Goodbye, Korea! It was nice to meet you.

Well, my suitcase and two carry-ons are packed to the brim, my apartment is clean, my money is transferred home... what's left to do but blog?? :)

It has been a whirlwind of emotions the past few days. This past weekend we went out in Seoul for one last night in Hongdae (my favorite area in Seoul) with everyone so it was a really fun weekend. I was supposed to teach two more days before heading home on Wednesday but due to some weather related events, Monday ended up being my last day. Most people would probably think that would be great and you get an extra day off work but no, it was more stressful!

Monday was my last day with my first and second graders, so I had already prepared small gifts for them and was ready to say goodbye. However, halfway through first grade I find out that today is my last day and not Tuesday because of a typhoon that was supposed to hit Korea on Tuesday. I was immediately distraught because I didn't say goodbye to my kindergartners that day since I was planning to on Tuesday. So needless to say, the rest of the day was emotional. Saying goodbye to my first graders was especially hard because they were the kids that I had all year long (they were my kindergarten class the first 6 months I was in Korea, and then my first grade class my 2nd six months). Spencer, possibly my favorite of all my students, kept hugging me and saying, "Don't go" and "one more year please." It was heartbreaking. He gave me a little present and his mom wrote a card saying thank you and also telling me how Spencer cried, which of course made me cry even more just reading it. Saying goodbye to my second grade wasn't as sad since I wasn't as attached to them but it is still a weird feeling! The kids did all write me little notes during their break time saying thank you and that they will miss me though which was nice!

After class ended on Monday, I didn't even really know what to do. It took a little while to pack up my desk, and then I stayed and talked to my supervisors for a little bit. Then, Lucy, the head supervisor had the idea to video tape me saying goodbye to my class and then we could send it to all my kindergartner's parents. So, of course I start crying in the video, but Ellie (my kindergartner supervisor) sent it to all the moms to show their kids. Then, the head of the school and the supervisors who were still at work decided to take me out to dinner as a way to say thank you. We went to this really fancy, delicious Chinese restaurant and reminisced about my time here. They had really nice things to say about me and my classes which meant a lot to me. Throughout dinner, four of my students had sent me little videos back to Ellie to show me so of course I kept crying through out dinner too! Luckily Ellie is going to send me the files of them!

After dinner I was emotionally exhausted so I cleaned my apartment a little more and went to bed. Now that I didn't have to work on Tuesday I had a little more leeway of packing time and finishing everything!

Tuesday, no typhoon was seen. It was windy all day but it barely even rained where I lived. I am still a little nervous about my flights tomorrow but I should be ok since I think the typhoon is pretty much well into North Korea now! So I spent the day finishing packing, cleaning, running to the bank, going to the YMCA to work out one last time (especially before Dairy Queen is back in my life!) and hanging out with my friends. We had one last Korean barbeque dinner at my favorite restaurant and called it a night! Now I'm sitting here, with my apartment pretty much empty and thinking about all the great times I had in Korea so I thought I would write a list of things I will miss. However, that being said, first I must remind myself of all the things I didn't like here too!


What I will not miss in Korea...

• The spitting. Not just a regular spit but a deep down in your throat nastiness. ALL THE TIME.
• The lack of personal space. Like when a woman literally stands in front of me on the subway as if I'm going to hug her from behind...or the pushing, or bumping, or stepping on you without any awareness!
• Not being able to understand almost everything!
• The chewing. The smacking and moaning and everything. Ick.
• The squatter toilets at nasty bars.
• People constantly being attached to their smart phones (although I'm sure that it'll be the same in America soon, unfortunately...)
• Feeling so crowded, most of the time.
• The hot, humid, sticky weather
• The hard mattresses (or lack of beds at all, although I will admit sometimes sleeping on mats on the floor is fun... but not sleeping on a mattress that's a rock everynight)

What I will miss in Korea...

• My students. Their laughter, their smiles, their excitement when speaking English, hearing them use phrases that they picked up from me (like the eenie meenie miney mo song and "Uh oh!"). Having them sit on my lap, drawing me pictures, saying "I love you" everyday. Even the times when they misbehave and they are being SO difficult. I love them all so much.
• The food. So delicious!
• Hongdae..although I won't miss staying up until 7 in the morning and feeling horrible the next day :)
• The mountains and the beautiful scenery all around. Especially, Seoraksan National Park.
• Jimjilbangs, the Korean bath houses.
• Noraebangs, the karaoke rooms.
• My co teachers and friends, they are all amazing people who have taught me a lot.

I'm sure there are so many more things that I can't think of right now, but overall, the pros outweigh the cons. I would have never thought that one day I would have gone to visit South Korea, let alone teach there for a year! It has been a roller coaster, but a good one. I'm so thankful for this experience in my life. I've learned a lot about myself, met some wonderful people along the way, and will leave Korea with an appreciation and (at least a better) understanding of the Korean culture. There were times when I was homesick, but I'm glad I never gave up and finished my year here. I truly cherish my time spent here and have made some unforgettable memories throughout the year.

As my best friend Abby wrote to me before I left, "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you don't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover" -Mark Twain
Shouldn't that be the motto for everyone's life?

So, this journey all ends tomorrow... With a flight to Japan, then Chicago and home (pray for no delays or cancellations from this stupid typhoon!) Then I have one of my best friend's wedding on Saturday which will be a good intro back to the American culture! Let's just hope the jet lag isn't too severe or I might be asleep by the reception dinner... :) We'll see how I handle this reverse culture shock!

Farewell Korea... Thanks for a grand old time.I can't wait to see my family, my friends, and the wonderful Minnesota!


On to the next adventure!
Love, Meghan

A Trip to North Korea

One of the last things I wanted to do before I left Korea was visit the DMZ or (demilitarized zone) at the border between South Korea and North Korea. I can still picture Mr. Walseth, my social studies teacher, telling us about the DMZ in 8th grade. Of course at the time, I didn't really understand the DMZ and the conflict between the North and the South, nor did I think that one day I would be living just hours south of the border. I'm still far from an expert of the DMZ but I feel a little more informed now (after 11 months of being here... oops).

So to fulfill my Korean bucket list, August 11th my friend Rachel and I set off for the DMZ. The DMZ is actually 4 kilometers wide across the whole border, with a MDL running through the middle (military demarcation line, or the actual border) so each country has 2 km from the MDL that they guard.
 Thanks to my friend the internet, here is a picture to better explain it! Pyongyang is the capital of North Korea and obviously Seoul is the capital of South Korea. It took about an hour and a half to drive from Seoul to the DMZ.

                                                

The area that I toured is called the Joint Security Area (JSA), this is where the two sides meet if they ever need to (hence the word Joint...) On the map above it's called Panmunjom. Panmunjom is actually the name of the village that was abandoned, but people use it for the JSA.

On our tour, we first stopped and ate lunch, always a necessity. Then we drove to Imjingak to see the Freedom Bridge (called this for the South Koreans who crossed when they came back from North Korea) which is a bridge actually connecting the North and South and we also saw the Railroad Breaking Point, which is basically a train waiting on the tracks that were never completed into the North. This is the last place that civilians can go by themselves so there were a couple fences tied with messages to North Korea. Unification is still on a lot on people's minds here, understandably since the country was only divided in 1953 so a lot of relatives may still be in in the North.

A South Korean man posting a message on the fence.

After a quick visit of Imjingak we made our way to Camp Bonifas... (Camp Bonifas is a United Nations Command military post located 400 meters south of the southern boundary of the Korean Demilitarized Zone. It is 2400 meters south of the military demarcation line and lies within the Joint Security Area, also known as Panmunjom"... Thank you Wikipedia. Before entering a checkpoint, a South Korean guard came onto our bus and "checked" our passports (making sure you had one with you, not that it was actually yours or anything!). Then we had to switch buses to be on an actual JSA bus, not the tour bus we came on. A guard accompanied us onto this bus, and I was imagining it to be a Korean, but it was an American soldier. And here's where the day went downhill...

First, there used to be a lot more Americans stationed at the JSA but now only about 5% of the total are Americans and the rest are South Koreans. (On a sidenote, all men have to serve in the military for two years in South Korea... just a fun fact.) So an American comes on our bus, and he again has to check our passports now that we're in the JSA and he's mumbling to himself "I hate my life, I hate my life" as he's checking everyone's passports. Then, as he sees that the guy sitting across the aisle from me has an American passport, he literally says "Yeah Amuurica" like the "Amurrica" people say as a joke to make fun of people that actually say "Amuurica"... I was embarrassed and was hoping no one else could hear. BUT THEN... he sees that I too am American, hooray, and he he proceeds to say "Freedom seats right here. Go team USA"... OK I understand the Go team USA because it was the olympics... but FREEDOM seats?! What!? As if the Canadians, British and Australians and the other tons of people from other places were sitting in Dictatorship seats or something? I was glad to see that the American across the aisle from me was just as embarrassed. My friend Rachel sitting next to me is Canadian and of course she just started laughing. Then the guard had to give us the fun facts of the tour, like how off the road there are mines everywhere, and how North Korea built a 160m flag pole after South Korea built a 100m flag pole (in their two respective villages in the DMZ). Because yes, there is a village in the DMZ and rice fields and villagers and what not. They are guarded though because apparently North Koreans have attacked the villagers before. The North Korean village is also known as a propaganda village, no one actually lives there but they use it to appear as if the country is prosperous and what not.

But back to our wonderful guard... As he was informing of us all of the information he was getting paid to do, he sounded as if it was the worst thing in the world. SO dramatic... I was embarrassed from the freedom seat comment but then I was just annoyed. I wonder how often it's his turn to do this and I understand giving tours is not exactly what one would think they'd be doing in the army but suck it up, seriously. On our way back then, someone asked him how long he'd been here and he said 3 months, and he just graduated high school, maybe that explains it a little more?? Not really sure... As we were about to return to Seoul I said thank you to him, you know, for being an EXCELLENT tour guide and what not... (note the sarcasm) but really, I did say thank you as one should do to anyone who gives a tour for anything, and he responds with "Keep living the dream" and so I said, "Isn't that what we're doing?" implying that I'm living in a foreign country, having a wonderful experience yada yada yada, and he says, "Then why are you in Korea?" so naturally I had to say, "Maybe you should have a positive attitude and you'll feel a lot better." which he then says, "Well you're not wearing this." implying his army uniform.. UM HELLO SIR, I'm not wearing THAT because I chose not to be in the military... the same option you had. We're not in a draft anymore, so don't complain about it! GEEZ!!!

Ok enough about the epitome of a stereotypical American soldier... back to the tour.

When we got to the JSA, we were only allowed to take pictures when they told us we could. It was a little nerve racking because they made us get into two lines to walk out onto the steps where we could see the North Korean side. They also emphasized at least 10 times that you can't make gestures (like pointing or waving) to the North because that counts as communication with the North. All of the South Korean guards wear sunglasses even to avoid staring contests and what not (plus it makes them look way more badass.. just kidding). So we're out on the steps for about 5 minutes... and what does this one girl do but asks a question and points!! I gasped and immediately said "you can't point"... I think I was a little on edge at this point because obviously nothing happened. Two minutes later, another guy points, and at least 5 people gasped and told him to stop... I'm glad I wasn't the only one who was a little freaked out. Truthfully, I felt really uncomfortable the whole time. The guards talk casually to us about the facts and stuff and yet this North Korean guard is staring at you with binoculars and you know there a ton of them inside the building watching you too. It was a strange and uneasy atmosphere. 

 There's North Korea! The top third of their building was built to make their building taller than the South Korean building facing it...We went into the little blue house on the left.

After looking on the steps we went inside one of the buildings where the meetings take place. Half of the building is in the North and half is in the South, so I technically was in North Korea today! Add it to the list of countries I've seen... haha. The table is exactly in the middle of the room and the microphones on the table serve as the MDL (military demarcation line for those of you who don't remember). I guess the North Koreans have cut the microphones before for the South side and sometimes they try to lower the South Korean side chairs, so that the North can appear taller and more powerful. Really? You think an inch at the table is going to make a difference? It sounds like middle school fighting all over again!

The South Korean guard. All guards have to have a black belt in Taekwondo because they stand in position 1 or something like that, and they also have to speak another language. (Oh and look! On the far left you can see my Freedom friend...)

After the 15 minutes walking around, well following a single line into the 2 destinations, we got on the bus and drove through the JSA. We saw the place of the Axe Murder Incident, where soldiers were killed by the North because they wanted to cut down a tree that was in their viewpoint of their two check point areas. We also saw the Bridge of No Return which was where the North and South sent people back to either side, knowing that they could never return to the other side once they passed the bridge. I'm skimping the details now because honestly there is so much to say about the DMZ and I still don't even know a lot of it. Wikipedia has a good outline of some of the events that have taken place since the DMZ was created, like defectors and stuff like that if anyone is actually interested in learning more about it. We did get to watch a video on the bus on the way back to Seoul but I fell asleep...

Overall, it was a really good experience and I'm glad I went. I think it would be interesting to go to the North side and see what they say. I'm sure South Korea isn't totally innocent in it's dealings with the North either but they wouldn't say that! I actually just discovered this year that people can actually go into North Korea, even Americans as of 2010. It's not at the top of my list but maybe someday. You have to go through China though, you can't go through South Korea.

A fun fact: North Korea is one of only two countries in the WORLD that doesn't sell Coca Cola. Our tour guide (from Seoul, not the American guard) didn't know the other one so of course I had to google it when I got home and the other one is Cuba... :)

Well, now that the DMZ is finished, I think I'm finished with everything I wanted to do in Korea! This past weekend my friend Kayla visited me from Daegu, where she lives. It was really nice to see her again, especially since her contract isn't up until February and she might be staying another year so who knows when I will see her again! Now, I'm just trying to get everything ready for HOME! Only 8 more days until I am home. Can't wait!!!

Thailand- Phuket!

          After our 3 days in Chiang Mai, Molly and I headed to Phuket which is one of the big islands near the south of Thailand. We've heard Phuket was pretty touristy, and although it was in many parts, we were able to get away from that for a while and still see a lot of the true Phuket (well as true as it could be for us tourists!)

           We arrived in Phuket really late Tuesday night (about 2 in the morning) so we slept in Wednesday and actually didn't do anything Wednesday except go to the beach that was near our hotel, Kata Beach. It was so beautiful! Of course the pictures never do it justice but the water was the whole blue/green shades that you always see in pictures but rarely can find in person. It was so nice to relax too after a busy time in Chiang Mai. This trip really brought out Molly's and my old person side (no offense to my older readers, of course!) but we preferred to spend the day doing thing and going to bed at a normal time than going out and to bars and what not. We usually were back in our hostel by 9pm and would just enjoy hanging out or reading our books. That's how we define vacation!

Kata Beach!

              Thursday, August 2nd- After our relaxing day Wednesday, we had to get up at about 5:30 to go on a boat tour we had booked. Again, another reason alcohol was not consumed on this trip! Also, it was my 23rd birthday!! woo hoo. I know I said the island had a lot of touristy things and going on a boat tour probably fits into that mold but I have no idea how you would go around Phang Nga Bay without having your own boat? So, the tour was the best way to do it. We got to the boat around 7 and heading off right away. There were a ton of little islands (most of which were just rock) but they were really cool formations of sedimentary metamorphic rock that almost looked like they were "dripping" off the island. We got to stop at one and explore one of the caves. At this stop, I decided to be brave and speak French to the French family that was with us, a couple and their two kids and the grandma... (there were 11 adults and 2 kids total) However, as I was talking to the French lady in my nervous I-haven't-studied-French-in-a-long-time French apparently I missed some key information from the lady running the tour. Apparently, as Molly informed me later, she said 1 in every 6 trips someone hits their head, and what do I do when I walk in? Immediately hit my head... I'm not just talking about a little bump, I'm talking full on collision with a rock formation jutting out of the ceiling on top of my skull. I'm really glad I didn't scream any swear words, surprisingly because it hurt. Next time, I'll save my language skill improvement for the boat. For the record, my head had a minor bump the rest of the trip but no real damage was done :)

             After the cave, we went to James Bond Island which is where one of the James Bond movies was filmed (in case it wasn't obvious why it was called that...). Even the tour lady said it was a tourist trap but it had a place for some nice pictures so we stopped for about 10 minutes to see the typical "Thailand" picture of the limestone rock jutting out of the water and moved on.




                                   
                                                          View from James Bond Island



            The day is kind of running together but after that we got to go on these little inflatable kayaks with a Thai person and go into some of the rock caves, formations, I have no idea what to call them. Passageways between the rocks? Sure... anyways it was really relaxing and it was so peaceful away from the all the wind from the ocean. It was hard to believe it was still part of the same place! That was just a little short tour and then back on the boat!

        I think after that we went to the floating village, which is exactly what it sounds like, a village that is just floating. There's no real land... I just kept thinking how scary that would be in a Tsunami! Eek! The island was a Muslim community which actually surprised me because I didn't realize that Thailand was Muslim also. Apparently, about 94.6% of Thailand is Buddhist and about 4.6% is Muslim. Thanks Wikipedia.... The island gave us a bigger insight on what people live like outside of tourist areas. The island makes its income from tourism though and fishing... and that's about it! I think it would be too claustrophobic living on a non-existent small island though!

                                                                       Floating Village

          After the floating island, we went to another island where we got to time to relax and lay out on the beach. It was a perfect end to the day! I think it also might have been my most exciting birthday yet. Although I still find it hard to believe that I'm 23 years old already! Ah!

We got back from the boat tour and did the typical routine, dinner, ice cream, shower, read, movies (if there were any good ones on TV) and bedtime!


Friday, August 3rd- This was our last booked day of our week, a bike tour! A lot of people rent motorbikes in Thailand but seeing as how Molly and I are 1. horrible at directions and 2. we have never driven anything with 2 wheels and a motor, we opted out. We still wanted to see some of the island though that we couldn't just walk to so an easy solution... a bike tour! We drove in a van to the north east side of Phuket, about an hour away from where we were staying on Kata Beach (which is more of the south west side). At first the terrain was pretty rough, for a non intense biker at least! We were biking through the country more than just paved roads. We got to see a rubber tree forest. Apparently Thailand is the number one export in rubber? Who knew? It was really fascinating to see how their methods are still so humanized. People wake up at around 1 or 2 in the morning and cut the sides of the trees where they have these little black cups at the bottom to catch the liquid that comes out which they use to make rubber. So strange!



 
                                  

                                                                 Rubber ready to export!


      We also got to see some pineapple farms. When they plant young rubber trees, since they're too small still, they have pineapple underneath until the trees are big enough to use for rubber. So smart! We also stopped by a man who was "peeling" coconuts?? I had no idea how big coconuts were! I thought they came as the little brown things, but there's a huge outer layer too! The only thing I didn't like about this is that they used a monkey to climb the trees to get the coconuts that they took from the rainforest and trained to get the coconuts because it's too dangerous for people... Poor monkey! It's so strange that these processes (the coconuts and the rubber) use such simple tools (well and monkeys...) but you know what I mean!


                                   
                                    Peeling coconuts...I wonder if there's a machine to do this??


      After the farm side, we went to a waterfall and the Gibbon Rehabilitation Center. Another depressing tourist trap is that people go into the forest and capture baby gibbons (which are a type of ape) and they capture a baby to get money from people who want to hold the cute baby animal... Well to get one baby, they usually have to kill about 10 other gibbons before they can just get one! The rehabilitation center works to get these gibbons back and they actually put a lot of them back into the wild. It's really hard though to get the gibbons because people will hide them and I guess there's actually a gibbon mafia where people pay off the police! So, just like the elephants, if you ever go to Thailand don't pay for pictures of animals!!!

          Speaking of elephants, one night in Phuket, when Molly and I were walking to dinner we actually saw someone with a baby elephant on the street using it for money!! It was even worse that it was only a little baby elephant....We were so upset but of  there was really nothing we can do to stop it. I wanted to scream at all the people not to pay for it and tell them how bad these elephants are treated to do this but I didn't need a Thai person angry at me. I do kind of regret not saying anything though!


         Well, we rode around for a little while longer (a total of about 22km) and then headed to the beach when we were finished for the rest of the day!

        Saturday, August 4th- This was our last day in Thailand and we spent it again, at the beach of course! Our flight was an overnight flight back to Seoul so we spent the morning in the air conditioning in our hostel while we could before check out and spent the rest of the time sitting at the beach. It was a great end to an even better trip!


    Well after reading all that, hopefully it wasn't too boring, but maybe it's inspired some people to go to Thailand. My favorite things were definitely the elephant day, the cooking, all the different foods (especially pad thai, pineapple fried rice, the different fruits like rambutan and dragon fruit, the green curry, ok basically all of it...) the boat tour, the beach, relaxing ok again, basically all of it!

    There were some downfalls of Thailand though...
1. The mosquito bites. I think I had 17 at one time, not to mention they inflamed and were huge and were the itchiest bites I've ever had. Luckily they were better after a day or two...
2. The night our air conditioner died at midnight and we had to be up at 5 for the boat tour. Thailand nights do NOT get any cooler. We were dying and probably got 2 hours of unrestful, horrible sleep.

Obviously the pros outweigh the cons! I'm even happier that I got to experience all of this with Molly! We had so much fun together and I wish she could have stayed with me longer!

    Sunday, August 5th- Back to reality. Molly and I got in around 8 in the morning and took a nap when we got back. It was miserably hot that day so the only thing we did was go to jimjilbang (the Korean bath house) so Molly could experience some true Korean culture! Otherwise, her Korean view is pretty limited to my kindergarten class but that's ok! She flew out Monday... :(

      Now, it's only 3 weeks left of work! I leave August, 29th so my last day of work is August, 28th. I've been really excited to come home but after seeing Molly and talking about what we want to do when I get home, it makes me even more excited!! Time to enjoy my last few weeks in the place that I've called home this past year.

See you soon Minnesota!

Love, Meghan

Thailand- Chiang Mai!!

Ahhh Thailand! Molly and I had been planning on going to Thailand together since March, April? I can't remember but a LONG TIME and it was finally here!! Thailand was the one country that I said I wanted to see besides Korea even if I don't get to travel anywhere else. Lots of people travel after their contracts are finished but I'm going home right away (actually a few days early) because of my good friend Sally's wedding that I'm in, but that's besides the point... So yes, I was going to Thailand and even better, my sister was joining me! YAY

I think it will be easier for me to write (and you all to follow) if I write it out by day....

Saturday, July 28th- Buses, airports, airplanes, and taxis. That pretty much sums up the whole day. We left my apartment early Saturday morning to catch our 10:40am flight. We were going to Chiang Mai first but it was cheaper to buy a round trip ticket from Seoul to Phuket (which was where we ended our trip) and then buy another round trip from Phuket to Chiang Mai. It seemed like the perfect plan... unfortunately it wasn't so perfect. Our first flight we were supposed to have a layover in Bangkok and then onto Phuket, where we would switch to our other airline and end in Chiang Mai (getting in around 10pm). The airline somehow had this sneak attack on us and we had to stop in Hong Kong and THEN go to Bangkok. Why this was nowhere stated on the ticket, I have no idea... So, it was 3 hours to Hong Kong, a pointless 45 minute wait (I swear like 5 people actually had Hong Kong as their final destination) and got back on the plane. Then, it was another 3 hours to Bangkok. The nice thing was we got a meal on each of these 3 hour flights. Asian airlines sure do how to treat their customers well! The food was actually good too. Woo hoo.  Anyways, we're a little nervous because we were delayed a little in Hong Kong and we only had an hour layover until we were supposed to go to Phuket and if we missed our flight to Phuket, we would miss our flight to Chiang Mai.... but it actually ended up in our favor! We missed the flight to Phuket, but we explained to them how we were actually going to Chiang Mai that night. After much teasing (why would you fly south just to fly back north...good question) and a little waiting, they put us on a flight to Chiang Mai directly from Bangkok even though our flight through the airline was only supposed to go to Phuket. Thank you Thai airways!!! So we ended up in Chiang Mai earlier than expected and saved about 3 hours of travel time. It was only a 20 minute taxi ride to our hostel and it was pretty cheap. We got to our hostel, settled in and went to bed. We were in Thailand!!! Successful day number one.

Sunday, July 29th- Sunday we slept in a little because we had no real plans for the day except to meander around Chiang Mai and see a temple. We woke up and scrounged up some food at the oh so American 7-11 and headed up to the main temple Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep.

For those interested in some history...thanks to my friend Wikipedia...

"The original founding of the temple remains a legend and there are a few varied versions. The temple is said to have been founded in 1383 when the first chedi was built. Over time, the temple has expanded, and been made to look more extravagant with many more holy shrines added. A road to the temple was first built in 1935.

According to legend, a monk named Sumanathera from Sukhothai had a dream; in this vision he was told to go to Pang Cha and look for a relic. Sumanathera ventured to Pang Cha and is said to have found a bone, which many claim was Buddha's shoulder bone. The relic displayed magical powers; it glowed, it was able to vanish, it could move itself and replicate itself. Sumanathera took the relic to King Dharmmaraja who ruled the Sukhothai.

The eager Dharmmaraja made offerings and hosted a ceremony when Sumanathera arrived. However, the relic displayed no abnormal characteristics, and the king, doubtful of the relic's authenticity, told Sumanathera to keep it.

However, King Nu Naone of the Lanna Kingdom heard of the relic and offered the monk to take it to him instead. In 1368 with Dharmmaraja's permission, Sumanathera took the relic to what is now Lamphun, in northern Thailand. The relic apparently split in two, one piece was the same size, the other was smaller than the original. The smaller piece of the relic was enshrined at a temple in Suandok. The other piece was placed by the King on the back of a white elephant which was released in the jungle. The elephant is said to have climbed up Doi Suthep, at the time called Doi Aoy Chang (Sugar Elephant Mountain), trumpeted three times before dying at the site. It was interpreted as a sign and King Nu Naone ordered the construction of a temple at the site."

Interesting? Maybe, maybe not... But back to our story. We took a red taxi (a pick up truck with benches and a top in the back) up to the temple. It started to sprinkle a little on the way up but luckily that was the only rain we saw all week, despite the tropical storm Vicente passing over Thailand just days before. Phew! More pictures on my photobucket but here's a preview!


                                                
                                                                   So much gold!



After the temple, we walked around the inner square of Chiang Mai. The city is the second largest in Thailand but the inner square is surrounded by a little river moat type thing (good explanation I know...) There are about 394802 temples on the map of Chiang Mai but we decided to walk on one road and head to another temple they recommended. On the way back from temple 2, we stopped for a Thai Massage which we had heard really good things about... Basically, the masseuse uses all parts of their body to massage you, feet, hands, elbows, they even put their whole body on top of our backs at the end! Maybe this is a good time to mention that clothes are still worn during these massages! Molly and I have mixed reviews. I thought it was great, Molly thought it was painful. She actually has a bruise from the lady's elbow! I left feeling relaxed but I guess it might not be for everyone!

After the massages, we rested in our hostel for a little bit before dinner. Later, we got some Thai food (spring rolls and curry) and headed to the night market where we planned on buying whatever our heart desired. However, our hearts didn't really desire a bunch of touristy stuff so we ended up not buying anything but some dried mangoes and I got a little elephant picture. It was still cool to see though, there were SO many people selling so many things that by the end of the street we were pretty overwhelmed! We went to bed pretty early because we were tired from the day and had to get up early for our visit to the elephant park!!

Monday, July 30th- Elephant Love Day!!! That's what Molly and I called it at least because we were spending the day at the Elephant Nature Park north of Chiang Mai. This park is a sanctuary with 35 elephants who have been rescued from logging and trekking. We got to spend the day feeding the elephants, watching them walk around, and even bathe them in the river. It was truly an amazing experience. At the end we watched a documentary of how elephants are treated in order to get them to become "submissive" so the elephants can be working elephants. It was heart wrenching and difficult to watch. Logging became illegal in 1989 so a lot of elephants were unemployed and were put into the tourist industry. People bring elephants on the street and use them to take pictures with tourists and make money that way. The government doesn't do much to stop these things. Maybe it doesn't sound too bad, taking a picture and what not, but if people knew that they kept this animal tied up for days as part of a method called "crushing" to get the elephant to be submissive and trained, maybe people would think twice. The documentary even showed elephants getting stabbed in the eye and anywhere else while restrained. One of the elephants at the sanctuary was blind after getting stabbed in both eyes when she wouldn't work after her baby died on top of a mountain. So no, we didn't ride an elephant, we didn't see an elephant painting pictures or doing tricks, what we saw was elephants who were given a safe and caring place to spend the rest of their life. I have so much respect for the woman, Lek, who started this program with just 4 elephants and 50 acres of land. It shows how much one person can do with dedication. I've now added buying an elephant to my bucket list to go to the sanctuary. If anyone wants to donate, let me know!  I feel like I could say so much more about this day but I have to stop somewhere! Overall, as depressing as the reasons were that brought these elephants here, it was an amazing day!

                                                            Molly and I with the elephants!



Tuesday, July 31st- Thai Cooking Class! I had never really had much Thai food before, there's a Thai restaurant in St. Paul that my grandma took me to before I left for Korea and that was pretty much it, well and plus the Korean version of Pad Thai at a chain company called Noodle Box, which I can guess isn't too authentic. Either way, despite my lack of knowledge of the cuisine, I was really excited to take a cooking class! It was about 30 bucks and we got to make 3 dishes, pad thai, green curry, and a soup. My favorite was the Pad Thai for sure. So delicious! The lady who taught the class, Yui, was an excellent teacher and was really funny plus there were only 8 of us in the class so it was a nice atmosphere. She would demonstrate a dish, and then we would go and cook it with her helping us throughout the dish, then we would take a break and eat our dishes. I had pad thai a lot throughout the trip but the one I made was definitely my favorite. Maybe because the ingredients were fresh and I could control the sweet vs salty, or it was just the fact that I made it myself!

                                                 My pad thai! I swear I made it all by myself! YUM!


We also went to the market where Yui buys the ingredients for her dishes. It's so easy to forget that different parts of the world grow such different fruits and vegetables! One of them being the rambutan, tasted like the lychees I had in France (do those exist int he US? I don't know...) but it definitely looked a lot more exotic!!

                                                                A pretty little rambutan!


After the cooking class, we didn't have much to do since our flight to Phuket wasn't until 11pm so Molly and I sat around in a park and decided to walk the whole square of Chiang Mai. Nothing too exciting, but we got to just look around the city some more and be content with the fact that we were walking around in Thailand! We got some more Thai food and headed to the airport!

Well, Chiang Mai, what a beautiful city! It had so much tradition mixed in with modern day things too. The people were SO nice and the food was delicious. I had a great time there but I was also excited to get to the more "tropical" part of Thailand and relax on the beach. Phuket, here we come!

End of July!

Well, July really flew by. I don't know if it was the heat, the anticipation for the coming vacation and Molly's visit, or the fact that I'm so dead into routine here that it just went by without a pause. Who knows...

The last weekend in July (well before vacation) the 21st and 22nd, Christine and I went hiking through the Seoul Fortress. A quick note from another discoverer's blog..

"One of the most conspicuous remnants of Seoul’s ancient past is the Seoul Fortress wall (서울성곽) that still encircles much of the old city. First constructed in 1396 – just five years after King Taejo founded the Joseon Dynasty – the earthen wall was built to join the ridge lines of the four small mountains that surrounded Seoul proper – Namsan (남산) in the south, Inwangsan (인왕산) to the west, Naksan (낙산) to the east, and Bugaksan (북악산) in the North. Although much of the old fortress wall has been torn down, significant portions remain and others are being rebuilt."


I've heard it referenced as Korea's great wall... BUT I think that's a stretch. Granted I'venever walked the Great Wall of China, or seen it, but I don't think that this was very comparable. It was definitely a wall along a path and some parts were really cool but I don't think it had the splendor of China's "version." The wall was still pretty guarded though, with a guard maybe every 100m, just there to basically make sure you don't take pictures, though I was able to sneak some (muahaha). It was a nice day for a hike though and overall enjoyable. The beginning though was only steep steps, and maybe it was only 20 minutes or so but it felt like we were walking up steps for hours and of course the Koreans walking are wearing their long sleeve shirts and pants. I don't understand how they don't faint from heat exhaustion... Another unanswered question of Korea.

Anyways, that night we celebrated my birthday. I know, about 2 weeks early... but my birthday fell over vacation so we went out to eat Saturday night instead. The only thing I wanted to do for my fake "celebration" was get a real cheeseburger so we went to this place in Seoul called Jacoby's Burgers that we had heard good things about. They were really good but I of course had higher expectations than what it was. I think it's hard to compare after the Nook and Matt's Bar's jucy lucys!


The last week at school went really quickly, too. My kindergartners were excited because I told them we would have ice cream to celebrate my birthday. The kid's birthday parties are so intense here that I figured it was my turn to dish out the treats... although I copped out and just gave 500W (50 cent) ice cream instead of buying a fancy half decent cake!

T- William, Eric, Samuel, Michael
B- Dane, Jinny, Clara, Amy


The highlight of July was Molly was finally here!!! She arrived on Thursday, July 26th and came to school with me on Friday. The kids kept saying "two Meghan teachers!" so that was funny. I think she confused a lot of the other kids too that weren't in my class! Friday night we got ready for our Thailand trip!!! Which you can read about in the next post because that one will be way more exciting than this one... sooo to be continued! :)