Thanksgiving in Beijing!

Clayton and I have just returned from an amazing Thanksgiving vacay to Beijing, China. This was my first time to Beijing and Clayton's second visit. Even though the city is extremely modern with it's highrise buildings and super modern hotels, it still has this really old ancient feel to it. Which is nice because isn't that why most people travel to Beijing, to experience first hand a piece of ancient history? Before I begin this wonderful story of our trip, I feel that you first must know some fun facts about Beijing and China.

1) China is approx. 3500 years old

2) Beijing has been the capital for 900 years

3) In Chinese, Beijing means "Northern Capital"

4) The population of Beijing is 21million

We arrived in Beijing around lunch time and was greeted by our AMAZING tour guide, Emily, who is chinese but completely fluent in English. Our group consisted of about 22 people, mostly couples and 2 families of 3. We hopped on a large tour bus and started off into the city. Our first stop was lunch, Cantonese style. I couldn't tell you what or where the resturaunt was but the food was freakin delicious; there was all kinds of pork and chicken dishes with rice and vegetables. With this group tour package that we booked, it included all of our meals except for one, over the course of 3 days. Needless to say we were fed VERY WELL. After lunch, we hopped back on the bus and headed for The Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City

The thing about Beijing that's crazy is that it has all this ancient history, ancient architecture, and it's all in the middle of modern city. It's not completely how I imagined it would be. The Forbidden City is the place where the Emperor and royal family lived. It's called the Forbidden City because at one point in time it was off limits to all "commoners." The City has 9,999 rooms in all...and they're not small rooms by any means. It was hard to get a good grasp as to how big the City was from inside; you would have to go up on the hill close by (popular place to take pictures) to look down and see just how HUGE this place was. All of the walls were painted red and all of the ceilings were gold. Red and gold symbolize royalty in China. So any building with red walls and a gold roof was a "royal" building. This still holds true today. You will not see modern architecture with red walls and gold ceilings. You might be thinking, "hey, the Chinese flag is red and gold, does that mean it's royal?" The red and gold in the Chinese flag are made to symbolize communism (red) and the color of the chinese people (yellow)....a little different than the ancient royalty. While in the ancient city we learned that emperors did not practice monogamy...this may not be very shocking. Emperors were allowed to have up to 3.000 concubines, and some dynasties allowed for more. Concubines were women that "maintained a relationship with the Emperor, but could not marry him." I'm sure you catch my drift. Each concubine also had her own room, which in my opinion was really smart on the emperor's part because putting 3,000 women together in one place could be trouble! Clayton stated that he would for sure make me his top concubine and I would have the largest room out of all the concubines. All I have to say is thank goodness we are living in 2010 and not 500AD

Close up of Mao

In Tiananmen Square

If you walk all the way through the Forbidden City, you eventually come out to Tiananmen Square. One of the things that amazed me the most about Tianamen Square, was that our tour guide knew nothing about the massacre that occurred there in 1989. Now, our tour guide, Emily, is not that young, probably in her late 30's to mid 40's if I were to guess. She would have been old enough to remember this event. Emily informed our group that we (Americans) probably know more about the massacre than she does, because information was withheld from the Chinese people by the Chinese government. She also informed us that we should not talk about the massacre once we actually reached the square. SCANDALOUS! The square itself is huge, I believe it can hold about 1 million people?? Maybe I'm making that up though...I'm not sure. What was nice for Clayton was that he could see all of the renovations that were not completed in 2006, now complete. In the square there is a large memorial, it look identical to Lincoln's memorial in Washington, that houses Mao's remains. We didn't get to go there or really very close, but it was cool to see from a distance.

After the City and the Square we went to see the Peking Acrobatic show, which was UNREAL. A small part of me was very impressed and loved the show, but the other part of me felt horrible for these performers. Most of these performers from a young age are picked to do these things and the way they move their bodies and the positions that they put themselves in is NOT NATURAL. The show was held in a large theater. Our group sat in the front middle section of the theater, pretty close up. To our left was a large group of Chinese men. They weren't in suits, just regualr pants and shirt, and some looked a little rough or unshaven. When our group walked in, all of the men, there were about 50, stared at us. Now I have been stared at A LOT over here in the Eastern part of the world, but this is by far the most intense stare I've ever experienced. It was as if we were zoo animals that they had never seen before!! A small part of me wanted to stare right back at them, or go poke their eyes out because some of them were not blinking...but I realized that I am almost 25 years old and that maybe I should act my age. Clayton and I discussed how maybe this group of men was from outside of the city and maybe we were the first foreigners aka non-asian people that they had ever seen. You could tell that they were fascinated by our group, but even more fascinated by our tour guide Emily (who again is Chinese) and her ability to speak fluent English. After the show we had Peking Duck for our Thanksgiving meal. It was DELICIOUS! Completely worth going to Beijing for. We checked into the hotel at 8:30 that evening and PASSED OUT!

Jade Buddha. Rubbing the forehead and belly is good luck!

Day 2 was the longest day on the trip. We woke up early and headed straight to the Jade Carving Factory. After doing some research on Jade prior to the trip and then seeing it first hand in the Factory, I have come to the conclusion that it is THE MOST gorgeous gem stone out there. The carving factory was unbelievable...and expensive. Jade is not a renewable resource like pearls...so once it's gone...it's gone. Prior to and during the trip, all I wanted was a jade Buddha statue. Unfortunately, they were very expensive and all I could settle for was a picture with one (above). I told Clayton that we are just going to have to budget for a jade buddha...let's create a money market account for one, or something, because it is on my MUST HAVE LIST. Jade is thought to bring you good luck. It is symbolic to the Chinese culture and to other Eastern cultures as well. It is thought to bring spiritual healing to those who wear it/have it.

Climbing the Great Wall

After the Jade Factory we ventured to THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA! The whole purpose for coming on this trip was so that I could see it first hand AND climb that bad boy. The great wall stretches over 6,000 miles long...twice the size of the States...and it was all made by hand. It was orginally built to keep the Mongols out. Those Mongolians must have been pretty nasty and scary for the Chinese to build a 6,000 mile long wall. Most of it has been renovated, but the original wall still stands strong and untouched out in the Gobi Dessert. Most tourists are not going to venture out that way because...well...it's a dessert. Only 9 people have ever walked the entire wall, I believe 2 or 3 of them have been Americans. Experiencing it first hand makes it easy to see why it's one of the ancient wonders of the world. Clayton and I set out on our hike up the wall, and boy was it a hike. The wall is built through the mountains....like up the peak and down the peak. So you are literally climbing a mountain. The part where we climbed was ALL stairs. Clayton said that the spot that he went to last time was mostly flat and inclined slightly. There were some parts where the stairs were so big that they came up to my knee. Clayton and I had SO much fun climbing. Unfortunately, since it is late Fall/early Winter, and because it was so hazy outside, our pictures are not THE best.

Large Silk Worms and Lobsters

Centipede and Silk Worms

Scorpians and Worms



Sheep "genitalia"



Snake

We concluded our afternoon by visiting the Summer Palace and then heading straight to the Pearl Factory. The Summer Palace was FREEZING, partly because it was on a huge lake. If there is one place that I would want to come back to it would be the Palace simply because I didn't feel we had enough time there, and it was almost sunset. The Summer Palace is exactly what it's name states....a palace for the royal family to go to in the Summer. We walked over to the Pearl Factory right after and were sadly disappointed in what we found. Our tour brought us to one of the government stores, which as you can imagine had outrageous prices on pearls. Seeing as one of our missions was to buy 7 sets of pearls,  this looked like trouble. Luckily Clayton had been to Beijing before and knew where we could get some CHEAP ones. This same evening is also when we went to Wangfujing Street in downtown Beijing. I had personally never heard of Wangfujing Street prior to coming to Beijing, but it is famous for it's outdoor snack stand that stretches about a block. This snack stand is not an ordinary snack stand. What makes it unique is that it sells BUGS and other animal body parts that you wouldn't normally eat. For instance, some of the stands sold raw squid...like a whole one, along with sheep testicles and sheep penis.....YES THAT IS RIGHT, SHEEP GENITALIA!! I almost thew up. They also sold snakes...whole ones, scorpians, silk worms, centipedes, and other deliciousness. Now the process works like this. You choose your "snack" which is served on a kabob stick, the chinese cook will then throw it in a large grease container and fry the heck out of it. It comes out, looking still the same, only a littel crunchier, and ENJOY! There was a father/son duo that decided to order scorpians. They ate the scorpian and unfortunately the son, who was about 15, got the stinger stuck in his braces. I'm pretty sure it was that scorpian's way of getting him back. Above are pictures of several of the delicious items for sale. If you're wondering if Clayton or I tried any of these snacks, the answer is NO. I feel like that shouldn't surprise anyone.

Day 3 consisted of the Silk Factory, the Temple of Heaven, and some MAJOR SHOPPING! The silk factory was sweet because we could see how silk is made starting from the silk larvae all the way to making the blankets/clothes. Like with the other two factories, this too was a government store, which means it was expensive, which means we did not purchase any! We also ventured to the Temple of Heaven which was cool because Clayton was not able to see it last time due to the renovations in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. It was gorgeous! A massive temple made for the Emperor to pray to the heaven for a good harvest.

Our shopping adventure was exactly what we had expected, lots of bargaining, lots of screaming, and Clayton getting beaten/ pulled on by the Chinese vendors. The Chinese vendors referred to us as "freind." They would say "Friend, gimme your best price, no joke price, but serious price." Of course Clayton would low ball them and give them what the referred to as a "joke price." To which they would then respond with "no way, I lose money, you are killing me!" This conversation was the same no matter what vendor we went to. It was EXHAUSTING! They would beat Clayton with a calculator, follow him and chase him down, pulling on him to come and buy something. Luckily Clayton knew what he was doing and we got some SWEET deals. I would disclose what all we bought, but 2/3 of it are gifts!

So after 3 exhausting days of running around we finally made it home. Our next international trip involves coming HOME for Christmas. We are so looking forward to being with our family and friends over the holidays. It will be Clayton's first time in the States for Christmas since 2007. Clayton will be staying for 2 weeks and I will be staying for 4 weeks.

Fall in Seoul

It's hard to believe that it's already November and that I've been here for 3 months now. I wake up some mornings not believing that I'm in Korea...but then I go outside and I see that I am the only American and I snap back to reality. Fall weather lasted for about a week. It went from hot to freezing cold over night which has left Clayton and I very sick over the last few weeks. We've learned that both of us cannot be sick at the same time because it's just not fun having to take care of someone else when you're sick!

We've made several trips into Seoul over the last few weekends and gone out to dinner with several friends. We hosted one of Clayton's buddies for a week and even prepared for Clayton's parents to visit. Unfortunately, they were not able to make it out this time around but plan on making it out sometime next summer.

We have also finished up coaching the 7-10 year old soccer league here on base (for the American children). I believe that some were aware that we were coaching, but for those of you who were not...Clayton and I each coached a team of 7-10 year olds (all boys...only one girl) and they would play each other every Saturday morning. Clayton nor I have ever coached ANYTHING before and while I have worked with children for the last year and a half, this was Clayton's first experience.....with children....potentially his last. The first day of try outs we had children running around screaming, chasing bugs, crying, playing a more updated form of cops and robbers, pulling down their pants and running around....and well you get the picture. None of the parents wanted to assist in any way in terms of disciplining their children. Some would yell, but they would never get up off the bleacher to actively discipline. Most of the kids had never played soccer, so we had to teach them the basics. Clayton did an amazing job of teaching them and being patient with them. You could tell they really respected him after a few practices. Me on the other hand...I was "the girl" in the group. None of the boys wanted to play on my team, in fact they would say "Awww man do I have to be on the girl's team," while pointing to me. My patience ran thin and at our last game where we had the coaches play, I ran all over them, scored, took shots on goal like I was back in high school and then would turn around and yell in their faces "HAH, THIS GIRL JUST RAN ALL OVER YOU!" Some may say that my actions were childish and unnecessary, however, I believe that they taught these young boys a valuable lesson...GIRLS ARE BETTER THAN BOYS.

Aside from soccer, we have ventured out to several korean restaurants here around town and outside of town. We have discovered our favorite restaurant and actively look for things to celebrate just so we can go and eat there. We've also tried several other places including a German style Korean restaurant called "German Haus." If you're thinking "wow that sounds interesting" you're not alone, we thought the same thing. The restaurant was gorgeous, had amazing german beer, and only one german entree.....sausage and potatoe wedges. The rest of t he entrees were korean style. The food was not impressive, but the beer was. The restrooms in this place were especially interesting...and complicated. While in the ladies room, I found a toilet that I could sit on...a large porcelin bowl, just like they have in the States. I was happy. When I sat down, I noticed to the side of my right butt cheek several buttons and a knob to turn. I thought to myself "Ohhhh this must be one of those high tech toilets that warm the seat while you do your business." (SIDENOTE: those actually exist here in Korea) I got excited naturally because I have never experienced the toilet seat warmer only heard tales of it. I couldn't read the buttons, obviously because they were in Korean, so I started pushing and turning. Next thing I know, a stream of water was pressing firmly into a specific area in my butt region (i'm trying to keep it PG). I screamed SO LOUD and JUMPED SO HIGH! I was locked into my little stall and didn't know what to do. Water was shooting me and over the stall door into the rest of the bathroom. I wanted to scream for help but I knew no one would be able to understand me, plus I hadn't pulled my pants up. I tried turning off the water, but was unsuccessful. I started laughing uncontrollably and snorting. I got down on the ground (after pulling my pants up), crawled under the jetting stream of water, and some how managed to press the right button that turns the water off. I was relieved momentarily. Then I opened the stall door and saw the RIVER of water on the floor, water dripping from the ceiling and trickling down the walls, and I panicked. I ran out, got Clayton, told him to go look inside. He asked what the heck had happened and why I was soaking wet. I told him we needed to get out ASAP. Thankfully, no one saw the condition of the bathroom and we didn't get in trouble.

Other than fighting off streams of toilet water, we've also ventured into Seoul several times to meet friends, have dinner, drink coffee, and tour the Lantern Festival....which is only cool to see at night when they are all lit up. It was super crowded the night that we went, but was still gorgeous to see. The lanterns were of many different animals representing China, Taiwan, Japan, and New Zealand. There were also several G20 themed lanterns around since the G20 conference was taking place in Seoul.

Lantern Festival

Liberty, Pisa, Ben

We are looking forward to our upcoming trip to Beijing, China for the Thansgiving holiday. It will be my first time to Beijing and Clayton's second. I intend to do a lot of shopping, so family and friends please expect your gifts to be from Beijing this year. I am still without a paying job, however, I continue to volunteer at the Substance Abuse clinic and have been given the opportunity to conduct intakes and assessments with those patients that come through. I have found out that I can count these hours towards my licensure which is so amazing. I even have several counselors, including the clinical director who is willing to provide my supervision. I feel so blessed and fortunate, despite having several job let downs over the last 3 months. Clayton is also expecting a job change here soon as well as a promotion in Feb. Buttons still loves the apartment, however is very frustrated by the fact that she can't access any of the bugs or birds outside. Expect to see lots of pictures of Beijing and of course lots of stories.

Shanghai

We have just returned from our FIRST international trip.....together. We quickly realized that this is the first time in over three years that we actually were able to sit BESIDE each other on the plane. Usually one of us is travelling to see the other one...but not this time.

Shanghai Skyline

Clayton's college roommate and close friend, Russ (yes he said I could use his name) hosted us for a 4 day trip in Shanghai, China. What an amazing experience it was. For those of you who love chinese food and tea, you should seriously consider taking a trip to China to experience THE GOOD STUFF. You have no idea what you are missing. Unfortunately now, we are very much aware that unless we move to China, we will forever be eating horrible Chinese American food and drinking garbage for tea. We loved the tea so much that we even purchased our very own tea set, table, "good luck" figurines, and a life time supply of tea. More on this later.

Clayton has visited Shanghai once before, about four years ago. So for him, this trip was nothing new. He had experienced what it was like to be among 20million+ people and sky scrapers at every corner you turn. I, on the other hand, have NEVER been to Shanghai, or even a city that comes close to having 20 million + people and sky scrapers everywhere. I had cramps in my neck once the trip was over from looking up at all the reallllllly tall buildings. Russ lived in a super cute apartment, very similar to ours, but on the 29th floor. I sadly broke the news to both of them that Russ's apartment was officially the tallest building I had ever been in before. Prior to this trip, the largest building I had ever seen was Cinderella's castle at Disney World. It's hard to compare Cindy's castle to the sky scrapers in Shanghai....

Since I knew absolutely nothing about Shanghai, other than it being located in China, I didn't have a whole lot of expectations going into the trip. Our first night there we actually saw all of the "touristy" things there are to do, The Bund, Nanjing Road, Old Town. We also realized that we just so happened to fly into Shanghai on what they call their "Independence Day." We went out to Nanjing Road, a very popular spot for shopping (Gucci, Prada, Coach, Cartier, you get the picture). It was slightly crowded walking around. I felt like a cow being herded to the next grazing field. I have never in my life been around so many people at once. I swear it was like all 20 million people in Shanghai decided to come out to this exact spot. We made it down to the end of the road which is where the Bund is located. I had never heard of this Bund before but apparently it's where old meets new? It has a lot of old European style architecture from the 1920's, which I believe is where a lot of the old government buildings used to reside in. I'm hoping that if I state anything that is incorrect that Russ or Clayton will correct me.

We spent most of our trip drinking and learning about tea...seriously. I'm not sure if it was planned that way, but either way it was by far the highlight of our trip. During Russ's time in Shanghai, he has made friends with a couple who own two tea shops. Russ has learned a lot about tea from this couple which was great for us because he could translate and tell us what the heck was going on. Prior to this trip, all I knew about tea was that my grandma makes the best sweet tea in the world, it comes in little filtered bags, and that you never wanted to drink it unsweetened. As I stated before, Clayton and I were heartbroken to know that we have been drinking what has been deemed the "hotdog of teas," (all the crappy tea leaves piled together in one baggy). The tea we had in the shops were quite simply amazing. I never knew that there could be so many types of tea...but trust me there are. We had green tea, yellow tea, red tea, flower tea...YOU NAME IT. We loved it so much that we purchased almost a year's supply of it. I was a little nervous coming back through customs...I didn't want them to think we were smuggling drugs or anything like that. Luckily they didn't and we made it home safe and sound. The couple we met with on two separate occassions. We met with the wife our first day and then the husband our second day. Both of them were amazing and knew so much about tea and answered any questions that we had (through Russ). The husband even thought that I looked like Hilary Clinton....it must have been the short blonde hair and because we're both white... we found out from Russ that a lot of chinese people like Hilary Clinton, so I should take it as a compliment. While I tried to take it as a compliment, I couldn't help but think about other blonde white females...Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Carrie Underwood, Jessica Simpson...WHY CANT I LOOK LIKE THEM!! WHY HILARY CLINTON...SOMEONE 3 TIMES MY AGE!?!

Noodle and Beef Dish

So other than being tea nerds, we had a lot of amazing food. Russ did not disappoint us in the least bit. We had dumplings, noodles, chicken, "hot pot" with lamb, bubble tea, all the good stuff. I was so shocked at how amazing the food was. I, and most that know me, would say that I am extremely picky when it comes to eating...but there was not one dish on this trip that I did not love...not like...LOVE. The chinese know what they are doing FO SHO when it comes to cuisine. I'm still struggling with the whole chopstick thing and I'm not sure if I'll ever be very graceful when it comes to using them. I developed a large blister on my thumb after this trip. Clayton is still unsure as to how I got a blister on my thumb and unfortunately I don't have a good reason. Another highlight of the trip was getting to eat dinner with one of Russ's chinese friends, we will call her "J." Well, while we were eating dinner, Clayton was engaging her in conversations, you know the typical where are you from, what are you studying in school, what do your parents do, do you like chocolate or vanilla, kind of conversation. Well, the entire time she would look back over at me...almost like she couldn't keep her eyes off of me. You know how when you see a person that's just either really gorgeous or maybe not so gorgeous and they have some kind of growth on their face, and you can't help but look at them...no matter how hard you try you just gotta look one more time. Well....that was me....only I was the one that had the large ugly growth on thier face. In mid conversation J looks over at me and finally says to me, like she's been dying to say it all night...."You have really big eyes." I felt like I was having flashbacks to the subway where those 14 year old girls were pointing at me and making their eyes really big. I did one of those awkward laughs and said thank you of course because what else am I supposed to say? Later in the evening, Clayton and J were discussing why we got married "so young." J asked Clayton "Why did you marry her? Is it because she has big eyes?" She was actually completely serious. My sarcasm radar was not going off, at all. Clayton said yes (correct answer) and then elaborated on other very good reasons why he married me (a great choice on his part). We later came to find out (from Russ) that having big eyes is a very desirable thing in the chinese culture for women, which def. boosted the self esteem and made China that much more amazing.

HOT POT for dinner (lamb and veggies in really hot soup stuff)

I feel like I could go on and on about our time in Shanghai...but I'm not going to. We are so thankful to have had the opportunity to have gone and to visit Russ, Clayton's good buddy. We are so appreciative of his hospitality because without it, we would have been lost, and not had nearly as good of a time. We're both excited to be going back to China this Thanksgiving. We have plans and plane tickets to head north of Shanghai to Beijing. It will be Clayton's second trip to Beijing and of course, my first. We will keep you all posted of our adventures in the meantime.

All Moved In

Our furniture and home goods have finally arrived. We received them a few weeks ago and have been busy organizing and setting up our apartment....thus the delay in blogging. The move in was hectic and crazy and only took the movers two hours to bring all of our furniture up and remove all the boxes. I wish I could take them with me on our next move. Buttons unfortunately was not fond of the movers and hid in my laundry basket and then moved into the dresser drawer

It was pouring dow nrain when they came to deliver the furniture which I thought was going to be a problem. It wasn't. Since we live on the 13th floor, the movers have to bring all of our goods in through the window....seriously. The have a HUGE crain that hooks up to one of your windows and they move the furniture up the crain...allllllllllll the way to the 13th floor. My stomach was in knots the entire time. If one of those boxes fell a) it would kill someone and b) my stuff would be destroyed. As you can see in the picture below it was a LONG way down.

Luckily nothing was dropped, although we did have our two large bookcases snap in half (probably from the move over) and a large plastic tote break in half. I think we did good overall. Yes we are putting in a claim so that we can be hopefully reimbursed for the damages. Keep your fingers crossed. It didn't take Clayton and I very long to get the house set up. We have finished putting all the final touches on it and even had some friends over and hosted our first dinner party this week. Although I've put most of the pictures on Facebook, below are a few pictures of inside the apartment.

Living Room

Master Bedroom

Dining Room





Other than setting up the house, Clayton and I have been able to spend a lot of time together. He's had several 3 and 4 day weekends, which has been great. I have been rejected from a few job positions that I was really hoping to get which has been disappointing, but I am still trying to remain hopeful that something else will turn out. I continue to volunteer and actually love what I am doing and the flexibility it gives me. I have also found out that I have recently been approved to take the national licensing exam this winter which would give me an Associate license if I pass the exam.

Clayton and I continue to enjoy city living. We frequently go walking around the "walking track" that is right outside our complex. The track has a playground in the middle of it and badmitton and choku courts. Choku is what I call "Soccer Volleyball." You play with a net and have three tries to get the soccer ball over the net, but instead of using your hands, you use your feet/head/chest or whatever you would use in soccer to trap the ball and kick it back over the net. It's super fun and all the Korean kids play. Clayton and I have become pretty popular on the Choku courts since we are the only Americans out there playing and because Clayton can kick the ball really high. All the Korean kids say "woooooooow!" They are precious. Unfortunately, the creepy old drunk men watching us play choku are not precious. They like to scream "I love you" at me when I have to chase the ball down. Clayton thinks it's funny....I think it's creepy.

We have also booked our tickets home to the States for Christmas and we are super excited to be able to see all of our family and spend our FIRST CHRISTMAS WITH FAMILY AS A MARRIED COUPLE! craziness! We are also heading to Shanghai in one week to visit Clayton's college roommate for a few days. It should be a great trip and my first time to China. I'm anxious and excited and already charging my camera battery so that I can take a million pictures. We have also booked tickets for my little brother and one of my best friends to come out and visit next spring. YAY VISITORS! We are also anticipating Clayton's parents to visit us this November, and then Clayton's sister to visit next spring as well. So, for all of you reading this...now that you've seen that we don't live in a dump, please book your tickets and come visit us!

Hiking at Soyosan Mountain

     Most people probably do not think of Korea as being very mountainous, but in fact much of this penninsula is made up of mountian ranges and such. The area that we live in is surrounded by gorgeous mountains, they're no Rockies or Swiss Alps, but they are beautiful and do make me feel like I'm back at home in good ole' Boone, NC. There is a particular mountain park  that is located just a few miles from our home, Soyosan Mountain, and that is where our hiking adventure took place.

       I would consider myself to be a pretty decent hiker. I mean I did live in Boone for 4 years and I did have to hike up Carr Peak just to get Clayton to propose to me. Not only am I good at walking up mountains, I also enjoy it. It's relaxing and instills a sense of calmness within me. This particular hike up Soyosan was not relaxing nor was I calm...just ask Clayton. You see in America, trails are built to be safe...for the most part. For those of you who have done some hiking, you know that when going up a mountain, trails are usually built in a back and forth pattern...like a zig zag. Sure it's not the most efficient way to get up the mountain, but it's SAFE. The Korean trail builders here, are not concerned with safety...at all. Their trails are not really "built" per say. There is a rail or a rope and it literally goes straight up the mountain. Last time I checked, I'm pretty sure that kind of hiking is called ROCK CLIMBING. Well, all of this information I was not given prior to our lovely hike. My husband, whom I love, decided to with hold this information from me because he thought it would be funny to see my reaction. Needless to say, I reacted how he expected and he had a very enjoyable experience.

           We approach the dirt  and graval and all looks well so far. I notice that there are no trails, but there are creeks or just a creek that flows down the mountain. I also notice that Koreans are laying everywhere alongside the creek...later I came to realize that that is what Clayton and I should have done. I asked Clayton which way to go, he replies "Straight up." I look up and ask "how do you know that, there's no trail?" To which he replies, "sure there is...you see that rail, that tells you which way to go...and that's up." Below is a picture of this rail and what I relied on the ENTIRE HIKE!

As you can see, there is no trail, only boulders. Not to mention, this rail was so much taller than I was! I could barely reach it at points throughout the hike. I kept referring to the hike as "Super Dangerous," which made Clayton laugh...but it was! I was baffled by the number of old people...like 60+ years old....who were out climbing these rocks with all their hiking gear and big sticks. It was embarrassing that they could manuever through these boulders faster and more efficient than I could. We made it to the first summit after about 45 minutes (Clayton made it up with a friend earlier in the week in 23minutes). Yes, the view was amazing and gorgeous, which was good because I was NOT going to be happy if I had risked my life for a horribe view. We continue to climb the boulders up to the next summit. Again, equally as beautiful and from this particular summit we could see our apartment complex.

While at summit number 2, Clayton asks "Hey since we're up here, you wanna pop on over to the next peak, it's only .5 mile." I asked how we would get over there, to which he replied "oh we'll just walk down hill some and then back up hill, it's not bad." I'm not sure why, but I agreed to "pop over to the next peak." While walking over, I immediately regretted my decision. In order to get down to the next summit you did have to walk back down the mountain some. However, the mountain was not set up for us to walk down. We had to use a rope to get down.

    Ok, now you know a trail is dangerous when you have to use a ROPE to get down the mountain. Again, Clayton thought it was very humerous, I however did not. This was NOT my definition of "popping over to the next peak." My life was in danger! I was worried that Buttons may become mother-less and end up in an orphanage. We finally made it to the last summit and the view was amazing. We could look out and see North Korea on one side and then look in the opposite direction and see South Korea. It was gorgeous.

    Coming back down the mountain was not so great. The other problem with hiking internationally, is that the signs are not in English. We couldn't read which way was out and which way was to continue on to another trail. We eventually decided that we should go with the sign that points down seeing as going down would eventually get us off the mountain. This was another decision that I immediately regretted. The hike back down was so steep and there was no trail. We ended up following the creek back down which again was not a good decision because all the rocks were slippery. As clumsy as I am, I did not fall once. Now I did slip and slide about every 2 steps but I did NOT fall. Clayton on the other hand, did fall. He decided to take a potty break and then slipped on the rock he "used as a target" and fell pretty hard. I feel like this is karma coming back to get him for laughing and making fun of me. The picture below is not of me slipping or falling like it may look. You literally had to squat that low in order to get down the mountain because it was so steep and slippery. Clayton wanted to document this of course and that's why he slipped and fell on the rock he peed on.

We finally made it back down the mountain, about 3.5 hours later. The hike should have only taken about an hour and a half, according to Clayton. I find that hard to believe because of how dangerous it was! We both left with minor injuries, Clayton had a bruised tailbone, I had some fluid build up in my knee and a bruised rib, but all in all we made it out alive...barely. We will not be going on this hike anytime in the near future...and for those of you planning to visit, do not worry because we will not take you out and put your lives in danger like Clayton did to me.

Dinner, Korean Style

We are settling into our new city digs quite well. It has been a little over 3 weeks since I have arrived, which means that this is officially the longest that Clayton and I have lived together or been together in the last 2 years and 8 months. It's very exciting and scary all at the same time. The Korean culture is quickly growing on me, Clayton has had the last two years to adjust to it so by now he is very much used to some of the customs. Everyone that we have met, Korean that is, has been very sweet and very helpful. Our trash security guard LOVES to practice his English with us, along with all of the small children. The Korean children will see us, scream hello, and then turn away and giggle. It is so precious and so funny.

       One of the things that I am still struggling with is this whole chopstick thing as a utensil for eating food. The Koreans make it look so easy and are so quick with those things! I frequently drop mine, or food, or accidently shoot it across the table, and it can be very embarrassing. They also leave me with blisters on my fingers or hand cramps. I guess that COULD be a good thing because then I won't eat as much food. Then there's the issue of the food....I'm gonna be honest.....I do not like most of what I have tried thus far. I typically eat meat and rice. The soups are too spicy for my taste along with the kimchi. I'm not really into seaweed or bean paste....so that pretty much leaves rice and meat. I have gotten better at making an effort to try things, but it usually results in me making the most God awful faces and giving others at the table the stink eye. Clayton has become my K.F.G.D. or my Korean Food Garbage Disposal, eating everything I don't like. Below is a picture from one of the two very nice dinners that we have gone out to while here.

Most American meals come with free bread for like an appitizer or a starter. Well when you go out for Korean meals, you are given approximately 6-8 side dishes....free....it is like your bread. The picture above shows our side dishes which consist of bean paste (small saucer by the chopsticks)....not a fan of, Kimchi (larger saucer in middle of table with red stringy stuff. Kimchi is fermented cabbage with different types of sauces.)...definitely not a fan of. There's also some garlic cloves and peppers (the only side dish I do like), bean sprouts (for SURE cannot eat), small dishes with meat seasoning (square dishes) and then big huge green leaves. Clayton feels that my dislike for 95% of Korean food is because I have not developed an "adult palate." He's probably right seeing as I don't eat salad dressing, spaghetti sauce, 95% of condiments, cheese, pickles/vinegar tasting foods, mayonaise or mayo based foods. Back to the dinner....So the meat comes out to you, raw, and you cook it in front of you on some type of electric/coal/gas grill. Nicer resturaunts have the really nice coal grills so the meat tastes DELICIOUS. You'll also notice that the meats come in huge slabs. In order to cut the meat you use gigantic scissors!! No joke, they don't have knives or forks. The use chopsticks, spoons for soup, and scissors. Most menus only consist of different types of meat and the rice and or soup for side dishes. Not much variety,  then again, I also don't read Korean so I could be wrong. This is simply my observation when we have gone out, I will do more investigating and report back.

       There's also the issue of dessert....my favorite part of dinner. Well.....they don't have dessert. Clayton and I were at dinner with one of his work colleagues and his wife at a very very nice resturaunt about 30 minutes down south. We had finished dinner and Clayton's buddy asks if we want dessert. Of course I said yes. He tells our waitress, "4 desserts." I thought that was interesting and slightly disappointing/exciting. I was wondering what kind of deliciousness they had since I did not ever see a dessert menu. Well our waitress brings out 4 small glasses of a cold ginger type tea drink. I thought "oh this must be the coffee part of dessert, great!" We drink our tea and continue to chat. Well, I get kind of antsy and ask "so is this dessert?" Both Clayton and his buddy responded with "yeahh this is dessert" while laughing. I completely thought they were kidding, I mean after all Clayton IS known for telling me things that aren't true, but that's a whole other blog. Well I continue to wait and wait and we finally get up to pay and I didn't say anything because Clayton's friend paid for our dinner (which was very very sweet of them) and I didn't want to be rude. Well we get to a place where Clayton and I are alone and I said "What the heck, I thought we were getting dessert, that was such a tease and really mean of yall to say we could if you really weren't planning on getting any." Clayton responded by laughing and informing me that that WAS dessert. That is what Korean's refer to as dessert. They don't do the cakes and pies and a la modes like we are used to. I was extremely upset....and still REALLY wanted dessert. The night ended well because we went to Baskin Robbins near our apartment, which has quickly become our favorite place to go. I'm hoping that if I stick around here long enough I can convince some of these resturaunts that they should put desserts....real desserts on their menu.

Buddhist Temple Stay

This past weekend, Clayton and I ventured to Yongmunsa Temple, located in the Gyeonggi province. The link below has information on the temple itself and our itinerary for the weekend.  http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/ena/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=309682.

We had a wonderful experience getting to live like buddhist monks. It's an experience that I believe everyone should do just once, regardless of religion or beliefs. There was about 20 people that were in our group, a lot of couples, wanting to get away and relax for the weekend...or so they thought. When we arrived at the temple we were dropped off at the bottom of the mountain. We had to hike straight up for about 20 minutes. We looked like we had jumped in a pool by the time we got to the top...that's how sweaty we were...it was a little warm. We were told to change into our "uniform" for the weekend. The picture above is Clayton and I in our "uniform" that we had to wear for the whole weekend...even to sleep in. You can imagine how lovely we smelled by the end of it. I loved the uniform, especially the pants because they had an elastic band and I could pull them up to my nose. They were so comfy.

          We started off by learning about Buddhism and the temple itself. The temple is roughly 1100 years old. It holds the oldest or largest ( i can't remember which one) ginko tree in the East.....like the Eastern world. It was huge and gorgeous. I think I took like 5.3490 million pictures of if because I just couldn't get enough. After getting briefed on the religion and taking a tour of the temple compound we hiked even further up the mountain to an area where we did martial arts. Most of the other females were not excited about this....I on the other hand was SUPER excited and took this exercise very seriously. Clayton tried his hardest....let's just say if he and I got into a martial arts match, I would win. Clayton was surprised at how good my marial arts skills were.

After martial arts we had to participate in the ringing of the gong for the evening. The gong is rang in the evening 33 times. It was so cool to actually get participate in this event. I do know that I would not like to be a local becuase the gong is sounded 33 times in the evening (7:00pm) and then 28 times in the morning (5:30am). This thing wasn't like your typical gong either....it shook the mountain! We had dinner in a separate area than the monks. Dinner consisted of not wearing those sweet blue shoes, sitting on the floor, and a buffet of vegetarian food. I didn't recognize anything but rice....so that's pretty much what I ate all weekend. Monks don't believe in wasting food, so everything you put on your plate you had to eat. We also had to eat with chopsticks....this is still a struggle for me. Thank goodness the rice is sticky! Clayton loved all the food and tried just about everything. I don't have the palate that he does so I stuck mostly to rice and occassionally ventured out and tried seaweed. We were also served yellow water....which we didn't drink because it was yellow. For all I know it could have come from the bathroom. Speaking of the bathrooms....they were not quite what we were accustomed to. It was a nice ceramic hole in a stall.

It's moments like these when I wish I were a guy....I would literall take my pants off when I used the restroom because I was so scared I would "miss the hole," and...well....you know, make a mess on myself. I didn't shower the whole time, because towels were not provided and I was scared to. Again, you can imagine how we smelled on Sunday. The sleeping arrangements were very nice as well. We were given a thick blanket, which was actually not so thick, and a very hard pillow that was the size of my hand. Luckily we were all so tired that it really didn't matter what we slept on.

           After dinner and the adventures of using the bathrooms we had tea time in the tea room with one of the monks. This was so special because we were able to have some face time and ask the monk questions that we had about Buddhism or just anything. The monk showed us how to make tea....and not the kind from the tea bag but like special korean tea that you have to strain yourself. It was sooo good. We have decided that our next purchase will be a Korean tea set so that we can make tea like this frequently. I was put in charge of making the tea, which was scary, but luckily it wasn't too difficult.

        We were awakened by a gong that was not so big or loud at 4:00am to begin our morning chanting and the bows with the monks in the main temple. Now, to most people this would sound awful, but it was quite possibly the coolest thing I have done in a very long time. We performed our bows and chanted with the monks for about 45 minutes. I loved getting to hear them chant even though I had no idea what they were saying. After the chanting came the 108 full bows. A full bow starts out by standing, next falling to your knees and then bending over while having your hands together in the "pray position." From there you turn the palms of your hand upward, sit back up while putting your hands in the "pray position," and then standing back up on your feet while keeping your hands in the "pray position." We had to do this 108 times. One for each sin. Clayton was able to successfully complete all 108, I did roughly 90. It took about an hour to complete. It may not sound like it was difficult, and I didn't think it would be, but when you are doing it over and over again, it's exhausting. Plus, those monks were moving fast! Below is a picture of inside the main temple where we worshiped. It is gorgeous!

           We had breakfast.....aka rice and unknown veggies/tofu, and then geared up for a hike down the mountain. The men were in charge of sweeping the sidewalk while the women just followed behind. I made sure to rub it in Clayton's face the whole time. Hiking back up the mountain, we walked in what they call the "waterroad" or a small stream of water that flows from the top of the temple down to the bottom of the mountain. The monk said that it would be a massage for our toes, but I am here to say that it was NOT a massage on my toes, it was painful, and slippery! I loved it! After walking the waterroad we took a group picture and then went to practice our zen meditation....for an hour. This was difficult simply because we were exhausted and sore from all the hiking and bowing!

          

After lunch we packed up, returned our sweet uniforms, and headed back home. Part of me was sad to leave, but another part was happy to be getting back to my toilet, shower, and bed! Clayton and I were so glad that we went and have both said that we would do it again....maybe not next weekend, but somewhere down the road in the future. More pictures have been posted on my facebook page, so if you'd like to see them all, and there are a lot, feel free to check them out.

Driving in Korea

I am posting this publically in hopes that Koreans everywhere will read this and take warning. Today I passed the written test to obtain a Korean driver's license. I officially can drive in Korea. I am excited and want to throw up all at the same time. You see, here in Korea, driving is like the running of the bulls experience in Spain. It's every man/woman for him/herself. If you don't run/drive aggressively and constantly look over your shoulder and in every other direction you WILL get hit by a bull/car or hit a pedestrian. Red lights mean that stopping is optional, you can park on the side of the road in the middle of a lane, lane markers/lines are also optional...you don't have to stay in your lane while driving. IT'S CRAZY!

For those of you who know me or have rode in  car with me know how slow I drive and how confused I get when driving...thus you can imagine how it would be to ride with me in a car here in Korea....simply awful. Today Clayton had to work a pretty long day. I wanted to run out and do some errands while he was at work. What this meant was that I had to take the car and drive BY MYSELF, for the first time here. You would think this wouldn't be so bad and that after 10 days of driving roughly the same route, I would know where I was going...WRONG. I left Clayton's building and drove completely in the wrong direction...I never had a chance. I drove out the gate, asked the guard , who was Korean, where to go to get to the PX (shopping center) and he directed me. I became very confused by his directions and attempted to follow them the best I could. I was not successful. I found myself on the side of the road crying because I had know idea where I was because all the signs were in Korean characters and I couldn't read them. I rolled the window down and asked a stranger/Korean man "US. Base?" and shrugged my shoulders as if to convey "I don't know." He pointed me in the right direction and I made it back onto base. Success! I got to the PX, did my shopping and then realized...I have no clue how to get back to Clayton's office. Luckily, I used that wonderful brain of mine and asked a soldier before I got back and started driving all over Korea again. Needless to say, I made it back...in one piece. What should have been a 30 minute trip, took almost an hour and a half.

First Week Success!

So, I've been here now for one week. We have finished all the "important stuff" and hopefully now can work on having fun. Our apartment is GORGEOUS! All hardwood floors, totally electronic (which has given us some difficulties as everything is labeled in Korean), beautiful sliding glass doors, very modern yet very traditional korean style living. My first morning, Clayton had to go to work, which left me at the apartment by myself. I woke up and tried to go into the back room/sunroom that is attached to our masterbedroom. Well the doors are all sliding doors. I was half asleep and trying to feel around for the door knobs and quickly realized that I couldn't find them and that the doors didn't have them. I panicked because I had no idea how I was going to get out of  the bedroom! I thought I was trapped in there or that Clayton had locked me in there so I couldn't get out. After a few moments of panic, I said to myself "Hey self, remember you're in Korea now. Clayton showed you how to use the doors. THEY SLIDE!" I slid the doors open and all was right in the world again.

Our recycling situation is very interesting. You literally have to recycle EVERYTHING except for food scraps. This is so amazing and so wonderful yet so confusing at times. There are about 10 large bins outside our building for recyclables and scraps. They are all labeled in korean however, so we don't know which bin is for what. We have to  pray each time that there are things in the bin so that we know where to put our trash. There is also a trash security guard...not even kidding. If you dont put things in the wrong bins you WILL get in trouble. Unfortunately for us, we are the only foreigners that live in this building...and all of our trash is in English, therefore, if we put something in the wrong bin they will KNOW it's us. We have yet to get in trouble which must mean we're doing a good job. I'm thinking we should just make friends with the security guard and pay him a little each month so that if we do mess up, he won't tell the landlord and have us evicted.

I've already said several times that it is going to be difficult leaving this place...and I just got here! Our complex is suburbia meets NYC. It's super kid/family friendly with lots of parks, resturaunts, and shops. I've already scouted out the shoe/clothes stores...Clayton is a little worried.

We spent our first weekend travelling down into Seoul. Everywhere we go people stare at us...they don't say anything or point and scream...they just stare, especially young children. We had to take care of some things for Buttons, and afterwards we went shopping at one of my FAVORITE places to get shoes. They must have been having a back to school/end of summer sale because almost every shoe store had shoes for 10,000 won, or about $9. It was amazing, I was in heaven. I only bought one pair since Clayton only had enough cash for about one or two pairs (I think he did that on purpose ;) ). On our way back home we encountered a "situation" on the subway. Two young girls were sitting across from us giggling and talking. I noticed one say to her friend and make a hand gesture that I had big eyes. Needless to say I was NOT happy that I was being made fun of!! I told Clayton, who laughed at me, that I was going to tell them that they had small eyes. He advised that I not get into spat with these two girls, who could have been half my age, because I could be deported from the country...not to mention I'm supposed to be the older and more mature one....yeah right! I ended up not saying or gesturing anything to the girls but did sit and pout the rest of the ride home.

I've been able to go to two of Clayton's soccer games thus far, we've played raquetball, gone to the movies once, and eaten ice cream just about every day. Tonight we went to our first language class. We are hoping to be fluent by the time Clayton's parents visit us late this Fall. Not too sure if that will happen after going to this first class. We both want to continue with the language classes weekly, as it will give us something to do and work on together.

I have also secured a volunteer position which will help give me something to do during the days while Clayton is working. I am super excited about the position since it seems to be working with families and children. We are crossing our fingers that eventually it could lead to employment. We've got several events planned already for the upcoming weeks. We are hoping to make a trip to visit one of Clayton's friend's in China, we are going on a weekend Buddhist Temple Stay retreat here in country, and also hopefully hiking up some of these gorgeous mountains that surround us. We will be sure to keep you posted...

Preparing for the BIG MOVE!

Our big day is fast approaching! We have created this blog so that our friends and family can keep up with all of our plans. Our schedule for the rest of the summer is as follows:

June: Cruise with BOTH our families!
July 16-25: Bam home to NC
July 30/31: Bam Graduates!
Aug 2: Bam and Buttons move to KOREA!!