Chaotic Field Trip!

Annyong Haseo, Bonjour, Hello,

Hey friends, sorry I haven't blogged in a while! I'm back in action though :) So, life here in Gwangju has been going fairly smooth lately. I've been keeping busy and school hasn't been as brutal as it has been. I think I've finally gotten a few of my horrible classes under control. Of course I still have about 3 classes that pure CHAOS tends to break out. However, I'm learning how to gain control a lot more quickly. At first I thought it was all about candy and stickers (and a large portion of the time it is) but now I've realized that it's all about my energy level. If I'm super excited and jumping around, making funny noises and my favourite sticking my bum out for the hokey poky, I can keep the attention of most small children. I know this seems pretty obvious but it took me awhile to get into the groove of it...so in saying that some days it's all about coffee, coffee, coffee!

I had one of the strangest experiences with my school last week. We brought our kindergartens to the Hampyeong Butterfly Festival. If I was asked to explain it in one sentence it would have to be this 'I felt like I was in a mosh pit of 4-16 year olds'. I wish I could tell you many other schools were there, it was completely insane! The kids were corralled through this amazingly beautiful display of flowers and bugs like cows. I must have said 'Bali Bali' about a thousand times (it means quickly, quickly in Korean). We got on the bus at 8:40am to head to the festival, we turned around at 8:50 because they had forgotten the kids name tags. It was about an hour drive outside of Gwangju. Once we got there we pushed our way to get through the gates. Then we pushed our way through about 6-7 green houses/buildings and had a snack/lunch break. After that we went to our last building which was the 'bat building' I didn't see any bats though. After our last building we hurried back towards the parking lot where we stopped to take photos (every child had to have their picture taken at least 2-3 times). Then we rushed off to find the bus in the sea of buses only to get half way there to realize that we were missing two kids. One of the kids was actually the daughter of my co-worker! One of my bosses ran back to find the two kids who were stuck in the bat museum. They must have gotten lost when we pushed our way out of the building, literally! To be honest I'm surprised we didn't lose more. So we got back on the bus around 1:30 completely exhausted. My head was spinning and couldn't help but think 'did these kids see or get anything out of this ridiculousness!'.

In other news my friend Catie is leaving as she is done her contract. I'm sad to see her leave because I was just getting to know her and she is wicked. The only good thing about her leaving is that I bought her bike! It's wicked! I'll post some pictures soon. It's cherry red and it has a basket!

Alrighty, well I'm going to sign off now. I'm heading to Seoul this weekend for a "World DJ festival" and Buddha's Birthday celebration! Can't wait! I have Monday off as well.

Peace and love from the wacky world of Gwangju, South Korea

Green Tea and Rain drops = very funny afternoon

Hey Hey Hey,


Yesterday I got the day off because of an election here in Korea. It was so nice to have a break mid-week. I took for granted all the random days I use to take off, we are lucky to have 'mental health' days at home. My favourite excuse was from Courtney Miller 'Just tell them your not feeling well', and at 7:30 in the morning after only a few hours of sleep I technically wasn't feeling well, so technically I wasn't lying. :) :)

In Korea sick days are unheard of. Every time I think of calling in sick I picture my Director showing up on my door step to take me to the hospital. Many Koreans believe that if you are sick you go to the hospital or get medecine on the asap. Therefore, I haven't attempted a sick day. So, in saying all that I was super appreciative of a Wednesday off.

I decided joined some friends for a trip to a Green Tea plantation outside of our city. It was kinda of a crummy day as it was raining, but being the optimist that we were we kept hoping that it would clear up. Plus, my friend Lindsay insisted that our pictures would look great with the overcast sky. Well, the weather only got worst but the laughter grew strong despite our soggy feet. Once we got there we decided that we should eat first with hopes that the rain and now crazy wind would die down. We ate some green tea Bibimpab (a rice and veggie mixture with fresh green tea leaves) and tonnes of yummy side dishes.
The rain didn't stop nor did it slow down. It was however well worth the trip as the fields were amazing. Rows and rows of green tea on the sides of small mountains. Very cool to see! We took all the pictures we could despite the sideways rain coming in on us and then got the hell out of dodge (or at least tried to).

As we were leaving my friend Lindsay was again insistent on one more thing -we were not leaving the plantation without green tea ice cream. Whit (Lindsay's husband) was having nothing to do with cold ice cream as it was not ice cream weather). So we picked up some ice cream and headed for the bus stop. Well, the bus stop was only on the one side of the road that we were dropped off on. Hmm, we all thought, we saw a young Korean couple standing there and asked if they knew where we should stand to go back to the town we needed to get to take our bus home. They directed us across the road. There we were ice cream in one hand and umbrellas in the other looking like wet dogs. So we waited and waited and the wind did not let up! To the point where it had flipped my umbrella the wrong way, and then Sarah's as well. Lindsay or Whit then made a comment about how great their umbrella was as Sarah and I had to stand in strategic positions as to keep our umbrellas the right way.


Cars, trucks and tour buses were flying by us, the couple across the road were laughing at us and then it happened, the funniest moment of them all. Whit's umbrella had taken one to many gusts of wind and blew to pieces! It looked like a wacked antenna ! We all died laughing, to the point where I almost peed my pants! Way too funny!!



At this point we started to wave down cars to find out if a bus was actually coming. We managed to find out that we had to walk up the road. We all dispersed trying to find out where the bus stop really was. Then I heard Lindsay yell, lets go we've got a ride. I looked down the hill to where she was only to see the Korean version of a clown car. Two girls stopped to see if she needed help and they offered her a ride, so she told them that we were 4 and they agreed to take us :) :) Into the back of this small car we go, these girls didn't speak very much English, but enough to have some small talk. We got home safe and sound and the the rest is history :) :)

Cute Pink Bikes and Gorgeous Flowers

'For homework please do pages 21-35' I say as looks of complete horror and disgust appear on my Middle school girls class. "Happy April Fools!" I smile as they all kill themselves laughing. They were the only fools I got today but it was a good one!

It's officially April and again not to brag to all those still under snow, spring flowers are here and they are amazing! Here are a few:

On the weekend I met up with my amazing Korean/foreigner group 'Project Warm Hands' to go for a bike ride and make pottery. It was fantastic we borrowed free pink Mary Poppins bikes from one of the subway stations here and biked out to this cute Traditional Culture Village. The on-site Artist makes pottery, silk dyed fabrics and gives lessons on doing proper tea ceremonies. As mentioned we did pottery and I made a really funky plate/bowl.

After our ceramics lesson we biked by a bunch of Korean farmers fields on our way back into the city. Once back in the city we went to the "Sangmu Flower Festival" . As we approached the "Festival" I was again reminded 'expect the unexpected'. I was thinking that the festival was going to be a bunch of cherry blossoms and Magnolia trees.....nope! It was an entire convention centre filled with every type of plant/flower you could imagine. I'll I kept thinking was 'my mother would be in heaven!' Outside the flower arrangements looked like the Macey's Day parade. A bonus was that they had an Ecuadorian band playing great music. My camera battery died so I don't have to many pics though :( .

That's my update from the weekend, hope everyone is well.

Check ya later alligators!