Great version of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer by Ray Charles

Hi all. I wanted to teach my grade 5's how to sing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and came across this fantastic version from Ray Charles. It totally bombed with the kids as the lyrics are pretty hard to learn, but I really like this version. Man could this guy sing. Turn up the volume and enjoy. Missing our family friends especially this time of year, but so it goes. Hope all the preparations for the holidays is going well back home.

Christmas parties in Korea

Another wonderful weekend for Ellen and I. We were invited to a bad sweater Christmas party on Friday and on Saturday we attended a very nice UNESCO dinner in Gwangju (one hour bus ride).

The theme for the party on Saturday was bad sweaters. I fell short for the dress portion, but others did a great job.

Here is one of our hosts, Dean. He is actually from Guelph and has friends in common with Ellen. Awesome sweater. He is making us some popcorn. Old school style on the stovetop.


Here is Dean's girlfriend Chelsea with their batch of eggnog. Made from scratch with nutmeg sent from Canada. No way you would find eggnog in the stores around here. It was very good.



I was checking to see what time some of the boyz were going to show up and make sure they had the directions. My outfit was a red Christmas ball on my shirt (Rudolph in a snow storm) and the antlers. Thanks Ellen!!


Here is Chris. One of the guys I play hockey with on Thursday's. He is snug in his womans red sweater. Nice. Chris went to University of Guelph for some time. Small world eh?



He is Andy. He is from Dryden and is married to Jane. They are posted on an Island and takes them 3 hours by boat to make it in to Mokpo to visit. We've had them over for dinner and get along with them really well.



Nick here is from Minnesota and made his own shirt. He is a very good hockey player and also plays hockey with us on Thursday's. He was going on TV the next day to shoot a Korean cooking game show. He was out like a trooper!!! He made his own sweater too!!



Here is Ellen showing the gang her chin-up abilities. I'll let her tell the story.


The UNESCO dinner was the following night. Don't bother looking for us, as we are not in this shot. Very few shots of us, but we had a great dinner. 25 of us also went on stage to sing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Christmas in Killarney (Irish Christmas song).



We finished the night walking around Gwangju and looking at the Christmas lights.


Really nice weekend to put us in the Christmas spirit. We only have 8 more days of classes to teach then Christmas break. I am off until Mar. 3rd if all holds up well. Ellen is teaching two weeks in January. The beauty of teaching. I'll enjoy the break and hopefully with things are back home, I won't be off for two months next Christmas. Hopefully I'll find a job ok. Times are tough, but we feel great and optimistic!! Bye for now.

Teaching action shots!!

These are really boring and dark, but they are the only shots I have of my teaching. Our admin took them for some reason. I was told the day before to look good. Good thing, 'cause they are really great shots...not. My grade 5 class look attentive and standing up there with me is Mrs. Ahn my dedicated and very helpful sidekick. She is great at keeping those kids in line. They are really cheap with the heating in Korea. This was my first class of the morning. The class is cold when we get in and it takes sometime to get 'er warmed up. Hence, the scarf. Yes I know it does look very stylish, but that is only a secondary benefit. Haha!!






There it is. Proof that I am actually doing some teaching over here.

If you have not noticed, you can now click on the picture to make them bigger. I just noticed this now, but it only works for recent picture posted. None of my doing, but some higher power is allowing this to happen. Anyways, try clicking on a pic. Later.

Let it snow, let it snow.

We knew we would see some snow a couple times, but all of Mokpo was surprised to see it actually stay on the ground. It snowed close to 5cm last Friday day and night. When we woke up Saturday morning, we could not help but go for a walk and take some pictures.

Here is our little neighborhood street just outside our apartment building under snow.





It's business as usual for everyone. Guys are still making deliveries on their scooters, and they are still selling vegetables on the side of the street out of their trucks.







Saw some unusual signs that a true tells of the frequency of snow here in Korea. Check out this guys scrapping his windows!!




A couple pictures we took as well showing the scenery under snow. Must say it did look like it cleaned the place up to have it draped in white!!




We had seen this before. Looks like the dog is wearing earmuffs, but his ears are actually dyed.


This taxi cab was thinking. He threw on the chains. Saw a couple cars out there with them on. A couple levels safer than the guy riding his scooter eh?




The kids also had a blast in the snow. You can tell by the look on his face, he doesn't see this often. Actually...we've seen this look before...usually when the kids see us!!


We had time for a self portrait of course. Also a nice shot of the waterfront with the snow covered trees.







Here is more proof that you don't need to spend money to have fun. Check out the basic sled this kid is strutting. The girls are also sliding on some cardboard boxes. Good simple fun!!




Things are going great for us. We also had some friends over on Sunday for a Christmas baked good sharing party. We had some vin chaud and also spent the morning watching hockey with some friends. It's Monday now, and the snow has pretty much all disappeared. I also had a great start to my week today. I was on the phone with Drew, Denver and Frank. Our neighbours back home from Lakeview in Waterloo are all set-up on Skype and we made first contact this morning. It was great to hear Drew and Denver. Only three more weeks of school left. I am off on Holidays from Dec. 24th until March 3rd. Tough life! Post again soon.