So I seem to be doing these about once a month now, which is fine with me! Not too much news to announce lately. The weather is getting colder, but still not bad at all. I am going to Thailand in 12 days so I am very excited for that. I did have an exciting visit to the hospital last week due to my 3rd episode with kidney stones. The stones and I have parted ways now, and all is well! hahaha. After I get back from Thailand I'm sure I will have many pictures for you all to see, but for now I have added some random pictures from my cellphone you can check out. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and miss you all!!

Halloween Weekend!!

What you are about to see is very scary! Be warned, you might have nightmares of the Zombie teacher! Hahaha. So Korea does not really celebrate Halloween. The only exceptions being places where foreigners can be found, such as english schools and waygukin (korean term for foreigner) halloween parties. Lucky for you I have pictures of our school's Halloween party, which was the entire day on friday Oct 30. We had decorated several classrooms with the holiday theme, but foreign teachers were in charge of the playroom. With mostly black plastic garbage bags we were able to transform the playroom into a haunted house for all the kindergarten and elementary students. Now normally I wouldn't take joy in children crying, but on Halloween it seemed to be the exception. Is that bad? hahaha. Actually this week some of the students were still afraid of me, thinking I am still a zombie. Anyway, the party was a success.

On Halloween, during the daytime, I also went with a couple Korean girls I recently met to Taejongdae. This is a popular tourist location, situated on the coast with steep, high cliffs and a lighthouse. Unfortunately by the time we arrived it was getting dark already and so the only good pictures I got were with the girls who had accompanied me.

Well, well, well...it has been a while! Summer has come and gone, fall is beginning, and I have now been here 7 months! I can't believe it. Time flies. Since my last post, nothing too major has happened, which explains the lack of posts. We just had our open class last week, which meant all the parents came in to observe our lesson for the day. There was also a video camera and photographer. It was my second time so I wasn't as nervous, and my kids did great! All the parents were happy and thats what matters, because they pay big bucks to send their kid here.

I am putting up a link to some new photos. I recently went with some friends to Yonggungsa temple. Unlike most Buddhist temples here, which are normally on a hill or mountain, this one is on the ocean side. I guess the name and history of it has to do with dragons. Here is a quote I found about it: The temple is located on spectacular rocky outcrop just meters from the sea. Haedong Yonggungsa (palace of the dragon) which was built in 1376 was named when the priest Jeongnam had a dream about the Great Goddess Buddha. In the dream, the Buddha wore white robes and rode on the back of a dragon, which was emanating a five-color beam. It is known as a mysterious place where anybody can have their wishes granted through serious prayer.

I thought I did this already!

Pictures from the Philippines are up now. Click the link below and enjoy :)

Philippines!!

Ok, so it rained half the time, and I wasn't able to visit the places I used to live, but I still had a great time! Since I wasn't able to catch the boat to go see old friends, I spend all my time in Cebu, specifically Mactan Island. The hotel was nice, great pool. I spent the first few days by myself just relaxing, getting tan/sunburned, shopping, making friends with the locals, and even got a nice $10 massage. Then two coworkers, Ashlee and Kamara, flew in from Korea and met up with me. I got the better days as far as the weather, it rained more when they came. But we hung out at the beach, pool, took multicabs (like mini-jeepneys) into town, went shopping, sightseeing, and even went to a couple dance clubs the last night in Cebu city. I had a lot of fun and definetely want to go back again while I live on this side of the world. P.S. the video is on a multicab ride from our hotel to the city of Lapu-Lapu. Enjoy!

This and That...

Sorry everyone, I didn't realize it had been so long since I updated this thing! I can sum up July so far with one word....Rain. I guess Korea has a rainy season, and so we've had like 2 days of sun this month. They say it should be finished by August I think, so thats good. I go to Philippines next week too, where rainy season is in full affect, so I'm crossing my fingers there is some decent weather. I added some new pictures here also so you can click and check them out. Yesterday I went to dinner with some coworkers to a nice seafood place. We had shrimp, fish, sushi, sea cucumber, and I even had my first experience with whale and live octopus! The whale is actually pretty good. The octopus was the tentacles that had been cut up, but were still moving when we ate them! hahahaha I was a little nervous but I just chewed as fast and many times as I could to make sure it wasn't moving anymore. They told us if you don't chew it enough it might still move and stick to the inside of your throat, but I had no problem. And it didn't taste that bad either! haha. I also put some pictures from our last field trip to the beach with all the kindy kids. Enjoy!

Haeundae Beach Sand Festival

Haeundae Beach, pronounced hey-oon-day, is home to many events, especially in the summer. Last weekend I went with my Korean friend Catherine and her best friend to the sand festival. Her friends boyfriend later met up with us. As you can see there were many cool sand sculptures, but only one that might be considered a sand castle. More like a sand pyramid. This is the same beach we usually play volleyball on. I haven't played in a couple weeks, but I have been playing basketball at a local university with some other foreigners and Koreans.

Anyway, check out the pics on the link.

Beomosa Temple, etc

Wow it has been a while! Sorry everyone! To be honest I haven't been to that many cool places the last couple weeks that were picture worthy at least. I am adding the pics from a couple weeks ago at the Beomosa Temple for Buddhas birthday. We had to hike so far up the road to get there I was exhausted when we reached the top but it was worth it. Since then I have been staying pretty close to home on the weekends and such. I go to the beach whenever I can because I love the beach and am trying to work on my tan for the summer! Also, next week will be three months for me here, I can't believe it.

Happy Birthday Buddha!

This weekend I visited one of the local Buddhist Temples with my new friend Catherine. Yes, she is the one I've been out with a few times now. Anyway, you can see in the slideshow that the temple looks very festive. This is all for the big guy's birthday, which is a holiday next saturday, May 2. If you see all the paper lanterns hanging with writing hanging from them on ribbons, those are peoples names and wishes.

So last weekend my new best friends (don't worry, the ones back home aren't being replaced, just think of it as proxy) took a trip to Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Friday night we took the KTX bullet train from Busan to Seoul. The only problem was we took a 9pm train and apparently it was the silent sleeping train. We were enjoying ourselves, talking, but not too loud, and playing cards. Well, the train workers came by like 6 times to tell us to be quiet and wouldn't even let us play cards. But, we eventually got there just before midnight and went out to explore the city a little before crashing at our hostel.

Saturday we took a subway and then a bus to go play paintball with a bunch of other foreigners. (This was the main reason we came up.) It was pretty fun, they had a nice course laid out. That night we went to Itaewon, which is like the big foreigner area of Seoul. It was so weird because there were so many waegooks (foreigners). It didn't even seem like we were in Korea. We got a nice steak dinner though at a place called Hollywood Bar & Grill. Then we were exploring the area and walked up the wrong road which was where the hookers were out on corners. Female and Shemale variety.

The next day we visited a really cool palace called Changgyeonggung Palace. Supposively there was a zoo there when the Japanese controlled the area. But it was huge and very cool! After that we hit Seoul Tower. There were cable cars that took you to the top where there was a space needle-looking tower, but that cost extra so we stayed where we were. Despite the smog there were still some great views. By this time we had to leave to catch our train home. Oh and we met a French guy at our hostel who is going to school in Japan but was on vacation in Korea. He hung out with us all weekend. Nice guy!

Sports week!!

I'm a little slow this week, but wanted to say a little about our volleyball tourney last weekend. On saturday we were scheduled for the first game, which was 10am! Early for many of us here, especially my teammates that drank the night before! Anyway, we lost the first game and had to wait about 2 hrs or so until our next game. It was double elimination and about 15 teams were in it. But....we came back and beat everyone else to get to the championship game, which was between 5 or 6 pm already! The team we played in the final game was the team that beat us the first game of the day, and they beat us again...barely...both times barely! So we took 2nd but all had a good time.
It was really odd being at this nice Korean beach with a ton of foreigners...and some Koreans watching as well. Also, it was only like 60 degrees or so, but sunny all day, and I got sunburned! Next time I'll bring sunscreen!

Also...last week we went to a soccer game...it was Busan vs JeJu...which is a smaller island off the south coast. There aren't that many people at the game, but it was fun. Its the same stadium the World Cup was held in 2002. And it was funny to see people eating ramen noodles at a game!

Good times!

This has been a great weekend! On saturday I met up with this girl Meryl who I met on facebook actually. Haha. She came to Korea about the same time as me and we decided we both like volleyball so we put together a beach volleyball team for a tournament next week. So anyway, I met her and then a few of her friends came and this other girl that I had recruited for our team. We thought there would be a net set up at Haeundae beach because they supposively play every weekend, but there wasn't! So we made a imaginary court and played anyway! It was fun though!

After that we ventured over to a littl taco place, which is hard to find here! It was actually pretty decent Mexican food for being in Korea. After that Meryl, this other guy Bob and I went to the Aquarium. It wasn't that big of an aquarium but it was pretty cool. I guess you can go swimming with the sharks, but we didn't do that! After that we met up with a bunch of other foreigners and went to a couple bars and I met lots of interesting people! Good times!

Oh...click on the picture link at the bottom for new pics of all this.

The New Feeling of Soda Beverage!

MILKIS.....I'm not sure if you can read it well in the picture, but I tried this new drink today. I stopped at the local place I buy groceries, Hangul Mart, which is a tiny little store a short walk down the street, and got some milk and a few other items. Basically what they did is take your everyday milk, and add sugar and carbonated water, so its like this sweet soda. If it sounds weird its because it is weird. But it is sooo good! I highly recommend it!

New Pictures now available!! Check 'em out!!

I got jabbed in the arm!...and it was still a great day!

So I'm only on my 3rd full day here, and things are getting better everyday. I love it! Today in between a couple of my classes, our school director, who acts very nervous and speaks very little english, took me to the hospital. Don't worry (dad), its all part of the deal in coming here! I had an eye test, hearing test, blood test, urine test, and chest xray. It all took about twenty minutes. Very efficient and clean hospital.
Then....today after work three other teachers and I took a cab to Home Plus, which is like a big department store here, because we all needed some stuff. The coll thing is we are all four from different countries, Canada, Australia, U.K., and the U.S. But they are all really cool kids. I got some Korean food, some "western" food, a drying rack for my clothes (we have no dryers), and slippers for work (you have to take of your shoes when you enter a building).
Overall it was a great day and I'm starting to like it more each day!

Wow, I am in Korea!

So I arrived Monday night in Korea, and it has been a crazy rollercoaster ride ever since! I got into Busan around 8pm, and recruiter brought me to my apartment, where my new boss met to let me in the apartment. The very next morning, with no time for training or rest from the 13-14 hour trip, I was thrown into the classroom.
Its so funny because in preparing to come here, I worried about everything else EXCEPT the one thing I should have: dealing with kids! I never thought kids were scary until now. Plus I there is a different teaching manual and lesson plans for each class, and there are about 8-10 classes a day. The classes only last 40 min each, but it is rough!! But I am still learning and will get better in time.
Anyway, overall I am happy I came and it is already an adventure that I will not soon forget!