I’m going to forego the usual blogger apology for lack of recent updates and I’m not going to promise anything for the near future because quite frankly we’re both preoccupied with other things that have to take precedence right now.  But Rest assured that once we are settled in Chicago and have a bit more time to devote to this we’ll be uploading many more photos and videos from the end of our travels and the past few months.  We’re on a pretty amazing ride right now and can’t wait to share it with you!  So, please excuse the hiatus…

For now, here are a few pictures from the recent months…

For more detailed descriptions view on flickr – click here!

For those of you who don’t know, Kate and I were stranded in Paris because of the Icelandic Volcano.  We stayed there for 3 extra days then took bus to Barcelona and on to Madrid where we got a flight home.  It was an adventure and it was ridiculous (and annoying).  Now we’re fighting battles with the travel insurance company which is very frustrating but in the end it was a nice bonus to get to see spain a bit!

Enjoy the Pictures,  We’ll be back soon!

We can’t wait to see some of you at the wedding in a few weeks!

-Chad

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A quick update of what we’ve been up to…
We frantically left our apartment on the 26th of February after being told we had to leave a day earlier because the new teachers were coming! We stayed with some friends in Samcheok then left for Daegu for a Temple Stay. We stayed at Haeinsa Temple for one night and had a great experience with the monks there. Next we headed to Busan (southern Korea City) to visit two friends from IU who just moved there to start teaching English! After a few days there we headed up to Seoul for a day on the high-speed train then flew to Beijing!

I developed a nasty cold while in Korea so we took it pretty slow the first few days in Beijing and stayed in a great hostel just north of the forbidden City. We visited the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, A few parks in Beijing, The Great Wall, and saw a Peking Opera. The last two nights we stayed with some lovely Couch Surfers named Prometheus and Lucy and went out for a great Hot Pot! Beijing was really a lot of fun and we definitely will go back at some point. (Kate found a number of galleries that have great residency programs!)

Next we took the high-speed train to Shanghai where we are now. As I said above, we’re working at the Biofarm in shanghai and having a great time. This morning we transplanted seedlings and now we’re designing some icons for their new website. (What a vacation!) We’re enjoying getting to know the farmers and staff and having a more intimate Chinese experience – and we’re learning a thing or two about organic farming too!

I’ve uploaded a few photos to flickr so take a look at this gallery for a sample of what we’ve been up to! Check back here as we upload more photos.

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As Chad mentioned in his last post, Molly, Chad and I all left Incheon the same day.  One slight snafue in our planning – Molly took off at 9:30 AM, we took off at 9:30 PM.  Little did Chad and I know that we would fall in love with the Incheon airport.

Once we had our MacDonald’s breakfast we headed upstairs to find a cozy place to catch up on reading/sleep/picture taking.  Incheon has huge bean bags all over upstairs.  We saw one open up and pretty much sprinted to claim it.

Chad took lots of pictures.

I read lots of D.H. Lawerence’s Women in Love.

I love this picture.  Notice there is only one man who is standing still.  Can you find him?  Ill give you one hint – he’s Korean!

Sleepy heads!

Hangin’ with D.H.

So, we landed in Manila at 12:30 AM.  It was beautiful and balmy and the airport made the Indianapolis airport look like the biggest airport in the world!  We got into a cab and had an experience.  The cab driver was appalled at the location of our hostel and spent the entirety of our drive telling us we shouldn’t go there.  This was between wrong turns and police checkpoints!  Wow.

When we finally arrived at the hostel it was very nice and the owner was incredibly welcoming.  It was very clean and we had great roommates.  The location was slightly dodgy but we’re here to tell the tale!

The next morning we walked around Rizal Park.

These kids got super excited when Chad was taking pictures.  They all lined up and jumped around for him!  They are much more active picture takers than our students!  I wish I had my camera out to take picture of Chad taking their pictures – it was pretty cute.

This is me, Ana (German), and Blanca (Columbian living in China).  They were our roommates in Manila and we spent the day with them.  They were quite lovely ladies!

There were ice cream trucks everywhere and they all constantly played the same ding-dong tune!  After about 3 minutes of wandering around the park we all had it stuck in our heads.

A view of Chad at work.

A view of Chad’s work.

After the park and some lunch we headed to a fort commemorating Jose Rizal (every main street in Manila is Rizal Avenue).  Rizal was a huge nationalist/martyr in the Philippines in the late 1800′s.

Below is a view from the top of the fort wall.

The Manila metropolis.  Vastly different from what we left in Seoul.  I had no idea how different it was going to be.

Gazing at . . . . ?

By the end of the day we were very tired.  Instead of fighting to get onto the subway system we decided to hop into a jeepney.  They are bus-jeeps that people jump into for a quick, cheap ride.  Hold on tight!

The next day, right before we headed to the airport, Chad and I decided to check out the Chinese cemetery that was right outside of our hostel.  It vaguely reminded me of the tombs I visited in Cortona 4 years ago.  In the Philippines people really go all out for their deceased loved ones.  Some of the tombs have air conditioning, running water, full fridges, etc.  I think we should have just stayed in one of those!

We wanted to take this little guy home but he was too big for our backpacks.

Manila was a very interesting and educational experience.  We saw a ton of poverty and many people with a much different standard of living then we are used to seeing as the norm.  Chad mentioned some of it in a post he made while we were traveling.  I  felt like a naive voyeur the entire time we were in Manila.  It was very sobering and prompted a lot of discussion for the trip.  Who are we to decide what is comfortable and not comfortable?  Who are we to live in a three bedroom apartment with plumbing?  Do they want that?  How do we help?  Do they want help?  Maybe they are perfectly and happy and just because it wouldn’t make us happy doesn’t mean they aren’t even happier than we are.  There is a fine line and  seeing it is a huge challenge.  I hope that Chad and I remember how that felt and that we manage to do the right thing and not ignore it.  We both want to get back into volunteering when we get home and maybe even while we are traveling.

One a lighter note, we are in the midst of arranging our trip for the spring.  Right now we plan to be in China for about a month then we’ll head through Vietnam to Cambodia.  After that we plan to fly from Bangkok to Paris.  We plan to be home in mid to late April.  We’ll let you know as things firm up!  We are incredibly excited and each time we sit down to plan we just talk about how crazy it is that we get to see all these amazing places!

Well, we only have one computer now and I need to get a few things accomplished before I hand it over to Chad.

I hope everyone is doing well and staying warm!  Anyone buried in the snow?

Hello all,

I wrote a longer post a little bit ago but it got deleted Sorry… here is an abridged version -

Kate and I are in Puerto Princesa right now sitting in an internet cafe surrounded by World of Warcraft Gamers.  This morning we were in Manila  – which was an interesting experience.  Very grimy gritty city – more third worldy than we expected but it was definitely worth a day or two.  It Put everything in perspective for sure.  We will post more about that later.

Kate’s sister Molly was in Korea for the last 2 weeks visiting us.  We had a great time with her!! She came to school with us.. toured around Samcheok and went to Seoul for a few days before she flew home and we flew to the Philippines.

Making Lanterns at Bongeunsa Temple in Seoul

Again at the Temple

Kate and Molly on a Seoul Bus Tour

Kate and I had to wait in the airport for 12 hours for our flight (after Molly flew out in the morning) .  Gave me some time to practice with my Camera

Kate doesn’t like sitting in the airport for 12 hours

Some Kids in Rizal Park in Manila.  They were really excited when they saw my camera

Kate, Blanca and Ana (friends we met at our hostel) at Fort Santiago in Manila.

The view from our hostel tonight on Palawan Island – Puerto Princesa City…. Pretty amazing.

We’ll post some more pictures sooon when we get internet access again.

More soon,

-All the best

—-Chad & Kate!

The first is a standard posed picture – (from the roof of the school) with all of the Geundeok teachers and staff.  This is everybody

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The second picture is a new-age-awesomeness picture envisioned by the artiste photographers… If we were a band, we would be awesome… but we’re not, we’re elementary school teachers – so it’s just goofy.  But that’s Korea!!

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Some of these people are really amazing.  We’ve become great friends with a number of them and will miss them greatly when leave in a few months.  One advantage of being at such a small school is that it’s really like an extended family.  I know every one of these people pretty well and some of them are really our best friends in Korea.  That’s much less possible at a school with 80 teachers that is departmentalized and divided.   I’d list the names and positions of everyone in the picture but it would probably be silly.  Our closest friends are the woman on the far left (black sweater tan skirt) – She’s the 5th grade teacher, teacher Kim Young-mi and is a year older than us.  She came this year from Taebaek and has been a great friend!  Can’t imagine the past year without her great sense of humor and fantastic English.  The woman in the front with the White Jacket (younger woman) is our official Co-teacher, Son Eun-Jin.  She’s amazing!  Such a fantastic friend and always willing to help us when we have problems.  (And she’s the hardest working person in our school ) In front of Kate (to the left a bit) in all black is Teacher Kim Suk-jin.  She was our first friend here in Korea and really helped us a lot our first semester here.  She was in the U.S. last summer studying English and is now teaching most of our classes with us (long story).  She’s great and we will miss her a lot.  Hopefully some of these ladies will come to our wedding!!  There are a number of other teachers I’d love to tell you about and surely will sometime soon, but for now that’s it  Just wanted post these pictures while I was thinking of it.

All the best…

Kate and I are enjoying homemade apple pie and whip cream tonight.  Thanks KATE!

-Chad

Enjoy and please leave a comment!

-Chad

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Enjoy -

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Be sure to Click on the image to see a larger version without the watermarks.  

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A picture taken just the other day out by the ocean.  We rode our bikes down to the fishing village and took some fun pictures.  A little editing in photoshop.  I really love this one :) 

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An old picture from our trip to Penang – be sure to look for the tiny plant growing on top of the doorway!  Love this picture too..  

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Firedancers on Koh Tao. Amazing!

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The Cameron Highlands in Malaysia – so beautiful!

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Kuala Lumpur from the KL tower.  Over saturated and tweaked in Photoshop.  

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Kate kissing a cow at a school picnic last week.  We went to our school bus driver’s farm/restaurant.  It was a lot of fun – and Kate loved these cows :) 

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I took this photo at sunset near the expo center in Samcheok.  This is actually the reflection in the river which gives it a cool texture – it’s flipped as well.  

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Two of our 5th graders during children’s day celebrations at school.  The one in front is one of our favorites.. he’s really sweet.   

Thats all for now…

We’ll be posting more pictures very soon and hopefully an update or two on what we’ve been up do.  (Mainly school activities)  We’re heading to Japan in a few weeks so that should be fun! 

More soon,

Chad