Beach and Summer Session

This past weekend an adult friend of mine invited me and some friends (Curtis and Annie) to join him and his wife on a trip to a beach some 2 hours away. It is pronounced grable beach, and when translated means dancing whale if I remember correctly. At first it seemed like the trip would be canceled because of a Typhoon that was heading to Korea, but the weather was nice enough that we took our chances. It was actually the first time we were able to make it to the beach this summer! And, it was only the second time I've been swimming in the ocean. There is no public transportation to this place from Daegu so without them driving us we wouldn't have been able to go. It was the first time I have been in a car for longer than about 5-10 minutes since I've come to Korea! It was nice feeling driving out in the country and enjoying the scenic views of the mountains and the ocean. At the beach there were barely any people, probably because the weather wasn't the best and it's some distance from major cities. Had we gone to the beach in Busan the story would have been much different. Busan would have been more like Dover, and Grabel was more like Long Point beach.

One interesting thing about the trip was that Annie, being a typical North American, wore a bikini. Korea isn't anti-bikini, but they are very conservative, and she definitly turned a lot of heads when she took off her shirt to go swimming. A few other girls had bikinis, but they also had on some sort of shorts and shirt that covered them up a bit more. Even a lot of the guys wore shirts while swimming, but some didn't. We were in the water for about 15 seconds when someone started blowing a whistle at us. We called the lifegaurd the "fun police". They were always blowing the whistle at people. There were a set of bouys that we weren't aloud to go past or we got in trouble. The bouys were not that far out at all, and wasn't even close to being over our heads - especially me. It was really annoying that in such a public place like that we couldn't go out a bit further to avoid other people and frolic around. Also at the beach, a project to just dig a hole for no reason turned into lets bury Adam in the sand. Curt was kind enough to give me breasts and a mound of sand on my crotch. Not much I could do at the time.

After the beach we had dinner on the beach and then headed back to Daegu. On the way we took a small detour to see a whole bunch of wind turbines they have in the area on the mountains. It's supposed to be somewhat of a small tourist attraction but it was so foggy we could really only see two of them, and only when we went right up to them. They looked just like the ones west of Long Point as far as I could tell, but you could stand right underneath these ones and really hear the sound of the blades. After that we headed home. Oh yeah - on the way there is a small town on the coast that is famous for selling crab meet. There are a lot of giant crab sculptures coming out of the ground or clinging to the side of buildings. They were a bit interesting.

Recently the summer break started for public school students - a chance to take a vactation or just mroe studying. On Monday, we started the Summer intensive program at the Manchon school were we teach TOEFL ( Test of English as a Foreign Language ) and SAT classes. If you remember we hate a winter intensive in January. These classes are for advanced students that are in highschool. Many of the students take these classes so that they can do well enough in English to attend colleges both in Korea and in the USA where courses are taught in English, and thats obvious if they have to take the SAT test. There are different components to the TOEFL test suchd as listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This session my sole job is to teach Speaking to some of the classes, which makes things simple for me. I won't go into the details of the test, but if you want to see what it's all about just Wikipedia it. Native speakers would find the test challenging let alone these kids - I wouldn't want to take the test. Anyway, the school is just packed with kids, it's some sort of organized chaos. It's a lot more stressful for many of us because this is serious stuff and you have to be prepared every class, and always on the ball. A lot is demanded of us by the boss and the students. It's only the third day and I can just imagine how many essays have been handed in waiting to be marked. Lucky for me, essays don't get turned in for speaking class, but they do give me scripts that they have written. A lot of part time staff is brought in for this session, mostly Korean but one guy that came last time too. He's really nice and has been working there for several years - back when there were 2 TOEFL students instead of a couple hundred.

Not only are a lot of us teaching a lot of classes for this (not counting essay marking and preparation work), but we are teaching the same old regular classes as well. For instance, Curtis taught 15 classes today (about 12 hours). I taught 13 on Monday, and 11 the past two days. At least all the other teachers can just stay at their school and keep teaching. I have to go in at 8:30 to 12:45 at Machon, then come home and go to Chimsan for 3:45 - 8:15. That time in the middle is more or less wasted for travel time and lunch so it makes for a long day. I always wiped before I'm finished teaching. But we enjoy teaching the smarter kids as you can interact with them a lot more. You can have real conversations and they get all the jokes that you make! Your trying to help polish their English skill as opposed to just drilling vocabulary and grammer into the little kids. You rarely have to ask a student to pay attention in a TOEFL class either, they are there to learn. We are understaffed, on top of the fact that some of the teachers we have probably wouldn't be able to/want to teach some of these special classes. It's all a young crew that works these summer sessions, and we have dubbed ourselves the "LIKE school allstars." Other than being purpetually tired and irratible, it is a fun time. And we all know the bottom line - overtime. That extra cash right before we all take off for travelling is a real bonus.

Mom and Jackie are coming in about 6 days, and Matt a few more after that! I'm super excited, and yet concerned for my health since I'm tired enough as it is right now! I might not even be able to pick them up at the bus station because of work! I'll be able to have lunch and dinner with them each day, and organize some sort of a day trip for them - I just won't be able to go on any of them. One of the highlights of Korea is the food, so at least I can show them that. It should make for an interesting trip - Jackie and Mother riding buses and subways by themselves, using cabs where English is rarely spoken. And, when they leave, Matt and I are off to Beijing for the Olympics - me for only a week because of work. This month is going to be super interesting and busy but I'll try to post something before and after Beijing. Here are some pics:

Curt and I looking a little emaciated and sporting some wet and wild hair.

People swimming with fog shrouded mountain in the background.

My friend getting out of the water after doing some snorkeling. He just got a diving certificate and hoped to go diving that day, but conditions were not good.

This is me in the sand with Annie and Curtis, who is apparently copping a feel.

This is the friend of mine that invited us.

This is a giant crab climbing a building, seemingly out of a Japanese horror film or something

July Update

A long over due posting for sure, but there isn't / wasn't really anything to talk about. Just working and staying in Daegu. We are definitely into the rainy season as it's raining pretty often these days, and it's almost guaranteed to rain on weekends - part of the reason we haven't left Daegu to go to the beach or something. Combined with the hot weather, its extremely humid these days and makes it pretty uncomfortable outside. You start sweating as soon as you step outside. If our schools and dorms didn't have air conditioning, it would be really miserable. Speaking of our school, we got a new teacher the other day. An American from California, maybe in his 40's I guess. He seems like a nice guy, but he's a lot older so I doubt we will spend much time with him outside of work. Another guy should be coming soon, but they are having a hard time roping in teachers to replace us as we leave. Over the next 2 months or so 8 of us will be leaving, the 8 of us that due the majority of the work, and none of us can figure out how they are going to replace all of us. Personally, I think it's going to be a tough time for the school. Curt and I will be the last of that 8 I mentioned to leave, so we will be able to see what happens.
This weekend we were determined to do something interesting in Daegu so we went to check out this Butterfly conservatory I read about. It was a very small greenhouse, that had 2 different species of butterflies I think, and was fairly pathetic compared to the nice one in Niagara falls. I won't complain too much since it was free. It is accompanied by an educational center that was not too shabby, but when everything is in Korean it becomes less educational for foreigners like us. I think I found a few mistakes, such as moths being in some of the displays, but then again, maybe the text talks about how they are closely related; I'm not sure. These places were located around a small lake/ big pond where you can rent paddle boats, and go water skiing if you wanted. We watched a water skier for a while flying off a ramp which was entertaining for a while. Also, we always talk about how Korea is devoid of wildlife but we did see a baby deer and some fire-bellied toads. And I can't forget the cicada's! - those insects that make that high pitched buzzing sound throughout the summer. This place was full of them, and the pitch is higher and far more annoying then the ones back home, consider yourself lucky. If I lived in the country it might be unbearable.
The soccer guys we play with ordered a bunch of soccer uniforms. They are identical to Manchester United and were really cheap. This may be the reason that my numbered washed off after going through the washing machine just one time! Then they tell us to hand wash them..thanks. Curt and I just put our last names on the jersey, but the Koreans all put random names on them like bird, hairless, and dark for example. Playing soccer in this weather is also really exhausting. Even though we play at night its still really hot and humid.
I guess that's it for now..pretty boring I know. Hopefully things will get more interesting and I can post a little more often.

Curtis and I saying hello! And yes, I am trying to make that ridiculous face, I don't really look like that.

Some of these butterflies I don't live where they are pinned on the map, but I'm not sure.

Roy and I pretending to be studying a bunch of caterpillars ravaging some of the plants.
A cool carnivorous plant.

Not a great picture of a baby deer standing about 10 feet away. Apparently without a mother and not to concerned by us. Hunting is illegal in Korea, so maybe they aren't that afraid of us.

One of many fire-bellied toads we saw.