Meet Jerry

Our friendly neighbourhood reindeer. His antics throughout the night warranted their own video.
ps - Kirsty - I have much greater respect for you after putting this together ;)

Christmas - Korea style = good

Last night we had our Christmas party and it went better than we ever could have planned!!! Thanks to Kirsty, Jerry, Tom, Michele, Megan, Martyn, Karen, James, Chloe, and Nathen for sharing it with us and bringing so much fabulous food! Sorry to Megan for putting your ice cream in the fridge :P Merry Christmas everyone!

oh, and i LOVE the random arm pointing at catherine at the end of the video...i think she's being implicated in something, but we can only guess what it may be...

Fergalicious

Another clip from the talent show...this time the Grade 8 girls dance team! I wish I could have been this cool in the eighth grade...I wish I could be this cool ever;)

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree!

So I finally managed to beat down Catherine with my yule log and force her to put up our Christmas tree! (and on November 28th too!) Annnnnnnnyways...I recorded almost the entire process, and had about 25mins of video to cut down into the riveting tree-lighting, ball hanging, garland wrapping magical 3 minutes you see here!

I'd like to thank my Dad for passing down his tree-lighting expertise, and also, my dearly departed cat, Libby, for ruining all of my handmade childhood decorations as a kitten...

**Please let me know if you can't see this video...apparently this christmas carol is copyrighted, but youtube tells me that it should still be working, as they don't have a problem with it! Some people have had trouble seeing it though, so I'd like to know if I have to change the music! Thanks!

More Drums!

These girls are students at my school...grades 7-8. According to the teachers, they are apparently some of the top drummers in the province! I had to cut the middle out, just because I was walking and it was too shaky to stand...but I love the close up view, because you can see the girls really getting into it and shaking their heads with the beat! Love it!

More Talent Show...

Okay, so these girls are playing a traditional Korean instrument, the name of which escapes me at the moment, so I promise to edit this post later when I figure out what its called!! Anyways, hope you like it!

High School Drummers

This was a FABULOUS act, and I can't tell you how disappointed I am that my computer decided to stop filming only 2 mins in. It only got better from here! These are some kids from a local high school and they were amazing! So much energy! The students at my school treated them like celebrities! Here's just a bit of their performance...enjoy!

It's Talent Show Time!!!

This is the first of many videos taken at my middle school's yearly talent show (or School Festival, as they like to call it) Such a great day! This first student blew my mind!!! She's only in Grade 8!!! Watch and be amazed :)

At the bus stop...

Hey you guuuuuuuuuuuuuuysssss!

Me, Maya, Will and Catherine explore Udo and Jeju island... Lion shaped rocks, ponies galloping up hills, black lava beaches, dragons painted inside caves, unfamiliar statues, waterfalls, pirates and buried treasure! We beat the Fratellis and found enough money to save our house! ... Okay, so maybe not ALL of that happened... but it was good enough!

Mt. Halla 2008

Earlier this month, Catherine, Maya, Will and I took on Mt. Halla, the highest peak in South Korea. And let me tell you...it was HIGH! 9.6 kilometers hike up! 8.7 kilometers hike down! Overall, it took us approximately 7 hrs, and about 18 gallons of blood, sweat, and tears to complete the journey :P It was truly the most physically and mentally challenging task I have ever done! But I did it! WE did it! I will never do it again, but I did it lol! The pictures don't capture anything close to the beauty or difficulty of the climb, but I hope you like them anyways! Thanks to Catherine, Maya and Will for the photos! :)

Bubheungsa Temple Stay

Cathy and I went to stay at a temple for a weekend and it was great! Our itinerary included:

* sleeping on the floor - and waking up to a GIGANTIC black spider by my head!

* bowing 108 times - we did this at a very quick pace, to the beat of a bamboo stick...what a workout! I haven't sweat that much in a long time!

* chanting - surprisingly, I was able to keep up with reading the words, although there was no hope for me to actually chant along :S

* walking meditations - we walked one by one along a beautiful path in the forest, and were told to concentrate only on our feet...if we stepped on a rock, we should feel the pain, but immediately go back to focusing entirely on our footsteps. It was really interesting.

* sitting meditations (at 4am!)- we were woken up at 4am to practice our sitting meditations. We were not allowed to close our eyes, and the sunim walked around with a bamboo stick just in case we felt the urge to go to sleep!

* a tea ceremony followed by discussions with the sunim (monk)- this was a very relaxing and thought-provoking part of the weekend, and I feel I learned a lot about buddhism

* making lotus lanterns - craft time! the lanterns were really fun to make, and we sat at a table with some funny Brits, making it the most light-hearted part of the weekend.

* making a 108 bead necklace - for which we were supposed to bow 108 times...however, after the first 108 bows, and some extras thrown in here and there over the weekend, my poor legs couldn't really take any more strain, so sadly, mine is a mere 68 bow necklace :(

* eating the most depressing breakfast EVER! - at 6am we experienced a traditional monk breakfast, eating out of four bowls, in a very particular order, in complete silence, and then cleaning out the bowls with a piece of radish and water, and then EATING the radish after it all was done! NOT my favourite part of the weekend, but an experience to remember, that's for sure!

Thoughts on the weekend: It was informative, and thought-provoking at times, grueling and physically painful at others! Overall, I'm really happy that I did it!
It was a fantastic weekend, even if I came home barely able to move :)

In the video, the first bit is of a monk drumming. You can't see much, but the sound is awesome! Afterward is a slide show of pictures taken during the weekend.

A Day at School

MORE school! I know! Some random bits of video taken around the elementary school. Gives a bit of a tour around the school, outside the English room!
MORE ceizure-enducing footage! I apologize! But I am using a webcam to get it, so shut up! lol!

Me and Seong Young down by the blue screen

On Friday Seong Young and I played around with the new blue screen. For some reason I was making the screen turn blue, but since it was just the two of us, we couldn't fix it! But I swear it actually works lol! Video may be a bit boring, but it was fun for us!

Tour of my new English classroom!

My elementary school just finished building a new English classroom and its AWESOME!

You say cupcake and I say not quite!

Thanks to Dave for the intro! LOVE IT!
I think it is fitting then, that I begin the video in the crazy airplane in my classroom! (ps- had no idea mr. ban was also sitting on the plane...he kills me!)

In the video: The teachers have a baking class and learn to make cookies and cupcakes, taught by some woman wearing a polka dot apron...

The Hoggo Show!

Ok!

So there is this cute little mart just down the street from our apartment. It is called the Ok Mart. We like to call the owners Mr. and Mrs. Ok. They are hilarious and we love them. They are like my parents away from home :) I gave them some maple syrup and candies after their help on this day.

What part of the fish is that?

The elementary school had a staff dinner a couple weeks ago, to introduce and celebrate all of the new teachers this semester (there were about 6 of us). Here are a few more of my co-workers!

hey u go girl

I think this was our first Friday night at our new apartment, and we were a little bored, and soju costs a mere dollar...

Cathy...I apologize, but I have honoured your wishes and you are not in the video :P Please don't kill me ;)

Welcom to School!

In the video:

Part 1 - At Oksan Elementary School
My friends/English teachers Hae Na (wearing pink) and Seong Ok (wearing white/blue shirt)
They are so nice! We have started a once/month girly dinner/movie outing! This month was Italian food - pasta/pizza!

Part 2 - At Oksan Middle School
Yumi is my co-teacher and she is AMAZING! She helps me with every single thing here, from getting my visa/internet, to driving me to school everyday...basically I love her!

Chips, anyone? On with the show!

LOVVVVVEEEE this video!

The gist: Car will miss me, Vick won't...Briar likes chips, and Allaina criticizes my need to capture events on video, as she has so many times in the past :P

Taken from the girly-night sleepover we had before I left. I miss you all so much! Also...Ian and Sasha show their true colours.

On the Plane

Better late than never! Here are Cathy and I on the plane, nearing the end of our trip! Glad that I didn't watch the show Fringe before embarking on this trip!

sushi, belts, markets, ah the memories...and the nightmares I'm sure to experience tonight ;)

So, Cathy and I just spent the day shopping in Cheongju. It was a gorgeous day today, 27 degrees, not a cloud in the sky.

We took the bus to Cheongju, and somehow managed to stay on the bus much further than our usual stop...however this worked out well, because we found this big market that looked really interesting. It was packed full of people, fish, food and kimchi. (It must be noted that the fish and meat preparation areas were directly beside fruit and vegetable stands, which I'm sure cannot be sanitary... One woman beside me decided to WASH HER HANDS in one of the FISH TANKS,(not an empty fish tank either, but one full of disgusting large beady-eyed, sharp toothed man eaters) and proceeded to shake them dry all over my legs and feet! Grossed out as I was, this is Korea, so I traveled on down the incredibly packed market aisle. Finally, we could see the end of the tunnel-like market, and headed towards the light. However, it was at the exit that we found the cages of animals for sale...poor chickens and ducks packed into tiny cages in the awful heat! We felt sooooo bad for them...and just when we thought we were in the clear, (don't read further if you have any kind of soul or spirit) ...we passed the last animal stall, and in it were cages of chickens, ducks, rabbits, PUPPIES and KITTENS :( Saddest thing ever...I think I cried a little bit it was so shocking!! It was horrible and we got out of there as fast as humanly possible.

After taking some side streets we finally found the main downtown centre, and went shopping!!!! (nothing like a little shopping to take your mind off the cruel slaughter of household pets). Our first stop was this store called WHO A.U., which I think is kind of like an Australian American Eagle, but with a Korean twist...I bought a couple t-shirts... then we went to a mall and I tried on this dress in the tiniest store, behind the tiniest wall...which, really, the "dressing room" came up to about my waist! I wish I had got a picture! Anyways, the girl in the store was so cute and helpful and she put this belt on me and it was amazing! So I got the dress AND the belt (which was only $10!) and then ended my shopping spree! lol! Shopping in Korea is AWESOME by the way!

To end our day, Cathy and I went to this cute little sushi place, and then to Starbucks! Not bad for an afternoon in Cheongju... (aside from the horrific murdering of puppies and kittens)

New Posts Soon!

Hey, so I just got internet last week! (thanks scott!) and so I hope to have new videos up soon! Anyways, this is a long weekend in Korea (Chuseok) so I have tons of time to get back to blogging!

See you soon
xoxo

Arrival in South Korea :))

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Annyong haseyo! (hello - one of two korean words I currently know ;)

So Cathy and I have arrived safe and sound in sunny South Korea! The flight was wonderful, and everything went much faster and easier than I expected. We were picked up at the airport by a very nice woman from the Provincial Office of Education, and traveled 3 hrs by bus to Cheongju, where we are staying during our training. I am finally getting over the jet lag and am feeling much more myself. I really think I was sleepwalking for the first 3 days here! Today I woke up feeling much more energized and with a positive outlook.

South Korea is very beautiful, with mountains everywhere! Apparently hiking is big here, so hopefully I'll be able to do that soon. It is also EXTREMELY hot and humid! For example, when we arrived, it was 27 degrees and humid, just like in Canada, but that was considered a nice cool day here in the summer! And the worst part is we have to dress very professional, so tank tops and shorts are out of the question!! I think I"m gonna sweat off a million pounds while I'm here! But that might be a good thing, as all of the women here are super skinny and its not fair lol! They also eat like crazy!!! I've never seen so much food in my life! Hopefully will get a picture up soon of a regular meal setting - there are like 20 side dishes served with every meal, and most meals are shared! Like even soup is shared...no one gets individual plates..!! ( I may be needing some more cold/flu medication sent this way lol!)

Today we met a very nice teacher called Vicky who took us to buy cell phones, got frappicinos at Starbucks, and managed to find "big" towels at HomeEver! Tomorrow we are going to the immigration office to do some more boring stuff!

Okay, not much to say just yet... just.wanted to let everyone know how its going! And I'm hopefully going to get a new video up, as soon as my awesome brother emails me how to do it!

TTYS!!
xxxooo

My First Video!

So this is my first attempt at making a video! Basically I was just fooling around with figuring out the editing and music and stuff. Hopefully future blogs will have more to say!

ps- I know the music is French, but it's all I've got for now!
pps- I tried to make the music quieter, and it apparently only worked on the first couple of seconds...but I just can't be bothered to go back and do it all over...so you'll have to get your deer ears on for this one!

Pre-South Korea

Here we are...Cathy and I ready for our trip!  Hopefully we will return looking just as happy and not yet disillusioned with the world :)

IDIOTS..this is VIDEO !!

Dave and I testing out the camera...being the morons we are...can you tell we're related??