Hello everyone

I find myself sitting in an internet cafe in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. I've been in the country for a week and I'm loving it so far. The weather's hot, the people are laid-back and friendly, the food is delicious. Very relaxing.

Everything in my last few weeks at SLP went really well. A lot of stress and hard work paid off when the graduation was a great success..my kids did an amazing job. My last few days with my students were really sad and saying goodbye to everyone at the school was so much harder than I expected. I'm going to miss all my co-teachers. It has been an amazing year for me. I'm really happy for the experiences I've had in Korea and I'll never forget all the wonderful people I met. Annyong!

I have three more weeks of travelling ahead of me...tomorrow Danielle and I are heading to an elephant nature park to spend a day with rescued and retired working elephants. We get to take a bath with them, feed them, learn about how they've been mistreated and watch them play. Oh, I got to play with a couple of baby tigers the other day too. "Play" is a bit of an overstatement..they were both sleeping in the heat, but we cuddled. The day after tomorrow we're heading to Vietnam, where we plan to hit the beach in Halong Bay, which looks beautiful. We'll work our way down the Vietnamese coast from there and eventually loop back up into Thailand for our last week. We really wanted to do Laos and Cambodia as well, but there's just not enough time. I'd rather spend more time in one or two places rather than spend my entire trip moving from one place to the next.

Anyways, that's the plan. Hopefully I'll get a chance to update this again and let you all know where I am. I hope everyone's well and I'll see you all very soon!!
xoxo

So it's officially been two months since I last wrote. I hope I haven't worried anyone too much. I have no good excuses..I'll just say that life without my own laptop can be tricky at times. Also, I'm a bit lazy. I'm sure that's something you all know about me.

It's been kind of a whirlwind here since I posted in December. I went to the Philippines from Dec. 25th to Jan. 2nd and it was pretty glorious. It was beautiful, hot and relaxing. I was so excited to see palm trees for the first time and to just be surrounded by so much nature. It took us a bit of a long journey to get there, but the place where Deon and I stayed for most of the week was really remote and simple. The people working at the small, family-run resort treated us royally (we were called "Ma'am" and "Sir" the whole time) and we literally lay around on a beach in the middle of Filipino nowhere for 6 days. Anytime we spoke to the local people or other visitors at the resort (all Filipino) we were asked, "why are you here?" or "how did you find this place?". It wasn't the trip to the Philippines that most foreigners take I suppose..no fancy resorts or crowded party-going beaches, but that's exactly what we wanted. The people, though a bit thrown off by our sudden appearance on their beach, were very friendly and so easy-going. I almost felt like I learned more about one country's culture in one week that I know about the one I've been living in for a year. They were all just very hardworking people who knew how to enjoy life. At least that's how it seemed. We were even invited to the home of one resort employee's family for a special New Year's Eve dinner, complete with a huge feast, San Miguel beer, and karaoke on the porch. It was a pretty amazing experience.

Since my return to reality (as well as Deon's departure from Korea), I've been so busy at school that I somehow didn't notice that it's February. It's been so hectic trying to prepare for the elaborate preschool graduation - less than two weeks from now. Each class has to perform a play and two songs with dances. So I'm now officially not only a teacher, but also a play director, music coordinator and choreographer. Haha. Trying to keep the attention and control the movements of six-year-olds is challenging to say the least. I'm trying to have fun with it and enjoy the last few weeks I have left with my kids. I'm definitely going to miss them. They're so friggin cute. And smart..I can't believe how much they've learned and progressed in a year. It's really an amazing feeling to know that I've had some small part in that. I know there are going to be tears at the end of all this. Not only saying goodbye to my kids but it's also going to be hard parting ways from all the really great people I've met here. I'm going to miss a lot about Korea. The easy lifestyle, the food, the close proximity and easy access to a major big city, the amazing transportation, the noraebang, the crazy kids and the awesome people I've met.

I have so much to do in the next few weeks. Oh wow, I just realized it's exactly three weeks until I depart for Vietnam! I'm so pumped. Danielle and I bought some Lonely Planet guidebooks yesterday and we're picking out all the places we want to see and starting to really plan. I've been shipping all my clothes and stuff home in boxes so that by March 2nd all I'll have left is a backpack, a plane ticket and a month to see SE Asia. It's going to be a crazy adventure and I can't wait. I'm so so happy that I found such an awesome travel partner. The adventures of the Danielles will be epic I'm sure.

So I'm going to leave you with some links to some photos I've posted on Facebook of things I've been up to in the last few months. School stuff and some extra-curricular stuff. I'll try to get Philippines pictures up for you later, but as of yet Deon and I haven't combined all our photos. Enjoy!

xoxo

1. Adventures at SLP

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=213176&l=5574a&id=697055612

2. The People I Meet, the Places I Go

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=213202&l=2145f&id=697055612

Oh my god. It's December. When did that happen? One minute I was noticing glimpses of the leaves changing colours through the concrete jungle I live in and the next thing I know, I'm replacing my classroom fall decorations with snowflakes. December feels really exciting to me. Kind of hopeful, if that's not too cheesy. Call me a huge dork, but I still can't help loving many things about the Christmas season. I've started talking about Christmas with the kids. I've even played a few songs (which they love). I'm already excited to show them the Grinch movie on our fancy new classroom projectors, and though not to the extreme extent of North America's standards, there are signs of Christmas cheer here and there.

Work is busy as always and I'm so looking forward to the break. These days we're dealing with the usual lessons as well as practicing morning speeches (six-year-olds and public speaking...imagine that) as well as starting to learn our lines for the graduation play. I've re-written the story of the Little Red Hen for my class. It's pretty cute and they seem to like it so far. Over the next few months we'll have to really start rehearsing and getting ready for the big production at the end of the school year. Only two and a half more months of teaching! It's crazy.

I've had a nice past couple of weekends. Last weekend I joined some of my American friends in a Thanksgiving dinner party. We all brought food and it was delicious. I had a really fun time. I've been thinking more lately about how great the friends I meet here are and how sad it will be when we all part ways. I spent another night with the same group last night. It was Mark's birthday and we all did a good job of surprising him with a little party. Jenny brought him to a restaurant in Hyewha in Seoul where a bunch of us (coworkers and friends) were waiting. Dinner and cake was followed by beers and noraebang. It was an excellent night.

Oh, another new Korean experience I've had recently was a Korean massage. I spent nearly two hours being tortured in a face, neck and shoulder massage. It really hurt! I thought massage was supposed to be a relaxing experience...not this kind. I had knuckles scraped along my jaw, fingers slapping and prodding at my face, and some rather strong hands violently pounding my arms and back. I swear, I'm still sore, a week later. My supervisor took me and of course I told her I enjoyed it. I don't think I'll be going back for a repeat though.

Besides work and socializing, I've been very busy and a bit stressed the last couple of months preparing applications for schools. I've applied to two teachers' colleges and two Masters programs in child studies back home. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my experience here will be of some help. I have no idea if I stand a chance of acceptance, but I thought I'd at least give it a shot. I've realized how much I enjoy teaching young children and I want to keep doing it if I can. So wish me luck...maybe I'll be a student again by next fall!

And speaking of back home, I guess I'll announce now that I'll officially be arriving back to the homeland on April 4th. I'll be finished working at the end of February and then travelling for about a month through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos with my friend Danielle before finally flying home. It's really soon now! I'm excited. I actually can't wait to see all my friends and family again. I miss you all like crazy.

And one more thing...Deon will be arriving in Korea in 12 days! I am so excited. I can't believe it's really happening and that he'll really be here. We'll have a few days together in Korea while I finish up my last few days of work before the holidays and then we're flying off to the Philippines for a week-long vacation. I'll be spending Christmas in the sun. It will be really strange to not have snow and family and friends, but I think it will be a pretty fantastic time.

And that's it for the update on my life. The life of an English teacher in Uijeongbu for ten months seems to have treated me well. And only a few more to go!

I write this sitting in a PC bang. Also known as an internet cafe, or literally translated, 'PC room'. I've been to a couple in Korea so far and from what I can tell, they're mostly very poorly lit, smoky basement rooms filled with adolescent boys playing World of Warcraft. So I fit right in. I'm enjoying a lowkey Saturday so far. These past few weeks have been exhausting and it's time to relax on a much needed weekend. This past week started with our school's Sports Day on Saturday and ended with my Open Class on Friday.

Sports Day, despite its poor timing (who really wants to work outside all day on a Saturday?) was actually really fun. All the students brought their families and the school hired this company that came in and ran the entire event. They had a full day of organized games and activities for all the kids and their moms and dads to participate in. We teachers were responsible for keeping our teams together and helping with the events and generally keeping team spirit at a high. That's right, I was a cheerleader for a day (though Jenny Teacher did win the $100 prize for most enthusiastic teacher..she was awesome). It was just so nice to see the kids and their families outside of school when there was no pressure and only time to have fun and really play with them. And the weather was incredible. It was sunny and clear and something like 27 degrees...a bit of a change from the cold and windy 14 degrees we're enjoying today.

I made kind of a bad decision the night before. Well, it was really fun, but it greatly affected my level of well-being on Sports Day. John messaged a bunch of people and invited us to hang out in Gangnam on Friday night. I didn't think I'd go because, well, is it really smart to go out the night before having to work at 1:00, fully knowing you won't get home early? No. But Erin wanted to go also and I decided I didn't want Saturday work ruining my entire weekend, so I went for it. We had a few drinks at John's apartment where I met two of his new friends Eric and Heather and then we headed to Woodstock, a request bar I've been to a few times now. It reminds me a bit of Doogies in Guelph..it's small and crowded and instead of live music every night they have a wall of cds to choose from and you make requests and sing along and dance or just chill all night. There we met some of the people we had met in Busan way back in May who I haven't seen in ages as well as the boys John and I met in China, Matt and Brian. There were a few other new faces too and it was just a really fun group and I was having a blast. I told myelf I'd be home in bed by 3, but of course 3 rolled around and everyone started suggesting noraebang (karaoke). I couldn't really say no to that, so Erin and I stayed maybe about an hour more and I was home and in bed by about..6. Smart move, Danielle. So needless to say, I was a bit tired on Sports Day, but both events were really fun.

This past week was Open Class week. When we did it back in June it was with our first period classes, so I had already experienced my six-year-olds' moms watching me teach their children and it went really well. This time around was for our second period classes, so my Care Bears, who are four. If any of you know any four-year-olds, you'll understand that seeing their moms is a pretty exciting thing for them, so I was fully expecting things not to run smoothly. How can I demonstrate an example of a normal forty-minute period when the room is suddenly filled with eleven moms, one dad and a baby? Mine wasn't until Friday, so it gave me lots of extra time to be prepared and to get progressively more nervous throughout the week. On Thursday I started to really worry because the kids were all just nuts for some reason. They were fighting more than usual, not listening at all, falling off chairs and just being crazy. So Friday morning rolled around and I was slightly stressed. Promises of candy for looking at and listening to the teacher were greatly expressed before the moms appeared...bribery works every time, right? Not so. They were pretty good, and definitely showed their progress in speaking (I am proud of them for that), but do you think they would find me more interesting than their moms or the baby in the room? Of course not. A lot of them were just showing off and not behaving as they normally would, so that was great. But it was to be expected I suppose and I'm pretty sure the parents were understanding of the situation. At least it's all over and there won't be any more of these silly Open Classes ever again. I can breathe a little easier now. I went out for sushi and beers (and a game of Yahtzee in the bar..we're cool) with Mark, Jenny and Danielle to unwind. It was a fun night.

There is still a bit more craziness ahead, but not nearly as much stress as that caused by being watched by parents. I have extra classes next week because one of our foreign teachers is lucky enough to go home to the States for a week. So that means no breaks for me...fun. Then we have lots of tests and a day of Halloween fun on Friday. Then for the next few months I think the biggest thing to work on is our graduation planning. I've written my play script already. I'm having my Koala Bears do a cute updated version of the Little Red Hen. We'll be starting the practicing soon and now all I have to do is think of some good songs to perform. Who knew teaching also required a talent in show business?

I can't believe it's the end of October and Halloween already. I can clearly remember last year's Halloween fun like it was just a few weeks ago. I have officially been here eight months now which means only four more to go and then a month of travel and I will be back on home soil in the first week of April. I can see the end now...I want to enjoy the rest of the time I have here, but I'm pretty excited about the prospect of being home again. I have so many things to look forward to in the next few months.

Ok, I have to get out of this weird dungeon with its fancy computers and excited adolescent boys. I'll be back soon!

Here's a link to some pictures of Chuseok at school and at the beach.


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=162174&l=8fe04&id=697055612

So things are moving along fine here in Korea. It's been busy at school and is about to get much busier. There's a lot going on in October...birthday parties, classroom-decorating, SLP Olympics (we have to work on a Saturday..boo), more Open Classes, play script-writing, a Halloween Party. It's all a bit overwhelming. Fortunately I'm starting off the month with a long weekend. It's been very relaxing. Most people I know went away, but I'm a little poor at the moment plus I sometimes find going away for a long weekend leaves you more exhausted by the end than just simply relaxing. So all this weekend has so far consisted of getting my teacher's college applications started, going out for a few drinks with Erin (which turned into a hilarious night), and checking out the Seoul International Fireworks Festival in Yeouido Park. This will be my last long weekend for a long time. My next break begins on December 25th. The next three months are therefore going to be exhausting. I truly understand why teachers need so many breaks. Working with young kids can seriously be draining at times.

I can't think of too much excitement to share (hence the lack of posts) but here are some highlights:

1. We celebrated Chuseok, or Korean Thanksgiving in September. We had a party at school that included all kinds of traditional games and activities and food. The most exciting part for me though was that we all, teachers and students, got to wear the traditional Korean clothing called the hanbok. The kids looked adorable and I checked one thing off my list of goals to accomplish while in Korea.
We got a four-day weekend as part of the celebrations, so that was very nice. The highlight of that for me was going to Seosan and Yeonpo, which are towns on the west coast. My Korean friend and coworker, Lauren, invited Luna, Danielle and myself to stay a night at a condo on the beach that her father can rent through his company. It got off to a rocky start, as what normally would take 2 hours became a five-hour car ride. We picked up Lauren at her family's home in Seosan. This was seriously my favourite part. Another thing on my list of goals: to be invited into a Korean's home. When you live in a tiny shoebox apartment and are mainly accustomed to others' shoebox apartments, it's really nice to see a real home (they had an actual house! everyone in the city lives in apartment buildings) and more importantly, to be fed a homecooked Korean mom's meal. It was so nice. We had dinner then went to the beach and relaxed..played some newly-learned Korean games (one of which, called Utnori, which bascially consists of throwing wooden sticks, turned out to be my forte. Who knew?), drank a little beer, and went o bed on the hard wood floors...really traditional (and bruising on the hipbones). We feel asleep to the sound of waves just outside our window. The next morning we had breakfast and Danielle and I braved the Yellow Sea. Our Korean friends don't even own bathing suits (they're a wee bit modest) so we felt a little strange about donning our bikinis on a beach dotted with fully-clothed people. But we couldn't have our last chance at a beach in Korea go without a swim, so we went for it. The water was really warm and the beach was so secluded in this little cove..it was lovely. After that we went back to Lauren's parents' house where they fed us the most delicious lunch. Grilled prawns and noodles and a delicious spicy mango/vegetable salad...so good. We went back to Uijeongbu and I spent the rest of the weekend relaxing and going out with friends.

2. Last weekend was so nice. We have a new foreign elementary teacher at SLP, and on Saturday he had us all over to his apartment (the same size as mine, not optimal for ten people, but it worked) for a combined housewarming/birthday party. We ate lots of food and then went out to the noraebang of course. We love to sing apparently.
On Sunday a few of us met at the river for a barbecue. We played badminton, listened to music, made (Danielle actually formed patties with no table or bowl..impressive) burgers, 'borrowed' a grill from one of the guy's apartment buildings, ate tons of food, sampled Mark's home brew, and enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was such a perfect day. I hope we can do it again.

3. The fireworks festival was pretty cool last night. The most amazing thing to me was the amount of people. Erin and I met on the subway line and the closer we got to our destination the crazier it became. It took about an hour and a half to get to the park, which is an island in the middle of the Han River (my first time there). At the transfer platform, we saw two trains go by before we managed to push our way on to the third one..it was insane. I wish I'd had my camera. There was not an inch of space between us and at that moment I realized, 'this is Asia'. Apparently something like 2 million people go to this festival. Getting out of the subway station was just as difficult..so sweaty. We got outside and followed the crowd to a spot in the grass where we watched the show. It was really nice. We decided to avoid going back the way we came, so we walked along the river for over an hour..it was a beautiful night and it was really nice to see another part of the city I haven't explored yet. We got home in one piece.

4. I think some of my more exciting news has to do with future travels. Deon and I have booked our flights to the Philippines for Christmas. We're flying in to Manilla on Christmas Day and we have to plan where we're going from there, but I hear there are some really beautiful places to see. Our dream right now is to find a place to stay on a beach. I've never had a hot Christmas before..it should be nice. And it will surely distract me a bit from missing everyone at home too much during the holidays.
In addition to that trip, Danielle and I have booked our flights for March 1st to Vietnam. I'm so excited to have found a travel partner to go to SE Asia with! We have a lot more planning to do, but we've sketched out a plan to go through Vietnam to Cambodia, up through Thailand and finishing in Laos. I'm so excited! It will be an amazing ending to a my adventurous year abroad. And then, at last, I will be back home.

So there are a few things I've been holding to myself recently. Sorry to those of you who have missed my posts...Karen. I am still here!

Sending everyone lots of love!
I'll be back.

Ok, one more thing. Here are some photos of my Preschool kids, the Koala Bears and the Care Bears. They're pretty cute!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=141887&l=2f3b8&id=697055612

Here are my and John's photos of our trek along the Great Wall of China.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=141867&l=2ab3e&id=697055612

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=141873&l=49c9e&id=697055612

There. I think I'm done now. I've had a nice weekend watching Olympics, catching up on sleep, spending time with friends and partying with my new friends I met in Beijing. It's been nice and relaxing. Tomorrow starts another week, but it's only a four-day week because Friday is a national holiday. Woot! Long weekend! I don't have any plans yet, but I'm sure I'll find something to do. Friday is also important for another reason: it will mark my halfway point here. Six months! I can't believe it. Oh, and one more thing to share. This week I got some great news: Deon booked his flight to Korea for December. He's coming to visit! I'm so excited for that. I think that plus the extreme humidity this summer has me looking forward to winter more than ever. It will be so nice to have him here for my holiday. I can't wait.

Please let me know how you're all doing. I'd love to hear from everyone.
Lots of love!

Before I forget, here are some photos from Shanghai:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=140095&l=cdc04&id=697055612

So yes, Beijing was so amazing. On our first day, John had to go to the Korean Consulate to get his new visa for his new job, so we said we'd meet up, along with the other teachers, Matt, Megan and Brian, at noon under the portrait of Mao in Tiananmen Square. It was so great to be staying right near this famous landmark. Our hostel was in a huton, which is a traditional old alleyway or street lined with shops, restaurants and people's homes. It was just really interesting to see people practicing their daily routines. Little kids running around, old men strolling down the street or chatting with their friends in their boxers, bicycles everywhere, construction of a new restaurant across the street, the man at the Peking duck place next door shouting hello every time a foreigner walked by. I loved it. And ten minutes or so down the main road brought me to Tiananmen Square, the largest square in the world. I wandered around and saw Mao's Mausoleum, the Monument to the People's Heroes, some new Olympic signs and came to find Chairman Mao, high on the wall at the Tiananmen Gate. Everyone showed up and we continued on to the Forbidden City. This was an amazing sight as well. It was so huge and had so many beautiful Ming Dynasty temples and palaces. It took quite awhile to walk through. We then climbed the stairs in Jing Shan Park to get a view of the Forbidden City from above. John and I headed to a famous market/shopping street area and tried some popular Peking roast duck, which was delicious. We then had a relaxing and early night in preparation for our early morning the next day to leave for the Great Wall of China.

Due to *ahem* someone not setting his alarm properly, we did not wake up to be ready for our 6am bus that was to leave for the three-hour journey to the Great Wall. Luckily the hostel staff sent someone to find us and wake us up and we quickly threw on our clothes and ran out the door. It was really lovely to be half-asleep and greeted by a bus full of people who were all waiting for us. But we got on the road and arrived at the site around 9:30. We chose one of the more difficult walks of the wall, because it was not entirely restored and therefore showed more of what the original wall really looked like. It was almost a four-hour hike, and it was no stroll in the park, let me tell you. But it was absolutely breathtaking. We didn't have sun, but the views were still amazing, and the greatest part was that we were the only tour group on it at that time, so we had a lot of space to ourselves. It wasn't at all touristy or crowded. It was by far the highlight of the trip.

We saw some other main attractions such as the Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace, the Beijing Zoo (we had to see pandas in China) and of course checked out the Olympic stadiums. That was really exciting for me. We couldn't get right up close to the Bird's Nest, but it was really amazing to see. There was just a buzz of excitement all over the city in anticipation for the Olympics, which of course are now in full swing. It's really cool now to see the footage of Beijing and the Olympic venues on tv and to say that I was just there. I'm so glad I went to China. It was definitely the trip of a lifetime.

Here are my photos of Beijing. I'm going to try to get the Great Wall ones up later. Enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=140143&l=1c426&id=697055612

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=140521&l=29346&id=697055612

Sorry, I have to run, but I will finish posting the rest about China later.

Hello Everyone

I'm really terrible at this blogging thing lately. I think I may have an aunt in Ireland and a family friend in Scotland who may be a bit annoyed at my lack of posts (hi Aunt Karen and Doreen!). I just got back last Sunday from a week-long vacation in China and that's all I want to talk about, but I think I should update on a few other things first. In my last post I was preparing for both the Open Class day and feeling nervous about parents watching me teach as well as the crazy Boryeong Mud Festival. So I'll share a little about those first I guess.

I was a little bit anxious about how things were going to go with the Open Class. It seemed that our supervisors expected us to have an entire lesson planned out and rehearsed with the kids for the big day. Of course I had a lesson plan and we followed a routine that we have every morning, but I also wanted the kids to really learn something new as they do every day so it wouldn't seem so practiced and fake. It went really well. My classroom is ridiculously tiny, so it was a tight squeeze fitting at least twelve extra adult bodies in there, and it was a bit sweaty, but the kids were both well-behaved and not shy. They really showed off their English skills and it wasn't perfect, which I was glad for. I wanted the parents to see how it really is every day. I was so proud of my little Koala Bears. And I got all positive feedback, so I felt pretty happy with everything.

School lately is going well. My 'devil child' Elly was finally moved to another class with older kids to see if that would put her in line. That was a huge relief. I'm starting to whip that class into shape now and I think the fact that I don't have to spend most of the class yelling at one or two students has changed the entire atmosphere. Everyone just seems a little bit happier and they're learning better than before. It's nice to be able to actually teach. This first week back was really busy for me because I had to grade all the elementary class tests from before the holiday and get things organized for the second semester of preschool. We're testing out having me teach Care Bears without a helper teacher in the class now, which has been challenging and exhausting, but I want to do it. It's great to have her for certain things, but I've realized that having a Korean helper teacher in the room only encourages them to listen to me less. I've had moments in the past few months when I'd be telling one of them to stop doing something and they would actually look over at the helper teacher for confirmation. They don't really see me as the main authority in the class. I understand, because they're so young and still have a very small limit of understanding of English, but I need to work on disciplining them myself. It's really hard. I took away so many stickers and put a few of them on the 'thinking chair' this week. It'll be tough for awhile but I hope my consistency will work. I have to keep remembering, they're four years old (some still three) and by the time I teach them, they've already been sitting for an hour and a half. They need to play and burn off all that four-year-old energy but in Korea they must sit and listen to the teacher. We get up and dance and play sometimes, but that usually leads to chaos, so it's difficult to keep their short attention spans for long. I'm pretty glad that the helper teacher is gone if only for the fact that I won't have anyone watching me anymore when I have to act like a bit of a performer to get their attention. And no more adult ears will have to be subjected to my singing anymore.

As much as it is a challenge at times, I have to keep remembering that this is the only job I've ever had that I don't totally dread or dislike. I actually really enjoy working with little kids. It's always interesting and it's so rewarding when you see their little wheels turning and know that something is really sinking in. I never really gave much thought to teaching before now, though I have said for many years now that I want to do something with kids. I'm actually thinking about looking into teacher's college in the next few months. Now that I've said this, it will only encourage me to really do it. I don't know much about the situation with teaching in Canada these days, and I know how competitive it can be to get into teacher's college (and how low my grades from uni are), but I'm going to seriously look into it anyway.

Hmm, oh right, so onto Mud Fest. Every year in a town on the west coast of Korea for the past ten years there has been a celebration of the natural mud that is found in Boryeong. There are these mud flats, or a mud beach that stretches out forever. The mud is supposed to be very good for your skin and health. We actually got to see this mud beach itself with the tour group we went with and it was really cool. The festival actually takes place on Daecheon Beach, which is just a nearby normal sand-and-water beach, but they set up the town with all kinds of mud activities with the mud they ship from Boryeong. There was mud body-painting, mud-sliding, mud prison, mud baths. It was pretty wild. I stuck to the mud-paining and generally just enjoyed the beach and watching all the crazy people. It was a lot of fun. It was so nice to be at a beach. The water was so warm! I have now swam in the Yellow Sea. I don't know if this will work, but here are some photos that I posted on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=141469&l=24005&id=697055612.

Last week was my summer vacation. In a year of teaching, we get two weeks off of paid vacation. One week was at the end of July and the other will be the week of Christmas to New Year's. I'm starting to understand why teachers get so much time off back home. One week is not enough. Especially when you're not spending it relaxing, but walking all over Shanghai and Beijing. I had such an amazing time. We left for Shanghai on the Saturday morning and got to our hostel by early evening. The first night we spent walking around the Bund, which is the major river through Shanghai, and checking out the incredible skyline. Shanghai has really interesting architecture. It also has a lot of people out to make a buck and to rip off unsuspecting tourists. We didn't fall for any of the tacky gimmicks or souvenirs but we had thought it would be cool to take a night cruise around the river on one of the lit-up boats, and so we were convinced when a student came to us with promises of an hour-long cruise complete with a live band for only $15. It took forever to get us to the boat and when we got there, there was no band. And it might have taken thirty minutes, tops. At least we were able to take some nice pictures with a boat full of Chinese tourists. After that we walked along the Nanjing Road, which is lined with shopping malls and designer stores and sat on a patio for a few drinks.

Our second day was spent seeing other major parts of the city. We were taking pictures in People's Square of all the cool buildings in the background and started talking to a group of two Chinese girls and a guy. They were telling us all about different parts of China and the one girl worked at a traditional tea house nearby and was taking her visiting friends to see it. So they invited us along. It was actually really cool, though we weren't allowed to take photos. The girl serving us explained all the different rituals and techniques she was using in brewing, pouring, smelling and tasting the tea. We tried three or four different kinds and then of course came the sales pitch to buy 'the best quality tea in the city'. I didn't fall for it, but John bought some for his parents. We mentioned that we wanted to see an acrobatics show that night and they just happened to sell tickets at the tea house also, so we bought those too. We realized later that we may have just been scammed into something, and it wasn't just out of the friendliness of their hearts that they invited us along, but it was still worth it to try the tea and see something different and traditional. After that we explored Old Town and the YuYuan Gardens, which were beautiful and got ready to see the acrobatics later that night. The show was amazing. I remember watching something similar years ago with my dad on tv, but it was really incredible to see what types of things these people could do with their flexibility. We spent one more day in Shanghai just exploring the city and later hanging out with some guys from Chile at our hostel before boarding the train to Beijing the next morning.

I loved Shanghai for its modern and interesting architecture, but I really loved Beijing for its tradition, history and the effort they have put in to making their city look beautiful for the Olympics. I think I went at the best possible time for Beijing. The weather was great (Actually, really too hot, but not rainy), we were lucky to not have to experience the pollution, the city was clean and tidy and green. It was just really exciting. Our hostel was so much fun, packed with a bar out front when we arrived. We met lots of fun people there and explored the city with a few other English teachers from Seoul while we were there.

I'm the official holder of a Chinese Visa! I am now allowed to enter China for my holiday. It's so soon...I can't wait. Everything is organized now. It's turning out to be a much more expensive trip than I imagined, what with visas and train tickets and not-so-cheap flights, but when else am I going to be so close to China? I have to go. It should be exciting. Only 19 days!

I actually sat down today during my non-teaching time to organize all the things I need to do at school in the next 19 days. July is a busy month. I gave my supervisor a written proposal lesson plan for our Open Class day (the parents' visitation day) today and I even started writing my report cards. I'm on top of things. I've actually surprised myself. This whole Open Class business is silly I think. It's almost like we're acting out the best possible class we can teach in 40 minutes. It's not very natural. And who knows how the kids will react? I'm not super nervous, but not exactly thrilled about it either. I'm really not happy with my elementary classes these days. Preschoolers are just so much more enthusiastic about learning, even when they're a bit noisy at times. I really set down the rules with them today because most of them just made me so miserable last Friday. I just need to stick to some consistent disciplinary actions and I think they get the point. I like being the fun teacher who they can enjoy to learn from, but sometimes I need to show them that I am still their teacher, no matter what. I'm still trying to find that balance. I really do love kids, but sometimes they can just drive me nutty.

I'm really happy about a new friend I've made. I've been spending a lot of time lately with one of the Korean teachers I work with since we discovered we live in the same neighbourhood and take the bus together in the mornings. She's so great. She's been offering to help me with anything that's difficult when you can't speak Korean and we really get along well. Her name is Lauren (we call her Korean Lauren because there is also American Lauren at work...two Danielles, two Laurens). She's doing her Masters in education at Korea University and took me there last week to her campus travel agent to help me get my Visa for China. Then yesterday we went shopping together in Myeong Dong, a popular and busy shopping district in downtown Seoul, to help me spend my money. I received a couple of gift certificates for Lotte Department Store from some students ($160!) and decided to finally spend them. It was a beautiful store, similar to the Bay at home I guess, with fifteen floors and lots of summer sales. I was able to buy three new dresses and only had to spend $20 of my own money! Yay...I love shopping. I also spent way too much money on a new pair of shoes that I had to order my size in because I'm a Sasquatch in this country. Seriously, anywhere I look at shoes I pretty much get laughed at when I ask for my size. What a freak I am. It was a long but really fun day. We had dinner together tonight too at a new restaurant in Uijeongbu. She doesn't have any of her friends in this area so she's really excited to hang out. As one of my friends here said, I live in North Korea....a joke referring to the fact that Uijeongbu is at the very top of the subway map, not even technically part of Seoul, and no one wants to come here to visit us. But I'm not complaining. I can see mountains every day.

This upcoming weekend I'm going to the Boryeong Mud Festival at Daecheon Beach, about a two-hour bus ride from here. I know, Mud Festival? A celebration of...mud? Really? Yes. Apparently the mud in that area is very therapeutic and good for your skin and health and so every year there is a huge two-week celebration. Everyone basically goes to the beach and gets covered in mud and partakes in all kinds of mud-loving activities. I think I'll be skipping out on the mud wrestling and obstacle courses, but I am kind of excited to get covered in mud. It looks a bit crazy. I know about ten other people who are going, so I'll have lots of people to hang out and get muddy with. I'm pretty excited. We leave early Saturday morning, so Friday will be an early night. Something fun and very unique to look forward to.

This week seems to be full of plans already. Tonight I hung out with Lauren and tomorrow I'm meeting up with Julian, a friend/former coworker from the lab in Guelph who is currently in Korea to improve his Korean. He's been in Singapore for the last few months for school and touring around other amazing parts of Asia and he'll be here for a few weeks I think so we're meeting up for dinner. I'm sure he'll have lots of great travel stories to share. Then either on Wednesday or Thursday I'll be going to visit John's area one last time for dinner before he moves to a new school and another area of Seoul next week. He's only been here for about four months, but his school is poorly managed and has been giving him a lot of trouble, so he's decided to quit and find work elsewhere. So I'll be hanging out with him and his coworker Colin one night, and before I know it, the weekend will be here again and I'll be off to cover myself in mud! I've been taking it easy the last few weeks, so now it's time to work on my social life again. At least it keeps me sane when I'm tired with school business.

Ok, this is long enough I think. I'll go now. Take care everyone! Love always.

Hello everyone. I'm alive...don't fret. I'm alive and well in fact. These last few weeks have been fairly busy and tiring. I have quite a few photos to share, but I'm having some problems uploading them from this computer, so I need to figure something out soon. So what have I been up to? Just the usual stuff really. The weather started getting really hot and I've been trying to enjoy that as much as possible. I like to wander along the river just down the road from here just for some "fresh" air and exercise. It's nice to get out in the sun. Though these last couple of weeks have been rainy. Apparently it's monsoon season now, so we can expect rain for the next few weeks. At least it's warm. Hmm...I feel like I haven't updated you in so long that everything I write is going to be completely random and out of order. So I apologize in advance.

Work has been really busy lately. One of my coworkers,the "other Danielle" got to go home last week for her sister's wedding, which meant that the rest of us foreign teachers were offered a bit of overtime pay to cover her classes (even though we weren't technically working overtime). So I had a few more teaching hours than usual plus regular end of the month elementary tests, and a special day for preschool (a flea market...kind of like a yard sale with fake money for the kids to go "shopping" in the different classes...a lot of fun actually; they loved it) making it a pretty busy week. Now that July has started, we have preschool report cards (oh, joy), a parents' visitation day (double joy) and a song contest for all the preschool classes. Plus birthday parties and the usual monthly field trip. But it will all be rewarded with a week-long vacation at the end of the month...and then I'm off to China!

I'm really not looking forward to the parents' day. It will involve the parents sitting in on the first 40 minutes of our homeroom class to watch us in action. My classroom is really small and usually too hot and crowded with only 12 little people plus me, so I can't imagine how uncomfortable it will be with another 12+ grownups squeezed in. I have to come up with an impressive lesson plan for that morning. I'm pretty nervous about it. I'm totally comfortable with the kids, and I'm sure they'll be well behaved, but I don't know how I'll deal with all the picky moms and/or dads scrutinizing me. I'm predicting a lot of sweating on my part. As for the song contest, we have to come up with a practiced song, possibly with movement, to perform on the last day before summer vacation. They want us to get the kids used to performing in preparation for the big overly elaborate graduation ceremony at the end of the year. I've chosen Down by the Bay (a Raffi hit, someone I had forgotten about until now) and they seem to really like it and know it already. I haven't actually choreographed anything for it...I'm not sure if we'll be winning any prizes. But we'll try our best.

That's basically it for work life. Besides all the special activities and such, I'm just still working on improving my teaching skills and having a lot of fun with the kids. I love the preschoolers. They're just so affectionate and adorable. The day Danielle was leaving to go home for her vacation, I saw her hugging all her students individually as they went home for the day, saying goodbye and I got this flashforward vision of how it's going to be to leave them at the end of the year. I'm lucky enough to have two classes of first-year students, so we all started SLP at the same time. This is the first time most of them have been to school at all and so I'm one of their first real teachers. I can't tell you the number of times a day I'm told, "I love you Danielle Teacher" or am attacked with hugs. And I really do love them. It's so exciting to see their development and they totally crack me up sometimes. Oh, like last week, at the Flea Market, some of the teachers sold tomatoes and cucumbers for the kids to buy for their moms. One of my Koala Bears, Sophia, who is definitely the slowest and least language-developed of the class, had bought a small bad of cherry tomatoes for $1 (not real money, remember). They received money at the beginning of the day to go shopping, plus anything they made from the items they sold themselves. So in the afternoon, Sophia held up her bag of tomatoes to me and I said, "For me?" and she said yes. When I went to take them and say thank you, she goes, "No, two dollars". She might not be so bright with English, but she totally gets money! I thought it was hilarious. They're constantly surprising me like that. I know it's going to be the hardest thing to leave them at the end of the school year. As for my elementary classes, I really enjoy most of them too. The older kids have something completely different to offer. You can have somewhat conversations with them and they're usually full of jokes and questions. Only one class I can't stand, that being "the Elly class" (my evil child). It's not just her anymore...she's a bit better since my supervisor has spoken to her a few times, but the whole class is just ridiculous. They're really young and have very little English comprehension, so it's really hard to get through to them. But I think that they should understand by now that school means be quiet and listen to the teacher. They frustrate me to the point that I want to request a class switch. It's just sad that out of seven groups of kids, I have to have one that I nearly dread teaching now. All the others are great. Sigh.

In social life news, I've gone out a fair number of times in the past month or so. Going out to a few bars with different people, and even a couple of house parties. The most fun was when I met up with one of the couples we met when we were in Busan, Brad and Renee. They live in Masan, sort of near Busan (way down south) and it was their first visit to Seoul since they started working in Korea. They came with another couple, Ginny and Ruiri (from England; Renee and Brad are from Georgia) and I met up with them and my friend John and his coworkers during the day one Saturday a few weeks ago. We wandered around Insadong for a bit (which I've now been to more times than I can remember, but I still like it) and then went to check out Seoul Tower. Just another observation tower overlooking the city..nothing too special, and actually not a great thing to visit on a totally overcast day. I didn't even bother taking pictures...there was literally nothing to see. After that we went out for some Mexican food (our friends from Masan vowed to eat no Korean food the entire weekend in order to take advantage of all the international cuisine that Seoul has to offer...they live in a very small town) and then headed to Hongdae, an area with loads of shops, bars and restaurants. I'd been there before with Alicia and Shella and Lauren for some daytime shopping, but this time we were going to drink. We went to one bar that seemed alright, but the music was deafeningly loud, so once our other friends, Erin, Heather and company showed up, we moved on. We found another bar called Ho Bar which was pretty lame, despite the funny name, and then found a little hole-in-the wall place where you could make a request of any rock/pop/soul song you wanted from the wall lined with cds behind the bar. There were only about four other customers there, so the group of about ten of us took over the place with our singing and dancing antics. It was so much fun. We stayed out til the trains started running at 5:30..a long night. But I really liked the group we were with and had such a great time.

...I'm realizing this is getting painfully long. How about a to be continued...until tomorrow perhaps.

Happy Belated Birthday to Canada! Don't worry, I wore my colours proudly and celebrated with fellow Canadians. I will be back soon.

I'm a terrible blogger. I have some things to share. Firstly, it's almost been four months since my arrival here. It's crazy. I'm practically Korean. Haha..that's not even close to being true, as I'm still no further in understanding or speaking the language. I've had some ups and downs lately, as I'm sure is bound to happen. I was feeling slightly lonely and homesick last week, but I think I can attribute that to the fact that I was pretty sick. I visited the doctor two weeks ago with a sore throat and was told I had laryngitis and I got a prescription. It went away quickly and I felt fine by the weekend, but came back in full force the following week. I went back to the doctor, and this time was seen by a much more thorough and very good English-speaking man who could tell right away that I actually had tonsillitis. He gave me antibiotics and told me to eat ice cream at least twice a day and to get lots of rest. I laughed at that part, as "rest" isn't really a word in the Korean English school system. My bosses aren't terribly understanding when it comes to illness, and sick days or substitute teachers basically don't exist. This was last Thursday. My energy was so low and I can't say the kids received the best of Danielle Teacher. By Friday morning I knew that I couldn't teach and so braved the phone call to my supervisor. It went much better than expected and I spent the day sleeping, eating popsicles, watching bad tv and feeling sorry for myself. Tonsillitis hurts! Anyways, I think the experience of feeling so sick always makes me wish I had someone around, and so the homesickness was a little stronger at that point.

But not to worry, I'm back to almost normal health now (just a sniffle) and I'm feeling less lonely. I can't believe sometimes just how far away I am from everyone back home. I mean, I have friends and acquaintances here obviously, but it's not quite the same. I miss you all.

Hmm, what news do I have to share? Oh, yes, my most exciting news: I'm going to China! At the end of July I have my first week's vacation and I decided that I actually kind of want to see Beijing. My friend John and I are going to Shanghai for a couple days and then taking the train to Beijing. I'm most excited about the fact that we'll be there a week before the Olympics start, so I'm sure there will be a good atmosphere, plus it will likely be the cleanest Beijing for the same reason. I know there's a lot of controversy over China lately, and I know some people are concerned about the earthquake aftershock, but I'm sure it will be fine. When else am I going to be this close to such an interesting and historical country? And come on, who doesn't want to see the Great Wall? It would have been cool to go a little further south, such as Thailand or Vietnam or Laos, but they're much farther away and therefore much more expensive, and my plan is to see all those places when I'm finished teaching so that I can spend a little more time than a week travelling. We only get two weeks vacation in the whole year, which clearly isn't a lot of time to explore Asia. My second week will be in December, for the Christmas holiday. I'm expecting a visitor from home then. This is my other exciting news. I don't know if I should get excited yet, because it seems so far away, but I can't help it. For those of you who don't know, I started seeing someone back home not long before I came to Korea and we have really connected and developed a great long-distance relationship over the past few months. His name is Deon..he's pretty great...and he wants to visit me for Christmas and I couldn't be more happy. So now I have two pretty fantastic things to look forward to!

This coming weekend is another long weekend and I have no plans. I kind of want to go to the beach, but there doesn't seem to be great coordination of planning. There are a lot of great beaches in Korea, but they're all a few hours away by bus or train, and it's hard to get people together to make a plan sometimes. Either way, I'm sure I'll enjoy it somehow.

Hmm, right now at work the most stressful thing for me is dealing with one really bad student in one of my elementary classes. I guess I'm lucky to have only one devil-child out of..hmm..67 (wow, that's more than I realized), but she seriously makes me dread teaching that one class. Her name is Elly, and she's 9 years old. She's one of those constant attention-seeking kids who is so disruptive and rude. I've tried different punishments, like sending her out in the hall, having my Korean partner teacher call home, getting my supervisor to scold her, but she continues to be a brat. It stresses me out. Her parents don't seem to be that concerned or involved and she isn't easily scared it seems. She's also a bit of a bully with the other kids from what I can tell. My life would be so much easier without her. One day, a couple months back, she sneakily gave me the finger after I told her not to do something, and I told her right away to get out of the class. She refused and wouldn't budge. I had to put down my books and physically pry her fingers from the desk and pull her into the hall, where I made her stand for the rest of the class. I had no idea a tiny 9-year-old kid could be so full of attitude. Grr. That's my rant for the day. I'll keep you posted.

I shouldn't make this too long or no one will want to read it. I'm looking forward to the weekend. Only one more day of work! We're teaching about animals in preschool right now, so it's actually pretty fun. Animals are always interesting to little kids. I better think of something fun to do tomorrow. Maybe I should take some more pictures of my little adorable children for you. That's a plan. Ok, I'll be back soon!

My second long weekend involved a really fun trip to Busan, a southeastern coastal city. It's a smaller city than Seoul, and not as busy, but with a port and a few beaches and a fun nightlife. I forced myself out of bed at 5am on Saturday and headed to the subway to catch the 7am train from Seoul. The super fast train took three hours and we took a quick cab to our love motel. It sounds not-so-lovely, but it was actually quite nice and comfortable. From there we headed to Jagalchi Fish Market, apparently world famous. It's just a crazy indoor smelly fish market offering all the weirdest looking seafood you can imagine. Of course, lots of photos were taken.

( click here )

Ok, so that was Saturday. On Sunday, needless to say, we slept in a bit, and then headed to Haeundae Beach to enjoy a little sunshine. It wasn't quite beach temperature, but we made the most of it and just relaxed, meeting up with a few of our newly-made friends from the night before. It was so nice to be at a real beach. I can't wait for summer! The funniest part of it all was that there was some kind of crazy Christian celebration going on. All these people wearing yellow "Awakening" t-shirts were roaming the beach and there was a stage set up where different Korean Christian pop and rock songs were performed. It was hilarious. We rocked out to some Alleluias in the sun.

( let's go to the beach )

And that's it for photos. I had such a fun time in Busan. I didn't do all the touristy things I had planned to, but it was just nice to see another part of the country, to relax and party a bit, and to meet so many new cool people. I think I'll likely go back, especially for the beach.

Hello everyone. It's been awhile, sorry. Korean life is pretty great. I'm honestly having a really fun and stress-free time here. I've just had two four-day weeks in a row because of some much-needed and enjoyed May long weekends. It's been really nice to have some time off to relax. This whole teaching thing certainly tires me out. But yeah, I realize more and more each day just how little stress is in my life these days. That's a really nice feeling, as most of you who really know me well will know that I'm a bit of a worrier. There's a small area in the back of my mind that is reserved for some worry for the future (you know, that whole "what am I going to do with my life when this year is over?" thing), but for the most part I'm just enjoying each day while I'm here. I think what makes it so great is the people I'm working with and meeting and getting to know. It makes such a huge impact to have so many fun and helpful people around.

Apart from the usual day-to-day teaching stuff, there have been report cards and feedback from parent-teacher meetings recently. It was so strange writing report cards. Honestly, I feel more and more grateful for all those teachers I had over the years when I realize that I'm actually a teacher who is influencing these little minds. Overall there seem to be no complaints about my teaching and the only concern is that I'm not so great at disciplining the Care Bears. I think they're really improving, but of course they don't always pay attention. They are babies after all. So, if any of you have ideas for how to better discipline 3- and 4-year-olds who barely understand English, please send them my way. I'm working on it, I'm just not that scary. I really love the little monkeys and I honestly don't think they're being bad, but Korean parents have certain expectations for their kids and I understand that it's important to prepare them now for better behaviour once "real" school begins for them. Their progress so far has been pretty incredible though. I love seeing recognition and understanding on their faces. It'll be amazing to see their change in a year.

Okay, so onto my long weekends. I have a ton of photos to bore you with, so here are the stories to accompany them. The first long weekend was in celebration of Children's Day on May 5th. It's basically a day for kids just as Mother's Day is a day for moms. So on the Friday we had a fun day with games and activities at the park. I was in charge of face/hand-painting...my artistic skills were put to the test. Sadly I was so busy painting half the kids in the school that I didn't get time to take photos of that, but I did get a few of the singing contest earlier in the morning.

( click here )

Ok, I think I'll post about weekend two in a separate entry. This is getting long and possibly boring you to death. But bottom line, my first long weekend in Korea was a lot of fun and I'm really glad I got to spend it with my fun and crazy coworkers.

Hello everyone

I realized how long it's been since I last posted and just wanted to let you know that I'm still alive. I haven't been using a computer much lately, except for some email-checking at work when I'm not too busy, but I haven't had much to report. This past weekend was my first long weekend and so I went on an overnight stay and rafting trip with a big group of my coworkers. It was really fun, despite the fact that early May is definitely the wrong time to go rafting in Korea and that we had to sleep on thin mats on the hardwood floor, Korean-style. It was just really nice to get out of the city and to bond with all the teachers. I'll write more about it later once I get the pictures to post.

I have another long weekend coming up this weekend (two four-day weeks in a row! woohoo!) and it's still undecided where I'm going. I hope to get to Busan, but there have been some complications in the planning, so I don't know yet what the story is. It's a busy coastal city on the southeast corner of Korea, complete with international harbour, beaches, temples and lots of shopping and restaurants/bars. I really hope I can go. It will be nice to see another part of the country. And I just really want to go to the beach.

Anyways, I just wanted you all to know that I'm well...keeping busy and staying happy.
I hope everyone at home is well too!

Part Three: I climbed a mountain!

Yes, you read that correctly. I attempted, I endured, I conquered. I climbed one of the many Uijeongbu mountains. Mr. Kim took a few of us brave souls out for a hike this past Sunday. Up until that point, my weekend was pretty low-key. I went out with all the preschool teachers for dinner on Friday night and was so exhausted. I couldn't stay out past dinner and ended the night with some groceries and a cab ride home (I finally splurged on some real cheddar cheese! Oh, how I've missed cheese..)On Saturday I met up with my friend John and a few of his coworkers whom I've hung out with before. We wandered around Insadong and a really pretty shopping/museum/restaurant area that I hadn't been to before. There's another large palace close to the area, and next time I get more time I'm going to check it out again. I was meeting Mark and Jenny and Scott for dinner in Itaewon at 6, so I left my new friends in an attempt to find the subway. I quickly got lost and had to ask about four different groups of Koreans for directions...luckily they all understood me, yet they all sent me in different directions. It was a little stressful, but I made it eventually. I made it for dinner in a very noisy Western-style bar/restaurant and then we ended up in another bar (a dive right at the foot of the oh-so-lovely "Hooker Hill" of Itaewon. Kind of like the Red Light District of Seoul I guess) for a few responsible early drinks in anticipation of our hike the next day. We played cards and headed home early. I was home by 11.

So Sunday morning I put on my hiking shoes and backpack and met up with a group of teachers at school. Mr. Kim then drove us to the starting point of Sampeongsan. It apparently is the easiest of the climbs in the Uijeongbu area. I totally underestimated hiking. I very much believed it was just walking on more rugged terrain...I was wrong. It was hard. I was breathless and sweating after the first 5 minutes. Only two hours to go! But it was pretty worth it. We made it to the peak and the view was gorgeous. Then we went down another way through Bukhansan National Park, which was beautiful and had a nice lunch outside. It was a long but great day. I took some good pictures, so here they are.


( going on a hike... )

So that's that. This week is already super busy with elementary tests to write again and parent-teacher meetings on Friday. Luckily I don't actually have to meet with the parents, as it would be mostly impossible to communicate, so the Korean teachers take care of that, but I still need to prepare a little something to write about each of my Koala Bears. On top of that, we're taking our first field trip this Thursday to a "scientific educational musical". A kids' musical about science? Should be fun.

I hope everyone's well, and I promise I'll try to write more often!

Part Two: Out and About

After our fun outdoor day I had some fun on my weekend with coworkers and friends. I went out for dinner with some of the Korean preschool teachers and Danielle after work on Friday. It was a nice night. I like the chances I get to bond better with the teachers, especially the Korean teachers, since it's a bit hard to get to know each other in the busy days at work. Hmm...I actually can't remember what I did the rest of that weekend. I think it was an easy-going one. The past two weekends have been far busier though.

Last weekend I went out with Erin and Heather and a bunch of newer friends on Friday night. We started off just going for dinner, then meeting with Heather's friends from home (Belleville, Ontario) then a few more of our friends that we met on St. Paddy's Day arrived. The soju cocktails flowed and before we knew it, the older female bartender was leading choreographed dances on the small dancefloor and everyone was joining in. Well, I was just taking the pictures mostly. This is not the first time I've seen full-out dances from music videos performed by a large group of Koreans. It's so funny to watch. It's like in those cheesey dance movies (yes Ali and Trish, I said cheesey) when the whole club breaks out in a huge dance break. It's pretty awesome. After that we headed to an actual dance club (this was just a tiny bar) and all of a sudden it was 4:30 in the morning. The bars don't really close here it seems. We figured we might as well wait until 5 when the subway starts running again and headed to McDonald's for a very early breakfast. So I made it through my first all-nighter in Korea! The next day was a bit rough though. Especially with the prospect of seeing a traditional arts performance that evening.

I met up with Evelyn, Scott, Alicia, Lauren, Danielle and her boyfriend Chris for our trip to Korea House. It was a large Korean buffet dinner followed by an hour-long show filled with traditional Korean dancing, drumming, fan-dancing, opera and a small orchestra. It was very interesting and I managed to stay awake for the entire show. I wish I had pictures to show you, but it was a live performance in a theatre and so no photos allowed. We did get one with the performers after though. It was a nice night. Needless to say I went to bed fairly early.

Then on Sunday, I had planned to go to the Seoul Cherry Blossom Festival but after hearing from a number of sources that it was actually pretty lame and not really worth the journey, I had my own version by the river behind my apartment. Alicia and I grabbed a $5 pizza and sat by the river and ate it in the sunshine. Then I took some photos of the cherry blossom trees for your viewing pleasure. Later on we headed to Hongdae with Shella and Lauren. It's a very cool University area with tons of shops, bars and restaurants. It just has a hip feeling to it. I like it a lot. There's a market there every weekend selling crafts and jewellery and stuff and I may have broken my vow to not shop here. It's impossible. There's so much good shopping to do in this country. I love it. Check out my pictures.

( out and about )

And that's all for now. I'll try to get on to part three tomorrow. Things are going well. My weeks are busy of course and I'm obviously having a great time on my weekends. I'm sorry I'm so absent on these entries lately, but it's busy. And I doubt you want to hear about what I ate for lunch or what I taught the Care Bears every day.

I just want to say how much I appreciate everyone reading and enjoying my blog and that it's so great to read your comments. I miss you all! xoxo