This is our lane way. 
Our house from the front yard. 
The shed in the backyard.
Not much happening here. Just had a wonderful three day weekend for thanksgiving. Ate a lot, was made-fun-of by the family, all in all, a good time. I brought home a big ice bowl that I made at work and we had an "ultra pretentious thanksgiving punch". We also picked names for Christmas (because there are so many kids we all exchange names so we only have to buy one gift instead of eight), and I picked Marcia who decided that she wanted a Flight of the Conchords painting. Here it is (so far):
Bret is on the left, Gemaine on the right. The show is about two guys from New Zealand in a band called Flight of the Conchords who move to New York to become famous. A very entertaining show.
went with a tour group comprised of a bunch of hardcore Swedish hikers who were filming everything. It was really rainy and foggy, so apart from Mongolian souvenir sellers, we were the only ones there.
This part of the wall was about three hours away from Beijing and therefore much less popular and falling into ruin, which was a lot of fun. All of the stairs were crumbly and broken, making the steep climbs that much more interesting!
It was the ultimate stairmaster! A few days later I went to the Badaling section which is much closer to Beijing and infinitely more touristy. But this time it was a gorgeous day.
The Badaling great wall was so very crowded, and had obviously been renovated and kept up several times, but still quite entertaining. Everyone scrambling for the perfect "On The Great Wall" shot (myself included). Lot's of dodging cameras and stopping so that people could take pictures.
So here's my requisite shot, looking like a jerk as usual. The Badaling Great Wall was also the site of my worst bathroom experience in my entire life. without going into too much detail; I was feeling a little vomitus, so I rushed to the bathroom (which the tour guide had warned us was terrible). First I had to pay to get in, which seemed pretty wrong, but I shrugged off. Then I realized there was no toilet paper and there was a little old man, conveniently selling tissues. Brutal! TP in hand I went into the bathroom. On a hot, sunny and incredibly humid day I was immediately punched in the face by a horrible smell, which didn't help to make my fluish feelings dissipate! Then I realized that every single stall was a squatter and most of the stalls didn't even have doors. So there were all these old Chinese ladies squatting all over the place without a care in the world in a bathroom that most likely hadn't been cleaned in a month; have I gone too far into detail?
And I'm spent.
Yep, that's a cow coming out of a bowl! Delicious!
Even though the mud frenzy wore off quickly, there was still fun to be had because big crowds equals people watching! There were so many big buff foreign guys (probably GI's from Seoul) without shirts; people in speedos to giggle at; men with pink parasols to protect them from the sun (I'm not lying); Korean ladies wearing high-heel flip-flops; and cute little kids playing in the sand and mud. At night we camped out on the beach watching fireworks and drinking, then all went to our "room" which was very big, but there were about fifteen of us packed in like muddy, drunken sardines. Good times! My face is wrinkle free, but very lobster-like at the moment.
These sharks were in a tank sitting in front of a restaurant! The bigger one is at least four feet long! Can you imagine ordering a shark at a restaurant and grilling it at your table??
Me, (sporting a burn from shopping all day) in front of the "Luxury Ho Bar". This was one of several "Ho Bars" in the area, and apparently they're just regular bars with unfortunate names.
While walking through Insadong Laurel was just walking along looking at tourist items as an old homeless man walked by slapping her on the arm and laughing. I think he was crazy... and drunk... We were thinking that this might make a good t-shirt slogan so I wrote it down on a napkin and took a picture to preserve the memory. I'm fully aware of how weird I am. (Ruler is Laurel. Her name can be really hard to pronounce due to all the r's and l's, so that is usually what her students end up calling her.)
Monique and former Najuite Stu. What a deserter he is!
There are three types of Korean beer (well, I've only seen three...) Hite, OB (which makes me think of tampons), and Cass.
After this we drove through the mountains to Jirisan, a very popular mountain in Korea, and where there are also some bears being raised to populate the mountain because most of them have been wiped out.
Then as we were driving around, what did we see? A big gang of hardcore Korean bikers!! I didn't think they existed in Korea!! Stereotypically Koreans are far too reserved to be into motorcycles and leather!! So Stu stopped the van and we all approached cautiously, wanting photos; in no time we were all arm in arm getting our pictures taken with these friendly bikers, and they were equally enthusiastic with their cameras! Sometimes it takes me a while to realize that I am just as big of a novelty to others here as they are to me! At the same stop was an old ajumma that we bought icecream from. I was the first one to approach her, so she was very inquistive. She was stroking my arm, then my leg (I was wearing a skirt). Without words, she was able to say "Damn! You foreigners have hairy arms! And you shave your legs?? Weird!!!" As has become very evident from visiting saunas, Korean ladies don't shave their legs (or anything else... have I gone too far again?).
From Boesong it was on to Wando via two ferry's. After a while on the beach we'd run out of time so Stu had to take us back to Gwang-ju so he could take back the car in time. It was nice to see more of Korea. The best part was driving along country roads seeing all the mountains, rice fields and old ajummas!!! The final picture: the group of us that went on the roadtrip.