A fortnight of firsts

It has certainly been a fortnight of firsts, not only for us, but for the world. Australia will have it's first female PM, South Africa got knocked out of the world cup (the first time that a host nation has not made it past the first round of the world cup) and I had my first experience with acupuncture. While the last item is probably not in the same league of importance as the first two, it was a big step for me given my absolute dislike of anything involving needles (injections, hospitals, sewing etc).

We also had out first hosting experience with couchsurfing last week. For those who haven't been introduced to couchsurfing, it is an international internet based community which enables you to help people out by letting them stay on your couch (or spare bed) while they are travelling around (and vice versa). Not only does it save you accommodation costs, but it gives you a local perspective on a place and often some of most rewarding experiences for us have been at the suggestion of a local host, or with them! we have used it while travelling in Nepal and Hong Kong and it such a great way to extend your travels and meet new people. Our first couchsurfer was a Swiss man who has cycled from Alaska to Argentina and is now doing East to West (starting in Japan). We also had the opportunity to exercise the reciprocal nature of couchsurfing by hosting our Romanian friend who is working in Hong Kong and who we stayed with for almost 2 weeks while we were there!

While we had our couchsurfers we had the chance so show off the beaches of Jukbyeon which are even more inviting with the weather warming up. We also climbed Mt Ungbong for the second (and last!) time which is a 6 hour mountain climb about 45 minutes away from our place. Our Navy captain mate also hosted us and about 8 of our friends for a tour of his navy battleship which is anchored on the shores of Jukbyeon.

Another first for me was attending Uljin district's annual English speech contest. In the Uljin district there are about 10 or so schools which once a year compete in a hotly contested role play and speech contest to see who can take the top honours. Brendan and I were both roped in to a bunch of after school training sessions to try and get our little ones ready for the big day. We were both so proud of all our students competing and our schools came away with a couple of awards which was nice to see their hard work recognised. Unfortunately another Koreanism which I strongly disagree with is the OVER competitive nature and pressure that is placed on very young students. Unless you win, you have lost and seeing some of my eleven and twelve year old students in tears when they came 4th out of more than a dozen role plays was a little hard to take. "You did your best" does not seem to be a comforting statement over here and it is a shame because I really did see an improvement in their English over the month or so we worked for the contest - and really - isn't that the point of an English contest - a chance for them to improve their English and have some fun? NO....YOU MUST WIN!!!! Oh well....

We will try and get some videos up soon from the speech contest (they are so so so cute)!

Ok, that's enough from me for now. We are now more than 1/4 of the way through our teaching contract and while I can't say that teaching is my future career path, I can say that we are having a hell of a ride over here. Weighing up the good, the bad and the occasional evil, I'm glad that we took the risk and decided to come here. Life is never dull! Hope you are having fun and staying safe wherever this find you all.

All our love and end of financial year wishes!
//Kate