Seaworld Hotel Incheon Airport

... north and south Korea. We jumped on another bus and went directly to a restaurant for lunch. We had buckwheat noodle soup, some steamed yakimandu (pot stickers) and a variety of kimchees. Here is me slurping up my noodles, um um good!

Right outside the front door of the restaurant we see the kimchee production line, here is step one, the cabbage has been ...

... airport where we dragged heavy bags about three miles to Singapore Airlines drop off point. Then it was American food (veggie burgers) and drinks while we met up with Dan and his family - too soon it was time to say goodbye and face security lines.

(Funny happenstance number 1 - going through security, just as I was thinking "well at least I won't get searched with only a thin little dress on and such a charming demeanor, a well ...

... to take our temperatures and monitor our coughing and sneezing, we also on the first two days of classes all must wear breathing masks. When handed them I almost started laughing at the picture in my head of 20 students sitting in a classroom looking like we just escaped from the ICU. I am bringing my camera that day.

They also cancelled our orientation and just gave us packets. I am a little sad about this because orientation is where you meet people ...

Yesterday was a tiring day also, got up late, lots of walking around. Ended up at a shopping area in Seoul. Crazy amount of people shopping at a crazy amount of stores. Will post pictures soon.

Today was pretty awesome. Went to the DMZ and briefly stepped into official North Korean territory. Very cool feeling. Although the whole experience was somewhat surreal. Lots of rules, no ...

... seasons in Seoul. Before us at the top of the stairs, was a long table suffiently large to hold twelve people, the size of our tour group. The table was completely covered with dishes of various Korean Foods. No area of the table was unused for food storage. On the table were fish, vegetables, rice, and many other items that we had to ask about before we ate them. We would simply put amounts of food into our bowl until it was full. Then we would eat and repeat the ritual. A beer ...

... or Arab. The restaurant itself was a tiny hole in the wall with about seven tables crammed together. We walk in and immediately every eye in the place is staring at us! Evidently, this restaurant is popular hangout for Russina men......not Koreans, not Japanese, not Indian....hell, not even women! The newspaper article seemed to leave that little tidbit out! To make us even more unusual, we only speak English when we are together. Not Korean and certainly not Russian! So ...

... is a chain store and is everywhere, but I haven't seen it until today! This is the place that made the cake at one of the kindergartener's school birthday the other day. Koreans love potato cake! It is wonderful! I think mashed potatoes are in the cake batter, but there are also chunks of sweet potato in the cake. The frosting is freshly whipped cream, lightly sweetened...but soooo good. They also put a strawberry whipped cream on top to decorate the ...

... and I started applying to schools. There are many more reasons at work, both personal and professional. Q: I thought you were all into Japan. Why aren't you going to Japan? A: Right now the waitlist to go over to Japan with all the schools and programs I applied to is about 7 months. Plus, the benefits package isn't quite as good and there's a far greater risk of ending up in the far-flung provinces (raise your hand if you think I could ...

... diving in. It was fantastic. And the best part is that all of it combined was 80,000 dong, or about a dollar a piece. Finally! We have eaten from a street kitchen in Vietnam and lived to tell the tale. But now we are going our separate ways to our individual houses and lives. Already I'm impatient to see the pictures and experience the trip again. It has been absolutely amazing to get away and have all of these experiences, and it will also be great to get back.

On the 5th of February 2007, Travis, Chelsea, John Anderson, his brother Jeff, and myself departed for Phuket, Thailand. The morning of the 5th, I woke up at 7:00 AM (the earliest I have woken up in years) and got ready to head to the airport. Our flight was set to leave at 12:20 and then we were supposed to land in Seoul (Incheon) Korea at 5:00 PM (Korean time) and then from there, have a three hour layover ...