A new year..and my trip to HK

Well, it's been a while since I've updated.  I'm back from vacation, and I have been working at winter camp for the past 2 weeks.  It's not bad so far.  I only teach 4 classes per day, and I get to leave when they are over at 12:10pm.  Needless to say, I've been taking a nap every single afternoon.  I also accomplished watching all 25 episodes of Boys Before Flowers, a K-drama, in just about 6 days total.  Each episode is at least 1 hour long.  You do the math.  If anyone has some time on their hands to read a lot of subtitles, I highly recommend.

I'll take the rest of this blog entry to talk about Hong Kong and Macau.  (It's more for me to remember what we did..sorry, I know this kind of blog is boring)  First of all, the weather is absolutely amazing.  We left Seoul, with record low temperatures and negative wind chills.   We landed in Hong Kong on December 26th to be greeted with temperatures in the 60's. ^^

The first night we got in really late so we just went to bed.  We stayed at Hong Kong Hostel in Causeway Bay for the first 2 nights and got our own room.  Hostels in HK aren't the best, but it was good for what it was.  Our first full day in Hong Kong, we walked from Causeway Bay to Central.  We stopped to eat lunch at a pretty seedy looking "cooked food" market, but we got rice and noodle dishes for around $3 each.  After that, we took the Peak tram up to the top of the Peak and saw some sick views of HK and Victoria Harbor.  We wandered to East Tsim Sha Tsui to the Avenue of the Stars and saw the Symphony of Lights show on the harbor.

Future Self.

Another one from Reverb 10.  December 21:  Future Self.  Imagine yourself 5 years from now.  What advice would you give your current self for the year ahead?  (Author:  Jenny Blake)


Dear Self,


The year ahead of you will be one of the most exciting, greatest, challenging years of your entire life.  Don't be scared.  Go out into this strange, new world and experience as much as you possibly can.  Keep an open mind.  Don't be so quick to judge others and the way they live.

Five minutes

There a site called Reverb 10 that gives bloggers prompts for every day this month to reflect on the year 2010. Here's the one for December 15 (even though it's already December 16 here): "5 Minutes Imagine you will completely lose your memory of 2010 in five minutes. Set an alarm for five minutes and capture the things you most want to remember about 2010. (Author: Patti Digh)"

I'll admit that I've been thinking about this for well over 5 minutes. I've actually been sitting here trying to remember everything that happened this year and what really stands out. The problem is that I've always been more of a visual creature so when I try to conjure up these memories, I picture certain days or feelings I may have had. Most of the things I most want to remember about 2010 involve events or random moments in time that I can't really put into words.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..

..and is the case here in Seoul, FEEL a lot like Christmas too.  The weather has been down right frigid the past few days.  There are decorations and lights all over the city.  I was surprised to find out that Christmas is not a family holiday in Korea.  It's a time for friends to get together and party all night long and a time for lovers to have yet another "couple holiday" (as if we need any more of those).  It will be interesting to see what Christmas time in Korea brings this year.


Since I haven't posted pictures in a while, here's a photo blog of some things I've done during the past month..

Last month I went to the Seoul Lantern Festival at City Hall

Seoul Lantern Festival

Seoul Lantern Festival

Deoksugung Palace

Feels like fall...

Then Jessi and Brad threw a perfect Thanksgiving dinner party with actual turkey and mashed potatoes!

Their apartment is so amazing, we were all able to sit together for Thanksgiving..

view of Seoul lights from the top of a mountain at night.

As requested, here is a photo blog of my walk to the gym/Sungshin area.

this entrance that looks like a carwash is what the entrance to love motel parking lots/garages look like. 

view of the other side of the street and the sweet purple love motel

there are two 7-11's on the way

fish restaurant

there's my gym!

stores across the street from the gym and subway entrance to the left..

Lastly, I'll leave you with a couple Christmas pictures..

Christmas tree at the German Christmas market

Christmas lights in Hongdae..there are lights on trees like this all over the city.

AND as I'm sure you've all heard, N.Korea and crazy Kim Jong Il attacked a small island off S.Korea last month.  This message is to tell you, don't worry!  I'm sure you saw way more action on the US news than anyone saw in Seoul.  It was big news the day it happened, but then people went around business as usual.  There's nothing we can do here, but we're safe and sound in our city for now.  N.Korea apologized so there is no war starting or anything.  Believe me, I will evacuate if the US Embassy tells me to.


SO, that's all I have for now.  Two more weeks of school, then it's vacation time!  I'm headed to Hong Kong and Macau for the week in between Christmas and New Years.  It's officially booked!:)