a lick of Shanghai, so don’t think “Man, that’s SO awesome you got to go there!!” b.c. all I saw was another international school, a pool, & an airport... 
2. February- My first trip home to the US of A!! Erica Farford was becoming Mrs. Casey Beson and of course I had to be there for my girl’s wedding! :)    It was surreal being back in the US, esp. after 7 months of living in Korea... I DEF had some reverse-culture shock: 

1. Sittin’ next to Bo-Shee-Qua on my flight from LAX to Houston & listenin’ in on all her interesting ghetto-ish stories... 
2. Telling a story at the checkout counter & the checkout girl laughing b.c. she is eavesdropping b.c. she can actually UNDERSTAND my language!! 
3. Using cars to go places?!?!?
4. Drive-thrus?!?!? 
5. Guys that actually hit on you instead of being too shy and staring @ u outta the corner of their eyes... 
6. People that hate their jobs & lives & it shows thru every second of their work...
7. I could go on and on... 

I had a GREAT time visiting w. my fam & seein my niece & nephew after SO long was a great time! :) I missed them bunches & bunches  & bunches, hope they missed me somewhat too- it def was sad realizing that I had missed the last 7 mo. of their lives and even tho that was a reality I accepted prior to going 2 Korea, I didn’t truly understand the impact that it’d have on me. :( 

I was SO glad to see my peeps that it was way too painful to return to Seoul and I did NOT want to go... I grew a much larger appreciation for home, people at home, things from home, just home in general... 

So, my return to Seoul was DEF bittersweet...(and let’s just say, I’m not really over it- even now)  :( 

3. March- KAIAC (Korean American Interscholastic Activities Conference) : The next season of HS swimming started in Feb. (there’s 2 seasons of Swimming @ SFS!!) and this one has weekly (ish) meets with international schools from around Korea.. so, I work my butt off every single Saturday, have no weekend time off & essentially have no life... but @ least the coach from the military base & I created the Dr. Pepper inside joke & now he brings Dr. Pepper to me every meet!!! :) He Rulez! :)

  

4. March- Wayne Goldsmith: my control freak of a boss decided he wanted a fellow countryman to come teach us SFSers how to “really coach” & that simply meant that I had to endure yet another annoying Aussie accent! (No offense to all you Aussies/Aussie-lovers out there... another part of my culture shock aka I-Don’t-Like-My-Boss shock)

We learned a bit from the crazy Australian “World Renowned Coach” and I will tell you I have utilized very little of what he taught me... I think this is more due to my “rebellious nature” in regards to my boss & anything swimming related b.c. I have grown to have a disdain for swimming as a result of my boss making me hate life so much... (I know, I know... I’m using rather strong words... unfortunately I am not the only one who has been negatively affected by this individual- I don’t think there’s anyone in this world that I have ever disliked so much...) Ok, enough...  I at least was able to meet Shim Min- the Olympic coach of the first Korean Gold Medalist in swimming from 2008- Park Tae-hwan.... 

5. March- My sister, Christa, came for a visit! When you live this far away from home for a prolonged time, you never see a familiar face, & can never go home- it’s pretty awesome to get a visitor from your neck of the woods! :) Christa came for the infamous Wayne G. “Coaching Clinic” & stayed to tour Seoul with me for Spring Break! :) 

1. We went to the DMZ (The Demilitarized Zone- 38th parallel- 
   
   
   
   the place where the 2 Koreas became “the 2 Koreas” and where they pushed a pause button on that Forgotten War of the 1950s- the 1st in a series of wars known as the Phony Wars fought as a part of the much larger “COLD WAR” b.n the Eastern Communist nations and the Western Democracies...) 
   
   
   
   I stood on the DMZ line, saw NoKo, & went into a tunnel the N. Koreans built in order to sneak into SoKo.. pretty cool.
1. Now, time for an interesting cultural sidenote: Asians in general like competition and being the best... Asians like to be better than other types of Asians (aka Chinese like to be better than all other Asians, Japanese like to be better than all other Asians, Koreans like to be better than all other Asians.. I think you get my gist) well now, South and North Koreans are no different... even though they don’t see themselves as “different countries” they still need to be better than each other... So, @ the DMZ- the only place that NoKo can see SoKoreans & vice versa... they gotta outdo each other... Examples:
1. NoKo built a mock “Propaganda Village” to show SoKo how awesome, neat, and organized- oh, and how “advanced” NoKo is.. 
2. SoKo built a flagpole to hang a flag from... so NoKo built a WAY larger one with a flag that’s so huge & heavy- it can’t blow in the wind even!! 
3. SoKo plucks the hottest solidiers from their ranks to serve @ the DMZ to show NoKo how awesome they are... (in my opinion, they are NOT the hottest SoKoreans... but I guess they have different taste than I do...) 

ii. Geez... They seem to be compensating for something.......... hmmm..... I wonder what ??! lol. 

1. Suwon Folk Village: we go to this “historic village” only to find an amusement park w. a tight rope walker, traditional Korean performers, & a pirate ship! Quite an interesting experience...
2. 
   
   
3. The G- Palace: The first of the Korean palaces. Built during the Joseon Dynasty (the most famous dynasty that ruled for 500ish yrs) in the 14th century.. It’s got it’s Asian influences from China, fo sho! and there were def. separate quarters for the “wife” AND all the many many concubines... my fave part, fo shiz! (altho, I’d HATE to be one of them... ugh)  
1. The most famous Korean emperor was here- his name was: King Sejong. He created the alphabet (only 24 characters, the easiest of all the Asian languages to read/understand (factual, and imo- tru!), he also did a lot for improving the use of science, &, yea- he was just awesome... 
1. Korean BBQ- Fo Shizzle!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Dog cafe: Like the Asians try to out-do each other, they really like their dogs.. so much, that we went to a cafe dedicated to dogs.. dogs just walk around while you drink coffee or beer, they come sit on your lap, walk on your table, and DEF greet you with insane excitement as you walk in... pretty neat-o... 
3. Never COULD find the ICE BAR!! :( Next time, Next time... 

The Philippines!!!

2/22/10

So many things happen that I never have time to update you (for instance, I write this blog entry 2 mo ago & I'm just now updating you, blech...)- clearly, I’m awful at this whole keeping a blog thing... also, having Facebook doesn’t help my motivation any! 

                                                                               Anyways... The Philippines!!!!  

The Philippines was AWESOME!!! (Of course!!) 

I joined Berengere in Manila on Sat. 12/19 (her birthday!)- I got in at 1am or something ridiculous like that and the taxi could not find my hostel for 3 hours thanks to the fact that the Philippines is not well known for using street signs OR numbering their buildings... So, I’m falling asleep in this cab in the middle of the most... how do I adequately describe the place? dirty? poor? scary? ghetto? Just try to picture all those combined in one place... eventually we discover the hostel tucked in the center of barred-windowed establishments and I go pass out in my bed. 

The next day B and I proceeded to check out the Chinese cemetery right next to our hostel- the Red Carabao. 

The Chinese Cemetery was a crazy burial place!! There were mansions with bathrooms & AC for deceased ppl!!! Man, those Chinese REALLY cherish their ancestors!! It was a bit freaky walking up and down the streets like we were in a ghost town but it was a pretty neat piece of culture.

Some locals invited us to “dine with them” as we were walking outta the cemetery and we chose to partake in their festivities.. We walked down this alley where they threw up a table & chairs for us... 

They were having a baptism and had all this food and alcohol that they kept shoving our way... it was more food than I’ve seen since I don’t know when. They were insanely nice and we felt like 1st rate company.. we were sad to leave them a few hours later to board our flight to Cebu (an island in the Visayas)...  but we made some great friends! :) 

We got into Cebu, took a ferry to Bohol,

                          

 and grabbed a tricycle to Panglao Island. A tricycle is one of the main forms of transportation around the Philippines- basically a motorcycle with a box around it for ppl to sit in. Each tricycle driver adorns his box with his own accouterments and there’s a buncha rosaries & religious statues since we were in one of the most Catholic countries in the world...

We get to Panglao Island, find our little lover’s cottage (lol) at Alumbung, and proceed to walk to “Alona Beach”- the hotspot. We get a little lost in the woods but eventually pop out on the edge of the beach, find a diving center (Philippine Fun Divers!!) 

, and sign up for an Open Water course! The rest of the day we drove around trying to find tampons... an EXTREMELY hard find... 

The Open Water Course was THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER!!!! Professor Ogs C. Cruz was our UH-MAZING instructor who made me feel so at ease about possibly imploding my lungs and dying while under water! ( I’ve always wanted to Scuba dive, but have always been freaked out about the going down and coming back up... and well, just so happens- those are the 2x most ppl die! well, or have issues...) 

So... naturally I was freaked out about this and Ogs wouldn’t have any of it... he was a GREAT instructor! We decided we wanted to get the course done with so after the water sessions in daylight, we finished our academic portions via alcohol @ Coca Vida- THE spot! 

(Well, Ogs’ spot... they even have a pillow for when he just passes out at the bar! lol... which he needs to use a lot more, if you ask me!) 

After gradulimicating the OWC on Christmas Eve, we decided that we’d had SUCH an amazing time with Ogs and the Philippine Fun Divers that we just couldn’t leave just yet... We rang in Christmas day drinking and dancing at Coco Vida- Hiroshi (one of our “fave” Japanese dive instructors was QUITE intoxicated and was essentially the main entertainment~) 

On Christmas day, Ogs took us to see the Tarsier monkeys- the smallest monkey in the world, the smallest primate in the world!!! 

So cute, they reminded us of mini-ewoks and can spin their heads 360degrees!!! We drove around the island of Bohol and Ogs showed us the “Chocolate HIlls” which were largely uneventful and unimpressive, despite them being Bohol’s ‘claim to fame’... I mean, they’re brown hills- whoopie! lol. 

We took the LONGEST, most PAINFUL motrobike ride that lasted 4 hours to Denali Adventure park where there was a bungee jump over a ravine... it was freaky~ I won’t lie... and I told Ogs that I couldn’t do it- this is when I truly realized my greatest fear next to cockroaches, mayonnaise, & divorce- is HeIgHtS!! ack! .... but it was motivation enough to return to him in Panglao b.c. ONE DAY... one day, I will bungee jump that ravine... :) 

So, we broke down on the way home & we stuck in some- not-even-village for Christmas night, finally got to Panglao way past dark with extremely painful asses from the plethora of dirt roads with amazing huge rocks that we had to maneuver around.... ouchie! Whew, we slept well that night... 

We finally said our tearful goodbyes the next day and headed via ferry to the next island over- Siquijor. 

Known for it’s mysterious voodoo and magic, most Filipinos won’t come here due to it’s freaky reputation.. But, naturally, it’s got great diving so we had to check it. Tata Relacion was the 2nd most awesome dive instructor we had on our trip- no one could compare to Professor Ogs- but Tata was amazingly hospitable and of course, plied us with ample amounts of alcohol AFTER diving-- 

we were starting to think that it was a diver’s thing to be given so much alcohol after diving & sitting around with your dive master drinking until the wee hours of the morn... and well, it pretty much is... 

We had a great few days with Tata and saw lotsa sea life, like sea turtles, Barracuda, Jack Fish, etc.. 

Next we hopped over to Dumaguete, the college town on Negros Island. Stayed at B’s french friend’s NICE Malatapay resort. Had a NICE massage & then hopped over to Apo Island for some New Year’s diving.. 

Apo Island had no running water, electricity was only on for a few hours a day and shut off by 9pm, and only has 2 major families that live on the tiniest island I’ve ever been on... Now, due to the remoteness, it took an hour via tiny boat

 and there’s only one place to stay.. It’s one of the best diving spots in the WORLD!! (with very few ppl, there’s no pollution or destrcution via human beings... so the reefs are to kill for and the views are oustanding..) 

We met some awesome Swedish peeps- Anja & Melker- whom we drank with and partied til New Year’s with... They were more advanced divers so you can only imagine how much we eager newbies were obsessively asking them everything about diving... 

Sad to say goodbye to our new friends, we returned to Dumaguete after a few days of Robinson Crusoe- style living and hung out with B’s french friend... Who, BTW, pays something like 500USD$$ per month for this INSANE mansion ON the beach that would cost close to 3million in the US... it’s RIDICULOUS-O!!! 

(Sidenote: it was here that we decided our new goal in life would be to save up a buncha money via our jobs in Seoul, then quit, move to the Philippines, open a bar, & dive on a regular basis... it’d be amazing and fairly cheap and easy... no one steal my idea!!) 

Well, we missed Ogs too much... We missed the Phlippine Fun Divers too much... We missed our fave dive masters... we literally sat around day-dreaming about Panglao... We HAD to go back!!! (Now, we didn’t want to look like obsessive losers but couldn’t contain ourselves and wanted to spend our last few days in the Philippines with loved ones instead of partying it up at the hot party spot- Boracay!) 

Naturally, we were welcomed with open arms from our fave PFD crew! :) 

We dove, got massages, drank at Coco Vida (of course!) AND ate a Balut (.... a fertilized duck egg that looks and sounds disgusting & scary but REALLY wasn’t that bad... it tasted pretty good actually and it was DEF a piece o culture! :) ) This Balut, btw, AND the fact that we returned to Panglao earned us the title “Ogs’ #1 fave students EVER!!” ~~ which we worked SO hard to finally obtain! :)

 

Ogs taught us to fire dance on the last night! Scary and hard... but not too bad and I was actually able to do it with some fire!!! It’s ok, Mom, I’m still alive! lol.

After another tearful goodbye... 

we promised we’d return in the future & nicely tanned but ridiculously depressed, we returned to a very snowy snowy Seoul...