Oh happy day!

My Mom and Pam arrived in Korea on Saturday night and I couldn't be happier! George and I wore some sweet couples shirts to pick them up from the airport.

It still seems so surreal that they are actually in Busan.

The weather has been terrible. It's easily the worst we've had all summer, but at least it's hot, which apparently is a wonderful change after the cold summer they've been having in Canada. So far they've been to Haedongyoungoonsa (temple by the sea), Jangansa (a mountain temple near my school), the Busan museum, Haeundae beach, Busan Aquarium, Gwangalli beach and bridge and APEC house. They also got to spend a few hours at my school yesterday, sitting in on the kindergarten and grade 1 classes, and getting to experience the caferteria food at lunch.

We've take them to a few of our favourite restaurants so far including Korean bbq, kimbap and shabu shabu.

I'm hoping that the rain will miraculously clear tonight or tomorrow so that we can go to a Lotte Giants game.

Either way, I am SO happy to have visitors!!

:) :) :)

Rain rain go away

So, it's rainy season here in Korea ... and today was terrible!
I set out to walk to my bus stop this morning, and after about 2 minutes I was soaked to the knee. My tiny umbrella was no match for the torrential downpour and soon i was completely drenched. Somehow even my hair was wet before I was 5 minutes from home.
Just before my bus stop I have to cross a road and walk up a hill. This road at the bottom of the hill was completely washed out. There is no other way around and I was already miserable, so I proceeded to wade through water that was well above my ankles - I probably now have some kind of gross Korean foot fungus!
The bus ride to school was almost double the normal time, as the area around Songjeong beach was completely flooded. Water was up over the sidewalks and about midway up the tires of cars, and that was at 7:30am. The rain hasn't let up all day, so the ride home should be interesting.

In happier news, George bought a scooter on Saturday. He's been talking about getting one since before we'd even arrived in Korea, and is so happy to own his first vehicle! I've got to admit, it's alot of fun and waaaay more convenient.

Only 4 sleeps til my mom and Pam arrive ... hopefully it's done raining by then!

Oh Canada ...

Last weekend George and I set out to find one of the sites listed in our Lonely Planet Korea guide book: Seokbulsa (석 불 사 ), which is an out of the way temple with some incredible stone carvings.

We took the subway to Oncheonjang and from there took a taxi to Geumgang Park. Instead of walking up the mountain we decided to take the cable car, which provided us with some incredible views of Busan - I highly recommend it!

Once at the top we decided to make our way to the south gate, where Lonely Planet's directions started. We were almost there, and looking lost when an older Korean man stopped and ask "Can I give you my hand?" ... hmmm, I think he was asking if we needed a hand! When we told him our destination he told us to follow him and he'd lead us there. We really lucked out ... I don't know if we would have found the temple otherwise.

It was a nice half hour hike to get to a road leading to the temple, from there it was another 10 -15 minutes straight uphill. I'd recommend taking a taxi, because you can drive almost all the way up to the temple, and it saves the confusion of finding the temple with somewhat unclear directions.

We spent about half an hour taking pictures of the temple and marvelling over the huge stone Buddha's carved into the rock. It was one of my favourite sights in Busan so far and I'm anxious to go back again.

A big thanks to Mr. Lee, Korean hiking enthusiast and our wonderful guide for the day. It was really neat to have a running commentary about the temple, the places we hiked, and the views of the city. I learned a lot more than I would have if we'd been alone, and that really added to my appreciation of what we were seeing. He even gave George his number and asked us to call him if we ever wanted to go on a guided hike again!

This week I had another open class, this one with my Korean co-teacher. I think it went pretty well. Definitely good practice for the fall when our open class will be judged by someone from the board of education.

Canada Day in Korea was pretty low-key. We went to a nearby bar that was holding a Canada Day party and had a few Canadian Club and diet cokes. Since it was a work night we didn't get to crazy, but it was nice to see so many Canadians out, enthusiastically celebrating the holiday.

Summer breeze, makes me feel fine

It's been exactly 3 months that I've been in Korea ... the time seems to have flown by, but at the same time it feels like I've been here forever ... hard to explain!

I feel like some kind of reflection is necessary - I'm 1/4 of the way done my year in Korea.

I'm loving being here, and although I had some homesickness a few weeks ago, I've bounced back am ready to have 9 more amazing months here.

What do I miss most about home?
- friends & family
- dexter!!
- driving
- open space, lack of crowds, being able to walk down my road and not see a single person
- summer sunsets on Chemong Lake, boat rides, skiing etc
- cheese curds, pizza villa, Wendy's spicy chicken combo, limes, the chocolate chip banana bread at Starbucks

What do I love about Korea?
- the wonderful people I've met here
- living near the beach, morning runs on the beach, tanning etc
- George and I finally live in the same city again!
- my apartment ... it's amazing
- Korean food (minus school lunches), lime draft, aloe water
- Korean babies
- experiencing a completely foreign culture
- the convenience of city living
- the adorable kids that I teach
- all of the funny things I see on a daily basis
- cheap makeup
- being able to see mountains from anywhere in Busan

Some highlights?
- visits to the orphanage
- seaside temple
- hiking
- taking Korean lessons twice a week
- Spaland, jimjilbangs
- staying out all night
- eating live octopus

It's been quite an adventure so far and I look forward to exploring Busan and the rest of Korea in the coming months.


I still don't like Kimchi.

Welcome to my life

I had a demonstration class on Monday. It was not one of the Busan Board of Education open classes that all teachers are forced to endure (that's next week), but instead was organized by my school so that parents could observe a class. Luckily it was planned on the one day of the week that I teach with Jeremy, the other Canadian teacher at my school. We did some planning last week but decided not to get too worked up over it. I think the most stressful part for me was deciding what to wear. Have to impress those impossibly stylish Koreans!
About 10 mothers showed up for the class of 13 Grade 1's ... enough to ensure that the students (who are usually adorable, but wild) behaved like perfect little angels for the entire 40 minutes. I just tried to smile as much as possible, and I think it worked. Things went really well and my principal, who doesn't speak English even approached me afterwards and managed to say "You did GREAT job". What a relief!

Yesterday I was informed that the Grade 2 classroom was not available for the class I was supposed to be teaching in 5 minutes time. Our English office does not have nearly enough space for a whole class so it was decided that I'd teach outside, on the picnic tables near the animal cages. Can you tell already that it was a recipe for disaster?
The grade 2's already seem to find my class hilarious. Not sure if it's my broken Korean or terrible charades skills (there's no Korean co-teacher so I have to improvise a lot), but they seem to think I'm there for 40 minutes of comedic relief every Wednesday.
So, the outdoors class ... ughhhhh. It's hard enough to control this class inside, but the distractions of the great outdoors were just too much. They ignored my animal flashcards and insisted on pointing out the animals in the cage behind them, which they found to be hilarious. An ajumma from the village wandered up and sat 2 tables away watching me attempt to teach, and laughing at the goofy kids, further encouraging their bad behaviour. Then, each time I'd wrestled back their attention from the bunnies or the chicks and opened my mouth to speak, the rooster (yes, we have a rooster), would start to crow. This in turn prompted hysterical laughter from the kids and the ajumma. This happened about 5 times ... and was so frustrating. I can see the comedy in it now, but yesterday, outside in 27 degree heat, with a rowdy bunch of kids, and someones grandma watching and probably judging my every move - not so funny!!


We were in another area of town last night and found the following coffee shop - nice-uh!


I was supposed to be teaching right now, but I went upstairs to find an empty classroom and still have no idea where anyone is. Oh well, more time to blog. This is life in Korea.

Sunday morning rain is falling

I found a triathlon club ... I think.

I was swimming at the Grand Hotel on Friday and I guy hopped into my lane wearing an ironman bathing cap, so I pointed to the cap and gave him a thumbs up. Luckily he spoke a bit of English and proceeded to invite me to do an ironman distance triathlon with him and his club - in 2 weeks hahahahaha. That's clearly not happening, but it was a nice offer ;)

I continued on with my workout and as I finished my last length I sat up to about 15 Koreans standing around in their lanes looking at me. It was awkward enough that I tacked an extra 100m onto my cooldown! As I was getting out of the pool my ironman friend called me over and started explaining their groups training schedule to me. He also offered to loan me a bike, and once again asked if I wanted to do an ironman triathlon in 2 weeks. I really am sill not sure what the actual training schedule is, or if I'm being asked to join the group or not, but they swim daily, so I'm going to go back and try to get some more info this week.

I've finally gotten back into the groove with working out. Last week I ran 3 times, swam once and made it to the gym twice. The week before I ran 5 mornings. I think I am finally on "Korea time"!

Running in Korea is wildly entertaining. It doesn't quite beat running with 3 goofy labs in Selwyn, but it comes close in the comedy department. Each morning I can be guaranteed to see at least one of the following (usually more): little dogs wearing costumes, jewellery or dyed in pastel colours; people doing weird interpretive dance at the end of the water; people just leaving the bar and doing all kinds of crazy things; elderly Koreans doing the national stretch (it contains alot of hip rolling!); and lots of other random sights. For example, last week I saw the entire bar staff of a popular place in Haeundae on the beach at 6:30am, in staff uniform, practicing bar tending tricks!

This weekend George and I decided that we weren't going to drink or go to the bars because we wanted to actually do things, and not waste our days being hungover. What a good call - we had an amazing weekend!

On Saturday I went to the gym beside my building and then decided to treat myself and ordered McDonalds delivery for breakfast for the first time. I managed t get to the post office and send some packages and letters home. We then went to a temple by the sea, visited the orphanage, walked through a botanical garden and spent 2 hours at a coffee shop overlooking the beach, studying Korean!

On Sunday we had another gym date then went to Shinsaegae department store. We had an awesome meal in the food court, then checked out the attached skating rink and browsed through some stores. Back in Jangsan we tried to go to the movies, but although movies like Terminator, Star Trek and Wolverine come out in Korea on the same dates as back home we couldn't find The Hangover anywhere. Very disappointing!

Rainy season is apparently here ... we had a downpour for the majority of yesterday, some rain on Saturday night/Sunday morning but sunshine today. The nice weather is supposed to last until the weekend, then the rain will carry through into next week. The humidity is crazy - my hair has some curls for the first time ever! Other then that rainy season is not so fun. I need to invest in a pair of rain boots.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

And it burns, burns, burns, The ring of fire, The ring of fire.

Last week I experienced a fire drill at my school.

We had been informed that it was happening so I was not surprised when a fire truck pulled up and a campfire was lit in the middle of the dirt playing field in front of the school. OK, maybe I was a little surprised at the actual fire ... we tend to just pretend in Canada, not light actual fires!

The bells went off and the kids ran out of their classrooms in orderly lines, all bent over almost 90 degrees, with cloths covering their noses and mouths. It was a contrast to the fire drills that I remember when we walked slowly out of the building, laughing and joking, knowing that it was just a drill.

Once everyone was outside and lined up, the designated first aid teachers brought out a student on a stretcher and she was forced to lay on it for the remainder of the drill.

The fire fighters then unhooked the hose from the firetruck and proceeded to blast the tiny campfire and to put on a little show with the water. Once that was finished they re-lit the fire using a can of gas and let a grade 6 students demonstrate how to use a fire extinguisher.

I'm pretty sure I was open-mouthed in shock for the duration of the drill because the grade 1 and 2 teachers got a good laugh every time they looked my way.

Only in Korea!

This weekend I was able to visit the orphanage for the second time. The kids were playing outside because the weather was beautiful, and it was a nice change to see them so happy and preoccupied. I don't think they even noticed we were there!

I also managed to spend a few hours on the beach on both Saturday and Sunday and think that my tan is coming along quite nicely. Haeundae is starting to get a lot busier so we checked out Songjeong on Saturday which was a nice change.

George and I are starting to plan our summer vacation trip. There are just so many destinations in Southeast Asia that I'm anxious to visit. It's going to be hard to narrow it down! We're both off for the last 2 weeks of August and are excited to take a break from Busan and see some more of the world.

Some homesickness set in last week, definitely the worst since I've been here. It seems I've come to the end of the "honeymoon phase" of culture shock. The rainy and dull weather, having been sick on Monday, a less then stellar week of teaching and finally settling in to a less exciting routine here combined to make me feel pretty down. I realized just how far away from home I am, and how much of my contract is left and it scared me. Luckily I have some great friends here to cheer me up, and George of course always does a great job at making me smile, and am feeling SO much better this week. I think I need to shake things up and visit some more of the sights that made my first month here so exciting. George and I are thinking of taking a day trip somewhere this weekend, destination to be determined!

In some very exciting news - my mom and Pam are going to be here in under a month!! I am so excited to see them and to show them my new home :) :) :)

Missing everyone at home,
xoxoxo