a muddy day

Last week we went to and island called Jebu to learn about the sea life. We got to the island by driving on a road that 'goes under' when the tide comes in. The west coast here has the second largest tide in the world.

Our students sure enjoyed themselves. For about 2 hours the played and wrestled in the mud, dug for crabs and helped our guide with his catch for the day.

Reuben is helping one of the students get free from the mud. This wasn't the only student that neede his assistance - many had their boots stuck.

Seong Hyun gave up trying and sat down to get his foot free.

I stayed pretty clean, just one little mark on my cheek from Yun Young.

Our guide cut up a bunch of fish caught in his nets so we all tried some of the freshest sushi you will even eat! The students went ape over the little snack and tried so hard to get me to try it. Reuben was braver then me.

After being out there for serveral hours we were all ready to get cleaned up and dried off. Some lucky ones got a ride back... some desperately hitch hiking for a ride.

Teacher's Day - May 15

The Mother's Committee prepared a wonderful 'teacher's day lunch' for the whole school. We had turkey, stuffing, potatoes, sweet and sour chicken and some other goods.
Lots of schools in Korea are closed for the day. I guess gifts to teachers have gotten a little out of hand in the past.

Welcome to Korea

Welcome to Korea Hannah and Raquel! Reuben and I knew these girls from university and here they are in Korea!

wAcky DAy aT SchOOl

its wacky day at school! almost every student participated in our fun dress-up day. even the teachers!

here is our whole school - all 40 students and 6 teachers.

this is my co-elementaryt teacher, miss cho.

the 'girl' in the middle is one of our grade 5 male students. he won first prize for wackiest outfit!

mr and mrs zuidhof and their funny faces.

theses are some more of my elementary students. from the left is gyeong won, yeong uk, ju ho and hyung jung.

JAPAN

We had a litte 4 day trip to Osaka and Kyoto last weekend. Here are some pictures from our trip. There is more to come!!!

Osaka Castle - one of the popular things to do in Osaka is tour the castle. so we did!

watching an IMAX film called 'into the deep' (or something like that).

Spent a few hours in an aquarium with over 35000 species in it. as you walked thru the aquarium you went deeper and deeper down into the sea, seeing all the sea life at their different levels. The glow in front of me is a dolphin. under the sea... under the sea...

here is a massive ferris wheel... yes, for ony 9.99 you can have a 15 min ride on it. and yes, we splurged and did it!!! it is 125 meters at the highest point, one of the tallest of its kind in the world. during your ride you get a history class from an automatic recording inside your car. yes, quite romantic i must say.

more of JAPAN

here is a little taste of japanese culture.


there are lots of cute little japanese tea houses and restuarants. this area of town is what you would picture when you think of old japan - with little geishas jumping from roof to roof!!!

we waited and walkted along this one street for a long while trying to get some pictures of the beautiful geishas. my first 4 attempts at getting pictures were unsucessful. there were many walking by themselves and many trailing behind men in suits. all very cute, just like in the movies. they wont stop for pictures, but they'll smile and nod at you.

bikes everywhere! just like in china, it seems that most people travel this way. whether in a suit, dress or mini skirt, everyone is travelling on their speedy little bikes.

some pictures of us eating in a cute little restuarant. we had to try the sake... we opted for peach flavour... mmm mmm good! it was a wonderful trip, great to get away together and visit another country.

Girls Only

Last weekend Dionne had a little girls party for the teachers and staff of our school. We feasted on lots of food and chatted for hours. I left after 2 hours, but apparently the others stayed for 5hours!!! It was a hit, so we are going to do it more often. Next time at my place.

Ceramics Village

We brought our school to Icheon Ceramics Village for an art field trip this past week. We spent the whole day learning about the amazing history of ceramics and earthware in Korea and creating our own pieces. The students had a blast and so did the teachers because everyone got a chance to try the wheel. After lunch our buddy Mr. Park taught us how to used coils to create more peieces. Each student made a couple different plates or bowls. Mr. Park will fire and glaze our pieces and mail them to us.
This is where we went for our one year anniversary - so we have quite the collection now!

More Spring Fun

We, along with the Sustads, scooted into Seoul (across the Han river) for the first time this past weekend. To get across the river you have to travel on highways and bridges that have pictures of scooters with a big red X'es through the picture. Oops! But we made it to our destination: Namsan Mountain to check out the cherry blossoms. Then we ate dinner at our favorite Indian food restaurant. The adventures continued when Scot and Kim's scooter broke down in the middle of Seoul. So, the scoot was left there, they took the bus home and met us back at our apartment.
Not a day goes by with out adventure here!

Spring Is Here

Scooter Breakdown

scot, kim, reub and i were off on a little day trip to seoul to see some cherry blossoms ... when we had a little breakdown of the scoot. reuben and i were up the highway about a km and realized scot and kim weren't behind us anymore .... so driving the opposit way on the highway we made it back to them.
luckily scot had a 6 foot chain in his bucket seat - just long enough for a pull. we towed them to the next exit, which just happend to be near costco. so to costco we went, did some shopping eating. the scoot worked fine on the way home. it turns out they have an overheating problem. we will try again next weekend.