Season's Greetings!

Greetings from Korea! Because we have shit all in Korea regarding Christmas (our tree is a drawing of a tree taped to Jamie’s window) we decided to send you this beautiful festive greeting. So here are our updates and goings on from South Korea, where we currently reside. As you all know, we have traveled abroad this year to teach English in public schools in Jeollanamdo province, South Korea, the most rural province in the country. We arrived in mid-October and will be working here until October 2014. Living here so far has been an exciting adventure and not with- out its share of challenges. We have made a ton of friends, both Korean and from the in- ternational community, and are slowly settling in to our new lives. While the December holidays from home are not widely recognized here, we are looking forward to our vacation time in January, where we will spend a little under 3 weeks visiting Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam with Tristan, Jenny and Jenn. Oh, what are you doing in January? Yea.

Jamie is living in Gwangju, which is the 6th largest city in Korea, and travels each day to a town 40 minutes away called Jangseong to work. She teaches at two schools, splitting her week between an all-boys middle school and a vocational high school. Her students are insane. Once they told her they wanted to lick maple syrup off of her, another time a male student tried to guess her bra size in front of the class. He was more successful than some of her previous lovers, but moving on…. In her free time, Jamie usually explores Gwangju’s vibrant culture (and nightlife) or visits friends in neighbouring cities with Dana to visit fresh and new nightlife. Because Jeollanamdo is less densely populated than the rest of Korea, she has had some chances to get out to the great outdoors and hike the beautiful mountains of this region. Jamie is very much looking forward to the spring, when she plans on buying a tent and spending as many weekends possible camping around the country.

This past year saw two moves for Jamie, almost ten years of being best friends with Dana, and yet another year of being single, all of which were pretty awesome things. In 2014 Jamie hopes to live each day like it’s her last, not get pregnant, make new friends, recreate a Kate Bush music video and learn how much soju is too much soju.*

Dana is living and working in Hwasun, a small county on the outskirts of Gwangju. Adjusting to the small town lifestyle has been no easy feat after spending 4 years in downtown Toronto, it has been a lot to get used to from having an old lady stroking her hair at a crosswalk to walking through paprika fields to get to work. Dana is working at an English Learning Centre that is tucked away in the town’s biggest elementary School with an amazing 1,000 students. Alongside 3 other teachers, they lead an English field-trip program for a new group of children every day. Currently, the activities are focused on popcorn making, origami with sea animals, feelings, and Dana’s hospital section where they learn phrases like “I have a stomachache” and “I have a fever”. It is repetitive but is a very fun and energetic environment; she loves the kids and the ridiculous things that they say. However, some days she wants to strangle them as she is yanking flyswatters out of the hands of flailing screaming children. Such is life!

Being a city kid at heart, Dana spends a lot of her free time in Gwangju with Jamie and taking Jamie home after too much of said soju* has been had. This year, Dana hopes that both her and Jamie will survive their introduction to Korean alcohol and no last call bars, avoid eating live octopus with her Korean co-teachers, and to only get herself completely lost on purpose.

We miss you all like crazy. Have a shot of some tasty Canadian whiskey for us.

All the love, Jamie and Dana
*Soju is a rice liquor that Koreans drink. Its like one dollar for a mickey and can be blamed for many life mistakes.