Korea

Hello everyone,

Jolene and I have been here a little over a week and enjoying ourselves greatly. The first few days were a bit hectic as we were trying to adjust to jet lag, observing and teaching classes, and moving from a motel to our apartment. Our apartment does have two bedrooms but it is very small. Jolene and I bet on whether it is bigger or smaller than our last apartment. I said it was bigger. Jolene won. With a grand total of 277 sq. ft. our new apartment is about half the size of our one in Dana Point.

We live in the neighborhood of Poong-Am in the City of Gwangju and are about five minutes walk from the two schools we teach at. Jolene's schedule has her teaching 4-7 year olds for five hours in the morning and 1st and 3rd graders in the afternoon. My schedule is a bit different as I teach two 6 year old classes in the morning and have a full schedule in the afternoon with kids from 1st grade to 8th grade. Our classes have a wide range of English levels. At 5:10 p.m. I teach four kids the basics of english including Hello, my-name-is, and listen-to-the-teacher-because-I-don't-speak-any-Korean. At 8:00 p.m. our class discusses the greed of king Midus and whether the Greek god Dionyseus was cruel or just.

The food here has been great. Jolene and I have both found favorites in the Korean cuisine. Jolene likes the Kimchi soup and the flavored milk (banana, stawberry and coffee), while I like the Korean BBQ beef wrapped in lettuce leafs with sardines, pickled onions and a red-pepper, garlic sauce. We have made some friends here who have been escorting to various places in the city and helping find the authentic Korean food places. I must say that Jolene and I both agree that the best food we have tasted here has been the Sushi. It is far superior at nearly half the price compared to American resturants.

Our classes are on summer break right now and our friends have gone so we will be trying to figure out what we are going to do with our time. We want to travel a bit but it is fairly expensive at this time of year and there is still plenty of things we want to see here in Gwangju. We will update you all next week when we return and hopefully we should have a host of pictures to accompany this boring text. Thank you all again for your support and interest in our lives and experiences.

Cheers,

-David and Jolene

Palm Springs (1 year)

Hey! We made it!

I know that one year doesn't seem like that long (actually its gone by really fast), but hey we gotta celebrate something right. So our something was a little vacation to Palm Springs. Although the weather was a bit warm we had a blast lying out by the pool, catching a couple of flicks, spending a day a Knott's Soak City, and of course enjoying the fine dining in downtown Palm Springs. I even got Jolene to try out a bit of golfing and despite what the picture might indicate (look close) she did very well. Thanks Grandma for letting us use the condo and if this is any indication of how anniversary celebrations are like, I look forward to many many more.

Joshua Tree

Here are some pictures from our trip to Joshua Tree in April. Josh and Michelle Fox joined us on this desert adventure which included an almost sleepless night trying to find an empty camping spot. At 12:30 AM we found an isolated campground near Joshua Tree lake (I didn't know they had lakes in the desert...). Anyway I humored myself by trying to take pictures of all the desert flowers that were in bloom. Cheers to our romp in the rock filled wilderness.

Whales Parade

March 1st, 2008:

Dear Diary,

I think I'm going crazy. We saw a barbie pink hummer today that was going down the street playing "I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world... Life in plastic, its fantastic." What the heck is up with that? Anyway, I found the Nacho Libre Mask at one of the booths...Now if only I could find the strechy pants to go along with it...hmm. Gotta love the wife...(oh sorry you didn't see it...it was the "are you serious" look). Was a good day overall.

Trip to the Snow

These are some photos of our trip. I am not going to write a story because I have been recently informed by my wife that “No one really reads the words, they just look at the pictures.” So I have decided to curtail my journalistic tendencies and limit my words to a bare minimum. I was once told that the sign of a good writer is being able to tell a story in the least amount of words possible. So here goes:

Christmas money blessing, winter storming dressing. All our friends must stay, but we go to Mammoth anyway. Arrive at Stovesand lodge, greeted by unexpected barrage. With our re-united friends, mischief hot-tub mission then begins. 6 degree snow field in the middle of the night surprised drunk, raging, naked hippies… what a sight. Slip into the warm hot-tub, gaze at endless stars above. Stay up late, wake up late, we’re late to the best skiing day of the year. Pass Mammoth mountain, ride the frozen chair at June to untracked corduroy slops and shed a tear. Frozen carrots and peach tea, non-stop skiing and fresh tracks all day. Sleep hard, wake up sore and realize muscle make you pay. Ski from top to bottom, best fun on the day, we think were dreaming. Ski same run again and now our muscles are screaming. Ski till four, just can’t ski anymore. Journey home must begin. So quickly Christmas, please come again.

Yosemite Valley

The thrill of a spontaneous adventure is really the uncertainty of the situation. These uncertain situations require an amount of adrenaline and quick-thinking in order to make the trip a success. Jolene and I love being spontaneous for this very reason. Hence, while we always wanted to go to Yosemite but never had the time, a last minute trip seemed the perfect escape to our ‘ordinary’ lives here in Dana Point. And as it turned out, it was the best idea we have had in a long time.
We arrived in the valley late Friday night, exhausted from the 7 hour drive and crashed on the air mattress. We awoke to a beautiful, but cold, morning on the valley floor. After breakfast Jo’s and I drove to “Four Mile Trailhead” and commenced on trek up to Glacier Point.
There are certain words that I reserve for only some of God’s creations. This one definitely deserved the word Epic. Climbing from the valley floor to the ridge really allowed us to admire the majestic valley as it unfolded below and around us. While the hike was definitely difficult (50+ switchbacks), its unveiling effect was spectacular. The view from the top promised to be amazing. And just as we were cresting the ridge, we see a parking lot full of cars.
“You can drive up here?!?!????” said Jolene.
It kinda killed the victorious feeling of hiking to the top of a mountain only to realize that it’s crowed with fat tourists but still the view was great. Our sore muscles thanked us when we got back to the bottom after the 9 mile round trip hike. We cooked dinner at the campsite and roasted marshmallows for s’mores before we headed to bed. The spontaneity of the trip made it a lot of fun and we couldn’t ask for a better pair of days. On the way back, Jolene and I were thinking “next time we drive this far we’re going to go skiing.”

Tequila and Wannabe

Jolene and I were invited to a murder mystery party for my brother back in October. The theme of the party was 20’s gangster. It was just before Halloween so there were plenty of stores that had stuff we could use but we went up to the Dufour’s just before and picked up a handful of items for make-do costumes. Jolene really got into it with the headband, opera gloves, a flapper dress and cheesy southern accent that went with her character ‘Donna Wannabe”. I was Capo Tequila decked out in a suit and gangster hat and while there was only one murder during the night it was pretty fun just being there. Here are some pictures.