My first stop...

So I know it's a little bit late to start blogging considering I'm halfway through my trip. But better late than never, right? I apologize in advance for grammar and spelling mistakes- let's just blame them all on my
iPhone autocorrect and not on me- okay?

The night of March 2nd was our last night in Korea. After a delicious last meal of Uzbek with everyone, Conor and I headed back to our tiny apartment to finish packing. Kim came over and we all decided it was a good idea to just stay up all night. We watched Life of Pi, cleaned, packed. Very early (maybe 5am?) we got into our cab and headed to the bus station.

It was a strange feeling leaving Korea, my home for the past year and a half. Honestly to this day I feel like it was all surreal. Saying goodbye to my students was so much harder than I expected. I had such a great time in Ansan!

Anyway, Conor and I had been planning this trip since October. Our first stop was the Philippines.

It was a great feeling leaving cold Korea and entering warm Philippines. We were heading to the island of Puerta Princesa to a beach El Nido. Our friends, Jenny and Jason, had been there a few months earlier. It looked awesome based on Jenny's blog, and seemed like a relaxing first stop.

We had an 8 hour "lay over" in Manila before our next flight so we headed to the Mall of Asia, the biggest mall in Asia. To waste time we decided to go see a movie (and we had our heavy backpacks on and didn't want to walk around for 8 hours). With limited choices we settled for Jack, The Giant Slayer. Despite it's exciting tale, Conor and I passed out almost immediately in the theater. We were exhausted. After some more wasted time we headed to the tiny airport to make our way to Puerta Princesa.

After a night in Puerta Princesa, we were picked up early the next day for a van ride to El Nido. 7 hours and a winding ride later we were here. El Nido was like something out of a postcard. I was so happy and relieved to be somewhere settled for the next few days.

We heard of this beautiful beach called Napcan- so naturally we rented a moped to go find it. I say naturally because we acted as if we were moped professionals. Yes, of course we can follow this hand drawn map (we got lost). Yes, we've driven mopeds many times before (once). What! We have to wear helmets! (Helmets are for nerds!) An hour of bumpy roads and getting slightly lost we made it. Deserted, white sands, the clouds look painted- it was one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen. We found a restaurant and had a great meal where I am convinced they killed a chicken on site when we ordered and fed it to us. Nom nom nom. Side note- this trip has proven to me that chickens are dumb, ugly, stupid creatures.

The next day we went on a snorkeling tour. We mostly saw sea urchins which was just annoying because you have to be so careful not to step on them. BUT we went to some cool lagoons and had a really great lunch made by locals. It was nice to just be in the water all day.

Our trip to El Nido was coming to an end and we were heading back toward Manila. On our van ride back to Puerta Princesa we were told to sit in the front seat. You would think it would've been better- air conditioning blasting on us, front row view to the action. But I think it was more cramped and uncomfortable. We made it back in one piece and were on our way back to Manila.

Manila at night is a dark and scary place. We arrived late and our cab driver was seriously lost. He also instructed us to lock our doors once we entered a certain neighborhood, and pointed out a bridge where he "used to live under". We finally got to our hotel and were comforted by the fact that our fave show, the Biggest Loser, was on. In the morning we headed out through China town. After a bit we got in a cab to head back closer to the airport.

As many of you know, Conor has taught for two years in Korea. His first year was in Daejon and his second, in Ansan with me. In Daejon, Conor met his 'noona' (Korean word for older sister)- Nicole. Nicole ended up moving to the Philippines to work for her uncle at a fancy hotel. We were going to see her for the rest of the afternoon until our flight. The Maxxims hotel was high class all the way. I was so happy to escape from scary Manila for a bit. To say that Nicole hooked us up for the day is just an understatement. She scheduled us massages at the nicest spa I've ever been in, got a private driver to take us to the mall, took us to Shabu Shabu dinner, hired a car to drive us to the airport and had a lady at the airport speed our process up. We could not thank her enough for all she did for us that day! It was the perfect end to our first stop, the Philippines.

My Korean Thanksgiving...

Sadly, we did not celebrate American Thanksgiving at school.  I was really hoping that day a turkey and mashed potatoes would miraculously show up and we’d be able to feast.  Sadly, this didn’t happen.  To be honest, I kept forgetting it was Thanksgiving.   When I did remember though, I was a little sad.  It was one of the first times since I’ve been here that I wish I was home.  Or I wish I could teleport home for 3 days and then come back.

To ease our depression, all of my friends from school decided we’d have our own Thanksgiving on Saturday.  We’d all cook something Thanksgivingish and bring it over to our friends’ (mom did I put the apostrophie in the right place haha!) Cassie and Adam’s place.  With my limited space and accessibility to foods, I ended up making pasta (and way too much pasta at that).  But we had pot pie, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, pies, wine… the works! 

It was so fun and nice to celebrate in the best way we could.  Although I think I want to be home next year for a real Thanksgiving with my family!

My trip to the lantern festival...

I’m not exactly sure how many years the lantern festival has been going on for, it seems relatively knew- but seriously what do I know?

My friend Kissairis and I have been trying to “do something fun” on Wednesday’s to split up our week.  No, we don’t hate our jobs… it’s just nice to have something to look forward to every once in a while. Usually our Wacky Wednesday’s as we like to call them involve just treating ourselves to dinner.  But one week we heard about the lantern festival we decided to take our Wednesday’s to a new level. 

The lanterns are in Seoul, of course what isn’t in Seoul, so we took the subway after work for about an hour.  After a few transfers we had made it.   I didn’t really know what I was expecting. I thought it might just be beautiful lanterns… boy was I wrong.  These lantern’s were the size of floats in the Macy’s Day parade.  They were huge!

It was really cool to walk along the canal and just see these giant lanterns.  They were very beautiful!

My Korean Halloween...

Halloween.  A day of fun, candy, trick or treating, costumes.  I was so happy that in Korea we go to celebrate completely at school.  I couldn’t wait to see my kids all dressed up in their cute costumes.  The week before we practices all the words associated with Halloween- cat, witch, monster and of course- candy.  The kids all told me what they were going to dress up as- princesses and power rangers were the top choice (also convenient because we were learning about the letter P that week too!).

Before the actual day, we had lots of preparations to do.  We wanted to make it special and fun for the kids (or special and fun for us?).  There were many games to be planned, activities to be done and of course trick or treating.  Finally we came up with these ideas- face painting, a “Frankenstein” show with a mad scientist, haunted house, and relay games.  Each classroom was designated to a different activity and the kids ran around all from room to room playing.  And once all activities had been finished- it was time to unleash the beasts and let them trick or treat in each room. 

Candy in Korea is not the same.  Since I’ve been here I’ve yet to see a Reeses Cup.  Although disappointing, it was probably best I didn’t have access to those- a minute on the lips is forever on the lips you know?  The candy here is pretty much all hard fruit flavored candy.  Obviously that didn’t stop my kids from going to town on those little bad boys.  We had decorated candy bags earlier, so each kid had their own bag to put all their treats in.

One final note on Halloween, I was very surprised and proud of my kids throughout the haunted house.  It was pitch black, there were teachers popping out and scaring kids at the end of it- but none of my kids cried.  I guess they’re just used to having scary Anne Teacher all the time nothing else can scare them? Hmm…

 These princess girls are 7 years old, I teach them science on Tuesday

My first SLP trip...

Once a month my boss, Mr. Jeong, likes to take all the teachers out on a Saturday for a day trip.  It’s a really nice thing that we do at SLP.  It allows us to spend the day together and just relax.  Oh, and there’s always lots of beer involved.  Some might think this is crossing the line… that your boss provides you with drinks and good times, but in Korean that’s what they do.  And when in Rome…

The first trip I went on was to an Island not too far away.  We had to take a ferry ride that was about 1.5 hours away.  We had planned to go on a “small hike” on a mountain and then sit, relax and drink on the beach.  Once we got to the Island, and found a guide to take us on the hike there was the option given to skip the hike.  Now don’t be me wrong, climbing up a mountain sounds cool and all; but if given the option to sit on the beach and drink beers instead- I think we all know which way I’d go. 

So a few girls and I skipped the hike, took the cooler, and made our way to the beach.  It ended up being a beautiful day, we went swimming in the shallow water, basked in the sun, and enjoyed the moment together.  We had brought snacks and had our own little picnic.  And we also had some well deserved “girl time talk”, it was really great.  Later when we met up with everyone we ate Korean BBQ (cooking meat on a personal griller) and then went home.  It was really fun, and really nice of Mr. Jeong to pay for all of his staff to just be able to enjoy a day together.  Can’t wait for the next trip!

My sports day...

Every year at SLP for the kindergarten classes they hold a day even t on a Saturday.  Sports day is kind of like a giant color war.  Two teams- blue and white- competing in silly games for no real prize.  However, this fun idea is taken to a new level.  Not only do the kids compete, but their parents (who have been drinking all day) are competing too.  Let me just say, Korean mothers are quite competitive!

It ended up being a beautiful day for sports day.  All the teachers showed up wearing black (although we were on respective teams but I honestly can’t even remember what team I was on).  We rented out a schools soccer field for the day.  Competitions included- mothers racing trying to grab the “prize” at the finish line (prizes included- toilet paper, toothpaste, zip-lock bags), tug-of-war, and other relay races.  It was so hilarious to see these women, who might have trained for this, race and push each other to win!

I have to admit I was a little nervous that day, it was the first time I was going to meet all my children’s parents.  I put on my cute face, was nice and polite.  I had nothing to be worried about considering we don’t speak the same language.  We were happy to meet each other, they laughed at my attempt to speak in Korean, and they were happy to see their children love me.  All in all, it was pretty good.

Of course my 5-year-old babies could care less about the competition parts of the day.  It’s always fun though to have a day off from teaching and just be able to play together, without the pressure of “learning” involved. 

Let the games begin!

My trip to the farm...

Hello everyone!  Sorry it’s been a very long time since my last post.  However, we can all agree that sometimes once we put something off for long enough we feel silly going back to it.  But I’ve really been meaning to post… so now everyone can enjoy a few posts!!

JeJu farm is a farm owned by my school SLP.  Once a year in the fall we take the kids there to have a “farm day experience”.  I’m not going to lie, I went in very apprehensive.  I was just imagining there to be something weird going on at the farm.  Yes I was judging the Korean farm before I had even seen it.  But, let me tell you, Koreans know how to farm just like Americans do!

*Here is the inside of the buses we take anywhere... its like a 70s disco party in there

It was a dairy farm so there were cows like everywhere (my dream come true).  The farm was small, but there were so many activities for the kids to do.  We “made” ice cream by whisking milk over ice until its frozen and adding chocolate syrup, we milked a cow, we fed cows, went on a hayride, and had a picnic!   Although, the picnic was filled with kimbop and dumplings.  Yes, I’m still in Korea.

Overall it was a great day.  Everyone had a great time!  Oh, and all the kids wore their green and black SLP jumpsuits… enjoy….

 

<-- This is YeSeo, she is one of my favorites.  She’s hilarious and her English is pretty great.  She is super creative and always has an elaborate story to tell me.  And she tells me every day that her dad is fat.