To continue our Asian travelling theme, Kelly and I were joined by Erin, Justin Page, Justin Pray, Poly and Lindsay for 5 days over Lunar New Year. It was not disappointing.
We managed to all book the same fantastic hostel, called Peking Downtown Backpackers if interested, which was a 10 minute walk to a park/bar street and 15 minute cab ride to many attractions. When we first arrived we went on a stroll towards the park to see some of the city. That walk introduced us to the traditional Chinese new year's celebration of firecrackers. At first the firecrackers we heard were a cool celebratory thing, but 5 consecutive days of nonstop explosions got a little tiring.
For a little more tradition, we found a restaurant serving the holiday special of dumplings, of which we downed about 25 dumplings apiece. After the feast we came upon the park and saw the most amazing winter activity imaginable: ice biking! It couldn't have been cooler. A bike with 1 tire on the back, bracketed by 2 blades that acted like training wheels, with normal handlebars and a blade on the front. The steering was surprisingly responsive and the brakes weren't useless. It was the best $3/hour I've ever encountered.
Wednesday night was a sight to behold. It's hard to put into words, especially for an amateur as myself, so try and stay with me. The alley we stayed in is about 15 feet with, with 2 storey buildings on each side, many wires overhead, and trees up and down the avenue. We were told there would be a few fireworks, but the big celebrations would be in the countryside. We were deceived. By 10:00 there were fireworks ignited up and down the entire alleyway, as well as the endless cacophony of firecrackers. Flamable materials all around were ignored in the name of the party. Not a second went by where you couldn't see the flash of a firework. They were quality ones too, like you'd see at any display in Canada, just on a smaller scale. Kids lighting them, men lighting them with cigarettes, all basically asking to have massive facial burns. J.Pray had the idea to go up to the roof of our building and get a better look at the rest of the city, and what a look it was. Looking 360 degrees you could see non-stop fireworks. It was incredible, the total number of fireworks all 7 of us had seen in our lives didn't come close to the number we saw that 1 night. It was a scene, man.
On Thursday we did some of the famous sights like Forbidden City, Tiennamen Square, and the Temple of Heaven. They were decent. The highlights include a New Year's Day parade with people all dressed up, the Circular Mound (which is maybe 18 inches in diameter and raised 6 inches, the name's just hilariously translated) which people stand on and give a little prayer, a kid with a NASCAR racing jacket that was sponsered by Mralboor cigarettes, and scaffolding around 80% of the structures in Forbidden City. But we saw them.
Friday was the Great Wall. It's pretty big. The part we were on was called Simatai which isn't the most heavily traveled by tourists. We did a 7km hike, which was pretty tame in general. We were on the peak of a mountain ridge, so the wind was a little whippy, and it was cold, but the sun and walking kept you at a comfortable temperature. It has been kept surprisingly undeveloped in the area we walked, with mountains and 1 gas station as the only real surroundings, which was very nice. There were parts that had been rebuilt, but most of it seemed to be the original construction complete with crumbling watchtowers. It was what I thought it would be: big, extending as far as you could see, a little decrepit, and quite peaceful. I have now hiked a grand 0.1% of the Great Wall of China.
On Saturday we went to see some of the Olympic buildings and go shopping. Unfortunately the 'Bird's Nest' and Swimming Complex were completely inaccessible, but they looked nice from afar. We then went shopping, which was as cheap as the tales say. Polo golf shirts for $6, Versace/Tommy dress shirts for $8, etc. My best purchases were some stylish leather dress shoes, 2 pairs for about $60. Kelly's best deals were a Roxy sweatshirt for $18 and a Spyder ski jacket for $20. It was a good thing we packed light, because our bags were overflowing on the trip home.
On Saturday night we took in a Chinese acrobat show and it was incredible. There were around 8 acts, but I definitely had favourites. The dudes who set up a see-saw and used it as a catapult were sweet. One little guy stands on one end of the board, while a dude behind him balances a chair attached to a 20 foot pole on his head. A group of guys jump on the other end of the board, sending the little guy flying, doing 3 flips before landing on the chair. Next were the guys who set up rings of 2 sizes (maybe 1 foot & 2 feet wide) on a bench and ran/flipped/jumped through them. It finished with the bike rountine and about 14 women riding 1 bicycle. And these are the gymnastic rejects!
We flew out Sunday after visiting a temple and hitting one final market. China definitely has the most historical character out of any Asian country we visited. Thailand has more religion, Cambodia had 2 interesting periods but it felt like a gap from 1400-1950, Vietnam had the most recent rebuilding, and Japan had the most wealth. But none had as much palpable history as China, and certainly none merged the past with the present so well. I think the Olympics will be incredible. They seem intent on proving their worth to the world. The food was cheap and fantastic. Aside from their human rights record, I don't have a bad thing to say about the country. Which is too bad, because it's really a place I could get behind.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Oil Spill Clean-up
This past weekend Ian and I, along with some friends, joined a team of people heading to the Taean Oil Spill distaster area.
If you haven't red much about the oil spill, check out the following article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22140662/
When we heard about the opportunity to help, we immediately signed up. We went with Poly, Lindsay (Flem), Grace and Melissa King from WLU and Naomi from Plus Academy. We joined two busloads of people at a subway station and got there early morning. We suited up in white space-like suits, rubber boots, face masks and two pairs of gloves each for the effort on the cold Saturday morning. We weren't surprised to see the several other people working awa
If you haven't red much about the oil spill, check out the following article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22140662/
When we heard about the opportunity to help, we immediately signed up. We went with Poly, Lindsay (Flem), Grace and Melissa King from WLU and Naomi from Plus Academy. We joined two busloads of people at a subway station and got there early morning. We suited up in white space-like suits, rubber boots, face masks and two pairs of gloves each for the effort on the cold Saturday morning. We weren't surprised to see the several other people working awa
y as we headed down to the water, and were pleasantly surprised by the natural beauty of the South Korean coastline.
As the article link states, "The oil started hitting beaches, including Mallipo, on Saturday after a Hong Kong-registered supertanker was slammed the day before by a South Korean-owned barge that came unmoored from its tugboat in rough seas."
Compared to pictures from before, the coastline looked relatively cleaner. However, when we took a closer look at the rocks and pebbles, we could see that there was still a lot of work to be done. We sat in a group and started. We took what looked like dry sheets and dug holes. We poured water into the holes and this raised the oil. We then set the dryer sheet-type material on top of the water and absorbed the oil. It was incedible how quickly the white cloths turned black. When we ran out fo the cloths, we began using old rags. We also scrubed rocks clean.
As the article link states, "The oil started hitting beaches, including Mallipo, on Saturday after a Hong Kong-registered supertanker was slammed the day before by a South Korean-owned barge that came unmoored from its tugboat in rough seas."
Compared to pictures from before, the coastline looked relatively cleaner. However, when we took a closer look at the rocks and pebbles, we could see that there was still a lot of work to be done. We sat in a group and started. We took what looked like dry sheets and dug holes. We poured water into the holes and this raised the oil. We then set the dryer sheet-type material on top of the water and absorbed the oil. It was incedible how quickly the white cloths turned black. When we ran out fo the cloths, we began using old rags. We also scrubed rocks clean.
When the day was finished, we actually felt like we accomplished something. The area in which we were working no longer seemed to have as much oil left. We tried dumping water in holes and absorbing oil, as we had been doing earlier, but there wasn't much left to be absorbed! Of coarse there are other areas affected by the spill and there is still plenty of work to be done, but at least we helped in a small way!
Here is the link to the picture album: http://wluca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2140316&l=386ca&id=187905622
Korean Students on Britney Spears
You guys all know how I feel about Miss Britney Spears. I feel like I have a strong loyalty to her, even though she has been acting pretty outrageous. I feel bad for her and I guess I am just rooting for her to get better. What does this all have to do with our time in Korea, you ask?
Well, we read a newspaper in our older level classes called "The Junior Herald." It's a newspaper written by Korean high school students with very high English proficiency. This past week there was an article about Britney Spears in it and the students wanted to read it, obviously. The journalist wrote about Britney's lastest custody fisasco and drinking problems and I saw this as a prime opportunity to teach my students about American pop culture, the paparazzi, and Hollywood stars who are on a downward spiral. I also saw it as an opportunity to teach them that acting in immorale ways can cause self-destruction. Most Korean students love a lot of American pop idols and listen to some of their music. My students loved to take a break from the usual political and current event articles they were reading to read something that interested them. I thought I would be able to work a fun activity into the mix as well.
I made a worksheet with vocabulary and opinion-based questions and on the back, I gave the students a chance to write a letter to Britney. Most of the teachers here all thought it would be cool to make a little booklet of the letters afterwards. We can bring it home and show you guys how once in a while, North American culture is stirred into the mix of our teaching and it can be a relaxing and fun topic. I started each letter out for them, having typed:
Dear Britney Spears,
I am a middle school student in South Korea and we recently read a newspaper article about you in our class. I know you have been going through some problems lately.
I left lines for the students to fill up with their own advice to Britney and was anxiously awaiting their responses. I thought I would share some of the cute, hilarious and insightful reach-outs to Britney with you. I am leaving them in their original form, so many times the sentence structure and spelling is incorrect, but I think that makes them even cuter. So, there goes:
As all of the letters start.....
Dear Britney Spears,
I am a middle school student in South Korea and we recently read a newspaper article about you in our class. I know you have been going through some problems lately:
"I think you should relax. Why are you change so much? Come down. I love your Christmas carol and I hope that you make more sings. Take care.
From Judy"
.....
"Why are you so erratic? You are similar with me. I'm erratic too."
......
"Hello Britney, my name is Kristi. I think you did bad thing very much, like drinking and smoking. But I know you as a famous pop-star and singing very well, but you still did bad thing! Then you will be not popular anymore. You should stopping drinking, and taking music video. So, you became good girl again. I love your song (Like, My Only Wish This Year, Toxic) I wish you became good girl again. Please Britney! Good bye.
From Kristi"
.......
"I think you didn't care about your kids. GO to play, drink and do strangely. You don't have right to protect them. Just give up and live alone. It's good to all.
From: Lee Young Ryul"
.....
Well, we read a newspaper in our older level classes called "The Junior Herald." It's a newspaper written by Korean high school students with very high English proficiency. This past week there was an article about Britney Spears in it and the students wanted to read it, obviously. The journalist wrote about Britney's lastest custody fisasco and drinking problems and I saw this as a prime opportunity to teach my students about American pop culture, the paparazzi, and Hollywood stars who are on a downward spiral. I also saw it as an opportunity to teach them that acting in immorale ways can cause self-destruction. Most Korean students love a lot of American pop idols and listen to some of their music. My students loved to take a break from the usual political and current event articles they were reading to read something that interested them. I thought I would be able to work a fun activity into the mix as well.
I made a worksheet with vocabulary and opinion-based questions and on the back, I gave the students a chance to write a letter to Britney. Most of the teachers here all thought it would be cool to make a little booklet of the letters afterwards. We can bring it home and show you guys how once in a while, North American culture is stirred into the mix of our teaching and it can be a relaxing and fun topic. I started each letter out for them, having typed:
Dear Britney Spears,
I am a middle school student in South Korea and we recently read a newspaper article about you in our class. I know you have been going through some problems lately.
I left lines for the students to fill up with their own advice to Britney and was anxiously awaiting their responses. I thought I would share some of the cute, hilarious and insightful reach-outs to Britney with you. I am leaving them in their original form, so many times the sentence structure and spelling is incorrect, but I think that makes them even cuter. So, there goes:
As all of the letters start.....
Dear Britney Spears,
I am a middle school student in South Korea and we recently read a newspaper article about you in our class. I know you have been going through some problems lately:
"I think you should relax. Why are you change so much? Come down. I love your Christmas carol and I hope that you make more sings. Take care.
From Judy"
.....
"Why are you so erratic? You are similar with me. I'm erratic too."
......
"Hello Britney, my name is Kristi. I think you did bad thing very much, like drinking and smoking. But I know you as a famous pop-star and singing very well, but you still did bad thing! Then you will be not popular anymore. You should stopping drinking, and taking music video. So, you became good girl again. I love your song (Like, My Only Wish This Year, Toxic) I wish you became good girl again. Please Britney! Good bye.
From Kristi"
.......
"I think you didn't care about your kids. GO to play, drink and do strangely. You don't have right to protect them. Just give up and live alone. It's good to all.
From: Lee Young Ryul"
.....
"You are a famous pop star and our idol. But you are so tired and hard. We want you take some rest for you. I think you need your own privacy but paparazzi makes you tired. I want you back again teenagers' idol!
From Vicky"
........
One of my favourites:
"I'm your big fan since when I was elementary student. 3 years ago, whem you visited Korea, you was so kind and wore our traditional clothe too. Unlike other Hollywood stars. That was attracted me and I love your songs too. But I know that you changed now. You drinking a lot, play with Paris Hilton, divorced. I think that's not your fault.All of the enviroment makes you crazy. So I always supporting you with my heart. And I believe you can up to grace again. Cheer up! Britney Spears! For your children!
From: Lee Jae Joon"
.........
"First, I think you have to stop much drinking and taking drug. Recently, your behavior is really strange. Most of Korean teens know your problems and many of them are love your songs. Please stop your strange behavior and come back to popstar!
From Juliet"
...........
"I just think you are very poor. Some people think you have everything. But I don't think. You can't have anything. My favorite song is "Piece of Me." I know it's your lately album and lyric about you. Everyone want to know about your privacy. Song "Piece of Me" is very sad. But, I think you can do everything again! You just stop drug and drinking and start again singing and dancing. If you do like before on any people will like you again and you can protect your children! You can fo everything again! Good luck!
From Regina"
_______________________________________________________
All the letters ended with the students signing:
"From: _____(name)_____
Seoul, South Korea"
So, it is fun to do activites like that every once in a while. Lately, I have also started Pen Pal letters again with my students, which I started when I got here, and our friend Leah had already been doing it with her friend's students in Arizona. I do it with my step brother's class in Florida and this summer I did it with his simmer camp. The students are really excited and all brought adorable stationary, stickers, and markers to class for the first letters written. I have done some other fun things, like creative stories, class newspapers, Hallowe'en masks and Christmas paper chains. It can be a lot of fun! I feel like sometimes the students don't get to express their creativity as much as they should.
That's it from me! We head to China tomorrow and cleaned up an oil spill tis weekend, so I-Dawg and I will have alot more to blog about coming up! Happy Lunar New Year! :)
PS Sorry if the spelling is bad on this post! The spell check isn't working and I wrote it rather quickly!
Friday, January 18, 2008
Workin' to the Bone
I'm sitting here with 12 minutes left on my break between classes and thought I would write a little diddy!
Right now it is January and that means the students get a month off from school, otherwise known as Winter Break. They get one in the summer too, during July and that is their Summer Break. You may be thinking, 'Wow, I cannot believe the kids get a break. After hearing everything Kelly and Ian told me, I thought they would never get a chance to be kids!' Well, you are still right. The kids do not have their normal elementary or middle school, but they still have their academies to attend. You'd better believe there is no break from us! Whatever academy the children go to, there is an opportunity for them to take extra classes for the month they have off to improve whatever subject they are taking.
So, for example, at our school we have two tiers. One is simply called 'intensives' and they attended the academy 3 days a week for intense studying and learning. Ian is teaching that at another branch of our school, in Chang-dong. Our school administrators told him his students were going to be about 10-12 years old, and they definitely are not. He has to teach them for two hours a day and they don't know much English at all because they are super little, and the youngest class level our school offers.
The second tier is called "SPARTA." I teach this. This is an even MORE intense program and the students attend the academy 5 days a week and get mountains of homework and tests. I also teach it at the Chang-dong branch. I teach Beginner writers, intermediate writers and advanced writers. The books we have to get through (and finish!) are extremely dense and simply too long for the amount of times we see each class, so things can get a little stressful. It is also extremely bothersome to me when the kids don't do their work, or sit at their desks and stare instead of doing their work. I usually would pity them, because, growing up in Canada we didn't have such a system. However, their parents work so hard for them to be able to attend these extra, super-expensive Academy classes, just so their child has the chance to level-up. And that isn't even guaranteed!
Anyway, it is mid-January, so thankfully for everyone, we are almost through with SPARTA and intensives!!! I mean, the extra pay will be awesome, but thank goodness it is only a month! ;)
Right now it is January and that means the students get a month off from school, otherwise known as Winter Break. They get one in the summer too, during July and that is their Summer Break. You may be thinking, 'Wow, I cannot believe the kids get a break. After hearing everything Kelly and Ian told me, I thought they would never get a chance to be kids!' Well, you are still right. The kids do not have their normal elementary or middle school, but they still have their academies to attend. You'd better believe there is no break from us! Whatever academy the children go to, there is an opportunity for them to take extra classes for the month they have off to improve whatever subject they are taking.
So, for example, at our school we have two tiers. One is simply called 'intensives' and they attended the academy 3 days a week for intense studying and learning. Ian is teaching that at another branch of our school, in Chang-dong. Our school administrators told him his students were going to be about 10-12 years old, and they definitely are not. He has to teach them for two hours a day and they don't know much English at all because they are super little, and the youngest class level our school offers.
The second tier is called "SPARTA." I teach this. This is an even MORE intense program and the students attend the academy 5 days a week and get mountains of homework and tests. I also teach it at the Chang-dong branch. I teach Beginner writers, intermediate writers and advanced writers. The books we have to get through (and finish!) are extremely dense and simply too long for the amount of times we see each class, so things can get a little stressful. It is also extremely bothersome to me when the kids don't do their work, or sit at their desks and stare instead of doing their work. I usually would pity them, because, growing up in Canada we didn't have such a system. However, their parents work so hard for them to be able to attend these extra, super-expensive Academy classes, just so their child has the chance to level-up. And that isn't even guaranteed!
Anyway, it is mid-January, so thankfully for everyone, we are almost through with SPARTA and intensives!!! I mean, the extra pay will be awesome, but thank goodness it is only a month! ;)
Sunday, January 6, 2008
We're so popular!
I was just writing an email to a man I simply call 'Gramps' and I mentioned how great our group of friends here in Korea is. I'm going to expand on it a little bit, and I'll only mention select names because I don't want to leave anybody off.
Our school has 3 different branches, with a total of 15 foreign teachers. Of these, we hang out regularly with 12 of them. The other 2 are an older couple who are big gamers, and the last one just left to be replaced by a friend of a coworker. So it will grow to 13 soon I suppose.
Our branch in Junggye-Dong is us, Andy & Leah (were here before us, we hang with them several times/week), Jenn & Jeremy (arrived in July, see them maybe once/week outside school), and Melissa (who Kelly knew from university, and Kelly sees her maybe twice a week).
The branch in Chang-Dong is Iowans Dylan & Naomi, here since July and we often see on the weekends.
Gireum is the 3rd branch and it has Jess & Mark (Jess is Leah's cousin, we see them most weekends), Beth (from the northeast, here since July, see her most weekends), and soon to be Sam (another friend of Leah). These 12 all live close together, only 7 subway stops seperates everybody so it's easy to get people together without much planning.
We also have many university friends, with the newly arrived Poly, Flem, Grace, and Justin a ways away from us. Adam Taylor also arrived recently, but lives in a different city a few hours away. There are a few high schools friends here as well, all of whom give us a terrific social core.
Of course, this doesn't include other people we've met here in Korea.
I'll give you an example of how lucky we've been to have cool people around. We met a dude named Ian on our snowboarding trip in December and his birthday party was Saturday. In the afternoon before the party, Kelly, Mark, Jess, and I made plans to go see the Van Gogh exhibit that's visiting Seoul. We got there too late, so the line was too long to be able to get in and see everything, so we called Andy & Leah who we knew to be in the area also. They were a 5 minute cab ride down the road, about to explore a lights show Seoul puts up every year. We met them, toured the lights for about 1.5 hours, then Kelly and I had to go to a different part of Seoul to meet Beth, Naomi, and Melissa before Ian's birthday. The 5 of us went to a great Greek place we know in a cool university district, then went to Ian's birthday and met all his friends. I'm sure we'll run into some of these people again, that tends to happen when there are limited foreigner-friendly areas in the city. Now that people have been here for a while, oriented themselves for a bit, become familiar with the subway, it really isn't socially different from Toronto for us.
We aren't limited to a select few friends, or even a few groups at this point. It's fantastically lucky that we've been able to get to know so many cool people, and they are a huge part of what makes the experience so worthwhile.
Our school has 3 different branches, with a total of 15 foreign teachers. Of these, we hang out regularly with 12 of them. The other 2 are an older couple who are big gamers, and the last one just left to be replaced by a friend of a coworker. So it will grow to 13 soon I suppose.
Our branch in Junggye-Dong is us, Andy & Leah (were here before us, we hang with them several times/week), Jenn & Jeremy (arrived in July, see them maybe once/week outside school), and Melissa (who Kelly knew from university, and Kelly sees her maybe twice a week).
The branch in Chang-Dong is Iowans Dylan & Naomi, here since July and we often see on the weekends.
Gireum is the 3rd branch and it has Jess & Mark (Jess is Leah's cousin, we see them most weekends), Beth (from the northeast, here since July, see her most weekends), and soon to be Sam (another friend of Leah). These 12 all live close together, only 7 subway stops seperates everybody so it's easy to get people together without much planning.
We also have many university friends, with the newly arrived Poly, Flem, Grace, and Justin a ways away from us. Adam Taylor also arrived recently, but lives in a different city a few hours away. There are a few high schools friends here as well, all of whom give us a terrific social core.
Of course, this doesn't include other people we've met here in Korea.
I'll give you an example of how lucky we've been to have cool people around. We met a dude named Ian on our snowboarding trip in December and his birthday party was Saturday. In the afternoon before the party, Kelly, Mark, Jess, and I made plans to go see the Van Gogh exhibit that's visiting Seoul. We got there too late, so the line was too long to be able to get in and see everything, so we called Andy & Leah who we knew to be in the area also. They were a 5 minute cab ride down the road, about to explore a lights show Seoul puts up every year. We met them, toured the lights for about 1.5 hours, then Kelly and I had to go to a different part of Seoul to meet Beth, Naomi, and Melissa before Ian's birthday. The 5 of us went to a great Greek place we know in a cool university district, then went to Ian's birthday and met all his friends. I'm sure we'll run into some of these people again, that tends to happen when there are limited foreigner-friendly areas in the city. Now that people have been here for a while, oriented themselves for a bit, become familiar with the subway, it really isn't socially different from Toronto for us.
We aren't limited to a select few friends, or even a few groups at this point. It's fantastically lucky that we've been able to get to know so many cool people, and they are a huge part of what makes the experience so worthwhile.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Snowboarding Trip
On the weekend of December 15th, we went on another "Adventure Korea" trip. If you have read past posts about some of the trips we have taken like Mud Festival and White Water Rafting/Bungee Jumping, then you may remember us mentioning the tour company we went with, Adventure Korea. They run trips to various mountains, festivals, events, and tourist spots in and mostly outside of Seoul. The trips are for foreigners in Korea and are usually a reasonable price. This weekend we went about 2.5/3 hours outside of Seoul to a ski and snowboarding resort called Phoenix Park. It was a really impressive resort, complete with an indoor/outdoor hot springs spa, pools, a bowling alley, lots of food selections (yeah, North American goodness!) and restaurants and pubs. We slept in a room with 6 other people, and we all had our own bunk beds!
We rented our equipment first and then headed to the hills. Ian, Melissa and I all got afternoon and night passes, along with a bunch of other people we met. I didn't go boarding last winter, so I was a little nervous about my skill level, but overall I was actually surprised with myself! It was super fun and the hills were a lot bigger than we expected. The scenery was beautiful, with loads of mountains in the distance and a nice bright sun. For the afternoon, it was pretty much Ian, Melissa, a friend named Sarah and me. We met a really cool guy from South Africa named Louis, for those of you who know our friend Pat Davis from Laurier, he actually looks a bit like him, except his blond hair is a bit longer. It was his first time seeing snow, and he was so excited to hear that we have had the opportunity to make snowmen every winter for our entire lives! It was funny. Really nice guy though.
After our afternoon of snowboarding, we had a two hour break before night skiing, so we went into the lobby of the hostel and asked people around us if they wanted to help us make a room of eight. Our room ended up consisting of Ian and I, 2 Korean girls, Sarah, Melissa, a girl named Susan and another guy named Ian, who we found out lives really close to us. We hung out there for a while, and then the group of us who bought the night pass peeled our tired bodies off the bunk beds where we had been lounging and had to the slopes, stopping for some nasty microwaved hamburgers on the way. (I couldn't' bring myself to eat it.... I tried, and failed. Ian, on the other hand, ate two.)
Night boarding was a lot of fun, and it ended up me me, Ian, Melissa and our new friend Ian. The slopes were a lot icier and faster at night, even though our rented boards were not waxed!!! It was probably a good thing! The one thing that was a downer was that I lost my camera. My baby :( However I did buy the exact same model at a Canon store right before Christmas for A LOT cheaper than I bought it in Canada for! And I got a whole bunch of extra stuff with it.
Anyway, the next morning some of our group when to the Hot Springs spa and other lounged. We packed up, grabbed our bags, some grub (Popeye's Chicken?! Haha) and got back on the back. Ian and I prepared ourselves for the long ride by taking out our Nintendo DS (we each bought one in Tokyo) and kicking off our shoes. The ride home was the best and shortest yet! *(Usually traffic in Korea on Sunday heading back into Seoul is RIDICULOUS!)
So that was a really fun weekend! Hopefully you guys have had some good boarding/skiing experiences this winter too! Hope you guys are all enjoying the holidays! Miss you!
P.S. Alright, so Meaghan wanted me to mention the Beavertails, because she saw my pictures and thought they were worth mentioning. The truth is 1- I wrote this blog on two different dates and didn't re-read all of what I wrote before, and didn't want to repeat myself, thinking I had already written about it. 2- I had some awesome pictures of the Beavertails on my camera, which I lost later that night. I don't want to even think about it because it makes me sick :( Some maybe that is why I didn't mention it... Oh, who cares! But anyway, new camera is bought (exact same) so all is well.
So here you are Megs :)
Anyway, there was a "True Canadian Beavertails" vendor at the slopes. Melissa, Ian and I, being the only Canadians other than Sarah who we lost that afternoon, were extremely excited. We immediately charged up to the vendor and demanded some freshly made Beavertails. The man who worked there went on to tell us in broken English how he went to Ottawa after he heard his Beavertails weren't good to get the right formula down. So he improved his Beavertail potion and brought it back to Korea with him. (Or so the story goes) Turns out, as he handed us the "Beavertails" that they were warmed up buns with no top, drizzled in warm chocolate. (You could also get nuts, blueberry sauce and some other kind. Strange!) They were fine, but DEFINITELY not a true Beaver Tail! We laughed as the chocolate froze on Melissa's "Beavertail" because it was so cold out, and also because it was pretty much chocolate freezing onto a bun.
To check out the pictures from Snowboarding, Christmas and School, check out: http://wluca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2131547&l=0dd3c&id=187905622
XOXO- Miss Ya'll!
P.P.S... Did I mention that there were big screen tv's on the main hills?! Welcome to Korea! The town the resort was in is where they actually wanted to have the Olympics, so it was pretty nice!! Apparently they are trying again! See the picture at the top to see the big screens!
Friday, December 7, 2007
I'm really ambitious
I am being super ambitious and blogging two days in a row... can you believe it?
I just emailed my old roomie Rexy and told her a little about my day today, so I thought I would give you guys a similar summary incase you are interested!
I had a great day with my classes today. We are doing Christmas Carols this week, and Christmas cards next week. We made cds and printed our lyrics to all the typical Christmas tunes, and the students loved it. BUT, I also printed out a Britney Spears Christmas song worksheet (fill in the blank type thing) for when I played the song in class and the kids LOVED it!!! (You may or may not know her Christmas song! It is really cute, I recommend it... "Santa can you hear me? I have been so good this year..." blablabla) So, my classes made me play that song on repeat about 13 times in each class or something. Haha, it was so ridiculous. They were also requesting Mariah's "All I want for Christmas" classic, but I dodn't have time to make my own cd and used other teachers, so that song didn't make an appearance in my classes today. next week fr sure though! I am also going to add some Hilary Duff to the mix, you know, to spice things up!
Ian and our friend Andy said their students weren't really into it. I was surprised to hear that, because even my oldest students were loving it! They were shouting out requests and be-bopping along to the beat! Leah mentioned that her students are depressed, so I am assuming tomorrow may be a better day for Christmas caroling with her classes! Haha. Maybe my classes tomorrow will react opposite of the way my Thursday classes acted.
They love bubblegum pop so it shouldn't have surprised me!!! It was too funny. Once they filled in the blanks from the songs I gave out "Shrimp chips." They are nasty! They are this Korean snack, similar potato chips but they are shaped more like more like long, skinny (kinda) Cheetos with ridges and are SHRIMP flavoured! So grossss!
I love doing stuff like this in the classes, it makes teaching so much more fun and the kids are actually having a good time too. The day goes by a lot faster too. Anyway, that is another little update, if anyone is still even reading this! ;) I will be uploading pictures soon from December in Korea and I will upload the videos onto facebook from the Students singing along to Britney Spears's Christmas.
Hope all is well....Cheers!
Happy "Holla"days!
I just emailed my old roomie Rexy and told her a little about my day today, so I thought I would give you guys a similar summary incase you are interested!
I had a great day with my classes today. We are doing Christmas Carols this week, and Christmas cards next week. We made cds and printed our lyrics to all the typical Christmas tunes, and the students loved it. BUT, I also printed out a Britney Spears Christmas song worksheet (fill in the blank type thing) for when I played the song in class and the kids LOVED it!!! (You may or may not know her Christmas song! It is really cute, I recommend it... "Santa can you hear me? I have been so good this year..." blablabla) So, my classes made me play that song on repeat about 13 times in each class or something. Haha, it was so ridiculous. They were also requesting Mariah's "All I want for Christmas" classic, but I dodn't have time to make my own cd and used other teachers, so that song didn't make an appearance in my classes today. next week fr sure though! I am also going to add some Hilary Duff to the mix, you know, to spice things up!
Ian and our friend Andy said their students weren't really into it. I was surprised to hear that, because even my oldest students were loving it! They were shouting out requests and be-bopping along to the beat! Leah mentioned that her students are depressed, so I am assuming tomorrow may be a better day for Christmas caroling with her classes! Haha. Maybe my classes tomorrow will react opposite of the way my Thursday classes acted.
They love bubblegum pop so it shouldn't have surprised me!!! It was too funny. Once they filled in the blanks from the songs I gave out "Shrimp chips." They are nasty! They are this Korean snack, similar potato chips but they are shaped more like more like long, skinny (kinda) Cheetos with ridges and are SHRIMP flavoured! So grossss!
I love doing stuff like this in the classes, it makes teaching so much more fun and the kids are actually having a good time too. The day goes by a lot faster too. Anyway, that is another little update, if anyone is still even reading this! ;) I will be uploading pictures soon from December in Korea and I will upload the videos onto facebook from the Students singing along to Britney Spears's Christmas.
Hope all is well....Cheers!
Happy "Holla"days!
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
It's Been A While...
Helloie Ya'll!
It has been a super long time since we have written and kept you in the loop via blog. BUT, you must know that we have also been super busy. We still haven't written about Vietnam yet, and since then we have had a lot happen. We have been to Tokyo and back, our parents have come and gone, Hallowe'en happened, we climbed one of the most famous mountains in So-Ko, and my Uncle Scott just left this morning! Also, last week was my birthday and this weekend we had a little birthday shindig which was super fun!
Christmas is quickly approaching and this week we are singing Christmas Carols with all our students! The semester is coming to an end, thank goodness, because 6 months is just too long for a semester. Many of the kids are sick of us and vice versa! Also, last week was my birthday and this weekend we had a little birthday shindig which was super fun! There is just so much going on! Next weekend we are going on an organized snowboarding trip too, so it should be fun! :)
I sent out a little update email to some family members and a few others, so I am just going to blog it here as well. We will start updating the blog more, we promise.
Ian and I went to Tokyo and it was incredible. You MUST go there at some point in your life. I had such an amazing time, just people watching and exploring. It was a total switchup from iur Southeast Asia trip but it was cool to have a trip where it was less sightseeing and more just experiencing the life in Japan. We went to some really cool pleaces and we both ended up buying Nintendo DS!! We have been having a blast with it because we bought the Super Mario Brothers game too, but we are still trying to decifer the Japanese owners manual!!
Harajuku was definitly my favourite part if Tokyo and the shopping was amazing! The girls dress up there like it is Hallowe'en everyday and the individuality was so refreshing as Korea can be very rigid. Girls in Harajuku dress in goth, Little Bo Peep, Alice in Wonderland... the list goes on... it has the vibe of acceptance and uniqueness. You'll have to check out the pics on facebook if you ever have a chance!The pictures can be found on the following links for those of you who don't have Facebook:
1- http://wluca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2122781&l=7b6f0&id=187905622
2- http://wluca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2123095&l=2dc48&id=187905622
We found the people in Tokyo to be very friendly and courteous. Tokyo was very clean and cabs were veryyyy expensive! We took the subway for the entire time except once, but the subway is more expensive then Korea's subway system.
Hallowe'en was really fun to do with out students because they don't really celebrate Hallowe'en here, so the kids loved it when we brought in our Jack O' Lanterns and treats. I made masks with my students, and taught the older students how to write scary stories. It was a tiring, but incredibly fun week! I have attached a few pictures from that as well!The following weekend, Ian, me and some friends (including Waterbuffalo Josh- he is organzing it) went on a hiking trip to the most famous mountain in South Korea. It is apparently beautiful this time of year.
The Hiking Pictures:
1- http://wluca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2124789&l=3ac15&id=187905622
2- http://wluca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2124999&l=4aad7&id=187905622
We also had American Thanksgiving with our fellow foreign teachers. Check out the pics here: http://wluca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2125775&l=f7be7&id=187905622
Then, after that, my dad and stepmom along with Ian's parents came to visit! I will send pictures from that soon! It was a super fun, tiring week. It was so great that they were able to come visit us! And my uncle Scottcame yesterday on his way home from a business trip for a day!!!
Pictures with the parents:
1- http://wluca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2126955&l=09f1c&id=187905622
2- http://wluca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2127094&l=31cc8&id=187905622
Then last week it was my birthday and we celebrated this weekend in one of the bar districts. Other then that, time is flying by here! We have been here for almost 7 MONTHS !!!
Anyway, there is a little update from us. Cheers... You'll be hearing from us again soon!
It has been a super long time since we have written and kept you in the loop via blog. BUT, you must know that we have also been super busy. We still haven't written about Vietnam yet, and since then we have had a lot happen. We have been to Tokyo and back, our parents have come and gone, Hallowe'en happened, we climbed one of the most famous mountains in So-Ko, and my Uncle Scott just left this morning! Also, last week was my birthday and this weekend we had a little birthday shindig which was super fun!
Christmas is quickly approaching and this week we are singing Christmas Carols with all our students! The semester is coming to an end, thank goodness, because 6 months is just too long for a semester. Many of the kids are sick of us and vice versa! Also, last week was my birthday and this weekend we had a little birthday shindig which was super fun! There is just so much going on! Next weekend we are going on an organized snowboarding trip too, so it should be fun! :)
I sent out a little update email to some family members and a few others, so I am just going to blog it here as well. We will start updating the blog more, we promise.
Ian and I went to Tokyo and it was incredible. You MUST go there at some point in your life. I had such an amazing time, just people watching and exploring. It was a total switchup from iur Southeast Asia trip but it was cool to have a trip where it was less sightseeing and more just experiencing the life in Japan. We went to some really cool pleaces and we both ended up buying Nintendo DS!! We have been having a blast with it because we bought the Super Mario Brothers game too, but we are still trying to decifer the Japanese owners manual!!
Harajuku was definitly my favourite part if Tokyo and the shopping was amazing! The girls dress up there like it is Hallowe'en everyday and the individuality was so refreshing as Korea can be very rigid. Girls in Harajuku dress in goth, Little Bo Peep, Alice in Wonderland... the list goes on... it has the vibe of acceptance and uniqueness. You'll have to check out the pics on facebook if you ever have a chance!The pictures can be found on the following links for those of you who don't have Facebook:
1- http://wluca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2122781&l=7b6f0&id=187905622
2- http://wluca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2123095&l=2dc48&id=187905622
We found the people in Tokyo to be very friendly and courteous. Tokyo was very clean and cabs were veryyyy expensive! We took the subway for the entire time except once, but the subway is more expensive then Korea's subway system.
Hallowe'en was really fun to do with out students because they don't really celebrate Hallowe'en here, so the kids loved it when we brought in our Jack O' Lanterns and treats. I made masks with my students, and taught the older students how to write scary stories. It was a tiring, but incredibly fun week! I have attached a few pictures from that as well!The following weekend, Ian, me and some friends (including Waterbuffalo Josh- he is organzing it) went on a hiking trip to the most famous mountain in South Korea. It is apparently beautiful this time of year.
The Hiking Pictures:
1- http://wluca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2124789&l=3ac15&id=187905622
2- http://wluca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2124999&l=4aad7&id=187905622
We also had American Thanksgiving with our fellow foreign teachers. Check out the pics here: http://wluca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2125775&l=f7be7&id=187905622
Then, after that, my dad and stepmom along with Ian's parents came to visit! I will send pictures from that soon! It was a super fun, tiring week. It was so great that they were able to come visit us! And my uncle Scottcame yesterday on his way home from a business trip for a day!!!
Pictures with the parents:
1- http://wluca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2126955&l=09f1c&id=187905622
2- http://wluca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2127094&l=31cc8&id=187905622
Then last week it was my birthday and we celebrated this weekend in one of the bar districts. Other then that, time is flying by here! We have been here for almost 7 MONTHS !!!
Anyway, there is a little update from us. Cheers... You'll be hearing from us again soon!
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Monkeys, & Elephants and TIGERS--- OH MY!
Kanchanaburi, Thailand was an amazing daytrip from Bangkok. Our trip to Thailand would not have been complete without visiting the incredible tigers and seeing a countryside setting of the country we have wanted to visit for so long.
So, before going on our big adventure, we debated what daytrip to take from Bangkok. My friend Meaghan's boyfriend, Devin, had told us about this amazing tiger sanctuary, where monks find hurt, abandoned baby tigers and nurse them to health.
Obviously Ian and I were extremely blown away by the sound of this. Touching full grown and baby tigers? We had to see it to believe it. Devin had never been there, so we had to do some research. Only one of our Thailand travel guides even mentioned it because the Lonely Planet authors don't seem to think it is safe.
The other option was Pattaya. We heard Pattaya was dirty and the “red light district” of Thailand, but they have a crocodile farm there and you can take pictures with tigers and ride elephants. Needless to say, Ian didn’t think it would be the best choice to go there. So once we got to Bangkok we searched different travel agencies to find the best deal. We ended up finding an amazing day trip that offered so many different things!
Kanchanaburi is a small town about 2 and a half hours outside of Thailand. The population is 61,800. It is most famous for the Kwai River and the Death Railway, The World War Two museum, as well as the site for the World War Two prisoner-of-war camp. The tiger sanctuary is a common destination as well. First, we went to the Kanchanaburi Allied War Cemetery. Most of the buried soldiers here are British and Dutch and the cemetery is a gift from the Thai people to the families of the soldiers who died on their soil.
Next we went to the Kwai River Bridge, otherwise known as the Death Railway bridge and the World War Two Museum, also known as the “Jeath War Museum.” It was an interesting insight to the Second World War and offers a beautiful view of the River Kwai Bridge. The River Kwai “Death Railway” bridge was incredibly eerie. We stood on the bridge thinking ‘So many people died to make this tiny bridge.’ There is a movie that we have yet to see that made the bridge famous, called “The Bridge on the River Kwai”. The bridge was a very small (it is roughly 3 km long) but was a strategic part of the Death Railway to Burma. It was estimated at the time that the railway would take 5 years to build properly, but the human laborers were forced to have the railway completed in 16 MONTHS.
We then ate a quick lunch of rice, stir fried chicken and vegetables and headed to the old rickety train. It was good to travel along the countryside and see a part of Thailand we would have never seen. The only drawback was that the train was over capacity so we were standing for most of the ride! We met a really cool traveler named Tanya, who is a lifecoach back in England, time flew by as we chatted with her about all of her travels. After Thailand, she was planning on heading to India.
Next, they took Ian and I to KAEW Elephant Camp. It was a very cool experience to ride an elephant through the forest. It was even cooler to feed the cuties plantains! But Ian and I both said we would never do it again, unless we were sure the animals were not being mistreated. Animal rights aren’t important in the Thai culture, and it is very unfortunate. Our guide was carrying this huge blade/hammer and I was hoping that he wouldn’t use it.
After our elephant ride, we went to a beautiful waterfall, took some pictures, saw a monkey chained to a tree (terrible) and said goodbye to Tanya. We began our journey to the Tiger Temple, which is actually a little outside of Kanchanaburi. It was incredible. Horses and other animals were roaming freely as we set down to the tigers. It was quite the site, with all the tigers lying down in front of a small canyon. A monk takes your hand and leads you to each tiger to pet them and get a picture with them. At first I was really nervous, but the tigers didn’t mind, so I eased up a bit. You can see it in my pictures too. I am gradually getting more and more comfortable. Anyway, then we went up and played with the baby tigers. Our main guide for the day said she came a few weeks ago, was playing with a baby tiger and….. she showed us the scar on her hand. The tiger had bit her! We sat with a monk and a baby tiger and took pictures, and then followed a little boy monk and 2 more baby tigers around, as they were jumping on each other and playing like kittens. Cows and bulls were standing nearby, surveying our experience, clearly jealous at all the attention the tigers were getting. Sorry guys, but we have you back in North America to play with!
An incredible trip that I recommend to anyone planning on going to Bangkok!
So, before going on our big adventure, we debated what daytrip to take from Bangkok. My friend Meaghan's boyfriend, Devin, had told us about this amazing tiger sanctuary, where monks find hurt, abandoned baby tigers and nurse them to health.
Obviously Ian and I were extremely blown away by the sound of this. Touching full grown and baby tigers? We had to see it to believe it. Devin had never been there, so we had to do some research. Only one of our Thailand travel guides even mentioned it because the Lonely Planet authors don't seem to think it is safe.
The other option was Pattaya. We heard Pattaya was dirty and the “red light district” of Thailand, but they have a crocodile farm there and you can take pictures with tigers and ride elephants. Needless to say, Ian didn’t think it would be the best choice to go there. So once we got to Bangkok we searched different travel agencies to find the best deal. We ended up finding an amazing day trip that offered so many different things!
Kanchanaburi is a small town about 2 and a half hours outside of Thailand. The population is 61,800. It is most famous for the Kwai River and the Death Railway, The World War Two museum, as well as the site for the World War Two prisoner-of-war camp. The tiger sanctuary is a common destination as well. First, we went to the Kanchanaburi Allied War Cemetery. Most of the buried soldiers here are British and Dutch and the cemetery is a gift from the Thai people to the families of the soldiers who died on their soil.
Next we went to the Kwai River Bridge, otherwise known as the Death Railway bridge and the World War Two Museum, also known as the “Jeath War Museum.” It was an interesting insight to the Second World War and offers a beautiful view of the River Kwai Bridge. The River Kwai “Death Railway” bridge was incredibly eerie. We stood on the bridge thinking ‘So many people died to make this tiny bridge.’ There is a movie that we have yet to see that made the bridge famous, called “The Bridge on the River Kwai”. The bridge was a very small (it is roughly 3 km long) but was a strategic part of the Death Railway to Burma. It was estimated at the time that the railway would take 5 years to build properly, but the human laborers were forced to have the railway completed in 16 MONTHS.
We then ate a quick lunch of rice, stir fried chicken and vegetables and headed to the old rickety train. It was good to travel along the countryside and see a part of Thailand we would have never seen. The only drawback was that the train was over capacity so we were standing for most of the ride! We met a really cool traveler named Tanya, who is a lifecoach back in England, time flew by as we chatted with her about all of her travels. After Thailand, she was planning on heading to India.
Next, they took Ian and I to KAEW Elephant Camp. It was a very cool experience to ride an elephant through the forest. It was even cooler to feed the cuties plantains! But Ian and I both said we would never do it again, unless we were sure the animals were not being mistreated. Animal rights aren’t important in the Thai culture, and it is very unfortunate. Our guide was carrying this huge blade/hammer and I was hoping that he wouldn’t use it.
After our elephant ride, we went to a beautiful waterfall, took some pictures, saw a monkey chained to a tree (terrible) and said goodbye to Tanya. We began our journey to the Tiger Temple, which is actually a little outside of Kanchanaburi. It was incredible. Horses and other animals were roaming freely as we set down to the tigers. It was quite the site, with all the tigers lying down in front of a small canyon. A monk takes your hand and leads you to each tiger to pet them and get a picture with them. At first I was really nervous, but the tigers didn’t mind, so I eased up a bit. You can see it in my pictures too. I am gradually getting more and more comfortable. Anyway, then we went up and played with the baby tigers. Our main guide for the day said she came a few weeks ago, was playing with a baby tiger and….. she showed us the scar on her hand. The tiger had bit her! We sat with a monk and a baby tiger and took pictures, and then followed a little boy monk and 2 more baby tigers around, as they were jumping on each other and playing like kittens. Cows and bulls were standing nearby, surveying our experience, clearly jealous at all the attention the tigers were getting. Sorry guys, but we have you back in North America to play with!
An incredible trip that I recommend to anyone planning on going to Bangkok!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
