So Long, Farewell......

The final day has come. The elusive day of finishing our contracts has come and I can't quite believe it's already here.

The new teachers: Jim and Tia (from Oregon) are here and we moved into a hotel (paid for by the school) for our last 5 days in Korea. Some parts of my year seemed really long - but before I knew it, I was standing in the staff room, showing my replacement teachers how to write a lesson plan for the afternoon children. The year ended faster than I thought it would.

I'm beyond happy and relieved to be finished and returning home, but (and I never thought this would happen) there is a little sadness in leaving. I liked who I've worked with and Tia and Jim are a great couple, whom I wish I could have worked with longer. And I've become familiar with my surrounding and now Craig and I will be on a 3 month journey that will strip away all feelings of familiarity and comfort that I've become used to here.

So here's the route: China, Mongolia, Russia, Estonia, Lativa, Luthuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, then Toronto bound on Nov 26. Excited isn't quite the word to use. Just in awe that not only did I finish this contract, but that I'm going to experience this trip in the upcoming months.

After some thought, I've decided to end this blog. My title "Mary teacher" is no more and it wouldn't feel right to keep this 'maryteacher' blog going unless I was still in Korea. Fortunately, Craig has started a blog that we will update as we travel along our route. I may post a picture or two of our last days here in Korea in the upcoming month on this maryteacher site, but besides that, I'll put this blog to rest. Hopefully this site will be useful for anyone coming to Korea to teach... and see that after the first confusing, scary, horrible months, this country and the kids can actually grow on you - and you'll leave with a bit of sadness.

We leave tomorrow morning on a ferry to Tianjin, China, and from then on in take a look at Craig's site (trans-eurasia.netscene.org) for travel updates, and mine and Craig's pictures to see all what we will be seeing.

I hope you've enjoyed this site as much as I've had fun making and organizing it. So goodbye Korea - I never thought it day would come and, even more so, with great sadness. It's been a year ...... that I wouldn't change for the world.

Happy Birthday Laura!

You have to love the beard
Originally uploaded by Waeguk Expat.

Friday was Laura's birthday. To celebrate, the four of us went to Happy (Harry) Liquor Pia for dinner and drinks. Craig even ordered some silk worm larvae, a common Korean street snack. Only Brett and Craig risked the pot of insects - I don't care how unique it is - it's just gross; and if it tastes anything like it smells, I wasn't eating it. Later, Laura found a NoriBang (karaoke room) nearby. After getting good and lemon soju-liquored up, we had a go at singing just one more time before leaving Korea. It's great nights like these that I feel sad about leaving Korea.
Brett took some excellent pictures. If you want to see us looking stupid, have a look. Brett did a good job of capturing the night.

Balcony View Panorama

Photoshop stitched this photo together for me from some pictures I took this morning. It was a nice day today with perfect weather! Sunny, warm, breezy, and not humid. Also posted on flickr.

Later on, Mary and I went to the tourist area in Seoul named Insadong to do some Christmas shopping. By coincidence or proper alignment of the stars, we also ran into our principal (Mrs.Jang) and her family. They were shopping for gifts to give to Annie's host family; Annie is going to La Crosse, Wisconsin on the 23rd. She is Mrs.Jang's daughter and also one of my students. We stopped to say hi, Annie took our picture with her new camera, then we continued shopping. Here's a pic of a nice rainbow that appeared as the sun started setting.

Most definitely, a good day!

Vacation - July 27

Seoul isn't Korea - we wanted to show Kerri a little rural Korea, where no one speaks English and you can actually see the mountains. We took a train east to the province of Gangwon-Do. We went to the small town of Gangchon, where we heard there was many dalkalbi restaurants, bungee-jumping, and a huge waterfall in the mountains which you can bike to with one of their million bikes to rent (there were 3x more bikes then residents). Through elaborate miming and the word bungee (same word in Korea), we found out that it was in a town 20 minutes from there. We ate our chicken kalbi, and biked to the waterfall. Our pension for the night had no mattresses (I'm so used to the western luxuries in Seoul), but it had a TV. So when it rained the next morning, we showed Kerri all the infommercials Korea had to offer. It continued to rain throughout the morning, so we took the train home... Here are my pictures.

Vacation - July 26

Went south of the Han River to show Kerri the 63 Building, to take a ferry on the Han to the Olympic Stadium, and to see the aquarium at the COEX Mall. Enjoy the pictures.

Advertisements

With new stores and restaurants opening in Ilsan, we always get a constant supply of advertisements taped to our door every evening when we return home from school. Tonight, Craig and I have opened all the windows, opened the door a bit, and turned on the fans to get some air into our apartment. We came out of the living room to discover that someone actually put their hand through the crack to tape an ad on the inside of our door. I would make a sarcastic comment now - but I can't - this is just too silly (and Korean) for words.

Shipping

We've come down to the final few weeks of our contract and we're starting to pack and get ready for the adventure ahead of us. I had starting packing a few boxes full of clothes, books, Korean gifts that I wanted to send home. Craig and I made the trip down to the post office with two boxes ready to send home via boat. The post office ladies didn't know English and we barely know Korean, so we were a little confused and when they said "No Canada ship" as they gave us the cost of what it would be to send one 14kg box home airmail: $108 US. It would cost us half a month's paycheck to send home our stuff if we had to send it airmail.

Craig and I went home (hauling back the 2 boxes, mind you) ready to investigate why we couldn't boat it home. We looked on the internet and saw that a 14kg box should only cost $36US to boat home. We told the Korean teachers what happened. Julie phoned the post office inquiring why - we quickly learned there is a truckers strike in Vancouver that stopped the trucking of cargo from Vancouver ports to the rest of the country. The 5 week strike has ended, but there is supposedly 6 week worth of goods being stored at the Vancouver port that needs to clear out before anymore goods is shipped in from various countries. Here's an article written during the strike.

What are we going to do? I don't know - but at least we have some time left to figure it out.

Update: Thanks to a very helpful aunt and uncle on Grand Island, I will be able to ship boxes home via boat to the US. Thanks all for the advice - and thank you, Uncle Alfie and Aunt Dorothy, this is a huge help.

Vacation - July 25

On the 25th, we took Kerri to Everland. Since it was a Monday and the hottest Monday we've had so far, the amusement park part of Everland was next to empty (I'm assuming that everyone was at the waterpark nearby). The heat didn't stop us from going on all the rides and checking out all the animals. We couldn't miss our chance at seeing the liger (photo below) - the lion/tiger, which made it's movie debut in Napoleon Dynamite. We also showed Kerri our well practiced, yet not quite polished, dancing skills, in the nice air-conditioned game buildings. Great day, great photos, check them out.

Vacation - July 23-24

Over the 23rd and 24th, Craig and I introduced Kerri to Seoul. We took her to Insa-dong (to buy traditional Korean gifts), out for Jjimdak (a spicy chicken, potato noodle, vegetable dish), to Nanta (it was Craig's turn on the stage), Gyeongbokgung Palace, Myeong-dong (more shopping), out for Thai, and then to a DVD bong. The heat was horrid, the hottest this year - and any air conditioned building was our main destination that weekend.

Check out Craig's pictures from the 23rd-24th.