Two Weeks Later...

So, I definitely didn't realize that I didn't post last weekend. I wasn't even busy so it's not like I didn't have the time. So, here is my last two weeks summed up. First, last Wednesday Kristen, Gabrielle and I had an English Town camp meeting in which we did no planning or talking about the actual camps and instead went to see this really cool ancient school where this famous teacher taught so all students wanted to go there. It was beautiful and in the moutains. I'd want to go there too, but not because of the teacher! Here's those pictures.

The front entrance to the school. We had to duck to get in. Even our Korean friends had to bend over. We made jokes about how they were shorter then and are still short now. They said it was because it's so that you're forced to bow when you enter. Makes sense.

Next to the entrance was a 200 year old tree and we became tree huggers for a little bit. There was a lot of really old trees there actually. That's what made it so beautiful.

The library. Very small in my opinion, but this was also in use in the 1600's, not the 21st century. But then, they had a ton of books then too, but they were worthwhile books, not the stuff we have in our libraries where any blow joe can publish stuff now a days...

The dormatories. Notice the fire extinguishers... They were EVERYWHERE. Apparently they are more concerned about the school burning down than the apartments we live in now...where living humans actually live... I wonder if they have fire alarms there? Probably not. I don't think those exist in Korea. (seriously. I haven't seen a building with them yet).

A look across the courtyard into the next section. Our director was droaning on in Korean about this, that and who knows what. Sometimes a teacher would be kind enough to translate, but other times I'd just nod pretending I knew what he was saying. I was actually really interested in it, but the language barrier was a bit of an issue.

Beautiful scenery all around. I love it.

We went to "lunch" (which turned out to be dinner because it was 4pm before we got our food) and saw a tractor! Ok, so I've seen them before in Korea, I do teach at three very country schools, but those were all in use. This one wasn't so of course we had to get a picture. You can see a Korean man to the left of the picture. Him and another guy and girl were looking at us like we were crazy or something.

In the resturant where randomly one of Kristen's students Mom's worked. It was funny. The lady went all excited like when she saw Kristen and realized she taught her daughter. Can't say the meal was the best I've had in Korea, but it was decent. Lots of beef and no live octopus so I guess I can't complain! I missed a Samgye teacher's dinner for this excursion though. That made me sad.

Then afterwards the three of us went and got Gelato... huge gelatos. The guy thought we were all sharing one and the look on his face when we EACH bought one was priceless. When Gabrielle ordered he gave her three spoons. Then Kristen ordered and he gave her two spoons. Then I ordered and they finally realized we all wanted one to ourselves! Yes, we love ice cream. Can't say I'm a big fan of gelato though. Give me real ice cream anyday.

Oh, these aren't in order. These should be the last pictures, but I uploaded them wrong. Oops. This is baskin robins ice cream from last night. We got our hair cut and then went there. We're doing a love shot...with ice cream.

Then we had a bake sale party. There's a bake and book sale at the Speakeasy, a foreigner bar in downtown Gwangju and the regularly put on events and fundraisers and stuff. This one is for a girls orphanage in Gwangju where a lot of foreigners volunteer at. We baked for it and it's today at 1:00pm. I made fudge puddles. I might buy some back at the sale... so good! ANyway, at our baking party we took pictures. Duh. Kristen and I have a slight obsession with the Korean actor Lee Byung Hun of the Korean drama IRIS (we watch with subtitles online) and he was on posters on our apartments advertizing Missha so since Koreans throw the on the ground all the time anyway we went around to all the apartments, up all the stairs and collected them and made collages in our apartments. Think what you like about it, but we love it!

I'm taking class pictures with all my classes. I've only done five classes so far and they're all at my small schools. Warning: Korean kids don't like pictures and hate smiling in pictures. They just don't seem to do it in Korea. No matter how much I beg them to smile, most won't do it. so I'm usually the only one smiling.

This is Sinheung Middle School, grade two. The ones I always complain are little asses all the time... the boy who always disrupts the class is the middle boy. The girl behind him sometimes does too, but usually she's good.

Sinheung Grade three. I love these kids. The boy in the blue jacket is the one who complained about James trying to take my class away from me and said he really missed me. The boy who's beside me is taller than me and just before this was taken I was going on my tippy toes to be taller than him, but then he went on his too and was taller still (obviously) and then as soon as we stood on flat feet the picture was taken which is why I look like a loser here.

Sinheung grade one. These are the best kids at the school when it comes to English. Some of the girls as shy as anything, but the boys always joke around so it's fun.

Samseo grade one. The middle girl and the one kneeling are hilarious and really good at English. The boy on the left ALWAYS wants to play games and loves making fun of me. These kids are the best. We have a lot of fun in their classes because they always want to learn. Samseo Grade Three. Some of my favourite kids are in here (yes, I know, I have A LOT of favourite kids. I just love them all!)The boy in the red jacket is the one in the red dress from the last post and the boy kneeling on the right is the other one in the dress who won the competition. Those two boys also seem to have a competition to see who can get my attention the longest in each class. The boy kneeling won last class. The girls are the sweetest things ever. The one in red made a flower thing for me this week. It was so cute. Then it got wrecked in my purse on the way home, but I fixed it so it's all good.

So that's been the last two weeks. Today is the bake sale, paying for my plane ticket, and dinner with friends. Tomorrow night is a foreigner Christmas dinner. I'm so excited for that!

I hear at home there's snow. Here, I still go running outside and sometimes don't wear a coat. Although it's rained a bit the last two days which kinda sucked. I just want snow soon!