Closing the Korean Chapter

13 months of kimchee, galbi, adventures, travel, incredible life-long friends, incredible food, new perspectives, new thresholds of patience and tolerance, new understandings of likes and dislikes - in sum, it has been 13 months of honing who we are, but also challenging so much of what we thought we knew about who we were.  We can safely say that Korea has been the most challenging experience of our lives.

In the past two months we have slowly said goodbye to everything and everyone we have 

become accustomed to.  Our friends here have 

made this experience so much of what it became and so much of what we will remember.  As for Korea, we will remember it as a good friend, but also managed to piss us off when we didn't understand it, or, when it did something so annoying we just had to throw our hands up and 

scream.  

In one breath, we have never been so confounded, confused and frustrated in our lives.  But at other moments we have never been so touched by the kindness and warmth of strangers when we needed it the most. Korea is a complex dichotomy and it has existed as a culture for

 over 4 millenia .  Koreans would

 describe the confusing contradictions -to westerners anyway- as Yin and Yang.  Yes, there are massive inefficiencies, but that has bred a culture that relies greatly on the group and less on the individual.  They are too safe with some things, but amazingly lax in matters that would be highly regulated back home.  For whatever reason it works for them.

Mindy and I both value our independence as individuals and Korea is decidedly NOT about the individual.  To me, I find its heavy reliance on the group and hierarchy to be a detriment to its 

progress, but its economy and incredible ingenuity prove to me otherwise.  If you want to sink into a culture that is so different than your own and to truly travel, come to Korea.

We are ready for home!  We are ready for aestheti

cally pleasing neighborhoods, well planned out cities, ease of communication, familiar faces, ease of travel, unparalleled natural beauty and individu

alism.  We truly live in a amazing part of the world and this trip has helped to 

solidify that perspective.

To our friends in Korea: You will be genuinely missed and know that you weren't just people we met in passing.  Had we grown up in the same countries and the same towns we all know that we would have evolved the exact same friendships that we currently have.  We ex

pect to see you in our town and we are excited to see you in yours.  Thanks for the laughs, the challenges, the eye opening perspectives, the conversations, and the memories (as fuzzy as some may be).

To our friends back home: We are excited to see you and get up to date on your lives.  The two of us are going to hack it out in Bellingham:  scrambling for jobs, school (Mindy's MBA at Western), and basic Hamster lifestyle.  We are flying into Seattle on May 4th and will be back to Bellingham on May 10th.  Looking forward to another amazing spring and summer.  What a time to come back!  Lets get some adventures lined up, some bonfires built, some BBQs cooking, guitars tuned, hikes mapped out, and kayak paddles penciled in.  I foresee another great season of memories.

~Scott

Ba'bs in Korea

If you could choose just one place in the world to go visit in February, where would it be?  Some may say Mexico or Thailand...but those people would be missing out on a South Korean winter.  My mom, Ba'bs (to be explained later), decided to take a chance and see Korea in all it's splendor, visiting Scott and I for just over a week.   

Seeing as though it was my first time having anyone come visit me overseas (and my mom's first trip abroad) I took my job seriously, preparing an itinerary as a guideline.  In a place I thought didn't have much to do, I soon found myself struggling to fit everything into nine days.  

The first few days of the adventure were spent getting Ba'bs acquainted with her surroundings.  My plan was to ease her into Korean culture (which can be overwhelming at times).  Maybe starting at the jim jil bang (Korean "bath house") wasn't the best idea, then.  We walked into the women's locker room to find a packed room full of Korean women of all ages, buck-naked.  We've all been in a locker room

 at one point or another (ahh, middle school PE), but this was....a little different.  Instead of merely stripping down to head in to the showers or the baths these ladies were just hanging out in their birthday suits, chatting, watching TV, and now staring at my mom and me.  We quickly got showered and headed down to the jim jil bang (clothed hot rooms), where we met Scott.  We then found a series of rooms with varying temperatures, ranging from 65 to 212 degrees (that's right, boiling), and even one filled with snow, all for relaxing and "good health".  Luckily there was no water in the hottest room...well, unless you count the sweat streaming down

 our faces.  Scott made it more than five minutes (twice) in the 212 degree room, while I was outta' there in about three.  After that we were shot, and staggered home.

Since my mom was initiated now, having survived the sauna, it was time for the advanced course in Contemporary Korean Culture:  Seoul Nightlife.  We hit up all of Scott's and my favorite spots.  With a day of exploring and shopping ourselves silly around Seoul under our belts, we headed to Hongdae for the evening.

  It's a university district full of art, food and dancing, especially on Saturday nights.  After filling our bellies with Greek Joy and cheap wine, we wandered across the street to the park to check out the college band playing.  Scott and I had seen this band, Soundbox, in the fall and loved them...and this time they were even better!  This band has it all; the usual suspects of course, with the addition of hand drummers, beat boxers, and my personal favorite: tap dancers.  Not one, not two...but six tap dancers having what could only be described as...a tap off.  It was awesome! 

Once we had our fill of tap, we went to Oi Bar to partake in some shisha (flavored tobacco).  The ambiance in this place is amazing....like nothing I've ever seen.  The

 entire place is painted white, with dim red lights and candles to set the mood.  To get to your "table" or private "cubby" you must walk through a maze of walkways lined with thin, red ropes hanging from the ceiling.  We enjoyed our shisha with a mish-mash of friends we'd met around Korea.  It was my mom's first time meeting some of the amazing friends Scott and I have made here, but not the last.... 

Scott and planned one of our monthly game nights during Ba'bs' visit.  We managed to squeeze about twelve of us into our small apartment that Sunday night.  We all got silly playing Pop 5, my favorite of the Cranium games.  Usually, we play a little Catch Phrase (a standard if you've ever played games with me!) as well, but unfortunately its time had come.  That's right, the Catch Phrase so many of you know and love bit the dust.  I think I've had that thing since high school!  Maybe if some of you would've only listened to me and not hit her so hard, she'd still be here with us today.  
 
Despite the loss of CP, game night was a success.  By now, Ba'bs had seen the beauty of Gwangju, the energy of Seoul and the spunk of our friends.  What was left?  Ahh, Korean food.  I mean real Korean food.  The kind that is set down in front of you, and you're not sure exactly what you're eating.  My mom was "fortunate" enough to partake in a school dinner with my teachers.  I have to go to these dinners all the time.  They usually involve me smiling, nodding, and occasionally throwing in one of the few Korean words I know (that always gets a giggle).  I was happy that my mom could experience something that is truly Korean and that Scott and I go through all the time.  Lucky for my mom, we had pork galbi, one of my favorites (usually we have some sort of weird seafood dish).  It was delicious, and all my teachers were really sweet to my mom.  She had a great time. 

Well, that was a glimpse into Ba'bs' trip to Korea.  There was, of course, a lot more to it.  Lots of shopping, eating, drinking and just enjoying being immersed in a different culture.  We made it to Icheon to look at and buy some amazing pottery, 

went to a norae bang (singing room) with Bruce, my Korean co-teacher and his family, checked out the local bowling alley (my mom was impressed with their lanes), and of course, made it to Dublin's, our "local" Irish Pub.  That's actually where the name Ba'bs came to life.  Thanks to Danny, Darren, their brilliant British accents and their poor memory....the name Ba'bs (aka Barb) was born.

BALI! BALI!

"BALI BALI...BALI BALI!" I heard as I scurried, half asleep and frozen onto the shuttle bound for Incheon airport. No, the driver was not shouting our tropical, Indonesian destination, but rather "HURRY HURRY" in Korean. Quite an interesting parallel; a word, whose meaning in one culture is frantic and in another it exudes serenity. Was this a subtle sign of my desperate need for a vacation away from chaotic Korea?

The answer is yes. I have never been more ready for a break in my life. Over the holidays I taught a 2 week English Camp on my own, in addition to two daily morning classes. I was going crazy, and the freezing temperatures, with no end in sight, weren't helping my situation. It was time to get away.

Before dawn, Scott and I layered up the warmest clothing we could afford to pack in our small bags. Scott's issue being actual space allowance, as he insisted on packing the smallest bag he could find to the brim, and mine being the space I was reserving for all the treats I planned to buy in Bali. The below-freezing temperature, our lack of winter clothing, and our inability to call a taxi to pick us up, left us only two options; jog to the shuttle bus stop or freeze to death. It was tough, but we opted for the 15-minute jog; the thought of the warm bus keeping me going. Well, turns out that bus wasn't quite as warm as I'd hoped. In fact, it was 'warmer' outside. The driver had apparently forgotten to warm the bus up that morning. Not the best day for us to skimp on our clothing....

All the thoughts of cold weather, and Korea quickly faded away as we stepped off the plane and got our first glimpse of beautiful Bali. That's right, even the airport was charming! After a transitional night in Kuta (a popular touristy beach town) we headed north and inland to Ubud, the cultural center of Bali. In typical 'Scott and Mindy fashion' we had not booked a place to stay. Not to worry though, we were soon whisked away to the Three Dewi's Guesthouse, named for the owner, Made's three girls (dewis). The room was sweet and simple with a balcony overlooking the family's small Hindu temple, garden and rice paddies. And, included with our $12 room was free breakfast, served on our balcony. It couldn't have been more perfect.

The next days were filled with plenty of excitement, but also with lots of rest. Our first night "on the town" we stumbled upon Ibu Rai, an open-air, thatched-roof restaurant engulfed by tropical plants. I was pleasantly surprised when my seemingly simple $3 plate turned out to be one of the more elegant and beautiful dishes I've ever had. Before our delicious cocktails arrived we were treated to miniature spring rolls for our amuse bouche. I've only had something like that at Nimbus, and for a hell of a lot more than three dollars! Needless to say, we had found a little gem. The entrees were delightful, the dessert scrumptious, and the bill cheap; only $25 for the whole spread, with plenty of cocktails I might add. We also made plans for the day through Dewa, the manager of the restaurant.

In addition to managing, Dewa also runs an ecotourism company that offers cooking, dancing and carving classes, as well as guided treks through local rice paddies. He employs youth from his community and puts a percentage of the earnings back into his local village. Dewa casually mentioned his other job, and only after we hounded him for information, did he ask if we'd like to take his cooking course. No pressure...how refreshing!

Our morning began with trip to the local market for fresh vegetables, rice and essentials for our day of cooking. The women at the market were also keen on giving us samples of the local fruit, hoping we'd buy it. Good saleswomen! After our fill of rambutan (lychee's cousin), we headed north to the village of Tampaksiring to get cookin'. The entire drive was filled rice paddies and dense jungle, interspersed with villages and local handicrafts.

Then it was time to cook. We chopped, shredded, mashed and sautéed everything from peppers to peanuts, creating a smorgasbord of Indonesian and Balinese dishes. We made curry paste from scratch and pounded chicken to a pulp for satay. After two hours of cooking we sat down and ate to our hearts content and 'till our bellies ached. And just when we thought it couldn't get any better, Dewa took us to his local Hindu temple to bathe in the holy water and wash away our evil spirits.

Now that we were purified, it was time for a more dangerous adventure, so we booked a white water rafting excursion on the roaring Telaga River. Okay, so it was more like a purr, but there were some class III rapids in there, and plenty of bamboo bridges along the way that could've clotheslined us. And for the big finish we went off an 8ft dam....crammed down into the raft....without paddles...for our safety. We luckily survived, and had a damn good time along the way!

The next day we decided to take it easy, since things had been so intense thus far. So, Scott and I both enjoyed massages. I had a masseuse and Scott a masseur. We splurged and got the $16 package that included a 1 hour 45 minute massage, a body scrub and a soak afterward in the tub....all naked. Yes, I've had a massage before, but I've always had a towel covering the vitals. Not this time. When my masseur told me to turn over onto my back, I couldn't help but giggle thinking of Scott in the next room.

Fully rested and rejuvenated from our time in Ubud, we were ready to embark on our journey to the Gili Islands off the coast of Lombok. Stay tuned for Scott's addition of our island adventure on Gili Trawangan.

One thing we didn't do in Ubud our first time through was shop. I made Scott promise that we'd make it back there for some of the greatest shopping. Unfortunately, I couldn't do as much shopping as I would have liked, due to our seemingly internationally-accepted Korean bank cards that wouldn't work...the entire trip. Actually, maybe it was a blessing in disguise!

Upon arriving back in Ubud we went straight back to the same guesthouse, and it felt like coming home. The next few days were spent recovering (Scott...he'll tell you why) and shopping (Mindy). We also went to a Balinese Hindu trance dance performance that Made, the owner of the guesthouse, and his daughters were in. There were at least 30 men, young and old, chanting and singing together while the girls danced in full costume around the candelabra in the center....it was pretty amazing and quite hypnotic.

Hours before we headed to the airport I wanted to get a quick, cheap ($4) pedicure. And....so did Scott, polish and all. I think his manicurist was actually a man...quite fitting. Lastly, we headed back to the first restaurant we went to in Bali (and my favorite) for our last meal.


What a lovely ending to the best vacation! I can't wait to go back!


~Mindy

A Typhoidian Paradise

Let me begin by first stating that I have had a hard time deciding how to start this post: nothing particularly funny happened, nothing exploded, no one died...well, I almost did.  Where to start under such "boring" circumstances?  How does one write about a vacation that was nearly sublimely perfect?  I am at a lose for words when things aren't chaotic.  I will turn on the 80s music and give it a shot though.

In spite of having to leave Ubud the next morning - at 6am and

travel for 10 hours - Mindy and I decided to go out and do a little partying that night.  We have continuously shown ill judgement when partying.  Not so much in quantity, but in timing.  Of the 16 days we spent in Indonesia we partied hard one night.  One night.  Every other night, we were in bed no later than 11:00pm.  It just so happened we were traveling the next morning.  That night we started at the local reggae bar where we listened to a band whose lead singer must have been trying to mimic Rod Stewart's raspy voice.  From there things got a little hazy.  We watched as a group of older Russian women (one in painfully short shorts) danced and contorted themselves on the dance floor.  We met a Danish actor named Victor and a Canadian importer named Ron.  Ron's second home seemed to be Ubud as he knew everyone and everything about it.  He was a wealthy businessman who had stories of smuggling cocaine up his bum in the 70s and running out of indigenous villages at midnight in South America.  We spent the

 remainder of the night at an ex-pat bar and stumbled home around 3:30 after a night of drinking the local "whiskey" called Arak and the local beer.  After 2 hours of sleep my alarm went off.  Not cool.

 

That day we caught a bus, took a rolling 4 hour flat bottomed 

ferry ride across the Indian Ocean to Lombok, hopped a bus to Bangasal and then took a local boat -into an oncoming storm- to ourfinal location: Gili Trawangan.  The Gili Islands are a group of three islands of paradise directly off the coast of Lombok.  You can walk around each in around 3 hours.  We went to the Gili's with the intent of diving, but they turned out to be so much more.  We spent our days either diving with the Blue Marlin Dive Co., surfing, sunning on the beach with books, eating incredible food, or playing Scrabble (that is my "Scrabble Assasin" face)-while eating incredible food. 

 

To give you an idea: I paid around 5 dollars for a steak of Swordfish that would have choked a Grizzly AND I got an open salad bar.

 

I even managed to get my butt off the beach and help the locals unload a boat full of cement

 bags.  It wasn't as fun as I thought, so I quit after four trips and

 went for a swim. As you may expect, our days were full of water sports.  I attempted to retry my hand as surfing and quickly realized why I quit trying 7 years ago: I simply don't have the patience.  On my paddle out I was a fuming mess.  I couldn't paddle, I kept nearly falling off and my board was too damn small.  I was complaining and was basically a big pansy.  After attempting to ride two waves and getting slammed, I quit.  I will never be Mindy's "cool surfer boyfriend".  Not only did we "surf (technically, I didn't), we SCUBA dove.  In 8 days I dove 10 times (and received an Advanced Diving Certification) and Mindy got in 7 dives (she already had her Advanced Cert....always so much cooler than me).  While diving we saw everything from turtles, sea horses, frog fish, squid, cuttle fish, octopus,  and a handful of white tip sharks (none of those are my pictures). The list of sea creatures we saw would be too long to list here.  

Having only seen one other shark in my life, they were the most incredible.  We even touched the tail of a 1 meter long juvenile.  The biggest we saw was about 1.5 to 2 meters in length - absolutely beautiful at a close distance.

 

Our nights were spent hanging at the local Irish pub, "Tir na Nog",  playing darts. Even on a remote island in Indonesia we were able to find our favorite sport, darts.  If we weren't at the Irish bar we were watching movies, smoking sheesha, partying with our dive company, or enjoying some of the delicious restaurants the island had to offer.  Yes, I said "watching movies." This is not as lame as you may think actually.  If you buy around 5 dollars of food you can rent a small thatched hut, called a beruga, that is raised off the sand and has pillows and a fan.  So there we would sit, a cold bowl of ice cream in our hands, listening to the waves roll onto the beach accompanied by the sound of screams and gunshots from our movie.  What a dichotomy.  On one random afternoon Mindy attended a beach party that apparently was a video shoot for one of Indonesia's biggest reggae bands.  Later we headed back to the beach for the after party.

 

The Gili's weren't all fun and games actually (well, they were but this was a good transition sentence).  The heat in Indonesia is quite intense as it is on the equator and therefore in much more direct sunlight.  As a result, Mindy got some heat exhaustion that I, with my medical expertise, first diagnosed as just a bad sunburn.  Oh, and I got Typhoid Fever.  Did I forgot to mention that?  Yeah, I actually contracted a serious bacterial infection.  It was about the worst experience I have had.  One moment I feel I am just tired and weak, the next I am feeling pretty hot with a decent headache (Mindy has kindly placed two cold water bottles in my arm pits), and the next I can barely walk upright, my headache is screaming, delirium, and my temperature is around 103 degrees.  

Mindy had to walk me to the island's only form of transportation so that I could go to the local clinic, which we didn't even know existed until Mindy went to search out a thermometer out of fear I had malaria.   Luckily, I didn't.  At the clinic they pumped me full of 2.5 bags of saline and glucose, antibiotics, strong pain relievers, pills for this and pills for that, and then the doctor and Mindy watched TV while I rolled around in agony.  If it wasn't for the pain it probably would have been an awesome night!  I sent Mindy home around 1am and then I proceeded to sweat and moan until about 8am.  If you haven't had Typhoid don't try it.  Not cool stuff.

 

The next morning, instead of dealing with the 10 hour trek back to Ubud for our final two days we decided to ditch our pre-purchased return boat ticket and pay the little extra for the speed boat, which cuts that travel time by 8 hours.  It was well worth it even if Mindy got a little nauseous.

 

Traveling in Indonesia was the most amazing experience.  I wish my post here could do it justice, but I am currently experiencing severe writer's block.  Regardless, I hope you could glean some idea of the time we had on Gili Trawangan.  Bali, Ubud, Lombok, and the Gili's are extremely unique.  The culture is open.  The people and weather warm.  They are less traveled.  I must say, if you ever have the opportunity to go, part of me hopes you do and part of me hopes you stay away.  Save it for me the next time I go.

Our Lives In Korea

Mindy and I compiled a 28 minute video for friends and family about our lives here in Korea. We have video starting from mid fall up until just recently. It gives you a little glimpse into what we are doing over here, what we see, and where we go. So, grab some coffee, take a seat (I assume you are already doing that), and we hope you enjoy it! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!