End of semester: December 26-30, 2012

So the school year is coming to an end. My students had their last day this past Friday, and Ian's students are done on Monday. We have both been busy preparing for our English winter camps and Ian also has to organize phone conversations with his students during the break. Now that our camps are pretty much ready to go, we anticipate a lot of desk warming in the next few weeks. Desk warming simply means we are required to come to work and be at our desks even if students are on break and we don't  have camps. We will be "warming" our desks, it is just part of our contract... Teachers who have done this job in the past have recommended downloading a large supply of movies and shows, and to take this opportunity to skype with family and friends. So if you are reading this, maybe we can skype at a relatively decent time in the next few weeks? Let us know :)

Since Christmas, we have been taking it easy. This is what we have been up to in the past few days. On Wednesday afternoon, my principal organized a teacher's field trip. We went to the Animation Museum near my school and then out for dinner. The animation museum was interesting, unfortunately everything was in Korean with no English translations. I was able to pick up on all the art work of past presidents. I felt it was a major theme of this museum, and it was not always a positive representation. The dinner following the field trip was nice. Ian has staff dinners very often, but my school doesn't due to budgeting reasons. In fact, this was my first staff dinner. It was nice, the principal gave a huge speech in Korean and then at the end just turned to look at me and said "Merry Christmas". I thought it was so sweet. It was also great talking with other teachers at my school even if it is in broken English with a lot of gestures and guessing. I also ate some interesting food at this dinner. The dish is called shabishabi, and basically there is a large pot of broth that is brought to a boil. Then various vegetables, including different types of mushrooms, bok choy, and spinach are added. Lastly very thin slices of meat are added to the mixture. Sometimes seafood, such as mini octopus, squid, and shrimp are added (we didn't add the seafood that night). Overall, it was a nice night out with my colleagues.    

On Friday night, Ian and I went out for dinner and drinks with a few friends. There is one benefit to being 14 hours ahead of Toronto - we got to watch the world juniors hockey game live on Friday night! We had dinner at a western place and they paid to get the CTV channel. It was nice watching the game and catching up with friends. Go Canada Go!

Saturday morning, we headed into Seoul to Gangnam, an area I am sure most of you have heard of before (thanks Psy). There is one particular area within Gangnam that has a strip of ski/board stores my co-teacher recommended. After checking out a few stores we found a great little shop and both bought ski goggles! We got a great deal and now are one step closer to Japan! We are also one step closer to becoming a mouple, as we both got Dragon Rogue goggles (matching brand, but different style).

After our purchases, we met up with our friends Emily and Ryan. We then walked to the Seoul Museum of Art. Emily read that the Tim Burton exhibit is on display so we decided to check it out. It was crowded as the exhibit only recently came to Seoul, and I guess also because it was a Saturday afternoon in Seoul.... so everything is busy. We waited 20 minutes to get in, but it was definitely worth the wait! We saw his sketches, props from his movies, clips from movies, short films, and commercials. It was a lot of fun walking around. 

That night, the four of us went out for dinner to a delicious little pizza place in Itaewon. The place was soo small, seating only 5 tables in a tiny room on a side street, that was more like a side alley. We had heard of the place through trip adviser, as it was ranked the number one pizza restaurant in Seoul. Our pizzas were amazing, comparable to gourmet pizzas back home. It was definitely a nice treat and great way to end our day in Seoul.

The last little bit of news from Korea is actually very big for me. I finally got my first Korean haircut today, and Ian got his second! This has been something I have been dreading for many different reasons, but mostly because I was nervous about the language barrier and how I would be able to communicate the style of hair I wanted. I have angled, swept bangs and pretty much every Korean with bangs has the bangs that go straight across the forehead. I can probably talk about my fears of getting a Korean hair cut for a long time (and Ian knows this), but I will end this by saying I just went for it today and I am ok with what followed. Although my hairdresser spoke no English, through hand actions and lots of pointing we made it! 

Ian and I are currently sitting in a cafe in Bupyeong. He is working on his application for schools and we are about to head out to one of our favourite dinner spots - all you can eat sushi!

Happy early New Year everyone! 

Seoul Museum of Art

Tim Burton exhibit

Main entrance

Waiting area

Posters around the museum

Secret pictures of props

This is a collection of napkin doodles. Tim Burton is known for going to hotel bars, getting drinks, and then doodling characters. The Ritz Hotel in Paris is apparently where he gets his best ideas. This is just a sampling of a few napkins.

Emily, Batman and I

Numbers

Timeline of all of his work.

Entrance

By the time we left it was dark and snowy. Look at the third picture on this blog, this is the same shot, but at night it glowed. 

Our new goggles :)

Animation Museum - those are cartoons of past presidents

Cartoon presidents

Clay presidents. These are the representations that are not very flattering. For instance, the last president is shovelling money....

This is a picture of my Kindergarten class during our New Year's Eve party. There were two grumpy children I am sure you will be able to spot. I know teachers aren't suppose to have favourites, but my kindergarten class may be my favourite class.