Summer 2015

• Outer banks 
• California 
• Arizona for the American School Counselor Association
• White Ford Bronco concert 
• Back to Korea early to do Mudfest 
• Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
• Mongolia 

Mongolia: Land of Blue Skies and Nomadic Hospitality

I just got back from Mongolia this this morning and although I'm tired, exhausted and going back to work tomorrow, I HAVE to blog so I can remember everything!

Mongolia is a place that I didn't think about going to until the past few years. After seeing friends' pictures and hearing their stories, I knew I had to go. After a lot of research and knowing that we had a week and half to spare during summer vacation; my travel buddy/ awesome friend and I decided that now was the time!

 Mongolia is a land-locked country in east central Asia. It borders China and Russia. The capital is Ulanbaataar and is home to close to 50% of the entire country's population making it the most sparsely populated country in the world. Most of the population has developed a nomadic lifestyle.

We landed in Ulan Baator (UB) on a Sunday evening and for about 15,000MNT (~USD7.50) headed toward Meg's Guesthouse and Tours in the center of the city. We went out to dinner with some of the travelers staying at the hostel (I always love hearing people's travel stories). The next couple of days were spent eating horse meat, being super tourists and more meat eating.

Chinggis Khan: founder of the Mongolian empire

 Meg, the hostel owner, helped us organize a tour through her company. It was a 7 day tour spanning 1700 kilometers (1056 miles) on extremely bumpy roads. We slept at ger camps and in real actual gers with nomadic families! We ate goat meat and drank the local Vodka. We went to the bathroom out in nature. We ate a lot of yogurt. We went 5 days without showers. Our hiking shoes got muddy. We drank goat vodka. We road on double-humped camels. We bought cool souvenirs. We hiked sand dunes of the GOBI DESERT.  The trip definitely exceeded my expectations and if you haven't added Mongolia to your Bucket List then do so now and GO. We've decided we want go back and see more of the country, the next time with husbands, though:)

Greetings from the Gobi Desert (hiking up sand is WAY harder than it looks)

Selfie with a baby camel.

Our ride

My humps, my humps, my humps!

Gers

January to June 2015

Another wrap-up:

• Surviving another winter
• Heather moved to Korea! She lived 3 hours away in Gunsan and is tutoring English. So cool to have her close!
• Hard Rock Café adventures
• Skiing 
• Ice-fishing
• Meg and Dave are having a girl!
• 4am morning hike to see snow flowers and freezing
• Spring breaking in Laos and Vietnam
• Be our guest: Leslie and Luther came to visit during Leslie's spring break!
• Pillow fight flash mob! 
• Mom visits for 3 weeks!
• Rail-biking X 2
• Busan
• End of the year adventures

Welcome to Korea, Heather!

Flashmob pillow fight!

Mom is back in Korea for her second visit!

Girls ski trip

Rail biking 

Right before summer break

Hard Rock Seoul

Ice fishing

Last day of school and waving bye to the kiddos!

Spring break in Laos!

For spring break 2015 Jina, Kristen and I headed to Laos. We had an overnight layover in Vietnam on Friday night and then Saturday morning headed to Ventiene where we walked around the capital, had some food, showered and got ready for our overnight sleeper bus to Luang Prabang.
The bus ride was about 10 hours. We made it to Luang Prabang bright and early and went to our cute hotel. We spent the next few days exploring and eating. Then we headed to Vang Vieng where we went tubing, dancing and watched a lot of Friends episodes.
On the way back to Seoul, we had a long layover again in Vietnam (Hanoi) but we planned this one. We got our arrival visas and headed to the city center where we ate a lot of pho and street food.

Sleeper bus

More sleeper bus

Luang Prabang hotel

relaxing

Egg coffee in Vietnam

and of course outside seating

Leslie and Luther in Korea!

Leslie and Luther: be our guests, be out guests! Leslie is also in the education field which means school breaks!!! I greeted them at the airport (although they had been waiting a while) after I landed from spring break and we hit the ground running!
We took the subway home and then headed out for lots of meat and some flavored soju!
The week included lots of eating, shopping at Myeongdong, going to markets, they went to the DMZ, hiking and lots of pictures!

Honduras trip 2014

My birthday, Christmas and a little second reception for Nyd and Jodfrey meant a week in Honduras from December 17-25.

August-December 2014

Another school year started with lots of changes: a new head of school, a new principal and lots of new colleagues.

Here'a a review:

• Exploring with friends
• Meat festival out in the middle of nowhere
• Carribean Bay over Chuseok break
• Busan weekend adventure
• Hand-gliding (assisted by a huge crane)
• Planning for my sister's wedding
• Counting up 'til my 30th birthday 
• The wedding of the century!
• Thanksgiving break in Chiang Mai and going to Chiang Rai to ride ostriches
• Being surprised by my sis and brother-in-law!!!
• The Best.Month.Ever

Mom dropping me off at Dulles for Korea year 4

Hello Land of the Morning Calm!

The newest mall/plaza

After dinner drinks

Prepping for the new year

Back to school essentials

Love Korea!

Bukhansan hike

My discipleship girlies

My 3 months early 30th part where we watched 13 going on 30 and dressed 80s

Busan for the weekend

Assisted by a crane handgliding

Their engagement pictures!

Drum class

Halloween chingus

Beautiful

Friendsgiving

Jason Mraz live in Seoul

Thanksgiving break in Chiang Rai

Surprise visitors!!!!

playing school

Chuseok break

sooo surprised

Birthday party at Uncle Tom's in Hongdae

30th birthday party (another one) with a view