Finally!

Hi everyone! Finally some pics!!!

This pic on the left is before we head out in Jeju. We are with John, Lu and Woody, our fav Kiwi friends!

The pic below is of a fab girls weekend I just had. We chatted, drank wine, applied green tea face masks and had a fun, fun time! Christian was in Seoul for a rubgy tournament so I fully enjoyed the girl time! Here I am with Lu, Melissa and Ang.

Here are Christian and I on our fun night out. Notice the full beard! He's so furry! I love it!

So here I am holding a very unhappy Emma, our friends new baby girl. She is about 2 months old. She has the most hair I've ever seen on such a tiny girl. I love this little girl, and after we leave Jeju I'll probably be that unknown aunt that she won't remember but who will send her cards and crochet her tuques!

More pics to come soon! Bisous. Karina

Some pics to come...

Hi everyone! We've had some probs getting pics up, but Christian bought us a new camera while in Seoul so I'll put some ones up pronto! Chat soon. Anyoung!

A night out on the town

Hello from the sleepy little island of Jeju! Well last weekend wasn't so sleepy for us. We made a tour to the big (big for the island!) city of Jeju, and we met up with a heap of friends to got out on the town. The guys here are preparing to go to Seoul for rugby tournament, so they got together to practise, and then there was a raffle with good ol' food from home! You should have seen the people fighting for the Twizzlers, Mac&Cheese, Reese PB cups and Lifestyles condoms! It was a sight! I did manage to get half a twizzlers which Christian snuck me...ummm!

As you can see Christian has become my fuzzy, lumberjack looking man! When ever he shaves his beard I always say I feel like I'm cheating on my bearded man!!! For those of you who know Christian, growing a beard is the ultimate sign of relaxation and rest. Sooo, we're not too stressed! At home it was more like grow some chin scrub for a week while on holidays, then go back to work all professional and clean shaven. Here, well, it's a tad different! Regular attire at work included flipflops, shorts, tank-top/t-shirt, and usually salty hair and skin from coming directly from the ocean!

We had probably mentioned that the summer quickly vanished about 2 weeks ago. That was thnaks to a little typhoon that showered us with gray skies and rain. I am happy to say that the blue skies are back! The ocean has chilled down just a bit, but it it BEAUTIFUL!!! We are lucky that both of our parents are coming soon. We can't wait to show them the summer life of Jeju! Remember we're still here for another 2 months if anyone wants to pop by! After that you can track us down somewhere in Asia!

I recounted my little haircutting experience to most of you, but I still haven't gotten any good pics. No worries, nothing dramatic, and certainly not the oh-so popular mullet. I was tempted by the mullet (for a second or so) but decided that even a rat-tail was cooler than that, and I wasn't going to chop it all off just to be cool! You'd be surprised by whole great some little 2nd and 3rd graders look with mullets! I'll get some pics of the kids up soon too!

It's off now for the last class of the day. I'm discussing environment issues with my adult class. I just love ruffling their feathers! I don't think they are used to talking about sensitive issues like the environment, politics, mandatory military service for men, divorce...it certainly gets them talking.

We are happy and we are healthy. We miss you all and we'll be home in a short 9 months!!! Until then!

August

Anyoung! How is everyone? With the crazy summer months over, we are still keeping busy!

Life in Seogwipo this summer has FLOWN by! We have enjoyed our time, and we are both really happy. It feel slightly unreal that 9 months have already gone by! I feel like an old-pro in the classes, and I know almost all the students here! I love being so comfortable with this job. We come to school in casual wear, we prep for MAYBE 20 minutes, and we have fun in class. I have been lucky and have had some pretty advanced classes. We've done projects about Narnia, pollution, food and the 5 senses, traveling... and it's interesting for me and for the students! But I've also taught then how to play SPOONS, which is a classroom favorite, go Fish and Thumbs Up 7 Up! What a life!

Since we arrived here things have changed at the school. We have had teachers come and go, but the most fun for us (ok, for me) has been the arrival of little Emma Leman! Our friends from the US had a little baby girl about 5 weeks ago, and she is SOOO wonderful! I remember telling my friend Lara at home about this new little baby, and she rightfully warned me to keep hold of my motherly instincts! and she was right as usual! I just love this little baby. The first time we saw her she was only 2 days old, and since then she has gotten a lot bigger and more active. I was nervous to hold such a tiny baby, but now I've become the regularbabysitter! Last week while babysitting I learned how to make banana muffins with a baby on my hip while trying to bounce her to sleep. One hip on the bowl, one hand stirring! definitely a new adventure. But its great how things here are really baby-friendly, at leastit seems to be. I even changed a diaper on the balcony of our favorite bar/lounge while overlooking the ocean! Not to bad! But don't worry about me, I couldn't handle a baby now,I still want to travel and explore, and do so many things! It's just a whole new thing for us! And Christian is so cute with her!!!?

Ok, enough of the baby! We are looking forward to our 3 months left here, and then off we go on our 6 month adventure through 7 different countries!!! We have most of our flights booked, so thats exciting, but we are doing this trip pretty much spur of the moment. Exciting and scary!
But our time here in Seogwipo will be filled with many things, primarily the visits of both our our parents! I'm so thrilled to be able to share this place with them, there is just so much to see and do!

Anyways, we miss everyone at home, and we can't wait to see you all soon! Less than 1 year! Keep us posted with news from home and send us some pics! I would love to see pictures of all of you! We'll get some updated pics on the blog soon!

Love Karina and Christian