Merry Christmas!

Our tree and beautiful mirror from Gloria!!!

Well, it's been a while huh? Mikey and I moved to an apartment in Sleepy Hollow. We're enjoying the sun room and our christmas tree and I'm enjoying my slightly shorter commute to work!

The Journey

This is an outline of the journey that we traversed across the US of A! (hope you can see it all) If you look closely we managed to hit about 31 states, some we just drove through but most we stopped at least for a cup of coffee and gas:) Next stop, Hawaii?!?!?!???

Happy Belated Birthdays To Us...

About to play cards with some Barbie cards and have a small boy steal Evan's watermelon!

On the open sea....or a cove in the extremely calm Hudson!

Inspector Gadget

Cold Spring

Room at the Hudson House

Beautiful flowers at Caramoor

Haha! Smile pretty Ana...Use the sun!

Our last stop on our road trip at Katheryn's in NJ

Well here we are coming to the end of July in which month both Mikey and I have birthdays! Woohoo! 1/4 century!!!! For Mikey I bought tickets to a jazz show at Caramoor which we attended on Sunday with Evan and Juerie. We ate...and ate...and ate...and ate...and...oh yea we saw some cool live music, hehe. It was a beautiful relaxing afternoon. For my birthday Mikey took me up to Cold Spring for a night at the Hudson House Inn. We spent the afternoon kyacking and walking around the town.

Reality

Well, I know you have all been waiting for us to continue posting but really life has not been so exciting as of late. The end of our trip was a blast, we ran into rain that followed us all the way back to NY and has slowly (very slowly) been drifting away. It's a beautiful July morning/afternoon right now but it feels like May which is ok with me.

Anyway, after MT we stopped in Yellowstone park for a few days, there was snow on the ground and lots of rain and I wished I had brought gloves to fight the cold. The scenery was worth it all. We took a day to drive around the park and stop at all the different geysers and mineral ponds, the colors and heat are amazing, oh and the smells (so we didn't have to shower cause we smelled better than the outside! hehe). We took a hike up by a lake to the top of one small peak where there was an amazing view. On our way back to the campsite we stopped along the road to take a picturesque picture, giant lake, mountains, sunset, just serene and beautiful. Mike hopped out of the car and ran across the street for the picture, a man in an SUV pulled up in front of Mike as he was headed back to the car, he said, "What is it?" Mike replied, " Um it's just a nice view". Man, "Hmph" and starts to drive his car away. Man's wife, "Oh! It is!" (like she hadn't noticed before he said that). Now many people keep a watch for animals but seriously this man was annoyed that there was no animal and it was just pretty.

Ever onward, our motto for the trip, we continued East through WY. We camped at the eastern edge near a lake and encountered an extreme thunder and lightning storm that brought superbly heavy rains. Next through South Dakota where we stopped and took pictures of Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore ($20 and $10 for parking, no thank you when you can see it from the road!). Our next camping stop we were next to a man, a woman and three kids, so you would think nice quiet evening, and you'd be wrong. The man (definitely not the father of the kids) was yelling "Whooooooo!" all night and drinking and then on the phone with his friend in jail who he had to go bail out. We just wanted to yell, "Shut up!" but eventually it stopped.

The next day we stopped in the Badlands which is a crazy muddy mountainous region in the middle of flatlands, it was really pretty and interesting. We drove through SD without much more excitment and it continued to rain a lot so we drove late into the night, stopped for dinner and then slept in the car. It stopped raining for the next day and we stopped in Omaha for some lunch and to look around, there is a really cute downtown area. The next camping spot was in Weston Bend, MO on the river which was a big part of the Lewis and Clark expeditions. It would have been cool to hike down and check out the river but alas the rain was with us so we drove to Mike's friend's parent's house and had lunch with them, yum!

We wanted to check out Southern MO so we drove through Rolla to look at the school for me and then further south. We checked out the town (not much of one) and drove around looking for this property that we had seen for sale online. It was pretty cool when we finally found it, right on the river off of a dirt road. We didn't make much progress for a few days because then we found an awesome camping spot (down another dirt road) right next to the lazy river where we could go swimming. There was a boat launch and people were coming and going all day while we just sat and relaxed and enjoyed. Ah the simple life.

We headed to Nashville and ran into a country music fest and even though I'm not much into country music it was really fun. The cover bands in the bars were all playing the same songs but they were talented musicians and the crowds were really into it making it enjoyable. We stopped for some late night bbq ribs....ohhhhhhhhhh so good! By the time we got back to the car it was after midnight and we had no place to stay. Mike passed out as soon as we got to the car and I was left to navigate out of the city of circular streets that were half closed because of the festival. Finally, I found a highway going north but at this point I was quite exhausted. I was hoping for a rest stop as soon as we were out of the city but after an hour and no sign of one I decided to pull into a truck weigh station for the night. At 6am there was a loud knock on the window, the state trooper telling us he was opening in 1/2 an hour and we had to get out of there. As we were slowly waking up he came back and offered to let us use the bathroom, brush our teeth and freshen up, so nice! It had only been a couple of hours of sleep so we were both still pretty tired, we stopped for breakfast at a Cracker Barrel and then fell asleep again in the parking lot for another 2 hours or so.

About an hour north was Mammoth Cave, the largest known cave system in the world. Most of the tours were booked by the time we arrived so we embarked on a 3/4 mile self-guided tour. The coolness of the cave is shocking you can feel it from hunderds of feet away. Through Kentucky and West Virginina and back into Maryland. Our last stop was in Cape May, NJ to see my friend Katheryn who just moved down there to work. We hung out at the beach and got some amazing fresh fish and rode bicycles around.

And here we are, back in NY. We are both helping our parents with projects around the house and sending out resumes. Maybe some jobs will appear soon but for now this is life.

Montana

It's hard to write from the road, we don't always have cell service and if we do a battery might run out, or perhaps we run into a cafe with internet but the computer is in the car far far away.  And when we do get the opportunity it is often rushed and only completing what is necessary for the moment.  Otherwise the trip is still going excellently! Current city: Bozeman, MT.  Headed to Yellowstone NP for 3 days!  Here are some more pictures (the camera is in the car with the more recent pics but I'm not going to get it!): 

http://picasaweb.google.com/ana.stachowiak/COUtahArchesBryceZionGrandCanyonLA#

Last night we stayed in a national forest, it was 4 miles off the main road, it took 35 minutes to get there, it was free! We are seeing our first rain since Mississippi (way back in April).  

We stopped in a used bookstore somewhere in MT before we got to Missoula, it was stacked ceiling to floor, all over the floor with books. We bought a book on tape called "The Tummy Trilogy" it makes us hungry so we can't listen to it anymore hehe!

Poor doggy:( sprained his wrist.

Gotta go!

Utah

Were here at Escalante outfitters in Southern Utah about 50 miles from Bryce Canyon Nat'l Park. It boasts Pizza Beer Cabins Gear. . . so we stopped. 2 pitchers later were going to find refuge in a "primitive camping" location in some National Forest.

The ride from Arches (eastern Utah) was VERY scenic, picturesque, dramatic, beautiful, peaceful, humbling and silent. Besides some streaks from airplanes in the sky the red rock desert and eroded bluffs look ancient and indian.

We reserved our next two nights of camping at Zion National Park and Grand Canyon so we SHOULD not have a stressful late night arrival full of surprises and wasted gas like we had in the Rockies. But damn, the next day cutting across that fresh young mountain range in a wintery May was quite nice.

So I've been thoroughly impressed with this vast ever changing country. Its amazing this space is unified. I appreciate that. But being from the Northeast IS like being from another country sometimes. Many friendlies and many not so friendlies. Utahans are very outdoor gear headed protective types sick of tourists congesting their red rock lanes. Most often we heard "Get the F**k out of the road!!"

Computer running low. Maybe we'll get Wi-Fi somewhere else down the road!
Ciao

1/2 Way

After Baton Rouge we headed further west to Texas. At the last minute we got in touch with a friend we met in South Korea who lives in Houston. He invited us to stay at his parents house who were incredibly hospitable, feeding us and putting a roof over our head. Needless to say it was very hard to leave them. We headed next to San Antonio to walk around and then camped about an hour outside of the city in Kerrville. We hiked around the park the next day and then off to Guadalupe National Park. Flat, long and dry was the drive. We tried to camp near Carlsbad Cavern so we could go the next, but it didn't work out and we drove late into the night through New Mexico to Santa Fe. Passing through Roswell (weird) we stopped at a Walgreens to get some things, as we got out of the car a lady yelled at us "Get a job motherf*****s!" Don't know why but it was funny to us, and probably one of the only unfriendly people we've met so far. We got into Santa Fe very late and slept/hardly slept in the car. Santa Fe is a very quaint town and as Mike said, "It reminds me of a Disney land theme village." As we were leaving I commented on a the woman flowers who was in the car next to us. She started to talk to us and lead us to the next highway we were going on, so nice! Northern New Mexico is so beautiful, we stopped and bought some fruit from a man and his truck, he thinks we'll be back. And here we are in Denver for today.
picasaweb.google.com/ana.stachowiak/SanAntonioGuadalupeSantaFeTheRoad#

First Leg

Current City: Baton Rouge, LA

We headed off to DC on Friday morning, a bit behind schedule but not too far, I'm just going to start adding at least an hour to my desired time departures. We hooted and hollered in the car on the ride down, very excited about our coming journeys. We walked around the capital for about 2 hours and then headed to Arlington, VA to stay with an old college friend of mine. We went to a bar for dinner and then just hung out in his apartment the rest of the night, it was good to catch up, it's been around 4 years since I've seen him. Saturday morning we ventured to the DC arboretum, unfortunately I had a nasty allergy attack but the trees and flowers were still beautiful.

Off to Apex, NC! Oh no the car! The oil pressure light kept flashing on our drive to NC, so very very bad. So, we would stop and let the car cool/check the oil and the light would go off and we could drive a little further. We finally arrived and were lost in the town for a bit until Jonathan came and found us! Sunday we took the car to Sears to have it looked at, apparently what happened is the last time the oil was changed they put the wrong oil filter and oil change in, so basically we got a SUPER expensive oil change, alas, such is life. We got to see a bit of Raleigh and Apex and reunite with long lost friends:)

A long, dark, windy ride later we arrived in the Great Smokey Mountains, TN at the Abrams Creek campsite (no car problems woohoo!). We set up camp, made a fire and hung for a little while before hitting the sack. Tuesday we awoke early and put our new stove to good use with coffee and oatmeal. We ventured on an almost 12 mile hike to the nearest waterfall. It was quite beautiful and quite tiring. Back into the car for an 11 hour ride, yikes!

Although we didn't stop in Alabama it didn't seem too exciting. We did stop in Mississippi for some dinner, also not too exciting, but super nice people. We were telling how we were driving cross country and going to New Orleans next, one woman who worked at the Waffle House was from New Orleans and was giving me some pointers of what to do and drink;) Well, thank goodness we were talking to them because I left my cell phone on the counter and we got in the car and drove across the street to get gas. After I had finished pumping a woman from the restaurant came huffin and puffin over with my cell in hand! So lucky! We finally arrived in Baton Rouge around 1am to see yet another friend who I haven't seen in about 3 years.

Yesterday, we headed to the French Quarter. It's an old quaint city bursting with artists and musicians. We really like this city. We got some breakfast...plates piled high with fried seafood and jambalaya, delicious. I was told to drink a Hurricane, so Mike and I did and Evan got a beer...you can walk on the streets with your drinks:) Then we had to drive Evan to the airport:( We will miss our only non-down-and-out road tripper!

We are still in Baton Rouge and plan to leave tomorrow to head to Texas for some more camping.

You can see some of the pictures that we took at: http://picasaweb.google.com/ana.stachowiak/OokSTrip#

Heading Off Again...

This morning we begin our journey to the other side of the country.  Our friend Ook arrived late Monday night at Newark.  We just hung around on Tuesday, resting up eating A LOT, Maria's pizza and Matilde's restaurant.  Wednesday we journeyed into the city: Bronx Zoo, Union Square/Heartland Brewery, American Indian Museum, Battery Park, Staten Island Ferry, City Hall, Brooklyn Bridge and a Thai restaurant.  Ook made it to 4 of the 5 boroughs in 1 day, pretty impressive I think.  After dinner we went back to Evan's to hang out and sleep.  Thursday morning we walked to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, they have some really cool exhibits including a tropical/desert and warm climate greenhouses.  We then went to Grand Central Terminal, visited Mike's uncle at work, got some pizza, visited Gloria, walked past Central Park and traveled back home.   

This morning we are starting our cross country road trip...we should be leaving in 1/2 an hour! (maybe) We will try to post some updates during the trip.

Some of the last pics

One more to go

We flew off the Korean peninsula days before the northern neighbor launched their "satellite" and narrowly escaped the apocalypse and certain death, Or so we've heard, coming back into the western mental-sphere.

Not a word mentioned about it while talking to my far east contacts. The South Koreans are resilient people. Very dismissive about their black sheep brother to the north. "It's just a lot of trash," Said one child months back, during a different barrage of threats. Naturally, they have turned a deaf ear.

But it's all the rage back home. People saying, " Thank God you got out when you did." Like we were fighting in some CNN war room.

We have lived without TV for a year by choice, letting the internet satiate our entertainment needs. Back in it, I again realize the stupifying hype generated by those 24 hour news stations located in westchester's 24-26 channel range. We can fear anything they want.

In reality, South Korea is a lot safer for the individual than the U.S.A.(at least it seems that way to me and as long as US military backs them, hehe) . I believe that. Their medical system is cheap and efficient.

Guns, though I promote the 2nd amendment, are not a problem in Korea. No shootings. (Just stranglers and knivers).

Their education system (not better in my mind), however deeply flawed it may be, is the nations top priority. They have 99.9% literacy rate, or something close to it.

In short, I hope people stop taking the TV's word as truth. There's finer information on the internet and in libraries.

In other news, our last night was spent at Soundgarden in Jinju's Gyeongsang University "district." For a Tuesday night I was surprised at our turn out. Most of our friends came out to say goodbye over some drinks. Thanks guys!

In other other news, more exciting news I think. Our friend Kim Hyung Ook or "Ookers" as we like to call him, is visiting the USA!! He is joining me and Ana on our cross country trip. He has never been out of S.K. so we're super excited to show him this vast beatiful land. (most of which will be new to me as well).

We're Baaaaack!

We arrived safe and sound on Wednesday night after a long journey. Samjin was able to come with us on the plane but he did get told, "No barking", as you can imagine he didn't really listen. It was a crazy last couple of weeks so we still have some pictures and stories for you that we will share soon. It's good to be back.

Ho Hum

I'll begin on Sunday. It was a nice day. Really warm. The sun had shone strong through the day. Before I left for my walk with Samjin I brought the plants to the roof for some of the goodness. 

At the foot path by the river some of the small cherry blossoms started to bloom. There was another person next to me taking this same picture.

I made my way down to the river which is running quite dry. At certain points you can walk right across it on its gravel floor. With the water washed out I saw all these large rusted anchor type things on the river bed. I guessed they were to deterrents to boaters. What do you make of it?

So I did the loop and walked further down the river by the bamboo thicket. Across the river at this point was a partially collapsed rock wall.

I headed back up into the streets at the bungee jump platform that hangs over a cesspool. Walked past the damn and headed home after a couple hours on foot. The sun was getting low, and the plants don't do well in low heat so I got home and took them down. Ana got back from soccer and we met some friends at Zio Ricco's for some pizza pies. They serve dark Belgian beer here so I got one.

There were also some jolly fat Italians juggling wine bottles next to me:

A couple nights ago we had an Apartment sale. Got a knock and in came ten shoppers. This is what John got. John is letting us live in his suite for the remainder of our time here. He's holding our beloved and mysterious herb plant. It was vibrant and full, and then our dog was spiteful and attacked it last week. 

So thats been the deal. The rest has been a pretty crappy fight with our management. We worked hard for them, and actually cared about the success of their business, and we get treated like dogs. 

Jinju University of Education

Jinju University of Education CUE English Program ..... DON'T work for them! We once again had a fight at work, they are making us move out of our apartment tomorrow by noon, so that they can move us into a place that is free for the remaining 3 weeks that we are here.  I am very angry right now.  They tried to move us into the dormitory which won't allow our dog and told us to put him in an kennel, which they won't pay for.  Basically, they are pushing us around again and this time I'm really tired of it.  They made all these ridiculous claims that if we stayed in our apartment and they paid for it the entire staff at the school would be fired if an inspector came to audit their spending.  I can't believe this is true because our contract states that they will provide housing for us for the terms of our contract.  Well, at least outside of work we have made so many good friends who are willing to have us stay with them.  So, even though work will make it difficult to live comfortably for the next couple of weeks we will be ok:) 

Perks

Being a teacher here and having your face plastered all over the school advertisements can come in handy.  I was at Baskin Robins the other day and a students mom, a woman I didn't know, came up to me and said, "I'm Jun's Mom".  Now, I didn't know who that was but she said she would buy my ice cream! Sweet! Yum yum yum :) Then my student texted me and so then I knew who it was. I love ice cream, especially when it's free!

4th Times a Charm - Jiri-san Part IV

Mountain goats!

The not so sunny day after all

View from above

Top of the mountain

Top views

Steep and treacherous 

Samjin's hideout

Snowy trees

Climbing

My legs hurt!

We finally made it to the top of the 2nd highest peak in South Korea, 1915 meters up.  It was a beautiful morning when we set out on the bike with Samjin in tow to the mountain.  We arrived at the base at 12:15.  Samjin was put in the backpack and off to the top we went.  It was warm and sunny, the trail was steep and grueling but it felt good.  About 2 kilometers up we started to see bits of snow but it was still quite warm, or the hiking was making us that way.  We came across two women who were impressed that we knew a bit of Korean, they gave us 2 clementines and some candy.  By the time we got to the temple 3.5 km up there was snow and ice all over the trail and big muddy parts.  I fell again, in the same spot as last time, onto my camera, ouch! Don't worry the camera's ok, but my back hurts.  Another km up and poor Samjin was all wet and shivering, so we wrapped him in a sheet and sweatshirt and back into the bag he went.  It was getting colder we could feel the air changing with each step.  Less than 1 km from the top Mike wanted to quit, I said "If we go to the top now we never have to come back!" He agreed and onward we trudged.  The last stretch is actually scary, it feels like you are walking straight up, there is nothing to hold onto, only a loose rock here or there.  Finally, the summit, there was more snow here, the sun had tucked away behind the clouds, my winter jacket was necessary.  It was beautiful, the highest point on the SK peninsula, we could see for miles even with the clouds.  Not too long to take it all in, it was already 4:15 and we still had to go back down.  

Going down is pure torture.  

You can't stop, the pain in your legs sets in, but there is no where to go but down.  We stopped a few times but not for long, going up felt better than going down.  It was dark by the time we made to back to the parking lot.  We were tired and hungry, we got some grub at the restaurant at the bottom, some warm soup and a Korean style pancake.  Then it was off to the cold night for a long ride back to Jinju.

Departure Delays

Well, it looks as though our plane got delayed...hahaha! By one month that is.  We expect to leave Korea on April 1st...and no it's not an April Fool's Day Joke promise!  Basically what happened is our job promised us one thing when we resigned the contract to only stay 11 months.  When it was mentioned again last week they "Didn't remember"/"Didn't understand"/"Didn't know the word 'severence'".  It was a big annoying and stressful fight but now it is resolved.  I'm not mad about having to stay another month I'm mad that it had to be handled in this way.  The director was not very receiving when I told him that his employees should not be treated this way.  Well, neither here nor there we're where we are and that will soon be back in the US of A! We can't wait to see everybody and recount some of our tales with you:)

Winding Down

Fire and moon

At the wall

Dooogy sitter :)

Last weekend we spent Saturday inside doing nothing but eating and sleeping.  All of our friends did the same too, must have been something in the air.  Sunday we took a ride out to Sancheong to go climbing at an outdoor wall.  It was a little chilly but still beautiful.  We brought Samjin and he had fun barking at some 10 year olds that were there.  One girl was actually not afraid of him and decided that she would be Samjin's doggy sitter for the day.  She walked him all around, made him run after her and made her friends play with him too, it was great.  

Monday was the first full moon of the lunar new year.  In celebration of this there are lots of small bonfires out in the country and down by the river they built a big house and then burn it down.  I'm not quite sure the significance but it was fun to watch, we didn't get out of work until after the burned the house but we went down and saw the smoldering remains. They also take cans and but some sticks from the fire in and swing them around this is supposed to ward off disease for the year. It's actually a bit scary because the cans don't seem too safe and some people were not aware of who was around them.