Well I have had a very busy couple of weeks. My mom arrived here last Wednesday April 1^st. That was a rough morning I had to catch the bus at 9:10am to get to the Incheon Airport a 5 hour trip.

Day 1:

My friend Duk picked me up around 8:30am to get to the bus station. On arrival we were informed by the ticket lady that the bus was actually at 8; 50 looking at the clock that read 8:58 and the proceeding train not leaving until 11:30 I started to panic. Duk ran outside and luckily the bus was still there – already a close call and only 9am. My stomach was in knots about how the rest of my trip was going to be. I waved goodbye to Duk as we said our awkward good bye as I boarded the bus. I wasn't sure if I should hug him or what so I just waved instead. Thanking him for saving my morning.

The bus ride was nice – long but comfortable I arrived at the airport and found my mom's gate with ease. I arrived a little early and noticed that her arrival time was pushed back every 5 mins so I decided to buy our bus tickets to our hotel and get all of our accommodations in order while I waited.

My mom's only request for a hotel was that it had a pool and a hot tub-whirl pool. A reasonable request for any hotel back in the US but in country known for its public bath houses it's not very common to find a public pool or hot tub where the woman aren't bathing themselves in the nude.

I finally resided on the Ritz Carlton a swank deluxe hotel that would surely have a large whirl pool style tub in their luxury bathrooms. The catch was that if you're a foreigner the Ritz takes there already overpriced room and adds about another 100 dollars on to the price, but if you are Korean then you only have to pay the standard high over priced rate. So to beat the system I found my friend Chang who was currently staying in Seoul to check in to the hotel for us.

I must say the Ritz was luxurious. The lobby was beautiful and the staffs were at your beck and call catering to your every need- truly a service that I could get used to. However upon arriving to our room I noticed the bathroom was no so deluxe and the tub was standardL. I was really upset because I wanted to go all out for my mom and really surprise her with an amazing time in Korea. Though at this point she had only been here a few hours my mood was low. And not 5 mins after noticing the bathroom did I pull out the coffee/tea tray and accidently dropped it breaking the ceramic dishes and tea pot. AGH the knot in my stomach was tightening this trip I knew at this point was not going to go smoothly. I just couldn't wait till we got back to my Gyeongju, my area of Korea, my familiarity…. Seoul was unknown territory to me. Well I won't bore you with the unfortunate looking hors d'eurves set out for us at the Ritz or the testimony we put forth at the front counter. But I will say to end my mom's first day in Korea that we did go to a samgupsa restaurant and my mom adored the food and the free service coffee offered at the restaurant was complimented more throughout the evening then our sleeping quarters. Fortunately there was a happy ending to the first day and Chang was a big hit with my mom!

Day 2:

The next day we also woke up super early 6:30-7am we went down to a delicious continental breakfast, already turning into a good day. My mom and I had a really good talk about my future and the career I want, which she believes I will be very good. She also gave me some pointers on how to bullshit with people lol.

Any way today we went on the DMZ tour which was 5 hours long!!! But absolutely amazing, I have to say I really wasn't looking forward to the tour but I knew my mom liked history and this would be enjoyable for her so I sucked it up. And in the end I really had a great time to. I really am not interested in history but I did learn a lot for the tour. We got to see North Koreans with binoculars from an observation room. We also were shown their clothing and goods used in their lifestyle- vey poor. They don't have fertilizer for their crops nor do they have machines so things are done with man power. Millions of people are dying from starvation it's a sad story.

The tour took us to the Panmunjeun which is the area where North and South Korea meet, it's a neutral zone where both countries have military stationed. This is what you see on TV when you watch press conferences and what not. We were able to see North Korean guards but were asked to walk fast to not raise your arms up or make any gestures. It was pretty serious. After all this was at the time when North Korea had the missile (satellite) ready for launch at any day.

Our tour guide was very informative and spoke English very well and for lunch we had the same thing as dinner the night before Samgupsa – still a big hit with my mom and topped off with SERVICE COFFEE lol she did not stop talking about this free coffee offered everywhere here.

After our tour we took a bus back home to good old Gyeongju. Where my mom met her new grandson, Marley, (name pending). We hit the sack at around 1am and prepared ourselves for another busy day.

Day 3 will be continued another time as I am tired talk to you soon here are some pics to enjoy.

As promised here are some pictures of my students. These are some students in my younger class. They are 5 and 6 year olds. On this particular day one of the students fell and started crying. I didn't know what to do, I didn't know the words in Korean to comfort her and I'm not use to little kids. So I did the first thing that came to my mind I posted a smile on her face lol.

It worked!!!

Im the McGuiver of teaching skills anyway it then became the latest fad in class and pretty soon everyone wanted a post-it smile lol

Went to Daegu last night with two of my friends from France, Mohammad and Christophe. Daegu is like the foreigner city they have all the western restaurants and many foreigners live there because of the military bases. It's was a nice vacation from Gyeongju. I went shoe shopping found some cool Nikes that have a rooster embroidered on the top. We went to Outback for dinner wasn't too impressed but I don't really like steak I never know how to order it or which cut to chose.

The main reason for going was of course the bars and I had a lot of fun I dragged my friend Cristy along because she never wants to leave the house. We started off at a bar called Communes it's a small little hole in the wall kind of rustic inside the floors and walls are all wood. Tonight was there open mic and it was far from great lol I thought the first performer was tuning his guitar it wasn't until the faint applause began that I realized that was supposed to be a song. We stayed at Communes for a bit other than the music it's a nice homey place 9,000 won pitchers of beer kept us there for 3 more.

After Communes we made our way to the " G.I club" Called Old School. The bartenders suck and the crowd is not that great but the DJ is really good. Most of the night I was chased around by some old, weird, Indian man. He even followed me to the bathroom. I couldn't shake him. As we were leaving he slapped my butt, I turn around and there's Cristy shaking her finger at him screaming "Don't you ever touch my friends". And the Indian guy is just sitting there with his hands in a prayer position bowing to Cristy. It was a funny sight. The guy was so weird.

Afterwards we hobbled over to Burger King, Cristy walked Shoeless (her feet hurt) through the dirt and rocks on the road (they were doing construction.) But she was ok with it she says she's part Native American so she's used to walking barefoot lol. After burger king she couldn't bare it anymore so Momo stole a wheel barrel off the street and starting wheeling her towards the car. We got back to Gyeongju at around 5am. It was a really fun night!

Okay I haven't written a blog entry since December that's pretty bad… Well a lot of things have happened since December. I am single again lol and I'm also a mommy- to a puppy that is J I bought a little fluffy dog here I've had him for about 2 months but I still haven't totally settled on a name yet, as of right now HIS name is Cody. I've been working a lot lately are school has almost doubled since I've started. We have hired 3 new Korean teachers and because of that I have 3 times more classes :-? But it's still ok the kids are great I started a debate class with some of the middle school students. It's really fun to see them come up with their own ideas and arguments in English. I am such an awesome teacher J All the kids adore me! I will definitely miss them when I leave but I have come to decide this is not really my calling and though I enjoy being here I know that in my heart I'm not truly happy…

How could I be without my Amanda J and my mom and brother and lil Caiden who is growing up soo fast.

I really miss my family and traveling abroad at 23 is much different then leaving when I was 16. I have realized how big of a part I play in a lot of people's lives, especially my brother. On a lighter note my mom will be visiting me for one week. I tried to post the itinerary I made for her trip but unfortunately the big spaces are there because the pictures are lacking, hopefully I would figure out how to post pictures with Microsoft Word.

Well this was just a quick note to let everyone know I'm still alive lol and I will try to update this more often. Until next time ….