April Update

Curt's dad left this week, it was sad to see him go. We really enjoyed showing him around Daegu and I know he really had a great time. He had a fantastic trip to Hong Kong with Curtis, and got a good feel for what its like to live in Daegu. He got to see some of our nicer parks and temples, explored the market, and we took him downtown almost every night it seemed. He even went in a drinking competition with about 100 of us teachers. Curt and him were one team, and my friend Richard and I were another team. We both made it out of the round robin, but were quickly eliminated from the playoffs. Having him here was quite exhausting actually, we never rested.
Also, Heeduk has piled on a lot of work for most of us. He gave us these thick test preparation books for us to make videos for. The material is for kids applying to colleges in the U.S. I'm in charge of biology, so I make a video about test taking strategies, and then I also do the essay questions from the practice tests and make a video for each test. At first it's really strange talking to a camera but you get used to it and now Curt and I are pros. Over the past two weeks, I've spent about 20 hours so far prepping for, and shooting the videos. Of course it's all last minute stuff at our school, you wouldn't want us to take our time and make sure we do a good job. Its not fun having homework, its always on your mind until you get it done. For example, tomorrow is my one day off, but I imagine I'm going to be spending a good chunk of it in front of this computer.
There is a mountain nearby with something like 200 hectares of pink azaleas blooming together. The festival for it starts this weekend I believe. We tried to take Curt's dad to it, but the public transportation took a lot longer than we figured so we weren't able to climb far enough up the mountain to see it. It was still a nice hike, but a little disappointing since we spent so long on the subway and bus. Curt and I are going to try and go back this coming week sometime if our schedules allow it..basically if Heeduk stops telling us to prepare more videos. Anyways, here are some pics from the trip with Curt's dad.

Korea feels the need to alter all streams and rivers for some reason.

Temples

Many Buddhas. Its his birthday soon.

I think these structures are for good luck. Koreans build many small ones on rocks and boulders and then you are supposed to make a wish when you add a stone to one. Be careful though, Curt and I have toppled a few amateur ones after adding one too many stones.

The cherries bloom later up on the mountains because it stays cooler longer.

Bull Fighting Festival

First, let me say that Curt's birthday was a great time. About ten close friends came over, the max number of people we can fit comfortably in our apartment. Most people were amazed how small our accommodations are. Other than location, they are the single worst accommodations anyone has ever heard of or seen! We then all headed downtown to a fun restaurant with comfy couch style seating for everyone. At one point, the restaurant turned some lights off and we sang happy birthday, as did most of the Koreans in the place, and we sent cake to most of the tables around us as is tradition here. You give cake to the people that sing for you, or I think that's true.. Anyways, I think they really enjoyed our energetic group of people. After that we were off to some other places, and as Gerald said "what happens in Korea, stays in Korea."

The bullfighting festival takes place just outside of Daegu in the city of Cheongdo, a short and cheap trip by train. The bullfighting festival is a week long event with various activities going on. Roy and I went down on Saturday and met up with about 30 other foreigners that were already there enjoying the festivities. This bullfighting is the kind of bullfighting where there is a matador that stabs the bulls and eventually kills it. They pit two bulls against each other, and let them push against each other with their heads and horns. I don't think its common that they injure themselves severely, but some got a little blood on their heads where the horns were rubbing. They often had to coax the bulls into fighting, some were not in the mood. They have ropes in the bulls nose which is how they control them and move them around. They position the bulls in front of each other and then pull them towards each other until the bulls get the picture and start to fight. Some fights were short, and some quite long. The loser is the bull that eventually turns and flees. The bull handlers and referees stand pretty close to the action, and must get control of the bulls when its over. The bulls are actually quite docile and they never seemed interested in attacking any people. They are much less crazy than the bulls that American cowboys ride. I think the biggest bull was around 2200 pounds maybe..I'm not too sure. We sat up in the crowd but then went ringside later on closer to the action. We were cheering pretty happily and we knocked one of the wooden posts out of the fence..a testament to the quality of the fence. I think some of the old men bet on the cows, but we picked winners just for fun mostly. We stayed the day and then headed back after supper.

Some pageantry before another round of fighting.

Some Korean drums.

Decoration - they love their squid here.

Bulls awaiting their chance at glory.

You can see the ropes they use to control the bulls.

Head to head action.

More fighting.

This kid in the blue and I were arguing over who was going to win the match. As you can see from my smile, my bull won.

Two friends of mine shaved their beards and got decked out for the occasion.

Baseball game, Spring pictures

Last Sunday, Curtis, Drew, our Korean friend Ryan, and I headed to the baseball stadium to watch Daegu's baseball team the Samsung Lions. In stark contrast to our basketball team, the Samsung Lions are one of the best teams in Korea. The stadium is far smaller than MLB size parks, but its nice enough. It was a scorching day, maybe 22. Koreans hate the sun seemingly, its more attractive to have pale skin apparently. Having darker skin means you work in the sun, therefore are a farmer, therefore are poor. People use anything to shield the sun, and we got some nice pictures of a guy making a hat out of cardboard. Also, I realized how boring baseball can be to watch. On T.V. its a bit better because you can see where the pitches are going, and have some commentary, but at the ballpark I was throughly bored after a few innings. We ended up winning fairly easily, but I can't recall the score, maybe 6-2 or something.

Kids on the opposing teams dugout. They eventually got told to scram.

Korean ingenuity. The hat was made on-site.

Me, Drew, Curt, and Ryan with the other camera.

Also, it was cherry blossom season and many parks and streets had trees that were covered in white blossoms. They looked like they were covered with snow, and they were really a beautiful site. Unfortunately, when I finally decided I would take my camera with me to take some pictures of these cherry blossoms Asia is famous for, it rained the night before I planned to go out. Because the blossoms were nearer their end, the rain knocked most the petals to the ground. I still managed to get a few nice pictures, but it doesn't do it complete justice. Also, the pictures are from parks within a 20 minute walk of our house.

This park I just visited for the first time this week, these buildings are 200 years old. The originals burned down 3 times before these ones were build in 1807.

It looks like it snowed, but they look nicer on the trees.

These are pictures from the park 5 minutes from our house. "Bell Park" as the foreigners call it.

This is an old gate that now marks the beginning of "Culture" street.

Gerald, Curt's dad, arrived Wednesday night around midnight. He came bearing amazing gifts like ranch dressing, candy, Tim Horton's coffee, and various sauces that we can't find here. His is having a blast so far, its great having someone from back home visiting us. It is Curt's birthday tonight at midnight, so we are going out for dinner and drinks tonight. Curt and Gerald head to Hong Kong for 5 or 6 days on Saturday. I will go watch some bull fighting this weekend I think, so I should have an interesting blog next time. Also, Curt had to make a 1 hour video on Economics. He comes home and tells me that Heeduk wants me to a video on Biology, and there is a book waiting for me at Samduk school. I walk out of the school with 3 one inch Biology books, and 1 Chemistry book that apparently will need a video too. Its still a little vague what is being asked of me, but I'm sure it's going to be a good chunk of work. I hope I can remember everything from University.

Arboretum etc.

I made it the arboretum last week with Curtis and Annie, but most plants and trees are still dormant. There were still many things flowering, and the cactus greenhouse was really spectacular with almost everything in bloom. Here are some pictures to make you jealous of our Spring weather.

Either chinese apricot, or cherry, but I think it is the former.

The bonsais are kept inside during the winter, and they have many different kinds as you can see.

Pics from the cactus greenhouse are below.

Soccer last Friday with our Korean pals was really great. They love having us around, and we love hanging out with them. We went out for dinner afterwards, followed by a quick computer game match at a PC Bong (computer room). Made it home by 5:00am ish! They are a year or two older than us, and love teasing each other about their girl problems or any number of physical characteristics they possess. They enjoy practicing their English with us and they are overly grateful that we spend time with them. We think they are hilarious, and they think we are hilarious, so its a good time.

On Sunday Curtis and I headed down to Busan to enjoy the beach even though it had just rained and it was pretty chilly. We probably wouldn't have gone except that my Korean teacher gave me a free coupon to stay in a really nice hotel and it had to be used before April. Curt and I played volleyball on the beach by ourselves for a few hours, and it was really great to be doing that again. Some Koreans stopped to watch us smack the ball at each other, and dive around in the sand, but I'm not if its because we were good at volleyball, because we were foreigners, because we were wearing bathing suits while others were were wearing winter gear, or a combination of all those reasons. It was on the chilly side for sure, but we were running around a lot so we got pretty hot, and the cold sand turned our toes numb enough that we couldn't really feel them. Our hotel was right on the beach, with an awesome view from the 20th floor. It was some sort of suit with a tiny kitchen, awesome shower, T.V., computer, hardwood floors, and two comfortable double beds. By far the most comfortable bed I have slept in since being in Korea, and probably the last time as well. The room would have been at least 150$/night, and probably much more when summer hits. In the morning we took a one hour boat cruise along the coast. It was pretty scenic, the main destination being Oryuk-do. It means 5 or 6 islands in Korean. At high tide there are 6 islands, and at low tide there are 5 islands. The cruise gave a different perspective of that part of Busan, and the islands were pretty cool. I could have done without the terrible Korean music they had pumping on the boat..its one of those strange things that makes you just say: "That's Korea". Unfortunately I forgot my camera in Daegu, so there are no pictures from this quick trip, but its honestly not that great of a loss.

I started my TEFL course today, spent a couple of hours doing the 1st module of 10. If they are all as easy as this one, it should be a cake walk. It did feel weird again writing answers that were going to be graded by someone. It was a flash back to the days when I was in school. I'm sure the course work will pick up a bit as the 1st module was pretty much just an introduction to TEFL.