Journey Home

Day 1-Kuala Lumpur

We landed and exited the airport into a pot of steaming veggies. Kuala Lumpur is hot. Kuala Lumpur is humid. First thing we noticed was the diversity of all types of Asian people from Indian to Japanese. As someone who was only used to seeing Korean people on every street, seeing dark asians, light asians, big-eyed asians, small-eyed asians ... it was an explosion of asians. It rained, and we walked and walked all over that city.

Days 2 and 3- Phuket Airport to Patong Beach

The airport is full of taxi drivers who are fighting with all their might to give you a ride to your destination. Not knowing what to do, we decided that a minibus ride to the beach was a decent enough price for us to say "yes, we will wait an hour for you to bargain with more foreigners to ride your minibus and then let you drive me to some shady travel agency in the middle of nowhere and then finally take us to our guest house." We were dropped off at Jinny, which was a quaint and semi-charming guesthouse in Patong, and we immediately made our way to the beach. The beach was pristine. It was there that I saw the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen in my life. Patong Beach reminded me of Jaco, Costa Rica. Many tourists, many bars, okay shopping, awesome beach. We must have brought a plague to the jelly fish because, after a day in a half, they started to float to the shore asking to be skewerd by the Thai beach chair managers/servers. One of the jelly fish brushed Kalan's leg. Nedless to say, we left looking for an even more pristine beach the next day.

Days 5 and 6-Kata Beach

Drink coconuts and beer on the beach-check

Follow crazy Europeans to explore an abandoned kayak where you can't touch the floor anymore-check

Drive a motorbike in another country-check

Scare Kalan on his first jet ski expirience- check

It was here where we spent the best time of our trip. Unforgettable.

Day 7- Bus from Phuket town to Bangkok

13 hours of shitty uncomfortable bus and the most disgusting bathrooms I've ever expirienced.

Day 8- Bangkok

We arrived at 4 in the morning and took a taxi to Khaosan Street where, we were told, had a lot of guesthouses. At dawn, Khaosan Street consists of drunk Europeans who drank away the night and are waiting for the sun to rise, Rhasta guys saying "hey, my friend" to other Rhasta guys, ladyboys, and prostitutes. 6am hit and we checked in at the nearest guesthouse and slept. When we woke up and decided to look around, Khaosan Street turned into a colorful array of street venders, taxi drivers, tuk tuk drivers, and people from all over the world and all walks of life. It was information overload. We took a tuk tuk ride all over the city and saw all kinds of buddhas (Standing, big, lucky, lying down, gold, stone, hiding, black, flakey, but surprisingly no fat buddha with a fat rubbable belly), suit shops and gem stores.

Day 9- Kachanaburi

The day before Kuchanburi we decided that we should go on an organized day trip and then head home. Our trip to Kuchanburi was long and fun. We were with 5 Koreans, which was ironic, and 3 Taiwanese people. Together we went to a cemetary (nothing like a cemetary in the morning), a war museum, the Bridge Over the River Kwai, the WWII Death Railway. Then we rode a bamboo raft down a river, went elephant trekking, and visited a waterfall. It was a busy day and it was incredibly fun. The next day we left Bangkok (first class woo woo), with our new tans, our massaged bodies, and our dreams for the future. And now, here in Barstow, Ca, operation find a job begins ...

You Better Work

15 days until Kalan and I jump on a plane and arrive in our next destination, saying goodbye to Seoul and our new wonderful friends that we've made. First, we will engulf ourselves in the beaches of South East Asia. We plan to visit Malaysia, Thailand, and hopefully Vietnam and Cambodia within a month. We're not sure if it's possible monetarily or time-wise but we are just going to just go and see what happens. No reservations hehe.

After our trip there, we will be greeted back home with the love of our friends and family. I'm so excited to see everyone and know that I'm going to be there in their lives again. After the warm welcomes pass, we will be hit hard with the harsh reality of being unemployed and living with our parents. Sounds bad when you type it out but really I don't think it's a big deal at all. We hope to find jobs in the fields that we love and hopefully it wont take over a month. I guess we'll just have to search hard, interview well and dazzle the socks off everyone.

As for me, I'm going to be applying for fashion merchandising jobs and fashion marketing/PR job.s I'm also going to be applying for internships and administrative jobs as well. I really just need to get my foot in the door (I'm beginning to hate this expression). Part-time work may also be inevitable. The important thing is that I stay positive and not stress out too much about life. Kalan and I are in it together and that's all that matters. Cheese but true.

Photo Shoot

Two shots from a recent shoot. I felt like Jane Goodall in the outfit but it was a lot of fun.

Taken by David Kim

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidkimphotography/

By Paul Redmond

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulcredmond

Rock the Boat

On Sunday, we randomly took a boat from Busan, Korea to Fukuoka, Japan. It was an overnight boat so by the time we landed it was already morning. Unfortunately, I ended up throwing up ALL NIGHT due to either sea sickness, food poisoning, or a combination of the two. The next day, my body was completely exhausted but we ended up walking across practically the whole city to find our hotel. I slept that whole next day while Kalan and Jesse looked around the city. The next day I was rejuvenated and was able to really see Fukuoka's beauty. The cherry blossoms were in bloom and the weather was perfect. While basking in the sun, we wondered why Seoul's weather sucks so bad.

That evening we met up with our friend Kento in Kurume which is a town about thirty minutes away. Kento's family and friends threw a BBQ in our honor. His family was really nice and the food they made was so good. There were cherry blossoms everywhere we went.

Since the trip, however, I've had a cold and now I'm trying to recoup so that I can start training again for my 10k at the end of the month. This month, our agenda is to save money, work out, and enjoy Korea in the Spring. People anticipate that the cherry blossoms will bloom here within a week.

I took a lot of pics and I'll post them soon. :)

With love,

Sylvia

Barstow Reunion in Seoul?

Jesse made it to Seoul safely and we met up with another fellow Barstonian, Kandie and her husband Kris. So far this weekend has been a merging of newer friends with our friends from home. It's pretty cool. I have a lot of things planned for us the next couple weeks like a trip to Busan, Soeraksan, and even the DMZ. It's nice to see Seoul as a tourist rather than a resident. I want to leave Seoul believing that it's a charming place and that this part in my life was an awesome chapter.

Although it's still cold it's starting to feel like a vacation again. We only have a month and two weeks left in Seoul and Kalan and I plan to make the most out of it. My friends are already sad but I know that I wont show any emotion until right before I leave. Then the waterworks will come flowing freely. I truly have made some awesome friends so far.

Sylvia

everyone's still a model

Last weekend I sucked up any insecurities or doubts I had and I modeled again. It felt great and I had a lot of fun. I'll have pictures up within the next two weeks. Basically, it's all happening, again. I'm loosing weight, my skin is getting better and I'm feeling more chipper each day. What is the cause of this? I'm 100% sure that it's the weather. It warmed up a bit and the spring is on the horizon. Even though it's been cold these last few days and even snowed last night, many Koreans have been telling me that this is the last cold of the season. Spring is jealous of winter but winter is putting up a fight (or something like that haha).

I thought that I would be nervous while modeling again but, strangely enough, I felt really relaxed. I want to do more shoots and try to get some work before I head back home. There was a time in the last couple months where I would think to myself ... oh you're not a model, you're getting old, you're too fat and ugly to model, modeling is a waste of time, and so on. But I like it and if I like it then I should do it. Right? Now that I'm finished with my language program, I'll have a lot more free time to work at achieving my goals.

I'm still going to continue to look for jobs back home. I heard on the news that more businesses in the states are hiring temps and soon enough they'll be hiring permanent hires. Hopefully, the timing will be perfect for when I get home. Here's hoping.

<3 Sylvia

Pictures!!

I bought a new camera but I can't upload any pics yet. I have buyers remorse :/

Here are some pics my friends took.

At Lotte world waiting in line for Atlantis with friends and classmates.

Bo peep girls.

With Ex coworker Christian and my replacement Eric.

This is my second house party in Korea...I drank too much.

Direct English crew and that's my old student Su Young in the front left.

Hymie and I celebrating the lunar New Year at Jin's.

She cooked for us!

Also take a look at that cake. Cakes in Korea are so pretty and yummy!

<3

Sylvia