Check Out the Diggs

We arrived on the island of Koh Chang on the last ferry under the cover of night. And because we are on an island in the Gulf of Thailand, night is actually night and thus nearly pitch black. Mikey had visited this island nearly two years prior and was leading us to the direction of an establishment called the Treehouse, which is apparently world renowned for their "Happy Shakes." After a sketchy taxi ride up and down some seriously steep terrain we had arrived at our destination of Lonely Beach. We made our way through the small village that happened to be filled with irie bars and coffee shops and ever irier traditional tattoo parlors. We then stumbled upon our future home for the next week; Ice Beach Bungalows. I would say that Ice Beach found us rather than us finding it. Some photos were taken that night of what our set up looked like. Needless to say we were stoked. Minimalism is the wave of the future.

Here is a snapshot of the room. As you can see, all the necessary amenities are included. Bed, fan, light, and mosquito net (photo is actual size of accomodation).


Right behind our hut was a relatively large tide river that flowed in from the sea that was about 150 yeards away. However, because of the combination of darkness and low tide on the first night, we had assumed it was merely a dried up river bed. I believe Mikey's quote was...."Look at this riverbed. This thing has been dry for ages. This wil be the perfect spot for the fire." In the photo below, you can see Mikey setting up the hearth for waht is to become our doomed fire.



The neighbors






Now Carillo's in on the fire action. He didn't know about the tide river either.



Around 15 minutes after starting up the fire, Mikey and I realized that it appeared as if water was rising from the south end of the "dry river bed." After stepping in a few puddles to confirm our suspicions we soon had the obvious epiphany that we were set up in a tide river.
Even though our fire was short lived, it was still worth while. We had to get our primevil cave man on for that night; it just seemed fitting.
In the following nights to come we would make the same fire, in the same spot even though it was extremely futile. It was too fun.

The Road to Koh Chang

Our (Carillo and I) plane arrived into Bangkok on Christmas Day right on schedule. We were greeted at the airport by an already intoxicated group of three friends who had the incredible ability to make us feel that we were right at home. Freddy, Mikey, and an unexpected Robbie Stanley were waiting for us at the gates.
Our first night was spent in a small hotel room off of Kao Sarn Road which is located in the "backpackers district." The area was extremely hectic, debaucherous, and packed to the brim with vacationing foreigners. We had to get out of the area soon. So the next morning we headed over to an air-conditioned (as opposed to the non-airconditioned bus terminal) to find the quickest way out of Bangkok. We then hopped on a charter bus for a relatively inexpensive fee and set off south to the island of Koh Chang. The crew consisted of Freddy, Mikey, Carillo, and myself. Six Hours later we would arrive at our destination.


He's trying to play it off like he's not but the dude in the background is totally saying watsup to the camera.

Christmas Party

All the boys of Morning of Owl had been planning a Christmas party for sometime now and on December 24th, 2008 it went down. MoO has a practice room directly across from their apartment that served as more than efficient space to have a get together. It may not seem as significant to any onlooker but this party was definitely a privilege to attend. Korea does not have much space for its residents and therefore everyone lives in pretty tight quarters. But with the help of the practice room, we were attending a legitimate house party in Korea, which pretty much goes unheard of. We definietly took advantage of the opportunity.
By the way....this was the most structured house party I have ever been to. There was a slide show, several dance routines, contests, and an MC. Entertainment for Carillo, Jojo, and I was at an all time high this evening.


See if you can tell who is dressed up as old St. Nick


Seung Ju also happened to have his birthday around this time (hence the cake).









It was Issue's birthday too.



Here is one of the dance routines. This one's to THe Wonder Girls if I'm not mistaken.

The Gabe Turner Memorial Lazy River

This post may not mean a whole lot (and will definitely sound weird) to most of the readers but it is crucial for some.
GABE, THIS IS A WARNING!
Carillo and I were summoned to a training session for all public elementary school teachers in the Geyonggi province. The training session took place on a Korean University's campus. Winding from the top of campus to the bottom was a a large fountain that can be seen below. The "river" flowed down stairs and zig zagged back and forth.

Gabe! If it weren't for it's shallow depth and rough terrain features, this fountain could have easily been misconstrued as a college campus lazy river. All I'm saying is that there are others out there making an attempt and if you don't start getting super-rich and begin dying soon, someone else is going to take all the glory. Begin making your donation to USF immediately.

Big Day Out with Jojo and Kyle

After a long night of being out and about in Seoul, Jojo and I summoned the courage to leave the shoebox (Jojo's office style apartment that is in similar size to a shoebox) and brave the cold.



Before we could really get going, we had to get our daily (if not hourly) fix of Kimchi. So, we stopped by a local Gimbab Chongu to fuel up. If you ever come to Korea and want to know how to eat out inexpensively all the time, just remember Gimbab Chongu and Gimbab Nara. These are two chain restaurants that are extremely cheap, located everywhere, and open 24 hours a day. They are also always a good fallback place because they don't serve anything all too gnarly. So if you don't know all that much Korean you will still be safe. For instance, you won't walk in and mistakenly end up getting served a ton of octopus or chicken's feet.


Jojo wanted McDonald's.

Jojo and I then hopped on the extremely efficient subway system and headed for City Hall. There, amongst numerous skyscraping office buildings and neon billboards, we discovered a rather large park that contained several traditional korean structures. Above is a photo of Jojo getting his classic tourist pose on in front of a statue of the man who created Hangul (the Korean language).







I wish I could explain in greater detail what all of the pictures above were of or even of what I saw that day but......during our Saturday outting, I soon came to the realization that I am really horrible with the whole tourist thing. The cultural exchanges that occur at everyday places, with the everyday people are far more intriguing, educational, and enjoyful. So, for all you Korean history buffs out there; if you are looking for a plethora of photographs containing ancient buildings, then this blog is probably not going to be the spot....my apologies.

Cassfaced

These are a few snapshots from a night out in Gangnam (a district in Seoul). The crew was Carillo, Agnew, Seung Ju, Coco, and myself. We ended up going to a foreigner's bar that played some old school American jams.....and they accepted requests.




Seung Ju is on the left and his girlfriend Coco is on the right.



If you pay attention to the carving on the wall, you will notice the term "Cassfaced" that is engraved. This term stems from an extemely popular domestic beer in Korea, named "Cass,"
which tastes a lot like Natural Light.



At the bar, we ended up meeting a few foreign teachers that were in the same boat as us....kind of. The girl on the left was from Nebraska and the guy on the right came from Fargo, North Dakota.
A message to all the Gudmundsons that weren't born and raised in southern California: Don't worry, I represented the family's North Dakotan roots pretty hard.

Music Teacher Farewell

This post will serve as a small to some of the people I work with.
Unfortunately, the music instructor at our school decided to take a break from teaching to tend to her studies. In order to properly say our goodbye's (or annyonghikaaseyo's), a few of the teachers and I went out for some dinner and drinks.


This is a snapshot of one of the two co-teachers that accompany me with the students on a daily basis. Mrs. Kim is married, has two boys, and speaks English fairly well. I would say that our relationship is more mother to son than anything.





My homeboy and by far the best English speaker in my school is Mr. Kim whom is located on the right. Both him and I ended up having a great night later on, but that's another story entirely. The music teacher that was set to leave after that night is in the middle. Bummed out about that.