Hapkido, Housewarming parties, Halloween, and Happiness

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A hodge-podge of photos from our second month in Daejeon. Early in the month we went to watch a Hapkido (Korean martial art) tournament where we saw some of the craziest Korean children yet. Jeff's Hapkido school was competing so we saw some familiar faces as well as the only white person in the whole tournament take a roundhouse to the head (Note: He later was admitted to the hospital where he underwent surgery to attach metal plates to his jaw which was fractured in three separate places).

Later in the month we had a belated housewarming party to welcome us to the country. Korean, Canadian, and American friends all came for a night of friendship, laughter, and salsa dancing. There are also pictures of my only student that dressed up for Halloween as well as another student in that class, just to show all you at home what we deal with on a daily basis. Finally there are pictures from our night out at the Norae-bang (a private karaoke room that you can rent with your friends by the hour). I wasn't so much into the singing, but others were and it proved to be a fabulous show.

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Photos

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Hapkido athletes at the Hapkido tournament.

Photo 1
These black net-hut structures are set up all over the place around Korea. Turns out they are for growing ginseng as it simulates brush which natual ginseng need to grow under to thrive. Thanks Lonely Planet!

Photo 2
One of the many mountains on the outskirts of Gyeryongsan National Park where we went to eat lunch with Jeff's Hapkido instructor.

Photo 3
Mushroom, the restaurant where we had lunch. In this mushroom shaped restaurant we dined on scrumtious mushroom meals. The best part was the life size pirate statue beside our table.

Photo 4
Jeff's Hapkido instructor with his wife and son. Very sweet people.

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Clearly we were under the assumption that "Lunch on Sunday" did not include a 30 minute hike in the woods after eating.

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Hap-ki-do!

Photo 7
Jeff picked up a little friend along the way...

Photo 8
Hapkido to the rescue! Shortly after this picture was taken the bug was struggling so hard to escape one of his legs ripped off. When John (a fellow teacher as well as Hapkidoer) stepped on it to put it out of its misery the family was horrified and quickly continued up the trail muttering in Korean to one another.

Photo 9
Sun, leaves, temple.

Photo 1
Lauren and me at our housewarming party.

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Newfie love.

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Debbie and Carol (Korean teachers from our school)were not so impressed with Thomas's dance moves...

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...but John was! The remainder of the night was spent watching these two tear it up on our livingroom floor.

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The salsa dancing stretched into the wee hours of the morning.

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Alanna (another fellow Canadian) and Jeff enjoying the show.

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This is Jeff's excited face.

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What all-night salsa performance would be complete without a dip?!

Photo 2
Alex, the only kid in my classes that dressed up for Halloween. And yes, part of his costume did involve the only-for-emergency flashlight from the wall.

Photo 1
Kevin pretending he is being choked with a pipecleaner. 90% of the things I say in this class begin with "Kevin stop _______ "(standing on the table, putting that in your mouth, pulling up your shirt, eating paper, yelling, screaming, etc). Think Chunk from The Goonies.

Photo 3
Glen, the kid with never-ending pockets. I swear, what this kids keeps in his pockets never ceases to amaze me. Think Data from The Goonies

Photo 1
Thomas and John at the Noraebang. These rooms also come with a set of tamborines.

Photo 2
Alanna enjoying the show.

Photo 3
The singing gets serious.

Photo 4
Jeff has his turn. I bet this was a Journey song.