Hiking off a hangover

 For a friend's birthday, we went to Sinchon in Seoul and ate at On the Border. Mexican food- chain restaurant. It was pretty good- I've had better burritos, but the "homemade" chips and salsa were delicious. They didn't have limes so the original margaritas were lemon, BUT, they were still pretty good. After dinner, our group walked to Hongik University (Hongdae) for more celebratory drinks and dancing. Great evening had by all.

After arriving home at 8am, I was only able to sleep for a couple hours. Mid afternoon, decided fresh air was probably best so I went for a hike on Chungryang Mt. in Yeonsu Gu. Initially the headache was pretty annoying, but eventually the exercise and fresh air fought hard against my hangover and by the end of the hike, I was feeling great. We even found a great museum and Memorial Hall for Incheon Landing Operation (aka a shrine to General MacArthur).

After the hike and history lesson, a McDonald's cone was my reward- and it was amazing- and it was only 700w.

Wal Mart has taken over language academies

Well, not really. But the idea is the same. There are large franchised English language institutes in Korea and they are dominating the smaller, mom-n-pop hagwans (private academies/schools). There are ups and downs to working for both, it's just a bit sad to see the smaller ones losing so many students. Mine is family-owned and operated. The woman who owns it also teaches every day. We're losing students on a weekly basis to the larger, more commercialized ones... it's not a pretty picture :(

The littlest bowling fan

While bowling last weekend at Phoenix Resort, we were honored with our very own mini fan (although his enthusiasm was anything but!)

He clapped with so much enthusiasm, I think it improved all of our games... a big thanks goes out to this little guy.


(pictures compliments of Tracey-Lee Sullivan)

Starting the New Year Off with Seoul

As the cliche of the title suggests, ended up in Seoul (Hongdae) for New Year's Eve! Arrived 15 minutes to midnight so went to the first random bar we could find. Immediately after midnight we looked out the 2nd-floor window to see a huge mob forming in the street. Not even a minute after midnight, the entire mob did the Michael Jackson "Beat It" dance. It was unbelievable- like out of a movie. This is the best video I could find on youtube. It's not great, but you can some what get the feel. We watched it from above but couldn't hear the music.. it was a sight to see!


Spent the weekend on a ski/snowboarding trip at Pheonix Resort. AdventureKorea organized the trip. I've heard mixed reviews about their trips, but for this particular event they did a great job. They took care of the accommodations (which were right on the resort), the transportation, rental equipment, and passes. There were 37 people on the trip and it was a great group, with teachers from all over the world (South Africa, New Zealand, England, U.S.A, Canada, etc). My snowboarding skills aren't the best, but I made it down the hill, mostly on my two feet. I only face-planted once, so I consider the weekend a success.