Wandering around Manila

I was really excited to finally land in Manila, capital of the Philippines on Saturday. My flight was around 3 1/2 hours from Seoul and I moved as fast as I could to get off the plane since it was already evening. 

Getting to my hostel proved to be a bit of a challenge. Although I found the taxi stand, getting a taxi was impossible. There was a long wait to get the nice metered taxis and the line wasn't moving. After 2 hours in line (talking to some lovely fellow teachers from Korea), I ended up having a really nice ride to the hostel. The taxi driver was a real pleasure to talk to and was telling me all about Manila. 

My hostel, Our Awesome Place, is a budget hostel in Makati. The area is really nice and the hostels really clean. The second I put my stuff down I befriended Niko, a really nice guy from Slovenia, and we went to find dinner. Since it was raining, we ended up at a restaurant really close to the hostel. We ate sisig, a traditional Philippino dish, and ended up chatting with the managers. One was Philippino and the other had grown up in Jamaica and, wouldn't you know, Maryland. We all ended up going out for drinks. 

Grabbing drinks with new friends my first night in Manila

The next day Niko and I went to check out the Intramuros, the historical center and the oldest district in Manila. It has buildings and churches from the 1600s. While the buildings were pretty, we got bored really quickly. I found the side streets with people, roosters, dogs and dirt to be more interesting. 

Walking around Intramuros

Intramuros: flag and catholicism? Thought this represented The Philippines well.

From there we walked to Luneta Park. It's a historical park with a famous monument of Philippino nationalist Jośe Rizal. It was pretty and that was were we had our first encounter with locals asking to take pictures with us. 

Jeepney- never got a chance to ride in one. Such a regret. Next time.

After wandering around the area for a bit, we took a taxi to Quezon City with the purpose of meeting Benj, someone I met on Couchsurfing. Benj picked us up and drove us to Wawa Dam, a gravity dam in the city of Rizal. While Benj was disappointed we couldn't swim in the dam (the rain had ruined the swimming area the day before), I had a nice time getting out of the city.

Myself, Niko and Benj driving to Wawa Dam.

Wawa dam.

Village before Wawa Dam. Everyone was singing karaoke. 

After Wawa dam, Benj drove us to Greenhills Bargain Center in San Juan. It's a huge shopping center with over 2,000 stores. We wandered around, got lost, and bartered at the many stalls inside (I bought sunglasses and broke them the next day...whoops). After a delicious dinner, I went back to the hostel and went to bed. 

Greenhills shopping- insane and crowded. Really fun to look around.

Today was a bit of a travel throw-away day. I spent the morning wandering around the richest part of Manila, Makati. It was mind blowing to see how rich, clean and stylish everything was compared to the rest of the city. From there I went to the airport...which is where I'm currently sitting waiting for my flight to Palawan. I had heard horror stories about flight delays in the Philippines and now I get to experience it. My 1:50pm flight has been delayed to 5:00pm because...Philippines. I still have to take a van or bus 6-7hrs from Puerto Princesa to El Nido so I knew today would be long but now it's just extra long. 

Waiting in the airpot with EVERYONE

Still waiting. That girl behind me doesn't look happy. No one was happy. 

But tomorrow I'm on a beach! 

Peace! 

Boryeong Mud Festival 2015: Getting muddy with my buddies

This past weekend I went to the Boryeong Mud Festival (보령머드축제) on Daecheon Beach with a large group of friends.

 

Here's a short version of what we did: we took part in a water gun fight, mud slides, mud wrestling, mud games on inflatables, watched a parade and just enjoy the beneficial properties of Boryeong mud. While we were able to roll in the mud during the day, there was also a fireworks display and concert at night. Overall, it was really fun.

 

If you want a more details about my trip, I'll have more written under all the pictures. If not, enjoy the pictures!

After wrestling in the mud

 

Throwing water on each other at the water gun fight before watching a parade

Enjoying the super crowded beach and cold water.

With all the girls on the beach

Watching traditional fishing on the beach

Dancing? I think she was doing some kind of traditional blessings for the fishing ladies. It was beautiful but unclear to me.

 

With my friends in our pension rooms.

Night concert that we didn't really watch.

Sunday morning was really empty and perfect for trying out everything.

Playing around in the mud with my friends.

Falling over and looking fine with all my friends

 

On the west coast, about 2ish hours from Gwangju

More detailed weekend:

 

We used a travel group run by Pedro, a nice Korean man in Gwangju. Truthfully, it wasn't the best when it came to communication but it was fine. We caught a bus at 9am and we were at the first mud activity zone by a little after 12. We were running late because we had stopped at Emart (like Walmart) to buy food and drinks for the day. We were supposed to have time to take part in all sorts of games in the mud but, since we were late, we didn't have much time. My friends and I still had a lot of fun rolling around and getting super dirty. This mud zone was maybe 20 minutes from the actual mud festival on the beach. It was a special zone because it was free and catered to foreigners.

 

From the mud zone, we went to a water fight in town. It was actually pretty lame but, because of awesome friends, it ended up being pretty fun. While it was fun to dump water bottles over peoples heads, it felt like I was ruining the environment one bottle at a time. We watched part of a parade but at that point we all wanted to get to the big mud festival.

 

We were disappointed to find out that we didn't have bracelets (tickets for the mud zone) until the following day. Not only did we not have tickets, the mud zone was also closing soon. We made it to our hostel, dropped our stuff, and decided to wander around the mud zone anyway. Even without a ticket it was amazing to people watch. It was packed with people and everyone was covered in mud. Although we couldn't play on the inflatables, we all went to the beach and went swimming. Cold water and friends = fun times.

 

That night we went out for samgyeopsal (삼겹살- Korean BBQ) and watched the fireworks on the beach. There was a large concert happening before the fireworks but it was too crowded (plus I had no idea who the people were).

 

That night we ran around on the beach until 4am. We woke up at the bright and early 9am to go to the mud zone. Genius decision. It was practically empty and we were able to immediately try all the inflatables that we wanted. By the time we left, it was crowded and there were massive lines. Yay! We showered, ate a delicious lunch and then hung around until it was time to head back to Gwangju.

 

Fantastic weekend all around. I'll really miss the friends I've made in Korea.

 

Peace!

Universiade 2015: Sports and Closing Ceremony

As I mentioned in my previous post, this year the city of Gwangju had the opportunity to host Universiade. It was absolutely amazing to have an additional 20,000 foreigners running around and made the last 12 days really exciting. There were concerts happening everyday and the World Youth Festival was held all week downtown.

Walking downtown I came upon a parade of cosplayers and strange floats.

Without further ado, here's how enjoyed Universiade~


July 5th- Basketball

A few friends and I decided that we wanted to see the USA compete in a basketball game and we weren't disappointed. We ended up going to one of the preliminary games where we watched the Kansas Jayhawks represent as Team USA. They played against Brazil and both teams seemed to be playing fairly evenly. In the end, Team USA pulled ahead and won 81-72. Although it was two foreign teams, the gym was packed with Koreans cheering. All of the games I went to had a really great crowd atmosphere. Additionally, Gwangju made sure that all teams felt supported. Supposedly, volunteers were asked to go to games that weren't expecting large crowds and cheer.

Both teams warming up before the game.

At the basketball game with friends.
 

July 6th- Baseball

Right after work I met David and Megan for a showdown. Or at least, it was supposed to be a showdown. We had bought tickets to see the Korea vs. Japan baseball game and we were expecting a good game. Alas, it was not so. Japan, with some amazing pitchers and just overall great playing, crushed Korea 8-0. They went on to defeat Team USA the next day with the same score. I think they would have won gold but we had terrible weather and the gold medal match was cancelled. The game was still really fun to watch because of friends, fried chicken, beer and nice weather. It was also fun to see so many little league teams (in uniform) there to watch the game.

Kind of hazy but good weather for a baseball game. Can you see the two youth teams in uniforms in front of us?

David, Megan and I enjoying beer, chicken and baseball (you can't go to a baseball game in Korea without those two things)

July 7th- Volleyball

I decided to make myself feel slightly uncomfortable and went to the USA vs Korea men's volleyball game with Megan. Volleyball is really popular with elementary school teachers in Korea and we play it every other Wednesday at school. I already find it exciting to watch my coteachers play and I was looking forward to watching semi-professionals show off their moves. The game was really fun to watch. All of Team USA was taller than the Korean team but Team Korea just played prettier (in my opinion). The first two games were played fairly evenly (with one game going into the 30s) but Team USA ended up winning 3-2. Although I felt uncomfortable at first, I really liked cheering at this game. I cheered for both Korea and the USA and a nice couple gave us flags to wave around.
After the game we ended up meeting a nice couple who had a daughter on the USA Archery team and invited them to join us for dinner. We went out for some Korean BBQ and they seemed to really enjoy the food. It was nice to introduce them to something different and talk about cultural differences.


USA vs. Korea

July 14th- Closing Ceremony

THIS WAS AWESOME. My friend Tessa and I had been freaking out the day of because we hadn't bought tickets and they had closed online purchases. Little did we know that we had nothing to worry about. I booked it to the Gwangju World Cup Stadium right after school and immediately picked up tickets. The World Cup Stadium was used to host matches during the 2002 FIFA world cup and is currently home to the FC Gwangju soccer team. It's humongous. After being handed a fan (for the heat), a pack of vitamins (for Mers) and a brochure, I met up with Tessa and another teacher named Brittney. After eating a quick dinner, we entered the stadium. The funny thing is, we never actually sat in our seats. We ended up leaning against the railing below our section so we would have a better view. That's right- we stood at the railing for the entire 3 hours and I have no regrets (ok, maybe my shoe choice. Really wish I hadn't been in sandals). Since we bought the cheapest seats, we were positioned right behind the stage. So while we could see everything, we were pretty much staring at backs the entire time. Atmosphere made up for that little hitch.

You can see the flame in the background. Staff standing by Gwangju Universiade mascot outside the stadium

Our view from behind the stage (after the athletes have entered)

Lights shows galore

Dancers with fire

Brittney, Tessa and I hamming it up with our section behind us

The theme of Universiade is Light Up Tomorrow (Gwangju is known as the city of lights) and they had an impressive light show. The ceremony started with a band called the Dick Punks (I laughed, I cried, I laughed again) and then the athletes entered. Unlike the opening ceremony (which I heard was very formal), the closing ceremony was just a ton of fun. Athletes were dancing and crowded around the main stage. After a bunch of speeches by the mayor, Universiade president, and other important people, it was time for the show.

A picture of the Dick Punks because I couldn't resist.

There were a bunch of cultural performances by both Korea and the next city to host the Universiade, Taipei. There were traditional Korean dancers and singers, more singers and dancers who performed a famous Korean song, fire dancing, fireworks and the extinguishing of the flame.

The musical acts truly began when DJ KOO started playing music and getting the athletes and audience excited. This is also when my cell phone died so I have no videos or pictures. Next, a rap duo named Jinusean performed two songs before handing over the mic to my favorite act of the night, an older Korean rock star named Kim Kyung-ho. He was absolutely amazing. He sang a Queen Medley and a few other songs. He was so good that I found the following two acts to be kind of boring. Two famous Kpop groups, EXID and Shinee, performed a few of their hit songs. I had just seen them the previous week at the a Kpop concert and this time it just wasn't very exciting. It was also disappointing that they were so clearly lip-singing- especially because Kim Kyung-ho was such a fantastic singer.

Jinusean rapping and being tiny, blurry people.

Overall, Universiade was really great and I'm happy it happened while I was in Gwangju. Yet, this event once again reminded me how bad iphones are of taking pictures. Might invest in a real camera one of these days....

Peace!

Universiade Festival Eve Kpop Concert (Video of me on TV)

Universiade officially started in Gwangju on Friday, July 3rd and it's been the best thing to happen in Gwangju since I've moved here.

What's Universiade?

Over 20,000 university athletes and officials from 170 countries have descended on Gwangju and the surrounding Jeollanam-do, Jeollabuk-do and Chungcheongbuk-do province to take part in 12 days of competition.

It's the best.

I first heard that there was going to be a big concert for Universiade on Wednesday....and the concert was the following day. The Universiade Festival Eve Concert sounded really amazing. Not only was the concert free, but there were going to be popular Kpop idols performing. I immediately wanted to go- but there were no more tickets! It turned out that people had been able to pick up tickets the previous weekend (I had been frolicking with monks at a temple at the time). Megan (a HUGE kpop fan) had gotten her hands on a ticket and heard that there was a chance for people to be let in after 9pm (concert started at 8:30). That was good enough for me.

 

People had been lining up for the concert since early afternoon but, because of work, I didn't get to the venue until 5:30. We ended up in a really great place in line thanks to another foreigner who had been queuing since 3. While we were waiting, a staff member came around and started giving out stickers for the standing area (closest area to the stage). Everyone rushed to get a sticker.

Oh, what's that? You need a ticket for a sticker? Great...don't have that.

While I was accepting my ticketless, stickerless fate, the most magical thing happened. The girls in front of us overheard us talking about not having a ticket and happened to have an extra one. Thus, within 5 minutes, I had a ticket, a sticker and we were in a new line for the standing area.

So excited to have a ticket and sticker!!!

With some other foreigners at the concert.

The concert was held at Chonnam University and the atmosphere was amazing. They had set up the stage on the soccer field and there was space for over 7000 people. When you entered the venue you were greeted with a handful of disinfectant and packets of vitamins (thanks Mers!). The standing area wasn't very crowded and we found ourselves right next to the stage.

Waiting in line for the standing area. Relatively short compared to the seating area line.

Megan and I showing off how close to the stage we are

The stage right behind us. We were on the edge and were super close to this part of the stage.

The concert was a blur of lights, fun pop music and pretty idols. I knew most of the acts and recognized almost all of the songs. We saw Exid, Bts, Mina (from Girl's Day), Shinee, Romantic Punch, and a few other really famous (but older) singers. Each performer sang one or two songs and then they quickly moved on. My videos don't upload while to Blogger but here's how the rest of the nation saw the concert (BTS is performing).

Exid performing Up, Down. I need a better camera for movement shots...so sad

Shinee showing off their boyband moves

Romantic Punch lead vocalist being a super cool rock star. Also the wonderful camera man who was all up in our grill

My favorite performers were Romantic Punch and Shinee. Romantic Punch is a rock group that I had never heard of before the concert and the lead vocalist was really charismatic. I was having so much fun watching him dance that I ended up on T.V. I can't bring myself to watch it but I'm (supposedly) shown a few times during the performance. Video is below. As expected of Korea, the concert ended at exactly 10pm (Korean punctuality is amazing). It was a really fun concert and I'm happy I went.

It's been a bit embarrassing to keep having students come up to me and tell me they saw me on T.V. A friend of a friend also saw me on T.V. and ended up taking a picture of it. Additionally, I went to a baseball game the other night (I'll write more about Universiade sports another time) and I saw a student with his mom. His mom told me that they saw me on T.V. and took pictures for me. The best response was from a foreigner that I had never met. She walked up to me at a bar and told me that she recognized me from T.V. and that I had looked really good/represented the foreigner community in Gwangju well. I thought I had just looked like a sweaty, happy, mess so her words really made me happy.

My friend David's coworker took this picture.

Peace!

Travel and Life Update: Where in the world am I going next?

Since starting this blog I've had the opportunity to travel quite a bit.

I started my journey in South America. I saw the beautiful Iguazu Falls and drank Mate in Argentina; celebrated Carnival in Rio de Janeiro and explored the largest wetlands in the world in Brazil; survived biking the Death Road, saw Guns and Roses in concert for my 23rd birthday, and stood in awe of Salar de Uyuni in Boliva; and, last but not least, relaxed on beaches and hiked to the absolutely amazing Machu Picchu in Peru.

Taken before my first flight to South America in Feb. 2014

Backpacker life: Salar de Uyuni Boliva 2014

It was an absolutely amazing trip. While on said trip, I decided to move to South Korea for a year to teach English. After a few wonderful months recharging at home, I moved to South Korea. Now I've been here for almost a year and I have zero regrets about moving.

But what next?



The map of everything: All my past traveling and my future plans....I just realized I forgot the Phillipines and I'm too lazy to make a new map.

With my summer vacation coming up this month, I'm heading to the Philippines. Unfortunately, my holiday will be a terribly short 8 days but I'm going to try to get the most out of my time. I'm starting in Manila (doing a day trip or 2) and then making my way to Palawan. It will be my first solo adventure and I'm SUPER EXCITED.

Then what?

My contract ends August 25th and I'll hang out in Korea until Sept. 1st. From Sept. 1st until Sept. 14th I'll be traveling in Japan with my brother Ben. I'm really excited to finally see Japan after so many years of watching anime and reading manga. My nerdy heart can't wait to explore Harajuku and (possibly) see a Studio Ghibli exhibit somewhere.

After Japan I'm making my way to Taiwan. Not sure what I'll be doing there just yet but still really excited. If anyone reading this has any advice, feel free to comment!

From Taiwan, I'll fly to Hong Kong. I probably wont spend very much time there but I'm still very excited to check out such a densely populated and culturally diverse area.

After Hong Kong, I'll head to China. This is where I'm spending the most time. I'll probably spend over a month exploring and eating. I'm hopefully meeting a friend so after weeks of (probably) traveling alone, it will be a nice change.

This is where I get a little stuck. I'm thinking of visiting Myanmar after China but I'm still working out the details. I still haven't done too much research about land border crossings and things to do in the country. I really want to go though.

FINALLY, I'll head home at the beginning of December.
 Peace!



Mihwangsa Temple Stay

I'm back!

It's been months since I last blogged. The idea of blogging just started to make me feel anxious so I thought it was best to take a break.

But hey, let's try this again.

I just have so much traveling coming up over the next few months that I thought it was time to start writing again.

Anyway ~

This past weekend I was supposed to go on a tour of the Demilitarized Zone and Joint Security Area but, woefully, it was closed because of the Mers outbreak. So, in a last minute bid to check something else off my Korea Bucket List, we signed up for a Temple Stay.



Megan, Chia and I decided to go to Mihwangsa Temple (미황사) in Haenam County, a little over 2 hours away from Gwangju at the southernmost tip of the Korean peninsula. Supposedly there are simpler ways to get there, but we ended up taking a bus to Haenam, catching a local bus and then catching a taxi. We arrived at the temple Saturday afternoon and were immediately welcomed by Jajae, our wonderful guide and interpreter. She presented us with grey Buddhist temple clothes, showed us to our room, and then we had some free time to explore before we had our introduction to the temple.

Jajae began by explaining the temple history. The temple's foundation story is really interesting; it all begins with a ship from India. Supposedly, once upon a time (1600ish years ago), Koreans noticed a beautiful stone ship off the coast of Korea. They were intrigued and tried to approach the boat but it would recede. Venerable Uijo started chanting and praying and the boat finally docked.  They discovered that no one was in the boat but found a large box made of gold and a large black rock. Inside the box was a Buddha statue and sutras. When the rock was broken open, a large black cow emerged.
That night the monk dreamt of a golden man who told him the boat had come from India and that they should build a wherever the cow came to rest. The cow climb the mountain and, halfway up, mood loudly and collapsed. Thus, the Main Buddha Hall (Daewoongbojeon) was built in that spot. In a way, the building was built to look like a ship and the cornerstones of the building are decorated with the shapes of turtles and craps.

It was so beautiful with the fog in the mountains. So much nature!

Absolutely beautiful.

Posing in front of the main temple in our temple clothes. We're holding English translations of the chants.

After learning about the temple we were taught the proper way to enter/leave temples, bow, and chant. We then had more free time to wander or rest before dinner. I took the time to find as many hidden Buddhas as I could (see pictures). After dinner the sound of a large bell called us to Yebul, evening chanting. Megan, Chia and I had the opportunity to ring the large bell (which was much harder than it looked).

Learning how to properly meditate.

Where we ate all of our meals.

All the hidden tiny Buddhas! So cute.

 

 

 

When I wasn't thinking too hard about messing up the bowing, I found evening prayer to be relaxing and strangely meditative. When we were finished, we followed the head monk outside to circle the courtyard 3 times in silence before making our way to Tea Meditation. A monk made us delicious tea and then we mostly sat in silence enjoying it. The tea room had a wall of books and I was able to find an English book about Korean temple motifs to read before passing out at the incredibly late time of 9:30.

We loved how traditional everything was but he still ladled the water into a Brita Filter and used an electric kettle.

The light sound of a Moktak (a wooden percussion instrument) woke us up at a bright and early 4am for morning chanting. Chanting was extra relaxing as I was still half asleep and more comfortable with bowing. However, once I started getting comfortable, we began our 20 minutes of meditation and all was lost. The previous day we learned how to properly meditate and my legs were in pain/asleep after maybe 5 minutes. I focused in vain on my breathing but I think I spent 10 minutes just watching the monks meditating.

After breakfast we were supposed to have Oolyeok, or working meditation, but that never came to fruition. Instead we wandered back to the tea room and it was one of the best decisions we could have made. We ended up having coffee and tea with a monk and 2 temple employees for over an hour. The monk read all of our palms and just chatted about life. He had been at the temple for 20 years- and this is a tiny temple! There are only 5-7 monks living there full time. He told me my palms said that I would be wealthy but I would end up with bad quality men. So...at least I'll have money? He also gave us wish bracelets; when they fall off naturally your wish is supposed to come true. I actually received one in Thailand and wore it for almost a year before it fell off. Can't wait to see how dirty this one gets.

Reading Megan's palm. Wealthy but also bad quality men in her life.

Reading a temple employees hand. She wasn't going to wealthy but she was fine with that.

After getting over-caffeinated, we decided to hike up the beautiful Dalmasan mountain. It took us around 45 minutes to reach the top. Jajae had given us a pear and other snacks to eat at the top and we took in the view. When we returned from to the temple it was time for lunch and then the temple stay technically ended. Yet, Jajae gave us the opportunity to make bracelets. Whenever we put a bead on the string we were supposed to think of happy thoughts or wishes.

View from the top of the mountain.

Jajae gave us a ride to a nearby town and we caught a bus straight to Gwangju. Overall, it was a really relaxing weekend. The temple was absolutely beautiful and I wish it was closer- I would definitely go back if I could!

Peace!