Surprise!

Hey everyone!

(Tara)
Sorry for leaving you all in suspense for so long after our last post. It wasn't intentional, as a lot has been going on lately. We were also hesitant to write about our news since we've been dealing with some serious bouts of homesickness lately. We were considering coming home instead of revealing the "news," but anyway, it looks like it's a go!

So, after some careful consideration and deliberation, we've decided to leave Korea. I'm sure most of you already know about about this already - but for the others... suplise!!! Our decision was based on about a billion reasons, but main reason was the realization that if I get into grad school in September we might be forced to "settle down" for a while (yikes!). Also, we decided that we should take advantage of the opportunity to see Asia since we're here anyway. So... that brings me to my next point.

We've decided to spend all our money we've made (not sure if that's a good thing yet?) and go traveling for the next 4 months. We've decided to travel overland through China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand. All in all, we'll travel around 6000 miles by boat/bus/train/who knows. We don't really have an itinerary whatsoever, so I'm sure there's a lot of interesting stories coming your way! The only things we've planned so far is a rough route, and some activities along the way, such as getting my open water certificate in Vietnam (can't wait!), doing some trekking in Laos, and doing some surfing in Thailand.

(Andrew)
So, of course we've been pretty busy lately. We've had to get all sorts of immunizations, visa, tickets, and still have a ton of stuff to send home. It's also been pretty stressful at work trying to get everything sorted out before we leave.

Spring has arrived here and there is finally some green/blossoms/flowers ... along with the extra pollution/yellow dust from China (and the illnesses that accompany it). Our Canadian friends left about a month ago so it is also pretty quiet around here. Well, if you ignore the techno music that has been playing below us for the past few nights... About a month ago they started building a restaurant below us. It looked really nice and everything. Then last week they had their grand opening. I will put a video of it up to see, there were girls dancing out front, disco lights, and giant balloons... all just outside our window.

On Friday, Tara and I took two of our classes outside to play some games. There was only 12 kids but it can get pretty crazy when they don't listen to you.! We played "What Time is it Mr. Wolf?" and "Red Rover"... the kids seemed to have fun. It has really been nice being around kids so much. We've been 'told' not to tell the kids we are leaving until 3 days before we leave. It's going to be pretty hard to leave some of the kids, and really easy to leave others. The English schools seem to have a pretty high student turnover, and they usually leave without any notice. So it's been sad sometimes to see the empty seat where your favorite student used to be. It's going to be really weird leaving all of them.

We've started to realize there are really going to be some things about Korea that we will miss. We were really excited about a lot of things when we first got here and are already taking them for granted. Things like:

• Not having to drive... ever (though lots of people do anyway)
• Buses every 10 minutes, with routes all over the city
• Mountains within walking distance
• The wholesale fish/fruit/vegetable market that is just a few minutes walk from our house (although we won't miss seeing the dead dolphins)
• Having lots of gyms/supermarkets/convenience stores/coffee shops/movie stores/schools/academies/pool halls/ping pong halls/karaoke rooms/stationery stores/book stores/bakeries/parks/pet stores/clinics/pharmacies/shoe stores/clothing stores/greenhouses/bars/pubs/internet cafes/ and a few hundred restaurants, street vendors, and people out walking.... all within a 5 block radius of us.
• Our work being 1 minute away, less if I run... though Tara still manages to make us late
• Being around kids all day
• Regular train service to pretty much anywhere
• Good and cheap meals at restaurants (kimchi and bibimbap!)
• Lots of vegetables to eat
• Cheap booze
• Cheap batteries ... seriously... been taking lots of pictures and it helps that AA batteries are around 20% of the cost they are in Canada (anyone need some batteries?)
• Being a celebrity(apparently I look like Jude Law/Paul Bettany and Tara looks like a doll)/TV star (still trying to get that video for you guys)
• We are especially going to miss Taekkyon
  

There are also things we won't miss...

• Pollution
• Traffic (when we take the bus)
• The anti-Americanism -- I even had someone ask me if we felt unsafe being so close to the U.S., which brings me to ...
• Being in the middle of China, Japan, and North Korea
• Pollution
• Expensive groceries (mostly due to high tariffs on imports)
• Architecture... a lot of Korea really looks the same because of all the apartments that look very similar... it can ruin the beautiful scenery here
  
• Being constantly under camera surveillance at work
• Pollution... seriously really hard to get used to coming from Saskatchewan
  

I'm sure the next few weeks will be full of excitement, to say the least. We'll keep you all posted. We hope everyone is happy and healthy. We can't wait to see you all in August!

Love,

Andrew and Tara
XOX