Who I'm Listening To

  • Lupe Fiasco - Love Letter to the Beat (single)
  • N.E.R.D - Nothing
  • Janelle Monae - Without a Fight (single)
  • Cee Lo Green - The Lady Killer
  • Kanye West - G.o.o.d Fridays

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

My summer wheelings and dealings


Greetings.  I hope the readers of this post are enjoying their summer as it comes to a close, this being late August. Today marks the 6-month mark for my stay in Ulsan. Although at times it seemed as if time was snailing, here I am at the halfway point. The first semester is over and done with and I don’t believe I’ve posted enough pictures of my students so here goes:
this was the "crazy" picture; calm down girls in the front...
when I say "yeah the kids were bouncing off the walls" I mean what I say...
blue shirt in the front is Jon from my "loogi story"...
First order of business for vacation was my trip to Jeju island for a one-week getaway with about 7 of my guy friends from Ulsan. We rented a van and were able to drive the entire island making stops at the various must-see’s of the island. The first night we stayed at a 민박 right on a picture perfect family beach. In fact, the first morning there Nathan and I were able to join in on some wedding photos:
Most of our adventuring was of the hiking persuasion, including a trek up the most famous mountain on the island, Mt. Halla. There was also a giant crater that we were able to climb to the top of and have a look over much of Jeju.
view from below...
the view, of Jeju...
If you go to Jeju Island, it’s crucial to make a stop off at Loveland. Its so uncharacteristic of Korean sexual attitude and appears to be a blatant call for tourists’ cash-money (Wilmer Valderamma voice). I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, though:
the door of the women's restroom, notice the door-handle...

how many sex images can you spot in this pic?
no means no...
not all of it was vulgar...
but most was...
All in all the week was a much-needed retreat from all the stresses of teaching. Here are some more visuals:
all of us packed into the van...
one of our morning hikes led us to this...
on the way up mount halla...
the view from our minbak window...
these statues are all over Jeju. i guess if a pregnant women possesses one of these it will give her unborn child much...strength...

In other news, I ate dog in Ulsan. It comes in a stew form and is actually quite good. My friend asked me if it tasted “gamey” but I wouldn’t say that would be the word to describe the flavor, but it was palatable nonetheless. This is the joke I told a few people after having eaten Bosintang (as it is called in hangul), “Yeah, we ate a dog named Ringo…He was a Beagle.” Verdict? It got mixed results, but I thought it was great.

During the searing hot days of summer we had three weeks of English summer camp. Summer camp was approached with a different mentality by the teachers. Knowing that we only had the kids for three weeks we took a much lighter approach to the classroom, and it turned out to be pretty fun. Here are a few pics from camp:
this kid was rockin' a cigarette brand hat!
today was backwards day, so he wore upside down glasses...and a cape...
crazy hair day winner...
ok this is sally#2 (there's another, older, sally in the class who is sally#1). sally#2's summer schedule is as follows: Chinese character camp (1 hour), English camp (4 hours), piano (1 hour), Science camp (1 hour). oh yeah, she's in the 3rd grade...

Lastly, as is the custom of Korean business dealings (short notice), I found out on the last day of summer camp that I would not have only one week of vacation before the next semester begins, rather, I have two. Good and bad. Good – I get two weeks of paid vacation. Bad – I didn’t plan a trip. Thus I will start and finish a book or two, and see what other shenanigans I can conjure up with my Ulsan chum. Stay tuned.

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