Hi Everyone,

Well we're into week four of class, some are gettin in others....not so much, but this week we'll be doing the unit tests so that we can move on to the next part of the ciriculum.

Haven't been up to much outside of school. Just workin, then goin out to eat at new places. We found a really good restaurant by the school, and 2 alternate places for pizza (Mr. Pizza and another place that tastes like Pizza Delight...ah elementary school pizza days). Also we've been eating some 'interesting' Korean delicacies. We tried the larva, when we went to a restaurant called Bobo's (had to go there). And yes even Julie tried one.

We also tried cow intestines on two separate occasions. The first time we had it was grilled on the BBQ and we didn't know what we were eating. The 2nd time we found a restaurant and the ownwer was really nice and I didn't want to leave after talking to him for 5 minutes so we had cow intestines cooked in a spicey stew on a BBQ. I didn't mind it grilled...didn't like it in the stew. But I don't think I'll try it again...well intentionally anyways.

We headed out to the Redrock and got talkin to more foreigners. Basically trying to find out what everyone is doing for Chusok (Korean Thanksgiving), a bunch of people are going to Soeul for a few days, so we might tag along. Oh and the foosball table at the bar is exactly like the one from our house on 56 Ontario, needless to say Julie has been getting decimated, though she did beat me once. They are also organizing a hockey pool so that will be awesome.

The next day we made it down to Costco and picked up a bunch of food. Of course we can only find ceasar dressing there in a big container and of course, it isn't very good. On the bright side, I managed to get some cavendish hash browns, so my breakfasts are awesome.

This weekend we're going on a biking trip to an island about an hour northwest of Iksan. I can't pronounce or spell the name of the place off the top of my head but apparently the beaches are really nice there, and the area is famous for giant prawn. Should be fun, but I'll probably be huffing and puffing. On saturday I went to the batting cages for an hour swung at over 100 balls and I'm still sore 4 days later... the biking might kill me.

Well I gotta get ready for class. Got a cell phone now so if you get a call early in the morning it might be me. I'm 13 hours ahead of you and ignorant. Just kidding.

Hi everyone, takin a page out of Matt 'officemunky' blog, bored at lunch time and went to the comdey central webpage to take the South Park personality test. The results are in.

Trip to Jeonju

Totem Guard @ Hanok Village
wards off evil spirits

Week Three is in the books and we’ve finished our first week of classes…now week two is just about done. Teaching has been pretty crazy. Before all this started I thought that I would enjoy teaching the younger kids the most and but in reality that has not been the case. These young kids are crazy!!! I’ve had real trouble keeping them all quite and getting them to focus. Well that’s not completely true…I have two class that are your basic intro to English with kids from ages 8 to 9, my first class is crazy and my second class is a bit better. So far the first class attempted to lock me out of class, and a little guy in my second class called me old and ugly. It can only get better…I hope.

Aside from those 2, I have three more classes; two intermediate classes with 12 & 13yr olds, which are pretty good and a class full of kids aged 9 to 11 with “Returnees” (kids who have lived abroad for more then a year in an English speaking country). The Returnee class is the best because we’re mainly just going to read, write and have debates. I like the other 2 older classes but I have difficulty making things like ‘past tense’ fun. Just gonna have to keep workin at it.

Last Saturday all the teachers went to Jeon-ju, the provincial capital that’s about 1/2 hour southeast of Iksan. Vallery drove there while I navigated…I thought that I could do it because hey I navigated for Wally across Canada. Unfortunately there’s no Trans-Korean Highway, so we did get a little bit lost. I look at it as a ½ hour scenic detour personally. But once we got our bearings (and with a little bit of help from a nice lady at a Tourist Information booth) we eventually got back on track. Our Destination was the Hanok Village, a traditional style Korean village where people still live in traditional style housing.

Top: World Cup Stadium Jeonju, Bottom: Hanok

Before heading in we ate at a traditional Korean restaurant right across from the village and like most Korean meals we got WAY too much. Everything was really good, most of it was a tad bit spicy, but it was all served in traditional ceramic or copper dishes. (Most places use aluminum chopsticks/cups/bowls because they are easier to keep clean). We had Bulgogi, Octopus Stew, Tofu Soup, and some sort of Spicy Fish, with about twenty different side dishes. For once we were able too make a pretty good dent in the meal.

Traditional Korean Meal for 3 w/Vallery & Ailis

When we got to the village we looked at the paper crafts and other items that were for sale in the souvenir shops. I got a nice paper fan, and Julie bought a bunch of stuff for herself and some friends. After wards we checked out the village and saw some traditional games being played. One game is a metal ring toss, a lot like horseshoes, but harder I think.

We then proceeded to the paper museum, now that was EXCITING, well not really, but afterwards we made some paper crafts with this really cool guy who was an abstract artist. He worked part time at the village showing people how to make Hanji Konge (translation: useful paper craft), basically little candy dish looking things made out of paper. His English was pretty good and told us about how he was saving to go back to art school in NYC, pretty nice guy. After we finished that we checked out this traditional Korean band??? I guess… they were pretty interesting, just bangin’ away on the skins, coulda used some singing though.

Traditional Korean Music

We then headed down to Gyeonggijeon (unpronounceable) a park/shrine to the former Joseon Dynasty that ruled Korea from 1392-1910, and were from Jeonju. The shrine was one of 5 in Korea; originally built in 1410 after the death of the dynasty’s founder. Gyeonggijeon was the only one of the five not to be destroyed in the Japanese invasions from 1592-1598. One area holds pictures of several kings that ruled Korea as well as their palaquins (what they were carried around in). Another area has a mock ceremonial village, with different house for each person (Adivsors, Priests, Cooks, etc.) It was pretty interesting.

(Clockwise from Top Left: Walkway to the Shrine, Julie and I infront of Ceremonial houses, and a portrait of King Sajeon creator of Korean alphabet {Hangul})

We also checked out Pungnammun Gate, the last remaining piece of a wall that surrounded the city of Jeon-ju. It also has been rebuilt several times. Really cool looking structure with really detailed wood carving towards the top, mostly of dragons and turtles (seems kinda wussy I know, but a symbol of protection so perfect for a giant gate).

Pungnammun Gate

After that we just wandered around and checked out the famous Nambu Market, a giant outdoor market/flea market type place, that’s a few minutes away from the gate. Kinda like the farmer’s market in Iksan but twice as big. And like any outdoor market there are tons of unsanitary practices going on…mostly with meat; chickens sitting out on counters, whole tables full of fish/seafood with ice cubes on them, or not. They also have buckets of live crab, and eel so it’s pretty neat.

Nambu Market

The most shocking thing about the whole day was the fact that I drove us home, didn’t get lost and lived to tell about the whole thing. I even used a U-Turn lane at one point. It was not as bad as I thought. Koreans are just really aggressive drivers, who use their horns a lot. If you can ignore the horns you’ll be fine. Well I figure if you’re not already asleep at your computer you’re praying for me to end this, so I will. Till next time.

Trev

LOOK PICTURES!!!!!

The KTX Bullet Train

Hey all, been awhile been pretty busy with getting lesson plans together, so here we go. The Visa trip to Pusan and Japan was awesome, tiring but very fun. The trip to Pusan took around 3hrs by train; 1hr on a normal train and 2 by high speed KTX. When we arrived we booked into a cheap ‘love hotel’ dropped our stuff off and headed into the Foreigner Shopping district. The area was primarily Russian and we found out afterwards that it’s a pretty rough place…but as you can probably guessed ‘Tough Trev’ had no problem, those Russians musta been intimidated by my size. I did think it was rather strange that all these Russian women were hanging around outside of various buildings around the area. After looking around we picked up some souvenirs, and hit a Karaoke bar. The bar was empty for awhile and the background screens for the Karaoke eventually went from normal to semi-porn, Catherine and Julie did not enjoy that at all.

Waiting for the Ferry

The next morning we headed to the port to catch the Hydrofoil “The Beetle” to Fukuoka, Japan, the length of the trip was supposed to be 3hrs but we were delayed an hour because there was a hunk of seaweed stuck on the propeller. An hour of bobbing on the waves and I was feeling like crap, thank you Mom for the Gravol it definitely came in handy. The delay also caused another problem; it only gave us about an hour upon arrival to get to the Korean Embassy, luckily we made it there with about 10 minutes to spare.

Canal City Mall

After checking in to our hotel and dropping our stuff off, we headed to Canal city Mall a giant 5 storey mall, it was pretty cool. I couldn’t find any cool Japanese Baseball caps, just ones for the Fukuoka Golden Hawks…not a cool hat. Afterwards we walked around the surrounding area for a bit, and accidentally wandered into the red light district. We made it out unscathed and went for a bite to eat at one of the Yatai’s (street vendors) for some Ramen. It’s a popular Japanese noodle dish and according to our cabby, Fukuoka’s is the BEST in all of Japan. The food was great and the people were too, one old guy with a huge white beard came up to us and took our picture, so I got him to take one for me, and then I got one with the both of us.

Ramen was good enough for me. Good enough for Mr & Mr. Lee

After diner Julie and I wandered around and checked out some of the ‘Amusement parks’…basically 4-5 storey arcades with something different on each floor; crane games, shooting games, arcade games, slot machine and medal games (games where you win tokens for prizes). It was all real fun I won Julie a Stuffed Snoopy, and after spending another $15 I realized that my luck had run out and that I’d best leave before this blew into a full scale Crane-Game addiction. There were some really weird games, like this virtual horse racing game where basically you bet which horse is going to win.

We left the next day after our eating a nice breakfast, and headed back to the Korean Embassy to pick up our Visas. After getting those we headed to another mall, ate some more Ramen, played some more prize games, and bought a little Godzilla for my desk. We made it back to the harbor and made our way back to Iksan. After 6 hours of travel we were all pretty beat, we made it back at midnight and then found out we had to work the next day. Total downer. I’ll be posting another blog tomorrow.

Us at the Korean Embassy

On a personal note I just received word that my Grandma pasted away yesterday. This was one of the things that made my decision to leave extremely hard, knowing that I might miss her funeral and other things like the birth of Chrissie’s first child. But I know that I made the right decision in going, and that there would always be reasons to stay home. I don't really know where I’m going with this but the main thing I've found that I shouldn't worry about what I’ll miss because if I do I’ll never fully enjoy the things I'm doing. I’ll always have fond memories of my Grandma, her wink and her smile and how no matter where you were or what you were doing if you needed anything; she would always be there for you. It was really hard for me to leave knowing that I may never see her again, but I’ll always have these memories and that’s what comforts me now, at a time when I wish I could be there with everyone. Hope everyone is okay, missing you all even more.

Love, Trev