I dont wanna be a duck, I dont wanna be a chicken...

This weekend was a quiet one. Friday at school we had our sing and dance contest. This month, my class won. That really isnt an amazing achievment though because we go in a rotation so every class has a chance to win. I taught them the chicken dance. The winners get icecream the next day and the teachers get one morning off of school when they win. I will have my morning off probably in two weeks. Then on Friday night,Nat and Nick had a few of us over for dinner. Then Saturday came and I selpt until 3 which was amazing. Because as you probably know, I love sleeping extremely late into the day. I have no slept that late since Ive been in korea so it was a real treat : ) I never left my house saturday. I cleaned and relaxed, it was really nice. Sunday was spent going on a hike up the Amisan Mountain and having a picnic there. Then after that, we all went to the sports complex and the boys and I did some bouldering on the rock wall there and the girls layed in the sun. Then I got to practice riding the motorcycle again. I can change gears now but I still need a lot of practice before I feel confident enough to ride on the street.

view from top of Amasin Mountain

Chicken Dance

Emily

my class wins!

Sandy, Emily, Polly & Jonny

Ned

Has Wonderland turned into Horrorland?

So my school is going through a lot of turmoil at the moment. At the end of the month, one of the korean teachers is quitting. This means, all of our timetables have to be change which is causing a bit of an uproar from teachers and parents. At the moment, the plan is that Dominic will no longer teach kindergarten and teach more elementary classes. He is really upset by this because he loves his kindy kids. However, the owner of our school made this decision and we dont think she plans to change it. Then this means some classes will be merged into one bigger classes. It also means I had to teach another kindergarten classes..which means two different classes but less elementary classes. We dont know exactly how everything is going to change but it doesnt sound amazing but its not the end of the world..we will manage. But speaking of managers, our manager is quitting too! She plans on leaving once our boss finds or a replacement of until the end of July! She doesnt like the new direction the school is going in and would like to spend more time with her family she never gets to see and help her husband with his math hogwon. This could mean pure horror. There is a chance we could get an amazing new manager but I dont see that happening. The one we had now was really nice and really good at her job, its really a shame she is leaving. But it is only 6 months, Im sure we will survive....and hopefully Wonderland does too..at least until Im finished.
The slogan for our school is "Everybody smiles at Wonderland" but I think it is slowly changing to "Nobody smiles at Wonderland" haha

but at the end of the day Im not too worried. It will be fine : )
(crosses fingers)

Jessica's Birthday etc

Last weekend, I went to Seoul to celebrate my South African friend Jessica's birthday. First, we had Indian food them met up with everyone in Hongdae for drinks. After the first bar, Jessica already had one too many long island ice tea's and ended up getting sick and going to a hotel. She missed the rest of her party but we went to a few bars including one that looked like a cave inside and a building for the middle east on the outside. It was really cool but not many people were there. It was a fun night- lots and lots of dancing. The next day we went and got some more nice western food and headed back to Dangjin.

Jessica's Birthday

Shaun and Jessica

Let's rewind a little bit and go back to Friday at school. It was May Birthday party. Only two students had their bdays in May and they are from our 5 year old class. Sandy and Polly. We ate lots of fruit and cake and they got presents from their classmates. 

  Friday was also teacher's day. Many of the students parents give things to the teachers. It was really sweet. We mostly got carnation flowers and cakes. I got one $50.00 gift card some lotions. Nick teacher ended up with about $300.00 in gift cards and vouchers. He made out the best! Not all parents give things but most of them do. I have so many carnations I dont know what to do with them! It was very nice. Even today (Tuesday) my student Andrews parents brought in loads of pizzas and coke for all the teachers. Of course I couldnt eat any of it because they were all smothered in meat...but its the thought that counts!

Thank you cake!

two news girls Aileen and Esther with some of our Teacher's Day goodies!

Saturday and Sunday were pretty uneventful. I started doing yoga on my rooftop  which was really nice this weekend because the weather was amazing. Saturday night we had dinner and watched "The Other Guys" at Nick and Nats. 

On Sunday, Natalie made a bunch of a really nice vietnamese style dinner at her house. It was really delicious. She even made some nice marinated tofu for me! 

Yesterday after school Dom, Nat and I all went to the big superstore to get our hair cuts and buy groceries. I just got a trim and they both got a cut. After buying food, I looked everyone for my keys and they were nowhere to be found. I ended up making a big salad for dinner at Nick and Nats and sleeping over because I THOUGHT I was locked out of my house. It turns out.....my keys were hidden in a poster I had in my bag and I didnt notice until this morning! Oh well...they have a really comfy mat in their living room I passed out on and Nat was nice enough to give me fresh clothes to wear to school. 

Tonight I made it back into my place and did some sunset yoga on my roof. It was really beautiful watching the sunset. At 9 ish, a few of us went to a cafe to meet a new girl in town. Her name is Brooke and she is from New Zealand. She seems really nice, she also works at a Hogwon (private school) like me. 

Motorcycle mama

Sunday the gang decided to go to a little bike ride to the next big town away, Seosan. Then after that we went to the sports complex for a little picnic and for some driving lessons. Natalie and I started to learn how to drive a motorcycle. It was a bit confusing for me to learn how to use a clutch and change gears and such but I managed to slowly get it. I only got to ride for a little bit before the bike decided to break down. Nick has some things he has to fix on the bike so we had to leave it there, go get the car from home and pick up Nick and Nat. Nick picked it up the next day and took it to the garage. It is all better now so hopefully soon I can practice more so I can drive on a real road one day!

rock wall at the comples

learning how to do this

this is the gas, Sarah

Weeeeee

I got this

Lotus Lantern Festival

Here are some photos and videos of the festival.

May is here

 We celebrated Dominic's 28th birthday on the roof on Wednesday night because we had no school on Thursday for Children's Day. It was pretty fun, we had a good mix of people turn up and we had food grilling on our little BBQ things, lots of cake, music, wine, beer, and even potato salad that our South African friend Jessica made. It was really nice. 

Friday we had a field trip to a agricultural center. The kids got to look at some animals and play on a play ground. It wasnt the most eventful field trip but it was a nice day out and the kids seemed to have a lot of fun playing.

Erica, Olivia, Lisa

Ned & Zoey playing with a tadpole

David



I stayed in on Friday night and just relaxed. Saturday morning Nick, Dom and I all took the bus to Seoul. We wandered around a bit and met up with two of our South African friends. We all played around by this really pretty river, there was an event going on collecting coins for a fundraiser thing which seemed pretty cool. We all went to lunch at a korean vegetarian restaurant and then went to a hof to get nice window seats with a view. This evening there was the lotus lantern festival. It was really pretty. Lots and lots of people parading around with beautiful lanterns and big lantern floats. After the parade we took the bus home so we could be around Dangjin for Sunday.
Ill post videos and pictures of the festival in the next entry.

looking awesome on a bobber haha

the coin toss fundraiser

at a palace

Veggie restaurant

The pretty river

the palace is behind me

Washed out weekend

After school Friday, my co-workers and I took the bus to Seoul. We didn’t have much of a plan but Natalie’s brother and his girlfriend were visiting so we wanted to have a night out. After looking forever for a place to eat but everything was closed we all went and grabbed something quick like Taco Bell. After eating we all went to a Hookah lounge called Rainbow. It was really cool there. Everyone sat down on floor and just hung out. Then as we were leaving, it was down pouring outside so we just ran across the street to a noribang (karaoke). There was about 7 of us there and about 30 min in..our friend Melissa was way too drunk so I left early with her to take her home because she lives in Seoul. When we left it was a huge rain storm. There was thunder and lighting and torrential rain. We had no umbrellas and no choice but to face mother nature head on. We ran down the streets trying to get a cab but nobody would stop and the ones that would said no because it was too close and they wouldn’t make a lot of money. After trying for about 40 minutes, we are drenched. Finally, a cab says he will take us. We get dropped of somewhat near her house and then just run all the way to her house. Eventually we made it back. Our shoes were like ponds and our clothes could have been rung out for days they were so wet. Melissa passed out and I did some wordsearches until I was tired. Apparently, when our friends decided to leave karaoke…the same cab problem happen to them too and they had to walk really far back to their hotel in the rain too. The next morning, we all were supposed to go shopping and look at some cites but AGAIN it was raining, it was midday and the sky was black. It felt like the end of the world was coming…the weather was so strange. We had tickets to go on a boat cruise in the evening and they were not going to cancel it due to rain. We didn’t want to go because it took over an hour on a train to get to the Incheon port but we decided since we paid already we should go. We made the journey there in the rain and by this time it was just drizzling out. So many people turned up for the cruise, we were really surprised because of how bad the weather was. I got a little nauseous on the boat so I didn’t drink, I just kind of hung out. The cruise was pretty crappy. It was windy and cold and nobody really enjoyed themselves…but it was only 3 hours. Now we know not to go on one again. That night was pretty much a washout as well. Everyone was tired and we kept going to different places trying to find our other friends but it never worked out. Eventually, we gave up and just went home to bed. Sunday morning we went shopping and had Mexican food before we took the bus back to Dangjin. 

sleeping all the way to Seoul

the lighter part of the rainstorm

Dom and I at Rainbow

Rainbow Hookah Lounge

Monday was the last day I went to yoga at the studio. I decided Im going to do it at my house for this month to save money. I just bought a mat and its been nice doing it at home. When it gets a little nicer out, I will do it on the roof. This week we have no school on Thursday because it is a holiday. It is Children’s Day which is like mother’s day. It is really big here though and nobody works and families buy their children presents and usually do something family related. Thursday is also Dominic’s 28th birthday so tonight we are having a BBQ at Nick and Nat’s to celebrate his birthday since we have no school tomorrow. Our boss got Dom a really cute Winnie the Pooh cake and we all sang happy birthday. We gave all the kindergarten kids ice cream and umbrellas for Children’s Day presents!

Spoke too Soon

So Thursday I woke up feeling a little under the weather and I wasn’t too sure why. I went to school and in the morning my stomach hurting really bad and I kept having to go to the bathroom continuously. I didn’t know what was the cause of this until I realized one of my students named Gloria was sick with the same thing and they had her in school anyway. I ended up leaving school around 1PM and all the other teachers covered my afternoon classes. I went home and felt like I had a fever. I was hot and cold, had the shakes, couldn’t stand up all the way and kept going to the bathroom. I just layed in bed feeling horrible for the rest of the day. Around 10PM I was feeling slightly better and my friends came over and made me toast. I ate a little and then went to sleep. Friday morning came and I felt a little sick still but much much better. I went to school an hour late because it took me a bit to feel normal again. By late afternoon I felt fine and it was over. Another stupid stomach virus…..this is like the 3rd one Ive had in the past couple of years. Not fun at all!
Koreans insist on bringing their sick kids to school so this is probably going to be a continuous problem for me!


Here is a video of me rambling on when I was sick.