On Saturday the 7th of November Jess and 5 friends ventured to Sungkok art musem to see: Portraits of Shoes, Stories of Feet. The exhibit was on the history of footwear & sponsored by the French Cultural Center (which I am explaining because a lot of the signs I took pictures of were in French). I won't write too much... just enough to explain what you can't see for yourself. This is really just about the shoes ;) The exhibit was divided into 5 sections & featured 62 pairs of shoes from the 18th-21st century. The exhibit also featured pieces by artists including drawings, sculptures, videos & photographs of shoes. The five sections are: 'Rock and Roll and Baroque', 'Sport and Nature', 'Politic and Extravagancy', 'Sensual or Audacious' and 'Strangeness'. These topics cover the fun aspects ... read more

Chuseok is Korean Thanksgiving. Although Koreans have a few major holidays, Chuseok is said to be the biggest of them all. It is when Koreans return to their hometowns to eat, drink & be merry for a few days. The female Koreans we know complain that it will be a few days of cooking and cleaning. The men seem to have the easier end - eating, drinking and talking. All in all though, it is somewhat similar to the American Thanksgiving in that you spend time with family, catch up on what has been going on and give thanks for what you have. We had considered going to Chuncheon for a few months before we finally got the opportunity. We even got on the train one time thinking that it was only about 20 minutes away ... read more

Hello all! It's taken some time to get this together what with leaving for China right after it happened and then coming back and planning for summer camp plus the 2nd and 6th grade curriculums but better late than never, right? This is really just a run down of the teacher's union trip we took the two days before we left for Beijing. It was a great opportunity for us to get to know some of the other teachers in our school (as well as the principle and vice principle) and see a LOT of Korea in a short period of time. The events leading up to the trip made us question whether or not it would be worth it but now we wonder when the next one will be held! *We decided to write this ... read more

Note: So sorry about the order of the photos... Travelblog is having a laugh at my expense and each time I load them they move further and further from their original order and it will only let me fix a few!! Regardless only a small number of our photos made it on. If you are interested in seeing the others (or are just incredibly bored and need something to fill large gaps of your time) please leave me a note w/ your email (send a comment, I will not publish your email if you don't want). A link to a video about many of the famous places we went in Beijing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXq0H2Q2fvw Reflections after our first day: Beijing is fantastic. It can be loud, crowded and chaotic. Sometimes its every person for themselves such as when ... read more

Hello it's Fran. Sorry it's taken so long to write something here. I've been busy over here settling in and spending so much time at the school. When i have had free time over here it's been spent exploring the area, eating weird and wonderful food, meeting people and trying not to get rained on in between. Things over here are going well and i'm sure they'll get even better. I just wanted to quickly share with you some of things we've come across so far. Food To start with the food is excellent. In the beginning going out to eat was a guessing game followed by a spicy surprise. Since then then we have been able to pick the food we want almost every time. Despite not knowing what I was getting to eat there ... read more