alright…so it’s summer in korea…and that means it’s HOT. smokin’ hot. like 35 degrees and 100% humidity at 7am. i kid you not. without aircon, we would not be able to sleep…or function. i’ve never experienced heat like this in south africa, or even thailand for that matter. anyhow, we’re learning to live with it.
since the last post, we’ve been busy! schools closed last week for the 6 week summer vacation, and most foreign english teachers have to do english summer camps during the vac. so gabi is on her 3rd camp at the moment, and i am busy with my first of two weeks of camps. the word “camp” is misleading here…it’s kind of just like class but more fun. the kids apply to do the camp and then come in to school for about 3 hours of english class, which we take. i had my first day today, and it’s WAY better than school – less kids, no syllabus and the kids actually want to be there.
some of gabi's students with their box monsters they made
some of my students doing the 'onion-ring-and-chopstick' relay race
the downside of vacation as a native english teacher is that our contracts only allow us 8 days vacation in summer…and so, DESK WARMING. if we are not teaching camps, we need to sit at school from 8:30 to 16:30 every day…unless we’re on our 8 days vacation. gabi and i each have one week of this coming up…which we’re not looking forward to. we can do anything we want really – play guitar, make handbags, watch movies…we just have to be at school for 8 hours a day. anyhow, it’s part of the package.
last week was my coteacher’s wedding shoot! in korea, couples hire out a wedding studio about 2 months before the wedding and have an entire day of photos. these studios are kitted out with about 15 different scenes, and a wardrobe full of dresses and suits and anything else you could imagine. i think it’s a really good idea…anyhow, we got to go along and i got some really nice photos…see the links below for more.
the kims
kyung-mi
the hanbok piggyback
out in the street
in other news, we are perfecting the art of dumpster diving. yes, that’s right. in korea, if you want to get rid of furniture, golf clubs, beds, or any other household item, you need to pay a huge amount of money to a company who comes and fetches it and takes it away. SO, clever koreans just take these items outside and dump them at strategic places. most of the stuff is still in good condition, so it naturally “disappears” overnight. initially we just found a small fold up wooden table to put our TV on…we felt so bad taking it that we did it at night and videoed it too.
HOWEVER, in the last 2 weeks we’ve scored two gems. i found an exercise bike which is still perfect, and allows me to get some exercise in an airconned room instead of dying in the heat outside. but gabi hit the motherload…outside a furniture shop, there was a couch just lying there. so she went in to inquire and they had thrown it out. she asked if she could buy it, and they said no. in fact they said she could have it. and not only could she have it, but they would also clean it AND deliver it to our apartment. for FREE. i love korea. so 2 days later, we had a 10 foot black leather couch delivered. the delivery men even refused the watermelon we bought them to say thank you. crazy.
gabi has been making handbags, purses, aprons and whatever else like crazy…and she’s now taking orders! i just have to take photos of them…check out her blog to see all her creations:
apron
handbag
this coming weekend we’re heading to the jisan valley rock festival, where we’ll see one the greatest bands of all time…mutemath. other bands playing – third eye blind, massive attack, pet shop boys, muse…should be crazy. it’s kind of like a korean woodstock – more than 40 bands in 3 days on a huge farm in the mountains. quality.
it’s only 3 weeks until we get our (coveted) 8 day vacation…and we are counting the days. on 14 august we’re off to singapore for 4 days, where we’ll meet up with gabi’s brother and his wife on the 18th, and then we’re off to the tropical island of tioman, just off the east coast of malaysia, where we’ll meet gabi’s folks for 5 days of snorkeling in crystal blue waters with turtles and multi-coloured fish, hiking and soaking up the sun on the beach. not bad.
other than that, we’re just working on camps and taking it easy! we’re (slowly) learning korean too, and we’re suprisingly good (some would argue that i am better than gabi). SO, i thought everyone reading this should learn some korean too. we can read and write it, so it’s the speaking that’s hard. so two things you’ll hear in korean schools a LOT are:
다시 한번 – one more time (ta-shi han-bon)
안자 – sit down (an-ja)
okay, that’s all from us!
photo links:
greg and gabi 
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