Full Vacation Recap - Finally!!

Oh my... it has been far too long since I've last written. I'm sure most of you aren't even checking this anymore because you've lost total faith in us as diligent bloggers, but then, that would be somewhat ironic because if you're reading this then of course you check it, at least occasionally.

My trip to Malaysia and Thailand was: incredible, eye-opening, an adventure, laid back. But, most of all it really opened my eyes to all the corners of the world that I've still yet to see but have since made high priority to visit in the near future.

I started my trip in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where most notably the food was amazing. I loved Chinatown where vendors were packed in so tightly and you could buy fresh mango for almost nothing. Near to KL are the Batu Caves, a collection of limestone caves and Hindu temples. There are 272 steps leading into the main cave; even in 35° weather, every step was totally worth seeing what was at the top.

Chinatown - Jalan Petaling Street -Malaysia

The Batu Caves - this is a statue of the Hindu Lord Murugan, 

and stands 140 feet tall, in front of the main cave. 

My next destination, just 2 hours south of KL, was Melaka. Melaka is most famous for its beautiful town square as well as its various monuments around the city dedicated to its colonial past. I spent only a sort time here, but loved sitting by the Melaka River and (again) enjoying some of the most delicious food ever. Also lots of wandering around and following a map checking out all of the various historical buildings scattered around the city.

"A Famosa" built by the Portuguese during their 

occupation of Melaka. A bit of a hike, again, but totally worth it. 

The famous town square and the rickshaw pick-up spot (see next picture)

The most common mode of transportation in Melaka is by rickshaw: a bicycle that pulls a 2-wheeled cart which seats up to 2 people. It was very popular in the 19th and 20th centuries, but the municipal government of Melaka now subsidizes Rickshaw drivers in order to preserve this important part of Melaka's history. I think it says a lot about the city that this is the most common mode of transportation - Melaka is laid-back, dedicated to it's historical roots, and also (unlike the rest of SE Asia) acutely aware of the importance of preserving the environment.

Next on my itinerary was Pulau Langkawi, a small island in the north of Malaysia, right near the Thai border. Both KL and Melaka have no beaches, and it felt weird to me to be in such a hot place but nowhere near the ocean - needless to say, I was very excited to get to "some of the most beautiful beaches in Malaysia" (Lonely Planet). After spending the night on a 12 hour bus to get to the ferry terminal, waiting 2 hours for the ferry in Kuala Perlis, and spending another hour on the ferry, Langkawi did not disappoint. Compared to the rest of the beaches I visited in Thailand, Langkawi was, in a way, understated - it was beautiful up to the point where it wasn't a huge tourist destination. Everywhere else I went was so ridiculously beautiful that the rest of the world had caught on, and was there too. Langkawi, my favourite part of my whole trip, was laid-back, small, friendly, and CHEAP! In 4 days I think I probably spent only $100; my hostel (simple but definitely passable) was $5/night, and we could eat like kings for another few dollars. I met some great people on Langkawi, some of whom are also teachers in Korea! We managed to explore the whole island in a few days. In the north we went to a place called "7 Wells", with 7 beautiful, big pot holes for swimming; a great waterfall/swimming hole; and took a ride on a cable car to the top of a mountain with a great view of the whole island. On my last day we hired a boat to take us "island hopping". We went to a fresh water lagoon which was beautiful but totally ruled over by vicious monkeys that stole our snacks for the day, and a number of other islands that were thankfully monkey-free.

The 7 Wells 

Cable car ride which was actually more like a roller coaster

Island hopping!

 Our preferred mode of transportation on Langkawi

Waterfall

Ok so I realize that I'm only 9 days into my trip and this post is excessively long already, so from now my re-caps will be shorter, promise! 

After a solid 26 hours of traveling I met up with some fellow Jeollanamdo english teachers in Koh Phangan for the infamous Full Moon Party! One word: Crazy. Absolutely Crazy. 15,000 people drinking various liquor concoctions out of buckets, partying on a beach until well past the sunrise.

One of the best parts of Koh Phangan was the clifftop bar 

we went to the night after the Full Moon Party. It seems like everywhere we went 

involved a steep hike/many stairs, but always so worth it in the end. 

Just a short, 20 minute ferry ride away was my next destination - the neighboring island of Koh Samui. Koh Samui is famous for its posh resorts and deluxe spas, unfortunately none of which I frequented. However, the atmosphere was noticeably calmer than that of Koh Phangan, and for that I was thankful. Unfortunately I was sick with what must have been the flu for most of the time I was on Samui, but I did manage to sneak in some time at the beach and a few massages before I was bed-ridden.

Just one of the many beautiful resorts on Koh Samui. 

Unfortunately my hostel was just a few stars short of this luxury. 

After Samui, I crossed the peninsula and arrived in Phuket, on the west of the Andaman coast. Phuket was loud, touristy, busy, and everything that is great in small doses. I spent a few days here soaking up the sun on the crowded beach and enjoying both the diverse people and the sights. Phuket is home to many "ladyboys" (cross-dressers or transgendered people) which made for a great cultural experience.

The busy streets of Phuket

The preferred mode of transportation in Phuket: 

scooter and Tuk Tuk (taxi-trucks for hire)

Amazing, amazing street food in Phuket - this guy 

is making me a banana/coconut crepe

Next up was the gorgeous island of Koh Phi Phi. As I mentioned before, this is one of those places that is absolutely stunning, and the whole world has caught on to its beauty. Even so, the crowded streets were all part of the island's charm and the tiny, brickwork trails that tie the island together (no cars on this island!!) are so small that it would be hard for it not to be crowded. I spent a lot of time on the beaches here, since it was too hot to do anything else. I also went on a boat tour that took us to the famous "Maya Bay" where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. Some of the bluest water and white sand I have ever, ever seen.

On the boat to Phi Phi 

The southern beach (the island is so small that the northern beach is 

only about a 5 minute walk away)

My daily lunch: roasted corn on the cob and a fruit smoothie.

Another treacherous yet entirely worth-it hike to the highest point on the island.

Like in Phuket, Ladyboys were also very common on Phi Phi, as you can tell..

These panoramas are obviously much better on a bigger screen, 

but it gives you a good idea of what I got to see for almost a month!! 

Sunset at the viewpoint

On the boat tour 

Maya Bay crowded with longtail boats

My last stop was Bangkok. I spent not even a full day there, but managed to spent every last Baht I had on Khao San Road - the main tourist/market street in Bangkok. You could literally buy anything there, as my last few pictures will show!

Street food! mmm...

DVDs... 

Hair braiding and/or dreadlocks

Choconanas?? 

Of course, beer..

Fake IDs and Diplomas!

Fresh fruit smoothies and juices

All in all, a whirlwind adventure and fabulous 29 days. It went by too quickly, as it always does, but of course it's nice to be "home" in Korea. The school year officially starts in March so my first few weeks coming back from vacation have been lax to say the least. Sorry it's taken me so long to post this, but hopefully it is thoroughly detailed and makes you just a little jealous ;)

Hometown Vacation(s)

Hello Everyone! Sorry for the hideously long span of time that has elapsed since last I posted. I assure you it has (mostly) been due to business, and busyness, excluding perhaps the last ten days. Allow me to explain.

As many will now know, I jetted home to Calgary on Christmas Eve to surprise family and friends. I must credit this idea to my dear friend Sarah, who planted the seed over drinks in Seoul, the weekend we celebrated Jenna's birthday. As I complained to her that I had the worst vacation dates over Christmas (virtually no one else had the two weeks of December 24-January 10 off) and that I would therefore be forced to venture around South East Asia solo, she casually said "you know, I keep having this dream that I surprise my family at home on Christmas Eve... you could do that instead." The idea stuck. The next day I looked into flights, and a week later I was booked: Seoul-Tokyo-Vancouver-Calgary.

"I'll be Home for Christmas" became my personal theme song over the next five weeks, as I concealed from virtually everyone I knew that I planned to go home (you never know who might be connected to who... one obscure connection almost led to my mom finding out about the whole thing). I shopped around for the best and most whimsical trinkets of Korea to bring home and show off; these ended up including: mini coffee packets/sticks, ajuma sock slippers, soju, and many boxes of Pepero.

By the time I landed in Vancouver on Christmas Eve at 10 am (after having left Seoul 14 hours earlier at 2 pm on Christmas Eve - that is what happens when you fly over the international date line) I found myself an exhausted but ecstatic ball of emotion. I hadn't realized, amidst the whirlwind of fun and adventure I'd been having in Korea, just how dearly I missed my Canadian homeland. I even shed a few tears flying over the Rockies and getting greeted by Christmas/Coyboy hat-wearing old folk volunteers at the Calgary airport. I got my bags and headed straight to Tim Horton's in the airport. Home again!



The surprise itself was amazing and unforgettable, and lived up to all the various fantasies I had imagined throughout the preceding weeks. The look of disbelief on my mom and sister's faces was completely priceless, and I knew the whole trip was worth it in those ten seconds. The rest of my time at home was spent relaxing, catching up with friends, shopping for pants that are long enough for my legs (an element unfortunately lacking in Korea), going to the movies, attempting to skate on the Bow River, and a very Canadian dog-sledding adventure in Canmore. I left early in the morning of January 7th feeling like I couldn't have started 2011 off any better. And, best of all, I was excited to be heading back to Korea!



(to see all the photos from my trip home, just click here!)

I got home late Saturday night, somehow managed to make it to Shampoo Night Club in the wee hours of morning, and lazed around unpacking the next day. On Monday it was back to work... or so I thought. Of the 60 students expected to show up to our two weeks of "winter camp" (extra English classes taken during the students' winter vacation), only three showed up.

Here is where the distinct lack of busyness arose (and so why I now have all the time in the world to write this long novel of a blog post!) Due to the lack of keen students, the other foreign teacher and I were told we would only be required to work every other day of the camps - and for only two hours a day. This means that I am at work for a total of ten hours over the span of two weeks. Pretty great I have to admit.

At first I spent the extra time in my apartment watching Beverley Hills 90210 (the original series) from the beginning. Though enthralled by this TV series, I started to get restless on the second day. I asked myself "what activity can I do?" Other than go shopping, or to the gym, not much else immediately came to mind. I had exhausted these activities in the months before Christmas, and so I decided to just head out one day and see where the South Korean wind would take me. The answer?

All around Suncheon, on foot! I have always enjoyed walking, often while listening to a well-chosen playlist on my iPod, and I came to realize this past time can be adapted to exploring the previously unknown or ignored back streets of my own Korean hometown. So far I have walked from our apartment complex to YeongHyangDong, or 'New Downtown', via every possible route. I also explored an area of the city known as KumDong, which was a mystery to me before. Yesterday I finally found some badminton courts, great news to some friends and I who have been wanting to play... but unfortunately I could not locate the doors into the complex. I plan to tackle that another day. Today, I walked home from my school, a feat I had previously written off as impossible after having gotten lost on several occasions earlier in the year. It took almost two hours, but this time I made it, proving that time and exploration of the city can lead to excellent results.

Finally, my new found free time has allowed me to cultivate another new hobby. I have dubbed it "coffee-shop-hopping." As I have explained to some, of the many surprising trends in Korea, the cafe/bakery/coffee shop one is perhaps the most interesting, and prevalent. I sort of parallel it with the sushi trend back home- a somewhat exotic element of Asian cuisine that is at once glamorous, trendy, and (bonus!) healthy! Here, amidst streets lined with traditional Korean food venues, there are without fail at least three chains of Western-style cafes (though, thankfully, very few Starbucks!)

They sell coffee drinks at obscenely high prices (when compared with the cheapness of Korean food) and often also offer sweet patisserie treats. Some, like Paris Baguette, Tous Les Jours, and A Twosome Place, are more about their sweets and baked good than about coffee. Others, like Angel-in-Us, Tom N Toms Coffee, and Holly's Coffee (to name a few) focus more on their coffee and cozy atmosphere. These are the places and myself and Liz have started to frequent quite seriously. Meeting after school, we being books and read and chat for (literally) hours. They are marvelous places to hang out, provide a nice alternative to hibernating in our apartments, and (best of all) provide the most comfortable chairs.

This may seem like a strange past time to embark upon while living abroad, but it is a great way to stay warm during these frigid months, and provides ample opportunity to eavesdrop on all the Korean couples who frequent these cafes... if only we could understand all the sweet nothings being whispered around us.

Now, I must wrap this up. I am late to meet Liz at Tom N Toms!
Next week I'm off to China with Cath, Corina, and Liz. -- More adventurous updates to come!

Lots of Lovvvve
Em xoxo

29 days in paradise. Starting now!

Hi all, sorry it's been such a dreadfully long time since our last post. Christmas and New Years and wintercamp has been a whirlwind and the last month has flown by. Of course, Emilie made a surprise visit to her family in Calgary which she will write about soon I am sure. As for me, Christmas was good but very strange, and I've just spent the last 2 weeks teaching and English "wintercamp" with a group of some of the best kids ever. I finally felt like a real teacher, because I planned all of the lessons myself and didn't have a co-teacher in the room with me. 


After the last day of camp finished today, I hopped on a bus to Seoul (Ems and I have come to love these 4 hours bus rides... comfy seats, great ipod listening time) and am now at the Bebop Guesthouse in Seoul. It's a super cute, artsy hostel with different money from around the world strung up like a clothesline around the common room. Tomorrow I'll go to Incheon airport and board my 1pm flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!! I'll be traveling around Malaysia and Thailand for 29 days (aren't paid vacations wonderful?) by myself for parts and meeting up with friends for others. 


I stupidly forgot my camera cord so won't be able to update the blog with pictures along my way, but I'll be sure to write posts here and there about my most recent adventures. 


For those who might want to check out my route on google maps, here it is:
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (3 nights)
Melaka, Malaysia (3 nights)
Palau Langkawi, Malaysia (4 nights)
Koh Phangan, Thailand (3 nights)
Koh Samui, Thailand (4 nights)
Phuket, Thailand (4 nights)
Koh Phi Phi, Thailand (4 nights)
Bangkok, Thailand (2 nights) 


Now that everyone at home is back to reality after the Christmas holidays, my vacation has finally begun!
xox Jenna 

Is Peter There?

Today was so exciting! I just finished one of the coolest lessons ever with the kids, and everything went so well. The grade 5's are studying phone conversations right now, so I thought it would be a cool idea to get them talking on skype to some family/friends at home.

For the first part of class we came up with some good questions to ask, and then we called Dani, my mom, and Jen. Some of the best questions the kids asked:

• (To my mom): "is Jenna teacher's brother handsome?" (I showed them a picture of Myles after the class was over, and indeed, their high-pitched shreiks confirmed that yes, they think he is handsome!)
• "do you think korea is lovely?"
• "what do you think of jenna teacher?"
• (To Jen): "who is your boyfriend?" (...and when they found out he was Korean, the look of shock/excitement on their faces was priceless!)

Here is a picture of Dani talking to the kids. (Right after the lesson ended I realized I totally forgot to take a picture when Jen was skyping with the kids, probably because the class talking to Jen was much crazier than the one talking to Dani. Anyway, I'm pretty sure one of the boys is in love with Jen and wouldn't stop goofing around in front of the camera. He's always been one of my favourite students but always such a handful!)

Thanks again mom, Dani and Jen for all your help! It was soo much fun and I know the kids really enjoyed it.

What's Happening North Korea??

Don't fret everyone! Despite what you may have heard on the news recently, we are completely fine and really not too worried about the whole N.Korea situation. We've already received multiple updates from our Canadian Connection Contact in Korea, who has assured us that all is well. Also, Em and I have both registered as Canadians living overseas so will be accounted for IF something does happen, which I'm sure it won't. Weirdly enough, I really haven't heard any mention of the situation from any of my co-teachers or anyone at my school.


On another note, every day I ask each of my classes "How are you?" as part of a series of small talk questions to start the class. Recently I started banning the answer "I'm fine" because it seemed like that's all the students would say. Today, I heard one of the cutest/funniest responses from on of my grade 5's:
"How are you?"
"I'm fantastic and so-so" 
...not sure if the whole concept of "so-so" is clicking in these guys' brains. 

My First (Korean) Birthday!

Hi all! We're back from another great weekend in Seoul, this time to celebrate my 22nd birthday! A group of about 15 girls met on Friday night for a weekend filled with birthday celebration! It was so nice to spend my 5th consecutive birthday with Em, and she really made it feel special even far away from home. This birthday had potential to stir up some feelings of homesickness, but Em really helped me feel the love on this side of the world. On Saturday we spent the day at MyungDong market (just like last time in Seoul) and then went to Itaewon. For those of you who don't know, Itaewon is the foreign district in Seoul and is full of places we have really started to miss in the 3 months we've been here - Subway, Mexican restuarants, Cold Stone creamery, etc, etc!! (Picture a kind of "China Town" for foreigners in Korea?). After heading back to the hostel, I was surprised with a lovely birthday cake from our favourite cafe, "Paris Baguette". It was the perfect way to start a great night on the "town", or, in this case, the 2nd biggest city in the world!! 

Birthday surprises! Party hat included!

The girls outside our hostel, the Yellow Submarine

I think I speak for both Emilie and I when I say we cannot believe it's been more than 3 months since we came to Korea. Since we've been here it seems like we always have some new, exciting adventure to look forward to. Next on the list (besides Harry Potter of course... which comes out a MONTH late in Korea!) is our winter vacation. More to come on those plans soon!


Jenna xo

The little things will surprise you...

Today, being Monday, I woke up dreading the day ahead of me. Not because its the first day of the week, but because I face the infamously unbearable Grade 6s on Mondays. I have no doubt explained to many at home how the four Grade 6 classes I teach at Namsam Elementary quickly became the bane of my existence: they do not pay attention, they physically fight in class, and they have a collective, infuriating "I'm (literally) too cool for school" attitude. My coteacher has confided in me that she regularly has nightmares about this group. Because of all this, I commonly dread Mondays as I feel like I can never please them, whatever imaginative lesson plan I might be able to come up with.

Today was different, however. It is American Thanksgiving this week, and so the theme of the lesson "Would you like to come to my house?" is this classic holiday. Hoping to fill up some of the time with a writing activity, I handed out to each student a worksheet with "I am thankful for..." written at the top. The kids had to write three sentences beginning with "I am thankful for..." I admit, I expected most of the students to laugh at this activity and refuse to participate at all. I was shocked, then, when the first class of the day got really into the worksheet. By the end of the fourth class, I was not only over the moon at how each class had gone almost flawlessly, but also touched by the answers that some of my normally bratty students came up with. I thought I would share my favourite answers with everyone at home... it just goes to show you can't always think you have someone (or 120 Korean preteens) completely figured out.
(I have copied these answers exactly as they were written, so you will note the differences in English proficiency between some of the students)

- I'm thankful for the health of my family
- I'm thankful for being alive and life
- I'm thankful for home happy
- I'm thankful for family because some people do not have family
- I'm thankful for my seeing and listening (meaning 'sight' and 'hearing')
- I'm thankful for being born because I is happy
- I'm thankful for parents because give me money and meal and bought computer and cellphone
- I'm thankful for together my family which is 나 잉 방 in Korean
- I'm thankful for my brain
- I'm thankful for Jesus (this one had the cutest anime Jesus drawn beside it)
- I'm thankful for my mommy because she gave birth to me
- I'm thankful for President Lee because our country protection
- I'm thankful for water because it helps us, ex. we can drink it, we can wash our face
- I'm thankful for earth because it makes me life
- I'm thankful for my family, because they love me
- I'm thankful for peace because we have no war
- I'm thankful for *me*


and, last but not least...
- I'm thankful for Kimchi


...maybe I will miss these kids when they head off to middle school, after all =)
xoxo
Em