Tae Kwon Do! It rocks and we rock!

So, we went to a Tae Kwon Do performance in Seoul last weekend. These crazy people were jumping heights that were twice their own! Kicking wooden boards in half! I heard "Hiiii Yaaa" and "eeee ughhhhhhhh!" and "YA!" from the black belts just as they were in the midst of their sweet moves. There was also some traditional drumming that went on before and during the performance and there were dancers too!


Then, Dan and I took lessons and did some pretty sweet moves. Please see pics, but don't judge us, as we are still pretty new at this whole "Tae Kwon Do" thing.

My momma is gone, :(

My mom came to visit for 2 weeks and it was so nice to see her. We had a lot of fun. She left today and now I am sad. Her room looks so empty and all I can say is that I feel really sad today. Here are some pics of us while she was here.

The big trip!

So, the boss man took us all on a kick ass excursion this past weekend. We (most of the people I work with and some of their kids and my mom) all piled into 2 SLP yellow buses and took off to Hantan River (a 2 hour drive from my place). We watched Spider Man 3 on the bus and stopped off for lunch at this restaurant that you take off your shoes and sit on the floor for. There were huge windows everywhere and the view was amazing! The river far below us, embedded in what I would call a canyon. Green, lush vegetation all around. Soft edged stone walls. Dan and I ate Kimchi soup and it was about the spiciest thing I have eaten in Korea, and that is saying something.



Next we drove 10 more minutes to the white water rafting area. We got suited up with our life jackets, helmets and paddles and hopped on a big bus and went down, closer to the river. It poured rain the whole time and there was even lightening and thunder at some points. We had to scale up and down big rocks along the shore lines at some points, because the river was too low for us to make it over the rapids. My poor mom had quite a time dealing with the slippery, rocky, dramatic landscape. Especially wearing flip flops! But we all helped each other and it was really some nice, considerate team work.

We had to cross some shallow rapids by foot, which was interesting. My friend Linda lost her step and fell in... luckily they were only shin deep. My mom almost lost her shoe, but Dan caught it. We spent a lot of the time jumping up and down in the raft, moving from one side of it to another, to get off the rocks we were getting hung up on. A few people fell in the water. This is because the guides got people to stand on the edge of the raft and jump around or have competitions where they try and push the other one off and then the guide would just push both people off the raft. In the end, whether you fell off or not, everyone was soaked!


Then we went to the resort, which overlooked the canyon and the river and was also surrounded by rice patties. We had a dinner, which was bbq pork and a pile of traditional Korean side dishes, all you can eat. We had all you can drink beer and soju (a hard alcohol) and then moved it into the Noribong tent. Noribong is pretty much Kareoke, but you get your own private room. There we sang and drank into the night. We had people dancing on tables. Other's pretending to video tape it all with gigantic bottles of beer on their shoulders, as though they were cameras. Then we went back to the Korean's room and played spin the bottle and if it landed on you, you had to get up and sing something, or do some kind of performance. Some of them were doing Tae Kwon Do kicks, others were singing. This is my boss on the table in this pic.



The next day we had a hearty breakfast of rice, fish soup, kimchi and a few other side dishes (I would have preferred a bowl of cereal). On the way home we stopped at an archaeological site and checked out some huts and gardens and went home.


It was a super rad trip!!

Happy Children's Day!

So, it was Children's Day last Saturday, here in Korea. We, at the school, celebrated it on the previous Friday. We had 500 helium balloons brought in. There were tonnes of activities planned out for the kids. I was at the face painting booth. I painted flowers, hearts, spiders, stars, dinosaurs, cars and butterflies. It was so much fun. I have never seen those kids sit so still! Their little eyes would try and look off to one direction if there was a commotion off somewhere. But they held their heads so still.

Anyways, I spent the week making the backdrop for the photo booth. The kids all took class photos in front of it. It was a lot of work, but once it was all hung up, it looked pretty good. I hope they keep it hung up for a long time! See Pics.