Ann's Birthday Party

Ann celebrated her birthday on Tuesday. Her parents and older sister stopped by the classroom and brought tons of delicious food for everyone.

Zipline Video

Here is the video that I took as I was on the zipline in the Philippines.

Philippines 2010

During our winter vacation, Fred and I headed to Bohol Island in the Philippines with a few of our friends, Steve, Josh and Justin. We left on Thursday December 23 right after work on a 9:30pm flight from Incheon to Manila. After a very long layover in Manila, we took a 8:30am flight to Bohol Island. We arrived around 9:30am on Friday and headed straight to our hotel. We paid a little bit more money to be located right on the beach. It was worth the price! We walked right onto the white sand beach, Alona Beach, from our hotel. This is how our week went.

Friday: Once we checked into our rooms, we explored the beach. The hotels were a lot closer together than we imagined. They seemed to be stacked against each other in order to get the most out of the views of the beach. We also walked around and browsed in a few shops. Right away we had our hearts set on a seafood dinner. We went to a restaurant right next to our hotel for the night. Fred had a tuna steak and I had snapper. We also met a couple from Minnesota at the restaurant bar. The man had on a Twins shirt so we were immediatly drawn to them. It turned out that they live in Korea, about 8 subway stops from us. The woman teaches French at an international school. What a small world! It was a great way to start the vacation.

Saturday: We spent the day laying around the beach. The weather was very warm, mid-90's, each day. We took a Christmas dinner suggestion from our new MN/Korea friends, Maggie and John, and reserved a table at another restaurant. We spent Christmas night at a luau style pig roast. The menu had everything from pork, fish, Filipino steak, chicken, fresh veggies to curry. We were also joined by another new friend, Yann from France who had met Josh on Friday. We all enjoyed the dinner and music before a large display of fireworks filled the sky. This was by far the warmest Christmas we will ever experience.


Christmas Day on the beach



Enjoying Christmas dinner

Sunday: On Sunday we again enjoyed the white sand beach. We spent the day drinking mango shakes and tropical drinks as we tried to Skype with family members back home. In the evening, we all met for lobsters on the beach.

Monday: On Monday morning Fred, Josh and I woke up at 5:30 for a 6:00am dolphin watching and snorkeling tour. We jumped on the boat we hired and set off to search for dolphins. We saw a few swimming about 50 meters from our boat. From there we went to an island to snorkel. We got off of our big boat and got into a much smaller one, similar to a canoe. We took this boat to an area a little ways off of shore. The water was so warm and crystal clear. We were snorkeling in water that was about 4 feet deep however that soon turned into a huge dropoff. The coral ground literlly just dropped down at leat 50 feet. We were able to hold our breath and dive down however we could not see the bottom. We saw numerous types of fish and beautiful coral. Our guide even brought bread for us to hold under water to feed the fish. The fish would come right up to us and eat the bread. Some of them were so big that they made me drop some bread out of pure shock from their size. I really wish we had brought a water-proof camera! From there we went to one other island, that was basically like a large sand bar. Nobody lived on it. We walked around and drink out of coconuts. Once we got back to Alona Beach we met up with Steve and Justin. Later in the day, we ran into Fred's friend William and his girlfriend Andrea who lived in Pohang with Fred last year. We all spent the night together and had a great time.








On the snorkeling tour

Tuesday: On Tuesday morning we got up and changed hotels, as we could not find one hotel for all nine nights. We then met up with William and Andrea and spent the day on the beach.

Wednesday: On Wednesday morning Fred, Josh, Steve, Justin and I headed out on an island tour. First we went to a few historical sites including the second oldest church in the Philippines. From there we went to see Tarsiers. They are the smallest primates in the world. Next we went on a lunch river cruise. The food was ok but the sites were beautiful. There was a singer and guitarist who played during the one hour river tour. At one point they sang a Korean pop-song, which we all sang along to, complete with claps and smiles. Then we went to see the Chocolate Hills. They are dome shaped hills that are covered with plants which make them appear to be covered in chocolate. Then we continued on to a butterfly conservation center. We saw tons of different types of butterflies. After this we went to a hanging brige. The bridge was made out of bamboo and ropes. It hung over a river which was very terrifing. As we were clinging onto the sides, small local children would run past us, shaking the bridge and making us scream out of fear. Finally we moved onto our last destination. We asked our guide to take us to a zipline. The zipline was about 500 meters high, between two mountains. We were strapped in so that we were hanging like Superman. The zipline lasted about 1 minute and was very scary however it turned out to be our favorite part of the day.







At the Chocolate Hills









Tarsier



Zipline



Zipline





Hanging Bridge

Thursday: On Thurday we once again spent the day on the beach.

Friday: On Friday we relaxed on the beach and got one hour massages for about 10 dollars. To celebrate New Year's Eve, we went to another luau-pig roast at the same restaurant. We enjoyed the same delicous food before welcoming 2011 on the beach with fireworks!

Saturday: On Saturday we relaxed on the beach and had one last delicous dinner on the beach.

Sunday: On Sunday we woke up and headed to the airport. We had a one hour flight to Manila then a 3 hour layover before heading back to Korea. Our flight was an hour late leaving Manila so we made it back to Korea later than planned. We ran through the airport, immigration and customs in order to catch the last bus to Suji at 10:10pm. We made it by about 10 minutes and got back to our apartment a little after 11pm.

Our 10 days in the Philippines was exactly what we needed. We were able to relax and spend some time away from the stresses of everyday life in Korea. We were sad to be spending the holidays away from our families and friends however it was wonderful to be in a tropical paradise. We were able to be around people who spoke English, we could watch western TV such at the Discovery Channel, we ate delicous western food and seafood and we spent our time with great friends. It truly was a Christmas and New Year's to remember.

Cheny's Birthday Party

Today we celebrated Cheny's birthday. She came to school in a very fancy pink and black dress, complete with matching pink hair bow. Her mother brought a snowman cake, birthday hats and pre-packaged trays of food for each student. We had muffins, candy, yogurt, cake and orange juice. After each student was full, Cheny opened her presents. She got lots of art supplies, hairbows, pencils and stockings. We had a great day and it was a nice way to celebrate before vacation.

Jingle Bell Rock

Here is my class singing Jingle Bell Rock.

Fred's Christmas Song

Here is Fred's class singing Up on the Housetop by the Jackson 5. Two of his students left for the day right before we started singing so they were down a few key members.

Santa Comes to LCI

Today Santa came to LCI. Each class got to see Santa and get a present from him. They were all very excited and full of Christmas joy. After a visit from the young Korean man dressed in a Santa suit, who was speaking and acting as if he was 85 years old, we all went back to our classrooms to practice our Christmas songs. After lunch we all got together for our Christmas song competition. I am sad to say that neither Fred or I placed in the top three! Here is a video of the entire Kinder population singing Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer in Korean at the beginning of the song competition.

Staff Christmas Party

Last night we had our staff Christmas party. After work we all headed to Jeongja, an area near to Suji, for dinner. We rented out a huge room at an American style Chinese restaurant called Rok'n'Wok. We had eaten at this restaurant before and it worked perfectly for our event. We have been exchanging secret santa gifts over the past few weeks and last night we gave our final gifts. Fred had one of our supervisors, Joanne, who also had him. He received movie tickets to go see "The Tourist" this Tuesday night. I had another supervisor, Michelle. Our head supervisor, Lucy, had me. She gave me a very nice set of fur lined gloves. After dinner we went to a Noreabong which is Korea's version of a karaoke room. It was a wonderful night and a great way to celebrate together for the holidays.


Fred and I at dinner

Me, Lucy and Michelle

Joanne and Fred

Michelle, Ann, Me, Maria, Britney

Middle of December

It is hard to believe that it is almost the middle of December. The past few weeks have been really rough at school. We have struggled with our classes and our daily life at LCI. There has been an overwhelming feel of exhaustion within the office. We are all getting worn down by our lack of positive reinforcement at work and our overall workload. Fred and I have questioned if we made the right decision on coming back to LCI. However, things are now looking up as we only have 9 school days left until we go to the Philippines for 9 days.

On Friday after work we headed to a western style buffet. There were great salads, pizza, gnocchi, pasta, steak, soups and desserts. It was so nice to fill up on food that reminded us of home. Today we went into Seoul in search of new cameras for our trip. Fred ended up buying a new digial Panasonic and I got a Canon DSLR camera. I do not know a lot about high quality cameras so I chose a model that is easy to use and takes great pictures. I upgraded the lens so I have one nice lens and will not have to switch lens while taking pictures. We are excited to try out our cameras and get some great pictures from the Philippines.

Saying goodbye to students

This past Friday both Fred and I had to say goodbye to a Kinder student. Kevin, in Fred's class, left LCI because he is moving to Japan. His mom came into school on Friday after lunch and their class had a going away party. Many of the students in the class were crying and avoiding having to say goodbye. Fred's class has been together since they were 5 years old, for a total of three years. They have a pretty tight bond and it was hard for them to lose a class member.





My class had to say goodbye to cute, troubled and social Annie. She is moving to Seoul. All of the students made going away cards for Annie and we spent most of the day playing and enjoying Annie's company. Her mom came at the end of day and brought cakes for the teachers and a present for me. Although Annie has caused stress in my life she is going to be missed. She is always cute and full of love and kisses. As teachers we know that our kids will come and go but that does not make saying goodbye easier. We spend 4.5 hours a day with these Kinder students and we really fall in love with them. It is hard to know that our classes will now each be missing a member.