we made it to the beach! and i am thrilled to be warm. the sea is beautiful and despite the tsunami warnings, i feel careless and free out here in the sun! the cold korean winter is far far away, and i'm just thinking about eating pineapples and working on my tan...

hopped an overnight train from bangkok down to the andaman coast- quarters were less than spacious but with good friends and a hot food cart it hardly mattered! also, i had never been on a train with beds before, which amused me endlessly. how magical to roll over in bed and see the sun rising over rural thailand!

greetings from bangkok! i'm only here for one more day before i head south down the peninsula, so i've been trying to fill my days to the brim with the beautiful red, green and gold of thailand's capital city.

my "exotic foreign friends" and i were asked to pose for some of yonsei's exchange program literature look for me and my hot friends in yonsei's exchange program pamphlet! the photos are silly, but our happy faces are genuine- life at yonsei is great.

welcome to yonsei university, where i'll be attending classes in the fall! the campus is beautiful, all situated in a forest in the hills, and i truly cannot wait to spend my days here.

climbed spiral of galleries in insadong the other day and stopped here to rest in the soft afternoon light.

our last stop in jejudo was the rocky eastern shoreline. it was the perfect way to end a vacation: sitting on the shore with the wind in my hair, reflecting on what a beautiful trip this has been.

today we visited the jeju botanical gardens and something very dangerous happened: jan ordered me my first patbingsoo: a korean dessert of ice cream, fruit, and this incredible, sweet red bean... this may very easily become an obsession.

jejudo is home to asia's largest buddhist temple, which jan and i were very excited to visit! however, no where in the travel literature does it mention it's location on the tippy-top of a big mountain, and hiking is the only way up! when we finally made it, we were happy to rest in the gardens and drink from the fountain wells.

so