Discovery

Well, this weekend i found out a couple new things, mostly about Ulsan:

Ulsan has a beach, Ilsan Beach and its actually really nice
There's also a cool forest to trek through with fun rock "sculptures"
And i can get there by about 1 hour bus ride
Thers also a small gallery around here that had a fun "Kinetic art!"

And i also saw the last Harry Potter movie.  I learned that Harry Potter is kinda like Jesus Christ (Note: i did NOT say he is.  He merely has similar attributes).  There were so many Biblical references in the movie it was almost mind boggling.  A very good flick too.  I was impressed, i never read the books and i had a friend fill me in because i only got up to the fourth movie.

So heres some pics of a fun weekend:

We are now if the forest, and I dont remember its name.  

Ilsan Beach in the background

Typical.  just standing on another rock high is the sky.

"A gee ma"  old ladies. you can call them that too.  They set up umbrellas and have a "restaurant" and you can cook it right there.

(another post to come about about a-gee-mas)

lonely little rock

my photoshopped version

Kinetic art!

The column spun slowly around.  If you look at the negative shape in between you will notice a very very famous statue.  It was as if the "statue" was spinning.

this hand was huge! it came from the ceiling and you could control its movements.  The fingers would move up and down.

Im a puppet master, muahahaha.

This one had a sensor.  You put your hand in front of it and it would move, kinda like it was trying to reach your hand.

Typical of Korea.  Robots, guns (even though they are illegal there is a weird obsession) and pots 

(tee hee, the robots are pot heads, also illegal here ;).  

It was a fun refreshing weekend i also had duck san gibsol.  Which is like Korean barbecue and you cook duck.  It was tasty and filling, but i rather just have some beef.  It kinda tasted reminiscent of a mediocre sausage.  I doubt anyone would agree with me.  

This Sun i am off to China! Wow! time is flying!  I get my one week of summer vacation and then its straight back to work.  Thankfully the following weekend we have a three day weekend.  So we can recoup from China.  Im looking forward to seeing at least one of the "great" wonders of the world.  

Mud Festival 2011 part 2

Ok, so back to Mudfest.  We wake up a little later than expected, but we suit up, pack up and head on out the door rather quickly.  We drive over to the mudfest.  Four out of the five of us go back to play in the mud for  a second time.  This time we run in, get muddy then wait in line the climb up a giant wall just to slide down it.  It was pretty fun, we then waited in line for an obstacle course.  That too was pretty fun!  And afterwards we got really really muddy and asked our other friend to get his camera and take some photos of us to prove we actually played in some mud.  So he did, we got together and each made a letter to spell mud.  It was pretty fun!  We then ran into the ocean to rinse off.  We hang out for a bit and then swim out to a raft floating out a ways.  Our friend with camera decided to wade out in the water and take some photos.  We signaled him not to come any closer for the sake of his camera.  So he headed back.  There was a pretty strong current in the water too.  So, we all finally get out of the water and decide its time to get ready to go home, (or back to Ulsan).  We walk out of the water and our friend Josh tells us, "we dont have the key."

"what?!"

"We lost the car keys, it was in the plastic bag." (the guy with the camera had it, and he forgot they were in his pocket)

"Your joking right?!"

"I wouldnt joke about this."

Dramatic falling to the sand and into the tide.

"Nooooooooooooo"

I get up.  

"So what do we do?"

"Look for the key?"

"Ya, i guess so"

So we all scoured the beach for a good 30 min looking for a plastic ziplock bag that contained our rental car key, about 60,000 won (about $60) and a credit card.  We decided it was time to go the police.  Because we knew it was impossible.  So we go to the police, figure out what we can do and whatnot.  We wait for about an hour or so until anything really happens.  Then we decide we should call a locksmith so we can at least open our car.  At this time its about 1pm ish and we are hungry and in desperate need of sunscreen.  We have nothing except what we are wearing which isn't much.  

So, we wait about another hour for the locksmith to come.  He also can make a key on the spot.  A little creepy and frightening, yet awesome.  Its amazing the things you can do when there's no crime (or little crime).  Once the locksmith gets there we can open the car get dressed and out of a wet bathing suit.  Grab some money and some food.

So the total cost for our mistake is about 50,000 won (about $50).  So, between all of us its not a big deal.  It all worked out and wasn't too bad after all.

I can now say I have been stranded in a foreign country.  Wonderful.  

Even with that happening it was still a fun weekend. Its great to see more of Korea and all their festivals and to meet more people here.  

Intermission

Funny Story...

Friday we had a teachers meeting.  We have a meal together and then talk about what's going on in the school and plan for the next month (they talk mostly in Korean and fill me in when i need to know something).  One of our entrees was really delicious.  It almost looked liked a large salad you would pick up from New Frontiers.  It had cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, roast pork (yay!), red cabbage and what appeared to be noodles all covered in a delicious ginger dressing.  I ate a ton of it.  I ate the noodles, they weren't very soft like a normal noodle.  I had some more to give it a second try.  Still a little chewy.  I ask Joanne what are these noodle things.  She says, "Not noodle, jelly fish."  Uh, oh.  Cool. I ate jelly fish and didn't even know it.

So all week i have been mildly suffering from a horrific sunburn due to Mudfest.  And you will soon find out why i am so sunburnt.  Anyways, my skin is finally at the peeling stage.  My boss knows i have been suffering from this and has been watching the transformation of my skin all week.  Today, was a breakthrough.  I am about to walk out the door to go home and she stops me.  She says "Oh, you are peeling."  Then she immediately grabs my peeling skin off my shoulder to show me.  I stop, surprised by what she just did and say, "Oh, great."  So apparently, my boss has got my back, literally.  At least we have a good relationship.

Oh ya, and usually most Koreans would think that was really dirty.  They can get grossed out easily.  So this was kinda a big deal for her, and our relationship.  ;)

Mud Festival 2011 part 1

This last weekend i went to the Mud Festival.  It takes places in Boreoyang.  And they are known for their mud.  Apparently its good for your skin.  So they hold a festival every year.  About 2/3 of the people are foreigners and the others are Korean.  They have it right next to the beach, with a bunch of food booths, drink booths and a huge stage and a bunch of floatie inner tubes that you can rent.  Its a really nice beach too and super long.  Good for masses of people.  The festival takes place for nine days and we went the first weekend.  You can find more info here


I went with four other people.  Two of them i met on the trip.  Mud fest is a huge event and has a ton of buses that go and then they set up the hotel for you.  Well, we were a little late on all that.  We were the stragglers that forgot to plan.  So one of us rented a car and we decided to go.  We left fri around 12:30 at night and got to Boreoyang around 5:30 AM.  We drove around the town a bit to see where we could get a hotel.  I think after our third try we found a place.  A little expensive, but between 5 people it wasn't too bad.  I was ready to just sleep outside.  I honestly didnt think we were going to find a place.  I heard all the hotels were booked.  But thanks to the Lord, we got a place and some rest before a fun day in the sun.

They have these cute little mud people on everything: apt walls, light poles, t-shirts... whatever you can think of.

About 5 hours later we rolled out of bed and went to the mud.  They had a designated area for the mud part with huge blow up pools and blow up slides and blow up other things.  All that stuff you see at fairs.  And it was kinda watery mud.  We started in the pool which led to a good little wrestling match.  And then, i didnt even care for the mud, i just wanted to play in the ocean.  So we all ran to the beach and jumped in the water and spent the remainder of the afternoon at the beach.  We saw some Koreans playing a game of volleyball.  So we joined them.  Apparently, i have a "power hit."  Every time i would serve the ball it usually ended up at a difficult angle to hit it.  Leaving the opposite team dead in the water.  We were playing in hip high water.     So that made it a little difficult.  I guess the only time i am ever good at volleyball is when i play in hip high water with a light weight bouncy ball.  Any other time, its not my best sport.

Cheers!

Adult capri suns, made to order.  And a mud goer.

It was fun to finally enjoy a "summer."  Later we got cleaned up for dinner and had some galby (pork) and some clams and such all barbecued Korean style.  It wasnt too bad either.  Later they were having fireworks on the beach from a boat in the water.   I felt like there should be some "star spangled banner" playing in the distance or something.  I tried to sing it, but it didnt go to well. ;)  They did have an excellent show, it made up for my singing.

Leizel and I

After the lovely fireworks show we met up with friends of friends and they lit their own fireworks (totally legal here).  This one guy, who we just met, was awesome.  He looked like a wizard performing a light show on the beach.  If only i had a video for you guys.  

Then we found some magical art near the beach to play in.

It all changed color.  If you can look closely you should see a person on or by each letter.  Im on the U.

And that was only Saturday.  I will have to post Sunday another day.  It was quite exciting and let's just say i crossed some things off my bucket list.  

What i have to deal with

This past Friday our school had a talent show.  Each class sang a song and did a dance.  It was pretty hilarious.  Two classes did some American songs and then the others were Korean songs.  I took some videos of the show.  The sound isnt the best, because its in our "gym."

Our school has 6 different classes:

Sunny and Cuby- age 2  (all classes are the American age)

Arty and Muse- Age 3

Comy Class-age 4

And Ginny class-age 5 and 6 (i will add the video later, my computer doesn't want to load the video, sorry)

So here's Sunny and Cuby together

So the women doing the dancing is Sunny Teacher and then the woman in the white shirt and turquoise skirt is my boss.  She was laughing hysterically because of Sunny Teacher.  

Arty:

The song they sang plays all day everyday here.  Its very popular.

Muse:

They had two parts to their video.  But i will spare you the second part.

Next up, Comy Class (watch very carefully):

My boss and i judged the competition.  Comy class came in first (obviously, did you see those hips shaking?!?!?!?!) and Sunny and Cuby class came in second.  I hope it was as funny for you to watch as it was for us.  

Good ol' fashioned fun and the Lost Pants.

So last week, the school's field trip was the have a water gun fight by the river.  And, boy was i excited!  I didnt really know how it was going to happen, or if i even got my own gun.  But when the day arrived, i was ready and one of the mom's brought an extra water gun for me.  Yay!

All the kids and teachers headed over to the river with our guns and extra water.  Once we all were there, the fun began.  There really wasn't any game or rhyme or reason to how our two hours of fun went.  But there were definitely times when there were about 5 or more kids surrounding me.  There was almost no way i could fight back.  So i let them win.  But i would get each of them back, one by one.  Here are some photos of our fun:

                                          
Can you see them attacking me in the background?
                                         right here

Dave

Noah

Donny and Rachel

Noah and Julie

Jacob

Sophia

Ginny class: Kindergartners

and myself and Joanne

Arty class, 3 years olds

Comy class, also 3 years olds

and our "manager" teacher (aka Melanie, but she doesnt like her English name) and Rich

I want to include this last photo mostly because i want to show you that Koreans do not like to show their skin.  At least most of them.  Most of the time, they will wear a zip up hoodie, a hat, sometimes gloves, everything to keep their skin from showing.  They prefer light skin and find it more beautiful than dark skin.  The funny thing is that some Koreans are really tan.  So its mostly the women who do this, especially if you're over 25 year old.

So, after this awesome play date we all headed back to Genius (our school name) sopping wet.  We all brought extra clothes knowing this would happen.  I change, and hang my clothes on our "fence" on the play ground area.  Our school is on the second floor of the building and we have a large deck that has some play toys on it for the kids.  I put my clothes out there so they would dry.  Oh and now our school has matching uniforms for the teachers (you can see them in the photos above).  We have to wear some awesome sweatpants that have a New York Yankees symbols on them and they have pockets, along with a yellow shirt that has a giant black star with the writing 

"LAND OF THE STAR

The heaven are covered with stars"

Not the most attractive thing, but its super comfy and i dont really care.  So i hung my clothes out to dry. I was a little worried they might blow away, because they wind can pick up here.  But i leave them there anyways.  I go back a couple hours later to see if they are dry.  And my t shirt is there, but my pants are missing.  I try and look over the fence, but im too short.  I grab a chair and i look down and they are on some part of the building next to us.  Hahaha.  Oops.  Of course they are.  So i go and i tell my boss.  I tell here, "um, i have a problem"

"what?"

"my pants, theyre gone"

"where?"

"Um, next door?"

I go and show her and i grab a chair for her to stand on.  Shes looking at it, pauses, and just starts laughing.  So i start laughing because the whole event is pretty silly.   So, there's no way to really retrieve my pants, so we just stare down below.  My boss says, "Mission impossible."  I laugh.  Then she says,

"We need Spiderman."  and i say. "Or a big stick."  

So the rest of the day the news floats around the school that Alissa teacher lost her pants.  Lol.  As usual i am here for everyones entertainment.  So, luckily she wasnt mad.  But now i kinda miss those pants.  They were pretty awesome and comfortable.  

So, that was our fun friday.  Im sure there will be many more to come.  

Proud to be an American

Well, i didn't get many fireworks this year.  I didn't get to go out on a lake or to the beach and i certainly didnt get to drink beer all day in a pool.  But I did get to have a barbecue to do a little celebrating.

The good thing is that fire works are legal here, so we can have a big blowout any time we want.

So, we celebrated the night before by buying a small grill, charcoal, hot dogs and buns, watermelon (which are expensive here), chips, and i made a berry crisp in my rice cooker.  Oh and marshmallows.  And we headed over to a nice park/ lake (man made, very small lake)

It took all our might to try and celebrate 4th of July like an American.  First we set up out grill.  We only had a small lighter, which got melted in the process to light the coal.  It took about an hour to get the grill ready.

Oh i went with Katie and Breann, and i met about four new people which was nice.  One guy is Canadian and another is Korean.  Th Korean wanted to see what Americans do on their Independence day.

Since we had a fire for a bit we figured we'd start with the mallows

It was exciting.  We figured America is the only country who roasts marshmallows.  We made sure the Korean guy tried one.  He was skeptical.  He said, "this candy?  what is this taste?"   You probably had to be there for it to be funny.  

Then we made the hot dogs

Now, we thought we were on a roll until one of the hot dogs explodes.  Seriously.  Then one guy mentions that they might be wrapped in plastic.  Why???????  Why????  WHy???  do u wrap an individual hot dog when they already come in a sealed bag? Why Korea? Why? 

*Side note: Korea has a problem with plastic.  They think that if they are recycling they are ok.  But no, you're only adding to the problem Korea.  Everything is individually wrapped and when you receive something its usually in about 3 different bags or wrapping of some kind.  Its so stupid. I've never had to deal with so much plastic in my life *

So, we had to individually unwrap the darn hot dogs.  The Korean said that they do this for hygienic reasons.  But we figured thats not right either because now the hots dogs are smothered in our greasy, dirty, germy hands due to unwrapping them.  (But a true Korean would wear plastic gloves while doing this, thus defeating the purpose of wrapping the dog in plastic in the first place....  my eyes are dramatically rolling)

Ok, so then we finally made some.  And we were happy.  

Me, Breann, Alexis, Breann

Our spread.  

Oh and we had no forks, one giant knife and four chopsticks that we used as our skewers for the mallows.  And cups, which we ate the berry crisp in with out fingers.   Overall, it was a fun night.  Made for some good laughs.  

And when it was all over all we had was this:

A brown bag of watermelon rhine that splatters on the ground as we walk home.  At that point we truly gave up.  Oh ya, there was a hot dog in there (one in plastic) that got left behind.  Pretty much sums up our night of fun!  

Happy Fourth!  I hope it was better for you!  

More Ice cream please!!!

This picture is so deceiving!  She is not innocent. At all.  She has me whipped most of the time.  But boy doesnt she look cute.  Oh May.  So precious.  Heres round two of the ice creams.  This is Arty class.  They are American age 3, Korean age 5.  I will explain that story another time.

Jason

Evan ( i love this kid)

Irene (sweetheart)

Irene

Sophia.  Shes quite precious. 

Scott (Harry's brother)

Judah.  Yes, this is Judah in a nutshell.  He must go against the system.  

This class gives me a run for my money.  Almost every time.  Some times its so frustrating.  Funny story:  One day, like most days the class wasn't listening.  Judah especially.  So i just stop and take in this wretched moment, so i don't spew hostile words.  And Judah is looking at me, laughing at me with this devious and menacing look.  I look at him and say to him, but also kinda under my breath, "You're awful."  And what do you think he does?!  Well for the first time ever in English class he listens AND responds.  He says, "You're awful," right back to me and giggles with his menacing laugh.  

Ugh.  I want to love them, but sometimes i can't.  And then i immediately regretted what i told him.  I kept thinking, please dont tell your mother, please dont tell your mother, please dont tell your mother, please dont tell your mother, please dont tell your mother......... 

This story did not take place on ice cream day, luckily.  But anyways thats Arty class for you.  

This is Cuby class.  They are babies, maybe 2 American Age.  So cute.

Julie

Noah (Evan's brother.  This kid is my favorite!)

Noah and Julie

Fun story about Noah: Im eating my lunch in my classroom one day, minding my own business, probably zoning out.  Noah walks by, stops, and points at me.  He has a cute little grin, and acts as if he's trying to say,  "hey, you...sup."  Then he puts his arm down and wanders off.  This is exactly why i love Noah.  That and he kinda flirts with me. 

I dont really do much with Cuby class, there's four of them.  They are pretty funny.  They dont make fun of me like the other kids.  We just get to have fun and be silly.  I can practice my Korean with them.  Sometimes, if the moment is right, we can talk to one another and it seems as if we know what one another is saying.  Its great.  If only life was always this simple.  Think of all the fun we would have.  :)

Since we are talking about ice cream I will share with you some delightful ice cream that i got on an outing with some friends.  This is my 3rd time going to this place.  I have talked about it once before.  They have handmade chocolate and i think home made ice cream.  And when you order the ice cream it comes with cashews and other nuts (which is incredibly rare) and fresh fruit, and you eat it with a wooden spoon.  

This time i got what is like cold hot chocolate.  *think about that for a second*  Yup, cold hot chocolate. Its like cold sipping chocolate.  And its one of the best things in the world.  Like bliss in a cup.  So tasty.  

And you get an awkward giant straw and shaved ice.  Oh its so good.  You can even order in different percentages of chocolate.  From milk choc to 80% or something percent dark.  Yummy.

Kristina and Breann

Kristina leaves very soon.  She was here studying abroad in Seoul, but her fiance lives in Ulsan.  So we got her for the weekend.  And Katie lives here in Ulsan.  We hang out often, its awesome

And Breann and I

Actually we are going to China together!  We are both really excited!

Thats enough ice cream for now.  I think i should give it a rest.  The summer has only just begun.