We recently returned from a two-week vacation. We spent one week in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The second week was spent on the beautiful island of Langkawi, Malaysia. It was absolutely wonderful! Check out the pictures!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2014889&l=4a752&id=161800664
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2014890&l=877b1&id=161800664
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2014891&l=ca9f6&id=161800664
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2014892&l=c9f1a&id=161800664
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2014899&l=4ec1a&id=161800664
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Merry Christmas!
Here's a video of our Kindergarten class singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Enjoy!
Monday, September 22, 2008
Birthday celebrations!
First of all, I (Steph) want to say thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes, cards, gifts, and cakes (all 3 of them). I was a little sad having to celebrate my birthday away from everyone and everything that is close to me, but thanks to everyone I had a great birthday!
It seemed to me that we've been celebrating my birthday this whole month. It started at our school, where some of the teachers threw me a little party and they pulled it off without me knowing. But I guess considering the fact that they speak a language I don't, that probably was an easy thing to accomplish. They surprised me with a cake, candles, balloons, and some other snacks too. For my gift, they gave me a huge box full of kim. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's pieces of seaweed that is used to make gimbap (Koreans' version of sushi). I doubt that we'll ever get close to eating even half of the box but it was a nice gesture.
For the next part of the celebration, myself, Shawn and some friends went to Busan on the weekend before my birthday. We got to enjoy some end of the summer beach time and had a fun night out on the town where we even got to go to a dance club.
Then, on my actual birthday, our friends and I got together to have dinner, drinks, and you guessed it...more cake. And for the final celebration, this past Saturday, Shawn and our friend Gemma threw myself and our friend Kristen a fabulous birthday party. About 30-35 of our friends came out to help us celebrate. It was an amazing time. Shawn planned everything perfectly and mostly without me knowing. But probably the best part of the night was my birthday present from Shawn and our friend Doug. They each had their moms (thanks Vickie!!) send them Clamato in the mail. For those of you who know me know that I LOVE Clamato (maybe even a little too much!). I think it's mainly a North Dakota thing, because I had trouble finding it even when I was in Minnesota. And of course, no one in this country had heard of it. So needless to say, for the past 6 months I've been going into withdrawls from Clamato and was being forced to drink beer plain (I know, how gross right!?).
I posted some pictures below for you to enjoy. Again, thanks everyone for one of the best birthdays I've had!!
Myself and some of the teachers at our school
Myself and Kristen at our joint birthday celebration
CLAMATO!!!!! Notice how happy I look!
It seemed to me that we've been celebrating my birthday this whole month. It started at our school, where some of the teachers threw me a little party and they pulled it off without me knowing. But I guess considering the fact that they speak a language I don't, that probably was an easy thing to accomplish. They surprised me with a cake, candles, balloons, and some other snacks too. For my gift, they gave me a huge box full of kim. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's pieces of seaweed that is used to make gimbap (Koreans' version of sushi). I doubt that we'll ever get close to eating even half of the box but it was a nice gesture.
For the next part of the celebration, myself, Shawn and some friends went to Busan on the weekend before my birthday. We got to enjoy some end of the summer beach time and had a fun night out on the town where we even got to go to a dance club.
Then, on my actual birthday, our friends and I got together to have dinner, drinks, and you guessed it...more cake. And for the final celebration, this past Saturday, Shawn and our friend Gemma threw myself and our friend Kristen a fabulous birthday party. About 30-35 of our friends came out to help us celebrate. It was an amazing time. Shawn planned everything perfectly and mostly without me knowing. But probably the best part of the night was my birthday present from Shawn and our friend Doug. They each had their moms (thanks Vickie!!) send them Clamato in the mail. For those of you who know me know that I LOVE Clamato (maybe even a little too much!). I think it's mainly a North Dakota thing, because I had trouble finding it even when I was in Minnesota. And of course, no one in this country had heard of it. So needless to say, for the past 6 months I've been going into withdrawls from Clamato and was being forced to drink beer plain (I know, how gross right!?).
I posted some pictures below for you to enjoy. Again, thanks everyone for one of the best birthdays I've had!!
Myself and some of the teachers at our school
Notice the cake says a "26" on it. No, I am only 25 but in Korean age I am 26. For other snacks we had grapes and songpyeon which is sweet bean filling wrapped with dough. It's quite chewy but pretty good.
Myself and Kristen at our joint birthday celebration
CLAMATO!!!!! Notice how happy I look!
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Seoul vacation pictures
Here are some of the pictures from our vacation in Seoul. Enjoy!
At Gyeongbokgung Palace
In front of the pavillion at Gyeongbokgung Palace where the king had parties
At Gyeongbokgung Palace
Looking down at Seoul from atop the Seoul Tower
So far away from home!
Standing with the guard at Deoksugung Palace
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Who's got Seoul? We got Seoul...at least for 4 days!
Well here we are again...blogging. Hopefully we can keep up the good work (I know, two posts in almost a week? Yes, we are crazy). Well here is the second part of our too short vacation (but then who's isn't?).
So we left from Jeju city on a Saturday afternoon and flew to Seoul, arriving at Gimpo airport. The flight was great, only 50 minutes, and no one lost their passport! After an immediate stop at Starbucks, we headed for the information booth to find how to get to our hotel. There is an amazing amount of people who speak English in Seoul and almost all of the information booths we found cater to English speakers. So we got the skinny on how to get to our hotel and were off on a bus.
Our hotel was a nice change from where we were staying in Jeju. We decided to "splurge" a little on our hotel in Seoul, and we were nicely rewarded. The hotel had central air (something often to be desired in Korea), two beds (also not that common), a balcony, a huge shower (no shower shoes needed) and even a bidet (what a treat). Only Shawn had the courage to try the bidet, and for those of you who really "know" Steph you can understand why she would never try it.
Well on to more interesting subjects...the events of Seoul. The first night we kept it pretty low key, just visiting Itaewon (a major foreigner hang out) for dinner. For this trip we made a strict vow to eat no Korean food (not that we don't like it, but come on we get enough!). So for our first night we enjoyed a nice, romantic Thai meal. Well, alright it wasn't that romantic for us, but the restaurant sure tried. After dinner we just visited a few of the local "hot spots" to check out the Seoul night life...no more on this subject.
The next day we roused ourselves in the early afternoon for a little shopping, which Seoul is so famous for. We were completely underwhelmed by the Namdaemun shopping district (supposed to be the largest open air market in Korea). Not that they didn't have a lot for sale, just not a lot we wanted. We emerged from this shopping trip with only one purchase: a dog costume for Steph's old dog. After shopping there was only one obvious choice, a visit to a palace. Deoksugung Palace, is located right in the heart of Seoul next to city hall. This palace was originally built as a home for King Seongjong's older brother, but then became the home of the King after the Japanese invaded (one of the many times) and burnt the King's Palace. Didn't know you were going to get a history lesson did ya? This was a good first choice for us, as it is one of the smaller palaces and not nearly as overwhelming as our next palace. After our first palace experience we needed a little rest and relaxation, before we ventured to Seoul tower that night.
Seoul tower was an experience in and of itself. Really if you have visited one tower, you have visited them all...but that didn't stop us from being the tourists we are and including it as a "must see." This was a long ordeal. The wait just to take the cable car to the Seoul tower base was almost 1/2 an hour and then you are stuffed in for your ride up. Once you get there you then have to purchase an elevator ride to the top of Seoul tower and wait again for your turn. When your turn comes around you are crammed into an elevator with as many people as they can safely fit and up you go. The view from the top of the tower was pretty much what we expected... lots of lights from the city below. Not that it wasn't pretty, we're not sure that it merited the wait required. After a quick stroll around the tower, we made the long trek back to the bottom.
The next day was filled with more shopping and more palaces. This time we visited Insadong, which is famous for it's Korean souvenirs. We spent a couple hours browsing the selection, which all started to look the same after a couple shops. We both had intentions on buying gifts for people, but both went away empty-handed. Sorry guys, maybe next time. After our shopping trip, we visited Gyeongbokgung Palace. This was the main palace during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). I believe this is the largest of the palaces, measuring in at 5.4 million square feet. It definitely was a beautiful palace, but like we said, if you've seen one, you've seen them all. So after milling around for an hour, we decided to head back to our hotel. This was our last night in Seoul so we went out for a nice Italian dinner and even had ice cream for dessert. After a long day of walking around Seoul, we decided to call it a night.
The next day we were up and off, back to our "lovely" town of Chilwon. Shawn had never taken a train before and wanted to pretend he was Harry Potter for a few hours so we headed off to the KTX station. Unfortunately, the trains in Korea are nothing like the ones on Harry Potter so he was slightly disappointed. But nevertheless, we managed to get home in one piece. All in all, it was a very nice vacation.
Stay tuned for pictures from Seoul.
So we left from Jeju city on a Saturday afternoon and flew to Seoul, arriving at Gimpo airport. The flight was great, only 50 minutes, and no one lost their passport! After an immediate stop at Starbucks, we headed for the information booth to find how to get to our hotel. There is an amazing amount of people who speak English in Seoul and almost all of the information booths we found cater to English speakers. So we got the skinny on how to get to our hotel and were off on a bus.
Our hotel was a nice change from where we were staying in Jeju. We decided to "splurge" a little on our hotel in Seoul, and we were nicely rewarded. The hotel had central air (something often to be desired in Korea), two beds (also not that common), a balcony, a huge shower (no shower shoes needed) and even a bidet (what a treat). Only Shawn had the courage to try the bidet, and for those of you who really "know" Steph you can understand why she would never try it.
Well on to more interesting subjects...the events of Seoul. The first night we kept it pretty low key, just visiting Itaewon (a major foreigner hang out) for dinner. For this trip we made a strict vow to eat no Korean food (not that we don't like it, but come on we get enough!). So for our first night we enjoyed a nice, romantic Thai meal. Well, alright it wasn't that romantic for us, but the restaurant sure tried. After dinner we just visited a few of the local "hot spots" to check out the Seoul night life...no more on this subject.
The next day we roused ourselves in the early afternoon for a little shopping, which Seoul is so famous for. We were completely underwhelmed by the Namdaemun shopping district (supposed to be the largest open air market in Korea). Not that they didn't have a lot for sale, just not a lot we wanted. We emerged from this shopping trip with only one purchase: a dog costume for Steph's old dog. After shopping there was only one obvious choice, a visit to a palace. Deoksugung Palace, is located right in the heart of Seoul next to city hall. This palace was originally built as a home for King Seongjong's older brother, but then became the home of the King after the Japanese invaded (one of the many times) and burnt the King's Palace. Didn't know you were going to get a history lesson did ya? This was a good first choice for us, as it is one of the smaller palaces and not nearly as overwhelming as our next palace. After our first palace experience we needed a little rest and relaxation, before we ventured to Seoul tower that night.
Seoul tower was an experience in and of itself. Really if you have visited one tower, you have visited them all...but that didn't stop us from being the tourists we are and including it as a "must see." This was a long ordeal. The wait just to take the cable car to the Seoul tower base was almost 1/2 an hour and then you are stuffed in for your ride up. Once you get there you then have to purchase an elevator ride to the top of Seoul tower and wait again for your turn. When your turn comes around you are crammed into an elevator with as many people as they can safely fit and up you go. The view from the top of the tower was pretty much what we expected... lots of lights from the city below. Not that it wasn't pretty, we're not sure that it merited the wait required. After a quick stroll around the tower, we made the long trek back to the bottom.
The next day was filled with more shopping and more palaces. This time we visited Insadong, which is famous for it's Korean souvenirs. We spent a couple hours browsing the selection, which all started to look the same after a couple shops. We both had intentions on buying gifts for people, but both went away empty-handed. Sorry guys, maybe next time. After our shopping trip, we visited Gyeongbokgung Palace. This was the main palace during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). I believe this is the largest of the palaces, measuring in at 5.4 million square feet. It definitely was a beautiful palace, but like we said, if you've seen one, you've seen them all. So after milling around for an hour, we decided to head back to our hotel. This was our last night in Seoul so we went out for a nice Italian dinner and even had ice cream for dessert. After a long day of walking around Seoul, we decided to call it a night.
The next day we were up and off, back to our "lovely" town of Chilwon. Shawn had never taken a train before and wanted to pretend he was Harry Potter for a few hours so we headed off to the KTX station. Unfortunately, the trains in Korea are nothing like the ones on Harry Potter so he was slightly disappointed. But nevertheless, we managed to get home in one piece. All in all, it was a very nice vacation.
Stay tuned for pictures from Seoul.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Vacation Pics from Jeju Island
Beautiful scenery in Seogwipo City
This is Seogwipo City where we stayed for 4/5 nights in Jeju
Jungmun Beach where we did our suntanning... or in Steph's case sunburning
Shawn's senior picture... On a cliff near Seogwipo
A beautiful waterfall!
Next installment: Seoul vacation....stay tuned!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
