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!

Level One Reiki in Seoul

Hey Pals (Oh I just reminded myself of Jen Flynn!),

Well, last weekend I went to Seoul to take my level 1 Reiki course. For those who don't know what it is Reiki is a Japanese term that means 'Spiritual Life Energy', it uses a hands-on healing system. It was super interesting I learned and felt a lot. My instructor was this very passionate Australian man who is full of amazing knowledge and experience.

Along with taking this course I got to stay in a Hanbok in the old historical part of Seoul called Insadong. A Hanbok is a traditional Korean house. It was so cute!! The downer of it all though was that it rained all weekend. But I was in my course for most of the time and Korea really needed rain. It's wild I can count on my hands the number of times we've had precipitation since I've been here, that's including snow and rain.

I met some great girls during the course one who filled me in on a bunch of great music festivals that are coming up in the next months. Hearing about the festivals was so energizing. I've been feeling somewhat lost without the many concerts and shows I'm used to having in my life. Apparently there is a world DJ festival in May.

Other then that life keeps on trekking. Spring is here in full force and the Cherry Blossoms are out. I'm hoping to get out this weekend and check them out, I have a few wicked trees around my house but apparently complete mountain sides are filled with them.

Ok dokey smokey pokeys, hehehe, I'm outti, sending lots of hugs and kisses!

P.S. This is a pic of one of the new kids we got a few weeks ago, he is the cutest thing in the world, and he listened to me!!!! So that makes him even more adorable! You should hear him say his ABC's, I'm going to video tape him to show all of you!

My Korean Birthday Celebration - I'm 27 and 28! (read to find out why?!?)

Hi Friends,

Thanks to everyone for the amazing Birthday wishes and presents. My emotions were mixed heading into my Birthday week as I was looking forward to my big day however I wasn't looking forward to being by myself. It was silly of me to be worried about it as the day and the weekend following were amazing. I'll admit at midnight on the 12th I was super sad, I don't think I've ever been by myself before at the stroke of midnight on my day. However I had my good friend Lauryn online in Ottawa to talk me through the sad period.

On the 12th I woke up to my parents on the phone singing Happy Birthday it was the perfect alarm clock. Then my oldest sister called and then I talked to my friend Bracken and we sang the 'Banana song'. Singing that song was such a treat!!! (for those of you who don't know the banana song it rocks, ask me one day when you see me in person)

My school day was 'same-same' except I was surprised by gifts from my co-workers and then a mini birthday party at the end of the day. After school I met up with some of my friends and we went to a vegetarian buffet and then to this great bar called the 'Ethnic Bar'. The "Ethnic Bar' is super cool. You walk down into it and it's super dark with candles and funky material hanging from the ceiling. You get your own little space for your group where you sit on pillows and get served fancy drinks. So far I've been to two different ones and both have been amazing, this specific one even has a shallow pool in the middle with goldfish.

On the weekend I went for a great run/hike near my house. I discovered all these amazing trails and I felt like I was in a Ontario forest for a bit. It was super hot and sunny! I could smell the pine and the air was so ffresh! As I was jogging I ran up and saw a pink Hoola-Hoop hanging in the tree! So you can imagine what happened next-there I was in the middle of the forest with a few random Koreans walking by hoolahooping :)

On Saturday night my friends Maria and Ethan had a rooftop B-B-Q. We drank and played a game very similar to the washer game from home (Ethan built it, it was pretty good, not as good as my Dads though ;) ) . We had a great night of games, drinking and eating! Three of my fav. things!

I slept over at Maria and Ethans's so that we could get up early-ish and go to a Bamboo Forest. Despite being pretty shmamered the night before we managed to get up and be on the road around 11. The forest was fantastic, it was my my first time in a Bamboo forest and I can truly say I was impressed. I learned that Bamboo is closer to the grass family than the tree family and that Bamboo is super bendy (as I tried to shimmy my way up one). I managed to swing from a couple but didn't get to far up. Ethan did the best as he got about 10 feet up. It was great to get out of the city for the day as I had almost forgotten what complete silence is like.

Now to talk a little about this 'Am I 27 or 28' business. In Korea they believe that when you are born you are a year old. Therefore by Korean standards I am in 28 years old. However, I don't buy it for one minute I'm going to stick with my western age of 27.

It's mid-week now and I'm looking forward to next weekend. I'm heading to Seoul to take my level one Reiki course from and American Reiki Master who is living there. I'm really excited about it as it's been a long time since I've looked forward to learning something new. Again thanks for all the amazing messages and gifts, I'm so lucky to have so many great friends and family.

Hugs and kisses from Gwangju!

Spring has Sprung (sorry to all those under 50cm of fresh snow)

Yo Yo,

It's Sunday night and another weekend has come to end. I am so amazed how time seems to be excelerated here in South Korea. The weeks fly by and if you blink you'll miss the weekend!

On Saturday I went for a run/hike near my apartment. It was a gorgeous day with lots of sun and no clouds. I'm so lucky to live near a part of the city that has many smaller mountains and tones of hiking/walking trails. As I was running I stopped to take some pictures of the view and looked up at a tree branch to see my first bud of the season. I couldn't help but smile and think of how beautiful it will be once all the trees are in bloom . So of course I took some pics! :) :) :)

Also this weekend I went to a Kendo Martial Art exhibition. 'What's that?' you might ask. Well, its what they do in the Last Samurai and officially : Kendo (剣道, kendō?), or "way of the sword", is the Japanese martial art of fencing. Kendo developed from traditional techniques of Japanese swordsmanship known as kenjutsu. It was wild and semi scary! We watched the kendo Students and Masters as they practiced and then saw a few actual fights. We then got to borrow our own bamboo swords and give it a go. It was pretty tough and a good work out if you really got into it. At the end we got to hit our instructor (no worries he was fully armored) over the head! It was a great experience to watch and try although I think it's a bit to aggressive for me :)

Today I went to a soccer game at the World Cup Stadium right beside my apt. The teams that were playing were from the Pro Korean League (I'm not sure what to compare that to though, my American friends said it might be a bit like the American Soccer League). It was a good game not super thrilling but nonetheless a soccer game on a Sunday afternoon is never a bad thing in my books.

I hope that all of you who are buried under 50cm of new snow are surviving. I can't believe that I'm missing this snow! Last year I had a snowboarding pass and we didn't get any real snow until the end of January and it was gone by mid-March.

Thinking of you guys lots and sending big hugs and kisses!!

P.S. For some reason the spacing on my blog never goes the way I put it, so please excuse the random space and non-space.

My First 10k Race :) :) :)

Bonjour mes Amie,

Saturday was my 1/4 year anniversary here in South Korea. It's hard to believe that I've been here for three months already. Although when I talk to my friends and family at home it feels like I've been gone forever! So, that means 9 months to go and as I described it to some of my close friends in Ottawa the other night it just like having a baby, 9 months of good and bad!

So on Saturday I ran in a 10km road race. It was part of a bigger run involving a marathon, 1/2 marathon and a 5k. It was such a cool experience. The week leading up to it I was super paranoid that I wasn't going to able to do it. So I set and attained the goal of finishing without walking. The course was fairly easy with a few up-hill and downhills but nothing to serious.

I've ran all my life for soccer or just to keep in shape (oh yeah and the couple years Lisa Haddow and I ran x-country, purely b/c our coach was cute..hehehe) but never have I ran under the scenarios of this passed weekend.

The race started and finished at the World Cup Stadium 15 minutes from my house. It was so exciting as the full and the half marathon took off before the 10 and 5k. The races were started with fireworks! There were probably about 10-15 foreigners running in the race and I ran with a Korean and a American friend for most of the time. When it was time for our race we got ready at the start line by everyone giving one another massages. I got the best 10 second massage to turn around and see that is was from a sweet older Korean woman.

Once into the run we were greeted by many cheers mostly Koreans yelling 'highting' which is fighting and sorta like us saying Go - Go - Go . They had marching bands all along the course as well as water/tomato/joe louis stations!!! The Joe Louis looked so good but as I ran by them trying to grasp my breath I could not fathom putting a chocolate cake into my mouth! It was neat as I ran with friends at the beginning of the race and then finished by myself. I felt well most of the race until the final uphill which was at about 7kms. I just kept thinking left foot-right foot-left foot-right foot and then the urge to stop passed. The last 500metres was a loop of the World Cup Stadium track and that was the most exciting part of the race for me. Running into a huge stadium felt really good and seeing the finish line and my friends on the side lines was sweet.

I had written on my msn before leaving home 'off to run my first 10k I hope someone is at the end with cold beer' and in no way did I think the cold beer would be there. BUT, two of my guy friends had come to cheer on our group of friends and they had BEER!!!! It was fantastic! Plus, they had a bunch of massage stations set up so we all got free leg massages! I ended up doing the race in 1:04:51 so now I have a time to beat for the next run :) :)