Day 305: We know it's been a while since we've blogged- there's been lots going on and our internet has been spotty. So before we update you on all of the new things that have been happening- we thought we'd first give you a quick post from my birthday last weekend. Last Friday, Brandon had all of my new kids and all of my old kids throw me a surprise party in the morning. It was so sweet, and I know have about 50 hand written cards and a lot of uneaten birthday cake :) Friday night, the teachers all went our for Korean BBQ to celebrate, which was fun and delicious!
Early the next morning, a bunch of us headed to Jinhae a beautiful city about 5 hours from Bucheon. It is famous for it's cherry blossom festival this time of year and it was a nice change of scenery. Since the festival just started, not all of the trees were in full bloom- but we had amazing weather and it was still very beautiful. It was a great 25th birthday and I'm glad I got to spend it with such awesome friends!


Oh, and I almost forgot the best part of my birthday...Brandon bought me a new 85mm f/1.8 lens, which I have been wanting for quite a while :) Here are some of the beautiful blossoms I was able to capture with it...


We hope you guys are enjoying the beginning of Spring, and we'll be back soon with a more
in depth update. We miss you and love you lots!

With love from South Korea,
Shayna & Brandon xo

Day 274: Hey everybody! It's been a few weeks since our epic weekend trip down to Gyeongju but the memories are still pretty fresh in our minds. A big group of us went down there to celebrate our friend Jenny's birthday and it was a nice chance to hop on the train and see some of Korea's beautiful countryside. The city was once the capital of Korea and has a rich thousand-year long history full of King's tombs, temples, and tons of interesting places to see. Our first stop was a very famous temple called Bulguksa. We brought our tripod too, so we could get great group shots without harassing any Koreans or monks to take our photo.After we finished hamming it up for some group shots, we made friends with this really nice monk, who was actually acting as an ambassador and guide for visiting foreigners. He let us sit in on his sunset prayer and chanting, as well as an amazing drumming performance by a whole group of monks. After this it was getting late and we went to look for a motel close by.

We found a place close by and settled in. The girls were beat but me (Brandon), Patrick, Byung Chul, and Kara were still up for a little adventure. We tried to get a Taxi to take us to this place where the kings and royalty used to throw parties and banquets but we couldn't get a taxi in that area. That's when the owner of the motel unexpectedly offered us the keys to his SUV and said we could take it for the night. We were blown away by the kindness and trusting nature of this absolute stranger. We got in the car and headed to the King's party palace pretty pumped up by the turn of events.

The lighting and reflections off the lake were stunning, and it was fun to imagine what it must have been like to party there hundreds of years ago. This was also the first time Shay let me take her camera out alone so the pressure was on, but I think I was able to rise to the occasion :)
The next morning we headed off to a famous Buddhist Grotto and then on to the Tombs of the Kings.This was an ancient astronomical observatory. Total number of slabs used for construction 361, total number of days of a lunar year 361. Coincidence? I think not. In this group shot below, the tomb we are standing in front of was open to the public and had many interesting artifacts from the Silla dynasty.After leaving the tombs we decided to go to an old Confucious school, when we had a chance encounter with this older man in the picture below. We were peaking our head into his front yard because he had all these cool rock sculptures that caught our eyes. He invited us in and showed us his life's work, and it turned out he was a world famous sculptor who has had many exhibitions throughout Asia. He explained that his art work was done in the same spirit of Bonzai and that the beautiful mountains in Korea were his greatest inspiration. It was all very Zen.
He seemed genuinely glad to have met us, and invited us to stay for tea with his wife, but unfortunately we had a bus to catch. We took this photo and he gave us his address so we could mail it to him. It always amazes us the interesting people you meet when you are open to new experiences.

Well that's our trip, we had a blast celebrating Jenny's birthday, and I think we were all glad to get out of Bucheon for the weekend. We just started a new semester, with all new kids, so its been pretty hectic, but both of us are enjoying getting to know a whole new batch of kids. Hope everyone's enjoying the warmer weather, we'll update you again soon.



With love from South Korea,
Brandon & Shayna xo

Day 258: Hey everyone! Just a quick post to share our Valentine's day adventure with you. Brandon took me to this beautiful place called the Garden of Morning Calm, two hours from where we live. Luckily for us, it snowed for two days straight before we went which made for beautiful scenery...
Although, it was so oretty during the day, it was even more gorgeous at night when they turned on the lights. We knew they would do this, but we had no idea how amazing it would be- it was so colorful and romantic :) We hope you all had a great Valentine's day weekend and we have tons of fun stuff to post this week. We just got back yesterday from another weekend trip for our friend Jenny's birthday with a bunch of the teachers. We also have some awesome funny stuff from our kids to share, including some funny journal entries and videos :) In a few days we are getting new classes, and new students which should be exciting and we'll have plenty of new funny stories.

With love from South Korea,
Shayna & Brandon xo

Day 244: Its Friday again, and we finally have some time for an update. Last weekend was our friend Kristina's birthday, so all the teachers went out to celebrate on Saturday. We had dinner at a Korean BBQ restaurant and headed over to the new foreigner bar in Bucheon called The Park. They had a pretty good dj there, and we were having a great time just dancing and playing pool. Our friend Jenny had given Kristina fake mustaches as a silly bday present, so she decided to share them with us so we could join in on the fun. Don't mind my (Shayna) face in these photos, the damn mustache would only stay on if I made this face...gorgeous...I know...

It was a very fun night, and it was nice to have everyone together. So on Sunday we slept in a bit, and then Brandon went to have a guitar jam with Greg and JD and I went to have some coffee with Kara and Jamie.

So now we are just getting ready to start this weekend. We went out to TGIF's last night and had an awesome dinner- its the only place to get a descent bacon cheeseburger in Korea. Oh, and I found out today that Brandon is taking me on a very romantic getaway next weekend for Valentines day, it's going to be so beautiful, I'm very excited! Hope you are all doing well, we miss you and love you lots.

With love from South Korea,
Shayna & Brandon xo

Day 225: Hiii guys! It's Sunday here, and we're spending the day cleaning and doing some laundry, and updating the blog :) The last 2 weeks since we've been back have been pretty chilly and we've been staying close to home during the weekends and taking it easy. It was a little tough going back to work after spending that week in paradise, but we think we're finally getting into the groove again. We would have never expected Korea to get this cold, and from what our boss tells us, its the coldest its been in a long time. We've had a lot to keep us occupied though. Last week we had Poly's first ever story telling contest for the kindergartens and poetry recital for the pre-kinders and pre-schoolers. Lets just say its hard to keep a room full of children under 5 interested in poetry for over 2 hours so it turned out to be a minor disaster. The story telling contest turned out a little better, and there was some funny moments with kids telling us animated versions of Little Red Riding Hood and lots of other classics. It never ceases to amaze us how darn cute these kids are and how fun it is seeing them grow up. Here are some pics of the kids we thought you might enjoy from the last few weeks.





We hope 2010 has gotten off on the right foot for all of you and we wish everyone all the health and happiness in the world.

With love from South Korea,
Brandon & Shayna xo