Our last day in Korea has officially arrived and with still some things to do. Last night we were able to sell some of our furniture so our bedroom is completely empty except for our suitcases and backpacks. Two of our friends came over and took some things from our giveaway pile. This morning the rest of our giveaway pile has been put out on the street where, hopefully, someone will take most of it. We have two more boxes to take to the post office, some banking to finish, make sure everything is packed well, and then by tonight we will be officially moved out of our apartment and on our way to Incheon where we will spend the night and then catch our flight to Thailand in the morning.
It is bittersweet for sure. We have made so many great friends and memories during the last two years that it is hard to leave that, but at the same time we are so excited to see what's next for us. Last night we enjoyed a fun dinner with two of our friends and former coworkers and of course it was difficult to see it end, but we really can't wait to see all of our family and friends back home in just 16 more days!!
We should have internet during our vacation these next two weeks so I will try to blog and share pictures as I can when possible. We will be in Thailand for a week and then on to Cambodia and Vietnam during the second week. We are so excited!!!
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Monday, February 24, 2014
Last Weekend in Korea
Our last weekend in Korea is officially over. It was a busy one as we each spent a lot of time with friends. Eric spent Saturday with a couple of the families he has been doing private tutoring for and Sunday with some of his coworkers. On Friday night a couple of our friends spent the night at our house so we could watch movies and spend a nice, late night together. On Saturday morning my friend and I went to a cafe I have been wanting to go to for a while called Dr. Fish. They have a couple fish tanks here with little tiny fish, officially called Garra rufa, in them. When you put your bare feet in the tanks these fish start to nibble on them (they don't have teeth) and nibble away all of the dead skin on your feet. It felt really, really weird at first, like something was crawling on my feet, but after a couple minutes it just felt like a really nice foot massage, or a fish pedicure I guess. Our feet were definitely smoother after letting the fish nibble on them for twenty minutes! Now my feet are nice and smooth for the beaches of Koh Samui :) Sadly, these "fish pedicures" are banned in the US and only available in Asia...
I spent both Saturday night and Sunday night with some of my friends having dinner and enjoying one more weekend with them. It was really hard to say goodbye so instead we just decided it will have to happen again sometime in the future!
Eric still had to work a few days this week. Wednesday is his last day so I have still been doing some packing and organizing with my days off. It seems like there is so much clutter and stuff still in our house now that most drawers and cupboards are empty, but I have to remember it's all going to be given away or thrown away in the next couple of days. We feel bad throwing away things that are still usable but have figured out a way to make sure nothing goes to waste. If we put something out in the trash area outside our building but leave it visible, almost always it will be gone the next time we look. We always see people looking at and taking things out of trash piles outside of buildings so that is a good way to not feel like we are throwing away usable things! We decided to book a hotel in Incheon for Friday night so that we are closer to the airport and not scrambling around very early Saturday morning trying to get last minute things done and still get to the airport on time. So only three nights left in our little apartment...
I spent both Saturday night and Sunday night with some of my friends having dinner and enjoying one more weekend with them. It was really hard to say goodbye so instead we just decided it will have to happen again sometime in the future!
Eric still had to work a few days this week. Wednesday is his last day so I have still been doing some packing and organizing with my days off. It seems like there is so much clutter and stuff still in our house now that most drawers and cupboards are empty, but I have to remember it's all going to be given away or thrown away in the next couple of days. We feel bad throwing away things that are still usable but have figured out a way to make sure nothing goes to waste. If we put something out in the trash area outside our building but leave it visible, almost always it will be gone the next time we look. We always see people looking at and taking things out of trash piles outside of buildings so that is a good way to not feel like we are throwing away usable things! We decided to book a hotel in Incheon for Friday night so that we are closer to the airport and not scrambling around very early Saturday morning trying to get last minute things done and still get to the airport on time. So only three nights left in our little apartment...
Dr. Fish was really fun!!
Last dalkgalbi dinner with friends... until next time!!
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Second to Last Weekend
This was our second to last weekend so it was very full of seeing groups of different people as we try to spend as much time as possible with everyone. Eric met a former student Saturday afternoon while I met a group of my friends. Saturday evening we both met up with a group of former coworkers from last year. We wanted to go to a meat buffet so we did, but, unfortunately, both the meat and the side dishes really weren't that great. But it was still a good time eating together and then spending the rest of the night at someone's house hanging out together. On Sunday we went to lunch with one of my former kindergarten students and his family which was a really nice time, but also really hard to say goodbye.
Today I started my vacation doing some sorting between suitcases, give away bags, and a box to be shipped. It still feels like there is so much stuff to get rid of but most of the drawers and cupboards in our apartment are getting quite empty. It's just getting rid of the big furniture items that we will need to do in these last couple weeks.
As we begin to say goodbye to everyone we have become friends with over the last two years, we realize just how difficult that can be. It feels so much more final than saying goodbye to our family and friends when we left home two years ago. We always knew we would go back, but this is more difficult as there's no telling when we will see any of these friends again. But at the same time, knowing all these people from so many different places around the world could possibly create some other exciting traveling opportunities in the future!
Today I started my vacation doing some sorting between suitcases, give away bags, and a box to be shipped. It still feels like there is so much stuff to get rid of but most of the drawers and cupboards in our apartment are getting quite empty. It's just getting rid of the big furniture items that we will need to do in these last couple weeks.
As we begin to say goodbye to everyone we have become friends with over the last two years, we realize just how difficult that can be. It feels so much more final than saying goodbye to our family and friends when we left home two years ago. We always knew we would go back, but this is more difficult as there's no telling when we will see any of these friends again. But at the same time, knowing all these people from so many different places around the world could possibly create some other exciting traveling opportunities in the future!
Friday, February 14, 2014
Last Day of Work
Yesterday was unofficially my last day of work in Korea. Technically my contract goes until the last day of this month but yesterday was the last day I had to go to work and now I get to enjoy my two weeks of vacation time! In some ways I was excited to see this year of work come to an end. I spent SO many hours desk-warming during this past year (and especially this last week) and sometimes I thought I just might go crazy. I'm excited to see the desk-warming come to an end and I'm excited about the possibilities and hopefully the chance to have a "real" teaching job in the near future. (I'm also excited that I don't have to go to any "work" for over a month now!!) At the same time, leaving the school for the last time made me realize even more that this chapter really is coming to an end. We will spend these next two weeks continuing to make memories with good friends in the place we have come to love, and at the same time know that a new, exciting adventure is waiting for us very soon!
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Lunar New Year Weekend
The three day Lunar New Year holiday started on Thursday this week so we had a nice four day weekend! The best part about the Lunar New Year in Seoul is that almost everyone leaves because it's a very important traditional holiday in Korea. Everyone travels to their hometown in the countryside so Seoul was literally almost like a ghost town for the last few days. We spent Thursday with two of our friends hanging out at our house and then going to Itaewon, the popular foreigner area of Seoul, for dinner. Just about everything is closed during the holiday but we thought Itaewon would be a good choice for dinner since foreigners all had the day off and probably spent it there so things would be open. Well it was true that most restaurants were open, but there weren't many people there. We had dinner and then, since it wasn't busy, stayed at the restaurant for another couple of hours playing Apples to Apples (the Korean waiters and waitresses were all quite intrigued). As we were walking the streets later that night it just felt rather eerie being out with only a handful of other people on streets that are normally so packed it's hard to walk, especially at that time of night. But we enjoyed having the subway car to ourselves on the way home.
On Friday Eric went to the PC bang to play computer games and I went to Gangnam with two friends again. We saw Frozen, which was simply wonderful and a nice surprise that you can find an animated movie not dubbed over in Korean. Of course we chose seats that were right smack in the middle of the theater and had a few times where we were the only ones laughing loudly and hysterically... Gangnam is another area that I really hate to go to very often because of how insanely busy it always is, anytime of day. However, on Friday it was great!! After the movie we went shopping and had most of the stores all to ourselves. We also went to a dog cafe. Cat cafes are quite popular here, I went to one a while back, but dog cafes are a bit harder to find. We ordered our drinks and then just sat at a table and the little dogs would often come over and try to jump in our laps (they were too little though so we had to help them). I was hoping they would have some bigger dogs to play with, but they were just little ones. Most of them were quite cute and fluffy though. Of course they were all wearing clothes, one was even wearing a hanbok (traditional Korean clothes) for the holiday!
Saturday evening I had dinner with a group of friends at a Vietnamese restaurant. Saturday also marked the one month mark for us. We are officially down to less than one month, four weeks, that we have left in Korea. Being able to spend three days with friends was the best way to spend the long weekend, especially since our weekends are becoming more limited all the time. Tomorrow I go back to my regular schedule at work for two weeks before it's my last day. Eric has three weeks and a couple days left at his many jobs. January seems to have evaporated, I can only guess February will do the same.
On Friday Eric went to the PC bang to play computer games and I went to Gangnam with two friends again. We saw Frozen, which was simply wonderful and a nice surprise that you can find an animated movie not dubbed over in Korean. Of course we chose seats that were right smack in the middle of the theater and had a few times where we were the only ones laughing loudly and hysterically... Gangnam is another area that I really hate to go to very often because of how insanely busy it always is, anytime of day. However, on Friday it was great!! After the movie we went shopping and had most of the stores all to ourselves. We also went to a dog cafe. Cat cafes are quite popular here, I went to one a while back, but dog cafes are a bit harder to find. We ordered our drinks and then just sat at a table and the little dogs would often come over and try to jump in our laps (they were too little though so we had to help them). I was hoping they would have some bigger dogs to play with, but they were just little ones. Most of them were quite cute and fluffy though. Of course they were all wearing clothes, one was even wearing a hanbok (traditional Korean clothes) for the holiday!
Saturday evening I had dinner with a group of friends at a Vietnamese restaurant. Saturday also marked the one month mark for us. We are officially down to less than one month, four weeks, that we have left in Korea. Being able to spend three days with friends was the best way to spend the long weekend, especially since our weekends are becoming more limited all the time. Tomorrow I go back to my regular schedule at work for two weeks before it's my last day. Eric has three weeks and a couple days left at his many jobs. January seems to have evaporated, I can only guess February will do the same.
Dog Cafe
A Vietnamese feast
This is what the subway looked like all weekend... It was weird!
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