A Typical Canadian Winter Snowfall...

...is was deemed to be the WORST snowstorm to hit South Korea in over 45 years.  Closing the schools, making driving virtually impossible and forcing all individuals to pull out the umbrellas to stop from getting wet!

Now, I have my own conclusions as to way this snowstorm caused such havic, but first, some pictures.

Outside our apartment window, we watched them attempting to shovel.  We truly did not realize how unequipped they were until we ventured into the town and noticed that shovels were a novelty - the majority of people were using dustpans and brooms.

Then my favourite - the umbrellas.  They were everywhere ..and at first I giggled, thinking - "it's not raining, why on earth do people have umbrellas!"  But then I realized, their hair isn't getting wet, and they look cute and accessorized while they walk.  Genius.  I am bringing 12 umbrellas home, one to match with every outfit.

It was actually quite a beautiful day ...but it was incredibly amusing to see how our new world faired with something extremely typical in our home.  Not so well.  In fact, until last week when it got mild again, the sidewalks were still covered in snow and ice - no one shovels them.  It makes walking to work interesting to say the least. And the roads weren't plowed for days, apparently there is only one snowplow for an area the size of Halton.

 I think it's safe to say - we aren't in Canada anymore.

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Month 4: December 2009

Well ...not only is Month 4 down and December gone, but so is 2009.  How on earth are the years flying by so quickly?  I remember being told when I was younger that the older you get, the quicker time seems to go - and some days, I am feeling very old.

That being said, this year was definitely a life changing one in so many ways.  Last year at New Years Matt (Wayne's best friend at home) told him he saw big things for him this year, he winked over his shoulder at me and I crossed my fingers then and there that those big things may include something that sparkles:)  Little did I know that the big things were more in the rice and foreign language department.

But even though this year may not have ended exactly where I pictured it (or anywhere close to where I started it) it has been a good one, and even though time does fly faster the older you get, I also think that you gain a much clearer perspective with age.  This Christmas really showed me how much I love home and everyone there, I couldn't have missed it more.  But it also showed me that everyone is still there, and that they still will be when this adventure is over.  Just as supportive as before I left.

December brought Christmas and China ...and I have to say - I am really accomplishing a lot since my time here:

• So far I have eaten almost 4 boxes of Cheerios
• I am currently reading my 10th book
• I now know a great deal more about geography (for instance, I am well aware now that Korea is not in the continent of China ...amazing, I know)
• I have finally been able to give up my true vice at home: chips (but oh how I dream of them)
• I can eat mostly anything and everything with chopsticks
• I can say "Thank You" in Korean (yes, that's it ...STILL)
• I have downloaded and watched 3 seasons of Survivor and so far the first season of Ally McBeal

Okay - I may need to work on that list slightly, but you can definitely see where my priorities lie:)

I think that's about it, I am starting to look forward to and anticipate some visits.  Matt comes in March and my parents are coming in April, I am keeping my fingers crossed on a couple other important ones, so we will see what happens.  I haven't really set out any resolutions this year - mostly because I really just believe they are ways to start off the year with disappointing yourself when you crack, but if I think hard about it I am certain that included in those would be maintaining and holding close the relationships with family and friends that are more important to me than anything, and really accomplishing what I came here to do - pay off debt! My mom will be very proud of me for that statement.

So I wish everyone well for 2010, keep in touch and stay close because I miss you every single day.

xoL

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Beijing - Christmas Vacation - DAY 3 & 4

I decided to break this into 2 blogs because it's a lot to take in on one, however, I didn't take into consideration that when I posted them I should have done it in reverse order so that you could read in the correct order ...oh well, sue me!

DAY 3:

Before I started my trip my mom warned me not to do any protesting in China, specifically in Tian’anmen Square. She has heard about what happened back in the 1980s with the protestors being killed, and was obviously worried that Wayne & I may fall into some type of similar situation. Thankfully we were able to avoid this.

Day 3 started with our visit to Tian’anmen Square, which definitely has an interesting history, but doesn’t take longer than 10 minutes to visit and see everything.



The history:

TIAN’ ANMEN

Initially built in the 18th year (1420) of Emperor Yongle’s reign in the Ming Dynasty. Tian’anmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace) was the south gate to the Imperial City during the Ming and Qing dynasties. On October 1, 1949, the founding of the People’s Republic of China was solemnly proclaimed here, and Tian’anmen has since become the symbol of China and its capital Beijing. The largest city square in the world, Tian’anmen Square is directly south of Tian’anmen. In the center stands the Monument to the People’s Heroes, behind which is Chairman Mao Memorial Hall. On the west side is the Great Hall of the People, and on the east, the National Museum of China. The square serves as the site of grand assemblies on important and festive occasions.

Once you move through the Gate you enter what is known as the Imperial Palace or The Forbidden City. To walk through the Forbidden City took close to 2 hours and was full of incredible architecture and beautiful structures.

History:

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

The Palace Museum, formerly known as the Forbidden City, was the Imperial Palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Over a span of more than 560 years, 24 Emperors lived there. It houses a great variety of rare cultural relics and works of art. Covering 720,000 square meters, the Forbidden City is the largest and the most complete complex of ancient palatial structures extant. It constitutes a component in the world treasure-house of culture and art. Globally noted for its magnificence, the Forbidden City     i                                                             is attracting numerous tourists both from home and abroad.

Why is it called the Forbidden City? Damned if I know, I couldn’t understand the tour guide.

It was a morning full of history and exploring ...exactly what we signed up for. However, before we could eat we needed to ensure that we were taken advantage of just one more time before the day was complete. So we went to see the doctors. (oops, I think I confused that and put it in the last blog. Oh well, live with it.)

After lunch, while the rest of the tour moved on to go shopping for fakes (purses, watches, etc.) Wayne & I, along with the family that we had made friends with excused ourselves to go back to our hotel and enjoy the rest of the day on our own.

After a much needed nap, Wayne & I set out on our own Chinese adventure, on foot, with no idea where to go. So we went right, and walked straight until we found a restaurant where we wanted to eat. It was nice to simply walk around and experience the area, taking in all of the buildings where people live and the stores where they shop every day. While it is somewhat familiar and similar to Korea, it is also drastically different at the same time.

After over half an hour of walking we found a restaurant called Fancy and had wine. We were sold! And even though we were in China, I can’t tell you how amazing it was to browse through a menu with food choices that I recognized and to sip a glass of wine, both experiences that I have not had in the past 3 months. We even found some cute little stores to do some shopping in ...and the best news ever, the shopping was authentic and cheap!






The last part of our day, may have been one of our favourite – the best purchase we made the entire trip – a case of Redbull. We couldn’t have been more excited!

DAY 4:

Day 4 was simply our travel home and while it took us over 10 hours door to door, it was very relaxed and pretty uneventful. And if there is one thing that makes your ‘home away from home’ feel that much more like your home, it’s leaving it for a few days and realizing how comfortable it is to return.

Overall our trip was amazing. We had a ton of fun and we got to see the majority of the attractions that we wanted to see – Wayne may just make a traveller out of me one of these days.

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Beijing - Christmas Vacation - DAY 1 & 2

Our trip to China was one of the best adventures that I have ever had. I have never been a traveller, and I had no idea what to expect. Wayne, being the traveller and having been to Beijing before was excited for weeks leading up to the trip. Me on the other hand, well, little by little I am swaying more onto his team but I’m not going to lie – this history stuff has never been me so all I really wanted to do was escape for our Christmas break and have some fun together.


Our trip started at 4am when we got up to get ready and to have a quick Christmas skype date with my family. It officially started when we left our apartment at 6:30 and decided to take a cab to the airport rather than brave 2 different buses. This turned out to be a very good decision as things ended up being slightly more complicated once we got to the airport than we anticipated. This isn’t such a surprise when Wayne is in control of the organization. So after finally finding our travel agent and getting the details, and then waiting in line for about half an hour at the ticket booth, we were sent over to Immigration because apparently our Korean visas do not allow us to leave the Country and return without paying a fee ...oh how I love paying out money and not having pretty clothing to show for it.

The flight was only an hour and a half and we were greeted at the airport by our Korean tour guide. Yes I said Korean tour guide, and no, we do not speak Korean. This became extremely apparent to the other 30 (Korean) travellers in our tour group as they smirked in our direction at our entirely confused faces as directions and explanations were being given. Thankfully (and I cannot emphasize that word enough) there was a family that spoke some English and were amazing enough to translate the important stuff for us. That being said, imagine for yourself sitting on a bus, walking through historical landmarks all the while being entertained and informed by an extremely informed and engaging tour guide ...who doesn’t speak a word of your language. We had to be thankful that many buildings had signs that read in English, at least we knew where we were.

It became apparent over the course of the 4 days that we were there, that more and more of our fellow travellers spoke English, it just took them awhile to warm up to us and feel comfortable enough to talk to us. By the second day we were even having full conversations ...but again, never with our tour guide!

DAY ONE:

After we got off the plane and found the bus that would practically be our home for the next 4 days (after first trying to get onto a different bus and having the one family who had talked to us grab us at the last minute) we set out for some Chinese shopping. We were taken to an area that was extremely Westernized and given free time for 2 hours. We wandered around, looking through familiar stores and actually feeling very at home – it was more Canadian or American than anything I have experienced since coming to Korea and it felt good to shop in familiar surroundings. That being said, nothing was purchased because after being in Korea for 3 months I cannot fathom paying the prices that we pay back home for clothes. Don’t get me wrong, I will rejoin those ranks when I return  – but for now, I’m a bargain hunter. But oh those stores were beautiful and a sight for sore eyes and China was decorated amazingly for Christmas. It felt like New York.

Our final excursion for the first day was a Chinese Acrobatic Show that was incredible. It consisted of a line-up of Chinese Acrobatic groups, each performing different acts to music. There were contortionists, tossing humans, bicycles, complex balancing and climbing ...every single act had us amazed.

Day One was a long day, but a full one and a fun one and when apparently was preparing us for a succession of long days, starting out with Day Two that would start with our wake-up call at 6am.



DAY TWO:

Day Two began with a tour of the Summer Palace, here is a little history:

THE SUMMER PALACE

Situated at the foot of Xishan Mountain in Beijing, the Summer Palace, originally called the Garden of Clear Ripples, began to be built in 1750, the 15th year during Emperor Qianlong’s reign. Covering an area of 2.9 million square meters, the Summer Palace is chiefly formed by the Longevity Hill and the Kunming Lake. In the Summer Palace there is the Suzhou Street (Suzhou is a typical beautiful city of rivers and lakes in the South of the Yangtze River,) the Garden of Harmonious Interests (a small garden inside a garden,) and the longest Long Corridor in the world. The unique combination of natural beauty and exquisite architecture fully embodies the building style of ancient China’s imperial gardens. The Summer Palace ranks the first in well-kept imperial gardens throughout the world.

All this from postcards that Wayne & I bought that explained in detail the sites that we were seeing.

I will break in my history lesson to explain to you what we came to realize as the reason why we could travel to China with a package that included our flights, our hotel, all of our tours and our meals for under $300 ...while in China and partaking in these wonderful tours – the travel guides pimp you out. There is no other way to explain it and it happened to our entire group on multiple occasions and took place shamelessly.

Let me explain further. It all started after our trip to The Summer Palace. We were taken to a building that to me looked somewhat like an old abandoned factory or a run-down apartment building from the outside and told that for the next hour we would be shopping. Again, when you are being led around by a Korean tour guide and you are pretty much following blindly you are simply watching and waiting and wondering what might happen next.

Shopping may not have been the right term. Our entire group was led into a room and asked to sit down on chairs. Decorating the walls were pictures of babies and women being eaten by massive, disgusting looking creatures which I would later realize were germs. The germs that live inside your mattress. Yes, we were going to get the hard sell on these mattresses (in Korean) and then offered the opportunity to purchase these 5 inch mattresses for the incredible price of $2 thousand dollars ...hey, if it’s that expensive it really must save your babies life. Thankfully for English tourists on a Korean tour we could simply sit in the back and put our heads against the wall and sleep, but I have to say – I actually saw tourists purchasing these mattresses! There were probably about 5 tours there while we were there, imagine the business. They pay these tours to bring their groups to them, all in the hopes that they can swindle them into purchasing their materials.

Over the course of our trip we went to 3 different locations like this. The Mattress factory, a Tea House (where I actually wanted to purchase the teas that we sampled, but couldn’t fathom paying $20 for a tin the size of soup can) and a Doctors Office. Thankfully the doctors took the time to sit down with all of the tourists and explain to them that they were having issues with their livers, or their intestines or their hearts and that there were simple remedies that they could provide (for a price) to help. And all this with only touching their wrists, amazing I tell you.



And that is how the price of your trip gets lowered. Now, our next lesson – how to get free meals. One way to go about this is to take your bus full of tourists to a massive, overpriced, souvenir shop. In turn for the money that they will undoubtedly spend when you leave them there for over 2 hours, they provide free lunch. And let’s not forget about the ‘optional’ foot massage that will only cost you $5 and will award you with a free meal and takes place in a building much like the one where the mattresses were being pushed.

If you are going to do a tour like the one that we did, be aware. I was not. And while our little side trips were entertaining at the best of times and gave Wayne & I something to laugh about, and allowed us to be able to afford the trip – they preoccupied the majority of our time. We spent more time at the Souvenir Shop than we did at the Great Wall.

Continuing on with the agenda for Day Two – after The Summer Palace, and then the Mattress Hut, we got our free lunch by buying souvenirs and browsing for a couple hours through all that was being offered. We then set out for the Great Wall, which I quickly came to realize was Wayne’s own personal Disney World.

As soon as it came into view I could start to feel the excitement resonating out of him. He couldn’t sit still in his seat, he got this huge smile on his face and he started to pester me – which I know spells excitement. And I will admit, it was incredible. To be able to stand on such an important piece of history and experience it first-hand, you realize why it is one of the wonders of the world. That being said, I will not even hide the fact that I was extremely happy that we got to take a gondola up to the top, rather than walk it. But once up to the top, Wayne was determined to walk as much as possible in the 45 minutes allotted and I felt the pain. We even saw 2 women fall down because part of the wall was not steps, but a very steep ramp ...and let’s just say that not everyone was wearing sensible shoes.

A little history:

THE GREAT WALL

The Great Wall is a magnificent construction project in ancient China, one of the wonders in the history of human civilization. The construction of the Great Wall began in the 7th and 8th centuries B.C. During the period of over 2000 years, more than 20 Dukes or Princes and feudal dynasties contributed to the building of the Great Wall. It was listed as one of the world’s cultural heritages by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 1987. With its magnificent and splendour, the Great Wall is attracting an ever-growing number of tourists from all corners of the world.

Again, a post card.

Our day moved on to our ‘optional’ foot massage, where we were the only ones that opted out of the service, but were still thankfully fed dinner. We then boarded the bus to make our way to The Tea House that would work to sell us over-priced tea and then finally (after one more trip to an over-priced mall) ended just after 9pm where we fell into bed knowing that the wake-up call for 6am would come far too quickly.

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Christmas in Korea

This blog should definitely start off with the statement that it just wasn't the same.  Nomatter what you do, and nomatter how much you try to trick your mind into thinking that it is, Christmas without your family and without your traditions and everything that makes Christmas special, will never be the same.  That being said, to be able to spend it with the person that you love and in a place that is different will be an experience that I am sure neither one of us will ever forget.  It truly drives home how important it is to take what you have and make it as special as possible.

For us, I think that started about 5 weeks before Christmas came ...and started with the purchase of our Christmas tree.  And ohhhhh, what a tree it is.  Have a look.  I couldn't be more proud of myself for keeping the little tree alive - and you have no idea the extent to which we went to put decorations (including twinkle lights) onto it!

Then of course it was the Christmas movies.  And while Wayne was not always a willing participant he sat through quite a few:)  Another part of what really made this Christmas special for me was the skyping that I was able to do with both of my family Christmases.  There is nothing worse than knowing that events that you look forward to all year long are coming and going without you there, but this year of my families skyped me in to take part in the festivities! 

Because of the time difference this was slightly interesting - during the Eldridge Christmas I was out on the Saturday night until 4am and then came home and talked to everyone (slightly under the influence) until 5:30am!!  Then with the Rook Christmas that happens on Christmas day, Wayne & I got up extra early because we were leaving for China that morning and skyped in at 5:30am to be a part of that day!  So while I didn't get to taste the amazing hashbrown casserole or the brownies that I sometimes wake up at night dreaming about ...it helped.  And you will be happy to hear that I didn't even cry on Christmas day ...now, Christmas eve ...

Christmas at our school - where do I start.  I was really excited.  Christmas time is always really exciting with kids, just to feel their level of excitement and anticipation, it definitely gets you in the spirit.  Well, let's just say that Christmas at J&C left me feeling more like Scrooge than Santa.  It was the single most disappointing day that we have had at our school.  I won't go into it too much, because I want to be merry and all of that - but just the lack of organization and the lack of motivation from our leaders was disheartening.  And when we tried to turn it around ...anyways, enough of that ...I will say this, at least it did not end up with Chucky on screen.  This time around we watched Elf.

Here are some pics of the festivities.

Above are the kids getting ready to play in a bit of an obstacle race.  The rules and objectives were given in Korean, so I still can't really tell you what they were supposed to be doing!

The kids were all dressed in red, white or green ...very cute.

Christmas with Kids College was a different story. As I mentioned in an earlier blog - I had been teaching kindergarden for the week, so I got to know the majority of the kindergardens.  Because Wayne was an unknown to them, and maybe for other reasons, he was asked to play Santa for their Christmas party.  They were so excited when they were told that Santa would be coming!  And they were absolutely thrilled when he walked through the door.  One of the little girls even brought him a little baggie with some cookies and milk.  And while there were a few skeptics in the crowd - asking their teachers why Santa had a dark beard underneath his white beard ...for the most part, they all felt extremely special when Santa asked them if they had been good that year and rewarded each one with a gift.  Now that is Christmas and it was so fun to be a part of their excitement.

Some pics:

This is Fransisco:)

Well ...Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Goodnight!

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