Sunday, December 4, 2011

My last week and travel home!

  My last week in Korea was great! Francis was in Korea and we got to travel to Busan. I had never been there and we got to see the ocean and went hiking! Also we celebrated Francis' birthday by having some of my favorite things in Korea, chicken galbi and waffles with ice cream! I will miss those things a lot.
At the top of the mountain
we climbed for Francis' birthday!
Dressed in traditional Korean dress
at the Korean Folk Village.

On the train to Busan!
Chicken Galbi...first time using chopsticks for Francis!
Francis left on Wednesday after he left I went out with Falyn, Erin and Hongbum. I had an amazing time and will miss Hongbum a lot! He helped us all so much this semester and I am so grateful for him. I can't believe how fast the last month went.
Our last night!!
I will miss many people that I meet in Korea and some of the food like the waffles and chicken galbi, but I will not miss the spitting or pushing that some would consider rude and gross. The culture is different, but I am so glad that I went . I have grown so much in my personal and professional perspectives. 
  I wanted to teach in Korea because I wanted a different experience and I got it! I enjoyed my time with my students and learning about different ways to teach and how different cultures view the US and education.

I had an interesting experience on the way home though. Erin and I traveled together from Seoul to Chicago. We ended up having to drag our luggage down the hill to the get a cab to take us to the bus stop which was different than what we were told. We finally did get to the airport and checked our luggage. We tried to go through security, but they told me my carry-on bags were to heavy and Erin's bags were even heavier. We were told that we had to check a third bag and we were not happy. Erin and I went to  the checking counter and told them the situation, they okayed my bags, but told Erin that she had to check hers. After some complaining  Erin got her bag checked for FREE. which was amazing! We got to the gate, got on the plane, and traveled to LAX. Erin and I had to run through the LAX airport to make our connecting flight, luckily we made it and got all the way to Chicago safely!

Teaching in Korea was a wonderful experience and I will never forget the people met and techniques I learned.