The final countdown: Aug 1st - Aug 6th, 2013

With 24 days left til we leave Korea, it really is the final countdown. Things are really wrapping up. Yesterday we sorted out a bunch of paperwork for when we leave and today was my last day of Summer English Camp. Now, Ian and I only have two more days of desk warming and then we are off to Vietnam! Before I get into our trip's itinerary, here is a brief update on the past week.

Last Wednesday, I started my third camp this break. It was for students in grade 5 and 6. My co-teachers decided they wanted me to do a holiday themed camp. I went along and planned each day's activities. We had a Thanksgiving day, Halloween Day, St. Patrick's Day, and an Easter Day. Most my students had never even heard of any of these holidays. Here are some pictures from my camp. 

Thanksgiving Day: After learning vocab, a bit of history, and traditions we played flip cup! I divided the kids into two teams, and after drinking their cup of WATER they had to flip the cup on the edge of the table before the next student could start. On the bottom of each cup, I wrote a letter and once their team was done, they could rearrange the letters to spell a word.  

   

Halloween Day: After learning the new vocab, and Halloween traditions, they designed their own jack o'lanterns, played a Mummy game, and bobbed for apples. 

This student already knew about Halloween and brought in her mask, This is the jack o'lantern she designed. 

This is the winning team in the Mummy Game. 

Bobbing for apples.

St. Patrick's Day: This was a holiday that none of my students knew anything about. I just told them to wear green for the day. After learning the history and a few traditions, we made crowns, attempted to learn an Irish Jig and played word games. 

Me with my students.

Easter: Today was the last day of camp, and we learnt about Easter. We had an Easter egg hunt outside, decorated the eggs, and had a spoon and ping pong ball race. I taught them about pysanky (Ukrainian Easter eggs) and showed them a picture of the world's largest one in Vegreville, Alberta. There was a lot of oooing and aahhhing. 

Their first Easter eggs. 

Besides leading our English camps, we have been enjoying our last few days in Korea. This past weekend, on Friday we headed to Gangnam to check out it's nightlife. We don't normally go out there on weekends, because it is quite far from us, but we figured we had to try at least once, even to just say we partied Gangnam style. We chose a club called Octagon, since it is the best in Korea, and one of the top in the world. Even standing outside, I could tell this was a fancy club, as all the cars rolling through the valet service were basically all Mercedes. Octagon was a lot of fun, though it was a pricey night.

I wanted to include this here, because before going out in Gangnam, Ian, Adam N, Adam R, and Sung Yeul went out for dog! 

Steamed dog dish.

Octagon club in Gangnam!

Octagon

 On Saturday and Sunday, we had a more relaxing time. Here are a few pictures from around our area.

While grocery shopping, we spotted two monks in the check out aisle. The monks, with cellphone in hand, were just going about their regular day as well. 

Almost every Korean dish has a red, spicy sauce. Since the sauce is used so much, we always see peppers drying out in the sun. Here are peppers hanging off hangers in a parking lot beside our place. 

Summer sunsets in Incheon. This is the view from our apartment. 

After over 11 months in Korea, we feel comfortable ordering off this menu! This is a restaurant right across the street from our place, where they don't speak any English. 

So that's about it for updates from this past week. On Thursday, we are flying to Hanoi, then heading to Sapa for a three day trek, followed by another day in Hanoi and a three day cruise in Halong Bay. I could not be more excited to go explore northern Vietnam with our friends. Even being 16 hours ahead of Toronto, Thursday isn't coming fast enough!