http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , South Korea en-us Tue, 01 Dec 09 08:10:04 +0000 Tue, 01 Dec 09 08:10:04 +0000 I am officially in Korea. Right. Now.As you all may know my flight was on Thanksgiving. I left out of JFK airport in NYC at 1240 that afternoon. I arrived at the airport with two super heavy rollon luggage a duffel bag and a backpack. Thankfully the man who helped me with my bags was super nice and didn't weigh them. I proceeded through the metal detector without any problems and got http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Seoul/Gangnam/blog-456879.html Yesterday I went to Masan city to meet my second elder brother and to shoot a handgun. My second elder brother works for an elementary school in Masan city. we went to Changwon citynear Masan city to shoot a handgun at Changwon city shooting range by brother's car. before we shooting handgun we shot shotgun in a rifle ground as a warming up for handgun shooting. My elder brother shot 25shots f http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Gyeongsangnam-do/Changwon/blog-456857.html I'm two weeks into teaching. I have found that each class is different. I really enjoy my adult class it's got to be my favorite. They all want to be there for one reason or another so everyone is enthusiastic to learn. It also helps that we see eachother socially outside of class from time to time.Friday night all of the teachers at the school with the exception of two or three I think wen http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollabuk-do/Kunsan/blog-456823.html Hello family and friends December is upon us We have reached our 3 month mark and cannot believe how quickly time is flying How many of you have put up your Christmas decorations already It doesn't really feel like the Christmas season here yet but hopefully that will comeIt's been a couple weeks since our last post so here is what we have been up to since thenWe went to see an amazingly http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Gyeongsangnam-do/Yangsan/blog-456390.html Halloween off the eastern coast of South KoreaThis turned out to be a Halloween I will never forget. Because I was currently living aboard a ship my roommate and I tried to have some fun with the other people who were there as well. Since we had lots of candy a pot of freshly brewed coffee and several grilled cheese sandwiches these are delicacies on ship we told our guys to come up to our http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/blog-455886.html A week ago I took an excursion to understand a Korean Confucianism. I visited a confucianism academy where is located in Dodong village Daegu city. when I visited there some Confucians the old have a conference about a worship of their ancestor who was a great Confucian in Jocheon dynasty26397398542957926397. He was expelled and finally had a death to poison by his kingKing http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Daegu/blog-455753.html Gun shopThis actually an interesting story because a coworker of mine went to this gunrange which is in a building in a big market area. He went three weeks in a row and was meant to go last Saturday but it but he never made it thank god. However instead his friend got a phone call saying that there was an explosion at the Gun range and that about 7 Japanese tourists died. We were all shocked http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Seoul/blog-455674.html Yesterday I woke up not eating breakfast of course and walked to the school. It was much warmer than the previous couple of days. I met David and we went to the hospital for round 2. Everything about the physical was the same as it'd be in the States so nothing to report there. Afterwards I went back to the hogwan. I was starving at this point so I went to the corner stop and got a Fanta th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollabuk-do/Kunsan/blog-454533.html Last night I had my first class. It was a group of reallllllly quiet middle schoolers. They did not want to talk at all. It didn't help that it was one of my long classes an hour. I had some lesson plans written up but due to lack of participation I got through it in about ten minutes. From there I basically just asked them questions and went around the room bullshitting for the rest of the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollabuk-do/Kunsan/blog-454120.html Saw my first set of Korean balls. And my second set. And my third. I gotta change gyms. Itrsquos like watching Train Spotting every afternoon. Irsquom not sure how nature gets idealized as being this pure innocent system wersquore destroying. I saw two cats play with and then brutally slaughter a mouse the other day. Vicious. In Colombia you couldnrsquot get on a bus without there http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/DMZ/blog-453804.html Never in my years of travelling have I gone from such despair to such joy as I did at the Vancouver airport on Wednesday. I was waiting to board my flight to Seoul when it looked like there wasn't going to be anymore than about 4050 passengers. I thought... a whole aisle to myself... Then to my horror a group of about 150 Korean school children aged 810 arrived like a swarm of bees... T http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Seoul/blog-453440.html Hi Folks There are a few more pictures on this blog so make sure you scroll down past the comment box as well as go to the second page of pictures to see the beautiful laterns. I want to share a few customs that I found interesting. I've heard that Korea has a high rate of traffic accidents but I haven't seen as many as I see in the states. It may have something to do with the fact that red lig http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Gyeonggi-do/Paju/Gyeonggi-English-Village--Paju-Camp/blog-453313.html This will be a short entry it's more about the pictures than anything.This was a great weekend. Let me start by saying there is a serious cold front right now so the HIGH all weekend was about 36 degrees F. AAAAH Anyhow I had a rather uneventful week nothing good or bad. Irsquom having a blast teaching my kids ldquoJingle bell rockrdquo for the Christmas show. The accompanying dance is a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Seoul/blog-453293.html I wanted to revamp an old entry I did about coming to South Korea.There are many factors that affect what one should bring to SoKo when coming over to live for an extended period of time.If you are working for a private academy hagwon it is pretty safe to say that you will not be in the deep in the countryside. If you are headed to Seoul you will be able to find just about everything you need t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Gyeongsangbuk-do/Gyeongsan/blog-452792.html So every year Tim Horton's hypnotizes the nation with their Roll up the Rim to Win contest and people will go out of their way to get their cup of coffee that just might get them a free donut or coffee...if they are lucky. I for one have never had any luck with this contest and have become immune to it's power besides the fact that I don't like being told that i'm a loser repeatedly lol. I th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Gyeongsangnam-do/Yangsan/blog-452090.html After Chusok weekend ended life switched from a nice even 80kmh pace to 250kmh on an autobahn in a country that didnrsquot seem like South Korea it was a chaotic whirlwind but unforgettable none the less. The remaining four weeks that I had were filled with exam writing stress mad school stress coupled with the need and desire to attend every Hash and every party that was on the cards. It re http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Seoul/blog-452018.html I never thought I would see a second Chusok weekend in South Korea but there I was 13 months in and so happy that we had a long weekend Since staying in the city for Chusok was not at all what any of us had in mind we enlisted the services of Jusinersquos very awesome Korean Coteacher Sophia to help organise us a little get away to Gyeongju so see the cultural centre of South Korea. Naturall http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Gyeongsangbuk-do/Gyeongju/blog-452005.html Mike and I spent this past weekend exploring the city of Gyeongju regarded by many Koreans as one of the most important cities in the country. Gyeongju is about an hour northwest of Yangsan and we got there by bus the ticket for which cost a mere 3700W. During the Silla Dynasty 57 BC 935 AD Gyeongju was the capital of the country so it holds many important remains of that period so lo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Gyeongsangbuk-do/Gyeongju/blog-451876.html In order to celebrate the fact that we have been dating for three years Mike and I decided to head to Seoul for the weekend After school on Friday we came home packed ate a delicious dinner of KyoChon Chicken then headed down to the train station. We caught the KTX a little after 8pm so we arrived in Seoul just before 10pm. We got off the train and then took the subway up to Jongno 3. Al http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Seoul/blog-451636.html I read in Daegu Pockets a magazine for expats in Daegu that the weekend of October 24th was the optimum time to go to Palgongsan mountain to see the autumn leaves. So Heather and I hopped on the Rapid Bus 1 and headed out to the mountain. We couldn't believe our luck it was the perfect fall weather to head out to the mountains and apparently half of the city of Daegu was thinking the same th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Daegu/blog-451630.html