Nothing too recent or ground breaking.

Lauren ran a marathon thing.


We went to a bullfighting festival in Cheonju. Definitely not what we were expecting. It was quite literally bulls fighting each other (as opposed to the Spanish bullfighting we had in mind). There were lots of old guys dressed in women's clothing for some reason. Couldn't quite figure out the connection between bullfighting and cross-dressing.

A newsstand the day after Kim Yu Na won the gold in figure skating, and some other pictures of adventures from the past bit. The weather has been SOOOO cold up until about 3 days ago. Very unlike last year, when by this time I had already spent several weeks at the beach and had a dark tan.

I get us lost a lot.



Demilitarized zone on the border of North Korea. Definitely one of the most interesting things I've done here. The Visitor's Declaration is pretty awesome; you know it's a good field trip when there's the possibility of death. We went down into one of North Korea's secret tunnels that the South found during the war. The North had all these tunnels pointed toward Seoul, and when they were discovered, the North claimed that they were just mining for coal. Apparently they tried to fool the South into believing this by painting the tunnel with black paint, saying "see, only coal here!" The weather was very hazy the day we went, so none of us got very good shots of the North. In the one picture you can see the big tower with the flag on it, which is said to be one of the biggest flags in the world, weighing over 900 pounds. Then, my favorite picture is the one with the two soldiers standing outside. The blue building actually straddles the border between North and South Korea, so the building in the background is North Korean. If you look hard, you can see the North Korean standing near the entrance, staring at us with binoculars. 'Twas a neat experience.

Buddies enjoying their first Christmas.

Lauren and I doin' what we do. Then there's this beautiful boy, Tommy, ....Ick. I guess that's what happens when kids/people don't get any fluoride or something.

Things

I want to be from wanting, free;
the Want, he kills Sufficient in me.
The Is is never strong enough;
the Want, he makes the Is give up.
I want to be from wanting, free,
and want the Want to not want me.

"Recent" Happenings

I have a really bad habit of leaving my camera at home when I go places, often even forgetting that I have a camera at all. So what I end up with is an assortment of randomness. But here are some pictures and details from the last couple months. I have a bunch more (like from my trip to the border of North Korea) that I'll be throwing on here the next time I post --hopefully by the end of this week. I'm also in the process of stealing pics from Lauren, as she's way better at the whole "remembering to take pictures" thing. Anyways, here are some shots of school life, as well as a couple short trips we took recently.


Some of my students. The one with the whole class was taken a few weeks ago, on the last day before all the classes were changed and I lost most of them. My new batch of kids are just great (for the most part) though. It's always nerve-wracking to get new students, but they--and I--are able to adapt quickly. Sometimes when they've been good I let the kids play cards, with the rule that they have to only use English. We usually play Go Fish or Blackjack (betting for pieces of candy) because I figure it gives them good practice with using English numbers, and provides and often much-needed break from normal lessons.


I thought this was hilarious. We were wondering if Kenny knows about this.

For the Lunar New Year, Lauren and I went with my friend David and his girlfriend, Chen Chen, to a city called Jeonju. We stayed in a "traditional village", which was pretty neat, having been modernized but still maintaining an old feel. There were the typical bath houses, tea rooms, sculptures and gardens, activity centers, craft shows, etc.... all with the architecture from a thousand years ago. It would have been better in the summer, as most of the gardens and things to see outside were dead and brown, but oh well. In the center of the city is a big fortress gate. I still love seeing things like this in cities, as the contrast between it and the modern buildings and businesses (all with their neon signs and music blaring) is fascinating. The other pictures are of Lauren in a beautiful big church we visited, David and I trying to synchronize-jump (and not quite succeeding) in front of said church, and David and Chen Chen relaxing while taking a herbal foot bath.




One of the requirements of my job is to teach at an English camp twice a year. So this winter, I and a few co-workers packed up and headed to a sleep-away camp at the top of a mountain, where we were trapped for a couple weeks. At first it seemed like a prison; we weren't allowed to leave, there was no heat or hot water, the food was barely edible, and the duty hours were looooooooooooong (8am to 10pm). But whatever, everyone made the best of it. After a couple days, everyone got comfortable, and it was a really great atmosphere at the camp. I can't believe how quickly the students bond... I mean, by the 5th day of camp (when the first group was finished) the students were all bawling as they said their goodbyes to the teachers and each other. It didn't help that at goodbye time they gave a series of corny speeches and blasted sappy love music in the auditorium. So though most everyone was crying, I couldn't help but laugh at the sight of groups of 7th-grade boys huddled together, sobbing and hugging--forgetting that they'd be seeing each other at school on Monday. All in all it was a fun experience though



Lauren and I made a trip to Muju Ski Resort, about a 2-hour bus ride from Busan. I wasn't expecting much, but I was really impressed by how big and nice the resort was. There were like 12 lifts and a good variety of runs. Of course, Lauren and I didn't know we were going on the busiest day of the year, so it was absolutely packed. Combine that with the fact that it was Lauren's first time snowboarding (going was slow, but she gave her best...muah!), and you can imagine we didn't get many runs in. But it was a beautiful day, and at the top of the mountain there was this cool pagoda we checked out. I wish I had more pictures of the day, but I do not have any.



Another part of my job is having to go on "cultural experience trips" every once in a while with the other teachers in my program. So this trip was to a traditional village, where we made masks and paper fans, ate a traditional meal, had a tea ceremony, and played traditional games. It was sort of more of a thing designed for pre-schoolers, as "making" the fan involved nothing more than gluing a couple bits of paper to an already-made fan. Not to mention the lady in charge kept "helping" us, which was quite humiliating. Thanks for your help, lady; without your guidance I might have glued my hands together and ate the fan. These pictures are of some co-workers wearing traditional Hanbok. The guy in red is Stevie, and the girl in the middle is Angela. They're the other two teachers I teach with on a daily basis in the library. The other teachers (seen participating in the tea ceremony) are at different schools or centers around Gijang County.


That's all for now. Love!

Time Flies

Today I promised Dad that I'd put up a post. He's the one who, the last (and first) time we talked on Skype, finally convinced me that the sock story was pretty monotonous. True... I guess I've sort of unintentionally pushed the idea that my socks are pretty important, considering they--the most-recently mentioned anything from my life--have played the star role on my blog for the last several months. They still come out inside-out, but never mind that; it's been way too long since I've posted.

I think I've been neglecting the habit of posting to my blog because I've been convincing myself that I've had nothing interesting to provide. I'll attempt over the next few days to prove myself wrong. I've only been proven wrong once in my life though, so it may be difficult. (It turns out armadillo urine doesn't glow in the dark.)

That's all for now. Not because I'm too lazy, but because I'm in the process of gathering/uploading pictures, sorting ideas, and crafting my anecdotes. However, I promise they will come over the next little while. But for now, I leave you with the most awesome sign ever:



In Korean, it says "Gae dan jo shim", which I believe means "please attempt to fly backwards up the stairs with your body at a 90-degree angle, meanwhile jabbing out with your fist to the front and your elbow to the back so as to block (and destroy) any other like-minded individuals who enjoy traveling diagonally in this fashion."

New post soon. Annyong!