Never Again

Remember last summer and the summer before that, when I had awesome field trips with my staff - great bonding, lots of drinking, singing and food.  Well, its' that time of year again err kind of, except this time it's winter not summer, anyway you get the idea.  A few weeks ago, we had our end of the year teachers field trip, 1박 2일 [1 night, 2 days].  I really think I got spoiled the first year because we had an awesome trip, almost everyone participated, we saw some sights, ate good food, sang, danced, drank and even swam;  on top of all that I even avoided having a hangover the next day.  Last winter our trip was snowed out so I'm not sure what exactly I missed out on, then this past summer we had a mediocre trip, food, drinking and signing but not quite like the year before.  All of this combined I wasn't really sure what was in store for me this winter but I was still looking forward to it regardless, until I found out half the teachers would either be driving themselves and leaving early, or simply not attending. 

A Day of Song and Dance

Along with the changing weather, final exams, and school year coming to an end we struggled to find time to squeeze in a little bit more fun, here at Buksam High school.  About two weeks ago it was time for the second big event of the year, the annual school festival.  Last year this was easily one of the most impressive days of the year for me, having never experienced something like this before I was blown away by the level of talent presented, and also the high amount of participation.  I think having so much fun last year set my expectations for this time around pretty high.  As the day approached I was slightly confused by the lack of enthusiasm coming from my students, when asked if they were excited most of them responded with "ehh no, too busy".  It's understandable, as the school year comes to a close, they're swamped with studying for the important final exams, but still, learn to relax a little you guys! Despite their lackluster attitudes I was still looking forward to the day, I mean if nothing else, I didn't have to teach! 

Favorite picture ever - on display for all to see 

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. 

I like to party ~ with 박재범

I'm not sure if you've noticed but I've kind of adapted to the Korean culture, so it's only natural that I finally got myself to a concert.  A few weeks back I saw the One Hip Hop Festival being advertised, thanks to Jay Park's instagram feed, and immediately sent the link to my friend Caitlin.  I knew she is also a big fan of Jay Park and was hoping she'd be up for going with me.  Unfortunately he wasn't the headlining performer but there was a load of people worth seeing and the headliner wasn't too terrible *cough* Nelly *cough* Thankfully Caitlin was on board  as was our friend Sara, so the three of us were soon (a few weeks later) on our way to Seoul.

15 hours of music, ready for this? 

Facing the Crowds

Twice now in my travels I've been lucky enough to coordinate plans with major festivals, hopefully a trend that will continue in the future. Last time it was Koninginnedag while visiting one of my best friends in the Netherlands, this time it was Thaipusam in Malaysia. I did a little bit of research before leaving Korea and found that the festival is celebrated at the Batu Caves just north of Kuala Lumpur, hence the reason I left KL until the tail end of my trip. Thaipusam is a Hindu festival in which devotees travel on a pilgrimage to the caves and practice various acts of devotion (shaved heads, various piercings, and carrying offerings to the temple). The festival has been celebrated at the caves since 1892 so I was thrilled to be lucky enough to attend.  I was staying friends of my friend Charles (whom met in Korea) who lived conveniently close to the train line which would take me to the caves. Aside from having to face the heat and battle through the crowds it was promising to be an easy day. 

Hanuman

Not Quite London 2012

I've said it before and I'll probably say it again, many times, my school is awesome. Last week Friday we had the long awaited for sports day.  Some of my friends had this at their school last spring so I've been looking forward to the day for a while, I figured if it was anything like the school festival it'd for sure be a good day.  The students have been talking about the day for the last few weeks as each lunch period consisted of a soccer game between various homeroom classes, ultimately determining who would be playing in the final match at the festival.  As I arrived to school on Friday I could sense a bit of a buzz in the air, not the normal slow paced grumble of student but instead enthusiasm to get the events started.  The students were soon gathered on the soccer field for a brief speech from the principal followed by a yoga/warm-up routine.  

Lanterns, Eel, Art, and More!

To continue on our festival roll Sara, Amanda and I made the trip to Jinju last weekend.  If you recall the three of us made this trip one before, but for a a very different reason.  Reminiscing about our [attempted] hike of Jirisan made for some good jokes this weekend.  I was lucky enough to have a half day on Friday due to midterm exams so I decided to catch a mid-afternoon bus despite the fact that the other two would not be arriving until much later in the evening.  I'm not sure what I did wrong but I've had some stinky luck with buses recently, literally.  This time it was a man who though bathing in cologne would be a good idea before a 2.5 hour bus ride with 20 other strangers, thank you kind sir.  My bus pulled into town just after 5pm so after checking into our motel, conveniently located right across and down the river from the festival, I decided to go explore - as luck would have it I was just in time for the sunset. 

Mask Dance

After a short stint in Japan, Korea wanted to welcome me back with open arms. How, you may ask?  By giving me some beautiful fall weather chock full of festivals, that's how. To kick it off I ventured up to Andong with Sara and Amanda for the second (and final) weekend of the International Maskdance Festival.  Andong is just over an hour north of my town but I've yet to travel there, I guess part of me was intentionally saving the visit for this festival. Having just gotten back into the country the Wednesday before the three of us opted for a Saturday departure, arriving in Andong around lunchtime.  We found our hostel (The Peter Pan Guesthouse)  with ease and then made our way towards the festival, which was conveniently only a short walk away. The walk was made even shorter thanks to a shouting Ajumma who, we thought, was trying to shoo us away, when in reality she was leading us down a great shortcut. 

Let's Get Dirty

Almost two years ago I was sitting on facebook looking though pictures and stumbled across my friend Kyle's pictures from Mudfest.  Curious as to what and where this event was I clicked on the album and looked through - umm that looks awesome. Maybe it was then that I decided I should come to Korea to teach, in all honestly i'm not sure what first made me want to come here, but this may have been a contributing factor.

My students are awesome

Okay, so I might be a little bit bias because they're my students but none the less you need to check out the video from my school's festival last week.  Not every student had killer dance moves, or the best voice but the participation blew me away.  Put on an event like this in the states and you'd be lucky the have half as many students involved.  I'm glad I finally got to see my kids having fun, relaxing and showing some of their personality - they were deserving of a break after the countless hours spent in the classroom.

The quality might not be the best but I tried to capture at least a bit of each performance.  Some of the best talent comes towards the end so don't give up (sorry that it's 20 minutes long).

Okay, so blogger want's to be difficult and not let me upload the video, i'm assuming since it's too big.  Couldn't even post the full thing on YouTube so I had to split it in two, check it out:

Festival Part One

Festival Part Two

Hope you enjoy!

I Get Paid for This?!?

Last week Friday was our school festival so leading up to the event I decided to do a lesson on festivals around the world.  I found some material on Waygook so I didn't have to do too much work (sorry i'm lazy) and then at the end of class I thought it'd be fun to let the students create their own festivals.  I let them work in groups with hopes that this would prompt them to actually do the activity - I have a few sloth students that like to pretend to be invisible and sleep through most of class. (although who can blame then, they rarely get a chance to do so).  I must say I got some interesting festivals in return...

Seoul Lantern Festival

This past weekend I decided it was time for another trip, destination: Seoul for the Lotus Lantern Festival.  There was a number of us considering going but as you may or may not know, making plans with big groups is not on my list of enjoyable activities.  Rather than trying to coordinate with 10 others I decided to book a hostel with my friend Stephen (whom I hadn't actually hung out with since orientation) and figured I'd meet up with the rest while there.  I wanted to catch the bus by 5pm so rather than rely on public transportation I rode my bike to Gumi bus terminal - the ride to Gumi is pretty easy, mostly downhill but I knew come Sunday i'd somewhat regret that decision.  Once in Seoul I ran into Beth and Katie and found out they were also staying at the same hostel as me, small world!  I then found Stephen at the subway station and we made our way to the hostel, dumped our bags and proceeded into the nightlife of Hongdae.  This was my second weekend spent on the streets of Hongdae and I can say I've not been disappointed.  There's a university nearby so there is plenty of bars, clubs, restaurants and street food.  It was one of Stephen's friends birthdays so we started by getting burgers, beer and some unnecessary shots at one o the restaurants.  After that we made our way to a few different bars before calling it a night somewhere around 3am. 

Bulls, Beer and Burgers

During my downtime at school you can usually find me perusing different 'Korean tourist' websites, looking for ways to spend my weekends.  A while back I stumbled across information for the Cheongdo bullfight festival, I mentioned it to a few friends with tentative plans to go but didn't make it much further than that.  Apparently it's the nations largest bullfight competition and dates back about 1000 years. About two weeks ago the topic came up again, but this time through an organized tour with Waegook Travel., I usually tend to pass on the organized group travel plans, but the price was decent and I figured it be nice to have a bus cart me around and not have to figure out trains, buses and taxis.  Plus my friends Meredith and Sara were interested in joining so I figured it'd be a good day.