Last Day of My First Contract.

Today is the last day of my first 1 year contract.. ever!  I am pleased to say that I am enjoying it thoroughly, as it is the last day of summer English class for the majority of students (there were only 6 in the after school group that finished on Wednesday).  We are having an 'easy' day to say the least, with our open market, teachers' market, a snack party, and the movie The Incredibles.  The other Fridays of camp were similar, except they started with a review and a test.  Today we decided to give that a miss in exchange for a snack party, which I think is well deserved for the students who have been coming to study English during their summer vacation.

The open market and teachers' market was really fun as always.  A cool thing my co-teacher Eunji and I did last winter camp was give out laminated monopoly money instead of candy for participating in class or for winning games.  Since we can sell candy at $5 and/or $2, it is a very wise move for us teachers, and letting the students handle the fake money is very valuable, so we decided to do it again for this camp.  Not only is it really fun and exciting for them, but it also teaches them to protect and manage money.  There were a few cases of students losing their money, and as much as I would have liked to just give them more, they needed to learn not to leave it lying around, so a little tough love was necessary there.  It makes for a great market activity at the end of each week as well.  We allow the students to bring in toys and snacks to sell to each other, and then we open the teachers' market where they can buy toys, school supplies, candies, stickers, and even lunch with the teachers!  Today we are ordering fried chicken (I guess we aren't exactly being nutritionists.. but it's a treat :) for two of our brightest students (who also earned enough for lunch during the first week too).

Making monopoly money!

This is actually a picture from last winter's teachers' market.  (having some technology issues right now)

Different things for sale at the market.

I'm also very excited because I am packed and ready for my visit back to the States, however I am experiencing a bit of frustration thanks to the airlines (big surprise there).  My itinerary from Busan to Cleveland was to take 24 hours, leaving at 7:20 am Saturday morning, and arriving in Cleveland at 6:20 pm the same day (Ohio is 13 hours behind Korea).  Now my flights have been rearranged so that I will leave at 11:05 am on Saturday, and arrive in Cleveland at 6:22 am on Sunday morning!  Not only is that pretty disappointing news for my parents who are picking me up from the airport (later than anticipated, and really early in the morning), but I will have a layover in Seoul for about 5 hours, in San Francisco for about 5 hours, and in LA for about 5 hours AND that is a cool 32 hours of travel time.  I also had my sleep pattern all worked out to minimize jet lag, and now I don't think I can do much about it.  The one good thing to come from this is that I don't have to spend the night in Busan tonight, which will save me a little money.  Nonetheless, I am very excited to be home seeing my family and friends :)

You've Got a Friend In Me!

I didn't have time to post this video at the end of last semester, and had completely forgotten about it.  My 3rd graders had their You've Got a Friend In Me competition, and it went really well.  I'm actually showing my summer camp students "Toy Story" right now, which is what made me think of it!  Today is the last day for the after lunch group (Friday is the last day for the other groups) for summer camp, so we are having a pizza/snack party and watching a movie.  There are some wonderful little extras about being a teacher, and those include pizza parties and cartoons!  (another is getting paid to play games everyday :)

The 4th graders didn't get around to this song, and probably won't get do it (it's a pretty tough one).  I get to see the 3rd graders twice a week, but only once a week for the 4th graders.  Because of that they just finished The Lion Sleeps Tonight at the same time the 3rd graders finished this song.  

Speaking of which, here is the 4th grade version of The Lion Sleeps Tonight video:

I have plenty of good songs for the older students coming up, but I do need suggestions for the little ones.  If anyone has any suggestions/requests please comment or email me!  (I'm just trying to avoid the Eensy Weensy Spider, lol)

Today Marks One Year Here!

Today is August 17th, which marks 1 year since I have arrived here in South Korea!  It has been an amazing year, and as much as I would like to say it doesn't seem like it has been a whole year, it does.  And for me that is perfect.  It hasn't gone too fast, and it has dragged on.  I am always feeling busy, but still always find time to experience new things, and also time to relax.  I am excited to visit home a week from tomorrow, but I am also glad that I have another year here, because I'm just not ready to be done with Korea yet.  There are several more Seoul trips in my future, hopefully another Jeju trip, and a whole lot more Korean BBQ.

My friends Kendra, Julia and I enjoying a 10K run out in the countryside a month or so ago.

I'm finishing the 2nd week of my 3 week summer camp today, so in a week I will have a 2 week bonus vacation for resigning my contract.  I am using that to go back home to visit friends and family, and then I'm coming back to start the fall semester.  I am having a bit of a reflection over the past year this week, and I feel like I have accomplished a lot, while enjoying my job and my social life.  I have gone on 3 great vacations (Seoul/Jeju, Thailand, and the Jeolla Province trip), and almost had a 4th to Japan had I not missed my ferry.  I bought 2 guitars and joined a band (maybe my favorite thing right now?).  I've made lots of friends from all over the world, some that I will keep in touch with for a long time I think.  I've just completed and received the certificate for an online TEFL course that will help out my resume.  I've lost a phone, a wallet, ruined a laptop (water damage) and have recently broke my phone breakdancing (good thing for insurance, and not caring too much about material things).  I've successfully kept up with this blog which will be an amazing way to look back on this experience years down the road!

Here is my TEFL certificate (that will give me a nice monthly raise this next year :)

Before I decided to move here, I had planned on traveling during my summers off from teaching in the States, but I had never pictured myself actually living abroad.  Coming here was one of the best decisions I've ever made, because it has opened up a world of opportunities to me, literally!  During my next year here I plan on visiting Vietnam (December), Japan, and maybe Jeju again.  After that I will probably be looking at Taiwan for 1 year, and mayyyybe China for a year after that.  It's hard to commit past that right now (and I know my parents don't quite want to hear this), but I feel like going to South America (Ecuador, Chile and/or Argentina) for a year or two would complete my journey.  If I do all of that, I will be ready to start my teaching career in America as I approach the end of my 20's.  After that I can still take my summers to see Europe and hopefully some parts of Africa.  My mind constantly changes on what my future will hold, but the fact that I can change my mind, and that I can go just about anywhere and find work, is the most liberating feeling I could have!  So on I go, and life is good :)

Oh yeah, I also gotta hit Australia for some SCUBA diving before I leave Asia too :)

Black Belt Achieved!

I took and passed my black belt test on June 30th!!  I didn't know that I had passed until a couple weeks later, but I have waited to do this post until I received my belt and certificate which finally happened this past Wednesday (8/8).  I am so happy to have accomplished this, and am planning (and already training for) a second black belt (ee don, or 이단).  There was a time where I almost called it quits because I was so busy, but it was very worth sticking with it :)

Here is the arena that the test was held at.

Here is the inside!  This actually made me miss wrestling a lot, as it has a similar setup to the big tournaments I have competed in in the past.

I have 2 videos of my black belt test (thanks to Norah)!  I took my test with 2 other Taekwondo students, a boy and a girl who are most likely in high school.  The first video is of us reciting the 'sun so' in Korean, followed by the basic action, poomse 8, then poomse 6 (which was random), and finally the kicking test.  I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to break bricks or boards, but it was still amazing.  

I'm obviously on the right, and it was tough because I was soo tired.  I went to watch my friends take their black belt test there that morning at 10 am.  Went back to practice at my Taekwondo center for an hour, then went right back to the arena.  I thought I was up at 2 pm, and I sat ready to go until almost 5 pm before I went!  Also I wasn't allowed to warm up just before I went, so I was literally falling asleep as I was called out onto the mat.  I really thought I was going to make a mistake!  The only part I didn't do well was the 'sun so,' which was reciting a couple sentences in Korean, so they understood why I didn't do so awesome on that.  Also a funny, and relevant, little tid-bit to add on is at 1:24 on this video you can hear a little Korean boy yell out "Oh!  Waygooken!," which means foreigner, lol.  After that we got suited up for the sparring portion!

Here is the sparring portion, which lasted only 30 seconds.  It was quite intense, and the high schooler I was facing was pretty tough!  I had bruises on my forearms from blocking his kicks, but I feel that if they were keeping score I would have taken him ;)

Here is me trading in my red belt for my black belt!

Master Lee and I; holding my certificate.

Master Lee, Keenan and I.

Here is my framed certificate!  I also have an ID card that certifies me as a black belt for LIFE :]

Here is my black belt!  In Korean it says 무 롱태권도 (Mulryong Taekwondo) on the left, and 라이언 (ra-ee-eun, or Ryan) 존 (John) 매너리 (Manary) on the right.  How cool is that!?

So it was an amazing experience, and I will be leaving Korea with the best souvenir one can get here.  I am also excited to compete in some sparring competitions this fall (reserved for black belts only), and next summer I could be competing for my 2nd black belt.  FIGHTING!!

Amazing Backpacking Trip in Korea!

So my vacation was a success!  Not only did it start off with a couple of lazy days off followed by the Ilsan Beach Festival, but it included an amazing backpacking trip right here in Korea (and I have TONS of pictures and videos that can't be left out).  A lot of people in my shoes have both the opportunity and the desire to travel all over (especially in South East Asia), and it seems that many ignore what Korea has to offer.  I have now had 3 vacations (in 1 year!) and 2 of them were right here in Korea.  Of course Thailand was amazing, but the likelihood of traveling SE Asia at a later date is much higher than traveling in Korea later on in life.  The first vacation included Seoul and Jeju which was amazing, but this trip was truly unique, and had it's fair share of surprises, characters and amazingness!  

We (Alex, Karl and Becky) started off taking the KTX (speed train) to a city called Dajeon where Karl has a friend who had agreed to show us around.  When we arrived there we hit an amazing sub sandwich joint that we'd heard great things about called Lion Sub.  Eating that is what made me realize how much I actually miss a good sandwich from Subway or the like.  Anywho, so far so good.  

I also have to point out that we had a basic outline of what our trip would look like, but we were admittedly "winging it."  After having an early dinner at Lion Sub we met up with Karl's friend Nick who helped us find a good motel in a wise location.  After hanging out at the motel for a while (which was actually really nice) we hit a couple different establishments before going on to the grand finale, the LIVE octopus restaurant.  And here is the footage:

I know my mom is pretty jealous that she missed out on this opportunity, so I will try to prepare this dish when I visit home :P

Here's a cool picture of Alex the next day on our way to the KTX station.  In the background were the first of our very interesting characters.  The old Korean men were gambling on the sidewalk there, but were slamming their game pieces and money down quite enthusiastically.  They also kept sending the.. interestingly dressed woman there back to the store to get them ice cream.  They sent her back 2 different times before we left the scene, who knows how long that went on for, haha.

The next portion of the trip was the only REAL planned or reserved part of the trip, which was a temple stay at a Buddhist temple down in the South West part of Korea.  It was near a city called Haenam, which is considered the "End of Korea."  The temple stay cost us each 50,000 won, which included accommodation and meals for 24 hours, and was an amazing and unique cultural experience!  Mr. Park helped us find and book this temple stay which was great since many others were booked up (it is peak traveling season in Korea right now), and because he helped us find one with an English translator.  We actually thought we had misjudged the arrival time (thinking a 12 pm train from Dajeon was plenty of time to get there by 5 pm).  What we didn't realize is that our train to the end of the line (Mokpo) was an HOUR bus ride from Haenam, which was another HOUR bus ride from the temple.  We got really lucky with the first bus departure time, and took some great advise from a nice Korean man on the train to take a taxi from Haenam to the temple.  Somehow we pulled it off and arrived at the temple at 4:55!  

This is the mountain ridge that the temple sat on.  Picture taken from the taxi.

We did a number of interesting things during the temple stay, most significantly (and in short) they were:

• Wearing the Buddhist clothing 
• Sitting and walking meditation
• Ate the monks' vegetarian meals (which were actually really good.. just coulda used a little chicken ;)
• Rang a huge bell (if I get the video from Becky of US doing it I'll add it)
• Had a tea ceremony with a monk and other guests
• Slept on the floor in a communal room (I slept.. so-so)
• Woke up at 5 am to chant and meditate
• Did communal work with the monks and other guests (basically just sweeping up around the different building at the temple site)
• And finally during our free time we hiked/climbed to the top of an amazing mountain ridge (again, need pictures from Becky still!)

Here is a brief video of a monk ringing the bell, the temple, the mountains behind it and of my friends.  Right after this we all got to ring the bell one time each.  The reverb from the bell so sounded so cool in person, I don't think this video does it any kind of justice.

Becky and Karl standing near the entrance to the temple.  Us guys' sleeping quarters was on the ground floor, through that door on the right.  One of the characters I had mentioned before was actually one of the monks.  When we all sat in for meditation, none of us were sitting in a perfect full lotus position that you'd imagine when you think of a yoga expert.  For some reason though one of the monks had a huge problem with the way that Karl was sitting, even though we were all sitting cross-legged/'Indian' style.  I was busy counting my breaths for the meditation, but I guess this monk just wouldn't let it go, until finally our interpreter monk (who directed us the whole time) came over and told him it was fine (a couple of times).  Karl just kept looking at us, looking at his own legs, and looking at the monk, thinking "we're all doing the same thing!"  Oh well, nothing came of it, just a character that we won't soon forget.

Here is a picture carrying our 'old school' brooms from the shed to the main temple court yard.

We actually decided to leave a little early before lunch, because Alex was hardly eating since he didn't really like the food, and we all wanted some meat.  The SW part of Korea (Jeolla province) is known for their food by the way, so we had extra incentive to go.  The monks and staff at the temple were very nice about it and even provided us with a free shuttle van back to the city of Haenam where we tracked down this delicious Korean BBQ restaurant!

Korean BBQ is.. arguably my favorite thing about Korea.  What makes Jeolla province so famous for it is they charge the same (or less, in this case the same) price, but provide close to 20 side dishes (instead of 3-10).  It was so good.  At this point we had to say bye to Alex because he had to work on Thursday.  He caught a bus back to our city, and we went onward.

Next we went looking for things to do at a PC bang, and ended up discovering a Dinosaur museum!  Who doesn't love one of those?  I guess they discovered around 500 dinosaur footprints there in Haenam only 20 years ago!  I have too many photos to show much from the actual museum, but here are some funny ones that we took out side of the museum.  (Which, by the way, we didn't spend much time doing, it felt like we were in an oven in the mid 90s and high humidity!)

Here is me 'picking up' a little dino.

"Look out Becky!!!"  

By this point our 'winging it' strategy was working better than ever.  We had found some cool things, and managed to hit just about everything we had wanted to hit.  This is the point though, when we started running into towns with nothing to do, and the traveling/heat was starting to get everyone a little edgy.  Not bad at all, but Becky for example is a little tired of Korean food, and she had been a trooper the whole trip.  We went to a town called Suncheon (supposed to have an amazing sunset and gulf), and on the way told Becky she could pick the place to eat, and all she wanted was a hamburger.  No such thing in the town of Suncheon.  Also we missed the sunset, didn't see the coast, and figured our luck had finally run out.  This is where we ran into another interesting set of characters though!  As soon as we got off the bus and crossed the street we were greeted by some Korean high school boys who were eager to get our opinion on which of 2 of them was more handsome.  I always love how competitive the Korean culture can be, and we made one of their nights by unanimously picking the non-pumpkin haired boy, heh heh.  I did get a really nice picture of the sky on the way there though, and the next day we went on to the very well known International Expo in Yeosu.

Picture from the bus.

The Expo was pretty cool and cheap (only 10,000 won for foreigners; was originally 100,000 at the beginning of the summer), but there were way too many people there.  The best thing I had heard about the expo was the laser show at night, but we had no accommodations prepared, so we decided we shouldn't stay too late.  There were expositions set up from 40 different countries, and we checked out about 10 of them which were really cool.  We went to go check out an aquarium that was there, but the wait was 4 hours long : /  Since we weren't really planning on going, and it is generally a weekend long trip, we weren't too disappointed, but it could have worked out a little better. 

Becky and Karl in front of the big 'O' where the laser show takes place.

Inside the Indian Exposition. 

Here is a quick video from the Argentinian Expo which was really cool.  They also had food but we didn't get any here.

We did stop for a snack at the Italian Expo, which was simply a restaurant.  I enjoyed a delicious espresso and some gelato ice cream :)

At this point it was Thursday evening, and we were starting to run out of clever ideas.  We weighed our options and decided to take a bus to Busan (about 2 hours from where we were, and about 1 hour away from our starting point of Ulsan).  Unfortunately we had to take a much later bus to the wrong side of town, but we made it work.  We arrived at 1:30 am and took a taxi to Hyundai Beach.  When we got there we realized (I remembered) that there had been a week long festival going on there, and the streets were filled!  Due to this (and the sleep we all caught on the bus) we decided to pull an "all-nighter" and catch the first train to Ulsan in the morning.  That's what we did, and it was a great time.  We made it back to Ulsan quite early and went our separate ways.  The best part was that we had the whole weekend to recuperate before returning to school on Monday.  A good vacation indeed :D

A nice shot of Hyundai Beach and the Busan skyline that night.

Here is a rough outline of our trip.  Some cities are spelled different due to different interpretations of the alphabet translation, but you get the picture :)