Muui-do Island

Summertime around Seoul... You gotta get to the beach.
There's a nice one that's pretty easy to get to from Incheon Airport.
From the airport just take the 22 bus to the ferry.  It takes about 25 minutes.

It will drop you off here:

It's not pretty yet... Go into the building on the right.
 A return ticket for the ferry costs about W3,000.
You can see the island in the background.

The ferry ride is only 5 minutes.  You can see the other side here.

Jump on the island bus when you get off the ferry.  Take it for about 20 minutes to the second stop.  Jump off and pay W2,000 each for beach access.  If you're just staying for the day, that's the final cost.

We stayed for the night, though.  A little beach hut costs around W50,000 for the night.  We payed up, got the key and looked for our hut, number 20.  We found her:

Not too nice...

After a more thorough search we found the new huts:

A lot nicer.

The hosts will give you enough blankets and pillows for 3 or 4 folks.  It was relatively clean, and the windows have screens.  There isn't a fan, though, so it's stuffy on a hot day.

Other than relax and swim, there isn't a whole lot to do on Muiido. 

It's really laid back.

The tide really gets out there:

Next time, I plan to rage it like these guys:

Green Pants: Fashion Staple, or Fashion WTF

I recently bought a pair of these pants on a whim for 5 dollars.  Little did I know, green pants are the new fall fashion craze!

Or, at least, I keep telling myself that!

I wondered what I could wear with these little beauties, and tons of pics popped up!  The scary question is:  are these going to be a trend of 2012, and a couple years from now, will the be more like this?

As I googled hammer pants, I found some disturbing images.  Harem Pants (as they are known in the fashion world) are making a comeback.  Really?  I too, have seen this comeback.  In the form of Poopy Pants TM locomocos

 

I am so confused by this fashion.  If you have ever seen anyone wear these pants, I ask you this:
Didn't it look like they were wearing a diaper?  Or possibly there was a heavy load in and below the crotch?  How could these possibly be comfortable to wear?  What happens if you need to hop on a scooter, run up some stairs to catch the train, jump over a hobo, or even spontaneously do the splits?

I'll stick with my green pants this year.  I'll keep my fingers crossed that they won't go down the hammer road.

Thanks for the memories, Hammer!

Pirate Day in Korea

Avast mateys!
We all know that September 19th is Talk Like a Pirate day, but do Koreans?

I took it upon myself to bring pirate day to my kindergarten class.  I think they liked it.  We made hats, parrots, eye patches and even treasure maps.  They were even talking like pirates!
When I said, "Are ye ready to start class?"
They replied, "Arrrrrrr, teacher!"

Here are some pics of my kids.  The best part of these pics, is looking at how they decorated their pirate hats.  Let's look at these pirate fashions from a kindergartener!

Dorothy has a great example of our parrots made of tissue paper and googley eyes.  Many were put on the shoulders at first, but most of the kids wanted their parrots on their heads for some reason.  I believe this is the Korean - Pirate fusion called Scally-Shui. 

Been is also sporting some hearts on her hat, but as you can see, she has titled her hat 'Been Pirate'.  I tried to tell her to add the 'the' in 'Been the Pirate', but as you can tell by her face, she said, "Blow it out yr bunghole, Captain Teacher" This is a great example of the poor grammar that all pirates still have today.

Tommy has a few bombs and other items of mass destruction on his hat.  And as is evident, he doesn't care a bit about that parrot of his.  He just keeps it under his hat and lets him out when he feels like it.  Arrrr, what a cruel master, he be!

 This be Yoseph the Cyclops pirate.  Sometimes, pirates loose an eye in battle, but Yoseph only started out with one eye.  A fierce sea dog, he lost the one good eye and poor Polly, while fighting over a Pokemon pencil.  That be treasure worth fightin' fer.

Stella may be the fiercest pirate yet.  Many people think there weren't any women pirates, but Stella is here to remind us that there are, and they are a force to be reckoned with.   Stella also reminds you that there is a softer side to pirates.  Pirates don't only love rum and booty, but they love flowers as well.  And DON'T YE BE MESSIN WITH ME FLOWERS!
Please note:  Her parrot is so scared of her, it  sits off her shoulder and hides its eyes.  This is to avoid Stella's death stare.

 Danny is one of those pirates that doesn't like to get dirty.  He is ruthless as the rest of 'em, but prefers destruction in forms of tornadoes - which is on his hat.  Also, he wanted you all to know that pickles are delicious pirate fare.  Not sure why he drew those.....
Anyways, this was the scariest photo I could get out of him.  He didn't want everyone to think he was one of those other pirates.

 Lisa looks like our cutest pirate.  She has her scarf neatly around her neck, her parrot positioned 'just so' on her shoulder, and in case you still didn't know - she drew a princess AND Rilakuma on her hat.  She is by far - the world's cutest pirate.  I took this photo while she was saying, "Arrrrr".  But really it came out more like, "Arrrr wish this scarf came in pink!"

 Kevin is a true Korean pirate.  He has given hair and some skin color to his skull and crossbones, and he is wearing his Tae Kwon Do uniform to celebrate the occasion.  He also likes tornadoes, but rather believes himself to the the Korean Tornado of Tae Kwon Do. 

There you have it.  Alas, I was not able to take any photos of myself during pirate day, but tis better to remain the unseen Captain of this motley crew.  I don't want to be a scallywag and outshine my men (and women).
Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day!