Jon goes to Korea: SORRY

I have been horrible at updating this thing. A whole slew of really interesting stuff happened and it's downright intimidating to even think about trying to get everything caught up. I'll try to remember some highlights. I wish blogger allowed me to upload more than 5 photos at a time too because I have a BUNCH.

In a nutshell:

1: I went to Muuido Island way out west to meet up with Gord and Char, lounge on the beach and spend the night in a beach hut. I took 4 different modes of transportation to get there (5 if you consider train and subway different). It basically went like: cab>subway>train>bus>ferry>bus. Kind of ridiculous considering it's not that far from the airport, but man. Anyways, it was good to get out of the city. Other foreigners were making bonfires on the beach at night, but they turned out to be really boring people, so my lasting memories from the whole experience are of wandering the tidal flats in the evening and baking in the sun during the day.

2: I decided to fly out to Jeju Island on a whim one saturday morning cause my coworkers were all there. I managed to nab a return flight for $90! I got up at around 10, caught a plane at 3 and was in Jeju by 3:30. I took a bus down to the south of the island and walked around comparing prices for hotel rooms. Managed to get one in the top corner with an amazing view of the shoreline for about $30 a night. What an awesome island though. The whole thing is impeccably groomed by tax dollars so it's a tourist's paradise. Not to mention the fact that it's on a very very comfortable latitude. I had no plans at all and somehow it ended up being both eventful and relaxing. I'm going back soon, and renting a car.

3: This dude came to town to hang out and stuff. He flew in the Saturday night of the 27th and had a whirlwind week touring, playing a show, meeting new people and filming a small personal project. It was pretty fun, because aside from finally having some company around this old morgue slab of an apartment, I was pretty much forced to get off my ass and go out and do some things. We went to Lotte World, a baseball game, Seoul Tower, the president's house (seriously) and a bunch of other places. His first night was rough because he decided to pull an all nighter right after his plane landed. The next day, he played a show at 4 in the afternoon in completely the worst shape I have ever seen anyone in. It was pretty go-go-go for him since day one and I think he's pretty happy to be back on a plane now. I also came across this little blurb about him (and me) in one of the Ottawa Citizen blogs.

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5: Now that I am a kindergarten teacher, this joke becomes even more true to life. Despite being really really terrible, I have found some things that I find redeeming. First of all, I really like having a class that's mine. I know all of the kids pretty well now, and some of them are really charming, although I do miss my other kindergarten classes that I only taught once a day. My little dude Eric still comes up and walks me to class, even though I don't teach him any more. A lot of these kids see me more than they probably see their actual fathers too, so I can sort of understand why they get so attached. I went on my first kindergarten field trip not too long ago and it was like herding cats. This Thursday, the whole school is going to a swimming pool for 9 hours, and I am one of the lucky 5 teachers chosen to go and supervise. It's going to be hell!

That's all I can muster up. Sorry if everyone was in the dark. I'll try to think of some more stuff that I may have forgotten. Here's some more pics in the meantime: