So, where are we and what are we doing? Let’s work backwards from now covering the past week.

2 hours ago we arrived in Veliko Tarnovo by train. Where? Basically it’s central Bulgaria. We took the overnight train from istanbul which leads up into Bucharest, but decided to head on to Bucharest in a few days time. The trip itself was a bit odd. Getting woken at 3 am to jump off the train for immigration was odd. The fresh snow on the ground was nice but sooooo cold at 3am. A bit of time getting a passport stamp leaving turkey then onto the duty free store to buy the conductor 2 cartons of cigarettes. He isn’t. Allowed to buy them himself but since he was nice and helpful and I was not exactly awake I agreed.

Next was the Bulgarian immigration. At least this time they did this on the train. Still it was an hour or so after the Turkish version. All finished at about 4.30am. About the time the train heaters stopped working. It was snowing out and felt cold enough in for the same.

Awaking about 10am from a fitfull sleep I was given a large brandy by the guy in the cabin next to us, and a horrendous instant coffee by the conductor. Arriving in Veliko Tarnovo our promised lift didn’t materialize, but a quick call to the hostel and we were in a cab.

Before Veliko Tarnovo we spent 3 nights in Istanbul. Wonderful city. Possibly my favourite out of all those I’ve visited. Nowhere else is there that much mindblowingly cool stuff to see and do. The blue mosque, the hagia sofya, hippodrome, bosporus etc. Added to that, we caught up with ex-taebaekian Rebecca who is living and working in Istanbul. It was so nice to just relax for a few days and not have to do all of the touristy stuff as we did most things while we were here last time around. That’s not to say we sat in the hotel and watched tv. Anything but. Rebecca took us out to a few places that were much more local. Local to the point of getting stuck in hours of traffic. Of well, it was great fun.

Before Istanbul we spent a few days in Frankfurt. Why did we fly all the way to frankfurt and then back to Istanbul? Simple. We used frequent flyer points for the tickets and Asiana don’t fly to Istanbul.

Frankfurt was a bit odd. It felt like quite a large city except seemed to be lacking big city people numbers. It was a fun place but isn’t a massive tourist city.

Hopefully soon I’ll have a bit of time to go thru the pics so far and post a few of them up.

Last night we one such occasion.

Why, where, when, who, what. Who knows. Odd and disjointed now but it seemed to make perfect sense at the time, in the way of dreams.

I was on an economy class flight. Somewhere to LA. However the interior was organised into sorta lounge areas with a pile of seating gathered round an old tv/VCR combo. I was he only one in my area. My friend Jaye was in the next area over, a bit around the corner. Most of the way through the flight I worked out that the floor was a bed with pillows and a doona. I lay on the floor and rewound the tape and watched it again and again.

Next thing I recall we had landed in LA and left the airport for a break with a $5 food coupon in our pockets. After a few minutes I was on top of a hill looking down on a smoggy city in a bowl shaped valley. I had my camera so jumped down off the road to take pics of a odd dead bush. However somebody stood on it. Then a local family invited us into thei house built on the water next door. We went in (Susie was here now). We had a look around for a while. The house had a pier or jetty like bridge to somewhere with chickens and fish on it. And a shop further out to sea.

The families son was working on the bridge/pier and when i walked onto it I sank as my sandal (merrells brand Jesus sandal) was caught on it. My iPod touch got very wet. I took it to the bathroom and rinsed it in clean water but it started fizzing and disappeared leaving only a circuit Board and a clear plastic shell. I was very upset.

It was time to leave to get back to the airport to catch our cruise ship. We tried to leave but the family mother insisted on giving us food. Some kind of flat bread, long like Turkish bread but much stringier and thinner with some meaty stuff in the middle. However she had run out of flat bread and sent Susie to the store to buy corn chips with her voucher.

Then I awoke feeling very spaced out.

What does it all mean? Does my iPod die? Can corn chips turn into flat bread?

I’m very confused and groggy this morning.

What a week. I had thought that packing up our lives in Sydney was one of the hardest things to do. Yes it was hard but nothing like packing our Korean lives up. That was physically and emotionally draining on all levels.

When we left Sydney we thought we were only leaving for one year. We would be back soon and would see all our family and friends again relatively soon. One year turned into over three but we have returned to Sydney multiple times, seen the people and places. Packing up and leaving Korea feels so much more permanent. We won’t come back in a few months to settle back in. We might not see any o our friends , Korean and foreign, again. We won’t be able to visit Seoul for the weekend again. It’s much more permanent a move his time around. And that makes it so much harder to do.

The past week has been a blur of packing and sending some things home. Sending much more to the bin. Selling some things online and some to friends in town. Every night was a farewell dinner of some kind. Teachers dinners, dinners with Korean friends and their families, dinners with the foreigners, generally saying goodbye to everyone. Much more difficult than leaving Sydney ever was. I guess as foreigners finding our place in a small country town we have put down deeper roots than most. Still, I wouldn’t change any of it. Comingto Korea was the best decision we ever made.

Next. Mmmmm. Next. First is frankfurt for a few days. Then on to Istanbul for a few more and then we head west. Wear until west is finished. And then, who knows.

For those not aware, the South Korean resort of Pyeongchang has been bidding on the winter olympics for the past, well, forever. When we arrived in Korea there were still stickers for Pyeongchang 2010 on cars and billboards. They came a close 2nd, but lost out partly due to the fear of a lack of snow. Since then they’ve bid on 2014, 2018 and likely will continue until they get tired of it.

However, the whole lack of snow argument is quite amusing. Most of this winter season we’ve had little natural snow. A few good dumps early on, one big dumping early January but it has been a bit brown and meh. Until last week that is. 3 days of solid snow last week gave us about 50cm of the fluffy white stuff. The skiing was fantastic. Since then we’ve had more. Not quite as much, but at least another 20cm. I woke up this morning and its at it again. Another few cm and its still going.

Of course unlike certain European countries (yes, I’m looking at you England) things don’t shut down here when there is a pile of fresh snow. Daily life goes on, just with more car accidents. I think this late winter snow actually caught the local city government by surprise. It took a day or 2 to get the snow ploughs, gritting trucks and associated infrastructure into gear. Since then, all is mostly fine. The roads are still narrower and more slippery, but other than a few obvious spots, back alleys, car parks and big hills there are no problems.

Our apartment (not for much longer) sits on a hill, overlooking the valley of Taebaek. We can look down and see a road that climbs a hill just outside out place. Its always quite amusing sitting on the balcony watching cars on the hill when there is snow and ice around. Usually its worst first thing in the morning and around 6 or 7pm when the water/sludge starts freezing again. Cars start driving up, get about halfway and then start to struggle. Sometimes they make it, sometimes they slide back down. Only the persistent (and taxi drivers) give it a second shot. Some smart people have snow chains, no worries. Those with snow tyres of the studded kind, usually ok. Normal snow tyres? if you are lucky. The stupid few with summer tyres? Ha ha ha.

What does surprise me, actually it doesn’t surprise me, is how badly the school buses drive. Most Hakwons (private study academies) have their own private shuttle busses to get the kids to and from home. These minibuses are driven terribly in the best of weather, but the snow brings out the worst. Driving way to fast, stopping with no indication in the middle busy roads, cutting traffic off in icy conditions. All crazy.

Oh well. Back to my boredom. This so called “vacation” time between graduation (last week) and the new school year (beginning of march) is boring. Very boring. I’m supposed to come to school. Sit here and do nothing. As I’ve already quit I have nothing at school to do other than movies, web surfing and computer games. For a day or 2 its ok. For 2 weeks its awful. Especially as I have so much to be done at home. We have about 8 days left in Taebaek before we leave for good and our apartment is nowhere near clean. Its going to be a busy week.

Anyhow, this past weekend was one of the most important holidays in Korea, Solnal. What is Solnal? Basically its the lunar new year holiday. The day all people get a year older, the day you give thanks to your ancestors, and the day you visit your families wherever they may be. Basically its the same as Chinese New Year, except not in China.

For us foreigners however, its a long weekend. No families to visit, no ancestors to thank, nobody giving us money. Booo.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday last week we had snow. Lots of snow. Maybe 50cm or so of it. It fell consistently for 3 days straight. Roads were chaos, our apartment parking was worse still. But the skiing. Oh the skiing. It was fantastic.

High1 resort has been struggling for a few weeks with lack of natural snow and rising daytime temps. What snow they had was icy and meh. But with this dumping, coupled with the holiday it was fantastic.

Usually this run is heaving with people. Snowboards faceplanting left, right and center. But today…. GLORIOUS EMPTINESS. Everyone was at home with their families. The buses full of tourists stayed at home, and there were more Americans there than Koreans.

No? Thats terrible.

This is Jeombagee

He is our little Leopard / Cheetah that we travel with. Our students have got attached to him, so we travel with him, take photo’s and use them in class as part of activities.

He was so popular we ended up having to acquire extra backup Jeombagee’s.

What does the name Jeombagee mean? Its a Korean word, meaning “spot”, as in spots on an animal. He was thusly named by a group of elementary students at a camp we taught at, and has been famous in schools in Taebaek ever since.

I’ve got a few pics queued up for posting on flickr from all over the place. He’s visited Korea, China, Japan, Fiji, Hong Kong, Australia, India, Turkey, Taiwan and probably a few others I can’t think of right now.

Check my flickr page out for more pics. I’ll try to post a new one every day or so.

He is starting to show his age. Not bad for a BOGOF (Buy one get one free) special at our local Home Plus supermarket.

This year is the 14th (or 14st if you believe the advertising) year they have run this and year year gets larger than the last.

From the 22nd until the 31st of January 2010, Taebaek strained under the thousands of tourists that were shipped in for the event. The whole town was a venue for festivities, but the major draw card was the snow sculptures and festivities in and around Taebaek-san, our famous mountain. The area is called Dangol Square after the famous guy who proclaimed the nationality of Korea from atop the mountain. There are snow carvings, food stalls, thousands of people, a stage with musicians and thousands of people just having a good time.

Various huge snow carvings are dotted around the area, some are interactive, some just for looks. All tell a story.

You must excuse Theresa Teacher in some of the pictures. She really gets into the occasion

Typically for Korea, the event was sponsored by Hyundai, with the sonata as their newest model.

Some of the sculptures were designed for people to fit themselves into, giving great photo-ops.

One of the most popular attractions is the ice cafe, a cafe contained within an igloo or ice cave. They serve hot drinks, while you sit as tables made of ice. Very cold but rather unique.

Downtown Taebaek isn’t spared the festivities either, with lights adorning the main streets and ice carvings around the Hwangji Pond area.

Unfortunately we seemed to have missed out on the snow festival parade this year. Not having a timetable of events hurt our chances at catching things. Oh well. We saw it a few years back. Not like we will be around next year.

Contrary to popular belief that we would be here in Korea forever, all good things must come to an end. Yes, we have resigned. Not exactly an easy thing to do, but then again, when is resigning from a job you love ever easy?

When we arrived here in Korea, late August 2006, the intentions were to stay for 12 months then head back to Australia. 41 months later we are still here! Yeah, we like it here. We like the job, the people, the teachers we work with (both Korean and foreign) and especially the students. Other than the occasional meddling from the education office things have been great, especially once we got our apartment woes sorted (I should get around to posting those pics one day).

Of course, resigning is difficult if there is nobody to resign to. Unfortunately my superstar of a co-teacher was on vacation with her family, I hate interrupting that, especially for something like resigning. Still, emails are sent, letter printed and signed, phone calls made. Its official.

Exciting.

Whats next? Thats something we have to get organised and nailed down, pretty quick. Currently the plan is to travel for a while, starting in Istanbul and then heading West until we hit Ireland. How long depends on money and how long we can stretch it out for. Should be fun trying.

I think out of the whole Korean experience, its the kids I’m going to miss the most. They are the ones that put a smile on my face even if I’m feeling down, they always come up and do something crazy or stupid to make me laugh. Silly buggers that they are.

Sad. Sad and excited. But sad.

And yes, I’ve been lax in writing. Sorry. My bad.

Why have I been busy? Simple. Vacation. Woot!!!

Lets do this chronologically.

December 24th. Teaching at school. Luckily they let us go an hour early so we could jump the bus from Taebaek to Incheon Airport. Of course, being the day before xmas the roads were crazy. What is usually a 4 and a half hour bus trip turned into 6 hours, but thats why we usually travel the day before flying. Our wonderful hotel managed to screw up our bookings so we ended up staying at a much more expensive (and nice) hotel next to the airport.

December 25th. Christmas. Didn’t feel like it. Checked in, had coffee, jumped our plane to Beijing. 6 hours layover in Beijing? Check. 6 hours of boredom in Beijing airport? Check. Beijing airport is huge, empty and extremely disappointing? Check. We actually wanted to have some decent food, being xmas and all, and were prepared with a large wad of Chinese cash. Could we spend it? Nope. Ended up eating in a crappy takeaway style restaurant that was reminiscent of bad australian food court chinese. Not Ideal. Still, onward onto the next leg of the trip, Beijing to Sydney. The flight was pretty uneventful, so not much to say.

December 26th – January 10th. Australia. Sure it was 2 weeks, but it didn’t feel like it. Lots of stuff to do, people to see, things to eat, places to visit.

We visited Susie’s Mum in Wodonga (6 hours from Sydney), Susie’s Sis in Ulladulla (3 hours from Sydney), people all over Sydney and around. We had birthday parties, christmas parties, New Years parties. You name it, we did it.

Still, 2 weeks was not long enough and far too long at the same time. Its difficult. Its not really a vacation as its kinda home, but its not home as we are visitors. Very awkward, but fun.

January 10th – January 16th. Beijing. The real vacation within the vacation. No commitments, no family or friends to visit, no guilt. What did we do? Well, 3 days was a “tour” with Fernando the guide, and Mr Grumpy the driver. 3 day tour is what we paid for, however the grumpy driver, in a fit of grumpiness decided that 2 days was all we would get. Something to do with us not spending money in the enforced shopping spots, meaning he didn’t get his kickbacks. Meh, we were up front about it from the beginning, no shopping. Still, Beijing is great. Big, big and enormous. I think we covered most of the usual sights.

The Forbidden City

Olympic Sights

Kool stuff in and around town and much much more.

Yes, even Jeombagee came along for a vacation.

Back in Korea, after the coldest bus ride ever (no heating on our bus) we managed to arrive back in Taebaek.

Susie’s Dad and Brother beat us to Korea by over a week and they met up with us a few days later.

Lots of doing the things of Taebaek and around. We had our snow festival (still ongoing) so there is plenty going on.

Mike and Ron left a few days ago, now back safe in Aus. Us? I’ve got over my cold, Susie’s come down with her own.

We drove down to Daegu (3 hours) just to go to the movies. Sherlock Holmes is brilliant.

Now? I’m drooling over the iPad,

and cleaning up in preparation of rebuilding my laptop (again).

Still, big things are afoot, plans are being made, Jeombagee is getting excited.

More to come soon. Really. I promise. For real this time. Truly. I mean it. I think. I hope. Fun fun fun.

This girl stood up and both Theresa and I caught sight of her hoodie at the same time. It can’t be beat

It seems she bought it online with no clue what the english meant. Thats usually how it happens here. English is cool and fun, the meaning isn’t important. You do get some wonderful examples. We did try to explain just what it meant to her, she was obviously mortified.

Here’s another recent find, this time from Rachel Teacher.