Chuncheon and other updates!

Earlier this month, we had a long weekend. Normally I try to take advantage of these weekends by travelling but decided not to this time. It was my friend Alison's last full weekend in Korea, so I wanted to spend as much time as possible with her before she headed back to Scotland.

We had Friday off work, so a bunch of us headed to Yeouido Park to have a picnic and spend the day in the sun. Something unique to Korea is that when the weather is nice, everyone heads out to parks BUT everyone brings a tent. Parks are always full of people in tents (to be shaded - despite pitching their tents in the little shade you can find from trees). There was a bunch of us there, but apparently I only took pictures with a few people.

Scott, myself, Tatiana, Maynah and Mel photo bombing

Ben and Chris in the background as Michael sleeps

Serious pose. I love these Canadians. 

We enjoyed the day and then grabbed tickets for the "Han River Cruise" later in the evening. It sounds fancier than it is. It was basically a small little ferry type boat, everyone stood on the deck as it cruised along. It went to Banpo Bridge, which is known for having the 'moonlight rainbow fountain'. This is another thing I was able to check off my bucket list. Nightly, during the summer, there is a water show off the side of the bridge. So the cruise took us there, we watched, but before it was over, we started to head back which meant going underneath the bridge directly under the water show = people getting wet! Some of us had an inkling that we were going to be going under the water and headed for the undercover area, others did not.

Sunset on the Han River in Seoul

A good portion of the group

The tallest gold plated building in the world (so I hear)

The water show! 

Everyone running to take cover as we go under the fountain

Scott and I safe from the water

The aftermath: Ben was one of the many who were drenched

Han River at night

The next day Alison had gathered some people to go to Chuncheon which is northeast of Seoul (it's actually in the next province, but you can still get there by subway!). Chuncheon is known for its dak galbi, which is grilled chicken with cabbage, sweet potato and other veggies that you make lettuce wraps with. We decided to take the ITX since it is a faster train than the normal subway, so we arrrived in about an hour. From here, things became a bit of an adventure as nothing was planned. 

Since there was six of us, we got two taxis and requested that they take us to the themed pension we had booked. A pension is a room in a building you can book for cheap. They provide pillows, sleeping mats and blankets and you sleep on the floor. It's really a great option. There are a bunch of themed ones though, and Alison really wanted to stay in one, so we found a Wizard of Oz themed one to stay in for the night. We got into the taxi, gave them the address and off we went - only to realize we were about 50km away!! So after being in the taxi for however long, we decided to get them to turn around and take us back as we wanted to eat dak galbi before going somewhere 50kms away. Plus we saw swan boats that we wanted to ride. The drivers probably thought we were a bit odd, but that's okay. 

They dropped us off by the swan boats and we rented two for a half hour. So much fun! I have always seen these on the Han River and had thought about renting one before. 

Reid, Leslie and Alison in their boat

Chris, myself and Mel

After this, we headed to the famous Dak Galbi street and found a park along the way that was full of statues. 

Mel with the children

Dak Galbi Street!!

Leslie, Alison, myself, Mel and Chris

After deciding where to eat, there are tons of dak galbi places to choose from, and eating, we walked around for a bit and I found this guy. Not sure what his deal was. 

Finally we decided to do a little more research about where our pension was and discovered it was actually a few subway stops away. So we got back on the subway and headed to Gapyeong. Taking a taxi from there, still took a very long time. The place was really in the middle of nowhere, nothing else around, no stores, nothing but trees and mountains. We spent the night playing games and chatting. I was a little underwhelmed by the Wizard of Oz theme, I thought they would have went all out with the theme, but it was still cool.

Normally, pensions do not have beds, or two floors, so that was exciting. 

Our pension from the outside - it was a pumpkin!!

There was also a mushroom ... 

... and apple!

On our last day we decided to go see The Garden of the Morning Calm. Fun facts: It's the oldest among private Korean gardens, has 20 themes and about 4,500 kinds of plants. It was gorgeous to say the least. 

These ladies wanted a picture with us

At one point it started to rain, so Chris, Reid and I tried to stay dry under this tree. 

It was a fantastic weekend and looking at the pictures again, I still can't believe how beautiful it is there!

Since then, my weekends have been pretty relaxed. I went to a the play "Giselle" with my friend Myan. The only other notable thing was going out in Gangnam last weekend as we got caught in a crazy downpour while walking to Pandora (a $10 all you can drink venue). My shoes had puddles in them and my dress was sopping by the time we got there, but was still a fun night! Chris and I also checked out the French village in Seoul - which wasn't really very French at all. Some signs at French on them but that was it. 

A cool mural 

French pastries 

AND I found a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory!! The prices were okay, $10 for an apple, the rocky pop was expensive, $12 for a 173g bag! I definitely enjoyed a few goodies :)

In other news - I just booked tickets to Hong Kong!! Mel and I are going for a weekend in August to go to the Disneyland there. If you know me well, you know I am beyond stoked for this! Next weekend is Korea Burn, the following weekend I am going kayaking, the following weekend is Mud Fest, then the next two weekends I will be in Malaysia. So much adventure ahead so wish for good health as there is something really bad going around at school right now!! I will leave you with pictures from Giselle. 

And a few pictures of my classroom wall because I love how it's coming together!! 

<3

Open Class

This past month we went on a field trip to a science museum. We spent the day there, which meant not getting a lunch break away from the kids, but at the same time, it was kind of fun to have a picnic with them. Nothing terribly notable happened during the field trip other than the fact that the school rented two greyhound like buses to take us there. This is odd because LCI owns school buses as they offer transportation to and from the school for the students and for every other field trip we have used those buses, and the science museum was just as close as the other trips we've taken. Also, there was one room full of taxidermy animals (really awfully done taxidermy, they looked incredibly frightening) and my two girls, Isla and Jenny didn't quite understand the concept. They kept asking for reassurance that the animals were just sleeping.  Here are some pictures of the day:

Isla and Jenny being their wonderful silly selves

Roy wearing my sunglasses

Unfortunately they had nowhere for the kids to store their backpacks for the day so they had to carry them (full of the millions things the Moms sent for lunch) which meant I had to carry them.

The school owner, Melanie and Jenny trying out one of the activities

There was a really cool ball you could stand in full of mirrors and lights.

Jaden and Roy - their laughter is contagious

We also had open class this past month. Open class is something I believe specific to Korea, or at least I have not heard of it elsewhere. This is where the parents are invited to come sit in our classroom for a day to see what the class is like, how we teach, how the class is run, to see their kids in action etc. This happens once at year at my school after the new school year begins. I have heard that it can be really stressful but I did not have that experience. If anything, it was just a bit annoying. First of all, it was annoying because it's staged. About a month in advance we were given a lesson plan for that day and the materials we would be using for that day (which were better than the materials we actually use on a daily basis). It was also annoying because we had to practice this full lesson over and over during class and still manage to get the day's real lesson done as well - what?! I mean obviously we managed it but the expectation was a bit ridiculous. It also is a huge reminder that schools, especially hagwons are businesses first. 

Anyway, the day came, I only ended up having three kids in class (one was on a field trip with his sister's school and the other was still in America) but it went well. All three Mom's came and sat in the class along with my supervisor and the owner of the school. In the end, my supervisor was thrilled with how well it went and thanked me for making her job easier. To reward my students, we had a popcorn party the following week. For us teachers, we had a staff dinner just the other night. We went and had Korean BBQ at a place we call Green Galbi - lots of meat, beer, soju and chungha. Following dinner, we all went to the only bar in our area for more drinks and dancing. The night was full of ridiculousness and needless to say a lot of people were in rough shape the next day, Friday morning at work. 

Laura and I with our supervisors Lucy and Joanne

I have five weeks and three days until I hit my one year in Korea. Now that I'm approaching a year, it's made me think more about teaching as a career. One thing I know for sure is that I do not want to teach in Korea for the long term. I don't enjoy teaching in the hagwon system and I can feel the effects of it now that it's almost been a year. Don't get me wrong, I love the kids, and I'm enjoying myself but I'm tired. I'm tired of not being able to have some say in what I do in the classroom. I'm tired of teaching the same textbooks over and over. I'm tired of teaching everyday - which I realize is a bit of a weird statement to make. But I truly feel that the two month break teachers receive back home is absolutely necessary. I feel like I can say that after teaching for a year, and after working several other jobs and not feeling like that in those jobs. It could also just be part of my personality as well. I like to do different things and try new things and I suppose to some degree I am getting a bit bored. 

I do think that I would enjoy teaching back home. I know this because of the volunteering that I did in the public school system before I came to Korea. While volunteering I learned that teachers must change their curriculum every year. For example, if you teach the solar system one year for science, you cannot do that again the next year, you would have to do a different unit like plants and animals or something. So that would definitely eliminate the problem of teaching the same thing over and over. My plan right now is to return to Vancouver and go through PDP which I'm excited for and will open up more opportunities to travel abroad again and teach. But sometimes I feel unsure if it's really a good decision to do PDP due to the state of the profession in BC.

<3

Han River Bike Riding and a Baseball Game!

I have done so much since my last post about my weekend in Busan! The weather has gotten considerably warmer over the last month, and as a result I am out doing things more than before. The weather has been hovering 27-30 which has been amazing but not so fun in our classrooms where the air con doesn't seem to work usually. My students are literally sweating in their seats, it's awful. 

This past month, my co-workers and I decided to have a potluck. So on a Tuesday night, we all got together at Megan's house and ate delicious food. I made a veggie tofu lasagna. Some of the other food included guacamole, homemade salsa, chicken, and stuffed bell peppers. Laura and Megan had intended to make veggie burgers but after all the food we already had everyone was stuffed. It was nice to get together outside of work and share dinner with them. Since the beginning of March, we have dropped from 9 to 6 so I currently work with Chris, Jessica, Chuck, Laura and Megan. Chuck will be on his way out in the next couple of months and I will miss my neighbour so much! 

One weekend I got together with my friend Myan and we rented bikes and rode along the Han river in Seoul. This is something that I had been wanting to do since I got here last year and it was so much fun! It was about $3 to rent the bike for an hour, then every subsequent 15 minutes after that was 50 cents. Chris also joined us for the bike ride. We came across a beautiful rose garden and took some pictures there. Also there seems to be "bike police". A guy kept riding by us sounding his alarm and telling us that we can only ride single lane - oops! Chris headed back before Myan and I did and we later learned that they charged Chris for the extra since we biked for more than an hour. But when Myan and I returned our bikes the guy did not charge us. Chris calls it the blonde discount - which I get a decent amount much to her and probably other people's frustration. And for those who may be wondering, they keep your ID to ensure that you do in fact bring back their bike. 

Chris smelling the roses

 

Myan doing a classic jump photo

One of the several bridges that cross the Han River

That night, I made my way to the HBC music fest. HBC is an area in Seoul that has several bars, and they hosted a music festival for the weekend. Tons of bands played throughout the different bars and there were people everyone.When I got there I met up with Maynah, Tatiana, Greg and Scott and later met up with Matt. We spent the night listening to the different bands, enjoying drinks outside on the street with the masses and playing flip cup. I wasn't super keen on going, but I was glad I did. 

The following day was spend on the grass by the river playing scrabble with friends - could you ask for a better day? A few people who were walking by would stop and peek over at what we were doing. One man came and sat with us for a bit and got Scott to read to him which was kind of hilarious to watch but very nice of Scott to do. The man was very friendly. 

Mel, Myself and Maynah - Micle and Tatiana were also there. 

Scott reading to the older man

The following weekend Ben, Chris, SY, Matt and I went to see a baseball game. This was not only my first Korean baseball game, but my first baseball game ever! I really enjoyed the experience. Beforehand, Matt and I went to a wine tasting which was fun and a bit intimidating because he knows a lot more about wine than I do. My favourite was an Italian wine (Vinottimo) - Frescobaldi Toscana Rosso. After several tasting of wine, we headed to the baseball game to watch the Doosan Bears play. They were doing so well at the beginning but went downhill from there and they lost the game. Despite the loss, it was still a blast. We concluded the night by having galbi and going to noraebang.  

Matt and I 

Matt, myself, Chris, Ben and SY

The following night I was back in Seoul once again as my co-worker Sunny has a friend who opened up a restaurant and she wanted Chris and I to come check it out. The three of us met at a nearby subway station and walked the restaurant. It's a Korean/American fusion restaurant and they fed us soo much! We ate wraps that were made from tofu paper with pork and greens. Korean soup with sliced hot dogs in it and the delicious Nori Wrap which was a hot dog wrapped in pastry with ketchup and mustard. It was just us and the restaurant owner's friends. One of the ladies was so adorable. She was telling us about her husband and you could just tell how absolutely in love she was after being married for so many years. I love meeting and seeing people who are still so in love, I think it's so special and I hope to find that kind of love. 

On that note, I will leave you until my next post about the more recent few weekends! <3