vacation comes and goes

chuseok vacation went by remarkably fast, as are all my weeks recently. i can't believe it's already been 7+ months. i'll be going home soon, on to other things, but for now i have mountain top views and lovely buddhist gardens i can enjoy.

morning view from the campsite

hiking up the first san

markers

i was told this is was europe resembles

we got to climb large boulders

the second peak was an awesome green sea

a good cliff

the field grass was high and the sun beat down searing hot.

i could feel

sweat. it was brillant.

after the hiking adventure we stopped over in jeonju, for some awesome bibimbop that is said to come with the most side dishes. we walked in to a hanok village welcoming party. some neighbors were just moving in. so we were invited to sit, enjoy songpyeon, dubu, kimchi, and makkoli with some live music and dancing. what a party.

you've been creeped

rob rides a bronze cow

it went by quickly and some things have happened now even after all this fun. my bike has been stolen and everyone at work is getting sick. i honestly can't even imagine what will happen next in this city. something seems to be coming my way every hour. it will stop at nothing.

till my next adventure.

a fun monday

so the monday of chuseok vacation we had a little fun day for our morning classes. it was pretty cute. we did fun things like learning traditional korean games, making songpyeon (and eating it...), and we even got to play "korean pogs"
overall it was much more fun than bustin out the books and hittin'em hard before the vacation, and the teachers got gifts... yeeaaah!

john prepares himself for making songpyeon

they put beans and raisins in their glutenous rice balls (songpeyon)

(left to right) jane and annie were really excited to make these

we basically had a free day in which to play with the kids and hang out and eat yummy food stuffs that had been brought in. in l-room we made gopher crowns for the boys and bunnie crowns for the girls. everyone put their own unique twist on their crown parts. i especially liked this. i can't wait till we start doing fall decorations and things like that!

john and jin in their gopher crowns... jin wanted his to be both bunnie and gopher so he added bunnie ears to his gopher when he cut it out... LOVE IT! 

a little bit of korean pogs, i got my butt kicked by these pros. i was out in no time

all together it was a pretty nice way to spend a day especially since the older kids later in the day were really relaxed because everyone was just about to have a week off.  yes... my school gave us from tuesday till friday off. its great!!!!

free-bike-a-day

to hangang we go. on bikes that were free (of course mine being the exception because i bought it), but we found sites all around seoul that give out free bikes for a day in exchange for valuable information. thus we ventured out on a fine day in seoul during the early beginnings of fall. on bikes. on the river. on our way to no where.

that about sums it up really. you couldn't have asked for a better day. and the free bike place was so close to my gangdong apartment we could walk to it and pick up the bikes. we rode into itwaeon and then took the subway back because unfortunately the 'freebike' has a curfew. back by 6pm. i guess that was the only catch, but by then we were tired and hungry i suppose. well... i was. i think. it seems fuzzy to remember now.

teaching picnic

i find it really silly how the simplest form of an american school field trip, the picnic, is turned into an extravagant fusion of museum visiting and festival type activities. its funny, i remember being handed a frisbee or a jump-rope and told to go play on the grass in the sunshine. but now there is a requirement to functionally entertain, amuse and captivate. no longer can two hours of four leaf-clovering exist. 15 min increments are blocked and planned providing activity and constant bombardment of stimulation. Amsa Historical Park... enjoy Folks.

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