It's Been a Long Time Since I Rock N' Rolled....

It slightly saddens me that I haven't written a travel post on this blog in well over two years. When I came home from living abroad in England, I realized I had very little money saved and a HUGE student debt waiting for me. Working to pay that off and combined with the fact that it has taken me until this WEEK to get a supply teaching job in Toronto, left very little time or money to travel.

I was very lucky to continue working with my Westcoast Connection family over the past two years to provide me with a bit of travel time as well as work experience. On top of my Californian adventure (the last blog post here), I had the awesome opportunity to work as a trip leader for teenage community service trips in Costa Rica (2013) and Alaska/Pacific Northwest/Hawaii (2014).  I was also able to secure enough cash during my rotating job schedules to afford short getaways to Boston and Austin to visit friends of mine who were completing graduate studies in the United States.

 However, I haven't done a proper backpacking trip / adventure into the unknown in a long while. My glorious red backpack has been sitting in my attic so long that I'm afraid its going to go on its own adventure (a la "The Brave Little Toaster" styles) from sheer boredom of being unused for so long! Lucky for me - thank the Buddha, sun, stars and whatever deity you want - I am finally going on a much anticipated new adventure... this time, to South East Asia!

In November, I will be heading to SE Asia for a month. Not a long time for travelling around there (most people I know who have backpacked there have taken like 3 - 6 months to do so) but just the right amount of time for me. I was able to book myself off of my supply teaching gig (the BIGGEST benefit of working temporary jobs!) and I was able to find friends who are travelling there at the same time!

I will be travelling with Simon, Karen & Amy for most of the trip. Simon & Amy were friends from high school (Amy since grade four) and Karen is Simon's better half (who I've known for quite some time too). Starting November 5th, I will be flying to Hong Kong to visit and crash with James and Krakers (two buddies from teacher's college). I then fly to Cambodia to meet up with the others and begin my trek through Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. The city wise itinerary will be Siem Reap - Phnom Penh - Ho Chi Minh City - Hoi An - Hanoi - Luang Prabang - Huay Xai. 

I cannot begin to describe how much I have missed travelling, but I will try to paint a picture. There are so many stories, histories, wonders and cultures in the world to experience. I think that's why I loved majoring in History in undergrad - exposing myself to a different world than I was used to (albeit in a time sense, more than a location sense). When I saw places like Auschwitz, Versailles, or Churchills War Rooms, it really made all that history I studied even more impactful. 

Funny thing is, I never used to like travelling this much! My family roadtripped and camped all the time but solo travelingn was not my idea of fun. I got homesick at camp and sleepovers all the time. When I was in university, I had such bad anxiety about sleeping in unknown places that I used to get panic attacks when I travelled to different ONTARIO universities for fencing tournaments.

It was only when I went to teacher's college in a city far away from my hometown, completely on my own, that I realized that it was really easy to make new friends and have a new life in a different locale. I was forced to be independent in a way I never had before and realized I was a much stronger person than I ever thought I was. I was no longer defined by my previous friends or boyfriend or athletic/academic pursuits and that was okay. After that year up north, I had the courage to plan a backpack trip through Europe with friends the following summer.

 THAT was the trip that really cinched my travel bug. I met new friends from all around the world with ease, saw places I had only read about in books or seen in documentaries, drank beers in steins bigger than my head, got lost, got found, kissed boys, saw art, took trains and not only survived the whole process, but FLOURISHED. I felt passion again. When I had the opportunity to live abroad in England and teach, I jumped at it. Hindsight being what it is, I wish I had stayed the full two years instead of splitting it into two and coming home early, but I do not regret one moment there.

With the past three years attempting to get a teaching job in Toronto and finally getting my toe in the doorway, its hard to pass up the travelling lifestyle. Heartbreaks and job setbacks impacted my life for a few years. After so long trying to teach in Toronto and finally getting it, I have to try it out for awhile. Maybe I'll get a full time job or in a relationship and I might even commit to a two year phone plan in the new year (BIG COMMITMENT EH?). That just means I get to be even MORE excited when I get to do trips like the one I have coming up in November. And you, dear reader, get to experience it with me. 

Caifornia & The Canyons - Westcoast Connection!

For the past three weeks, I have been working with a company called Westcoast Connections - 360 Student Travel. I was a trip leader on a teen tour for 21 days of California & The Canyons. There was a group of 48 teens, aged 12 - 14 with 7 staff.  I was saddled with the job of "trip blogger" as I have had some experience with blogging in the past. ;-)

While blogging, I had to include each trip member's name at least once, but for these copies of the trip blog, I have deleted their names. Just for privacy and what not. Hope you enjoy hearing about my adventure across the west coast!

Click "Read More" to read the blog that I wrote for this trip :)

Travel is a part of me, now.

Well, our adventure in Korea is over and its back to the grind... of unemployment! ha!

I really did have a wonderful time there. I have this tendency that whenever I go on trips, I always appreciate it SO much more when I return home than maybe while I'm experiencing it? The first time it happened was when I went to Hawaii in Grade 12. I went, had fun, and just went with the flow. I never really had moments there where I said: "wait a second, wtf, I'm in HAWAII!" But when I came home, looked at pictures and my journal, I was blown away by how awesome and lucky I was to go on that trip. After Hawaii, the same thing happened in Europe and all the other adventures I've been so fortunate to be able to go on.

That's how I'm feeling now. I am taking some time to look through my pictures, finish updating the blog (sorry for the late posts), and really missing my sister (although that part happened as soon as I got home! p.s. I'm not being a suck up, jac). I am thankful to Mrs. Green for donating her points for our flight and to my parents for basically paying for the whole thing. I have been going through some tough times recently and I never would have probably visited Korea if not for this trip.

Til the next adventure calls....

So Ronery and Sadry Arone....

Susan, you went to Korea and then suddenly Kim Jong II dies? Hmm... Did you get him like you got Michael Jackson? Are there bomb shelters and terrified south Koreans running around now? I kid, I kid. But seriously, don't worry North America, the situation in Korea wasn't as insane as the western media led you to believe. I probably wouldn't have even known he had died if it weren't for my incessant facebook checking! When we watched the news, they were more concerned about their stocks falling than anything else. Guess what else? We were going to DMZ the same day!

We had a tour of the DMZ planned way before we even got there. Jaclyn even had to get our passport numbers to book the trip (apparently certain countries in the middle east or mainland China aren't allowed on tours). It was a no-refund tour but we were assured by the company that it was still running, despite the change of power in North Korea. The DMZ is the "Demilitarized Zone", a buffer area between North and South Korea. Since the armistice was signed in 1953, the DMZ was created as each side agreed to move their troops back from the front line to a establish a "neutral" territory.



Our tour left super SUPER early in the morning... or rather we had to wake up super super early to get there! We checked out at our hotel at 5:30am, walked to Jaclyn and took the subway to where the tour was departing from. I was feeling very under the weather from my cold and early morning wake up, that it probably wasn't til about 12pm that I started to feel better!

We took the hour long coach to the United Nations military base of Camp Bonifas. An American soldier became our new tour guide and gave us a brief history lesson and rules that we needed to follow while in the JSA. These included things such as "Don't wave or make any kind of gestures to the North Koreans - they could take this as a sign of aggression and shoot" and "stand in two lines facing North Korea, do not turn around and take pictures of the South". With our American escort, we went to the JSA - Joint Security Area. The JSA (or "Truce Village") is the only portion of the DMZ where South and North Korean forces stand face-to-face and hold discussions.



We went into the building that they held the armistice talks and future talks between both sides. The building has the MDL (Military Demarcation Line) running right through it so it is technically on both sides. We stood around a table and the guide said "if you are standing on this side of the Microphones, congratulations, you are standing in technically, 'North Korea'" !!

Due to poor weather conditions (icy and snowy), we unfortunately could not go see a security tower, the Bridge of No Return or the Observatory (where you could see the two different villages that are allowed to remain inside the DMZ - the "Freedom Village" in the south and the "Propaganda Village" in the North). After we left Camp Bonifas, we went to the 3rd tunnel.

The 3rd Tunnel was discovered in the late 70s and is the most "complete" tunnel that has been discovered. It runs from the North to the South (though they deny making it - regardless of the direction the dynamite blasts indicate). It is the third of four tunnels they have already discovered, but they think there may be up to 10 more. And it is only 44km from Seoul! Although it is now a tourist site, it is also very heavily guarded. You can only go so far before you get to three blockades that do not allow you to go any further into the North Korea side. It was a HECK of a climb though! It runs about 73m deep and believe me, the slope was not an easy task! We were very out of breath by the time we got back up.

The last stop on our DMZ tour was that of Dorasan Station. This is a railway station that connects North and South Korea. Obviously at the moment it does not go past Dorasan to continue onto the Northern side, but the station is a symbol of hope that one day, these two countries will be reunified. I honestly don't really see it happening anytime soon (especially not with the new transition of power, the military is still WAY too influential in North Korea even if the new guy wanted progressive change)...But the Berlin Wall eventually came down, so maybe someday in our lifetime, a peace treaty will be signed.

Bongeunsa Temple

How's it hanging, Buddah?! One tourist activity that I really wanted to participate in Korea was the "Temple Stay Program" . In this program, you can spend one to three days experiencing what it is like to live in a Buddhist temple in Korea. We opted for just the one day experience (not too keen on waking up at 3am to do 108 postures and meditate, plus the temples aren't heated too well!). I am really interested in learning about the Buddhist religion so I thought this was a great opportunity. It also kind of reminded me of the "pray" aspect of Eat, Pray, Love (the AMAZING book, not the horrible Julia Roberts movie). We got to the temple and were very surprised to see how traditional it looked even though it was right in downtown Seoul, surrounded by office towers and a stones throw away from the COEX Mall. It was pretty gorgeous.



Our tour was led by a volunteer who practices at the temple. She was super nice and her English was pretty good! We started off with a temple tour, learning about the different kinds of offerings to Buddha and what different types of candles meant (depending on if the candle was pink or white it was either in memory of someone who has passed away or an offering about someone who is living). Then we went to a prayer room where people were doing the 108 Postures (each bow represents a wish / prayer). It was so beautiful. Lotus lanterns donned the ceiling, golden Buddhas surrounded us as we sat on mats and gaped around with open mouths.



After the prayer, we toured more of the temple and went to the "meditation center". This was a more modern building where they do a lot of the educational programs. We experienced a Buddhist tea ceremony. They explained that serving tea has a very specific meditative quality to it and everything is done in a calm and meditative manner. The tea was delicious, we tried two different kinds. One was chrysanthemum, which really did taste like flowers. We also tried some small snacks. One was a powdered pine needles (BLAGH!!!) and the other was lotus root and sweet potato crisps (yum!).



After the tea ceremony, a Buddhist monk came in and led us in a short meditation. They hit sticks together to signify when the practice begins and ends. We sat on mats, crossed legged, and practiced meditation. I have so much respect for those monks, he said that sometimes he meditates for 10 plus hours!!! You really are in-tune with yourself then!

Our final activity was making lotus flowers. It was a very simple activity (a lot of gluing and pasting) but it resulted in a beautiful flower to hang in my room! They also gave us these small brown bracelets that we could take home to remember our stay. They are mini versions of the prayer beads that the Buddhists use in their prayers (108 beads for 108 wishes). Ours only have 26 beads, but I haven't taken mine off since. :)

When we were leaving we visited the prayer tree at the entrance to the temple. They believe that if you put your wish / prayer on a piece of paper and tie it to the tree, the wind will blow the words and make your prayer come true. Mom and I tied ours to the tree. It was beautiful with the different colours flapping in the winds.

Day Trips With Mom!

So during last week while Jaclyn was working, Mom and I explored Seoul on our own. I'll highlight the more exciting things we did (I dont think you'll care too much for a description of the last Friday where we watched hotel movies and shopped in Nowon because I had a rotten cold)...

N Seoul Tower
We went to Seouls equivalent of the CN tower to see a birds eye view of the city. It was an adventure getting there! It was our first time navigating the subway on our own and even though I've had many experiences travelling on non-English metros during my travels, it's a lot harder when the maps use characters instead of letters! I found very detailed directions and somehow (combo luck and internal compass), we found our way through a windy backstreet to where the cable car was. We were glad we found it! When Jac went to the tower in the summer, they couldn't find the cable car and hiked up the mountain. Ha, can you imagine us doing that? I'm far too lazy.



We took the Namsan cable car up and had a great view of Seoul. We had burgers for lunch and then took the elevator up to the observation deck. The coolest part we're the locks of love. People put their names on lock and chain them to the fence surrounding the tower. There were thousands of them! We couldn't find jaclyns and sarahs that they put up in the summer though.



Traditional Folk Village
Ha, our adventure to get to the village about an hour outside Seoul was interesting! We lost the directions that jac gave us to get to the bus, but figured it out with dumb luck. Then we just showed the driver the brochure of the folk village, he nodded and we got on - not sure if the nod was a confirmation or a hello. But we got there!

Mom and I went here on a freezing cold day where it felt like we were wandering through the ruins of a old Korean town as there were maybe like 40 people in the entire park.



It was very interesting though. We saw how they made their houses, heated their floors, various celebrations and festivals and even some traditional dancing and horse aerobatics! We saw an area that they used for traditional films and pretended we were in historical dramas. :)

A lady showed me how to tie my hair using a chopstick (which I had previously deemed impossible due to my thin hair), we ate what tasted like rubber corn on the cob (no way was whatever we were eating real food) and checked out the amusement park area (think of a mini Centre Island haha).

The Aquarium & COEX Mall
Wednesday found us at the COEX Mall & Aquarium! The COEX mall is Seoul's largest underground (i.e. inside where its not FREEZING) mall. It even had a food court, complete with our lunch of KFC. :) We shopped along our way to the Aquarium which was at the end of the mall.

The Aquarium tour started off with different kinds of fish that are common in Korea (in the small lakes / marshes) which to be honest, wasn't all too exciting. THEN we got to the "fun zone" where they showcased a variety of different kinds of fish tanks! This included things like a fire hydrant, a toilet, a pop machine, an electronic harp (every time a fish passed through it, it would make a ding noise), and even a refrigerator. It was cute, creative and so very Korean. I loved it.



After the crazy fish tank display, we entered the "Amazon" area... which for some reason included spider monkeys (in an Aquarium? Yeah....). There were piranhas (I kept thinking of Piranha 3D!), sharks, eels, etc. I don't know if you know this but along with moths, I am terrified of eels. That's why I don't really ever want to go snorkeling, I keep thinking they will pop out with their dead eyes and sharp teeth!! Along our way (I believe we were out of the "Amazon" section by this point, we saw seals, a beaver, sleeping otters and even some Manatees eating lettuce! Then we came to shark tank area. There was a conveyor belt that took you under a ceiling where the sharks would swim above you. It was pretty neat, but there were no great whites or anything too crazy.



One thing that was hilarious though was that at one area, they had three scuba divers dressed up in Santa costumes doing tricks with fish. It was bizarre, I had no idea what was really going on, but at least it was unique!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from South Korea!

So I know I'm about a week behind in these posts and we've done SO much since then, but since we have half an hour left on Christmas, I thought I'd post about our Christmas eve and day in Seoul. I'll blog about the other adventures tomorrow. :)

Christmas Eve began SUPER early with a trip to the DMZ. Honestly, what could be more Christmasy than visiting soliders and "stepping" into North Korea! :P I will talk so much more about the DMZ in another post, but needless to say it was a long day beginning at 5:30 am and getting back to Jac's apartment at 4pm.

For Christmas Eve dinner, the four of us (Myself, Mom, Jaclyn and her friend Sarah) wanted a "western style" meal (or at least I did!). We tried TGIFridays but it was almost a two hour wait!! We switched our plan to Outback Steakhouse because even though its Australian, its more westernized than bulgogi or bibimpbap! Jaclyn, Sarah and Mom all had steaks but I of course had chicken. It was amazing... covered in bacon, mushrooms and SO MUCH CHEESE. Plus a side of mashed potatoes (which they called "smashed potatoes" hehehe).

After we gorged ourselves, we came back to Jac's hotel with our food babies and digested infront of the TV. I brought It's a Wonderful Life with me as is our annual christmas eve tradition. We watched about half of it and then went to the "Jazz bar" (mostly named so because of the saxophone I saw on the wall there, not so much for the jazz music) to meet some of her friends. We ordered drinks (mine while sounding exciting, was not very tasty) and chatted with her friends. Finally the early morning caught up with us and we crashed around 1.

Christmas Morning found us up and talking to our family back home on skype. The girl twins (meg, hailey and eowyn) preformed karaoke for us ("la la la everybody... la la la... There's a party on the rooftop top of the world" song). They are gonna be rock stars. Max had enough forsight to just pop his head in, wish us Merry Christmas and run off. :) Then Sarah came up and her and Jacyln opened up their presents. Mom and I are opening up ours with Dad when we get back. It kinda felt more like Jaclyns birthday! lol. She loved all her presents though and thanks you all.

After presents, we watched the last bit of Its a Wonderful Life (yes, i cried) and then slowly got ready to go to Jaclyn's coworkers potluck dinner/lunch. We brought the dessert (apple pie and a Baskin Robbins Cake). It was a great Christmas dinner. We had chicken, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing (but not great because it wasnt made with bread), sausages, gravy and carrots. We played a game called "fishbowl" where you had to get your team to guess the name of a famous person (written down by everyone else). It was a lot of fun! Her coworkers are super nice and very friendly. Jaclyn is in good hands.

We came back to Jaclyn's apartment and we watched "A Muppets Christmas Carol" (another staple). Sarah left right after to go to bed and we lounged around until we talked to dad (which was Christmas morning in Toronto). Now we are heading to bed! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! :)