Goheung, South Korea

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Pat and I have been living in Goheung for 2 months now! Time is flying by! It is quite a bit different from our last year in Geoje-do. The town is much smaller and really has the 'small town' atmosphere. There is only one other foriegner in the town and nothing to do other then climbing mountains, drinking soju and eating. But it is home and we are growing to love it. We are in the middle of moving to a new apartment. It is great... we love it. It is a big step-up from the bug-infested house that we have been living in for the past couple of months.

Another big difference between this year and last is that we are working in public schools this year rather than a hogwon (private school). Pat is in an all girls Middle school (and is loving the attention!) and I am in an elementary school. We work regular 9-5 hours and teach way less classes then last year. Every Wednesday is Volleyball with the teachers. All the teachers get together and we play a few games of volleyball, eat and drink. It is a lot of fun! Pat and I both have great co-teachers. Pat's is a lady in her 40's named Mrs.Kwa. She has great English and has been very helpful. My co-teacher, Shin Uog yung (nickname Shine), is in her 30's and her English is at a lower level. But she tries to learn more everday and has been really nice and helpful to me. We both are really lucky!

Our first week here we spent in Gwangju for orientation. There were about 40 other new foriegners there and we made some great friends. We are greatful for that week because now we have many friends living all over South Korea and have been able to visit them on the weekends. Our closest friends live in Mokpo, JinDo, Yeosu, and of course GeojeDo (our home last year). It is great having friends living in all defferant cities.

Chusak, the traditional Korean holiday signifying the first rice harvest of the year, was a couple weeks ago. We went to Busan with a bunch of new friends we met here and even met up with friends from back home, Jessie H and her boyfriend. We mostly hung out on the beach and played in the waves. We also went to the Busan aquarium. It was better then I expected. They had a really cool part where you walk under sharks, stingrays, turtles and lots of differant fish. The whole week was amazing weather and a lot of fun.

The weekend after Chusak we celebrated our own Thanksgiving. We went to Mokpo where all the foriegners from the area rented a bar and had a big pot-luck dinner party. We didn't have turkey but there were a lot of little chickens which did the job. We all ate too much so it really felt like thanksgiving.

We are actually spending the next weekend in Goheung (it will be only our second weekend staying home!). It may be a bit boring but we thought we should start spending a bit of time here just to save on money... and our health because of partying too much! We will move the rest of our stuff, make our apartment homey and go hiking (there are a couple of beautiful mountains here). Hopefully the weather is still nice. It is the end of October and it is still t-shirt weather! I am loving it.

Well, I probebly won't write very many entries until we are on our holidays and traveling Asia. The plan right now is India to visit my sister Kellie and her family, who will also be vacationing there, and then Thailand!! But, nothing is set in stone. Our holiday should be starting after Christmas and could go all the way to the end of February. Hopefully we will have close to two months to travel!

We both miss everyone so much!
Bye for now!
Love
Laurie&Pat

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Photos

Pat on a Goheung Mountain
This is the first mountain we climbed in Goheung. As you can see from the view our city is very small.

Co-teachers
These are mine and Pat's co-teachers. Shine, Laurie, Mrs.Kwa and Pat.

Busan Beach Boys
James, John, Morgan and Pat soaking in the rays on the Busan beach.

Busan Beach Girls
This is Jess Hodgeson (my high school friend) and I on the Beach in Busan.

Busan Night
Jamin, Jaclyn, Laurie, Pat, Morgan and Leslie. We are celebrating Chusak in our own way!

Friends
These are a few of our friends who went with us on a boat trip in Yeosu.