My Imperfect Destiny

Wednesday, February 16

Yonggungsa Temple, Busan Day 2

Yonggungsa Temple - Temple By the Sea

On our second day in Busan, we had a cultural day! :) The temple was packed, and many were there to show respect to the ancestors who have passed away. Great experience and we had beautiful weather! It was the warmest it had been in months. Here are pictures of our temple experience with Mary and Tyler.

This is the view from Mary's Apartment - they live on the 22nd floor!

creepy statues before we got to the temple

Me with my Chinese Zodiac, The Ox

Temple by the Sea

Beauty!

Love how the sun shines through

Us with Big Buddha

Koreans Love Dying their dogs hair :( this poor dog looks miserable - yes this was at the temple

Group shot - love these guys! :)

had to get a picture of the shoes :( poor thing.

kids always add humor :) this little guy had a camera on his Nintendo DS - capturin' his own memories

"I Love You" pose with the Good Luck Pigs; apparently if you dream about a pig you're supposed to go buy a lottery ticket ASAP. Pigs are extremely lucky here!

Leigh with his Chinese Zodiac

Love the little girls in their traditional Korean dresses, hanboks

Solnal in Busan Day 1

January flew by (as have most of the months here) and a much needed holiday arrived, Solnal, at the perfect time! Solnal is a Korean New Year Festival celebrating the first day of the lunar calendar! :) It's the second biggest holiday in Korea. School was closed on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and to celebrate, Leigh and I headed to Busan. For those of you who've read my whole blog, you'll remember Busan from my first weekend in town. That's where I ate live octopus with Brent, Tonic, and Ramella, saw amazing beaches, and enjoyed great seafood.

So, this is only the second time I'd been to Busan, but it was a blast! Leigh's roommate from college (when he was getting his second degree) moved to Busan with her boyfriend about 2 weeks before. So, we had a great time exploring their new city and teaching them how to order Korean food. The first day we were at Hyandae Beach and walked along the beach after enjoying a Korean meal. That night we had Mexican food at Fuzzy Navel, played carnival games by the beach, shot fireworks off at the beach with a group of Pohangers (Lia, Brendan, Heather, Frances, and Mary, and Tyler) and then barhopped a bit. The next day we visited the Temple by the Sea. Friday we went to Nampodong, a traditional Korean street market. Enjoy the pictures! :)

Happy Solnal! :) walking to our taxi

All Smiles on the bus - $7.00 to get to a city 2 hours away! love it!

Road trip essentials: Hite beer, Korea Tourish book, pringles, sunglasses, and water! :)

Hayundae Beach

Welcome to Korea - Mary and Tyler! Reunited and it feels so good!

Beach walk to the mermaid

View of Busan from the Mermaid

playing carnival games on the street near the beach! this Korean carnie loved us

Winter Wonderland

After the plunge, we all went and had a deliciously yummy and warm soup, Haejangguk.

Lunch was great - we laughed, listened to the reactions of those brave enough to jump in and shared videos and pictures. After lunch, Leigh and I went to Home Plus (similar to a Wal-Mart). We were excited to get a new puzzle. We'd finished a 500 piece Van Gogh and wanted to upgrade to a 1000 piece! As were were driving on his scooter we noticed how black the sky was. It started to sprinkle a little, but we didn't really think anything of it. <Note the foreshadowing here :) hah>

Leigh and I went to his apartment that night, worked on a puzzle. Then, I headed home. The next morning my director woke me up with a phone call. She informed me that school was cancelled for the day due to the heavy snow. I tried to cover up my surprise because I obviously had NO idea it'd snowed, I thanked her for letting me know, prompty hung up and then like a giddy school child ran to look out the window! :) There, I saw more snow than I've ever seen in my life. Truly, the closest thing to a winter wonderland, snowpocolypse, Snowmageddon I've ever seen! :)


Our finished Van Gogh Starry Night puzzle! :) Thanks for the puzzle Grammy!

New World Map Puzzle :) 1000 pieces

main road in Jung Sang Dong

When in Korea...the man behind me is drinking Makeoli, a famous Korean rice alcoholic beverage

Umbrellas in Korea are multi, MULTI-purpose

sun, rain, snow - doesn't matter - use it for everything; umbrellas here are like duct tape in the states

They were Snowmen/women EVERYwhere!

Americans and Canadians Unite! :) project snowman!

He's Canadian, of course he's a pro

What? We had to keep warm somehow...Soju and Cider, and Beer

on Leigh's rooftop

Snowman #1 Finished

Mohawk Snowman #2 Finished

Waygooks Celebrating their Accomplishment; Snow's still comin' down

Teddy and Tim the "I Love You" pose

The Gals :)

If only the Polar Plunge had been a day earlier! :) I got 2 snow days out of this! :) It was the most snow Pohang had seen in 75+ years!!

Brrrrr, and xoxo! :)

Pohang Polar Plunge

The Pohang Polar Plunge. You've heard of Polar Bear swims right? Where the gutsy of the gutsiest <or those wishing to send an icy surge that takes the breath straight from your lungs through their bodies> jump in freezing cold waters. The first Sunday of 2011 some of the English teachers in Pohang decided to do this to celebrate the New Year. Being the rational, logical (aka the chicken) person that I am, I was part of the cheering section, but Leigh was gutsy enough to do it! :) Here's a link to an AWESOME video made by a super talented English teacher in Pohang - the video is worth a viewing it's much better than my measly still shots - Enjoy!As always, can't wait to hear what you think! :) Love from Korea, Em

The Video of the Crazy Foreigners frolicking in the frigid waters on Bukbu Beach - fun to finally see a video, rather than still shots! :)

They stayed in for 2 minutes! Brave Souls

Heck Yes! They did it!

The Crowd Gathers

The Koreans were definitely confused. Once again they find themselves asking "What are the Waygooks doing this time?"

Justin Sowers, brave enough to go for a dip 2 times!

Tuesday, February 15

As one year closes, another opens :)

<Disclaimer: This is a tad confusing to read considering it's February 15th and I'm just now blogging about the New Year. Forgive me :) and Enjoy>

I like New Years! It might be one of my favorite holidays not because of the actual New Year's Eve festivities, but because I'm a big fan of fresh starts/clean slates. I like those times that the scoreboard of life is "zeroed out". And A New Year feels that way for me! While saying hello to whats to come in a new year is refreshing, I also cherish the time to look back and reflect on what life was like at this time last year, what's changed, how I've grown, <think MTV's Greatest Hits-like introspection of my life in said year :) haha>Here's the cliff note version of 2010:

2010 was a terrific year - I'm constantly amazed at how blessed I am. Just a few of the highlights that come to mind: My brother graduated from Air Force basic training last January, I was honored enough to be in Kayla's wedding, my Dad turned 50, Kathryn graduated from Culinary School AND was baptized, Parisa graduated from UK and started her career with FH, I was able to spend amazing time with my mom's side of the family on the 4th of July, I embarked on the experience of a lifetime, and last but the furthest from least, Jackie got engaged! There are so many more memorable things I could list, but that's a start.

2011, the bar's set high to be a great year - but as always I'm excited to see what's in store! :)

Since I'm so behind on this blog I'll save the writing in detail and share my ringing in of the new year via pictures.

Quick summary of what you'll see: Bowling at the lanes in Pohang. Leigh and I jamming out on RockBand on New Year's Eve evening at his friend at Mark's girlfriend's house. (Mark is Leigh's lifelong friend from Canada who also lives and teaches in Korea). We had an amazing dinner that they prepared and then jammed the night away playing Rockband. (A game on Playstation that is similar to Guitar Hero, but you have all the pieces for a band. So one person sings, one plays bass, the guitar, and the drums.) Then Tilt to meet up with the other Waygooks (foreigners) that were in town to ring in 2011 with Champagne and dancin'. Such a fun start to the year! :)