Happy New Year and Birthday!

I know I've been absent but I'll be posting what I've been up to the past few months soon. I just wanted to say Happy New Year. I am excited for what this next year holds for me including soaking up all of Korea I can, going on a tropical vacation this winter, a 3 month long travel journey home and COMING HOME! I'll be seeing you all this year, that's for sure.

In Korea, on New Years everyone turns 1 year older. So a baby born in December is already considered 1 years old as of January first. I can never seem to get a straight answer on how Koreans calculate age but I do know that womb time is added in and New Years is everyone's birthday too. So in Korea I am the grand age of 29 and Derek is ...31! Eeek! I am glad to grow younger again when I head home :)

Andong Mask Festival

We have been keeping pretty busy these weekends. Both because we are trying to soak up the decent weather before winter descends on us and because after fall we are going into major saving mode to prepare ourselves for our journey back home. Anyways, this has made me fall behind on our weekend happenings.

First, we went to the Andong Mask and Dance festival about a month ago. It was interesting to see the traditional costumes and dances. We were especially lucky because we ran into our Korean friend Hoonmi! (she was not so lucky to run into us) She helped us understand the dance's meaning and the stories being told. Most stories are about the underdogs, or the corrupt Buddhists (I dunno why they were so corrupt) and about forbidden love. They basically hit all the best types of stories. Well here are the pictures.

These were strange automated rickshaw things? 

We all bought puppets and I chose the ol' lady who hits her back because it hurts. This is her partying later that night.

Chuseok 2013!

Chuseok, Korean thanksgiving, seems like a long time ago now. While it was less than a month ago, the warm weather and possibility of going swimming seem like a far away dream. Yesterday marked the first day that we really needed to wear a sweater or coat and today marks the first day that my hands got a little purple and cold while lesson planning. So it seems like a great time to reminisce and to keep my fingers moving by typing.

We went to Tongyong, a small port city on the south, east coast of Korea. Our friend went there and loved it, it was cheap to get to, Derek wanted to see it for historical reasons and our friends Alyssa and Jeff wanted to go to. Decision made! We got on a bus and went early and spent 3 days 2 nights there. 

First we saw the street art on a hill that it's famous for. The owners of (previous) shanties painted their walls to prevent the city from bulldozing their homes and it worked! 

Translation: I love so-mech (A mixture of beer and Korean liquor soju)

 Derek and me!

 This reminded me of the 90's and my sister, I think she had a shirt or shorts like this.

 his hero

Here are some views from the top:

 Next we went to the sculpture park. Pretty much everything was about time and space, but there was one cool interactive sculpture.

I don't know why, but I like the picture yelling at Derek for something or other.

Then onto the first underground car tunnel in Asia, not used for cars anymore. It was built because cultually you aren't supposed to build over the dead. Many people died during wars in the port/ocean so out of repect they built it underground instead. We also had a tour guide we met along the way, Jack. Jack should probably be paid by Tongyong's tourism department because we ran into him 3 times, he is super nice and I've heard from other foreigners that he has helped them too. 

 The next day we went to Bijindo. An island off the coast that has a decent beach and some treacherous hiking. First we woke up before the butt-crack of dawn and hopped on a ferry.

Then we spent some time hiking with creatures that probably could kill us. I may be exaggerating but even though the others didn't show they were worried, you could tell everyone was because we all took baby steps after realizing we were surrounded by giant black and yellow spiders, crabs, centipedes with strange coloring and other unknown.

I don't really have good pictures of the creatures, I thought it better to keep moving rather than notice even more creatures. 

 The lost boys

Then it was time for the beach! My kind of time :) (Except there were these clear water bugs that started biting me in the water)

I'm Ariel!

 Alyssa is a better Ariel!

Derek's a ...monkey?

The final day we started of with a bike ride for two. I have been nagging Derek to tandem with me and he finally did! He even had fun and I think can be convinced  that it's a good idea to own one.

proof

And lastly, if you made it this far... the turtle boat. I don't have many pictures and if you want the history I encourage you to go to Derek's blog here.