Off on a New Adventure!

Time for SE Asia 2011. Click on the picture for my route. Here we go!!!!

Ultimate Tournament- The Great Gwangju Uprising: Battle for Jeolla

Gwangju is the pink bit

For my last weekend in Seoul, I was fortunate to have timed it right for a final ultimate tournament in the South West of Korea. Gwangju took almost 4 hours to get to by bus, through the rice paddies and mountains along the coast. Gwangju is most famous for the 1980 Gwangju massacre, in which hundreds of Korean students were killed by army forces suppressing a pro-democracy demonstration. It remains the forefront of the democracy movement in Korea, and has a thriving youth population. We played at the beautiful Chonnam University fields.

This was a hat tournament, which means that each individual signed up and then was randomly assigned to form teams. New players had the chance to learn more about the sport, and experienced players got to mix up the roster for a bit. 

The groups were well matched and the games were fun. The weather also managed to hold off on raining for most of the weekend! 

It was great fun spent with great people. I'm going to miss playing ultimate frisbee in Korea!! 

Last Day of Classes

On Wednesday I had my last full day of classes before my replacement arrived.

It was bittersweet. While I was definitely ready for the job to be finished, it was also quite sad. Many of the students and I had become close over the year.  Heck, I probably see them more than I see my friends! Some of the classes I had told it would be my last day, some I hadn't. I went with the approach "next week you get to meet a new teacher from Canada!". I put a new sign on the door welcoming the teacher, and told them that he is "Laura Teacher friend".. they loved it!

It was the end of the month class party, so I used the day to buy pizza, candy, and fruit for the kids. Some made cards for me, which was really sweet. The day was stressful, busy, happy, sad,  calm, and exciting- all jumbled up!

As my going away gift, I gave each student a class picture with the caption "Learn English and Have Fun! Laura Teacher, July 2011" hehehe

Bye, Talking Club! It's been a great year.