I come from a land down under...
Where the women glow and men plunder...

This is my Australia trip posting. I apologize for only posting when I've been somewhere or done something, but I've just been lazy and haven't been writing at all, something I'm quite ashamed of. It's not that I'm that busy that I can't journal or write about anything, but it's just that I don't. No other excuse than that I don't feel like it or don't want to invest anything. Either way, shame on me. But I digress.

This is my trip to Australia. I had off almost the entire month of August and I went to Sydney to see family and Adelaide to see a good friend. After my Korean friends sent me off in style (a la Outback Steakhouse) I traveled to Sydney where I met up with my mom's brother Uncle Ken and his family. I spent a few days in Sydney before heading with the family on holiday to Nelson Bay and then I flew to Adelaide for a week to see Billie, a really cool friend who I used to teach with here in Korea. I came back to Sydney for the last weekend, then back to Korea. These are my pictures.

Of course, we have to start out with a few pics of the Sydney Opera house. Here's a pic of Uncle Ken and Aunt Barnetta, who graciously put up with me and my Americanisms for a few weeks.

More Opera house and Sydney pics.

I also got to hang out with some cousins who I rarely ever see. Here's me with Leanna and Stephanie.

And here's Heidi and her husband Steven and daughter Samara.

And the family shot

One thing that Korea sadly lacks is the abundance of unique and native animals. Other than the really small poodles and miniaturized dogs that the women dress up, paint up and carry around in their bags, you rarely see many animals here in Korea. So Australia was a welcomed change to that. This is the Animal portion of the post. Please observe a moment of silence for the fallen Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, then read the rest of this portion of the post in such accent.

These are either kangaroos or wallabies. Who knows? I can't keep them straight and I sure can't believe what the Aussies tell me. I was told, on numerous occasions, of the constant danger of the drop bear, a koala-like creature with huge fangs and sharp claws that will drop down from the trees and scratch you up, and the hoopsnake, a poisonous snake that does not slither, but bites his tail and rolls like a wheel. Yeah, look them up. They're all lies.

This is my favorite picture. The kangaroo was really into the shoot. He found his inner tiger.

Here's the other animals...

Wombat

Tazmanian Devil

And of course, the koala... not to be confused with the drop bear.

We spent a quiet and comfortable week in Nelson Bay just relaxing and watching the Olympics. This is my first Olympics abroad and I highly recommend doing so. Seeing another country in all its pride cheering on its competitors was a lot of fun, though unfortunately not without its America-bashing comments. I was rooting for the Aussies Stephanie Rice, Libby Trickett, Grant Hackett and Eamon Sullivan while gloating over the "Redeem Team" and Michael Phelps. But the Aussies are fiercely proud of their Olympians and I saw that in the airport as several crowded around the TVs to watch another gold being won. Good times.

Stephanie and I tried to go on a dolphin cruise and see some dolphins in the wild, but we only really saw one or two from far off. The splash of a dolphin was the best I could capture.

This was the most I could see of a dolphin.

From Nelson Bay, I headed to Adelaide, a small Bohemian-style city on the southern coast that was a complete chill place. I hung out with Billie. This is her.

Adelaide was a blast. Despite it being freezing, the food was excellent and there was more than enough to do to keep us occupied. One of the days, we went wine tasting in the vineyards.

We also went beach hopping. I'll try to wrap this up as I'm sure you all have lives to get to and don't have all the time to lounge around looking at blogs. But I promised me mum that I'd put up some pictures. So the next group are just some cool beach shots I took. See with your eyes.

And the coolest part of the whole trip was when we were at this cove and we saw three whales swimming lazily around beyond the waves. There were several whale watchers grouped around the hills with us just watching silently, enjoying the creation. I couldn't really get too many good shots, but here's a few.

Good times.

Wow, it's been awhile. Yeah, I have no excuse, I'm just downright lazy. My apologies.

But it is time for another installment of Miah's Korea Adventures, so let's get right down to it.

First of all, it's been a weird past few months. I kind of had a falling out with one of my fellow teachers here at Dongsan High School. I get along really well with all of the others, but there's just one that has seemed to have had it in for me for a while now. I really think she just hates all Americans, because I can't pinpoint what I did to make her so mad. She's only 25 and it's her second year teaching. She's an English teacher as well and she was appointed to be the one to help me and do the interpreting for the meetings. But something broke between the two of us and she would get angry at me and not talk to me for almost a week straight before I would try to talk to her about it and apologize. (I have no idea what I was apologizing for, I just wanted to fix it so I could find out what was happening in the meetings.) Yet I would hear about her spreading rumors to students and other teachers about me. Well, a few weeks ago, she came to me and just went off, leading with "Who do you think you are?" It was a rough conversation that I have to say I couldn't keep my cool very well and ended up telling her "I know you hate me. I know what you say to other teachers and other students. I don't know why you hate me, but I have nothing to say to you because you wouldn't believe anything I said and you're just looking for a reason to go off on me..." Yeah, words were said and we basically haven't said much to each other since. The good thing is that I was told by my boss that they would do what they could to fix the situation and that they don't want to lose me, so it's been bearable as long as I'm not around her.

So that's been the little bit of stress I've had recently. I also went to a week long foreign teacher's conference in Yongin (about an hour or two away from Ansan) and it was a complete waste of my time as well as a horrid look into some of the people that are allowed to come here to teach. There were some shady characters and that's just being honest.

But I've been needing a nice vacation from it all and I finally got a chance this past weekend. This post shall be dubbed... "Mudfest II"

Last year, I went to the Mud Festival in Boryeoung and it was a lot of fun. Good times, good people and good mud. This year, Jeremy, Michelle and I drove down in my car late Friday night and threw down a tent in the camping area. Unfortunately, the tent we bought had screen windows only and no canvas covering or rain cover. So we knew if it would rain, we'd get soaked, but it wasn't too bad the first night.

For a little background info, the Boryeoung Mud Festival is just a giant week and a half party on the beach where they import this really expensive skin cleansing mud and everyone just covers themselves and goes to town. It's basically like Spring Break with Mud. Lots of foreigners and Koreans cramped onto a very muddy beach... good times. Here's the crew I came with.

This is Jeremy. He's from Vancouver and he and I spent a lot of time together. He's been in Korea for about six years, so he's an old pro. But it's his first time at the Mudfest, so he's due. I don't know why I haven't put more pictures of him on here before. He's like my best friend here.

And this is Michelle with Jeremy. She's another Canadian and she's pretty cool. Good people. This is them all mudded up and ready to go.

This is what the beach looked like. Packed with foreigners.

They had a decent foreign band on the stage playing a lot of cover songs.

Again, it really seems a lot like one of those Florida Spring Breaks, except that everyone's covered with mud and there's a ton of Koreans around.

Here's Michelle and I.

And another shot of Jeremy and I.

Oh, and there were these guys walking around in horse masks handing out these advertisements. I don't think he knew we were taking this picture.

And for those from Bethel, here's Derrick and Lavon Null getting into the spirit of Mud festival. They just got here over two weeks ago and they're feeling the love in Korea. It's great having some familiar faces here in Korea.

And here's the rest of the group we met up with. Chris, Me, Robbie, Lavon and Jeremy.

Here's me with Robbie and Caitlin. Again, Canadians. Again, good people.

Another shot of Jeremy and I.

Here's Maria and I. She's from Minnesota and she's pretty cool too. We met up with her and some others and watched the fireworks on the beach. I love this picture because my hair just looks huge. Seriously, I don't think I'm gonna cut it.

But here's where the story starts to take a turn. We had our fun on the beach and went back to sleep. I crashed pretty hard and Jeremy went off for a bit on his own. Around three in the morning, I awake to the screams of other foreigners. I hear them yell "What's going on?? This is supposed to be a waterproof tent." It kind of hits me right there that it's raining outside. It's raining really really hard. And there's standing water in our tent. Everything is soaked. I look down and I see all the water just running in from the top where there was no rain cover and streaming through the screens where there were no canvas covers and at that time, Jeremy comes running over and we haul everything to the car and try to drive into town to find a hotel. But as we get there, there's no room anywhere, so we have to find a sauna/jimjilbang where we can just catch a little bit of sleep.

Needless to say, it was a rough ending to what was a great weekend. I'm still trying to catch up on sleep and I don't think I'll feel dry for at least a few more days. But it was a great weekend and a great chance to get away from Ansan. So that's what's going on with me. Hopefully in August, I'll be in Australia. That's the plan anyway.

Yes I am still alive, and that's partly because I didn't buy the motorcycle.

I was looking at a few different ones, but one day, while taking a taxi to meet some friends, I saw a mangled scooter lying on the pavement with a chalk line around it. That was kind of it for me with the motorcycle idea. But pastor Nick went with me and found a pretty nice 96 Kia Seppia for about the same price as the motorcycle. And as is with me, I didn't think, I just bought. And it's pretty awesome.

Korea looks completely different when you have wheels. I've been out to the ocean on a few road trips with friends and have been able to explore all kinds of things I couldn't have found via subway or bus. There's even a little area near the factories where all the Vietnamese, Chinese, Phillipino, Thai, Middle Easterners and many others live and eat. There's tons of restaurants from Chinese to Nepalese to Uzbekistanese foods. The only kicker is that you shouldn't be there at night as it's probably the most dangerous part of Korea. (No joke, two years ago, someone was caught with body parts in a suitcase there. It's kind of well known for it). We kind of figured it out when we found ourselves there after dark and had a lot of angry or menacing stares and whatnot. But still a good time.

So that's what's going on with me. I'm loving the school I'm working for now and am getting along pretty well with everyone there. I've got some reallly close friends and have been out a lot lately. The only downer lately has been that I've been a little sick. Ever since being back in Korea, I've seemed to have lost my appetite completely and as a result am suffering from malnutrition. I had to go to the hospital last Thursday and have a bunch of tests, but nothing was conclusive. So I'm just trying to eat more and take it a little bit easier. Other than that, things are going well, and I'll update when I have a story.

And today is Buddha's Birthday, so make sure you celebrate it right.

Just to throw an update out there, I'm back in Korea and doing pretty well. I'm working at Dongsan High School, which is one of the top high schools in all of Korea, and it's definitely a great gig. Last year, at the private academy, I was working around 35 classes a week. Now I'm working 16 a week. I also have more vacation time, more money and the kids are pretty great. All in all, it's going really well so far.

I am thinking of buying a motorcycle though. I'm getting tired of taking taxis everywhere I want to go and when I was looking at scooters, I saw this beauty...

It's now all I can think about. My problem is, I probably don't need it. And if I were in Indiana, it would be okay because the roads aren't too packed and most drivers are sensible. That's just not the case here in Korea. Drivers zip in and out of traffic, red lights are suggestions and many occasions, I've seem drivers on a six lane road make a left turn from the far right lane. So riding this guy around town might be a tad dangerous. But I've always wanted a motorcycle and it'd save on transportation and I'd be able to travel around the city more.

I can't decide if I should or not. It's a really good price, but still more than I need to spend. Let's hear some thoughts. Someone make up my mind for me, because I just can't.

Should I?