A New Year begins....
Twelve months have come and gone, and we are finding our feet in South Korea. It has been a year full of adventures:
Russ has completed a year of work. It has been fascinating for him to see the contrast between his old workplace and new. The are many more people working on rice research here than at Yanco (there's a surprise.... not!) and more resources directed towards research here. He has had lots of fun (and many challenges) with the language differences, but with the help of his lovely office manager, Sunny, and his scientific colleague, Dr Kim, he is able to communicate. He has enjoyed seeing the full cycle of research with the rice here, and the next year will bring a few experiences that aren't new to him. He has also visited some interesting countries (Vietnam, Turkey, The Philippines, Japan) and met some very interesting people.
Alice finally finished Year 10..... after 18 months (12 in Australia, 6 in Korea!!). She is now half way through Grade 11, and has done a remarkable job settling into her new life - making friends, working hard at school, having a little look around Korea.... she misses her friends in Australia, but has found a whole new group of friends here. She has had some great experiences playing sport and meeting people from other international schools, and has had a trip to Jeju Island for a theatre camp. This month she will visit Japan with the school basketball team. The best thing is that she is building relationships and growing in maturity and tolerance.
I have had a lovely year. The first few months were a great adventure in having coffee and exploring, along the way making some great friends. I have had some work at Alice's school, relieving for the Elementary ESL teacher's position while she was on Maternity Leave. This was a wonderful experience, and a great opportunity to meet new people and make new friends. I will continue to do some substitute teaching in the next few months, and also look forward to spending more time with Pam, Paula, Leanne, Heather, Kelly and others....
We have had many visitors over the past year: Brett and Bronwyn in April, Cathy Dando in May (for 1 night..... hopefully they'll be back), Christine Ford in early September, and Rob and Catharina later in September.
A highlight was Nicola Frost (one of Alice's extra special friends from Leeton) coming for 2 weeks in late September/ early October. Mitch was here in November, and it was great for him to see where we live, and for us to see him too.
In between we have spent some wonderful times with the Gobius family, great friends from Leeton who now live in Daejeon (just 2 hours to the south of us)!! It has felt like we have family right here in Korea.
We are making friends and building relationships as we acclimatise to living in our new country. The Freeman family have been great companions on our journey, and have become fast friends (Bob is missing from the photo).
Korean language is slow, and we are having a break until February. I have moments when I feel like I'm getting somewhere with the language, and many more times when I despair at my inability to remember the simplest words or phrases.... at the very least it is a lot of fun, and our class and teacher are wonderful to spend time with (I fear that they will have progressed far beyond us by the time we return, and so we may be in a new class....).
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| Our Korean class on a recent trip to a 찜질방 (Korean Sauna/Bath house) - those are little towels on our heads, with the ends rolled. |
Our year finished with a visit to Australia - great to see both our families and to have a few days at the end at Kiama (NSW south coast). We celebrated Mitch's 21st in style in Canberra.
The climate here in South Korea is the most extreme for its latitude of any country in the world - we have experienced this first hand, and it's quite amazing!!! HOT and humid in Summer, COLD and dry in Winter, the most beautiful Spring and Autumn (only a bit too short for my liking).
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| September 2012 |
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| September 2012 |
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| January 2013 |
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| January 2013 |
And now, to start our year perfectly, Hayden is visiting for 2 weeks on his way home to Australia. He has had an amazing 12 months in Sweden, and is now looking forward to his new adventure - University in Canberra. It has been just wonderful listening to the piano and guitar, and Russ and Alice have enjoyed a few 'jams' with him since he has been here...
