A couple more photo albums

More monkeys: https://picasaweb.google.com/104410251751290198082/MonkeyForest2?authkey=Gv1sRgCL2Qoc3RqtChwgE

Our two-night stay on this island turned into almost a week due to high winds.  It was rough.  :)  https://picasaweb.google.com/104410251751290198082/Gili?authkey=Gv1sRgCNqF-8qYvPuu1wE

Monkey Forest Pictures

More pictures!  We went to the Monkey Forest on Bali.  I took lots of pictures of monkeys.  Are they all in focus?  No.  Are blurry pictures of baby monkeys still cute?  Clearly I think so....

https://picasaweb.google.com/104410251751290198082/MonkeyForest?authkey=Gv1sRgCJCyuoOH0Y-QLQ

Pictures!

About a gazillion (3) months ago, I went on a trip to Malaysia and Bali.  It was amazing.  I didn't see a lot of Malaysia, as I caught a small cough, but what I did see was incredible.  Here are some pictures:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/59530551@N02/sets/72157629754628814

Vacation, Day 5

I woke up at 5 the morning of the last day, dressed super quietly, and snuck downstairs for (finally!) a long walk on the beach.  I got down to the patio, and it was pouring rain.  So much for that.  I went back to the room, got a sweatshirt, and my book, and settled down on the cold patio to read and watch the sun come up the clouds gradually get lighter.  Blissful, blissful solitude.  Some soldiers came down from their post on some rocks next to the beach and did some drill.  Almost an hour later, when the rain let up a tiny bit, I walked down to the beach.  Still too cold and too wet for a walk, I went upstairs to get another sweater or a blanket, and then to head up to the roof.  The mother woke up and came with me.  I think she was confused and maybe a little uncomfortable when I stood there looking at the waves for an extended amount of time, but she eventually stopped staring at me and started doing some exercises.  (At that point, I was in no place to try to start early morning small talk with her.  I just wanted to do my own thing for a little bit!)  Finally, she asked if I was hungry, and when I said yes, suggested we go to McDonald's and bring food back for the family.  She seemed really excited about the two of us going to the McDonald's drive-thru together (one of the few in Korea, they said).  We went back to the room and she started to sneak around getting dressed, but the father woke up and asked where we were going.  About 15 minutes later, as we were literally walking out the door, he suggested that we all go.  I was bummed at first (soooo hungry), but excited when he said we should pack first and then just leave from McDonald's.  Sweet!  We packed, had a delicious, delicious breakfast of breakfast food, and hit the road.  About an hour away from home, around 1pm, the father told me that we would go have lunch at a Korean restaurant and then they would take me home.  Oh no!  I was done.  I just wanted my apartment.  And to call my friends.  And to be alone.  And to eat a meal without being stared at!  I managed to beg my way out of the meal, saying that I wasn't hungry and was very tired and just wanted to take a nap.  They finally relented, and though I felt like I was maybe being a little rude, I was soooo happy when I finally reached my apartment!

That vacation was a bit too much so early on in my stay here.  I didn't want to eat any Korean food, watch any Korean movies, study any Korean, or do anything that reminded me I was in Korean for weeks afterwards.  I finally got over that, though, and now that I have FINALLY finished blogging this vacation, I can tell you about much more fun adventures!

The next morning I woke up early and tried to sneak out to the beach for an early solitary walk.  It was not to be.  The mother woke up and came with me.  It was a nice morning, though.  

We then had a small breakfast, and the father said that we would do some sightseeing.  (The father seemed super peeved that his wife had decided on a small breakfast.  He kept asking her what he was going to eat.  She named the things that were in the kitchen, and he whined the whole time he was eating his cereal...with chopsticks...out of a dixie cup.) I changed out of my swimsuit and dress into jeans and a tshirt, and we headed to the lighthouse I had seen from the beach.  The father and I climbed up.  It gave us a nice view, which I totally have pictures of...but not here.  (I'm at work.  We have no classes all day today because of exams.  I'll put pictures up later.)  I was definitely regretting the small breakfast.  We got in the car and headed to Seoraksan, one of the most beautiful peaks in South Korea and one that I was really excited to see.  The father kept complaining that he was  hungry.  He said to his wife at one point "Hey!  I'm hungry!" in English.  (Her English is pretty poor -- a couple steps above my Korean.)  I expected her to laugh or say "So?" but she reached down and looked through a couple bags until she found dried seaweed for him to snack on, handing him one piece at a time.  The whole vacation, she was totally fine with her daughter and husband asking her at all times for food.  She would just calmly get up, ask what they wanted, and start to peel fruit or heat leftovers.  I told them at one point that American mothers would just say "You're hungry?  Well, there's the kitchen.  You have two hands!"  They laughed.  They thought that was hilarious.  Then the mother said (I think a little sadly), "No, Korean mothers can't do that."

At Seoraksan, we drove up the mountain for about an hour, watching the hikers in their neon outfits walk by and gazing at a mountain stream through the car windows.  Then, the father decided there was too much traffic, and we drove back to down for lunch.  Lunch was THIS

Amazing!  After we ate the crab, the mother scooped our leftover rice into the head of the crab, which held juices and all sorts of other things inside.  She mixed the juices and the rice, and then we ate it.  It was delicious.  Mmmmm crab brain.

We went swimming again in the afternoon, and then went back to the hotel to shower.  The parents told me we would be having two dinners that night, chicken at the hotel and then soup.  I was really confused as to why we would have two dinners until I realized it was because the daughter was refusing to eat at the restaurant we were going to.  After we ate the chicken, the father was trying to get everyone out the door.  The daughter was bouncing up and down on the bed, showing no signs of getting ready to go.  I was sitting right behind her, and we had been rough-housing all weekend, so I pulled her down to the bed.  She sat up, pulled her knees up, put her head down, and started whimpering.  Oh my gosh, I hurt her.  She looked really hurt, and she wasn't responding to me at all.  The mother came over and touched her on the back.  The girl crawled into her mom's lap and continued whimpering.  I was getting really scared.  The mom started to rock the girl back and forth, and the girl started to cry.  I was asking if she was ok, and the mom kept saying she was, but the girl was crying!  The mom started to pet her daughter's hair, and at that, the daughter started screaming.  Loud. I haven't heard screaming like this since the last time my younger sister was refused a toy at Toys R Us.  When she was three.  Three, not nine.  Relieved, I started to relax a little.  The crying and soothing went on for about twenty minutes, with me wavering back and forth between worrying if they were real tears and annoyance at realizing once again they were fake.  Finally, the girl calmed down, told her mom that she didn't like being surprised like that, smoothed her hair, and said "Let's go" expectantly in Korean.  The dad, mom, and I all laughed.  I was incredibly relieved to finally be absolutely certain she wasn't hurt.  When we laughed, the girl cried again for twenty minutes.  When we finally left, the mother explained that the girl is their only daughter, and so she is like a baby.

We have an uneventful dinner, go on a viking boat ride, which the daughter loves, and which looked out over the beach and some fireworks.  We took a last walk on the beach, saw some men drawing these lighted boats into the water, and went to bed (well, after several hours of TV).  I was determined to wake up early the next morning and take a long walk on the beach by myself.

Vacation, Day 3

The next morning was rather uneventful.  We got up, had fast food burgers for breakfast ("This is American style breakfast, right?") and headed to Sokcho, our final destination.  The motel there was bigger, had a kitchen and a balcony, and best of all, no evil overhangs to bump your head on.  We carried our bags to the lobby, were told check-in time wasn't for another couple hours, and carried our bags back to our car.  This was not quite the Zeis-style family trip with color-coded itineraries that I'm used to.  We had lunch, returned to the hotel, and carried our bags in a final time.

We then drove down to the most popular beach to go swimming.  The sand was covered with umbrellas and little raised pavilions, and a large area of the water was roped off.  The surface of the water in this area was almost completely covered with yellow tubes.  I don't think I saw a single person in the water that was not in a tube.  Apparently, most Koreans don't know how to swim, and so only go to the beach when there's a lifeguard on duty and only go into the water with tube while they're there.  Once in the water, you're only allowed to swim within the safety ropes.  This is much different that the water safety we learned as children!  My neighbors have been telling me how strong a swimmer their daughter is, and I was very much looking forward to playing with her in the water.  She doesn't know how to tread water, though, so I wasn't willing to take her out deep.  It was probably for the best, because it turns out she's scared of the ocean.  The mother and daughter stayed close to the side ropes, and every once in a while I would do laps out by the farthest rope where the water was deeper and there were less tubes.  The water was great.  Clear, perfect temperature, and decent waves.  The waves here, though, crash when the water is very shallow, so there was no body surfing.  Soon, I discovered another reason for staying inside the safety ropes.  A motorboat carrying several screaming and laughing passengers roared up about twenty feet away from the swimmers, and drove up onto the steep sand bank to stop itself.  I would not want to swim across that path.

Once we got out of the water, I said I wanted to take a walk on the beach.  It was a long one, and I was looking forward to walking down to a lighthouse I could see in the distance.  They family said, well, ok, we'll walk, then.  (I now know, that if you say to a Korean "I'm going to....", they will usually hear "Let's...."  I need to learn more Korean.)  Surprised that they wanted to come with me, I told them I planned on walking a long way.  They agreed and we set off.  I was a little disappointed, as I had been looking forward to my first moment alone in a couple of days, but oh well.  We got to the edge of the safety ropes, and the father said we should go back.  I said I would like to keep walking.  He said that we weren't allowed to go any further.  I asked why and he said that he didn't see any people, so we must not be allowed on that part of that  beach.  I said that I didn't see any signs, and there were people further down, and that I would keep walking and would see them later at the hotel.  He said, no, let's go back.  Feeling that I was being rude, I grudgingly turned around.  When we got to the dry part of the sand, the father told me to put my shoes. on.  I told him that I liked walking in the sand.   He said that at this beach, there were shells that could cut my feet.  We went back and forth a couple times, until I again felt like I might be being rude, and started to bend down to put my shoes on.  As I began to do so, the father said, "Kate, just follow my orders!"  Not seeing his face and thinking that he was joking, I laughed and said "Follow orders?  I haven't followed orders since I was eighteen!  That's almost..."  As I straightened up I saw that he was rather angry.  Great.  I had just been told to follow orders.  Now I'm angry at being told to do so by someone who is not anywhere close to being an authority figure, and he's angry because I may have just insulted him in front of his family.  The dynamic of the trip changed immediately in my eyes.  I had seen myself as a guest, but still an independent, adult one.  They saw me as a guest, a dependent one they had to take care of.  We walked back to the hotel in near silence.

When we got back, they turned on the TV.  (They watched three or four hours of loud TV every night!)  I put in headphones, turned my back to the TV even though it felt rude, and seriously considered telling them that I would take a bus back to Seoul that night.  I decided to stay.   There was only one full day left, and, you know, we were at the beach!  I never want to leave the beach.  That night for dinner we had grilled clams, which I had been really excited about.  Excited until they were grilled alive right in front of us, squirming and popping in their own juices.  I didn't eat much.

Going to bed, they said I could share the bed with their daughter if I wanted.  Their daughter is probably the smallest 9-year-old I've ever seen, so I agreed.  In the middle of the night, I rolled over, and somehow, the girl's face had swollen to about three times its size.  I screamed.  The mother, who had changed places with her daughter at some point in the night, and was now lying in bed next to me, opened her eyes and gave me a sleepy smile.  Fully weirded out, I rolled back over, scooted to the edge of the bed, and fell back asleep.

Vacation, Day 2

The next morning, I woke up around 8 and the women were already in the kitchen preparing breakfast.  About an hour and a half later, the grandfather went outside to cook some fish over a brick grill in the yard.  Dinner was served about half an hour later.  I couldn't believe how long it took to prepare or how many dishes were on the table!  That fish was delicious, too.  Someone had mentioned that we would go swimming after breakfast, then go for a hike in the afternoon, so I put on my suit and a dress.  After breakfast, my neighbor told me I should go get dressed.  Confused, I asked if we weren't going swimming.  He said he didn't know.  I said I was dressed for swimming, but would change if we were going hiking.  My neighbor called his friend into the room, and they had a conversation that lasted about 5 minutes.  At the end, my neighbor turned to me and said "We're going swimming."  We went hiking.  I had the feeling no one knew where we were actually going until we got there.

After the hike, we went swimming in a gorgeous river right below a cliff with a huge waterfall.

 The kids all had tubes even though the water was only a few feet deep and there was no current.  None of the other adults swam, but I had a ton of fun spinning the kids in their tubes and dragging them around the river.  After swimming, I told the mother I was going to the bathroom to change clothes.  She told me I should change in the car!  (It was a very crowded parking lot.)  When I told her I'd rather change in the bathroom, she called out to me to be careful.  I'm not sure what I was supposed to be careful about...

We said good-bye to my neighbors' friends and started our trip to the coast.  The east coast here is beautiful! The water is amazing.  This is near Uljin, where we stayed for half of the first night:

We got to Uljin, and the father sent the mother and me into a guesthouse to make sure it was ok.  The mother kept asking me my opinion.  I had no idea what their standards wore, nor what else would be available.  The rooms were clean, they had fans, and looked plenty big enough for two people, so I said sure.  Turns out the room would be big enough for four people, and then I understood why they wouldn't let me help pay for any of the accommodation.  We would all be staying together.

We unloaded the car and the mother, daughter, and I went swimming while the father rested in the room.   The water was clear, rather warm, and calmer than I've ever seen.  There were almost no waves - it was like being at a lake. The sand sloped down very quickly, so that if you walk out a few feet, you're several feet deeper in the water.  I had been looking forward to throwing the daughter in the water and splashing around with her, but she wouldn't get in past her waist because she didn't have her swim cap.

After swimming, we went to have sashimi, which is raw fish.  I am not a fan.  My neighbors were nice and ordered some more of that amazing grilled fish for me.  We went to bed after that.  My neighbors were watching a slapstick comedy show, and I was drifting in and out of sleep.  After a couple hours, around 11pm I think, the father sat up and asked "How can you sleep?"  I think I said something like "Mwueah?"  He said "It's so hot!  How can you sleep?"  I didn't want to say that the tv was keeping me up, so I just said I didn't know.  He must have been really hot, because he then said "Let's go.  Let's find another place to stay."  What.  What the what.

We got up, packed our things, and loaded the car.  I forgot all my toiletries in the bathroom  On the way down the stairs, I knocked my head on the concrete overhang from the second story.  I told my neighbors, complete with miming actions, and they said sorry.  I was not a happy camper, but thought we would just drive down the road to another guesthouse.  Nope.  We drove to the next town.  The mother and father looked around (like, literally looked around.  Like, out their windows.  Not at a map.  Not at their GPS.  Not at their smartphones.  Out the windows.) for a hotel.  They found one, the dad ran in and said it was full.  They repeated this process a few times.  Finally, the fourth hotel told him there was a soccer tournament that weekend and all the hotels would be booked.  I was shocked.  I thought for sure he had asked the front desk at the first hotel to call around and ask about empty rooms, but apparently not.

They finally turned the GPS on, located a hotel, and drove 20 minutes to the next town.  We started driving up a huge private drive-way towards a cliff over-looking the ocean.  I was thinking there was no way this place would be affordable.  Sure enough, the dad ran in and came right back out.  Getting back in the car, he noticed I was holding my head and asked what happened.  I told him again that I had hit my head.  The mother flipped out and checked my head about five times looking for blood.  The dad started looking for nearby hospitals.  I told them that I was fine, and managed to convince them that I just needed a bed!  The dad agreed, but said that he would be monitoring my behavior the next day.  I don't think I could've walked into the overhang hard enough to give myself a concussion, but I guess it was nice that they were concerned.  Finally, finally, after about 45 minutes of searching in the middle of the night, they decided to start calling ahead to see if hotels had room.  They found one close by, and this one had actual beds.  I took the smaller bed to myself and passed out while the mother prepared a snack for her husband and daughter in the next room.

I found out the next day that the only reason we had moved is that the 9 year old daughter hadn't been able to sleep.  Good lord.