CampusIntel

Teaching overseas had always been a dream of mine. You may ask “why?” and I’m not even sure I could give a person an answer. It all seemed very interesting at first; a new experience, a new country, culture, and lastly, getting away from everyone you ever wanted to! While all of these are certainly what you get when you decide to up and leave – destined for a foreign country – there are many aspects that a person should consider before making the move.

Upon completion of my undergraduate degree from the University of New Brunswick, the world seemed wide-open to me with endless possibilities. I decided I would look into teaching in South Korea. The money seemed great, the cost of living was low, airfare is taken care of, benefits and no rent to pay. What more could a person want.. or need?! There was an agency in downtown Fredericton that helped me get the ball rolling. After a few months, a few fees, a few stamps and application forms I was ready to set out on an adventure of a lifetime.

I had decided to break my trip into two flights flying from Moncton to Los Angeles (spending 4 days in LA) then flying to Seoul, South Korea. Not only did I get to experience the city of LA but it was cheaper than flying directly from YQM to SEL.

Another advantage of coming to a place like Korea is that it is quite easy to travel around South-East Asia and even to Australia for a decent price. I have been fortunate to have travelled to Japan, Malaysia and Australia in the first 6 months of me being here. Other friends and people I know have gone to China, spent weeks on the beaches of Thailand, fired MK47s inVietnam, while others used their break to travel back home to Canada and the US.  My travels allowed me to meet up with an old high school friend in Japan where she was studying. I was also able to visit a former exchange student from my high school – spending 10 days in lovely Melbourne!

If you are thinking about coming to South Korea to teach, I strongly advise that you take advantage of being so close to so many countries. It’s easy and affordable.

Lets talk about delivering the games. Athletes are coming all over the world to celebrate and compete in sport, but they all need to get to Vancouver somehow, right?

Who is going to get them there, how will they arrive and who is taking care of them every step of the way. Of course, the celebration of sport begins with parents, teachers, coachs, all of these people encouraging and training alongside our athletes to make sure that they are in top condition. From their we have doctors, physicians, massage therapist, nutritionist and the list goes on and on and on. Have you ever thought about the other people that may be involved in helping deliver our athletes?

Transportation. Never considered, but a huge part of delivering our athletes to their respective homes during the games and helping them through a safe take off and landing and ensuring their safety in flight as they travel to Vancouver or Whistler to compete.

Air Canada shows the world, that they will take part in the challenge of delivering our athletes, because together we will deliver the games.

New Years Eve has been renowned as a big celebratory holiday. In all of the television ads, movies, shows, etc. that you see there are people making the change from one year to the next a massively big deal. I’m not saying that this is wrong or that it’s silly to celebrate it since it does mark a milestone. However, it kind of feels a little bit like prom to me…you know, with all the hype about it being the best day of your life, all of the prep work of buying the perfect outfit, making dinner plans with friends, having your makeup and hair done, arranging your transportation, etc., etc., etc. and then the day comes…and it’s over before you know it! For New Years it seems very similar since there’s still all of the hype for that one big day…but then it happens every year! Even so, as far back as I can remember since being old enough I wanted to celebrate New Years with a big bang, you know, do something really special and out of the ordinary…something really memorable!

            This year my boyfriend and I started taking about going on a trip somewhere warm down South around the end of November or beginning of December…you know, right around the time when we started to remember that Ottawa winters mean -38 degree weather (oh yeah baby!). So we started thinking, why not do this vacation for New Years? With this we began our search through ‘Googling’, travel saver emails and newspaper ads. Unfortunately, it turned out that most of the deals we were finding had black-out dates right around the times we wanted to travel. No matter though, we would not be dismayed, we decided to broaden our search…well broaden it to include a wider assortment of vacations… we figured, if we couldn’t go South to someplace warm at least we should try and embrace the winter and get the best out of it (if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, right?). So we decided we’d try going on a ski vacation. Back to our searches we went looking for vacation deals and recruiting friends to go with us. This time however, the problem was everyone was going home for Christmas and a lot of those people who were interested in going didn’t think or know if they would be back to the area in time for New Years Eve. So, we put this vacation on hold as well.

            Once we had figured out that our beach and ski vacations wouldn’t work we were a little short on time…Christmas was coming! Our other option was to stay around the area and try to find what celebrations were going on around us. Again, we were not put-out; we decided we could go to the celebrations in Toronto on New Years Eve.

            Just before New Years we both headed towards Toronto, but we were feeling a little apprehensive about going to the outdoor celebrations. The problem wasn’t that they sounded uninteresting or anything, just that…well it sounded like it was going to be icky weather and we didn’t want to stand for a long time in that (you’d think the nasty weather Ottawa gets would prepare us for anything…but, well, you’d be wrong). Besides, a lot of the people we knew in the area were not going to the celebrations either. So, to the LCBO we went, picking up some treats for the night to keep us warm and then off to hang out with friends and watch the Canada vs. US hockey game. 
            At first you might think this doesn’t sound like such an exciting time after attempting various vacations, but to be honest, it was a lot of fun! We figured, why did New Years have to be celebrated in such a high-maintenance kind of way? No matter what you do you should enjoy yourself right, and for us as long as we were with people we enjoy being around it didn’t matter where we were. New Years is going to be special wherever you do your countdown, or your cheers and toasts, or have your midnight kiss as long as you’re with people you care about, and I definitely was. New Years doesn’t mean you have to go crazy and spend lots of money to have a good time, it just means it’s another day to enjoy and celebrate and that’s what we did! So to you all I wish a happy 2010 and I hope your festivities were fun no matter where you were or what you did.

       Every Christmas do you find yourself celebrating the holidays in a similar way? Do you find you’re going through the same tasks and traditions each year? Are you starting to see patterns in the Twelve Days Of Christmas, similarities in the way you Deck The Halls, or do you find you’re always Rocking Around The Christmas Tree to the same old tunes? Well, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (and gentleladies) there’s nothing to dismay, you’re not alone! I have started noticing these customs in my own life around Christmas and…I love them! I mean, when you think about it a tradition should only stay a tradition as long as you like it…otherwise why keep doing it? The unfortunate thing is sometimes these traditions change because they may have to.

            When I was really young living on the East Coast we’d start celebrations early on in December. Generally these would begin the first week of Advent with the pancake breakfast and Christmas crafts for kids at my church. We’d make advent chains with notes on each ring that had something nice for you to do and whoever took off the ring that day would have to perform the task like…give someone a hug, or do something without being asked, etc. (I’m pretty sure my parents would love this tradition to have continued), Christmas wreaths (or clumps of branches with bows…depending on how much help we got from adults) and various little crafts and decorations for Christmas trees. As I got older I would help with the crafts and the children until I moved to Ottawa for school and wasn’t able to get back in time.

            I also used to attend the carol singing on the lawn of the local University; we would light a big tree in front of the building, hold glow-sticks and have cookies and hot chocolate. After the celebration once we’d warmed up my sister and I would roll down the hills and have snowball fights. Yet again, I’m not home in time for this anymore, but there normally isn’t as much snow on the ground as there used to be for this celebration …which would probably make snowball fights and sledding a little less magical…

            Later when I got a bit older we started the tradition of “cookie day”. Some of the women in my family would get together, play games and bake our favorite cookies and swap them so we’d all go home with a variety of sweets. This has grown now to include a lot of the smaller kids who’ve entered the family. I usually get home too late for this as well but always get to indulge in the cookies since my mom goes every year (thanks Mom!).      

            Now you might think a lot of my traditions have changed since moving away for school (oh the joys of being a student!) but I never miss everything, I hear about all of these celebrations even if I don’t go to them anymore and it makes all of the ones I still get to enjoy even more special. For instance: My parents wait until I get home to get the tree which I still get to decorate, we always watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” at least once, we still have the large meal on Christmas day, we have a Boxing Day celebration with family each year which has been going on for as long as I remember and I always adore, and we still go to the Church service every Christmas Eve and drive around looking at Christmas lights.

            I think that most people grow up with certain traditions, especially around Christmas time. When I think back I realize that slowly some of these things have faded away for various reasons and sometimes new traditions have even been added. Whatever it is, things have changed…but that’s not necessary bad and it most definitely doesn’t mean the things that have been altered or left behind will be forgotten or won’t come back. I think this is how every family has somewhat original traditions because the ones you like you hold onto and pass down to your family when you grow older. Anyways, I say all of this but I’ll be honest… I think all our practices were ‘da bomb’, but…then of course I might be a bit biased. Still, I hope that if I have kids a lot of the things I used to do will be passed on to them and hopefully they’ll appreciate them like I did.

Every year when Christmas time comes around I start to plan my trip to fly home. At first glance this whole “getting home for the holidays” might seem relatively easy…well if you’re sitting there thinking that then obviously you have never done it as a student. It seems most years difficulties arise, but I usually learn something new to take into consideration to plan better…           

            In first year the main hurtle was working out my trip in the time allotted. I quickly learned that the most important part about planning a trip around Christmas is knowing the time you want to travel in and checking airlines periodically for sales well in advance. This can be tricky however when you are waiting for your university to post your exam schedule so you can see when your last exam is. Unfortunately, Carleton seems to have a tendency to put out the exam schedule a little later than other universities (hint, hint Carleton!). I found that it is preferable to know these ‘minor details’ before most other people who want to take the same trip as you. Once the schedule comes out however it’s just a matter of playing the guessing game and possibly gambling with your chances of whether or not the prices of flights will go down if you wait longer…First year, there was no guessing, I saw the schedule, booked my ticket and I was out of there! So, rule number 1: Figure out your timeframe a.s.a.p. and look for flights in advance to find sales.

            Second year I think I had mastered the booking of tickets and come to accept the fact that I would have to plan ahead and book late. As far as I remember this actually worked out quite well and I had a fairly good stay at home! No new rules here, but I did master my first one! YAY ME!

            Third year another problem was added to the mix. Weather. I had booked my flight in advance and had gotten packed and ready for the trip home. However, I would learn that I could not factor in the storm that was brewing. You see, this was 2007 the year Ottawa got pounded repeatedly by snow storm after snow storm and one happened to fall on the days around my flight! It also happened that my house was on a street in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere (if this was measured by how often the street was ploughed). So, come morning I realized quickly there was no way I was getting out my door let alone making it to the airport on time. Frantic about having to change my flight in what must be one of if not THE busiest traveling times of the year a friend of mine at the time called the airport for me and was able to explain my situation. It so happened that I was not the only one rebooking a flight. This of course meant there were a lot of angry people to deal with at the airport…so, we were very nice. After the lady on the phone had hung up I checked my new booking on my email and realized she had rebooked me into a first class seat! BOOYA! So, rule number 2: Be nice if ever you have to rebook a flight, it never goes overlooked.

            My fourth and final year at Carleton I realized my trip home would be short; this was because I had to factor in another problem: work. I had found myself a job at a hotel, and of course with them being 24/7 businesses this meant that I would need to fly back to Ottawa on Boxing Day. However, this also meant that I could book a flight at a rare time and thus got a pretty good deal. Also, having known I would only be able to leave after I finished my shifts BEFORE Christmas and knowing I had to be back before my next ones started AFTER Christmas gave me a good time frame to look at early in advance. Rule number 3: Look for those silver linings!

            Finally, this year I was thankfully able to create my own schedule since I wasn’t back in school yet and had no other real commitments (YAY for the lazy life!). So, come Dec. 21^st I was homeward bound…at 6am…(hey, I said I was able to make my own schedule, I never said anything about it being good). I ended up flying out just after a storm at home and right around the time the States were getting quite the beating from a different storm. Turns out I had learned something extra at University, because for the first time, I had bested both the weather and the flight schedules.

Oh.

Yeah.

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