one year later

i can't believe that it has already been a year since we arrived in korea. the time seems to go so much faster here compared to back home. the other day jeremy and i were talking about how different life is now compared to when we first arrived.

some things that we had to face when we first arrived:

-eating ramen everyday because we couldn't read any of the menus. we still can't read half of it but now we can recognize what we like

-jetlag! getting up at 6am every morning. we figured we could walk around and see the city only to find out that koreans are not morning people. the streets are deserted till at least 9, if not later.

-staying in a love motel for the first two weeks. exactly what it sounds like. rooms can be rented by the hour or the night and mood lighting is always provided ; )

-sticking to the same two restaurants because they had pictures on their menus

-taking hours at the grocery store staring at labels i couldn't read and trying to find any food slightly resembling something i knew

-spending the meal avoiding the free kimchee on the table (i still do this)

-getting yelled at for crossing the street without a walk signal (they're really strict!)

- figuring out that there are no preservatives in a lot of the food. we have to race to eat certain foods before they go bad. especially fruit and bread.

-since there are no dryers we try to put all the fans on our clothes to get them to dry faster before the mildew smell sets in.

-waking up to the smell of kimchee, fish or whatever else the apartment above us decided to cook for breakfast that morning.

-buying a car for around $200 but having to push start it anytime it rained. (we got it fixed eventually)

-going to the bathroom outside at work. in the summer it was a race to see how fast you could pee before you were attacked by mosquitos

even though we don't have to deal with most of these things anymore, it just adds to the experience of living in a different country.

Haute Hydration Mixed with Fashion!

I’m thrilled to be a smartwater Ambassador for Charleston Fashion Week 2012! The hautest fashion event south of New York City takes place in less than two weeks under the big tents in Marion Square in Charleston, South Carolina. Fashionistas can expect more than 30 runway shows, emerging new designers, and fabulous cocktail parties over five nights. This year, 7,000 people are expected to hit the charming southern town as smartwater gets runway ready as the official water sponsor for the big show!

Join me as I bring lots of photos, tweets and style trends from some of the most exciting designer talent to emerge in years.

What's the hautest new accessory for 2012?

Haute Birthday Fun!

I’m a Pisces girl with lots to be happy about. This year, I celebrated my birthday with friends who inspire me to live my highest spiritual self. It was a weekend to remember but none-the-less, I’m so grateful to have friends who really care about me.

My haute hair stylist and groovy friend, Robin, gave me sexy, seductive hair to ring in the start of my special day. It brought my hair to life and a few extra looks from some unlikely admirers with an ego boost to match.

Although, I’m a year older, I’ve never felt better… cheers to me!

what's in a name

before walking into a classroom at my previous school, you could guess what about 80% of the kids names were going to be. john, sally, ann, jimmy. basically all the typical western names. at my new school, the names are a bit more unique which i love but i can never get the spelling right. when my student told me her name was donna, i excitedly wrote it on the board, how could i mess this one up? after writing it, the students started hysterically laughing. "teacher! you spell it d-a-n-a." the whole class was a lesson in korean spelling of western names. lincoln was l-i-n-c-o-n, ellen was e-l-i-n. then there were the ones that i've never heard before. i had an alva, lyon, rani (pronounced ronnie), claude (pronounced cloud), lina and zinee. the names will be easy enough to remember but the spelling may take me awhile.

i have what??

a brief explanation of what jeremy and i are doing now. we have decided not to resign with our previous school, ecc. it was honestly the perfect school for our first year and we are forever grateful for the experience and the opportunity to work with such amazing people. we decided, however, that we want to do some more traveling this next year and therefore picked schools that allowed us to do so. jeremy got a job at a vocational high school which he started the other day and loves. i will be working part time at an academy which will be a nice change of pace and allow me more time off.

with that being said, in order to change schools there are several hoops to go through and forms to be filled out. one of these was a health check at the local hospital. simple enough, urine test, blood test, hearing and sight, along with a chest X-ray. when jeremy and i went back to the hospital to pick up our results the nurse looks at jeremy "you're fine" then proceeds to turn to me and say "you have kidney disease." i love how delicately she put it. now, after being here a year, i have heard of several serious misdiagnoses, which is why i wasn't too concerned.

i went back to the hospital the following week and had more tests done. i walked into the doctor's office to get the new test results. he had my chart with my passport picture on it and when he looked up he jumped back. always the reaction you want when someone looks at you, right? he continued to go on and on about how i look so different from my picture and how my cheeks were "sharper" now. reading in-between the lines: you used to be fat, but not to worry, you look fine now. he then turned to me "oh and you're fine, no kidney disease." i can't wait for my health check next year.

Bad Days and Timmy Tim

just when i thought i was having a bad day, this little man strolls in, wraps his arms around you and give me a kiss on the cheek.

teaching kindi was probably one of the most challenging experiences of the year. for the first three months, these kids cannot communicate with you in the slightest. you might be able to get the alphabet out of them  and the rest is charades practice (which i have mastered over the year). but now looking back, i've realized that it has been the most rewarding experience. i have seen these kids go from no english, to being able to communicate and have small conversations with them. out of the 100+ kids i have taught this year, i'm going to miss my kiddos most of all.

A Step Back in History-Kyoto

Our last and most favorite stop of the trip was Kyoto. We arrived into Kyoto Station from Osaka by the JR lines. Below is the gorgeous station that we were greeted with. Never have I been in such an innovative and futuresk (please excuse the creation of new words) public space.

This is the road leading up to the Kiyomizu Temple. While on a student exchange to Japan 10 years ago, my host family brought me to this same temple. It was so exciting to be sharing the same place with hubs years later.

Outside the entrance of the temple

Visitors light incense and try to cover their head with the smoke

Overlooking the city of Kyoto

Beneath the main hall is the otowa waterfall. Three different channels of water fall into the pond below. Visitors can hold long sticks with metal cups at the end and get a drink from these falls and get a wish granted.

There is a popular saying in Japanese that is similar to the states "take the plunge" and it is "jump off the stage at Kiyomizu". In the Edo Period (no idea what year that is) the tradition held that if you were to survive the 13 meter jump off of the veranda, your wish would come true. 234 jumps were recorded during that time with a 85.4% survival rate. It does not list, however, what injuries were gained by those who survived. Shockingly, the practice is not prohibited.

Late at night we would walk the streets of Gion which is said to be one of the last areas of Japan where geishas are still at work in the teahouses. Unfortunately, we were unable to see any for ourselves but the streets were a gorgeous mix of old and new that we loved to wander around.

After wandering around the streets for awhile, we started to wonder if geishas were real at all or if we were on the hunt for an imagined animal. At least we weren't alone. I'm pretty sure all the other foreigners walking anxiously down the street that night with cameras ready in hand were looking for the same thing.

My favorite site of all was the Fushimi Inari Shrine. It is a shinto shrine put in place in order to worship the God Inari, the God of Rice. Foxes are said to be its messengers which is why several fox statues can be seen along the trail. The large orange gateways are called toriis and there are thousands of them along the two hour trail. All of them are donations from individuals and businesses. Prices for the smaller ones start at around 5,000 us dollars while the larger ones start at around 13,000 us dollars.

 It was a gorgeous view of all the torii gates heading deeper into the forest. 

 

 The black lettering is the name of the donator and the date of the donation

We stopped briefly at the golden pavilion. It really has little history but it's a cool looking building in the middle of the water and there were about a hundred other people there taking pictures of it. I'd say it was worth it.

We stopped by a nearby temple for new years where they were setting up for a festival. We decided to come back when it got a little closer to the countdown. When we showed back up, the streets were packed with thousands of people with apparently, the same mindset as us. The police had barricaded the streets surrounding the temple so no one could get in until after midnight. When I think of sneaking into a place, often times a concert or some sort of show comes to mind. Apparently to people in Kyoto, the best place to try to sneak into is a temple. I guess 'sneak' is the wrong word. Jumping across barricades, running across lanes of traffic and dodging police is more along the right lines. The first few people were successful, the rest...were not. The police became pretty good at lunging at the hooligans and wrestling them to the ground, then proceeding to throw them into cop cars and haul them off to jail. It made for good entertainment while we were waiting.

A group of ladies at the temple all dressed up in their traditional kimonos.

Kyoto was by far our favorite stop in Japan. Around every corner was another historical site and another attraction to see. We had no problem filling up the short amount of time we were there.