Discovering something new everyday: Less than two weeks to go

My time in Chuncheon is almost over and it all feels a bit surreal. I have six teaching days at Language 2020 left, which I'm actually quite excited about. I have a lot of mixed feelings. I'm ecstatic to finally get out an see SouthEast Asia, but I'm also really sad to leave all of the great friends I've made here. I'm sure once I'm lying on a beach in Thailand y sadness will go away quickly though.

The past month has been awesome and busy. I've been hanging out with Koreans more since I met Chan Woong and my Korean listening skills have improved a lot. I'm extremely busy trying to juggle my work schedule and get ready for this trip. I'm trying to be organized and I've created a "to do" list. My goal is to scratch off one thing on my list each day and hopefully I should be stress free and well prepared before I leave. I haven't done as much research as I had hoped to, but I'm sure we'll just wing it and find our groove once we get there. We have a rough plan so far, but I feel it's a little too rough. I want to completely update this blog before I leave, which is a huge task, but I plan to follow through. I have at least 5 more entries to finish before I leave, so please keeping checking every couple of days for something new.

Our plan as of now is to leave Korea on March 6th in the afternoon. I finish my school job on February 28th; Brandi and I plan to have a big "Happy Birthday to her and Good-bye for me" party that night. March 1st is a holiday in Korea, so we will recuperate and move out of my apartment,. Then on March 2nd, we start one more journey before our big trip. My friend Chris offered us some extra work for three days at a university camp somewhere in Southern Korea; I don't know where yet. That really doesn't matter much to me because everything is paid for and we are making a nice little wad of cash in three days. Brandi's going to try out teaching too and pick up some extra cash, which will really help her out on the trip. Basically we're going to make enough in those three days to cover our flights to SouthEast Asia,( not quite but close) which is a great financial break for us. So we're going to be at this camp from March 2nd to the 5th. Then we'll hoof it back to Chuncheon to drop off our bags and pick up our backpacks. Our flight to Bangkok leaves on March 6th in the afternoon. We don't arrive in Bangkok until midnight, so I think we're just going to stay there and catch a flight to Chiang Mai the next morning. We are meeting Ben and Lisa in Chiang Mai on the 10th and then continuing into Laos together. That's the most solid plans we have so far, everything else from there is a bit up in the air.

We did get what I consider to be a pretty good flight deal. For about $950.00 CAD we're getting a flight to Bangkok,then from Bangkok to Hanoi, Phnom Penh to Bangkok, Bangkok to Hong Kong and Hong Kong to Incheon. From what I've researched, this seems to be one of the best deals for a one year ticket and I'm quite satisfied. Brandi and I will probably buy a few more flights on our own along the way as well.

I think Brandi is really enjoying her time in Korea. She's been eating a lot of Korean food and she likes most of it. It's really nice to have her around, although I'm not at home much to spend time with her. I leave the apartment around 9:30 in the morning and come back for about an hour at lunch and then leave again until 10:00. She's been reading, walking around Chuncheon and surfing the net a lot while I'm gone. She's also somehow managed to make some kind of crazy church friends that won't leave us alone now. One afternoon she was in my apartment and someone knocked on my door. She answered and it was these Church missionaries or something. I don't know. They're all over this city constantly trying to get you to fill out these survey forms. Anyway, they managed to barge into my apartment, make her fill out a survey, use my bathroom, stay for 45 minutes and snoop around my apartment looking at all my pictures. And of course they spoke absolutely no English. Since that day they have been coming around and knocking on my door ever since. Needless to say Brandi hasn't been answering it. They're quite persistent though. They stood there and knocked for more than 20 minutes one day. Then last week as I was coming home from the preschool one was standing outside my door. She wanted me to fill out a survey but I said I already had and I was busy. Then she started motioning and talking about Brandi. I told her no and locked the door behind me. She knocked on our door for at least 15 minutes. I was yelling "Go Away and No!" but she wasn't getting the hint. If they come back when I'm home it's not going to be a pretty picture. Brandi really seems to be attracting the wackos. She had some Korean guy follow her downtown all afternoon. He wouldn't stop following her and then he wanted to get in the same taxi as her. She managed to shake him lose though.

We experimented a little more with Korean cuisine on Thursday and Friday night. Thursday we went out with Sang Jun, one of the workers at my gym and his friend. We ate raw fish, Hwei, which I've had before. It's really delicious. We also had fish head chigae (stew), which was a little too fishy for my taste buds. Then on Friday we went out with Chan Woong and his friends to a restaurant for Dalk Bal (Chicken feet), Jjukkumi (some type of a baby octopus) and Dakalbi (plain old chicken). Brandi and I took full advantage and ate everything that was on the grill. I personally liked the chicken feet better than the baby octopus but Brandi said she couldn't handle it because she kept thinking about our chickens at home and their little feet stepping in chicken poo. Hahaha. She preferred eating octopus brains. Anyway, it was fun and my stomach managed to handle it. I've been quite sick for the past two weeks. Apparently I have irritable bowel syndrome. I'm trying to figure out how to cure it before we go traveling. I'm a bit concerned about how my stomach is going to react to our travel plans, but hopefully it will cooperate.

Last night we went out for my friend Keri's 27th birthday, A group of about 7, went out and ate shabu shabu, but I had to miss dinner because I worked until 8:00p.m. After I met up with the group and we went for cake and a few drinks to Bod and Andrea's house. After a few hours there we headed to Lava 2 for some dancing. Keri and Brandi tore up the dance floor and Ronnie and George, my new co-workers even joined in when the old school music came on.

Today Brandi and I are off to Everland, a Korean amusement park. Chan Woong is using his one day off this month to take us there. We're going with his hilarious friend Won Luck. It should be a good time and I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures.

THURSDAY NIGHT

Me, Sang Jun, and his friend Eun Sok