It is great to be back and the students missed us (well...most of them) and they loved seeing us again, especially when we took out the gifts and candies! Nothing much has changed - the weather is still hot (and finally sunny!!), the Korean grandmothers still poke us and we still don't speak Korean. However, as this second swing in Korea begins, we are much more comfortable than last year! We have already visited Seoul, gone swimming on a very nice beach in Daechon, are searching for someone to tutor us in Korean, and we are now immune to strange stares and pokes. We think this year has started smoothly! Here are a few photos of everything so far...
Oh, and by the way, Dan bought a really cool camera (a mini polaroid) so we now take most of our pictures using that camera. I can't get those pictures on the computer, so apologies for lack of good pictures :)
Here is one of us with some of the students. This was actually a while ago, but never put it up. We were preparing for the ever-dreaded speech competition!
This is Jennifer, (the school's owner) with our oldest class. They are in their last year of middle school, so about 15-16 years old. As you can tell, they love taking photos. (NOT!)
These lovely faces are in our new "beginner class". They are about 7-8 years old and are hilarious. They are truly happy about everything and stand on chairs and desks in fits of excitement during the lessons when we make them repeat words like "paper...pencil...scissors..." They love English, so it makes teaching them a little bit easier.
This was a small gathering of younger students in our office. They were playing Angry Birds (this is like a computer game that can be played on a cell phone). Since about April or May, Korea has discovered the joy and wonders of the "Angry Birds" game on their smart phones. In Korea, when something is popular...they go all the way and do it as big as possible. You can now purchase bed sets, wallpaper, carpeting, underwear, socks and kitchen utensils with the Angry Birds faces on it. Good fun.
This is our trip to the beach, in Daechon, a very easy journey from our city. This beach is famous in Korea and it has a Mud Festival that is very popular with foreigners. The mud is good for the skin, so loads of Westerners come out to throw it at each other once a year. Dan and I missed out on this as it was in July and we were packing to go home. Anyway, our beach trip had beautiful weather and the water was great! Although Dan and I were almost the only ones on the beach in actual bathing suits. Of course the 6 other Western people that we saw were in bathing suits also...
This is Dan's friend (Tom) from England, he is a teacher in Seoul. He is also a scholar and a gentleman. We visited him last week and spent the night in Seoul.
This is Tom's girlfriend, Jenny. A lovely lady from Canada who will be traveling back home in a few weeks to go to grad school to be a translator.
In Seoul, we went to an area of town around Hongdae University. It is an art university, so there is lots to do and look at in the area. There are loads of eclectic shops, lots of food and drinks and always music being played by practicing students. We found a nice little courtyard with some decent music, and of course, Dan was scouted from the crowd to provide entertainment for everyone watching. He had a little bird puppet and danced to the music for a while, then he got bored and found someone else to do it. He's a natural!
Just had to put this in it...this is some street food in Seoul, and I think it is taffy or something similar, but it looks like Jabba the Hut.
Well - we miss you all and will hopefully catch most of you on Skype. Love Rachel and Dan
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