Sunny Farming in Mae Sariang #14

Mae Sariang Field, Mae Hong Son, Thailand Rice Field, Farmers in ThailandI was zooming through the country to make sure that I got to church on time, but I got distracted by the farmers. They always seem to make me late for church. I will have to talk to them about this character flaw. :) Perhaps I will get them to take the Time Management course that I'm taking on Lynda.com... Or at the very least, they should schedule properly and not be out working in the fields when I am trying to get to church. So distracting!But when I finally got to church, I saw this sweet baby. So I guess God, didn't punish me too much for being late to church once again. :)Mae Sariang, Smiling Baby, Blurry Photography, Happiness

Unsolved Hearts ~ Vientiane, Laos

Ever inpatient to know the future? Yeah..me too! Super inpatient at times...,but I want to learn to live in the now. In this very moment, I want to always try to think about what I can be grateful for and excited about in the present second- things big and small and live them patiently and happily. This is difficult... Or at least for me it is. I need the gift of Patience for Christmas Dear Saint Nick, And I need it now, Sir! ;)

 Though I am still a firm believer in a healthy addiction to planning and list making. - Yes, it's true! I make lists for fun. - But I want to turn my focus on living the now and celebrating the moments as they come and truly soaking in life and the beautiful people that live in it.

Below is one of my favorite quotes of all time, such beautiful words.

“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Dear Liz Lauer. My life today... Jan 30, 2012

Liz Lauer, just so you know, today at 6:30am I arrived in Bangkok, Thailand after a 10-hour bus ride. I traveled 10 hours just so I could enjoy a latte, spinach&ham omelet, kiwi juice, my first motorbike taxis (so much cheaper and faster than taxis!) and ultimately go to a couple of meetings where there were lots of exciting ideas floating around. I am pretty sure that they were all inspired by the high caffeine content in the air! Tonight at 7p.m. I'm jumping back onto a overnight bus to see Ms. Mandy McConaha one more time before I head back to my little rice town, wish me and my neck luck!Love your friend, Ingep.s. Here are a few pictures from when I played around with filters near my home base of in Mae Hong Son, Thailand....   p.p.s. here is a song that my dad said reminded him of me when he hears it. What do you think? Do you think of me when you hear it? "I Wish I could Go Traveling Again" - Stacey Kent. 

Great Expectations ~ Self Portrait #22

The new year is in full swing. After 2.5 weeks in Americaland with my beautiful family and friends, but today I've packed my bags and I'm boarding a plane back to sunny Thailand. Oh, I'm so sad and excited all at the same time!... I want to stay, but at the same time I want to go. But I'm going because I know deep, deep down Thailand is where I need to be now, and really, who am I kidding? I can't complain. How am I blessed enough to live in the tropics? Really? I'm not sure, I slap and pinch myself daily to make sure this life is real.

I have no idea what this year has in store, but it promises to be one of amazingness. I can just smell it in the air. The smell is as good as walking into a room full of freshly baked cinnamon rolls. Who knows all the beauty God has in store for 2012? So get ready ya'll, it's going to be crazzyyy and as delicious as pumpkin pie with whip cream :)

 

The Coolest Boys Eva Eva

I'm the lucky girl to have these two as my brothers. They really are quite the bomb dot coms. I'm not really sure why they even hang out with me or are my facebook friends. Do you know dear reader? I'm mean really I'm the geeky, huge camera toting, Korean, Mexican sister who can't seem to stay in the US of A long enough to do a load of laundry. Do you think they bother to put up me because I bribe them with food? Yes, yes that must be it!

Food really is a magic tool of manipulation. If you look at any great feat or massive betrayal in all of human history you know what is the motivation for it? A tasty meal. You don't believe me? Well let me explain.. Do you know the real reason Moses had the strength to cross the Red Sea? Not because he was a super human, no, no, it was because there was a pipping Chick-fil-a Chicken Biscuit waiting on the other side, Two of them! I swear it is true just look it up in the Bible. Totally there. It's there. very much there :)

And do you know why Brutus betrayed/killed his super tight friend Julius Caesar? Not because he was power hungry. He was just hungry and his mother promised to make him the best TexMex food known to man WITH extra cheese and cilantro if he stuck it to Caesar. Yes, yes, I know that they were Roman and didn't live in Texas or Mexico. And Texas wasn't even founded until much later, but you see his mother was so ahead of her times, she knew TexMex food before it hit Texas. And so there you have it my friends, the enchilada is what did Mr. Caesar in. Poor guy. You know if they taught the true history behind Caesar's fall in schools these days, more kids would stay awake in school. And that's what's wrong with the education system these days!  Hey but at least I have cool brothers. I hope you do too or at least a good cup of hot chocolate with a little cinnamon in it :)

Sumatran Life

So it's that time of year. You know the time of year that you clean out your closets or in my case clean out my hard drives, reorganize my life, build a website and conquer the world with a crazy fancy 'To Do' lists. What is this time of year called, I forget? Oh yes, Spring cleaning!. oh, uh..er..Shucks, I'm a little late, huh? Ahhh well, we'll just have to call it 'early' spring cleaning..Look at me and all my overachieving ways! I'm just that good. ::Ok ya'll, quit laughing at me. I'm trying to make myself feel better about my superhuman ability to procrastinate::

As part of my Spring cleaning, I looking through pictures of my Indonesian escapades from last winter that never made it to the light of day because of that superhuman ability that I mentioned above. So here is the first a 2 or 3 blog posts series on Indonesia/Nepal and the warmth of these beautiful countries that has currently vanished from Korea-land and will never return again! Ever! My toes will be amputated this week due to the state of the Korean winter and next week my nose will go too! Ok, maybe I am being a little dramatic, they are only chopping off 4 of my toes and half my nose, but you don't understand what it is like to go through six months of straight winter and have to wear long johns and wool coats in May! In May, people! I brrrrreaks even the strongest of spirits.

As part of my attempts to psychologically trick myself into thinking that I will not die during this winter, I am drinking Indonesia coffee by the gallons, turning on the sun lamps, buying a new swimsuit, and listening to Hawaiian music, oh and I even ordered sand for my apartment floor! What do you think? Do you think I'll survive? Ha, Bingo! You're very, very, right dear readers. I'm toast! Burnt toast, so burnt that even the butter knife scraping technic won't help my situation. I'm doomed! No more toes or fingers for me, and I might as well say goodbye to my whole nose too. I can just think of it as cheap plastic surgery, right, right?. ::Happy thoughts, Inge. Happy thoughts!::

The Great Escape!

Mandy and I did it! We escaped Korea for a few short weeks to experience the beauty and intricacies of Nepali life.. How did we manage the escape, you might be wondering? Well see there is this new crazy invention, called an air-O-Plane. Have you heard of it? You see it wonderful! And by-golly it took us all the way from Korea right to the heart of Nepal.. Snip-Snap. Like a dream - BoooooM - Bamb! - Well quite dreamy other than 2 super long, food-less layovers in a China and then a very hearty frisking at the Tibetan border.. Ummmm, can you say Awkward?... as in awkward Turtle - (for all of the high schoolers who know the turtle well).During the Escape, I managed to grab a few photos that I thought maybe you'd want to see or not, depending on your general mood and your current Starbucks intake for the day.Below are photos from Kathmandu the capital city of Nepal, we were held captive by the city for over 4 days until the weather gods allowed us to fly our way  into Lukla, Nepal - by a sweet helicopter! - to start our 8-day, 75 mile trek to Everest Base Camp and back., but more on the mountain later. There will be more Nepali photo craziness on the blog this next week that is coming up. I Swear. Pinky-Promise, spit on my knee and then I'll even kiss my elbow. :)

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Farewell Korea - Hello Arctic!

Ahhh in a short few hours, Mandy and I will set out out on a crazy adventure of a lifetime! We will go all the way to Antarctica to ride the back of killer whales and polar bears! We have been training for the past 3 months by diligently going to the local Korean zoo every night and feeding the polar bears. This increased our polar bear karma. We have managed to feed the bears over 1,000pds of Rice and kimchi. We believe that our by the time we get to the Arctic the polars will think that we are brothers er um sister-wives perhaps with them and then they will give us a rides from north to west.  Getting to know Killer whales was a bit more of a challenge for us. You see, the Koreans don't have them in their zoo! I was surprised and frankly disgusted when I heard this. But it has been my dream since I was a wee lass to ride on the back of a Killer so I thought really hard.. For almost an hour! I know, I know.. That's about as hard as geniuses think! My brain hurt for hours and hours afterward.My brilliant plan? Well, we watched Free Willy 1,2,3, &4 every night for 3 months absorbing every word and sound made by Willy and his owner, Jesse, we now know the script by heart and will conquer the hearts of all the whales with out graceful whale dances and sweet voices.. And they will bow their heads and let us walk on their backs and ride them through the arctic circle...okkkkk... so maybe the above is a bit of a lie.. or a lot of one... (Sorry God and Mom) And maybe I'm not going to Antarctica.. but polar bears and lil' killers are really quite cute, so squeezable, and I would go, but you see I'm an English teacher and therefore have no money to fly all that way..  So sadly all of our hard work was spoiled, and now we must settle for a 3 week trek across Nepal. A trek that consists of eating loads Indian, Nepali, Tibetan food; meeting Sherpaa, kissing llamas, taking too many pictures, asking a Tibetan to be my pen pal, playing rock, paper, scissors till our hands fall off during layovers in China, buying loads of beautiful jewelry and clothes, OHHH and yeah... um climbing 18000 feet upward to see... that mountain --- Everest? :DAhhhhhh I'm so excited.. I couldn't even sleep last night.. probably due to the nightmares that I would forget my wallet, passport, get in a knockdown drag-out fight with Mandy, and my beautiful camera would blow up.. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, ---> Boom! Like burnt toast! Done! haha.. so I decided that the sleep wasn't worth it.. Too scary. I am off to finish the last things on my list...1) Pack my passport And wallet2) Make Mandy breakfast in bed3) Go have a love chat with my camera4) Fly to NepalSee you all in a few weeks well via this blog at least :)Won't you miss this beautiful face??? huh, huh? Nepal won't know what hit it!and you can send your love or hate mail to my friend Juan for capturing this brilliantly accurate depiction of my face. :)   You guys miss me, won't you? kisses and hugs for everyone! :)

A Wintery Wonderland

This past weekend, I had a long weekend and I had the itch to explore the outer realms of Korea, take a dive into the abyss you might say, but where to? Well I of course am super intelligent, a genius really. So where does my genius self go? I went to the only sane place to go to during a blizzard weekend, to a Korean beach of course.. So I put on my swimsuit and then proceeded to stick 10 shirts on, 5 pairs of pants on and 7 1/2 pairs of socks (couldn't find the 8th lefty sock..I swear it ran away. It was the rebellious type). So I layered up, stuck some chap stick and some super glue in my pocket (you know, just in case) and I prepared for an adventure on Mui Island and I found one..

There I outran polar bears, climbed Mount Everest, fought off snow monkeys with icicles, roasted 5 pound clams over the open flame in subzero temperatures, met the Swiss Family Robinson (they are so cool), and I still came back with all 8 1/2 fingers! (forgive my typos, please) ... Some how this trip gave me a new appreciations for winter. Maybe the cold caused brain freeze?

Indonesian Skies

Everything in Indonesia was absolutely gorgeous, completely and utterly lovely, crazy beautiful, spectacular, delightful, charming, ravishing.... (you get the point)....but the single thing that amazed me morning, day and night??? The skies, Wowzer. The prettiest I've ever seen. If only I could have packed a sky or two into my suitcase like I did the pineapples, avocados, mangos, bananas,... but the sky wouldn't fit... it was too big.. I tried, I swear I did. I jumped and jumped; yelled and screamed; spun on my head while doing the rain dance... but alas! the suitcase just wouldn't zip. So I had to take it out. Next time, I guess I'll just have to bring a bigger suitcase.

I have a confession to make..gulp..

Well you see.. I am one of those horrible teachers. The ones who, gulp... has favorites....favorite students. Yes, yes, It's true.. I know, I'm ashamed. I have sinned.. forgive me please. Really, I can barely look at myself in the mirror.. but I tried oh so hard to be like a journalist or judge or something and be unbiased..but I can't help myself, some kids are just so impossibly cool... like the Korean versions of Paul Newman or Hepburn. They're just oh, so cool.So please raise your glasses of hot chocolate and eggnog (or prune juice, for the Mr. Byes of the world) to some of the coolest kids in Asia... more tributes to come when I come back in 3 weeks with an Indonesian tan and Chinese frostbite =) Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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Merry Christmas!..... and be jealous.

So why, you ask, would you ever think about being jealous, of me? Yes, I know what you are thinking. Jealous of her, ha! True there has rarely ever been an occasion for this jealously of Inge, well actually there have probably never been an occasion at all... BUT today is the day to be jealous..Finally it has come! for once in my long, back-breaking 12 and 1/2 years of life as a child laborer in the bitter cold of Southern Africa, this reason to be jealous of me has finally come!Why you ask, are you jealous of me? Well :::cough, cough::: I, Inge Kathleen ::cough, cough:: of the US of A, a lover of sleep and all food, and snob of cheese and Mexican food is ::drum roll please...Inge proceeds thump her sushi-stuffed belly:: I am.....uh...um..well.......Ha! got you! There is actually nothing to be jealous of. That was an empty build-up! I just wanted to see if I could string you along for two paragraphs. And it worked :DYes, I'm a jerk, what's new?But It's almost Christmas so don't hate me too much because poor me can't make it back to the States to stuff my belly with all the beautiful cookies, cakes, and pies of home...  Yet, as the overachiever that I am, even though I am not in the USA for Christmas, I am still determined to achieve a food coma and have a food baby for Christmas. A extremely difficult task when there are almost no ovens to be found in all of Korea.How will I manage this food baby, you ask? Mandy and I have schemed, and I think that we have come up with a perfect idea. We will spend Christmas day in the Philippines, our plans? eating our way through Manila.

Then late on Dec 25 we will hop on a plane to the ever tropical Indonesia to start 2 weeks of hiking, beach bumming, hot springs finding, Sumatra-coffee drinking and, of course, EATING! eating mangos, pineapple, bananas and avocados, etc...... yum, yum.. but until then it's 10 degrees outside, and I'm of to put on my fancy Korean long-johns and waiting the weather out with a big ole cup of peppermint tea.. Oh and Mandy says Merry Christmas!... Yes..Yes..She's my roommate. A bit scary, no? :) She will protect me in Manila. She just has to give the creepers the her "look" and no one dares to touch us.

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