Fiesta!!

I don't talk too much about school, but here's a blog for you about my work.

In one of my classes, we just finished reading about a boy named Tomas that was a native of Mexico. It was a fun story for me since I feel like I have a good knowledge of Mexico and Spanish is my semi-second language. The students were ultra impressed when I said things to them in Spanish and it was fun getting to share with them! Anyway, as a little way to let them learn more about Mexico, I made a few things for the students and we had a fiesta! Since there is a very, very small selection of Mexican foods here, I did what I could. They really enjoyed the chips and salsa. I also attempted to make churros and they were quite yummy. Lastly, I made my favorite Mexican food...quesadillas!! We had a good time!

Here's the spread:

Luna really enjoyed the fiesta!! Kara and Annie having fun!The kids did a Spanish-English puzzle during the party.

I think the students had a good time and it was fun getting to share a little piece of Mexico with them!

It's Spring!!

Hello on a wonderful Sunday night. This weekend has been quite eventful and I enjoyed it all.

Saturday, Kami and I headed to a nearby island...Hansan-do...off the coast of Tongyeong. It's only about a 30-minute ferry ride from our terminal here, so Saturday morning we set off for an adventure. Oh, and was it an adventure! On our way to the island, an older man started talking to Kami and me. It turned out that he was the leader of this group that was on the ferry and headed to the island. After talking to him for most of the way there, we learned all kinds of interesting things. The group he was the leader of was a group of Vietnam vets that had been affected in some way by Agent Orange. (Kami had to educate me on what that was.) When we arrived at the island, he invited us to join his group's picnic. We dined with them (Kami and I stuck to the rice) and then went to tour the island on our own. We met back up with Mr. Lee and his crew and headed home after a bit. It was a really nice day and we enjoyed meeting new people.

Here's a picture of the view from Hansan Island. It was beautiful.

A temple on the island. From what I could tell, a major battle took place between Japan and Korea near this island. Admiral Yi, a Korean hero, was remembered throughout the island.

Spring!!!

Our ferry for the ride home

Today was a good day too! Kami, Amie and I joined some of our Korean friends for a hike of a popular mountain in Tonyeong...Mount Mireuksan. I was really apprehensive going into it, but it proved to be wonderful. We took an easier course and I was very thankful since it was my first time on this mountain.

Here are a couple of views from the mountain.

These are a few of the lovely people we hiked with!There is a cable car that takes you up and down the mountain. We hiked up and then took the cable car down. There were tons of tourists...this is a popular place!

So that was my weekend! I'm so excited it's Spring and we can do more things! I think next weekend we're going to Busan...I'm looking forward to that! Talk soon!

Cherry Blossom Trees!

This post is about a week late, but better late than never I suppose! Last Saturday, Kami, Amie (our new co-worker), and I headed to the Tongyeong Cherry Blossom Festival! It wasn't nearly as big as the one in Jinhae, but it was still a good time! The cherry blossoms are so beautiful and I'm really gonna miss them when they're gone.

Here are some of the pretty trees!

The festival also included a variety of things, including an orchestra:

and little kids drawing pictures of cherry blossom trees:

and little tae-kwon-do (I think) kids:

and even men dressed as women:

and Amie even found some new friends:

All in all, it was a great day! Tongyeong is beautiful! Until next time!

Good-bye March

Hello from beautiful Tongyeong! This past month has been pretty quiet...hence the lack of posts...but I thought I'd show you a little of what's been going on.

I can't remember if I've blogged about noraebongs but if I haven't...these are kind of like small karaoke rooms for your friends to have loads of fun! When one of the Koreans we know was having a birthday a few weeks ago, so we celebrated with a night at the noraebong. The particular one we went to had fun masks and such so Kami and I took full opportunity of these! It was lots of fun!

This night we laughed harder than we've laughed in a loooong time. One of the guys we went with, Sam, put on this mask and sang his song. It was sooo funny!!

The final Friday of March was a big day at our school called the Dollar Festival. This is a reward/fun day for the students and they love it. It was our first since we've been here (I think there are 3 annually) and it was an interesting day. One of my jobs for the day was drawing on some of the children's faces. It was quite fun! Here are a few of my fun faces I got on camera!

Last weekend, Kami, Amie (our new co-worker from NZ), and I headed to Jinhae for the cherry blossom festival. We didn't get to stay long but it was fun to get to see some pretty trees while we were there. Kami found some Dr. Pepper there, so she was a happy camper. I love the cherry blossoms!!

Ok that wraps up the highlights from March. With the weather getting warmer, there should be more to do! I'll try to keep you updated!