Well, I daresay that November's craziness is finally behind us. Just a few short weeks before Christmas holidays!

On Saturday, Mike and I did some Christmas shopping for family at Bupyeong Underground Market. The harsh flurorescent lights discouraged me from taking photos at the market, but I did manage to take a few outside the market and near our apartment. It feels like forever since the last time Mike and I were out and about, exploring our new(ish) home.

Yes, we are still alive out here in South Korea! Report card craziness descended, along with a school recruitment, new student interviews, parent teacher conferences, etc etc etc.  This has been a crazy month. But here we are - eating Korean barbecue with friends.

I hope to have more time for this space in the next little while. I miss it like an old friend.

Halloween was out of control (in an amazing sort of way) at my school on Wednesday. Since Halloween isn't typically celebrated in South Korea, staff at the school just go all out. We had a costume parade, a pumpkin carving contest, a legitimately scary haunted house, and a school-wide trick or treat event (kids went down the halls and collected candy from every staff member!).

A bunch of staff members dressed up as scrabble tiles that spelled the word "schoolteachers" (apparently it's a compound word?). One of my grade three darlings figured it out - a proud moment for this teacher! ;)

*We also rocked the scrabble tiles at a halloween bash in Hongdae on the weekend!
*Thanks Mike for the photos! :)

Mike was recently hired by my school as their official photographer and videographer.  I sure love having him hang around school snapping photos and tagging along to all school events (who doesn't enjoy seeing their man during the workday??). Last Friday, the whole school headed out to Seoul Zoo. It was beautifully warm autumn day, the leaves were just starting to change colour, Mike took killer photos...and one of my students ran into the rhinoceros enclosure. True story.

(Obvious credit goes to Mike for all these photos. There are indeed some real gems of the students from my school, but I feel a bit leery about posting those all over the internet. So you'll just have to imagine the fresh-faced Korean cuties!:)

Mike cooked up a sweet little video of our time in Busan last weekend. We've all been watching it on repeat!

Song: Daydream by Youth Lagoon.

This past weekend, Mike and I made our way down to Busan with a few friends. We checked out a few films that were part of the Busan International Film Festival and hung around the beach.

A dose of realism here: I thought I was going to be hanging around on the beach like this every weekend. Incheon (where we're living) is right on the ocean, but it unfortunately does not have beautiful sandy beaches like Busan. It has a booming sea harbour - not quite so pretty. That being said, I haven't actually checked out Wolmido island yet, so I should perhaps refrain from judgement.

In any case, it's awfully nice that we're easily able to escape to sandy ocean beaches whenever we so choose! As someone who grew up smack dab in the middle of the continent, that feels like quite the luxury.

*One perk of traveling with friends: having someone around to take a photo to send to your mom.

The sunset on our ferry home from Jeju was killer. As I gazed out on those islands, I had one of those surreal moments where you realize you are living what you dreamed about for so long.