Camp, Car, China, Gym

So many things to report today: We've got two days left of our English Camp. The kids really seem to be having a good time, and that naturally rubs off on us. Yesterday H taught the Macarena and B did an airport simulation. Today we both did simulations at the English Village; the post office and the hospital. Tomorrow B's in charge of teaching basketball while I'll be in charge of the mock supermarket. My co-teacher wanted me to bring her daughter along, who is two years younger than the other kids but just as good. The TV and newspaper crew showed up and of course ate her (and us) up in front of the cameras. My co said she would check the papers and cut out any pics of us.
We bought a car today! It's a 1992 Hyundai Elantra, with only about 60,000 miles on it (Korea's not a big country). It seems to run fine except for a loud exhaust, but at least the pedestrians get on the sidewalk when we're coming! We paid $300 for the car, but ended up forking over 6 months' worth of insurance at once ($500...ouch). We also found out that gas is over $6 a gallon, so not big roadtrips for us (unless we pick up hitchers).
We're trying to get to the gym on a regular basis now. We had one of those BMI-Body Mass Index reports done, and the results were not flattering. The Korean trainer made us a nice workout schedule, so we're trying to follow that strictly. He's tough in the gym, but a very nice guy. Apart from sore muscles, we're feeling better already!
February 6-10 is a National Holiday in Korea (Chinese or Lunar New Year). It sounded pretty cool to be able to celebrate the New Year in Beijing, so we got lucky and booked tickets today! We leave on the 6th and will get back the evening of the 9th. A very short trip, but it should be pretty amazing. It's a package tour, which is not something that we're used to, but the travel agent who recommended it is actually going as well and gave it to us at wholesale.
I'll try to get some of the car pics up soon.

Ice Festival

Today we took an hour long road trip with H's co-teacher and family to an Ice Festival in Jinbu. There were several ice-related events to partake in; we spent most of our time ice-fishing. The older child really loved it, and although we stood there for 2 hours and didn't catch a fish, she still walked away with a nice sized one thanks to a friendly old man who caught too many. On our way home, we stopped at a duck restaurant, and had a very nice meal. (They even let us cook our fish at the restaurant and we ate it after our meal).

We've got to get to bed early tonight as tomorrow we start our Winter English Camp with elementary school students. We'll do that all week, but it's just 4 hours each morning, so it won't be too rough.

B getting a free ride from Sarah.

Yedin chowing down on a warm fish snack.

Back in Korea

We left Siem Reap, Cambodia at 9pm on the 21st, and took a 40 minute flight to Bangkok. There we waited for 4 hours for our connecting to flight to Seoul, and landed in Korea around 9am. We were surprised to see that it was snowing! After a slight delay due to H's bag being misplaced, we made it on our bus back to Wonju with not a moment to spare and got home b4 1pm. We spent the day trying to stay warm as our apartment's heating timer got shut off sometime while we were away so our apt was 14D C when we got home!
The best surprise upon returning home was the nice pile of holiday letters from friends and family in the mailbox. They were so fun to read, and they are much appreciated! Thanks for thinking of us.
Tomorrow we have a winter camp meeting with all of our co-workers, but after that we can relax, as the camp doesn't start until the 28th. In the meantime, we'll try to get pics up. The files are quite large and we weren't able to get them up with slower internet connections. We're working on that now. Thanks for checking our site and keeping us aware of what's going on back home. We miss you all.

** Here's the link to photos I added to my Facebook profile:
http://uwrf.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2054638&l=ee19d&id=184902869

Angkor Wat

We've been in Siem Reap for 3 days, and have been busy exploring the massive complex around Angkor Wat. We bought a 7 day pass, so we've been able to visit the big as well as the small and obscure places. In the past two days, we've been to 10 sites each day, including taking in a sunrise and sunset! The ruins are amazing, and it's incredible to think that this place was bustling with a million people back in the day while London's population was at about 50.000!

Today we're going to rent bikes and stay in the town proper, so as not to get "temple burnout". Tomorrow we'll be back in the action again. In order to get around to all the sites, we hire a tuk-tuk driver for the day. This is a cart attached to the back of a motorbike, and we pay $12 for an 8 hour day. The weather is still quite hot here, but we rest under the bid shade trees and gulp lots of water. We've got 3.5 more days of exploring, and then it's back to Korea. We hear it's quite cold there right now, so hopefully we'll bring a bit of warmth back with us!

Cambodia

It's been a while, we couldn't get this site to load when we were in the Mekong. Now we're in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. We arrived today by boat, and it's really hot here! The locals say it's about 35C today. We're getting our plans organized so tomorrow we can see the city.

We had a good time in Vietnam, but really were disheartened by how much some of the people took advantage of us. A little over-charging is expected in this part of the world, but the rates they wanted from us were incredible. It also didn't help that H was hit with a bad case of diarrhea twice. We learned some lessons along the way, so no major complaints. We're really excited to move ti Siem Riep and Angkor Wat within a few days! The world-famous temples are supposed to be amazing! Not sure about pics, but as soon as we get the chance, we'll post them. Thanks for thinking of us, all for now.

Magnuson's in the Mekong

We've been busy these past few days, and haven't been able to get any internet in our area.
On the 1st, we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels outside of HCMC; they were used by the Vietcong during the war. It was pretty interesting to see. On the 2nd, we left the big city and ventured to our first stop along the Mekong Delta. On the bus, we met a Vietnamese man who now lives in the US, and he invited us to visit his family's home. We dropped our stuff at the hotel, rented a motorbike, and went to his place. They have a little farm if you will, with cows, chickens, fish, fruits and veggies. We helped make our dinner (B caught a fish from the pond) and it was a really enjoyable time. On the way home we stopped by a local carnival.
Yesterday we drove around on the motorbike for most of the day($15 for 24 hours). We saw some cool things and luckily didn't get into an accident (their driving habits here are scary).
Today we took a boat tour in the morning, and by noon we were on the road to our new city, Vin Long. Tomorrow we hope to take in the floating market!
The weather's hot enough for us but the locals are all bundled up cuz it's their winter. We both look at each other and laugh!