Blogs from Jeollanam-do, South Korea, Asia - page 9

We found a beach! WoW! Where to begin?! Our journey started at 5:45am, to try and get as much time at the coast as possible, however, after missing not only one... and no, not 2 either, after missing THREE busses (trying to decide which bus stop to wait at and which side of the road to be on, frik!), a subway trip, a sense of humour failure, and an Express Bus Terminal, we were settled into our final four and a half hour leg of the best and most beautiful trip we've had! The "Excellence bus" made a stop 2 hours into the journey for a MUCH needed stretch your legs and restore your blood sugar break (I get really cranky when I don't eat... ). I got a coconut doughnut roll with jam which turned ... read more

And so, another semester begins. Spring is gradually coming to Yeosu. Well, I use the word "gradually" in quite a liberal way-- it's actually pretty cold outside right now, but the trees are just beginning to bud and, well, two weeks ago it was warm. Unfortunately, a cold snap hit again, and it's currently back to winter weather. Things are going well at school. There is a new foreign teacher here, and it's been great showing her around and helping her out. It's also been good to have someone to regularly speak English with. To top it all off, it's also lowered the number of classes I teach this semester to 13! So, I have 13 classes a week-- 9 classes of third-year students, and 4 classes of second-year students. I'm really excited to be teaching ... read more

This past couple months in Korea have been great! Pat and I have the best jobs that we have ever had! The kids are great (well most of them), the work is very layed-back, and our co-workers are a lot of fun. Pat is loving the fact that the girls in his Girls Middle school love him. One of the girls told him that she loves him but "don't tell your wife Lilly because she will hate me"! They all send him love notes, its pretty cute. I went on a school trip a couple weeks ago. We went ice-skating! It was halarious! The kids were all stunned by the fact that I could skate. They all put helmets on and when we got on the ice they held on to the side boards for dear ... read more

So, my Dutch friend Chris visited me from Oct. 27-Nov. 5, and, boy, did we have a good time! First, I went to Seoul to meet him (he arrived on a weekend, and so I was able to take a bus up there after school on Friday), where he recovered his jetlag, went with me to sightsee, and ate his first Korean food. In Seoul, we did many things. I hadn't had the chance to really sightsee there before, because the only time I'd been in Seoul was the two days or so that I first met my school officials and said goodbye to my Fulbright friends (oh, and went to the DMZ!). So, we went to Insa-dong, Sinchon, Seoul Tower, one of the palaces, Kyobo bookstore (a giant bookstore with a huge English section. Too ... read more

... and more complicated. But in the meantime, a few things that brightened my weekend. First of all, the most amazing thing happened. Although I did not have much time to play piano back in the US, I did at least have the opportunity now and again. It helps me release stress and be creative and all that jazz. So, of course, I was missing it-- and the musical things I've always done-- but I decided to bite the bullet. I mean, you can't expect everyone to have a piano, and I figured maybe I could convince them to let me play one of the pianos at church during off hours or something. I could beg and plead. Or, just not play piano for a whole year. Well, little did I know that all members of ... read more