광주

So I had a fun, double Gwangju weekend. I went on my own on Saturday, and met up with some friends later that day. Then I ended up in Gwangju again on Sunday when I went persimmon (감) picking with my boss and her family.

Gwangju is a bigger city about 80 kilometers east of Suncheon. It's an easy, and cheap, 6 dollar trip over there... and tons of shopping. A great get-a-way. I wanted to go over and check out an electronic store they have there. It's 7 or 8 floors of just electronics. I had some fun there looking at new camera gear and dreaming about what I wanted. I also found the Nikon shop, where they clean the cameras. When I finally figured out that they did clean camera, I decided to get mine cleaned. So I handed my baby over to the lady, gave her 10 bucks, and was told to come back in 20 mins. A little nerve racking. But it's clean... and it's a fraction of the cost in the states.

The second half of the weekend was spent picking persimmons. Very interesting. We used a few methods to get the persimmons:

1- A bamboo stick that was cut at the end. You stick it on the branch and twist. Persimmon picked.

2- A metal rod with branch cutters and a net on the end. You snip the branch, persimmon falls into the net. Persimmon picked.

3- Cut the branch off the tree. Persimmon picked.

It was a ton of fun. I got to hang out with my boss and her family. It was also the hardest day of work I've had since coming to Korea.

So I have some new pictures!! I've had the chance to get some of the Kindergarten kids I teach on camera! Teaching them has been really, really exciting! They always have so much fun, and I start my day off laughing with them all the time. The first set of pictures, on the playground, are from the other day. We made paper airplanes! The second set is from the 11th when we took a field trip to catch bugs! It was so much fun!!! I hope you enjoy the pics:

Here's the bug catching experience:

So it's time to divulge the story of the crying kid... here it goes (the names and identities of the fore-mentioned children have been kept the same so if they read this, they know they were wrong and should always do your homework):

Everyday, each class, and every kid has homework. It's a very simple assignment. I put up a question on the white board and they answer it for homework. Each age group also has a different amount they need to write, and for this particular class it was 15 lines. They do this everyday and they know that they need it to be done by the time class starts. There are 5 kids in this class and when the bell rings, they all put their homework notebooks in front of me... except for today, only 2 of the kids put a notebook down.

I was amazed. That's only 40% of the class. Failure (and not on me, they are the ones that didn't do their homework). I looked at thee three that didn't do homework with that teacher look, "you are in big trouble kid." They saw and recognized the look as well. I checked the two notebooks and gave them the appropriate grades. For class that day, I wanted to do a project. But without the homework done, I could not begin, nor did I want to. No homework, no reward. However, the project could be worked on by those who did their work. So I set the two up with the supplies and told them to work on the project.

I then turned to the other three and asked them, "why do we do homework." I got no response. I asked again, and received the same. I then said, "ok, here is some paper. You will write the sentence, 'I do my homework so I am ready for class,' over and over until I say you are done." They were not too pleased with the assignment, but it needed to be done. I had no intention of having them stop... until Alex looked up at me and changed my mind.

With tears in his eyes, he did the inhale thing that happens when you are crying, and said, "I wanna do my homework." I held back my laughter and said, "that's a great idea." No sooner did I say that and the other two boys agreed with Alex. So I had them do their homework, which they rushed through and did wrong. So I had to correct the work and this resulted in leaving no time for them to work on the project. I explained that my expectations were that they do their homework at home, so they are prepared for class. They all understood.

The next day, even with a combined class, I had 100% of all homework completed.

So I went for a drive on my bike the other night. It was a clear night and I thought I could snag a few good sunset pictures. However, by the time I left work and got to an open field, the sun had gone down behind a mountain. Even though there was no sunset to be seen, I turned around and saw the moon rising behind me. I did not miss the opportunity. The moon was full and the sky was clear. It was fabulous. And a great time just walking around... until I saw the spiders! I have never seen spiders this big. I wish I could have gotten closer to take a bigger or better picture, but I was not going to get any closer to those things. I was completely freaked out. And I am not ashamed to admit that I am afraid of spiders.

Please see through my fears and enjoy the pics:

There was this lone church church next to the river. A great photo-op. It was a very great landscape... very peaceful.

And my city, Suncheon. I'm loving the rice fields with the city in the background.

A few black and whites from Gwangju:

Instead of typing out the description of Songgwang-sa Temple, I just took a picture of the board explaining it. Easy.

So here are the pictures....

This is a carving of a warrior. He, and three others, are guarding the entrance to the Temple area. There were also four giant mud sculptures of warriors guarding the main Temple. I wish this picture showed the size of them. I was blown away!! The little statue seen at the foot of the bigger one was about 3.5-4 ft tall. As you can see, he isn't much taller than the larger statue's lower leg.

The scenery to the Temple is absolutly amazing. So green and natural.

Songgwang-sa Temple.

Two Buddha statues are inside, along with other statues. This is one of the oldest Temples in Korea. And it holds many Korean treasures and relics.

This is a monk in one of the buildings. You can actually stay on the Songgwang-sa grounds. There is an area designated for visitors wanting to do a three day stay.

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Next we went to an ancient Korean village. The locals stayed in the original housing, seen in the photos. They were litterally mud and brick huts. They made all pottery and other items right there in stone ovens. The first picture is a couple taking water to their crops in a tractor. This

isn't a Cat D-8 either.

This was a building in the middle of the town. Much like the structure of the Songgwangsa Temple, but not as kept up.

What an exciting week this has been! Next week the kids are on Summer vacation (for a week, none of this two and a half month thing). They are super excited as well, and they are making it really fun to teach :) The good thing is their energy is up sky high, and we are doing lots of fun summer activities. I really do sound like a teacher now...

So what stories do I have for this week...

Well I'm finding my good old American food, such as hotdogs and white bread. The kids say that white bread is the reason "white people are fat." They're so cute. And so right. But it tastes so good, so I'll keep eating it. Anyway, the hotdogs. So I found a pack of 18 dogs or so, and Ben and I decide to cook em up one night. As they are cooking, I realize that they look really funny. Not like a normal hotdog cooking on the grill. I thought, "maybe the Korean hotdogs are a bit different." So I try to stab one to see what is going on. And my fork won't puncture the hotdog. Strange. Ben says, "just eat them anyway. It can't be bad for you." I almost ate them, but decided to check the uncooked ones to see what was going on. Come to find out, each individual hotdog is plastic wrapped. Bad news to eat. So we unwrapped a few more, threw the wrapped ones away and cooked some healthy, tasty, hotdogs up.

So as for the pictures, there is a park across the street and the rain was keeping the kids away, and gave me a good opportunity for pics. However, the next picture is a park right outside the school where I teach. Now that summer vacation is drawing near, the kids are staying out late to play. I leave work at about 9pm and they were all playing like it was noon. Beings that monsoon season is about done, the heat is setting in. So kids don't play outside too much during the day, so a late night play time is the better option.

When the rain was sporadic, people always carried an umbrella. People would have the umbrella up even when there was no rain. No big deal really. But again, more good pic opportunities. They have something about the rain hitting their heads. I haven't quite figured it out, but they don't like it.

So that might be about it for now. I'm getting ready for a nice summer vacation next week. I'll be getting out to take lots of pictures with all the spare time now. So I'll have another post after the week is done. Cheers.