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Sitka, Alaska

Andy took me out on MAPLE and I was lucky enough to experience a day underway on the buoy tender. They were testing some oil spill equipment, as you can see from the photos above. It was fun to see how he does his job (he is the XO, second in command of a crew of 55) and watch how the bridge is run on a day underway.

Yes, this beach is actually in Alaska, we had a coastie take 6 of us on the morale boat over to Kruzoff island with our mountain bikes and our lunch. So we biked across logging roads on an uninhabited island, hiked a couple miles on gaming trails, and found this beach at the end...

Janae came up to visit for the weekend

Janae must have brought some good luck with her, because look what we saw! And 2 cubs with her!

A 5 hour hike up Gavan Hill (I consider that to be more of a mountain, less of a hill)

We noticed, through a hole in the snow, that this was what we were walking on top of

Gavan Hill

Indian river hike, about 8 miles

One of my morning hikes up Verstovia, the trail head is about a 2 minute walk from Andy's doorstep

Driving home from fishing one evening we saw about 17 bald eagles on this beach, one protecting a carcass and the others making sneak attacks

The fog blanketing Sitka

Last day in Sitka, 6am walk along the water....

My first hike with Andy, we did Verstovia, about a 5 hour hike, and crossed some slippery, snowy, steep terrain, but absolute beauty

he even tooking me to a shooting range to try out his rifle

Mucho fishing, I LOVE IT! The king salmon were jumping by the hundreds it seemed, these massive fish "breeching" righ in front of us

this was not one of them, but this is a Doly Vardon, a member of the salmon/trout family...and we did eat this for dinner.

2 weeks in the land of the "Last Frontier"

I loved every bit of Sitka, this was actually my second time going up there, and I plan to go back one more time before Andy leaves. You can do every outdoor activity possible, not be too hot (ha!) and in the summer, have loads of sunlight! Now, I know it's not the same story in the winter, darkness and all, but being a marine climate, they aren't getting snow from October to May like you might expect in Alaska. It sprinked on us about half of the days, but the other half were completely dry and sunny and gorgeous. And the consistent rain makes it just as green and beautiful as our rainforest in the Olympics.

We saw hundreds of bald eagles, they're "out" this time of year in full force. Saw deer roaming the trails, mama bear and her 2 cubs out in a field, went shooting and fishing, hiking almost daily, went out on a boat, mountain biking, and cooked some awesome food!

Yoga with Sun Sang Nim (Yogi Master) on Jeju

Some of the people in class doing their favorite poses for a photo op

During my last class I was allowed to take pictures during class, i love this one

Sun Sang Nim demonstrated a bunch of poses for me, he doesn't normally do all these during class

Just the 'ol grabbing the back of the ankles trick

Tea Ceremony, and no, he doesn't sit like this all the time, it is pretty amazing though!

He asked me to demo some massage techniques on this gal, and then he showed me how Chinese massage is done. At one point he was standing with both feet on her stomach! And the "colon massage" with his heel digging vigorously into her stomach didn't look comfortable either. The Koreans are very INTENSE with just about everything. I loved it though, something a little different always makes for a good learning experience. It's all about adaptability.

More Jeju!

Yes. The best t-shirt yet

At Yakchunsa Temple

Me at the Coast!

The head monk at the Temple where we stayed

Cherry Blossoms at the top of the little mountain near Karissas school

Jeju Outdoors & Temple Stay

YAKCHUNSA TEMPLE, one of the largest in South Korea. We did an overnight Temple Stay where we had our own little room with sleeping pads on the floor, ate with the Monks and the staff, went to worship with them (4:30am, 10:30am, 6:30pm) and spent some time looking around the other temple buildings. It was really a different experience, nothing I'd ever thought I would do, and really fun. Monks are the nicest people! Imagine that.

Karissa at the coast

Buddha in a room amongst many others (500 total) in one of the buildings at the Temple

A small mountain about 10 min walk from Karissa's school called Sarabong, it's beautiful!

Cherry blossoms are out!

Workout Equipment on the Mountain (Sarabong, the picture at the top). And this is just a small part of it, it's literally ALL OVER the mountain walk that runs for about 20k.

We have been having quite the adventure! I've really fallen in love with Yoga all over again on this trip. The Yogi Master we took class from 3 weeks ago, it turns out, is one of the most famous in all of Korea. The school doesn't have a name or a schedule posted or sign out front, you just have to know about it. So lucky for us, Karissas friend Jason introduced us to it all. I've been going 1-2 classes each day during the week, and on the weekend we did our Temple Stay, did the Korean Spa (which they call the Sauna here), and relaxed.

I went to school with Karissa on Monday and had 4 classes of 6th graders doing a Q and A with me. Here were some of my favorite questions:

• What's your favorite pop star? (everyone, yes everyone, loves Korean Pop)
• Do you have a boyfriend, hee hee? They found that very silly
• How old are you? And then wowed by my answer each time and said "oh my god" -favorite elementary school kid phrase
• What is the currency exchange/time difference between America and Korea (pretty smart for 6th graders)
• And a question from the yogi master that can go in here: Do blondes go grey?

This week is mostly just yoga, acupuncture and sauna during the day, and awesome dinners with Karissa (and friends). Last night we went to dinner with the yogi master and 3 others. One of them teaches English at a University and she came along to translate. Having hours of conversation through a translator is something I have truly come to love and be entertained by. I think a lot is lost in translation.

Korea - Snow hike, Sex & Health Museum

The winds are pretty intense up above the tree line and create a lot of cool snow formations on the trees.

Karissa eating Ramen at the top of our hike. There is a little cafe, that feels like a ski lodge on a much smaller scale, where you can get coffee and ramen. It's not very "wildernessy" in Korea because there are just loads of people on the trail and they make it so easy with bathroom and food stops along the way. There is almost no amount of traverssing because most of the trail is covered in wooden boards for walking on, or has rock steps. However, because of the snow and ice it was a bit more unstable.

Eating Galby (where you cook the meat yourself on the grill) and as you can see, it comes with many, many side dishes. They keep refilling them until you say stop! Koreans always want you to eat, and eat and eat more! I had a rice/vege dish that was awesome

Same hike at Mt. Halla

A traditional Shaman ceremony where they gave offerings to the gods and sent wicker made baskets of food out into the ocean for the Sea God.

Ooooo! Korean food is tasty!

A very "Jeju" picture with the Hallabang oranges and the stone statue

On a trek to view some waterfalls we went over the most gorgeous bridge, you'll have to view the Kodak album for the rest of those photos

We went to the Sex & Health Museum (Jeju is famous for its masses of Museums! This one was potentially the most entertaining museum of my life)

Museum of Sex & Health

It was another fun and interesting week in Korea. I've now been attending regular acupuncture and it's getting less and less painful, only because he puts the needles in at a quicker pace (still the same needles in the same places, along a meridian line on the top of my hand, through my middle finger and up to my wrist). I've also been regularly attending the Korean Sauna, and I've discovered that some people actually go every day! They don't spend hours and hours like I do, but nevertheless, it's a very regular activity.

Our hike up the mountain was amazing and beautiful, the Korean style of hiking is completely opposite from what I've been doing the past 4 months in New Zealand. They get totally decked out in serious hiking gear, equipped with spikes on the shoes, walking poles and all, and then walk along a boarded path virtually the entire way. We actually went most of the way down without seeing many people because we started late in the day, but on the way up you could not go 2 minutes without passing people. Halla is the highest mountain in South Korea. AND the parking lot at the trail head is full of tour busses, there must have been 6 or 7 of them on this hike...and don't forget the gift shop and cafe at the trail head as well. They have little gift shops everywhere, I especially like the ones at the Temples!

Speaking of temples, we went to the 2nd largest temple on the island, Yakchunsa, and arrived just in time for the Buddhist evening worship. So we stayed for that and did about 45 min of meditation and chanting with the monks and other visitors.

Hermits, High Heels and Spam

I need something special

This is inside one of the temples we visited, this is just a tiny one

The Yogi Master we took yoga from, he invited us for tea after class

Pig heads at the market, not my fav

A traditional Korean restaurant, this one happened to be vegetarian, yay for me!

The hike up to the Hermitage

The monk at the Hermitage GIVING ME A MASSAGE! It's true. My back/hip hurt too bad to sit cross legged so I was moving about the whole time we were in his little quarters, so he noticed and wanted to help me feel better. How sweet is that?!

I believe this was a clothing or shoe store, either way, Mickey's Smell House doesn't exactly make sense (unless of course they were used shoes)

Temple

Em and Karissa on a night out

FIRST WEEK ON JEJU

It's been both very exciting and very different to be here in Korea after a week of experiences. Some of the interesting cultural differences are noted below:

• Women wear high heels for every occasion. I've been told they even wear them HIKING and to the beach! Karissa said there is a sign at the bottom of a trail that even says "no high heels" at one place. Many of them still have a difficult time getting around in them as well.
• They love SPAM and put it in everything - and yes I've eaten it and lived to tell about it
• Fast, fast fast. When eating, they shovel the food in as fast as possible and leave the restaurant. After Yoga, about 30 seconds of Savasana and then WHOOSH, out the door.
• Pushing and shoving is okay and totally accepted in this culture.
• Driving is mad, riding on the bus almost appears to be a death wish at times. Forget "rules of the road" completely
• I am seen as something very....different....and am therefore the topic of many conversations at restaurants, especially when it's me alone (they don't eat alone, ever) and even more so when it's both Karissa and I....it's like going to the Circus I bet! Many younger kids just say what they know in English, whether it is 'I love you' or 'what time is it' or just 'hello my name is.......'
• Food is crazy cheap, especially because the Won isn't doing very well right now. When I go to lunch in the city and have: a sushi roll, side dishes of kimchi and fermented radish, and a big bowl of noodle soup, it is about $2....dinner, which is a little more perhaps, is about $3. So we don't exactly HAVE to cook at home, but I do when I'm at Karissa's during the day sometimes.

The coolest part of my time here has been seeing a Hermitage (a Monk/Hermit at his Temple for 3 years) and having a tea ceremony with him, and going to Yoga with a Yogi Master. It was the most unreal yogic experience of my life. And of course it was all in Korean and I didn't understand a single word except "Savasana" at the end. I just watched everyone though. Karissa's friend Jason took us, it's his Yoga class that he goes to.

"AH-PEY-YO" Korean for "Pain"

I did have my first Korean Acupuncture session, much more painful than Chinese and Japanese acupuncture, those aren't painful at all. The only word the practitioner taught me was "Ah-pey-yo" for PAIN. Not so that he would stop when I said it, just so he would know which side was more painful on DEEP palpation. In terms of the acupuncture, the needles must have been a lot bigger! Then I had "cupping" which is interesting and somewhat uncomfortable, but not as painful as when he was pressing, very very firmly, into my abdomen to find the front of my spine. And to all of my clients and LMP's, this is WAY more intense than Psoas work, which most of you have experienced. He said he was trying to find all the places the Thoracic nerves were located at the anterior to see which side was more painful. So I'm going to go 3 times this week and hope to start feeling some benefit in my back and hip soon!