Parent's Day Weekend: Butterfly Festival / Steve's Birthday

**BUTTERFLY KISSES***



Instead of having Mother and Father's day separate, South Koreans celebrate "Parent's Day" on the same day. On this day, kids give their parents little gifts, such as a pretty carnation to pin to their shirt. Also, families take trips to places like Hampyeong for the "Butterfly festival." A few friends (Jenni, Erin, Anne-Mari, Scott, Alva, Lauren, and Laurese) decided to join the fun in this small, but beautiful little town known for it's butterfly collection. Our faces were painted festively, lunch consisting of Ja Jang Mien (Chinese dish: Black noodles) was delicious, and all the butterfly exhibits were so pretty! It was such a great time... especially, feeling like a kid in the world of beautiful butterflies.



Not only a "couple set" (common in Korea), but a "family set!" Downtown you can find matching lingerie, sweat shirts, t-shirts, pants, ect. to match with your lover! hmmm... if that is what you are into! ????

Scott, Anne-Mari, Erin, Lauren, Laurese, Jenni, Alva, and me.

Greeted right at the entrance by some friendly wings!

Erin taking on the Bull matrix style!

Pretty!

Erin, Jenni, Me, Alva.

BUTTERFLY EXHIBITS:

Soooo neat!

Walking towards Butterfly hill.

The chief making noodles.

Cactus Butterfly

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STEVE!!!

Steve and Aneta on Steve's birthday at our beloved "First Nepal" Indian food restaurant. The curry dishes send you through the ceiling from it's delightful flavors! Truly a great meal if we want variety and a break away from Korean food. There isn't much opportunity to eat anything other than Korean dishes, because all other restaurants and food from the stores are rare, not always delicious, and pretty pricey. This place is so nice and the workers there very hospitable. Plus, one of the TVs are always playing corny love songs bollywood style (reminds me of soft porn), which adds to the restaurant's playful character. :-)

Aneta dishing up the cake in her hot summer dress!

Jenni and her mysterious cone.

Anne-Mari and I loving the western style bar.

Good times....

May 5th: Happy Children's Day!!!

On this national holiday, parents give their children small presents and spend time with them. In South Korea, it is very common for children to spend the day at zoos and parks. Besides my middle school kids who had to study during the holiday for midterm tests, most of my kids were ecstatic about having a day away from schools and academies (hogwans).



Cards with candy Anne-Mari and I made for my students.



My "early birds," Ru Sung Yup (in his tae-kwondo uniform) and Chey You bin playing connect four the Tuesday before children's day. Sometimes, these two and a few others will come to school fifteen to twenty minutes before our class even starts just so that they can get a few games in! The other day, I taught them how to play "go fish."



On Children's day, Jenni and I went with our friend Bong Suk down to her all girls high school in the town of Yeong-am near the famous mountain Wolchulsan. Bong Suk commutes to Yeong-am from Gwangju every work day so we decided to spend and experience the day with her. Even though it was a national holiday, Bong Suk had to go in and monitor the study hall because the students at this half-residential school were going to have a huge exam the following two days.

At this school, we met Bong Suk' s home room class and got to play "Waguk (foreign) celebrities" for the day. The attention we got throughout our time there was unbelievable! You would have thought these students might have never seen a non-Korean person before. Everything we said, a hormoneous "oooooo," "Ahhhhh," "waaaahhhh," and other exclamations followed. They were the giggliest bunch of girls I've ever met and of course what were their first two questions???!!! "How old are you?" "Do you have a boy friend?" Which are the most common questions people ask here when they first meet someone.

In their library, Bong Suk asked me to share the book of Ansel Adam's American landscape photography that Kristin gave her as a gift. The girls loved it and they had great questions about Native Americans, the grand canyon, wild life, and other things! They couldn't believe that it was common to see deer roam the streets of Helena, Montana or that you could hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Kristin couldn't have given Bong Suk a better gift to share with her students.

At noon, we had a delicious lunch in their cafeteria (who would have thought school lunches could be so good!) with many sides that I enjoy including: pieces of chicken, delicious egg denchang soup, a rice dish with hot pepper sauce and a huge helping of bean sprouts (love those!) and other vegetables, and a few other things. I really enjoy Korean food.



The school's common grounds.



Wolchulsan
During the afternoon, Jenni and I decided to let Bong Suk have some time to get work done, so we went on a glorious hike up rocky Wolchul Mountain. Hiking in Korea is a bit different from back home. There are no switchbacks or gradual ascension, it is usually directly straight upwards without any leveling out or breaks until the top! Kind of like the "power-line" trail up Mt. Helena in the states, which people only took for a hardcore, fast workout. It is intense and your legs definitely start shaking after a bit, but the peak experience that I have felt in the mountains thus far in Korea, has been outstanding!

On our hike, we met an elderly couple who were born in South Korea, but have been living in Maryland for the past 40 years. The husband just took a job as a Sociology teacher at a University here in Korea, but they still travel back to their home in the states. They were such great people and incredibly inspiring with their impressive hiking abilities.





It's SPRING... this southwestern gal is still amazed with the vibrant shades of green!

Wolchulsan bridge

It was a bit of a hazy day, but it made the view look so much more mysterious.

I'm so proud of Jenni... she is afraid of heights, but pushed herself to pose on the bridge for a picture.

Fantastic structures on a trail below the mountain.

Another "thinker"

Cute!

Basking in the sun amongst the flowers and shrubbery.

Spring Pictures: Flowers Galore!

So cheerful! Flowers in a Buddhist Temple on Mudungsan.


Cherry Blossoms


Bong Suk, Jenni, and me.
We were admiring all the beautiful cherry blossom trees in a park in the city of Naju after a volley ball tournament.



La Casa and my favorite color of flowers.


Univerisity of Nambu, Chamdan.

Jenni and Anne-Mari

Saturday Markets

Variety of vegetables and kimchi

Fish

The umpa-lumpa trees!

Anne-Mari making a gift request :-)

Even the bushes are lit up!

Decorative Kimchi Pots outside the Gwangju Folk Museum.

Path to the park where the girls (Jenni, Erin, Anne-Mari) and I run during the week.

The 840 km path around this pond is a great place to run. Plus, you are surrounded by colorful flowers and adjimas wearing three layered visors.

It's Spring Time!

"April prepares her green traffic light and the world thinks go."
~ Christopher Morley

Spring is here and the weather is warming up! Outside is turning more and more green, especially with the light rain showers we get every few days. Gardeners are out in my neighborhood cleaning up their plots of land and getting ready to plant their chili peppers and other vegetables. Cherry Blossom trees are in full bloom and strawberries have taken over the fruit stands in the markets. The temperature is so perfect and quite refreshing! What could possibly make things any better? ...
A BIKE!
A teacher named Liam in the neighboring dong, Chamdan, gave me a great deal on peddle bike that's practically brand new and even has a lock and a cute bell! Usually, I walk everywhere or wait for the bus, but now I can get to where I want to go in half as much time. I feel as free as a bird and so alive (partially because stop lights don't necessarily mean stop here so pedestrians and bikers have to be even more careful with crossing the roads). It's quite exciting! I've used it every day this week and have given it the Korean name, Go Young Sun.

Work is going well. I love my students and they still impress me everyday with their humor and playfulness. Mo Ju Won has been showing me how to perform a few magic tricks! It's amazing what you can pick up from students! Since I don't plan the curriculum, my schedule can be feel quite repetitive, but it is nice not having to bring any work home. My free time is totally mine to play with. Socially, there is so much to do, but this year has also been a wonderful opportunity for me to devour books to my heart's delight. I've accumulated quite a few books, plus, it's great swapping with foreign friends. With four movies and no cable, books have become therapeutic for me and a great escape when needed.

I have been given a class of two adult gals (ages 25 and 26) who wanted to work on speaking and pronunciation. They are really great and a lot of fun to talk to. We have a book, but having discussions and a chance for them to talk seems to be what they need most. They work from 8am till 11pm with only an hour break for lunch and dinner, Monday through Saturday. Korean culture pushes people to work so hard. Wendy and Sara (which are their English names they just gave themselves) use their afternoon break to come to my class three times a week. Soon, one of their managers will join them. He is excited to practice his English as well. It is such a new experience teaching adults in comparison to kids and I am looking forward to this opportunity and to make more friends!

Volley ball is still one of my favorite things to do here. Recently, I played back row for the Sangam men's team at a tournament in Naju, an adorable picturesque city just south of Gwangju, because they didn't have enough players. The competition was intense and every game was so close! Our team didn't go far in the tournament, but I thought every game was a blast and the volleying back and forth was excitingly competitive. Digging those hard hits are my favorite! They don't expect that from women! Our team became known as the "Global" team, because I was a foreigner. Ha! It was fun!
Yesterday, we had a small women's tournament. Our team did really well towards the end and left with one loss and one win. I really enjoy the volley ball folk. They are such nice people who take care of each other. Plus, it's nice to be on a competitive team again.

Another activity I really picked up is running. Five days a week, I meet up with three gals: Jenni from Indiana, Anne-Mari from South Africa, and Erin from Canada. Early in the morning, I ride my bike over to Chamdan to Erin's house where we all meet and run for about an hour taking different routes each day. With four running foreigners, we can be quite a show for some people on the streets! When we run laps around one of the parks, people will start counting our laps and making supporting gestures at us. Sometimes it is overwhelming having that "zoo animal" feeling, as jenni says, but overall, people are quite harmless and friendly. Jenni, Anne-Mari, and Erin are awesome gals and it is so outstanding that we are almost all at the same pace and training. We signed up for a half marathon on June 13th on Jeju Island. It will be a glorious run right along the northeastern coast. Woo Hoo!

It is such a rewarding feeling knowing that I have survived living in another country for seven and a half months now. There are challenges and still I go through mini stages of culture shock, but overall I feel proud for setting and making a life in such a densely populated area. South Korea is the size of the state of Indiana, but has a population of around 50 million people. What makes the statistics even more impressive is that 60 percent of the land in South Korea is covered in mountains, which are hard to build on so most people live in the flatter areas or cities. There are huge apartment complexes everywhere! I love my little apartment~ it is so pretty (I posted pictures below in an earlier blog).

Goodness.... only four and a half more months with my kiddos! Yikes!