David Goes to Korea: Damyang Festival + Teacher's Event

Hi Folks,

This is the first installment in a long overdue update to my blog. Sorry it's taken me so long to write back!

Last week I was informed of a lunch I was supposed to attend, put on by the local office of education (Damyang Office of Education). Originally I wasn't going to go, but it was suggested by my English teacher that I attend.

So I showed up at the restaurant at the designated time (12:00pm). I was actually 5 minutes early, which was not a problem, so I had a seat and listened to music while I waited.

Now, I should have realized that 12pm actually was in Korean time.... therefore, I waited until 12:30 pm, when everyone else showed up. Sigh.

Anyway, we ate lunch together, met our local coordinator, and were informed of a slightly mandatory event held on the 3rd Saturday of each month. The event (location changes) is designed to get local Korean teachers interacting and speaking with native English teachers. Since there was a festival about to happen in Damyang, that was where the 1st event would be held. Now, I had a friend coming to visit me and stay in my room while he wrote an exam at the university, so I was going to be busy with him over the weekend, so I told our local coordinator that I had other plans, but if they changed, I would let him know.

However, when I went to work later on that day, I was informed that the principal specifically requested that I attend this event, along with several other teachers from my school. I guess my plans are changed :P

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Saturday came around and I went to the event with Irene. We were again early, and the other teachers didn't show up until much later. Regardless, we will get paid extra for attending this event, so we're happy for the opportunity. Here's some awesome photos we took of the day:

I can see people's laundry from my dorm room.
This is one of the cutest things I've ever seen.

There's this big path in Damyang, "Metasequoia Road" with all these
lovely trees. The festival was held here.

You could pose for photo ops along the path.

Gangnam Style is ubiquitous here.

Some older men seized Irene and I and made us take this photo ;)

I'm assuming these will ward off evil spirits. Personally I prefer totem
poles because they tell stories.

So, at the festival they had some performances and craft-making stations. The local old-people dance group was performing, so I took a couple videos since they were absolutely adorable:

http://youtu.be/xq-Yd1BAimk (I don't know what this Korean song is, but I've heard it a few times on the radio)

http://youtu.be/z0kWU8Oczdo (Mamma Mia, danced to by Korean older people)

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I should also take the opportunity to post some pictures of my class! They were being cute, so I took out my camera.