Soju Bombs

The highlight of Jeju-do (ok, maybe the low light)

We did a lot of fun stuff during our recent trip to Jeju Island. We saw waterfalls, hiked up a volcano, watched an acrobat performance, drank, ate, the list goes on. But by far the worst thing we did was visit the chocolate museum. The sign said it was in the top 10 chocolate museums in the world, after seeing it we concluded that there must only be 10 chocolate museums in the world. Even the free chocolate sample at the end didn't justify the 30 minutes we wasted in this place.

Amy was nice enough to put together this movie so you can really get a feel for the fun that is the chocolate museum:

Google translate fail

Couple's outfits

Korean fashion is a bit different to back home. Clothes have English slogans on them that range from slightly strange to down right hilarious (e.g. an old chubby grandma wearing a t-shirt that says "skinny bitch") or that just make no sense at all. The women wear gigantic heels everywhere (including hiking), mismatched is in style in a big way (cute spotted pink dress with a red stripy backpack), there is a lot of glitter and rhinestones, and men's outfits could often be mistaken for women's.

One of the biggest differences is couples outfits. You see them everywhere. They range from matching T-shirts/jumpers to an entire matching outfit (right down to the shoes, socks and underwear). Shops downtown sell matching watches, rings, glasses, underwear, shoes, jumpers, hats, bags. Basically anything you wear you can buy to match your partner. I cannot imagine Kate and Steve, Jac and Will, Taryn and Dale, Nikita and Matt, Fraser and Ange or any other couples I know rocking up in a matching outfit but here in Korea that is normal.

We have managed to snap a few photos of couples outfit while we have been here and I will add more to this post as we get them:

Just a t-shirt

colour coordination

Again another t-shirt

just the jumper

An entire matching family!

Brenton and I testing it out. Don't worry I wouldn't let Brenton buy it!

School Functions

Like most workplaces Korean schools have a variety of staff functions. Unlike most (Australian) workplaces staff (or maybe just the non-Korean speaking staff) are not told about these till the last minute.This week we had a going away function for my vice-principle who is retiring. It was mentioned briefly to me last week and then confirmed on Monday afternoon that there would in fact be a going away function tonight at 5pm. Too bad if you have made other plans!

The school functions are a good opportunity to spend some time with the other teachers and try all sorts of different foods (Brenton tried octopus that was so recently killed that it still had muscle spasms earlier this year at a teacher dinner). They are also a good opportunity to spend a few hours sitting around while everyone else is speaking in Korean. Luckily at my school there are 2 native English teachers so I have someone to talk to.

The vice-principles going away function was held in a Korean wedding reception venue. It looked classy and nice from afar, but up close was another story. Korea does tacky pretty well and this place was probably 20% nice and 80% tacky. The nice looking chairs were actually plastic, the glasses were mismatched beer glasses and there were plastic napkin holders on the tables. First up was an hour of speeches in Korean (it may have been shorted, but when you can't understand any of it it feels like a life time). During the vice-principles extremely long speech my co-teacher kept me updated on the topics. It started out pretty normal: the schools he had worked at during his career, then moved to religion (fair enough because he is apparently really religious) at about the 15 minute mark it some how moved to organ donation (including his eyes!). Finally once he wrapped up we could stuff ourselves with the buffet.

At my first teachers dinner we went out to a Nori-bang (Karaoke) after dinner and I was forced to sing a song in front of the principle, VP and all the teachers. Very embarrassing! Monday night there was of course Karaoke. This time no nori-bang, we just sang in the function room. Every year level had to get up and belt out a song. I thought I had escaped the worse of it, but the principle made Ashley and I get up with him and the VP. Luckily I didn't have to sing, but I still had to dance. All of this was caught on video camera too! After the Karaoke we all stood in a circle and sang together and then did a strange hand shake train thing. Interesting night ... :-)

Vacation to Busan and Japan

Brenton and I went to Japan for 7 nights over our summer vacation (via a few nights in Busan and the Ferry). This blog post will probably end up being quiet wordy so if that's not your thing stop reading now :-)

We spent 2 nights in Busan. The weather was terrible so no beach time for me :-(. On the Monday we went to Hyundai beach (in the rain) and to the aquarium there. That night we met up with our friends orientation (2 couples) and had dinner and a few drinks. It was really nice to see them. I thought it would be strange, seeing as we only knew them for 2 weeks 5 1/2 months ago (we have only kept in touch a little bit over facebook), but it was great. We went right back to sharing stories about our first days at school. It was like orientation was only a week ago! Hopefully we will get to see them some more over the next 6 months! 

Leaving Busan on the ferry

Tuesday we caught the high speed ferry to Japan (to Fukoka). I guess the ferry was really fast (it took about 3 hours), but it is hard to tell when there is nothing to judge the speed against apart from open ocean! It took us a bit longer to leave Fukoka than we had thought (it was hard finding an ATM that accepted foreign cards and we had no Yen) so a bus ride and 2 train trips later we were in Kyoto, we got there a little after 11.

Leaving Busan on the ferry

A high speed ferry going the other way

Kiyomizu-der Temple

Wednesday we did the suggested walking tour in the Lonely Planet, which included a few temples and walking through a couple of tradition neighbourhoods. It was really nice, but also really hot. The heat made the entire trip not quiet as enjoyable as it could have been. It was 35-40 everyday with the same level of humidity as Daegu. Because things are so much more expensive in Japan and we were trying to not spend to much it meant we didn't take as many breaks in coffee shops and the like as we should have!

Kiyomizu-der Temple

Thursday we hired bikes and rode to the Manga museum and another temple complex. Bikes were much better than walking because Kyoto is so flat it meant you could get out of the heat quicker! That night I went to have a look around a traditional night-life area. When I was riding my bike back to the hostel I went down some back streets and saw a Geisha walking towards me! She went into a house before I could get a photo, but pretty cool none the less!

Traditional night life area in Kyoto

Traditional night life area in Kyoto

                                                                         

Friday we were meant to go to Tokyo but I accidentally told our couch surfing hosts Saturday and Sunday so we stayed in Kyoto another night. 

Saturday we finally made it to Tokyo. I was worried we wouldn't be able to as apparently that weekend is the busiest for people going on holidays and all trains and flights out of Tokyo were full booked and there were 40 km traffic jams! Not as many people were going to Tokyo, so we only had to wait 45 minutes for a train with free seats. That afternoon we went to Shibuya crossing, a park and the observation deck in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.

Bullet train to Tokyo

Shubya Crossing

View from the government offices

Sunday we visited the Sony display centre, the Imperial Palace East Gardens, and an area where all the Cosplay girls apparently hang out (we only saw 2, but it was an interesting shopping area full of alternative kind of things).

Imperial Palace East Gardens

Cosplay Girls

Monday we moved from the couch surfing to our hostel. Then we went to electronics town and explored a bit. That night we went to Tokyo's oldest temple.

Tuesday was home again! So there is it a quick (ish) summary of our trip to Japan. Overall it was a really good trip, but like I already said the heat took it down a bit. It was really interesting to see the differences between Korea and Japan, I thought they would just be the same! Japan had a lot more varied fashion, obeyed road rules and the architecture was more varied than your standard grey apartment block. Korea does have some things over Japan, the public transport systems are much easier to navigate!

Who is your favourite sports star? ... Someone ...

Once the first semester ended and my students left school, I was still there to desk warm and run some holiday programs. I ran a week long holiday program at another school located nearby. This was a good change as I got to teach both boys and girls instead of my usually all girl classes.

I choose to do a hollywood themed program which covered movies, singers and celebrities during the week. I had a problem with one of my students who wasn't exactly well behaved.

I was having the students write down their favourite celebrities. Favourite actor, singer, sports star, etc. I walked around and read the students answers. I got to this particular student but couldn't see what he had written down.

Me: So, who is your favourite sports star?
Students: Someone
Me: Someone? Who?
Student: Someone!
Me: Who? You need to write down their name. What is their name?
Student: Someone!!
Me: Write down that person's actual name!
Student: I did.

The student then pointed to the student next to him to indicate this was his favourite sports star. I looked down to read what this student's name was and it read "Shong Won".

All this time the kid was telling me that his favourite sport star was the guy sitting next to him....not someone! The student's name was Shong Won.

Summer Camp

Summer vacation lasts for about 5 weeks but in my contract I only get 8 days off so I have to come to school for most of the vacation. Brenton has already written a bit about desk warming so in this post will fill you in about our other vacation activity: teaching camps. Before I arrived I thought that camps would be arts and crafts, outdoor activities and day trips. It's not, it is just English classes.This summer I taught 3 3 day camps for 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. They were a lot more fun than normal class as the atmosphere was much more relaxed, we played more games and gave them long breaks. Here are some photos from my camps:

Grade 3 boys

Grade 3-playing a whisper game

Grade 3

Grade 3-playing the dress up game (Brenton's pants).
The kids had to whisper and item of clothing down the
 line and the last student had to find it and put it on.

Grade 2-dress up game (my boots)

Grade 3-closing ceremony (Golden Bell Quiz)

Grade 4 camp-the naughty boys

Grade 4

Grade 4-Countries pictonary

Grade 4-Taste test

Grade 4-Taste test

Grade 4-Taste test

Grade 4-Dress up game (my boots)

Grade 4-Dress up game (my sweater)