Our Last Month!

In our last month in Korea, Tyler came to visit us! So of course we jammed as much as we could into our last month for him and for us! We were ready to leave the school but not leave Korea. It felt like home to us. During our last month we went all over!
We took Tyler to Busan! I wanted to show him the tropical, warm side and ofcourse the beach! Again, we went with some other co-workers and off we went! Tyler was super impressed with the fast train! As soon as we got there we found a pension and off to the beach we went! We spent the day, drinking and eating there! The next day I took Tyler to Yonggungsa Temple! He threw a penny into a well and got it on his first shot! Everyone around us was so impressed!

Other highlights were going to a local park, getting fried chicken and beers! It started to poor rain but our group had a great time! Colleen took us to Oeam Folk Village. It was an old town that still lived like they did a long time ago! We had an amazing lunch and watched how they used to live.

We took a trip to Seoul because I really wanted to see the war musuem. It was amazing! There were so many beautiful structures and old warm vehicles. The group of us went to see another palace and got to see the changing of the guards! Then we went to the breweries! We went to Angel's Head and Craftworks! All the beers at Craftworks were named off after the mountains in South Korea. I also took Tyler to Big Buddha and got ourselves some Buddha beads!

We definitely had a couple nights out drinking and going to the Norebang! Who could not do that before you go! Tyler visited the course and the kids absolutely loved him! And lastly, we took him to have Dog! Our friend, Sunbin took us to a restaurant. I did not order it, but it comes in a soup! Not totally horrible! I think Kip knew though when we came home!




Tyler left a couple days before we did. It was a sad goodbye. I loved the kids I taught and I loved the country we were in. We made lifelong friends and grew so much stronger as a couple. My kids all made me a goodbye song and speech and we had a goodbye party in the evening with our co-workers. Jay and I had an amazing time and I know I loved sharing this experience with him. I know whatever happens in our life we will be fine because we can throw ourselves into any experience. I wouldn't have wanted to do it with anyone else!

Summer Vacation!

During our week long summer vacation Jay and I decided to go to Taiwan and Jeju Island! We wanted to pack in as much as we could before we had to leave! We started in Taiwan where we flew into Taipei. We got to our hotel and settled in. We had pre set up some tours while we were there. Our tour picked us up and took us out for dinner at a Mongolian Restaurant! The food was delicious! Hot pot and stir fry! They then took us to Snake Alley where you can actually eat snake venom, we opted out of that! We then went to Longshan Temple, it was very beautiful. We found it very interesting how different the temples were constructed! We stopped at Taipei 101, the 2nd tallest building in the world! We didn't get a chance to go up it, but we could tell it would be amazing!

On the second day, we travelled to Wulai! An amazing hot spring area. We took a city bus there and were extremely pleased we did. The entire way we were following a river and we were looking over into the gorge the entire time! Wulai was beautiful, full of temples, hiking and amazing scenery! We stayed in a hotel where there was hot spring water piped into our bath! We overlooked the town! We found a public hot spring where people from the town come to bathe. It was a very neat experience!

The next day we took the bus back to Taipei and explored the city. I had tea with a tea shop owner, went to the electronics market and went for reflexology! We had to get to bed early that night since we were getting up early to take another tour. This one was a flight up to Hualien. We were going to check out Taroko Gorge. It was breathtakingly beautiful. The gorge is all marble, however it was hard to see since a storm was coming and the water was all muddy. We had an aboriginal lunch the headed back.


On our last day we went to a taoism temple and Chang Kai Shek memorial. There we watched the changing of the guards. We really were impressed with the tours we took! We flew from Taipei (which was a Hello Kitty themed plane) back to Seoul, spent the night in Cheonan and busse to Busan where we took a plane from there to Jeju Island! Quite a wild couple of days!

If you ever go to Jeju, rent a car, it makes it so easy to get around! That night we went to Love Land. A very sexual and hilarious park filled of sexual sculptures and art! The next day we went to Hallim park. It was a great park that covered all of the natural aspects of Jeju Island. We went through subtropic gardens, went in underground caves and saw lava rocks. On the way back we went to Hyeopjae beach, very relaxing!

We stopped at Sanbangulsa and hiked up to the Buddha in the rocks. It was very spiritual! Went to Cheonjiyeon Falls then headed back. We had heard that black pork meat in shabu shabu was the meal to have in Jeju so we found a place. They were so nice, they kept bringing us more food! There was fresh veggies and clams, which were brought in while we were eating! We also visited the Manjangul caves. It is all under ground made from cooled lava. It got very cool down there!


The next day we went to Illchubong! A beautiful extinct volcano! It was really neat driving up to it! We hiked to the top! On our way back down we went to the black sand beach hoping to watch the Haenyeo Women dive. However, they never did... but swimming at the black sand beach was amazing!

On our last day we decided to hike Hallasan. It was a last minute decision so we had to get up super early so we could get to the top and down in time to get to our plane. It was pitch black while we started. We made great timing on the way up but somehow on the way down we slowed our pace. I was glad we did it! It was a jammed pack holiday but we loved every minute of it!

Boryeong Mud Festival

As part of our contract, our boss, Frank, takes us to the mud festival at Daecheon Beach! It started as a festival to clean your impurities and cleanse the body! Now it is a big party where people throw mud on each other and have a party! Then clean off by jumping into the ocean! There were tons of people there! It was one of the most exciting and fun things we did all year! If you get a chance to travel to South Korea, try to get there in July and enjoy this amazing festival!!


Our boss had prepared Sam-gup sal for lunch for us! It was a great bonding experience! After lunch it was to the mud pits! It is literally huge buckets full of mud with paint brushes to paint yourself with it! It is everyone for themselves, if you are not careful, a bucket could be poured on you... Except, it is tons of fun! I managed to get great pics.. however it was the death of that camera!

Yeosu Expo!

 We were lucky to have the chance to go to the Yeosu World Expo! Tons of countries made an exhibition celebrating the sea and water. It was amazing! We ate food from all over the world, drank and travelled the world in a weekend! Some of the highlights!

1. Drinking german beer and having a bratweirst lunch! We hadn't had food like that for a while since being in Korea!

2. Taking a dance workshop done by Singaporeans! Jenny and I got wicked drinking cups for participating!

3. Getting Henna done in Qatar! Only women were allowed to have it done!

4. Visiting their huge aquarium! There were belugas, sharks and tons of fun picture opportunities!

5. Being in a blizzard.. in July!

Happy Canada Day!

Gemini Class (Age 7)

Wisdom Class (age 5)

I wanted to celebrate Canada day with my kindergarten class! Of course there was much convincing to Frank, but I won this one! I had asked the parents to bring in a white t-shirt that would get painted! I also planned out red and white activities that as a class we could do! I loved the entire day! I taught them about Canada and taught them how to sing O'Canada. We had a red and white snack, made medals and painted maple leafs onto our shirts! It was a lot of fun sharing this with them! It was such a success, the parents loved and the kids had so much fun asking me about where I lived. They loved their shirts and continued to wear them on a weekly basis to school!

Back To Busan!

Jay and I and a couple of friends went to Busan! Jay and I wanted a relaxing weekend on the beach. We went with Matt, Joe and Jenny! We wanted to stop at the Busan Fish Market to grab lunch! Fresh raw fish and squid. It was still moving on the plate! Jay stood up to the challenge and ate it! I was pretty impressed!

We wanted to go back to Byeongpungham Seokbulsa, since on our first attempt we didn't make it in time. We hiked up the very steep circling drive way up to the temple! This time we were able to go in and we were glad we did! It was a beautiful temple. The carvings into the stone were magnificent. It must have taken years to do the carvings! It was very magical! The steep and exhausting climb was definitely worth it! after we hiked back down to the beach, grabbed dinner and had a relaxing evening!

The next day was all about the beach! We spent the entire day, lounging by the water, swimming, drinking and eating! It is so relaxing sitting on the beach, with a beer in hand and fried chicken ready to be eaten! The water is so beautiful and warm we had such a hard time leaving. We even extended our train tickets to stay longer into the evening!  We tried getting Kip to swim but he didn't like it very much.... maybe because Jay dropped him in when a big wave came... Jay won't admit to that though! We were lucky, the same weekend there was an international dance festival going on, on the beach! There were people from all different countries performing! We were sitting behind the stage and got to see alot of the cultural costumes and dancers. Many took to liking Jay, white, tall, handsome, dark features, many women came up to him and asked for a picture with him! So I finally butted in and asked for a group shot with all of them and Jay! He was in his glory! Of course this would happen in Korea!