Walking in the Jagalchi Fish Market, Running in Dadaepo Beach, and Hiking in Seoul

Hello!!!
So last weekend, we went to Busan with our friends! The main reason for the trip was the Dadaepo Beach race~ I signed up for my third 10km and 3 of our friends signed up for the 5km!! We figured it made sense to stay in Dadaepo to make the next morning easy, but after walking near the race start and not finding much, we decided to stay in the Jagalchi/Nampo area of Busan instead! This area is full of restaurants, shops, bars, and...the Jagalchi Fish Market! We spent the rest of our Saturday afternoon/evening exploring this area. Check out some of our pics!

One of the entrances to the fish market.

View from the top of the big Lotte department store in Nampo.

Sunday morning we made our way back to Dadaepo! It was an easy subway ride to Sinpyeong and then there were shuttle buses from the station to the race starting point. The race route was flat and along the coastline so we had a nice ocean breeze and pretty view! It was a perfect race day and...I finished the race in 53:28! That's 5 minutes faster than my first 10km time!!! I guess all my training worked! The picture below was from the Daegu Stadium race. The pictures of the Busan race aren't online yet...

Where's Jenn and Fluke?!?! I'll give you a hint...I'm wearing grey shorts and a white shirt. Still can't find us? We're to the right of the "S" in LEPORTS. ^^

Anyway, enough about running! Let's talk about hiking...
Two weeks ago, Fluke and I went up to see our friend in Seoul. We decided to hike Bukhansan again but start at a different point this time. We hiked on a ridge line (really fun and scary and awesome) AND made it to Baegundae Peak, the highest peak in Seoul (836.5 meters tall!!)... and it only took us...6 hours!!! Yes, we hiked for 6 hours! Definitely didn't start the morning thinking we would hike all day, but that's how it ended up! Sunday we headed back to Daegu, but first we went to Tomatillo to get some yummy Mexican food! We of course got 2 burritos to-go to have for dinner later that night. ^-^ Here's some of our favorite pictures from our hike and our food~

The start of our day! About 10am...

See Fluke way at the top?!?!

Our view of Seoul. It wasn't a clear day unfortunately.

Top of the ridge line part of our hike!

View from the ridge line.

On our way to Bagundae Peak...

We made it!! 
It looks cold...but it wasn't at all!! Just really cloudy.

Now for some food pics!!! So yummy!!!! ^-^*

Burrito Special at Tomatillo!!

Nachos at Tomatillo!

Boseong Green Tea Plantation 2012

Weather is finally getting nice enough for me and Jenn to venture outside of Daegu. A couple weekends ago, we decided to check out the Boseong Green Tea plantations! We wanted to go because we had never seen a green tea plantation before, and the pictures looked great. It was also just a chance for us to scratch our traveling itch!


Getting there (from Daegu):
- Take the express bus to Gwangju from the bus station directly to the left of the Dongdaegu Subway exit.
  We recommend buying tickets a couple days in advance (just go to the station itself for that). This takes about 4 hours with traffic. We went up on Friday night, stayed in Gwangju, and in the morning, went to Boseong.
- Once in Gwangju, from the bus terminal that you are dropped off at, take a bus from Gwangju to Boseong. These run every 30-40 minutes. This takes about an hour and a half.
- Once in Boseong, from the bus terminal that you are dropped off at, get a bus to the Boseong Green Tea plantations. This should take about 10 minutes.
- When you are dropped off, make sure you head to the left a little bit, and avoid the Green Tea Plantation that has the museum in it. It's nice, but the one to the left and up the hill a little bit offers far greater views and awesomeness. If you get lost, just follow the crowd, they know which one is better!


Once there, we wandered around the plantations, taking a lot of pictures, and just enjoying the fresh, clean air. It smelled really, really nice and was a nice change from the smoggy Daegu city air. If we had waited another month, the green tea plants would have been much greener, but all the same, we were still pretty impressed. Check out some pics!

We also got to try out a lot of green tea food! We had some green tea ja jang myun (black bean sauce noodles), green tea naemmyun (cold noodles), green tea pork katsu, and our favorites, green tea ice cream and shakes!

Green tea noodles on the left, Green Tea Pork Katsu on the right!

Fresh, Iced Green Tea. Yum!

Standing in line for Green Tea ice cream. ^_^

After buying some green tea snacks (candy, cookies, latte packs!), we headed to the beach nearby. Now, I think you can take the bus that dropped you off at the plantations straight to Yulpo beach, but we were pretty lucky. We met another tourist, who spoke Korean fluently, and called us a taxi! So we headed down the coast to Yulpo beach. It was really nice and scenic. But well, to be honest, seen one beach, seen em all.  What is worth mentioning though is that we got bored very quickly and wanted to head back to Boseong. When we couldn't find the bus stop, we thought we'd head over to the police station and ask for directions. We got more than that. The police officer actually gave us a ride...back to the Boseong bus terminal! (20-30 minute drive). We were so surprised at their kindness, and appreciative as well. After thanking him profusely, we headed back to Gwangju from Boseong.

Yulpo Beach

In Gwangju, we took in some of the sights and ate at (of all places), a T.G.I.F.! Haha. Here are some pics of Gwangju. After one more night in Gwangju, we headed back home to Daegu. Overall, really nice weekend, and I'd highly recommend Boseong to Green tea lovers, nature lovers, and photography buffs.

Statue we found while walking

An amphitheater

2012 Nonsan Strawberry Festival!

Hello all!


Last weekend, Jenn and I decided to take a trip down to Nonsan for their annual Strawberry festival! It varies on how to get there, depending on where you are located in Korea, but we took a train from Daegu-Sintanjin, and then Sintanjin-Nonsan. It took about 3 hours total, so it was a long ride, but completely worth it!

Waiting for our train...

When we got to Nonsan, we had to walk to the actual fairgrounds. It was about 20 minutes, and we just followed the crowd and a map that we had printed out from earlier. I suppose you could take the taxi, but we were glad we didn't, because when we got to the actual festival, the traffic was insane!

Festival Grounds!

What to do at a Strawberry festival? Eat strawberries! We wandered the festival grounds, ate strawberries, ate the usual Korean festival food (corn dogs covered in french fries, sausages, kebab wraps, etc.). We were really surprised and happy at all the Strawberry themed food. Take a look at some of them!

Strawberry Slushee!

Roast Pig?

Strawberry Hotteok (Yummy, fried pancake filled with Strawberry Jam!) and Ice Cream

The festival itself was chock full of activities. Some of the ones that Jenn and I saw and liked were: Make your own strawberry jam, Put frosting and strawberries onto a cake (yum!), dip strawberries into a chocolate fountain (double yum!), and a ton of arts and crafts aimed around Strawberries. These were aimed mainly toward the kids though. Unfortunately, Jenn and I only had time to dip strawberries into a chocolate fountain. We wanted to make Jam and do the cake thing, but we were out of time because...we were busy picking and eating our own strawberries!

Strawberry Jam!

Getting some chocolate dipped strawberries!

Yup, the main attraction for us was picking and eating our own strawberries. On the website, it said you could pick and eat as much as you wanted. However, it took us a little while to figure out how to do it. We had to find a main booth, sign up for a time to pick strawberries, and then take a 20 minute bus ride out to the actual strawberry picking site. It cost 10,000 won each! And then, when we got there, we were ready to pick and eat a ton of strawberries! What really happens though is that you get one normal sized plastic box to hold strawberries in...and that's it! We were a little disappointed that the box was so small. But...we brought ziploc bags, and snuck a few extra strawberries into them. :) Not that it was hard to do so, we saw other people doing it as well. This was definitely the best part of our trip, mainly because I probably ate a pound or so of strawberries. (The eat as much as you want part was definitely true!) I did much more eating than picking, because I couldn't resist eating the big ones fresh! Take a look at some pics!

Yum!

One of our boxes. Before we emptied it for a refill. :)

After about 5 hours at the strawberry festival, we called it a day and headed back to Nonsan station to catch the trains back to Daegu. For anyone who is looking to go to the 2013 Strawberry festival, I definitely recommend a day-trip. 5 hours was the perfect amount of time to soak in the sights and get some strawberry picking done. Stay tuned for our next travel update, we're going to Boseong! :) 

A little about teaching...and a little about running! ^-^*

Annyong everyone!


Instead of writing a lengthy post about one topic, I'm going to write a few stories/anecdotes/updates (??) on different topics!! First up...the best question a student has asked me this year...


Student: Hello, teacher! 
Me: Hello, **! How are you?
S: Good. Teacher, I have a question...
Me: Ok!
S: I play baseball.
Me: Yes, I know! 
S: I use baseball bat.
Me: Yes, that's correct.
S: So...do I use baseball ball?
Me: Good question! You use a baseball. You play baseball. It is the same word.
S: Teacher! So confusing! But ok. Same word. Thank you.
Me: You're welcome! Bye **!
S: Bye.


This conversation made my day!! ^-^


Topic #2: English Festival--April Fool's Day!
The past two weeks I have been teaching the 3rd-6th graders about April Fool's Day. I tell them a little bit about it (emphasizing that we say NICE jokes and everyone is happy and no one is sad), show some examples and we watch a few funny youtube videos. Then, after doing all of that (maybe 20 minutes), I tell them I have a word search handout. The first student to finish is the winner! I say, "Do not write your name. Circle the words. No talking. Ready? Go!" and the class is silent for a couple minutes. As soon as I see the advanced students starting to get frustrated/confused, I start laughing. I say, "I FOOLED YOU! HAPPY APRIL FOOL'S DAY!!!!" and tell them no words are there. It is a joke. They get mad and tell me so with big smiles on their faces. Then I collect the handouts to reuse for the next class. Soooo funny! If you want to watch the video that was the biggest hit with my kids~go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blOrY-nEGaE&list=PLE77CF25A17A69A9E&index=1&feature=plpp_video I always watched the kids watch the video. They were cracking up!!!!! and I was laughing at them! ^-^


Topic #3: Running my first 10km!
So...basically since we returned to Daegu I've been running at the gym trying to get healthy, lose the weight I gained pigging out at home, etc. and my friend told me about the Daegu marathon. Now there was NO WAY I could run a marathon, but I figured...with 3 weeks left to train, I should be able to run a 10km! I registered for the race and researched training schedules (I had only been running 3-5km so I needed to gradually double my distance). Then I bought new running shoes (mine were at least 3-4years old and started hurting my feet), and began running with a purpose!!! I was pretty good about going to the gym 3-4 times/week, but having this marathon goal meant I was running 4-5 times/week without fail. I was SUPER motivated!!! Not only did I want to finish the 10km, I wanted to finish it withOUT stopping. 


The marathon was last Sunday morning. I saw the international athletes warm-up and talked with a few other English teachers I happened to see. We got lined up, I started my cardio app to track my time and distance (just as a reference), and I pushed play on my ipod. I was ready to start the race!!! We ran from city hall up to where the Daegu train station is and back around. It was so much fun!!!! The best part is...I finished it in about 58minutes!!! I don't know the official time yet, but based on my phone, it was about 58 minutes. I had been running it at the gym in about 67 minutes, so I was really happy with my time! The weather was perfect and with so many people running around me and people cheering from the sidewalks, it was a blast. I definitely got tired and my legs were super sore later that day, but I really enjoyed the 10km. Plus I got a "Finishers Medal" which is awesome! Fluke and some friends met me at the finish line and that was really cool because they woke up early to get there! They motivated me too because I told them I would finish between 9:10-9:20... I wanted to be on time! So thanks to Fluke and our friends for supporting me!! I think I will look up more races around Daegu and keep running. If for no other reason than to give myself another goal and keep my motivation up. Maybe the next one I can run in 50-55 minutes!!! ^o^ Here's a pic of me at the finish line!

Hi everyone! Here's a quick update!

Hi! I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in...well...quite some time. So here's a quick update!

I've been busy at school...I teach the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders now! Really exciting. Each grade is so different and my 3 co-teachers are really fun to work with. I'm busier now because I can't plan ahead and prepare materials ahead of time like I did when I only taught 5th grade. This year, everything happens the day before I teach it! I'm starting to get used to it though :)


Next week is the first English festival of the year! Last year, the first festival was about Easter. Next week, I'm teaching about April Fool's Day!!! I'm going to start the lesson in Spanish. Tell the kids that the Dept. of Educ. decided they needed to learn English AND another foreign language. Since I can speak Spanish (well, you know, just a bit but the kids don't know that!) I will teach them Spanish too! Then I'm going to tell them about April Fool's, show them some good examples, and tell them I have a word search handout for them. The first person to finish it, wins! After a couple minutes I'll tell them, "APRIL FOOL'S! None of the words are there!" Oh, I'm so excited!! 


Alright, I know this is a quick update, but I need to get ready for my day! Today, I get to teach the 4th graders about high-fives, fist bumps, and shaka (hang loose). 

Bye everyone!
~Jenn

A Day in the life of Ati Teacher No.1

I always get these ideas for annual blog posts, so we have a reason to update more frequently. Anyway, here is another idea, lets see if it sticks this time eh? So the title says it all. I'll update this blog post periodically through the day, and hopefully you'll see what school life is like for me (and Jenn!) on a daily basis.


- Rode my bike to school today like usual, left my apartment at 8:00 AM, rolled up to school in about 10 minutes. I have to be at school by 8:20, but I like to get there early so I can avoid all the kiddos.


- No 1st period today so I got time to make some copies and lesson plan. 


- Gotta check email first though. Then facebook. Then drink my coffee. Oh crap. It's time for 2nd period. Whoops! There goes my productive hour...


- Just had a bunch of 9th graders for 2nd period. Man...what a bunch of zombies! They didn't even get into the game I prepared for them. Wish I could say that they're normally an awesome bunch, but nothing new here. Oh well. Gotta keep trying!


- So mentally drained from that one class. I try so hard to get them to speak just anything and it just sucks when a class doesn't participate. Sigh...


- Oh well, got a break until 5th period. Made 300 more copies. Just killed a tree right there, this industrial-sized copier is wicked though. Took about 3 minutes. Super fast! Finished powerpoint and lesson plan for part 2 of lesson 1 for 8th grade. Going to do a board game activity, 1st time ever. Lets see how that goes. Stayed productive, started part 2 of lesson 1 for 9th grade. Gotta make this lesson active, maybe I'll try to get them out of their seats so they're not such zombies. 


- Lunch time! Curry and rice. Kimchi too (of course!). And some cole slaw thing and when I refer to it as cole slaw, I mean that in the most distant of comparisons. It tastes nothing like it. o_O But it's not bad. 


- Finished lunch quick today. Just going to chill until 5th period at 1:20. Going to try out that board game activity. Wish me luck!


- Well...one period later, and I gotta say I'm not disappointed with the results, but not happy either. They played the board game, and played using the rules I gave them, BUT only when I was at their table. Aargh! Next class, I will have to be more stern about them following the rules, and give a bigger incentive probably. Overall, not bad for a first try.


- Gotta watch it though, there is a spot on the board game where you can "Get some candy." A lot of the boy students (of course right?) lied and said they landed on that spot. So I told them if they really wanted candy, they'd have to follow me to my office (on the other side of the school) and give me 5 sentences about themselves. No speaking mistakes. Ha. Let's see who wants candy now.


- 10 minutes later, 8 boy students later, and I'm out 5 pieces of candy. I can't believe they followed me to my office! But this actually made me happy, because I got to hear them think up 5 sentences on the spot about themselves, and they were correct. These were all my troublemakers too so just hearing them speak English made me super happy. 3 of them didn't speak all their sentences correctly, but I told them they could try again tomorrow. Let's see if they do! 


- On a side note, I don't actually get to give them grades here. Don't get me started on how unfair and stupid this is, just know that I strongly oppose it. So, I do have to occasionally resort to candy prizes/rewards. A reward stamp sheet has helped a lot as well. But I would get so much better participation if students actually had an incentive to try in my class. All I got going for me is that they like me and that I got candy. When they don't like me...hey, I still got candy! Haha. Enough about this topic, it just makes me angry. -_-


- Got a break right now before 7th period. Easy day today, only 3 classes. Normally have 4-6 a day. Going to prepare for my last class now. Will be trying the board game again, but this time I think I'll have them do a few textbook activities beforehand to reinforce their knowledge. See ya after 7th!


- What a difference a class makes! This class took to my board game instantly, and it was a complete success. Once I realized that the girl groups would follow my directions, I just switched back and forth between the two boy groups to make sure they weren't goofing off too much. Anyway, I felt really good about that class just now. It's always nice to have a good class before the end of the day!


-Speaking of which, the day ends in 20 minutes! I get to leave at 4:20 PM. So I'm going to finish cleaning up my desk (it always accumulates so much random items somehow), and then call it a day. Bye!

Jeju Part II

So I know we haven't updated for a while, but I think Jenn and I are finally about to get back into the swing of things. We did have a very long vacation, and for the first part of it, while we did have sporadic moments of teaching, we didn't really have too much on our plate. Anyway, school officially starts today, and so we will be updating with more stories about teaching, random outings in Korea, and just Korea in general. Let's get this year started with a post about our second trip to beautiful Jeju island!

After a wonderful month in California, we went to Jeju for 4 days. It was mainly to see our friends one more time before they headed home. Their contracts ended last week, so it was our last chance to see them before we all eventually re-unite in California sometime in the future. We got there, and well, we were really surprised, because...it was snowing! On Jeju island! A place that in August had us commenting about the beautiful beaches and warm, tropical weather. I mean, it didn't even snow in Daegu that much! So we got there, it was freezing, but we still decided to go out and do something touristy.

After a really horrible bus ride through the mountains, we arrived at our destination. Sunrise peak. It was supposed to be the best place in Korea to view the sunset. And, it was the place that everyone sees when they google Jeju, for example:

We headed up a little hiking path starting from the left side, and after about 30-40 minutes, we got to the top. It was definitely a sight to see, although, I wish that it was greener than it was. Enough talking, check out the pics and see for yourself!

Before our hike. IT WAS COLD!!

A pretty nice view!

Our not so green view of the crater

After we finished hiking, we headed back down. Later that night, we tried something that ended up being pretty fun. We went Screen Golfing!! Which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. You use a real golf club, hit it a real golf ball, except that you're indoors. And hitting it at a screen. But sensors (I'm assuming), read your swing, and trace the ball as it flies toward the screen. So it's like you're playing golf, but virtual reality I guess? Although since this was the first time I've ever played golf (along with a general lack of skill all around), we got a double par on pretty much every hole. Wait. Scratch that, we didn't finish one hole. But it was still a really fun experience. They let you order drinks and snacks, and its more of a way to just relax and hang with friends. Although, in a room down from us, there were actual golfers, and they were much more impressive than we were!


We were also able to make it out to two very cool tourist spots. The first place we went to was called Gimyoung Maze Park. It is exactly what you think it is. A maze! I thought it was cool, but that was mainly because I felt like Harry Potter ;). The goal of the maze was to reach the silver bell, and it took me and Jenn half an hour, and 4-5 retries! Here are some pics!

The Maze!

Making our way through...

Made it to the bell!

After our Maze trip, we walked about ten minutes down the road to the UNESCO Lava tube. It was, well, a lava tube. I don't really have much to say about it, but it was definitely a good experience, and I really liked how they set up the tour!

At the entrance!

Those were the highlights of our Jeju trip! We didn't do as much this time because we mainly went there to spend some time with our friends before they left for California. We spent a lot more time relaxing and hanging out with one another; which Jenn and I really enjoyed! It was good seeing them one more time, and they will definitely be missed. If you guys are reading this, we miss ya, and we'll see you both in a year!