Snowy Cheonan

December 11th and 12th, Cheonan, South Korea.

We got snow!

Lots and lots of snow.

Not a big difference between the color and black and white versions of this one.

Which meant a lot of being cold and being wet in that snowy way. And lots of almost dying on sidewalks. They didn't shovel or even salt the roads, so it took a couple of days for the roads to clear up, but even now, 3 days later, there is ice and snow still on the sidewalks and anywhere that doesn't get a lot of car or foot or bike or whatever traffic. So every trip outside is an adventure.

And my students have been loving the snow, of course. As I was leaving school on Friday, I ran across 6 students in the hallway that were carrying something large between them. The large thing turned out to be...another student. I knew what they had in mind and I decided to tag along to, you know, make sure that it didn't get out of hand or whatever. I also just really wanted to watch as they dumped the poor kid in a pile of snow outside and then proceeded to lift his shirt up and pack snow in there and just generally make him uncomfortable and unhappy. Oh, how I don't miss middle school.

STOP

But despite the cold and the being wet and dangerous and scary things, I absolutely love snow. Snow is, in fact, one of the very few redeeming factors of winter (the only other major one being sweatpants, obviously). I love the way it just spreads light around and dresses everything up. It makes me think of crappy Christmas songs and awesome Christmas songs and how awesome it was to get a snow day growing up. Hot chocolate, wassel. That time my car decided to not listen to me and just do a 180 for funsies. And fireplaces!

I didn't spend too much time outside, but I managed to get a lot of photos that I'm super happy with. Hope you enjoy and hope it's a little bit warmer where you are, if that's what you're into. 

Just look at that face!

From a short walk after school on Friday.

I had put my camera up because it was starting to rain or snow or something, but got it right back out when I saw these guys.

This one was about 10 yards away from his big, happier brother.

Daejeon Fun

May 17, 2013. Daejeon and Gyeryongsan, South Korea.

This one starts and ends with turtles.

Told you.

The day started with two bus rides. One bus ride was mine, from Seosan to Daejeon. The other was my girlfriend's, who was travelling from Seoul to Daejeon with her mother and brother, who had just arrived from the States. What should have been two bus adventures of equal length turned out to be two completely different experiences. Because this day was Buddha's Birthday, also known as a holiday in Korea. And holidays in Korea mean traffic. From Seosan to Daejeon? Not too bad. About an hour and half. Maybe two. But the trip from Seoul to Daejeon, normally around 2 hours, took a whopping 4 in stop and go traffic. Which meant Neal got to explore Daejeon for a bit.

When they finally arrived, bladderful and tired, we hopped in a taxi for Gyeryongsan National Park, which runs in between Daejeon and Gongju. We got to our pension, set our bags down, and went on a short hike, passing several temples along the way.

Walking riverside in Daejeon (left).
A pagoda at Sangweon-am Temple (right). 

The view from Sangweon-am Temple's front door.

Some blooms breaking out at Sangweon-am (right).
Buddhas waiting for a drink at the bottom of the mountain, Mita-am Temple (right).

It wasn't a long hike, but the sun began to set on our way down the mountain, and when we arrived at a cluster of temples towards the bottom, lamps were being lit and rice cakes were waiting. It was a really nice way to end what was otherwise a long day, for some more than others.

Some final photos:

Probably the highest concentration of tiny Buddhas I've seen.

These turtle seat things were next to the pagoda seen above. Have no idea what their significance is, but they were cool!

Neal Teacher

Not too many pictures this time. Just one, actually.

On my last day at Buseok High School last year, some students from my favorite class (including my host-sister) gave me a choco-pie cake, complete with candles and giggling. After about two minutes, in which I at least got to blow out the candles and share some choco-pie goodness, they were unfortunately yelled at my one of the teachers in my office because they were apparently being too loud.... 

And then one of the students I had only been teaching for a few months handed me a bag with several smaller bags inside of it. I got home and looked through the bags, discovering that each one contained different cookies, including one labeled "Quiz Cookies," which had several cookies with letters written on them. I quickly found out that I was going to fail the quiz. One was obviously a heart, but I was at a loss as to what most of the letters were. The "H" could also have been an "I." The "T" could have been one of several Korean characters. I was pretty sure she wouldn't give me anything in Korean, but I had no of way knowing for sure. Finally, after texting me several times wondering if I figured it out yet, my student lost patience and just told me what it was supposed to be: 

I never wanted to be a teacher growing up. And now I am one. In South Korea. One day you stand in front of all of these kids and ramble on about this stupidly difficult and confusing language and you get nothing. They're sleeping or talking or hitting their neighbor(s). Other days, hands are raised for once and they're actually into something as random as a Connect Four powerpoint game. It's a daily experiment with mixed results and it really sucks sometimes, but it's also really awesome sometimes. There's the girl whose face lights up when she sees me because she's excited to give me a high-five, ask "what's up?" and run away. Two boys on my second day air-humping and telling me they love me because they remember when I visited the school one day last semester. The girl who likes to tell me I have a big nose in as many ways as possible ("Teacher, your nose like building!").

It doesn't have to be the day that your favorite students whip out a cake or the day that one of them says something with cookies that they're too shy to say to your face, but those are pretty nice, too.