Cheers to 2014

Let's catch up....

Fall Festival - Andong Volunteer Association (AVA) held a festival for the children of Gyeongan Sinyuk Orphanage. The children played a number of games, bobbed for apples, had their face painted and even made their own little painted creations. Before eating pizza they participated in a candy hunt, which was actually very entertaining to watch all of the kids run to find as many pieces of candy as possible. I usually volunteer at the face painting booth, but this year was responsible for the bobbing for apples booth. I'm so happy I was able to see these kids try so hard to bite the apples! Literally. Made. My. Day.

Thanksgiving - I was a little homesick, but it was good.

Random adventures with friends - Spent the weekend in Seoul watching the musical Mamma Mia, eating delicious food at Braai Republic and of course spending the night out with wonderful friends!

Christmas - A very nice Christmas with great food & company!

New Years - In flight on my way to Hong Kong. As you can imagine...uneventful.

Favorite Kpop song of 2013:

2014 - I can't believe another year has passed. 2014 is here and I have a feeling this year will be a great one. Not only have I finally paid off AND sold my money guzzling waste of time piece of crap car, but I'm so close to almost paying off my largest loan. In three months time I will be free! Not from all loans. Let's be realistic, I went to school for a total of five years and also studied abroad; I have racked up some debt. But I will be free from the loan that has given me the most anxiety, stress, sleepless nights and has been the dark cloud following me for years showering me with a hail size rainstorm. A good start to a new year if you ask me!

It's winter vacation and I don't have class again until February 3rd. With a short vacation to keep me occupied for a while, I'm back to desk warming. Today I'm on day 6 out of 12 and I'm so bored! I have a few projects to keep my mind busy, but it's not looking promising.

Hong Kong - I spent five days in Hong Kong and it was a great city to visit. Outside of Korea, I've only traveled to one other Asian country. So it was very refreshing to see how different HK was from Korea and even the Philippines. A very diverse full of energy city. Plus everyone was super friendly!

Victoria's Peak - We first arrived ready to take the tram up to Victoria's Peak only to find it was an hour and a half wait. Not wanting to waste time, we quickly ate lunch and decided to take a taxi. As we climbed higher it was a fast ten minute drive with an amazing view of the city. And it only cost HK$ 50.8 which was split four ways making it cheaper than the HK $28/person tram ride up. However, since the wait to take the tram back down to the city was only 15-20 minutes we decided to do this. The tram ride is worth a 15-20 minute wait, but definitely NOT an hour wait. It's only a ten minute ride (maybe) and the view wasn't as great as the view we had while in the taxi. So if you're traveling in a group and the wait for the tram is too long think about taking a taxi. Definitely worth it! Also, we didn't realize this while there, but there are different walking paths. So if you have time, you may want to explore.

10,000 Buddhas Monastery - I really enjoyed this monastery and suggest going if you have time. It is free, but the top section closes at 5pm which we were completely unaware of. I do suggest giving yourself enough time to visit all parts of the monastery. After looking at pictures online I really wish we had gone earlier.

Story: As we're climbing the stairs taking in the view a random boy carrying a few plastic bags walks by. As he passes one of his bags break and fireworks fall out spilling onto the stairs. We obviously go and help, but as we're trying to make small talk he says nothing and only looks down. We assume since we're foreigners we are overwhelming him and making him nervous. Once we're finished he grabs his bags and continues to quickly walk down the stairs. As we giggle and turn to continue up an elderly woman is now standing in front of us speaking in what I assume is Cantonese. We clearly don't understand what she's saying. Maybe because of this she becomes frustrated and literally starts yelling and pointing her finger at Ashley. Not knowing what she's saying or why she's yelling at us we give each other the look. Ashely and I have lived in Asia for some time and have experienced being yelled out by elders on numerous occasions. For what? I never know, but if the look is given all parties involve automatically know it's time to walk away. Before we can even confirm the look and start to walk away we hear a little boy screaming in perfect English, "SHE'S CRAZY!!!!!" We turn to see the young boy we helped now standing at the very bottom waving his hand in the air as if to say, "it's not worth it, just keep walking".  And so we do. 

Harbor Show, Market & Fortune Tellers

The Big Buddha and Tai O Fishing Village - I never would have thought to go and explore Tai O village, but I'm definitely glad we did. It was nice to see the more traditional older Hong Kong. We bought a package deal that included a one way cable car ride to The Big Buddha, a bus ride to Tai O, a boat ride around the fishing village and a bus ride back. All was HK$ 175. We realized if we bought all of the tickets separately it would have been around HK$ 150. But it was nice to already have all tickets. 

Macau - We were in Hong Kong for five full days so we decided to spend one day in Macau. If you have time I do highly suggest going here and spending a day. It's super easy to travel to and worth the visit. With the more British influence in Hong Kong and a Portuguese influence in Macau it's interesting to see the contrast between the two special administrative regions of China. Also, Macau's Portuguese egg tarts were amazing!! As for taking the ferry from HK to Macau make sure you know what terminal you wish to arrive at. There are two. One goes to the city and the other to the rural areas of Macau. As for tickets, they shouldn't cost more than HK$ 150. Each company will sell them for different prices, but look around and make sure you're buying them for a fair price. On your way back tickets increase after 5:30pm. We didn't realize this and had to pay HK$ 175. 

This wasn't a life changing trip, but I'm fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel and Hong Kong/Macau was a nice break from Korea. Plus they had a ton of foreign/a variety of food. Normally I would rather only eat local food, but since I've been without for so long it was nice to eat more familiar foods while also eating food native to Hong Kong.

The only downfall of this trip.....they didn't stamp my passport.