Seoul Mates

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Kiddos!

So we are now two months into the new school year and we have been busy having lots of fun with our kids! My class started in March as 4 year olds who didn't speak ANY English. Now, they can go all day long without speaking ANY Korean. Its pretty amazing to see how quickly they learn.

My class is great! I got lucky and got a really good class this year! And, I guess, they are pretty darn cute too! Jeff is really liking his class and is having a hard time keeping them quiet!

Now that graduation and performance are over, we have had lots of time to have some fun with our classes. We have had a chance to go on a few field trips and hold monthly cooking classes.

We took a trip to the fire station. We thought it would be like going to a fire station back home, climbing on the trucks and watching the firemen use the fire extinguisher. This was not the case! It was actually really fun and interactive. The kids got to shoot fire extinguishers at a virtual fire and try to put it out. They also were able to climb through a small obstacle course that was supposed to be like going through a house filled with smoke. Then, they got to experience an earthquake. They all had a lot of fun, and we did too!

Clara's cute bunny ears!

Getting ready to put out a fire! Notice the photographer in the left corner. There are two of them that go EVERYWHERE with us and they take all the fun out of all activities. The kids got them good with the fire extinguishers, though!

Experiencing the earthquake. It was really hard to keep your balance during this, and the kids had to complete several tasks during the quake.

We took another field trip to a park called the Dream Forest, which was hardly a forest at all. The kids got to look at some Venetian glass, play on a playground and feed some deer.

Trying to be polite and listen to this lady talk about glass. (Yawn)

Nemo class!

Elmo class!

Joe and Kevin (Elmo)

Jenny (who recently changed her name to Ariel) Nemo class

Clara (Nemo)

Frank teacher had some fun too!

Sally (Elmo)

Eva (Nemo)

Lunch! No PB&J sandwiches here! Kimbap and fruit for lunch.

They were exhausted! Cutest thing EVER!

We also took a field trip to a farm to plant lettuce. It was really like they took us to a dump, and the kids got to pose pretending to plant lettuce so the photographers could take pictures of them. It was not a good field trip!

Alice teacher and Eva. Alice is the supervisor for my class and Jeff's class.

Jenny and Julie

I put flowers in Clara's hair.

Lettuce photo shoot! That's all they did, hold the lettuce, take a photo and then put it back down.

Nemo class! It's hard getting 12 four year olds to take a picture!

We had a cooking class and the kids got to make deviled eggs! They had fun and the eggs were tasty too!

One of the kids' favorite things to do at school is play in the Wonder Lounge! They only get to spend about 15-20 minutes here a week :(

The boys playing dinosaurs, of course!

Just hanging out!

Since the weather has been nice, we have been able to spend some time outdoors!

Seoul soccer game

World Cup Stadium

Picnic with Megan in Olympic park

Cherry Blossoms

Olympic Park

More Cherry Blossoms! They don't last long, but they are pretty while they are here!

Monday, May 9, 2011

Busan

Happy spring! We had a 4 day weekend May 5-8 so we decided to take advantage of it and take a vacation! We took a train to Busan, which is along the southeast coast of Korea. Its a big city, but has the feel of a trendy little beach town.

There were lots of things to do, but we decided to spend our vacation relaxing, instead of sightseeing. All along the beach there were several outdoor coffee shops, cafes and restaurants. With that being said, we ate a lot!

The weather wasn't great, but it didn't rain, and we had one day of sun. It was cloudy and windy most of the time, but we still spent the entire time outdoors along the water.

Lunch along the beach!

This was the only day the water was really blue.

Walking along the boardwalk after dinner.

Ow ow!!

We went to this huge fish market. These were some of the biggest shrimp I have ever seen!

Yummy....

All of this stuff looked disgusting and I wasn't going to try any of it!

The boats in the port at the fish market.

The only day we saw the sun, a huge cloud of fog rolled in.

Jeff was happy, he found darts along the beach!

We don't want to leave yet!

Monday, April 11, 2011

Cherry Blossom Festival

Spring is finally here! Last weekend we took a bus trip 4 hours south to see the cherry blossoms!

Saturday morning we arrived in a town called Gyeongju. We rented bikes, and our tour guide gave us a map and told us to be to the hotel by 6 for dinner. We rode 10 miles on Saturday around a lake and through the town. We also rode through the mountains, which was very exhausting!! The scenery was great though! In the town all the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, but around the lake they had not started blooming yet.

Sunday morning we woke up and had to ride from our hotel back to the bike shop. The ride was much better! It was only 8 miles and we rode through the rice paddies so it was flat the whole way. We stopped and had got something to drink at a little cafe, then rode a bit more, then stopped and had lunch and ice cream. The temperature was 70 and sunny! We even got a little sun burn on our faces.

We headed back Sunday evening, but we were stuck on the bus for 6 hours due to traffic! It was not the relaxing trip I had expected, but it was still a lot of fun!