The Last Post



Been pretty busy running around Malaysia and trying to return home. Thought I would conclude this blog with as few pictures of my last days in South Korea. Didn't have much going on the last month of school. We finished up the text book and then just watched movies. I also cleaned the classroom like three times. Here is my last afterschool class with the first and second graders. It was an intense game of Jenga!



The sixth graders had their graduation. I think this was the hardest part at the end of the year for me. Almost shed a tear.

Goodbye photo.

Me getting mad at Jenny for laying down Uno cards that were not in my favor!

They don't look to trilled haha.

My last visit to the Korean doctor. I went twice a week for acupuncture and massage. I will miss these guys!

Erik and I had one last trip to the market for teokboki. She looks very happy to have our money hehe.

Goodbye cold and ugly Korea, Hello warm and beautiful Malaysia! This is the beach behind one of the hostels I stayed in.

Didn't want to leave this island. I stayed over a week. Messed up my travel plans, but who cares. It was amazing.

Only Two More Weeks in Korea...

Only a week and a half of school left. The weather has been really nice lately, so I think Spring is on the  way. But it doesn't matter anyway because Feb 28th I will be on a plane to Malaysia! Yay beach. Cute little Buddha on the front of a door.

Jenny, her friend Kelly, and I went out for dinner one Friday after school. 

I didn't end up doing too much on my winter vacation.  Erik and I climb to the waterfall in Geumosan. I really like that mountain haha. The weather has been nice, so I enjoy being outside.

We walked around the temple.

A little Buddha figure sitting on a back wall. 

Cute Banner.

Guardians at the front entrance of the temple. 

Rissa, check out his ukulele!

A nice bamboo painting hiding in the ceiling. 

A monk making his rounds. 

A Bodhisattva perhaps? 

A sign while walking near a construction zone. Maybe if you can read the sign than you are approaching? 

Erik and I also went to the National Museum in Seoul for the day. Lucky we saved one of the coldest days of the year to walk around the nice warm museum! I took a lot of pictures, but I won't make an art history lecture out of my blog again hehe. 

Here are some caskets made of clay. Half of the body would lay in one and then another one would fit over the remaining half. 

Ceramic horse from the Shilla Period, about the 6th century. 

REALLY tall pagoda.

We were at the museum on Lunar New Year, so there were a few people dressed in Korean traditional hanbok. 

Old Korean flag. The symbol in the middle is called  Taegeuk. If you are interested in the symbolism you can read about it on wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taegeuk  

Portrait of an official. 

Erik taking a break. The museum was a really nice size.  Big enough to spend a day there, but not overwhelming. You can pretty much see everything with one trip.  

Yay old pottery. This is an example of Korean buncheong ware. It is known for its  unrefined and coarse surface.

A big contract would be these two white porcelain bowls. Image holding these when you eat your cereal! 

On the way home we were sitting on the KTX and the lady did the weather in her hanbok. It kinda gets in the way of the map I think haha. 

Erik and I took a random day trip to Daegu to visit this old poets house. 

Some herbs drying in the sun.  We were walking down Yangyeongsi, the traditional medicine street in Daegu. 

I'm sure you are wondering what this picture is about and why I am taking pictures of garbage...but I really love those peach cylinders with holes. They are the ashes of coal used for heating. They are all over the place. 

Beverage delivery truck at at a restaurant near my house. Mostly just soju and beer, but there is some soda too. 

Downtown Gumi.

When I was walking  one night I took some pictures of the menu balloons outside the many barbecue restaurants on the way to my house.  

My apartment on the right.  Hopefully I will get a few more blog posts this week. I am trying to take some last minute pictures. Otherwise look for some Malaysia pics if I can find the time there! 

OMG!!!! Desk Warming is Driving Me Crazy!! I Miss Camp!

I am on my second day of desk warming. This is what I look like right now, and it is only noon.  I  thought I would occupy myself and post some random pictures. 

This is Kim Tae Woo, one of my first grade students. He came in yesterday and showed me that he lost his first tooth. He told us that his dad did the ol' pull the tooth out by closing the door trick. 

This is my shrine to the Korean gods of electricity. Haha last night I was cooking dinner and when I pulled the rice cooker plug out of the wall, the power went out! I had to call my co-teacher, who then had to call the landlord, who then had to have her call me back and so on and so forth. All these problems would have been fixed if I could speak Korean and called him myself. The best part is that the landlord wanted to tell Erik where the breaker was instead of me, but because Erik was out getting a pizza, he had no choice but try to explain to a girl how to flip a switch....  

On my to school this morning, I took a few shots of the mural along the hill toward my school. 

I especially love these guys! All the holes in the wall are drain pipes because our school is on the side  of the mountain. This summer I looked inside one of the holes as I was walking up to school, and the hole was full of like 2000 little centipedes! I don't know why I am writing that on here, but it was very unsettling. 

Hehe I just snapped a picture of Jenny taking a nap. 

Here are a few pictures from our Winter Camp. We didn't do topo many fun things like Summer Camp because we spent all the money. 

Playing some games. 

Lets test your English! 

He was trying to spell zigzag. 

On the last day we made candles. 

Even I made one.