In less than a week, I'll be off to Paris to start the European leg of my world tour! For now, I'm wondering how best to apportion my possessions into two (2) suitcases and a backpack. It's especially tough because (according to my all-knowing iphone) the weather in France is being extremely erratic. In this week alone the high temperature has ranged from 60 to 85. That's a huge difference, and I don't know whether to pack more summer clothes or more fall, or even winter! If I get over there with a bunch of sweaters and long sleeved shirts, will the temperature suddenly decide to stay in the 80s for a bit? Is winter going to come early, leaving me wishing I'd brought heavier jackets? Who knows! Thanks, Paris weather!
Other than that, I'm fairly excited since I've never been to Europe before. It'll be totally different from anything I've experienced so far! I'm sure Parisians can't be any more rude than Koreans, so at least there's that... and there's no way the metro can be any more crowded than the morning rush or the last train on a Friday night in Tokyo... Anyway I'll find out for myself soon enough what French life is like. At the very least it should be interesting.
I'll try to take more pictures and post them up here, but no promises.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
North Shore (and others)!
I took a circle island tour today in order to see as much as possible before I leave tomorrow (!) It was super fun, the guide was funny and the people were cool for the most part. Now I can officially say that I've been to Kailua and the North Shore, woo! It's not winter anymore so the waves were not so impressive at Waimea Bay and Sunset Beach, but it was still pretty cool. I definitely want to go back in the wintertime and see the surfers tackling giant waves, though. I had the opportunity, why oh why did I wait so long to make it up there?! Well, I know why; it was a combination of not having a license and so not able to rent a car (license is now found though, yay! it was hiding in a bag of cosmetics, of all things), not wanting to take a bus for three hours, and always either working or feeling run down from working and as such not really wanting to make much effort beyond walking the block down to Waikiki beach. Sigh. I want to come back here on a pure vacation, no stress or worrying about work! I've done the local thing, now I want to be a tourist.
Anyway the only pictures I have access to right now are the ones of pineapples that I took with my phone after my camera battery died. After I charge up the battery and transfer the pictures to my computer I'll post the rest (there are a lot, Hawaii is so scenic!).
Anyway, enjoy the pineapples, lol.
...
Or not. It appears my internet connection is not up to posting pictures at the moment. It is so fickle! ちょ～～むかつく！！
Anyway the only pictures I have access to right now are the ones of pineapples that I took with my phone after my camera battery died. After I charge up the battery and transfer the pictures to my computer I'll post the rest (there are a lot, Hawaii is so scenic!).
Anyway, enjoy the pineapples, lol.
...
Or not. It appears my internet connection is not up to posting pictures at the moment. It is so fickle! ちょ～～むかつく！！
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Hawaii
From subzero temperatures and snow and ice to nice warm Hawaii. I'm enjoying it here so far, it's great to not have to put on seven layers of clothing just to leave the house! I could wish it were a little more metropolitan, and had a better transit system, but it's also nice to be in a more relaxed atmosphere for a while, instead of the major crowds of rushing people in the cities I've been living in. I haven't really met anyone here yet besides my cousins and a few of their friends, but hopefully that will change once I start working. I got a job at Armani Exchange that I'll be starting Monday; the people there seem pretty cool from what I've seen of them. I can't wait to start working, because 1. I need money and 2. I'm getting bored. My cousins are super busy finishing up with their school, so they're not doing anything besides studying and working. Aside from all that, it's really great to not be teaching. My last job in Korea wasn't bad at all, but even so I'm so happy that I don't have to deal with teaching anyone anymore.
My one gripe: tipping! I had forgotten just how much tipping you have to do here in America. I miss not having to worry about that. Also: taxes not included on sticker prices. Why doesn't America include tax on sticker prices? It's not like it would be hard, and it's so much easier for the consumer. They do it everywhere else (not just Japan and Korea, but in Europe too; my friends who have been there have commented on it too).
Anyway I have to go get ready for another interview. Aloha!
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Move to Sinchon; trip to the DMZ
I got a winter camp in the south of Seoul, so I will be in Korea until January 21. In anticipation of the winter camp, I moved down to a place in Sinchon, and I love it! Sinchon is a great neighborhood. There are three universities nearby, so there's plenty of 24-hour convenience stores and bars and restaurants and karaoke and coffee shops and cute little clothing and shoe shops. I absolutely adore living here. It has completely changed my view of Korea. Nowon was super boring and completely residential, and super far away from everything. Sinchon is very central, I can get most places very easily and quickly. It's still about half an hour from where my winter camp will be, but it's worth the commute.
In other news, I went to the DMZ today. I went in a big tour group, so it was totally safe. We toured two of the tunnels that the North Koreans dug towards Seoul in anticipation of a surprise attack on the South, and we also visited the remains of the old Labor Party headquarters. We visited the train station that used to go into North Korea before the service was stopped, and we also visited the "Freedom Bridge" that South Korean POWs crossed over from the North into the South after the armistice. There was a ton of propaganda about uniting the two countries again, and the words "freedom" and "peace" were peppered all over the place, even as we were learning about infiltration tunnels and visiting a site where a train station was bombed and reading about incidents like when two American soldiers were cutting down a tree that was blocking the view into North Korea (on completely legal ground) and North Korean soldiers came by and killed them with their own axes.
There were binoculars to look into North Korea, but there wasn't actually much to see. There's a propaganda village set up to make it look like the North is more prosperous than it is. You can see the fence that separates South and North Korea. There were guards all over the place, and strict rules about where you could and couldn't take pictures. As we were entering the zone, a guard caught one of the people on our bus taking pictures of the guard station, and she had to get off so that he could erase it. You weren't supposed to take pictures in the tunnels, but I think that some people managed to get some anyway; once they're posted on Facebook I'll take them and post them here. You weren't supposed to take pictures of the signs warning about landmines either, but again, I think some people managed it. You could take pictures of North Korea in the distance, but you had to stand behind a line a certain distance away from the edge of the observation deck for some reason.
The tunnels were interesting; there are four, but we only went to two of them. One of them was supposed to be big enough for entire troops as well as tanks to come through; the others for troops and smaller arms, such as cannons. We had to wear helmets when we went in though, because the ceilings are so low and jagged. Even I had to duck a lot going through, and I am pretty short. I can't even imagine whole troops going through, in the dark, and with explosives in the walls too.
Our tour guide had an uncle who ended up on the north side after the division, and his family hasn't heard from him since. Apparently during the Clinton administration, South Koreans were able to visit the demarcation line and reunite with their family in the North briefly; there were even talks of Kim Jong-il coming south to talk with the South Korean president. However, after Bush took office and declared the Axis of Evil, the visits stopped and North Korea completely closed up again.
Anyway, I will post pictures as soon as people have them up on Facebook. I also have pictures from an ice-skating trip I took a couple days ago.
In other news, I went to the DMZ today. I went in a big tour group, so it was totally safe. We toured two of the tunnels that the North Koreans dug towards Seoul in anticipation of a surprise attack on the South, and we also visited the remains of the old Labor Party headquarters. We visited the train station that used to go into North Korea before the service was stopped, and we also visited the "Freedom Bridge" that South Korean POWs crossed over from the North into the South after the armistice. There was a ton of propaganda about uniting the two countries again, and the words "freedom" and "peace" were peppered all over the place, even as we were learning about infiltration tunnels and visiting a site where a train station was bombed and reading about incidents like when two American soldiers were cutting down a tree that was blocking the view into North Korea (on completely legal ground) and North Korean soldiers came by and killed them with their own axes.
There were binoculars to look into North Korea, but there wasn't actually much to see. There's a propaganda village set up to make it look like the North is more prosperous than it is. You can see the fence that separates South and North Korea. There were guards all over the place, and strict rules about where you could and couldn't take pictures. As we were entering the zone, a guard caught one of the people on our bus taking pictures of the guard station, and she had to get off so that he could erase it. You weren't supposed to take pictures in the tunnels, but I think that some people managed to get some anyway; once they're posted on Facebook I'll take them and post them here. You weren't supposed to take pictures of the signs warning about landmines either, but again, I think some people managed it. You could take pictures of North Korea in the distance, but you had to stand behind a line a certain distance away from the edge of the observation deck for some reason.
The tunnels were interesting; there are four, but we only went to two of them. One of them was supposed to be big enough for entire troops as well as tanks to come through; the others for troops and smaller arms, such as cannons. We had to wear helmets when we went in though, because the ceilings are so low and jagged. Even I had to duck a lot going through, and I am pretty short. I can't even imagine whole troops going through, in the dark, and with explosives in the walls too.
Our tour guide had an uncle who ended up on the north side after the division, and his family hasn't heard from him since. Apparently during the Clinton administration, South Koreans were able to visit the demarcation line and reunite with their family in the North briefly; there were even talks of Kim Jong-il coming south to talk with the South Korean president. However, after Bush took office and declared the Axis of Evil, the visits stopped and North Korea completely closed up again.
Anyway, I will post pictures as soon as people have them up on Facebook. I also have pictures from an ice-skating trip I took a couple days ago.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Moving again, and pictures
So it looks like I will be moving yet again! This time, I'm coming back to the States - Hawaii, to be specific. I can't wait to get out of Korea~ Still undecided about specific dates; waiting to hear from a winter camp here that I'll probably take if I get it; 2.7 mil for 18 days is pretty good money. It will be a pain to have to move if I do get it, since I can't stay in my apartment past Dec. 15 and anyway the camp is two hours from where I live now, though. If I don't get it, I'm looking to move out by the 8th.
That's about all that's going on here at the moment; just packing and waiting right now. Meanwhile, here are some random pictures from the past year. Halloween here in Seoul and a few pics from photoshoots I did in Tokyo.
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