Spring in Korea 2009

We just returned from a glorious Spring break in Seoul, Korea with our dear friends, the Kents whom we know and love from Cambodia days. They just moved to Seoul Foreign School (SFS) this year from Cambodia. As you may remember we have a bit of history at SFS, Marc having forged a life-long bond with the Moon family while teaching English in Seoul long before he and I met. Marc also did his student teaching at SFS (with me along) in 2000. So we also go to spend some precious time with Jack and Edie Moon who are also working at SFS again. Lucky us!

The Moons treated us to an overnight trip to a traditional village in Andong about 3 hours away from Soeul. It was a very photogenic place! So here are some images from a wander around the village...

traditional Korean houses...

paper prayers...a persimon still on the tree after a long winter...



Below is the traditional B&B we stayed at. The rooms have low doors, heated floors and paper walls. Edie knows the owner (Harmony) from way back...

in a traditional kitchen...
rubber slippers...

kim chi (spicy pickled cabbage) pots...

Well it was almost spring - the flowers where trying to come out but it was near freezing most days!

Good times were had with the Kents:

tea party...

Marc and Sophie play...

Mel cooks with the Kent girls...

Mel and Sheree at an old tea house where birds fly around while you drink your tea.

Week Without Walls Trip to Jordan

I (Melanie) got back last Friday from a six night school trip to Jordan. Marc and his group got in late on Saturday from Bhutan and and I tried to post my trip photos before he did but was foiled by some error. Although I could not publish this entry first, being second has some advantages - now my entry is on top!

I had been to Jordan before (with Marc in 1997) but only to Petra (the site with the temple from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) and as it turns out there is so much more to Jordan than Petra! I actually did not get to see Petra this time as I stayed back to care for a sick student but it did not matter as there was so much other history and culture to absorb. The trip was part of CAC's annual high school Week Without Walls event. CAC has 24 trips and activities for 500 students and groups went all over the world including Bhutan (Marc's group), Indonesia, Western Australia, Bali, South Africa, Russia, Spain, London, Tanzania, Ghana etc. For our trip we had 15 students with myself and another chaperon. I was asked to go at the last minute to replace a teacher who was sick. Our trip was cultural and historical with a focus on the students making a photographic journal of the week.

It was a fun week but started out with surprisingly, and unseasonably cold weather. For the first few days it was wet and cold and that turned to snow, sleet and fog ! Besides being rained on and cold, we had trouble with the roads being closed due to ice and snow and only just got to Petra in terrible weather conditions. Luckily (most of us) took hats, gloves, rain gear and scarves! We saw the ruined Roman city of Jerash in the rain. The crusader castle at Shobek was more exciting in several inches of snow and with sleet falling. But that made it all the more fun since we all live in Cairo where it only rains a few times in the year and never gets to freezing. The kids from Europe and US were very nostalgic. They all made the most of it and threw snowballs and stood around in the snow. Unfortunately it was below 10C and raining steadily on the day we went to the Dead Sea. Four brave souls (I was not one of them) braved the conditions to float in the salty water! It was raining too hard to get any photos and I had to protect the towels from getting wet.Once we got to Petra it warmed up. The sun even came out for the last few days (luckily) when were staying in a desert camp (permanent camp with bathrooms and hot showers - which disappointingly did not work).We went on a jeep safari, had tea with Bedouins, camel rides, and several hikes into the surrounding desert.

It was fantastic desert weather, being sunny and cool in the day. However, it was cold once the sun went down and we all enjoyed the campfire and our warm beds (although some had trouble getting their bedding sorted out battling sand and blankets falling off).By the end we all had gotten to know each other quite well and were having fun together but were none the less ready to get home to our families, houses, beds and a hot shower in Cairo!

We're having some trouble posting our recent blogs, so hopefully this will go through.... I just got back two nights ago and am taking advantage of a day off school (for the prophet's birthday) to catch up on some much-needed rest. My friend, Brent, and I chaperoned 16 students on a trip to India and Bhutan. You may remember that last year I got to take a group camping along the Ganges River in India. Well, at the end of that trip I started talking with one of the staff members about a possible trip to Bhutan.... The school's Week Without Walls committee bought into the proposal, so we got to move forward!

We spent the first day in Delhi, as the flight schedule into Bhutan is very limited. The next morning we flew through Kathmandu to Bhutan, and just visited a couple sights in hopes of getting acclimatized to the altitude.

(Thimpu's parliament house in the background)

The next morning we hiked to a monastery near the capital, Thimpu.

(not a bad view....)

(there was some steep climbing involved...)

The following day's highlight was a drive up to a high mountain pass at nearly 4,000 meters.

(view from the pass)

Some of our students had never touched snow before then; several snowball fights ensued....
Our last full day in Bhutan involved a lengthy and steep hike to the Tiger's Nest Monastery. All 18 of us made it up and down without injury - no small feat! The monastery was amazing, to say the least, and we were told that the hike is rated as one of the top five in the world. 2+ hours of steep climbing were followed by steep stairs down and back up to our destination. It's hard to comprehend the amount of work that went into building this monastery over 400 years ago.

(view from the bottom; see the white spot near the top...)

(and from the top!)

We were even rewarded with a clear view of Mt. Everest on our flight out of Bhutan - amazing!

Brent and I were blessed to have a group of fantastic students, who loved spending time together (this isn't always the case)....

It truly was an amazing week!

(the lucky chaperones)