Good Morning Vietnam

osxoLuckily we both love the smell of napalm in the morning. I'll try and throw some more movie quotes in here when applicable. After breakfast we started our journey around Ho Chi Minh City. We visited the HCMC Museum, Opera House, War Museum, Reunification Palace, City Hall and lots of side streets. The city is full of French Colonial architecture so the buildings look really nice and are brightly painted. The sky is cloudy yet it stays hot on the streets, but it's not so much the heat as the gosh darn humidity. Millions of mopeds crowd the roads and sidewalks so you've always got to be on the lookout when moving around. The cost of living is really low here so we fill up every meal and usually get away for under $10 total, which is nice. Tomorrow we'll go on another walkabout to walk along the Saigon River and hit any other sites we missed today. On the 1st we've got a tour booked for the Cu Chi Tunnels, a famous community that moved underground during the American War (what we call the Vietnam War). We're having a good time but the city is too hectic and congested so we're happy to only be here a few days.

Saigon!

We've made it to Vietnam! Our five hour flight from Seoul to Ho Chi Minh City only set us back 3 hours due to the time difference. We happened to meet a nice fellow in line at the airport, and we ended up traveling the whole way with him (even shared a taxi to our hotel) so that was fun.
Once we got settled, we grabbed some dinner and decided to have a relaxing and early night tonight. Big plans tomorrow: hoping to catch the sunrise over the Saigon River. We'll also check out the city in detail. Our initial opinion seems to be that it's quite crowded and hectic, but maybe that will just keep us hustling. Pics to follow!

What the future holds

Today (Christmas Eve) after work, we're going to meet with the other EPIK teachers for a potluck dinner and gift exchange. On Christmas day we don't have much to do during the day, maybe we'll catch a movie, like most Koreans, and then in the evening we'll go to the bar and have a gift exchange with all the foreigners in Wonju.

Wednesday Heather goes back to work and Brandon goes on an overnight field trip with his school teachers. Year end bonding sessions are popular with Korean companies and groups, usually it's just a mandatory all-night drinking session but since we've got public taxes to spend we get to go on an overnight trip. B goes Wed. to a ski resort (good thing he started learning last weekend) and H goes Thu. to a mountain lodge.

Friday after H gets home we'll double check our packing and get a good night's sleep so that we're prepared for the 6 o'clock shutte bus to Incheon Airport. We fly out at 10:35 on Korean Air and land at 2:10 in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). We'll be in HCMC for New Year's (not Tet) but we don't have a firm schedule because we want to be flexible and see everything we can. Our rough idea is to spend 4 days in and around HCMC and then take 2-3 days going up the Mekong into Cambodia. 2 days in Phnom Penh and then on to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. The Angkor Wat complex is a massive expansion of temples and jungle that we could end up spending a few days exploring, depending on how soon H gets bored with them. While it sounds like fun and games we are determined to visit the killing fields, land mine and war museums for a humbling reality check about what's happened in these countries over the past few decades. After two weeks on the tourist trail we'll fly away to sunny Phuket and Phi Phi to snorkel, sun bathe and just relax. Depending on how fast we turn red we'll head up to Bangkok a day or two before flying back to Korea at 1:40 (am) Jan 22. Well as long as that took to type/read believe us it took much longer to plan and put all the pieces in place. Here's hoping most things go smoothly!

Happy Holidays to y'all,

B&H

Election Day

Today was Election Day in Korea, which meant we had the day off. Koreans elect a new president every 5 years, and the one will take office in February.

There were 12 official candidates, but only about 2 main contenders. About a month ago, we noticed signs around town announcing the runners. In order to draw attention to the candidates, campaigners would stand on busy street corners during rush hour and do little dances. They would all wear matching outfits, and it was interesting to see.

The BBC website is reporting that Mr. Lee Myung-Bak will be named the president-elect, and that he was the winner in a landslide. The interesting thing is, that this man is accused of being involved in a scandal, and there's currently an investigation into his actions. He has promised that he will lead Korea's economy to a new level, and this is a big concern for Koreans. My friend noted that while she doesn't like him as a man, she thinks he will help Korea in the long run. All in all, it's still a unique experience for us!

A list of the candidates near our apartment. The big blank spot is where a picture of the new president-elect was (his was the only one torn down).

Skiing

On Sunday we had the opportunity to go to a local ski resort and get acquainted with the bunny hill. Of course someone we knew had a connection so we were able to ride the ski lift for half price. Brandon had never been on the slopes before so he really hated it at first, but once he had some confidence and an idea of what he was supposed to do he warmed up to the sport. We spent about six hours in the snow with Brandon's co-teacher and her husband before heading back home for some deep sleep.

Brandon's co-teacher and her husband helped us start to learn how to ski. Brandon must have been trying the hardest because he was too hot to wear a jacket most of the day.

After a rough beginning we picked up on some of the basics and Brandon was able to cool down enough to wear a jacket.

Good form.

The mini-hill of doom.

B in Action

Today Brandon took a camera to his school and captured some shots. His students were pretty shy in front of the lense, but he assures me they're not that way in class :)

Tonight we're hosting a trivia night at a local pub, so that should be interesting. Sunday we're going skiing with B's co-teacher!

The entrance to his middle school. It's brand new. There are 3 grades, with 11 homerooms each, and each homeroom can hold up to 40 kids. For now there are only 1st graders, but in March they will be 2nd graders and the new guys will move in.

Notice the "Cyber Computer Board." That's a huge touch-screen monitor! (We don't even have in-class computer projectors at my school).

Cookie Factory

Yesterday we went to H's co-teacher's new house to bake cookies. It was a unique opportunity for us as most Korean's live in apartment buildings and we've never really been in a real house!

Jasmine's two daughters were big helpers and we made, M&M cookies, chocolate cupcakes, and sugar cookies with frosting and sprinkles. In all, we baked for over 4 hours, and the girls helped the whole time. It was a really great day for us!

Today we're meeting a group of foreigners to take in the basketball game. It should be fun.

Heather and Ye-din (she loved the puppy we brought for her)

Brandon and Sarah making cookies

The 3 Daesung teachers: H, Mrs. Pak, and Ms. Kim

Such a nice family!

Here & There

Winter is upon us in Wonju. The temps are dropping every day, and we've had snow three days so far. Lately, we've been busy with exercising at the gym together, B at his Taekwondo class, and H jogs around the middle school track across the street. We hope to be in Cambodia in a month, so we're training diligently!
B's school had final exams Mon-Thursday, so he didn't have much to do at school. H's school has them next week, so she'll be relaxing then. The next three weeks will be a bit out of order for our schools. Next week are the exams, the week after that, we'll have Wed. off due to the presidential election in Korea. After that is Christmas, but we only get the 25th off. Then our school wraps up for winter break at the end of that week! The semester has really flown by.
We've been hanging out with fellow foreigners lately, and it's fun sharing funny stories and such. We're not sure of our weekend plans yet, but we'll just play it by ear and see what happens.

B-Boy show

B-boy and Basketball

Saturday we got up early and headed to Seoul. We picked up both of our cameras that were being repaired. We then went to Itaewon, the foreigner section of town, to eat at a Mexican restaurant. Next we headed to a big market to do a bit of Xmas shopping. We even found a Harley Davidson shop! After our shopping, we found the B-boy theater and settled in for an amazing breakdancing show! The tricks that those guys can do are unbelievable, and it was a really great time! When we came out of the show, it was downpouring (not in the forecast) so we took shelter in an Italian restaurant! We then made our way to the bus stop and finally made it back to Wonju at 11pm!
Sunday we got our hair cut, and then went to the pro basketball game with friends! The Wonju team is pretty good and we won by 13 points!
Today it was really cold, the high was 36 but didn't get there I'm sure! We've got another busy week, with our exercising, B's Taekwondo, H's hanji art class, and other events!! Luckily we're staying busy and having fun!!

Busy Week

Last weekend we showed our friend from Tongyeong around our new city. We took her to Sangji University, a temple on Chiak Mountain, and she taught us how to make gimbap! We all had a fun time.

Last week we had plans every night! On Monday evening we started a new exercise program that requires us to head to the gym every other day. Tuesday H had her Hanji paper class, Wed we had a few guests from H's school over for dinner, Thursday we met the foreigner teachers for dinner, and last night we exercised, took in a movie with B's co-teacher, and went for a drink with some fellow foreigners.

Today we were invited to a pro basketball game, so we checked that out. We had really good seats (even though they were in the visitor section) and our team won a close game!

Tomrrow we made plans to go to the NEW cinema in town with H's friend from school. It should be a fun day.

11-3-07 With Lyn at Sangji Univervsity in Wonju.

11-4-07 Visiting a temple at the base of Mt. Chiak.

Around school

Happy Halloween! Today was just another day for us as they don't really get into the whole trick-or-treat thing here. Altough, my co-teacher got a new hairstyle so today she came with makeup and a new outfit and the kids thought she had done it as a costume. Cute. It's cooling off here but the leaves are still on most of the trees and looking great! I brought my camera to school to snap a few shots, see below. (B has yet to snap shots at his school).
This weekend our friend from Tongyeong is coming to visit us, so we're pretty excited. I've started a traditional paper crafts class with a co-worker on Tuesday nights, and I'm enjoying it so far. We use "hanji" paper to make crafts, so it's pretty cool. We made our 1st project on Tuesday, a coaster-type thing, but I'm planning on hanging it on the wall. I'll attach photos soon. Other than that, not too much going on here. Hope all's well for everyone, thanks for checking in.




In front of my boys' school.

View from the Middle school looking onto the playground and new gym.


Gwirae Middle School: My small country school. I go here every Friday.(48 students)

Fall Fun

We started Saturday on the bus to Seoul, thinking that the Canon Service Center was open until 12 on Saturdays (they were last weekend when we called). We arrived only to be greeted by a sign stating that they were closed every 2nd and 4th Sat. We figured since we were in the big city, we might as well take advantage of it. We checked out a palace we hadn't seen before, and soaked in the fall sunshine! We also headed down to Itaewon, the foreigner's section of town. We ran into our friend fom Incheon who was also checking out Itaewon! What a coincidence.
In the afternoon, we decided to take the train back so enjoy the beautiful fall colors, and ran into our EPIK boss. He was heading into Seoul for the Halloween party, and we were headed back to our city. That night we went to the foreigner bar, "WA Bar" for the Halloween party. It was a lot of fun, B was a Viking and H was Minnie Mouse. We got to chat with a lot of our new friends.
Today we met our friends Dayle and Hee-Kyung for lunch. After our meal, we all caught the bus and headed to Yonsei University, just outside of Wonju. The leaves were so bright and great to take in. Lots of towns-people head to the campus during fall to enjoy the walking trails, and we did the same. It was a lovely day and for the rest of the evening we'll relax and get ready for another busy week of classes!

10-27: Deok Su Gung Palace in Seoul.

10-27: Deok Su Gung, the lil boy posing with a famous Korean in history. (free costumes on site)

10-28: Yonsei University, fall edition.



Hee Kyung, Dayle, H and B.


On the walking trail on campus. The family walked out to the little island.

Mt. Seorak Photos

Back to Sokcho (속초)

You may remember that back in March we took a trip up to the northeastern tip of South Korea. While there we went into Seorak Mountain to see snow and a lot of fog. During orientation in August we stayed near the mountain but were plagued with rain and clouds for a week. On Saturday we returned to Seoraksan in another attempt to get a clear view of the mountain and see the autumn foliage. B spent three gloomy hours on the bus watching the sky cloud up and begin to rain (H was sleeping of course). We met up with the foreigners that we had met on top of Chiaksan and their Korean friend. Together we went into Seorak National Park and hiked along the waterfall trail since there was no view from any of the peaks. Later in the afternoon the sky did open up so we high-tailed to the top of Ulsan-bawi to get our first glimpse of the area from above. The rock formations were astounding but the 808 metal stairs to the top were agonizing. We've told ourselves that we should go to this mountain at least once every season because it is heralded as the most beautiful in Korea and it looks completely different every time. As always we will get pictures on here as soon as possible. Sunday we came back to Wonju, did the grocery shopping we'd been putting off for a week and met some friends for a movie. The movie Shoot em Up was awful so we all walked out and went to a bar to talk.

Today begins the first week where we both have full class schedules, until now there have been sports days, mid-terms, observations, cancellations, field trips and other various interferences in either one or both of our schedules. Holiday and test season are over so we should both be in business until early December. That's all for now, we'll get more pictures uploaded soon....

Long Way Up

October 3rd was Foundation Day, a Natl holiday in Korea. Since there was no school, we made plans with B's co-teacher to climb Mt. Chiak-the highest mountain in our province. We started our day at 9am, when we met Mrs. Ban and her husband; they decided to take the bus since we'd be using two different paths on the mountain. The bus didn't come until 10am, and we finally started our ascent at 11am. The first 45 minutes were a breeze. After that, it was pretty much straight up. One way was marked as 4.6 kilomters, but it sure seemed longer than 2 miles to the top. We bumped into a fellow EPIK teacher on our way up, which was fun. We reached the top at 2pm, only to realize that it was quite cloudy/foggy and our view was non-existant! We had lunch on top, and met two nice teachers who work in Incheon.

Our way down was almost more difficult, as the path was littered with slippery rocks. I went sliding a few times but nothing serious. By the time we made it to the bottom, we had spent 5 hours on the mountain! Unfortunately, the place where we came down doesn't have many buses passing thru, so we waited for an hour for the bus to take us back into town. While we were waiting, we had a small meal of tofu and various sidedishes. This was our 1st such meal, so it was a good experience for us.

This weekend we've made plans to go to Suwon to meet up with friends we met in Tongyeong.It promises to be another busy weekend!

B, H, Mrs. Ban and her husband Mr. Hyun at the top!!

1288 meters, and we made it!!!

Wonju Address

We just realized that no one has our new address so this is where you can send lots of goodies:

Magnuson
Gukje Apt 101-107, Ilsan-dong
Wonju-si, Gangwon-do 220-050
South Korea

Mask Dance Fest & 5K

This weekend we were super busy. On Friday night we met our friend Pat and had a nice dinner with him. Then Sat. morn we got up bright and early and headed to the bus station, where we met up with Pat to take off to Andong for the Internatl Mask Dance Festival. We went there last year, and had so much fun. We watched dances from China, Bhutan, Indonesia, Korea, and Russia. It was such a nice festival, and we had a lot of fun. We decided to take the train back to Wonju (the station is close to our place!!) and got home at 10pm!
B and I tried to fall asleep quickly as we were set to do the 5K run in Wonju at 9am. Our co-teacher's husband was nice enough to drive us to the stadium and get us registered. At the last minute, he decided to register as well. This was a big marathon, so were surprised to see that we were the only foreigners. The cameramen capitalized on this and at the start line, they forced us to move up to the front of the pack and pose for pics. Who knows, maybe we'll find ourselves in a local newspaper next week! Mr. Hyun, an avid runner, finished in 24 minutes, and we were 9 minutes behind him at 33 minutes! Hey, last year we clocked in at 34 so we're improving! ha-ha! Next time we'll have to prepare I guess!




Bhutan Dancers








Indonesian Dancers





Russian Dancers

Getting ready for the big race.

Big Plans

I uploaded some more pics of our Taiwan trip on my other website, so if you want to browse, here's the link: http://uwrf.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046691&l=e5ea9&id=184902869

It turns out we may have a busy weekend ahead of us. Tomorrow we'll be going to a Mask Dance Festival in Andong with our friend Pat. We went there last year and had a blast. Then on Sunday there's a marathon in Wonju, so we may do the 5K thing. We found out about it today, so there's no time to practice! At least we'll be able to stretch b4 we run! :> We should have more pics to post after this weekend!

Kinks

Our final day in Taiwan was so hot, about 31d celsius. We visited the National Palace Museum where lots of valuable Chinese artifacts are stored. We were surprised when many of the the exhibits were closed for renovation, but still saw lots of interesting things. We hit a snag right before lunch since we were out of Taiwan dollars, and couldn't find a bank to exchange our Korean Won. We visited 4 banks and finally had to exchange the US $ we had. After lunch, we walked around some more and then picked up our stuff at the hotel. The hour-long shuttle bus to the airport only cost $3 each, and we made it there with no problems.
I always love the window seat, so when asked, we requested as much.When we got on the plane, however, my seat was the only one on the plane that was on the window side but didn't have a window. It was kind of strange, but no big deal. Our plane landed with no problems at 9.55pm, and we hustled thru customs and got our baggage. We made it on the 10.35 bus bound for the express bus terminal, and we got there at 11.40pm. We were rushing in hopes of catching the last bus back to Wonju...we were an hour late!
We tried to find a cheap motel around the terminal, but couldn't find any. We ended up checking into an all-night spa. Here's how it works: we paid $6 and were given a towel and a locker. The rooms are segragated by sex, so we went our seperate ways. Once in the rooms, there's an open area for relaxing or sleeping. The other big room is the spa, which has 2 big hot tubs, a cold tub, two saunas, numerous showers, and massage tables. The only catch is; you must be naked in the spa area. Luckily, there were only two older ladies in my room. B's room had lots of men, but all were sleeping already. These spas are popular amoung Koreans, but this was the 1st time we experienced it.
At 6am, we boarded our bus bound for Wonju. We arrived at 7:30, and were both at school by 8:20. Both of our schools are busy preparing for tests so we have light days today. Hopefully tonight we'll get more pics up!!

Day Trip

This morning we hired a cab for an all-day adventure. We headed to the northeast coast of Taiwan, and saw some amazing natural and man-made sites. Our favorite was the park where sandstone firgures have been carved out by the splashing waves. The coastline was wonderful. We also visited some beautiful temples; the colors and shapes were great. After an authentic Chinese lunch, we did some more driving and visited an old gold mining town that's been converted into a tourist town. The old buildings are still in place, and it was really a cool experience.

After 8 hours, our driver dropped us at our hotel where we relaxed a bit. This evening we ate dinner near our hotel and walked around a supermarket (we found some American snacks that Korea doesn't have). Tomorrow we plan on visiting the 3rd largest museum in the world, The Palace Museum, which contains Chinese artifacts. Then we catch our flight back to Korea at 6:25pm.

We've been lucky in that it hasn't rained as much as the forecast said it would. It's been very hot though, so we're a bit pink in the face!

9-23: At the Yehliu formation park.

9-23: At a temple in Keelung city (our driver Mr. Chen)

Everyone has a scooter here, and we've seen lots of dogs getting free rides! How cute!!

9-22: At the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Memorial, with the Taipei 101 in the background.

Busy, busy

We've been coming back late and getting up early so the pictures are going to some time coming. Last night we went to a street market, it rained sporadically so umbrellas were added to the already jam packed streets making it a bit uncomfortable. Today we went up Taipei 101, currently the tallest building in the world, and got a great view of the city and surrounding regions. We also visited another shrine and another temple. We're putting lots of miles on our feet so we may indulge ourselves in foot massages tomorrow. We're going to try and buy a taxi for the day to take us out of the city around the north coast and small villages. No telling how that will go. We've also had a hell of a time trying to change Korean Won into Tawain New Dollars, the banks are all closed and the hotels only change about four types of money. Luckily we got some sympathy from a worker at the Hyatt, the only hotel around that would take Won, who changed our money without actually having a room at their hotel. It is late and we need rest for another full day tomorrow so stay tuned.

Taipei: Day 1

We began our 1st day in Taiwan with breakfast at our hotel. Their breakfasts are similar to Koreans' in that they don't eat sweet things for breakfast. Rice also seems to be a staple food. We were on our way by 8.15, where we jumped on the subway and arrived at the Chang Hai Chek Memorial park. He was instumental in the formation of democracy in Taiwan, and they have a nice museum dedicated to his life. We then walked to the Longshan Temple, which is ornate and quite lovely. It was very crowded with Buddhists partaking in a form of worship. Next we went downtown, where we stumbled upon a parade in honor of Buddhism. It was interesting to be a part of the festivities. We grabbed a tasty lunch and were on our way again.
Next we saw the "Red House" which is a Western influenced octogonal building. We also passed by the president's home, which was heavily guarded. We tried to visit the observatory to get some views of the city, but learned that it has closed down. Instead we wandered thru an electronics market.
This evening we plan on getting some dinner and then heading to a night market or two. They're supposed to be lively and fun, so hopefully we'll have a good time! As long as the rain holds out, we'll be ok. The temps are hot here, and since the sun was out all day we got pink. No certain plans for tomorrow; it all depends on the weather.

Taipei

This morning we left Wonju early, anticipating heavy traffic for the major holiday, on the airport limousine bus. There was no traffic to speak of and we made it to the airport six hours early. We spent some of that time standing in the wrong line, duty-free window shopping, and Heather even squeezed in a nap. The benefit of getting there early was that we were able to get seats in the second row of the plane. The flight took off a little late but it was only a two and a half hour flight. We took a shuttle bus in to Taipei and our bus driver skipped our stop so we rode to the end of the line and then back up to our stop. We left Seoul at 3:50pm and finally arrive at our hotel a little after 9. It's a really nice hotel and so far it seems like we're going to have a pretty cheap vacation as prices are quite low. We've got a lot to see here so tomorrow we'll hit the town hard, rain or shine. We want to get out of the city for one day but we haven't decided where to yet. We have free wireless internet in our room so we'll get a few pics up tomorrow night.

A Few Things

We had the internet for about a day and a half, and it's down already! My co-teacher said he would call if he gets a chance, but all teachers are busy this week. On Friday there's an all-school mid-term that includes every subject. The teachers are busy preparing the exams and the kids are cramming.
A few things I've learned about public schools in general: teachers go to class when the bell rings, not before. Students have one homeroom and the teachers change classes, the teachers have lounges where each has a desk and computer to work on. The school provides lunch for the all teachers, with a $2 charge for every meal. All teachers brush their teeth after lunch.
Tonight we're meeting a fellow American teacher for dinner in town. He's a world traveler, and has taught in 4 countries. It should be fun to chat with him! Here's a link to some of our 1st photos in Wonju: http://uwrf.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2045871&l=b8c82&id=184902869

9-15: With B's co-teacher Mrs. Bahn and husband at the Buckwheat Festival in Bongpyeong.


Gukje Apt. Our place is in the bottom right-hand corner (1st floor).


The living room of our apartment.




H's co-teacher Jasmine and her children (10 and 5).

Flowers

Today I'm (H) at my "country school." They call it that since it's not in the city and the size is quite small. This is a middle school, and there are a total of 48 students in 3 grades. It's a 30-minute ride outside of town, and my vice principal and math teacher picked me up (they carpool). I was surprised to see a "Welcome to our school, Heather" poster on my desk, and we had a small ceremony where they presented me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers (pic to follow). Both my principal and VP are women, so my male co-teacher informed me that they are thoughtful and enjoy doing things like that.
So far both of my classes have been well-behaved and happy to see me. I have the 2nd graders soon, and then I have to help a few students prepare for the Wonju city Speech Contest.
Tomorrow (Sat) I'm going to the boys school to help with their speech contest. Their school is so big that they must have a contest to see who goes on to the city-wide one. Kids go to school every other Saturday here, and since it's only a half-day, they decided to do the contest then.
This evening is supposed to be the time when our internet gets turned on, so that's exciting! Expect some photos!
The big Chusok (thanksgiving) holiday is coming up, and we've decided to go to Taipei, Taiwan. The price was right and the dates work out for our schedule! We leave on the 22nd and return on the 26th of this month!

First Day

Wednesday we both went to our schools expecting to teach. B goes to his "country school" every Wed, and it has a total of about 80 students. He was able to teach all three grades of middle school yesterday (7th-9th) without any problems. He can tell the difference b/t the city and country kids, as the latter are much more polite. H was scheduled to have 3 classes yesterday, but the students were in the middle of something else, so she sat at her desk in the teacher's lounge preparing lessons most of the day. We're still waiting on internet at our place, so luckily we can use it whenever we want at our schools.
We planned on getting internet today, but were discouraged to learn that since we are foreigners, we must pay 6 months in advance. So, we've got to pay about $225 up front in order for them to turn on our internet. Since we need to use a bank card, we have to go to the internet store, see if our card goes thru, and then on Friday they will hook it up if the card goes thru. The nice thing about our last city was that our directors were more than willing to help us with these sorts of things, but here our co-teachers aren't able to help us sign for the "native discount." So, we're getting used to it.

Monday

Today we both observed an EPIK teacher in action. H was at an all girls' school, and B was at a different all girls' school across town. We had a good day, and picked up a few tips on how to go about planning lessons and such. We also learned today that our boxes from Tongyeong are en-route and will be here tomorrow (hopefully). Surprisingly, it's only 5 bucks a box, which is so cheap considering it takes over 5 hours one way! Hopefully at this time tomorrow we'll be unpacking boxes.
Tomorrow we'll be at different schools again, and on Wednesday we'll be back at our original schools to start teaching. We're both ready to teach, so we're excited for Wed.
We're still trying to make plans for our 5-day holiday that's coming up in less than 2 weeks. We may go to Taipei, Taiwan, as flights there are both cheap and available at the moment! Everywhere else is either booked or 800bucks for a plane ticket!! We'll keep you posted on our travel status!

Hanji Paper Festival

Our city is well-known for its traditional paper (hanji). This weekend there's a festival in town, so today we went with my new half co-teacher Jasmine and her family. She has two girls, ages 5 and 10. The 10 year old goes to an English Immersion school, and her English ability is amazing. Her parents pay good money for this school, and her mom told me that she wasn't sure if it was the right choice, but after seeing her talk to B and I she's happy with her decision. It's fun for us to chat with her, and we're always amazed at how much she knows.
The 5 year old is very curious about us and loves coming to our apt. She even picked out her fave dress, had her sister do her hair, and brushed her teeth by herself b4 coming to see us today (she's age 4 by western standards). She's always happy and smiling, and we had fun today with the family.
Tomorrow we may head back to the festival, as we didn't take everything in yet. Luckily we found a PC room near our home, so we're not hurting too badly yet, just wishing we could get the pics on to correspond with our stories! The weather was perfect today, so we're glad we were able to spend it outdoors.

Wonju (원주)

We're in our new city of Wonju! We're taking in lots of info, in terms of our new schools, meeting important education people, and taking everything in. For starters, B is at a co-ed middle school. It's a brand new school, and for now it only has 1st grade students. Next year they will bring in 2nd grade and so on. He has another school on Wednesdays, but that's all he knows about that so far. His co-teacher lives 6 blocks from us, so he gets a ride to and from work everyday. Not a bad set up!
H ended up at an ALL boys' middle school. There are about 750 students, and one native teacher! I will only teach 1st and 2nd grade boys, and on Fridays I will go to a country school, reportedly with 90 students in the whole school. My co-teacher was an older man who is "uncomfortable" with having a female co-teacher, so I'm in the process of getting that straightened out.
Our apt is very nice. The building is 10 years old (old by Korean standards) but we're happy about it. It's in a nice location from what we've been told, and we're pretty excited about it. True to form, our hot water wasn't working the 1st day, so we took cold showers! Now that's fixed, so all we need is gas for the stove, internet, and perhaps a phone. We'll most likely get cell phones instead of house phones.
Our district coordinator Sonya lives in Wonju, and we're really lucky to have her in our city. She's quite helpful and very nice. She set up a big group dinner tonight for all the new and returning native teachers. It should be fun!
This weekend we're hoping to unpack our stuff and get things organized at our place. We're still trying to arrange for our things from Tongyeong to be sent to us. All in all we're doing well and are easing into our new adventure!Pics will follow as soon as we have internet at our place.

Back in Korea

We made it to Korea. Our flights were ok with nothing special to report. We arrived at about 10pm on the 30th in Korea. We took a 2 hour long bus ride into Seoul to meet our recruiter, and finally made contact with him at 12.30am! He dropped us off at a motel, and came back for us the next day at noon. We grabbed some lunch and took off for Yangyang, the city where the orientation is taking place.
There are 50 people in our orientation, with the majority being from the US. There are a few from Canada, Australia, and Ireland. This orientation is a new thing for our province, so there's been a lot of down-time and confusion. It's also been raining for the past 2 days, so all of our outdoor activities have been changed.
The real program starts tomorrow, with all of the "big dogs" coming to observe, take pictures, and shoot video of us. We're hoping it's more interesting than the past few days, as we feel like it's all old news for us.
We will go to our new city on Wednesday afternoon, and will most likely be shown around our school on Thurs and Friday. Our orientation director is stating that we most likely won't start teaching until Monday, which is nice to know.
Other than that, we're pretty bored! Our condo's internet isn't working so this is the 1st time we've ventured into town to use a local PC room, about a 15 minute walk from our place. The food at the cafeteria isn't as tasty as real Korean food, so we'll grab a bite in town b4 heading back to our room for the night. Our sleep schedule has been surprisingly irregular so we're working on that. We'll get some pics on as soon as we take them!!

One more time

We've got all our ducks in a row and will be leaving this Wednesday (the 29th). We fly out of MSP at 3:05pm on NWA flight 19 to Tokyo and then NWA flight 7 to Seoul. We get to Seoul 9:30pm local time, 7:30am WI/MN time. Our training starts on the 1st and will last 5-6 days after which we'll go to our new city, Wonju, and move into our apartment. Beyond that we don't know too much, we'll find out more during the orientation and let everyone know from there. We were glad to see everyone we did and regret we couldn't make it everywhere in the short time we had. Of course everyone is welcome to come see us too.

In front of the White House in DC.

Independence Hall in Philadelphia.



Liberty Bell, Philadelphia.

Hold the phone

Due to a change in the visa application process our schedule has changed and we won't be leaving until August 29th. Luckily the Korean government is going to pick up the $540 tab to change our flight date.

NYC

We had a great time in New York! There was so much to see and do, and we hit it pretty hard. On Sunday, we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefeller Center/Plaza, Times Square, the Empire State Building, we saw a Broadway show called "Curtains" with David Hyde Pierce, and we saw comedian Tracy Morgan perform at a comedy club!
Monday we woke up early to see if we could get some Conan tickets, but we were too late. We saw a taping for the Today Show, but didn't have a cute sign so we didn't try to get on tape. It was just cool seeing how they do it. We took the subway to Battery Park and boarded a ship for a tour of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. There were both amazing places. Next we walked by the WTC site. We also walked along Wall St. We left NY around 6.30pm, and made it back to Maryland about 10.30pm. Today there's a heat advisory for this area, so we'll be taking it slow, but want to check out Baltimore for sure.

In the East

We arrived 15 minutes early to Washington D.C. yesterday and Brandon's brother Chris was there waiting to pick us up. We proceeded down to the National Mall and walked around the monuments for a few hours and were able to meet with one of Brandon's college friends who moved here to teach. They yakked it up for a while and then we met Brandon and Chris' aunt Lynette and her family. After dinner we walked some more and headed out of town a little after 8 o'clock. There is still a lot for us to see in the Capital so we do plan on going back for at least one more day. This morning we are going up to the Big Apple, it' s only three hours from Chris' place. We'll spend the night there, and the greater part of tomorrow. We also hope to see parts of Baltimore and maybe go down to Richmond, VA. Time to hit the road so stay posted and we'll write more later.

Keeping the airlines alive

On Saturday we're taking a trip to the East coast to visit Brandon's brother, Chris. We're going to spend a week over there, touring Baltimore, D.C., New York and anywhere else we can squeeze in. We come back the Saturday after and then begin the countdown to 3:05pm on August 22nd, when we head out to South Korea for one more year. We're doing our best to see everyone we can for as long as we can. Brandon is getting set to order the last batch of pictures from our last year's adventures from Snapfish.com. All in all we'll probably have 20lbs worth (2200 4x6s). We've already got the albums bought and when we're finally finished putting them away we'll have easy access to a whole lot of good memories.

In case you hadn't heard

We are back in the U.S. now, we had a 10 hour flight from Tokyo that went smooth and got us in 30 minutes early. We left Wednesday at 3:40pm and got to Minneapolis Wednesday at 12:00pm. Currently we are at Brandon's mom's house but are going to be moving about often trying to see everyone we can. Both of our cell phones are turned back on so you can call us at our old numbers. We will leave again the last week of August so our time here is short, but we will make the most of it. Thanks for reading our blog and if you're interested you can check back in a few weeks when we've returned to South Korea.

Still Safe

Well, the weather in Japan just doesn't want to cooperate with us! Today we found out that a large (6.8) earthquake rocked central Japan. We were not affected and only learned of it when our tour guide told us. We visited Mt. Fuji today, but it was quite cloudy all day and we didn't get to see very much. The clouds did part for about 3 minutes so we were able to get a few shots, so that's good. The tour would have been awesome had it been a bit more clear.
Tomorrow we're going to Nikko, an ancient city that's been preserved. It's about 2 hours outside of Tokyo, and we're scheduled for another tour. They're quite convenient. We leave Wed, the 18th from Tokyo at 3.40pm, and get into MSp at 12.40pm that same day! How fun. We're not really looking forward to the 11 hour flight, but we can't wait to see everyone!! The internet is a bit touch and go, so I'll try to upload a few pics if possible.

No Worries

There's a typhoon approaching Japan right now, but it's going to miss Tokyo. Today we experienced a lot of rain, and they say that tomorrow will bring more, but we're not in danger and we're just wet! We're having fun here, and will post more later!

Tokyo

We're in Tokyo, Japan! We took off from Tongyeong this AM at 7.30am, and after a bit of discomfort at the Busan Airport, we were on the plane. For some reason, NWA wasw conducting "security interviews" with some of their passengers. We arrived with 7 bags, and were naturally a good choice for said interview. Also, right before we boarded the plane, all passengers had to go thru a security pat-down once again. We're not sure exactly what caused this heightened security. Luckily, we made it to Japan about 30 minutes early. It took us about 2 hours to get to our hostel, and we made it with no problems (we checked some of our bags at the airport). It's rainy this evening so we're staying close to the hostel. Everything's quite expensive here so we've opted for a hostel. We met one of our roommates, and he's a very nice fellow. He's a sports reporter from Quebec and told us some interesting stories.
We've got no set plans for the next two days; but we've scheduled a trip to Mt. Fuji one day and a famous old city Nikko another. Hopefully we'll meet up with our friend Min who now lives here! Nothing else for now. Hope all is well!

Friday: We visited a beautiful floral island an hour from Tongyeong with our friends!

Sunday: We took this Jeepney from Manila to the pier to catch our ship to Puerto Galera.

Sunday: We hired a man to take us to 2 spots to go snorkeling: 3 hours f0r $11.


Monday morn: B found a friend on the beach, who liked to fetch rocks!

Last Day

We've arrived in Korea from the Philippines. We had a wonderful trip, and although it was short it was fun and worth it. Today we're busy packing up our last things in Tongyeong, taking care of a few loose ends, and keeping our sunburn moisturized! Tomorrow we leave from Busan to Tokyo at 11.40am, and get there around 1.30pm. We're looking forward to exploring Japan for a week, and can't wait to get home. We'll try to put a few pics up if we have time! Can't wait to see everyone!!!

One More Trip!

We've just learned that we have the chance to go to the Philippines next week! Heather's director takes students there every vacation to study at English Camps, and we'll be able to go with!
We leave July 6th after work and will stay in Manila for three full days! Then we'll come back to Korea, get our stuff, and head for Tokyo the next day, July 11th! We're pretty excited and it should be a fun time! Now we're super busying getting our last-minute packing done! YAY!

Jeju Island 5-26 Illchulbong

Jeju 5-26: Stone Grandfathers

DMZ 6-2: Standing in North Korea.

Suwon Fortress 6-3:Traditional Guard near the wall.

The Link to the photos of when our friends visited:

http://uwrf.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2039284&l=c6a81&id=184902869

The link to our Jeju Island photos:

http://uwrf.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2038490&l=c48dd&id=184902869