Contradictions

Just to give a quick glimpse of how different and striking the scenes on the streets of Jeju City can be..

 {Trash collection on the streets}.

{The sunset on the walk back}. 

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The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog!

My teaching friends will appreciate this...One of my all time favorite children's authors is Mo Willems. His characters are hilarious, and it's a great way to introduce dialogue. Found the book published in Korean today in our library! 

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Mo Willems is a best-selling author (you know him from Don't Let the Pigeon Ride the Bus!/as an animator with Sesame Street) 

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Learn more about his books and follow his blog:www.mowillems.com

Going the Distance

Being in a long distance relationship is hard, so I give Luke a lot of credit. I miss him everyday! With a thirteen hour time difference, he makes sacrifices for me all the time. 

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A gift from Luke {that was a day late :( } before I left: 

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{The pillow is a boy and girl playing telephone with a cup and string. Adorable.}

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Luke and I {and Rach} FaceTiming: 

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{Flashback: Chatting up Luke on the first day at On Cafe. The closest place with Wifi!}

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Looks like he's doing just fine without me HA....

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80 more days to go!  

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Welcome to 1st Grade! :)

One of the ironies of keeping a travel blog while traveling, is well, actually finding time to blog about it. Add teaching into the mix, and things get even more hectic. 

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But I wanted to share an early glimpse into our FIRST GRADE CLASS. :)

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Here is one of the first writing lessons I taught on procedural writing. We wrote directions to friends for creating origami ladybugs. 

Writing directions helps EAL {English acquisition learners}. It's clear language. It's fun. It has a cute finished craft. 

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I love peeking into classrooms! As teachers, we can get so many ideas and inspiration from each other. Here is a look at our room: 

{Word wall: a must have}

{Sorting words by initial consonant sounds}

{"What we see in our classroom"/expectations}

{We are doing inquiry-based learning. Here is our first unit on feelings}

{BHA is an international school and follows the IB curriculum}

{Learning to graph our feelings and reflect. Math and emotional learning}

{Word building games. I am teaching rhyming words & word families in literacy}.

 {My favorite shot}.
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For more clever classroom design ideas, check out Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/terrir/teaching-classroom-design/

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Bling Bling

Anyone who knows me, knows I am a complete girly-girl. Drop me in Jeju City with all of the cute boutiques, and it's a done deal: I am buying the accessories. 

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One of my favorite accessories in Korea are the hair elastics. Children wear them. Adults wear them. The have gems, intricate beading, baubles, little animals, and cute, cute graphics. Check out the pair in my hair:  

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* And here, Rach modeling a headband and elastic: 

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Did I mention Powder Room {my favorite boutique} sells plush stuffies too? I know, I'm trying to stop. 

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{Leaving Powder Room with a little less $}...

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Journey Into the Bizarre: Jeju Loveland

Maybe one of the most eclectic items {and most well known}on the to-do list in Jeju is Loveland. With a little research and the help of the sexual theme park's website: {http://www.jejuloveland.com/eng.html} 

I learned a bit about the bizarre history after my visit. 

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Jeju Loveland was started in 2002 by 20 artists and graduates at Hongik University in Seoul. In November of 2004, the first and only sexual/erotic themed park opened in South Korea. The park showcases 140 works of art, and contains traditional dome-shaped exhibition halls that feature different artists' work. 

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The park itself is a land of art. Here are the pictures I took. It is, all at once:

Natural

 

Beautiful

 

Bizarre

 

 

The recommended time to view the park is 30 minutes, but it took my friends and I nearly 2 hours. The cost was 9,000 KRW.

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Jeju Loveland, while bizarre and erotic, breaks the taboos about sex. Visitors can appreciate the inherent beauty and art of sexuality. 

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