Japan or Bust! [AKA the time we broke our vaginas]

Oh my GOD I suck at blogging.  My apologies, my 4 readers! ^^  Sooooo, what's new?  I mean, riiiiight??  It has certainly been a hot minute.  Since my last post, the most eventful..uh..event was going on an INTENSE bike trip in Japan.  LET ME TELL YOUUUUUU, it was rough.  We didn't think we needed to do ANYTHING to prepare for this suicide mission  adventure, but boy were we wrong.  It was literally the hardest thing I have ever done in my ENTIRE life.  I was all, "I bike to school everyday, foolios", and "it'll probably be flat, and if we get tired, the bus can come and pick our asses up".  Not so.  SOoooooo not so.


Where to begin.  Well, it took us about 20 hours to make it to our destination: Tsushima Island, Japan.  We left after work on Friday night and took a night bus to the city on the Southern-most tip of Korea. This was supposed to take around 4 1/2 hours BUT it was a Korean holiday and all the peeps were gettin outta dodge, so it took us 8 1/2 hours.  On a bus.  Where yours truly of COURSE slept like a baby could not sleep.  PLUS these turds were boozing in the back and asked to stop LITERALLY 20 minutes in.  I almost went ham on them.  THENNNN, we stop at our 3rd reststop, and it seemed like it had been a while, so my friend Elyse asked what the holdup was.  The trip leader proceeded to shush her, point at the bus driver and say, "He's taking a nap".  A NAP!!  IN THE MIDDLE OF A TRIP HE WAS DRIVING!  I mean, that's his JOB!  I don't get to tell my Kinder kids to chillax for a while so I can rest ma peepers, do I?  Did I want him to fall asleep at the wheel, plummet off a cliff and kill us all?  No.  By all means, take a 15 minute nap to rejuvenate, right?  Here's the amazing part...we stopped for an hour and a half!!  Good GRIEF we could have made it in 7 hours without him pulling a Rip Van Winkle on us!

Ok, so we finally make it to Busan as the sun was rising, and we had to wait a few more hours before getting on the ferry.  First we had to rent our bikes (which were WAYYY better than we expected) and we obviously chugged a few beers on the boat, since it was 8:00am five o'clock somewhere.

Alright, now it's time to succinctify this shiz. We biked about 70 miles in three days, stayed in 2 traditional Japanese guesthouses, and camped at two different sights nestled in the mountains. OH YEAH, IT WAS ALL MOUNTAINS!!!!! I simply can't convey the difficulty in words. Everytime we made it to the top of a mountain (we had to walk our bikes up most of them) we had an amazing joyride down (at speeds that felt like 50mph). Elyse and I were constantly on the verge or mental and physical breakdowns, but we DID it!! 40 foreigners went on thsi trip, but my 4 friends and I were by ourselves for 95% of the 5 days. We were named the "outcast group". And it's not because we're fans of the American hip hop duo... OH, and a few people crashed their bikes at high speeds. One girl got 40 stitches on her face and had to go directly back to Korea. We saw her bloody bike. Eww.

 

Dude, where the eff are we going?  Hey look, more Japanese writing!




Cute towns around every turn!



Oh my god, you guys, nature is the BEST!




Rockin campsite part deux!




Sunset at the top of Mount Eboshi




DISSSgusting traditional guesthouse our last night in Japan.  Ew.

Beer vending machines, anyone??? ^^

The beer we enjoyed the morning before the ferry ride home(aka barf fest 2012)

Elyse and Yune were in heaven with all the sushi.



Delicious breakfast at our guesthouse.  Barf.



This is my new BFF, Yune.  <3

This was our traditional guesthouse.  Pretty fancy, ehh?



Our first campsite..fire made by yours truly!



Outcast Group Photo!!




These occasiona tunnels were my saving grace. 
They meant we could ride THROUGH the mountain instead of up it!



There were BILLIONS of man-eating spiders on this island.  I got stuck in like 15 webs...

Mount Eboshi!

 

 So the biking was insanely strenuous, our guesthouses were shitty, camping was freeeeeezing, and I felt like I was raped by a rhino after biking so long every day, AND YET, this trip was awesome.  It was such a feeling of accomplishment doing something I thought was IMPOSSIBLE. We also laughed allll week.  Can't complain about THAT! =]  There's so much more to tell, but goodness gracious this post is already so LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG.



Here's the ferry TO Tsushima Island.  Mostly barf-free.

When we boarded the ferry back to Korea, it was raining, and super windy.  Every person was handed a barfbag, and dramamine, but I didn't know exactly how bad it was going to be.  The hour and a half ferry ride took 3 1/2 hours, and it was BARF FEST 2012.  There were 20 foot waves crashing over the ferry, the boat was rocking so much, we were almost completely sideways at some points.  Oh yeah, and EVERYONE was barfing.  I'm talking, atleast 100 people blowing chunks on this small ferry boat.  Everywere I turned I saw someone hurling into their barf-bags and the poor crew folk were running all overrrr the boat trying to help people/redistribute barfbags.  Just walking was a feat on this boat!  Thank GODDDD, I somehow avoided barfing. (My method?  Eyemask, and earbuds blasting music.  I was pretended that the rocking was just my body dancing!  Hey, it worked!)  My friend Lauren was one of the fallen...sadly.  But she was a trooper!

We returned our bikes, and took the bus back to Seoul, arriving around midnight, with school in the morning.  WHEW!  What a trip...


Can't beer a beer on the top of a mountain! =]

 

안녕하세요, Readers! (that's fancy Korean for hello)

Hey guys, it's me, TRISH!  Soooo, what's up?  Cool cool cool...same here.  Want some deets?  Well get ready, cuz they're comin atcha!! (God, I'm a loser)

Since Jeju Island, I've been working like cray-cray (nothing new), but I've managed to squeeze in some fun along the way.  Last night (Saturday) I stayed in and cleaned my apartment like a BOSS.  Seriously, you could have made one sweet-ass movie montage to the obvious tune, "Mambo # 5" "Everybody's Workin for the Weekend" by Loverboy.  Tricia sweeping-->cut to Tricia mopping-->cut to Tricia wiping sweat of her brow with an accompanyting deep breath out-->cut to Tricia going to TOWN on the bathroom tile a la Mr. Clean (or in Korea Mr. Homestar)  -->cut to Tricia collapsing on the bed (yeah, I have no other furniture) and blowing the bangs off her forehead with a sigh of relief.  Can you picture it??  I know I can, but then again, I was there.  How nice is it to wake up to a spanky clean apartment?  Wait, that doesn't sound right...shiny clean? No....What IS it?? SQUEAKY CLEAN!!!  Man, that took me longer than this blog illustrates.  Sometimes I think I have early onset-Alzheimer's.  Or I'm just too smart and there is no more room in my melon for organized information.  Let's pretend it's the latter,

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 I jacked something up with the formatting up there, and I have no idea how to fix it.  It's seriously driving me NUTS.  Serenity now, Power.  Harness your chi. 

A couple weekends ago, Elyse and I made a photo scavenger hunt to do around our neighborhood (The rough streets of the Gangdong-gu...pretty sure they've been referenced by Dr.Dre).  All in all, it was Ah-Maaaaah-zing.  Everyone had a really awesome time; we embarassed ourselves just enough without being too culturally insensitive and it was super fun.  We had three teams of 4 or 5, and we had 2.5 hours to complete as many tasks as possible, each with a predetermined point value.  Obviously the easy ones (like take a picture of a Korean in acid-washed jeans', or 'find 2 koreans on one bike') were only 2 points, but trickier ones ('get a team jumping photo on a rooftop', or anything involving drinking) were worth more.  Here are some highlights from "Team Balls":

'Get a part-time Korean job (uniform required)'



Here she is in all her glory!

'Jumping high-five with 2 random Koreans'



'Ride on the back of  a Korean's bike for 2 extra points'

'Couple Wear!!'

'Take a photo with a waiter at Davinci's Italian Restaurant'

'Find a bad-ass Korean with tats' (This is quite rare, actually)



'Make an obscene guesture behind an old fart'

'Chug a triple at Bier Garten'

In unrelated new, there are only 2 more weeks in the semester, and then I'll be switching from Knder to Preschool in the mornings.  They are going to seem so smalllll...and dumb!  I'm certainly up for the challenge  pants peeing and all, and don't tell my kids, but the preschool kiddos are way cuter...  There are more preschool classes next semester, and I will actually be staying on the Kinder floor, so I'll still get to see my dudes and dudettes in the hallways.  YIPPEEEE!  Here's my all-time favorite Earthling from Earth Class.  This is Ethan.  Trouble-maker, super-smart, voice-of-an-80 year old-smoker, extraordinaire.

Two more weeks also means it's almost time to say goodbye to my best friend, Alex.  This makes me incredibly sad, but I know that his feelings about staying are really similar to mine.  We couldn't live here forever, because we wouldn't want to be so far from our families. We love Korea more than ANYTHING, but we kind of feel like it's so far-removed from our real lives in North America that it seems as if everything back home will be on hold.  But it's not.  We might not be 'living' there, but everyone else's lives are moving forward (hello 50 marriages and babies this year!).  It's almost like staying here is delaying the inevitable of starting a "real life".  Not that this life isn't real for us, because it is, but no one at home can ever truly understand it.  To quote Wedding Crashers, "we're not that young".  I need to find a place in America, and find me a man, and have some babies...I was BORN for babies, and I don't really want to end up a creepy cat-lady.  But I mean, cats are cute.

The kids might be sadder than I am when Alex leaves.  They absolutely worship him.  He's like the super creepy cool Uncle that everyone dreams of, who has endless energy and makes you giggle more than anyone else.  Okay, this is coming out creepy, but that's not my intention. Exhibit A:

Ok, I've been working on this for wayyyyyyyyyyyy too long, because I am blog-illiterate and everything keeps getting jacked up.  So, I'm going to stop now before I punch a hole in my laptop.  And yes, I'm strong enough to do that, so please don't challenge me.

LOVE YOUUUUU! <3

P.S. Here's a couple pics of my little neighborhood from the roof of my apartment building. Cute, huh?

In other news, apparently I'm a part-time peeping tom. ^^

Jeju-do!!

I'm baaaack!  Aren't you proud of me?  I know I am!  I had a little vacation from school last Saturday-Wednesday and I took the opportunity to travel to Jeju Island off the Southern coast of Korea.  It's been likened to Hawaii, a paradise, and even Disneyworld.  These are rather inaccurate, BUT it was righteously awesome and quite beautiful.  The night before our morning flight I partied pretty hard til about 5:30 AM.  No one ever looks back on their life and says, "I wish I had gotten more sleep", riiiight?. 

My friend, Jin (whom I met last time I was teaching in Seoul) had always wanted to open a hostel at Jeju, and talked about it often.  Lo-and-behold, HE DID IT!!  How effing cool is that? To have a legit dream, and straight-up accomplish it??  He bought the land, and literally built it himself (with the help of some builders and his hot-ass partner.  More on him later)  This picture is my friend slacklining on part of the roof. Anywho, it was super awesome to have him there because he picked us up at the airport and we stayed at his guesthouse for 4 days and had a damn good time.  I thought the island would be smaller, but it's in fact more than twice the size of Seoul.  Beautiful scenery, beaches, waterfalls, palm trees etc.  All the fixins for a rad trip.  I went with my new friend Alison, who turned out to be a perfect travel partner, since we have very similar laid-back traveling style. It was just laughs adventures and happy hearts all week.  Aaaaaaaaaaand copious amounts of booze.  Derrrrrrr.  Here she is! (I have a bajillion pictures of her since I was the only one with a camera)

Jin has 3 workers at his guesthouse who each work 10 days a month and live there for free instead of getting paid.  It was weird, because even on their days off, they chose to hang out there anyway, so they must really love it.  This place was SPOTLESS, and they washed all the floors and bathrooms daily (sometimes more often!)  No one wears shoes, which I loooooved, and the kitchen is open for anyone to cook anytime.  We made a couple meals to share with the staff, and they shared everytime they had anything as well.  Such a generous and welcoming group of peeps!  THE  BEST PART??  Jin made bagels from scratch every single day for breakfast.  WHAAA??

I feel like if I tell about my whole trip this blog is going to blow up my computer so I'm going to give you my Jeju Island crash course.

Waterfalls and holy freakin humidity! (here's my friend Jin by one)

Amaaaaaaaaazing locals (this guy stayed at the guest house and some chicks were asking for his autograph...Korean singer, I guess?)

<------Bush Maze!  This was where we met a cute couple (Korean guy and Chinese girl) who ended up driving us home and inviting us to their wedding in Seoul.  <3

Health & Sex Museum

Adorable Korean Marine Corps boys (we met them swimming at the beach then went out to eat and noraebanged (karaoke room)



Soju Soju Soju

Hey, it's me!!

This is Jaka.  THE coolest person I have ever met in my entire life.  He was sitting outside his Cafe jamming with his friend on ukulele and the drum.  Little kids were dancing and they were singing beauuutifully.  We randomly started talking to him and he spoke English perfectly (with a British accent, to boot!)  He was recommending a restaurant to go to in another town, and ended up driving us, eating and drinking with us all night and swimming at the beach til the wee hours.  He has traveled the world, worked as a journalist, photographer and lumberjack in the countryside.  He studied from this super wise old Korean man and learned how to make the purest, most natural healing Soju.  His stories never ended!!  There is actually a reality show in Jeju about him and his friend biking, playing music, cooking, meeting people and learning shit  Here is a link, but it's all in Korean...haha http://www.kctvjeju.com/popup/Vod_hd.asp?vodfile=http://www.kctvjeju.com/a/201207/120726bic.asx&num=23135
Words just cannot do this guy justice.  I hope you get the picture a LITTLE bit atleast.

Korean BBQ!

These are the lava tubes underground...sooo cool!

This is Jin's partner, Myong-Woo.  He was a jack of all trades.  This night he walked in with a squid in each of his hands then proceeded to slice them up in the sink while they were still alive (ink spewing everywhere) and serve it to all the guests..NUTS! Sidebar: Alison used the exact same kitchen scissors the next day to chop off all her hair in the hostel shower room.  Epic. The next morning he was outside welding a frickin anchor out of scrap metal with flames flying every which way.  And do you SEE THOSE PANTALOONS??  hot. He seriously rocked them.  He even gave me a pair of his crazy pants because I loved them so much...How kind!!

  I will tell one more story though.  Alison looked up our flight info heading back to Seoul late Wednesday night, so we planned to get to the airport with over an hour to spare.  When we approached the counter they were giving us really weird looks and asked when our flight was.  We told them and they said the last flight out was already boarding.  They had to call the plane and tell them we were there and to wait for our stoopid foreign butts.  TURNS OUT, Alison looked at our arrival time instead of our departure time and we got to the airport only 10 minutes before our flight LEFT!  Amazingly, we made it on the plane and got home that night...ONLY because it happened to be delayed 15 minutes.  Otherwise we would have spent a glorious night in jeju Airport.  Wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world.  There's so much to love about Jeju... 

We had many more shenanigans and adventures, but I just can't do it captain. I don't have the POWER!!  Hope you enjoyed sharing my Jeju journey.  More posts to come, I promise!