USA

Here is a quick update about our trip so far. For those who don't know we will be spending about 1 month in the USA and 2.5 in Europe. We will be back in Australia June 19th.

Leaving Korea was sad, but mostly we were excited. It was sad to say goodbye to all our friends, but at the same time it didn't really feel like we were leaving for good.

We landed at LAX (worst airport either of us have ever been to) and headed to our motel near Disneyland so we were nice and close for te next day. Disneyland was a lot of fun, we spent about 10 hours there. The next 2 nights we spent in Pasadena with my parents friends. During the day we hit up Santa Monica and Hollywood. The former was nice, but later was very overrated.

After this we picked up our hire car and drove 2 hours to Indio, where my grandparents live. They put us up in a nice resort so we spent 5 days swimming, playing tennis, playing bingo, playing golf and eating. Indio is desert country so it is warm all winter and hot all summer.

Next stop was Phoenix, where we got to visit my friend Tacey and her boyfriend Brad and see a Phoenix Suns basketball game (Brenton's fav team). Then we spent 1 night in beautful Sedona (pictures to come on facbook). Tomorrow we will be heading to the Grand Canyon, so exciting!

Sorry if there are mistakes, I am using the tab and its ot the easiest keyboard to use!

Things we will miss about Korea

Loren:
As promised in the Things I wont miss about Korea blog here is the long awaited "Things we will miss about Korea". These are listed in no particular order.

Friends. I will miss all the Korean and foreign friends I have made in Korea. They have basically been my family for the last 12 months and all of them are going to be greatly missed.

Cheap Food. I will miss being able to walk into my local takeout restaurant and the most expensive thing on the menu being 5,000 WON ($4.12). Even in a fancy restaurant you can get a meal for less than 15,000 WON ($12.40).

How quickly I can clean my apartment. I wont miss how tiny my apartment is, but I will miss how quick it is to clean.

Public transport. I will miss a subway that only costs 1,100 ($0.90) and comes every 5 minutes. I will miss being able to catch a bus anywhere in the country for a reasonable price and never having to wait more than a hour for it.

Service. If a person in a shop or restaurant in Korea says "service" it means what they are giving you is free. I will miss getting service cookies at the coffee shop, service coke at the pizza place and service salads and desserts are restaurants.

Cheap taxis. I can get most places in Daegu for 10,000 WON ($8.25) in a taxi. It's going to suck going back to Melbourne where $8.25 will hardly get you around the corner!

Not carrying keys. I have no car and most of the apartments in Korea have an electronic key pad that you put your code in to instead of a key. It's great not having to carry keys around and then have to find them in your bag!

Cheap Beer. The beer might not be great in Korea, but it sure is cheap.

Cute students. Korean kids are so cute and I am going to miss the sweet things they do, like write me letters.

Brenton:
School shoes: Koreans have in door shoes and out door shoes. My black leather work shoes are considered out door shoes so I couldn't wear them to school as I had planned. Instead, I can wear any shoes I like to school no matter how un-professional they may be. My choice was some Ug-boots.

Coffee shops: Ever really felt like a coffee but can't find a coffee shop to fill your cravings? Come to Korea where there are several coffee shops on every street.

Celebrity status: It's very nice to feel like a celebrity everywhere you go. Sure the staring gets old but having random people ask you in the street to take a picture with them will always put a smile on your face.

Tuning people out: When I am out and about I find it so very relaxing to just tune all of the strangers, around me, out. This process is greatly simplified when those strangers are speaking in a language you can't understand. I am aware that these strangers will often be discussing me but I can remain care free because I can't understand them so I don't care what is being said.

A final message from my students

During one of my last classes a group of students presented me with a card they had made for me. Here are some of the messages on the card: 

Teacher, your so handsome. bye bye ㅠㅠ

Don't grow your face fur. 

Goodbye. You & Your girl friend are fantastic. You will have 11 babies. "Soccer team" 

Your young and handsome. I love you. Good bye. We are sad....

kangeroo handsome

(Note: The below student was a little upset that I gave her a 4/10 on her speaking test)

You gave me 4 point...are you kidding? please do not come back.

Juust kidding. I will miss you and I will not forget my speaking grade. 

Bye bye. Your Angel Sugar. 

Fairy Parry

You're very handsome and funny. So I like you!!! lol. Have a great trip in Europe and take care. 

I don't know what you felt about us in Korea. I am sure that everyone in our schools loves you. even teachers! Take care yourself when you take a journey and don't never forget us! I really like you! lo...lo...just like you! ㅋㅋㅋ Goodbye and take care. 

Winter vacation 2012

Our winter vacation was great! We spent 7 nights in the Philippines with our friends Amy and Rachel, 4 nights in Hong Kong with Amy and then 4 nights in Beijing. It's pretty tough being back in Korea for only 3 weeks, we just wanted to start our USA/Europe adventure! Here is a (mostly) pictorial account of our trip:

The Philippines

The Philippines was so beautiful. The weather was around 30 everyday, so perfect for the beach. We had a couple of down pours during the week, but each only lasted for 30 minutes or so.

Day 1
We spent the night at a hotel near the airport the before our early morning flight from Incheon. It had a pretty sweet bathroom:

2 flights later we arrived at our beautiful resort:

 That afternoon we drank beer, cocktails and ate:

 Day 2
We swam and relaxed at the beach:

 and drank more cocktails:

 Day 3
More beach:

more beer:

more cocktails:

and more food:

 Day 4
Rachel arrived!

Day 5
We went island hopping and snorkelling:

and drank mango shakes (I LOVE mango!):

 Day 6

We saw some hills:

some butterflies:

 some trees:

 some of the worlds smallest monkeys:

 and a church:

of course the day ended with some beers at our newly found favourite restaurant (yum-pesto):

We ate here another 3 times before we left!

 Day 7
The beach again.... the water is so beautiful!

 Day 8
This was Amy's birthday, but unfortunately we spent the day waiting for a ferry, on a ferry, waiting at the airport and on a plane. Bummer for Amy!

 That's a wrap for the Philippines, soon to come Hong Kong!

Things I wont miss about Korea

I have had a great time in Korea. I have met lots of wonderful people, had lots of great experiences and overall loved getting to live in another culture. But, there are somethings I am not going to miss about Korea (Don't worry I'm not going to just focus on the negatives, there will be a follow up "Things I will miss" blog).

When we leave Korea in less than 6 weeks here is what I wont miss (in no particular order):

1.School lunches. It is nice not having to bring lunch to work, but I'm not going to miss the (mostly) horrible food the school serves. I also wont miss what I do and don't eat being studied by the other teachers and the numerous comments about how I "don't like spicy food", "must be on a diet" because I don't eat much, and that I "don't like Korea food". All of which are false.



2. The lack of rubbish bins. I have written about how rubbish collection in Korea works previously. I am not going to miss the result of this method of rubbish collection combined with very few public bins (rubbish all over the street).

3. My tiny apartment. Not only is it tiny but it has bad insulation (so is hot all summer and freezing all winter) and it was so cheaply made that sometimes it seems like they didn't even bother to finish it.

4. Freezing winter, humid summer. I now realise how great we have it with weather in Melbourne.

5. Aspects of my job. I will miss many things about my job but I wont miss not really knowing what is happening day to day, finding out about compulsory after school activities shortly before they happen, not really being able to communication and get to know most of the teachers and my students, and the crappy textbook.

6. Not being able to buy all the things I am used to easily. I can't wait to be able to buy dip, cheese, bread that isn't sweet, lamb, and bras that fit.

7. Communication problems. It is going to be so nice to be able to read and understand an entire menu and then be able to speak to the waiter! It will also be great to be able to do things like go to the post office, bank or doctor and be able to communicate with them without having to rely on someone else to help me.

Like I said earlier I love Korea and wouldn't change this year for anything, but it is such a different country with such a different culture to Australia that there are plenty of things I miss form home!

Ok, now it's Brenton's turn. I will add to the list Loren has above:

8. The stares. Don't you hate it when you get some stares on the train. You panic and think you have some food on your face or something coming out of you nose. Imagine that feeling every single day. It is not rude in Korean culture to stare. It seems that Western cultures may be missing out here because it's ok for Koreans to stare and they love doing so. Imagine walking down a somewhat busy street and knowing that every step is being watched by someone.

Imagine these bad boys on you all day

9. I have to mention temperatures. I have realised that Melbourne has some very very good temperatures year round. Korea gets very warm and humid in the summer and very very cold in the winter. This is a big change from Melbourne which has less extreme temperatures.
This isn't the problem though. I am quite happy to live in the cold and can.....tolerate the heat. My problem is going from a freezing temperature outside into a train/bus/taxi/restaurant/shopping mall/etc and being hit with 30 degree heat. Picture this: wearing all the clothes you own: pants, t shirt,  hoodie, socks, termal underwear, coat, scarf, beanie, gloves....and then going into a room that is 30 degrees. Why? WHY? You may be asking. Well this is a very normal situation in Korea. Drives me crazy. In the summer if my classroom was warmer than 25 degrees my students would demand the air con be turned on. Now I get on a packed train which is 30 degrees and everyone keeps their coat on. I have asked people but no one can explain this bazaar phenomenon.

10. The biggest thing that I will not miss is one of my co-teachers at school. I have mentioned this particular teacher in previous blogs. Basically all the bad things I have mentioned about teachers in Korea is based on her. You may have seen one of the animation videos about her. No surprises for me to be extremely happy when I say goodbye to her.

Teacher dinners

Ever had the desire to be critically watched as you take every mouthful of your dinner? Ever wanted to dine with many other people who can't speak your language but still ask you questions? Ever felt like being ridiculed for not eating for 90 minutes like the rest of the dinner table? Well, I have the solution you have been searching for! Come teach English in Korea and attend a teacher dinner.

Working 8 hours a day is a breeze while teaching English in Korea. That is until you are expected to put in overtime attending the dreaded "teacher dinners". For me these only occur bi-yearly but I have heard of tragic cases where they occur on a weekly basis.

Let me step you through the average teacher dinner:

You are advised that there will be a dinner and that you must attend it, approximately 2 hours before it takes place. 

You will leave school at about 4pm and go straight to dinner. You will be eating at 4:30 so you better hope you didn't have a big lunch. 

You will usually be seated with the Korean English teachers but they will speak little to no English as they talk to everyone around you in Korean. 

The dining process for Korean's at these dinners typically takes about 90 minutes. This is an extremely long time to be eating so you must eat very slowly. You must also remember to save some room for the next course as they ALWAYS bring more food out. 

You must try to eat everything that is given to you as to not offend anyone. This isn't as bad as it seems. Try a little bit and if you don't like something, move on to another food. Keep in mind there will always be a Korean staring out you and giving you dirty looks whether you are eating all the food or not. 

It is not impolite to eat/talk with your mouth full of food in Korea. So during your meal you will be listening to what sounds like a herd of cows chewing grass all around you. If you think that sounds bad, wait for the soup. Hearing a table full of Koreans slurping soup is similar to being surrounded by bath tubs that are almost finished draining. That SSSSHHHHRRRRRLLLLLLPPPPPPPP sound will be delivered in full DOLBY surround sound as loud as you would get at the cinema. 

Note: The pained look on my face as I attempt a fake smile

Christmas in Korea

We had a great (but very different to normal) Christmas in Korea. Christmas eve we had dinner, some beers and a Secret Santa with a few of our friends. Then it was off to bed early, so we could be up bright and early for snowboarding Christmas day.

Brenton's present:
Snowboarding survival kit + a random toilet sign.

Ashley and James presents.

Desk warming survival kit: ramon, coffee and alcohol

Christmas Day we were up earlier than I ever was for Santa (3:45am) and on the bus to High1 resort at 4:30am. We reached the resort and were ready to hit the slopes by about 9:30 am. It was a beautiful clear day, but really cold (about -12). I think I did ok for my first attempt at snowboarding. I made it down the Jupitar run (about 900m) 3 times before lunch and once after lunch. Snowboarding is hard work! I fell over a lot and everything is sore now!