Thailand Adventure!!

In the time between my contract ending and starting my new job I took a mini Vacay to Phuket, Thailand with my friend Nicole. It was amazing! That country is so beautiful!! It was also extremely hot and humid lol but we still had an amazing time.

We arrived in Phuket at midnight and our hotel was quite a way from the airport. So, when we finally got there we just basically passed out in our room lol after turning on the AC of course. 

The next day we checked out the hotel swimming pool and Kata beach which was a two minute walk from our hotel. It was a pretty lax day, and we grabbed brochures for different types of tours you could do. We decided on three different tours.

First tour

This one included doing a fish spa, seeing an elephant show, riding atvs, visiting a fruit farm, white water rafting, and a hike to a small waterfall. Soooo, yeah, a lot in one day. 

The fish spa was pretty awesome. There are these fish in a tank that eat the dead skin off your feet. It tickled so bad! It was hard for us to keep from laughing the whole time. Afterwards though, my feet felt amazing!

The elephant show was ok. It wasn't all that thrilling and honestly I felt bad for the elephants. They had them play harmonica and dance around. One was shooting balls into a basketball hoop.

Riding the atvs was a lot of fun! That was my first time driving one so I was nervous at first. After awhile I got the hang of out and I had a really good time. I would so do that again!

The fruit farm was pretty cool and they gave us some fruit to eat but we weren't there long. After that we went to the place for rafting. They feed us lunch and then people changed and headed for the boats.

Rafting was amazing! Before we started down the river the men who were paddling the boats kept having splash wars with each other. This if course meant we were apart of it too since we're also in the boats at this point. We went down the river and at some areas they would stop and let you get out and swim.

Once rafting was done we headed a but higher up the mountain to see a waterfall. It wasn't much of a walk to get there and the area was small but it was still a cool thing to see. We were there for a but then we were brought back to our hotels.

Later that night

So after eating dinner and having a bit of a nap we decided to go out. The area with all the bars and people were suggesting to us was called Patang. There were so many bars and foreigners and....prostitues O.o I was a but shocked by that honestly. That aside, it was a good/interesting night. Warning: Do Not See A Ping Pong Show...trust me on this.

Second tour

On this tour we did snorkeling at Kati Islands. There are three of them and they're beautiful! I've never gone snorkeling before so I was a bit nervous. The whole experience was absolutely splendid! It was great being able to see the reef and the creatures that live on, in, near it. 

We snorkeled for about 45mins around the first island. We didn't get on it, but the second island we spent two hours there. We had a delicious lunch there. You had to pay to sit in the beach chairs there though. It wasn't expensive or anything though so it was fine.

After that we went to the third island and did another 45mins of snorkeling. At this point I was becoming really tired. This was a full day if activity so it took a lot of my energy. We docked at the third island but we didn't have anymore cash to rent chairs. The tour guides were nice and let us stay on the boat. Nicole went to do more snorkeling and I decided to stay on the boat. I curled up and knocked out lol it was so relaxing. The warm sun with a slight breeze and the gentle rocking of the boat it's no wonder it didn't take long for me to pass out. 

It was a great tour and definitely my favorite of the three we went on. That's one I would for sure do it again. I also recommend this tour if you do happen to find yourself in Phuket.

Later that night

We went to Patang again and this time we convinced one of the frot desk girls to come out with us lol she was working there for a internship and was from the Philippines. 

It was an interesting night once again lol and I'm just going to leave it at that ;-P

Third and last tour

So on this tour we saw a temple, rode elephants, and went to see the Big Buddha. 

The first thing we did was elephant trekking. They have you meet a baby elephant first. You get a picture with it. It was...an interesting experience. My friend and I actually felt a little bad afterwards. The conditions weren't bad but they weren't ideal either. I felt really bad about how they had their leg chained to a pole. Also, they had these stick things to direct the elephants with but it had a bit of a hook at the end. It was fun but yea I don't think I'd do that again.

The temple was pretty we didn't stay there long though. It wasn't very big so you could see all of it by walking around for like 10mins. 

After that temple we went to see the Big Buddha. They're currently doing some construction on it so there were tarps and stuff in the way. It was amazing still; the view was awesome. I had to wear shawls though since I couldn't walk around in my tank top and shorts. Then we went back to the hotel and relaxed. 

Well there ya have it folks. Those are the highlights from my trip to Phuket, Thailand. There are more adventures to come so stay tuned! Below are some pics from the trip enjoy ^^*

Starting Over

As mentioned I have a new job and live in a new area; same city though. My last job decided that didn't want to resign me due to being an average teacher. Well really they basically said my class management skills needed work and I guess they decided they didn't want to waste time working on it. However! I am not the least bit upset, I actually really like my new job. 

I now work at a smaller hagwon that actually is closed during the holidays! Plus I get 10 vacation days and I can wear jeans to work. On top of that I have smaller classes and each class is only 50mins long. Wait, there's more! On some days I only have 4-5 classes so that means random hour breaks in the day. The material is also a lot easier to prepare and they're not too strict on how to teach it. 

So, the downside is I now live in a much smaller apartment and I'm about 15-20mins away from my old area where all my friends are. Granted, these things aren't all that bad. It's only me and The Choms so that much space isn't really needed. Also, I have met some people out here which hopefully I'll become friends with. If I want to see my other friends I can always just catch a bus out there. So, while these things are a bit inconvenient it's not really that bad. 

In summary, I am pretty happy with the new changes in this aspect of my life so far. ^^*

Gwangju and Yeosu

As I mentioned in an earlier post I traveled to the cities Gwangju and Yeosu. The reason I ended up in these cities is thanks B and her family that came to visit. Her dad, stepmom, and younger brothers were in Korea and I had the pleasure of meeting them. In one weekend we went to both cities, so Saturday/Sunday was Gwangju and Sunday afternoon was Yeosu. Me and B took a train back to Daejeon Monday morning because we had work. 

Gwangju

Gwangju was awesome! We visited with B's stepmom's childhood friend. She had a beautiful house in the country side. It was surrounded by mountains and forests and there was a small river next to it. They raised chickens and rabbits there and had a big, white fluffy dog. The roof could be used as a deck and you were able to climb some stairs and sit on it. It really was a gorgeous area we were in, away from the busy city center. But telling you about it really doesn't do it justice, so it's picture time! 

Yeosu 

Our next adventure took us to Yeosu where B's stepmom's parents lived. Yeosu is a city on the coast so there's a pretty cool beach there. Their house was beautiful too! You could also go up to their roof and from there you could get a great view of the beach. The couple was very nice and treated us to dinner at this restaurant across the street. Later, me and B took a night stroll along the boardwalk by the beach. We discovered a water park and decided we need to go when the summer comes. Well, this trip was in like February/March. It was a really nice night out. The city was beautiful and I definitely want to visit it again. I especially want to go to that water park, it looked awesome! Get ready for another bombardment of pictures!

 

There ya go folks! Those were my adventures with B and her family! Thanks for reading ^^*

Epic show by EPIK High

Ok, yes the title is really corny and dorky but whatever it was an epic show. Now before I get into the story of the night let me explain who EPIK High is...get ready for a wiki copy and past lol :

Epik High (Hangul: 에픽하이) is a South Korean alternative hip-hop group fromSeoul, composed of Tablo, Mithra Jin andDJ Tukutz. The group is known for combining different styles of hip hop, along with different musical genres and collaborations on each album. 

Here's some of my fave songs from them:

http://youtu.be/33eWFRXKEGM

http://youtu.be/3EskMNhw3PQ

http://youtu.be/TzW9uwfSMv4

And there you have it folks! I am a big fan of theirs so when I heard this new club was opening in Daejeon as they would be performing I was ecstatic to say the least. However, the thing that made this even more fantastic and boosted it to epic status, was that I saw them for FREE! That's right, free. You see the club that was opening wanted to be popular among foreigners as well sooooo they let all foreigners in for free!

I will post a link to B's, aka Bianca, video vlog about it once it's done. I took some videos as well but I haven't quite figured out how to get them on here. Apparently blogger doesn't like the format my iPhone puts them in.

Eons later....

I'm soooo sorry to anyone who follows the blog. I know I've been MIA for quite sometime. Well needless to say ALOT has happened in the time I've been gone. I've seen a Kpop group I like, traveled to Gwangju and Yeosu, finished out my contract, had a week vacation in Thailand, moved to a new area in Daejeon for my new job, and during this all had some dating adventures. I promise that soon there will be a post about each of these random events of my life but maybe not for another week lol I apologize for my slacker-ness. 

Winter in Korea...

Main thing is it's cold...very cold. Granted this may be different if you live further south. Therefore, I suggest checking the weather of the area you'll be living in. Now, if you come from a state that does get winter then you already know what to pack. Winter in Korea is basically similar to winters back home though where I live we don't get that much snow. Personally, I hate the cold. I know I'm from New Jersey but that doesn't mean I enjoy being cold.

So if you're arriving to Korea during the winter here are some things you should make sure you have.

First, Shea Butter! I know seems weird but the air here is very dry and trust me your skin will thank you. Unfortunately I didn't know this  bit of information when I got here and my skin freaked out. I usually get small dry patches in the winter but this was extreme...I looked like some kind of reptile that's how scaly my skin looked. It was disgusting, so believe when I say shea butter is a necessary. 
Second, a good face moisturizer. As I mentioned earlier the air here is dry and also it gets pretty windy out. My skin dries out like no ones business on my face and it's just not cute.
Third, a humidifier. You can buy them here so this more something you should get ASAP. This will make your apartment a bit more comfortable during the winter months.

 Everything else I trust you have the common sense to have. You know, things like hats, scarves, gloves, and of course a warm coat. If you're on your way to Korea now Happy and Safe Travels! ^_^ 

Happy Lunar New Year!!!

So this weekend was the celebration of the Chinese New Year...it's now the Year of the Snake. Well, it was an interesting Saturday night for me lol. So earlier in the week my friend Bianca said someone invited her to a group dinner and said she could invite some friends. Well, this person obviously didn't realize how many friends Bianca actually has lol we were all on a group kakao talk chat which ended up having about 40 people...this of course is way too big a group to have dinner so the groups split.

The guy who invited Bianca took his people and Bianca hers and then there was a group who this guy named Francisco had. So Bianca and I found a BBQ duck place for our group but then Francisco Kakao'd Bianca and ended up joining out group. Our friend Donald had come up so it was him, me, Bianca, Yves, Halley, and Jace. Me, Bianca, and Donald go to meet with Francisco's group which turned out to be all guys lol two were Italian, three were German, and two were Danish...they were a fun bunch to hang out with. One guy said it was his birthday which we found out later that was a lie lol but it was still pretty funny. Please click the link and watch Bianca's Vlog on the night :)

Crazy Shenanigans with Europeans!