Korea. now.

A lot seems to be happening in South Korea these days.

First the former president, Roh Moo-Hyun jumped off a cliff (for which they are no anticipating copy-cats???)

Now they have swine flu. Or, at least, the foreigners there do. Foreigners are being tested for the flu (I have some friends there who have been randomly tested), and many are being quarantined en masse. The news articles only mention 15 foreigners being quarantined, but there are a lot more than that according to those actually in the quarantine - more than 50!!! Koreans are now even more afraid of the dirty foreigners than they always seemed to be. One friend sneezed on the bus and ended up with the entire half of the bus to herself!!! Koreans are great at generalizing. One foreigner (or a few) gets the flu and they think all foreigners have it. On a positive note, maybe it will make taking a sick day a bit easier! Sometimes foreigners get sick, call in sick and are forced to work. I've been so sick I couldn't talk, with really bad tonsilitis and other infection that affected my gums and ears. I still had to work. They told me to just not talk as loud.
I guess kimchi didn't work this time around (There were claims that kimchi was the reason SARS didn't come to Korea.) ;)
OH!!! Apparently "ALL foreign teachers who enter the country after May 11, 2009 are required to do a home quarantine for 7 days before returning to school.
During the quarantine, you are required to stay home and wear a mask if leaving the house temporarily to run errands such as grocery shopping. At the end of the 7 day quarantine, you must visit a public health clinic for a final checkup." (I found this on Brian in Jeollanam-do)

And I'm missing it all!!!!!!

On a side note, Korea will soon have a bill larger than the 10,000 won note ($10ish). The new 50,000 won bill will come out June 23rd. The first 100 will be kept at the BOK (Bank of Korea) museum. Then the bills numbered up to 10000 will be auctioned off to the highest bidders. They do have 100,000 won bank checks but they are not the same as bills. Woo hoo. Something bigger than a 10 will be fantastic!

munching

My ride in Palmyra, Syria, having a snack. Gotta love it!! :)

Iran... music

Did you know dance, trance and house music are quite popular in Iran??

I love it!!!

getting around... ;)

Some random pics for your enjoyment.Due to some knee problems, I was riding donkeys quite a bit around Petra... to go to the high places (the Monastery, the High Place of Sacrifice) and sometimes along the path through Petra.Another donkey and the original road.Lucky me made some contacts and got to ride a purebred Arabian horse around the mountains near Petra (and other horses within the Petra area).An amazing view.This tree is more than 1000 years old!My ride.After riding for quite a while, we stopped for a small bbq of chicken, potatoes and onions cooked over a little fire in an orchard. Of course the meal wouldn't be complete without some tea. :)
Delicious!Simply an amazing day!!!

Now...

Wow. I really am behind on my posts. I'm trying to catch up but can't seem to get more than one day up at a time, which means I'm not catching up at all. Well, some of the days I can lump together, I think. I'm also studying at the moment. Yesterday and today I've been reading the diving manual. I'm taking a PADI diving course here in Dahab, Egypt. I'm taking the course with Octopus World, which is a small but very friendly and professional place. It's great so far. Yesterday the weather was fantastic. Hot, calm, cloudless sky. Too bad I was in a classroom most of the day watching the video. Today the weather wasn't as nice. It was still warm but quite windy. At least it didn't really affect us much, as we only had a couple of quizzes and then started the dives today and were in (under) the water the whole time. Tomorrow, other than another very short quiz, it'll all be underwater. A dive in the morning and a dive in the afternoon. My dive instructor, Khaled is so funny (but very serious when he needs to be). He is Egyptian and the same age as me. He lived in Europe for several years so speaks English fluently (as well as some French, from what I have seen). He is a bit of a hippy with his attitude and his dreads. Funny.
The place also has Korean dive instructors!! I didn't know that until I got there and was surrounded by a group of Koreans finishing a dive. LOL. Can't get away from Koreans!! They really are everywhere!! ;)

busy...

I've been in Petra (Wadi Mousa in Jordan) for that past few days. An amazing place. I haven't had much time to sit at the computer so now I am VERY behind in my posts. I'll try to get it updated soon.

henna

Did you know...
Henna is a natural sunblock, even after it has pretty much all faded.
I burnt my hand (as well as my face) yesterday. The henna tattoo that I got in Dubai is completely faded on the back of my hand, but now I can see where it was, as it is white (with a nice red background).

Oh...

I forgot to mention this interesting little tidbit.
My first visual after getting off the plane was an airport security guy watching everyone go past, picking his nose. Not just picking, but digging. Yuck!!!!
I guess I should be used to seeing things like that. I've seen it so many times in Korea (though usually they are driving, stopped at lights or such).

Hello Syria!

So, I am now in Damascus. Getting here was a tad stressful.
I was out almost all night and so only had a couple of hours of sleep. I had breakfast and then had the counter call a taxi to take me to the airport. About 15 minutes into the ride, I realized I had forgotten a very important thing - my money belt in the lock box at the reception counter. Ack!!! So I had to go back to pick that up. After that getting to the airport was fine. I had no problems at the airport, except for some reason my flight was delayed. When I did get on the plane, it was delayed some more. Luckily I didn't really notice that as I fell asleep fairly quickly. I woke up on take-off and definitely didn't sleep after that. The first 20 minutes of flight were HORRIBLE!!!!! So much turbulence it felt like the plane was bouncing around. I kept wishing I had a handle to hold on to. I am scared of flying to begin with. That didn't help much.
After landing everything was fairly easy and trouble free. Got through the airport without any problems, except one clasp on my backpack is broken. :(
I took the bus to the city center. It cost 75 Syrian Pounds (ticket plus bag), which works out to about $2US. The bus drop is not in the place listed in the Lonely Planet guide book. I asked 3 foreigners that were on the bus (Italian and French), as one seemed to know what he was doing. He has been living in Syria for the past 6 months studying Arabic. The other two are here visiting him (they had lived together in Paris at some point?). They shared their cab with me and dropped me off near the hotel area I wanted to be in. I didn't even catch their names.
The hotel/hostel I wanted to stay in was fully booked. I am in a dorm in a hotel/hostel next door, the Al-Haramain Hotel. I have one bed in a 4 bed dorm, with 3 guys taking the other beds. I think it is not common to find co-ed dorms, so that sort of surprised me, especially in a country like Syria where men and women don't even sit next to each other on public transport. The guys weren't there when I checked in, so I have yet to meet my room mates.
My plan is to stay in Damascus for 2 nights and then catch a bus to Palmyra.
I can luckily access blogger.com (my blog dashboard) to post things, but can't access my blog. Blogspot.com sites are blocked. Strange that I can access one and not the other.
Facebook is blocked here!!!!! Aaaaaaaaaah!!! What am I going to do?

Woo hoo!!!!!!

I´m goıng to Syrıa! I´m goıng to Syrıa! I´m goıng to Syrıa! I´m goıng to Syrıa!
Fınally got my VISA today and I fly tomorrow.
Yay!!!