Blogs from Bundang, Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, Asia - page 2

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Asia » South Korea » Gyeonggi-do » Seongnam » Bundang September 3rd 2009

I realize that I haven't been writing as much as I want to, and I haven't put pics up. My only excuse is that I've been super busy. Between learning the new job and exploring this massive city I've been constantly busy. I think that this weekend should slow down a bit. I also want to apologize about not responding to the comments you guys have been leaving. I have been reading and really enjoying them, but I find myself getting online right before school or bed, so I'm either rushing myself or really tired from walking around all day. I'm not going to talk about the cab ride yet, because I'm planning on going to bed soon, but I'll mention some of the things that are different here than they are back in the states. ... read more

Asia » South Korea » Gyeonggi-do » Seongnam » Bundang September 2nd 2009

I finally made it to the apartment! The location is amazing, one minute walk from the school; one minute walk to the subway station; places to eat and drink everywhere, but, as you guys know, it was very difficult getting here. My crazy itinerary had me going from Milwaukee to Minneapolis to Tokyo (Narita) to Seoul (Incheon) with, at max, a two hour layover between any of those cities. When I reached Minneapolis and found out that a Typhoon was rocking Tokyo and my plane was delayed three hours I knew that this was going to be a struggle. The flight was fine. I slept a lot, watched movies, read, and ate, uneventful. When we got into Narita, however, the chaos ensued. A lot of people missed their connections, including me, and a lot of people ... read more

Asia » South Korea » Gyeonggi-do » Seongnam » Bundang August 30th 2009

I've done a lot since I last posted. I may have mentioned before, but I am basically on my own now until the other foreign teachers arrive, and I haven't started teaching yet, so I have had a lot of free time. One of the things I've started doing is intensely learning Korean. I'm working on learning the alphabet and have started reading a bit. Koreans recommend learning to read before anything else. So many Korean words are just English words with Korean inflections. Coffee is kuh-pee, ice cream is iceh-cream-ah, and the list goes on. Plus, once I learn how to read I may actually be able to order at a restaurant. As of now I've been going to places that have pictures or an English menu, or ordering things I know the names of. ... read more
Pagodas at Yongsan Park
Mall in Bundang
Changyeonggung palace

Asia » South Korea » Gyeonggi-do » Seongnam » Bundang August 27th 2009

First posting... this will be somewhat short, I am meeting another foreign teacher (technically my boss) in a bit. I arrived on Aug 25th. Received an amazingly warm welcome from the 2 directors of the school and a Korean teacher. They were genuinely excited to see me. It felt quite nice. I was the 2nd of 5 foreign teachers to arrive. There will be 3 Americans, 2 Canadians. My apartment is great! I have a little studio with HEATED hardwood floors. A huge window looks out to the street and other high rises. Unfortunately I have no curtains so I definitely feel like I am living in a fish bowl My boss has been amazing. She took me shopping, showed me around the area. She speaks Russian, so that will definitely help me miss home a ... read more
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apartment
my bed

Asia » South Korea » Gyeonggi-do » Seongnam » Bundang May 19th 2009

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 ... read more
art project
I'm not really sure where we are at this point...
Cherry Blossom Festival

Asia » South Korea » Gyeonggi-do » Seongnam » Bundang April 25th 2009

April 10, 2009 Well, here we are again! The weather is getting amazingly warmer, we only have two and a half more months of school - life is good! Today we are on our way to the airport to pick up my (Amy’s) sister who is coming to visit for 2 weeks! We are going to pack those 2 weeks with as much as you can see/do in Seoul, South Korea, so stay tuned for the next blog! A couple of weeks ago we had the opportunity to go to one of our co-workers baby’s first birthday. It was actually incredibly interesting as Korea celebrates babies so differently! I think after the baby is born, they don’t leave the house for something like the first 100 days, so that the baby doesn’t get sick. Then, in ... read more
Insadong
Insadong
First Birthday party

Asia » South Korea » Gyeonggi-do » Seongnam » Bundang March 20th 2009

Here we are again! Sorry it has been so long since the last blog, it seems as though life hasn’t been that exciting lately. But, I will definitely try to be better at writing more often! February was a short but good month. A new teacher for the grade 7 classroom arrived, and Mike and I sort of took her under our wing to help her get acquainted to the way things worked in Korea. We actually even found our way to Costco! For Valentine's Day, Mike and I went to a nice restaurant called ‘Il Praga’, it is an Italian type restaurant. I actually can’t remember the last time we went on a nice date like that! The same parents of one of Mike's students that took us for the crazy Chinese took us out ... read more
Amy's new classroom
Myeondong
Myeondong

Asia » South Korea » Gyeonggi-do » Seongnam » Bundang February 9th 2009

So I have just a really quick funny story to tell you before I tell you about our trip to Beijing... We have noticed that doing laundry in Korea has been different. Our clothes seemed crunchy, and for a while I have wondered about the type of soap we are using. I had bought a Korean English dictionary recently, and so I decided to investigate further... I brought out the soap bag and started looking up characters I saw on the bag in the dictionary. I thought the dictionary would be easy to use, but I usually can’t find the word... so out of the whole bag of soap, I found 2 words in my dictionary... lifetime and silverwear. Uh oh. Yup, you guessed it. For the past 4 months we have been using dish washing ... read more
Inside Pearl Market
Pearl Market
At Temple of Heaven

Asia » South Korea » Gyeonggi-do » Seongnam » Bundang January 19th 2009

Christmas was good. North Americans eat too much, we’re fat..felt good! That was our holidays! So, we have a place where we buy groceries. It’s called E-Mart, the equivalent to Walmart without the child labour. We buy groceries here and have had a heck of a time making it out of the store with bananas’. It seems that whenever we take the bananas to the checkout, the lady, who doesn’t speak a word of English, just takes the bananas, curses at us and places them below her till. This has happened three times. We thought that bananas were illegal in Korea for the longest time. Until now; Amy was determined, she found a random lady shopping and followed her like a stray cat until she found out the forbidden secret of banana-buying. It was soon ... read more

Asia » South Korea » Gyeonggi-do » Seongnam » Bundang December 15th 2008

These past few weeks have been beyond crazy. With wrapping up school, making sure the Christmas Concert didn’t end up disastrous, and packing up our classrooms for supposed renovations over the holidays, are we ever glad we made it through alive. I decided to start this blog with a few stories... So as you know from previous blogs, the funniest things always happen on the subways, or at least at the stops. We’ve been stopped by countless JW Koreans trying to witness to us in broken English, had our pictures taken, and who can forget the never ending stare down. One Sunday we were taking the subway and this girl and guy get on. She keeps looking over at us like she wants to talk to us. Finally I guess she gets the courage up, walks ... read more
and smog...
the best kebab you'll ever have
not out of the ordinary




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