[2012] Bavarian Road trip with Billy and Nate

Zurich --> Basel --> Leysin --> Zermatt --> Neuschwanstein Castle --> Munich --> St. Gilgen --> Salzburg --> Basel

It's always so nice when friends visit. This trip was a bromantic road trip that I crashed for the most part. We visited places that we've been before, but it was so much more fun with great company and with people who appreciated it all.

Can't wait for Nate's ukulele single to be recorded about this trip
;)

[2010-2011] GIFS, S. Korea

I worked at Gyeongnam International Foreign School (not sure why they needed 2 adjectives: international + foreign, shrug) for 1 short year and it was a major contrast to my 2 years in Daejeon. Even though it was the same country, one was a major city and Sacheon was a rural town. The school was there to serve children from the multiple foreign companies that had brought their companies there due to the tax breaks. We had a great mix of students, but the most represented were French, Brazilian and Israeli. I really miss my students from this year, I grew to care for them and felt a really strong connection to them. I really hope they're all doing well, and hope that our paths will cross again in the future.
I was really blessed with this little school, my colleagues and students. It was a short chapter in my life, but I'm so glad it happened. 

[2012] Petra, Jordan

After the longest Ferry ride known to man (11 hrs) from Egypt, we took a taxi from the port to Petra. (I should mention, it took a long while negotiating with the taxi the price of the ride, since he was trying to take advantage of us, but we managed to get a fair fare.) We arrived at 1 am and luckily the hotel owner had called to check that we were still staying there and had waited up to let us in. We woke up at the crack of dawn and went to Petra as soon as it opened, maybe 6am (I can't recall anymore). It was a great call though, we were able to see it without any crowds. By 9am we had decided we'd seen enough and started moving to our next destination: Jerusalem (with a stop at the Dead Sea of corse). I know some people would advise to visit Petra for a full day, but the length we wandered was perfect for us. It may have had to do with the fact that we were running on just a few hours of sleep and my allergies were horrible.

I look really unhappy for some reason riding this donkey! Maybe it was my allergies? Ah---Choo!

[2013] Paris, France with Faith

Highlights:
1. Bastille Day = Firefighter Parties with CHAMPAGNE. Each fire station around the city converts into a club each Bastille Day for a few nights and they literally sell Champagne by the bottle. It was amazing!
2. Concert on Champ de Mars. We sat right in front of the Eiffel Tower and listened to famous French opera singers singing La Vie en Rose backed by the Paris Philharmonic. Finished off by some great fireworks. Could it have been more romantic?

Another successful trip to Paris!

[2013] Doolin + Cliffs of Moher, Ireland

This little Irish town stole our hearts. With the Cliffs of Moher just a few minutes away, it set the scene as we stopped into the tiny bars filled with folk music and locals. The one thing that I found difficult about the music was that the musicians were playing music around a table, and although they were performing, they weren't really performing. It felt that I was intruding on an intimate music session between friends. I'm not sure whether this was a positive or negative, but regardless it made me unsure about it all.

We played a round of golf on a par-3 course and enjoyed the wonderful sunshine and scenery. It all seems really relaxing, but in fact I spent a lot of my time hacking the ball in some very deep, thick grassy. I think by the 4th hole I gave up and starting just dropping my ball onto the green. ;) I'm glad we were persistent about playing. When we got to the office it was locked up and we had to call a number and then the owner drove down to give us some irons and balls. Therefore the best thing about it was that we were the only ones on the course. I guess others weren't ready to be golfing in early April in 5 degree weather.

[2013] Lisbon + Algarve, Portugal

We went to Portugal for the second year in a row. This is kind of a first for us, excluding visiting back home we rarely go back to the same place. (Another exception to this rule is St. Gilgen -- which we've generally gone back each summer). This time in Portugal we spent more time in Lisbon and it was so great to discover the city with a local, Raquel. They sell wonderful drinks for very very cheap and I thought it would be the wiser choice to get a margarita that was nearly 1L. I guess it seemed wise because I was partially inebriated. In the morning I realized that it wasn't the smarter choice.

Local tip: get a shot of Ginginha from one of the stands downtown with a fruit in it. It's a sweet liquor that old Portuguese men tend to have mid-day. Lovely.

[2013] Christmas in Toronto, Canada

I have been living in another country for 7.5 years now and I have missed a total of 2 Christmases. As in, I didn't fly home for it. After the second time, I came to the decision that Christmas must be spent with family and friends. Here's why...

Every time that I'm there it's special, but this time around it was REAL special. We had our annual "Asian Christmas" which is a terrible name, but if you look at the attendees I'm sure you can deduce why it's called that. It's our 11th get together and it's always some good ol' fashioned fun. This year someone came up with the genius idea of having a pajama party, so we were in comfy jam jams the whole night. Special alright, I mean look at Lucas in those sweet Superman jammies! I always look forward to this blast from the past. Everyone must feel the same way because they all drove out to Whitby this year in the aftermath of the ice storm.

Oh yeah, the icestorm...our house, my aunt's and uncle's were all without power for a few days so we had to sleep in my grandmother's house for a few nights. Can you say slumber party with family? It was like a flashback to the times we used to visit halmuni and halabuji in Korea and slept on the floor. Toronto has never looked so pretty under the thick layer of ice.

This year we spent Christmas eve at jageun emoya's house, and she encouraged us all to wear festive sweaters. I didn't need any encouragement -- my uniform this break was my green sweater that I wore EVERYDAY. The food was amazing like always, but it was just so fun to hang out with my family!

Other highlights included - visiting my grandfather, hanging out with Ericson after his LASIK surgery, meeting up with Iris and Jess and their Caucasian counterparts, crashing Chan family Christmas, family photo shoots and Les Miserables.