Too long...

Ok well I know it's been a ridiculously long time since my last update, so I'll do my best here to fill in the gaps.

As for japan, we took the cheapest bus from Tokyo to Kyoto, which was not cheap, and it was like 60 for a normal bus. Whatever. It's cheaper than the trains. It was super hot and humid when we were there, so that cut down our enthusiasm a bit.

For tokyo, i thought kinda the only cool part was Akibahara, their technocenter. It;s really big and you can buy tons of stuff there (duty free if you have your passport with you...like 5% off or something). Not everything is super cheap, but for the most part there are pretty good prices. Ronald liked tokyo better I think, because he has quite a background in animae, whereas I have no idea apart from pokemon (is that even animae?). So anyways, we went in a few Taito places and stuff...pretty much I would say to go to the technomart and then get the hell out of that city. There is a famous fish market there though, and we tried to go the last day only to find out its closed on Sundays...sad day.

I thought Kyoto was nice and wish we'd had more time there. There are cool side trips like going to Nara or Hiroshima (was sick about missing this one!). From kyoto you can also go down to Osaka. Anyways, for Kyoto, you have to hit the main palaces. The city buses and metro are really easy to use, though the JR line is operated by an independent company, so they have separate tickets. There are tons of tours offered, but unless you want to know the history, it would be pretty worthless. We did it on our own and just saw the places, which was fine for us. The main ones I can remember that we saw were the Golden Pavillion and one that is a famous scene with the water in front...

Also we went to Harajuku to try to get a glimpse of the Japanese that dress in crazy baby doll or emo outfits. Gion was another place we visited which is the area that Geisha traditionally live in. We only saw one and then went to the river restaurants. There are probably about a billion and they have outside patios over the water. We didn't sit outside because you had to order one of their set menus and they were all filled with fish, of course.

Japan in general is expensive. You can get some cheap street food in some places, but other than that it's sort of ridiculous. Basically, you just have to prepare yourself before going that you're gonna spend a lot of money and to not let it get you down. It was hard sometimes, like when we stayed in a capsule hotel...I paid like 50 for one night, but had to rationalize it...only in Japan, ya know? The capsule was SUPER comfortable (it's like a jjimjjilbang...but for sleeping it has capsules or the open area). The ryokans are the traditional housings in Japan, but if you go to a traditional one, they're in the country and like 300 a night! That was too much for me, but mainly we just wouldn't have had the time to travel there and back because our trip was so short. In Kyoto we stayed in a hostel called Capsule Ryokan and it was really nice -- no curfew, the people spoke English, free internet, a common kitchenette, storage. It was nice. I cant remember how much that was though.

The money was a little hard for me at first but I figured out a trick: 1,000 yen = 10.00. You just put the period after two of the digits and add a bit. So really 1,000 is more like 13 dollars. Our bus tickets were like 5,000, so they were around 60.

Back in Korea, I just finished my intensive month and am very glad that is over now. I spend way too much time at that school and it's nice to have more time to sleep and just not be stuck at that place. A new teacher arrived this week, Amanda, and will be taking over for Nhi, who leaves in the next few days. She's from Michigan and is half Korean (but looks white) and is trying to learn Korean. She has some family here and will be moving into Nhi's apartment tomorrow. She's never taught before and is a bit nervous, but I think she'll be a great teacher because she's really excited and enthusiastic about it. Today was the last day of classes for this month so on Monday I'll be getting some new students which will be nice. Today we played Apples to Apples in my Social 3 class and they loved it...success!

Ronald and I are going to take a music class here starting September 4th, every Saturday for two hours until November 20th or something like that. That day is the concert...in costume. Pretty excited about the costume part. Other than that the biggest thing we've been trying to figure out is how to send back our luggage to the US before we go around southeast Asia. It's sorta tough to figure out because the biggest box you can send from the post office is pretty small. Next week Sora will call about shipping it there in a boat and see what that's all about.

Last night after I got home from work I skyped with Meaghan and her eighth grade class...pretty crazy. One kid asked if I'd eaten mei...have no idea what that is and must look it up...

Can't wait for the humidity to disperse...

Japan

We went to Japan for the 5 days of break I had...I was sticky the whole time from the humidity, but it was very pretty...I'll try to update later, but right now I'm swamped with intensives (we added a 3-hour daily class for a month) and report cards...

Random stuff

Chile lost. :( very sad.

Went to Caribbean Bay today -- it's part of the Everland theme parks. This one is a water park. I showed the woman my expired Chilean ID card and Ronald gave her his driver's licence to get us in with a student discount, so it was 25,000 won instead of 45,000. The lines were long even today and it's just some random day of the week!! It was sorta hot but got cold when the gray clouds came and started sprinkling. We only went on like 4 rides and I scraped my knees and some of my foot on the bottom of the pool of water when our tube tumped over at the end. Tomorrow is another work day, so I've been finishing report cards and grading essays -- bo-ring. This weekend is the Canada Day/4th of July BBQ cruise thing hosted by the Canadian Embassy...I'm pretty excited about that!

World Cup, Korea vs. Nigeria

For this game, we went to the Olympic Park. I made tuna sandwiches, bought some wine, and put it all in my backpack. We walked from Cheonho to the park and a nice guard guided us to where they were showing the game. We got there around 1:30 I think (the game started at 3:30 am -- Tuesday night/Wednesday morning). It was pretty incredible to be walking through an absolutely silent park for about 15 minutes because when we finally got to the screening area, there were a ton of people.

First we decided to try and enter. They had set up a large screen with four sections of fenced-off grass. We tried to just walk in but the guard indicated to us that we needed a wristband, so we waited in a short line and walked up to the woman. She said something to me and proceeded to chuckle in an embarrassed way and give me a wristband after my grunt and giggle saying something like "I don't know". We walked up to the front section and sat down and waited basically. We found out later that the people in the back two sections had blue wristbands, so we don't really know what was going on there because it was free. Whatever.

So we ate sandwiches, poured the wine, and waited. They started a pre-game pep-up show basically around 2 am. The people went crazy and everybody was cheering and singing their little anthem. They were also dancing. Or was it cheerleading? I'm not sure what to call it, but they had pretty effeminate dance moves to go along with their song. They literally played this on repeat and people continued for about 15 minutes.

When the game finally started...excuse me, when they finally showed the TV station showing the game, people started cheering and when they showed the players waiting to go out onto the field it sounded as if they had just won the game. After the singing and the kickoff, the moment one of the Korean players got the ball, the crowd absolutely exploded with cheers. They were so excited about everything -- it was hysterical. Literally one time they showed the goalie in the goal yelling at one of his teammates and screams erupted from the crowd.

We left at halftime to go home...I had to work today!

I think the most interesting thing, besides the way they cheer, is the way they watch the game. We were in a park, an open field, and EVERYBODY was sitting down, watching the game. I think if I'd seen it in the states, we'd be standing up.

Anyways, I'm tired, so I'm off, chao!

World Cup

We went to a bar in Itaewon to watch the first world cup game of Korea vs. Greece and it was crazy. The Koreans go absolutely nuts when anything happens. They scored a goal and the people celebrated as if they'd won the game. Pretty great. So when they did win the game, it was even more insane!

Monday we watched the Chile vs. Honduras game and the people in the bar asked who we were rooting for and then joined us in cheering on the Chilean team. Near the end of the game, a couple of Koreans wanted to share a table with us and a drink, so they joined us at our table and we talked (sort of) for about 10 minutes. They left just before the game ended, and when we were leaving we went up to pay, and they told us that the two guys had already paid for us...pretty amazing! We didn't even know them and they picked up a decent sized tab for us!

I have the 29th off, so I'm looking forward to that. Other than that, it's been the same ol same ol....It's really really hot here and our fan is on constantly and it's super humid. Pretty gross.

Off to class!

This weekend

On Saturday we had a picnic at Seoul Grand Park with Minsoo and a Venezuelan, Arturo. Then we checked out the zoo a bit and headed home...it was really nice to just hang out and the weather was nice. Hot, but nice.

On Sunday we took a tour with RAS to a cave a little bit south of the city and it was super lame! Haha...well, from my point of view it was because at Sewanee we could actually explore the caves, but here it was just like Rock City...there was a metal pathway you had to follow. Big cave, pretty cool, but super annoying and stupid to just be on that one pathway. After that we took a little boat ride and got to see some pretty scenery. Then we headed to a traditional village where we saw traditional houses and we got to walk up to their lookout place (I'm assuming this is what it was, but everything was written in Korean, so....) with a really spectacular 360 view. After that we headed home and Ronald and I went to see the movie Dragons. We liked it! I thought it was good.

June

We have new classes! I keep my oldest class and my youngest class. Tom had to quit! I'm so sad. His mom was angry because he never wanted to do his homework. Sad. And Peter is gone now to his new school.

This past weekend we went to Namdaemun market. Pretty neat. And Saturday we made another Costco trip, this time taking along my suitcase. Bought more Dr. Pepper and some cheddar cheese! I made fajitas last night and it's just not the same without guacamole/avocado *sigh.

July 28-August 1 is a holiday for me, so I don't have work. Ronald and I are gonna go to Tokyo! I'm excited for that. It'll be nice to have a real break and not just a weekend. On the 29th we're gonna see Zed, a Cirque du Soleil show. Sorta pricey flight-wise, but it's high season.

Other than that, it's been sorta busy with report cards and essays -- I just finished today. It's been sorta hectic getting the new classes ready, but once we settle in, it'll be fine. Can't wait for the weekend though! Today we have to work when nobody else does -- it's a national holiday, Election Day. The kids don't even go to school. Grr.

Lotus Lantern Festival/Buddha's 2554th Birthday

Ok so I know I haven't written in a bit, but I've been sort of busy...I had open class with my Social 3 class and Jerry's parents came. Last weekend there was a Lotus Lantern Festival. I uploaded pictures on picasa of that...it was pretty and there were just a TON of people. The parade on Sunday lasted about 2.5 hours!

This weekend, Ronald and I took the KTX train from Seoul Station to Busan. We spent Friday there in Busan. The first thing we did was find a jimjilbang (like Dragon Hill Spa I talked about earlier...a bath house of sorts) and take a nap. We'd stayed up all night to wait for the train. So we slept and then wandered around a bit and found the beach and then we went to Beomesa Temple. You just take the metro to the stop and when you come out, it directs you to where the buses take you up to the temple. So it was very easy getting to and from there. This was Buddha's 2554th birthday, so the temple was open 24 hours. When we got there, they were putting on a show and all the lanterns were hung. When it got dark, they lit all the lanterns. Very pretty. What was also cool was that there was a natural spring fountain they drank from...I will put up pictures of this, but we also saw this at the Seokguram Temple. But I'm getting ahead of myself...we stayed to watch the show and people kept adding little bookmark looking things to the lanterns -- each lantern had one and I assume it was some type of prayer.

After the show was over, we headed back down and they started some little fireworks. The line to wait for the bus was HUGE. The bus we did get on got stuck going down because a car was parked badly. What ended up happening was that some men came and they lifted the car and moved it a little bit towards the curb so the bus could squeeze by. After this we went to bed.

On Saturday we went to Gyeonju to see the Seokguram grotto. Something that was apparently very cool that Ronald had seen advertised. It was raining pretty hard, but we took a bus from Busan (pretty nice for 4,000!!!) and then had to take a local bus to another part of the city. I had to go to the bathroom so we got off the bus too early and used public restrooms at a museum. Then we waited about 30 min for the next bus to come and that one took us to the stopping point for the bus that takes people up to the grotto. After taking that bus, the driver told us that the next bus was at 6:20. At this point it was about 5 pm. So Ronald went back to ask about the last bus and that was synonymous with next for the driver. Anyways, we went to see the grotto and it turned out to be just one Buddha. Apparently pretty historical, with a lot of religious significance. But that was it. So we headed back to where the bus was coming -- but it was already 6:24. So basically we missed the last bus. So we started walking down the mountain in the pouring rain. What would have taken literally 2 hours to walk was cut down to about 20 minutes because a nice Korean family stopped to ask if we wanted a ride -- yes. So after this we hopped on a bus to Daegu. When we got there it wasn't raining too badly, and we took a cab to what we thought was a jimjilbang. It wasn't. So we paid a whole lot of money and the taxi driver just took us to some other one.

So we spent the night there and on Sunday we walked around a bit and went to eat at The Holy Grill, a mexican food restaurant. It was really good. Owned by Canadians. After that, it was time to head back to Busan. So we took the bus back, walked around in Busan some more, and spent our last night at a pretty nice jimjilbang. Monday morning we caught a taxi and took the train back to Seoul.

Today one of my students, Sehoon, tied himself to his chair today with his backpack strings. That knot was pretty hard to get out and he couldn't move...pretty funny.

Otherwise work is pretty monotonous. Same thing every day except for today and tomorrow...speaking and writing tests!

Speaking and writing test days are so nice. You take an hour of class to do them. Apparently they took almost the whole class period a few months ago, but they changed the exam. Now, there are four prompts: 2 speaking, 2 writing. We give them an hour, but it doesn't take that long. They hardly know the vocabulary anyways, so they can't really answer the questions.

Teacher's day is on Saturday. What a bummer...why couldn't it be on a Tuesday or Thursday? Those days are so long.

Tickets to Busan have been purchased for the weekend of the 21st. Tomorrow I have to see if I can buy the return via internet...I hope so! If they're all out, I'm screwed. Reena and Mark will be staying here...sorta funny...we're trading cities for the weekend basically. They live in Masan though, which is about an hour away from Busan. We'll be staying in Busan and I think will have a full day to see the grotto, a huge castle/temple thing hanging off a mountain. I sure hope the weather's good.

Today the AC has officially been turned on. It's hot and sticky. Yikes...what am I gonna do when summer is finally here!? I think I'll melt away.

Children's Day

Apparently you cannot upload videos to youtube if you are in Korea. Weird.

Today was Children's Day which meant that there was no school and no academies. Today, we visited the Costco on the eastern side of the city at the Sangbong metro station (line 7). The membership costs 35,000 won a year...pretty nice! So we bought tortillas, chicken, shampoo, cups, cranberry juice, hot sauce, and DR PEPPER! So exciting. Pete was in the apartment the whole day basically because he's job searching and doesn't have a computer so I said he could come over and use one of ours for free. So when we got back we took his photo and he uploaded it to wherever he'd been applying to. Then I made fajitas/burritos, though it's very sad to not have guacamole or cheese.

It was too smoggy/foggy/cloudy to go to the glass cafe on the Dongjak bridge, so maybe Saturday instead...