take the road less traveled, and find the courage to grow!

Looks like a scene from Disney's Mulan right?? haha, Cherry Blossom Festival!!






The gang at the Cherry Blossom Festival!

Bri and I during the Cherry Blossom Festival, they were so beautiful!




mmm..Just a typical 'bug' snack served here in Korea!..I haven't tried one yet I'm waiting to be betted some won first ha ha ;)




Portrait of our president..Caught our eyes!





Waiiitin for the Boys 2 Men concert to start!!




Boys II Men!..Brought me back to 8th grade dances :) ha ha





Boys II Men, Given out some roses!



Tia, Amy and I overlooking Dobongsan mountain..yes that was the mountain we were about to hike in the background..at first we thought Katelan was joking..




Two Korean ladies stopped us on our way up the mountain and gave us bananas and asked if we could take a picture with them! They were so curious as to where we were from and I find that a lot of Koreans like to stop and practice their English with us.




I loved this bridge. It was on a path leading to our hike. Such pretty scenery, it makes me realize how this is such a once and a lifetime opportunity to be here in Korea :)



Temple at the foot of Dobongsan mountain.





Temple on our way up Dobongsan mountain, we made it to the peak in the background!




At the entrance of the Temple


BEAUTIFUL VIEW OF SEOUL!



We made it to the top!!



Our view! Seoul!




Girls out for my 23rd Birthday in Hongdae!






May 1, 2010


Open your eyes… look within. Are you satisfied with the life you're living?


How is it MAY already? The weeks go by faster and faster…so fast in fact that I feel like I might miss something if I blink! April has been eventful and I’m really hoping that the saying ‘April showers bring May flowers’ because we had a lot of rain this past month.

A few weekends ago we went to a Cherry Blossom festival in Seoul. It goes on for a couple of weeks at the beginning of the month and I’m so glad we caught it! There was a long path with Cherry Blossom trees on either side of us. The petals drooped down swooping us by; it was so beautiful! The pictures I took reminded me of a scene in the Disney movie ‘Mulan’ haha. It was interesting being surrounded by so many Koreans all at once. They were taking just as much photos as us so I didn’t feel so touristy. There were a lot of street venders. On one corner there were artists sketching people, one asked me to sit down…I didn’t because of time but it was really neat to see. The sketches were unbelievably good! There was even a portrait of Obama, which caught all of our eyes! On another corner there was a bunch of paper mache art sculptures that I really enjoyed looking at. A lot of the pieces were of Korean families at home or out in the fields. After the festival we grabbed a quick lunch and headed to the Boys II Men concert!

The Boys II Men concert was held at the Seoul Olympic Stadium. We walked around the stadium before the concert started and there was a lot of really neat sculptures. There was an ice skating event happening with Yuna Kim that night too, the Koreans seemed really excited to watch her.

The concert was a blast! It was funny to see Koreans (in every age group) sing the songs so passionately..(I’ll admit we got pretty into the songs as well).

‘4 Men’ was the name of the group that opened for Boys II Men… however I only saw 3 of them during their whole performance. Tia claims she saw the 4th one when I was in the bathroom, but I’m not so sure haha. They sound like a Korean version of Boys II Men!

The weekend after Boys II Men was my 23rd birthday weekend! How am I already 23?! I thought it was jussttt my 22nd not too long ago!

My birthday was a blast we went on a 5 ½ hour hike up Dobongsan mountain! When we first got off the subway and saw the mountain in the distance I literally thought Katelan was joking..I remember her saying that it was a tough hike (in my mind I pictured Tiger Mt. and was very confident! I mean I did run cross country like 6 yrs ago hahaha, I’d be fine right!?)

The hike was tough, long and well worth the huffing and puffing! The view was spectacular; it overlooked all of Seoul. Finally when we reached the top all of us just wanted to take it all in for minutes…

“I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”

WE MADE IT!

The feeling was so inspiring. The view was amazing and it definitely reassured me of why I chose to come and experience this journey in the first place.

On the way back down we had to go backwards down the steep rocks holding onto a rope and I almost cried; it was terrifying! Tia was behind me saying, ‘Harp you got this’ and a Korean man helped guide me but it was really scary…going up was hard but I was going forward…going down backwards isn’t as fun!

After the hike we wanted to get a hotel in Hongdae or Itaewan for the night but every place was booked...(or maybe it was b/c we were dressed in hiking gear and they didn’t want to deal with us foreigners…ugh..) So we went to a ‘Jinjibong’ where you can shower and get ready…we went in and there was a men and women section…Bri, Tia, Amy, Kate and I went in and they gave us changing clothes so we put them on. I felt like a prisoner, they were orange and so unflattering! We started to go into the shower and a Korean woman told us we couldn’t bring any clothes in…we all looked at each other like ‘uhh okay..sooo…’ It was quite an experience!

This past week we got a new teacher named, Josh. He made invitations for a potluck that we had on Friday. I made kebobs, which looked delish at first, but because we only have a stove it didn’t work out so well in the ending presention! On Saturday Bri, Tia and I just kept it low key…did dishes, fb’d..painted nails…it was nice! On Sunday we went to EVERLAND which is Korean Disneyland!!! It was an absolute blast! It was Amy’s first time at a theme park, which boggled my mind. She loved it and took the rides like a champ! I loved how bright everything was.

It’s about that time where we’ve been getting ‘homesick’ in waves. It’s crazy that its MAY but I still have 10 months to go…I feel like so much happens in year but its flying by at the same time… I hope all is well at home; I miss some faces that’s for sure! But this adventure is exactly what I needed…


-But I hope you take the road less traveled
And I hope you find the courage to grow-

<3 Katie Rose