back to the land of the living

hi everyone!

we finally found our way out of the twilight zone, and are back online.  well, sortof.  enough that i have time for a quick up date anyway.

insane that it is already june!!  those two months flew by WAY too fast.  it has been hot (24-27) and humid here.  we had two really cool and BIG thunder and lightening storms yesterday and this morning!  didn't lose power, but it was nothing like storms back home.  instead of two "events" every 20 mins, it was continual thunder and lightening.  heeheehee.  it was right over our heads, and it sounded like buildings were being hit (if that's what it was, that is an extremely LOUD thing when it happens - and distinct in sound from regular thunder!!).  i loved the rivers that were pouring from the sky!! 

the one yesterday afternoon was during class so the kids made a HUGE deal out of it.  then we were woken up by another one at 5am this morning.  both storms lasted about 45 mins to an hour. 

apparently that was abnormal for this time of year, which disappointed me a little.  but i'm glad i haven't had to walk to work in it!!!!

we found some really nice places in and around seoul.  and we went exploring on the southeast coast in busan two weekends ago (3 hours away on the ktx bullet train).  the beach was interesting...people were wearing suits and high heels to walk in the sand (i followed numerous heel holes - it looked ridiculous!!).  the sand is not exactly nice on the feet though.  it was really too rough to walk in barefoot (hence the stilettos??!?!?!!), but it was SOOOOOOOO nice to breath the salty sea air. 

there was a really nice forested area with gorgeous trails at the tip of the beach, so we explored that area too.  we spent two full days soaking in the beach and forests!  aaaaahhhhhh. :)  AND we found an AMAZING indian restaurant!!  it's worth the trip just for the food!!  yup, that was a good weekend.  pics will follow at some point in time.

the ktx was pretty cool itself.  it traveled at about 300km/hr, and we crossed the whole country (pretty much) so it was neat to see the mountainous regions.  though it looked much like the okanagan, not a lot of JUST forest.  there was always some sort of farm, or town or development somewhere.  we have yet to find the areas of clear blue sky and wide expanses of forest with no cities or humanity in sight that the signs in the subways show.  (hmmm, doctored adverts???)

last saturday we found a beautiful park in downtown seoul at the tombs for king seolleoung, and the queen, and her second son.  we could actually smell EARTH!!!  you know, that dark brown stuff that plants grow in??  at least, i think that's what that stuff is.  lol :)  it was so quite in there we couldn't even hear traffic!  it reminded me a lot of filberg with the gentle sloping topography and the breeze blowing through the trees.  what a gorgeous afternoon that was! 

adam has joined us now, so our troop has grown to 4 full grown adults in a canadian sized one room apartment - yikes!!  now i (stacey) know what its like to have brothers...heeheehee...it's an absolute blast!!  :)  sadly we hardly see "the boys" though since we work all day, and they have taekwondo every evening.  we have a lot of places we can see on the weekends together though...so all is not lost. 

my class starts in 8 MINUTES!!!  so...until next time (but hopefully not two months from now).

cheers!
the gypsies ;)