Back To Korea/Happy Christmas!

So hi everyone. I'm back to Korea now, as most of you should know. I found a job at a new school through a recruiting agency, and returned on December 6th. It's now December 29th, so it's been over three weeks since I've been here, and I haven't written a post. Sorry.

I've been having a nice time so far. I've collected both of my guitars, and may have a connection to get an electric guitar that was left by someone else. My school is pretty nice. There aren't so many classes yet because it's brand new, and there is a lot of material to teach with. I usually have to rush through my lessons because there is so much. But, the downside is that I spend so long each day preparing the material. I must spend Monday through Friday from 9am to 6pm at the school, mostly preparing flash cards. It's really a drag on most days.

But, for our short Christmas party last Friday, we prepared some Christmas hats for the kids. They also included beards for the boys. Enjoy:

The owner's twin son and daughter

a student who I stuck eyebrows to as well as the hat and beard

kind of a goofy kid

he's cute, but doesn't wear the beard right

my favorite student, Theresa

another goofy kid

Peter Pan. He was a student at my last school who switched to my new one. A nice surprise

Some of the girls

the girls again

me as a grandfather

Merry Christmas everyone!

The Road To Vietnam

Over the period between Christmas and New Years, I spent an action packed week in Vietnam with my sister. Somehow, one of the most action packed nights was on the way to the airport in Korea.

It started with poor planning. I booked tickets through a travel agent and I thought that our flight was leaving from Busan, in the South of Korea, and flying back into Incheon, closer to our town. Instead both flights were to Busan airport, and I did not forsee how hectic of a travel time Christmas Eve would be. Kelsey and I tried to book a bus ticket to Daejeon so that we could take the train to Busan, but the tickets were sold out for that night. Even worse, all the train tickets going to Busan from Seoul were sold out as well. Oops.

So we were in a pretty big jam with no way to get to Busan and a flight leaving at 10:30 the next morning. Luckily, our friend Michael had told us that his girlfriends car was being kept at his place while she was out of the country, and that we could borrow it for a short trip. I told him about my predicament, and he told me that the car may not be reliable enough to make it 5 hour trip to Busan, but that we were welcome to try if we wanted. Lacking any better options, we were on our way by about 9:30 that night.

We finally got to the airport at 3 in the morning after being lost for a while and almost running out of gas. With nothing to do until the flight, we spent a pleasant night of sleeping in the car while periodically running the heater to warm ourselves. We finally went to the airport at about 6 in the morning, and we were once again on our way.

We did have a nice stop at a rest area. Korean rest areas are top notch. They have restaurants, convenience and coffee shops, and sometimes batting cages. We were lucky enough to find one with a Santa, and took this photo just as midnight and Christmas day were upon us:

So from there the flight was comparatively uneventful, and we made it to Hanoi, Vietnam. Another weird speedbump was when we tried to change our money at the airport, and it turned out that the banks did not take Korean Won. I took some money out of an ATM to have enough for a minibus to a hotel where we could change over some Won into Vietnamese Dong. Somehow, I managed to leave my card inside of the ATM so that it sucked it back in and I lost my American ATM card within a half hour of being in Vietnam. Nice going.

It turned out we found a giftshop that would buy some Won at a semi-reasonable rate so we had enough money to pay for two nights of hotel and two plane tickets. From there we didn't really have any money problems because we could just change over money at the hotels.

The minibus ride was nice into Hanoi, and then I took a few photos of our first time walking around:

Some kids playing ball

An awesome church

The top-notch electrical infrastructure of Vietnam

I thought the money was really cool. It's called Dong and it has a tiny clear window on it

The rest of the first day was relaxing. We spent some time exploring and made some friends who were graffiti artists from Ho Chi Minh City while drinking at an outside cafe.

We were walking and this lady was aggressively trying to sell us fruit. She put her hat and carrying stick on us for a photo without even asking. So we got some nice photos:

Kelsey

Me

After she pretty much forced us to buy some bananas, so I picked up four bananas for a dollar. Not really a great deal, but the photos were nice I guess. It was a nice end to a long day.

Happy Hollidays, Ho Ho Ho, Etc.

So things have been barren around here, I know. The last few weeks have been extremely busy with preparing for my family to come to Korea, and then the trip to Japan. I expect to write upwards of 7 posts about the trip, so make sure to check back often.

Before I get to my Japan trip, I have another exciting story to share. This is the tale of when I dressed up as Santa Claus. Oh what a day!

First, all of the kids wore these corny hats with tinsel on them. These types of celebrations are a lot about good photo opps with the kids to please the parents.

I peeked into the room a few times, but then I had to dress up in my costume and hide so that the kids couldn't see me until it was time for Santa to arrive. This meant that I had to miss the kids' performances of the Christmas songs which I had helped them learn. Luckily the other foreign teacher was able to take some photos for me. This is a class I don't teach but they are really cute kids:

The next photo is of my group of 6 year olds (American 5) who had to learn 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town.' My tactic to help them learn it was to first sing the song as a class, then have each one sing it individually and give them a sticker if they did, repeating everyday for two weeks. It worked pretty well.

Then, all of the lights were turned out and the kids were given candles. They had to cheer out for Santa Claus to arrive (I was just hiding out in an office).

I came out in full getup, my boss is right behind me but his eyes are cut off. If you look closely you can see that my jacket and pants are just a little too short.

I had to give a present to each of the Kindergarteners, 50 in all. Each came up to get their present and had to listen to one of the Korean teachers and promise that they were going to be a good little boy or girl for the next year. At least that's what I think it was because I don't understand Korean. The deal was sealed with a pinky swear and a nice photo.

Last, just a matter of a photo with each class and I was out of the costume for at least another year.

Well, happy late holidays and make sure to check back daily for the next week or so because I plan to do a post a day or so until I finish with the trip. If there isn't a post for a day just assume that the game Grand Theft Auto: China Town Wars for Nintendo DS is a really good game (it was one of my Christmas presents).