Saturday Teacher Trip in Mungyeong

First things first, thank you Grandma for sending some real pancake mix and more maple syrup!! I got to start off my day with some nice fluffy pancakes. They have pancake mix here, but I think that it must be made with rice flour or something because they are really thin and sticky =P But anyway I had to spend my Saturday going on a teacher trip, which I was not that enthused about. These pancakes helped start my morning of better. Thanks again Grandma!! 

So I had to go to school at 11:00 on my Saturday. I should probably not grumble about it because I won't be here much longer. I think of it as just work now, nothing special; so who wants to go out with their colleges on your day off! Anyway, we went to Mungyeong to go walk around a mountain. It was a really nice fall day to be outside. 

The trail was pretty easy. Not like a real mountain, so it was not hard to climb. 

Here is me pretending hike. Jenny and I were walking a lot faster than everyone else so we were just goofing around waiting for the other teachers to catch up. 

We walked around a mountain and ended up coming out of this gate. I was here once before for a ceramic festival, and the mountains were all covered in mist, so it looks like a totally different place in the Fall. 

The teachers made me dust my shoes off with the air gun. I don't really know what difference it makes because you have to continue to walk down a dust road for a while. 

These are the characters of Mungyeong . Omija is a little berry that they make into a tea and a wine. It has five flavors, and you are supposed to be able to tell your health by which flavor you can taste the most. It is really yummy! 

Halloween Party

The Friday before Halloween we had a little Halloween party for the kids. During class they can get stamps if they answer questions or if they do their homework. The kids who had 50 + stamps were invited to the party at lunch time. We did some crafts, had some costumes for them to wear, face painting, and then then they could come trick or treating by me and get a small basket of candy. Here are some of the third graders. 

Ally bought some Halloween decorations and we made some pumpkins out of balloons. 

Here are some 5th grade girls holding some of the crafts and candy baskets. We filled plastic gloves with treats to make hands, and made tootsie pop ghosts. 

Some sixth grade boys.  You can see a kid in the background looking in. They all wanted to come to the party, but they didn't have enough stamps. 

Fifth graders. 

And my cute third graders. 

The fourth graders. These girls are really pleasant and have such nice attitudes. 

The class clown.

And me with the 5th grade girls. They helped out with making crafts. 

And the 6th grade girls helped with face painting. It was a fun Halloween! They all had a hard time saying Trick or Treat though haha. 

Frisbee At the Beach

Our big Frisbee weekednd was in Busan two weeks ago. We had to play six games , 3 Sat and 3 Sun. Saturday it was raining all day so we were very wet. It wasn't so bad when we were playing because we were running around and keeping warm. We were soaking wet all day. Saturday was a much better day to play at the beach. It was really nice out. Here is our team doing our cheer..."Gumi Bears, Gumi Bears, Gumi Gumi Bears....YEEEESSSSSS Gumi!" Haha Yes Gumi is the slogan for our city and we always make fun of it. 

Nice and sunny on the sidelines. 

ME! and my funny braced ankle. I can't run haha. I am too out of shape. We were on defense, but me and this girl were talking and not paying much attention. 

I found all these pictures on the Frisbee Facebook page. I never took any of my own because I was always too busy. 

This is Brian. He is from Canada. 

Laz our team captian form Texas . 

Some Frisbee action! 

Arno is from South Africa. 

Paul is form London.

And this is his girlfriend Ali. She is my Sauna buddy! 

Alex is from Maryland. 

And we all know Erik. 

A nice sunset on the beach after a long weekend of Frisbee. 

So we won all of our games, and now we are in second place. Next weekend is the final game. We will have to play really hard if we want to get first place because all of the teams are really really good. None of us knows how we did so well. Haha beginners luck I guess. Anyway it was a blast and I will be sad when the league is over. So stay tuned for more Frisbee news.....

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.