School Festival Part 2

The second day of the school festival was filled with performances. In the morning was the talent show broken up into two categories: dance and song. In the afternoon the school orchestra performed, a few student debuted the films they made, 2 plays were performed (one in English and one in Korean), and of course the dance club performed K-Pop dance routines. These kids were amazing. I was particularly impressed by the dance routines. If I leave without having learned a K-Pop dance routine I will have failed. Here are a few photos.

If you can't tell that's cookie monster on their shirts.

This is one of my boys classes who formed a band. They are performing a rock version of, "All I Want for Christmas is You."

Yep. There were smoke machines and machines that shot fireballs into the air.

If you are guessing that the boy on the right does not have any pants on, you are correct. He was wearing a poncho that he designed himself. He wants to be a fashion designer when he grows up and he is the school darling, everyone adores him. The guy with the guitar, didn't actually play it, it was a prop. This is the singing portion of the day, and they are performing "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga.

Here is our school orchestra performing. 

School Festival Part 1

My students have been preparing all year for the school festival which was this past Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday was the carnival day in the gymnasium. I got my face painted, had a staring contest with a student (I won), had my fortune told, bought a pair of socks at the "flea market", and won a white-out pen. Here are a few photos from Wednesday, I'll post more from Thursday later. Get excited, Thursday was mostly K-Pop dance routine photos.

Our school gymnasium.

This is the bookmark decorating station. I decorated a bee bookmark for John. Behind the student is the "cocktail bar". The students running the booth made a concoction of blue Powerade and Coke. Not that tasty.

These are two of my students posing as Harry Potter and Hermione (they made the props).

Here is one of my students reading my palm. 

One of my students and me.

This was the throw darts at a balloon game and win a prize. However instead of darts we threw mechanical pencils. 

The chemistry lab was transformed! We had the opportunity to make fake snow and eat ice pops, frozen in front of us using dry ice.

This is a student explaining to me how to dunk my fingers in ethanol and then  light my hand on fire, and light the candles, then put my hand out in water. It was scary, but I did it.

Students melted sugar to create lollipops and then rolled the lollipops in sugar.

The Holidays

It was hard to be away from friends and family this last holiday weekend, but through the wonders of international mail and Skype we were able to connect to folks back home.

As any good holiday should be celebrated, we were able to eat good food and spend time with great people. Here are a smattering of photos from the last few days.

We visited a new local Korean bar. You'll notice the festive bar snacks: dried fish, sweetened dried green beans, and sweet corn chips.

Bowling. Not really that different.

We celebrated Hanukkah with latkes and matzo ball soup.

We made caramel popcorn.

Christmas eve we went to a friends house for a potluck.

And of course after the potluck we headed around the corner for some traditional Christmas eve karaoke.

This is John and I knocking Feliz Navidad out of the park.

These types of claw machines are everywhere. Up until Christmas the stuffed animals had eluded us, but, thanks to a Christmas miracle, we won a tiny stuffed frog!

Thanksgiving

Instead of heading to the local Sea Farerers club for a traditional Thanksgiving buffet, which we thought would offer an impersonal, poor imitation of Thanksgiving, we hosted a non-traditional, but very thankful meal at our house the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We re-arranged our house in order to fit our ten guests but everyone was sitting, and no one was on the floor! We made lots of tasty treats with an autumnal theme, though not necessarily "Thanksgiving".  Below is our menu from the night and a couple photos.

Drinks
Apple juice, pear juice, cinnamon juice and soju cocktail
wine! (thanks everyone)

Appetizers
red lentil roasted squash dip
roasted garlic and tomato dip
roasted red pepper hummus
crackers/bread/carrots

Main
roasted broccoli, pumpkin seed, green olive salad
carrot, apple, almond, tofu salad (thanks Craig!)
cream cheese mashed potatoes (thanks Christina!)
chickpea burgers with sweet potato and kale
creamed onions

Dessert
pumpkin cake
banana bread ice-cream (homemade by James, dairy free!)

Everyone gathered round.

Our friends Christina and Brittany. You can see the Christmas tree that I just put up, left behind by the previous tenants.

Champions!

John and I have been playing in the local frisbee league in here, competing against other local teams (excluding Seoul). Busan had enough people for 2 teams, and John and I have been playing on different teams. During the regular season my team had more wins, but John's team had a better point differential, and we knew that when our teams faced off it was going to be a really close game.

We faced each other in the quarter-finals and it was a back and forth game. I was disappointed to lose by one point, but John's team went on to win the championship! And for all our ultimate player friends who read this blog, I got a sick Callahan.  Here are some celebratory photos of the Republic of Korea Ultimate Champion's, Busan Heat!

Post Heat win, saying "good game" with the other team.

A mid-air jumping photo attempt.

#10 in the foreground, Seong Min, is constantly dancing during practice and on the line. So  he of course lead the celebratory dance party.

Champions!

Both Busan teams.

After attempting to find a cheap motel to stay in and failing, we decided to take the 2:45 AM train home. What better thing to do in the train station then play a little more frisbee?

Hunkering Down

You may have noticed that my posting rate has seriously declined lately. That's because we're hunkering down. No, North Korea has not invaded, but rather I am applying to graduate school. I debated about whether to write about this on the blog for fear that soon you will start asking me whether I have been accepted, and I might have to tell you no. But I've had conversations with Maggie (Hi Mags!) and my mom (Hi mom!), about how I think ultimately, it's important to share with people personal failures as well as personal successes. I think we all gain a lot knowing that our friends and family have walked challenging roads as well.

So I am applying to graduate school. I took the GRE's last month after many laborious hours of reviewing math calculations and vocabulary flashcards. The day I took the test I showed up at the wrong campus, asked person after person (who only spoke Korean) if I was in the correct place, skipped breakfast, ran to the closest subway station, followed signs that pointed in the wrong direction, and wandered until I finally latched onto a group of Koreans who knew where they were going. And then I took the test.

The test went well though. I have my score range which I am happy with (I will get my official score at the end of the month), and so in the next 2 months I will be sending off applications to 8 different schools across the U.S for Masters in Public Administration/Policy programs.

John is also in hunker-down mode. He is working on his art portfolio as he prepares himself for art school applications. I'll let him tell you more about that.

The combination of math problems, essays, and artistic endeavors, has meant that we aren't hiking as much, we aren't going on as many adventures, or trying as many new things. Thankfully there will be about a month and a half after I submit my applications for one last "embrace Korea month". I promise to keep you posted though.

Super Concert

Friday night John and I headed to the beach to enjoy our first K-POP (Korean Pop) concert. To say that K-POP is big here would be an understatement. John once asked one of his students with her headphones in, what she was listening to. He got a strange look and she replied, "K-POP" and couldn't fathom why he would ask such a stupid question.

Saturday night was the Busan Fireworks festival so all the popular bands were in town for a free concert on the beach. My new favorite band name is "Sistar" and my new favorite performer is "T.O.P". T.O.P has more of an edge to him, if only so slightly.

Although I had reserved tickets online, we got there late because of a dentist appointment so we were in the back.

No expense was spared.

Each band had matching outfits and coordinated dance moves.

This is the band "Sistar" performing their song, "So Cool".

I really enjoy the background for this song.

Here is T.O.P. You can't tell but he is slightly edgier.

The middle school students that I sometimes teach on Saturdays are huge fans of Shinee (pronounced Shiny).

Grandad

If you are one of the few people in my life who has not seen my Grandad's viral YouTube video, I strongly suggest you check it out. It will make your day. He's already appeared on two local television stations on the California central coast, and has fielded an "exploratory call" from the Rosie O'Donnell show. My mom says, the distribution has been predominantly through Yahoo mail, and not through social media, and it's number on in the U.S among 50-65 year-olds.

Would You Help Me

For some reason I just remembered this ridiculous song/video I made for a lesson on the phrase "Would you help me..." The lesson was kind of a flop, but I think the song stands up to the test of time.

Allergy Warning: This product contains trace elements of auto-tune.

It's the little things

Sometimes it's the little things that I try to take advantage of and appreciate about living in a different country. Often times when I am faced with a choice of things to buy I try to think to myself, what would I not be able to get in America. Sometimes that results in me having a persimmon smoothie instead of strawberry. Sometimes that's buying Aloe dish-soap instead of lemon. Last week I bought "Tiger Herb with bamboo salt" toothpaste instead of mint. It mostly tastes like baking soda.

Lantern Festival

Last Sunday John and I went to Jinju for their annual lantern festival. Our intention was to camp, but alas we were foiled by the bazillions of people there. Thankfully we were able to catch a bus home and sleep in our quiet, peaceful, warm (but not too warm) apartment.

Large lanterns floating on the river.

Cute kids posing in front of a lantern.

This photo was taken from I think the nicest park I've been to in Korea. It was an old fortress that has been restored into a lovely park.

Releasing lanterns into the water.

The lanterns were by far the coolest at night.

John just happened to catch the firework in this photo. Nice.