Our trip to Vietnam!

Hello! We're back from vacation, back to teaching, and already missing Vietnam!!!

What we did:
1. Hanoi-explored the city, walked around the lake, visited the Vietnamese Women's Museum, Ho Chi Minh museum, the remains of Hoa Lo Prison, and a cathedral, and of course ate amazing  food!

Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. The line was WAY TOO long, so we just took a picture from here. 

Hoa Lo Prison

Women's museum

2. Halong Bay-took a 2-night/3-day cruise with Indochina Junk which was amazing!!

We got to kayak twice!

 3. Sapa--took a 1 day tour with Sapa Sisters. Great views, learned a little about the local people, and got some good photos. The overnight Hanoi <--> Lao Cai (Sapa) train wasn't the best, but at least it left and arrived on schedule and got us to the stations safely. 

On our hike!

Got to relax for a little bit before catching the train back.

 4. Mui Ne-Beach resort area northeast of Ho Chi Minh city. Stayed at Grace Boutique Resort and had a great time. Relaxed by the infinity pool, walked on the beach, went to the sand dunes for the sunrise, walked in the "Fairy Stream," and enjoyed our last few days of vacation.

Infinity pool!

View from our room!

Sunrise :)

Walking in the Fairy Stream

 5. Ho Chi Minh/Saigon- got a personal tour from Oanh!! (former foreign-exchange student who lived with Fluke in high school) We visited the post office, saw the Notre Dame cathedral, went to the Unification Palace, ate yummy food, and... traveled by motorbike!!

Post office!

Reunification Palace

Notre Dame Cathedral

Having ice cream before we had to say goodbye. 

Motorbikes!

What we LOVED:
1. THE FOOD!!!!!!! (and the COFFEE!!!)

2. The views!!! Halong Bay, Sapa and Mui Ne were gorgeous!

3. The hospitality of all the hotel staff and the luxurious accommodations at every hotel we stayed in. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming. We never had any problems. 

Overall, our trip to Vietnam was amazing! We definitely want to go back sometime. And now, we're back to our routine in Daegu and setting into the second semester. Wish us luck! ^^

Time for Summer Vacation!

Hello!
Tomorrow is our first day of our summer vacation!! Woohoo! Technically summer vacation began 2 weeks ago, but we were teaching English summer camps. This year, my daily topics were: under the sea (fun bubble wrap & paint art project),  desserts of the world (make/eat coke floats), carnival review (a ton of games requiring English vocab), animals (face painting!), and travel (pack your "suitcase" and make your own country). Lots of planning and preparing, but overall, English camps are really fun. I always plan activities that I think are exciting. I mean...if I think they're exciting, the kids will too...right?? That's my thinking anyway!

Now that English camps are over, we finally start our actual summer vacation. Destination?? VIETNAM!

Hope everyone is enjoying the hot summer weather! It's been super hot in Daegu, but I'd choose these 100*F summer days over the 0*F winter days every time! ^-^

Byebye~

Boryeong Mud Fest Round 2!

Hello!


I don't know if you remember, but Fluke and I went to Boryeong for a mud festival last year. We had heard at our EPIK orientation that of all the festivals Korea has to offer, the Boryeong Mud Fest was the one you should definitely go to. We had such an amazing time that we decided to go again!


We used Adventure Korea and got picked up in downtown Daegu early Saturday morning. We were really impressed with Adventure Korea last year, so why change tour companies this year?? :) Anyway, we got to Boryeong on a comfy AC-blasting bus (I napped pretty much the whole way!) and immediately changed into our swimsuits and hit the beach! We had about an hour before we headed to the mud flats nearby...


Side note: the mud used in the festival is transported to the beach from the nearby mud flats. With Adventure Korea, it is possible to visit these mud flats! ^-^


Here's some pics of Boryeong beach, the mud flats and the mud festival!! We got some really good ones this year thanks to my water-proof camera case!!

Beach! The water was actually pretty nice!

At the mud flats!

Playing a game...knock your partner over to win. I lost every time :'(

In the mud festival! Fluke won the race!

Getting ready to race!

Fluke one this one too :)

I won this one!! Yay!

Wearing a stretchy rope, run to the middle and hug your partner.
It's harder than it looks! and a ton of fun~

We had an amazing time, despite the cool weather and insane rainstorm at night! For anyone thinking of going to Boryeong for the mud festival...we highly recommend it!!!

Pyeongchang June 2012 Visit!

Hello!


The weather in S.Korea has been fairly rainy and cloudy for the past month or so. That still didn't stop Jenn and I from signing up for a tour from Adventure Korea to Pyeongchang! Pyeongchang is a city in the northern area of S.Korea, and we went up there a few weekends ago as part of a tour package that included a day at the waterpark, a rock festival, and ATV's! I highly recommend Adventure Korea if you're looking for a tour company in S.Korea that is well put together, and reliable. The only downside is that they're based in Seoul, so very rarely do they have tours that leave from Daegu. Anyway, this was one of the few that did, and we're pretty glad we went.


We left Saturday morning, and got to Pyeongchang sometime around 12:30. To clarify, we weren't exactly staying in Pyeongchang, we were staying at the Phoenix Park Sky Resort? Something like that. As soon as I got there and saw all the awesome slopes, I could just imagine how sweet it would be to go snowboarding in  that during the winter. This is the place where the 2018 Winter Olympics will be held, so I thought it was pretty cool to visit something like that!

The Slopes!

Sitting next to the Olympics sign!

We got there, and checked in to our rooms. Pretty nice, lots of space for everyone, and clean. Then, we headed to the waterpark. Yup, this resort has a waterpark. It's got to do something during the summer right? Anyway, we headed to the waterpark, and had a really good time! One thing I like about waterparks in S.Korea is the locker room. Yes, random, and a little weird. But....once you get used to all the naked dudes, its actually really nice. The showers have soap and shampoo, they have everything. They even have these little machines that you put your swimming shorts in for a quick dry. No pics unfortunately, our cameras aren't waterproof!

After the waterpark, we cleaned up and got some Dominoes for dinner. Then we headed over to the rock concert. Not...bad? Let's just say that the first performance was decent, but then we got bored and left. If you ain't got nothing nice to say...right? We went and got some ice cream around 11 or so and then just got back to the room and chilled. Good times.

Rock Concert

Sunday, we woke up, and went and took the cable car to the top of the slopes. Normally, I'm thinking these are used for skiiers and snowboarders. But anyway, at the top of the hill, there was an animal farm. Wait, what? Yes, there was an animal farm. They had a little box filled with yellow, fluffy baby chickens. And you could pick it up and scare the crap out of it. But yeah, we picked one up, and it was...interesting. I put it back because I was scared it would use the bathroom on me. 

At the top of the slopes! Can you imagine it covered in snow? ^__^

After that, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for ATVing! ATV was definitely the highlight. We went up a mountain, and then back down, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Here are some pics!

After ATVing, we went to clean up, and then got on the bus back to Daegu. Not a bad weekend at all!

Walking in the Jagalchi Fish Market, Running in Dadaepo Beach, and Hiking in Seoul

Hello!!!
So last weekend, we went to Busan with our friends! The main reason for the trip was the Dadaepo Beach race~ I signed up for my third 10km and 3 of our friends signed up for the 5km!! We figured it made sense to stay in Dadaepo to make the next morning easy, but after walking near the race start and not finding much, we decided to stay in the Jagalchi/Nampo area of Busan instead! This area is full of restaurants, shops, bars, and...the Jagalchi Fish Market! We spent the rest of our Saturday afternoon/evening exploring this area. Check out some of our pics!

One of the entrances to the fish market.

View from the top of the big Lotte department store in Nampo.

Sunday morning we made our way back to Dadaepo! It was an easy subway ride to Sinpyeong and then there were shuttle buses from the station to the race starting point. The race route was flat and along the coastline so we had a nice ocean breeze and pretty view! It was a perfect race day and...I finished the race in 53:28! That's 5 minutes faster than my first 10km time!!! I guess all my training worked! The picture below was from the Daegu Stadium race. The pictures of the Busan race aren't online yet...

Where's Jenn and Fluke?!?! I'll give you a hint...I'm wearing grey shorts and a white shirt. Still can't find us? We're to the right of the "S" in LEPORTS. ^^

Anyway, enough about running! Let's talk about hiking...
Two weeks ago, Fluke and I went up to see our friend in Seoul. We decided to hike Bukhansan again but start at a different point this time. We hiked on a ridge line (really fun and scary and awesome) AND made it to Baegundae Peak, the highest peak in Seoul (836.5 meters tall!!)... and it only took us...6 hours!!! Yes, we hiked for 6 hours! Definitely didn't start the morning thinking we would hike all day, but that's how it ended up! Sunday we headed back to Daegu, but first we went to Tomatillo to get some yummy Mexican food! We of course got 2 burritos to-go to have for dinner later that night. ^-^ Here's some of our favorite pictures from our hike and our food~

The start of our day! About 10am...

See Fluke way at the top?!?!

Our view of Seoul. It wasn't a clear day unfortunately.

Top of the ridge line part of our hike!

View from the ridge line.

On our way to Bagundae Peak...

We made it!! 
It looks cold...but it wasn't at all!! Just really cloudy.

Now for some food pics!!! So yummy!!!! ^-^*

Burrito Special at Tomatillo!!

Nachos at Tomatillo!

Boseong Green Tea Plantation 2012

Weather is finally getting nice enough for me and Jenn to venture outside of Daegu. A couple weekends ago, we decided to check out the Boseong Green Tea plantations! We wanted to go because we had never seen a green tea plantation before, and the pictures looked great. It was also just a chance for us to scratch our traveling itch!


Getting there (from Daegu):
- Take the express bus to Gwangju from the bus station directly to the left of the Dongdaegu Subway exit.
  We recommend buying tickets a couple days in advance (just go to the station itself for that). This takes about 4 hours with traffic. We went up on Friday night, stayed in Gwangju, and in the morning, went to Boseong.
- Once in Gwangju, from the bus terminal that you are dropped off at, take a bus from Gwangju to Boseong. These run every 30-40 minutes. This takes about an hour and a half.
- Once in Boseong, from the bus terminal that you are dropped off at, get a bus to the Boseong Green Tea plantations. This should take about 10 minutes.
- When you are dropped off, make sure you head to the left a little bit, and avoid the Green Tea Plantation that has the museum in it. It's nice, but the one to the left and up the hill a little bit offers far greater views and awesomeness. If you get lost, just follow the crowd, they know which one is better!


Once there, we wandered around the plantations, taking a lot of pictures, and just enjoying the fresh, clean air. It smelled really, really nice and was a nice change from the smoggy Daegu city air. If we had waited another month, the green tea plants would have been much greener, but all the same, we were still pretty impressed. Check out some pics!

We also got to try out a lot of green tea food! We had some green tea ja jang myun (black bean sauce noodles), green tea naemmyun (cold noodles), green tea pork katsu, and our favorites, green tea ice cream and shakes!

Green tea noodles on the left, Green Tea Pork Katsu on the right!

Fresh, Iced Green Tea. Yum!

Standing in line for Green Tea ice cream. ^_^

After buying some green tea snacks (candy, cookies, latte packs!), we headed to the beach nearby. Now, I think you can take the bus that dropped you off at the plantations straight to Yulpo beach, but we were pretty lucky. We met another tourist, who spoke Korean fluently, and called us a taxi! So we headed down the coast to Yulpo beach. It was really nice and scenic. But well, to be honest, seen one beach, seen em all.  What is worth mentioning though is that we got bored very quickly and wanted to head back to Boseong. When we couldn't find the bus stop, we thought we'd head over to the police station and ask for directions. We got more than that. The police officer actually gave us a ride...back to the Boseong bus terminal! (20-30 minute drive). We were so surprised at their kindness, and appreciative as well. After thanking him profusely, we headed back to Gwangju from Boseong.

Yulpo Beach

In Gwangju, we took in some of the sights and ate at (of all places), a T.G.I.F.! Haha. Here are some pics of Gwangju. After one more night in Gwangju, we headed back home to Daegu. Overall, really nice weekend, and I'd highly recommend Boseong to Green tea lovers, nature lovers, and photography buffs.

Statue we found while walking

An amphitheater