"Magic is seeing wonder in nature's every little thing, seeing how wonderful the fireflies are and how magical are the dragonflies."
-Ama H. Vanniarachchy
The countdown is on! I now have officially 29 days left in Korea! That is so crazy to say! I found my aupair family so in 29 days I will be moving to a town a 2 hour flight, and then a two hour drive from Perth, Australia. I will be working mainly as a teacher for three kids ages 3,5, and 6 who live on a cattle station for 6 months. After that my plan is to travel around Australia and New Zealand for 2 months. Then I will return to the US around summer 2019. At least that is the plan, we will see how it works out.
My last month has been full of activities. My friends and I attended the Muju Firefly Festival. When we signed up the itinerary was to attend the festival, see fireflies when it got dark, and then camp in tents for the night. Unfortunately there was flooding before the festival so there was no camping and no fireflies.
Korea has these awesome tour groups that do weekend trips to festivals and different places around Korea. That also means we visit a lot of weird things. This weekend festival tour started with a visit to a wine cave. Its exactly what it sounds like, a cave with some wine barrels inside.
After the wine cave, we went to the festival proper. It was held on the grounds of the 2017 world taekwondo championships. It was cool to walk around and see all the different stalls and activities. Even after being in Korea, it is still so weird to have strangers take my picture just because I am foreign. We were followed around by the festival's photographer and videographer until we finally escaped.
The highlight of the whole festival was this amazing taekwondo show! I only wish I could be as cool as these grandmas and grandpas. I asked my students if they get to learn choreographed dancing taekwondo. Apparently they hold what they call open classes for parents, I take it its basically a show to show the parents what they had learned.
Once it got dark there fireworks and lanterns! It was like tangled in real life! The lanterns were stunning!
The fireworks were cool, like firemen's picnic fireworks. It was so funny though that fireworks displays like this are not the norm everywhere. My South African co-workers were so impressed.
Last week was also Korean day at my school. Its so much fun to see the kids dressed in their hanbok, or Korean traditional dress. It is also so fun to have them laugh at my attempts at bowing and calligraphy. The hanboks are really not flattering in any way. Its also super hot to wear.
It is impossible to get 10 kids to look and smile in the same direction.
Last weekend we attended a South African Braii, or barbecue. It was really fun to enjoy the festivities with my three South African co-workers.
The woman on the left is the South Africa ambassador to Korea. On the right is Megan and Sibu, two of my co-workers.
Mitch was our braii-master and the lamb chops were delicious!
Also this past week, we took a field trip to the Samsung Transportation museum. Its a museum filled with the private car collection of the Samsung CEO. It was cool to look at some old cars, but even more fun to let the kids run free in the field behind the museum.
You know whats even more fun than field trips? The silent bus on the way back to school.
Wednesday was picture day for our kids. The little girl on the left in all white, is Aileen. She is actually a child actress and model. Its too bad you really can't see her outfit. It was white overalls with a white blouse and giant puff sleeves. She looked like a little porcelain doll. I was afraid the whole time of her getting her outfit dirty.
So I have one month left and it is going to be a very busy month. I have many appointments and lots of things to do before I leave. Its crazy how many things you have to take care of when you are moving away from your home of 3 years.
