Dion Teaching and Weekend News.

Here are pictures of Dion teaching his Friday Grade 1 classes at Yongnam High School.

The other pictures are of Dion and English Head of Dept Teacher Jeong. Dion and Melisa and Co-Teacher Hur who met us at the airport. They were taken in the English Office at Yongnam High School.

We went to church yesterday in Daejeon. It was a bit of a mission to get there as we had no clue where the church was. In the end it took an hour to get there and $17.00 nz on transport. It means we will only go once every 3 weeks. Once we were there though it was good. The service was run by Americans and their new Pastor and family were there for the first time. Dion and I stood up and Dion introduced us to everyone. One Kiwi cheered and we briefly met him but everyone was busy afterwards with the reception for the new Pastor, we left but will go again. The church folk were friendly and gave us 2 gifts. One was a silver travel mug good for school and the other was a bag full of tourist and living in Daejeon information. This was the best as it had a map of Daejeon and we could get our bearings.

The hike up the mountain tomorrow is cancelled as it looks like rain. A bit disappointed as it would be awesome to go up but next term we are going.
This morning out the window I saw 2 foriengers walking to work. It looks likes they may be living in our city. I will talk to them next time. I found cookies and cream ice-cream. It tastes just as nice as the tip top one at home. We had Dominoes Pizza on Friday night and KFC yesterday. Its different to the NZ franchaises but still tastes ok. We will now be on a strict diet of Korean food as eating western food like that is expensive but not as much as I thought. We had a nice lunch in the school cafe today. I even ate all my Kimchi. I am slowly adjusting to the spicy taste so hopefully it wont be long before I dont notice it. The students have exams from Tues to Fri so Dion may only have school in the mornings and we can go out walking.

Photos of our apartment.

These are a few pics of our place on the 15th floor.This is our lounge and Dion on the first night after 24hours of travelling and a full day meeting people at school and shopping.

Anzac Day

Hi Everyone
I hope everyone is having a nice day off work and school. Its a bit different for us this year. Dions just finished teaching his 3 classes at Gyerong High and is back with me at Yongnam High.
This morning I was summoned to see the Principal. Somehow that made me feel like a third former again in big trouble. Luckily he was in a good mood and asked me about Anzac Day. I was kicking myself for not paying enough attention in history class but I managed to stumble my way through a brief explanation. He then asked me to write a page about Anzac day for him to read to some parents in a meeting. At least I think thats what he said. Of course I had to say yes and then freaked out because Dion had the computer at the other school. I got back to the english office and a teacher kindly offered me his computer. I got some info off the net and re wrote it and gave it to the Principal all under 40 minutes. This is the sort of thing we are being faced with, its spur of the moment and its challenging but if you get through it you feel like you ve achieved something huge.
From Melisa

Hey Everyone,

It's Dion here. Wow, you wouldn't know it was Anzac Day here. In fact we've been here a week and because you are always adjusting to a new culture you don't worry about days...as long as you get to class on time and present a lesson to the kids. The English level of a lot of the 1st and 2nd grade High School kids I am teaching is very low and it is very difficult for them to understand sometimes. I have to speak slowly and clearly but if that isn't bad enough they might get a bit confused by my Kiwi accent. They are used to American English and even the teachers can't understand the New Zealand pronunciation well. I am enjoying the challenge of being in a foreign culture. Truly, Melisa and I are like aliens (that's the best word to describe us). People are very friendly and want to help but it will take a while to adjust to the communication barrier. It is difficult asking for things in shops or ordering something to eat when you can't say much more than hello and thank you and point to a phrase in a book. The food is very different but nutritious and healthy--hot and spicy sometimes too. We have been to a couple of traditional meals where you sit on the floor at a low table. Wow...after sitting cross legged for about half an hour I found it difficult walking when I stood up. The other thing I have been practicing is using chopsticks. It takes quite a lot of dexterity. Maybe it's in the way you hold your tongue. Anyway, that's some of the adjustments we've been making. It's stressful but often fun to be learning new things. Today, a teacher was talking to me about the expression, "When in Rome do as the Romans do". She said it's best to think of Korea in the same way SO "When in Korea, do as the Koreans do", except when I'm in the apartment and talking fluent English with Melisa. Love you all back home and I've been missing you. I think when people say 'please pray for us' they mean 'we are in a strange place and don't always know what the heck is going on' so please pray for us.

See you ... I'll write again sooon.

welcome to south korea

annyong haseyo
hi everyone
we made it to korea. we were met at the airport by a teacher from the school and then caught the bus to daejeon which took 4 hours. after that we drove to the school which took another
30 minutes and met some more teachers. everyone has been very friendly and helpful at the school. we have a really nice apartment on the 15th floor which is a 20 minute walk from the school. its good exercise every day and is nice to do when you've been inside all day. we had a fancy lunch with the principal, vp and 3 other teachers which was fun. next week is exams so the staff get to climb up mt gyeryong which is 5 mins away and then have dinner. it takes 3-4 hours to reach the top. i cant even walk the bridle path and its higher than that. should be interesting. the hardest thing is not being able to speak korean. i am forced to go shopping with my phrase book. without that i couldnt get what i wanted. its a different culture but people are polite and try their best to help you. we have only seen 2 other westeners since leaving the airport and none in our school or city. its great we have each other. miss you all.
annyong kyeseyo
love dion and melisa

changi airport

hi
we are at singapore airport ready to get on the next flight to korea. the flight from nz to here was 10 hours. we checked into a hotel at the airport for 5 hours in which i slept on the best bed ever and had a shower while dion went for a swim. well have to board now. write from korea.

Finally Leaving

Well our visas arrived on Friday. They were couriered to our neighbour who lives 2 doors away, fortunately he delivered them to us after tripping over the package on his doorstep.
So we are finally on our way to Korea. We fly out via Singapore on Tuesday morning at 10.50am. The main thing for me at the moment is trying to jam everything into one bag for a year. Next time I post something it will hopefully be from Gyerong City. I don't know the Korean saying for farewell yet so until I do the Japanese saying will have to do. Sayonnara Love Dion and Melisa.