Blogs from Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, Asia - page 28

There are no guns in Korea. Well at least compared to the United States, it seems like there are no guns in Korea. Gun laws here are very strict. You are not allowed to keep a gun at your house. You are only allowed to own a gun for hunting purposes, and the few who do, have to keep these guns at the local police station. When you want to hunt, you go to the police station, check your gun out, hunt, and return it to the station when you're finished. This is vastly different from America, where it is considered an undeniable right that every citizen over the age of "able-to-hold-a-gun" is allowed and in fact encouraged to wield a lethal weapon. I must say that this difference in gun culture is intriguing. Now, don't ... read more

Seeing as how I'm on vacation at the moment I have decided to spend a bit of time hiking and wandering around my local mountain (the famous Kumdansan - people come from all over Korea to check it out.... or so I heard!). I went there last week one day and got some pretty cool pictures, but I've also been up there today and it was SO much better! Why? Because there was snow!!!! I've found a new route which starts at the bus station. This requires a 10 minute bus journey from my house to the end of the line, and the old adjosshi driving the bus today was getting more and more concerned as the bus emptied out the closer we got, leaving just a lone foreigner on board! As we pulled up to ... read more

I will lose 20 pounds this year. I will stop drinking so much and spend more time at the gym. I will call my mother more. I will never smoke again. I will eat healthier............................ Blah blah blah blah blah OK, fair enough, it would be lovely to actually succeed with goals like that. But resolutions shouldn't be so cut and dry. I have now, almost offically, spent a year away from home. I have grown, and changed. I have met fabulous people and ravelled to some of the most fascinating parts of the world...the most beautiful beaches, the most serene landscapes...and tackled some of physical and mental feats. But what I really came here for, beyond the obvious desire to see the world, was to work out who I am and who I want to ... read more

Finally! After many painful hours of practicing our play for the Winter Drama Festival, class Pluto put on a great performance of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for their families. The play consisted of roughly 7 lines per child - memorized - and two Christmas songs with actions (Rudolph and Jingle Bell Rock). We would practice a minimum of 45 minutes since the beginning of December. There were many problems leading up to the actual presentation, but they managed to pull it off. The kids would memorize their lines, then over the weekends they would come back and either forget their lines or when it was their turn to speak. In addition, my original "dance moves" were seen as inadequate by my superiors for Jingle Bell Rock so they taught the kids a whole new routine. I ... read more

It doesn't need to be said but, in typical Shawna fashion, I will say it nonetheless......Christmas is tough when you are abroad. In all honesty, I am handling it much better then I ever would have thought possible, considering my roommate and best friend is going home, to Calgary, to do everything I would sell my SOUL to do right about now (ie. Banff, hockey, dinner with MY family).....however, I am going to Thailand. And let's be honest.....it's Thailand. What am I complaining about. But the holidays really sneak up on you...I mean REALLY sneak up on you. Fair enough, they do no matter where in the world you are, but here they kind of creep in when you aren't looking and punch you in the face. Snow is what makes it real. The first snow ... read more