Leavin' the K-Land

It's been a while, eh what?

We haven't blogged in aboot... well, 400 days. Give or take fifty.

Good golly miss Molly.

Hil and I decided it was time to resurrect ye ol' blog site and give everyone a slideshow of our lives over the last 400-ish days since we've come back to Canada and settled in to jobs and such.

But, before we venture into our lives post-Korea, there's some much-needed re-capping of our last days in Korea. For a while there the weather was goin' super-swell: sunshine, smoggy skies, and people crowding Dongdaemun market where I bought my 7th and last watch.

Hil and I decided to play some Scrabble (travel-style) outside in our local playground, and the kids wanted to play. Actually, it was a more a chance to see the white-ies and when they realized the game was all about English vocabulary, well, there wasn't too much keeping them around after that.

And one last farewell hike up ye old mountain across the street.

Down to Yo-ee-do Park with some co-workers (Mikey and Chantel et al) for some rambunctious soccer action!

And then a long series of fond farewells:

With our Anglican church dudes...

Our good friends Ian and Dorothy from doon under

The recording studio where we recorded many a crazy cartoon and lecture. Oh the things we learned and the things we said... now immortalized forevermore on the pages of the Topia TOEFL test-prep packages... a dream come true :)

The studio burned down last year.

Our favorite food: galbi the wonder-pork with Mikey, Colin and Joe - our ex-riot police gym-trainer friend dude

Glorious meat

With a nice post-snack at the recently opened Krispy Kreme in Nowon. So good! At least the first one was. The crisco taste lost its appeal rather quickly though.

Our farewell double-date with our uber-rad pals Colin 'n Anne - Greek food in Itaewon. And wine!! It had been a while!

And how could we stay away from one of the many local hof's? With our co-workers...

And that's Manson in the bottom right corner: you rock dude. And now you're a father. That's like 2 really good things going for you. Miss you guys!

And what go-away week(s) is complete without a little tong-dak to keep you occupied?! Fried chicken all the way - but there was a serious need to wash that quality meat down with something. That massive pitcher of beer was the most obvious solution to this problem. Rory, Ji Hye and Nicko, "looking on".

And then saying goodbye to some of our students. Hil got invited over to some students' house for what turned out to be cute and rather awkward... but rad too.

And Fredrick... this kid was the cutest kid that didn't drive me insane. On my last day with him, he took my hand and begged me to come with him - out the class, down the hallway, into the guys washroom (red flags starting to quiver in my mind), and then into a stall (red flags waving) where he locked the door (waving wildly) and then turned to me and said, with tears in his eyes: "Teacher... Canada NO!" and then bursting into tears he hugged me. And nearly broke my heart. He was one of those wonderful kids that makes you want to buy a big enough suitcase to bring back home. I tried keeping in contact with him, but alas, when I asked him for his email, I don't think he really understood the question because he wrote WAWITJDOK@naver.com which, if I'm not mistaken, is a series of random letters he liked. I sent a few emails to the address which will be waiting patiently for him if he ever opens an account with that address. Something makes me think it hasn't been taken yet...

Oh and then these gals: hilarious and a handful to say the least! Check out what they wrote on the board for me below:

Notice the commands to make a baby. Tactful and lovely!

And our co-workers....

Me with Cindy, Jenny and Katie

And then a last hoo-ha at the nearby GS-25 corner store

One more shot at rameon, with SKP, 'looking on'

Col, being the stellar man that he is....

Awwwwwwww Bakes! That's right, she got flowers on her last day. That's cuz she rules.

Our last farewell with Col and Anne...

And then, the fateful morning after: happy to be going home, but super sad to be leaving some quality friends

At the Incheon airport, we got a bit stoked. Thankfully we were travelling back with Wendy and that made the whole trip thing like way better. Yah.

And then lo and behold! After a fantasmical flight on Singapore Air (they had chocolate bars for snacks! And over 80 movies to choose from!!!!) we pulled in to Vancouver!! Wendy made her transfer (one of many for her that day!) and Hil and I grabbed our bags and were then met by Jennica and my mom (who totally surprised us). The only logical thing to do was to go down to Steveston and grab some nice fish 'n chips and then soak up some Canadian sun.

And after 1 year and 5 months, many Skype calls, mucho blogging, many adventures and kimchi, we were finally home sweet monkey home :)