Korean Easter. Assah!

For Easter, Justin & myself printed out 100 easter egg pictures & decorated the school. The kids were VERY confused as to why the place was decorated so. On Easter Monday, the Korean teachers handed out hard boiled eggs to the kids as an Easter treat. They were all real excited. I dunno how kids would react to hard boiled eggs back home.... I think they'd be annoyed they weren't being handed something chocolate. You know it's true!

Kelly invited the girls over to hers for some Easter crafts after work on the Friday of Easter weekend. She's very arty & apparently it's a tradition for her and her friends to do Easter crafts. We painted and decorated hard boiled eggs & iced a whole load of cookies. While drinking red wine... of course!!! Happy Belated Easter!!!! ooooh also my Mam sent me a big package with "real" easter eggs from Ireland. What a legend! xo

.:.Seoul Sistas.:.

Can't believe 2 weekends have flown by since I was in Seoul with the Irish Girls AND the rest of that crew. Claire, Charlene, Edel, Vicky, Molly, Jocelyn and Elise. Was a great weekend. We headed up to Seoul on Saturday afternoon, on the train, beer in hand. We got 2 rooms in the Hamilton Hotel, ate goooood food in Geckos (huge juicy burger & chips) & headed out that night. We went to a few bars and ended up back in 'Janes Groove' where they played some sweeeet 80's music where we DANCED our faces off. On Sunday, we shopped, ate good food (mmm.. Lasange) and spent most of the day hanging out, chatting and having a great laugh in Geckos, while drinking frozen Margaritas, until the bus that night. GREAT girls weekend!

Edel & Vicky. I told them "If the wind changes, you'll stay that way"!! haha!

Charlene & Me . I don't think I have one "normal" picture from the weekend! They are all generally along the lines of us pulling faces, crossing our eyes & looking cRaZy ;p

:.Korean Punishment.:

We... fortunately can send our kids to Detention when they show up to class with no homework or misbehave, some schools don't have this luxury. Although... it's more fun to make them stand against a wall with their hands up in the air for 15 minutes.

Here's some of our Middle School kids under the rath of Fiona, as she enjoys her ice-coffee:

Sucks to be you right now.

.:.Fire on the Ridge. Party. Deux.:.

Last weekend we had our second Fire on the Ridge. There is a ridge on top of the mountain behind our apartment block, this is where the Secret Ajuma trail is, but when night falls it becomes a ghost trail, dotted with playgrounds and beer pagodas. By pagoda, I mean a small wooden hut, where we can sit, hang out and drink. We chose a perfectly placed pagoda which overlooked the lights of Gwangju in all its glory. This time we were minus Eagle Scout Matt so Shane stepped in with his 'man skills' and whipped up a quick fire. One by one people hiked up the mountain after work. By midnight everyone had arrived. We sat, drank, told stories, listened to music, I played some Guitar and we watched the city lights. As much as I like heading out on the town, I miss sitting round a fire, singing, story telling and having some banter.

At our last Fire on the Ridge party, Corey entertained us all with a rap as I gave him a backbeat on guitar. Sorry for not warning you about the treacherous hike Tiff, but you know it was worth it. As they say in Korea... "Assssah!!!"

.:.BOXES.:.

I go from my box apartment (Windows with views of walls).

To my box Teachers Room (No Windows).

To my box classrooms (No Windows).

I live in BOXES.

Korean Vampires

Spring has arrived & Summer is sneaking up quick, the sun is here and it's starting to finally get warmer. For us in the Western world... this means: take it all in, tanning time and wanting to be outside 24/7. For the Koreans on the other hand, they value their pale complexion. A tan means you work outside and you're lower class. Pale is beautiful. They usually cover EVERYTHING.

They even have face BLEACH products...... Geisha wannabes:

Whether it's a mask, a HUGE visor or even a towel, their skin is covered, from head to toe. Here is the infamous UV Protector mask also known as the 'Duck mask' as it makes them look like they have a pink duck beak:

Shane & myself spotted two young girls the other day running for the shade, holding their school folders over their faces, shielding themselves from the unforgiving sun. It's as if they are afraid of the sun. They may turn to dust. So I have come to the conclusion...

VAMPIRES.:. Definitely Vampires.