TaLK Farewell Reunion and the DMZ

 July 2nd and 3rd was the Farewell Reunion for all the TaLK scholars who are leaving Korea after this semester. Lindsey, Jenny and I had dinner together Friday night and then traveled to Seoul together. We had Vietnamese Pho.











The bus to Seoul is about 3hours.













We saw this poster in the Subway. I can read it. Harry Potter! Okay, I don't need to know Korean to know that, but I can actually read it as well. This poster says that the movie comes out in July, but not which day. After some internet searching I learned that it comes/came out here on the 13th of July. That's two days before it's release in the states!!
 

 At the reunion, some people gave presentations. Lindsey presented her video she made about her time as a TaLK scholar. After the presenting and ceremony stuff was done we went to see a show called Fanta Stick. It was similar to Cookin' Nanta that we saw during orientation, but this time it wasn't a kitchen, but a mechanic garage, musician ghosts and a Romeo and Juliet love story. We got to get pictures with the cast. I have another picture to add to my collection of strange, Korean toilet signs.

 That night we went out for Italian and drinks and stayed in a super nice hotel. We were on the 10th floor, I had a room to myself, and a great view. We ended up watching the 2nd half of The Birds and I french braided Lindsey's hair.





Sunday morning we got up early and drove to the DMZ. That's the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. The soldiers are still discovering mines there, so there were warning signs all along the roads. I almost wish someone was attempting to claim the area as their own instead.

Here you can see that the Korean rainy season has started. We had terrible rain the whole day. The TaLK office gave us all ponchos. Unfortunately as you can see from Lindsey in the next pic, the hoods made us look like the KKK. I decided I'd rather have wet hair.

 We got a special pic of all the Eastern peeps who were at the reunion. Represent!!

 They are trying to show the DMZ as a wonderful wildlife area thus the dioramas. They seem to suffer from giant grasshoppers and radioactive ducks the size of deer. It makes me not want to drink DMZ brand water now.

 

A model of the North Korea soldiers digging one of the secret tunnels under the DMZ and into South Korea.

I got to go down into the third tunnel. The South Korea built tunnel that they made to reach the North Korean tunnel is really steep, but wide. The North Korean tunnel is maybe three people shoulder to shoulder wide and just over half my height tall. Okay, a little exaggeration, but still, I felt like I was bent in half the whole journey.


 My friend complained that she had to duck a few times. I got to stand up at my full height in that tunnel twice. We had to wear helmets while we were down there, and I was quiet glad for mine. I probably left giant grooves in mine from whacking my head on the rock ceiling.

The last train station in South Korea that will hopefully one day connect with North Korea.

 Jenny with a South Korean soldier.

 Another Korean bathroom sign. The toilet paper must taste REALLY bad. I have to say, I've never tried it.









My reward from the TaLK office, for completing my term here and for attending the Farewell Reunion. It sucks for everyone who decided not to go cuz they thought it'd be lame. This stereo says TaLK on the top and NIIED on the bottom. Both are offices that are responsible for me being here. This lights up too!!

My Trip to School

  I'm preparing a letter to the next TaLK scholar at my school. When I arrived I wasn't given very much information. I think since I worked so hard to gain all the knowledge I have now, I should share it. I took some pictures of how I get to school so the scholar will know which bus terminal to get off at and how to find the Kangjin taxis. I thought y'all would be interested in seeing as well.

 This is Kangjin bus terminal where I get off the bus








This is Imshil terminal where I DON'T get off the bus.










This is where i get a taxi to go from Kangjin to Duckchi Elementary

This is a tower of soju bottles in Bukdae. I'm not giving this pic to the scholar, I just thought it was funny.





This is the best cupcake shop (and only) that I've found in Korea.

Sympathy according to different grades

On Wednesday, during my day off, I had one of my wisdom teeth removed. Yesterday and today I taught, even though I was still sore and talking too much could make it worse. We watched movies in most of my classes, because we were in between topics and I didn't want to introduce something new while my jaw hurt.
My 4th and 5th graders were happy to watch a movie. They also were nice to me while in pain and didn't go out of control.
My 1st and 2nd graders were similar. We didn't watch a movie for that class, because they were a day behind the other grades. My co-teacher was nice enough to do the major part of the teaching/talking and I helped out. Many of the kids were asking if I was okay and making pity faces when they heard I had had my tooth taken out. They were pretty well behaved today (except for the normal two troublemakers) and that class wasn't stressful at all.
Then came 6th grade. You'd think that they would enjoy a day off from class and watching a movie. No... they wanted to choose the movie. They wanted to watch shows in Korean. They tried to talk through the whole thing. They barely acknowledged that I was having a bad day. I'm quite thankful that Sab was able to get them under some control and split up the talkies.
Now it's the weekend. My plans to go to Everland amusement park have gone through because there will be a hurricane on Sunday. Yay! A whole two days of rest and maybe a third trip to the orphanage to play with the babies!!

Muju Firefly Festival

 June 4th-5th I went to Muju with some of my friends for a weekend of fireflies and extreme sports. Okay, that last parts not really true. I firefly festival was pretty and we had lots of fun taking pics all around the festival area. We also got some face painting on our arms. We had to wait in line for quite while and of course we let all the kids that came by go first. But eventually we all got some great arm art.

 Here is the pension where we stayed the night. I slept in the tower on the left.

 While it was definitely not extreme, we did go water rafting. I cannot in all honestly put the word white into that sentence. The next day we went ATVing. That made up for the lame river the day before. I would love to go ATVing more when I get back home. Who knew I would like it that much. In the pic of me on the ATV you can see how much rafting washed away my paint. Mine was the only one that lasted to the next day.

 Amanda, Maria, Rira, Me, Jessica, David, Jenny, Brittany, Ratna and Chris. The whole crew.

Here we are driving over the bridge. That was really exciting! On the right is all of us doing the Captain Morgan.

Feeding Fish the Korea Way

Last weekend May 27-29 I went to Seoul with Jenny. We stayed at her friends house for the two nights. On Saturday we met up with several of the other TaLK scholars from Jeonbuk province. We were all invited to a wedding! One of the scholars in my area who we all got to know pretty well during Orientation invited us all because none of his friends from the states could come. The wedding was spectacular! It was half American and half Korean.

 There was a complementary shuttle bus from the subway terminal to the restaurant where the wedding took place. The restaurant was called Secret Garden and it was actually floating on the Han river.

 This sign in the lobby says "Groom Steven Mortinson and Bride Jinny Park"







 Here are Steven's parents. Both of the mothers wore the traditional Korean hanbok and both father's wore American suits. Steven's mom was so happy with the hanbok. She told us that a woman had to help her into it and it took 15 minutes. She loved showing off her "elvish" shoes.

 
 We were very close to the front of the ceremony. There were two tables reserved for us as the Groom's friends.

Steven didn't seem nervous at all, even when the band was practicing playing the wedding march.

 A traditional part of Korean weddings is the couple bowing to each set of parents and then the audience. Steven did all three complete bows with great enthusiasm. When he bowed to his mother, Jenny and I started crying because it was so sweet.

 After all the photos and everyone had eaten (except the bride and groom of course), the cake was brought out. The knife they used to cut it was almost a sword. Steven looked very happy holding it. All of the scholars at my table started laughing because we could tell Steven was asking Jinny if they could to the tradition of feeding each other cake. She vehemently refused. Poor Steven looked disapointed.

 That evening we went to the spa cafe. You order a drink and if you pay an extra $2 you get to do Dr. Fish. It is also called Garra rufa. These are fish that eat all the dead skin from you feet. It tickled so much, but was incredably fun! Anyone who has the opportunity has to do it. The fish seem to like some people's feet more than others. Sometimes they would swarm a specific person. Because all the girls had been wearing nice shoes for the wedding, this was like heaven. When you were finished you even got lotion to put on your feet!

 Her you can see Jessica about to put her feet in. It's intimidating because the fish know you're coming and start circling below your feet. These big fish feel like they are sucking on your feet with a slight scratching feeling. Each new place they went seemed to tickle more than the spot before. I thought the bottom of my feet would be worst, but the top of you foot, heel, ankle and toes tickle just as much!

 There are also small fish which are more common as Dr. Fish in Seoul. They feel like little vibrators all over your feet. They love crawling up your calf or shin and going between your toes. Compared to the big fish these aren't really ticklish. I suggest doing the big fish first because going from small to big is more of a shock than big to small.

Here is a video Chris took of us when we first got in. Please enjoy our hilarious agony!