Beachee Time!!

My final weekend in Korea :(

Luckily it was a three day weekend...for me at least. Many teachers had to continue to work all through Friday and all of Saturday. The work schedule here is insane. But at least they didn't force us to work the long weekend. I might have rebelled had they scheduled me. Anyway, moving on.

Robert and I took the 2:30 shuttle out of the village on Friday afternoon just to get out. I didn't want to go straight down to Busan so we could just relax for a little bit after a crazy week. It was nice hanging out in Daegu without having to worry about catching the shuttle bus back to the village. We were able to eat dinner and wander around and just sit and talk without any stress. We found a tiny family restaurant and ate some delicious dolsot be-bim-bop (a rice and veggies thing in a super hot stone bowl) which has become one of my favorite varieties of Korean food. This little restaurant was the first time I had ever eaten at one of the floor-level tables. It was definitely a new experience; but it's something I could get used to.

 After dinner we wandered over to the 2-28 park which is the place to be it seems. There are benches all over the place and almost every single one is occupied. It makes sense though, seeing as it is a great place to have a conversation.

Korean Fashionista?

Last weekend when I was prowling downtown looking for street photographs, I met two men who were also looking for street photographs. Except they were looking for street fashion! I walked past them when a car drove by one time and they caught up with me quickly. They both said hi and that my "sunglasses were so beautiful!" the one guy told me he was a fashion blogger and the other guy is a fashion designer. Try guessing who is who in the picture! Haha. But they took my picture, asked me questions about what I was doing here in Korea and how long I would be here and such. Then they took my email address so they could send me the picture. I didn't think that they would actually send me anything but they did! Here is the link: http://lowr.tistory.com/686 I know it's in Korean and all but I have figured out a very loose translation. The heading says something about my style of attractive spontaneity, the other heading says charming beauty, and the main body goes on to say some very poetic things about my style including my camera, umbrella and my smile! I'm not trying to be vain or self-centered here, but I think it's pretty cool that I made it into a fashion blog in my camelback and chaco's! Woot for Coloradoan style!! Here are the guys who took my pic (I know I already posted it but I'll post it again!)

Mt. Apsan & Sky Jump

I realize that I said last weekend was quite an adventure, but so was this one. Apparently I've got a trend going on! After an exhausting week of teaching all day and staying up late at night, I jam-packed my weekend with fabulous/new things.

I wanted to go on a hike on Saturday, but it’s so hot and humid lately. Also, if we took the shuttle bus into town on Saturday morning, we wouldn't get to the mountain until around noon. I decided that the best thing to do about that would be to stay in Daegu overnight so we could get to the mountain early in the morning when it wouldn't be so hot. 

The 10 Hour Bus Trip!

We had quite the adventure this weekend. On Friday Earney, Gwen and I went into Daegu to find an English bookstore and for Gwen and I to look for a silver jeweler.

Seoul Soul

This last weekend we went up to Seoul...I know it's been a couple of days since we got back but I've been busy! The only reason I have time to write right now is because I'm on call for this class period and nobody called in sick! :)

We left the village on Friday afternoon and went into Daegu to take the KTX up to Seoul. The KTX is a super fast train! The fastest we went was 305 km an hour which is equivalent to about 190 miles an hour. So on the KTX it only took us 2 hours to get all the way up to Seoul. There is a slow train too, which is cheaper, but also takes about 4 hours. The KTX feels like a plane inside. The seats are exactly like in an airplane but there is no annoying wait time for take off and landing and such! The ride is also incredibly smooth for a train. The funny thing is that when we got back on to go from Seoul to Daegu, we were going backwards! They don't turn the train around so you are sitting facing the same direction but traveling backwards. So I traveled backwards for two hours..what a trip!

We get into Seoul station and go straight down into the subway. Now this is the first time I have ever ridden a subway and it was a little overwhelming at first. You go in and have to look at a map to figure out where you are going. Then you have to buy a ticket and make sure you get on the train going the right direction! The first time we got on we almost went the wrong direction but a nice guy who overheard us told us to go to the other side.

Donghwasa Temple and Bath House

Yesterday we had another full day of exploration and fun! We got up early so we could go out hiking...and we had to get up early because it took almost two hours to get to the mountain where Chris wanted to go. Maybe next time I'll go to the mountain that's not quite so far away. First we had to take the free shuttle bus into downtown Daegu, which is about 40 minutes, and then we had to take a city bus up into the mountains which was another 40 minutes at least.

The mountain was nothing like I had expected. There were little towns all over the place with restaurants and convenience stores and a lot of people were driving right up to the temple. The temples were all full of very intricate wood work and paintings. Many of the buildings were newly constructed or under construction so who knows how old most of the buildings actually were. But the informational sign said that the Donghwasa temple represents the Buddhists of the Silla Dynasty and it dates back to 430 A.D. The area is still used as a place of worship by many as we saw when we visited.

Downtown Daegu

Since we only had a half day on Friday, (all the kiddos go back home!) we decided to get off campus and do something fun! At first we were going to go to Costco because Mary wanted to buy a camera, but then we decided she could find a camera elsewhere and that we should go into Daegu. First we took the shuttle bus to Yeungjin college, the parent school of the Daegu English Village and from there we took a taxi into the downtown area.

Talk About Exhausted...

Hello all....well I have been in Korea for 3 days now and it has been a total whirlwind! On Monday, we spent most of the day training and we observed one class. On Tuesday, we lesson planned, taught two classes and debriefed for a period and went shopping in town. Today, I taught a full load- 4 90 minute classes. Tomorrow I will teach the same, only a different class and I have to get the lesson plan together tonight! Most new teachers that come here get a full week's worth of training before they start teaching, but they are so short staffed right now that they just had to throw us in the mix and hope we survived. With the way I feel now, I hope I'm still alive by the end of tomorrow too!

Backtracking a little bit....the 12 hour plane flight was miserable. Twelve hours is a really long time to be stuck in a tiny plane seat eating yucky food.

On My Way

I have finally started my journey ! I am sitting in the San Francisco airport with a five hour layover and am trying to stay awake.

It all started at 3:20 this morning when I got up to drive to the airport in Colorado Springs. Our flight left at 6:30 am.

How Korea Happened

Last week my mom got an email from someone she works with that had a flyer about this internship. It is through UCCS and is six weeks long. UCCS has made a partnership with Yeungjin College in South Korea and they have made a "village" called Daegu Gyongbuk English Village. This is a live-in, immersion style village where students of all ages come to learn English.

Just the Beginning....

Since I am on the edge of starting my worldly adventures, I've decided to start up my blog! So, day 1. I applied for an internship to teach English in South Korea last week. Turns out, I have been accepted! So, I will be winging my way around the world in just one months time. Wow! It's all happened really fast!