At the Yeosu Expo / World Fair

A few weeks ago we took a trip to check out the Yeosu Expo.  

It's the same as the World's Fair.  We took the trip with some friends.

We spent the night in a bus, then woke early to watch a sunset at Hyangilam (향일암).  

It's a mountain with a temple at the top.

I'm not sure what Cassie's doing here.

Some fine woodwork at the temple.

A few pet turtles for the monks.

After a couple hours on the mountain, we took the bus over to the Expo site.

We started at the aquarium.  There was a two hour line, but we had VIP tickets.

Cassie is doing the whale.

These are the mascots of the Expo.  They have worms on their heads.

A view of the 'Big O,' some country pavilions and some cooling tents.

The O has a light, fire and water show at night.

The tango dancers at the Argentina pavilion.  

They sold empanadas, beer and wine, too.

With the Lithuanians.  Their entire booth was full of amber.

They also sold the national beer.

This guy rocked out in the Kazakhstan room. 

In Sweden, with a fire extinguisher.

Tasty meet dogs.

The next week, Austin, James and James competed at the Gumdo championship.

Cassie got this shot of a Buddhist healing center.

Loco Flickr

I am having problems with my flickr account, so I haven't been uploading recently.  I have a lot of pics, but no flickr to put them on!  I'm in the process of trying to fix this little bug - seeing as how I'm a paying customer of Flickr - but jahechata.
So, I will now post some pictures of the Royal Tombs in Guri.  This was just a random spot that a friend told us to check out.  It's almost in our back yard!

I'm dancin, just like this worm that looks like a stick!

 Anthony said, "Be a banana!  Peel!  Peel!"
He's a great photographer.  He knows what to tell his subjects.  I still need some work on my peeling, but he's patient...

Kindy Rant and Roll

It's been a while since my last post.  I feel like I've been super busy, but who doesn't have time to upload some great photos of my kindy class?

My kindergarten class started out with 11 students, which is pretty big for one teacher to handle.  I have them pretty much all day, teaching them science, cooking, writing, comprehension, and vocabulary.  A Korean teacher teaches them grammar, and Anthony and another foreign teacher come  in to teach math and reading.

It's all inclusive and when I get home, I'm exhausted.  We're down to 8 kids.  The kindergarten business is pretty cutthroat.  Before, there were only private kindergartens and most of them were pretty expensive (especially English speaking).  Now, a law just passed that kindy has gone public, so everyone can send their kids.  It's great for parents, but now moms who are still willing to pay for private school are fickle and very picky.  We lost 3 kids because one mom convinced the other 2 to switch schools with her.  And I hear, she is still calling the other moms to try and convince them to leave my school, too.  But I'm so confused.  Who wants their kids in a bigger school, and a bigger class?  I think a small school, and a small number of kids would be ideal for the most attention paid for your kid.  PLUS my school has the highest English level in our area - meaning our students are speaking way more English than any other kindergarten.
BUT what can you do?  People are just over involved and proud.

So after that small rant, here are a few pics from our field trip to the amusement park.  Last Friday we also had mustache day.  I'll put up more pics on my flickr page..... but these are the best ones!

We took a trip over to Guri to celebrate Saint Patty's day. We started at Kimbap Heaven.

Cassie and I got some bibimbap.

Mine is red after a healthy infusion of go chu jong, a thick spicy red pepper paste.

A Korean salad bar: spicy fish cakes, kimchi, seaweed salad and some potato jelly.

The weather has slowly but surely been improving, so we went on a walk by the river.

After a nice stroll, we went to the Guri market. This lady had the freshest lettuce.

A few different veggie pancakes. They were hot off the grill and cost W2,000 each.

The kimchi ajuma had dozens of different pickled veggies, fish and meats.

At the veggie stand:

The fishmonger:

Korea is a sock lover's paradise: