Hiking on our Mountain!

There is a mountain which is about a 5-minute walk away from us and we are starting to hike it every morning before Robin goes to work. This morning we took a hike and got to the top where there is a nice Korean structure. The hike has a lot of exposed roots, the rainy season was really bad this year, but they kind of make steps which can make is easier to go uphill. All along the path are workout stations where you can find young men to older ladies doing exercises. Its really quite amazing to see all the people that hike this trail and do exercises, especially those who are at least 65 years old. Here's some pictures!!

Chuseok!

Every year Korea celebrates Chuseok. It is like their thanksgiving. They get 4 days off, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and go home to visit their ancestors and pay respect to them. They wear their Hanboks, cultural gowns. They are beautiful! On Friday at school we had our own celebration with all the kinder kids! The teachers all wore hanboks, and we were all taught how to properly bow. We helped the kids make sonpiang. Its duk, with sugar, red bean and sesame seads. The kids love it!

Jason with the Dream Class!

Me and my Wisdom class! Adorable!

First Visit to Seoul - Seoul Station, Namsan Mountain & N Seoul Tower

This past Monday was a holiday for us, the holiday was Chusok, the Korean thanksgiving. We had a four day weekend, so we decided to go to Seoul. We took a train from the Cheonan train station and it took about an hour to get there. Once we arrived at the Seoul Station, we toured around the neighbourhood. We found Nandaemun market, which has several stands of clothes, shoes, purses and food. We saw the North Seoul Tower on top of Namsan Mountain and I remembered that my kids told me about it, so we walked to it. This is what it looked like:

So we walked to it and walked up all the stairs, the mountain is 262m in elevation, so it was quite a climb.  There was a nice fountain at the bottom and some nice scenery as we walked up. 

Once we got to the top, there was a lot of up there, besides the tower, there was music, lookouts, shops, a restaurant and the famous lovers lock railings. Couples bring locks with them to the base of the tower and lock two locks together. There are thousands of locks, its quite amazing!

After Namsan, we visited an area called Itaewon. This is a very foreign friendly area with lots of shopping and tons of foreign restaurants. We had our first burger in Korea and it was pretty good. The only downside is that they don't use real cheese, everything is sliced!! (Very sad..) After walking around for a while, we took the subway back to Seoul Station and took the KTX home. The KTX is more money, but it was much faster, reaching speeds of around 265 km/h. It was dark, but you could see the flash of lights in the city whizzing by. 

Overall, it was a great day, we saw a lot, but still need to go back and do more adventuring!!

Downtown Cheonen

This past weekend, Jason and I wanted to explore downtown! Friday night, was Emily's birthday, she is also another kinder teacher like myself. A bunch of us took taxis downtown to dolce and then to NV. You can't walk down a street without finding a bar, and there is no closing time! You can be out as late as well whenever, the bar tenders leave when you do! However, we did not stay out that late, but we did get to have our first taste of the downtown night life, as well as our first street meat!

The next day Jason and I wanted to venture to the mall downtown, Shinseigai. We were told to take the 12 bus. Well we were too excited and got off at an outdoor market. When I say outdoor market, I literally mean fish sitting in a tank outside for anyone to grab. Fish, lobster, crabs as big as my head! We figured we would walk to the mall, well 30 minutes later, we finally made it. We were so proud of ourselves, we made it through the streets of downtown Cheonan, without a map I might add! The mall was huge! The way it is designed is that you go to a floor for what you are looking for. So I wanted to check out the clothes, well floor 4 is all ladies clothes. Very convenient I might add! This is where the movie theatre is as well, and they do play English movies! The food was amazing! Seafood every where and cheap! We found one place at the mall where everything is served on a conveyor belt, and you choose a plate depending on the colour which tells you the price! This is one of the great dishes we tried!

That night we partied on the rooftop of some of our friends apartment! IT was tons of fun, we met a bunch of other foreigners from all over the world! It was a great way to end our adventurous day! Topping it of with a Cass beer, only a dollar a bottle.. check out the size of them.. Let me tell you.. One is enough!

Some of our friends from SLP!

Welcome to my kinder classes!

Every morning, I am lucky enough to teach the most adorable group of kids.. ha, sometimes.. some days its like they all planned together to not do anything I say, or do the complete opposite, I don't know how they can be so smart at 4 years old.
My first class is called Wisdom, there is 4 of them in the class. In Korea they are 5 years old, but in Canada they are only 4. In Korea you are 1, when you are born, so I forgive them most of the time when they want to run and run and be silly, because really they are only 4!

My next class is called Dream. They are 6 years old (5 in Canada terms). There is 7 of them, and they give me the run for my money! Hilarious though. I showed them a picture of my mom, dad and Tyler and they said "No Robin Teacher, he isn't your brother, Jay teacher is." They call Jason, Jay teacher and thought since we came together we are brother and sister! So, sorry Ty, they don't think you exist.. I tried! They love Jason though, he came in for lunch on a Friday and they were so excited, every day they ask if he is coming. I don't feel the love! But actually, they do love me!