Day 20:
Another busy week here in Korea! Yesterday was Teacher's Day which means that our kid's parents had the chance to bribe us with gifts, lol. Canada should really adopt this idea because we ended up with some awesome stuff. Since I (Shayna) teach the pre-kinder kids, I got pretty lucky because I guess the parents know what a handful they can be. From a class of 11 kids, I got over $200 dollars in gift certificates to a really nice department store called Hyundai, and from all my other students I got : Bath & Body works and Body Shop lotions, a personalized mug that says I love you teacher written on it from my student named June, a scarf, a Lacoste t-shirt, a few roses and lots of candy! Brandon got awesome stuff to. He got Clinique Happy for men cologne, a Ralph Lauren Polo shirt, a bottle of wine, shaving supplies, and some really good cookies :)
Along with the awesome gifts, some of the kids gave us cards which are priceless! One card I got from a grade 3 boy said " You teach us very good. Please teach us many things. Let's be intimate. Thank you." Brandon got one that said, " Thank you for teaching me, you are handsome and kind. I love you." All of the hand written cards are so sweet! Days like that make it all worthwhile :) We'll have to take some shots of the kids soon to show you just how cute they really are. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

With love from South Korea,
Shayna & Brandon

Day 15:
Yesterday we spent the day at the Ichon Ceramic Festival. It was held at a beautiful, large park in the countryside, which was two hours by bus from Bucheon. The picture above is the view from the entrance of the park. There were gorgeous flowers, awesome modern art statues and tons of families taking in the sights. First we went to the actual pottery making exhibit, where Brandon made us a vase. You can see his natural talent for ceramics showcased below :) ......


We then hiked up a mountain trail in the park, which had a beautiful and colorful view of Ichon.

There were also many interesting art sculptures all around the park in including this tree made of bells that you would normally find at temples all over South Korea.
We then went to a very interesting authentic tea ceremony held by the woman below. What was really cool, is that we were with our Korean friend who was able to translate what the woman was telling us and we were able to ask her questions to better appreciate the experience.
After the tea ceremony, we came across a traditional Korean drumming show which was very fun to watch and was filled with highly energetic performers. Shayna was in the front row taking photos, and the guy in the second photo got her to spin his top and throw it back to him in front of the entire audience.
We wound down the day by heading to a beautiful, Korean pond which had amazing flowers ...

and a Korean style terrace looking over the water....we then headed back home after a very long and eventful day.
Hope you all had a great weekend, we miss you and we hope your enjoying following along in our adventures :)

With love from South Korea,
Shayna & Brandon

Day 13:
Today we ventured into Seoul all by ourselves! We really stuck out with our camera and our "Top 100 Seoul Destinations" tourist book, lol. The subway wasn't too bad, and we made it to Sinchon station without any problems- but once we got off the subway, we made a few wrong turns. Sinchon is close to alot of universities in Seoul and is a very young and trendy area .We expected to find the shopping market right when we got off of the subway, but instead we ended up in a dirty, traditional food market...
Once we found our way out of there, we roamed a few back alleys and colorful neighbourhoods before somehow stumbling into the right area.


The streets were packed with young people shopping at all of the small and trendy boutiques and street vendors.
As we walked around, we found lots of cute little restaurants, random street art and a tons of shoe stores! The entire area was awesome, and we wandered the streets for hours. We had lunch at a Korean style burger shop that was very funky, with big red velvet chairs and artwork all over the walls. The students definetly have a major influence on the area, and give it a great artsy vibe.



As we were heading back to the subway at the end of the afternoon, some students stopped us to see if we wanted to participate in a story telling project they were doing for school. Brandon hopes he'll make the final cut for the project...


Tomorrow we are headed to a smaller town for a ceramic festival, which should give us a good chance to see a different part of the country. More photos to come, but for now we're off to bed.

With love from South Korea,
Shayna & Brandon

Day 9:
Today was Children's Day in Korea and we had the day off work :) The weather was gorgeous and we spent practically the entire day outside in the park. They closed down several of the streets behind Bucheon City Hall and had activities for all of the kids.



There was a crazy amount of kids and parents everywhere! They were riding their bikes, driving go-carts and flying kites in the park and on the street. The whole area was buzzing with activity.


It was an awesome day to do some great people watching and take tons of photos. These are just a few of the shots from the day. The kids are all so cute and don't mind strangers taking their photo.

We also ran into some of our students and were able to meet some of their parents too. We made kites with one of our students named Jayden which Brandon had a great time flying in the park. It's too bad every day isn't Children's Day!


With love from South Korea,
Brandon & Shayna

Day 7:
Today we had a very adventurous day~ We went took the subway to Seoul with our co-worker Patrick and his Korean friend. We came along some interesting characters in the market on our way to watch a traditional Korean ceremony called The Royal Ancestral Rite of Joseon which only happens once a year.
The ceremony took place in a shrine dedicated to the kings from the Joseon Dynasty which lasted for over 500 years. They played ancient Korean classical music and the women in purple danced as the king's precession entered the shrine. It was an interesting look into the culture of Korea, it's too bad the whole ceremony was done with their backs facing us.
After the ceremony, we went to Itaewon district in Seoul, which is a famous shopping market for foreigners. There were lots of cool shops, and a group of random local girls wanted us to take a picture with them, so of course- we got one for ourselves :)
The street were jammed packed, which made for some awesome people watching! This man was playing his flute on the side of the road...
and this little girl caught our attention in the crowd...isn't she cute?!
Before heading home, we stopped off at a Buddhist temple that had three massive gold Buddha statues in it. Apparently, it's the main centre for Buddhism in all of Korea! There were really cool colorful laterns hanging everywhere becuase it was Buddha's birthday this Saturday. Here's a shot of one of the Buddhas...

We couldn't have asked for a nicer day to have our first adventure into Seoul. After spending the entire day in the sunshine, we are exhausted! We're off to bed xo

With love from South Korea,
Brandon and Shayna

Day 5:
Welcome to our new home! Here are a few quick shots of our new place. This is what you see when you first walk into our place. There's lots of good closet space to the right, and a big shoe closet on the left! In Korea, it is very disrespectful to walk past the front door with shoes on, you must take them off and put them away as soon as you enter someones home.


Here's our bathroom, more functional than glamorous, but it does the job. Nice big mirrors above the sink and toilet and there a decent sized cabinet for our toiletries. Moving on to our living space....
Here's a bird's eye view from our loft of our living room. The tall ceilings and big windows really open up the space and the whole room has a nice bright feel to it. We love the view of the garden terrace- which you cant see too well in this shot, but it is gorgeous!
Here's another angle of our living room, and the stairs that lead to our bedroom. Those posters were here when we arrived, and are all the decor we have at the moment. We have been told it is going to be hard to find posters for the wall as Koreans are very minimalistic- so we'll have to see what we can come up with. As for now, we have purchased some plants to add some life to the place.
Here's a view of our kitchen, its not very big but it's all we need. We are going to buy ourselves some bar stools for the counter top for eating breakfast and that red wooden block, is a fold out table for our living room. We keep it folded up to maximize the space we have.
And finally, here's our very romantic bedroom, lol. Obviously we need to spruce it up! The ceiling is very low, so caution is needed. Although a little awkward, it is pretty cozy once you get used to it. We plan on putting some photography behind the bed and some plants along the little counter area. So that's our place! We'll post updates on the place as we decorate.
We are heading into Seoul tomorrow (Sunday) for the first time with a co-worker of ours, so there will be many more photos to come. Check back soon!

With love from South Korea,
Shayna & Brandon xo

Day 4:
Hey Guys!
We just got back from a karaoke bar with the other teachers as a going away party for one of the teachers. They put us in this private red velvet room with disco lights and each song had its own hysterical Korean music video. Before karaoke, we went for dinner where Brandon accidentally put raw pig skin in his mouth thinking it was an appetizer before asking what it was...so gross- he spat it out right away!!! He learned the hard way that you're supposed to grill it on the BBQ, oops. The week has been super busy and we're glad its almost the weekend, but we love the school and the kids are too cute. I (Shayna) got a note from one of my students named June, that said I love you Ashley teacher- not my name but I guess it's the thought that counts, lol. We plan on going into Seoul this Saturday for the Buddha birthday festival which is supposed to be really awesome. We still haven't gotten around to taking pics of our place, but we'll do that soon :) Ok, we're off to bed now, all that singing has tired us out! Good night xo

With love from South Korea,
Shayna & Brandon