Best Cab Rides in Korea

Suleyman, Tilly and I wanted to go shopping, so we called a cab to pick us up at the dorm and go to Hongdae. Somehow we got the two best cab drivers in Seoul tonight.

The first guy was so cute… When Tilly and I first got in the cab, we still had to wait for Suleyman, so our cab driver changed his GPS into a TV and we watched a few TV shows while we waited.  He was also teaching us Korean and helping Suleyman “study” for his Korean exam. He was so cute and adorable, telling Tilly not to ask people if they are tired, because it means you want to go sleep with them…something like that, because he tried joking with us, but all in Korean. It was so fun.

The second cab driver we had was equally adorable.

 Here’s the second cab.

 Here’s a shot from the Han River (photo credit: Tilly Finnegan). It was a really pretty drive back, as well as a funny and really fun ride!

 Suleyman with the awesome cab driver.

We had so much fun giving this cab driver instructions onto how to go to the dorm from the front gate… he taught us how to say left, right and straight…so we were all laughing so hard by the time he drove up to the door.

 

I don’t know how our luck gave us the best drivers in Korea, but I’m not complaining!

China: Day 3

 

Last day in China!  It was sad, but also a relief that I could go back to Korea and at least semi-understand what was going on most of the time! This was definitely the longest of the three days!

 At Tiananmen Square, the first stop of the day.

 These are  Olympic Torches completely covered in flowers at Tiananmen Square.

 At Tiananmen Square (and just about everywhere we went in Beijing) we were swarmed with people taking our pictures, like we were celebrities. I was asked to take pictures with random Chinese people too; I wonder what they do with those pictures…

 When we were taking our group picture, there was an even bigger group of people in a semi-circle around us taking our picture… it was so awkward. There must have been at least 50 or 60 people! After getting mobbed by cameras, we took an underground tunnel to go into the Forbidden City.

 This is in the Forbidden City.

 Flying Tours at the Forbidden City?  How fun!

 Not so forbidden anymore, huh?  It was completely packed with people, it was insane. The city itself is actually a city, it’s so big, which was cool, but after seeing building after building looking exactly the same, it got kind of boring after a while. It will be nice to put on my travel resume that I went to the Forbidden City, but I won’t really want to go back.

 The garden at the end of the Forbidden City…so pretty!

After we walked through Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, on the bus, our tour guide told us that we had just walked about 8 kilometers (around 5 miles). Ug, no wonder I was exhausted! It didn’t help that my left foot still hurt pretty bad from the foot massage the night before… not a fun morning. Speaking of riding the bus, right after going through the Forbidden City (it was around 12:00 p.m.) and we were really hot and really hungry, everyone was getting mad at each other and we were stuck on the bus in the parking lot for 50 minutes because there was so much traffic we couldn’t even get onto the street. Thankfully we had air conditioning in the bus, but even after getting on the street it was another 30-45 minute bus ride to lunch. Talk about stressful!  After everyone got some yummy Chinese food in their stomachs, we all liked each other a little more.

 After lunch we went to a Tea House and learned about Chinese tea! This is the sign inside the front door….Dr. Tea, how cute!  We  tried “China’s four best teas this year.” Apparently they have a competition with tea each year to see the best one, and they mass-sell the winners!  We tried jasmine, pu’er and fruit.

 The women who taught us how to make, drink and pick out Chinese tea.

 The tools for making tea (including the four boxes of tea; brown, green, orange, pink).

 This is me trying Jasmine tea…my favorite!

 We went to McDonald’s in Beijing, right after our trip to the Tea House… a much needed trip!  We got a few McFlurries (one for both me and Jenny, and one for Corey who was still shopping at the Tea House), and Jenny got a cheeseburger too. The cheeseburger: Tasted exactly like it did in the states… a surprisingly good taste after trying the Korean bulgogi burger twice…gross.

 Chinese McFlurries: Weird… but not bad at all. I’m not sure if they had other flavors because I just pointed, but I got one with vanilla ice cream, Oreo bits and caramel (but it tasted really weird). It was pretty good and very close to the US’s, so I was happy!

 We went to the Summer 2008 Olympic Birds Nest Stadium to take pictures… it was beautiful!

We also saw a few other stadiums from the bus.

 This is the Gymnastics stadium where Shawn Johnson won a few gold medals!

 And this is the Aquatic Center where Michael Phelps won SO MANY gold medals!

 At the summer palace, this was such a beautiful bridge.

 At the entrance, they had bonsai trees, which had really pretty flowers!

 The first thing we saw when we first entered: lilies, willows and a pond…gorgeous!

 This bridge has 17 arches, and it’s called the Marco Polo Bridge…weird.

 The longest walkway in the world… maybe around a mile long, I can’t remember! We only walked in it for a little ways because there were too many people, but at each arch there was a different painting… it was really interesting and unique.

 This is probably my favorite picture from the Summer Palace. It was so beautiful there, and a really nice, peaceful way to end the trip to Beijing.

 We got to ride in a rickshaw! This is me and Jenny (taken by our rickshaw driver!).

 A bicycle built for…3? Something I saw from our rickshaw ride to the courtyard.

 This was at the Traditional Courtyard, which is funded by the government to keep parts of Chinese culture alive. According to the woman who lived there, the courtyard was older than the imperial palace, about 600 years old. Also she told us about her family history and how her family has always lived in this courtyard. Then she sold us some of her father’s artwork (which was beautiful) and I got a lovely stencil painting for about 100 Yuan (around $16!).

 The courtyard… it was so pretty!

 A shrine to Chairman Mao in the home of the woman in the courtyard.

 This is me and my friend Corey eating chicken heart at the Brazilian buffet (in Beijing!). I think this description accurately describes it: a smooth sausage. Really gross, but it really tasted like sausage, but was smooth… I didn’t dislike it, but I don’t want to eat another one for a while. (But for some reason it actually surprised me that it looked like a heart…ug.)

 Saying goodbye to Big John at the airport the day after (on Saturday, July 14th). He was such a great tour guide. I will miss him! (This is me, Big John and my friend, Jenny). Some funny sayings by John, “Don’t buy the third generation t-shirt. That’s a t-shirt that shrinks each time you wash it, so after you wear it once, give it to your son, then he wears it once and washes it then gives it to his son.” “Cha-na (China)” “Chinese people eat everything with four legs except the table.” “If you drive in Beijing, you need three G’s: Good Brakes, Good Horn, Good Luck!”

By the way… Saturday July 14th was my birthday… I woke up in China and went to sleep in Korea. What a great birthday! 🙂

Thoughts on China

China was amazing in so many ways, but also disappointing in certain ways.

I guess I wasn’t really sure what I was going to see when I got there, but it was a wide variety of things that are impossible to explain through words. I think that if I ever do go back, it would only be to see The Great Wall… it was by far my favorite part.

 THE GREAT WALL!!!! The Wall was so beautiful, and by far my favorite thing on the China trip. Pictures do nothing for how beautiful and crazy it felt to be there. It was unreal. The moment I stood on the wall I mentally added to my bucket list that I wanted to visit all of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, and I had to come back to explore longer. Unfortunatly, we were only slotted about 40 minutes to explore the Wall, but in two minutes, I had already fallen in love.

Two things I hated about the Great Wall: 1.) It was dirty, like all the garbage that people had they just threw over the edge, like they didn’t care about one of the most amazing things man had ever made. That really disappointed me. And 2.) The cable car ride… it was so scary. Every time we went by one of the support beams the whole car rumbled and made a little sound… it was so scary! Going up wasn’t that bad, but going back down was so scary I almost shed a few tears I was so scared. One of my friends was right next to me telling me to breathe and that everything was going to be OK. But I survived so it’s fine! : )  There are more pictures and a video from the Great Wall in another post (China: Day 2, which you can go to here https://abroadwithliz.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/china-day-2/.

It was at The Great Wall that I felt like I was in China. Being in South Korea for 2 weeks before I went to Beijing it really didn’t feel that different, other than I felt like a celebrity because of all of the paparazzi.

 This is just one guy…

 Here’s a few more…

 And as we were taking our group photo at Tiananmen Square, a crowd of about 50 or more people in a semi-circle around us just started taking our pictures…

 And more and more people came…

 There were so many people it was really uncomfortable…What were we supposed to do? And why were they taking our picture anyway?!

 The way people acted in public was very different than in Seoul. I think every place we went, we saw a guy (usually with a big belly) pull his shirt over his belly and just walk around. I saw this outside the Forbidden City, on the Great Wall…everywhere! It was quite a sight to see…

Also, on the first night we were riding in the bus and it was a decently clear evening, then I looked over to the sun, clearly seeing it, not needing to squint, my eyes weren’t watering at all… there was so much pollution! It was definitely a surprise to see the sun so easily.

One big difference between Korea and China is that in Korea if they stare at you and you catch them, usually they look away quickly and act like they weren’t looking, but in China, they will continue to stare, take photos and maybe even laugh at the photos..before they take more! There is no shame in staring at a foreigner in China. Which I didn’t really understand. It’s not like we were in a tiny village in rural China, we were in Beijing, at a VERY COMMON spot for foreigners to visit, so you’d think they’d get a little used to it…I guess not!

Overall, while in Beijing, I was mostly really uncomfortable, and coming back to Korea was a sigh of relief. The main reason was the language barrier. If I were to travel around Europe (not knowing any German, Spanish, or most others), I would have an easier time than in China. All (or at least most) have Latin-based alphabets so I could struggle my way through telling someone what I wanted to eat, but in Beijing, with such a different type of written (and spoken) language, I felt completely helpless, which also made me pretty scared. Friday night Jenny wanted to go out and celebrate my birthday, but I immediately thought of how I was going to get back to the hotel without even a friend who could speak Mandarin… it really scared me. Being back in Seoul where I could at least tell a taxi driver “Seoul Shi-rip-dae” if I got lost, is a huge sigh of relief. Maybe if I go back to China and I have a friend who is willing to translate EVERYTHING for me, then I’d consider relaxing a bit, but being without my Chinese tour guide, was really hard for me.

I think the only way I would go back to Beijing is for three things: 1.) Beijing Duck…yum.  2.) The Summer Palace (I would love to spend more time there, it was very peaceful and beautiful). and 3.) The Great Wall (of course).  I could definitely hit all three of those in one day, then on to the next place and I would be very pleased to do so. Beijing, you were incredible, and quite an experience I’ll never forget.

Korean Honey Candy

 This is Korean honey candy. These little shops are everywhere (especially in touristy locations like Insadong!) We watched their show and tasted some…so good! Here’s a video of their little show (which by the way is pretty much exactly the same wherever you find a little shop like this); it’s just so adorable!!

(This is not my own video, but one I embedded from Youtube.)

 (Photo Credit: http://www.mormonhomeschool.org/2012/05/learn-to-multiply-with-16000-honey.html) It starts as a rock hard block of honey, but after stretching “little by little” and folding over and over, it turns into really fine strings, which they cut into short strips and put peanuts or almonds inside…so yummy!

 (Photo Credit: http://www.ratemystudyabroad.com/blog/5-things-seoul-south-korea/) The first time I had this was in the states, and it wasn’t very good. I think the important part is getting it fresh! I’m going to bring some back to the states with me, and hopefully they stay yummy enough!! 😀

Learning KPop Dance!

From our program, they offered a free KPOP dance lesson. Of course I took up that offer (as did many girls…very few boys did though 😛  )  We learned the dance to Like This by the Wondergirls. (Here’s the original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EZTUYwjWBs)

 We had a pretty big group of people learning and four instructors, who thankfully went slow for most of it…but there were a few parts I was completely confused on when the tempo sped up!

 This part was really difficult when the music was added!

Here’s one of the last times we did the whole dance:

It looks like it’s on fast-forward, but it’s the real speed… it was so difficult keeping up with our instructors (who were on stage). At the end we were supposed to squish into a big group and pose, that’s why we look so weird at the end! 🙂

 Me (in the turquoise shirt) and the girl in the foreground was one of the instructors.

 On stage in front of everyone doing the dance…so nervous!

 This is me dancing with my group on stage in front of everyone!

 Everyone posing with the instructors! So great! It was so much fun!

Now to practice and show off my moves to my friends! 🙂

Homesick

It’s a very sad time right now at UOS (University of Seoul). Everyone is feeling the ending coming near and people are trying to have as much fun as they can the last week. You can feel the sadness around sometimes. I have also had almost no motivation to do anything fun… like I skip out on my friends and update my blog or just watch videos on the internet instead. But I’m not alone, everyone is showing some sort of sadness about leaving. I am personally exhausted from everything that’s going on right now (everyone leaving me, me leaving Korea, going back home, finals, presentations, stress!).

I got really homesick today while we were riding the bus. The bus was packed and my friends were about a meter away from me, with 3-7 people in between us at all times. So I had a lot of time to think and  after getting shoved, bumped into and bags being rammed into my arms and legs, I realized how much I miss Paris actually. In Paris (and the states), if someone slightly rubs against you, 9 times out of 10 they will apologize, but in Korea, don’t count on it, unless they are a foreigner. This was really frustrating for me also, because growing up, I always learned my P’s and Q’s, and always said excuse me when I bumped into someone. Unfortunately, I’ve almost dropped that habit while in Korea (unless I’m dealing with my friends and people I know). Hopefully I can get that habit back soon in the US because people will not appreciate being shoved into and not apologizing.

I felt really homesick though, and I really just wanted to be home watching TV, not stuck on a hot bus full of Korean people staring at me for 40 minutes. This really is an incredible experience I’ll never be able to relive, but in every presentation and “help” website I saw they all said there was a curve of  the general abroad experience. Starting with the honeymoon phase, where everything is bright, shiny and amazing, then comes the crisis (where you have an experience that was terrible and you really feel homesick and wonder why you went in the first place), then comes adjustment, where you eventually feel comfortable enough to feel at home. I had a bad day the very first night I was here, but I don’t think that was quite my crisis, but today may be my crisis (coming at a terrible time though). I have felt it build and I have been increasingly more uncomfortable in situations in which I wouldn’t be uncomfortable so easily.

Thankfully running and the wonderful internet can help me forget about the crisis (if this is it). Running gets me focused on something completely in my control; I get to go as fast or as slow as I want, I get to change my stride and running form as I like… I feel free to do anything. Also, I have been Skyping with my mom more which has helped… but also has made me miss home more.

Unfortunately (and fortunately) today marks one week more. Most of the program seemed to be spread out, but since I’ve been back from Beijing, everything has gone so fast, and I’ve missed home more than ever. I want this week to go fast, but I really want to cherish the time I have left with these amazing people on this program. I really am going to miss just about everyone. It’s very sad, but I’m ready to go back to the states a new person. 🙂

China: Day 2

The second day was definitely an experience, in many ways. Some ways an incredible-life changing scenery, and others, moments that will embarrass and confuse me for a long time!

 The first place we went was a jade market (which is huge in China) … but this is just the inside…

 this is the really sketchy outside. I was so confused when we walked in.

 We had a really knowledgeable tour guide for the jade market, who told us about the process of making one piece (up to a few weeks to finish some pieces). And we got to watch a few men at work too.

 This is the “happiness ball” in its stages. This ball was amazing, it had two or three smaller balls inside, and they all could be rotated too. Somehow the small version only cost 150 Yuan (about $30).

 We also learned about the history of jade, what each kind of jade means, and how to test if it is real jade (very useful in China!). This is the showroom with lines and lines of beads, bracelets, earrings, rings, you name it!

 A HUGE pirate ship, made completely out of jade. The cost? 45,000 Yuan ($7,061). Why? Chinese people really believe that jade is good for feng shui, so they would put a large piece in the center of their living room for good flow.

 For lunch (and every meal) we had Chinese food. Thankfully Chinese food in China is NOTHING like it is in the States. Real Chinese food (at least the kinds we got) were always served on a lazy susan, we got tiny plates to dish our own food, and only one 6-oz. glass of either Sprite, Coke or water. There were a few dishes I didn’t like, but most of them were really good, light-tasting and surprisingly filling (at least for me… some of the boys were complaining that they had lost weight in China because they didn’t get enough food!).

 At the Ming Tombs.

 Our view of the Great Wall of China from the bus… we got to drive for about half an hour just looking at different views of the Wall. It was so beautiful.

 This is the cable car to the Great Wall… so scary!

 The cable cars. On the way there, I was a little freaked out, but on the way back down, I don’t know what happened, but I was terrified and almost started crying.

 A video from the cable car ride!!

 The Great Wall! I expected it to be beautiful, but it completely exceeded my expectations. It was breathtaking, it was so beautiful. I had to separate my self from my friends a few times just to absorb it.

 One of my favorite pictures I got from the Great Wall… it was so beautiful… this picture does nothing for it’s vastness and beauty.

And a few more awesome pictures of the Great Wall (might as well!!):

 It seriously went on and on… it never stopped!

 (Did I mention it was packed with people? Thankfully I got a few pictures of me with the Wall..and no people!)

And now some jumping pictures:

 This picture seriously looks photo-shopped… it looks so great! (Thanks Corey!) This is me and a bunch of my girlfriends from the trip!

 Yay!!

After only 40 minutes at the Great Wall, I decided I must go back for as long as I want. So someday I will go back and go as far each way from the cable cars that they will let me! 🙂

After the Great Wall, there was an hour drive to Longquing Gorge.

 It started pouring at Longquing Gorge when we got there… it was so beautiful though! Totally worth it!

 This is me and my “girlfriend” Jenny.  We bought ponchos because we were worried about our cameras and purses getting drenched… a nice idea, but putting on tight plastic when you’re already wet is like the evil step-sisters in Cinderella trying to put their big feet in the tiny shoes….nearly impossible (and really gross to take off afterwards…)!

 Here’s a view of the river we rode through on the boat. It was so beautiful and peaceful.

 I found a mermaid at Longquing Gorge!

 Dinner was hotpot… a small pot filled with boiling water (and a fire underneath) cooks your food in about 30 seconds, so on the table there were raw veggies, sauces and raw meats. Pick what you want and throw it in!  I didn’t put any extra sauces in it, so mine tasted like Vietnamese pho… to die for.. it was so good!

 After the hotpot dinner we went to a large room in the same building and got foot massages. It started with a soak in a hot water bath and a short back massage, then onto the feet… Unfortunately I didn’t have a great experience. My masseuse hardly ever made eye contact with me and was looking around the room almost the whole time…AND he hurt my foot. He must have pushed one sensitive spot too hard, too much and it hurt for about four days. That was not a fun feeling, especially because I’m a runner and I had to skip my long run for the week! But my foot is all better now, so I’m back to running!  But I think this means no more foot massages for me, unless I’m doing it myself! 😉

 When we got back to the hotel, my friend Jenny and I heard they had a pool, so we immediately wanted to go swimming. Unfortunately, the only pool they had was strictly for exercise. My friend Corey also came with us to help us find it (which was no easy feat!). First, we went into a back door which confused a lot of the Chinese people already swimming, but we thought (almost) nothing of it. We found a good place to get into the pool, took our robes off (both of us in bikinis) and started to go in the freezing cold water. One of the random Chinese guys (who was in street clothes for some reason) walked up to Corey and somehow Corey figured out that in order to swim we had to have swimming caps and goggles. Then as we were embarrassingly putting our robes back on, we noticed this sign: No Frolic. Then we realized we made a grave mistake and were so embarrassed we just started going out the back door we originally came in, but the Chinese guys yelled at us again to go through other doors (separated by sex). So I went with Jenny into the women’s locker room and Corey went into the men’s, and when we all came out at the front door of the health center we all couldn’t stop laughing. In the women’s locker room, there were naked Chinese ladies showering (no big deal) but when we were looking around, not able to find the exit one ran after us (still holding her soap, and still completely naked) to tell us how to get out. The look on Jenny’s face was priceless, she was so confused! Apparently Corey’s experience wasn’t very funny, but according to him more of a nightmare. Needless to say we will never go swimming in China…ever again.

After that experience, we decided after so much laughing and being freaked out, we needed to sleep. I had another amazing sleep (I wish I could have taken that bed with me!) and ready to wake up at 6:30 the next morning for our last day in Beijing!

(NOTE: I expand more on China in my blog post “Thoughts on China” coming soon.)

China: Day 1

My trip to China was interesting to say the least… it shouldn’t have, but it really surprised me how different China was from Seoul.

  This is at 798 Gallery. ..a funky little neighborhood based on art. It was really cool with lots of quirky art things everywhere.

 798 Gallery street.

 Just a headless huge statue at 798 Gallery.

 This is the Capital Museum, our second stop for the day.

 In the big round part of the building that’s sticking out, there was a gallery with jade and vases, and a really crazy curvy (and slanted!) walkway between floors… It was so hard to walk on!

 This is my friend Corey posing for another curvy picture… I had to walk with my hand on the wall so I wouldn’t fall over!

 On the first floor of the Capital Museum there was a huge mural from the 2008 Olympics. If you looked closely enough you could find some weird things… 10 girls in bikinis for example…

 Or a bunch of different races of people flying naked in space…on a horse… not weird at all….

 At the Temple of Heaven!

 Another picture at the Temple of Heaven…

 And one more (a fun jumping picture with my friend Jenny) at the Temple of Heaven.

 Also, while at the Temple of Heaven, we saw this guy. He was doing calligraphy of Chinese characters with a water-squirt pen/gun. After he saw so many people of European descent, he wrote “Hello” with his pen too! Cool!

 This was the venue for the Chinese Acrobatic Circus Show we got to see. It was so cool! There were no pictures allowed during the show. If they saw you with a camera they shined a really bright laser pointer at you and another guy walked up and showed you a sign that said “No Photography!” in 3 languages! (From what I remember): Tightrope walker, 12 girls (with fans) piled onto a moving bicycle, there was a tap-dancing juggler who attempted to juggle 9 balls while tap-dancing, and a really cool woman who layed down and balanced big umbrellas on her feet, flipping them around and spinning them…never dropping them! It was a crazy show that kept you on the edge of your seat…always dazzling you more.  I’d definitely go back again and see what they’ve added!  (By the way, there are big venues with “Chinese Acrobat” plastered on them everywhere! We saw so many during our trip: A must see!)

 When we finally got back to the hotel, my roommate and I scrambled around for five minutes because we couldn’t figure out how to turn the lights on…

 I eventually found this… so mean…

 Here’s what the really weird sockets looked like… The top round holes are for Korea, the top straight vertical lines are for American (I think), and the bottom slanted lines and the one vertical line is for China… so weird!

 Finally, to relax we got some snacks at a 7/11 (great store…all over Korea too!). Birthday Cake Oreos (SO GOOD! They tasted like frosting and sprinkles…so good!) And the other one is peach and grape… I didn’t get to try these, but apparently they had a very strong taste.

Then to sleep to wake up at 6:30 (ug.) for another day full of adventure… Tune in!

(NOTE: I expand more on China in my blog post “Thoughts on China” coming soon.)

Leaving Korea!

Hello again! I will be leaving Seoul for 4 days… my program has an option that you can go to either Jeju Island (I’ve heard it compared as the “Hawaii of Korea”) or Beijing, China…I chose Beijing… when will I get another chance to go to China?!

Today, I was supposed to meet my good friend, Ming (who I met in my Korean class at Iowa), because he is traveling around Asia and Seoul is his last stop. This might have been one of the last chances I would get to see him before I leave Korea for good… Well I must have missed him… it was hard to communicate, because we only had Facebook and we both had bad timing I think…so I ended up not being able to see him.

 I was really sad that I didn’t get to see Ming 😦

Thankfully I had a friend with me, Suleyman from Turkey and we went to Papa Johns. Suleyman has never eaten pork and we ordered a BBQ chicken pizza, thinking it was safe… we were far from right.

 There was more ham than chicken on that pizza!

 But we got the pizza with cheese in the crust, so he could eat something… I still felt so bad…

 …so I made it up to him… his birthday and my birthday are only a few days apart, so I bought him a cupcake! Happy birthday!

Going to China in the morning… I will update my blog as soon as I can after I get back! 🙂

P.S… my birthday is on Saturday when I come back from China! 🙂

Random Thoughts about Korea

I have been asked a few questions through real-life and through this blog, so I’m here to answer them now. Feel free to email me any questions you have on Korea or anything (elizabeth-hilliard@uiowa.edu), or leave questions in the comments in the blog and I’ll do my best to address them.

 

My legs do hurt every. single. day. from walking so much! Some days I just ditch my friends and watch videos on the internet instead, just to save my energy for another day!

And I do go to class! I’m taking two classes, one from 9:30-12:00 and the other from 1:00-3:30, so I have the entire night (plus some days the program cancels classes to have us go to a castle or something) and the majority of weekends to explore and have fun!

I got a LOT of my knowledge on real Korean life and how to act from a blog called Eat Your Kimchi ( http://www.eatyourkimchi.com/ ) A REALLY great resource in case you are coming.

I was Skyping with my family yesterday (Happy Birthday Dad!), I was telling them how much some things cost and I said 10,000… they all started laughing… I’m already getting used to not laughing at the fact that 10,000 is actually a lot!

I’ve also been using much simplier words, lots of hand gestures and whenever I agree with someone I say, “Yeah yeah yeah yeah.”  I just know my friends back home are going to think I’m treating them like idiots… I’m not! I’m just hanging out with a lot of people who aren’t native speakers!!

That’s all for now, remember if anyone has any questions, please post in the comment section or email me! 🙂