Where does the time go?

I haven't written in a month and it feels like just yesterday I was blogging my heart out!!! Sorry for the delay Pam :)

Things have been pretty busy around Iksan and Osan lately. After the kimchi festival Stormy and I made some new friends that we have been visiting almost every weekend since that fateful weekend about two months ago. I have recently purchased a new digital camera that is the greatest digital camera known to man. SO I've been inspired to take more and more pictures than ever.

All the traveling makes me feel like I live on the KTX...here I am "driving" it :)


Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. I love that it's kind of like Christmas without all the financial stress. This year I was going to have to make due with what I could create from the Korean supermarkets, but luckily my military friends in Osan came through for me and I was able to enjoy turkey, cranberry sauce, dressing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole and ham. I would have had pumpkin pie, but on his train ride here Chris thought it was important to teach his newly found Korean friend about the joys of Thanksgiving and its true meaning by sharing my pie! I would have been a little more disappointed if it had not been for my Thanksgiving dinner with foreigners here in Iksan. We all gathered bring both traditional and nontraditional food items to the YMCA for a lovely feast. We were blessed that Costco had apple pie and pumpkin pie in stock for the season. God bless you Costco :)

What I found to be the highlight of my Thanksgiving this year was that I was able to go to work, come home and call my family using Skype. I saw everyone and heard all the chaos of the background while I ate my Thanksgiving dinner that Chris brought for me and chatted it up with all my family members. It wasn't the ideal situation, but it was as close to home as I could have felt in Korea!

Thanksgiving lessons were really fun for me also. I took my computer to school and showed my students videos of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and a short informational video about the history and traditions of Thanksgiving. My students were really interested in the differences between American Thanksgiving and Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving).
For my kids classes, I taught the older kids the meaning of Thanksgiving while they wrote a couple of things they are thankful for all while watching a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. And my little kids made turkey's out of their hand prints. It was super cute and such a fun day for me :)

My turkey was a little punk rock--- My kids learn so quickly :)


Ye-Jin and me with our turkeys


My boys working hard to figure out how to make turkey making more fun for them


They found a way-- Make the middle finger extra long...go figure.


Turkey making!!!


Young-Bin and Paul watching Charlie Brown Thanksgiving


Young-Bin happens to be my favorite student. He is so funny. He is always taking whatever I teach him and twisting it to make it funny. Like I taught them superlatives (good, better, the best) and he said Erica is the best crazy! Erica is the worst! :) I freaking love him. He has also picked up my meowing habit that I use when my students start speaking to me in Korean. I meow back at them to show them that I have no idea what they're talking about...Youngie, as I call him (he calls me Eri), and I have conversations in cat sometimes haha!

The weather it is a changing. It seems like fall was only one day long and then we were catapulted into winter! The weekend before Thanksgiving I was in Osan having dinner with my friends when we realized that it was snowing outside! Literally, it felt like we had one day of that lovely in-between weather that I love about fall. I have invested in mittens, a stocking cap and a dense supply of Korean boy sweaters to get me through the winter on my bike :)
The boy sweaters here are super cute and fit snugly on me. They're also really cheap ($15) per sweater. I think it's a deal!

Along with the cold weather comes the fog. I have never seen fog like this ever. I expect a little in the morning from time to time, but the fog here lingers all day long. There are more foggy days than clear recently.

This is what my walk to work usually looks like


This is the walk with the fog!


Fog sweet fog




I was obsessed with photographing the fog...Here's a video


I have been spending a little more time with my Korean friends lately. Last week I was having a bit of a bummer week when I ran into one of my former students/ good friends on the street and he invited me out for dinner. When I met him he had ran into some other friends and invited them along. I had also invited my friend Dayla along. We ended up having an awesome night of party crashing, fire chicken (the most spicy fried chicken EVER) and all around good times.

This guy felt the need to feed me a piece of fire chicken...



Here is the party we crashed! Good times had by all!


We didn't have enough of each other on this night so we met up again on Friday for round two and it was another great time!

This is Jin-Oh. I love his glasses, but the boy is seriously blind!


Ryan likes Jin-Oh's glasses too!


This is my friend KJ -- He is much fun! We pretend that he is Korean-American and that he doesn't speak Korean. It's a lot of fun to fake out our Korean friends :)



Now we're in December and I'm gearing up to go home next week! I can't believe I haven't been home in nine months. It feels like all that time has passed in a blink! Stormy's mom sent us some gingerbread cookies to get us in the Christmas spirit! They were so cute and even more delicious!


Notice the surprise face in the picture above? Stormy and I decided it was a good idea to get our eyebrows waxed and when I came out I found that I now look permanently surprised :) haha! Oh the adventures!
Here is a picture of our waxed results


Since I've had a bad hair cut in Korea, I know that the best solution to any follicle issues is simply to cover up the mistake with a disguise. To my delight, when we went out in Osan Saturday night I was greeted by an ajuma (little old lady) peddling glasses that would solve my problems for the night...I think it was a success!



Have a very Merry Christmas!!! I'll be blogging about my adventures home next month! :)

Say Kimchi

As the weeks have gone by I have continued to travel on the weekends and live it up during the week. When I say live it up, I mean to say that I take a nap for three or four hours every afternoon until I have to go to work again! Fascinating I know.

Since the mass freeze weekend in Seoul, we returned to Seoul the next weekend in hopes of going to LotteWorld - a theme park in Seoul. It was a long weekend for celebration of Chuseok, the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving. Only their Thanksgiving is not all about pilgrims and new found land and friends, all the Korean people go to their home towns to visit the graves of their ancestors and bring offerings of food and deep bows to show their appreciation for those who have passed. I think it's an excellent holiday. Despite our best efforts, I began getting sick and we ended up leaving Seoul without accomplishing our goal of visiting a theme park. I went to the hospital and they gave me plenty of mystery drugs to get me through. I only missed one class and started feeling better pretty quickly. I don't like being sick, especially when it robs you of your ability to laugh. You know, when you start laughing and it just turns into a wheezy cough- yeah I was that guy.

The next weekend I went to Daegu to visit a friend that I met on my flight back to Korea after David's funeral. He has lived there long enough to know what to do so we embarked on a short mini tour of Daegu. It's the third largest city in Korea and is beautiful. It's in the mountains and has a lot of great places for hiking and sightseeing. We visited a temple called Donghawasa that had a large Buddah and happened to be having a celebration when we showed up. We were some of the only foreigners there so naturally we were made to pose in front of the buddah with our heads bowed and smile in front of water fountains and all the lovely poses that make Korea look foreigner friendly. It's like being a celebrity, but without real control. I can see how famous people are easily annoyed by having their picture taken so often by random people. But we were good sports about the whole thing.

Here is the Buddah statute -


This past weekend Stormy and I had a quite night in Iksan. Stormy wasn't hungry and I was really wanting Kimchi Jijjae (basically Kimchi soup). As we walked to the restaurant I became brave and decided to try a place I had been once before. I ordered off the only Korean menu, then as I sat back and read it again I looked at Stormy and said, I think I just ordered fish - oh well. NOT OH WELL. THIS is what I ordered.

Needless to say, I paid the $6 it cost and we went to another restaurant. At least I tried!

We ended up going bowling and we bought some new shoes then woke up early the next day to hit the Kimchi Festival in Gwangju. I was pretty pumped about going because of my unnatural love for the fermented cabbage and Stormy was kind enough to humor me.

Once in Gwangju we had to get a taxi to get to the festival and the first two cabs had no idea what we were talking about and there happened to be a sweet little Korean woman who was also waiting for a cab who went out of her way to help us explain where we wanted to go the cab driver. When we arrived at the festival we weren't sure what to expect but we found a place where they show you how to make Kimchi for $5, of course we did it! We had a lovely interpreter who did a great job explaining everything the master Kimchi chef was explaining.

Finding out how it is made is not as exciting as I thought...It was a little more depressing. It includes blended pickled shrimp, blended pickled anchovies and a lot of other spices. It was not ready for that. BUT I still love it - I can't complain. It was fun making Kimchi, but like before we were asked over and over to pose with our kimchi and the chef. It was a good time, but that was pretty much the highlight of the entire festival.

Here's our lovely Kimchi -


Here we are outside the festival, aren't the flowers beautiful!


Storm and I with the radish - Korea's mascot is a vegetable.




Here are some pictures Stormy took of the food you could buy at the festival **Warning- This is not for those with weak stomachs**

A few different varieties of Kimchi




Random pig parts :(


After the festival we went to Osan and met a lot of new people and had a great night. On the way to Osan, Korea started pretending to look like Oklahoma, isn't it beautiful?


This week has been an easy teaching week (only 15 hours this week). I'm enjoying it and getting prepared for my last adult session before I come back to visit Oklahoma in December!

Mourning in the Morning

It's been six months since David passed away and I still catch myself thinking about his future wife, seeing him again and what he's doing right now. I know that being in Korea has made it easier to ignore that he's gone, but it only takes a memory jog back to the funeral to set my mind straight and to feel the impossibly heavy weight. I know I am still grieving and I know it will take a long time to feel any sense of normal, but as I sit here I can't help but notice the inner change I feel. I feel older, hardened and a little bitter. I try to remember the me that I was before April, but that girl is gone and has been replaced with someone far more skeptical and critical. I'm trying to stay positive and remember good times and BLAH BLAH BLAH! Thank you to everyone who has given me advice and has been there for me to lean on, but it is just really hard.

On days like today where I wake up and he's the first thing I think about, I know it's going to be a rough day. I feel uncertain about ever being able to have him again. I used to have hope that I would feel his spirit and that I could turn back to the Erica of the past but that is slowly dying. The hope that is dying is taking the remains of who I was with it.

Now that I have put this out there, please know that I am ok. Hard days are bound to happen. This is just something I've noticed happening and it hurts to admit to myself that he is gone and the dreams I have are the closest I will be to him...

Mass Freeze

Last weekend I went to Seoul to participate in a large scale improv project at the COEX mall. I found out about the event on Facebook and saw that I knew a couple of other people who were going.

What it was is that we all everyone participating gathered at the COEX mall and then everyone who was participating froze in one position for 5 minutes. We did it at exactly 2:40pm to 2:45. It was pretty funny to see the videos and pictures and to see the people walking though the mall getting more and more confused as they saw all these foreigners frozen in place. Some people even poked the participatants and took pictures with them, it was a cool experience. Here are a couple of videos of the event!

This is a video with an explaination of what was going on.


I happen to be in this one...look for the orange purse

Thailand - Land of a Thousand Smiles

So for vacation I went to Thailand for 15 days...not just two weeks - 15 days! It was an intense super fun/ scary experience.

We left Korea and seven hours later we were standing at the airport in Bangkok tired but ready! Scott, Mark and I took the shuttle bus to Khaosan Road which is the foreigner/ backpacking area of Bangkok and it is INSANE! Immediately I felt a culture shock and realized, I'm not in Korea anymore!!! Even though I was in Asia, it just felt crazy and all the foreigners and vendors and peddlers it was overwhelming. To help you get an idea of what I was dealing with, I will reference the movie "The Beach" staring Leonard DiCaprio. The beginning was supposed to be Khaosan Road - but I heard it was actually shot in Phuket. Either way, it was just as skeezy and shocking.

Here's a pic of the street. I wish I would have taken a video so you could have seen how intense it was.


After the initial shock and the realization that there were "Lady Boys" everywhere, I was ready to hit the beach. Lady Boys are men that dress, act and look like women. For whatever reason Thailand has a huge concentration of cross dressing men. Sadly for the men traveling through, it's often hard to tell the difference between a lady boy and a gorgeous girl.

This is in Bangkok - but it is not unusual to see an entire family piled onto a motorbike, with the babies in front, with no helmet. Talk about culture shock.


It was the Queens birthday while we were in Bankok so there were giant pictures of here all over the city.




We only stayed one night in Bangkok before heading to Ao Nang to have some beach time. Mark and I arrived and stayed in a decent hotel with a beautiful view. Ao Nang (like all beach areas) was pretty touristy and made it easy for me to score some amazing deals on some dresses to wear for the rest of the trip :)

Here is a video of my view from the first hotel in Ao Nang.



I spent two night in Ao Nang enjoying the beach and Thai massages! Massages are everywhere and they are dirty cheap. I had a two hour massage and foot scrub for $9! Insane I tell you!
Ao Nang was pretty, but I was ready to move on to the islands but not without getting stung by a jellyfish first. The lady who did my massage helped me by crushing some sort of leaves and putting it on the sting and then told me it is low season and that there are a lot of Jellies! Greeeeat!

Ao Nang beach


Here is a picture of the sunset in Ao Nang.


Here is a picture of my crazy jelly sting with the herbal treatment - Love that girl.


So I went from Ao Nang to Koh Lanta, an island that was recommended to me by a friend. The trip was LONG! It took me almost six hours to get from Ao Nang to Koh Lanta including like 50 different types of transportation from a minibus, to the back of a truck, to another minibus, then to a ferry and finally to a truck (in the front this time). One of the stops we had dumped us off in the middle of nowhere with this little pavillion that works as a travel agency. One thing about traveling in Thailand, they never tell you when you're there or what is next. You just have to follow the crowd and assume you're doing the right thing. I was alone so it was more nerve racking! I was planning on walking around to look for a place to stay but the man at the makeshift travel agency told me that wasn't a good idea and sold me on a room for the night and I could not be more grateful to that man for helping me out! I would have been SO lost!
The room he booked me in Koh Lanta cost $12 per night. I know that you can get rooms cheaper so I was a little reluctant but then I decided to just go for it. Then I was scared because what kind of room was I booking myself for $12 a night?!?!? When I got there I was relieved to see that I had a super amazing room! It was easily one of the nicest rooms I stayed in my entire vacation :)

This is a view from my bed...yes, there we fresh flowers on my $12 a night bed.

This is the resort




I was a little nervous staying on my own, but I wanted to see a little more of the island so after the monsoon calmed down I went for a walk and realized that there were hardly any people on the island and that most of the resorts were closed - for the rainy season! Greeeat! It rained off and on the entire time I was there. But when I was on my walk I met some cute little monkeys!





That evening I was watching the sunset and looking for someone - ANYONE - to talk to! I was tired of being alone but had already come to the conclusion that I needed to get used to it. I spotted a pair of boys reading through a Lonely Planet book and having a beer and a swim. I decided to get online and the computers were full, just then on of the guys I spotted earlier came to used the internet at the same time. We both retired to the steps to wait and began talking. His name was Marco and he was from Milan, Italy. After about five minutes talking I told him I was traveling alone and had no real plan and he immediately invited me to travel with him and Giovanni to Koh Phi Phi and beyond! I accepted immediately as I thought I would not have much luck meeting people in Koh Lanta.

Marco walked with me to the travel agent and I book my ferry ride to Koh Phi Phi, we decided to wait on the other plans just in case. We had dinner together and then I asked them about their love lives, they were very good looking so I was just curious. Turns out they were a couple traveling for holiday together.

We left early in the morning and went to Koh Phi Phi which is very near to Phi Phi Lay - made famous by the movie The Beach. The water there was crystal clear! I'm talking 100 ft of visability! It was the most incredible view and sea I have ever seen in my life. We spent the day lounging around by the pool and in the beach. At one point the tide went out so far that we were able to walk the length of about two football fields into the sea! It was unbelievable and so beautiful!

Koh Phi Phi and my Italian friends :)


More Koh Phi Phi




Can you see the fish? It was SOOO clear!



This is toward sunset on the other side of the island, you can see that the tide was finally coming in.


Here is the sunset on Koh Phi Phi



That evening we enjoyed dinner at one of the many seafood restaurants along the beach. The food was ok and over priced but we had a few unexpected guests. My first guest was a stray cat looking for a little dinner. He jumped up in the seat next to me and stared me down until I gave him some fish - cute little guy. Then there was a terrorist attack! The worlds largest cockroach walked back and forth across the main walk way in front of our table terrorizing innocent tourists walking by!

Here was my dinner mmmm




My honored dinner guest


The terrorist


After dinner we went to a bar on the beach for a couple of drinks and a fire show! It was amazing how they dance with the fire. Check out the video.





The next morning we got up for a full day of travel. We went from Koh Phi Phi to Krabi (about a 2 hour ferry ride). We wait about an hour for our bus then went to Surant thani. The bus was packed and there was no air conditioning. I felt like it was no big deal until I found out that our bus ride was taking us across the peninsula of Thailand, a three and a half hour HOT SWEATY bus ride. I was sitting next to a really nice Israeli guy who told me all about his adventures and how he tutors physics but couldn't tell me what his job in the military was-things like that he was a little mysterious but it's always nice to be seated next to a friendly person when you have to travel so long.

Just before we arrived in Surant thani I realized that the bottle of water I had put in my purse had come open while I was sleeping and I found my two cameras floating in the water in my purse!!! Needless to say, my camera was done for the rest of the trip - but my camcorder still worked so that's good...but I really missed my camera.

When we arrived in Surant thani we were placed in another travel agency for holding until the next bus came to pick us up to take us to the port to catch the night ferry to Koh Tao. We were stucking in the holding station for 4 hours!! It was sooo boring! But we managed to find a PC room about three blocks from the holding room. Giovanni and I stayed there for a little over an hour and then when we tried to head back we walked outside of the PC room and noticed that the weather had changed completely and it was about to pour down rain. We began fast walking and then a bolt of lightning struck down right in front of us - only one block from where were were standing! The sound was ear busting loud and the light was so bright we instinctively covered our head and bent down! I grabbed Giovanni for protection and then we started running. We ran as far as we could get until the rain trapped us in a convenient store. The ladies working there were kind enough to call us a cab and to wait at the road for it to approach or catch the next cab along, as we were going to be late for our pick up. We made it back just in time!

Here is a video of the rain and where we stayed for four freaking hours



Once we arrived at the port we met an English guy named William who was traveling alone through South East Asia. He was on his way to Koh Tao to meet up with one of his friends that lives there and works as a SCUBA instructor - what a life! The four of us went for dinner at a local market and then boarded the ferry. But not before seeing my first and last elephant in Thailand! It was just walking along the port with a blinker attached to it's tail! Too cute!



This is the night market...sorry for the poor camera work


The night ferry left at 11:00pm and arrived in Koh Tao at 7:00am. I met a few more guys and we sat out for most of the night talking and looking at the millions of stars that were visible in the darkness of the open sea in the middle of the night. It was one of those experiences you will never forget.

This is what an overnight ferry looks like. You're assigned a "bed" number. The lights dim once you take off.


Once we arrived in Koh Tao we had breakfast then found a place to stay. We played on the beach for a while then it was nap time. The boys were able to go to their air conditioned room, but because most the cheaper rooms in Thailand/ on the islands don't have AC at all that was not an option for me. In fact, the bungalow I stayed in had two window, a fan, a small bathroom with a toilet that had a bucket next to it with a bowl floating inside. The toilet is more for looks than anything. You have to use the toilet as usual, but instead of flushing you dip a bowl of water out of the bucket and flush it yourself! SO much fun! ;) Needless to say, I opted to take a nap on the beach.

Here is a video of my napping spot! Incredible



I woke up around three hours later to a guy passing out fliers for a beach party that night an noticed a girl laying out in my same shade for napping. I heard he talk to the guy and I did too and she noticed my American accent an we began talking. Her name is Kim and she is Korean but was adopted and raised in Texas :) It was really rare to meet an American in Thailand. The entire time I was there I met five people from America...I was there for 15 days people!! Unfortunately she was headed to Railay that night by the night ferry to go rock climbing. But not before we got to take a picture with the sunset.



My days in Koh Tao were spent with Marco and Giovanni and their friends. We spent the days laying around and being lazy and then we would meet up for dinner at night. It was really nice. One day we chartered a long boat to take us around the island for some amazing snorkeling! We were on the boat all day and saw a ton of fish in the spectacularly clear water. It was a fantastic day!
This is a video of us on the boat


On anther day we went to a spa on top of a hill overlooking the sea on the other side of the island. The treatment was 4 hours long. We started with the Sauna that was built into one of the rocks on the side of the mountain. The air in the sauna was heavy with menthol scent and totally relaxing. That lasted half an hour. Then we went to these little tents where these Thai women took an entire bowls of aloe lotion and covered our entire bodies...and when I say entire...I mean ENTIRE body! Then we were wrapped tighten in a light blanket and left to nap. Everyone was laughing about being fondled and becoming butterflies fresh out of our cocoons and then the silence set in we were all asleep. It was too relaxing to miss the napping opportunity. There was a waterfall just outside our tent and they had light music playing. After nearly an hour we were awoken and taken to have a HOT shower (this is another thing that is rare in Thailand- I had 4 hot showers my entire time in Thailand). It felt amazing and the soaps and shampoos were lovely. They gave us these loose fitting pajamas that looked almost like scrubs and were soft against our aloe-y skin. After the shower they took us to a courtyard where we were given herbal tea and a break taking view of the sea just before sunset. Next we were taken to a pagoda and put in a room. The room was cool and the air was once again thick with menthol scents. All six of us receive and hour Thai massages simultaneously. Then we were taken to get facials. The facial lasted nearly an hour and they even braided my hair across my brow like a headband. Overall the spa was a success! And the cost for this unforgettable experience? How about $60 USD's :)

In Koh Tao I was able to share a room with Giovanni and Marco to save money and have AC at night. I am endlessly blessed and thankful that I met them. They took care of my above and beyond what any stranger should. After 5 days in Koh Tao I decided it was time to move on. I set out alone to Koh Samui, a bigger island three hours from Koh Tao. I went to the beach the travel agent in Koh Tao suggested and the driver that met me at the port took me to a cheap bungalow. The room was nice and the price was right so I booked the room. After I got settled in I went to the beach to see what was around. I began to noticed that I was totally removed from all the other resorts, then I noticed a sign that read "Thieves in Progress" like a freaking crosswalk for criminals!!! I decided to walk down the beach and find a new place for the rest of the time. I found a nice place to stay, right in the middle of all the action.

On my way back to my bungalow I decided to stop and have a beer at one of the resort bars. There were four older men sitting together speaking to each other in Dutch. I took out my book that Nicole, one of my Italian friends had given me, and began reading. After about half an hour they asked me if I spoke English. Yes! I said, and then they all started speaking to me in English. It turns out that we were all from different countries - Germany, Czech Republic, America, Poland and the Netherlands. We had a great night chatting and buying everything that the peddlers were selling. One thing was a Lucky Lamp. You lit the paper lamp, made a wish and let it go into the night sky. It was beautiful.

The rest of my time in Koh Samui was pretty lonely and boring. I just sat on the beach and read books. It was nice to get some reading accomplished but I was ready to go back to Korea. I spent three days in Koh Samui and then traveled back to Bangkok.

In Bangkok I went to one of the largest markets - Chatukchak Weekend Market. I spent six hours there shopping for souvenirs and everything else and I still didn't see all that there was to see there! It was an experience all its own. My cab driver on the way there told me to watch my purse and as I was getting out he scolded me for not keeping it directly in my eyesight so I was very cautious the rest of the day. At the market I found a lot of amazing deals - like $3 t-shirts and a ton of small cheap things. At the end of a day of bargaining I got into a cab and told him where I wanted to go (across town). He told me 600 baht...It only cost me 300 to get there from my hotel, I told him that and bargained with him until he gave me the price I wanted :) Excellent!

The vacation was a success in a lot of ways and made me feel stronger and more independant because of all my alone time. I missed my friends and family very much the entire time I was there and was relived to be back in Korea.

I've been back in Korea now for almost a month. My classes are going great and my kids are beginning to read and I'm having an amazing time with them now. They went from my most dreaded class to my favorite pretty much over night! Now my most hated class is a class of 15 year olds...for obvious reasons!!!

Sorry for the late post - I hope you have a weekend to read this novel I just wrote :)