Christmas, China, and the New Year!

Christmas and New Years has come and gone. With it came much fun and enjoyment here in South Korea. All throughout Korea there were (and still are!) Christmas decorations up, celebrating the holiday season. It was nice to see these things, and it helped us to feel more in the Chrismtas mood. We had the chance to spend our Christmas eve with some close friends at a nice dinner buffet. Although it wasn't quite home, we felt happy that we were able to celebrate with our new group of friends. We did a secret santa gift exchange, and had a lot of fun! Christmas day was nice, but it was very difficult to be away from our family. We spent a lot of time on skype, saying hi to everyone and trying to be a part of the celebrations! It's comforting to know that we will be home soon, and this helped to ease our home-sickness. Sadly, there were many moments throughout the day where we stopped and reminded ourselves 'Oh, it's Christmas day today!' There was too much missing from this special day, but we did our best to be happy. This was certainly not our favourite Christmas, but as always, it will be one to remember.

A few weeks ago we hoped on a plane and flew to China! Since we are living so close to this famous country we thought it would be crazy to not take advantage of our proximity, and off we flew! We left on the 26th of December, and returned on the 30th. We packed a busy schedule into our four days, and did our best to cover the entire city of Beijing. Our first day was spent walking and exploring the area around our hotel. We were surprised by the cold, and felt like we were right back in Canada! Although it was a different country, being in China still felt like Korea. We didn't have to worry about adapting to the Asian culture and, truthfully, it felt just like were in a different part of Korea. Some differences we did notice were that Chinese people seemed to stare a LOT more than Koreans. We felt uncomfortable many times on the subway and streets, as people would stop and stare without any subtlety. We were also surprised with the lack of common sense used when crossing the streets! Regardless if the light was red or green, people were wading out into traffic and dodging cars to get on their way. It was ludacris and insane (in our opinion), and we saw many close-calls. This was surprising to us since Koreans will never cross when it isn't their turn. The two cultures are the exact opposite in this matter.



Our second day we ventured to the great wall. This was the most important part of our trip, so we were very excited! We took the subway, a train, and a bus to get there! We were proud of ourselves for accomplishing this without the need for a tour guide, so it made the experience all the better. The section of the wall we visited was named 'Badaling'. Although this was considered to be a fairly easy portion to hike, we found it surprisingly tiring. There was never a section of flat terrain. The path was either going up, or coming down. We spent almost three hours walking and taking photos/videos. What a great experience!
The next few days we visited the Forbidden city, Tianamen square, the Olympic park (2008 Olympics), and we tried some famous Peking duck! These were all fun and interesting to see, and we had a great time taking in the culture.
On our last day we visited the Silk Market. This is an indoor shopping centre which is essentially six floors of packed sales, knock-off merchandise, and aggressive sales people. As we travelled through the aisles we were constantly harrassed and grabbed at by the workers, typically with the same *clever* sales pitch: "Hey you Lady/Mister, you want this purse/scarf/bag etc,etc. I'll give you special price, come on"



We bought a few items, and had a fun time haggling down the asking price. Here is an example of the markups we saw: A purse was initially quoted to us at 900 Yuan (roughly $130), but after only a minute of haggling, the price magically dropped down to us only paying 55 Yuan (about $8). Luckily we had read up on how to haggle with the workers, so we were able to get some nice deals! All in all, we enjoyed China (and yes, we could tell the difference between a Chinese and Korean person haha), but we both agreed that Korea feels much friendlier. We were happy to be home, and back in familiar territory.



Our New Year's was spent with the same friends we had visited on Christmas. We went to a big party in an area of town which the Korean's referred to as the 'Korean Times Square'. It was packed beyond belief, and we barely were able to squeeze off the subway stairs to shout the countdown. Rather than having a ball drop, there was a bell which sounded to represent the start of the New Year. Another quaint and fun experience! Although there was a big celebration, the actual New Year's Korean's celebrate is the Lunar New Year, which is at the beginning of February. We get three days off for this celebration, so we are very excited!

As well, at the beginning of February Mireille's parent's are making the big trip out to Asia! We are very excited to see them, and have lots of great things planned. We will feel like true tour guides as we show them around the city which we've called home for the past year. We hope that they get the most out of this experience!

As time ticks down we are growing more and more excited to come home. Six short weeks is all that remains in Korea. It's hard to believe how quickly this time is approaching, and we look forward to sharing our stories and memories with our friends and families back home!

A Korean Christmas

Christmas cheer and greetings to all! This is the first Christmas away from home for both JP and Mireille. We've anticipated this as being difficult, since we are very attached to our families. However, through the technology of Skype and e-mail, we've luckily found ourselves feeling somewhat at home. Although nothing beats the real thing, we will still be able to send Christmas greetings to our families all through the Holidays. Also, we get to have a Christmas dinner this coming 18th with some of our Korean friends, so we are very excited! We've been promised turkey and all!

Novemeber and December saw a big change in the weather. The temperature has dropped to well below freezing, and it is beginning to feel closer to the Northern weather which we are so accustomed. The big different so far is that there isn't any snow accumulation. Only a handful of times has it snowed, but none of these 'storms' were enough to even put together a snowball. I suppose it's a good thing, since neither of us brought winter boots. Our fingers are crossed that the weather will remain this way for the duration of our stay.

JP's hockey season wrapped up this past weekend. Having played for 3 months, he had the chance to meet lots of people, and make plenty of friends. Although his team did not finish in a very high ranking, he was still happy with the experience. At the awards banquet, JP was awarded the sportsmanship medal! This is the first time in the history of the league that a new-comer had won, so he felt very honored to accept this award.



As well, this past weekend we ventured to an amusement park named 'Everland'. This was our second go at an amusement park since being in Korea. The first park we visited came off as a dissapointment, so we had our fingers crossed that this experience would be better. Luckily, it was! We were very impressed with the Christmas theme the park had adopted. The lights, trees, decorations, and even Santa Claus parade, were awesome. It really put us in the Christmas mood. Further, we were surprised that there weren't the typical crowds which we see basically everywhere in Korea. The park was not busy at all, which made waiting for different attractions much less tiresome. We rode on a rollar coaster which we both deemed to be the most frightening and exciting ride of our lives. We vowed afterwards to never do it again, but it was fun once!





Things at our school have been the same as always. We never have much to write about this situation anymore, since there isn't a whole lot to say. We are comfortable with our position, and are happy that we endured the year. Although we were met with several challenges, we feel that we are stronger people for overcoming them. We will truly miss the children and staff at our school, and they will always be remembered.

In just a little over 1 week we are off to China, so we will have lots to write about when we get back! Hope they can speak English!

Over the hump!

Well, we lied. After finishing our last blog post, we promised that the next post would come much sooner. However, it has been over three months since we last updated, thus making this the longest gap ever! Sorry to all our fans!

Lets turn the clock back. All the way back to the end of July, actually! With almost five months under our belts, we were anxious for our first vacation of the year. The school provided us with two, one week vacations. For this week we decided to travel to Bali, Indonesia. Overall, it is very difficult to put into words how fantastic an experience this turned out to be. We had both been waiting to go on a beautiful tropical vacation for quite some time, so we spared no expense. The hotel/resort was built on a huge cliff, over looking the Indian ocean. The view was great, and the hotel itself was incredible in every way. We spent a week laying in the sun, hang gliding, riding camels, visiting a monkey forest, and swimming in pools. Although the resort itself was rich and beautiful, the remainder of Bali was very poor. When wandering streets, we were constantly confronted by agressive shop keepers, desparate for a sale. If we would slow down to glance at an item, the shop keeper would immediately jump forward and say 'yes yes, you buy it', while pushing the item closer to our faces. We tried to explain that this technique was more annoying than anything else, but they were stuck in their ways. Again, the experience was fantastic, and well worth our time and money. So happy that we had the chance to visit!



Following Bali, it was right back to work. August brought more of the blazing hot temperatures that we had seen all summer. The work environment was almost intolerable somedays, as the A/C unit was not always adequate. As for our social life, we had decided to slow down our travelling and spending, since we intended on coming home with some savings! What with the hot temperatures, and long work days, we found that many nights we were content to just lounge at home, and relax in our cool apartment. On weekends we would spend our time in the foreigner districts of the city, visiting with friends. As always, the foreigner district was a nice escape for us, since it did make us feel somewhat at home.

August flew by, as have all our months so far, and September was soon upon us. The feeling of September was slightly different than what we were typically used to, as September back home meant the start of the school year! However, working through the summer certainly changes everything, so September 1st was just another day on the calendar.

In September, JP had the opportunity to sign up for a ball hockey league. As surprising as this sounds, it is not a typo. The CBHK is a ball hockey league which has been alive in Korea for the past 3 years. CBHK stands for 'Canada ball hockey Korea'. As you can guess, the majority of the players are North American born. In the league of 120 members, there is only 1 Korean born Korean playing. There are two Korean-Americans. The rest are foreigners, who were just looking for a fun way to pass the time. The league consists of eight teams, and we meet every Sunday for weekly games. This has been a great addition to JP's year, as he is making lots of great new friends, and getting some exercise!

At the end of September we were lucky enough to have another week vacation (which we didnt' expect!). The reason for this was the celebration of the Korean Thanksgiving, known to them as 'Cheusok'. This is one of the biggest celebrations in Korea, so the entire city shut down to spend time with their friends and family. During this week, we hoped on the train and took a small trip south. We found ourselves in a smaller city, which was famous for it's bamboo forest. Having never seen a bamboo forest, we knew this would be a good opportunity. Although our expectations were slightly different from what we experienced, it was still fun to see. We had pictured ourselves walking through a large, serene forest, being alone in the wilderness. Buuutt, as we should have realized, this was not the case. Rather, we were shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of Koreans, since they all had the same idea. Not a big deal, but not quite the calming experience we had hoped.





With October, the weather finally started to drop. We were no longer sweating in the school, but rather found the temperatures a tad chilly some days. It was a relief, but at the same time we caught ourselves missing the hot sun. Looks like we are never happy!

October was fairly easy going at the school. Our schedule has not changed in a few months, so with some consistancy in our jobs, we were able to relax more. We celebrated halloween with the children, and this was a lot of fun. However, we do have a story to tell which illustrates how 'last second' our Korean teachers work. (hopefully none of them read this)With our Halloween celebration one week away, the teachers came to us requesting our schedule for the day. We had agreed that Mireille and JP would run the morning, (10-12), and the Korean teachers would be in charge of the afternoon (1-3). Mireille and JP promplty produced a schedule that day, showing the Korean teachers how efficient teachers should work. Not giving things a second thought, we got to work preparing for the busy Halloween day. When the day arrived, the children were very excited. Halloween was not a typical celebration for Koreans, so the children got a real kick out of dressing up. The morning went great, with the students having a fun time. After lunch, and with the Korean teachers period coming up, we waited in the classroom to begin. However, to both of our disbelief, the Korean teachers had not prepared their schedule! At 1:20 (20 minutes late already), they came flying out of their office. One of the teachers ran up to JP, and handed him a tiny 'post-it' note, with a few English words scrawled down. This note contained instructions for JP, informing him that he was to be the MC for the entire afternoon! He was expected to lead the children in songs, explain all the different aspects of halloween, and many other things. Now, neither of us wanted to kick up a fuss, since ultimately it would be the children who would be dissapointed...but for once, we stood up for ourselves. JP firmly objected, declining the task. We told them it was ridiculous to ask this to be done, and that they need to prepare in advance. The teachers were fairly shocked, as we dont' often say 'no' to their requests. We hope that it delivered a message to them! In the end, the day was still fun for the kids, so we were happy with that!





For ourselves, we still managed to dress up and go out with friends on Halloween. As we mentioned, Korea does not recognize Halloween, so we again needed to venture to the foreigner district in order to fit in! Riding the bus to this area was a tad embarrasing, as we found ourselves being stared at even more so than usual. However, we were happy to meet our friends, and see some people wearing extremly creative costumes!

In the coming months we have a few more exciting plans before home! Mireille's sister will be visiting at the end of November; December vacation we will be travelling to Beijing!; Early Feb Mireille's parents will visit!

As well, we will be hitting up any spots in Korea which we haven't seen yet, just to say that we did it all!

Thanks for reading!!

A different life...

Ok, it`s been quite some time since we last updated our blog. We apologize to all of our faithful followers (particularly Mrs. Waszczylo!) who have been waiting to hear about our travels and adventures.

Let`s turn the clock back a few months to get started.

Back in June we were just getting into the full groove of the Korean life. We were realizing that we had become active members of society, and felt like we really belonged. With June came our new co-worker at the school. Pat, from London Ontario, has been with us for nearly two months now. It`s nice to have another English speaking Canadian at the school. We helped him to get set up, and showed him the ropes as best we could. It was fun to FINALLY be the people who were giving advice, instead of seeking it, as we usually had been doing.

An interesting event that we got to attend was a Korean wedding. Our co-worker, Juliet, invited us to go her brothers wedding. We accepted, since this seemed like an opportunity we couldn`t pass up! The wedding took place at a military hall, only 20 minutes from our home. We felt that it was odd we had been invited, since the hall only had capactiy for 150 people. During the ceremony we noticed that there were several similarities between a Korean wedding and a Western style wedding, but also some differences. For instance, the bride and groom were serenaded by a duo during the ceremony. It was a neat addition, and felt like it added to the special day. One point that we found really bothersome though was that there was constant chatter during the entire wedding. It seemed as though no one around us was overly concerned with what was happening at the front of the hall, and was just there to fill a seat. Laughter, talking and cell phones could be heard through the duration of the ceremony. How rude!
Finally, upon leaving, the groom was forced to endure a `humiliation` which his military friends made him complete. This involved pushups, squats, loud yelling/chanting etc. Not our idea of a typical wedding.

Later in the month, we celebrated Mireille`s birthday. Although this seemed like a daunting task for JP to coordinate, he knew that he wanted Mireille`s only Korean birthday to be very special. Luckily, one of our few friends offered up his apartments rooftop bbq pit and gazebo. It turned out to be an incredible night, where we made new friends (whom surprisingly all brought nice gifts for Mireille), and a lot of fun. It was certainly a birthday to remember!

As the weeks rolled by we have found ourselves less motivated to get out and see the city/country. We`ve been spending some weekends just at home, taking it easy and recharging our batteries. The gruelling Korean work schedule is starting to catch up with us, as we expected it would.

Early July Mireille`s aunt/uncle/cousins made a big trip all the way to Korea, to take part in an international tae kwon do tournament. It was being held in a city 2 hours away by train. Knowing that we wouldn`t have many opportuinties to see family while in Korea, we couldn`t let this one pass us by. We hoped on a train to Cheongju, and took part in the fun. Although Cheongju was a very small city, it was still neat to see. The tournament had an incredible openining ceremonies act, and we got to see some great martial arts. Mireille`s cousins competed hard on this world class stage. Unfortunately we didn`t get to see any of their fights, but we heard the results. Mireille`s cousins Sonia won a gold medal in the overall female teams event! way to go!

The next weekend we spent as tour guides, as the Paquette family came to the big city of Seoul. It was starting to become apparent to us at how accustomed to the city we actually were, once we realized how much we could show them. This was another great weekend!

Finally catching up to today, we just came back from the annual Mud Festival! This is exactly what it sounds like...a yearly, week long festival, where people go to a beach, and play in the mud. Mud is transported in from large mud fields, and dumped onto the beach. Activites are set up, such as mud slides, mud wrestling, mud painting, mud obstacles courses, and mud eating (kidding). This was a really wild and crazy place. There were many foreigners there, from canada, US, England, Ireland, and all over! We heard so much English we felt like we were back home. What a great experience.

Well that brings us up to date. This coming week we will be heading to Bali. We finally get a week vacation, and we intend to have a great time! We promise our next update will come much sooner than this one!

Getting to see the country

Since the last time we posted, our weekends have been really busy! We've been out and about even more than usual.

Last weekend we took the subway to a big annual festival that is held in Korea. This festival celebrates the birthday of Buddha. Even though we weren't overly concerned about his actual birthday, we still thought it would be interesting to check out this event! Upon arriving we were greeted by a packed street, full of people, tents, and (of course) Buddhist Monks. As well, the streets were lined with paper lanterns, hanging from street poles, electric cables, and rooftops. It was very neat to see, and we even had the chance to make our very own paper lantern.

The crowd was surprisingly made up of almost 50% foreigners, so we felt somewhat at home amongst the English speaking Canadian, American and British people. As evening approached there was a large parade which took place. However it got fairly repetitive after 15 minutes...only so many lanterns you can see before it gets boring haha.

Moving on, we had a fairly standard week at school, except that we got to meet the official owner of our school. Surprisingly he is 25 years old (and only looks about 20), but he is a world famous Korean singer (singing in the unique style of popera). His name is Lim Hyung Joo, and he told us how he wanted to create this school to provide opportunity for children to be able to achieve what he has achieved himself. It was neat to sit down and talk with a celebrity, as he impressed us with stories of fame, such as rubbing elbows with madonna, and various other celebrities. We were particularly impressed when he told us he knows the Korean couple from the TV show Lost (since this is one of our favorite shows). We are supposed to go to dinner with him sometime in the near future, so we are both very excited!


Last weekend we ventured on our first trip outside of the city of Seoul. We hoped on the KTX train, and sped our way ( at 300 KM/h) to the city of Busan. Busan is the second largest city in Korea, with a population of roughly 3 million. We both saw a large difference in the people, places, and culture however. Busan was more casual and laid back, and far less developed than Seoul. The locals liked to stare at us more so than we found in Seoul...likely because they don't see as many foreigners in their areas. However we didn't let this deter us, and we had a fun weekend, even though it rained saturday and sunday!

On Friday we visited a popular beach in an area called Haeundae, and enjoyed a nice sunny day. This was nice, but fairly uneventful. The next day we packed up our bags and skipped over to a different district. Our plan was to take a ferry to a small island just outside the city, where they had a beautiful botanical garden. However to our dissapointment the ferry was fully booked, and we had no choice but to forget about it. We visited a famous fish market named the 'Jaemgachi fish market', where they had rows and rows of live fish, waiting to be scooped out of the tank and thrown into the frying pan. It was another neat experience, despite the pouring rain. All in all we had a really great weekend, even though we didn't get to see everything we had planned.

Now it's time to begin another work week. We truly do live for the weekends here, but I suppose that's everyone's story no matter where you live in the world!

Feeling more like home..

Yes, it's true. This is finally starting to feel like home to us.

After going through over two months of adaption, Seoul is beginning to feel like our home. The security guard at the front no longer gives us dirty looks, but now greets us with a smile everyday! The cashier at the local convenience store recognizes us, and is now always patient when we don't know how much money to give him. Does it get any better than this haha.

Although we are still shy to go out to authentic Korean restaurants, we think that soon we will be brave enough to get it a shot. If all else fails, we'll just point at the menu until they bring us something (even though we may not like it).

Today we visited the DMZ (de-militarized zone). This is the area between North and South Korea which is set up to keep the two countries separated. It was very interesting to see this. The area was heavily guarded with troops, high barb-wire fences, and look out points. The most interesting portion of the trip was when we had the chance to venture through a tunnel which had been dug by North Korea. The tunnel stretched from North Korea, through to South Korea. It had been set up for the North to spring a surprise attack on the South. This was only one of 4 tunnels which are discovered. They believe that there are many other tunnels still undiscovered to this day. It's kinda scary, especially when they told us that the tunnels could transport 30 000 troops per hour to infiltrate into Seoul. We also had the chance to look into North Korea from an observatory. However, the troops there were very insistant that we did not take any photos. Anyone caught taking pictures was immediately stopped, and the soldiers forced them to delete the photos taken.

Last weekend we went for a big hike at Namsang park. It was only a short subway ride for us, but the hike was certainly not short. We both felt a little out of shape by the end of the haul, as we were sweating and tired. However it was worthwhile to make it to the top, as we got to look out over all of Seoul. The view was incredible, and we could see how big the city truly is. There is also a special area at the top of the hill, where a large chain link fence stands. On this fence were thousands and thousands of locks which people had attached. The idea is that couples will go here, lock two matching locks onto the fence, then throw the keys over the fence, forever leaving their locks intact to show their love for each other. Cute cute, we know.

We haven't done much else new lately, we've found a few spots we like to visit, so we spend our time at these places. Can't go out adventuring every weekend!

Excuse me, I`m sorry!

There`s a phrase that we miss! After being here for nearly 1 1/2 months we`ve learned to really appreciate the simple gesture of saying excuse me or sorry when someone bumps into you while walking. It seems as though this form of common courtesy does not exist in any way in this busy city. Ah well, it is all part of the experience.

Since our last post we have been busy with our job quite a bit. The hours are fairly long, so we really need to commit to the school during the week, leaving only the weekend for our extracurricular activities. Although we would like to go out and see more of the city, it`s also important for us to be doing our best at work.

Two weekends ago we had the opportunity to take in a soccer game at the World Cup stadium. We watched FC Seoul take on a local rival. It was really exciting to see world class athletes playing in such an incredible stadium. We sat in the `cheering` section, which involved fireworks, confetti, non-stop chants, dozens of flags being swung, and of course, standing for the entire match. It was a great experience, and we will certainly be returning soon for another.

Last weekend we visited the Seoul zoo. This was one of the highlights of our trip thus far. The zoo was massive, and it took us over 4 hours to go through (and we are still sure we missed parts). We saw every animal we could imagine, many that we had never before seen in person. We rode a chairlift as well, which gave us an overhead view of the entire zoo. It seeemed like the animals were a little tired though, since most of them were just laying around doing nothing! I guess that`s the life of being stuck in a cage.

The school has undergone a few changes since we`ve arrived. There have been a few administration switches, and we now have a new principal. They are hoping to increase the student body greatly, since we only have about 50 enrolled at the moment. Our students are growing on us more and more each week. They are very cute, and seem to really be learning a great deal.

This weekend we vistied an amusement park named `Lotte World`. It claimed to be the largest indoor amusement park in all of Asia. Well, this experience was our first let down of our trip. We went in with fairly high expectations, as the ticket price roughly $35. However, each ride we went on was less than great, and the long lines really didn`t help the situation. To top it off, we ate at a burger stand that was easily the worst food we had ingested in quite some time. Luckily we ate after we went on the rides, or else we may have some serious problems. Combined with the dissapointment, the large pushy crowds (that practically mowed down Mireille at one point), we give Lotte World a 3/10. Can`t wait to come back home and visit Wonderland!

Today was very exicting for J.P., as he faced his worst fear and went to get a hair cut at a Korean salon. To ensure there was no confusion, he brought along the camera, to show a picture of how he would like to turn out. Luckily there was an English speaking employee, so everything turned out ok! Phew!

Well we miss everyone back home. Easter felt somewhat empty without having our families to celebrate with. We went to a beautiful Korean Cathedral for Easter mass, but it really wasn`t the same. We would bring you all here if we could!