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poster in our school
I guess with 10 or more english teachers in the building they wouldn't think to get this sign spell checked??Yup, we've made our final decision, and we¡¦re coming home. After long and careful consideration, we¡¦ve decided that it¡¦s time to go home. We¡¦ve enjoyed the year of adventures and being a part of another culture, but we¡¦re excited to come home to family, friends, and our home. Also, in other news - Mike has made some career changes in the past little bit... He¡¦s decided to go back to school part time to Regent Seminary and is taking his Masters in Christian Studies. As well, as Mike has truly felt the calling into full time vocational ministry, we sort of felt like, why not now? So, after much prayer and meditation on God¡¦s calling for our lives, Mike has recently accepted an associate pastor position at Cascade Community Church in Abbotsford, BC. He will be in charge of high school youth and young adults, trying to get some type of discipleship program started. He is very very excited about this new opportunity and although we¡¦re both a bit anxious about this new beginning, we¡¦re really looking forward to it! So, the plan is to finish teaching at the school here end of June, then backpack Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam
art project
Amy's classes Easter art project - thanks for the idea Mom Cumiskey! for the month of July. We¡¦re heading back to Canada end of July, just in time for a few back to back weddings in August. We¡¦re hoping to get in a little relaxation time in Asia before we head back to real life at home. I¡¦ve never been on a backpacking trip for that long before, and I¡¦m really excited to see some different cultures, people and places! Oh, and to shop... I think I¡¦ve developed a bit of an unhealthy addiction in Korea... So, I hope that we get to see each and every one of you when we get back to Canada this summer! I can¡¦t wait!
The visit with my sister was really great! It was so nice to have a visitor and it really helped with the homesickness! It was fun to have someone to shop with too! We all know how the Mantai¡¦s love to shop!!! So Allison got here on a Friday night and we barely gave her time to relax before we took her out for Burgers. The next day was a big day, taking all 3 forms of transportation (city bus, subway, taxi) to try to get to a park in the
city that supposedly was celebrating a cherry blossom festival. I¡¦m not really sure what I was expecting, but the 2 hour bus ride on a blue city bus in the heat of the day with 100 other people in a 20 capacity bus.... not really worth it. We got to the park and couldn¡¦t really find the festival, or maybe we did and didn¡¦t know it... but we did get some pretty pictures of cherry blossoms along a road! That day we were also able to take Ally for some good, Western food at the Outback steakhouse and go shopping at an outdoor street market. Gotta love shopping! That day we got a little lost, and just needed to find a subway stop. So, somehow we happened to come across about 10 city police buses with policemen standing around, so we thought we'd ask them. It was really hilarious, here's like 10 policemen standing around a map trying to help us, but none of them knew where a subway stop was... or maybe they didn't know what we were asking... and then this one who's been standing there the whole time finally decides it's time to help, pats the other
Cherry Blossom Festival
on the road to the festival... we think. guys on the shoulder and speaks in fluent English "Okay, you just take a right here.... " hilarious. You should've seen the other policemen's faces.
The next day I took Allison to Insadong, the artsy, gifty shopping area of Seoul. We definitely did some damage that day! With our arms full of purchases, we made a stop on the way home at Costco to stock up on a few groceries and let Ally experience a little home away from home. That night we were able to take Allison out for the infamous galbi - and I was so proud of her! Even though she¡¦s not an adventuresome eater, she tried it! Okay, so maybe you have to live here a bit to actually get used to the food... she didn¡¦t seem to share in our love for Korean BBQ.
On Monday of the Easter weekend four of us (Mike, Ally, Katie and I) got to go to Everland, Korea¡¦s big amusement park. We took this bus out there and it was a really beautiful drive - you got to see a bit more of the rural community and it seemed like he was driving us out to the middle of
Cherry Blossom Festival
Trying to find a place to take a picture among all the people, kinda impossible. nowhere! But, sure enough, the bus drives up to the amusement park. It was a Canadian holiday, but not a Korean holiday, so I guess it was supposed to be a bit less busy.... I¡¦m starting to not really know what that is like in Asia... It¡¦s a good thing we brought Katie because Ally and I just stood and watched while Mike and Katie rode all the crazy rides. The amusement park is actually pretty cool!! It was divided into different cultural sections, with a European part and a Korean part and an American part. The food and buildings tried to match that theme. Mike and Katy went on this one roller coaster - it was called the T-express. It is the biggest wooden roller coaster in the world, with a 77 degree drop going 220 km/h. I think they were insane for going on it, but they said it was awesome. The four of us went on one of those log rides in the water, but I don¡¦t think those rides are made for four western people because our boat sat pretty low in the water, and we went pretty darn fast on the declines. I¡¦m not going
to lie, I¡¦m pretty much a baby when it comes to rides and I was screaming the whole wayƒº There was also a Safari bus ride we took that let us into a section to see giraffes, tigers, lions, bears and hippos. It was neat! I have never been to any big amusement parks except for West Edmonton Mall, so this was a really cool experience!
The weeks were pretty low key, when we came home from work we¡¦d go for supper or go shopping a little more! It was just really nice to have a visitor to spend time with!
The weekend after we took Ally to all our favourite spots, to TechnoMart (the gigantic electronics mall - not really sure if that was for Ally or if it was for Mike...), to Itaewon to eat at Geckos, to another night market, and to Coex mall to go to the aquarium and for more shopping! It was a pretty packed weekend, but a lot of fun. The last weekend of her visit I took her... surprise surprise, for more shopping at Gangnam, and then to a last trip to Insadong for some other gifts. We got to see a
palace in the city which was really neat too. Mike got some amazing pictures! It rained all weekend that weekend though, so it was sort of a bummer. I think it was even harder to put Allison on the plane because at this point I¡¦m getting a bit more homesick and I wanted to be on the plane next to her!
The first weekend of June Mike went to the states for his best friend¡¦s wedding. So, I had to fend for myself in Korea, and ended up doing a lot of shopping with the girls... there seems to be a trend in my life here, doesn¡¦t there? We actually got to see some neat parts of the city and we got to Gangnam to try this ¡¥Dr. Fish¡¦. I¡¦m not sure if you have heard of it, but you stick your feet into a tub filled with tiny fish that eat the dead skin off your feet and legs. It¡¦s supposed to be the ¡¥new pedicure¡¦. Well, I am definitely ticklish and was a little freaked out by the fish, but I am really stubborn. So, myself and two other girls went to the coffee shop the Dr. fish
is in, paid $5 for a coffee and got the fish treatment for an extra $2. We went to the tubs at the back of the shop and the guy started the timer, we had 20 minutes. I couldn¡¦t even think about it, and I just put my feet in. It was the weirdest feeling ever - if you didn¡¦t know it was fish, it kinda felt like little tiny electric shocks. Once your brain told you it was actually fish, you could literally feel them sucking on your feet. The other two girls I was with took 10 minutes to even stick their feet in! But I was so determined, I kept my feet in for the full 20 minutes no matter how weird it felt. Not sure I¡¦d ever do it again, but it was worth the experience!
So last Thursday I went to the dentist here, we found a kid¡¦s dentist that wants to clean/work on foreigners teeth to practice English. He¡¦s really good and gives a discount for foreigners, so I went to get my teeth cleaned. With some good council from the dentist, we decided to take out the top two wisdom teeth because it
would be a very easy procedure and the kid¡¦s dentist could do it. So, I made the appointment for Monday (yesterday), which is crazy in and of itself because at home you wait how long to get in to see the dentist? I went in yesterday kinda worked up and really nervous, but it worked out fine. He gave me some laughing gas, which was crazy weird, it felt like I was in a fog. I had a bit of a panic moment once and almost passed out, but then when the dentist told me it was a mind thing I was much better. I know what you¡¦re thinking, I just don¡¦t have the best luck with medical things... Anyways, I got two wisdom teeth pulled and the total cost was 19 800 won which is about $18. That¡¦s why I did it before I went home. The paperwork at home wouldn¡¦t be that cheap. I also had to get some painkillers and meds which came to a total of $4. Makes you wonder what¡¦s going on with our health care system at home. I¡¦m a little sore today, but I had the day off school to recuperate so I
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The friendly policemen that had to take a map out to find the nearest subway stop. can¡¦t complain!
Mike and I are trying to make the most of the last few weekends we have left here. We¡¦re going to try to get in a baseball game and go down to a southern city in Korea for a weekend. I might even do a city 5 km run. Not sure about that one yet though...
Well, hope you¡¦re having a fantastic week and you¡¦re not working too hard. We love and miss you all!
Until next time,
Mike and Amy
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