Monday, January 27, 2014

Icy Bomun

Pretty eh?



I had meant to go hiking today, but after biking to the bus terminal downtown I realized I had forgotten my wallet. So instead I biked around Bomun. Felt like such a dummy! 

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Winter Camp

Winter camp was a lovely success. This year's theme was Holidays. I taught one holiday per day- Thanksgiving, Easter, Hanukkah, and Christmas. I omitted Halloween since I teach that during the year. On the final day I had the kids show me their favorite Korean Holiday. I actually learnt about a new holiday: Dano. There is no day off for it so I never noticed it before. Involves hair washing, and swinging, and wrestling. Sounds nice.

Anyways it was a very fun camp. Each day I would teach a bit, then we'd do a craft. Crafts are my favourite cause they're so easy to teach. We did a thanksgiving booklet, Easter eggs, a paper dreidel, and a paper Christmas stocking. The stockings were hung and then Santa came overnight and popped in a candy in each! It was pretty cute seeing their excitement at looking into a stocking for the first time. Eggs were a big hit too, as was gambling for candy with the dreidels. Basically it was super fun and beyond easy to teach because the kids are so good in camp. Yay.

Next up: Hong Kong!

Making dreidels

Dreidel playing 

Stocking hung with care. Two
grade sixers wanted their stockings
to be the HIGHEST!

And some unrelated tidbits...

With Lunar New Year around the corner
grocery stores are full of gift sets.
Spam and oil are very popular. 

This is a unicorn cake. I love it.

Monday, January 20, 2014

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

I'm back!

Hello blog readers (most of whom I just saw!)

I have successfully made it back to Korea! I had the most amazing vacation at home: full of love, relaxation, and delicious food. I have such an amazing family and it was beyond amazing to be surrounded by them. My friends are also fantastic and it was wonderful seeing them all (special shout out to Caroline, Rory and Adri who traveled to come see me!)

The journey back was so long. Montreal to New York, New York to Tokyo and finally Tokyo to Busan. Then of course a bus to Gyeongju. I got a little lost in JFK, that place is BIG, but the TSA lady I spoke to was super helpful and I got myself sorted. By some amazing miracle, I had TWO seats to myself on the 14 hour flight from NY to Tokyo. My two seats were at the very back row, row 56, but all other rows had 3 seats. So this means I had two seats, plus some extra room for my feet to hang off. I felt like I was VIP++++. I was also like a meter from the bathroom which contrary to what people say does not stink but is super handy and amazing. Everyone else was sardined in, but I could lounge about, with all my carry on store under my multiple front seats, and saunter to what felt like a private bathroom it was so close. Also, there were outlets available! So I could plug in my laptop and watch my own shows! When I was served lunch, the flight attendant apologized profusely because she didn't have the Western option left. I told her "Are you kidding me? I have two seats. You can feed me anything and I'll be the happiest passenger on board. Also the Japanese lunch looks great!" Seriously though I was sooo lucky. She told me to enjoy my show :)

Despite my good luck, by my third and last flight I was getting pretty exhausted, plus after my VIP journey the single seat felt especially cramped. My flight arrived to Busan at 9, with the last bus to Gyeongju being at 10.. it was a little scary. But I had finished customs and got my bag by 9 40 so it all worked out just fine. I was so tired I was afraid I might now make it home, but I did. So here I am! It's absolutely freezing in my apartment, I felt like I was camping last night with my cozy body and cold face, but I am here! Total travel time door to door: 28 hours.

So Happy New Year everybody. Get ready for one more semester of Anne in Korea :)