Merry Christmas Everyone

Here's a couple of shots of us celebrating Christmas. We ate at a Canadian style bar in Itaewon called the Rocky Mountain Tavern. They served a turkey dinner with gravy, mashed spuds and cranberry jelly. It was good to spend the day stuffing ourselves as per tradition. We also drank alot as they suppplied a never ending jug of beer. The party we were with included Marie and her parents, Ian, Sun Mi and Alfie who are teachers at our school.

Merry Christmas to family and friends. I did miss you all.

Hamsters and Chilly activities

This is Insadong in November. Clare and I went on a Christmas shopping expedition and the place was alive with traditional activities. Korean sweets were being made and sold on the street with long cold queues of Koreans waiting to buy them. At one point there was a parade of drummers that bounded past clashing their brass drums.

It was getting quite cold at this time so I bought myself a new hat which you can see both Clare and I modelling below.

I never thought that I would get such good use out of a hat with fur line ear flaps! Clare calls it my Hamster hat as it makes me look like a hamster and perhaps the fur is Hamster too. The hamster in the photo is Heungbu. She and her brother had to be seperated as they were becoming too familiar with one another. We thought she was a girl. Her brother has gone to live with Sun Mi across the hall so the can keep in touch but not make minature inbred hamsters.

More Pics

ECC Work Shop

Above is Clare and her cast for "The Wizard of Oz" Clare is the bad witch!

Below is my class and I doing a dance during our performance to "Hit the Road Jack"



We had been working for months on this Work Shop and so now you can to see some of the finished product.

The purpose of the Work Shop is to show the kids parents their excellent English skills by performing an English play and English songs. It was alot of work for everyone and nerves were running hing on the day. I can't remember feeling as nervous as I did for a long time.

I am the stunning actress in the bird costume. The middle kid is Mother Swallow and Jeff on the left and myself are the Baby Swallows. I also had a stint dressed as Fred Flinstone for my part as the pumpkin monster.
These are Clare's kids doing their ballet dance to the music from Swan Lake.

There was no dress rehearsal no serious stage rehearsal. Unless you call walking the kids on stage for 5 minutes serious. So these poor 5 -7 year olds were unaware of how it would feel under the lights in their costumes! Besides all that all of them did really well. Of course there were funny moments. The kid who fell over or in my case who wandered around the stage hopelessly trying to find his mark. Parents laughed while I did a silly dance in the wings trying to get him to the right place.

Moonmak Ranch Weekend

This weekend the Soeul Sisters organised a trip to Moonmak. Moonmak is about an hour and a half East of Central Seoul. It is an agricultural area which is packed with rice paddies. It is also a nice recreational area for hikers and horse enthusiasts.

The Sisters arranged for us to visit a ranch in Moonmak where we rode horses for a little while and we also frolicked a little in the Autumn leaves. The valley was wallpapered in yellow, red and brown. The rice paddies had been harvested and bales were ready to be collected and stacked up for the cold days ahead.

The horses were lovely. Our guide and ranch manager Anna had a good array of breeds. Palomino and Shetland were the only ones I can remember. Some of the horses she had bought over from America when she moved. Clare, Marie and I explored a bit as we were told that there were Moon Bears being farmed in the area. It is a bit of a sad story as the Bears are caged and milked for their bile which is used for traditional medicines. We were morbidly fascinated to see them. I have found that the IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) has a spot about the bears mistreatment. We didn't manage to find the cages but perhaps it was a good thing as it might have been upsetting.

Although we didn't find the bears we did manage to find an artificial fishing hole surrounded with old car seats under canopies. The hole was packed with fish! I guess if you have a limited time this is an ideal place to go an make sure you will catch something.

After our session on the horses we ate a late lunch outside in a spot over looking the ranch and farm land. We were joined by a couple of giant wasps interested by our in red wine.

A little saddle sore, stuffed with pasta and tired from the fresh air we retired to our pensions. The Sisters rented out two brand new pensions (cabins) huddled on a crest overlooking the river.

Halloween!

It was a crazy busy day for us at ECC. Here are some of Clare's kindy kids looking happy dressed up in their costumes. Candy, face painting, haunted houses and then a party in the park with their Mums and Dads made it a fast paced day.

It all ended with a dance party and even the sun came out so that it was too hot! Good fun. Happy Halloween!

Clare's kindy kids on Halloween day.

Cheusok Vacation

For Cheusok Vacation we ended up staying in Korea and visiting Jeju Island. The statue you see above is intended to ward off evil. They usually are at the entrances or gate ways on Jeju Island.

The Island is on the Southern Coast and it is a very popular destination for domestic tourists. It was just over an hour flight from Gimpo Airport. Koreans are very proud of the Island as it is very beautiful. It is certainly not as developed as Uijongbu which made a nice change and the landscape was less mountainous than that of the mainland. Jeju is a volcanic island and some of the coast has distinctive black lava rock which makes a great home for sea life of all sizes. It also sported some nice sandy beaches which we were glad we could relax on! This is Jangnam beach on the South Coast.We had a pretty good time. I would advise anybody going to stay on the Southern side as there are more attractions and facilities. Our stay was influnced by a stinky old hotel which served terrible breakfasts. That made us feel ripped off a bit. Also it was a little difficult being there at Cheusok as cars and motorbike rentals were booked up. We got the hang of the buses after the first couple of days and then started to enjoy our holiday.

During our trip we saw a group of women divers setting out to work. I am not sure what they were going to collect. Jeju is known for its strong hard working women so I was delighted to see these ladies getting ready to go.

There are also really good Lava Caves on the Island. Aparently there were bats living somewhere in there but they tend to keep away from the foot traffic.

Surprise Hamster Babies

These little beauties are Marie's hamsters. She lets me baby sit her hamsters occaisionally. It amuses me to see them chew and scurry around a cardboard playground that I made them. She purchased the two boys together. Except that they are now parents to 7 baby hamsters. Needless to say that Marie was pretty suprised to hear strange squeeking and 7 hairless babies in the bottom of her cage. We looked up pictures on the net and so we know which one is the mum and which is the dad.

I'm hoping that I can care for onw for the remainder of the time that we are here! I'll make a brilliant hamster mum.


Hamsters Galore

DMZ Trip

Saturday was our DMZ trip. It was really interesting and emotional.
During the tour we got to see one of about 20 tunnels that the North Korean forces dug in an effort to get behind the US and ROK forces. A 1.2 km tunnel which would have let out about 30,000 troops per hour.
The tunnel was not that big only about 1.4-2m wide and 2m high. The walls were painted black by the Nth Koreans to disguise the tunnel as a "coal mine" when the ROK forces discovered it. The DMZ area is quite beautiful but it was sad for me to look over at the barren Nth Korean mountains. All the trees have been removed either for firewood or security purposes. We saw a huge flag pole with a 30 metre long Nth Korean flag adjacent to the slightly smaller Sth Korean flag and flag pole. The Nth Korean flag needs 600lbs of drag weight to fly and needs to be replaced 3x a year as it tears easily under its own weight.
There was also a jamming tower in the distance which purpose is to stop Sth Korean TV and radio transmissions penetrating the Nth Border. The tour guide told us that TV shows in the Nth are all prerecorded and of course are mainly propoganda about Kim Jong Il.

At onse stage we saw from our bus window "The Bridge of No Return". This was a purpose built bridge to facilitate the exchange of POW's. POW's were taken there and could chose whether they would like to stay or go to the other side. 13,000 were brought from the Nth and 82,000 from the Sth.

I spent approximately 2 minutes in Nth Korea itself. We were in a UN building at Punmanjeom in the Joint Security Area. There are 4 buildings that sit across the Nth Sth border. We visited one of these where Swiss and Norweigan delegates meet with Sth and Nth representatives. There was a very tired looking UN flag sitting in the middle of a small table.

During our tour of the JSA we were accompanied by 2 US soldiers and 8 ROK soldiers. The ROK men were in pretty intimidating outfits. Shiny blue/black helmets, sunglasses to hide their eyes, jutting jaw lines as if their teeth were clenched and they all stood with clenched fists in a Tae Kwan Do ready position.

Outside the building across the courtyard there was a single Nth Korean soldier standing outside his building. I got a picture of him in his brown uniform and high fronted hat. I spotted a strange red light and apparently there were quite a few Nth Korean Soldiers observing us. The US soldier told us that occaisionally when there are meetings being held in the UN building Nth Korean soldiers make gestures and faces at them from next door. It was a long day but I am really glad that I got to go to the area and learn a bit more about events near there. The US soldier also said that nothing had changed since the nuke test either. Photography was pretty limited through out the area but we got a few shots off.

When the ROK soldiers walk they make a rattling sound because they have ball bearings sewn into the seams of their trousers. During the war this was to give the illusion of more troops approaching as Nthern forces and Allies out numbered that of the Sth.

Cheusok at ECC

Columbus class in Hanbok. From the left; Alex, Alice, Hillary, Dorothy, Helen, Jeff, Emilie and Brendon. Edward - not in the picture sulking at his desk.

Cheusok is Korean Thanksgiving. The kids came to school dressed in their favourite Hanbok and we celebrated by making Song Pyun (rice sweet cakes). The kids had a good time kneading the rubbery dough and putting rasins, chesnut crumbs and sesame seeds in them.

Sliding out of September

September and August really slipped away on me. Within these 8 or so weeks I have had to say good-bye to the hot temperatures and consistent night time aircon and hello to brilliant clear days with blue skies.

I have really enjoyed taking my morning walk to school again. Uijongbu has been alive with colour as if celebrating outdoor living. Band practice in full red band uniform or giant pink fan dances it is all very vibrant. I do have to smile listening to the band. It just doesn't seem authentic having keyboards slamming out Y.M.C.A. Perhaps I am have a traditional in my thinking.

Here are some pics of Shingok-dong. The skies had a particular blue clarity that reminded me of New Zealand.

Sue Teacher told me that the Korean's say at this time of year "The sky is high and the horse is getting fat." It certainly feels like a prosperous time of year.

Of course Chuesok - Korean thanksgiving is coming up in the beginning of October. I will post more about that soon.

Apartment Break In

This kind neighbour went up in his crane to break into our apartment. Clare and I had yet again lost/misplaced our keys. This particular time Clare left her entire bag on the subway. She made a hasty hunger fuelled exit to Krispy Kreme and let her bag go on a merry journey of it's own.

Clare was lucky enough to have the bag returned. Minus her wallet but cell phone and other contents were intact.

The rescue.

Han River ?Mokpo Bridge? 

Growing veges anywhere! 

Feeling Hot? 

Clare's b'day at Longos with Foreign Teachers 

Koh Samui airport- Customs building 

Snorkelling

Here is a picture of Hugh and Trai when we went Snorkelling on an Island in Thailand. We were quite sea sick on the way back to the shore but the whole trip was really fun. We saw lots of fish and coral. Beautiful colours under the water. I even took a underwater camera so I will have to get the pictures scanned onto the computer so that everyone can see them. I actually returned with a few coral cuts as a memento of the trip. I have to say tat I tried to be careful but gosh that stuff was sharp. I didn't want to end up like Lana Cocroft with her strange disease.


Hugh and Tri at Nangyuan Island resort.

Turtle Rock Tumble

There is a good story behind this picture. There almost wasn't a picture in fact!

Clare and I rented a scooter and spent alot of time zooming about amongst all the Thai traffic while enjoying the breeze. The scooters are really cheap and we found it a good way to look around. It was really liberating to be able to drive again. Even if it was on a 100cc scooter.

One of our trips took us inland on Koh Samui to a coconut plantation/jungle area. There you could go for Elephant treks nice walks or ATV rides. The area boasted spectacular waterfalls so we took a "10 minute" walk into a river valley. It was a rather steep walk and typical of Thai timing the 10 minutes was was probably about 30 minutes!

The windy walk took us over big exposed tree roots and large river boulders. It wasn't marked very clearly but there were guide ropes to help us over some of the terrain. It felt like a real adventure like I was Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. I don't think Clare found it as fun as I did. I have always been a keen rock hopper and adventure playground participant.

It certianly was a world away from the crammed up city life that we are used to in Korea. I didn't see a waterfall that outdid anything in New Zealand but there was a wonderful carved Turtle rock that was about 6 feet long.

It was at this point in our walk that we lost control of the camera and it spilled down the rocks and into the water below. Both Clare and I were yelling while I tried to scramble after it into the water. I don't know what good the yelling did but it made the scene more dramatic. I did manage to rescue the camera however it didn't work for the next 24 hours. We are lucky I guess that the Thai weather evaporated the water out of the circuits.

Our walk took a gloomy turn from then on. We wanted to just get home and mope. The temperature seemed to rise as did the incline of the path. We tried to take a short cut off the beaten path that almost killed us. Clambering up a steep path while hanging on for dear life to roots and grass. We eventually got back to our scooter - a bit dirtier and thirstier.

Good thing is that we have the pictures to show for our efforts.

Turtle Rock