Hi there,
I am sorry that the blog has been quite. I had a bit of a family crisis (my mother is very ill) and had to unexpectedly fly back to South Africa.
I am back in SA and not sure when or if I will get back to Korea before our contract is up! I am very sad that I had to leave Korea...but when duty calls.....
Oliver is till in Korea and he will write posts and keep pictures coming in...it just won't be as frequently!!
Thanks so much for your understanding!!!!
Friday, January 28, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Our Rainbow
If you remember during Autumn Oliver and I did a trip to Nami Island!
We had a lot of fun and the colours of the autumn leaves were so beautiful that we couldn't help but make a rainbow out of them.
So, like real nerds, we found a table and for two hours we collected leaves and made our rainbow. It got a lot of attention from people passing by and we were (and still are) very proud of our rainbow!
This is just a short post to gloat, so here are the pics:
Our lanscape has changed so much since Autumn...these colours seem like a lifetime ago! I love it!
I forgot about our little nerdy/awesome project until I discovered these pics on Oliver's computer the other day!
Hope you like them!!!
Post by Claudia
We had a lot of fun and the colours of the autumn leaves were so beautiful that we couldn't help but make a rainbow out of them.
So, like real nerds, we found a table and for two hours we collected leaves and made our rainbow. It got a lot of attention from people passing by and we were (and still are) very proud of our rainbow!
This is just a short post to gloat, so here are the pics:
Our lanscape has changed so much since Autumn...these colours seem like a lifetime ago! I love it!
I forgot about our little nerdy/awesome project until I discovered these pics on Oliver's computer the other day!
Hope you like them!!!
Post by Claudia
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
King Kong
Today was a good day!!!!
Very good indeed!
Except for the fact that as each day goes by I am getting more and more sad that I will being saying goodbye to my kids!
I am nervous that the next teacher will undo the teaching I have done.....and most of all I am sad that I won't get to act like a complete idiot and have people think that it is awesome!!!
Today, with my eldest class (14 year olds), we played a game that involved shooting people. On shouting shoot you point your hands at two different people, whoever has been shot the most has to do a dare!
I was a great mastermind and managed to get two girls to act and sound like elephants for ten seconds. Despite being red in the face they were also rigged with laughter!
Eventually all the shots were pointed at me and it was time that I endured some of my own medicine.
I was told to act like King Kong for 20 seconds. I was instructed that I had to make sounds and do actions.
So I did.....Fists pounding away at my chest I began making some unsightly sounds and ran around the classroom like a crazy person. I teased the girls and as I was hoping towards the boys, fists punching wildly, they got up and started running.
What followed was a frenzy of laughter and craziness. We ran around the classroom for a bit with the boys constantly crashing into each other like drunk drivers before I climbed onto the table and did a final King Kong drum-roll on my chest!
I then said goodbye, and chased them to the front door!!!
Oh, how I will miss for being loved for being an idiot!
Post by Claudia
Very good indeed!
Except for the fact that as each day goes by I am getting more and more sad that I will being saying goodbye to my kids!
I am nervous that the next teacher will undo the teaching I have done.....and most of all I am sad that I won't get to act like a complete idiot and have people think that it is awesome!!!
Today, with my eldest class (14 year olds), we played a game that involved shooting people. On shouting shoot you point your hands at two different people, whoever has been shot the most has to do a dare!
I was a great mastermind and managed to get two girls to act and sound like elephants for ten seconds. Despite being red in the face they were also rigged with laughter!
Eventually all the shots were pointed at me and it was time that I endured some of my own medicine.
I was told to act like King Kong for 20 seconds. I was instructed that I had to make sounds and do actions.
Taken from Horrorphile.net
What followed was a frenzy of laughter and craziness. We ran around the classroom for a bit with the boys constantly crashing into each other like drunk drivers before I climbed onto the table and did a final King Kong drum-roll on my chest!
I then said goodbye, and chased them to the front door!!!
Oh, how I will miss for being loved for being an idiot!
Post by Claudia
Monday, January 17, 2011
Frustration, ice and clothing
Washing machines are not my favourite thing in the world and that cannot be more true for how I feel about our washing machine in Korea.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
The Joys of the Cold Season
Ok. I have no real excuse. I was planning on telling you why I haven't written a blog entry in months. My idea was to tell you that I'm simply far too busy editing pictures from my friends' wedding. Also I would tell you that I am swamped with a huge build up of pictures from the past several months of travelling Korea. I would also tell you that I am so busy enjoying my first real snowboarding season, that barely anything else manages to penetrate my mind other than thoughts of flying down slopes at fantastic speeds and throwing myself at rails and grindboxes. And I would tell you that I am swamped with a huge amount of work from my 3 different schools...
And these things would all be true. Ok, maybe the last one is a lie. But I have been neck deep with images from all sorts of trips and I have been having a right whale of a time enjoying the slopes at 현대성우리오트 (Hyundai Sungwoo Resort). But too be totally honest, none of those are any real excuses for not putting some effort into the blog. So here's another entry, albeit a short one ;)
So, as some people may have noticed, we're sitting pretty much in the thick of winter. The skies are no longer boasting a proud blue colour, bespeckled with the odd cloud, no, they are no far more reminiscent of days gone by that are not as cheery and upbeat. The average sky has become one of grey and white monotony. Overcast weather is the usual order of the day. We do get the occasional blue sky, but they have become more of a rarity than during the sweaty, hot summer months.
The temperatures have also made themselves more known. In the last 2 weeks the temperatures here in Wonju have dropped down below -15 degrees several times, once or twice even dipping below -20. To a couple from 'Sunny South Africa', where winter temperatures reach 0 degrees at 3 in the morning (on occasion), these temperatures are beyond absurd. Being somewhat resilient we have managed to adjust and have also found the brighter and more fun side of winter. The one thing we have both down is to get ourselves season passes to one of the local ski resorts. This being Korea, we even got a 'couples discount'. Yes, that exists.
The other thing we did just recently is to go back to one of our favourite haunts, Wonju Tattoo Stadium. This is the same arena that has hosted all sorts of events ranging from farmer's markets to the International Marching Band Festival. This time around, however our arena has been converted into an ice rink.
It took about 2 months of preparation and waiting for the temperatures to drop significantly, but we now have our own outdoor ice skating rink.
We decided to go a couple of weeks ago with some friends. We did our duties of arriving on time, and headed off to the renting counter. Claudia had no issues securing a pair of skates in her size, but when my turn came around to ask for skates in my size, I got the unfortunate reply of "Eobso-yo", which roughly translated means: " They do not exist here," so no. I asked for the biggest size they had, and with a few small 'ohhs and ahhs' managed to squeeze my yeti sized walkers into the skates.
Next on the agenda: have fun. Fun was something we found in heaps. It was lying all over the ice rink, scattered like wondeful little pieces of happiness....*^-^*
After about an hour we all figured we wouldn't make it as professional, or even as horribly bad beginners, so we retired ourselves. I cannot speak for the others, but I think this may well have been my first and last ice skating experience in Wonju. As great as it was, my feet both have to big scabs on them, where my skin was rubbed raw by the under sized, malfitting ice skates.
All in all a fantastic amount of fun, and definitely something to recommend to friends. So anyone who's reading this, feel free to head on over to our neck of the woods and join us (or Claudia, at least) for a happy-happy round of ice skating!
Here are a few pics of this glorious occasion:
Post by Oliver
And these things would all be true. Ok, maybe the last one is a lie. But I have been neck deep with images from all sorts of trips and I have been having a right whale of a time enjoying the slopes at 현대성우리오트 (Hyundai Sungwoo Resort). But too be totally honest, none of those are any real excuses for not putting some effort into the blog. So here's another entry, albeit a short one ;)
So, as some people may have noticed, we're sitting pretty much in the thick of winter. The skies are no longer boasting a proud blue colour, bespeckled with the odd cloud, no, they are no far more reminiscent of days gone by that are not as cheery and upbeat. The average sky has become one of grey and white monotony. Overcast weather is the usual order of the day. We do get the occasional blue sky, but they have become more of a rarity than during the sweaty, hot summer months.
The temperatures have also made themselves more known. In the last 2 weeks the temperatures here in Wonju have dropped down below -15 degrees several times, once or twice even dipping below -20. To a couple from 'Sunny South Africa', where winter temperatures reach 0 degrees at 3 in the morning (on occasion), these temperatures are beyond absurd. Being somewhat resilient we have managed to adjust and have also found the brighter and more fun side of winter. The one thing we have both down is to get ourselves season passes to one of the local ski resorts. This being Korea, we even got a 'couples discount'. Yes, that exists.
The other thing we did just recently is to go back to one of our favourite haunts, Wonju Tattoo Stadium. This is the same arena that has hosted all sorts of events ranging from farmer's markets to the International Marching Band Festival. This time around, however our arena has been converted into an ice rink.
It took about 2 months of preparation and waiting for the temperatures to drop significantly, but we now have our own outdoor ice skating rink.
We decided to go a couple of weeks ago with some friends. We did our duties of arriving on time, and headed off to the renting counter. Claudia had no issues securing a pair of skates in her size, but when my turn came around to ask for skates in my size, I got the unfortunate reply of "Eobso-yo", which roughly translated means: " They do not exist here," so no. I asked for the biggest size they had, and with a few small 'ohhs and ahhs' managed to squeeze my yeti sized walkers into the skates.
Next on the agenda: have fun. Fun was something we found in heaps. It was lying all over the ice rink, scattered like wondeful little pieces of happiness....*^-^*
After about an hour we all figured we wouldn't make it as professional, or even as horribly bad beginners, so we retired ourselves. I cannot speak for the others, but I think this may well have been my first and last ice skating experience in Wonju. As great as it was, my feet both have to big scabs on them, where my skin was rubbed raw by the under sized, malfitting ice skates.
All in all a fantastic amount of fun, and definitely something to recommend to friends. So anyone who's reading this, feel free to head on over to our neck of the woods and join us (or Claudia, at least) for a happy-happy round of ice skating!
Here are a few pics of this glorious occasion:
Claudia stoked, on the rink
Claudia again, this time doing here thing
Our friend Mike, receiving instruction from his girl, Aekyoung
A general view of the Wonju Tattoo ice rink
Post by Oliver
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Other blogs
Today we had a bit of a loazy due, one because we are broke and two because our bodies are broken from snowboarding.
So I took this spare time to do something I have been meaning to do for a while, set up other blogs.
As you know mine and Oliver's time in Korea is slwoly coming to an end and we will be doing a backpacking trip around South East Asia, so I have set up a blog to document our preperations for and experiences on our adventure. You can see this blog at http://www.cobackpackingadventure.blogspot.com/
Then, because we have several adventures coming up, including Oliver going to Ghana for a couple of months, our backpacking trip and hopefully my studies abroad, we have set up a centralised blog where all of our adventures can be viewed from. That can be seen at http://claudiaandoliversadventures.blogspot.com/
I hope you will join us on our new, exciting, upcoming adventures.
So I took this spare time to do something I have been meaning to do for a while, set up other blogs.
As you know mine and Oliver's time in Korea is slwoly coming to an end and we will be doing a backpacking trip around South East Asia, so I have set up a blog to document our preperations for and experiences on our adventure. You can see this blog at http://www.cobackpackingadventure.blogspot.com/
Then, because we have several adventures coming up, including Oliver going to Ghana for a couple of months, our backpacking trip and hopefully my studies abroad, we have set up a centralised blog where all of our adventures can be viewed from. That can be seen at http://claudiaandoliversadventures.blogspot.com/
I hope you will join us on our new, exciting, upcoming adventures.
Up to fourth place!
Yay, we are currently in fourth place in the Hi-expat favourite blog poll, which is great!
Voting closes on the 21st of January and the bloggers and blog topics range from everday life, to photography, to Q and A.
To read more about the poll, click here and if you would like to vote, click here.
Have a great January!
Voting closes on the 21st of January and the bloggers and blog topics range from everday life, to photography, to Q and A.
To read more about the poll, click here and if you would like to vote, click here.
Have a great January!
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