http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollabuk-do/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , South Korea , Jeollabuk-do en-us Wed, 30 Dec 2009 07:04:11 +0000 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 07:04:11 +0000 This week was a short week because of the holiday of course. I did my best to keep students on track but they seemed a bit preoccupied as well. Many of the students had a state standardized test on Wednesday which marked the beginning of their monthlong break on Thursday. I didn't push them too hard because I was a bit unfocused myself...this week I was feeling a bit under the weather some ki http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollabuk-do/Kunsan/blog-463024.html This week started off well I got my ID card on Monday then went to grab my phone and bank account no problems on Wednesday. Thursday it started to snow hello snow. It has been snowing since Thursday four straight days...reminds me of home. I am glad I ordered a scarf and some warm hats online a few weeks ago. Classes are still chugging along. There's this one class of 5 young girls which i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollabuk-do/Kunsan/blog-461546.html 112th of the way through my journey of English teaching cultural and self discovery. I feel settled in to an extent. I am finding I do not need the language to survive but I really want to learn it because it would open up my social circle a lot.I have been walking nearly every day but not as much as I should because of the lazycold mornings where i'd rather pay 2.50 for a cab. It's someti http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollabuk-do/Kunsan/blog-460506.html After zero sleep I never sleep when I know I have to be up early doors myself and Marie went on our Mount Daedun day trip. Mt.Daedun is a mountain in the Jeollabuk province of South Korea. It took us around 3 hours by bus from central Seoul. We actually took a cable car half way up the mountain my kind of trekking trip and then the peak was about 2 hours of crossing bridges one bridge was 8 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollabuk-do/blog-458515.html Not a whole lot to report on this week. I still didn't go file for my green card so that's kind of annoying no cellphone no bank account. I started my 10am class which is okay. It's an adult class but quite beginner. The book we're using was written by one of the teachers at the hagwon and it's borderline terrible. I'm throwing in some pictures I took when I was bored on Thursday of the ha http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollabuk-do/Kunsan/blog-458258.html Korea offers a lot of trekkable mountains. 'Trekkable' I mean less than 1000m so that a person without extraordinary stamina can reach the summit in a few hours Mt. Daedun is one of them.The placeWhat makes this place stand out from many other similar mountains in Korea or for that matter India is its two bridges.As you slowly make your way up the top you reach the first bridge. It is a sort http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollabuk-do/blog-457564.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 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 Itrsquos 830pm on Sunday and I am settling back into life in Gyeongsan. I spent the weekend celebrating the birth of a friend. We went on a lsquocampingrsquo trip. I put camping in parenthesis because the camp site was in the middle of a heavily trafficked area of a national park. We were expecting to go out into the woods and experience an escape from society. Instead we camped right next http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollabuk-do/Muju/blog-440130.html Well as I mentioned in an earlier blog I was thinking of going to China to see the total eclipse I did not make it couple of reasons 1 It is still monsoon season and I did not want to buy a ticket to Singapore and it ends up being a cloudy day 2 Which is the main reason I procrastinated and forgot I needed a China visa.So I stayed in Korea and saw an almost 90 eclipse on what turned out to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollabuk-do/Kunsan/blog-420915.html Day trip to Hanok Village located in Jeonju.First stop in a tomb of the King Muryeong.Second stop visiting Hanok Village.Third stop Traditional Culture Center in Jeonju. There we learned how to cook traditional Jeonju Bibimbap and how to play traditional drums http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollabuk-do/Jeonju/Hanok-Village/blog-417564.html Well after a long hiatus I'm finally back to writing my blogs and I must say I have missed it. Let me apologize for not keeping you all posted on my travels but I have been so busy here at work with a new contract being awarded here at Kunsan last May possibly 5 years I'm still very busy until the end of August but I now have some free time.To get you caught up there will be short blogs o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollabuk-do/Kunsan/blog-412346.html First Happy Birthday DadOk so today I took a walk just to find the Post Office. It wasn't hard to find at all and it's basically a hole in the wall behind the bank. Since it is Saturday I expected it to be open in the morning hours but closed in the afternoon. Well I was wrong. When I got there it was chained up but I could see the hours in the window. I couldn't very well read it but I http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollabuk-do/Jeonju/Seoshin-dong/blog-361481.html Yes we have an Outback Steakhouse in Jeonju It is not as good as home but at least it gives us a taste of delicious Western prepared foodTom's contract is soon coming to an end so his mom flew from England to visit and take him home. She is a very sweet lady and invited Joni and I to join her and Tom for dinner at Outback. We had to wait for Joni to finish her class at 9 pm and then hustle ou http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollabuk-do/Jeonju/Gaeksa/blog-361475.html Blog to come http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollabuk-do/Jeonju/Seoshin-dong/blog-358760.html I have a little boy in my class who is one of the cutest children I have ever seen. His name is ChungWoo pronounced ChungOO the W is silent. You just want to pinch his cheeks and when I do he pinches mine back So we are stuck in the cheekpinchingdeathgrip and then we both start laughing Children are so cute and innocent Also when he cries he tends to lie on his belly with his bum http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollabuk-do/Jeonju/Seoshin-dong/blog-358759.html On my quest to find a new cheap purse I decided to try the SaturdaySunday markets. Although I found many interesting things I did not find a new purse. They did have some knockoff Louis Vutton I don't even know if I spelled it right bags for 110000W which was waaay overpriced So my quest for a new bag goes on.I ended up at Lotte Department Store which is a high end department store with http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollabuk-do/Jeonju/Seoshin-dong/blog-358103.html Stay tuned for this blog it's a funny one http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollabuk-do/Jeonju/blog-358064.html We decided to do some Halloween coloring and this was the result. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollabuk-do/Jeonju/Seoshin-dong/blog-358059.html