A little bit of writing, for once

I actually just wanted to post a blog entry that my Canadian friend, Amanda wrote. It's absolutely hysterical and so true for a foreign teacher's experience here in Korea. Some things aren't quite the same in my experience, but that's because I have my own office in a separate building from the other teachers.

http://kimchiosaurus.blogspot.kr/2012/07/korea-you-really-grind-my-gears.html

You should really give it a read, if you're interested. She is truly a kindred spirit, and I think that's purely because we share a very similar sense of humor.

Amanda, Stephanie, and I spend a lot of weekends (maybe too many, haha!) together. Shenanigans abound, but not in any crazy form. We are teachers here after all, and constantly run into our own students (at least I do).

These pictures are from this past weekend in Gyeongju, where Amanda lives. We visited two cafes, and drank too much coffee. The first picture is our favorite cafe in Gyeongju. It sits right next to these old tombs (which are actually big, grass-covered hills). Awesome coffe, and they have puzzles! 

The second cafe was a Cat Cafe. These seem to be a craze here in Korea. I have found them in every large-ish city. You pay $7, you get a "free" drink, and get to play with cats all afternoon. I had a therapeutic session here after my parents told me they had to put Pumpkin (my cat back home) down.

 Has a warning sign ever looked so cute??

 Before we started up Jirisan mountain: The steepest mountain in Korea! The peak stands at 1915km. Little did we know it was going to nearly kill us all!

 Stephanie and ...Mitch! (I almost forgot his name, sorry!) mapping out the trail.

 There was this little clearing with this perfect ray of sunlight pouring down. I yell at Amanda: "It's a fairy glen! Go frolic in it! I need to take a picture!" (Yeah, I am an elementary school kid at heart) And she does. That's a good friend there, haha! Oh, Jill Campbell, you need to meet this chick.

 This is the entrance to the highest Buddhist temple in Korea. It was 3.4km up the mountain, but the trail was so steep that it took us nearly 4 hours to climb it. This is where Amanda and I decided that the peak was just not happening for us. It was another 2.5km nearly straight up, and another 1.5km after that to the place where we would sleep.

Amanda and I so happy with our decision to escape back down the mountain. Taken a few minutes before I nearly stepped on a snake.