The Season of Giving

Like I mentioned in my last post, my favorite part of the holiday season centers around giving, so what better way to celebrate than to give presents, and hopefully some joy, to 70+ children.  Earlier this spring when Aimee, the founder of KKOOM, asked me to help her with the annual holiday part for Samsungwon, I had absolutely no hesitation.  This is the first year that Aimee wasn't able to be in Korea for the holidays since founding KKOOM 6 years ago; she was looking for support from the foreigners here to keep the tradition going.  I attended the Christmas party last year so after seeing the joy that it brought to the kids I knew I wanted to help make that possible again this year.   Unfortunately, the orphanage is currently undergoing construction so hosting a large scale party proved to be impossible, 70+ kids and volunteers running around a midst welding, sawing, hammering and other chaos didn't sound like the best idea. Instead, we decided to host an online gift drive, asking volunteers to support one (or more) children by purchasing gifts from their wish list.  We were able to get enough volunteers (some even sending money from the US), purchase the gifts and organize all of those sent from across the country. It was a bit of chaos for a few days as we sorted through boxes, wrapped, sorted and shopped but thankfully everything came together by 3pm Sunday afternoon. 

Finally organized, 70 some odd presents 

Getting Some Lovin'

Last summer my co-teacher Anna [이혜진] came into school one day full of excitement, telling me that she had bought a new house in Daegu, but shhh this is a secret.  I'm still not sure why it was a secret but I was happy to be one of the few she told about it, the reason being, she wanted me to come visit.  She didn't actually move in until mid-october and since then has been busy with buying new furniture and getting situated in her new neighborhood.  Repeatedly at school she would tell me that she wanted me to come visit and stay with her for the weekend, getting the chance to meet her family  (including the adorable boy pictured below) and explore Daegu together.  Despite a few failed planning attempts and busy schedules I was finally able to make my visit two weeks ago, woah two weeks ago already? 

Anna's son 최한결 

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. 

Not your Typical Friday

This blog post is a bit, and by a bit I mean closer to a month, delayed, but hey - better late then never right?  I'm not really sure what I've been busy with that delayed this post, like seriously, i'm not really sure where I've thrown my time in the last few weeks.  Sure outside of school I've fully immersed myself back into yoga, friends, a little running, oh and lots of sweating. But at school I haven't had much to do - movie watching, game playing, oh and the little bit of grading speaking tests of few weeks ago.  Hell, I don't even have an intense summer break to be planning for so I guess it's a mystery, where has my time been going.  Safe guesses go to Facebook, Instagram, Yoga  articles , oh yeah and reading various travel blogs dreaming about future travels. Okay so anyways back to the point, a few weeks ago I was told I wouldn't have classes on Friday but instead could choose between three things 1. Volunteering with the first grade 2. Brain meditation with the second grade or 3. Sit at my desk all day.  It was presented as a choice but any retard that can read body language and knows Korean culture would know I was meant to join option 1, and so that's precisely what I did. 

DAM

A few weeks ago the country celebrated 현충일, also known as Memorial Day, and thus I was granted with a day off school.  It had been a while since Sara and I had seen each other so we decided a Daegu adventure was in order.  Our first thought was finding a good park or outdoor area to relax but upon noticing that the temperature were going to be in the high 80's we opted for a place with aircon.  The night before I was checking facebook and came across a post on the Daegu Art Museum and just like that we had a plan for the next day. 

Korea, You are Beautiful

Close to a year ago, when I started telling people that I might be moving to Korea I got tons of varied reactions, but among one of the most often heard phrases was "oh my god, it's such a beautiful country". Fast forward a few months and there I was arriving to a cold, brown, dirty town. Umm where is this beauty you speak of?  Just be patient said the little voice in my head, after all it was the dead of winter.  I was soon rewarded with the blossoms of spring, cherry blossoms and sunshine galore.  Then came summer with it's lush green forests, everywhere, literraly my dad was blown away by how green the country was, and we're from Greendale!  I quickly understood what all the fuss was bout and low and behold the country continues to amaze me.  Exhibit A:

So Many Naked People

It's crazy how fast my time in Korea has been flying by, I remember last spring talking to friends about wanting to go to the Daegu International Bodypainting festival and now it's been over a week since I've been there done that.  The festival took place the first weekend of September and was held at Duryu park in Daegu.  Caitlin and Joonwoo picked me up around 10am and we made our way into Daegu (woo hoo for not having to take the train) arriving just in time for what was supposed to be the opening ceremony. Turns out there wasn't any type of actual ceremony, 11 o'clock was rather just the time all the painting started.  The park was pretty empty but it was cool to see all of the models and artists getting ready. 

Back to the Swing of Things

Since returning from my summer vacation in Taiwan I seem to have adopted a new weekend habit. (okay it's only been two weeks, but still).  The last two weekends have been filled with good friends, good food, lots of dancing and of course a few drinks.  Then by Sunday I try to restore some of the damage i've done to myself by exploring my city by bike.

Bruise City

Two weekends ago Sara and I decided to make the trek to Herbz Hills an Eco theme park just south of Daegu.  I'd heard about it a few times from both friends and blogs but the major draw/reason for going was the high ropes and zip-line course.  I immediately had flash backs to my 7th grade outdoor ed experience where I was basically too chicken to do anything. However, I felt that i'd changed a bit since then and was up for the adventure.

I met Sara in Waegwon where we caught the train to Dongdaegu and then were greeted with the news that it'd be another hour bus to the park - I was under the impression this would be 30 minutes. Oh well, what are you going to do.  Generally I don't mind the transportation in Korea but by the end of this bus ride I was ready to run off the bus - we were greeted with an hour of bickering ajumas, seriously the were stressing us out.  Anyway, we arrived at the park, managed to explain what tickets we wanted "zip-a line-a" w/ hand motions of course, and we were on our way.

Donghwasa Temple

In my typical "I can't sit still" fashion I decided that staying around town was out of the question. I asked my friend Sara if she wanted to go on an adventure to Daegu and try to find Donghwasa temple - so that is what we did.  Two bus rides and one train later and we arrived!  Considering the temple is located on the side of a mountain about 22km outside of Daegu i'd say our travel was pretty smooth (I was mildly impressed with myself).  Before heading up to the temple we stopped for a coffee and some snacks and were then on our way.

The entrance was much like the other temples I had been to, except this one was deeper into the forest of Mt. Palgongsan which made it that much more beautiful.  Once inside we were flagged down but the little old man in the information booth who clearly loved his job.  He began with a polite inquiry about where we were from and why we were here, then proceeded to explain the map of the temple in detail and finally encouraged us to "look around and enjoy" so cute. The temple was huge and to our luck - still covered in lanterns from Buddha's Birthday, bonus! (and we got to avoid the crowds of the previous weekend, double bonus!).

Temple Guard 

Out and about

It's kind of amazing how such seemingly simple tasks become your greatest accomplishments while living in a foreign country - especially during the first few weeks.  


The first weekend here I had made plans to meet my friend Sara at the Waegwon train station so that we could go to Daegu and meet up with our teacher J.  At the time I really had no idea how to get to the station but was determined to figure it out - on Friday I ran into a girl from America who is teaching at the elementary school near my house. She told me that bus 111 should take me to where I needed to go.  Success! I made it to the station, met up with Sara and off to Daegu we went.