TongYeong... part Duex

Usually our Saturdays go off without a hitch… however in my last blog I think I hinted that we would be taking on the challenge of Busan in the upcoming weekend. That weekend trip has been postponed… unfortunately we were not up to the challenge of setting the alarm the night before and properly digesting Duck…. Let me explain…..

Friday night was awesome. Our good friend Willow invited us out with her boyfriend Sean and his good friend from college Jeff who was currently visiting with his time off from his gig in china…. Which was cool to hear about. He had previously worked in Korea and loved it and was missing his friends and Korean food so he came to visit… and on his last night in town Willow and Sean wanted to send him home right so they got together a group of all us people in Jang Pyeong… and we went out for smoked duck.

Smoked Duck was fabulous, and so was the company. Our friends from South Africa, Dani and Malcolm also joined us so the seven of us put away about 90,000 won worth of smoked duck… which was nicely 13 dollars a person when all was said and done. Wonderful!

We then went out for drinks and just hung out and talked in a very odd bar called the crazy bar that played music from youtube on big tv screens. they ended up play music from Lily Allen, Dolly Parton, Zepplin, Kenny Rogers and some weird country stuff that I am pretty sure should never have made it’s way to Korea… ( I think the bar was owned by a white guy, but it was cheap and they gave you free chocolate and peanuts with your hite, so I won't complain!)

So anyway… needless to say, Saturday morning did not go as planned. I KNOW I set the alarm properly, so why we woke up 20 minutes after it was supposed to go off I have no clue. Maybe I turned it off in my sleep which is a possibility, but in any case this was not the best way to start off the morning. Next came the low rumble from Josephs belly which can only be described as “ bad news”. Korea is a plethora of new foods and experiences, most of which are good, some of which send us running for the restroom. For the Most part I was okay, but I had a bit of what Joseph was feeling, and so because of our late start and sensitive constitutions… we decided to research Busan more this week, and try again next week…but we could not let another weekend go by without doing SOMETHING….so we headed to the second cheapest bus destination…Tong Yeong…

Now if you are a frequent reader of my blog you know that our last time in Tong Yeong was somewhat of a bust. Sure we had a good time, but after going this time… I am absolutely positive that we missed EVERYTHING good about the place the first time we went. This time though, we had a plan. I had seen on the Map that they had a really cool tourist area that had some Cable Cars… so not wanting to miss out on what was probably the last really nice day in Korea before winter sets in, we took a bus to the Downtown area and went in search of the Illustrious Cable Cars.

Thanks to Joseph’s quick thinking and internal navigation system, we managed to hop on the correct #10 bus headed towards where we wanted to be.

Joseph being Pensive with the Map!

After the bus dropped us off, we started walking towards the other road parallel to the bus stop and passed by a ship yard. Here is a great picture. You can see just how massive these boats are. There on the top of the ladder thing is a person next to the boat building/fixing it... They are so huge it is hard to believe.

Another shot of the massive boats, there was a fence so I took my camera and held it over the top so this picture was a suprise to me too! Hope that was not illegal!


So after our detour stealing pictures at the shipyard we finally came to the Cable Cars! And it was INSANELY crowded... people come and sit for an hour just to ride the things, but they had booths of food to eat, including, oysters, fried eel, squid, and Sea Squirts( I think).... none of which we sampled... we did get a hot coco out of the drink machine which was nice since it was about 2 when we got there and was starting to get chilly again..

So we waiting for about 45 minutes to ride the thing, listening to some cool jazz music from a korean on a sax.... and when our numbers were finally posted on the moving ticker sign ( we were 6,172 and 6,173) we made our way through the boarding line behind a family with three small kids and made our way into a cable car....along with the family of five.

That cable at the top was all that was holding us and a family of five up in the air... it was really windy too so you could hear the cable straining a bit.... that part... not so fun.

The view was really pretty so we decided to take a picture or two of us being silly!

Another view out the window I kept trying to not be creepy and take pictures of the family ( who spoke no english, but the universal language of scared was easy to understand as I am pretty sure the oldest daugher almost wet her pants every time we hit a patch of wind)But I think they ended up in some pictures.

A view of the cable car station and Tong Yeong.

Another view of Tong Yeong.

The mother of the family noticed us trying to take pictures of ourselves, and offered to "Push button?" for us. So we got this picture!

This is a picture of a cable car heading back to the station that we passed, everytime we passed one the wind would be a bit patchy... so roughly every minute or so we got to hear a squeal of terror from the kids in our car... note to self, hitch a ride with some blind and deaf children next time...

....And more cable cars.....yeah we went pretty high up in those things...

Oops the dad and the younger daughter are making an appearance in this one, but I wanted to catch the end of the lift.

(note, almost everyone was wearing masks, and the mom made the kids put them on when she saw that they were riding up with us... haha, yeah lady I am totally going to breath my germy H1N1 breath on your babies! But the kids at school wear them, and alot of adults too so maybe it was just because it was cold out.... )

When we got to the top we took a stairwell down to a big huge deck on the side of the mountain which had food vendors, a waterfall, a giftshop and maps to the hiking trails to the top, and this cool fountain with a buddha and a huge dish to throw money in. Joseph threw a ten won piece in, but it didn't go in... no wish this time.

There was tons of money in there, as well as fish which I am pretty sure my 10 won hit instead of the aimed target!

We then decided to take the Hiking path up to the top, because apparently the view is amazing... the wooden "boardwalk" path was really pretty, but somewhat trecherous as there were lots of trees growing out of it....

And some parts were still under construction so it had no railing.... I was too scared to take a picture then, but imagine walking along a cliff on a boardwalk... it was scary.

The path did have it's cool parts, it had tons of lables for every plant you came in contact with along the trail... and they were even in English... which was nice of them.

And the view from the top was really beautiful. You can see all of Tong Yeong and the Islands... I was hesitant about the hike... because it was a small trail and really crowded but I am really glad we went for these pictures... and I love the noisy Korean lady who shoved her hand into my beautiful landscape pictures!

Here is another view (Hand free!)

I loved this tree growing out of the side of the mountain. It was really pretty up there.

From the top of the trail you could take pictures of the cable cars which was really cool. We were up really high!

I thought this was a neat picture because there was actually a big puddle of water and all these birds were drinking out of it. They had been flying and circling around, but by the time I got my camera out they were all taking a sip.

We came back down from the hike and were starving. So we indulged in some steamed corn... similar to the kind at the fair... but OMG so much cheaper... At the fair you pay five dollars for one ear of corn...

Here we got two ears of corn and a bottle of water for five dollars. 2 bucks for each corn ear and 1 buck for the water...Seriously, Bottled water has never been so cheap.

After busying ourselves eating our delicious corn and searching around the gift shop for some "non tacky gifts", we got back in line to head back down the mountain... Here is the funny part you can buy a ticket for one way or round trip... if you don't buy the round trip ticket or if you lose your stub, you can't take the cable car down.... I seriously have no idea how you get down if you don't take the cars.... maybe you climb the mountan... wow. Lucky for me I decided to not throw away my stub like I wanted to when we got to the top, because you had to have it to get back down... that would have been fun!

here is a view from the top in the cable car station.
This time instead of screaming kids, we rode down with four screaming ladies! HAHA... but in this group one of them spoke english. She didn't ask my name, she asked how old I was... since I don't feel I am at the point where I have to lie about my age yet, I told her "25"... she then started screaming " Oh my god!!!!" which made me think I should reconsider that vote of self confidence..... But apparently she thought I was much younger, they then asked Joseph how old he was... "29" and she said " OH MY GOD... I am Thirty".... so apparenlty she was just mad she was not the youngest person on the car... But they then asked us if we were brother and sister... and they liked Joseph's "special" suglasses and we had to break it to them that we were not brother and sister, just a couple... and then they told us we looked too much alike.... haha oh well.

But she wanted her picture taken with us so I made her take a picture with us on my camera too... I have no idea why she was hugging me, but she seemed friendly enough, and didn't put a mask on as soon as she saw she was riding with us, so she is alright in my book!

After saying goodbye to our four new friends, we decided we were starving and we wanted some seafood... we have, up until this point, been too terrified to eat at a seafood place, one because it is so hard to tell how much the food is, and two beacuse we never are sure what the food is.... and not wanting to get served up raw eel or something, we have been hesitant to try much of it, which is sad, because we live on an Island and seafood is on every block...

So we went out to the cool tanks they had outside and determined to get something we wanted, we pointed, and asked how much, and pulled out the Korea Travel guide and found the hanguel word for grilled fish.... so that is what we got folks... a fish that was grilled.

Even though it looks scary, it was divine! They brought us each a bowl with half a lemon and some olive oil. We mixed the juice of the lemon with the olive oil and used that to dip the fish in. We also had soy sauce and some chili sauce. We had some side dishes too, boiled peanuts, potato salad and celery sticks with mayonaise to dip it in... which was actually really good! Crazy I know... but I was so hungry I totally ate it!


We also got this crab soup.... yeah... it was cold, and I have no idea what they did to the crab, but we busted open one of the claws and there was like crab jelly inside it... so we both tasted it... and that was a no go... cold crab jelly just was not going to ruin this delicious fish.

So we ate and ate until we could eat no more... ( well actually we hit guts and decided we were finished!) It was so good though. Joseph liked the lemon and olive oil dip best, and I was quite fond of the soy sauce... which now that I think of it... this was the first time we were served soy sauce since we got to korea... it must be a chinese thing.

So the fun part was going to pay for the food. We also got rice and pepsi with it, but when we were outside we asked the woman, Ulmay Eho which is "how much" she said "Five".... so I countered with... 1.2.3.4.5? and she said... Yes five... now I figured they would charge us for the soup we didn't like, the pepsi and the rice ( Bap)... but when we got up there the tab was much higher than we expected... apparently five in broken english really means fifty... yeah... that was an expensive dinner... well worth it for seafood, but we will make them write out the amount next time... Ahhh the joys of miscommunication....

After our delicious dinner (and shock of a lifetime) we were glad we had been taking the bus all day and not taxis... so we still had plenty of money... so we took a bus back to the bus station and headed home.... once the sun goes down it is too cold for comfort. Thankfully Saturday ended as a good day to what was a crappy start of a day... so even though we paid too much for a fish, and got our ears attacked by little kids while trapped in a cable car, I felt like we experienced Korea, and saturday was a day to remember...

Private Lessons!

I am excited to report that I now have a new class to add to my schedule. Well New student really. Kim Too He, was at another academy for one year and though she is a young student she was far behind where she could be in her English skills. So Her parents got fed up with her other Hagwon and sent her to Kim Eun Hye for some one on one lessons. Well since I have a break period on MWF, Grace asked me if I would be willing to help work with her one on one to help improve her basic english skills ( we are talking ABC's here people) so she could soon join the other class I teach of beginners.

I was sad to lost some planning time but excited to take on the challenge, and could not say no because she is absolutely Adorable!

So I began my work with her this week, and I really feel a special Bond with her. Though she speaks almost no english and cannot even recodnize most of the letters I can see that even with just three lessons together she is making leaps and bounds in her pronunciation and her recodnition of the letters and sounds.

Monday we focused on ABC, which she got right away, but I was suprised that she could remember the words apple and alligator, but not ant.... Those must have been remnants of the previous lessons at her other school.

Wednesday, I was suprised to hear her say loud adn clearly " Elephant" but have trouble with egg... and by friday I realized she really on got as far as G before she began having trouble... Those B's and G's sound alike, and she just needed some special attention to help clarify the difference.

I really enjoyed working just us, so we can pick our own pace. Her Victorys are my victories and her failures somehow become mine too.

Today with the word gorilla and girl... she had trouble and they began to sound like the same word... "Girrillla"... but with my patience and her hard work we acomplished a difference, and then with no problem she proudly stated the words Hippo and Hat... no problem...

She is getting better and better, and that makes me happy. Hopefully my work with her will help her advance enough so she can stay in my Phonics class by the end of December.

Another fun part of working with a brand new student to Kim Eun Hye is that you get to name them... yes Kim Too He is her Korean name and I got to help pick out an American name for her... So I made a list that included every female in America I knew.

Lindsey, Amanda, Kyra, Candace, Caroline, Nancy, Carol, Anne, Sara, Teresa, Emily, Meagan, Kathleen, Connie, Kristy, Kelly ( last name) Julie and Julia ( I love that book!)

and also a few names I thought were cool

Allegra, Alice, Jane, Lisa, Hanna, Anna, Sophia, Zoe and Bella ( Twilight!)

So with much confusion on the first day I thought she picked Allegra... which I thought was cool. I like that name even though it had a terrible nickeloden kids show called Allegra's window....

But much to my suprise, I found out friday, she and her mother had met with Grace on thursday to access my work so far ( apparently in two days I had done much better than her last academy), and Graced and her ended up picking another name alltogether... Now that she understood what all those names on the paper meant.... and it changed to another name on my list... which is good because she had a hard time saying Allegra... ( maybe she was pointing to the one she didn't want, i have no clue)

But my student is now named Carol.... After Joseph's Aunt or Amanda's old roomate's cat... (haha) one of the two. I am actually really glad she picked Carol... it is very fitting. She is so sweet and always has a smile so she reminds me alot of Joseph's Aunt Carol!

When the school year changes at the end of the year we will get new students and I will get to help name them too... adn don't worryt I am going to guide them to pick names of people I know then as well, so stay tuned to see if your name gets picked!

(I saw the list that they had written on so it was a close call between Julie, Lindsey and Carol, but Carol had the final say and picked the one she liked the best!)

So for now, that is all, and Congrats to Carol for having the best name out of many to one little Korean girl!

11/11

Today is November 11th. To Joseph and I, this is just a wednesday... but to Korea, this is a very important holiday.

Upon coming to school we had no clue what today would bring, but certainly were not expecting anything. Todaywas a great suprise.

Today is not the Korean Independance day, Or a day to celebrate a victory in some acient war... no.... this is bigger.... today is Pepero Day....

What is Pepero day you might ask... It is a day to celebrate the chocolated coated stick of cookie that everone loves! That is right. Korea dedicates a whole day to this stick-like candy. Pepero is a long stick, so the one day a year that's date resembles the candy is 11/11. HAHA... those Koreans are so clever!

Upon arriving at school, we found boxes of Pepero gift wrapped along with other gifts. The stores have been having sales on the stuff and we could not for the life of us figure out why the grocery store moved an entire section of snacks to accomodate the large Pepero supply... Well now we know!

All day students have been giving us the stuff... Boxes and boxes of it... And thankfully it is not half bad... I may be hesitant for Squid Day, or Kimchi day... but Pepero, to say the least, is pretty good!

So To everyone... On November 11th... Happy Pepero day!

Fun Pictures and More Okpo!

I realized that I had far more pictures of us clowning around at school ( although we do our fair share of work , sometimes you have to cut up a bit.... and the kids enjoy it) But I have been carrying my camera around alot and here are some school bits that I found amusing!

This picture below was taken from our second story school window out towards an apartment complex. These alley cats were hanging out, and I snapped a picture of them before they were able to get away. There are tons of cats all around Korea, which is neat. It makes me miss misty my old cat and Buddy and Dolly Joseph's family cats! Unfortunately the ones here are not as sweet... they will hiss at you if you blink at them wrong.

This is another shot taken out of the window, as you can see we are right next to the bay so we can smell the ocean when we are teaching. It is really beautiful to walk home along the bay after work, or to stop by one of the many restaurants with windows facing the water. The lights on the water are fantastic. We love our Island!

Here is Joseph in the teacher work room a few days after Halloween! Still using his claw that he made. As you can see it is so useful!

Besides being a handy drink holder it also works well by scaring the children into doing their homework... " If you forget it tomorrow, teacher Joseph will bring out "the claw"."



Here is a picture of the books that we use. They are called Up and Away in English... these are levels 3 and 4. They all have very basic English, and they also have a workbook so we can make worksheets for the kids with extra practice to take home for homework or for test review.

Our Older Kids read this periodical called Kids Times. It sets the class up for more of a discussion setting so they can really use their english. It had articles on everything from the "nutritional value of grapes", Politics in Korea and a fun one called "why do your parents nag you" ( I had a special interest in that one! And apparently it is because they love you.)

They also contain special feature articles on people who make a difference. This Kids Time included an article on a famous rapper named Ludicris..... really... I just thought he made scary rap music with vulgar lyrics, but hey he did donate money one time so lets teach Korean kids about him.... not so sure on this one, but it was a funny article... even funnier was the Kids had no idea who he was anyway, so I got to listen to them butcher his name for twenty minutes.

Ludee-chriZ.

After work this week, we went to a Korean restaurant, but we were tired of the same old Bacon like meat they give us, so we decided to ask Daniel how to say sausage...which is just Sausage-e. All you have to do is add an extra "e" sound and you are good to go!

They give you tons of side dishes, we had sprouts, lettuce, kimchi, bean past, raw garlic ( you roast it on the girll with your food!) Onions in a vinegar sauce.....

Rice with a side of mustard for dipping the sausage in and another close up of the onions in the vinegar broth.

We also ordered a spicy tofu soup with pepper and beef broth it is very spicy but you get a spoonful of rice and dip it in, it is so good! They also gave us a vegetable pancake, coleslaw with melon dressing and peanuts and some kind of spicy onion root.... the mixture of the cool with the spicy and the different colors is all part of the korean way to serve and enjoy a meal! This was a delicious meal, and was definitely more than we could eat!

Now to a totally different day and different meal! We headed to Okpo on saturday Nov. 7th and found a cafe we had heard really good things about called the Lemontree. Rumor has it that they serve the closest thing to a western cheeseburger, so Joseph and I paid our two dollars to get the bus to Okpo and we decided to try it. We got a garden salad ( which was not from any garden I have ever seen) and a cheeseburger.

wierd garden salad... it was corn, cabbage, cucumber, tomato sprouts and some broccoli... with a tangy fruit dressing and lots of salt and pepper... I didn't put that on it just came with it... haha love it.

The salad came out first. Here is Me looking sleepy because I am not able to fully open my eyes for any camera with a flash!

Here is joseph proving to me that you can in fact take a picture with your eyes fully open... show off. I am posting this picture just to smite him!

Here is a picture of the lovely restaurant... this is literally the whole thing. We sat right at the counter and this is what was behind us... this place literally had three tables, and was run by two lovely korean women who had traveled to the US and canada and were big fans of our food!


HAHA, Joseph dug into his half before I could turn the camera on for a picture, but it was supposed to come with chips, but these were fries, so maybe they went to England to since on the menu they were labeled as chips! Nice suprise... they were really good too!

Yeah... it was totally worth it... no fat daddies, but better than we expected.

After filling our bellies at the Lemon tree we decided to go to the Geoje Museum. We were greeted by two young girls mopping the place so we were worried it was closed, but thankfully that was just the lobby so we were able to get tickets to see all three floors of Geoje History. We were even more excited because on the side of the building was a sign with pictures of mummies and had the dates October 24th -Nov 24th....so we naturally thought those would be on display. Much to our dismay, signs in Korea lie... they lie bad, so we ended up seeing some old boats, tools, clothes, paintings and pottery, but no mummies... They also had a big Kimchi pot that you were supposed to throw money into and you got a wish, Joseph totally sunk his coin into the Kimchi pot, so maybe his wish will come true! I have no idea what his wish was, but I would have wished for the mummies!

It was smaller than we thought, so having planned for us to spend three hours there, we only ended up using one of the alloted hours, so next it was off to the Okpo Victory Statue Park.

We had to hike up a huge hill towards where we thought the monument park was, and when we finally got to the top we stopped and took a breather and captured these pictures.

Here we are dressed alike in Black.... again... this is not a good habit to get into!

Here is the Dawoo Shipbuilding plant area... not much was going on today, but it was a brilliant view!

Here is a picture of Okpo from up high. This was the big major street we walked up.... the hill was much steeper than it looks in the picture, at least that is what the backs of my thighs kept telling me!

We saw a cool pagoda and had to stop in for a view, they have the most beautiful art on the inside... here is the ceiling of the Pagoda near the Park.




This picture didn't come out as well, but I wanted to show the awesome view... we were the only people there. It was so calm and quiet, Joseph and I quite like Okpo just as a getaway from our city now and then.

Here is a view of the city from the Pagoda.

After spending a good amount of time in the pagoda just chilling it was time to walk on and find our statue park. We had a huge long sidewalk to follow so I captured this shot on the way, it was still really nice weather even for November, so I just had on Jeans a shirt and a light jacket... I could get used to this warm nice fall weather.

Unfortunately we never did find the park, we walked about two miles and it was only supposed to be one mile, so we must have somehow missed a turn or something... Our map of Okpo was not too well drawn....so being super tired, we headed back to the main streets and caught the bus home, only of course, after purchasing a few fiber one bars.

And here is what you have all been waiting for. Joseph donning his new treasure. Yes... we got a scooter... it looks like a motorcycle, but I am fairly sure it doesn't go fast enough to qualify. We plan to use it more in the spring, but right now Joseph is the only one who rides it, and only during the day with his helmet, but of course you can't wear a helmet during a photoshoot!

Joseph looking Bad to the Bone!

I however am not even allowed to sit on it... haha. I am sure my mom appreciates that!

Anyway, that is all for now... more updates later. we have a full week of school ahead of us, and we hope to plan a trip to Busan. We are looking foward to it!

More Halloween Pictures.

Back again for more Scary Halloween Updates! haha, Marilize finally posted the funny pictures from that night so I copied them to show everyone who checks my blog. Along with dressing up and meeting new foreigners, we had the task of a scavenger hunt, we had to take pictures that included our Mascot which was a hardboiled brown egg in different places! Let the Hunt begin...

Number 1, find a picture with some dogs... Done... way too easy!

Our first challenge was to create a human totem pole... Check... this was the easy one! from the bottom to the top... Marilize, Me , Richard, Cat, Joseph, MJ and Mike.( the big red robot looking thing)

We also had to freak out a bunch of koreans just trying to work in this lovely hair salon establishment while we borrowed their store front windo and pretended to be "models" I am on the end, and Joseph got covered up by Michael Jackson! haha... it was awesome.

This is a hard one, we had to recreate a fairy tale with just one scene using our "mascot" the hard boiled egg. We borrowed a Korean bar owner for this... can you tell which fairy tale?

If you guessed Snow White and the Seven dwarves you are right! Joseph was Grumpy and I was sneezey since I had been so sick... I also am a fan of the fact that MJ, who was dressed as Michael Jackson, got to be Bashful! Perfect! Marilize borrowed the Doctors mask to be Doc, Mike who's robot face could only smile was Happy, Cat was sleepy and since richard had big pig ears he got to be dopey! and our egg was snow white, held lovingly by a Korean bartender!

Here is us in said bartenders Bar, Note that Joseph is in fact drinking his beer with his Claw... The bartender actually ended up stealing it for a while when we were there and even served a few drinks with it... Easy to make and it was a big thrill, the Koreans loved the concept of our concept once they realized we were a couple costume... We later found out they thought Joseph was the terminator... so i can only imagine they just thought I was odd with a cage from a crane game attached to my head.... go figure!

Another part of the scavenger Hunt was finding the Hanguel signs, and taking a picture with them...

Then we had to take a picture with someone in uniform... who better than giggly school girls from Korea! Love it, they actually had their dad take a picture too!

And lastly, visit another bar... too easy... this place served deep fried spaghetti with your beer... it was very interesting! Note that Joseph is Holing our snow white/mascot/hard boiled egg in his claw!



And as you know we ended up at the Norae Bang ( singing room) and I found this cute candid shot of Joseph and I picking out our Billy Joel song.

Slow week.

With the rush of the Holiday and test week here at school, I have been busy and slacking a bit in the blog department. I have however not been slacking in the Kitchen. since we really didn't do too much of interest this week, I figured I would just do a picture highlight of the weeks "goings ons". Here is a typical "non-korean" dinner that I make at least once a week. it can be a tad expensive, but usually well worth it to have something not super spicy or ricey.

I made burgers with broccoli and mashed potatos. We needed something to stick to our ribs, and this was just what sounded good. We also got some garlic bread at Home plus, but unfortunately the Korean taste is for sweet with garlic, so I am pretty sure they had sugar on it. I am going to try and make my own garlic butter next time.

Here is me at school joking around during a free period, eating my rice tubes... they are really tasty, just like the rice cakes you get at home, but they are shaped like a cylinder instead of a flat circle.

Joseph found some beef jerkey! The best there is at family mart.

The products of Confidence by Natori's Specialized technoloo... I don't know what technoloo is... but it makes the jerky taste great!

After getting our Alien Registration cards, Joseph and I decided to go to the D-cube mall for lunch before work since we still had an hour. We were tired from the drive back from Okpo, so we headed to Delkys. It is a Kebab wrap place... i think.

HAHA, Joseph finally took a weird picture!


Here is our meal. I ordered Beef , and Joseph ordered chicken, but we ended up switching halfway through. This is the first place we have found that had real french fries. We had to ask for more ketchup since they only gave us one one ketchup packet.

Here is a picture of what you can order on the menu... it is a small place, there were about four seats at the counter and one table for two that Joseph and I were lucky enough to grab.

We Also went to a small place called Changwan, but didn't stay to long since we missed the early bus at noon and didn't get there till late, and pretty much had to come back as soon as we got there. But we got a picture of the map since we could not find a tourist info spot at the bus station.

I did manage to see and take a picture of another Hello Kitty store! Hooray!



And finally, one last picture of our group for Halloween. The girl who has all the other really funny pictures has not posted them yet, but here is one more to tide you over until I can convince her to post the other pictures.

We all had on black and somehow our team color was purple... drat.

Our halloween Costumes!

Here you go! It has been a while but because you have waited so Patiently I updated before work! Here are our costumes. We decided to be a vending machine! The prizes here actually have cages on them so you have a slight chance of winning, they also have a tons of clay weights attached to them to make it harder, but you play more when you can pick up the cage now and then... so Joseph was the Claw, and I was the Prize. My cage was attached to my headband, And I wore more of them at the kids party, but for going out I only wanted to wear one since we would be running about doing a scavenger hunt! I will post those pictures once they get uploaded. My camera chose to die that night so I don't have any :-(

And this is a picture of us singing "Piano Man" at the foreigner party.... and we totally won a prize for Best couple Performance! It was awesome! Joseph was way into it!

We had a great halloween and we hope everyone else did too! Big Thank you to Willow for these great shots!