2010 Inaugural Korean Grand Prix!

This past weekend Zak and I had the opportunity to attend the first ever Korean Grand Prix. We had been looking into going before we even got to Korea, Zak is a big fan! For some reason life got in the way and we never got the tickets in advance (you know..hospital visits and stuff...) so by the time we realized the race was right around the corner..literally like a week out.. we checked the ticket prices and they were about 975,000krw (roughly $865) each. There was no way I was going to put out almost 2 grand, but luckily I had seen the USO advertising a trip to the F1 race and to my surprise the tickets including transportation, and seats in the grand stand were only $95 each! What a great deal, and big props to the USO for that!

So the day of the race Zak and I woke up very early to head on post and get to the bus that took us down south to the Korean International Circuit in Yeongnam. This trip was supposed to be 4 hours each way but you add in the traffic of over 170,000 people attending the race it was easily 12 hours round trip... not the ideal situation but hey..$95 dollars people! ;)

This was my first ever visit to a race track of any kind, and I am definitely a fan of Formula 1 racing now! We were rooting for the Brits driving the McLarens, Button and Hamilton. Here are a few photos of us arriving at the race track:

And all the drivers arriving to the pit area:

I was also able to get some footage of the opening ceremony:

The race had a delay due to the rainy weather, and then went on to have about 20 safety laps, and finally the race began! There were a lot of wrecks on this track, which was pretty intense. We had our fingers crossed that our guys would wreck and they didn't! Here is a photo of my man Lewis Hamilton being pushed to his starting block:

Zak enjoying the race:

With a sudden turn of events the Ferrari team ended up winning and Hamilton came in second, which we thought was pretty awesome considering a lot of cars didn't even finish!

Here is a photo of the the awards ceremony and of me representing my roots:

We had an awesome time and can't wait to go again next year!

A crazy trip to the zoo!

Zak, myself, and one of his friends Ben decided to take a trip to the Zoo, and we all agreed that this was by far the BEST Zoo we have ever been to! The zoo was just south of Seoul, and pretty tricky to get to by train (meaning we would have had to take a train to Seoul and then had back south on a subway to get there) so we decided to drive! It is not too difficult to find your way around Korea with a car, you just tend to get stuck in a lot of traffic.. I mean the whole country is the size of Indiana and there are over 48.6 million people living here.. your bound to get stuck somewhere! We managed to get to the zoo in a little over an hour, which wasnt bad at all. Upon entering we quickly realized that this is a HUGE zoo!

 It housed every animal imaginable even the fennec fox whom we concluded is a close relative to Pip... (notice the size comparison in the ears.. LOL)

The primate exhibit was my favorite, these are not your average orangutans and baboons!

 Unlike America, Koreans find it extremely entertaining to feed the animals. And I had to agree that it is pretty funny seeing monkeys catch shrimp fries! Every animal was up and moving around as opposed to be lethargic, and they all gave quite a show! Somehow these monkey's got a hold of a mylar balloon and were playing 'monkey in the middle' with it...

Zak and Ben's favorite exhibit were the Kangaroo's. We were able to go inside the pen and feed them and pet them!! Here is Zak while we were waiting for the Kangaroo pen to open up, can you sense his excitement? LOL

Ben had a goal to hug a Kangaroo, and im pretty sure he succeeded. Although it was not photographed we witnessed him hugging not one but two kangaroos! Here is one of him feeding a 'roo!

And me:

After walking around the Zoo and eating waffles filled with jam we stumbled up the bear show.. apparently Korean's are all about training bears to do tricks!

And for the grand finale: A crazy monkey with a mohawk in the nursery:

Thanks for reading! 

Hiking Trip in Pyeongtaek!

This past weekend Zak and I met up with our friends Brett and Kathy and went on our first hiking adventure in Korea! We went to Buraksan Park in Songtan. Throughout Korea there are many areas to hike, and most are set up with work out equipment in different areas.. as you will see in our photos. We had the motivation of an all you can eat meat buffet at the end of the hike! Score! Here are some pictures:

Zak on a workout machine before we started our hike!

And Brett doing the same... lol

While hiking in Korea you will find these pile of rocks all along the trail. You try to stack the rocks as high as you can without letting them fall! We saw some very high stacks along the way!

A view from one of our stops

Zak doing his famous "K Kick" lol

Brett and Kathy hiking.. see the cool workout equipment? 

And a video to show you how to use the equipment.. please note the awesome stretch being demonstrated by our fellow Korean hiker..

Thanks for reading! ;)

Pip's first bike ride.. and house hold goods! YAY!

Zak and I have been super busy lately! I feel like I have been doing school work non-stop...well... because I have been. And Zak is busy with his crazy work schedule at the moment. We did however manage to find time to take our little Pip on a bike ride with us down by the river here in Pyeongtaek. I wasn't sure how she would react to being put into a basket on my bike, but she seemed ok with it and I felt comfortable enough to bring her with us. It was such a beautiful day and the weather has cooled down so much. I fear that before I know it it will be snowing! Here is a picture of Pip enjoying her ride:

And Zak while we were taking a break:

I am so happy to announce that Zak and I are no longer sleeping on the couch! Our house hold goods have arrived!! It has been such a mess the past couple of days but we had to kick it into high gear because Zak invited some friends over for the weekend, and I wanted our home to be presentable! I didn't think we could do it judging by the disaster we started with:

But we did! Our friends came over and we enjoyed lots of food, drinks, and played on our Playstation Move. Take a look at how pizza delivery boxes come in Korea! Ribbons and all!

  I still have a lot of work to do sorting out the bedroom and all of our clothes, but it will get done and it is soooo nice to have everything here.

 I have a mission this month, to figure out what to do on Zak's birthday! He said all he wants is for me to take him somewhere he hasn't been to before in Korea, so I need to get creative! His birthday is November 1st, so I have a few weeks to decide. 

Did I mention that I am soooo excited that the holiday's are right around the corner? I am currently burning my spiced pumpkin candles mmmmm they smell so good! 

Happy Chuseok!

Fall is right around the corner, and it is time to celebrate Chuseok! Chuseok is a holiday here in Korea where families get together and share their great harvest. Many Koreans pay respect to their great ancestors during the Chuseok Festival, and it lasts for 3 days. It is similar to our Thanksgiving. People also take this opportunity to go on a vacation, I pulled up a picture of what we can expect the roads to look like into this weekend:

Needless to say, Zak and I don't plan on traveling. 

However we will be studying hard for our Korean driver's license because our car has arrived in Korea, it is in Seoul now waiting for us to come pick it up! After we get our licenses of coarse...

Last weekend Zak and I stumbled upon a street festival in Songtan, there was lots of games, chicken on stick,  cross dressing singers, and soju! Here are some pictures:

(I think I might have scared Spongebob!)

Here is Zak rocking out to the live band..

I hope your speakers were down, Zak's got one hell of a yeti yell. 

We had a great night, and its even better when you know you have a little dog to come home to at night! :) I will leave you with a video of Pip:

Hope everyone enjoys their last few days of Summer, it's Fall on Wednesday! Woo hoo!

The Glowing Toilet

Another exciting day in the Moreland household! We decided to open up a box that came with out apartment that has been sitting in an empty bedroom for the past month. When opening the box we found user manuals to just about everything in our house. Thank goodness the Korean's love to put picture-grams with everything because I wouldn't know how to decode these user manuals without them. Underneath the user manuals we discovered about 10 remote controls! So we spent the rest of the evening walking around the house with every remote to see what it turned on, the lights, the heater, the camera, the food washer, the UV sanitizer, the air conditioner, and the toilet...wait.. what? A remote for our toilet?! It is not just a remote for the toilet, it is a remote to turn the light on in our toilet. I have no idea what the purpose of this infrared light in our toilet is, Zak thinks it to keep your bum warm. So in true Moreland nature I felt the need to document this discovery...

Does anyone else have a glowing toilet? Do YOU know what its used for?!

Another discovery, the "Soju Kettle". We went out to go play pool with some friends last night and he recommended that we try a soju kettle. Usually when you get a soju drink there are many flavors to choose from, but the soju kettle has one flavor...original. It ended up tasting like lime kool-aid. Here is a photo of our kettle...

I think we had about 3 kettles, and by the time the lady selling things came around I was pretty toasted. You see, here in Korea, they get you when you are at your weakest. A woman wearing a necklace that states she is deaf holds up a sign that says "Thank You, I Love You" and asks me to buy something. This is what I chose on this particular evening:

(elephants under a palm tree)

Just another Korean bar trinket to add to the collection.

Thanks for reading, you are awesome.

P.S. Does your McDonalds do delivery?

(Mine does) :-P

Pip is finally in her new home! (Video Heavy!)

Great news! The typhoon was just a windy thunderstorm, I am glad it wasn't any worse! The worst it did to us was keep us up all night from the whistling coming through our utility closet. There is supposed to be another one headed this way in a day or two but I am pretty sure thats going to be south of us. Here is a picture of the typhoon at about 5am:

And a video of this weak little storm:

On Sunday, Zak and I traveled to Gumi which is about 2 1/2 hours south of us by train. In Gumi we met Pip's foster/rescue mom and we united with the new addition to our family! Pip didn't really seem to mind being handed off to strangers, I think she thought we were just taking her for a walk! We had a little bit of time before our train home so we went and looked around Gumi with Pip. People in Korea love to pet dogs that are being walked, and Pip is no exception. She does get a lot of laughs for her big ears though! Here are some pictures and videos (sorry I have to post them individually, having issues with our editing software! ) of Pip's first day here:

Video of Pip's first walk:

Waiting at the train station (it was so hot!)

Pip really wants out of her carrier:

Pip didn't want to sit still in her carrier, so we let her out so she could see what was going on! 

The best thing about the ride home was that we were able to sit first class! There is so much more room, its quiet, and there is no "standing room". Standing room= oversold tickets, tickets are still sold for the train ride even if there are no more seats left so there are people standing over your shoulder most of the time in the economy cabs.

And finally, Pip for the first time in our apartment:

Sorry for so many different videos! Hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend. Cross your fingers that we get our house hold goods in the next two weeks! 

Thanks for reading!