Wow, it's been awhile.  I apologize to all both of you that read this.  I have not really been in the best mental space to blog about my life.  Usually if I'm having a ton of fun, or if I'm fairly depressed, I find myself a lot less likely to sit down and share.  When I'm having fun, I don't want it to end, and usually just keep chasing it.  When I'm feeling down, I don't really think the world (save my close family and friends) really cares/needs to know about it. 
  I suppose it's been a pretty turbulent month, filled with it's ups and downs, but I'll shy away from the valleys here.  I fear Pavi and I may have had our last surf session/sessions of the year.  The typhoon season is coming to an end (I'm the the Filipinos are relieved) which means an end to the vast majority of our waves.  We had a morning session where sets were coming in well overhead.  Some how we made it out, but not for long.  We each had a massive bomb or two, but then the clean upset came through and knocked Pav and myself all the way down the beach to the Hyatt.  It was either time to get out, or decide to float to Shanghai.  By the time we'd walked up the beach, the waves had become too choppy for anybody to make it out, so we headed home. 

  The other weekend, we had a decent little swell on Saturday into Sunday.  Pav and I surfed basically from noon till 6 with a 10 minute break.  The waves weren't incredible, but it was nice to be out there.   I had a few good rides and even snuck in a game of volleyball in between.  Afterwards we went out for Marita's birthday (this is the day after an all-nighter at Geckos and the norebang for Alex's b-day) to Geckos and another norebang.  It was actually ridiculously fun, and nice to have so many people together at the same time.  It was the kind of weekend that made me realize I could stay here another year if I had to, maybe just not at Wee English Zone.  So anyway, Sunday Pavi and I headed up to the beach to look for some surf, and there wasn't much.  We decided to suit up and give it a go nonetheless.  It ended up being a great decision.  We finally surfed the Hyatt cove on the little sandbar that formed outside and a little bit on the edge of the Hyatt cliff.  They were quick shoulder high waves, but the water was so clear it was incredible.  We could see schools of fish swimming under us and skipping across the water in front of us.  I dropped in on a nice little right and could see the sand being sucked into the wall of the wave.  Words can not describe how beautiful it was.  It was a nice warm and clear fall day, with OK waves in the area I'd wanted to surf since I arrived.  It was a really fitting end to the surf season, and one of those days when I'm back in the States that I'll never forget. 
   For Halloween I went to Geckos (4 times in 10 days?) to celebrate with the crew.  I dressed up as the legendary Ken Friesen.  Ken is a Mennonite 'kid' from the Canadian States of America.  Since we both buzz/shave our hair a lot of Koreans think we look the same.  Well, they think all white people look the same, but I guess it's a little more pronounced with Ken and myself.  I borrowed one of Ken's trademark shirts, wore my glass, and did my best not to smile in pictures, as the Kenny does not usually smile.  The costume worked well enough that I had a few double takes and a couple other foreigners thinking I was Kenny from a distance.  Lets hope I'm not that ugly, but you know...   Of course Halloween ended with another norebang session until 4:30am.  I have't norebanged that much my entire time in Jeju, but with El there to belt it out, it would have been tough to have a bad time.   Although I still miss last year's Halloween with Gog and the Mrs. 

  In other news, I had to say goodbye to my good friend Tanja, the dive master at Big Blue 33.  It'd been great getting to know her and dive with her, but like everybody else here, she had to leave some time.  I'm pretty sure our last dive together maybe have been my last dive on Jeju.  It was a nice one out at Seopsom with tons of lion fish and large schools. 

Well, that's about it for now.  Hopefully I'll have something good to write about again in a few days. 
Only 70 days until my last day of work here on Jeju!  Then I've got to get ready for the big surprise birthday party my friends are throwing me at home.  Right...

This past weekend I ended up staying in Seogwipo to dive.  I woke up Saturday morning to pouring rain and decided it was a good idea not to camp.  Apparently the rest of the group had the same idea and nobody went to Udo.  Oh well, there's still time.  Anyway, I ended up doing 3 dives.  I had two daytime dives in Munsom Bay where the visibility was 18m+, and there were tons of fish.  At one point I had stripeys (little yellow and black striped fish) following my hand as I went around in circles.   They'd even get bold enough to try and take a nip at my finger.  Another time I ended up being surrounded by thousands of silver fish with yellow lines going down their backs.  Every where I turned, there were fish as far as I could see.  It was really amazing and still so peaceful and quiet.  There were just three divers in our group; myself, Tanja (assistant dive master) and Marcel from Germany, a trained dive instructor.  Needless to say, I was the least experienced there, but still we were all considered experienced divers and could have a little more freedom and less worry in the water. 
The night dive was just as incredible as before.  Definitely more Octopi this time, but no stone fish or lion fish.  I did get to see some squid and scorpion fish, a large box fish and a puffer fish.  The box fish was so chill, he swam right along my finger as I held it out.   After diving we all gathered with Ralf in the dive shop and bs'd over a few pitchers of Max and some snacks, discussing diving spots all over the world (which I know nothing about), cheese and German culture.  It ended up being a great day that kept me away from home from 9am till midnight.   And Ralf said he'd like for me to help at the shop when Tanja leaves to go back to Germany.  It'll be a great way to get some more experience in diving, and maybe one day it will all come in handy.  I mean, what else am I going to do in October? 

School is still the same old.  I think I'd really enjoy it, or at least be able to appreciate it more if we just had some vacation time.  One of my co-teachers asked me what it would take for me to stay on for another year.  My response was:  Lauran would need to move here, and I'd have to be guaranteed at least two weeks in winter off and two weeks in summer.  I'm so jealous of all my EPIK (public school) friends going to Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Japan, while I sit in school teaching kids that don't really even want to learn English.  Some of my kids I love, others I detest.  I really didn't think you could dislike a young child so much, until I met Dexter.  He is just the epitome of everything you hope your child does not become.  He picks his nose and either eats it or puts it on somebody else.  When he sneezes, if we're lucky enough for him to cover his mouth, we usually see some white seepage from his Korean snot rockets firing through his fingers.  When Candy is teaching the kids a new dance to go along with some music they are learning, he chooses instead to do roundhouse and sweeper kicks with the occasional right-hand chop, typically whilst wearing a cape.  Today when we were coloring flags of English speaking countries, he decided to color the American flag with a yellow box and pink stripes.  Pretty close, right?  The Canadian flag was brown, and Australia came out purple.  No, he's not colorblind, he just sucks.  Dealing with Dexter has definitely taught me some patience, which I'm thankful for, but I'd give it all up to be rid of him once and for all.  His mother even came in to talk to me (through a translator) about her troublesome child, and even though I told her he does not pay attention and distracts other children, his behavior has not changed at all. 

On another note, (Gog you will appreciate this), we were teaching the kids how to greet people in a few languages.  Japanese, Hebrew, English, Maori, and German.  One kid asked 'Muggs Teacher, why American and no Korean?', to which I replied, 'Because without America, there would be no Korea.'  Obviously too young to understand the (kind of) joke, and the fact that the Americans fought to preserve a South Korean in the early 50's and have since stationed over 20,000 troops in the country just so Kim Jong-Il doesn't go a little too stir crazy and change the Republic of Korea into his Democratic (Ha!) Peoples Republic of Korea.  Despite that the elderly and less educated here will still spat at us or talk trash as we walk by and are offended hearing us speak too much English at a bar where they are yelling in Korean and coughing up lungs.  Yeah, so I hope that wasn't too stereotypical 'Amurcan', and no I won't be getting any tattoos with of a bald eagle holding a rose in its' mouth in front of a billowing Ol' Glory.  As many problems as America has, and it sure has plenty, it's still a pretty great country.  Especially because I can buy real cheese and turkey there. 

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So after weeks of gray, the epitome of summer has finally arrived, and not a day too late.  We suffered through weeks and weeks of no color, thousands of tourists, annoying 'lifeguards' which can only help you during times of duress by blowing their whistles.  Koreans love whistles so much that while Paul and I were surfing a deserted beach just west of Sanbang-san, two random Koreans pulled their cars over, one broke out a whistle and decided to wave us in.  Obviously they weren't going to do anything else besides wave, and I'd put good money that they couldn't even swim.  So Paul and I ignored it until it was actually time to get out and head to school.  We had about a week to two week period of amazing surf here from typhoons, but I can barely remember it.  It's been about 3-4 weeks with nothing.  I mean Lake Linganore flat.  During the typhoon swell I had my biggest waves of my life out west of town.  Had a couple good days, but on the last one, the sheer power of the head and a half high surf snapped the tail off my board.  The next day it took Paul's nose from his board.  Prior to that it was a rush.  Huge drop-ins, ridiculously hard paddles and intimidating waves.
After that, there has been nothing.  It's been so flat that I ended up having time to get my advanced scuba cert.  I think I did 6 or 7 dives in 3 days including a night dive.  I went down to 30m, and also learned the basics of underwater navigation.  The night dive was by far the coolest part of the experience.  I was definitely nervous about it before being submersed, but after that, it was sheer exhilaration.  We began by putting all our gear together in the shop and doing a pre-dive briefing, and then we headed to the harbor.  We loaded up all our gear and hopped on the boat which dropped us of on a little cove on Munsom Island.  After suiting up and doing all our safety checks, we hopped in the water, being careful to time it right so we didn't hit a shallowly submerged rock.  In the water it was pitch black with a blue tint if we looked up towards the surface.  Immediately upon entering the water, our guide Ralf saw a squid flashing it's defense colors, squirting and swimming away.  During the dive we must have seen a dozen scorpion fish, 3 octopi, some catfish eels, file fish, lion fish and a huge stone fish.  The stone fish I actually found by accident.  If you don't know what it looks like, I suggest you google it.  It's a poisonous fish that blends in really well with its environment, and you don't really want to mess with it.  I found it b accident as I was about to plant my feet on the ground so that I could take a look at a few scorpion fish.  As I looked for a suitable place to land, I noticed a strange looking rock.  I got in a little closer and realized that it had eyes.  I signaled for everybody to come over look at it, at which point Ralf gave us the 'danger' signal.  All-in-all it was a pretty incredible dive. 

With this beautiful weather, I've been trying to camp more, and have spent the last couple weekends away from home.  I went the Chuja-myeon, a set of some 40 islands about two hours north west of Jeju-si and camped on a secluded pebble beach.  Followed that up with two nights at the Caribbean-esque Gimnyeong with Rob and Marion and eventually Justin.  I even had a the opportunity to go sailing in between Gimnyeong and Hamdeok (both on the northern side of the island.)   Gimnyeong was stunning with it's white sand and crystal blue water.  We were the only people camping in our little area under some pine trees and had a great time. 

Since the last post I've also purchased a bike.  Granted it's a pretty crappy mountain bike, but there aren't many options here and it was less than $50.  I've been trying to ride every other morning, at least from here to Supsom island which is only a 30 minute round trip.  It's short, but hilly like you wouldn't believe.  That ride is also gorgeous.  On one side I've got the pacific and the islands off Seogwipo, and on the other side there are tangerine fields and the volcano towering over everything. 

Other than those updates, nothing big has happened.  Unfortunately we've been losing a lot of good people off the island.  The toughest departure had to be Dave and Anna, but I have a feeling I'll see them again in the future.  It comes with the job and my lifestyle; you make friends only to leave them within weeks or months, maybe to never see them again.  But it's worth it getting to meet so many interesting people.  Really helps me see the world differently. 

This weekend I might go camp on Udo, but there's a night dive Saturday night, so I might skip the camping and stay and dive. 
Oh, one other thing, I might not be going on my surf trip post-Korea now that Pav might have to take classes.  Any suggestions on what to do?  I feel like I really should see something else over here before I depart.  One thought was going to a free diving camp in Thailand where they teach you to dive over to 30m with no mechanical equipment, and hold you breath for over 4 minutes!  Could be pretty incredible.