Change is good.
The weather is turning to spring. I walked to Okpo today. Took me 45 minutes to hike up and over the mountain. Spent some time sorting things out today. Change can be a good thing.
I met with my wonderful friend Jane for coffee this evening along with Ursula and Kyle (two other foreigners I work with). Good conversation and good drinks.
Plan for tomorrow and my last day of vacation:
Hiking back in to Okpo, lunch with Jane, checking out a new gym, coffee with Jane.
Should be a great day.
Good night fellow readers.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
March 19, 2010
So someone (Chulmin) told me last night that I don't update this thing often enough. He quoted the last couple of posts starting off with, "Sorry its been awhile..." Haha. So, here we go. I am going to try to commit to writing on this thing at least 3 times a week. Maybe it won't be very entertaining to read, but at least I will be doing it. Life is good here. Diet has been better and I'm working on the exercise part. Trying out some new dvd's at home. I am getting excited though as the weather progresses to spring time because I would like to do more things outside (Though I'm not looking forward to mosquito season). Work is alright. We have a new director coming in to take over the school next week which means at least two company dinner nights next week along with noraebangs. Good times will be had I'm sure.
Probably the most irritating thing going on in life right now is the fact that I have decided to finally try to learn Korean. I am NOT good at all. I never felt like the stupid kid when I was growing up going to school, but trying to learn this language makes me feel constantly stupid. I literally have no clue how I am going to do this. Plus, I'm taking a class on Saturday's but everyone else in the class is an advanced level. I'm the only one who is beginner. I'm going to go to the second class tomorrow, but if they are going way too fast for me, then I might have to reconsider how I am going to learn Korean. I definitely want to do it, but I also know that I can only go so fast.
In other news, I completed my TESOL certification this week. Woohoo! Yeah ME! Now I have a 5 unit course on young learners to get an additional certification. Then I will finish everything off with a business english course later next month.
Hope everyone is doing well. Feel free to leave comments anytime.
Probably the most irritating thing going on in life right now is the fact that I have decided to finally try to learn Korean. I am NOT good at all. I never felt like the stupid kid when I was growing up going to school, but trying to learn this language makes me feel constantly stupid. I literally have no clue how I am going to do this. Plus, I'm taking a class on Saturday's but everyone else in the class is an advanced level. I'm the only one who is beginner. I'm going to go to the second class tomorrow, but if they are going way too fast for me, then I might have to reconsider how I am going to learn Korean. I definitely want to do it, but I also know that I can only go so fast.
In other news, I completed my TESOL certification this week. Woohoo! Yeah ME! Now I have a 5 unit course on young learners to get an additional certification. Then I will finish everything off with a business english course later next month.
Hope everyone is doing well. Feel free to leave comments anytime.
Monday, March 8, 2010
1st update of 2010
I am so sorry for all out there in the cyberworld. I have been really bad about updating this thing. Life is good here in SK. In January I went to Japan with Chulmin. In February we celebrated our 100 days (Korean tradition). Also in February we had winter camp for the school at a ski resort. Thanks to my time there I was able to kick start my weight loss again. I had been on a plateau for a solid two months prior to that. Anyways, I am now down 87lbs. Hoping to break the 100lb mark by the end of this month. So, to give myself some extra motivation, here are some before/current pictures. Hope life is going well for everyone home in the states. The plan is to be home by July 1st for a solid month and a half or two months. Woohoo!!!
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Update 2009
For anyone out there still looking for an update, here it is. Sorry I have been so bad about blogging on here. Life is going great. Work is good, most of the time. I have a wonderful guy in my life and things couldn't be better. Korea is more than I ever thought it would be. I actually am really enjoying my time here. On the weight loss front, I am down 80lbs. Still have 80 more to go, but I'll be starting to work on that again come January. Here are some updated pictures from my life in Korea right now. Love to you all back home in the states. :)
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
So Sorry
It's been over a month since I have posted on here. Just been very busy with work or just nothing to really report home about. I did go out yesterday and get a new haircut and color. Behold the new me:
Thursday, July 9, 2009
A Quick Hello
Hello to everyone out there,
Hope all is well. Things are going good here. Kay and I are finally settling into our new apartment (even though it is smaller than what we are used to). I take Kay for walks around the beach when weather permits. Recently we have been having really bad monsoon rain so that has limited our walking hours outside.
Work is going well. I truly like and enjoy working with all the other teachers here. It is nice to have other people to talk to, unlike my old school where I was the only foreigner. The English Village is a unique experience and I am slowly learning my way. So far, I have spent this past week teaching hotel class and math class.
Math class was a far stretch for me. But, all the nervous energy helped me make it through teaching it 7 different times so far. Imagine that, me teaching math. Hahaha!
Ok, well I will write more later. Miss and love you all!
~Shannon
Hope all is well. Things are going good here. Kay and I are finally settling into our new apartment (even though it is smaller than what we are used to). I take Kay for walks around the beach when weather permits. Recently we have been having really bad monsoon rain so that has limited our walking hours outside.
Work is going well. I truly like and enjoy working with all the other teachers here. It is nice to have other people to talk to, unlike my old school where I was the only foreigner. The English Village is a unique experience and I am slowly learning my way. So far, I have spent this past week teaching hotel class and math class.
Math class was a far stretch for me. But, all the nervous energy helped me make it through teaching it 7 different times so far. Imagine that, me teaching math. Hahaha!
Ok, well I will write more later. Miss and love you all!
~Shannon
Friday, June 26, 2009
Changes, Changes, and Changes
Just wanted to give an update to everyone back home.
I have found a new job and I move on Monday. I am leaving Seoul and moving to Geoje Island. It is located in the farthest southern point of South Korea on an island connected recently to the mainland by a bridge.
I have accepted a new position there teaching for an English Village. The pay is great, and I'm excited about experiencing the island life. Kay is excited too, I think. :) Haha!
Anyways, I'll be busy with this being my last weekend in Seoul so drop me an email. I leave for Geoje on Monday at 12pm. They are sending a car to move me and all of my things. It's a 5 1/2 hour car ride. But so much better than a 5 hour ferry ride. :)
I look forward to telling you all about the new job and posting new pictures of my new home.
Love to all in AZ, TN, TX, and MT (you to Rosie!)
Thanks for all the continued support.
I have found a new job and I move on Monday. I am leaving Seoul and moving to Geoje Island. It is located in the farthest southern point of South Korea on an island connected recently to the mainland by a bridge.
I have accepted a new position there teaching for an English Village. The pay is great, and I'm excited about experiencing the island life. Kay is excited too, I think. :) Haha!
Anyways, I'll be busy with this being my last weekend in Seoul so drop me an email. I leave for Geoje on Monday at 12pm. They are sending a car to move me and all of my things. It's a 5 1/2 hour car ride. But so much better than a 5 hour ferry ride. :)
I look forward to telling you all about the new job and posting new pictures of my new home.
Love to all in AZ, TN, TX, and MT (you to Rosie!)
Thanks for all the continued support.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Korea's Best Kept Secret Part Two
Day Two: Sunday
We booked our tickets on the last ferry out so that we would be able to enjoy another day at the beach. Which, of course we did! :) Again the weather was great. Very foggy though which made it very mysterious when I was on my own walking on down in the water and all of a sudden I could see no where but a few feet around me. It was such an enjoyable day.
After we hit the beach, we packed things up to head to the port to spend the afternoon having lunch and taking more pictures. Of course, as we found a place to have lunch, we also found some good beer, a deck of cards, and the guys sitting next to us gave us our first taste of soju. All in all a great end to a quick but wonderful island getaway.
We booked our tickets on the last ferry out so that we would be able to enjoy another day at the beach. Which, of course we did! :) Again the weather was great. Very foggy though which made it very mysterious when I was on my own walking on down in the water and all of a sudden I could see no where but a few feet around me. It was such an enjoyable day.
After we hit the beach, we packed things up to head to the port to spend the afternoon having lunch and taking more pictures. Of course, as we found a place to have lunch, we also found some good beer, a deck of cards, and the guys sitting next to us gave us our first taste of soju. All in all a great end to a quick but wonderful island getaway.
Korea's Best Kept Secret Part One
Hello everyone,
So much to write about from this weekend. It was an amazing trip and I was so bummed that we had to come back home last night. I took over 150 pictures but I'm only going to post a few of them on here. If you would like to see more of them, you can check them out on my facebook page.
So, Saturday morning rolled around bright and early. I was so excited I only got two hours of sleep. We were on the subway by 6:20am. Grabbed a taxi to the domestic ferry terminal. It was amazing to see people boarding these ferries with boxes and boxes of camping supplies, fishing supplies, etc. I wish I had brought my motion sickness medicine though because the ride out to the island (1hr in length) was kinda a little too bumpy for me. Plus we stalled in the middle of the ocean for like 5 minutes. Since we had bought tickets for the express ferry it turned out that the express ferry was not an open air ferry but a closed in "bus on a boat" type of set up. Anyways, as we got closer to the island I pulled out our hotel information. We had set up for them to pick us up at the port to bring us to the hotel cause we had never been there before and we knew the hotel was not walking distance to the port. So our hotel's name is in Korean and Tina and I are looking at the paper trying to figure out how we are going to find this van when we notice what looks like numbers in the spelling. 7-21-1-1. So we get off the ferry and were looking for 7-21-1-1. It was really funny at the time. Anyways, we found them really easily. They had parked right there on the port.
So we hopped in the van and they sped off to the hotel. I guess its not the vacation season right now because when we first got to the hotel we were the only guests. Later in the day and later that evening more and more people showed up. Here is a picture of our hotel and the view from our 3rd floor room.
We quickly unpacked some things, grabbed our beach bags and headed out in search of some lunch (having not ate breakfast I was hungry!) and to head to the beach. Well, like I said before, it was not vacation season so our hotel's restaurant was closed. Kind of fustrating when your really hungry. Anyways, we decided to wander on our own to the beach and figured we would find something along the way. Sure enough we did. Here are our fabulous pictures of our first lunch on the island.
After lunch we hit the beach. It was absolutely perfect weather. The tide was so far out it was incredible. I didn't even spend anytime laying out on the beach, I just spent like 3 hours walking the beach looking for shells and walking in the water.
After heading back to the hotel for a quick nap (cough, cough, 4 hour nap), we headed back out to the beach for the sunset and to walk to the pier on the other side of the beach. Here are some amazing photos of the sunset. I also took some beautiful pictures of a Korean woman and then her with her husband and son. I think they came out amazingly!
After hiking back up the beach we stopped in at our lunch spot from earlier in the day and ordered dinner. We thought we were ordering what the other people had been eating, but they ended up serving us rice and spicy pork. Which was good food but it was hard to stomach cause it was REALLY spicy. When I asked for some lettuce to eat with the food, the older lady brought the lettuce and some bean paste for us. We procceeded to eat the lettuce with our rice and she came over and was speaking to us in Korean. I'm pretty sure she was saying, "No, no, you don't eat it like that". Haha! The next thing I know she is taking a piece of lettuce, meat, and bean paste, wrapping it up and shoving it in my face saying "Ah, Ah". Literally, I could not take it from her hands and feed myself she made me open my mouth and she shoved it in. It was the most hilarious thing ever. The experience made up for the spicy food. Haha!
And that my friends, was the end of day one on the island.
So much to write about from this weekend. It was an amazing trip and I was so bummed that we had to come back home last night. I took over 150 pictures but I'm only going to post a few of them on here. If you would like to see more of them, you can check them out on my facebook page.
So, Saturday morning rolled around bright and early. I was so excited I only got two hours of sleep. We were on the subway by 6:20am. Grabbed a taxi to the domestic ferry terminal. It was amazing to see people boarding these ferries with boxes and boxes of camping supplies, fishing supplies, etc. I wish I had brought my motion sickness medicine though because the ride out to the island (1hr in length) was kinda a little too bumpy for me. Plus we stalled in the middle of the ocean for like 5 minutes. Since we had bought tickets for the express ferry it turned out that the express ferry was not an open air ferry but a closed in "bus on a boat" type of set up. Anyways, as we got closer to the island I pulled out our hotel information. We had set up for them to pick us up at the port to bring us to the hotel cause we had never been there before and we knew the hotel was not walking distance to the port. So our hotel's name is in Korean and Tina and I are looking at the paper trying to figure out how we are going to find this van when we notice what looks like numbers in the spelling. 7-21-1-1. So we get off the ferry and were looking for 7-21-1-1. It was really funny at the time. Anyways, we found them really easily. They had parked right there on the port.
So we hopped in the van and they sped off to the hotel. I guess its not the vacation season right now because when we first got to the hotel we were the only guests. Later in the day and later that evening more and more people showed up. Here is a picture of our hotel and the view from our 3rd floor room.
We quickly unpacked some things, grabbed our beach bags and headed out in search of some lunch (having not ate breakfast I was hungry!) and to head to the beach. Well, like I said before, it was not vacation season so our hotel's restaurant was closed. Kind of fustrating when your really hungry. Anyways, we decided to wander on our own to the beach and figured we would find something along the way. Sure enough we did. Here are our fabulous pictures of our first lunch on the island.
After lunch we hit the beach. It was absolutely perfect weather. The tide was so far out it was incredible. I didn't even spend anytime laying out on the beach, I just spent like 3 hours walking the beach looking for shells and walking in the water.
After heading back to the hotel for a quick nap (cough, cough, 4 hour nap), we headed back out to the beach for the sunset and to walk to the pier on the other side of the beach. Here are some amazing photos of the sunset. I also took some beautiful pictures of a Korean woman and then her with her husband and son. I think they came out amazingly!
After hiking back up the beach we stopped in at our lunch spot from earlier in the day and ordered dinner. We thought we were ordering what the other people had been eating, but they ended up serving us rice and spicy pork. Which was good food but it was hard to stomach cause it was REALLY spicy. When I asked for some lettuce to eat with the food, the older lady brought the lettuce and some bean paste for us. We procceeded to eat the lettuce with our rice and she came over and was speaking to us in Korean. I'm pretty sure she was saying, "No, no, you don't eat it like that". Haha! The next thing I know she is taking a piece of lettuce, meat, and bean paste, wrapping it up and shoving it in my face saying "Ah, Ah". Literally, I could not take it from her hands and feed myself she made me open my mouth and she shoved it in. It was the most hilarious thing ever. The experience made up for the spicy food. Haha!
And that my friends, was the end of day one on the island.
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