To a new year?

Well, March has come and gone..thank god. April arrives on our doorstep tomorrow and I couldn't be more ready. I hate to say it, but I'm hoping time flies here. The last few weeks have been quite confusing for Shan and I. Her job seriously went down the crapper, her old boss Michael was fired for running this school into the ground (his 3rd business to go bankrupt). Thank god he was fired though, this was an evil man. Not even evil in the sense of being a jerk for a boss but he wanted to completely control his staff under him. Luckily enough Shan had nothing to do with that, however, one of her coworkers became quite submissive to Michael. Her co-worker was a gentle soul who would do what he could to help, he had a couple social problems and a few physical ones as well, but he was just a nice guy in general. Michael saw this in him and exploited it in its fullest. Making him spend time with him on the weekends (because Michael is a sad and lonely man), making her co-worker practice martial arts until he cried, he was abused physically and mentally. There's so many other stories that I'm not even getting into here...it's crazy. But her coworker decided that he had enough of Korea and we did we could to help him leave, thankfully.

So this left Shan in an awkward position. Teaching at a school (in the same building) owned by her previous chairmen, being the only foreigner, and not being able to speak with her boss...at all. So, she's been having problems getting her money and has had to go to the labour board and immigration and all this...it's messed up. As of now, she's been paid in full and we've been trying to get her over to work at Maple Bear where my boss wants (needs) her desperately. We don' think any of this will actually be able to happen becuase her schools owner wont release her Visa allowing her to work at another school. So we've decided to leave Korea at the end of my contract and hopefully be able to do some travelling around Europe. So something good can from this eh? We're trying to figure where we'll fly into from Korea and what countries are considered 'a must see' and which ones are expendable..and which ones are just not possible. It's hard to weed throught hte countries so we're trying to pick the ones that are most important to ourselves, two each. Ireland and Scotland are mine, and she's picked Italy as one of hers...and we'll wait for the other after we get alot more of research. Her research is so different from mine, of course our motivations are different too...I want to photograph :) haha

Things at Maple Bear are fine, my old kids are gone and I know have twice as many younger kids. It's sad because I really can't teach that many kids effectively. I'm lucky if they learn anything honestly. But our Business Director makes all the academic decisions in the school (which isn't a great idea). She's cut costs everywhere she could, hired new teachers becuase our old experienced teachers wanted nothing more to do with her, and upped the price of the school. So she's offering a subpar product for something that costs alot more now. Short term gains equal long term loss. This concept means nothing to her. I'm sure she's a fine person and I want to believe she is, but sometimes you have to question your beliefs.

So yeah, things have been down here for the past few weeks (months, really). But life is starting to come back to Korea and I'm back out with my camera and trying to find more ways to get into the woods here. The Cherry Blossoms are just starting to bloom and I see a little light coming from them in my life. As important as having Shannon here with me, I need nature.

I'm doing better mentally over the past few days then I have in a few weeks, I've become very cynical and bitter towards this place and I'm really trying to let go of it. Physically, I'm doing better than I have in over 10 years. I now weigh 149lbs. I haven't been this light since, well I don't remember. I feel great, so much lighter on my feet, muscle tone is back and I can't wait to get back to the gym. I think I was going too much in the past and I'm going to cut back to give my body a break and my head a chance to relax in my apartment with a book or outside with my camera. I feel like a new person, with old clothes that dont fit...even the new ones I bought two months ago!

Time for a new one?

Well February is here already! January flew by rather quickly actually and thank god for the Lunar New Years long weekend. I know I just had my Christmas vacation but I really needed this one. I came up with a list of activities and ideas for our break that was a page long and we did none of them! It was great, I have to say. We have some good news and some bad news here, the little cafe that we enjoy has closed down..boo urns...it happens alot here, places open and close regularly here. It's hard for businesses to really take hold and have 'staying power' here since there are sooo many other businesses just like it moments away. So, back to hunting for a tea sipping place. However, the bad news is easily forgettable compared to the good news! Asim and Etaf finally had their little baby boy and everyone is happy and healthy here, so cheers to all that.


School has been the same here, nothing new to report. The kids are all still quite lovable and I have a great time with them. I find myself so impressed with them on so many days with their abilities and their growing knowledge. It pretty cool to know that I was apart of it in some way. Whether I was a big or a small part of it..who knows! We had our Lunar New Years here on the 28th of January and it's the equivalent of our new years, in terms of holidays and parties. We had a 4 day weekend and we really needed it. For the school we had a sleep over for the 7 year olds and then we had a new years day theme for the morning after. This means that we all bow to each other (students to teacher) and then I bowed to them. It was a pretty nice little ceremony for me, the kids taught me a few lessons and I really enjoy it when they do. The kids and the teachers we all dressed in 'Hanboks', the traditional wear here in Korea. The pants were huuuge and instantly reminded me of MC Hammer. So with that in mind the kids had a little lesson on how to 'Hammer Dance'. I showed them a little video of Hammer shimmying back and forth in his parachute pants. Justin saw the video and yells out 'MC HAMMER! One of the funniest moments of my year. We're heading to the zoo in a few weeks and I think this is where I'll really shine.



The weather here has begun to get warm and then get cold again but I think it's really starting to warm up all together now. Spring arrives here in March and I'm so ready for it. I'm very tired of living in a dull city where your only recreational acitivity is based around consumerism. But thank god for this little cafe Shan and I found, 'Gloria Jeans'. It's small, quiet, good teas and plays English music! Boo yah! I know this seems like a small victory for me, but it's nice to go in there and completely forget where you are.



Well, this piece of the blog is taking a while to actually finish. It's the week of the new arrivals and departures. The new teachers begin arriving today and 3 of our teachers leave for greener pastures. This will be an interesting change for the school and for myself. I lose my 7 year olds (6 year olds in Canada) and I get new 6 year olds (5 years old in Canada). In Korea when you're bown you start off at 1 year old. Which doesn't make alot of sense to me, but hey...what do I know?





Shan's school continues to get crazier all the time, I have to get her to start writing some of these stories down so we don't forget about them.

Here's to a New Year

So far we're off to a great start to a brand new year (and I think everyone was ready for 2008 to be over). The new year celebration was a mild one, but rest is what we needed. Shannon's getting settled into her apartment and new life after coming down with a nasty virus that took a week to get rid of and I'm back to the grind here at Maple Bear with my kids. It was great to see the kids again after the vacation but I think most of us could've used a 'teachers vacation', more than just a week off.



Me trying to rest and the kids trying to rest on top of me.


It was a nice week between Christmas and New Years for me. I didn't do too much. After Shannon became sick with something as she called the 'Korean Crud' (after she found an article on the internet about foreigners getting sick in Korea) the week was most focused around rest. Unfortunately, they didn't have any vacation at her school. She wasn't complaining since she just started, but it would've been nice to have some time off with her.


Shannon resting with London



Poor London caught the 'Crud'.

My big news for this new beginning in 2009 is that I decided to shed a few pounds....of hair and to go back to the my old look. The hair is gone and it feels great, I dont miss it at all. My kids were shocked for days at school and would laugh whenever they could, it was pretty cute really. My first purchase was a new toque since my head's getting very cold very easily.


Good bye curls!

We're getting settled into a lifestyle now here in Ilsan. Shan's getting more and more comfortable with her new life here and laughs more and more about her school and the weirdness that goes on there. You should hear some of her stories. We tried to get a night to go to an orchestra and dinner, turns out our schedule was a litttttle tight, but we had some great international food from all over and then enjoyed some great music from a new orchestra here in Korea.



Fancy Shcmancy!

Our lives are abit of a blur and we all look forward to each weekend we have were we can just slow down and relax. Something I'm getting used to again. Our weekends consist of movies and cafes, it's a great life so far.

Oh, I do have a funny cafe story to talk about though. After buying a $5 waffle (yeah, waffle) Shannon brought over the waffles and the little cups for the syrup. She lays it all on the table, our two waffles and two 'containers' for syrup and I looked in to see how much syrup I was given from the staff....syrup is essential for me and to my surprise I see not even 1/16 of an ounce of syrup in the cup. I couldn't help but laugh. After I got my laughing out I went up and asked for more, so they doubled it for me to 1/8 of an ounce. So then I had to point to the top of the container to get enough syrup to eat the waffle with. I know this doesn't seem like a big deal, but if you saw the amount of syrup they gave, you would've laughed pretty hard yourself :).






Us playing on the big traditional swings here in Korea.



Shannon Cactus hair.

Things here are on the up and up. School's fine, the kids are learning about the world and about world music. Shannon's feeling much better now and I'm getting more and more comfortable with this lifestyle everyday. Now to think about what's next...I'm thinking New Zealand!