Anna Teacher goes on Vacation:

The Hello Kitty Cafe in Seoul
Trying to fit in with the Koreans
Busan Tower :)

Anna Teacher goes on Vacation, as in..."Spot goes on Vacation"...I've been spending far too much time with Kindergarteners!

Well, vacation has actually been over for a while, but this week has been busy for me trying to get back into the the groove (if I ever even had a groove) of teaching, and finding my routine. I think that my routine is going to change...hopefully. Right now it really isn't much of a routine. Get up at 20 after 8, get ready, grab a coffee on my way to school, and teach.

Vacation was great! We spent our first couple of days in Busan. Busan is on the far south east point of the Korean penninsula. It's a huge tourist place, and we were told we probably wouldn't be able to find a place to stay or be able to get KTX (high speed train) tickets on such short notice..but we did! The hostel we stayed at, Indy House, was really nice, and the owners were super friendly and very helpful. When we first got there we headed for the beach, first thing we noticed were the umbrellas and the tubes. Koreans sure love their tubes! It was surprisingly easy to find a spot though, and we enjoyed a nice afternoon there (after we walked for hours trying to find a restaurant we could understand..)

Monday was a very full day, but so fun! We got up early and took the subway, then a bus, then walked to hike up Mt. Geumjeong. There were some cool fortresses and watchtowers built to keep the Japanese out, it was pretty cool to see! We made it up to a peak with the help of a retired Korean principal we met when we had just finished going in circles. Instead of trying to figure out how to bus it down the mountain we took a cable-car ride instead, a great view of the City! When we got back to the hostel, and after yet another frustrating experience trying to feed ourselves, we headed to Yongdusan Park downtown Busan. In the park we got to go up the "Busan tower" for only 4000 won (that's like $3.50 Canadian). The view of the city at night was amazing! After the tower we made our way to the downtown market and wandered through little shops and stalls.

Tuesday was another full day! We got up early again and headed to Haeundae Beach...the main tourist attraction in Busan. At first we didn't know why everyone said it would be so busy....but by 2pm when we left we understood. All you could see was umbrellas and tubes, it was madness...I have NEVER seen so many people in my life. We packed up our beach stuff and headed to the Busan Aquarium! The Aquarium was really cool, it might be nerdy..but I love sea animals. :) After a good ol' north american meal we headed to see the Lotte Giants play baseball (Kim....are you proud!) The game was so much fun, and it was Jodi's first baseball game ever! Koreans love their baseball and even have songs for a bunch of the players! It was definitely a fun night.

Wednesday was rainy, so we bought our KTX tickets and headed back to Daejeon where we met up with Robyn and began to plan for the rest of our holidays. It turned out that it's not easy to plan a trip in Korea on short notice during peak season, so we ended up deciding to head to Seoul. But I'm glad we did! It was a ton of fun!

Thursday we caught another KTX and headed to Seoul. When we got there, navigated the subway system, and finally made it to our hostel we were a little surprised. I guess we just expected it to be like the last one...but it wasn't. It was one guy running it, and he shoved as many foreigners into the "guesthouse" as he possibly could. The first night he also didn't turn on the AC...that was a brutal night!

Friday we hiked a mountain, went shopping in the shopping district, found the "stream", and hung out on the "porch" of the guesthouse. Saturday we went to the Hello Kitty Cafe for Breakfast (SO KOREAN) and found this sweet free art market, and explored the area where our hostel was. It was pretty awesome, it was right around an arts university so its a pretty hip neighbourhood. That night we went to a Seoul FC soccer game! I know...a baseball game AND a soccer game in one week...look at us go! haha. Sunday we headed back to Daejeon to settle in a little more before work.

And now vacation is over. Today Jodi, Kristin and I decided to take a walk around the river near our neighborhood. We've been trying to do it all week, but this weather is so crazy! It'll be sunny all day, and then as soon as we're done school and finished dinner the clouds will burst and it will rain all evening. I guess it's all this humidity building up throughout the day or something...All I'm going to say is that I'm pretty excited that monsoon season is coming to an end. But back to the river walk...it's great! There's a track that runs all the way around the river, little bridges all over the place, and even an arboretum island! We're going to start walking/running around there as much as we can (weather permitting). Kristin and I are also hopefully going to start yoga! I've wanted to try it out for a while now.

Some "Korea" moments from the past two weeks:

- Koreans think you can catch a cold or die from sleeping with a fan on....it's called fan death.

- Writing your name in red is considered a curse

- Families go over-the-top for Birthdays, it's actually pretty awesome if you're a teacher and get a ton of free food :)

- All my 9 yr. olds have cell phones.

- One kid patted my belly the other day. So so so not cool.

- Big sun hats are unisex...even if they have big bows on them.

- For the Korean "thanksgiving" we get almost a full week off. It's a HUGE deal. How sick is that?