my body is sculpture
I like girls. Because I'm a licentious man. My life is only girl!
My nickname is monkey. Because I look like a monkey. But I don't like banana....
I am a very handsome. You are very beautiful. I want marry with you.
I found a sick mask in the trashcan in my classroom; it had the word "SEX" in purple. Bwhahaha.
Overall Friday was a good day at work, besides the fact that I have come down with a cold. :-( I love the first graders that are my last class of the week -- they have such good energy! And I saw several of my camp students during the day, so that was nice to get to talk with them.
I've noticed that, so far at least, this semester has been going much better than the last one. I know part of it is my overall awesome first grade students! But another part of it, I think, is the normal pattern of culture shock. Before Korea, the longest I had been in a country was about 3.5 months. I am coming up on 9 months here in Korea! I'm hoping I've already gone through all of the major culture shock dips, and that from here on out it will be a very positive experience! I think my language classes will be a very positive influence on me.
This weekend I took a trip with Shelby and Anne to Jindo, to experience the "Mysterious Sea Road." The trip got off to a bit of a rough start, as on the way to the Suncheon Bus Terminal I missed my bus stop because I was so into my book... :-P And then on my bus to Gwangju I was sleeping and woke up because the bus had stopped in the middle of the interstate, and then proceeded to reverse for the equivalent of 2 blocks, and then stopped again to pick up some passengers from a bus that apparently had broken down. Interesting...
Anyway, I met up with Shelby and Anne in Gwangju and we caught a bus down to Jindo, which is a very very rural town in our province. Once in Jindo, we took another bus to an even more rural location. I was surprised by seeing some decent sized tractors here (not the rickety homemade-looking ones I see around Gwangyang) and have decided that the per capita farm land must be higher in this area, warrenting the larger farm machinery. (Still very small equipment by US standards, of course). I also noticed the difference in fashion in this very rural town -- the clothing, hairstyles, and even the make-up. I wonder if coming from a town of 7000 people like I did, made me dress so strangely compared to people who lived in moderate sized towns. I'm sure I probably did... :-P
We were dropped off along the shore and found a few people milling around. We didn't really sea the Mysterious Sea Road yet. So what happens is a couple times a year, the water level gets low enough that there is a "road" from Jindo out to another small island called Modo. According to my guidebook, there is a legend about a woman who walked on this road and saved her village from an evil spirit or something like that. Anyway, we found a place to buy long rubber boots and we stood around watching the singing and the festivities for awhile. I would say there were a couple hundred people there -- unlike next month when it occurs again, and the festival is held. Then, there will be 300,000 people! I can't imagine! There were tons of grandmothers out in the sea picking up seaweed the size of shower curtains and shoving it into the already full Emart bags. We thought about picking some up for our host families, but didn't know the proper storage techniques for keeping it good until the next day. :-P Also, it probably would have stunk up our hotel room. A little before 6 we headed out with the first brave souls to walk across the road, which was still underwater in some parts, but the sand and rocks were above water in other parts. We walked for about a half hour and were close to reaching the part of the road that was solidly above water all the way to the other island, when a patrol boat came out and told everyone they had to turn around. We noticed the current was getting stronger on the way back, but we were a little disappointed we didn't get to walk all the way to the other island (I think the distance was 2 km each way). The last bus was at 6:30, so we had missed that, but figured we could get someone to call a taxi for us. Well, it turns out the ambulance crew decided to give us a ride back to the bus terminal in Jindo, in the back of their ambulance! It was the first time for all 3 of us to ride in an ambulance, haha! We caught a bus to Mokpo to spend the night. After settling into a love motel, we found a Dakgalbi restaurant that was pretty delicious and enjoyed a bottle of soju and nice conversation. Then back to the hotel where we all 3 squeezed into the bed after watching Batman. All in all it was a nice trip!
We think this dude must have been the "official photographer" of the event, because he kept following us around and taking tons of pictures of the "token" foreigners at the wacked-out Korean event.
Me sporting my sexy green boots!
Old women collecting shower-curtain sized seaweed. (to eat of course!)
Getting ready to head out on the Mysterious Sea Road!
This old man was making the journey even with his cane!
Overall Friday was a good day at work, besides the fact that I have come down with a cold. :-( I love the first graders that are my last class of the week -- they have such good energy! And I saw several of my camp students during the day, so that was nice to get to talk with them.
I've noticed that, so far at least, this semester has been going much better than the last one. I know part of it is my overall awesome first grade students! But another part of it, I think, is the normal pattern of culture shock. Before Korea, the longest I had been in a country was about 3.5 months. I am coming up on 9 months here in Korea! I'm hoping I've already gone through all of the major culture shock dips, and that from here on out it will be a very positive experience! I think my language classes will be a very positive influence on me.
This weekend I took a trip with Shelby and Anne to Jindo, to experience the "Mysterious Sea Road." The trip got off to a bit of a rough start, as on the way to the Suncheon Bus Terminal I missed my bus stop because I was so into my book... :-P And then on my bus to Gwangju I was sleeping and woke up because the bus had stopped in the middle of the interstate, and then proceeded to reverse for the equivalent of 2 blocks, and then stopped again to pick up some passengers from a bus that apparently had broken down. Interesting...
Anyway, I met up with Shelby and Anne in Gwangju and we caught a bus down to Jindo, which is a very very rural town in our province. Once in Jindo, we took another bus to an even more rural location. I was surprised by seeing some decent sized tractors here (not the rickety homemade-looking ones I see around Gwangyang) and have decided that the per capita farm land must be higher in this area, warrenting the larger farm machinery. (Still very small equipment by US standards, of course). I also noticed the difference in fashion in this very rural town -- the clothing, hairstyles, and even the make-up. I wonder if coming from a town of 7000 people like I did, made me dress so strangely compared to people who lived in moderate sized towns. I'm sure I probably did... :-P
We were dropped off along the shore and found a few people milling around. We didn't really sea the Mysterious Sea Road yet. So what happens is a couple times a year, the water level gets low enough that there is a "road" from Jindo out to another small island called Modo. According to my guidebook, there is a legend about a woman who walked on this road and saved her village from an evil spirit or something like that. Anyway, we found a place to buy long rubber boots and we stood around watching the singing and the festivities for awhile. I would say there were a couple hundred people there -- unlike next month when it occurs again, and the festival is held. Then, there will be 300,000 people! I can't imagine! There were tons of grandmothers out in the sea picking up seaweed the size of shower curtains and shoving it into the already full Emart bags. We thought about picking some up for our host families, but didn't know the proper storage techniques for keeping it good until the next day. :-P Also, it probably would have stunk up our hotel room. A little before 6 we headed out with the first brave souls to walk across the road, which was still underwater in some parts, but the sand and rocks were above water in other parts. We walked for about a half hour and were close to reaching the part of the road that was solidly above water all the way to the other island, when a patrol boat came out and told everyone they had to turn around. We noticed the current was getting stronger on the way back, but we were a little disappointed we didn't get to walk all the way to the other island (I think the distance was 2 km each way). The last bus was at 6:30, so we had missed that, but figured we could get someone to call a taxi for us. Well, it turns out the ambulance crew decided to give us a ride back to the bus terminal in Jindo, in the back of their ambulance! It was the first time for all 3 of us to ride in an ambulance, haha! We caught a bus to Mokpo to spend the night. After settling into a love motel, we found a Dakgalbi restaurant that was pretty delicious and enjoyed a bottle of soju and nice conversation. Then back to the hotel where we all 3 squeezed into the bed after watching Batman. All in all it was a nice trip!
We think this dude must have been the "official photographer" of the event, because he kept following us around and taking tons of pictures of the "token" foreigners at the wacked-out Korean event.
Me sporting my sexy green boots!
Old women collecting shower-curtain sized seaweed. (to eat of course!)
Getting ready to head out on the Mysterious Sea Road!
This old man was making the journey even with his cane!
1 comment:
glad you had a nice time in Mokpo.. sorry I wasn't around to show you the town.. though as I am sure you realized, it's not that big... :)
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