School Days and Seoul Ways

The plan for Wednesday was for the three of us to get up early and have Joonwoo drop us at the bus terminal before heading to work himself.  That was the plan at least, upon waking up I realized that I really was not up for a trip to Gyeongju. I though tagging along wouldn't be too bad, I could skip the temple (seriously they're all looking pretty similar these days) and then join in for some afternoon bike riding and finish the day with dinner with some of my Gyeongju friends. But then I found out my friends were busy and I realized I was dead tired, instead I left my brother and Katie detailed instructions on how to survive on their own, made my way home and slept for another 3 hours :) it was lovely.  I met them back at the bus station that evening and it turns out they did just fine on their own.  Joonwoo must have liked us because he canceled the plans he had with a friend and joined us for dinner instead, Gamjatang yummmmm.  That night we took it easy, showered, set up a nice floor bed for those two in my shoebox of an apartment and prepared for school the next day. 

Group picture with class 1-3

오빠와 여친 한국에 왔어!

If you read my blog regularly (or more likely are a family member) you'll know that my brother came to visit almost exactly one year ago. I guess Korea made a good impression on him because he decided to come back for round 2, and this time bring his girlfriend Katie along for the ride.  Actually I think it might have been her desire to come that fueled their visit. Katie previously taught in Japan for two years so she's familiar with the foreigner teacher/living in Asia lifestyle. Unfortunately she didn't get the chance to stop in Korea while on this side of the world, but that worked out in my favor, more visitors!  Unfortunately my brothers boss wouldn't give him an additional Friday (very necessary for across the glob travel) so they duo arrived late on a Sunday night.  On the plus side they were able to score a RT flight arriving in Busan and departing from Seoul, maximizing the amount of Korea they'd be able to see. I'm lucky to work for an awesome school that allows flexibility with my schedule so I made the trip to Busan early Sunday to relax at the beach before going to meet my visitors at the airport. 

Gwangalli 'Diamond' Bridge 

Getting some Culture and Nature in Daegu

The past few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind. Last week my brother and his girlfriend Katie were here for a visit so I spent some time before that preparing for their arrival.  Last weekend I had to meet them in Busan on Sunday night so I decided to stay closer to home and explore Daegu on Saturday.  I kept seeing cool pictures on Facebook and Instagram recently and finally discovered that they were coming from the new exhibit at the Daegu Art Museum.  If you've been keeping up you'll know that I went there a few months ago with my friend Sara but seeing as the exhibitions had changed I decided another visit was in order. Pretty cool that the museum always has something new to offer so you can't really get away with the excuse of oh I've been there before. 

A Day of Class (but no Teaching)

A few weeks ago it was brought to my attention that Daejeon was hosting a wine festival. I was definitely a bit skeptical, Korea is not well known for their wine. I mean you can get a bottle of yellow tail in the store for like $18... Anyway a group of people from my recent bike trip in Japan was planning to attend so I figured I didn't have much to lose. Worst case I drink some mediocre wine while in good company.  Everyone had plans for the beginning of the weekend so we decided to check out the event Sunday afternoon ~ Sunday Funday^^ Sara and I caught a morning train and were soon joined by other from Seoul and Daejeon, pack into taxis and on our way to the festival. 

student visit

혼자이에요?

The heat is officially gone, the leaves are starting to change,and  temperatures are dropping. There may be a slight lack of pumpkin spice and football in my life but fall is officially upon us.  The weather has been perfect for the past few weeks, cool in the mornings and evenings but still sunny and beautiful during the day. After being introduced, by my co-workers, to a new patch of beautiful here in Buksam I decided to take advantage of the beauty that surrounds me and spend my Saturday in the mountains.  I know I've mentioned it before, more than once, but i'm surrounded by beauty in this country. Gumi isn't really known for much, in fact when foreigners are asked "What's the best part about Gumi?"  \a popular response is, "It's easy to get out", but we do have a pretty sweet mountain.  Geumosan shadows over my home and conveniently there's a few paths from Buksam heading up the back side.  Last friday my co-workers introduced me to a new starting point so on Saturday I decided it was time to explore.

How to ?????

Last week I taught a lesson based on the expression "How to ______", I figured it was only natural to let me kids have free reign with it and write me some how to instructions. The only rules were that they had to provide what materials were needed and include a minimum of 5 steps.  Most of my classes were pretty eager about the activity and I could see the wheels spinning as they tried to think about what to write.

I'm not going to go into detail about the lesson, rather I just wanted to share with you some of the great results that came from this.

To begin I have many students who seem to be aspiring chefs:

I had 18 students explain to me How to make Ramen, eventually I began the class with "Please font' tell me how to make Ramen" otherwise i'm sure I would've had about double the amount.

Not quite as popular but I also had 8 students tell me How to make rice, it can be more difficult than one might expect. "

Finally there were also a myriad of recipes for Kimchi Fried rice, Fried Eggs, Kimbap, Ice Cream and Sandwiches. Interesting note on How to make a Sandwich though, almost every recipie included ham and eggs ~ now maybe you can understand why I say they don't have sandwiches in Korea.  What the kids were referring to is the Korean toast sandwich, which I do love but does not qualify as a proper sandwich.  I still get dumbfounded stares when I say I miss a good sandwich.... ah if only they knew.

For those students not aspiring to be a chef, beauty consultant could come in a close second. I had roughly 10 students explain to me How to [apply] makeup.  All of which included the ever popular and completely necessary BB Cream. 

Okay so those were just previews to some of the greatness that occurred in class last week. I sorted through all of my papers and chose some of those which either impressed me, puzzles me or just gave me a good laugh. The following come from both low and high level students, boys and girls (I decided to type them verbatim too - spelling errors and poor grammar included.