I left for Fukuoka, Japan early Wednesday morning. Since I didn't have time to get my visa before I left Canada, I had to do what's called a 'visa run' to Fukuoka, because you have to get the visa outside of Korea. The school paid for my flight and was supposed to give me 100,000 won (about $130 Canadian) in cash before I left. But, last minute I realized that my flight coming back was too late for the last shuttle from the airport home, so the school had to pay for a personal shuttle (about 100,000 won, the bus is only 12,000). This meant that they weren't going to give me money anymore, but agreed to pay for my hotel in Fukuoka and a few meals. I was happy with that! I'm learning that this is Korea, what the school says goes, and there's not much bargaining to be done.
So Wednesday morning at 5am I took the airport shuttle that stops around the corner from my house. I decided to take my backpack so I wouldn't have to check a suitcase. Wennie and some other teachers had flown to Jeju Island (south of here) a couple of weeks ago, and there hadn't been a restriction on liquids for carry-on luggage. Stupid Ashley didn't check the internet, and apparently March 1st Korea decided it was time to follow the lead. Stupid Ashley also packed a full bottle of Clinique moisturizer (and left the almost empty bottle in her apartment), a full tube of toothpaste (there is no fluoride in the water or toothpaste here), and a full bottle of contact solution. Yup, it was all taken away. I realized after I could have just run and put them in a locker for the night, ah well. But my moisturizer! So sad. I almost shed a tear. Well not really, but it was very upsetting.
While they were taking away my precious goods a girl was escorted to the table beside me, looked over at the bottle of moisturizer and said 'ahhh that's got to hurt.' In English! (Obviously. My Korean's not that good yet). And that was the beginning of a beautiful two day friendship in Fukuoka.
The flight was only an hour, and customs was pretty quick so we were on the subway on the way to the Korean Consulate by around 10am. We had to drop off our passports and visas to the consulate, and then pick them up the next day.
After the consulate we spent a couple of hours wondering around Fukuoka. It was overcast and rainy, too bad! It would have been nice to go down to the beach if it had been a nice day. But, it was cold and yucky so I didn't take too many pictures. I'm definitely getting used to saying 'excuse me, help?' to random strangers, and we didn't get lost too many times! I'm also finding out that I'm pretty good at using maps to find my way around (either that or Naomy, the girl I met at the airport, is really REALLY bad with directions).
Here are a few pictures:
1) The Korean Consulate 2) A temple in the middle of the city 3) Random street
4) Outdoor entrance to a shopping mall 5) Look at all the bikes! 6) 7-Eleven aka 'Seven & i holdings'
Thursday it was pouring rain, so we cancelled our plans to visit some of the other temples and shrines in the area. After picking up our passports we bummed around a mall for a while (where I found Billabong and Quiksilver stores!), and then headed off to the airport to wait for our flight home. I actually got quite a bit of reading done for a paper I have to write this weekend, I'm proud of myself for keeping on top of school!
So, that was my quick overnight trip to Japan. I really want to go back, and am thinking about taking a trip in August when I have a week vacation. There's also been talk about some teachers going to Hong Kong for Christmas, very exciting!
Work this week was good, I usually leave with a smile on my face (not because I'm so happy to be leaving work, but because the kids make me laugh!). One of the girls in my Junior class wants a new English name, and asked me to pick one for her. Oh the fun. If anyone has any ideas let me know... we already have a kid in the school named E.T., and I have a kid named Lion whose last name is Kang. No joke.
One more funny story that I forgot to write: one day last week I was talking about dogs with my basic class. These kids have very broken English, and some of them understand very little. We were brainstorming words that have to do with dogs, and they were coming up with things like 'cute', 'fun' and 'walk'. Then one kid (I believe it might have been Lion Kang) said 'eat'... and I started laughing and I couldn't stop. I was standing at the front of the class, laughing so hard I was almost crying, with 13 wide-eyed kids staring at me, not understanding why teacher was so crazy (crazy is a favorite word here). I'm learning you have to keep yourself entertained in these classes!
Happy St. Patrick's day!!
Love
Ashley
