Sunday, July 31, 2011

Samcheok


Well I am finally getting around to posting some more pictures of Kyle's trip. There are too many, and I am too busy lately so I haven't had a lot of time. I think it was the third weekend Kyle was here we went to the north eastern part of the country. We left at 12 am and took the overnight train to Samcheok. I don't think anyone slept much =) This is my favorite part of the country that I have been to so far. It is truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. On both side of the train all you can see are mountains and blue rivers. The water was so clear that you could see the rocks on the bottom from the train. 

After we got off the train we had to take a bus to Samcheok and then  another bus to the cave we were going to see. Here is Kyle in front of some old bark tiled roofs.

It was so hot that day that instead of hiking the mountain to get to the mouth of the cave we took the cable car.

Here we are at the entrance to Hwanseongul Cave.  It was  a huge relief to go walk in the cold cave and get out of the sun for a while.

Here is a stalagmite inside the limestone cave.

It was really hard to get a good picture because it was so dark. There are only a few lamps inside to light up key areas of the cave. The pictures can't even begin to show the size of the cave. I think it took us like an hour to walk around in it.




I don't know why but I think this is a really cool picture of Kyle You can kinda see the waterfall in the back and the metal stair way.

Me leading the way!

These are called popcorn stalagmites.

Neon Kyle.


It is kinda hard to see, but this is a rope bridge that crossed the river inside the cave.

Here you can kinda see a red outline around the deck that forms the shape of Korea.


I wish you could see how big this cave was!

Here is the view as we were coming down the mountain. I wanted to stay in the cave the rest of the day because it was nice and cold!

Kyle filling his water bottle with some cold mountain spring water.


More of the beautiful water. This would have been the perfect swimming hole.

After we got back to the city we got a hotel and then headed to the beach. Here are some of the fresh sea food restaurants on the shore line. 


You can see the tanks with fresh fish. mmmmm

Kyle got to swim in the Pacific! He was the only one who thought to bring his swimming shorts. He was pretty good entertainment.



Baywatch!

After Kyle had enough swimming we found a yummy shellfish restaurant to eat at. We sat at a picnic table with a grill in the middle. Then they lady brought out a nice plate full of a raw shellfish.


We watched her scoop our dinner out of the tanks.

Then we grilled until we were full.

After eating we went for a walked and explored the beach a little more. Here is the cartoon character of Samcheok. He looks like a little Korean vampire with a cave bat.

While walking we saw what I think looks like a Korean tree house being built.


Here is me after a long day of spelunking.



Erik and I thinking about the water.

Kyle has turned into Gollum


The next morning it was raining so we decided not to do anything. We had to catch the sea train back to the train station. It didn't really end up being that exciting though. It was to foggy to see the ocean, but it was nice none the less.

Here we are waiting for the train to leave back to Gumi. We were the only ones in the car for a while.It was a six hour ride back so we all got a nice nap after our expedition.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Weird Opera Assembly at School

This is probably the most random post I  have done so far. I heard that we are going to have an assembly, and it turned out to be this small opera company that came to our school. I don't really know their name but they were really good. I just thought that it was a weird thing to have kids watch,, but maybe they did it for free or something. It was so hot that day that the kids couldn't sit still for very long and lost interest pretty fast. I enjoyed it though, plus we got a break from class!

The first set they did was a traditional Korean love story and they sang  in Korean which was pretty cool. Then they did some famous Italian songs, but I don't know anything about opera so I don't know the names. I took some really bad short videos. I have to say they all did pretty well cause it was really hot up there and they all had to sit for an hour. 

Saturday, July 16, 2011

My 23rd Birthday and Korean Take-out



My favorite birthday present was that Kyle got to come to school with me and attract all the attention! Ally and Jenny surprised me with a cheese cake from Paris Baguette, and I made them sing Happy Birthday in Korean. 

Here is me really excited about the Korean song. I was also really hungry and wanted to eat the cake because I didn't have any breakfast. I think this is the earliest I have ever had birthday cake. after singing Kyle, Jenny and I brought some cake down to share with the Principal and the Vice Principal. I can also say I have never eaten birthday cake with chop sticks until now!


Thankfully Kyle was there to divert most of the attention away from me. No one really knew he was coming to school so he made quite a scene. Some of the fifth grade boys saw him when we first arrived and told him that he was very beautiful.
Slowly the word got around that Kara Teacher's brother was here and they all had to come take a look. Someone even asked for his autograph.

And then his fan club arrived..... The six grade girls all went crazy for him haha. All they could say was "Kyle handsome"

We were doing speaking testes that day so when we finished we put Sponge Bob on. I told Kyle to come in and watch and then all the kids wanted to go sit by him. Can you pick him out?

I think he started to get a little over whelmed being so famous.

Then it was time for lunch. A typical school lunch is rice, some kind of soup, and three different banchan, or side dishes. Not really sure if Kyle liked his lunch or not, but luckily they had chicken wings that day so I gave him mine.

Then we didn't have much to do the rest of the day. Here is Kyle playing on the computer. Later that day we judged an English speech contest. It was pretty funny. The kids were too cute and were trying too hard, so we gave them really high scores. After school, Ally took us out for dinner with her husband and daughter. Then later that night Erik came over and the three of us went out for pabingsoo, a Korean shaved ice cream like thing. Over all it was a pretty laid back birthday. It was really nice to have Kyle there to spend the day with me!

The next day Jenny came over after school and she ordered Korean take-out for us. I always have adds on my door, but I can never order because my Korean sucks and no one would know what I was trying to say! Korean take out is awesome because they bring all the food to you already on a plate or bowl. Then when you are done you just have to put it outside your door and they will come and pick up the dishes. It's nice because you don't have any dirty dishes or a bunch of garbage. I think America should take up this idea.

Kyle is getting mad cause I always take pictures of him eating.

So I just take more!

Here is Jenny eating. She helped me find this nice table at the market last month.

I finally got a picture of Kyle when he wasn't paying attention.