2010 in Germany!

Yay 2010! I was thinking last year at this time I was in Hong Kong. Now, I'm in Germany, Hamburg to be exact. A nice port city. So far it's my favorite. Big, cool, old and has water. Met up with my friend Mi-yeon here (right) she's a police woman and that's so cool!
But the highlight of this part of the trip was a visit to Ikea (a Swedish chain of cheap/ completely awesome things). Almost everything student's have comes from here because it's so cheap and easy to put together and match. And they have great ideas and meatballs. Mmmm.... I might have to find an Ikea in NC and buy lots of things.

I may not have complained to you already about this but let me do it now. It is cold, there is a lot of snow (more than most people have seen in 10-15 years) and I am not adequately prepared to spend long hours outside. Brr... But still having fun.

The main point of coming to Germany was to visit friends I met in Korea. All five of us met up in Hannover and had an awesome Korean dinner.
I stayed in a fraternity house (Frat Haus) in Hannover, I knew one of the brothers. I feel (this one at least) was a lot nicer than their American counter-parts. So, there are still stereotypes about them, mainly they're Nazis (racist/conservative) this really isn't true. They're nice guys, lots of foreigners actually, and kind of dorky (in a good way). I'm not saying that some of the stereotypes aren't true though. They drink.... alot. They may or may not have a walk in refrigerator only for alcohol and a basin in the bathroom reserved for puking. But this fraternity was founded in 1404 ("Our fraternity is older than your country" my friend liked to tell me) and actually is based around fencing, which all members participate in. It was a fun time.

BEER FRIDGE! AHHHHHH!

The Tiergarten, a huge park (former hunting ground) in the middle of Berlin. The streets next to it were modeled after the Champs-Elysee.
The Reichstag (German Parliament) was also scenic with a huge glass dome on top for passive solar heating and a nice view of the city. Take the free tour; it was informative.

So, this was supposed to be a picture of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe but ended up looking more like a poster for some alien movie. The memorial was kind of boring and I think totally missed the effect it was going for. I didn't feel somber and intent on remembering at all but more like playing an awesome game of hide and go seek in the field of 2,711 stone cubes. If they were a lighter color it'd be an awesome playground or park. The museum underneath got the message across much better though. Much less giddy after walking through that.

And last, because it was so cold and that makes everything take longer because of the constant hot chocolate breaks. Mi-yeon and I did 5 min tours of the Berlin Dome (very impressive) which turned off the lights and kicked us out because it was late and Checkpoint Charlie. Here is the guardhouse (original) between the American and Soviet Zones. Kind of cool. You can still see a difference in wealth between East and West Berlin.

Tomorrow, I leave Germany for a bit to hop over to Prague. I have high expectations for the city.

I've left the country again!

So, I got the urge to travel again and thought I might continue the blog since it's such a great record for me to look back at. So, this time I've gone to Germany for three weeks to visit some friends. I arrived in Frankfurt and realized that I had been here before for a few hours three years ago during the World Cup 2006. It's still a pretty place but like last time I was only in the city for about 3 hours.


I was actually on my way to Stuttgart, or actually to a little village near it called Endersbach, where my friend Anna lives. Endersbach really is a village. It has 10,000 residents and is so cute.

One of the million reasons why Anna and I are friends is because she drives a Smart Car. I've always liked these little cars but I've never ridden in one until now. It's like riding in a bubble.

So, the first day we just looked around Stuttgart, the nearest city. It's a nice place but wasn't meant for tourists.

But there were these gigantic pretzels. They're only for New Year's but still... Germans eat big pretzels.

The next day Anna's father had to do something in a Swiss bank (SPY!) so we crossed the border into Swizterland to a town called Scaffhausen. Nearby is a waterfall called Rheinfall where the Rhein leaves Lake Konstanz.

Schaffhausen was impressive. Though is was accidentallz bombed by the Americans in WWII a lot of the old buildings still survived. Very medieval. Some buildings were entirely painted on the outside.

A close up look. (I love my new camera!)

All the buildings had names and dates on the front. This one was the oldest I saw from 1542 names 'The Ostrich Feather' . These old buildings now house modern shops and even a McDonalds but still very interesting architecture.

In the evening.

The weather has been gloomy and rainy but these cities are still fabulous. The next day we went to Heidelberg. Known for its university it also has two famous scenes: the bridge and...
the ruined castle. (burned by the French in the 100 years war)

Heidelberg also has the cool buildings.

Anna's father has been driving us around so on the way back from Heidelberg he just decided to show us a local castle. So here is a privately owned hilltop castle near Endersbach.

Tonight is New Year's Eve so I'm off to some crazy German party and then on to Hamburg tomorrow.

The Asian Adventure Continues!

Hello, everybody!

Yup, so we left Seoul (sad) and went South to Busan, the second largest city. Spent some time at beautiful temples and relaxed on the beach. Here's the Younggungsa temple set along the coast line. We actually met up with a friend of mine whose home town is Busan and went out with his family to a massive seafood dinner and karaoke. Below is the Jagalchi Seafood market I went to before. It is a little disturbing thinking all the food we ate that night could have been in this picture.

Next we left Busan to head to Gyeongju, the ancient capital of Korea. Still beautiful but so hot. With no sea breeze we all fried. But we got to see Tumuli park and the tombs of ancient kings (the big grassy hills behind us).

Of course, the kings must also have lush gardens. The lilly pads are in bloom all over Asia at the moment.

Well, after a relaxing week in Korea we felt strong enough to take on China. That is of course after we passed quarantine inspection for swine flu. We weren't even allowed off the plane until our temperature was taken.

The first day was a visit to Beihai Lake near where we were staying. Which was beautiful, with lots of shopping and restaurants, but also lots of hawkers and bothersome rickshaw drivers. The weather was nice though, rare blue skies in Beijing.

And of course we moved on to more well-known tourists sites. The Forbidden City and Tiannamen Square.

And the Summer Palace and the Great Wall. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures on my camera of the Great Wall so you'll have to go to the source for those.

And a rather classic picture of Grayson on bus number 690 in Beijing.

Everyone is enjoying China but Mom and Dad definitely prefer the "civility" of Korea. I think the assult of the senses and constant challenge that is China is not good for their stress levels. But Grayson and I are having a blast... a little homesick though.

Guess who's here! Day 1-3

Well, after a 16 hour plane trip to get here my parents and sister finally arrived in Korea. They look so alert and happy in this photo I feel it must have been taken at the beginning of the trip because they were not like this when they got here. But they perked up and we went out in my neighborhood that evening.


The next day was a trip to the DMZ, where we were treated to a propaganda filled tour, a visit to one of the tunnels North Korea built to do a sneak attack on Seoul, many soldiers and views of North Korea. Unfortunately, pictures were not often allowed. But below is a look at the Civilian Control line, a guard tower and across the river is the southern limit of the DMZ. Very interesting, and much safer than my trip to DPRK.
The next day we traveled to one of the five palaces in Seoul. And Mom, Dad and Grayson experienced Asian architecture. The palace is huge with sections for the King, Queen and comcubines. But we had fun with these cut-outs of a palace guard, a high official and a soldier. (love the sun glasses on dad).
These are the real (fake) guards.
Grayson tried her hand at sketching some of the pagodas but concluded that it was more difficult than she expected. "You think it would be easy because they're such a distinct shape, but you really don't know which way the wood will go."
In downtown Seoul they opened up a walkway next to an underground stream that feed the main river in Seoul. It's a beautiful (but hot) walk through the busiest area of the city.
And just to prove that this is not somewhere in North Carolina, a crazy store that only sells fire extinguishers. Talk about specialty.

The Past Few Weeks

Hello loyal audience. I'm back to report on my doings these past few weeks. So, first up. I'm a third degree black belt in Taekwondo! I passed my test with high scores and so moved up a rank. Yay. The test itself was kind of easy but I tested in the world headquarters of Taekwondo so that was awesome.

Immediately after testing I took off on a roadtrip to Tongyeong, a coastal city literally on the other side of the country. I went with a collection of exchange students and english teachers. More than half of whom spoke German. (I'm resigned to not speaking in English anymore)
The city was beautiful.

We climbed the local mountain. This is Mi-yeon and Anna, my two German-Korean friends. And took a nice boat ride around the islands.

Last weekend I attended the wedding of one of my old Masters from White Tiger.
The groom, Master Yu, said his vows and then did a back flip in his tuxedo. Oh, Taekwondo people...
Speaking of which, my friend Ashley from the US has been studying abroad in the Japan for the past semester and came over to visit. She took this great picture of me at practice.

We toured around Seoul. And went to something I've been thinking about since I got here. Dr. Fish! These little fish from China and Turkey eat dead skin. So, they're used for beauty and medical purposes to clean the skin. They really tickle when they bite but it works. My feet were definitely smoother afterwards. And of course a picture of friends at dinner. I'm spending alot of time hanging out with friends and trying to do everything I can before I go home in 52 days!