And finally, after 8 fantastic months....

... it is time to say goodbye... My last weekend in Korea was spent with the beautiful people I have met in Korea. The past three days have been filled with laughing, dancing, crying, singing, eating, drinking, cheersing, silliness, and so much love.

"One way to get the most out of life is to view it as an adventure."
~ William Feather

"A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles."
~ Tim Cahill

"Don't die without embracing the daring adventure your life is suppose to be."
~ Steve Pavlina

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel only read one page."
~ St. Augustine

"We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open."
~ Jawaharial Nehru

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Dsiscover."
~ Mark Twain

"No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old familiar pillow."
~ Lin Yutang

Adventures of all kinds..

My last couple weeks have been busy busy busy. Work has been more busy than usual because of summer camp, and well lets just say sleep isn't my top priority. I am trying to absorb as much of Korea in as I can, and spend as much time with my wonderful friends before I leave.


Last Saturday I did something, that was the most terrifying and exhilarating thing I have ever done. Yup. I went Bunjee Jumping. A coworker and I had been talking about going for a while, but every Saturday something else came up. Finally we made the two hour journey (by all means of transportation: Subway, bus, and taxi) and went to Yuldong park. We had to take a ticket, to mark our reservation, and then we walked around the park. The funny thing (and I feel confident telling you this because I survived the jump) is that Korea has such a different way of doing things (I know- shocking!). But seriously, we paid our money, wrote down our name, got into our gear and went up the tower. There was no demonstration, no liability waivers, no safety talk. Just the two minutes it takes to pay and put on your harness. The elevator ride to the top was the worst. It went really slow and looking down at the water, I started freaking out. There was no way I was going to be able to jump off this!

We watched a group of 4 Korean men jump before us, and I was thinking Okay. I can do this. It doesn't look that bad, and they didn't die! What really motivated me was in the elevator there are pictures of people jumping and in one, this tiny Korean woman is leaping off the tower in HIGH HEELS! I mean, really, if people can jump off this in high heels, There is no reason I can't!

Finally it was my turn, and I was so nervous! I was shaking, and close to hyperventilating. The worker said come stand of the edge, with your feet half off. I went to the edge and looked over, and I have never felt more terrified in my life. I thought I must be crazy to willingly jump of this thing. But, then again, if I could do this, I can do anything! The worker said look at that house in the distance, and jump towards it. And then "5-4-3-2-1-BUNJEE" and I was off! Really, you never believe it until it happens,  but 5 seconds can literally slow down, and feel like forever. One second I was staring a house, and then all of a sudden staring right down into water. And I thought I was never going to stop. I was just plummeting to my death.  And then the roped tightened, and I went back up and down for a while, screaming like a maniac, laughing, and crying. Never have I ever had so much adrenaline pumping through me.

My friend Trish was next, and sadly, she didn't jump. She got to the edge, and realized she couldn't do it. Apparently 50% of people who go up the tower don't jump. I am proud to say that I am among the 50% who did!




Just this Saturday 10 of us rallied together, and went river rafting.

I really had no idea what to expect, because I have never been before.Trish, Daniel, Sara, Will, Dave, Jessica and I met Sangdo, Haeho and Minjae in Seoul. Sangdo and Haeho were late so instead of riding the nice, luxury buses, we got stuck with the short bus. Literally.

Rafting was a blast. Our instructor was really funny, and determined to make all of us go into the water which not all of us were too thrilled about. Really, why would someone go rafting if they didn't want to get wet? Ahh, the life of a high maintenance woman! But in all seriousness, we had a blast.

The rafting was fun, but our bus ride was the most entertaining. Our trip was only suppose to take us 2 1/2 hours, and instead took us 6 hours! It was a long weekend, and so the roads were super busy, our bus driver got lost once or twice, and okay (if any of you know me well) I had to pee at least twice. But overall the day was a complete success. We all survived, ate really bad corn on the cobb, washed off in freezing cold showers, and made it back to Ansan without missing appendages.

Let me take you to the Wild Wild West.....

....and allow me to kill two cowboys with one gun.

Our school is on the outskirts of the city, so each morning I leave my apartment, 7:55am sharp and wait for the yellow bus. There are some days when teachers are running for the bus, shoes untied, hair unbrushed, but we have a twenty minute drive so these can be fixed easily in that time. I will admit, there is the rare occasion that I have stayed up too late and missed the shuttle, but thankfully there is a public bus that goes to our school, and in the worst case, a taxi. Trust me, I try not to make a habit of missing the shuttle, not only because it is a huge inconvenience for me, but as soon as the bus pulls away without a teacher on it, the murmurs start. It is only a matter of time before "So and so teacher missed the bus because they were fighting alligators in the streets of Jungang while drinking copious amounts of soju, and has probably ran away to Japan after the shame of loosing a tug of war battle with an ajima."

Our morning commute is usually pretty quiet. I listen to music, or read a book (okay, most of the time I sleep for a little bit), while we make two other stops to pick up teachers coming in from other places. Once spring came, and we leave the city, our scenery is actually quite beautiful. Rice fields every which way.

And then we pull up. Our school is fairly small compared to some schools, but unlike a lot of hagwons, we are spoiled by a soccer field, basketball court and picnic tables.

Our school has 12 classrooms, all designed as "situational"; we have a hospital, post office, market, science, cinema class..... Our school is used as a place where Korean students can practice the English they already know in "real life" situations.

One of the best classes in our school is Ecology. We have a room with a few animals, and after a lesson about animals, they students can "play" with the animals. We have mice, hedgehogs, toads, scorpions, a tarantula and hamsters. Can you believe that I have touched and taken out a tarantula????? Its true!!!! But my all time favorite animal is Vernon. The snake. To be completely honest, when I found out I was teaching ecology, I was terrified! And it took me a good 20 minutes to take him out of the cage my first time. But after about the second time of taking him out, I realized he wasn't nearly as scary as I thought he was and actually really enjoyed taking him out. (Don't worry mum, I know what your thinking, I am not thinking of getting a snake as a pet- I didn't like him that much). One time I even got to feed him a hamster in front of the students. Okay. I know. Its morbid that I actually enjoyed it, but hey...... circle of life. Plus the kids were absolutely enthralled, down to the last open mouthed swallow.
.

We have a culture class that talks about 5 different "English Speaking" countries. While that genre choice is up for debate, Canada is featured, and of course, so are the typical Canadian artifacts: maple syrup, beavers, and hockey sticks. But one of the cool things about the Canada section is the famous person listed: Terry Fox. I am actually really proud when I get to talk to the kids about him. I have never had one student know who he was, and they are in awe when I talk about his life, and what he did.

I always include a question about him at the end of class, because he is awesome, and well I think its cool that the kids can learn about Terry Fox, and not just maple syrup!!!!

Currently all of our classes have been transformed to fit this years Summer Camp theme "The Wild Wild West".

 I am teaching Newsroom class. Normally in this class teachers talk about Newspapers and the kids make up their own articles. But for Summer Camp they are making WANTED posters. Its amazing what the kids can come up with. Mr. Shawn was one of my favorites.

Most of the kids love the fact that they get to hold a gun, but a lot of higher level students have a great
time thinking of "bad" things they would do if they were an outlawed cowboy.


At the end of each week, every teachers homeroom team has to come up with a performance. It could be singing, dancing, role play, but it has to be related to out summer camp theme. My team developed a role play where there was good cowgirls and bad cowboys. The good cowgirls are drinking at a saloon, when the bad cowboys come in. One of the students did not show up on the last day, so the kids asked me if I would say her lines.

 Actually, I think I had the best role in the house. I got to have a shoot out with the "main bad cowboy"!!!!

Summer Camp is exhausting, with more students, more classes and an overnight camp out. But I get to wear a cowboy hat everyday, and can validate having Korean children listen to country music! Nothing could have thrilled me more than a Western theme! The shootouts, line dancing and moonshine making has made the business of the past couple weeks completely worth it!!!!!

I am finally a grown up woman......

But before I tell you why, I must tell everyone. I am getting excited and sad to be leaving Korea so soon. 20 days until I will be in Missouri!!!! I heard that my last few weeks in Korea would be torturous, humid, sticky and a never ending cycle of shower-step outside-sweat, repeat. But sadly, the monsoon season has gone on for longer than anticipated and I have seen rain almost everyday for the past two months. I have seen more umbrellas then I ever though possible, and yes, some Korea women have so many umbrellas they match them to their outfits. That is how much it rains here!

Being from Victoria I am used to rain. But this isn't the pleasant drizzle on a windy afternoon. This is torrential, downpour, flip your umbrella inside out, wet from head to toe, warm rain. Never will I ever complain about the rain in Victoria again. Some areas are getting hit with 19-24 INCHES of rain a day. Truly is is scary, and sadly more have 30 people have died. Lucky I live south of Seoul, and haven't had to trek to school knee deep in water.

Usually a little rain won't stop me from any plans I have. A lot of rain? Nah. I've learned that wearing flip flops and Capri pants is the easiest way to navigate the roads and puddles when its raining. After my first outing with tennis shoes, completely soaked, that I had to walk around in for the next 4 hours, I learned my lesson.

This weekend the rain held off while we went into Seoul.

 A few of us went out for lunch and walked around a fairly touristy area. Behind us is "The Blue House". Sound familiar to anything? 10 points to you if you guessed "The White House". The Blue House is where Lee Myung Bak, the South Korean President lives. We didn't sign up for a tour, so we could only look from a distance.


On Sunday, I met Minjae in Sinseol-dong, which is about an hour and a half away from Ansan by subway. We went to the Seoul Folk Flea Market. This is a yardsalers dream! Its like a typical flea market at home, except with Korean goods!  Annnnnddd.... you can bargain bargain bargain! Luckily I had Minjae with me, because my Korean is not good enough to haggle with the ajishis about prices! I bought a gift for one of my girlfriends back home, and Minjae talked the stall owner down from 35,000won to 20,000won! Whoop!

Outside of the flea market is an arts center. Minjae and I signed up to make traditional Korea crafts.

Hard at work

Our finished products were pretty spectacular! And really, who doesn't like doing arts and crafts! It was a blasty blast!

Usually, when it is not a torrential downpour, the flea market and surrounding streets are filled with vendors, and tent restaurants but because of the rain, only the vendors inside were open.


The best part of my weekend though, came Sunday night. Minjae and I went to COSTCO!!!! For those of you who know my family, you know that we love Costco!!!! And let me tell you, Costco in Korea is one of the mot entertaining things I have ever witnessed!

By the time me and Minjae had got there we were starving, so we went to get food before we did some shopping. The menu was almost the same as a Costco back home. Pizza, fruit Sundays, churros, hot dogs, and clam chowder. Normally if I get a hot dog at home, I go to the condiment stand, put on some ketchup and a few tablespoons of onions (occasionally mustard if I am feeling really crazy). Korean people seem to think that the onions are a separate meal. They piled on cups and cups of onions onto their plate, and loaded on mustard and ketchup. And if you can believe it or not, they were eating this with a fork!

My photography skills were not as great as they could have been, and I felt bad because I was blatantly pointing my camera at these people, but really! Hilarious!!!!

And finally.... I am now officially a proud member of Costco Wholesale! Despite celebrating my 25th birthday, buying my own car, living on my own, and surviving a move to a foreign country, this small white and red card in my wallet has made me cross the line from the in between post adolescent phase and real grown up. Bring on Adulthood!!!!!!

And watch out Costco's across the world!!!!

Boryeoung Mud Festival 2011!!!

This past Saturday produced one of the best memories I will take with me from Korea. I went to Boryeoung Mud Festival in Daechon Beach. And it was dirty, wet, and all together fantastic.

The Mud Festival started a few years ago in Korea, and since then is the largest event for foreigners in Korea. It has become so huge that one week of muddy debauchery on a beach produces enough revenue for the entire city of Daechon to live off of for an entire year. Seriously, that is a lot of beer sold.

Aaron, Minjae, Will, Dave, Jessica and myself started the long trip down to Daechon early Saturday morning. We had an hour subway trip, where we caught the train. The festival itself is free, but the train tickets, and bus transportation sells out, so we bought our tickets almost a month ago. You can opt for cheaper train tickets, but that means you have to sit on the floor, in the aisle. Sitting on the floor for a whole three hours while people trying to get to the restroom every ten minutes, because they have had a liquid breakfast of champagne or beer, while stepping on your fingers?? I said, no thank you... I will pay the extra money for a seat. Our train ticket was only 22,000won which works out to about $20. A free festival and widow seating on a train? Life was good!

Arriving in Daechon.. Ah. So fresh and so clean clean.

We got to the train station and had to take a crowded bus to the actual beach. None of us really new what to expect once we got there. And, as usually, it was nothing like I expected! Daechon beach was beautiful, even with the threat of rain, but the mud was actually not on the actual beach, like I was imagining.

We had to walk down some very large stairs to get to the actual beach, but at the top, the festival really took place. There were mud "buckets" where you went to paint yourself with mud, slides, food tents, and of course, thousands of people, drinking beer, and getting dirty!

Getting Dave nice and dirty!

Cleaning off in the water!

The water was surprisingly warm. We went in there when we were too hot, our mud was caked on, or if someone had to pee. I know.... gross.. But, if I had to bet.... the majority of people reading this have peed in an ocean or pool at leats once.  No wonder the water was so warm.

Really our entire day consisted of listening to a live band, throwing mud on each other, going swimming in the water, drinking beer, and repeating the cycle! We ran into some other foreign teaches from Ansan, which is surprising considering how many people were there!

Seriously, anytime I can roll around in mud with good friends, I am down! And, apparently the mud is good for your skin, so that is just an added bonus! By the end of the day I had mud on EVERY part of my body. I am still scooping out bits of dry mud from my ears, and haven't been able to get a brush through my hair quite yet, but those are small prices to pay for an extraordinary day!

Jeju Island!!!!

This past weekend me and Minjae went to Jejudo Island. For those of you who don't know, Jeju is an island off the southern tip of Korea. It is considered to be the "hot spot" of Korea; its almost tropical, and definitely the warmest place in the country. It is also one of the prettiest places in Korea, and one of the most famous places in Korea. Most people I have talked to that have lived in Korea say you have to go to Jeju at least once.

While we were driving around the island, we actually heard on the radio that Jeju is nominated to become one of the "new" seven wonders of the world. According to:

http://www.new7wonders.com/archives/wonder/jeju-island

Jeju island is one of the 28 finalists. While I am not sure that the world needs "new" 7 wonders (I still haven't seen any of the original 7 wonders, let alone a whole new list!!!) it is kinda great to see Korea recognized like that.

Our trip started off a bit rocky. Or should I say rainy. There were typhoons sceaming through Korea. Never having experienced a "typhoon" before, it was hard for me to distinguish this from a raging rainstorm. But, it was actually a deadly storm, killing 13 people, so they shouldn't be taken lightly. The winds were strong enough to delay our flight for two hours, but once we were off, the plane ride was smooth. It is only a one hour flight from Seoul.

Thankfully the typhoons had not made it down South. While it was cloudy it was super humid!

Jeju is a volcanic island, so the beaches and shores are full of dead black rocks and white sand. Quite the beautiful contrast.

We went to Hallim Park, which is like a giant environmental area. You walk around, and there are caves, and animals, and all sorts of plants. My Grandma, Dad and Trev went there on their trip to Jeju, and it is one of the tourist hotspots.

Minjae and I stayed at a "Guest House". Its very close to a hostel. We stayed at Joseph Tree Guest House, which I would recommend to anyone who is planning on going to Jeju. There is one room with bunk beds for the boys, and one for the girls.

If your looking for cutting costs, Guest Houses are the way to go in Korea.  It was less than 15 dollars a night, super clean, and we got free breakfast (and a semi-western one at that- toast and eggs, not rice and kimchi!!)!!

Our second day was definitely the best, weather wise, but it started off not so good. We wanted to go to Udo island. I know what your thinking... you go to an island, just to go to another island? But this island was only 20 minutes away by ferry and you can rent bikes and ride around the whole island in about 3 hours. But our first attempt to catch the ferry was shut down, because of high winds, so we went for a hike instead.

 This place was used to film a popular Korean drama, "All In" and so has become a popular tourist place in recent years.

After our walk, the ferries were finally running! We went to Udo and rented bikes, and before you lecture me (mum) I realize that I am not wearing a helmet. I do not condone riding bicycles without helmets. But.... they do not give you the option to wear one. Not a single rent place had helmets available for bicycles. On Udo the path along the shore of the island is filled with mostly bikes and scooters, and we were extra careful. It felt really weird though, and I knew I was doing something "wrong"!

As we were riding around the island we saw scuba divers. Why do I mention this? Well, in the picture below you can see the small figures coming in from sea. As it tuns out, Jeju is famous for this type of work. Apparently, Jeju was an island that was known for women working, and men not. The women go out to sea, diving, in the mornings, and work, catching fish, getting shellfish and grabbing seaweed. They swim on shore with giant bundles of their goods, and then sort through them, dry the seaweed, etc... And yes, the men do nothing. Its funny though, because even though men now have jobs on Jeju, this particular type of job is for women ONLY. Men are not allowed to do this job on Jeju island. 

This statue is the symbol of Jeju, and the job of the women divers.

After riding for about 2 hours, we stopped at a seaside restaurant. Since I got food poisoning during my first few months in Korea, which I think was from seafood soup, I have been apprehensive about shellfish and octopus in my food. But, this restaurant catches the food literally 100meters away. You can't get much fresher then that!

Minjae had fish, while had the soup. Hands down, best seafood soup I have had in Korea!

After we finished riding around the island, We went back to Jeju and went to a maze. Actually, it was accidental. As we were heading to the Manjanngul Lava Tubes, Minjae saw a sign for the maze and we decided to stop.

There is a bell that is your goal, and ringing it means sweat victory! And we made our way through he maze no problem!!! Okay. Not really. So we kind of cheated. The maze was actually really hard! 5% of people need to be rescued! We may have followed around a woman who was getting directions from her husband who was on a balcony over looking the maze. But this was only after almost 45 minutes of walking around, literally, in circles!

Our ast stop of the day was the Manjanggul Lava Tube. This is an underground, 1km cave, that was formed by flolwing lava.

The pictures are a bit blurry, and definitely does not do the tube justice, but it was absolutely incredible to be walking through this really dark, bitter cold, and soggy tube.

On our final day it rained. And I mean, it really rained. But we were still determine to keep most of our plans. So we went to the most famous waterfall on Jeju.

Yes, I was determine to get a picture in front of the waterfall, even though it was a complete downpour! The water was murky because of all the rain, but normally the stream is so clear you can see down to the bottom, and the countless fish swimming in the river.

We also headed on another mini hike, this time to the coast where the lava had formed these cylinder rocks.

The cylinder rocks are the ones jutting out on the left

The waves were crashing, the rain was pouring, but the black rocks are freakin' awesome!!!!

Our final stop was O Sulloc Tea Farm. It is the main tea farm on Jeju, and I was really surprised about what tea plants actually look like. They had  museum of tea pots, which I loved- I took about a million pictures of tea pots to show my ceramics teacher when I get om, they were so cool.

You can't go to a tea farm without having some tea, but we decided to skip the drink and go for the icecream. Green tea icecream. If you haven't tried it, you must! Its not too sweet, and has a really nice mild flavour.

Our trip was wonderful, despite minor weather setbacks. I am slowly crossing off my "List of Things to Do While I am Korea" and Jeju was definitely one of those that was worth the trip!!!


Oh..... and because I laughed for about 20 minutes, and because I told her I must inform Bud about this, I leave you with the wonderful parking techniques of Minjae Yu: