Quick Update

Hello! It has been a while since the last posting, so we'll do our best to catch up. We haven't embarked on any major adventures in the past month, but we've been keeping ourselves busy nonetheless!
One of the most exciting things is our new air conditioner - please take a look at the pictures, the thing is literally as tall as a refrigerator and has two parts. Well, we're excited about it now, we'll see how excited we are once we see our electric bill for the month! That being said, we feel that since we spent so little on heating this year, we can splurge a bit and life of chilly bliss this summer. Seriously, we could keep a penguin in our room...maybe even a shopping penguin!

Lets see...what else is new in the lives of Jamie and Shannon? Well, we've discovered a couple of board game cafes in the city. Word is that these were really popular in Seoul a few years back, but most places have gone under. The two we have visited are pretty amazing. You pay an hourly fee per person and are free to use all the board games they have, and they have a pretty great collection. They even have a board game "menu", but it is in Korean so not much help to us, but we like the idea nonetheless. Of course you can get snacks and beverages too.

OH and how could I forget World Cup soccer! We thoroughly enjoyed being in a country that actually cares about soccer during the tournament, and it was also really cool to have two teams to root for. We managed to catch almost all of the South Korean games and the USA games (with the exception of the two that were aired at 3:30AM our time). We did stay up for the USA Ghana game, which was also at 3:30, and ended up going to bed at about 6:00AM. We had a little foreigner fan club going for each of the games and I really developed an appreciation for the sport, I can't remember ever really liking soccer until this World Cup!

Wait a second, it really HAS been a while since our last post! We did go on a little trip during Buddha's Birthday weekend. This was around May 21st (Buddha's B-day) I'll recount the week, it was pretty exciting! First off, there was a lantern festival in downtown Seoul. It was probably the longest parade I've ever seen. There were thousands of people just marching with lanterns, alongside groups of dancers, huge paper floats (including animatronic fire-breathing peacocks!), and some international Buddhist communities. Amazingly we managed to snag front row seats, too!

We then made a trip to an island called Muido in the east sea, near the country's major airport. We had intended on staying the weekend, but we forgot to bring enough cash to get us through the entire time (no credit cards or ATMs!). We weren't too disappointed, as the sea retreats a couple kilometers at low tide leaving a massive mudflat for a view. Not that appealing, actually! We did enjoy the daytrip, though, and we were accompanied by some of Shannon's Korean co-teachers and we had a nice time hanging out with them.

We decided to count our losses and just head back down to the coastal city we were a little more familiar with, Pusan. This was our second time visiting Pusan and this time we opted for an ocean side motel (still super cheap). We got in a solid beach day and had some beautiful weather. There were probably more westerners at the beach than Koreans, and it was very easy to tell them apart. Most westerners were sunbathing while most Koreans were hiding under umbrellas and were fully clothed. Our guess is that, while it was a beautiful day, it wasn't technically summer yet and therefore most Koreans were not opting for summer wear. Culturally, there are many different things that fit with each season, so our guess was that beach clothing may be one of them. But who knows!

While in Pusan we found our way to a Westerner owned bar that was having a trivia night! As a trivia fan, I was quite excited and we actually had a really fun time hanging out with other foreigners there. Shannon managed to get us invited to go sailing the following day, but accidentally gave the guy her number instead of mine (she'd left her phone back in Seoul). But that is OK, the following day we had our own adventure in store. After downing a delicious meal of Japanese style kebabs, we went to a two man play called "Stones from His Pockets". We ended up being the only two people in the audience! Instead of just buying us a drink and saying ,"Sorry, its crazy to do a show for two people", they went on with it anyways! Let me tell you, there is a lot of pressure being the only people in an audience. You are solely responsible for all audience reactions, laughing, sighing, heckling. It was pretty intense. A really good show though, and we actually bumped into one of the actors a few weeks later in Seoul. While he agreed the experience had been awkward, he said it was actually one of their best performances so I guess we must been a pretty good audience after all.

So that was our Buddha B-day weekend. Since then we have also: gone to a music festival in the foreigner/ Army base area (very much fun), celebrated several birthdays (also in the foreigner area - we also found a Western country style bar called the Grand Ole' Opry where they encourage line dancing!), attended a two day international breakdancing competition, and had a very nice 4th of July barbeque.

OK, I know. We've been busy after all.

And what is coming up on our radars, you ask? Well, both of our schools are just finishing up their finals for the semester...but there is still two more weeks of school left (strange, I know). We will both be working at district English summer camps (we'll be at different ones, though). We know the drill however, as these camps will be very similar to camps we ran in Winter. We know our staff and the setup down pat, and its honestly a pretty sweet deal. We only teach till about noon each day and then we are home free. So three weeks of half days! Word is though, that this will be during monsoon season and its also been getting mighty hot/humid around here.

What's after camp, you ask? Well we have a little bit of time off before school starts (a little more than a week), so we may be heading off to Japan! Our itinerary is currently a blank slate, though, so if you've got suggestions let us know!

AND, for your viewing pleasure, Shannon and Jamie (mostly Shannon) have been busy putting their creative skills to use. Check out our videos! Most are for teaching purposes, but all are pretty funny/cute. Our real video camera died, though, so forgive the camera quality.

Interesting things about Korea:

Samguk Kimbap (this one's in video form!)

http://www.youtube.com/my_videos