The Fourth Dimension

Hey everyone,

We have been the worst with updating the blog. I feel like our life here is really boring now because we have been trying to save money and we do pretty much the same stuff we've written about for the last 11 months. We're almost finished now - it's so crazy to think we'll be home in about a month!

One cool new thing we did was went to see a movie in 4-D. I think Korea is the only country in the world that offers it and it was pretty cool. Basically, it's a 3D movie but also your seats move around, you get wind and water sprayed in your face, and there are smells released throughout the movie. It was very weird and interesting but I don't think I'd want to see every movie that way - it made me a little motion sick after awhile. We saw Megamind and it was lots of fun.

Not much is new here. Korea's having a record cold winter and we've been freezing. Jesse has just finished his winter camp and has got lots of vacation coming up in the next month. My kindergarten kids are graduating at the end of February so we've begun the incessant rehearsals for their big graduation ceremony.

My contract isn't finished until March 15th, apparently so I will be home about 2 weeks after Jesse will, which is a bummer for me.

Hmm... what else is new?? We finished our Korean lessons with a ridiculously hard test which we all bombed, except Jesse of course, the star pupil.


Class of 2011

Next week has a 5 day weekend for Lunar New Year or Sollal. It's going to be great to have a break. I'll be spending it with my friend Jen from the South of Korea, going to her town and meeting her friends and having spa time and girl time. Jesse will probably tour an area of Korea that's more historical with lots of temples and stuff with some of our guy friends. We'll let you know how that was next week.

Anyway, sorry to be so boring. It's kind of a dull time of year, I think. Hope all is well back home. We'll be there so soon!!

Love,
Ali and Jesse

Beijing!

Hi everyone!

So we just got back from China and had a great trip. This might be a long blog, so let's just dive in.

We started holidays last Thursday and woke up with Ali's computer refusing to turn on so we decided to make a trip to the Mac store in Myong Dong, Seoul. We found out her hard drive is destroyed along with half the keyboard so, instead of replacing it, Ali will probably just need to get a new computer when she gets home. Consequently, we're now sharing a computer so it might be harder to find us on Skype as often.

Friday was New Year's Eve so we just spent the day running errands and getting ready for China and then, in the evening, we got a hotel near Jonggak, Seoul - where all the New Years festivities happen. We had dinner and met our friends at a bar and then braved the freezing temperatures to see the big countdown and concert near Jonggak station (a comparable event to what goes on in Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto). Right after midnight, we headed back to the hotel since we needed to be up at 5 for our flight.

We woke up early and flew to China, meeting our guide Baijing at the airport. He took us right to the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City is about 1 square kilometer big and was built by emperors in Ancient China for their private living quarters. It was pretty amazing and it backs on to Tian'anmen Square. It was surreal being in such a famous place where so many important historical events happened. Mao's giant portrait looked over us as we explored the massive city square.




After that we were taken to a Chinese silk factory where we learned about the silk making process and were pressured to buy things, but said no, having no money. Then we got lunch at a Chinese restaurant (obviously). We forgot how amazing and flavourful food can be!

After lunch we went to the Temple of Heaven, a massive temple on a hill, surrounded by a beautiful park. It was insanely beautiful and great to walk around the grounds.



That evening we went shopping in some crazy story that our guide compared to Walmart but that had almost no similarities to it. It was like a warehouse/maze jammed with tons of people. After that, we went to see an acrobatics show. It was very similar to the one we saw in Jeju-island but with less skilled performers and the theatre was freezing so it wasn't the most enjoyable part.

Then we went to dinner at a Peking Duck buffet. Beijing is famous for the duck and Jesse had some but said it was only okay. I wasn't feeling great, mostly because I was so tired so I didn't eat much and we just went back to the hotel after that.

The next morning, we woke up early and headed to the Great Wall. We passed the Olympic buildings from the Beijing Olympics, passing the Birds' Nest and the Water Cube.
On the way, we went to a jade store. China is famous for it's jade and it's really important in Chinese history. They showed us all the different kinds of jade and how they produce it and we bought ourselves some jade chopsticks for a souvenir.

Finally, we got to the Great Wall. It was just as incredible as we imagined it would be. We went to the most popular tourist spot of the wall, called Badaling, but it wasn't very crowded because it was winter and a holiday. It was really cold up on the wall but, once we started climbing, we warmed up quickly. We climbed past about six beacon towers, taking tons of pictures. It was absolutely amazing.



Then we headed to the Ming Tombs. There are 13 emperors tombs near the Great Wall but only two are opened and they were both under construction so we contented ourselves by looking at a small museum with artifacts from the tombs. It was a little boring but still okay.

After that, we got lunch at another Chinese restaurant. Whoever says American Chinese food is nothing like real Chinese food is wrong. It's pretty much the same, although we never saw spring rolls or chicken balls.

After lunch, we went back to the city and to a tea house. They showed us a traditional tea ceremony but it wasn't in English. After about 10 minutes, we realized they were speaking Russian to us so we told them we were English and everyone was quite embarrassed. We got an English speaking tea lady and heard the whole talk again. It was actually great - we tasted about 7 kinds of tea, all of which were amazing. Both of us loved thing one tea called ginseng oolong and so we bought some as well as some cool mugs to take home.

After that, we were left to our own devices for the evening so we walked to a nearby mall and looked around and got Pizza Hut for dinner, not wanting the challenge of reading a Chinese menu.

The next day we woke up early again and headed to the Summer Palace. It is a massive man-made lake and tons of buildings and gardens that the emperor built for his summer getaway. It was stunningly beautiful in the winter so I can only imagine how incredible it is in summertime. We spent a few hours walking around and exploring the different amazing sights the palace had to offer.




Then we went to a Chinese Pearl store and saw how they collect the pearls, the different types of pearls and we even saw pearls that came from the very lake the Summer Palace was built on. Very cool.

After that we headed into old Beijing to see the Hutongs. A hutong is basically a narrow lane from ancient Beijing that families have lived in for generations. We got a rickshaw tour of the hutongs and got to meet a family who lived there. Their son was in America teaching kung fu and his dad showed us some cool kung fu moves.



After that, we got lunch again, at a Chinese place near our hotel. We had the rest of the afternoon off, as well as the next day to ourselves.

Having seen all the most popular tourist sights in Beijing already, we went to the one we next most wanted to see. It was the Capital Museum, housing tons of important Chinese art and artifacts. It also had a really cool photography exhibit of modern Beijing, which we both really liked.


We met our guide again the next afternoon and went to the airport to head home.

Now we're both back to school but we had a great time in Beijing. Absolutely amazing.

Talk to you soon!
Ali and Jesse

A ROKing Christmas

Hey Everyone!! I apologize in advance because our light was leaking and dripped on my keyboard so my Enter key and question mark don't work so this may be a jumble of unorganized text. First off, MERRY CHRISTMAS all!! Thanks to everyone who sent us gifts and cards and who Skyped us on Christmas morning... you made our Christmas really special. We had a great Christmas. I had been dreading Christmas for months, worried it would make me so homesick to be away from home but all our friends here were in the same boat and we made it really fun, actually. At my school this week, we had a Christmas party with all the kids and Santa came. It was so cute and they were very excited. Christmas here isn't as big a deal as back home. For adults, it's mainly a couples holiday, not a family day so couples may go on dates but everyone else just sort of carries on as usual. Kids get gifts but Santa isn't as big a deal and they aren't nearly as excited as they are back in Canada. We did a secret Santa with my staff and, as I mentioned previously, I got our school's director. I ended up getting him a bottle of whiskey, after much worrying and debating, but he ended up making a reservation for the staff at the most expensive restaurant in Uijeongbu, not paying for anything, and then not even showing up to the dinner, leaving his gift (anti-aging cream) to one of the Korean teachers to pass along. So, he wasn't there for the gift exchange and never mentioned getting a gift or thanking me so... I guess it was fine in the end... On Christmas eve, all our friends got together at our friends', Mallory and Karen's apartment for a Christmas eve party. We all brought different dishes from back home and there was a great meal of roasted chicken, corn, broccoli, carrots, peas, gravy, egg nog, mulled wine, tons of desserts, mashed potatoes, and much more. Everyone was dressed in festive clothes and they had their apartment decorated like crazy and carols blasting. Some of our pals at the party.
Jesse in his most festive gear.

Then, on Christmas morning, we woke up early, excited for opening gifts. Jesse got me tons of DVDs, a Roots hoodie, and a necklace and I also got to open gifts from Alison and my mom, which was great. I got Jesse tons of clothes, some DVDs, a nice watch, and some chocolate. We spent the morning Skyping friends and family, eating shortbread and chocolate and watching a Muppets Christmas Carol. Before we started opening gifts.
All our new presents!
Our cards from home.

Oh! I copied and pasted an 'Enter' so now I can organize this better.... Anyway, these are photos from our Christmas morning.

At about 1:00 we got ready to head into Itaewon for our Christmas dinner. We had made a reservation for 29 at the Wolfhound, an Irish pub that does a huge turkey dinner. Turkey is basically impossible to find in Korea and almost no Koreans have ever tried it. Anyway, we met our friends there around 3 and ate tons of Christmas-y foods and talked and hung out. Around 6:30, we were stuffed and tired so we headed back home and watched Friends (one of my Christmas gifts).

Me in my new hoodie, Jesse in a new shirt having Christmas dinner.

Our friends all chowing down.

It was a great Christmas, all in all, but we missed everyone back home a lot.

Sick travel plans and just plain sick

Hi All,

This weekend, Jesse and I headed into Seoul to Xanadu travel agency and just decided to bite the bullet and book something for our winter vacation. We decided to book a 4-day, 3-night trip to Beijing. It sounds pretty great, actually. We'll fly out New Year's Day so we get to spend New Year's in Seoul with our friends. We'll have our own private English-speaking tour guide and will get to see all the big sights - the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, and tons of other cool stuff. We'll be in Beijing for the whole time. Jesse and I are both really excited for that.
The rest of Saturday we just spent doing our Korean homework and watching movies to try to save some money after blowing so much at the travel agent. That night we went to see the new Narnia movie, which was only so-so.

That night I got a really bad flu and Jesse has been battling a cold for awhile so we both just spent Sunday lying around and feeling sick. So that brings us to our new week.

This week at my school we're not doing anything particularly exciting. Our staff has our Christmas party on Friday night. We did a secret Santa and I, unfortunately, picked my school's owner and director who speaks no English and is one of the top 6 richest men in Korea so the 10 dollar limit will result in a present he's totally thrilled about, I'm sure.

Jesse's busy planning for his winter camp, which is coming up soon. Not much else is new here. We're both getting excited for Christmas and China but that's about it.

Hope all is well back home!
Ali and Jesse

Hospitals and Christmas Countdowns

Hi everyone,

Another week passed and now we're only about 12 weeks from coming home!

There haven't been any significant developments between North and South Korea - it seems to have blown over for now.

School is the same as ever - nothing new to report. The weather here is pretty mild compared to how early December usually is back home so we're enjoying it while it's lasting. We had one light dusting of snow which didn't last long but that's all so far.

This weekend, Jesse and I made a massive subway trek to Gangnam, a city South of Seoul. We went there because one of Jesse's favorite students, Hanseul, was in the hospital and we wanted to visit her. She's 7 years old and needs a walker to get around so, from what we understood, she was getting surgery on her legs to either help her walk better or to prevent further problems. Anyway, the poor little girl is out of school for three months and both her legs were in pink casts when we got there. We brought her some English books because she loves books and speaking English and wants to be an English author one day. It was actually really nice to visit her. She's cute as a button and super smart and we just chatted with her for about 40 minutes about all sorts of stuff. I think she was really happy to have visitors and she loves Jesse, clearly.

After that, we headed into Seoul where our friend, Jen, from South Africa, was having a goodbye party. She's been here for a year and a half and is heading home on Tuesday. It was at an Irish pub called the Wolfhound and it was good to eat delicious food and hang out with everyone for the evening. Jen is awesome and it will be sad to see her go but her replacement was there and she seems really cool.

On Sunday, Jesse did his homework for his AQ course and I did some Christmas shopping - nothing exciting.

We're still doing our Korean lessons but I'm losing patience with myself for not learning it faster. We showed our text books to Hanseul and she said "too easy!" and laughed her guts out.

Anyway, that's about all that happening for us right now. Christmas is right around the corner and everyone is getting into the Christmas spirit. I have my students learning a million Christmas carols and making all sorts of decorations for our classrooms.

I hope all of you are also feeling merry these days,

Talk soon,

Ali and Jesse

Irish Pubs & Ice Hockey

Hey everyone, it's been awhile since a proper update, so we'll give one this time with all of the latest shenanigans that we're involved in.

As you've probably heard, North Korea fired artillery shells at a South Korean island that's only 12 km away from North Korea's coast. As it stands now, U.S.A. has just started going through some drills and war games with South Korea, which had been planned well ahead of the attack. North Korea is saying that if these drills go one inch into their waters than they will attack. Since U.S. has a lot of firepower here for these drills, South Korea is not too worried. South Korea really doesn't want a war. When they were originally attacked, they waited for 13 mins before firing one third of what North Korea fired at them and the government is coming under pressure that they should've responded much heavier to North Korea. So that fact might help ease your mind.

Anyway, on to less missile-heavy matters, last weekend I went into Seoul early on Friday because I was going to see a show with other public teachers called "Miso" (Korean for beautiful smile) and my co-teacher told me to go in early and see this traditional palace where they do a ceremony of changing the guards. So I went in early, took some pictures, and did some sightseeing all by myself, a first time thing for me here.




The show was really good and there was no language problem since it was pretty much non-verbal. At the beginning the screen laid out the whole story in multiple languages so you could understand what would be coming. The performers were dressed in the traditional Korean attire and did a lot of dancing and acrobatic moves.


The next night was Ali's co-worker's boyfriend's birthday so we went into Seoul again (well again for me) and went to this Irish pub. The birthday boy's friend owned the pub and had just opened it so we had a private room with lots of free food. We met some new people including a really nice couple, Ryan and Katie, who had been in Korea for a few months and didn't know that many people based on being the only teachers at their school. We hit it off and made plans to do some stuff in the future. Normally, we just kind of like pub food, but being somewhere where you don't eat it much just makes the times you do eat it so much better.

Sunday, we went to a double feature at the movies. "Let Me In" and "The Social Network" both really good. It was a good weekend as we did some stuff we hadn't done before, which had been becoming rare lately.

This weekend had a few more new things for us to experience. First though, we did an American Thanksgiving dinner with our American friends at VIPS, our go-to buffet restaurant in Uijeongbu. They don't have turkey, but there's lots of other Western food which is probably the best you can do down here for a Thanksgiving imitation.

Saturday was a day we'd been looking forward to for awhile: the hockey game. Now no one would think they have hockey in Korea and well... they kind of don't. There's an Asia Hockey League between Japan, South Korea and China comprised of 7 teams. South Korea has 2 of those 7 and neither of them are in Seoul, so hockey is still under the radar in this country. We went to Anyang which is South of Seoul and a 90 min ride on the subway for us. The arena is small and only seats roughly 1200 fans and 20% of those are probably foreigners. We went with 2 of our friends from Ali's work plus Ryan and Katie, the couple we met the week before. It was actually a pretty fun game with Anyang Halla (don't know what Halla is supposed to mean) losing to the Japanese team, Oji Eagles, 3-2 in overtime. Of course the skill level wasn't up to the same standard as the NHL but it wasn't bad. It was a pretty competitive game throughout. Both teams have a few Foreign players as well so you can still boo someone knowing that they probably understood you.


Work is still the same. I have 13 weeks left and 3 of those are vacation weeks, so that should be fun. Christmas is just around the corner so we bought a Christmas tree. Nothing too big. The weather is around -4 as a low and +8 as a high so pretty close to back home.

The not-so-big tree.

Well that's all for now. Bye!

Yeonpyeong Island

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11825445

Hi everyone!

I don't know if you've heard the recent developments between the North and South but I posted the BBC link above if you haven't followed it. We're all safe and sound here. The island is really far North, right up by North Korea and it's been disputed for ages, it doesn't seem like anywhere else is in danger right now. My South Korean colleagues are, once again, displaying great skepticism about the whole thing and they are positive it won't result in a response from the South. They were right with the sinking of the Korean warship in March so they are probably right again. Anyway, the Canadian embassy is on the alert and will contact us if things begin to escalate so don't worry!

Other than that, everything here is still just peachy.

All the best,

Ali and Jesse