The Overdue Emily Post

I know I'm way behind here and the blog has pretty much been in the hands of Ryan so far but I vow to fully assume my position as co-author. Fortunately for me, Ryan handled the Vacation Post beautifully and I really don't have anything to add. We had 3 foreign currencies and 9 flights in something like 7 days. We rode Malaysian subways, flew Asian Air, hiked on canopy bridges and trails through the rainforests of Borneo, took longboats down jungle rivers in Sarawak, cruised through the South China Sea on motorboats, scaled Victoria Peak in cable cars, double-decked on double-decker trams and busses, and sailed Hong Kong Harbor on a cruise boat.

However, even with his comprehensive account of our trip and his first week in Ilsan, he has somehow carelessly neglected to mention one very important thing, and that is this:

We now live in the same neighborhood! Same hemisphere, continent, time zone, country, city, NEIGHBORHOOD!
It's amazing. Here we are, in the same place at the same time:





Don't we look happy? We are.
(Oh, and in case you were wondering, that last shot with the clown wig and the coats is not traditional Korean dress or anything, but rather a bar made entirely of ice which you need to wear parkas to enter. Obviously.)

So anyway, now we're back, with regular work schedules and less exciting weekend plans, and finally setting into a routine of some kind. We wake up, drink coffee, go to work, come home, eat dinner, pass out due to Korean Kindergarten-induced exhaustion.
I know Ryan hasn't had a chance to really discuss his new career path in any kind of detail just yet but it looks something like this:and this:

Pretty funny, huh? I know I only had a chance to check out the old C&D digs once, but I'm fairly certain this doesn't compare.
Before you go wild, it's not actually that crazy. Those photos above are snapshots of Ryan Teacher's Swimming Pool Field Trip (there are wilder details but you should really ask him as I'm not at liberty to disclose). Last week I had a Water Gun Field Trip and if the pictures were not so threatening to my reputation I would upload them here.
In any case, his kids are crazy (though maybe not as crazy as mine) and you should have an idea of what we're up against over here.

As the summer winds down, we're just taking it easy and trying to enjoy the weather now that the heat has died off a bit. Friends are starting to make plans for their next adventure post-Korea and we're considering our options. Hopefully they'll include a brief, tailspin trip home around Christmastime.

We will keep you posted. Till then!

Vacation recap

I had an incredible vacation with Emily and her friends to Malaysia, Borneo and Hong Kong.  Our first stop was Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  It's a fascinating city.  On our first night, we wandered through a street market behind our hotel at which every vendor was selling the infamous durian fruit... a local delicacy, I found the mushy consistency and rotting-onion aroma fairly vile.  We all tried it though, and Emily was the only one among us who found it somewhat palatable.  The next day (my birthday), we visited the National Mosque of Malaysia, a serene place open to tourists when prayers are not being observed.  Emily and Kim had to wear floor-length hooded robes to be allowed into the mosque.  We also visited a small Taoist temple and a Hindu temple in KL's Chinatown.  We met up with the rest of the gang and took the elevator to the top of the Kuala Lumpur tower, from which we had a good view of the city and its best-known landmark, the Petronas twin towers.  The Petronas towers are a remarkable sight, inspired by Islamic architecture and housing the Petronas Oil Company as well as the Asian hub of the Al-Jazeera news network.  At the end of the day, Emily took me out to an amazing vegetarian Indian restaurant called Sangeetha at which we had a true feast.  

The next day we flew in a rather small plane to Mulu Park in Borneo, home of lush rainforests and vast caves.  On the first day, we had a tour of the Deer and Lang Caves, the home of millions of bats that fly out of the caves each evening.  We witnessed the bat exodus and it was fairly magical.  The bats come out gradually, and they stay together in a snake-like line so they can avoid being snatched up by hawks.  The second day in Mulu we visited the Wind and Clearwater Caves and went swimming in the pool at the mouth of the Clearwater Cave.  We then went on a canopy walk high above the rainforest floor and saw a small green pit viper perched on a branch.  

Our next stop was Kota Kinabalu, a city on the northern coast of Borneo.  It was our one stay at a five-star hotel.  We enjoyed the hotel pool and incredible sunset and had some more Indian food.  After a comfy night at the hotel, we took a boat to two nearby islands for a day of snorkeling and swimming and beach laziness.  There were some pretty fearsome-looking (but actually docile) monitor lizards that shared the beach with us.   

On Friday, we arrived at our final travel destination: Hong Kong.  On the night that we arrived, we took a tram up to the top of Victoria Peak which allows a breathtaking bird's eye view of the city.  On Saturday, we met my friend Liz (who I know from my NYC chorus) and she took the lot of us out for a traditional Chinese banquet-style lunch... thousand-year-old eggs, goose, abalone soup, and lots of tea.  Quite delicious, and we were all glad to have a local's perspective on the city.  After lunch, we took Liz's advice and sought out "Goldfish Street," a row of aquarium and fish stores that offer every imaginable aquatic creature you could ever want in your home (and maybe some you don't).  We then boarded a sunset cruise in Victoria Harbour and had another panoramic view of the city and its skyscrapers.  

All in all, a really memorable trip.  I definitely want to get back to Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong sometime.  

You can check out Emily's pics of our trip here: http://picasaweb.google.com/EmilyDLong/SummerVacation 2008