Geumosan In The Fall

Last Sunday Erik and I hiked Geumosan. The trees are mostly coniferous, but there were some nice reds and yellows.  

Taking a rest. I broke out the winter hat for the hike

In the summer there is usually a waterfall here, but it hasn't been raining much so the stream is pretty dry. 

It was kinda cool to see these big rocks because they are usually covered by water. I went swimming in this pond this summer, but now there is no water. 

The steps going down the mountain. Look familiar Kyle?  

Erik looking out at Gumi. 

Saturday in Daegu

A couple Saturdays ago, Jenny and I went to Daegu to do some shopping, check out a coffee expo, and go to my new favorite place in Korea, Costco! First we went out to lunch at a really busy western restaurant. We had to wait like 30 mins so we went shopping and came back.  

Downtown Daegu. 

After lunch we went to the coffee expo. There was only a hour left by the time we got there.  I was hoping to buy some good coffee, but it was $7 for a tiny bag, so I think I will just stick it out and drink my nasty instant coffee for a couple more months.  Here is Jenny taking pictures of all the cakes. 

Dutch Coffee

The first two characters say coffee, or "coppee" in Korean. They don't have an  /f/ sound. 

Jenny checking out the coffee berries. 

Some Korean coffee enthusiasts.  

Gyeongju Worl Culture Expo

October 7th we had a school trip to the Gyeongju World Culture Expo. Since Ally and I don't have our own class, we were designated to help watch the 1st graders! 

It was one of the last days of the festival so many schools were there that day. It was crazy! Kids everywhere. 

Here is one of my first graders. I am sure you recognize him from other posts haha. 

Kara the Shilla Queen. 

Rock, paper, scissors...or in Korean  kawi, bawi, bo! 

3-D movie time! 

Gyeongju tower. 

The school leader's mom made a huge box of kimbap for the teachers lunch. 

I guess this guy needed more coffee haha. He was knocked out and all the kids kept running over and trying to touch him. He slept though a lot of screaming. 

More of my smiley first grade kids. 

And Lee Hak Joo....

He will be the president of Korea someday lol. 

Andong Mask Festival

Last month Erik, my co-teacher Jenny, and I went to Andong to check out the mask festival. We didn't end up seeing any traditional masks, but there were some other interesting things. One of the first things we saw was an old folk exorsisim.  

Here the ladies are helping the "priest" put on his gear. 

Then they drug out this fermented pig. I guess it is some kind of sacrifice...I really didn't know what was going on. There was a lot of music and he cut it open with his big knife.   

Then he was doing some ritual stuff with the knife. You can see another pig in the foreground and a bottle of soju.

And he continued to do more strange things to the pig...

He started to pull out all the guts and took a bite out of the kidney....it was not very appetizing. We decided we didn't want to see the end and what he would do with the rest of the pig insides....so we moved on. 

It was pretty crowed that day because of the three day weekend. We didn't really visit any of the booths, but mostly just walked around. 

It was really sunny! 

We didn't get to see many performances because the last bus left early and we had to get back to Gumi. The one we did see was really awesome though. It was about an old fisherman. 

Gion Performances

My After School Classes

Look at these crazy guys! This is one of my after school classes composed of first and second graders. We had to take some pictures to decorate the school for parents day so I thought I would just post some on here for fun. We have been learning the B.I.N.G.O. song. Now I am trying to teach them Old MacDonald but they keep singing bingo because the rhythm is so close. 

They don't like their picture taken haha. 

We always play an alphabet game at the end of class. If they can get 10 letters correct then they can go home. 

Everyone show me your letters!

Wow he's scary...

None of these kids have any teeth!

Can you believe that I actually got them ti sit down and work quietly? 

Thumbs up! 

I made them animal balloons at the end of class. 

He was laughing because his dog had a long tail. 

Kim Tae Oo the pirate 

Making balloons took to long so my second after school class helped me out. 

Kim Tae Won wanted a dog. This is one of the first times I've seen him smile! 

I tried to teach the older kids how to make balloon animals, but then one of them popped and they wanted me to finish the rest haha. 

I make them do work too...

But mostly we like to play games. I don't think this was a Jenga game, but it is now! 

They stayed an extra 10 minutes because they wanted to play, ut then I wanted to go so I pushed it over and they got mad at me haha. 

Here is me teaching the sixth graders. They have been really quiet lately so they are not that fun to teach. 

They are using the dictionary to translate words.