November

We are sorry that we have not blogged in almost three weeks but to be honest we have not done much worth writing about. We have been kinda lazy and haven't done anything touristy since the weather has cooled down. A few weeks ago it was still nice and in the teens but then one day it dropped to zero and has been hovering there ever since. Today it warmed up a bit to around 8 degrees Celsius but it was raining.

Anyways once it started to cool down we decided to start looking for some jackets. This turned out to be a couple weekends of frustrated shopping. Don and I are not Korean sized people and everywhere we went we had to ask if they carried "big size" stuff. Most places do not. Also they are pretty obsessed with fashion here so things are expensive, and there is usually one of each jacket and of course it is a size negative 5 (ok, I might be exaggerating a little). There seem to be two really popular types of jackets here right now. They are either lined with fur (or fake fur) on the inside and on the rim of hood or they like the poofy bommer style jackets made with shiny polyester that is really thin and do not seem warm at all. Don is annoyed with the shiny bommer jackets and therefore opted for a fake fur lined jacket. I went with a non fashionable style (as per my usual) and just bought an outer shell sport jacket similar to the one I have at home (except that its pink) and I wear a fleece under it.

We went to markets and big department stores and malls (which are very different from home). Some of the malls here are like fancy flea markets. The have floors full of stalls owned by different people. Some of the stalls are pretty small and crammed. There are some more store like areas as well but mostly stalls. In the end we ended up both finding jackets that fit and that were great prices at a department store/outlet store that is pretty close to our area of town. We go there fairly often and we should have just started there in the first place. Oh well, we know now and will go there before running all over the city in the future. I was also pretty excited to find boots there that fit, it is hard to find shoes my size here (9-9.5) as I also do not have Korean sized feet.

This past week has been a busier week at work since we are just finishing up a monthly session. The schedule is changing a bit and we have a few new teachers joining us so there has been a little more planning than normal. I thought that I would take pictures of our desks to show you what we stare at for a few hours every day. Exciting I know!

Nat's Desk above, Don's Desk below

We had a staff party this past Friday to say goodbye to the teachers who are leaving us (they have finished their contracts) and to welcome those who have just arrived. Our boss Michelle treated us and we went to a Chinese restaurant. We had a great time and some good food. Yesterday we went back to Itaewan and started our Christmas shopping and went for steak for an early birthday dinner.

Our Boss Michelle

Craig making his goodbye speech

We went to brunch at one of our neighbours places today. She made some great pancakes and French toast. Then we went to Costco for our monthly trip. Here is one great thing about Canada and the US having seperate Thanksgivings: two opportunities for us to get pumpkin pie here! Yummm.



Another thing that happened since the last time we blogged was that on November 11th here they have what is called Pepero Day. On Pepero day, people exchange a special snack called Pepero. We received several boxes from some of our students, some are better than others but basically it is like a thin bread stick coated with chocolate. We took some pictures of a couple of the boxes that we received.