Kia Tigers vs. LG Twins

Ellen and I had a good weekend. We got up nice and easy on Sat. morning around 9am or so and made some calls home to catch-up with our parents. I also had a chance to get a haircut...if you want to see the result, go see Ellen's blog.
We headed to Gwangju which took us a little over an hour by bus which cost about 6$ each. Before the game, we stopped into a small grocery store that stocks up on goods for foreigners. Its called "'The underground" as it has many things from London, England.....and their subway is called...the underground. We picked up some red wine vinegar to make our salad dressing. Also picked up some Campbell's soup and some dry mustard...things we cannot find at Mokpo grocery stores.
Made it just in time for the games. $6 tickets and you can pretty much sit where you want. We had pretty good seats:


It was an absolute gorgeous day, and the temperature lately has dropped significantly, sitting in the low 20's.
Of course we had a couple beer at the game. Who could resist a good Hite in a can...right girls?
The beer was good. Others ventured and tried some of the local ball game treats. No popcorn, peanuts or chips here (well...there were some, but)....how about some good old dried squid....yum...I can still smell it from one row up behind us. Go Chris!!

Despite a small crowd being there, they were pretty into it. Always chanting and pounding their blow up sticks.

Luck was also on our side. Hugo picked up a ball from a foul ball that bounced and landed really close to us. After the game was done, I scored a baseball bat. Random act of kindness from a guy with his girlfriend. He had the bat and I commented on how nice it was....he gave it to me and would not take it back. Nice!!!
Good times. Can't say we are having any problems getting around, and of course finding fun things to do with some good people. I mean, look at our sad faces:


We got home around 1am as we did not want to pay to spend the night....and wanted to wake up in our own bed on Sunday morning. The game went 11 innings, with no score until the 11th, when the Tigers scored a run. We had a good time....great bunch of people we get to hang around with. Until the next post....goodbye!

Korean won is weakening to the Canadian Dollar....is that a good thing?

Hello all. Things are good. Just about to get my first pay check tomorrow, including my airfare...which is nice. Ellen and I are also set-up with a Korean bank and online banking. We are also set-up to do online transfers to our Scotia/TD accounts back home...at any time for any amount. The only thing right now is:
Won to CDN


The Canadian dollar is buying about 1,100 KRW. Korean won. Good for Canada....not so good for Ellen and I who get paid in Korean dollars. Compared to only about a month ago, that is a 10% swing. Looked around and found some forecasts from http://www.forecasts.org/index.htm of currencies against the USD. So first:
Won vs. USD

Then:
CDN vs USD

So, by taking a couple ratios, the CDN $ is going to gain another 9.4% by Apr. 2009 which is only gonna make it worse. So, stick to strategy of monthly and evaluate as time goes on to see if there is any value in holding. For those of you who are asking....yes I have a lot of free time on my hands and yes I will try to do something more interesting than this in the future for my blog posts. Talk to you soon.

First visit with friend from home....kinda

Alright (so he didn't come see me exactly)...so my buddy Adam Haiser came to visit his sister, brother and law and his little niece Eden...but we still had a chance to get together and catch-up. His sister Ally and her husband James live in Suwon which is just South East of Seoul. It was a 5 hour commuter train to get there, and I arrive on saturday. Ellen hung back in Mokpo to enjoy time on her own while I went to visit Adam. We went to jinjibong which is place with hot saunas, cold saunas, herbal saunas and a salt sauna. They suit you up with a standard babyblue oversized shorts and t-shirt. It was really cool actually...very relaxing. We also got foot massages....sounds great, but the guys who give then to you DO NOT hold back. At times I thought I was going to have to tell him to stop...he was digging into my foot so hard....then just when you think you can't handle anymore, he would soften up again...love hate massage I guess. Adam has his a little before mine, so when I got in there, they were finishing up. They also do this slapping and punching bit....I had no idea and almost lost it laughing when I heard the guy slapping Adams back and legs...really hard. They also like POP you toes. They'll grab it and snap it was they flick it....pretty weird, but actually after it was all done, felt pretty darn relaxed. Finished off with some hot to cold baths as well...that was in the buff....so it goes.

We spent Sat night in Suwon and hung out in town. We had some raw fish which was delicious and stopped into a local foreigner bar.

Only a few pictures were taken. Below is the high roller appartment building that Ally, James and Eden stay at.

Adam close to one of the town centers where the action is at.


There is Adam and I taking a quick street shot while we have a cheap Family Mart-uh beer.
They have beers in quarts here just like back home in Quebec. You can buy a quart for 1,400 won or close to $1.40. It's cheaper to buy a quart in a glass bottle than to buy a can of beer of smaller size. No complaints.

Adam and I also had a chance to go for some raw fish....which was actually really good. Check out the quarts of beer...just like back in Quebec.
Played some pool and some darts on an electronic machine...good times. Sunday we got up and made the 30 minutes train ride to Seoul. Huge city....crazy amounts of electronics...in the street...in the malls. We saw at least 20 little shops side by side selling cameras...Nikon, Canon....prices were about 20% cheaper than at home....and you could bargain for sure. Pretty sure Adam was going back this week to pick up a camera. We were at Yongsan station. If you ever need electronics, this would be a great place to look around for deals. It was really good seeing Adam and having a quick weekend with a buddy from back home. Back to school for another week!!!

Jeju Island for Chuesok weekend

It is wednesday morning and I'm back to school. I was suppose to be teaching this morning...so I thought, but in true South Korean last minute change of plans fashion...I am not teaching my first two classes...not sure if at all. Anyways...classes are too big and they are splitting them...hope they split those two little trouble makers in the same grade 3 class...haha. They have split my the grade 3,4,5 classes. There were 2 classes of each, now there are three. We had 52 grade fours....makes sense. I will still be teaching the same number of classes, only less open classes. 20 hours of teaching or 20 classes of 40 minutes (the balance is for planning of course). So I have textbook classes which is following curriculum and I have open classes which I get to decide what to do. So now, less open and more curriculum....oh well. So it goes.

Ellen and I got back yesterday from our getaway to Jeju island. It is referred to as the Hawaii of Asia....I have not been to Hawaii...but I don't think they compares in scenery, but it is a volcanic island. It was created by volcanic eruption nearly 2 million years ago. Very popular honeymooning spot for Koreans as well as Japanese and it is volcanic, so I believe those are the links to Hawaii...although in its own way....Jeju island is very beautiful...and we obviously only got to see some parts of it. It is only about 190km to travel around the island, but travelling by bus, we did see a fraction of what is there to see.

We left Mokpo on Saturday morning around 9:00am to take our 4 hour boat trip. Here is our route.

Great ferry ride over. There was a group of 11 of us who had planned on going. Some had left Friday as they had the day off, and others were leaving with us. We also ran into Barry and Lisa who are from Guelph and actually Lisa is the older sister of one of Emma's friends. We had had dinner with them a week earlier, but had no idea they were going to be on the boat with us to Jeju.

There we are above just catching up after running into each other. We also ran into our other friends who met during orientation. We thought we were buying seats, but no....when you buy your $29 one way ticket....it is for this kind of space:

Yep....pick your floor space. It was nice though...you could actually lay down. We had made no plans together, so when we arrived at Jeju-si (city) Ellen and I went on our own to explore. I had found an Indian restaurant online....yeah I know...of all the things, but I was dying to have some indian food....so here is Ellen digging in....we came really close to not finding this place as my hand drawn map with no street names, was well....vague. We had the cab drop us off at a coffee joint that was my reference point....luckily we ran into a foreigner that seemed local to the island...and pointed us in the right direction. Yummy....How brutal is it that we come to Korea on this island that is renowned for its black pig and seafood and we eat indian?....oh well.

After our meal, we decided to call and find out what hotel finding the others had been up to. Turns out, they were 30 minutes away and had found a pension within walking distance from the beach....sounds good....11 people in two rooms for 9 bucks a piece.....sign us up!! Soon after...here we are with a bunch of friends. We are at Hyeobjae Beach which is about 20 km West of Jeju city. We were between land and Biyangdo Island which you see out there.

See that group of people out there...that's our gang. The water was awesome. We are in the South Sea or East China Sea. South sea if you are from Korea. Same with Sea of Japan in Korea is known as the East sea. Well....no complaints. Gorgeous night. You should have seen the faces of the Korean dads when the girls got down to the bikinis. There were other people on the beach, but no one in the suits except for a couple kids. Adults were fully clothed...some were in to their waists....but in jeans. They are REALLY scared of the sun. We have lots of sunscreen during the day, but c'mon....it's 6:00pm at night.

After swimming and dinner, we were off for some rest. The next day had us taking a hike up the highest peak in South Korea....Mt. Hallasan. 1950m above....of which we would only make it to 1700m as the trails required close to 8 hours of hiking and we were not up for that. We did 9.4km total in 4.5 hours....most of which was stairs...let me tell you....our calves are killing us this morning. Of course....the highest elevation also brings precipitation. It started to pour when we go to within 10 minutes from the start point. Here is Ellen with her $1.50 rain coat having a $1.00 ramen bowl for breakfast.

The hike started off great. Here we are all decked out at the start. We then hiked up stairs for about 3 km's. It was pretty dark as the forest is dense....and it was raining on and off.

The hike was pretty challenging. Check out the over 2km of stairs we had to climb in the forest before it opened up.

Just when you thought things were getting a little long, we got to an opening and there was some fresh water for us to cool down with. We had brought our own water, but this was very cold and very refreshing.

The rest of the hike to the peak station, was in the open...but have a look at the rocks we had to walk across...there were also some wooden pathways, but for the most part we were walking on rocks....welcome break from the stairs though.

The views were really nice, with little streams cutting across the openings in the valleys. We....Ellen also spotted 4-5 partridges that were walking in the bushes. No pics...sorry.

We also had a friendly Korean fellow take a picture of us.

We realize this is not the 1700m marker, but is was really cloudy/windy/rainy at the top rest point. Here is Ellen at the 1600m marker....we did make it to the top...the ramen that was one dollar at the bottom cost two at the top!!!

After the hike...we were pretty exhausted. We ran to the bus station to grab our bus....the damned thing just went by without even stopping. We had to wait another hour for it.....we were in the middle of the road when it came an hour later!!

We made it to Seogwipo that night and stayed in a very nice room for $50. We splurged, but needed the rest. For dinner we had a medium pizza and a whole smoked chicken for the low price of $16. Low key night after dinner..

The next day we had to be back for the boat by 3:30pm. We got to see a water fall before we left. That was it.

We had an awesome weekend. We were back home on Monday night and still had Tuesday off. We spent the day cleaning up, doing groceries and doing some cooking. I had been given a box of fresh figs before the weekend by my co-teacher. We made cookies and also some salsa. We also ate a bunch of them....they were so good. Never had a fresh fig before. So ends our weekend at Jeju island!

Teaching them a song...

Hello all and yes we are still alive and doing well. Ellen and I celebrated our one year anniversary on Monday, September 8th. We treated ourselves to dinner. No big gifts....we gave each other paper. She gave me a card (brought from home) and also the book "The Little Prince". We had a reading from this book at our wedding. It's in english and on the flip side Korean. Good memory of where we were on our first wedding anniversary. I wrote Ellen a poem and wrote it on paper that were the colours of our wedding day.

To my story about teaching them a song. My grade threes are learning "I like _____" and "I don't like ____". Most classes are tought from a textbook complete with a CD-ROM from which I show them videos, songs, etc. Today I had an open class, which means no textbook and I have to make up material. Tought them some fruits and had them guess and read (on Powerpoint). Also tought them a song. I finished class with an exercise sheet I found on the net about things they like and don't like. Had them circle and said if they wanted to write they could. 4 kids of 40 wrote words and 3 of 40 wrote.....I like and I don't like. The videos are sound only. For those of you who know the song Apples and Bananas....for those who do not....it's a way to teach the kids the vowels. So the kids sing:
I like to Eat Eat Eat Apples and Bananas
So for U they will sing
I like to Ute Ute Ute Upples and Bununus.

The first video is me teaching the song, then them singing. The second video shows some students singing/giggling along towards the end of the video. Could not get laptop all the way around to show entire class, and well not sure about videotaping class anyways, so here are a couple clips. You might want to get your volume really loud to be able to hear it. Laugh all you want that this is what I do now.....

The kids are really great and I am learning everyday about how to keep their attention, keep them motivated, and also how to get their attention when needed. And for those paying attention during the 2nd video's...that stick in my hand is for pointing to the board only.

I know I'm in South Kroea when....

No pictures yet, but just wanted to start a list of things that make me know I'm in Korea:

1) Every morning when I get to school I put my shoes in a little locker with my name on it, and take out the slippers I will wear for the whole day.

2) When teaching....(that gets me every time)

3) A little lead in for this one. The students sit in a rectangle at nice new desks. 6 per table.
I often lean my arms on the desk and lean in to hear what the students are saying. With the grade 3/4's I will sometimes feel someone softly brushing the hair on my arms (my sleeves are often roled up). I try not to be startled, but it is a little one who is absolutely amazed that I have hair on my arms and has to touch it.

4) On the bus, or everywhere else, grade 7-8 and older boys are playing with each others hair, putting their heads on their friends shoulder....those kids are great. Very sensitive and very affectionate.....at times....they'll also turn and just punch each other in the arm really hard...

5) Girls/women walk around holding hands.....more so than actual couples.

6) Seeing scooters and/or cars slowing down at intersection when light is red....only to proceed through the red light while looking around and honking.

7) Every meal has red peppers in it....and kimchi (Cabbage with red peppers)

8) Before hopping into the shower, or doing dishes, we need to turn on the water heater. After we are done...we turn it off. Honestly takes about 5-7 minutes for the water to get really hot.

9) Do not bring your lunch to school. Everyone eats from cafeteria (all kids, principal, teachers....except Ellen....kidding...many foreign teacher bring lunches to school as food can be spicy and quite fishy....and staple of lunch is a good heap of rice. Break out the prune juice...haha.

10) When walking down the streets you'll get hit with a god awful smell. It comes from the garbage on the streets (they don't flush down the toilet paper, it gets put in the garbage) really gets the stench going. Some call it: "walking into the wall of ass". I like to think of it as: "Getting slapped in the face with a dirty diaper".

11) Mar. 4th 2009 - New co-teacher Mrs. O at lunch in the cafeteria. They love their food and everything that revolves around it. We are eating sea-weed soup and she tells me that after having a baby it is important to eat sea-weed. I answer that it must due to the iron content. She kinda accepts that with saying because of loss of blood. Great. She then tells me that it is good luck to eat the soup for breakfast on the day of your birthday. She then rambles on that if you have a test you should NOT eat the soup as it is bad luck. So I asked her: What do you do if you have a test on your birthday? She looked extremely stumped and could not answer me. She refused to choose. I pushed and asked what is more important, the test or the birthday. She laughed as that is the reaction when stumped and still did not answer.

12) Co-teach when comparing volleyball to ping-pong: "Some Korean women don't like playing with big balls."

Well....I'm sure this list will get larger and larger....just a couple things each day that I know I'm in Korea when.....

Starting to officially teach

Well....It's Tuesday afternoon and getting close to 4pm. Another hour before I take the bus home. I actually started teaching today, but a little to my surprise. I'd asked yesterday when I would start and also confirmed this morning, and they said no plan yet....both today and yesterday. So I get into my class at 8:45am and at 9am here they come trouping in...

Let me back up a step though first...yesterday was the opening day of this semester. The kids have actually been on a mid school year break. School year goes from Mar-Feb. So, start in March...one month break in August and then Jan/Feb is off (kinda flipping summer witn Christmas/march break I guess). So yesterday I came to school with my new slippers and was introduced to a retired teacher that will be working with me for the next 6 months. Really good actually as she is in class with me at all times and takes control for discipline and such. Mrs Ahn. We are both new, so at the gymnasium meeting with 570 students, 15 teachers, 3 admin and VP and principal we were introduced on stage...no biggie...just bowing...no speaking. I get out of the gym and am standing there while the wave of kids go by and get a flurry of Hello, Hi, Hello, Hi, Hi, Hello of which you kinda don't answer really, but in the middle of it some (what looked like a grade 4) boy squeezes in a f*** y** to me on the way by....I was pretty shocked and gave him my meanest "Hey BUDDY"!!! Way to keep your cool Milton. Anyways...

Back to today...although caught off guard, I did have a lesson plan and by the end of day I was able to piece together my schedule. See below for the class lesson and weekly plan which is going to be the story of my life for the next year:



I have to admit though that my first day of teaching today was a very good experience. With Mrs. Ahn having the kids sit up straight and pay attention to me, helping translate some more complicated directions, and also helping organize supplies and conversing with other teachers and the vice principal to ensure I have everything I need, I am really spoiled, and Ellen will let you know that I am I'm sure. There was no fixed textbook lesson today...I put some pictures of snowmobiling, my mom and dad...picture of Brad and Sean in the suits...picture of windsurfing, fishing, car covered in snow...anyways it was explaining what I like. Then each group (6 per) had a laminated sheet and they would write on it: "We like_______" and then have a speaker share with the class...one group had We Like/Love Milton....so it made me feel much better than that little shit yesterday.

As you can see from the schedule, I teach 20 hours a week and always in the morning. My afternoons are free (except Tuesday until 2:20pm), so I plan for the next day then I have some down time. Sitting in my brand new, air conditioned class....no complaints....so far. Anyways....bye for now.