Blogs from South Korea, Asia - page 6

It's been awhile since I have written and updated this blog. I apologize. I have been pretty lazy recently and have been working on finalizing my English winter camp that I had to do for winter break. The kids officially finished school and classes the Friday before New Year's so ever since then I have been planning a winter camp and making final revisions. They basically gave me no instructions. All I knew was it was going to be 5 days for a couple hours a day and I can do whatever I want. Pretty specific. So the first day of Winter Camp finally arrived and I had no idea what was going on. The teacher that took the order for my supplies was nowhere to be seen, there was no heat in the English zone, ... read more

Hello! It's been absolutely ages since I blogged, so as the title suggests, this will encompass before Christmas, Christmas itself and a few weeks after Christmas too! So there were 2 weeks in Korea between when I last blogged and when I flew to England. To be honest most of that was taken up by Christmas shopping, whenever I wasn't at work!! Myeongdong, Sinsadong and Insadong were the shopping areas of choice and I spent all my hard-earned cash on Korean tat and some non-tat! There was also the Key Stage 1 Christmas meal, where we enjoyed a huge amount of meat at a Bulgarian restaurant, and the Christmas concerts at school, which were all getting me into the festive spirit! Then there was the excitement of snow day of course.... It snowed for about 4 ... read more

Thought I'd do another little edit of the stuff I got up to in Korea over the summer and autumn this year. Places (in no particular order) include Seoraksan, Jeju, Tongyeong, Bulguksa, Anapji, Haeundae, Jinju Lantern Festival, Seokbulsa, Eulsukdo, Naganeupseong Folk Village, DMZ and North Korea, Busan Fireworks Festival and the Dadaepo Fountain of Dream. And no that isn't a spelling mistake, it is actually called the Fountain of Dream. Let me know what you think anyway! ... read more

We had one of the most unpleasant bus journey's that lasted about 36 hours to get here. * The typical mile long queue at the border, where we found a spot of luck and created a new queue and bypassed about an additional 2 hours waiting time * 3 men and Rach squeezed into the back of a small minibus with very little aircon img=http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/b534/Rachel_1988/8FC1E21A-3D6B-47BE-B6CC-6E5848F7EDFA-5304-00000A4E2985FEF8.jpg * A sleepertrain with some morons from Bedford who blatently did not understand people pay to travel this way as they actually want to sleep... the clue is in the name!! * A very unpleasant bumpy boat trip that advised us the 'have our seasickness pills at the ready' comforting!! img=http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/b534/Rachel_1988/A3EB33A1-C4EB-4411-86ED-8A147F799EFD-5304-00000A4E2B9E72E7.jpg Finally we arrived... read more

I’ve three more trips to tell stories about. In early November, I returned to Gayasan (Gaya Mountain) for the third or fourth time. Originally we had planned to go somewhere further away, but on a weekend it’s a struggle to convince people to wake up early. Although I’d been there before, my other trips were to Haein Temple and walking downhill along the river (really nice in the fall!). I’d never gone uphill, to the mountains. In Daegu the weather had been cool when we left, but at Gayasan it was cold and overcast. The guy in our group convinced us to hike up a mountain, instead of just having a relaxing walk. We were eventually persuaded, and we hiked to Sangwangbong peak. It was a bit difficult but doable. We got to the peak around ... read more

Happy belated New Year! It’s been a long time—sorry! My hometown-friend’s family recently told me they’d be hosting a 16-year-old Korean teenager at their home in small-town Pennsylvania (Eastern US). They asked me for some advice, so after thinking for a while, I thought I’d share it with everyone. I feel like I had a pretty easy transition, for moving to a different continent, with little knowledge of the language, and knowing few people in the country, but I’ve had experience before. I first thought about the general challenges of moving abroad. For one, probably the language difference will be difficult. Even if a person is a good speaker, it is really tiring to all day be surrounded by and forced to use a seco... read more

Wow, what a year! 2012 has proved to be full of adventures for me here in Asia! I just realized I haven't written a blog since August, so Christmas vacation seems like the perfect time for an update. The last few months have flown by. Christmas in my school was a riot! The kids began talking about it mid-November, and didn't stop until December 25th. We had the privilege of receiving a visit from Santa himself, on December 21st. One of my older students aptly pointed out, "I know he's not real. The real Santa comes to my house through the chimney." (This was said in complete seriousness). Either way, most of the kids seemed to be in complete and utter awe of Santa when he bumbled through the door into each classroom. Some students were ... read more