Day 212: Happy New year guys! We hope you all had an amazing break. We came back from Thailand on Friday night, to a crazy snow storm here in Korea. there is so much snow here, that we actually had a snow day which gave us a chance to download our photos to share with you.
Our trip was wonderful and the weather was perfect the entire time! Our first night there, we walked the beach, explored the hotel and watched an awesome fire show at the beachfront restaurant. Our place was gorgeous and only a one minute walk to Karon beach :) On our second day, we visited Kata beach and did some shopping in the local markets and booked a few day trips that we had planned. We also attracted a cute doggy friend who we nicknamed Straggles who came along for our walk. If Shayna had her way, he would have come home with us :)



On our third day, we went elephant trekking with our friend Jenny which was cool and a little scary at the same time! Our elephant's name Namoon and we had the best elephant trainer with us. After about 10 minutes into the ride, he jumped off Namoon and told us to ride on the elephants head. He grabbed my camera from me, and proceeded to take about 200 pictures for us :) Our elephant was only 30 years old, which is young since they live to be about 100~ He also was VERY hungry and ate everything in sight. When Brandon first got on his head, he walked straight to a tree, and grabbed the top branch and actually pulled the entire tree down on Brandon and I. I think he as testing us :) After that, we got used to each other and even took a bath with him in a little pond. It was by far one of the most memorable parts of the trip.


The next day we headed to the Big Buddha and Chalong temple, the most famous temple in Phuket. The Buddha was huge, but still under construction, and the views were incredible! The temple was beautiful as well, and loaded with tourists.


On the fifth day we spent the day at Patong Beach. It is one of the more popular beaches in Phuket and way more crowded than Karon beach. Although it was fun to people watch, we preferred our more low key and laid back beach. While we walked the beach, we ran into some interesting characters, including a little boy with a net over his head playing in the water :) And at the very end of the beach, where there weren't as many people, we met an awesome man and his three Rottweiler puppies. One of them had a hurt leg and he says he brings them to the beach to rehabilitate it. Of course, Shayna was in heaven playing with the dogs and watching them run on the beach.

On our sixth day, we took a day trip to Phi Phi Island. The trip included visiting the Maya Bay where the movie The Beach was filmed, snorkeling, going to Monkey Beach, and exploring Kai and Phi Phi Islands. But, our boat's engine broke down while we were having lunch and so we got stranded on Phi Phi Ley for about 4 hours. Although we missed some of the activities, we are glad we got to see and chill with the monkeys, which was pretty exciting and totally terrifying since they are totally wild and not afraid to attack! When we got back, our agent refunded 50% of our trip and we took ourselves out for a delicious surf 'n' turf dinner!






Finally, on our last day, we decided to stay on our beach and just relax. Also, since we have always wanted to try para sailing, we did that too! The views from above were gorgeous and when you looked down into the water, all you could see for miles were these huge jellyfish. It was a pretty epic view, although we wouldn't want to get stuck in that part of the water! Afterwards, right before sunset we were swimming in the ocean where we found this beautiful purple starfish which we of course put on our heads for some funny shots.
Finally, it was time to get ready for our New Years dinner and beach party. Our hotel had an amazing buffet and fun performances. We joked that we were at the T.G.I.F's of hotels because of the insane amount of flare they put up for the party. It was an amazing night which ended with us firing up a big paper good luck hot air balloon type thingy and watching an incredible fireworks show on the beach. We wish you all a great 2010, and can't wait to have our wedding in 8 months and 18 days (not that we're counting or anything) :)
With love from South Korea,
Brandon & Shayna xo

Day 202: We wanted to send out a big MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! We hope you all enjoy the holidays and have a happy new year. We're off to Thailand to spend our holiday in the sun :)

With love from South Korea,
Shayna & Brandon xo

Day 190: We have survived our gauntlet month of working Saturdays and this was our first weekend where we could have 2 full days to ourselves. It was a beautiful day on Saturday so we decided to make the most of it. We went into Seoul with our friend Jenny to do some exploring and vendor shopping. We also decided that we would begin a photo project that we have wanted to start for some time now. We want to photograph 100 interesting strangers from all over Korea. We had been hesitant before but luckily our friend Jenny is very outgoing and not shy at all and had no problem approaching absolute strangers. After awhile we all warmed up to the process and by the end of the day we were all joining in on the fun. These first 4 photos (top included) were from the subway going into Seoul. We just love how unique each individual is, and with the amount of people here there is no shortage of inspiration.


After we left the subway we went on an epic walk of the Sinchon area trying to find this one area we had been to in the summertime. This area was filled with university students, and it is known for its artistic feel and creative culture. We thought this would be an awesome spot to find people. Unfortunately it was not as easy to find as we remembered but we met and shot a lot of interesting people along the way.


After about 3 hours of exploring we were about to give up trying to find that area when we happened to stumble into Hongik University area, the place we were looking for all along.By then it was getting dark, but the neon lights and packed streets made for colorful backdrops. As you can see we found an eclectic mix of young and old and got some really cool shots.

All in all it ended up being a pretty awesome day. There is something rewarding and exciting about approaching strangers, meeting new people, and pushing ourselves to get out there and start our project we've wanted to do for awhile. Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season, we've got our tree up in our apartment, were just looking for a Jewish star so we can fully celebrate Christmakah.

With love from South Korea,
Brandon & Shayna xo