Busan With Kami - Lotte Giants & Haeundae Beach

A couple of weeks ago, I was super excited to have Kami come to Korea for a visit! We had lots of good times together when we were here together a couple of years ago, so it was nice to reunite!!

Her visit allowed a visit to Busan and one of my favorite things to do in Korea...going to a Lotte Giants baseball game. The Giants were playing the LG Twins and Eujin got us amazing seats for the game! Even though it was about a million degrees, we had a great time together cheering on the winning team!

Here are some pictures from the game.

The next morning, Kami and I took a coffee break at Dunkin Donuts, where I found this sign. It's amazing to me that even huge chains like Dunkin Donuts would have such mistakes in their signage.

After that we headed to one of the places I've wanted to go to for a long time in Korea...Haeundae Beach. This place is quite famous in Korea, and let me tell you, it was quite an interesting experience.

You may remember my blog a few months ago about skin color and tanning/whitening in Korea...well, this beach experience was just another illustration of the fact that Koreans to not want to have tan skin. Let me just show you with the pictures!

When first entering the beach, I could only see one thing...UMBRELLAS!! Everywhere!! No lie!! I have never seen so many in my life!! Lucky for me and my lobster skin, they were super cheap to rent...only about 5 bucks!

A fort of umbrellas!!

Another big difference about Korean beaches is that Korean like to go swimming with all of their clothes still on. Look around the beach in the States and you see lots (and sometimes too much) flesh, but in Korea, must people still had their full clothing on. Hopefully you can see that in this picture.

Lucky for us...these were a guy that didn't mind getting a little sun!! ;) (Sorry, Dad!!)

Thus concluded our time in Busan! Now I can mark Haeundae off of my 'Things to do in Korea' list...whoo-hoo!!

Camp at Yokjido

I know I've been absent from my online life lately, but it's been for a good reason! I was spending a few days with fourteen 3rd- and 4th-graders on Yokji Island. I will tell you more about it later...but here's your preview!

Chezlee Pension - Tongyeong

It's always an adventure in Korea...and a couple of weekends ago, it was time for another one!

I got a call on Saturday from my friend/former boss about having lunch on Sunday at the beautiful pension in Tongyeong that I visited a couple of months ago. There was a small mention of cable TV and cameras, but I wasn't sure what was going on. I was happy to recruit my friend Liz to come with me because it ended up being quite an interesting day.

When we arrived to the pension, we were shown around to the different rooms and places for guests. The pension is right on the sea, so it's a really nice view and setting. We finally figured out that there would be some filming done for a cable TV show that is done in Korea. The show was highlighting different things in Tongyeong and we got to be the 'cool foreigners'! Haha! It was actually really fun.

I finally learned that the pension is name Chezlee and I was excited to see the different places available for people to stay. Each room has a different theme and they are quite elaborate. I don't know if the pictures do the place justice, but you can get the jist!

One of the rooms...so cutely decorated!

Getting my kiss from prince charming!

Liz in the queen's throne!

Ruby with the huge heart of flowers.

I LOVE this picture of Sara with HongJae!! So precious!!

It was a fun day and I definitely gained some 'cool' points from my students for being on TV!!

Touring a Turkish Cargo Ship

In Tongyeong, there is a huge population of foreigners that work on ships. Also, there are lots of Koreans that work on these ships too. I always see them around and I want to see the ships upclose! Well, I finally got to see one!!!

Danielle befriended some Turkish guys that were in Tongyeong for a few weeks. She got to take the tour first, and I was super jealous, so last Saturday, I was invited to check it out!

It's pretty incredible how nice these ships are! On this ship in particular, there are 19 people working. They travel around the world carrying cargo to various countries. Their times in port can range from 12 hours to a few days. I am glad we were lucky enough to meet to them while they were here!!

Here are a few pictures from our time on the ship!

The ship!!

In the engine room...getting some bad news! ha!

The main engine....it was huge and hot!!

The view of Tongyeong from the ship! Can you see all of the clouds?! I'm ready for the rainy season to be finished!

Some huge rope...although you can't really tell since I didn't put anything as a reference point!

This is the emergency boat if there is a fire or collision. It's pretty impressive. They can get in and pull a lever and it will go shooting down into the water! Sounds fun but I wouldn't want an emergency to happen in order to use it!

The cargo space on the ship...the gray doors open and they put the cargo inside.

Manning the radar...gotta make sure nothing's in the way.

Always love talking on the radio!

The controls for the ship...lots of stuff going on here!

Everything in Korea is really cutesy...so I loved these danger signs that illustrate the cutesy part of Korea very well!

So it was a good day! I am glad I can mark this experience off my list of things to do in Korea!

Fostering Two Kittens

I don't know what is it about me, but apparently, I can't say no when my friends call about animals they are rescuing. I had just gotten my apartment back in order after the poodle I was watching, and then it came...a phone call from Danielle telling me she had found two baby kittens that needed some love. Because of her allergies, she wasn't able to keep them at her place...so I was the next in line. She brought over the two kitties and they were quite stinky, so we promptly gave them a bath. Usually cats aren't big fans of this, but they were fine and handled it with ease!!

After Danielle posted on Facebook, the cats were quickly adopted and I only ended up keeping them for 3 days. There were cute, but with the combination of muggy weather and kitty litter, my apartment was stinky!! I'm glad it's getting back to normal again!!

Here are a few pictures from the adventure!

One day after they had eaten, I caught them on film cleaning each other up! It was soooo cute!! I hope it makes you smile!!

For now, though, Sara's animal shelter is closed!!!

Foreigners Invade Hapcheon

A couple of weeks ago, a fellow EPIKer hosted a huge bar-b-que by the river in Hapcheon. It was a little bit of a journey to get there (1 hour to Jinju, wait, 1 hour to Hapcheon) but it was worth it in the end. There were lots of people that I met at my EPIK training, along with other folks I've met along with way this year. Of course, there were new faces too! Here are a few pictures from the day:

Laura and Colleen--They were hatin' on my music, but they're still cool!!

Little Yasmine! Her father is a fellow public school teacher in Tongyeong and her mother is a beautiful Korean! She's so adorable!!

The grillmaster at work! 'Santa' worked hard to put the BBQ together and get everyone fed!! He did a great job!

Mick...This guy makes me smile!!

Lots of food...lots of people...lots of fun!!

Can't wait for the next one!!

Watch Yo Mouth, Son!!

Lately, it seems that my ears have been filled with lots and lots of naughty words...and not from the adults around me, it's from my little 6th grade students. Here's my theory:

Korea has been infiltrated these days with Western culture and media and games and movies and all sorts of things. One of the negative factors of this epidemic is that these said games and movies are filled with lots of nasty language. And while these kids might not know exactly what these words mean, they know from the games that they play when the appropriate time to use them is. Sometimes a kid that speaks no English at all with go around saying these phrases that I know they learned from a video game. It's funny when it's something like, "Fire in the hole." It's a lot less funny when it's some involving my least favorite 4-letter word!

Anyways, this is all on my mind today because one of my 6th grade students was heard saying 'F#*$ you' to his peers today. I definitely called him out on it and told him he didn't need so say that. To make it a little worse than a normal situation, this student studied in the States for a little while and he knows full well that these words are not of a kind nature. So after getting on to him about it, my co-teacher addressed the situation further and then let his homeroom teacher know about his behavior. After lunch, the student came to my office to say he was sorry, but it took about 30 minutes and lots and lots of tears for him to get the two little words out.

So on I will go...trying to clean up my kids' mouths...one student at a time! (Who knew this would be a problem??! At least if they said Korean curse words, I wouldn't know!!)