Christmas in Korea

Hey everyone! Christmas is now past but I hoped it found you well. On our end of the ocean, I guess we got a little more of a white Christmas than the rest of you. Below is a picture of one of the snowstorms that we were hit with. It's the most snow (and the worst) that has been in this area in at least 70 years (I heard as much as 100, but who can be sure?). It was actually declared a natural disaster zone.


Here's a picture of a snowman that we made in the park across the street. Although this snowman has three parts, Korean ones only have two. Fortunately, there was enough snow that we could make it in our traditional fashion. We made it after school one night, but it was apparently missing by the next morning. If you see him, let us know.



Here's a picture of our Christmas tree. It's a full four feet tall and it was only $7 from Home Plus. Christmas was great but we really missed all of our friends and family. Through the wonders of modern technology, we were able to connect with much of our family, which was great.Finally, here is Emily with the Kimchi mascot. We went to the Kimchi festival a few weeks ago, which was a lot of kimchi, and this fellow was the mascot. Emily doesn't like mascots, but she was kind enough to pose for this photo.

We miss you all and hope that your Christmas was great. So, until later, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Tales from the classroom

So far, I have been loving teaching in Korea. I don't think I could teach elementary full time or in Canada (there's just a few cultural things to my advantage here), but I love the situation that I'm in. Most of the kids are amazing, and with the exception of a scant few, they are generally amazing. It's fun, often amusing and very fulfilling.

Some things that I've found amusing so far (just as highlights):

Brought to Class:
Balloon animals
A lifesize replica of an AK-47 machine gun
A grasshopper in a pencil case
A rather large snowball (it snowed and the grade 3's brought me a present)
A hamster in a pencil case

Said in Class:
"The crap bit my hands." (Koreans don't have much distinction between L/R and B/P in their language so it was actually supposed to be "crab")

"Teacher, I think your wife is pretty. You... you are so-so. So I think she is better than you."

(Said of a little finger puppet)
Student: "Teacher, this is my god!"
Teacher: "Oh, that's not good!"
Student: "But it's my bodyguard!"
(And my misunderstanding becomes apparent. What I heard as "god" was actually "guard.")

Written on a Fill-in-the-Blank Test:
Here's your meal. Be careful! Your waitress is hot. (The correct answer was "plate.")

Oh, Canada...

So here's the deal...

About two months ago, we get on the phone to the government of Canada and we tell them that we've left the country. We don't live there anymore, we live in Korea, here's our address, blah blah blah. The Reesors have left the nation.

About two weeks ago, we got a letter in the mail from the Federal Government. Curious as could be, we opened it up to discover a GST Cheque! Yes, indeed, people who live in a different country are apparently eligible for GST cheques. I'm not sure how, but we got our cheque for $81.39.

Two days later, we got a letter in the mail from the Federal Government. Curious as could be, we opened it up to discover a bill from the government for... $81.39! They mailed the cheque and two days later, they mailed the bill. Apparently people who live in a different country are NOT eligible for GST cheques.

Two days later, we got another letter. It was a summary of everything that had just happened. "Credits issues, payments received, amount owing, etc." The long and the short of it is this: the government needs to talk to itself a little bit more.

Fortunately, it only costs 58 cents to airmail a cheque back to Canada from here. Go figure.

Gwangju is like a box of chocolates... You never know what you are going to get!

Ah, I love this city. It is certainly never boring here!

Take today for instance. Jon and I decided to go downtown to catch a quick lunch before he headed off to school. We took the bus and our bus took a detour so we had to walk a long way. This isn't all that unusual. Our bus passes through the main "square" so to speak of the city and it is often closed to traffic for something or other. I have enjoyed many random festivals in this spot! Today we figured was another such festival.

Our afternoon progressed normally - we ate our lunch and began making our way back to the school. On our route we came across what appeared to be a protest/strike/sit in/demonstration or something of the sort. Finally we have the reason for our bus detour! Anyway it seemed a little serious and protest like - certainly not a festival, so we walked through it and to the school.

About a half an hour later I was heading to the bus stop to go home, having already forgotten about the protest. Ah, but friends - it had not forgotten about me.

All I wanted to do was cross the street, walk to the bus stop, catch my bus and go home. Oh if only things were ever that easy! I made it to the intersection to cross the road only to see that the sit-in protest had turned into a parade! We are talking about hundreds of people here, walking down the street where my bus is supposed to be! The police were directing traffic so it was still flowing in both directions just only on half of the width of the road. The other half was my parade. I finally made it across the street (walking through the protesters!) And then realized, my bus stop is in the middle of this parade, how does this work?

Long story short I saw every single protester walk by me, singing and pumping their fists. I still have no idea what they were protesting about nor will I likely ever know. At one point I wondered to myself - should I be nervous right now? Are they protesting about foreigners or something? But I looked around and saw little kids and old ladies waiting for the bus with me and everything seemed ok. I smiled and waved at the protester guys and they smiled back. They sang their protest song. I waited patiently for them to move on. Many busses came while the parade was going past and some brave Koreans ran through the protesters to the middle of the road to hail a bus (yes you hail busses here - otherwise they won't stop for you) luckily, my bus came just as the protest was ending.

I gratefully sank into my seat, glad to be off the road and out of the cold. It still took a ridiculously long time because we were following behind the protesters (we were going so slowly that the protesters kept passing us - maybe I should have just joined them!)

Anyway, I made it home in one piece! What an adventure. It was a little bit surreal but fun nonetheless!

Tonight Jon and I are going to opening night of the new Harry Potter movie. Harry Potter is unbelievably popular here, it is SO crazy! We already have our tickets for tonight and theaters here have assigned seats so that's nice. That should be fun.

Anyway thought I would fill you in on my adventures and misadventures! We love you all so much and happy December!

Emily