An afternoon in Sangju

Spring has arrived in South Korea! This is actually the only snow I have seen since I've been here. We got to leave school early on Wednesday to go on a teacher field trip to a  park in a city called Sangju, witch is about 40 mins north of Gumi.

Close up of the melting snow. It must be a fountain or something ????

Some Korean general, don't remember his name =P

Two wooden sculptures on the top of the hill

Haha forgot to rotate this one but to much work to go back and do it (Sorry Grandpa Lucky. I should listen when you tell me not to turn the camera!) If you turn your head you will see Mi Sun and I.

View from the top of the hill. They are developing the river to help prevent flooding, that is why all the sand is there.

This place is called Gyeongcheondae and it overlooks the Nakdong River.

Some of the teachers at the school.

This says Gyeongcheondae in Korean

This is a summer pavilion overlooking the river.

I think this is a WARNING: danger if you go to close to the edge sign haha

Those are some of the male teachers though the door of a traditional Korean house

This is me and yes I know I look really tired! I had to "teach" (more like yell) at the third graders right before we left so I was ready for a nap. Those boys are so bad =P

I got to cross one of those bridges like you see in the movies!

Sanju is famous for Beef in Korea. We ate at the nicest beef restaurant, and this plate of meat costed 50,000 won, aprox. $50. I don't even know how much the bill was.....outrageous I'm sure.

So I stuffed myself with bulgogi and other delicious Korean food. I ate way too much here.

Bottle of Soju, (rice wine) It is pretty good actually. I had to drink shots with the Vice Principle haha. It was a good time. I think I will fast the rest of the week though.

Dinner at Mi Sung's

Friday night Mi Sung (a teacher at my school) invited me to dinner at her house. She has a certificate it Korean cooking that took about a year to get. She is in my English for teachers class after school. I got to meet her three kids. They are a sweet family, and she is so kind.

She made bulgogi (beef, green onions and more yummy stuff) chap chae, as well as some rice and banchan (side dishes) They were amazed at my chopstick skills lol. They told me that I must be Korean haha. I said I am a Koren at heart! It was such a good dinner and now I don't need to eat for the rest of the weekend!

My Awesome Students and Icecream

Some of my third grade girls. They are super cute!! =D

They really love getting their picture taken.

They like to come bug me when I'm doing lesson plans. They only know a little English so they say "Hello, how are you? Nice to meet you TOO" We learned how to say nice to meet you too, but they can't figure out when you say "nice to meet you" and "nice to meet you too" lol

This is the fourth grade class playing a game. They are really bright and also a bunch of characters.

Especially this guy! He is really funny. One day he was trying to open glue, but the cover was stuck. He eventually got the cover off and I told him "Oh wow! Your strong." Now every time I see him he has to show off his muscles to me.

These are some fifth grade girls. They like to stand around me, but are never sure what to say lol.

More 5th graders.

Some shy students.

Can you see me hiding?

These are my naughty 5th grade boys. They were all hiding from the camera because I was giving them a hard time.

Here are some more third graders. I teach them by myself after school. They are off the wall but so cute! They are all very eager to learn English, but sometimes we have a hard time because they want to communicate with me, but my Korean is worse than their English so no one is ever on the same page haha.

These two were copying me and taking pictures with their camera phones. They leave their phones in a basket in the teachers office all day, but because it is an after school class they get them back. They like to text a lot so I am always snatching phones.

We have some nice pop up books at school so the students like to look at them. They can't read them though.

"Hello Ms Kara!" These guys came to say hello to me at the bus stop on their way home from taekwondo.

Bet you were wondering about the ice cream?? another wonderful thing about Korean heated floors is that if your ice cream is hard you can just leave it on the floor for a couple mins and it is good to go!

A Saturday at Geumo Mt

Geumo Mt. Reservoir

Small Mt

Swan paddle boats and one lone and ugly dragon.

Ajummas And Ajoshis walking

Erik trying to push over a rock tower

more mountains!

ME

Trail up to the reservoir.....sorry for the boring pictures but it was kinda hazy and the light is not so good! It's cooler when your there!

Korean co-teachers and Korean Strawberries

My co-teacher Ally!! She and I teach he 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th graders.

This is Jenny. We don't actually teach together, but we are good friends. She has pretty much saved my life here. She is wonderful!

Teachers cooking sam bab. The teaching staff went out for a welcoming dinner for all the new teachers. You cook the pork at the table,  wrap it up with rice, some sesame oil, the meat, and other goodies in nice fresh lettuce (there are a nice variety as you can see in the other picture) Then put the whole thing in your mouth. Supper tasty!   

Korean strawberries are so freaking good! They are soooooo sweet. The guy at the store took 1000 won (that's about a dollar)  off for me! He must be nice to me cause I go in there all the time =D