IAFF World Championships in Daegu

I don't know who all paid attention to them, but the IAFF World Championships were recently held in Daegu, South Korea, just an hour and a half from Ulsan.  I used to be a track and field athlete, so when I heard about this I thought it would be awesome to go watch some of it, but it was during my first week of school so I didn't anticipate going.  My first day in school was Monday, August 29th, and the students' first day in school was Thursday, September 1st.  That Thursday I learned that the students were going to the World Championship races on Friday, the second day of school, and that I might be able to go.  I found out at the end of the day that I was able to go which was awesome!!

I went in early to help move some boxes (a bit of a 'thank you' gesture) then the whole school left in about 10 buses.  We were at the races for about 3 hours I think, then we went to lunch at a pretty nice restaurant and then headed back to the school.  It was an amazing field trip, on the first week of school!  I feel very lucky :D

The stadium!

Jack and some of our kids where they take your tickets.  The tickets were 30,000 Won a piece ($30) which is super expensive if you're taking a whole school!  I guess what happened is Hyundai bought and donated thousands of tickets to schools around Korea.  I believe they paid for the whole trip as well, transportation and food included, pretty cool!

A view from my seat.  I actually wanted to walk around and explore the stadium, but I was a chaperon so I felt like that may have been a poor judgement call.  Good seats though, we were close and had a television right in front of us.

Walter Dix of the USA in his blocks for the 200 Meter semi-final.

Walter is the 3rd from the front here.

And he won his heat!  He ended up taking the silver medal behind Usain Bolt of Jamaica, who holds world records in the 100, 200 and 4X100 with his teammates.

Jack.

Another teacher and some of our kids!

Lost in Ulsan!

I have to report about the first (and assuredly not last) time I was lost in Korea.  [This was about 1 week ago]  I planned on visiting a music shop to get some guitar stuff.  My co-teacher Jack is lending me his guitar until I get paid at the end of the month, and buy my own.  He hasn't played in a long time so his guitar needed new strings, and I needed other miscellaneous things like pics and a strap.  I learned that there was a music shop nearby in Seonamdong, or 'Old Downtown.'  I had to take the bus for the first time and was excited to explore, but had very limited directions to this music shop.  I did have a map that my co-teacher Jack printed off for me, but everything was in Korean, and all I knew is that the store was a block or two south of a school. 

When I was on the bus, I asked a high school student in Korean (using my handy dandy phrase book) how to get to Seonamdong.  I figured out that that is where he was getting off the bus, so at least I knew what stop to get off at.  When we got off I asked him if he knew where this music shop was and he had no idea.  I decided to just wander and see if I could find it, which worked out because I needed to buy some things at other stores anyways (like a belt, and slippers for my school).  I was about to walk in the complete wrong direction, when I spotted the WaBar, a Western style bar (that is a chain bar in Ulsan) that I had just read about at http://www.ulsanonline.com/ so I stopped in.  I figured they might be able to help me find my music shop.  It took a while, but with the help of 3 employees and a bit of confusion I ended up with a make-shift map of how to get there (pictured below). 

Old Downtown is very cool, it's got this huge outdoor mall type deal.

Picture I took at WaBar.

Picture of the map they drew for me!

I finally found my shop and... it was closed!  Of course, so at least I knew where it was and ended up going with a buddy a couple days later.  It was about 9:30 PM so I walked around to a couple more stores and then headed to a bus stop.  While I was there a high school kid came up to me and started speaking to me in English!  Apparently he had studied English as a foreign exchange student in Chicago for a year, and is planning on going to college there.  We chatted for a bit, then I got on the wrong bus.. NOW FOR THE LOST PART, haha.

Music shop that was closed.

Picture of the street the music shop was on so I could find it when it was actually open.

I get on the 104 bus, that had taken me to old downtown, but apparently I took it going the wrong way.  As time went on I noticed that I was the only passenger on the bus, and I was like "uh-oh."  Believe it or not this is not the first time I have managed to find myself at the end of the line of a bus route, being told to get off (happened once on Lake-tran back home).  At this point I am extremely exhausted; I had been at my school, gone hiking, been exploring/shopping, and now I'm just trying to get home and it wasn't happening.  I figured I would take a cab, but I was not in the main part of the city anymore (at a bus station) and I didn't have a cell phone.  The bus driver wrote 2 bus line numbers on the paper I showed him with my address, but I was still stranded.  Finally a bus driver tried to talk to me, failing miserably, and then had me get on his bus (free pity ride).  I sat on his bus for about 15 minutes while he watched a portable television.  I had NO IDEA what was going on, but after a bit he took off.  We were back in the city, but I didn't have a clue if we were going to be heading back to my area, or when I should get off, so I just thanked the driver, told him "tehk-see" and got off.  Got a cab, and made it home (for 10 bucks instead of 1).  It was crazy!

Exploring Ulsan, day and night!

My second day in Ulsan was very eventful with Jack and his family.  He picked me up and we went to an ancient village which was about a 45 minute drive from my motel.  We had lunch there and then walked around this village.  Then we met up with some good friends of his, Mr. & Mrs. Kim who are music teachers at another school.  They are also world travelers and speak pretty good English as well!  We saw an ancient temple and then walked around sight seeing a bit.  We decided that it would be a great idea to visit the next day (Sunday) and play some music together! 

So on Sunday Mr. Kim picked me up around 2 in the afternoon, we bought some snacks at a couple different places and then got to his house.  I played a couple songs for them on guitar and then tried out some traditional Korean instruments!  I (attempted to) play a bamboo flute, which was very difficult since I've never played a wind instrument (except a harmonica), but it was fun.  I started to get it to make noise at the end of my attempts, and now I feel like I need to buy one and master it!  I also played a janggu (Korean drum), which I had played at orientation.  The last one I played was gayageum (traditional Korean string instrument), and that was awesome as well!  (Unfortunately no pictures of that event)

Mrs. Park, Chan-Ee and myself at the historical sight.  We were at Gyeongju, and there are a couple of websites from the pamphlet if you are interested in learning more about this place: http://guide.gyeongju.go.kr & http://yangdong.invil.org

A beautiful Lotus flower.

This tree is over 500 years old!

Chan-Yuk sleeping on mommy.

Before trying rice candy.

After trying rice candy.

Probably the cutest kids in the world!

Chan-Yuk and I trying to escape!

The woman to the far right is Mrs. Kim.

A very nice dinner that I was treated to!

Mr. Kim and I!

Mr. Park, myself and Mr. Kim at dinner.

Since I was spending all this awesome time with my co-teacher and his friends I missed out on some opportunities to hang out with my new friends who were new to the city as well. So Monday after my first day of school was over I met with 10 of my new friends for dinner. I took a taxi and we went to a Korean BBQ which was really good! It was really nice to spend some time with my friends from orientation again, and we went out to a Nore Bang (Like Karaoke, but you have a private room) for a couple hours. It was a blast!

At the Korean BBQ.

My terrible photography skills capturing parts of my friends!

At the Nore Bang! (pronounced "nor A Bong")

It was rowdy!

So as usual I'm behind on updates, but It's because I'm having such a blast!

So my last post covered my first week in Korea at orientation, and this post (and the next couple) will try to cover my first week in Ulsan!  I arrived last Friday (August 26th) at the MOE (similar to our Board of Education) headquarters in Ulsan, and there was a mix-up.  When my co-teacher got there he was talking a lot with the MOE superintendent looking confused, and I guess somewhere along the line my name was written as Ry an (ReAnn to Koreans).  So the next stop along the line my gender was changed to 'female.'  So everyone at my new school (except the students luckily) were expecting a woman English teacher!  Now this is especially unfortunate due to my long hair haha.  It wasn't a big deal, and I didn't get the jokes that I was sure would follow, but a bit of excitement to start off in my new city!

That night I had to sleep in a motel because the last EPIK English teacher wasn't leaving until the next day. This wasn't bad at all though because I was able to have dinner with her (Lizzy from the UK) and my co-teacher (Mr. Park). This was awesome because I got all of the insider information about the school I am teaching at, and some great tips for a brand new foreigner in the city!

The elevator in my motel, it was pretty cool!!

The hallway of my hotel.  Before the flash from my camera it was actually really dark and had those red lights all the way down it.. the first time walking down that hallway alone was pretty scary! haha

Outside my motel.  (The Amal Motel)

Mr. Park (or Jack as he told me to call him) and his two sons, Chan-Yuk and Chan-Ee.  They are so cool!

This is the boys, Jack, Lizzy and myself at Jack's parents house for dinner.

And this is with Jack's wife!  (She was very nice and speaks pretty good English as well)