Hello Canada!

No, our plane didn't go down somewhere over the Pacific. I have just been seriously neglecting my blog. We made it safely back onto Canadian soil, and it is a great feeling to be home again!

Much time has past since my last post, so here's an abbreviated version to bring you all up to date.

We toured around Australia for a couple weeks which was amazing! And then we headed home. Between leaving Korea and finally landing in Halifax, we were on ten different airplanes in the span of three weeks! Before we actually made it to Canada, we stopped to visit some of our closest friends south of the border and got to meet the newest addition to their family!

It has been so great to be home and to see all our family and our friends again. I had really missed everyone and everything familiar. And now it's almost Christmastime! I'm not sure where to begin with making up for my nearly two-month absence from blogging, but this will do for now.

It's good to be back!

Annyonghi kyeseyo, Korea!

This will be my last post from Korea. We taught our last classes last night, and we're leaving for Australia tomorrow! I'm so excited! And then we're heading back to Canada in early November. So I just wanted to leave a farewell post until we return to our native land.

See you in a few weeks!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday

to my oldest nephew!

So, fourteen years old eh? Hard to believe. Doesn't seem that long ago that I was pushing you up and down the hall in the little red and yellow car. And now you're a teenager. Hope you have a great birthday!

Skin Food

There is one store in Korea that I am in love with. It's called Skin Food, and it's a cosmetics store in which all the products are derived from food. It's supposedly natural, but considering the list of ingredients is in Korean, I wouldn't know for sure. But either way, I love their products!

The best part is that every time you buy something there, they give you some free samples! Of course, that just makes me want to buy more of those other products too. I'm addicted.

You can get so many different types of products. It's great! Our apartment has become its own Skin Food store. I have a whole bunch of skin food such as milk body lotion, black sugar face mask, rice face mask, chocolate body wash, pumpkin cream, pineapple hand cream, green tea foot scrub, and I'm sure there are others.

Since taking this picture, I got to go to the big Skin Food store in Seoul and got myself some red pepper body gel and cocoa hand balm. When we go back to Canada, I will miss Skin Food.

One month from today...

... and we will be back in Canada!

Really Fresh Eggs

Another thing I'm looking forward to when we go home is buying eggs that don't look like this.

Toilet Humour

Going to the bathroom in Korea is always an adventure. You never know what kind of toilet you're going to find.

On one end of the spectrum, some toilets look very futuristic, like this one.

And this one.

While others are little more than a hole in the ground. (This is actually the cleanest one I've seen).

I had lived here for eleven months without ever having to use this particular type of toilet, but recently we were at a restaurant and this was my only option. When you gotta go, you gotta go.

There is always a little garbage can in each stall of a public washroom. It is intended for the used toilet paper. They don't flush their tp here.

And just to be cautious, it's a good idea to have a bit of toilet paper in your purse at all times. Many washrooms don't come with it. And in the ones that do have it, the roll is usually on the outside of the stalls. You need to think ahead.

It's always exciting to find a washroom that has liquid soap. Most washrooms just have a bar of soap on a stick.

Sound of Silence

For Chuseok, most people leave the city and go visit their families.

Some people left in a hurry.

Our whole neighbourhood was surprisingly empty.

Jordan could even walk down the sidewalk with his arms stretched out and didn't hit anybody.

Happy Chuseok

Ever get one of those presents at Christmas that was really not what you were expecting? Maybe a singing trout, or clothes instead of toys. In Korea, the big gift-giving holiday is Chuseok.

Imagine your reaction if you got one of these gifts.

Can you guess what these are?

These hooves come at a hefty price: $125.00 CDN

Roots

A new Roots store opened up downtown. It was very exciting to see something Canadian.

But after looking at the price tags, I think we'll wait til we go home. Sixty-two dollars Canadian for a t-shirt.

My Favourite Class

Since we're down to only twelve teaching days left, I've started taking pictures of some of my classes.

This is my favourite class. It used to be larger, but during summer vacation, some of them left. Now we're down to these three girls, all 11 or 12 years old.

Beth, Jenny, and Kate

Beth is the quiet one, Jenny is the giggly one, and Kate is the most talkative one.

They're all really smart and speak English very well, and they're a lot of fun. They like to learn, and even enjoy reading the novels in class. They also love talking to me in English, so we spend half the class just talking.


Because they're at a more advanced level, I'm able to do more with them than just "repeat after me." Earlier in the year, I taught them cursive writing, so now Jenny tries to read anything I have that is written in cursive. She does quite well considering my handwriting isn't always the easiest to read. They also help translate things for me.


This week they taught me origami. They helped me make a crane. Mine's the one in the middle.

I will be sad to leave this class.

Pictures from Seoul

Here are some more pictures from last weekend in Seoul.

We did some shopping in Insadong, a touristy market.

We saw a cool, painted subway train.

We went to a "Knife Gallery."

And here are some pictures from the electronics market.

Putt Putt

One thing we've never been able to find in Korea is mini-golf. It seems like something that would be pretty popular here, so we were surprised that there weren't any. We both love it (we played at least three times on our honeymoon), and many weekends we were wishing we could go play mini-golf.

But finally last weekend in Seoul, we found a "Putt-Putt" on the roof of a building. We were very excited. It wasn't crowded either.

That's the big E-mart sign in the background.

I won. Jordan blamed his pink club.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Derek!

I bet if you had a nickel for everytime you've heard that over the years, you'd be a rich man.

Have a great day!

Apple for Teacher

My students often bring me presents. Usually it is something small, like a piece of candy or some chocolate, or a handmade card. I've also been given a keychain, a seashell, a piece of "Princess" paper, coconut soap, an ice cream cake, an orange, and a bottle of fruity body wash.

While I haven't been given any apples yet, today I received this large box of melons from the mother of one of my students.

I cut one up tonight, unsure of what colour I was going to find inside.

A picture is worth...

How do you take a picture of your new camera with your new camera?

With a mirror and a tripod.

We bought ourselves an early Christmas present last weekend. One of the reasons we wanted a new camera was because neither of our older cameras takes decent action pictures. Unless both the photographer and the subject are perfectly still, the pictures were always blurry.

But with our new camera, we were able to take a picture of this amusing sign while driving by in a bus at 100 km/hr.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday!

to my baby nephew who is turning 3 today!

I guess he's no longer a baby. I almost can't recognize him in his recent pictures. He's got a lot more hair than when I left.

Oh where is my hairbrush?

Now that we've starting counting down the days, I've been thinking of things I want to do at home that I can't do here.

One of the first things I want to do when we return to Canada is get a "normal" haircut.

I never posted about my Korean hairdressers experience, but after living here for about 8 months, I finally gathered up enough courage to trust someone whom I couldn't communicate with to cut my hair. I was hoping to avoid it, but it was June, very hot, and my hair was badly in need of a trim. Something had to be done.

My co-worker recommended a place. It was very nice. I expected it to be relatively expensive, given the atmosphere. But, it turned out to be only 9 bucks.

I went prepared. I showed the girl a picture of myself of how I wanted my hair to look. Unfortunately, the picture was only a front view...

I came home with a mullet.

It wasn't really all that bad, but it was way too Korean for me. Wispy is the style here. But to me, it just looks coarse and damaged. Jordan cut off a big chunk in the back, so at least I don't have a mullet anymore.

But now I really don't like my hair, and I am very anxious to get a real haircut from someone I can actually talk to!

Shuper China

This weekend we went to the "Super China Festival" at Expo Park with two other couples. We had a good time. (On all the commercials, it is pronounced "shuper China.")

The "plate" dragon was pretty cool.

It was made entirely of plates and other china dishes. How appropriate.

We got to see a Chinese acrobat show.

They even had one of those big metal balls that motorcycles drive in. Just like Homer. There were six motorcycles in it at one time. Scary.

Here are some Terracotta warriors.

And the best part, we got to try archery! Jordan got to show off his skills. I was quite impressed.

I was less successful.

But, one of the arrows in the yellow was mine!

The Temple of Heaven.

Lots of pretty lights.

The sign outside the gate was amusing. It's supposed to be called "Super China Festival." But, there was an extra "p" in "super." At least they left the lights off on the extra letter.

Counting the Days

We're nearing the end of our year in Korea, and we've starting counting down the days.

We have only 20 teaching days left. There are 37 days in total 'til we leave Korea. But, we're not going straight home. After we finish working here, we're going on a trip to Australia for a couple weeks. I'm very excited!

And finally, there are 57 days left until we arrive home in Canada. I can't believe how fast this year went by. We're both really looking forward to going home!