Long time no see! NEW BLOG

Hi! I just wanted to let you know that I am going to be writing on a different blog now.  This blog I want to keep focused on my traveling experiences, and since I am living in Korea and always have people asking me about my time in Korea I thought that changing my blog to a Korea only blog would be a good idea.  Anyway... this blog will start up again when I travel back to the states July 14-30, but until then I am going to be writing on my new blog

Tegan's Take on Seoul- http://www.tegansmith.blogspot.com/

This is a picture from when I made my TV debut in Korea! *^^*

Day 48- San Diego

Waking up in the soft bed at Jenni's house at 5:40 am, I was starving from not eating dinner and falling asleep early. Molly was lying next to me and was also awake, so we checked our email and then I went to the fridge and grabbed my enchilada that I had bought at Ivy the for lunch the day before. I ate the enchilada and fell back asleep and waited for the rest of the girls to awake."Jenni can we eat this hummus?"I asked as I was rummaging through her well stocked fridge.
Jenni, Maureen and I sat at the table and shoved our faces with chips and hummus as Jenni chatted with us and Molly showered. We were trying to figure out a plan for the day, since the following day Maureen, Trisha and Molly have to leave the next day.

We decided to go to San Diego to visit our other sorority sister Katie Sullivan. She had just gotten married in August (about 6 months ago), and had moved to San Diego years ago after school. But before we went to see Katie, we were going to go to lunch at a restaurant called George's on the San Diego waterfront.

We piled into Jenni's KIA and headed down to SanDiego. We laughed the whole way down and talked about the adventures of LA that we had from the night before.

When we finally reached George's, we got a great corner table with a fantastic view of the waterfront. Unfortunately, rain started drizzling down so we had to move to a different spot, but it was still a great view.

The food at George's was great and reasonably priced. I had shrimp tacos served along side a garden salad with a strawberry kiwi martini as my beverage. Everything on the menu was in the $10-15 price range, but came with complimentary chips and salsa and generous portions.

After our lunch we did some brief shopping at the Roxy store and Victoria Secret shop and then headed down to the waterfront for a photo opportunity. The rain had actually created a beautiful rainbow that arched over us, and Maureen commented, "There was a rainbow on my wedding day," which we teased her that we had heard it actually meant bad luck. She was married in April of '09, but the rest of us our still single, so married jokes targeted at Maureen were a fun pastime of the trip. I had been traveling SE asia and all of my clothes smelled of moth balls and Thailand, so I was getting comments right back on that subject.

We all managed to meet up for a photo in front of the sunset in San Diego. It was perfect timing and the photos all turned out beautiful, even though I almost fell down the cliff in my heels in my attempt to snap one of the photos.

After our extensive photo shoot, we all piled back into the KIA and headed to Katie's. I was so excited to see Katie and meet her new husband Dennis, whom she had met in Las Vegas about 4 or 5 years ago. Her house was adorable and had great views of the water. It was great to see Katie, and she looked so happy making us food and drinks and enjoying her newlywed status.

We had a few margaritas and glasses of white wine at Katie's and then headed down the street for a tour of the local dive bars. We had lemon drop shots and shared a pitcher of beer as we talked and caught up on our old gossip.

It was great to see all the girls, and even though it has been ages since I have seen them and lots of things have changed, it all still felt the same!

Day 47- LA Livin' like a celebrity

After the terrible flight experience with Honolulu Airlines, I was overjoyed to see Jenni's white KIA pull up in front of terminal 2 packed with all the girls, luggage and supplies for our night in LA.

"OH my god!" "I MISSED YOU" and "How are you"s rung through the air as we hugged and greeted each other after the long overdue reunion. We managed to figure out a way to fit my oversize suitcase into the already packed car as we gossiped a mile a minute.

Trisha was glowing telling everyone about her new boyfriend, but still keeping all the juicy interesting details a mystery. Maureen was smiling and taking it all in saying, "Teggers, I missed you," in her soft voice while all I could notice was her giant diamond shining from her finger. Molly was in true form and looked fabulous as always, dressed in her fashionable designer clothes while directing Jenni the route to the Mondrian via GPS. Jenni was focusing on driving, but kept on bursting out in laughter when one of our many outragous comments came about.

We made it to the hotel and had the car valet parked, while Mercedes, BMWs, and other expensive cars were pulling up next to us in the KIA. We could tell that this was going to be an amazing experience.

Once I entered the room, I was shocked at how beautiful it was. Two twin beds against the opposite wall with white down comforters, a huge white designer couch on the opposite wall in front of a pattern designed table equipped with supplies such a champagne bucket all ready to get the party started. The most amazing feature about the room was the mirror. The mirror was huge and double sided, and looked like something out of Alice and Wonderland. One side of the mirror actually had the TV inside of it as well! So, with a click of a button we could watch TV through our mirror in our posh room overlooking Sunset Boulevard.

We turned on the music and cracked open the wine while we each took turns showering and getting ready for our 8:30 reservation at celebrity hotspot Koi. Champagne, white wine, and red wine made us get a bit wild and the PG 13 conversations soon had turned to a bit of adult advisory content. We also went a bit crazy with my new Nikon CoolpixL100 camera and took endless photos all over the room... although some of those photos I hope will never be discovered.

I was late per usual, so Trisha and I agreed to take a seperate taxi while the other girls headed to the restaurant ahead of us. We were seated right away in the center of Koi, and the whole time I kept my eyes peeled for

celebrities.

A friendly, beautiful blond waitress greeted us and took our drink orders and made recommendations. Since the restaurant is asian themed cuisine there were plenty of great sushi dishes and alot of interesting seafood options. We decided to share the food we ordered, and all of us chose a couple things that sounded good. The food was absolutely amazing, and we had devoured it within minutes of every dish being dropped at the table.

Koi was a complete success, and we all were so happy to be reunited and having such a great dining experience.

We made it back to our hotel after dinner and couldn't stop laughing. Although, the only married one of the girls is Maureen, Trisha, Molly, and I were giving her marital advice that would probably only lead problems. Molly also had a dress that was at times very revealing, so we had good times taking risque photos and playing with a black plastic hand art piece that we found in the room.

By about 11 pm we finally left our room and headed out to the bar in our hotel Sky Bar. It was a pool side bar that was packed with people sipping drinks and chatting poolside. Trisha and I got into chatting and attempting to ignore a creepy guy that kept buying us drinks, and before we knew it 2am had already rolled around and it was time to head back to our room.
We stayed up till about 4am laughing and joking with eachother until we finally managed to fall asleep. At 8:30 we amazingly woke up to a beautiful day on Sunset Boulevard.

The other girls were starving, but I had serious stomach problems due to shoving my face with chips and hummus and the prior tequila based drinks courtesy of creepy Raul from Sky Bar.

Molly, Trisha and I though were still game on to keep the party going, and we decided to mix the remaining champagne and orange juice and get a nice start to the day going.

Hmmmm booze for breakfast? Maybe not the best of ideas, but definitely not the first time for us. So after we had finished off the champagne, we started on the red wine. By this time it was nearing our 12 checkout, and we were quite buzzed. I convinced the girls that we should at least spend some of the afternoon pool side, since we were staying at such a nice hotel anyway.

We checked our bags in and headed to the pool. Molly and I changed into our swimsuits and ordered some drinks and food, while the other girls read the latest gossip magazines and suntanned.

Molly was chatting with some guy from New York at the other end of the pool, and I was getting bored, so I decided to jump in and splash her. It wasn't really a cannonball jump, but it was more a starfish of sorts, but it did suprize Molly and make all the stuck up guests at the pool a bit surprized as well.

By this time it was getting late in the afternoon, and we were going to head back to Riverside that evening, so we decided to go to another celebrity dining hot spot Iv

y, for our last LA experience.

We parked the car a few streets down from Melrose and walked about a half mile to Ivy.

"Oh my god! That is Jessica Simpons hair dresser!" I screamed and pointed as we passed the beautiful Ken Paves salon.

The other girls were less impressed, and continued walking, but it may just have been due to hunger. As we walked along the streets of LA, I was actually a bit shocked at how peaceful and clean it was. I had been so used to living in Korea where everything is busy and packed with people, but actually LA felt very relaxing and spacious in comparison.

We arrived at Ivy just as they had switched the menu to dinner. Although, most of the time people eat there for lunch, we just decided it would be more for the experience and we didn't want to search for a different dinner spot.

The menu was mostly american classics a bit on the pricey side. Chicken, meatloaf, fish, and salads were some of the things that caught my eye but I ended up ordering an the enchilada dish and the famous Ivy Giblet for my beverage.

We were quite exhausted and had a good dinner, but all agreed that Koi was better. I did really like Ivy, but it would be better for more of an early afternoon joint. All in all, it was a great night spent in LA and a great time with my some of my favorite people!

Days 46- Honolulu Airlines I hate you!

I arrived into Honolulu airport Friday January 15th at 8:30 am. Slightly earlier than I had expected. I decided that since I had a layover until 2 pm for my flight to LAX Los Angelos, I might as well make the most of it, and head to the beach. The staff at the airport were very helpful and friendly and told me that for $2.25 I could jump on a bus that would take me to the beach at Waikiki. So, off I went for a nice afternoon to soak up some sun before heading to LA.
Time flew by and I realized that it was getting late by the time I had boarded the bus number 19 back to the airport.

SHIT! I can't miss my flight. I cant miss my flight! I thought as I wished the bus would drive faster. Then the bus driver pulled over and stopped the bus and got out. What the hell is he doing I thought? I waited for about 10 minutes listening to my newly purchased Sony MP3 player, until I finally questioned another passenger as to what the bus driver was doing.

"He is waiting for a another driver to switch shifts," the lady replied.

"Oh, ok, "I said, even though I was wondering how much longer this process would take.
I sat there listening to the new Britney Spears 1,2, 3 song and imagined the Honolulu Airlines jet flying into the distance without me and decided that it would be for my benefit to jump off the bus and make a run for the airport.

Drenched in sweat and panting to catch my breath, I ran from counter to counter trying to figure out which counter I was supposed to check in at. Flights to Mainland where the hell are you? After countless questions to different airport staff, I finally stumbled across the correct line and got checked in and went through customs seamlessly.
The flight boarded and I sat next to a friendly although obnoxious woman who was telling me her life story within the first 15 minutes we had met. I found it strange that we had been sitting on the plane without takeoff for such an extended period of time, until they announced that there were problems with the aircraft and we would need to get off and wait for a fix or possibly switch aircrafts.

FUCK! I hate Hawaiian Airlines! My friend Tom, I had met in Korea was supposed to be picking me up from the airport, but now I wouldn't have a ride because the flight was going to be delayed so much. The obnoxious lady let me borrow her phone and ring Tom to let him know the bad news.

We got off the plane and that is when the Hawaiian Airlines lies began. First it was a 2 hour delay, then a 4 hour delay, then a 6 hour delay! Not to mention, the airport had the air conditioner on high and I was literally freezing because I had not anticipated this. I decided that I would try to make the best of the shitty situation and go wait in the long line and complain in hopes of getting a food voucher.
Well, after about 30 minutes of waiting and listening to other passengers complain, I finally got what I had been waiting for.... A $20 FOOD VOUCHER! WOOOOO HOOO!

Although the flight attendant told me to hurry back by 915 to board the flight, I didn't really pay much attention to her warnings since they had been lying to me all day long. I mean how could I believe anyone that had been feeding me these lies of "take off" all day?

I literally ran through the long hallways of the '70s designed Honolulu Airport and finally made it to my place of haven... BURGER KING!

I don't normally eat junk food and I actually prefer salads to burgers, but since I had been waiting for hours and had the voucher, I decided to make it worth my while.

I looked at the menu as though it was a math equation, and did my best to get as much food as possible without leaving any credit left on the voucher. Now, this is where my trouble started! Triple patty whopper meal with french fries, veggie burger, and onion rings with a large drink!

"Can you please give me some mayonaise?" I asked the angry Burger King employee as she grabbed my voucher from my hand while glaring at me the whole time.

I took my massive plate of food over to the corner of the restaurant and slowly enjoyed some of my calorie packed grease fest. I was eating it slowly, thinking about how delicious the greasy burger was, when suddenly I felt like I should think about my flight.

Hmmmm, AAAHHH HAAA! I thought. I packed my food up into a bag and went over to the massage chairs underneath the flight schedule reader board. Honolulu to Los Angelos- DELAYED. Good! I thought. I wasn't late, and I could enjoy the greasy, sodium snacks I had purchased while getting a massage.

The time flew by and still the flight reader board hadn't changed. I started to freak out a bit because it was already 9:30 and the board hadn't changed to say "boarding" or "last call" like all of the other flights. But since it was already 7 hours delayed, I wasn't too worried. But I decided to call information and ask them if they had any new status updates.

"Hello, I am calling to see if you know anything about the flight to Los Angelos that was oringinally supposed to depart at 2pm?" I questioned the information worker.

"Ummm.... it looks like that flight has already departed," they answered casually.

"WHAT!?!?!??!" I screamed and dropped the phone, and ran to my terminal.

I literally sprinted through the airport wishing I hadn't eaten those last onion rings. I felt the grease bubbling in my stomach, as sweat droplets dripped down my forehead due to my high speed sprint to my terminal.

Upon arrival, I saw a couple I knew had been on the flight, but everyone else was gone.

"Oh my god, oh my god, did you guys miss the flight too?" I asked them.

They looked at my strangely and explained to me that the flight hadn't left yet, but I didn't believe them. They told me it was leaving at 11:30, but I found it strange there was not a single other person waiting in our terminal.

We went to an attendent and soon learned that indeed we had missed our flight! Tears, sad stories, lies, angry rants, and complaints filled the air until the three of us had been put up in a hotel for the night and been put on the flight to LA for the following morning. The Honolulu Airlines staff reluctantly gave us what we needed, but did it while making us feel like shit the whole time as well. I couldn't believe that after 7 hours of waiting, and no updated reader board, on top of no announcement, they were still going to rub it in our faces that everyone else had made the flight, and we were the only ones who didn't.

But, it worked out well for me! We ended up getting showers, TV, and good nights sleep before our flight out in the morning. I can't explain to you how nice that bed felt after my day from hell at Honolulu Airport! I will never forget you Ohana Hotel! BUT I really hope to forget you Hawaiian Airlines!!!

Days 41-45- Back to the Land of Kimchi

I flew into Korea at 6am from my Thai air flight from Bangkok. Immediately, I was relieved to be back. Hearing the sounds of koreans talking made sense to me, and when I heard a guy behind me say, "Sheebar" (shit), I laughed and said I agree, as the family of 8 cut in front of us in the customs line.

Young Bum picked me up from the airport, late as usual, and we spent the day sleeping and resting trying to avoid the freezing weather outside. We ordered in one of my favorite korean foods Du Bu Kimchi which is tofu and fried kimchi and ate it as we took shots of the korean liquor soju.

The next day I went to my old work place Kids College and greeted the kids and my old friends. It was great to see everyone, and the kids were shocked to see me since it had been so long since we had been together. I dropped off the small gold figurines that I had bought t

hem in Cambodia, and I think they were all pleased to receive their small gift.

Since I had my camera stolen I had to head to Yongsan Techno Mart and get a new one, which I wasn't looking forward to. The techno mart is a giant mall filled with all sorts of different vendors selling cameras, phones, ipods, and other goodies. You have to bargain to get the price you want, and usually it is better to go with a korean so they don't try to rip you off.

I ended up doing ok though and found a Nikon CoolpixL100 and a nice small 8g Sony MP3 for reasonable prices.

After I had finished my shopping I decided that it was time to make the long journey down to Osan to visit one of my best friends Martin. He had a friend in from out of town named Sara and was always up for a good time, so I thought it would be best to just head down to Osan directly from Yongsan subway since it would save me time.

I had a strange experience on the subway though. It was a confusing train transfer on the subway, so I asked the girl standing next to me if I was going the right way.

"Osan, is this the way to Osan? Yogi Osan kalkoyaeyo? Osan?" I repeated to the girl, waiting for her to answer me.

But she slowly took off her headset and hesitated to answer until the doors of the train were already shutting. I felt so frustrated because she obviously understood what I was trying to ask her, but refused to answer me.

"Ney, Osan," she finally replied in low voice that made me realize her reason for being shy on the packed subway train.

The she was actually a HE! Oh my god! Transexuals are not common in korean, but I had found one! She/he was just embarrassed to speak, in fear that someone would hear her/his low voice and realize her/his secret.

For the rest of the train ride my new transexual friend spoke to me in a quick and low voice trying to communicate exactly how to get to Osan. At one point, we even had to transfer trains and she/he came with me. Finally, we reached Osan and she/he walked me to the gate and quietly said goodbye and scurried away.

Martin laughed uncontrollably when I told him the tale of the transexual. He is gay but loves to tease me about my tom boy ways, and is convinced I am a lesbian in some sort of way.

Martin, Sara and I all had a nice time in Osan, but a nice time in Osan is quite boring on a Monday. We ate samgyupsal (similar to bacon), went to a hof (a small bar) and then ended our night with a trip to a nightclub. We thought that if we went to a nightclub there would at least be a few people there to dance with and entertain us, but we were wrong! Everywhere in Osan dies out earlier, and we were left dancing to Kpop (korean pop music) by ourselves.

Day 39- Koh Tao All good things come to an end...

I looked at my clock and realized that it was 1030 and I obviously was not going to be diving today. I had wanted to an advanced open water courseat 630 in the morning, but there was no way I could wake up in time with no alarm clock and I partied way too much the night before.

And I had good luck for the whole trip but the night before left me frustrated and annoyed. I am the queen of losing electronics, and although I tried my best to keep track of things my water proof camera went missing last night. Yes, this is probably the 30th camera I have lost in my life time, so it isn't much surprize but last night I was celebrating finishing my PADI and the underwater camera most likely was stolen when I went to the bathroom. There was a 5 minute interval it was left unseen and in that time it was gone. I looked everywhere, and asked everyone. So on this morning, I was feeling really bummed and didn't want to wake up.

But, I finally got out of bed around 1130 and went to an internet cafe on the other side of the island to take care of some things I had been putting off. I had to still buy a ticket from California to Seattle, call my mom, call my bff Jenni and figure out things for the upcoming travels.

I also had been eaten alive by bed bugs the night before and had no idea how to take care of it. I bought some anti itch medicine and cream and have been slathering it all over my body, but I still feel like when I was 6 and had chicken pocks. No matter how much I try to think of other things I can't stop itching.

Exhausted from my nearly 6 week go go go travels, I finally let myself rest for an entire afternoon. I didn't even want to go to the beach because seeing it just made me sad to know I will have to leave it soon. I am not ready to adjust to a life that doesn't require mojito buckets. I don't want to wear closed toed shoes. I am not ready to be in a place that is colder than 20 degrees. I am just not ready for real life but at the same time I am ready to go somewhere else.

I layed down and slept the afternoon away and didn't awaken till the evening. I walked down to the main beach to watch a last fire show, eat my last green curry and rice meal and get my last cocktail (shark attack). I looked out at the crashing waves and ate alone while 2 cats sat at my feet purring at the beach front restaurant.

I don't know what I want right now, but I do know that 40 days prior I felt alot different. I felt scared to not know what is ahead. I didn't know what it would be like traveling alone. I just wanted to stay in Korea.

I am excted to go back to Korea. I really want to get organized and be productive and see all my old students. I want to see Young Bum and my friends from Kids College and korean friends. I just feel like I have gone through alot and learned so much and going back I don't know how I will adjust. I will not be able to wear my pink binkini top and shorts as an outfit. I won't be able to drink beer for breakfast. Well, tomorrow I start the journey back, so I better get ready.

I leave Koh Tao at 1015 and head to Bangkok with flight to Seoul at 1100 pm. So I will walk through the beautiful streets of Koh Tao one last time and think of all the great fun I have had.
Goodbye vacation!

Day 38- Koh Tao-I AM A SCUBA DIVER!

I don't know how I managed but my natural body clock was able to wake me up at 6:45, right in time for day4 of my 4 day diver certification course (http://www.padi.com/ or http://www.crystaldive.com/ . I was a bit nervous for today, because I had felt a little scared yesterday when my ear was hurting, but also I was so pumped to get to see the cool sea life.

I grabbed a whole wheat baguette and coffee from Crystal's restaurant and sat down on the beach side bean bags to wait for my instructions. It was early, but everyone seemed really excited for the dives. We checked our dive bags and made sure we had all of our supplies and then got on the boat.

We went to a new location called White Rock and jumped into the water by 8:21 am. The warm water felt nice and woke me up. As we descended into the bright blue water, I was shocked at how many new fish and things we could see. The visibility was much better than the day before and I was surrounded by even more creatures than before. We were swimming and hovering over the coral and looking at all the cool fish. This time we got to see angel fish, trigger fish and even a blue spotted stingray.

The second dive we went to a place called Twins. This dive was pretty awesome too because when we got in the water we were surrounded by all of these cool fish called Fushialee or something like that but they are silver/white with a yellow stripe on their backs. We kept swimming around and saw another sting ray hiding under a rock and then towards the end of the dive we saw a really cool fish called an Emperor Fish that was huge!

We got back to Crystal by 12 and all went to lunch and filled out the rest of the paper work. Everyone was tired, but our teacher Liran was exhausted from watching all of us and he even had to go back and teach another student who missed the morning dive because he overslept.

Tonight at 7pm our group is all meeting at the Irish Pub to watch our dive video and enjoy passing our PADI. I can't wait to see it, and I feel like this has been one of the best experiences of my life.

My trip is only 2 more days but really only 1 because the last one will be spent entirely traveling. Even thought I definitely went over budget, I have had the best time of my life and wouldn't change a thing.