Butterfly Festival take 2

-by Micah-

Yeah, so Steph has been monopolizing the epic blogs – maybe I’ve just not been in the mood to hack out a lengthy monologue of our many adventures (too beat from said adventures...and being dead sick for the past 3+ weeks).

But she kindly handed off the responsibility of recounting our “Butterfly Festival,” at least the second part of the weekend.

Not sure she explained the general premises of this weekend. There is a travel company that caters to foreigners – they have organized outings every weekend throughout the year. It’s one of those, “plunk the money down up-front and we’ll take care of everything.” Nice, if you want to just hang-up your map and compass and go along for the ride – we’ve been doing our fair share of compass work as we navigate among Seoul’s 12 million inhabitants and thought we deserved a break.

So yeah, Sat. was a surprisingly tiring day. They gave us no warning as to just how involved the “hike” would be – and I gotta tell ya, I was more than a few times glad to still have some high altitude capacity in the lungs, as we were pulling ourselves up mud slicked rocks, hand over hand, grasping for any exposed root or rock or branch that was secure enough to provide some anchor. Steph’s comment on inclines being 45 degrees was a bit of an exaggeration, though she remains adamant, but it still paints the picture.

The hike and questionable dinner behind us, we slept on “traditional Korean heated-floors.” Fun fun, but we slept like babies nonetheless.

Off to the namesake of the weekend, we took the 2.5hr. bus-haul to the Festival. Now, when we Westerners think of a festival, we know it to be a special, unique celebration of something grand. Think Oktoberfest, The Fat Tire Festival, The Parade of Lights, Tour de Fat, micro-brew bluegrass gatherings in Copper Mtn. These are weekends to remember, annual gatherings of good things with good people. I’d drive the 6 hrs. to Fruita and even fly the Atlantic to participate in some of these memorable, time-honored traditions; needless to say, our expectations were a bit too high.

We arrived on sight to find a very permanent (i.e. this happens year ‘round and is no special event), third-rate amusement park facility – minus the amusement rides.

Maybe think of a run-down state fare in Oklahoma whose rusted rides have long since shut down, leaving only the sun-faded, colorful tents with the random blue-ribbon squash and runner-up razorback hog still on display.

“What does one do here?” we kept asking as we were eventually led to a rather small museum, bordering a rather small greenhouse. The museum held a disturbingly large collection of dead butterflies, moths, spiders, beetles, and various other insects – all pinned to boards, done in much the same fashion as the science project of that geeky, aspiring entomologist kid with the coke-bottle glasses you made fun of in the 6th grade.

After our fill of dead bugs we were corralled towards the greenhouse that turned out to be the home of all these butterflies we’d been hearing so much about. There they were, all two species types – many dead underfoot, odd.

Corralled again, this time into a group of “foreigners,” all given plastic containers, all containing the same white butterflies. A group of Asian paparazzi appeared from seemingly nowhere – over a dozen in number (and I’m not exaggerating). “1, 2, 3!” we freed them – right back into the greenhouse. Cameras blinding us with a sea of flashes – everyone cheers, so weird. “Hey everyone! Come watch the foreigners release butterflies to freedom!”

Well again, by “freedom” they meant “back into the greenhouse” and by “release” they meant “to their deaths.” Half the butterflies immediately fell to the ground, unable to fly, and promptly died.

“These butterflies died of natural causes!”

Butterfly Festival take 1

By Stephanie


Ok. It’s been a long time comin’, but finally going to write about the Butterfly “Festival”. Before I get to the actually description of the “Festival” I will describe the Saturday. We met in Seoul for a 4 hour bus trip to the South. The first day consisted of a hike and a “natural” hot springs. Our expectations were pretty far from what actually happened. The first part of the hike was on a flat, wide, dirt path that wound its way into the mountains. There were a couple nice waterfalls and a mountain temple along the way to break up the monotony. It was pleasant, but not what we’d call “hiking.” We climbed up a metal staircase to a random suspension bridge, random because it led to nowhere. We found this out the hard way. We walked across and milled around for ten minutes until they signaled for us to come back. Evidently looking up at it from the path down below was not sufficient we must walk across it to fully experience the grandeur. It was pretty cool, but completely random. Then we came across an interesting “garden” of sorts with statues depicting mankind’s favorite past time. Think about it and get back to me.

Then we climbed concrete stairs up to a dammed reservoir and from there is where the real “hiking” began. Evidently there is no in-between with Koreans. It’s either a leisurely walk on a completely flat path or a 45 degree incline with metal steps built into the mountain side or a rope to pull yourself up with, because they don’t believe in switchbacks The funny part was, every time we’d ask the guide “how much further?” (and this coming out “How (breath) much (breath) further (breath)?”) He’d say “Five minutes.” The end of the trail was just five minutes away for about two hours. But I suppose this was a fat burning preparation for the nude hot springs to come.

We finally finished our scramble and came across the “natural” hot springs. We thought we’d endeavored all this way for nice small pools created by river run off, but we found instead a resort nestled into the mountains. It wasn’t a bad thing, just false advertising. Luckily men and women are separated, but still they didn’t allow swimsuits so that was an interesting experience. You’re already on display being a foreigner, but now imagine you are naked and you’ll get a glimpse of how we felt. It was an experience, a been there, done that, no need to revisit experience.

After our foray into the nudist colony, we were taken to the “Best Galbi Restaurant in Korea.” At least, this was what our guide claimed. I’ve had really good Galbi before and not from “renowned” restaurants and this didn’t hold a candle to those. It was quite funny in a ridiculous way solely because it reinforced our idea that our guide had pathology for either lying or raising expectations with the explicit hope that the actual thing would not measure up.

Giro d'Italia - Stage 12

For those of you in the know, next week's stage twelve will be a TT through the Cinque Terre area. This is big - if you don't watch, you won't know what you're missing. (click the jersey)

Jeju: An early anniversary

By: Stephanie

The Hawaii of Korea, or so it is deemed by many Koreans. I’m not quite sure as to the validity of that statement because the only time I have been to Hawaii was when I was 5. But I can say that it is similar geographically. It is an island off the Southern tip of Korea just like Hawaii is in relation to the US. Ok, maybe that’s not even a correlation because Hawaii is more West than South…Oh well. It has palm trees like Hawaii, but I believe they are not native to Jeju. I heard they were imported….It is a beautiful island with rocky coasts. We didn’t get to see that much of it because we were only there for two full days. The beaches weren’t much to speak of…Ok it’s not even close to Hawaii, but it still has its charms.

We got in at night and took a bus to our hotel. The hotel is amazing. If you haven’t checked out our flickr site I’d advise you to do so. The elevators were sweet and fast!! But maybe that’s because the elevators in our apartment building move at snail speed…

Our room was bigger than our apartment and the bathroom was fully tiled in granite with two showers and a heated toilet seat. Pretty sweet if you ask me. The hotel is posh. It was pricey, but then again everywhere else was fully booked and, hey, we were celebrating our anniversary gosh darnit! (two months early…..but that’s our prerogative)

The first day we went down to the beach and tooled around and just hung out and played cards at the Hotel. Every night but one we went to the “Western style” restaurant, Peninsula, and it was phenomenal! The second night we were there, we tried the Holland style restaurant that was in the windmill. Yeah……The atmosphere was cool, but when you order cheese fondue and get American craft cheese melted in a bowl it just doesn’t quite meet the lowest of expectations. It was abysmal so we went over to the Peninsula to nurse our inflicted stomachs.

The second day we rented scooters and rode around the Southern part of the island. It was a blast! You can see some of our pictures. I know…I am really cool. They had this random fake ship on the coast and there were random life-size figurines littering the grass around the ship as well.. It looked like Disney sneezed and its entrails landed half way around the world.

It was a great four-day weekend of relaxing and performing death-defying stunts on our tiny little scooters. And the plane trip was only one hour!

More Flickr

Okay friends! You asked and we have finally delivered.

We now have a "Pro" account with Flicker, therefore we have unlimited uploads (no more limits per calender month).

That's right! More of our shining faces on your monitor! More and more...you may even tire of us after a while...

Join us here

A glimpse into middle school teaching agonies

By Stephanie

Have you ever had one of those days when you just wanted to yank your hair out of your head and run around screaming like a mad man uninhibited by the staring eyes of those around you?

Have you ever felt like crying for all the pent up frustration?

Have you ever found the tears welling up like a water balloon full to bursting and fear if you move even an inch it will explode and gush forth without abatement?

Then you have a pretty good idea how I felt in my classes today. What sucks about it too is that I can’t take a break. I am the teacher. I can’t ask to go to the bathroom or turn my back on them nor turn my face away without their noticing. You are in a fish bowl for the 45 minutes you hold them captive.

I can understand having one unruly student. That would be simple to blot out, but what if you have 35 unruly students, 1 attentive student and 4 indifferent students? What do you do then? Do you just give up? Do you yell and scream? Do you sit down and cry like you know you want to?

No. You can’t do any of those things. You must press on! If it’s one thing I’ve learned from Korean’s it’s their immortal motto: “Fighting!” It means that even if you have 10 seconds left on the clock and the score is 40-0 and you happen to be the proud owner of next to -1 you bite, kick, and scream until that fatal bell rings!

So, I didn’t technically bite, kick and scream, but I didn’t sit down and give them up for lost. Yes the classes were utterly dejecting. And no, I didn’t know make up 40 points in the last 10 seconds, but I know that out of the 40 students there is at least one that actually wants to learn, that likes language as much as I do. Those are the ones that I remember when I ask, “What the heck am I doing here? If they don’t want to learn, if they don’t respect me enough to pay the least bit of attention, why even bother?” When I ask this (and believe me it happens often) I think of that one student or those two students in every class that actually look at me when I’m speaking. I think of the ones that ask for clarification because they actually want to improve. I think about the smiles that dawn on their faces when they finally grasp a difficult concept without the use of an interpreter.

No, teaching is not all sunshine and roses. Sometimes the classes will not listen no matter what I do. I will not resort to hitting or yelling as some teachers do so my options are somewhat limited. I appeal to their hearts and often find them merciless. But I know if I continue to be thankful, God can do a great work through me if I keep my tear brimmed eyes on Him. Even in those students that set themselves against me.

I cling to those times when my hard work is rewarded by my few star pupils. These times are few, but they’re worth it.

Things I know about you

1. You're reading this post.
2. Now you're saying/thinking that's an obvious fact.
4. You didn't notice that I skipped #3.
5. You're checking it now.
6. You're smiling.
7. You're still reading this post.
8. You know all you have read is true.
10. You didn't notice that I skipped #9.
11. You're checking it now.
12. You didn't notice there are only 10 facts.

Jeju Island - we're back

Well hello friends and family! This is just a short post telling you all that we are back from a 4day 3night trip to Jeju Island. (and very excited to report that we came home to a care-package full of good American cereal, peanut-butter, and Nutella, compliments of our CA Trulsson Aunt, Uncle and Cousin...good eats!)

We decided to make it an early celebration of our 1st Anniversary (July is already booked solid). In doing so we splurged a bit, staying at the Lotte Hotel Jeju, enjoying some of their fine dining, the beach, and rented a couple scooters to better see the island.

We are literally just back, and I am nursing a rough cold (hope it's not swine flu :-), so you can pray on that account - bit tired and worn from travel (although we did just narrowly miss having to take the 9 hour rout home, via ferry and train...so we got that going for us).

Off to relax, with Friends and Steph, before the week starts.