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!!
