Goodbye Korea!

It's a grey and rainy November morning in England. We finally got back last night after a long, long journey. It doesn't feel like we've actually left Korea, it feels like we'll be going back in a week or so! We've met so many amazing people and done hundreds of things I never though I would do. No doubt there'll be some nostalgic posts in the weeks to come.

But our last couple of days in Korea were very hectic and I was relieved to get on the plane after what felt like a long week!

On Friday I said goodbye to all of my students and co teachers. It was really sad to say goodbye as it may be the last time that I see them again. They were all really cute and gave me some gifts, letters and cards.















On Monday, I went to Nick's school, which I had never been to before, to take some pictures for him. It was funny as all of the kids were very curious about me and would scream whenever I told them that I was Nick's girlfriend. The teacher asked me to come and sit in on his class so it was funny to see him in teacher mode. Afterwards, I went for my last Spanish class and then met Natasha, Amber and Ashley for one final Namsung dinner together.




Tuesday was a horrible day of getting little jobs done and still trying to finalise details of our flight. Stress!

Wednesday we tied up the last few loose ends and then went to meet all of our friends for dinner and drinks in Seomyeon. It wasn't as bad as i thought it would be to say goodbye to everyone, as I know that I will definitely see them all again! We got home by about 12:30 and was up bright and early on Thursday morning to catch our flight back to London.

So that's that chapter of our life over and done with! It's bizarre to be home!













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Danger Mammal

I'm just making some last minute changes to the things I've packed ready for our climb tomorrow. Although I can't help but notice I'm going to be wearing exactly what I wore when we went to Seoroksan, I looked like a garden gnome playing football!

I'm about to head to meet Nick for dinner. It reminded me about last night when I was waiting for him at the train station and the fountain show started. This drunk old guy in a suit and trilby kept thrusting his hands towards the fountain as in going 'TA DAAAA' expecting the water or the lights to change and making it look as if he was magically gifted to change the lights. Unfortunately it didn't work for him, so he decided to climb onto the stage, but missed the stage and fell in a crumpled heap! The last thing I saw of him he was straddling a wall and having a cigarette! I'll miss the old, reckless drunks in Korea!

Finally, because the kids had tests all this week, I decided to have a bit of fun with my after school. They had to draw an animal that was a mixture of other animals and then write a couple of sentences about what it liked or didn't like. Danger mammal came first, followed by cat bee! So cute!





Well I hope you all have a good weekend and wish me good luck on the hike!



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Sports Day 2013

The sports day at Namsung is far closer to an episode of Takeshi's Castle rather than the traditional egg and spoon race I'm used to in England.

All the old favourites from last year were played again, plus a few new ones. It started out with Natasha and I, plus maybe thirty of the mums wafting a long, thin piece of material while dads threw their first grade kids onto said material and were flung across the tempestuous waves the mothers were creating, while screaming as their loved ones were flicked around. I was sad that the put your child in a sack, mix them all around and then give the mums a minute to find their offspring event wasn't featured this year.

Next, came with the good old, fill-the-windsock-with-balloons race followed by hockey played with wooden spoons and huge plastic pigs, relay races, flicking giant balls into the air and team races whilst riding a huge inflatable sausage and wearing a wizard's hat!

I love that all the mum's give it their best shot too and get involved. The vice principal stepped in at one point to stop a Grandma trying to mount the inflatable sausage, I also noticed the dads were playing dirty in the relays. One poor dad got pushed over, managed to do a barrel roll and get back onto his feet, will keeping his first position, we were all very impressed!

The highlight has to be the kids making a huge mountain by trapping air under a huge piece of material made out of the same stuff as a parachute. It was then that we got told that the aim of it was for us to climb the mountain and try and push the air out of it! Pretty terrifying but made me feel like a massive kid again!

It was lots of fun, and the kids finished off the event dancing to Crayon Pop's Ba Ba Ba song. We all rushed out pretty early as the first typhoon of the year was making its way to Busan.













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Summer Camp

This year's Summer Camp went really, really well. Last year I hated it so much that it made me want to leave Korea, but this year it seemed to go really smoothly. The kids were pretty eager to learn, the books and schedules well organised and we were all assigned one class who we had to direct in performing a play.

My play was called 'The Pumpkin Ghost on Halloween Night' and I worked with a group of 11 3rd and 4th grade kids. Some of the times they'd have me tearing out my hair, but I had to say when it came down to the performance in front of the rest of the school I was really impressed by them.

Some of the younger kids looked so cute doing their plays, and the 6th grade boys made the school laugh by taking the girls parts in a performance of Beauty and the Beast.

Now it's at an end I'll kind of miss seeing some of their faces everyday!



















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