Cirque Du Soleil, Ice Bar and Everland!

Hey All! I wrote this blog at school on Thursday, and haven't had a chance to post it until today, Sunday, but I hope that won't matter.

I taught 5 grade 5 classes today, and now I have the afternoon off, so I'm writing e-mails, listening to my iPod (mainly to drown out the religious and off-key singing by my older co-worker), and reading news on the BBC. Yesterday all my grade 6 classes were cancelled due to a field trip, so I studied up on my travel plans, and have been reading extensively on the countries we plan on visiting.

We have 2 weeks off (although Bob's school won't confirm his dates), and we plan on flying to Ha Noi in Vietnam, visiting Ha Long Bay with its karst topography, travelling down the Vietnamise coast to Saigon, hitting some beaches along the way, and then going through Cambodia to see Ankor Wat and the royal places in Phenom Phen, and into Thailand, where we will go to Trat

(beachy), Bangkok to see more royal palaces and shopping, then to Phuket and the Similan Islands to lay on the beach for about 3 days. Sounds busy, but I want to see as much as possible in those 2 weeks, as it will probably be my only chance in this lifetime.

We have another 2 weeks in the summer, which I want to spend in Japan, China or Hong Kong. We'll plan that when the time comes though.

Today I found out that I'll be teaching 2 weeks of Winter English Camp, from January 5 - 16, 2009. The rest of January I have to goof off in my office, where I'll read several books (that the school will buy), label my travelling pictures, watch movies, write e-mails, and probably do my nails. This job is pretty sweet, but culture shock is starting to sink in. I'm very happy here most days, but other days I go nuts. People constantly push into you, and past you in line for food or the bus. It smells here, and there is no possible way I could eat another grain of rice. I am very cautious around ajumas, old Korean married ladies. They think they run the world. They are noticeable by their comfy shoes, black slacks, and floral print blouses, and are usually wearing a big, black visor. The visor is like the rattle of a cobra - if you see it, you know you're in danger. They are very pushy, and usually pretty grumpy. Watch out, or you'll get an elbow to the ribs.

Last night Bob and I went to see Cirque du Soleil – Alegria, for date night. It was so amazing. I cannot even begin to put into words the description of each act. There were contortionists, trapeze artists, a fire baton twirler, and a hoola hoop girl, and a trampoline act, among many other acts. The set and costumes were beautiful. Our tickets were not that expensive, and definitely worth the money. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take pictures inside the tent, but I tried to smuggle a few.

The Circus Tent:

Some Circus Pictures:

Friday night we went to Hongdae to the Sub Zero Ice Bar. Basically it was a room filled with ice inside a meat locker. For the 15,000 won you paid to get in, you get a parka, mittens, and a free drink. Bob convinced us all that a Jagerbomb would be delicious. Unfortunately, the Koreans don't seem to understand the 'bomb' part of the drink, and instead, we all had to sip away at straight Jager shots, rather than having them with Red Bull. The bar was really empty (and cold!), so we only stayed for about 15 minutes, which made it a really expensive trip. We left early that night, and went home to bed.

Some Canadian Eskimos:

Our Ice Drinks of Jager Shots:

Bob Dancing:

Saturday morning our downstairs neighbour, Ho, and his 9 year old son Kevin, drove us to Everland, the Korean version of Walt Disney World (and a fairly good version at that). Ho told us the drive would be about an hour. Three hours later we arrived. Everland was huge, and pretty fun, although we would have had much more fun if we were there alone. We did one roller coaster with Kevin, Racing Coaster, which was a runaway train ride. The line up was about 40 minutes, and the ride was about 30 seconds, but it was fun, and Kevin has a lot of fun. Due to the immense lines at the park, this was the only ride we did all day, but Kevin still had fun, and munched on very delicious sweet popcorn as we strolled around the park. Everland is currently celebrating Christmas, and has decorations everywhere and is constantly playing Christmas carols. I definitely know where I'll go if I get upset at Christmas time! At night, there were fantastic fireworks, and a Moonlight Parade. We left around 9 pm, and the ride home was about 1.5 hours, and then we went straight to bed.

Maureen in Everland:

Everland Christmas Area:

Today Bob and I toured around Samcheong-dong, which is a very artsy area, relatively close to where we live. We had some really great peppermint tea and a blueberry banana waffle, and strolled around the streets appreciating the yellow ginko baloba trees and browsing the various art galleries.

Tonight we lesson planning like fiends, trying to get ready for the upcoming week. We've been very inconsistent, if not invisible on the blogging front lately, but we're going to do our best to improve.

Miss you all,

- Maureen