Open Class

Over the last month John and I each had one "open class" where other English teachers, in addition to the principal and vice principal, sat and watched us teach a class.  The class is also video taped, and the video is sent to the local office of education.  If we get high marks from teachers, administrators and students, we move on to round two.  This doesn't actually mean a whole lot except if we did well in the second round then we would get a bonus if we stayed a second year.

One of the teachers at my school took a photo with her cell phone. And John's teachers got a few more.

Me helping a student.  This is my English Reading Class.  We're reading Lord of the Flies, and students were asked to do a newscast regarding the events of Chapter 7.

The rest are from John's school.

The Gilroy of South Korea

Early Saturday morning John and I headed out on a school district organized "theme trip" to a garlic festival on an island about 2.5 hours away.

The welcoming committee. 

Garlic art exhibition.  

More garlic art.  The petals are actually made of shaved garlic cloves.

Garlic sculpture using the stalk of the garlic.

Weaving with garlic strands.

This was the closest thing to a carnival ride.  This man has you turn the handle, toasting the rice inside.

When it's toasted, he opens the hatchet and the influx of air causes the rice to pop (with gusto).

Popped rice for everyone!

Next, we ventured over to the garlic fields.

We then proceeded to scour the garlic field for "notes."  For the first 3 minutes were were very enthusiastic, but we lost our gusto by the end of 15 minutes or so.

But then we got to pick garlic.  Yes!

Our bounty.  The reason John's not looking at the camera is that many Koreans came over to take a photo of the silly Westerner with a mound of garlic.

Apparently, in addition to being known for it's garlic, Namhae, is also a popular kayaking destination.  We were only out for a short time, but were very happy to be out in a kayak.

After a looong bus ride back to Busan we stashed our garlic in a subway locker instead of carrying it around with us all evening.  Although, when we eventually took it back home on the bus we received many a quizzical stare and hearty laugh.

Name that fruit/vegetable

Frequently when we eat lunch at school, or dinner at a restaurant, the question of "What is that?" will come to us.  Sometimes it comes with a smile on our face, and sometimes a less pleasant look.

About a month ago the roadside trucks started selling a lot of what I thought were lemon cucumbers.

Right?  I couldn't understand why there were soooo many though.  Till a friend enlightened me.  It's not a cucumber, it's a sweet melon!

Yummmy.  Emboldened by this revelation I bought another mysterious fruit/vegetable.

Another success!

The skin is so thin you just need a vegetable peeler.

Scoop out the insides.

And then you have delicious melon.  Yes!

Pour Your Own Doubles

10 minutes ago John exclaimed while surfing on the internet for things to do tonight, "Ahhhh!"  Turns out he saw a photo of me screen captured from a YouTube video on a random website.

A couple Friday night's ago we were out with the ultimate team at "The Wolfhound" an Irish pub in Busan.  The bar was having a special of "Pour Your Own Doubles."  When I went up to get my drink a guy with a small camera asked if he could film me narrating the process for a promotional video.  I said yes, and proceeded to enthusiastically describe the process.

In my defense he cuts out the part where I explain that you can pour yourself more than a "double shot", thereby making it worth your while.

Happy Wednesday!

Moon-tan

Our Saturday's usually begin with a big breakfast and perusing the "Busan Haps Magazine".  It's basically like checking the local weekly paper for happenings about town.  The magazine comes out 6 times a year, but the online content is updated frequently.  Saturday morning I came across "Moon-tan Road Walk".  The site with more information was clearly translated from Korean into English but piqued my interest with things like, "In the Haeundae district to publicize the Moon Tan road, we celebrate events of walking on Moon Tan road meditation experience and events of together."  Sounds delightful right?

I was surprised first off by the fact that our small group were the only western people there.  I realize I should not be surprised by things like this any more, but I am.

View from part of the walk.

After a more urban beginning to the hike, we came upon a more wooded hiking trail.

After hiking for maybe 30 minutes we arrived in an amphitheater and were given these excellent seat cushions to sit on. 

We never figured out why many of the people had these yellow vests on.

These kids performed a rad dance routine.  And then they did the exact same dance routine again. ???  Each time the song began with, "Are you ready to get F*d up?".  Whoa.

We were then taught a dance.

And then proceeded to play some team building games.

The festivities ended with a saxophone and violin duo with pre-recorded backups.  

I was expecting a reflective, meditative walk, on the evening's theme, "family".  As is usually the case here, I was pleasantly surprised by what actually took place.

Sports Day

Friday was sports day at my school.  The weather cleared up just in time for a magnificent day.  The festivities were held at Shilla University, about a 10 minute drive from our school.  Here are some photo highlights of the day.

We jumped rope.  The guy is my counterpart foreign English teacher for the freshman.  He was very impressive at jump rope.

You'll notice the adorable matching shirts that each homeroom picked out for the day.

I still haven't figured out if these bows are worn to be silly or not.  I've seen women my age wearing these walking down the street.

There was a rousing game of kickball.

Tug-a-war.

This is me practicing my Korean hacky-sack.  

Probably the strangest activity was as a homeroom they raced from one end of the field to the other walking on each other's backs.

As soon as your back was walked on, you moved to the front of the line to continue the chain.

Here  are some of my students.

Happy Birthday Buddha

On Tuesday we celebrated Buddha's birthday. According to Wikipedia,  "In all east Asian countries, except Japan beginning in 1873, it is held on the 8th day of the 4th month in the Chinese lunar calendar, and the day is an official holiday."  Unlike in America where we're used to national holidays on Mondays, here if a holiday falls on a Tuesday, that's when it shall be celebrated.  So Tuesday was a school holiday and we went to Beomeosa temple to check out the action.

When we looked online before heading out to get directions from the subway if recommended either taking a taxi or a bus.  Fortunately I was able to convey to a nice looking man on the street where we wanted to go and he proceeded to show us the hiking trail to the temple.  Much better.  You'll notice the rest stops along the trail.

At the top we were greeted by free bibimbap.  Yes! 

While this art project may have been intended for children, I really enjoyed it!

Check out what I made.

On the way back to the subway we couldn't pass up a "twist potato." Yummy fried goodness.

As we came up from the subway, we were strangely greeted by a Mexican band.  What?  Dynamic Korea.