My eerste pos en dis nie 'n bill nie...
Daai poskaart van die graad 6 kind wat ek julle belowe het

Haha, my name tag

My Birthday!!

My birthday was amazing!! The day started off a little bit sad as my parents woke me up with a happy birthday call. It was very sad that I'm so far away, but it was awesome speaking to them. The day at school was normal, just like every other day, but after school the teachers took me out to a Western Steak House. This was really good. I got to eat real food - haha the kind we eat at home on Sundays. Steak, potatoes and lekker salad! The staff of the restaurant sang to me and gave me a HUGE chocolate cake. It was very special!

Salome kept on trying to get me to go home and was getting really impatient with me. When I eventually got home she was waiting for me outside the building. At this stage I was really annoyed because I just sat through a two and a half hour korean dinner. It started out nice, but just got a bit too much as I couldn't understand anything. Anyways back to the Salome story. I dumped all my stuff in my flat and rushed down to meet Salome. We walked to a bar close by just chatting and on our way to meet one of our friends. As we walked into the bar, a lot of my friends were gathered there and they shouted: SURPRIZE!!! It was amazing! Thanks Loom!!!! It was unbelievably special! Caroline got this Korean dude to teach me how to play darts and he said if I manage to through a bullseye he will buy me a beer - and so I did, hahaha!

After the bar we bought some more beers at the corner shop and went to a private Noriban. This is a private karaoke room. It's actually very porno, because it has a stripper pole and white leather couches, pink pillows and a teddy bear. Ten of us squeezed in there and had the most fun ever. There were two microphones and some instruments!

I got really nice presents for my birthday!! The surprize party and cake was enough, but on top of that I got starbucks vouchers, earrings, an umbrella and a MASSAGE!!! Thanks for everyone's messages throughout the day, you made my day very special!! xx

Die view - baie mooier as die foto natuurlik!

Ek wat uiteindelik bo uitgekom het...

Eerste hike mission net buite Beomeosa Station

Die juffrouens wat die kinders se temperatuur neem vir swine flu

Ons Principle - nie 'n clue wat sy naam is nie, maar hy is baie vriendelik

Yong-mun Elementary School

Cellphone!

I am connected to the world again!!

My number is (0082) 010 7706 4543

If you want to call me or send me a message from SA the correct number is 00821077064543

Hope to hear from you soon! x

The second week of teaching went down fine, except for a mishap or two. The grade 6's were nightmares! My lesson was about vacations and I asked them to write a postcard to a friend. You will never believe what the one kid wrote on his post card. It is to rude to say/type, but I will post a picture so that you can see for yourself. I was shocked!

Anyways I'm slowly but surely starting to get used to walking to school and back everyday, now I just need to get an Ipod to keep me busy. (it's quite a boring walk) For those of you who didn't hear - I forgot my Ipod on one of the planes on the way to Korea. Bummer! O well these things are soooo cheap over hear, so I ordered one that hasn't even been released in SA. Or so they tell me.. I can't wait for that call from the A-store.

This weekend was pretty chilled. We planned on going to the beach on Saturday, but the weather ruined everything. Instead we decided to look for a place where Salome can permanently straighten her hair. We ended up getting our hair and feet done. What a nice pamper day? I can seriously get used to that. After our pamper session we headed to Centum City for some shopping. If we could afford anything in that place, it surely would've been a Sex and the City day. O well, a girl can dream :)

Sunday was the perfect beach day. We played whale-whale the whole day and just relaxed in the sun. It was amazing. Something that really ended off the lazy day was a good Chinese meal at our favorite Chinese restaurant.

O, I forgot to tell you... My co-teacher asked me if she can use some of my ideas in her thesis! Pretty cool huh?

O and another thing - I am officially an alien in this country and will get my cellphone within the next hour or so. Will post my number here tomorrow for you to contact me (if you want to)

x

First week as a teacher

The first week at school went by so fast. I think it's safe to say that it was a successful first week. The teachers are warming up to me, so every now and again I get a "Hi, how are you?" in the hall ways. The kids are also starting to greet me in the passages which makes you feel a little wanted, so again - so far so good.

On Friday night we had our first unofficial beach party on Haeundae beach which was a blast. We discovered that you can drink in public in Korea! You just buy a beer or two at the corner shop and then you can enjoy it where ever. It was a lot of fun drinking beer on the beach and chilling with our new friends. We've met quite a few new people after orientation. Some of them have been here for some time now. It's awesome chatting to them, cause they are full of tips and recommendations. We missed the last subway home so we were forced to take a taxi. Everyone was warning us about the crazy taxi drivers, but luckily we got a very cautious one. His driving skills were shockingly bad, but at least he drove responsibly. It was a bit of a mission explaining to him where we wanted to go and after showing him on maps and the works, he just drove straight down the road until we spotted our friend, Starbucks. It wasn't very difficult to get there at all! OOPS :)

It was a beautiful day on Saturday so we headed back to Haeundae beach to meet Cyril for lunch and to soak up the sun a little. We walked along the beach and a beautiful little path with a suspension bridge until we came to the APEC house. Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation or something like that. Apparently there was really big political meeting there about 4 years ago. The building is pretty impressive but the view....sjoe it's absolutely amazing! We took the same path back to the beach and soaked up the sun for a few hours. Cyril and I went for a swim which was amazing seeing that the water is like bath water. Ok not that hot, but just nice. We met a few other south africans in the water, which was a little random - but hooked up with them in the KFC later that evening.

After our beach session, we went to the Busan Aquarium. The aquarium itself isn't very big, but definitely worth it. They even had a hedgehog! haha trust the asians to put a hedgehog in an aquarium. After an hour of fish and sharks we did a 3D show scan show. This was very funny - it was a thing about dinosaurs and it felt like they were attacking us and trying to eat us.

On Sunday I went hiking. I nearly died!!! It took me almost 3 hours to hike up Mount Geumjeonsan. We were a whole group hiking up the mountain. Even though it was very hard and we lost a few people along the way - it was definitely worth it in the end. The view from the top was spectacular. Don't think I have every seen anything like it! It's impossible to explain that view and unfortunately none of the pictures came out right but believe me when I say it was amazing! Each of us had a shot of Soju up at the top - just to celebrate that we actually made it. You could see the whole of Busan (which is a huge city) from the top. Naturally, I fell on the way down and injured my knee...not cool! I had to walk to school the next day so I left an hour earlier just so that I can take my time and limp to school. x