October

Fall is finally upon us here, the leaves are starting to change, the air is crisp and cool. I have been debating for the last week whether or not to pull out my quilt and decided to take it out last night - not necessarily because I was cold but to feel bundled in fluffy blankets. I can still get away with not wearing a jacket to work but usually regret not bringing one by the time I leave work. 

Earlier this month we had a day off mid week for Hanguel Day. Hanguel is the Korean alphabet. From what I have heard, they have been going back and forth as to whether this is an official holiday or not. Last year it wasn't, this year it was. Chris, Chuck and I decided to go hiking at Namhansanseong Mountain/Fortress. The walls of the fortress really reminded me of the Great Wall of China. Here are some pictures from the day:

For the second half of our hike, we decided to walk on the outside of the wall 

Below is one of the fortress gates (I believe they are called).

That weekend Chris, Ben and I went to Dongdaemun to go shopping. Dongdaemun is another huge area for shopping. There are several markets as well as skyscrapers full of designer shops. I was looking for a jacket and boots in particular. I only brought my heavy peacoat and wanted an in between jacket. We walked through the market and successfully found a jacket. Later we headed back to Myeongdong and I found a pair of boots. We also met up with Ben's girlfriend, Bo, and had delicious Indian food. 

The next weekend I went for dinner with Emmalee (who I went to Korea Burn with). We met in Gangnam and tried for almost two hours to find an Indian place to eat at. Eventually we found one and spent the night eating and catching up. It was a great evening. The next day I met up with my friend Myan. There are several universities in the area she lives in so we walked around them. The architecture is amazing. We went to Kyunghee University, Hankik University of Foreign Studies and Korea University. Later that evening we had Thai food. I was unfamiliar with everything on the menu, but picked a dish (of which the name escapes me now) but it was so good (which I feel like I say about everything I eat now). 

A lot of the buildings in Hoegi are covered in really cool graffiti, here are two shots of my favourite pieces I saw from that day. 

Some art structures from one of the University's art wings. 

Here is a picture of myself and Myan from a while ago. This was when we got together after the first time we met each other. We went for food with another guy (Ananth) we both met on our trip to Daebudo.

Diana and Anie both had their birthdays this month too! We had a class party to celebrate them. Diana is on the left and Anie is on the right, both wearing their pretty pink birthday dresses. 

Michael being goofy. 

I also had my first parent meeting a week or so ago. Before the big day I had to prepare some notes on each of my kindergarten students (all positive things only) which I would present in front of the Moms. I was a bit nervous the morning of, but knew it would go well. I was pulled out of my class in the morning and sat down to meet the Moms who were all very nice, but also very quiet. I introduced myself and talked a bit about the class in general and what we typically do during the day. Afterwards I spoke about each student individually. My supervisor translated the whole time. There were no questions for me at the end, so I headed back to class as they finished the meeting. My supervisor told me later that they all want me to teach their kids first grade come the new school year next year. As well, we write weekly reports to the parents and after my meeting, I got several notes back from the Mom's commenting on how their child always talks about me, and that they "can see why". It was very sweet and super interesting to meet them all!  

I of course have a lot to say and several pictures to show for Halloween but will save that for my next post! Stay tuned! :)

<3

Two Weekends of Sightseeing!

It has been a busy few weeks since coming back from Japan! Japan took a bit of a toll on me as I when we got back I was starting to get sick. Luckily anytime that has happened to me so far in Korea, I have combatted it with lots of tea, oranges and zinc, as well as my daily multivitamin. I recently ordered vitamin D online which will also help keep my health in check especially as winter approaches. I also ordered some tea online as I have already finished all of the tea I brought with me!

The weekend after getting back I met up with Kyle (whom we met in Japan) to check out Bukchon Hanok Village which is known for its traditional houses. Unfortunately the weather was not very nice (rainy) so we snapped a few quick photos and ducked into a burger joint for some food. So far that has been the best burger I've had in Korea, and you could tell the patty was handmade by the way it crumbled.

 

While eating we decided we would check out the aquarium (63 SeaWorld) at 63 Building in order to get out of the rain and cold - plus by the time we were done it was getting dark out. This is Korea's tallest building with 63 floors (naturally). It was a fun time, but I was a bit disappointed with how small it was. As a result of it being later in the evening, many of the animals were sleeping as well. But the displays were gorgeous and we saw some cool fish, and we all know how much I love fish!

 

They had a motion sensor which made a shattering glass noise when you walked on the glass as seen in the picture below. I was told about this beforehand, but it was still a bit nerve wrecking.

 

I am obsessed with this fish!

 

First time I've ever seen a seahorse! So cool!

 

They had these fish (below) which eat the dead skin off of your fingers. I had already experienced these fish through Dr. Fish while in the Dominican Republic. Still very cool though.

After leaving there, we got on a bus to head back to the subway but ended up getting off at a random spot and walked down to the Han River to check out the city lights. We took a few pictures and left as it was still raining.

The next day some coworkers and I planned to go on a hike but it had rained all night and knew the paths would be awful the next day so that didn't end up happening. I relaxed at in my apartment, finally unpacked from Japan and did a lot of Skyping. I have spent a lot of time at Café Bene catching up with everything these last two weeks!

The first week of October at school meant new class schedules and the beginning of Halloween! I love Halloween and have always though of it as being a month long holiday. I have been feeling a bit down because I although the children dress up for school, it is not a huge thing here. I do not have access to corn mazes, haunted houses, Halloween window stickies, Fright Nights and pumpking carving as I would at home. Those are all things I love and am missing. Halloween is made into a bit of a big deal at school though. We are having a song contest with our kindergarten classes, so I am teaching mine the "Monster Mash" which they will have to memorize and do a choreographed dance to and compete against the other classes. There is a classroom decoration contest, which means every Friday we need to do a craft with the students to help decorate the classroom. The school rents costumes for us, and we have already had to decide what to dress up as. Our big Halloween celebration will be on the 25th where we will create a haunted house for them to crawl though, in the big gym there will be various activities, snack rooms, face painting and classroom tricker treating. The four days leading up to that day will be "spirit week", each day unique - crazy hair day, backwards day, pajama day, sports day. It's going to be a very busy month!

We also received class pet snails this past week. My class got four and has named them Angelina, Plora, Fona and Lena. We feed them banana and lettuce and they all get very excited when the snails move. There was really no explanation to us why we have the snails but its fun to see the kids excited about them. I hope they have survived the weekend.

This past Friday we took our kindergarten students on another field trip but this time it was to a nearby mountain for a hike. It was fun to hike with them and they all got very excited when they saw a squirrel. It was a bit frustrating though as our supervisors assumed it would only take 30 mins total and would not interfere with out class schedule. (Which is crazy, because a half hour is a huge chunk of time in the classroom!) I knew it would take longer and it did. We were gone for an hour and forty-five minutes which left all of us scrambling to get work done in the last forty-five minutes we had when we got back. I was super happy when that day was over.

 

Some of my girls - Anie, Diana, Tyler, Grace and Sally

 

Anie doing my hair - which she loves! At the end of class everyday she usually braids my hair or does something with it. Throughout the day they I often am asked to put their hair in ponytails or braids or pigtails so I guess it's a bit of a trade off :P

 

My class!

 

Grace, Michael and Diana trying to get the hula hoop. They all were yelling "teacher" so that I would help them, I told them to try and jump for it, took the picture and then got it down for them.

There was a holiday that week but we didn't get it off ... something to do with the curriculum needing a certain amount of days so we had to work it. There is another holiday this Wednesday that we do get off though :)

This past Saturday a group of us (Chris, Jessica, Kyle and Matsuko - also someone we met in Japan) decided to check out the Seoul International Fireworks Festival in Yeouido Park. Chris and I ended up going a bit earlier than the rest of the group which allowed us to scope out a good spot along the Han River. The surrounding area was super nice with tons of tall buildings, I could have tricked myself into believing I was in Vancouver. The best way to describe the event is the Celebration of Lights, but instead of having each show on four different nights, all four were done in the same night. There were massive crowds just like the Celebration of Lights. They expected at least one million people to come and watch the fireworks! This also meant that all of the cellphone networks were overloaded making it incredibly difficult to use your phone to help meet up with other people - just like in Vancouver. When Chris and I found our spot, I realized this was exactly where I was last weekend with Kyle when we got off of the bus at the "random" spot to see the Han River and take pictures. We were able to get a message through to him, and I told him to meet us at that spot and he found us with no problem. Jessica and Matsuko on the other hand were a bit harder to find but we all met up eventually. They could have done a better job with the bathroom situation though. I stood in line for a good 45 minutes to use the bathroom but enjoyed people watching while in line. We did not bring snacks with us but there were so many people selling food. We ended up eating a lot of kimbap.

 

 

 

Chris using the antenna on her phone to try and get it to work - system overload!!

 

Loving the 25 degree weather in October!! Although it does get cold in the morning and at night so I know winter is on its way. But I am soaking up as much sun as I can while I can! Whoever called for a typhoon this weekend was crazy!

Below is just genius and something Vancouver should do for big events. They had these all over the place for garbage, just put up that day made of wood framing and green mesh. So much better than small garbage cans that will easily overfill. By the end of the night, these were overflowing but so such a good idea to help contain garbage.



 

Left to Right - Matsuko, Chris, Me, Jessica and Kyle

 

 

The fireworks were incredible. Canada, Japan, France and Korea participated. Japan and France were my favourite. It was too bad - for Canada's show there wasn't a breeze so most of the fireworks were covered with smoke, but the wind picked up afterwards for the other displays. Korea did a firework and laser show combo but we didn't have good seats for the laser part of the show but it was still enjoyable. The whole thing lasted two hours but we stayed behind afterwards (many did) to let the masses disperse and to avoid crazy crowded subways.

Sunday, I started my Korean classes again, this time joined by Chuck and Jessica. I am super excited to get into the language again and to learn it! Afterwards Chuck and I shared a 45cm pizza and watched Teen Wolf and just had a chill day. He has been moved to the apartment building next to me so it's nice to have a neighbour!

I have now been here for 11 weeks - one week shy of 3 months which I just can't believe!

I leave you with two pictures of me eating ramen in the corner store beside my building. This is a very common thing in Korea. Thought I'd give it a try, especially because I had nothing fast to make in my house and we were going out to play darts and have some drinks with Nate and his Mom (who is visiting right now) very soon!

<3