Thanksgiving 2009

Where to start....
Thanksgiving. It's a bit late, but I haven't had much to say. Thanksgiving this year was spent at a (British) friend's house. All the foreigners got together for a potluck dinner, it was less of a thanksgiving and more just a reason for everyone to get together for a big dinner and drink. It was fun though. I got to meet a lot of really cool people, share stories with the girls ;), and feel like I'm not alone while my family is together halfway across the world.
That weekend was wonderful too. Friday night I went to a bar that the foreigners had just started hanging out in, called Grazie! The owner started charging the foreigners 15,000 won (maybe about $10) for all you can drink and pizza. It's a great deal for us. I met an awesome guy, spent the rest of the weekend with him, and things were over as quickly as they started. =/ Also had to say goodbye to a couple who went home, they were great, but I must say that I think I will get along great with the couple who replaced them.

Last weekend was a lot of fun too! Went again to Grazie friday night, followed by my first noraebang. Noraebang is something I thought I would have to learn to like, but that was not the case. A bunch of drunk foreigners in a room singing the best songs as loudly as they can, great fun for us, I wonder what the Koreans think of that though....hehe.
This weekend (so far) is a lot like last weekend. Went to Grazie last night. Turns out the owner is loosing money by only charging us 15,000 won-we drink a lot! so starting next week it will be 15,000won until midnight, then we have to start paying for our drinks again. That's ok with me, I usually only have a beer or two after that anyway. Went to noraebang with a new Korean friend and an awesome foreigner. I love noraebang!
Not sure what tonight will hold. Some people are going to Busan for the day and a night out there, but I think I'd rather stay in the city and see what goes on tonight. Also, have my eyes set on a new guy ;) we'll see how that goes...will keep you updated. ^^

What else? Let's talk about my future. I'm always thinking about where I will end up next, and what I want always changes slightly. Honestly I think that will depend on if I meet a guy. I'm ready to meet someone. I want to travel more, but I'm young enough that I could stay somewhere, start a real relationship, and continue my traveling adventures in a few years with someone by my side. I know I'm always talking about guys and wanting a relationship, but I think about it a lot, and I really would rather not travel alone. Anyway, I now am thinking about three options that I will continue to go over until I HAVE to make a decision. 1-I can stay here. I really do like South Korea. I could extend my contract, get a job at another school, or even go to Dongguk for Buddhist studies. 2-I could go home. I could meet a guy, get a job, and travel every now and then. I was against the idea a while ago, but I could be really happy at home, settled down and close to my family. 3-I leave my contract next August as planned, go home for a few months, maybe do a month volunteering in India, then go to grad school in Australia. hmmm.....

On a side note (because this whole post hasn't been random from the start...hehe) I love the gym here! Okay, so the working out part isn't amazing, but going to the sauna-which is included in the membership-is amazing! especially in the winter. I get done working out, take a shower, relax in the sauna, then a hot tub. ^_^ The sauna this winter will be my motivation to be at the gym all the time!

I think that's all I have for you guys! Missing people back home, but am lucky to have friends like you! I really didn't think I'd still be in touch with some of the people who are really making an effort to! There is no doubt that you are wonderful friends, and if everyone keeps this up, it will be more motivation to return home and be with you all! I love you and miss you all! ^^

Seoul 2

Finally home in Gyeongju. ^_^
No school friday meant a 3 day weekend that I could spend partying in Seoul. Got to Bong House (awesome Hostel!) early and went to Myeongdong to do some more shopping. As I said before, 1 hour in forever 21 just isn't enough time!...so 100,000 Won later I go back to the hostel to make plans for the night. Ended up meeting a friend in Itaewon, he's a DJ for the East to West rock and roll bar. At first, I wasn't sure how fun the night would be,but turned out ok! after a while people finally started showing up and I started to get drunk. Met two great army guys at the bar, one of which I hope to keep contact with ^^ Around 1230 I realize that the subway had stopped running so I would have to take a taxi back to the hostel (getting a taxi for a foreigner in Itaewon is a lot harder than it should be!).
Next day was not so interesting. Had planned on doing some site seeing, but ended up just going to a New York French Fry stand in Gangnam station-delicious! My friend got a cup fries covered in gravy and swiss cheese (or at least as close to swiss as you can find in korea), mine were covered in a cheddar cheese sauce, sour cream, and tomatoes. They were amazing!!
Saturday night was spent with my best friend's boyfriend who is also teaching English in Korea. We had lunch at a korean bbq near the hostel, walked around Insadong, had dinner at pizza hut and ended up drinking at Bong Bar. (bar next to the hostel-both owned by Mr. Bong. note also the subway stop is 420) Bong bar was empty, the two of us and the owner. I was glad to note that a few pictures of our last stay at bong house and bong bar made it up on the bar wall ^^ It ended up being an early night, my old friend went home and the guy from the bar the night before wasn't allowed to leave his post. oh well. I'm sure I can make my next stay in Seoul (and Bong House) more adventurous! Due back in mid december!

On a separate note, i'm starting to take my future plans a bit more seriously. Now, i'm thinking when my contract is up next August I will spend a bit of time volunteering at an orphanage in India. How awesome would that be!!! then go home for 2 months or so. It will be good to go home for a bit, but just for a bit. I will slowly make my way across the world through WWOOF (look it up) and hopefully end up at Graduate School in Sydney, Australia. I'm thinking either Buddhist studies or Anthropology. I think Anthropology would take my life in a more interesting and fulfilling direction. Will decide after much more research which path to take before I have to apply. After graduate school i'm not really sure. Hopefully in the next few years I will meet a great guy who wants to travel for a bit. Hopefully after grad school I could get some cool jobs around the world, and I would want someone who would also be travelling for work. teaching, army, w/e. I'm interested to see how my future works out...

Seoul 1

This weekend I went to Seoul with some friends, it was a great time! We took a midnight bus and arrived at 4 in the morning. Found a McDonalds, got some coffee and just waited for the subway lines to open up. Around 6 we made our way to Camp Kim where we got on a USO tour bus for the DMZ! The DMZ tour was really cool, went to Camp Bonifas where you can see the border b/w North and South Korea as well as the guards just standing and watching each other. There is also a conference room there where you are supposed to be able to go into and technically be standing in North Korea, but due to swine flu concerns they would not let us do that. =/ Guess I will have to go back again to do that part of the tour. After Camp Bonifas we went to the third infiltration tunnel. They showed us a video about how the 4 infiltration tunnels were found then we got to walk down it ourselves. It was neat to see and when you got to the end where the first barricade was you could see past it into the second barricade. Be prepared to walk hunched over though! the cave is low and the return from the cave is uphill. After that we went to a korean restaurant and got overpriced bulgolgi, it's good but not worth 10,000 won! Then we made our way to the Dora Observatory where you are able to see into North Korea. It really is a shame that the North Koreans built this area up to look good and it's not actually how the rest of North Korea is, but it's still pretty cool. Of course you can't take pictures past a certain point and where you can take pictures has no view at all of North Korea. Last stop of the tour was Dorasan Station which was built in hopes of unifying the country and has a train from Seoul to Pyongyang. The station was really nice, and they have a station where you can get a commemorative stamp. Our stupid tour guide told us we could get our passports stamped, but when we got there we saw signs saying not to stamp our passports, i'm sure our government would wonder why we had a north korean stamp...Overall a wonderful tour and I highly recommend the USO tour (after the swine flu concern dwindles down).

When we got back into Seoul around 2:30 we found two rooms at the Namsan Guest House. It was a decent place to stay and was 90,000won for two rooms split between 5 people. That night we walked up Namsan to Seoul Tower...Beautiful! The walk was gorgeous with all the fall colors and the view of the city. The tower was cool and of course had a great view over Seoul. It was actually my first tower! There was also a wonderful Italian restaurant where we ate dinner and drank some wine. After dinner we got some Coldstone Icecream and walked around Myeongdong, what a great place! We were exhausted before too long and ended up back at the hotel and sleeping before 10:30.
9 in the morning came too quickly and greeted us with too much rain. That didn't stop us! The girls made their way to Forever 21 and the guys found something else to do. What a great store! 3 floors of too many clothes, we spent an hour but that was not enough time to look at everything! After Myeongdong we went to Insadong and walked through all the souvenir shops, then caught a bus home.
It was a great weekend and I'm planning on going back soon, maybe a bit too soon....next weekend! This time I will see some palaces, maybe go to the museum there. For now I'm back home and have a 4-day work week ahead of me!

In need of critical thinkers.

can omniscient God, who knows the future, find the omnipotence to change his future mind?

Think about it.

First let me say, I have a great respect for those who are religious and can back up their faith in an intellectual way. It takes great strength and courage to live a life devoted to a higher power with unwavering faith. Some people definitely have great reasons for believing in a higher power.
But a lot of religious people are not like that. Most can't hold an intellectual conversation, it's just "I have faith so I win". If you make the choice to believe in God, then shouldn't you know what all that entails? Shouldn't you know the bible verses AND THEIR CONTEXT! Shouldn't you be familiar with the common arguments for the existence and non-existence of god? Shouldn't you know both sides and be fully aware of what you are believing in? Shouldn't you, when reading a quote like at the beginning of the post, realize that it's a contradiction and not just say "why not"? I'm sure there is a great retort out there, but most people don't think critically enough to realize the contradiction that exists in that statement. I don't either believe or not believe in a higher power, but if I were to choose either way I would be able to have an intellectual and open minded conversation about my views instead of just saying "well that's what I believe, so there!"
For those of you who read to the end, thank you for your interest in my rant.
again I ask, in the words of Karen Owens:

can omniscient God, who knows the future, find the omnipotence to change his future mind?

Here goes nothing...

So I'm a 22 year old female living alone in South Korea...and what am I sitting here thinking about? When I die, what will go through my mind? So, I start thinking of making a bucketlist. As if picking up and leaving home to move to South Korea wasn't exciting enough. The first item that comes to mind for said bucketlist...make a blog. I'm not quite sure what the attraction is, but it's something I've been wanting to do. So here it goes, I hope it's not a bust...
Other ideas that come to mind for my bucketlist:
-Go on vacation to a nudist beach.
-Go cliff jumping.
-Honeymoon in Greece.
Of course other, less exciting things came to mind as well. The one I'm most preoccupied by is finding a guy to do these things with. I may only be 22, but I want to spend my life traveling. I want to find a guy who wants the same and will travel with me (or me with him, however you want to look at it). I definitely don't want to still be alone in 5 years.
I also want to go to graduate school for Buddhist Studies. I'm not sure when I want to do this, maybe next year, maybe not. My future is wide open, I could end up anywhere, doing anything. Maybe I should make firmer life plans, but at this point in my life I find myself thinking that those plans will probably end up changing anyway.
I'm sure as time goes by I will do, or want to do, many more things. However for now that is what I have come up with. I'm open to suggestions. For now, I'm content.
Time to sleep so I can wake up and teach the Korean kids I have fallen in love with. I do love my job. ^_^