Day 202: We wanted to send out a big MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! We hope you all enjoy the holidays and have a happy new year. We're off to Thailand to spend our holiday in the sun :)

With love from South Korea,
Shayna & Brandon xo

Day 190: We have survived our gauntlet month of working Saturdays and this was our first weekend where we could have 2 full days to ourselves. It was a beautiful day on Saturday so we decided to make the most of it. We went into Seoul with our friend Jenny to do some exploring and vendor shopping. We also decided that we would begin a photo project that we have wanted to start for some time now. We want to photograph 100 interesting strangers from all over Korea. We had been hesitant before but luckily our friend Jenny is very outgoing and not shy at all and had no problem approaching absolute strangers. After awhile we all warmed up to the process and by the end of the day we were all joining in on the fun. These first 4 photos (top included) were from the subway going into Seoul. We just love how unique each individual is, and with the amount of people here there is no shortage of inspiration.


After we left the subway we went on an epic walk of the Sinchon area trying to find this one area we had been to in the summertime. This area was filled with university students, and it is known for its artistic feel and creative culture. We thought this would be an awesome spot to find people. Unfortunately it was not as easy to find as we remembered but we met and shot a lot of interesting people along the way.


After about 3 hours of exploring we were about to give up trying to find that area when we happened to stumble into Hongik University area, the place we were looking for all along.By then it was getting dark, but the neon lights and packed streets made for colorful backdrops. As you can see we found an eclectic mix of young and old and got some really cool shots.

All in all it ended up being a pretty awesome day. There is something rewarding and exciting about approaching strangers, meeting new people, and pushing ourselves to get out there and start our project we've wanted to do for awhile. Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season, we've got our tree up in our apartment, were just looking for a Jewish star so we can fully celebrate Christmakah.

With love from South Korea,
Brandon & Shayna xo

Day 176: We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Here in Korea, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving but nonetheless we taught the kids about the holiday on a field trip to Outback Steakhouse. Random we know, especially since we had a four hours to spend there! The kids were crazy excited to go, and we thought we'd show you how it went...
When we arrived there, the kids had to sit and wait patiently while the staff got ready for a bit...
After what felt like FOREVER..it was time for the Outback tour! Now we know what your thinking, it's just a restaurant..what would they show them on a tour? Well, first they walked around and showed them the paintings on the wall, and then actually talked to them about the air ducts, and taught them about boomerangs and kangaroos...but nothing at all about Thanksgiving. Then of course, since we still had 30 minutes to tour (according to the schedule) they proceeded to take the kids through the kitchen. They showed them the ice machine, the dishes, and then they took them inside of the freezer! Here's Louis who was extremely satisfied with the tour, it doesn't take much to make these kids happy...After the tour, they sat them down to have some drinks, while they waited for their steaks...When we had all finished our steaks and ribs, they brought out the turkey.... The kids were pretty excited to get to try turkey, and the trip ended up being a success! Shortly after, we headed back to school to make some hand turkeys, gobble gobble... The kids are so cute on field trips when they are in their jackets and boots, they look so grown up...


So that was our Thanksgiving, a little chaotic but a lot of fun! We are just relaxing this weekend and taking it easy. Less than a month until we are in Thailand, we are so happy about that :) We miss you all and hope you have a great weekend!

With love from South Korea,
Brandon & Shayna x0

Day 165: Hisayo! Well we've had another awesome few weeks here in Korea. Our schedules have been a little nuts lately due to the swine flu. Our school had to shut down for a week about two weeks ago, and so we had a nice welcomed break. Although, now we are working Saturdays to make up the days we lost and it's pretty tiring! Brandon brought his guitar in last Saturday to play for the kids. We've been teaching them fun songs like Twist and Shout and In the Jungle, and hearing them sing with their little Korean accents is hysterical! We play them the Ferris Bueller video for twist and shout and they dance around the room, it's too cute! We are also teaching them Christmas songs- my pre kinders have mastered Walking in a Winter Wonderland. I taught them the Jason Mraz version and they scat and everything, it's amazing how quickly they've caught on to it.
So since we haven't had much free time since our week off, I thought I'd share some photos I took of my friend Jenny. We went to this place we found called Fantastic studios, where they have recreated old Korean movie sets. It only cost $3 to get in and it looks like an old deserted run down town filled with old bars and movie theatres, but it was actually only built in 2008.

We were the only ones there for most of the day and we had so much fun just running around and shooting away...She made my job easy, she's gorgeous!

We had such a good time, and we kept each other laughing all day long! I love her!



As always, we love and miss you all! Oh and we booked our trip to Phuket, Thailand for our winter vacation, which we are super excited about! We have a great hotel and we are planning all sorts of fun excursions :) We can't wait to get to the beach since we are supposed to have our first snow tomorrow! Hugs and Kisses xo

With love from South Korea,
Shayna & Brandon

Day 154: Hope you all had a fun Halloween! We celebrated at school with the kids and had tons of fun. Koreans don't celebrate the holiday, so the kids were very excited to be able to dress up, get scared, and to eat candy of course :) For the younger kids, they had a bunch of activities to do like making masks, carving pumpkins, and playing the toilet paper mummy game. We also made a pretty awesome haunted house in the library for the kids to go through. We were both assigned (along with 3 other teachers) to be in the haunted house and try our best to freak their freaks! Brandon wore a pretty scary pumpkin mask and popped out of a grave which made all the kids cry- and gave them a Halloween they will never forget. Here's just some of the cuteness from the little ones...
Oh right, we dressed up too- Brandon was a cowboy and I was an Indian :)
JD and Jamie were vampires! And Jenny was a character from Harry PotterThe older kids were pretty cute in the afternoon, and they had a costume fashion show that was pretty fun- check out our grade 2's below in all their cuteness...awww.....

That's all for our quick update, we'll share more soon. Miss you all!

With love from South Korea,
Shayna & Brandon xo