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.

earlymorningbeontimebalibaliwaitwaitbalibalibusridelineupname

tagslineupholdhandswalkingwalkingwalkingstandingmuseumfigureine

picturesgrassyfieldpicturesbathroombreakposedpicturetimelunchtimedrink

timecleanupplaytimebathroomroundrobingamesfacepaintingduckduckgoose

redroverredrovercleanuplineupstandstillfollowinlinebalibaligetonthebusbuckleup

screamingexcitementcausetheirenergywasntexpendedbackatschoolwithwonder

mentbecausewhatdidthosethreehoursdotheend.

COEX Aquarium: couldn't have been better timing

the day after my arm breaking we went on a field trip.
where did we go?
oh the COEX aquarium.
Just inside the COEX mall, opposite end of the subway entrance. it's probably best to get to it by going in near the Lotte Duty Free.


Anyways...
so fun. there was more than i expected there, and even a hands on selection of starfish for the kids to pick up and play with.
i mean, this was by far, the least actual 'learning' experience you could possibly have in an aquarium. you probably needed a good half-a-day to go through this place and talk about fish, habitats, preservation, salt water vs. fresh water and the ecology of aquatic life... we went through it in two hours. it was rushed albeit, but still fun. i tried as hard as i could to just let them be kids while they were there... mostly just tried not to lose them in the crowd...

persistent thought of the day, 'hold hands dammit!'

birthday blog

just a collection of morning kinder's birthday cakes, silly hats, victory signs (yes another 'fake' year older) and classroom shinaningans. we'll see how many i remember to take pictures of...

jin

andy

what's next

[i'm going back in time to write this                       5.....4....3...2..1.]

there are only a few things that could have possibly made me really upset here in korea.
one) dying. obviously, i haven't died yet, there's just the constant fear of death via getting hit by insane taxi drivers, eating bad kimchi, or starvation/malnutrition.
two) would be getting terribly ill far away from anyone who actually cared that i was getting ill... well we all know how this turned out. i survived. okay so, i got sick... really sick, and i was really sad and depressed about it because it took a huge chunk of my 'getting-to-know-people' time, going out and doing things and just in general feeling more comfortable in a place that wasn't being particularly comforting.
three) hurting myself, badly. again, far away from comfort or care/help from anyone i know. wow. waddya know? i'm at a two/three... this does not sit well.

so you may be asking, how does this occur? well, let me explain. i have a simple equation you can follow:
hair rinse (conditioner) plus a clean tile floor plus water equals a crushed radius bone, detached wrist and nearly 7.5 weeks of wearing a crooked splint in the hottest and wettest part of a korean summer.
oh not to mention it happened just a few days before the ten day summer vacation for our school. and i had just bought a new bike. both of which i couldn't enjoy because of pain, heat and the stupidness of broken limbs.
i felt so restricted. so limited. it was so hot out and my arm was bound in a cast from finger tips to up and around my elbow. i felt like i was trapped in a horrible horrible nightmare.
so if you want here's a few of the details from my arm breaking experience, start to finish
oh the horrors... of horrors

- i opted out of the million won surgery, come to find out, you're then given medieval treatment of bone alignment. i had one man pulling in each direction whilst another squeezed them into place. yabba.
- the pain killer that they gave me wasn't nearly enough to even stifle the pain for the first couple weeks. every bump and accidental wiggle made me want to chop off my arm. or at least detach it and put it on a regrowth stand in some high tech hospital... wait we don't have those yet. ugh, where's the adamantium when you need it?
- insurance in korean is kinda a pain in the butt. avoid getting sick or hurt. it just makes everyone's life easier. i'm still not sure yet what or when i will get back money for my arm, but for my previous hospital bills i spent a little over a grand and received back nearly half. a good return, here's to hoping for another.
- prescription cocktails. this is probably my least favorite, but at the same time favorite part of the whole sha-bang. i didn't get proper painkillers, however i did have a regimented 4 pills three times a day with an extra pills for the morning and evening. forget getting them in english. that was hard to pull off... luckily i had a ton of help from my korean staff, otherwise i would have been completely clueless.
- i'm glad through all of this i had at least one person willing to bug me and dig me out of a depressive hole i was curling into. porter came around often... played chess with me and talked about books and things of enlightenment.
- going places for the most part was out of the question. i had every intention to go on an extravagant backpacking trip through the northeastern mountains... nope. i had plans to ride my bike to other cities... nope. i had the want to just step out of doors and enjoy blazing hot summer weather... nope. it just sucked all around. i'll never do it again.

here's the good news. (fast forward from that last sentence) it's been almost nine weeks. i'm out of my cast, and it's fall.

w.h.a.t.s.n.e.x.t.