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Published: April 8th 2007
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Jeju island
The three of us (Ben, Kathy and me) on top of Mt.Hallasan. Hello again,
I told you I would be updating you all at once, sorry about that, I hope you are still reading. This one is about my last few weeks in Korea, in between the crazy weekend in Guam and the departure for Thailand and New Zealand. I guess I should explain a little how I came with the decision to leave Korea. Well, when I first signed my contract, in September, my boss had asked me to stay until February 2008 so they would have the next teacher start in the new school year (It starts in March here). My other options were to stay until February 2007 or September 2007 (my actual contract). Early on, I realized this type of job was not for me so I couldn’t have stayed for a year and a half even though the money was great. I just had to decide if I could handle it for a full year or not. It turns out the rugby season starts at the end of March in New Zealand and I had always wanted to go there so why not? I had a great time in Korea, I made awesome friends, managed to travel
Last weekend
Just having some fun with Nat and Hil in Gecko's towards the end of a rough weekend. and to save some money and I also learned a lot but I am ready for bigger and better things.
So we came back from Guam, the week was a blur and nothing special happened, just same ole work. But I had to gear myself up for a 25th birthday celebration. It’s scary to think that I am now 25; it only goes down from here! (No offence to the oldies!) That weekend was fun, we watched some rugby, ate delicious Moroccan food and said farewell to some good friends (that’s one thing about Korea, people come and go continuously so there are goodbyes and hellos every week). Kathy and Ben (a fun couple who live in the south of Korea and are pregnant with twins) came down for the weekend. It was fun to see them as it had been a while. We were also planning a small trip together at the end of my stay so we managed to organize that a little. Saturday was a somewhat early night because I was coming down with a cold. Sunday was filled with more good food and some shopping as I needed to buy myself a nice birthday present.
Busan
Busan fish market (well, the outdoor part). Look at the size of that octopus! What better than a tiny iPod shuffle with a pink cover of course!
The week was nothing special, whiny kids and boring lessons. But the weekend coming up was to be my last in Korea so we decided to go out in style! I skipped Friday night and rested at home and Hilary, Nat, Ella and I were set to go hiking on Saturday morning. Well, of course I was running a little late to meet Hilary, we couldn’t find Ella and Nat woke up still drunk in TY’s bed when I called her to let her know we were leaving soon. Our group suddenly was cut in half but Hil and I were still keen so we proceeded to find our way to the bus stop where one can take the bus to Bukhansan National Park. About an hour later, we get to the stop, no bus #156, oh-oh. Why not ask at Starbucks…not a good idea, next thing you know, we are walking along a cement river drinking coffee and we ended up shopping away the afternoon! Small change of plans. I got some good knock-offs though. The plan for the night was to start with Carnie’s
Last weekend
Me and a funny guy passed out in Polly's Kettle, the place is all class! And somehow we were there 2 nights in a row until the wee hours in the morning. station (Carnage station really) for all-u-can-eat and drink. Not good, why do I always try to make sure they don’t make money with me at these things? One of the girls didn’t even make it to the bar after…I will spare the details but let’s just say I was glad to be in the other cab. So we headed to Itaewon for some more fun, and to watch some rugby. Somehow it became an all-nighter, ouch. Instead of our regular Sunday brunch after a long night, because Monday was a holiday with Lunar New Year, we headed straight to the pub at lunchtime. Not good but ok, it was my last weekend. Don’t ask me how but next thing I knew, it was 5am on Monday morning. Time for some sleep!
On Monday, I was very lucky to be invited to Sunny’s aunt’s place for a New Year lunch. Wow, so good, some of the best Korean food I had ever had! She made so much too. So we stuffed ourselves and topped it off with Tiramisu from Costco and ended the visit with the sticks’ traditional Korean game I had learned with Losa, the lady from the gym.
Jeju island
There is beautiful nature in Korea, albeit hard to find. Having played before paid off, I was on fire but I struggled to stay awake. It was time to go home and recover. The goodbyes were hard, but I knew I would see some of these great friends again.
Last week in town, so much to do, so little time! Luckily, I only had to work 3 days. So Friday came pretty quickly. It was graduation week at my school and they make a huge fuss over it here. That’s crazy, the kids are not even 7 years old for real, they have been in kindergarten for 3 years and they get better grad books than I’ve ever gotten! They even got to wear the robe and the hat thingies…Quite the show! So the whole week was geared towards the graduation and also the new babies coming in. Nobody even told the kids I was leaving, so weird. I told a few of the classes I liked and those that would understand.
On Friday night, February 23rd, I left my apartment and flew on a domestic flight to Jeju island at the very south of the country where I met Kathy and Ben for a weekend of Korean
Jeju island
The view of the crater from the top of Mt.Hallasan. immersion. It is advertised as a very green nature destination but with a population of 500,000 on a very small surface area, the town is much like the rest of Korea. We found our hotel easily and I slept on the floor to cut the costs but it was quite nice for 35$US a night split in 3. On Saturday morning, we decided to hike Mt. Hallasan, an extinct volcano, the highest peak in Korea at 1950m and actually one of the highest mountains in the world if you include the part submerged in water. The hike was beautiful, albeit very busy and quite tiring. My hat goes to pregnant Kathy who hiked the 17kms up and down without too much whining! I could barely walk the next few days and it took my calves easily over a week to get back to normal. Fun times! We decided to take it easy on Sunday and check out Ilchulbong (Sunrise Peak), another extinct volcano shaped like a punch bowl, and Manjanggul (the world’s longest system of lave tube caves). The whole weekend was enhanced with Korean food at all meals and all of us were a little sick of it by
Jeju island
On the way down, it was very slippery with the snow and the steeper hill. A random couple caught Kathy before she slipped and helped her down for a while. Sunday so we went for lovely Mexican food for our last dinner on the island. Our flight to Busan was early Monday morning. I spend a couple of nice relaxing days with Kathy and Ben in their sweet apartment. Kathy gave me a massage (she’s a massage therapist), we caught up on Lost and I tried to get my last few errands done. I also explored Busan which is an extremely busy port city. I walked through the most impressive (see disgusting) fish market I have ever seen. It pretty much put me off fish (well for a few hours at least!). They had those sea snakes or small eels maybe, not sure, that got skinned alive so they were long and pink like chicken and wiggling away in the streets, besides socks vendors, giant octopuses, flowers…. Everything you can imagine that didn’t fit. Quite an experience! But the worst was when I realized I wasn’t even in the market yet! The rest of Busan was quite nice, I was surprised. My flight was leaving at 8pm on Tuesday evening. They both drove me to the airport and I had to say more goodbyes, hate it! But I will see
Jeju island
View from the top of another volcano on Jeju island. them again someday, I know that. So off to Thailand and for some more adventures…will be back.
Cheers, love,
Marie-Eve
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Annie
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Oldies!
Oldies! All down hill!? It gets better and better after 30! You better believe it young one! :)