Journey back to Canada

I'm in Canada. It has been a whirlwind of things. I am sitting here wondering if Korea really happened or not. I didn't really sleep much on the planes, probably only about an hour. So it feels like this all happened in one day. I was in 4 countries, and magically I'm at home!

I keep thinking I will wake up soon because for the last 3 months I've been having dreams about coming home, only to wake up and notice that I'm still in Korea.

Anyway, it has been wonderful to see my family and I will see my friends soon enough! Well, I'm busy unpacking to try to stay awake! I'll keep doing that until dinner! lol.

I suppose that's all I will write here. Thanks for all of your comments and your thoughts over the past year! It was really rewarding and I'm so happy that I did it!! I'll miss Korea a lot, but I'm so happy to be back home!

As the sun sets in Asia...

Here it is - my last blog post from Korea. I might make one more when I get back to Canada, but it's time to put this blog to rest.

People are going to ask me, "How was Korea"? I think it would take me about an hour to give them an honest answer.

Take a normal year in Canada and think of all the ways you feel throughout it. Amplify every feeling by 10x.

Feelings of loneliness were coupled with anxiety and isolation. Feelings of frustration came along with a language barrier and cultural differences that take a long time to get used to. Feelings of doubt brought with them challenges of adapting to a new country, and trying to do a new job well or getting eaten alive by kids while trying!

On the other hand, feelings of excitement would come with curiosity, and the thrill of experiencing such an amazing place and discovering such an beautiful culture. Being so privileged and fortunate to be able to go to the other side of the world for a once in a life time opportunity is an indescribable feeling. I will always be thankful to Korea and its people for teaching me about valuing what other countries have to offer, and what I can offer to other countries.

Korea has been a roller coaster of events and emotions. I'd be flat out lying if I were to say I didn't like it at times. I'd even be flat out lying if I were to say I didn't look up flights to come home half way through! I'm proud that I stayed and went through the year. Even though work has made me more frustrated than I've ever been, it was a challenge and I'm glad I stuck through to the end.

I will really miss Korea when I get home, but I think the excitement of being back in Canada will over shadow those feelings for at least a couple weeks. Then I'm sure I'll start to think, "I remember in Korea... this was easier... this was fun..." (I'm thinking of the convenience of ordering in McDonald's).

Anyway, to all the people in Korea and to all the people I've met when I taught here, I want to say thank you. Thank you for helping me and for showing me what a wonderful thing it is to be with friends when you're far away from home. Thank you for being with me on Christmas when we were all happy and warm because we were with each other. Thank you for being with me when I was lost in Seoul! Thank you for being there always.

To all the people in Canada - I'm so excited to get home and to see everyone. A year is way too long to be apart, and I can't wait to see all of you! Thank you for being so supportive when I decided to come here - it was that support that made me confident enough to make the decision.

And now it's time I have to say good bye from Korea. I'll miss it and love it forever.

Hopefully I'll be back some day...

Goodbye, Korea.

Ian

I'M DONE.

WOWOWOWOWOWOWOW. I can't believe it - I'm done! I'm having troubles typing without making mistakes because I'm way to excited to sit still right now! I didn't know it would feel this good, but when the bell rang, I was just SO happy and really proud of myself for doing the whole year. I remember thinking to myself many times that I couldn't do it, or that I should just quit and go home, but I didn't and now I'm so happy that I lasted the whole time.

I can't explain this feeling! I don't think I've ever been so happy to have finished something! It's just such a strange feeling because it's happiness mixed with excitement because I'll be going home really soon!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Wow, I just can't believe it. I had a really good last day, and now it's over and I can't believe that tomorrow I don't have to go to work, but I can just go around Korea for my last day. I will go into work because Charles wants to say goodbye and thank you in a more personal setting than after work when everyone is standing right there and waiting to leave.

AHHHH.

I'm going to Galbi.

Last Monday

Well, I had my last classes of MWF. I still can't believe I'm saying things like "last" and "goodbye"... it's weird.

Anyway, they went well. I also met the new teacher today, and he seems really nice. He taught kindergarten before, and he seems to be really good with kids. It wasn't terribly sad to see any of my classes go, but hey... that's life.

I WAS sad to see one student of mine go (Karen). She was such a sweetie and I'm going to miss her a lot. She gave me her e-mail address though.

Carlos (the teacher who took over for Lindsay) had his class (my old class) make a big card which they all signed. It was sooo nice to get that, I think it's the best thing I've gotten from students! I will bring it home and put it on display for everyone to see!

I also had my last meal at the Soondubu restaurant. I took a picture with the ladies who work there. We went there with the staff from school. It was nice to have one last dinner together. Anyway, I will attach those 2 pictures here for your viewing pleasure.

Oh, one more piece of good news - the new teacher is living with his uncle now so he doesn't need housing which means that I don't have to move out of my apartment until I actually leave to go to the airport Thursday morning, and that is truly magical. Much less stress.

Alright, time for bed. After tonight, I will have 2 more sleeps until I go home. That's so exciting, I don't think I can explain it!

Good night everyone!

3 days

Oh my goodness, this happened fast. I have 3 days left.

Right now, I'm just getting ready to go to the pension office so that I can arrange for my pension to be sent to my Canadian back account. Tomorrow I have to go to the bank and send home my last 2 pay cheques. After that I have to cancel my cell phone, and then I'm all set to go home on Thursday morning at.... 5:30. Oh dear. I will have to wake up at 4:30 to make the flight and everything, but it's definately worth it.

Alright, I have to get moving or else I'll be late! Buh bye everyone!!!

One year

Well, it's officially one year. I have been living in Korea for one year. Oh my goodness. Time flies, but when I look at what happened in the year it's easy to see that it's been a long time because so much has happened!

In the far east, I went to China and Japan while my friends at home were welcoming a new dog to the family. Soon enough it was summer and it was my sister's 1st year anniversary. Before I knew it, September came along and my friends were welcoming a new baby to the family!

Time is a funny thing. It never does what we want it to, but really it doesn't change, so we're all just crazy. Anyway, last night I saw Howon and some of his friends for the last time which was nice. I took pictures.

Today I'm going to go into Seoul and do some shopping for things I can't buy when I'm in Canada (fake things like scarves)... although I think I should ease up on the scarf buying... I'm at 7 now, so I think that might be enough. Maybe one more.

I have my second bag half packed, and I must say I'm quite impressed with myself. I am usually not on top of things like this. I guess packing makes me feel like I'm ready to go home, and brings it a bit closer.

I did my last load of laundry before I go, so I will just pick out 5 shirts and things to go for each day and that way I can see if all of my clothes fit into the suitcase. It will be really close, but I hope I don't have to ship anything home.

I think that's about all the news today. I'll update probably after the weekend some time! Have a great weekend everyone, and next weekend, I'll be in Canada!!!

Freitag

That would be Friday in German. I got my hands on an audio book version of the first Harry Potter book, but in German. (Harry Potter und der Stein Der Weisen), and I listened to it last night while I was sleeping. I think that if I listen to German while I sleep, I'll magically become fluent! lol.

Right well, it's Friday and since it's the 20th of November, it's been a year since I left to come to Korea. Tomorrow, it will have been 1 year since I got here though.

Today I have an open class with parents coming. I will bring my camera today to school because I want to take pictures with my classes.

I got 2 gifts yesterday from students who I've been teaching almost the whole time I was here. One is David and one is Anna, and they are brother and sister. It was really nice. David gave me a pencil, and Anna gave me a mug. I always comment on David's pencils in class, and he tells me that they are 9000 won. I give him a hard time and tease him by saying that I don't believe him, but every day I still say it's a nice pencil. He bought me one! It was really nice because I wasn't expecting anything from anyone!

I had Soondubu last night. I have my food schedule planned out from next Tuesday to Thursday. Tuesday night I am having soondubu, Wednesday night is Galbi. For lunch, I have to get to the pasta place that I like, and probably one more visit to Hyundai Department store.

I can hear the soondubu ladies getting things ready for today outside the window. They always put some kind of oyster or shelled thing onto this metal pan outside and it's really loud. Anyway, they do it just after 10 and that's when I wake up so it's ok.

This weekend I'll be meeting up with Howon for one last time before I go (my Korean friend), and Saturday I'll be going to Hongdae. Sunday I'm meeting with Jenny for dinner and I'll be packing that night also.

After that, I'm all set to go and I'll have said goodbye to everyone! I proposed a work dinner on Monday night that I hope everyone remembers about, but I'll remind them today just in case.

That's my story. I'll update soon!

Swine.

I've been a fan of the one word titles recently.

For everyone in Ontario: you probably already know this, but the swine flu vaccination is available for everyone now! Please get it, because I don't want anyone to be sick! I hope they're still available when I get home in a week. Anyway, go here for a list of times and places. They say that the flu will return with a third wave in the new year, so get on the ball and have it done!

Butter.

Well, today in Science 3 class, I thought I would have the students make butter by shaking whipping cream for a while. What happens is this. First, you feel the liquid moving around freely. Then it gets frothy. After that, it becomes really hard, and you almost can't shake it anymore at all. Lastly, it separates into butter and butter milk, and you have butter.

Unfortunately, for some reason the experiment couldn't get past the first stage. After about 30 minutes of shaking the cream, we still had cream. So, the big finish to the class? 8 hungry students dipping pieces of bread into a bowl of cream. It was a magical scene.

I'm not sure why it didn't work, because Sarah and I did the same thing a few months back and it worked just fine. I'm sure there is some scientific explanation. Although I am teaching science, I certainly don't know why it didn't work ... re: I haven't studied science since I was 15 and forced to.

One more piece of news is this - last night I had a dream in German! I guess that's what I get for spending all of my alone time soaking myself in German. If I'm not at work or with work people, I am looking at German, listening to German and reading German. That's all part of the German studying program I am using.

I don't remember much of the dream, but I remember telling someone, "Ich putze mir die Zähne" which means "I am brushing my teeth". I think someone called me on the phone and I was trying to explain why I couldn't talk to them... I'm not sure.

Then I had a different dream about a person who was trying to tell me that the German word for money was "Gelb" and I was trying to convince them that 'Gelb' is the word for yellow, and "Geld" is the word for money. ... P.S. Geld is the right one!

Right, well that's all. I'm heading out for Galbi tonight which will always satisfy after a day of tough work. The best part of today? The end of it! Because that means that as of tomorrow, I'll be home in ONE WEEK!

Water.

It's official. There is water on the moon!

Last month, NASA purposely crashed 2 space craft into the moon at 9000km/h. The result - they found water!

They were crashed into the south pole of the moon, where the sun rarely shines and the temperatures are very low year round. What's more exciting is that they didn't only find a little bit of water... they found approximately 95 litres! That's a lot!

Such cosmic excitement.

The weekend / new week

Well, the weekend was quite fun. I did lots of things. On Saturday, I went to Charles' wedding (congratulations), and after that I went to Suwon to meet up with Jenny and her new co-worker named Ryan. We went to a temple (one of Jenny's favourite things to do) and just looked around for a pretty short time. After that, we said bye to Ryan. Jenny and I both agreed that it was right time for a good nap, so we slept for about an hour before heading out for the night!

We went to a place called Alley Pub (I went there on my birthday with Melissa, but a different Alley Pub). It was fun, but most importantly - IT SNOWED!!! It has been really cold here lately, and Jenny said that it is really strange for it to be snowing so early in Korea, usually it waits until December or January to snow but alas, my wishes came true. I wanted it to snow once before I left again.

After the Alley Pub, we went to Noraebang (Karaoke), and then we went home.

Sunday I went to Itaewon and met up with Keri. We had a most delicious Indian buffet in one of the many alleyways in Itaewon. I bought 2 scarves ($10 each) and headed home. It was a good weekend.

To finish it all off, the last subway I took home on Sunday evening was all decorated for fall! It was wonderful! There were garlands of colourful leaves and gourds and melons and things hanging from the ceiling! I'll attach a picture of that here too.

Yesterday we were supposed to get our new teacher in. (The teacher who will be taking over my spot). Well, he came in... for about 5 minutes. Our supervisor Uni walked in the teacher's room and said, "Ian this is our new teacher". So I turned around and politely said "hello", but those manners were short lived. He said, "Hello. There has been a problem. I have an interview back home. I won't be able to take the job starting in December. I realize that this puts you in a difficult situation".

I thought, "A little bit. Now we have about 70 students who will have no teacher in a week's time".

So, Charles is on his honeymoon for a week. We couldn't call him. Uni tried to call the head office, but they were on their lunch break! It was really stressful for her and to a certain extent I felt stressed too.

Luckily, there is a teacher right now that is doing training in Seoul and he'll come a week late, but that's better than nothing. This new teacher (Jason I think) will come next Monday and observe my classes for Monday and Tuesday. He will begin to teach on Wednesday. It's all very rushed if you ask me, but the first teacher didn't leave us a choice.

Anyway, I'm happy because I don't have to be observed this week by a new teacher. Oh, but I have one more open class and that is on Friday. They will be observing my Junior 1 class. In case you don't remember, an open class is when parents come in to watch their children. I'm pretty sure it's a time they can see what the teacher is like too. I'm not worried this time though, because this class is really really smart.

Alright, I'll go now. It's time I drink my daily coffee and study a bit of German. I think today I will be able to finish unit 3! That means one more unit until I'm 33% finished the whole course!

I will leave you all with some pictures, and another countdown...

ONE WEEK UNTIL I'M DONE TEACHING!

One more wedding

Well, I get to see one more wedding before I go home. It's Charles' wedding (my boss). It is in Anyang. After the wedding, I am meeting up with Jenny and we are going to hang out for the night, then on Sunday I am going to Itaewon with Keri.

That's my weekend in a nut shell. I will start to pack my 2nd checked piece of luggage this coming week, because I don't want to be doing this all at the last minute.

My German studies have been coming along well, I'm definately learning new things now. It's hard though, because the program I'm using doesn't give an English translation, but there is lots of repetition, so it becomes second nature. Plus, the words I don't understand, I just go to google and look up.

Yesterday I learned how to say: outside, inside, far from, near. It was hard. Well, the far from and near are hard, but outside and inside are pretty easy. Ich bin drissen. That means I'm inside. Ich bin weit weg vom der Tür. That is = I am far from the door. I think. lol. It's a bit hard.

Anyway, I should go have a coffee. I woke up at 7:45 this morning. I thought that I had missed my alarm because I never wake up that early on my own. So, needless to say I am in need of coffee. I will be coming home now in 12 days. That's so soon! I had a dream last night that I was flying in to Canada and all I could see was Canadian flags all over the landscape. lol, I think I miss home!

Alright, it's coffee time.

Well, I'm not sure if I've run everyone dry of countdowns yet, but...

2 weeks!!!!!!!

I've packed one bag, and I've thrown out a 100 Litre garbage bag full of stuff! I can't believe how much I've collected this past year. It's really exciting to think that in just 14 days, I'll see my family and friends again! Actually, I can't believe it!

I'm not sure if I wrote it in here, but I've started to study German again. I studied it my last year at UWO (2006-2007) after my trip to Austria with my parents in the spring of 2006. It's hard to believe that it has been that long since I studied it! It's difficult, but I am learning new things, and remembering old things.

My current lesson is about possessive pronouns... it's hard because German has cases.

Speaking of this makes me want to study more, so I will do that now. Bye everyone, and I think it's appropriate to start saying:

SEE YOU SOON!

Remembrance day pt. 2

Some quotes I found that apply to how I feel today:

"The patriot's blood is the seed of freedom's tree". ~ Thomas Campbell

"For love of country, they accepted death". ~ James A.

"The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example". ~Benjamin Disraeli

and finally,

We come, not to mourn our dead soldiers, but to praise them. ~Francis A. Walker

I am so happy to see the many acknowledgements on facebook from my friends about remembrance day. There are at least 100 people who I know that have put their status as quotes from the Flanders Fields poem, or quotes such as "Lest we forget" or "I remember". It's absolutely wonderful.

Today I taught all of my classes the significance of this day in Canada, and I was very happy to know that one of my students had already learned about it from a different foreign teacher. It's just great to know that other Canadian foreigners are proud to recognize the day away from home.

Canada is my home - I am proud to say that - and I am proud for the people, alive or passed, who gave me the freedom to say it.

From sea to sea... CANADA ROCKS. That's the bottom line.

I remember.

64 years ago the second world war ended. Today, millions of people world wide remember. Everyone remembers for different reasons. I think of my Grandfather and my country.

I'm always happy to see people at home recognizing the day and pausing to honour the heroes who fought for us. They fought when we didn't have high-tech missiles. We didn't have nukes or live T.V. They got their hands dirty and risked their lives. The result was 42,789 Canadian soldiers who lost their lives - just under 1/3 the population of Hamilton, Ontario at the time. An additional 97,988 soldiers were wounded.

Today I remember my Grandfather back at home (who is proudly carrying the Canadian flag this year at the ceremony), and I remember my country - both of which I'm so proud to say are part of my life.

Here's that famous poem - written by John McCrae after he witnessed the death of his friend:

Pocheon - pictures & 2 VIDEOS!!

Well, this weekend I went to Pocheon, which is a city north of Seoul, kind of close to North Korea. It's Jenny's hometown. We had a really good time. I got to meet her family - her parents, her sister-in-law and her nephew. When we got there, we went to a temple to say hi to the monks (Jenny is friends with them). We had tea with them and then went back to her brother's house. Back in the day, Jenny's grandmother was a monk and she brought some orphans to the temple to help them grow up because they didn't have parents. Now they're Jenny's age and they are friends, so that's the story about that!

Um, after that we went to a really nice lake at the base of a bunch of mountains. We had lunch there. Walking into the restaurant, I noticed some chickens on a hill and I thought, "oh look! Chickens!"... then we went into the restaurant and had chicken. I could help but think that it was the chicken from the hill. Jenny asked. It was.

After that we went down to a different part of the lake's waterfront. That's where I had the most disgusting food I've eaten yet in Korea. Worse than moving, living octopus, worse than raw crab, or even the cow blood soup that comes with a chunk of curdled blood inside.

This food is called "Beondegi" - it's cooking silkworm pupa. Wow, I just looked up a picture of silkworm and I almost vomited. Anyway... There is a video of me trying that out. It's not a pretty thing.

Right, after that we went on a ride called the viking which was fun, but the guard rail safety thing was definately broken and we were a little worried. Here is a quick video to show that.

Then we went on a paddle boat on the lake which was fun. Our paddle boat had a roof on it shaped like a duck. After that we had dinner, and that's about it.

The next day, we went to pizza hut for lunch and then I headed back to Seoul by myself. Jenny stayed behind because Monday is the anniversary of her Grandmother's death, so they go to the grave and make offerings and bow.

That was my weekend! I guess the highlight was the Beondegi... I've always seen it, and it smells really bad so I usually just walk away because it's so nasty. But I thought this time, this might be my last time to try it, so I'll just do it!

That's all. For now, here are some pictures of the weekend!

A few addictive games.

This is the only level.

and

Crush the Castle.

That is all.

Tosel tests

Well, today we have TOSEL tests at school which is amazing because it basically means that I get to sit down and do nothing for an hour. It's happening again tomorrow, so that's nice. TOSEL is a test that the kids do that has listening, reading and writing components and it assesses their abilities in English. The school kind of uses it as a placement test to see which kids should be in which class.

I guess the swine flu vaccine has made it here. My students have been telling me that they've got the needles which is good. That means that my chances of getting it are far lower. I was kind of worried because I work with children every day and children have a tendency to be dirty. Example: Soohan saw a kid at the urinal and eating a hamburger at the same time the other day.

They're still being cautious though, they are taking all the student's temperatures before they are allowed to come in to class. That's a good thing too.

I hear that the vaccine for it at home isn't available to everyone yet. I sure hope it's available to me when I get home in 3 weeks. 3 WEEKS!!! These things scare me a bit. I'll just keep far from the students and remain germophobic until I come home.

It has warmed up again since Monday. It was really cold Monday and Tuesday, but now the temperature is 17 so that's nice. I kind of wanted it to snow on Monday because it would be nice to have one snow fall before I went home. I saw some pictures from Canada on the weather network that showed the people in Northern Ontario having a white halloween! I remember 2 years ago on Halloween in North Bay it snowed.

Alright, that's all for today. I will be going away for the weekend (Jenny's hometown) so if I don't update tomorrow then I'll update on Monday with pictures from the weekend.

Buh bye

Legal immigrant

Well, my trip to the immigration office went well yesterday. It seems as though I can remain a legal immigrant until I leave. My next big trip will be the one to the pension office which I'm looking forward to much more than yesterday's trip, because the pension office will write me a cheque! Wooh! There is pension taken from every pay cheque to be saved for retirement. Since I'm leaving the country and certainly don't plan on retiring here, I get all that money back! I'm not sure how much it will be, but I'm excited anyway!

Right, well we get paid in just under a week and that's excellent. This weekend I'm going to Jenny's home town and that should be nice as well. I will take many pictures.

Tomorrow will be my 3 weeks until I come home day. Really, I'm just looking forward to when I stop teaching so that's happening in less than 3 weeks now! I'm really excited to come home too. I hope I can fit everything into my 2 suitcases and a carry on though, I have tons of new things. I might have to mail a box home of some things. Hopefully not though, I'll see how well I can pack.

Alright, that's my update for the day (remember I'm trying to beat my record number of posts. I think it was December when I had the most). Bye for now!

3 weeks

Right. Now it's 3 weeks until I stop teaching because it's Tuesday. A long time ago on here, I was mentioning a program called Swap.ca and I was just looking at the website again a few days ago. I really want to do that some time, but I need to decide a few things first. I need to decide if I want to teach English again (because if I do, then I could go to Germany or Holland and teach there) if I didn't, I could get any job I wanted in England or Ireland. My friend did the same program, and she went for about 3 months I think. She worked at a bar in Ireland. Of course, you wouldn't get paid as much as I get paid here, but it would be a fun way to make just as much money as working at home and doing a similar job. Anyway, I might just brush up on my German and head there, I haven't decided yet.

That's one of my many life plans - anyone who talks to me on a daily basis knows that my life plan changes every day, but this has been my life plan for a few days now, so maybe it's serious! lol.

Yes, this morning I have to go to the Incheon immigration office to get my visa extended. I like the idea that my Mom had - maybe they won't allow an extension and then I'd be able to come home a few days earlier! I know I'm coming home in 3 weeks and 2 days, but when I'm working it seems like it will never end!! I know I say that like every time I write a post, but it's dreadfully true.

Well, I haven't had a coffee yet this morning so I'm going to take care of that situation and then shower and head out.

I believe that's all my news for now. Oh, they still haven't got a new teacher to take over my spot for when I leave. I asked yesterday. That's a little sketchy because I knew I was coming a few months in advance, but whoever they get has 3 weeks to accept, and get ready to come here. That's hectic!

Alright. I'll go now. Bye now

Coldness.

Well, today the windchill was -7, which was surprising because last week people were wearing shorts. Anyway, it's only a temporary thing. I have checked, and the temperature is supposed to be higher as of Wednesday or Thursday.

Tomorrow morning I have to go to the immigration office to extend my visa, because it expires before I actually stop teaching. It was almost a year ago that I went there with Charles to get my ARC card! Fun times.

Anyway, I can't hang around and write a lot, Soohan and I are going out for dinner (for the first time in a while!) I will wear a jacket and scarf and maybe my tuque.

I will update later!

(tomorrow will be 3 weeks until my last day of teaching!!)