Midweek Update

So today was not a good day, and I can't sleep, so I'm writing an insomnia-ridden, depressive post.

- My grade 3's were an entire class period late and my grade 4's were really grabby and bratty today, and then my grade 5's didn't want to participate because they were jealous of a special prize I gave the grade 4's because they did a photo scavenger hunt last week. Today was one of those days where the language barrier matters a great deal.

- My mentor teacher said the principal was really busy last week, so my requisition order for Halloween party supplies didn't get looked at/approved. Therefore I'm having to move the party to next week and shift my lesson plans around.

- I'm homesick and physically sick (sore throat, but it's not bad). The homesickness...I don't know how to cure or alleviate it... But the sore throat haha--one of the English teachers suggested first that I go to a hospital, and second, that I try curing it with "bees", but later he demonstrated that he might have meant acupuncture.

Midweek update

Here's some quick updates. Sorry, I don't have pictures at the moment:

- This week my topic for my English class was "school", and with a flash of inspiration, I designed a photo scavenger hunt for my students to complete. I wasn't sure if it would be a huge success or a total disaster, but it ended up being a huge success! The kids went wild over it. I came up with a rule sheet, scoring grid, and a checklist of places in the school they had to go and take a picture in. They got one point for having everyone in the shot, one point for holding up their mini-whiteboard with the correct room written on it, and a bonus point for having someone who works or has something to do with that room in the shot, as well as a bonus point for a creative pose. They were supposed to send me their photos via e-mail, so I'm hoping they actually do, otherwise no one will get the prize on Tuesday.... It's supposed to be fried chicken ;) But... I talked to my mentor teacher, the one who is responsible for getting me my school supplies (all $1500 of budget worth), and she said she has to ask the principal for authorization on everything... Hopefully he goes for the chicken thing, otherwise my head will roll haha.

- My roommate has the weirdest sleeping schedule... he went to bed after 5:30am (!) and I'm pretty sure he isn't studying for anything... maybe he just lacks discipline.

- I'm somewhat confident that I ate one of my earplugs last night :( I hope this isn't true.

- I'm planning to give my kids a Halloween party next week, and I hope that it'll go well. I doubt they'll be able to bring costumes, so I hope they don't get pouty if other kids have them.

Midterms: Complete! Result: Vacation!

So I finished my last midterm on Friday, so I took the opportunity to "treat yo' self" like they say on Parks and Rec. I went to a port town called Mokpo (when "o" is written in the romanization of Korean, it sounds like the "o" in "joke"). It's about an hour away, and the government has tried to pump money into the town to encourage tourism (read: building the F1 track just outside the city). As a result, there's a few pretty cool touristy spots and the newer part of Mokpo actually has streets laid out in a grid!

The leaves are starting to turn!

Anyway, I got on the bus, paid my 5 dollars to travel 96km, and arrived in Mokpo in comfort (I started reading one of the English books I bought from "What the Book" in Itaewon). I took a taxi from the terminal to the Lotte Cinema. At first I was a little nervous the driver was going to try and scam me, which wouldn't be that hard. Thankfully, I memorized the route from the terminal to the theatre, but I didn't know the streets very well!

It looked like we were going the right way, and the road signs confirmed we were heading in the right direction. Oddly, some other taxis would pull up beside this guy (on my side) at a red light and talk to him (more like yell at him, which is Korean volume for normal). He didn't respond to them though, which made it more uncomfortable for me...who were they talking to/about?

Regardless, we arrived at the cinema in time for me to buy a ticket to see Brave!! In English! (with subtitles). Because Disney was paying the money to have the audio recorded in Korean, this movie only came out a few weeks ago here. In Korean, it's called "Meridawa mabeobeui sup" which means Merida and the Magic of the Woods.

Lotte Cinema lobby. PS - It was unnecessarily difficult to find the entrance to this movie theatre....
no main entrance that would make it obvious, and you had to take an elevator
with no English signage to the 4th floor to get to the lobby... I got lost just trying to get in.

My ticket and an almost empty theatre around me. Perfect!

Anyway, the movie was just as good as I expected it to be, which was great :) nice to see a proper movie (and for cheap too, only $8). Also, for those of you who are wondering, yes, Koreans have proper (thankfully) movie theatre popcorn and pop.

In South Korea, movies are still affordable for the family :)

I love that they have two openings on the pop lids, so you can share :)

After the movie, I went to the waterfront. Mokpo has a nice, long waterfront that passes by some interesting landmarks and buildings, like a few hotels that are shaped like sailing ships, some statues, and some sort of eroded rocks that have become local legend (they are called "gatbawi").

The waterfront. You can bike or rollerblade or walk. Some parents
had given their toddlers those child-sized electric cars that drive about
with that high-pitched whirring sound. It would seem bad-driving starts
at an early age here, lol.

Anchor. No boat.

A museum and what I'm assuming is the Spirit of Mokpo.

Sunset over Mokpo bay.

The small mountain you can hike behind gatbawi. The boardwalk around
the place was destroyed, so one has to climb the hill now. Perfect for folks
wanting to show off their expensive, brightly-coloured hiking outfits.

Had to prove I was there. Sorry for my lazy left eye...

I took the boardwalk all the way to the museum area, where located is the museum of natural history, the maritime museum, and another museum dedicated to Mokpo or something.

By this time the sun was setting and the museums were closed, so I sat on the sea wall and ate the banana I brought with me.

Sunset over Mokpo harbour.

Sunset over Mokpo harbour.

Making my way to the Mokpo waterfall, I stopped at another highlight of the trip: QUIZNOS! Surprisingly, small town Mokpo has a Quiznos (Gwangju is in desperate need of quality sandwiches) so I ate there. Mmmmmm ;) Quite pricey in my opinion, I hope they'll be able to do enough business.

A real-live Quizno's in South Korea! Notice the second floor dining room,
complete with smoking section!

The menu. Expensive! Notice how turkey ranch and swiss is more
expensive than tuna ;) I'm surprised they don't have a bulgogi sub.

Anyway, after Quizno's, I continued to the waterfall, but it was turned off today... so no pictures :( maybe another time.

However, I did find Admiral Yi Sun Shin and a model of his
famous turtle ship made out of tires :)

Awaiting one's fate.

Painters! I think they had some sort of platform on the top
of their truck so they didn't need a ladder?

I went back to the waterfront to see the Mokpo Dancing Sea Fountain, which is a fountain, light, and music show they put on every night :) It was pretty cute, I enjoyed it. There is a park behind the viewing area for the fountain show and they were having some sort of obnoxiously loud Chinese karaoke festival, but thankfully I was sitting close enough to the speakers for the fountain show.

If you want to see my 0:50 second clip of the fountain, click here (available in HD): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZJcgt4QQ7I

To wrap up my mini-vacation, I went back to catch the bus to the bus terminal and waited more than 30 minutes for that darn bus >( but eventually it came. I was actually concerned that it had finished its run for the night, since buses here stop running at 10:30pm or earlier (probably under pressure from the taxi cartels), which would mean I would have to cab it back from the terminal in Gwangju....

Surprisingly, the water here is fairly clean.
You can't smell the ocean though, oddly enough.

Regardless, it was a great vacation, I'm glad I went and I'll probably return to Mokpo sometime in the future.

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PS - It was raining, thundering, and lightning...ing today, so I took a video and managed to get a lightning strike on video :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W1ALHkRKx8 it's a 0:31 second clip (available in HD).

Midterm Week (+ Random photos)

So this week is midterms. In Korea, that means professors will cancel your classes for the week and only have the midterm. Not bad!

Irene studying her Korean in preparation for our midterm.

I'm doing the same thing.

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Okay, so I have a couple random photos that I wanted to upload.

This is the cop friend that I wrote about in an earlier post. We went
for Japanese food and then came back to Sangdae.

My friend Bo Young entered a contest for the Seoul Subway System a little while ago. Her major is graphic design, and the Seoul Subway System wanted some awesome designs for new benches. This is Bo Young's entry (and therefore the best entry). It reflects traditional Korean design, don't you agree?

Someone gave me another photo from the Kimchi making experience when I was with my homestay.

It looks kind of like a big mess....
Be careful though, it'll stain your clothes beyond all hope!

My university has its own rice paddy! It's ready for harvest too.

Some unexpected natural, wild beauty in Korea.

No, it's a bundt.

I visited my students' classroom the other day.
This is what they produce. So cute!!! Days like this make me happy
to work with kids.

F1 Korean Grand Prix

So this weekend, I went to a very awesome place. I went to the Korean F1 Grand Prix, which is held in my province, in a town called Yeongam (it's outside Mokpo)! 

I had wanted to go for a little while, so with the help of my roommate, I purchased my ticket from the Korean F1 website.

The day of the race, I boarded the train and headed for Mokpo (about an hour away).

Lots of people were headed in the same direction.

Along the way, we saw an LRT they're testing in the area.

 Before arriving in Mokpo, I had read on the F1 website that there would be free shuttle buses from the Mokpo train and bus station to the Korea International Circuit. When I arrived in Mokpo, there were a bunch of signs (in Korean) about the F1, and a huge lineup of people (surprising actually, Koreans don't tend to queue very well) wanting to get on some buses. I figured this was the shuttle, but I took a chance, since there were no signs in English anywhere and I didn't see any other non-Koreans in line. Turns out it was the correct bus, and it took us all to the race venue (phew).

Along the way to the racetrack, we took a bridge over the Mokpo harbour.

Mokpo has a few shipyards too.

Said shipyards.

 Finally, we arrived at the racetrack along with 1.5 gajillion other Koreans and a healthy dose of non-Koreans. I made my way to the ticket tent, picked up my ticket, and walked to where my seat was.

Now, I'd like to give a special mention to my friend Steve and his dad Jerold, since they were so very helpful to me in selecting the absolute best seat at the race (besides the ones in the racecars). As a result, I got some great pictures and had an absolute blast at the race. Here's a tip: go to a race at least once in your life, it's worth it!!

 Now, one thing I'd like to mention about the Korean F1--I was pretty thrilled at how....not uptight it was... I mean, they didn't even search my bag and they were selling big 500ml cans of beer for $3.50. They had snacks for sale and some pretty inexpensive food too if you ask me, even for Korea.

However, the souvenirs were MADLY expensive. I'm talking $15.00 for a KEYCHAIN. $100 shirts, $20 programmes... I thought it would be expensive, but not that expensive...

Anyway, I digress. They were also selling earmuffs and earplugs.

Some needed hearing protection more than others.

The track before the race started.

Everyone was getting ready for the race.

And it began with an awesome first lap! (I'm sorry, I don't know much about racing at all, so I'll just describe it the best I know how :S)

I kept wondering which one belonged to Racer X.

One of the racers (I think he's Japanese) had some damage to his car so he was retired from the race.

Poor guy. It happened on the first lap :(

So they brought a crane to take his car away.

It was just hanging there.

During the race, this baby was fussing because it was so loud, so I took a photo. Oddly, I must have snapped the photo when she calmed down, but believe me, it was loud.

Here's some more pictures of the cars:

This was my favourite racer because his car made a
deep, satisfying, guttural sound on its way out of the corner and into a straightaway.

If you'd like to see, I took some videos from the race:

This one is a slow-motion video I took with my camera (sorry, there's no sound with it)
http://youtu.be/yM6kKNVtQc4

This one is of the final parade lap. You can see some of the track attendants waving yellow and green flags, as well as the safety car at the end.
http://youtu.be/YZvbU5wrHIA

My ticket. So worth it.

It was kind of hot, so people were trying to shield themselves from the sun.

I haven't seen the movie, but is this why there's a helicopter in the movie Cars 2? Either way, this guy has a huge camera attached underneath and he would fly around broadcasting the race for the bigscreens. Sometimes he would fly a little too low for comfort...

The had shuttle buses that would take people around the race track if you were sitting farther away. If you'll notice, look at all the people NOT sitting down and watching the race, even though it was already halfway through :S

A shot of the big screen.

Apparently there were some Russian racers.

Go team!

One of the racers was a Finn!

You should try racing sometime.

Gotta prove I was there :)

 Oh yes, and after the race, they had a concert by the current Korean darling, Psy. There were MILLIONS of people there, so I only stayed for a short while (I didn't want to have to fight with everyone to make my train home). Plus, I didn't appreciate it when he flipped off the camera (and by extension, me). My grade 4 students do that sometimes, Psy should know better!

They love this guy.

Anyway, that's what my weekend was like! It was awesome, and I would highly suggest everyone get to see some sort of motorsport at least once in their life. It's worth it!

Thanks again Steve and Jerold!