downtime at last!

It's no secret that Korean kids (probably Asia in general) study way too much. I mean they spend A LOT of time in their books - and when you hear about it, it sounds uncanny. Having seen it myself, I can tell you it's not an exaggeration. My very own students are here from 8:20am with the 1st class at 8:50 only to finish the last class at 16:05. For majority of them it doesn't end there. After school they are subjected to basically another day of school, attending hagwon (academy) where they work probably even harder. At hagwon, they brush up on subjects of great importance such as Korean, English, Maths and Science - oh yes and which Asian kid doesn't play an instrument - got to squeeze in that violin lesson too.  These extra lessons can last right through to10pm and for high school scholars preparing for their final exam, midnight is a reasonable hour to still be in school uniform.  It's no wonder our students are always tired and stressed out - they work harder at the age of 14 than I did at university!

You can imagine, then, how awesome it is, even for us teachers, when the students have a bit of down time. They are so happy and you finally get to see them as they truly are - and that is, they are just children. At our school festival last week - the kids really brought their game faces. It was pure bliss. Dancing and singing competitions, game stations, movie screenings, market and sports day all rolled into one (well 2 days). It was magical. I was having so much fun I am surprised I managed to take so many snaps...

Awesome Taekwondo demonstration

settling disputes the old fashion way - rock, paper, scissors

sweet victory

super teacher + super student

Yep - my school had a legit stage set up and the girls danced their hearts out

Final thoughts
I so wish there were more of these days. Maybe not to this magnitude, but just generally more time for the kids to let their hair down. It was really awesome to see them so happy.  The only challenge now: trying to teach them after all these festivities - "Teacher, movie today please?"

seasons are changing

Summer in Daegu is too hot (and I am from Durban), and the winter equally unbearable for different reasons, leaving me no choice but to fall madly in love with the gorgeous but very short Autumn and Spring.  We are thoroughly enjoying the cool of Autumn in the northern hemisphere. You can layer your outfit but still look stylish as opposed to the Michelin Tyres mascot look that awaits us in a few weeks. I can continue to order my hot caffe lattes (as I do in summer) just without the judgemental stares from the iced americano people. The hiking (a favourite Korean pass time) is magical in this season as the trees go through a metarphosis almost on a daily basis. And to be honest, I kind of like watching the Americans (here in Korea) get all excited and prepared for their holiday season as they would back home, starting with Halloween next week and my new American favourite, Thanksgiving, towards the end of November - what can I say I am big lover of pumpkin.

Just popped in to share a snap or two of what my school looks like in this season.

Thanks for letting me show off - my school is pretty neat right? I hope to do a photo walk to snap some more of these golden leaves around my neighbourhood before they fall off completely. Cheers to Autumn!

who doesn't love the aquarium?

A lot of exciting things are happening this side of the Indian Ocean. My friends and I are busy with plans for our last trip together before returning to our home countries- more on that later. I have also booked my one way ticket home and according to my recently downloaded app -  I'll be on my way in 126 days. It's such a bitter sweet moment. I'm so thrilled to be coming home - warmer weather, friends and family, but my oh my, Korea has been such an incredible experience, its sad to let it all go.

I sometimes browse through my photos from the past year and half and I am overwhelmed.  I can't believe how God has blessed me - His plans for me were definitely bigger than what I had in mind. While browsing through my albums  - I found a few snaps from an outing with the girls to the aquarium. Who doesn't love the aquarium right?  I absolutely do - again we witness God's design and marvel at how incredible it is - you see it in all creatures, big and small.

Final thoughts
I really hope to scuba dive some day soon - if I can brave it up. Wouldn't it be magnificent to see these guys in their natural habitat :) ok let's be honest - I'll be more relieved if we don't bump into the last guy....

How Great Thou Wall, China

I am slowly but surely making my way through my very ambitious list and this month I get to cross out number 26 with my recent visit to China. While the Koreans celebrated their Chusoek holiday with family - my friends and I popped on over to Beijing for a 5 day tour of this amazing city with an equally amazing tour company. This was the first time I have traveled in a tour group, on previous occasions I have traveled independently then booked tours to sight-see specific landmarks and tourist sights. Yes people, I was one of those people following the flag and I loved it. But don't worry there were no matching uniforms for our group, I thought I'd save that for retirement age.

The tour was well organized and all inclusive (accommodation, meals and transport) with the exception of the last day which was left open for us to explore the city at our leisure. We were spotted at attractions such as the Summer Palace, (almost) Birds Nest Olympic Stadium, Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square but the highlight of course was seeing The Great Wall of China. Here is how the events unfolded:

boarding pass ready to go

landing time

yep - that is me jumping on the hotel bed, so mature of me

we came prepared for a patriotic moment on The WALL

Too many photos with strangers

Afia trying her hand in a game with the locals

flags flying high at the forbidden city

A visit to the market before our cooking class

cooking family and the dog

the only group photo we have that did not include random strangers 

The tour group convert

Well not completely, I won't choose tour group holidays every time but there were significant benefits in doing our Beijing trip this way.

1. Air-conditioned bus to drop us off and pick us up and ON TIME. Koreans are pretty good with that, but when I travel especially South East Asia, I lower my expectations when it comes to transport schedules. It was great knowing that transport has been paid for (no negotiating with tuk tuks like in Thailand) and will be waiting for us on time. It meant that we were able to keep to our schedule and see all the sights on our planned itinerary; this was important to us due to the limited time we had. We would not have been able to see as much if we were busy trying to navigate public transport. And we could safely leave our belongings in the bus after shopping. Plus the tour came with an amazing driver and hilarious tour guide.

 

                                                   our amazing tour guide Charlie - great sense of humour this guy

2. Accommodation was amazing. 4 star Holiday Inn with a buffet breakfast every morning - what a treat. It was so nice to check in to a place like this, after all that walking every day compared to a hostel sharing a bathroom with 7 other people. Don't get me wrong, sometimes the adventure is great and you meet awesome people in that setting, but sometimes you just need your rest. Our hotel room had wifi (although not free), tv, a safe to lock up passports and gadgets, amazing pressure on the shower and beautiful city view from the 32nd floor.

3. From a budgeting perspective - going with a tour group offered far more value for money than if I had tried to book the trip independently. Usually tour groups are synonymous with astronomical mark ups in price but this time, this was not the case. After researching the cost of flights and accommodation alone, I could tell that the tour group definitely had advantage with economies of scale which I could benefit from. Plus the tour included all meals (except on the last day), an Acrobatic Show, transport and entrance fees to the sights. Because we paid for everything in advance - cash flow was better too because any money I brought a long was for souvenir shopping and any extras I wanted to add on (like our cooking class).

4. Jump the line - this was one of my favourites. Being a national holiday, the capital was flooded with people and there were lines just about everywhere. Being with a tour group meant, we just needed to follow the flag. We got to go in separate entrances for tour groups and at popular restaurants, we had our tables reserved for us, no waiting, no missing out - it was awesome.

Tips and Opinions

1. Between Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan (and I am guessing Japan but I haven't been there myself) China is the cheaper of the Asian Tigers. From shopping (at the markets) to food and public transport -our money really went further; not as far as South East Asia but definitely further than in Korea.

2. Chinese food was great and significantly different from Korea. I think coming from South Africa, I always pictured the Chinese, Koreans and Japanese to be far more similar than they actually are in reality. In the cooking class we did, there was no presence of red pepper sauce - that's all I have to say.

3. Tour groups are not such a bad thing. Think about it. Beijing is the capital city to the most populated country in the world - this, people, is a big city. Besides a lot of people, the language barrier is high up and with only 5 days at our disposal, we felt that we did not have enough time to get lost explore at our own pace. Also being a huge holiday season in the far east (there is always a full moon involved), they anticipated a lot of traffic, certain sights of interest were closed on certain days, and generally long queues were expected as the rest of China descended to the capital. It made so much logic to sign up for a tour group and have someone who knows the place take us around and worth every penny. I would not have enjoyed showing up somewhere only to find it closed.

Final thoughts
We had an amazing time in Beijing and were pleasantly surprised at the cleanliness of the city (a lot of Koreans had told us otherwise). We even survived the Beijing metro. We made a lot of great memories and our tour group was made up of friendly faces. From the shear number of photos taken of us by strangers, I can say - Obama has really made being "black/African" cool again, you would think we were celebrities the way we were being photographed - perhaps they thought we were related to him or maybe royalty back home - either way it was, most of the time, fun to strike-a-pose.

Visits from afar

Amongst my close friends here in Korea, I think I have been the most spoiled with visitors. Last year the BF came for a visit. Last month my friend flew to Vietnam to meet me; 2 weeks later my other friend came to Korea to visit me. And not too long ago my sister and her friend confirmed their flights to come and visit me for Christmas - Blessed much? I think so too.

While Zama was in Korea we had a ton of fun (and spent a lot of money) while enduring the summer heat that Korea has on offer. We spent 4 days in Seoul, 3 days in Jeju, 2 days in Busan, then ended her trip in Korea with my first love and my city, Daegu. Here is our story in pictures :

greetings - never too far from home

                          

palace courtyards

this is not a laughing matter :)

The most beautiful garden in the world

View from 45 metres under the sea - submarine ride, Jeju

gift shopping - the largest department store in the world

duck boat rides by the lake

We really had a good time, visiting DMZ (border of North and South Korea), introducing her to Korean cuisine, eating regularly with chopsticks, gift shopping, hopping on rides at the amusement park, bike riding, boat paddling, sun tanning (not really LOL), submarine riding, temple and palace visiting and loads more.

Final thoughts

Thank you again to my friends and family who have made such an effort to stay in touch and even visit me while living abroad. Some days are really tough out here, especially around special events like birthdays, weddings or when a new family member is born. But seeing someone from home or receiving a care pack or even a post card, can make all the difference and give you that boost of energy you needed to get through a difficult spell. So thank you so much for the love, I appreciate it. I'll be home soon, excitement is in the air.