Another Month Closer to Coming HOME!

Hello Everyone! Both Krista and I hope that you are all doing well. We hope that you have been checking back frequently and we hope that you are not too disappointed in us for not posting more frequently as of late. Both of us have been very busy and very tired. But, on to the update! So February 11th, 2006 was my 28th, birthday! Yeah I am older. We went out to a restaurant called Carnie Station. It is a cook it yourself, all you can eat, all you can drink for $25 place! Well, I don't remember a lot of the night. Free hard alcohol and 8 shots of tequilla before going out will do that to ya! LOL! Well it was a good time, better than I had expected being so far from friends and family. We are now approaching Krista's 23rd birthday this March 4th, 2006. Again, we are going to Carnie Station! Woo Hoo! It should be a fun time! Both Krista and I have adjusted to life without Howard. We still miss him and wish that he would be online more often so we could chat. However, we did recieve word that he arrived home and is safe and visiting with family and friends. Howard if you are reading this, we miss you and hope you are doing well. We hope that everyone is doing well and you are all in our thoughts, hearts, and prayers! In the land of I'M SSEM we have added two drama classes to our curriculum as well as a higher level reading class where we will be focusing on such literature as Harry Potter. I am looking forward to teaching these classes as it is a welcomed change from the regular schoolastic hum drum curriculum. I began and ended negotiations for my contract and was able to secure a plane ticket home or the equivalent value on another itinerary of my choice, payment for unused holiday time, a letter of reference, and two months extended stay at no cost in the event that the school I work for closes. As of late we have been increasing in enrollment which makes me feel more secure. However, we have also lost a few along the way. Our secretary, Katherine, is leaving us as of March 17th to become a mom. Although the word is that she is not expecting as of yet, the family want her to come home and begin trying! Wow what a request! It's actually kinda cool the way the entire family is so supportive. However their intimate envolvement would drive me nuts! Krista and I are currently entering week two of our new workout program. I have developed a two stage progressive program that involved mass and strength building for two months followed by a fat buring and muscle maintenance stage for one month. The program currently runs for 8 months and ends just before our departure to come home. We hope to continue the program when we come home as well. For now we are trying something new out and so far we are enjoying it! In other news, we met a couple Cory and Rebecca at our gym. Cory is originally from Saskatoon and Rebecca is from New Zealand. Cory is a Kinesiology graduate so it is great to be able to pick his mind about working out and the education involved in that particluar program. For those of you who do not know I was considering, and still am considering, taking my kinesiology degree depending on how things workout with the graduate school applications. Corry and Rebecca, although we have not had an opportunity to spend any time outside of the gym are both awsome people with good hearts. Speaking of graduate school, both Krista and I are looking at taking our GRE here in Korea. It is more expensive and a bit more of a pain to arrange, however, it will knock nearly one year off of our graduate school plans. Previously we were going to wait until our return to take the exam which would have meant applications for graduate schools would have been submitted over 2007 for the fall of 2008. Now provided we can take the exam here without difficulties we will be able to submitt our applications in 2006 for fall 2007. At this point we are uncertain of funding for school, however, acceptance is the first step. I am looking at taking my graduate degree through long distance learning where I can be close to home and closer to Krista. As of late, we have both been implementing our research abilities in search of some answers regarding Canadian Income Tax for individuals teaching abroad. We will update you on that one once we have sifted through the mounds of paper and vernacular mazes that now face us in our quest. We have also begun research toward several publications with our Honors supervisor and are looking forward to persuing many academic avenues when we return home. I was given approval to continue my honors research for one more year. We hope this will allow enough data to be collected as to warrent a publication. Overall, things are good. We would both love to hear from all of you! please feel free to e-mail us at kseverafter@gmail.com and check out my personal webpage http://spaces.msn.com/psycdr/ All the best to everyone of you and we look forward to hearing from you soon! Hugs & Kisses Sean & Krista

Hello Everyone! It has been about a month since we last posted any new information about our lives abroad. We appologize! This last month has been filled with many tumultuous events that have kept us on our toes. We will try to retell, in chronological order, what has happened over the last month. Hope you enjoy! ~ P.S. - pictures will be coming as soon as we possibly can! ;) Alright, so the last you heard Sean and Howard went to the House of Sharing. Following this outing we laid low for a week or so. Work was normal until the news was broken to me by Howard. Our employer laid him off. They had been losing students and finaly dropped below the number that would support two English teachers. This information was supposed to be brought to my attention by the Director and Supervisor, however, they were waiting until the contract negotiations with Howard completed. Howard and the administration of the school took two weeks to deliberate and finally setted on an agreement they both could live with. Unfortunately for me, in stead of leaving in June, Howard was now leaving April 30th, 2006. This would have been ok but I was also informed by Howard that he would be only teaching part time as of the middle of February. I had been settling in with this new information when we went into Sinchon. Sichon was one of the longest days. We walked from one outdoor market to the next in search of some items that Howard was looking for and for some heavy wire for me (I recently took up chainmailing). We saw many things and walked many miles. One of the most disturbing was the dog meat. I could not bring myself to take any pictures, although, Howard said he would share his pictures with me so they will also be forthcoming. Overall the day was great and I we had a good time. Howard and I met Krista around 4pm and went to this all you can eat Indian restaurant. It was pretty good. After a great dinner we took the hour bus ride home and then retired for the evening. The next week progressed as per usual. The drama class at work was coming together and intensive would be ending in a couple of weeks. That is when the floor fell out of the month. Howard called on Friday January 27th, 2006 to inform us that his father had passed away from a heart attack at the age of 62. Howard did not come into work that day as he was preparing for a late afternoon departure the following day. That night we all met up at Howard's apartment and helped him to pack and give him our love and support during this difficult time. We ended up staying until 4am. We retired and were up again at 8:00am to go over and see him off. Howard was more than generous to leave us with many of his possesions that he could not take with him. But we would give up all of them an more to change the events of this last weekend. Howard flew out at 2:30pm with an expected arrival of Monday 1am our time. We still have not heard form Howard but we know in our hearts he is with family and safe. We send out best to him and his family in their time of mourning. Following this chain of events Krista and I literally unpacked and repacked our entire appartment to incorporate the items remaining in Howard's apartment. All of this work combined with the late night and little sleep has resulted in both Krista and I catching the flu. We are both achy and sore with a deep chest cough. We are headed to the doctor tomorrow as we do not have time today. In closing, my first day without Howard was hard. He was truely the light that made the school shine. His presence always lifted your spirits no matter what shape you were in. Howard, if you are reading this you are a true friend who is dear to our hearts and we miss you so very much! Although we did not share our tears with you, there were many after you left. Take care By'e and don't get caught with Collin! Until Next Time Sean & Krista

"The House of Sharing" & Icheon Ceramics Market

Hello Everyone! To start off the new year right my co-worker and friend Howard and I decided to use our much deserved time off to visit some cultural and historical areas of Korea. We set out at 8:30am on what turned out to be a fruitful, fun, adventurous, and educational full day of activities. We started out with an hour subway ride to a place called Jamsil (Jam-shill). Here we caught an express bus to a smaller city about an hour south of Seoul called Gwangju-si. Once here we hopped into a taxi for another 20 minutes. The taxi took us further out into the country side. It was a nice change from the endless city. Even Gwangju-si, although considered a separate city, did not feel separate from the rest of Seoul. There are so many people. Anyway, we arrived at a building near the end of what seemed like a windy road off the highway through a traditional village. This was the House of Sharing. A little background; the House of Sharing is a home for those women who were used as sexual slaves by the Japanese military. There are 10 of these women living in the house today and over 120 still living across Asia. These women were captured by the Japanese military and transported all across Asia to the different military posts where these women were sexually abused all day by soldiers. It was their job, if you can call it that, to provide sexual favors to the soldiers. Many of these women ended up pregnant, diseased, and many were killed. Howard and I were lucking enough to be invited to join the "halmonys" or "Grandmothers" for lunch. We were given a private tour of the museum by Tsukasa, the Researcher/photographer and guide for the house. We learned that the first woman to speak out about these horrific events toward women was in 1991. Following her courageous stand many more women joined her. Over the last 15 years these women, aged 65-86, have demonstrated every Wednesday in front of the Japanese consulate here in South Korea. These women have not missed a day in all that time. There are still women who are returning to their home on Korean soil from all over Asia. Howard and I were grateful to meet one such halmony who had returned only three weeks prior to our arrival. We also were able to get a photograph with her and the man who brought her back from China. These women greeted us with kindness and humor. Their spirits were strong. Although we could not speak with them as a result of the language barrier we shared more in understanding through soft touches, embraces, and the odd translated word. Both Howard and I hope to return to "The House of Sharing" and help out by drawing more attention to this monument in memory and support of those who suffered. It was surprising to learn that many people know nothing or very little about the house. Anyway, we were treated to tea following our museum tour and then hopped a taxi to Icheon (EE Chon) We arrived in Icheon about 35 minutes after leaving "The House of Sharing." Here we were dropped off on the street of ceramics. Store upon store upon store of hand made stoneware and ceramics. Everything from cups an bowls to traditional tea sets to statues to dildos (you have to see the pictures). We spent many hours sifting through these stores just taking in all they had to offer. We made a few small purchases before we left, but, the most profound experience was when we were leaving and decided to stop into the first store we had visited to look once more at their tea sets. Howard wanted one before he left and wasn't sure when he would get an opportunity to come back. While he deliberated we were invited to take part in a traditional tea sharing. The process behind brewing tea is more complicated, traditionally speaking, than a bag a pot and some water. It was an experience. And the tea was really good too! To make a long day longer, once we had finished with our tea and Howard had chosen his $250.00 tea set we cought a bus that took us 30 minutes in the wrong direction to a bus terminal we had to wait another 20 minutes for our bus to arrive and then another hour plus to finally arrive in Yatap. Which was still a 15 to 20 minute subway ride way from the station nearest where we live. Needless to say we made it home, exhausted but fulfilled that our day had been a success. I have put pictures of our trip on the website. I invite you all to check them out. All the best to you and I look forward to hearing from you soon! Sean

Our First Korean Christmas & New Year!

Hello Everyone! We would like to wish you all a Very Merry Late Christmas and a Hella Happy Belated New Year! We miss you all so very much and although we were together is was not the same with out friends and family. Christmas in Korea! Christmas was a quiet couple of evenings spent watching movies. Krista and I were able to synthesize home cooking with Korean food and made a form of lazy man's cabbage rolls using the Korean pickled cabbage (Kim-chi). It actually turned out really good! Not quite home but it did the trick. "Santa" was good to us. We both received a lot of chocolate which wasn't good for us but tasted great! We both got some cologne/perfume and a purse. Yes, I am back to a man bag, bitch bag, murse, whatever you'd like to call it! LOL Sean got a jacket which we were both surprised fit! Krista got a makeup bag and some little things from the "Face shop" - it's like the body shop only for the face only. We opened gifts Christmas Eve and opened the stockings that Mom, Dad, Az, and Nyko sent Christmas morning. It was a nice time. New Years in Korea! New years started late and the place we were supposed to go to for dinner and drinks was closed. We floundered for what seemed like forever and finally decided on some Korean restaurant/pub place. There was a large group of us but the others left to go into Seoul. This left Krista's co-worker Mat and his girlfriend Dora and her co-worker and Krista and I. We ordered Chicken casadias and nachos and some appetizer platter. We had some beer and Saki. It was a good time. After dinner we rushed over to a bar called Monkey Beach where we brought in the New Year with sparklers and neon bracelets with Alcohol of course. All-in-all it was a good night! We have posted pictures of both "events" on the website so we invite you to take a look. We hope that you all had a wonderful time and were able to spend some with friends and family. All the best in the New Year and we look forward to hearing from all of you soon! Love Sean & Krista

My First Haircut...

I thought it appropriate that I write something for the website as too much time has passed since my last post. As luck would have it I was blessed with the chance to experience getting a haircut in Korea. Although it is only hair, I did my homework. I gathered the pictures of the haircut that I wanted and then described to Esther (A bilingual Korean teacher at my schoo) what I wanted to have done. She then wrote up the directions in Korean. So after gathering my pictures on my ipod and placing my translated instructions into my pocket I ran to the bank and then to meet Howard (the other English teacher at my school). He was taking me to the barber that he frequents. I met Howard and we entered the building. As we walked down the hall I confirmed that the pictures on my ipod were clear enough for the Korean barber (who did not speak any English) to see and understand better the directions I had in his native text. We walked into a dimmly lit one room salon. A Korean man was speaking and cutting hair. A Korean woman greeted us and motioned for me to take a seat in the next empty barber's chair. I climbed into the chair and stared at the recessed mirror and the redwood shelving unit that covered the entire wall. The woman walked over to the other gentleman who was now finished and removed a towel and heating blanket which she then placed on my lap. I was a little curious but did not ask any questions. She then proceeded to place one towel across my chest and shoulders and another around my neck from behind me. I asked Howard to confirm with the woman that I did not want a shave and he affirmed that all was ok. At this point I was beginning to feel a little nervous. Aside from the language barrier, the methods and practices were bizzare. Finally she produced that familiar black bib that barber's put on you before they begin. At this time I called on Howard to bring my ipod and my Korean instructions to me. He did so and the adventure began... After about 5 minutes of reiterating what precisely I wanted and confirming that the barber had read my Korean instructions, he began. Spraying my hair with water..."What, no pregame wash and rinse?" ... once he had saturated my hair he began by combing and trimming. Although my glasses were removed, which I am now thinking was intentional, I could see he was only trimming about 1/4 inch as I had requested. At some points I could see he would take more off but nothing too disconsorting. I was, I will admit, quite edgy and nervous as the male barber continued to make is way around my head combing and trimming. He seemed to know what he was doing and after a few moments I began to relax..."Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. I figured the cut wouldn't be exact, and being my first cut in Korea, not entirely what I wanted either."...Suddenly he combs my hair down over my ears and begins to cut it to fall around the ear! My heart sinks and I scream out NO! He freezes and I begin to explain once again that I only wanted a trim of 1/4 inch (about 1 cm) and not more. My agitation had returned and I was once again uneasy. After a moment the man continued. Unfortunately he continued in way that now infuriated me, he took the texturizing scissors and started chopping all around my head! At this point is too late to do anything and rather than take the chance on having an uneven haircut I decided to just vent in English to Howard. I was mildly anoyed and although not wanting to pay for a haircut that I didn't ask for I knew that I would. So the Korean man continued to chop and cut and trim all around my head, ocaisionally double checking the picture on the ipod that now stood on shelf in front of us.I couldn't tell what my hair was going to look like and at one point I stopped him and began to demonstrate by example that I wanted to grow my hair long. I started by pointing at me and grabbing my hair...then I pointed at my watch and wound my finger around and around to signify time passing...then, believe it or not, I grabbed his female assistants hair (later I found out it was his wife) to demonstrate that I was growing my hair out. Well this began another five minute discussion between himself and his wife while pointing and passing my ipod back and forth. Now not only afraid for my hair I politely took my ipod and held it for them both. After what seemed like forever he resumed ... yes of all the things... he resumed CUTTING! ..."I guess my explanation of don't cut my hair short didn't sink in!" I folded and gave in. If I didn't like it I would simply shave my head and never get another haircut in Korea again. Time passed and my heart sank. My dreams and goals of growing my hair longer felt as though they had been set back another 5 months. I was feeling disappointed and extremely anoyed by the fact that I could not see. Finally, he stopped cutting. This was when he pulled an electronic gadget out of his pocket and started waving it behind my neck and head. I thought, "what the hell are you doing."...Then to my surprise I heard a click and then he swung his arm around to show me the back of my hair as a picture on his phone! I think I have seen it all now! I nodded yes..."thinking please get me out of this chair and away from your scissors!" ... he then produced this yellow bottle with a brush and began brushing some liquid onto the back of my neck. I asked Howard what was going on and he said that the barber was just going to remove the little hairs on my neck. I began to relax thinking he was going to wax the area and then he produced a straight razor! ... "Have these people not heard of electric trimmers!" ...So there I sat frozen while this man who did not speak my language ran an incredibly sharp instrument down the side and back of my neck. Finally he finished and I relaxed. He then placed a heavy rubber cape over top of me and fastened it around my neck ... a little tight. The sink in front of my sprung to life with water as the man turned it on and the woman began pushing me from behind..."What the hell..." They pushed and prodded and manouvered me into this bent over position leaning over this black pad toward the sink in front of me. Then he proceeded to make walls on either side of my head with the rubber cape and finally rinse my hair. This was no ordinary rinse though, he scrubbed and rubbed my hair until I could feel his hands squeeking through it! Finally he finished..and of course, no conditioner! Then his wife towel dryed my hair. Pulling me all the way back into the chair and reclining it. Then she rubbed my hair, shoved her fingers with the towel into my ears, the wipes my eyes dry with the towel she just shoved in my ears, then pats the rest of my face dry. So I am now reclined, blind, weirded out, and scared as shit they are coming back with the straight razor. Howard reasured me that all was ok and then she began beating my scull with the towel..."Must be some special Korean hair drying technique!" ... Just when I though it was over she stopped and slapped some lotion on my face that smelled like the old green bottled afta..."yeah the shit that isn't made anymore!" So now I am thinking..."They're gonna shave me! Oh no! They're gonna shave me!" ... so I lay there not knowing what was going on and the man and woman begin bickering in Korean (at least that is how it sounded). Then I feel them running their fingers along my eyebrows and lightly touching my eye lashes. I am terrified at this point not knowing what is going on, and Howard's reasurance just wasn't cutting it! So finally they sit me up in the chair and through had motions and grunts they ask if I groom my eyebrows...to which I answer yes. Then the man begins to blow dry my hair..."Like it isn't dry enough already!!!" Finally, he mutters something that sounds like "gel" and I say no. He finishes and I pay him 12,000 won (about $13) and go to get my jacket. His wife grabs my coat off the couch, my ipod bounces off the floor and then they offer me a yogurt drink! WOW! I grabbed my coat said good-bye and walked out the door. I turned to Howard and said ... "I have never wanted to pay $80 for a professional haircut more in my life than today! So, that is my exciting story update. I hope to have more to add later. Just as a note, Krista and I will be online all weekend for Christmas. We hope that we will get to talk to family and friends...especially the ones we have not talked to in some time! Cheers All! Sean

It's been a while!

Well, it's been quite a while since I have posted anything, so I thought I should come on and tell you all what's been new with me. Last weekend, Sean and I "attempted" to go to Wal-Mart, and by attempted, I mean, asked someone which bus to take, got on that bus, and ended up riding it for 2 hours to no avail, only to end up at the end of the bus-line, at the bus depo, in a nasty area of city, with the bus driver saying something to us in Korean. Well, we don't have to speak Korean to know that he wanted us to get off the bus obviously. Luckily, I know enough Korean, that I could tell that the bus driver was asking us where we wanted to go. So, I told him Bundang, and he said to take the number 2 bus. It's weird how you can pick up on a language and understand so much, from knowing so little. Anyways, I got on the 2 bus and asked the driver - Bundang? Migeum Yuk? and he said yes....so, there we were, on another 2 hour bus ride on our way home. Wow-what a day! So, I felt kinda pissed, that we spend 4 hours on a frickin bus and still no walmart. So, the next morning, we got up early and decided to do it the hard way. We took the subway as far as we could, then we got out and walked the 15/20 minutes to Walmart. Lucky for us, when you get off the subway, all you have to do is walk straight. Anyways, I wasn't really sure where we were going, as I had only been to Walmart in Korea once before, and it was by bus, and obviously Sean hadn't been there before....or had he?? lol! Alright, so, we got to WalMart, Sean was amazed at how different it was then at home, as was I my first time. We got what we were going for - A crockpot - so now we can cook a chicken or turkey or something on Christmas - YAY!!! (we don't have an oven - only burners). So, I have already been busy trying to cook chili without chili powder....it's funny how your cooking skills really get put to the test when you move to a foreign country and try to cook your dishes....mmm...anyways, it actually turned out really good! And tonight, I am cooking a roast, with potatoes, and gravy....mmmm....I haven't had potatoes and gravy since I came to Korea! I know what you're thinking....it's not that great....but you try eating Kimchi for 6 months!! lol!! Anyways, so other news, Sean and I have put up the Christmas decorations, well, a tree anyways, but we are going to put up some more decorations soon. And last night, we had our first snowfall. I had been asking people when it was going to snow here, and it finally did. Somehow all the buildings and cars, and pollution and everything just seems more homey when there is snow covering it...funny that way.....Oh and, yesterday I got a new pair of glasses, with lenses and frames, it was only 40,000 Won, which is like $45 Canadian. Its really cheap to buy contacts and glasses here, as there are so many businesses and they are really competitive which each other. And, they were ready in a half an hour, none of this come and pick them up in a few days bullshit. So, I am really happy! I think I am going to pick up another pair before I come home, as well as contacts too! Sean also got something exciting, but I will let him tell you about that, as I don't want to ruin the fun for him! Well, anyways, I guess I should go. I'm going to go make some pancakes for Sean and I - he is still sleeping - breakfast in bed! :) Take care everyone! I love you and miss you all!!

The Latest From Korea

Hello Everyone! I apologize for not posting more frequently. The past month has truly been trial and error with regards to establishing some sort of routine. I am also in the process of trying to rearrange our pictures and post them differently and more easily. I thank you for your patience and appreciate all your suggestions. I guess it would be best for me to first express my deepest thanks to everyone who has continued to stay in touch over the last few weeks. Your continued support and encouragement, counsel and shoulder has been of tremendous help. You all continue to be an anchor in what can easily become very stormy seas. I encourage you all to stay in touch! We would love to hear about what is new and exciting in your lives as well. In taking a few webpage ideas from my good friend Bonnie I hope to establish a page about our friends. I hope to have pictures and latest news and events if possible. So feel free to send recent pictures and news as we would love to post it and more importantly we would love to know what is going on with you all! In Korea we have been experiencing milder weather than from what we are used to this time of year. The coldest it has been so far is about minus 2 degrees. Our days are still hovering around the 0-8 degree mark so a light to moderate jacket or fleece has been adequate. Time is wonky as I teach from 2pm to 8pm and Krista teaches from 3pm to 10pm. I work across the street and she is 20 to 30 minutes away with subway ride and walking included. This makes for late nights as she does not arrive home until around 10:30 or so and then we talk and wind down from the day. We usually are not in bed until around 12am. This makes for strange sleeping patterns and as of late we have been struggling to be up and ready before noon. Krista was down with a bout of the flu last week so that increased the oddness of our schedule. She is, however, feeling much better now and we are hoping to establish more of a routine in the weeks to come. On the up side I have about 2 hours of free time to work on things before she gets home. Although it has been productive, most nights it is consumed with tidying the apartment and preparing for late supper. This is also the time when I try to arrange and prepare things for the website. We have posted some new pictures that we invite everyone to share in. We apologize for the lack of titles, we are working on that issue and hope to have it resolved shortly. Again we invite you to contact us kseverafter@gmail.com as we would love to hear from you. We have also created an MSN messenger account under this e-mail so feel free to add us to your list, we would love to talk with you! So, back Korea! LOL! I love teaching, everyday has its own challenges and rewards and I am enjoying it. The kids are a lot of fun and, well, their kids! They miss behave, they don't listen, and they make a mess! I have learned to handle them in a positive way and I think that it has fostered some really good relationships. My one student Tony gives me a hug every day! The administration and politics surrounding the decisions that are made within the school are quesionable. I am really seeing how the language barrier can create miscommunication. I am also beginning to see how we are both on the same side just coming at the challenge of teaching these children from different angles. I feel positive about the meetings we have been having, although frustrating at times, I am pleased that I am able to take part, to whatever degree it may be, in the direction of my school. Krista and I have toured, well, very little of Korea to date. The first weekend we went to Yongsan which is the electronics market. OUTSTANDING! I have never seen that many electronics vendors selling so many different types of electronics..it was literally like being in a movie! I took some pictures but hope to take more when we return. We also visited Namdaemun market which was undescribable. The easiest way is to imagine Exhibition park (both inside and out) cluttered with tables and stands selling everything from immitation Rolex to hand made jewelery. The worst part is compact all of that into the space of Golden Mile parking lot and make it two or three levels. Many of these markets are multiple levels and stretch into shut down subway stations which have been turned into underground malls! Some prices are good and some are less than afordable but everything is negotiable...if you speak Korean! Thank God I have Krista! (And I am learning ;) We have done some exploring around our area of Jeongja and there are a lot of things to see and do. We found an actual hiking trail area (kind of like our Wascana Park only mountainous and not really man made) not far from where we live. We hope to take part in some good hiking and nature walks soon. In other news we have been able to pick up many costly items from the dumpster and clean them up to save some money. We got a desk, an extendable oscilating fan, a brand new down filed quilt from Ikea (thrown out because of a small tear), and an electric mini vacuume which was thrown out because it was plugged. I have to thank my father for teaching me to fix anything because here in Korea the skill can not only save you money, it can make you some extra cash as well! I should probably go, not sure how many with actually make it through reading all of this post, it is kinda long! I hope you are all doing well and look forward to hearing from you soon! Cheers Sean

Ups and Downs

Hello All! Well, it has been three weeks since I arrived in Korea. In the time I have been here I have seen what a real street market is, viewed the largest electronics market ever, experienced what a 2 hour subway ride (one-way) is like, and walked more miles than in the 8 months previous in Canada. I wanted to write a quick not to say that all is going well! Krista and I are settled in our new apartment which I have taken pictures of and placed on the web for everyone to share. There are so many things to photograph that we will be changing the display pictured more frequently so check back often. I hope to update with more pictures this weekend. The polution here is unlike anything I have ever experienced. I have been quit smoking since a week before I left and from just the air here...I feel as though I am smoking a pack a day! However, as things cool off it seems to bother me less. This weekend Krista and I hope to do some exploring our "neighborhood" if you can call it that...more like our "Regina" sized area. Anyway we hope to get some good pictures of the area where we live so that we can share them with everyone...which reminds me...you could fit everyone from Regina in the one apartment complex across the street from our building...I will try to get some pics. I should go, I hope this finds you all well and we look forward to hearing from you all. Please feel free to contact us kseverafter@gmail.com Cheers Sean

My Second Day...

Well, I must admit that my second day of class went much better than my first. I spent most of last night preparing for my classes and making sure that I knew what I had to teach. I also took some time and set out some class rules and a nifty little reward system so that the students are more likely to behave. I was suprised at how well and how fast the kids took to the rules. Even the youngest group were very attentive and helpful. I really enjoyed today. I have been taking pictures of my school and my apartment and my classroom as they change. I hope to have them posted for you on the website sometime within the next few days. Once I have the hang of preparing my classes I will have less work to complete for the next day and consequently more time to share with all of you. I hope you are all doing well, I miss you and hope to hear from you soon! Cheers Sean

My First Day of School!

My first day at school was an experience I liken to wearing tight, hard, uncomfortable shoes all day long for no more enjoyment than to take them off at the end of the day! The bitter sweet job that is teaching youngsters, and foreign youngsters no less, has given me an new respect for all teachers around the world! I could not have prepared for what I experienced today. I will admit there were times where I questioned my own abilities and was near walking out, saying good-bye and climbing on a plane! I, however, did not take this road, which you may be thinking would be the easy way out…WRONG! It was actually easier to stay and face those monstrous beings … CHILDREN! LOL! Seriously, although my first day was a little rough and tumble, although things seemed more out of control than controlled and calculated, I think I am going to get the hang of this. I think I actually was able to force myself to remember some of the kids names and have a little fun. It is difficult when you know that there is a camera watching your every move, the kids speak your language but struggle, and well they are kids! I had prepared no material and figured that games would be the easiest way to break the ice…all-in-all it was a good idea but I overlooked the cultural adjustments that occur when a game is introduced. My first class (B1) I only had 5 students around age 6 or 7. I think these were the worst for me as they were the hardest to control as a result of limited communication. Not having any material prepared also made it difficult but I made it through. My second class was a lot more interesting. I had 7 students about age 12 and they for the most part had a structure in place that they used. The students would raiser their hands most often and sit in their seats. I was lucky to only have taught two classes today. They were back to back and WOW that was intense. I did not get my bearings back until they were both over and I was sitting down talking with Howard (The other English teacher at my school) Tomorrow is going to be crazy as I teach straight through the day. I have two breaks of an hour with one or two classes in between. I was excited to find out that the classroom is mine and I am aloud to decorate and arrange it as I see fit. I have taken some picture and posted them on the website and will continue to update as I change and adjust my teaching atmosphere. I truly understand what dad said when it is the child that is in control! But not for long…I have a plan! Oh, I had to laugh when I was trying to think of how to describe my first day and the movie KinderGarden Cop came to mind. It was a funny movie and I can relate more than I could express at this point. I should go as I need to prepare for my classes tomorrow. This time I will have structure and hopefully fair better and gain some ground back. Love and miss you all! Sean