Shakespeare in Busan (and Yang Rou)

(Photo taken by my friend Suvasha)

I've been itching to do some improv since taking a class back in Seattle. Sadly, improv isn't very widespread in Korea. It was hard even to find foreigners who would be down to do some.

I did, however, find the closest thing I could and joined up with a local theater group. Recently, we participated in the Busan International Shakespeare Festival.

Tokyo, Japan

When I was about 6 or 7, Sailor Moon came to the Philippines and I heard about Tokyo and Japan for the first time in my life.

Fireworks in Tokyo
불꽃

 20 years later, I finally visited the city that has been in the back of my mind for ages.

China

For my summer break, I went to mainland China for the first time in my life. Twice.

My contract guarantees me 8 days off in the summer, but the school gets to decide how I get those 8 days. With summer camp dates set by the Ulsan Metropolitan Office of Education (Ulsan MOE), my school split my break into 5 days and 3 days, with the three week camp in between.

My original plan was to travel to Southeast Asia but after talking to my mentor, Jon, I ended up making plans to go to China after all. We had been talking about my coming to visit him and his wife in China (with my friend Alizeh) since December 2013. I wasn't sure I'd manage to pull it off, especially with the China visa turning out to be so exorbitant for US citizens. $160! As it turns out, China sets the price of their visa according to how much the United States charges Chinese citizens for visas.

To make the visa more cost effective, I decided to go to China before and after summer camp.