Difficult Decision, Muuido, & Ho Bar

Sorry it's been awhile since we've last posted.  For the past month Kyle and I had been debating switching to another school.  This involved a ridiculous process of us needing to leave the country so that we could cancel our current visa and get a new visa attached to a different school.  There were a lot of uncertainties that went along with this, such as possibly having to work on a tourists visa (which we did not want to have to do because if we were caught it could result in getting a hefty fine, jail time, and deportation).  While being able to say that we've done time in a Korean jail would make a very unique story for us, with the worrying of parents we decided it wasn't an adventure we really wanted to have, and even though I welcomed the idea of being deported, we found out that they don't pay for our flight home.  After much thought and consideration, we have (unfortunately) decided to remain at the schools we're at.  The risk of ending up with another director that could be just as bad as the one we have now was too high (as my Dad put it, "Better the devil you know"), and having to stay until August of next year instead of March was too long.  Kyle really loves his school and he's actually at a very good school, it's mostly me who is unhappy, but I'm trying to make the most of it.  (Think of all the patience I'll have when I get home).  While Korea is an exciting place, it has it's pros and cons like everywhere else.  Somedays the cons are much higher than the pros and I would be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to going home.  (257 days).  I have a countdown if that helps explain how I feel about Korea.  It's cool being able to say that we lived here for a year, but it is VERY different than home.  Society just doesn't function the same way as what we're used to and this can cause a lot of unnecessary frustration. 


However, we are making the best of everything, and even though it's 257 days until we move back to the "real" world we are going to make sure that we leave no areas of Korea undiscovered.  Our goal is to plan fun things to do every weekend, which will not only keep me from losing my mind but give us something to blog about since we've been lacking in that department recently.  We did go to an island yesterday, Muuido Island.

It did not live up to Western expectations of what an island should be though.  We were planning on just enjoying the sun and the sand and listening to the ocean.  We arrived at the island in flip-flops, unprepared for the amount of walking we would be doing for the day.  After hiking over rocks for an hour to find the "good beach" the tide had gone out and left nearly a mile of muddy sand to cross just to get near the water.  Most of the island's beaches were also not made up of sand, which is usually the substance I expect to find on a beach.  Instead it was mostly oyster shell covered beaches, which didn't sound/feel to comfortable to lay on.  We were also hungry and the only places to eat were traditional Korean seafood, which I'm still not ready for.  I love fish, but in Korea, they serve you the fish with all of the bones in it and the head still attached.  I think I can wait 9 months to eat fish again.  After telling my students today that we went to Muuido they told me that, "Koreans don't like that island.  Not a good island Teacher Monica.  Go to Jeju."


On a happier note we have booked our summer vacation, which is the end of July!  Hooray!  We are off to Guam and Saipan for a week.  We also have a 9 hour layover in Nagoya, Japan, so we will be leaving the airport to do a whirlwind tour of the area.  We're very excited.  Definitely something wonderful to look forward to.  We'll be able to relax on the beach, maybe tan...maybe...probably not, go snorkeling (I even brought my snorkel gear with me, everything but the fins)!, and "boonie stomping" ("The 'boonies' are large areas of undeveloped jungle and secret beaches that cover a large part of the island.  'Boonie stomping' is hiking through these natural wonders").  We can't wait.  


It was Ivan's birthday a few weeks ago, and we went on a Ho Bar (bar chain) pub crawl.  Apparently you can get custom made shirts here for pretty cheap, and unlike at home, you don't have to order 50+ of them for them to be inexpensive.  We were originally going to do this and have t-shirts made for the event.  Somehow it feel through, but yours truly was able to use her stenciling skills and save the day.  With the help of a little spray paint, we had t-shirts to go in 20 minutes.    

That's pretty much it.  Our school has some workshop event this weekend that we have to attend.  Of course Kyle's school told him a month ago when it was originally planned, and my school decided to tell me today.  :[  Kyle also has to prepare something to do at this event; as expected no one at my school could tell me if I needed to prepare anything or not.  And we wonder why I'm frustrated?  I wonder if all Koreans are as unorganized and the ones I work with/for....  We went out to dinner with the teacher's from Kyle's school the other night.  Tim quit last week so they wanted his version of the story since our director has been telling everyone he was fired.  We have heard that Taco Bell has opened in Seoul.  My goal for this weekend is to find it.  Needless to say there is a major lack of Mexican food in my diet these days.  How I miss my SW roots!  What I would do for some of my mother's tacos.  Mmmmmm....  I would make them myself, but meat is so expensive here.  :(  So to Taco Bell we will journey.  Hopefully they haven't Korean-ified it too much.


We want to wish Noni (Kyle's Grandmother) a Happy Belated 80th Birthday!!!  We wish we could have been there to celebrate it with you and be a part of the surprise, but we know you enjoyed getting to see Sarah & Justin.


We also want to wish our Dads a big Happy Father's Day!  Thank you for all of your love and support.  We miss you both and hope that you had a relaxing and wonderful day.  Even though we live half way around the world we always enjoy our video chats with you and I don't know what we would have done without all of your guidance when we were trying to make our decision about switching schools, even though you may have said some things we didn't particularly enjoy hearing.  :]  We love you and miss you both.


We hope all is well with you.  Many of you are on summer vacation now, so enjoy and be safe.  We miss you all.  Love from Korea,  K & M