Followed by Field Trip for the Teachers

July is a very crazy month for Kyle and I. We have yet to be home for one weekend as we area travelling and doing various things around Korea. Last weekend we went to the World Expo in Yeosu ( I will post about that later), two weekends ago we went to Mudfest in Boryeong, and the weekend before that we went on a mini trip to Gapyeong with some of the teachers from our school. Next week we will go to Jeju Island and have a nice 5 day vacation. But for now, I will talk about our little trip to Gapyeong.

Gapyeong is a small town in the mountains of Korea. It is known for pensions, or vacation/rental homes.  A lot of young couples go here for the weekends to sneak off and be away from their parents. While driving through, it seemed a lot like Tahoe. There is a mountain stream that runs throughout the town, and lots of nature and mountains. It's beautiful. The bus ride to get there was long, and the roads were narrow and windy. it was very scary to be in a giant bus on tiny roads. 5 of us got a later bus because the one we were supposed to get on was full. We were bummed about waiting longer, but then we saw this...

There were no seats on the bus, so all of our friends had to sit in the aisle for 2 hours. It was bad. We were lucky enough to get seats and sit comfortably.

Getting food before the bus ride up the mountain.

Delicious kimbap and naemyeong....Korean "fast food". Its not like fast food back home...it's very fast, but also very healthy.

The pension from the drive way

The teachers were all very stressed from school, some pretty disgruntled by the management decisions, and we just needed a break from it all. July is monsoon season, but we were lucky enough to catch a break from the rain and enjoy a sunny weekend in the mountains. We stayed at a very big house called Ho Ho pension. It was 2 stories, lots of rooms, and great views of the mountains. Down the road there was a stream that we were able to play in. There were lots of tad poles in the water, and a few frogs. But none of us were brave enough to catch them, so we settled for the tadpoles.

This was the rough walk to the mountain stream and also to the house where we ate breakfast. Brutal, especially the next morning after a night of drinking and eating,

The Korean girls were hilarious in the water. As soon as we got in, they started having water fights and splashing each other. It was like middle school again, but in a good way. When the boys started taking off their shirts and jumping in the water, they all screamed and ran out. I almost fell over laughing at their reactions.

Group photo by the stream

When we got back to the house, we showered off and started setting up for dinner. Beth, the best boss in the world, brought tons of meat, soju, and beer for us to indulge in.

all the shoes in entry way.

Kyle was excited about the giant window.

Meat....lots and lots of meat.

Couldn't ask for a better dinner table.

As the night went on, we all sat around various tables and had a good time. It was a great bonding session for the Korean teachers and the foreign teachers. We were able to relax, talk about things other than school and students, and just have a good time. 

pretty faces....

ugly faces.

This is a video of the path to the stream. The cicadas are giant here and extremely loud and annoying!!!

It was a great mini vacation, and one I will never forget.

Field Trip with the students....

This month we had our second field trip of the year. Our first field trip was to the Eric Carle Exhibit in Seongnam Arts Center. It was pretty great for the students as well as the teachers. This field trip was a little different. We got to see an English musical called "Cloud Bread" (that is the English translation from Korean). The korean name is, phonetically, kurumbang. I tried to write it in Hangul but I can't figure it out on my computer. Anyways, it's a popular TV show in Korea I think, and the kids knew what it was. In my opinion, it was pretty lame, but it had pretty lights and music so the kids dug it. I was mostly excited for the field trip because it was a time for me to get away from the school and have fun with the kids. No books, no pencils, just excitement; which is what a 5 year old should be experiencing. Also, the next day was our Teacher's Field Trip. But more on that later.....

The musical was about 2 creatures, I think they are cats, who are sad because they want to play but it is raining outside. They make friends with some raindrops, who tell them about cloud bread, which is a special kind of bread from the clouds. The two cats go home and promise to play with the raindrops the next day. While they are about to leave, a weird spider creature grabs one of the raindrops. The cats help the raindrop, so as a gift, the raindrops visit them at their home and bring them some cloud bread. The cats show their mom and  she decides to make some cloud bread. It is almost ready, and their father wakes up and is late for work. They want to give him bread, but it's not ready yet and he has to leave. The bread is finally done, so they eat it and they can magically fly. SO they fly to their father who is waiting for his bus to work, and give him bread, and they all fly in the air.......in my head, they ate some special bread and started hallucinating that they were flying. That's totally what they were portraying to the adults. It was quite comical. After the musical, we were rushed back to school, given lunch to eat, and the kids watched Shrek 3 until home time. It was a perfect fun day!

These are some pictures of the field trip to Garden 5 to see "Cloud Bread" and a preview (in Korean) of the show.

Sarah and Candy doing some Korean poses.

Lonnie and Ryan....ballin'.

June, the cutest little genius.

Ashley and Aaron, aka mini Joseph Gordon Levitt

Sarah and Candy making some faces for the camera

Waiting for the elevators....over 100 students and only 3 elevators in a 10 story shopping mall.

3/5 boys, waiting for the show to start.

Ryan

Walking through the rain, back to the buses. They held onto their partners the whole time!

Back at school.

This is Garden 5. The theater is on the top floor overlooking this courtyard. At night, it lights up in many different colors and patterns.

Mudfest Pictures

Here are some photos of Mudfest courtesy of Katie High and kimchibytes.

Our festival wristbands. These sold out pretty quick. If you returned your wristband, you were given a souvenir. It was a small bar of Boryeong mud and some face wash.

The "before" shot of some of our group.

Maggie and Spencer arrived at the festival early so they were all painted when we arrived. Kyle was very excited to see them!

Kyle and Jeremy from behind.

Everyone loves Maggie.

For Momma and Poppa High.

The "after" photo of a successful Mudfest.

Boryeong Mudfest 2012

This weekend we went to Mudfest!

 Mudfest is an annual festival in which mud from Boryeong mud flats is sucked up into giant trucks and dumped over a small area on Daecheon beach. There are giant inflatable slides, obstacle courses, and pools where people can jump in and have a mud fight. The mud is rich in minerals and is supposed to be good for your skin so people put it all over themselves and let it dry. There is even a colored mud section for body painting.

The festival section was cordoned off and you needed a wristband to get inside. We saw that they had sold out when we arrived, but we were with an organized group so we had our wristbands ready to go. The atmosphere was crazy! There was live music playing on the beach, hundred of people drinking and having fun, and tons and tons of mud. A lot of our friends went together so it was great to be with everyone and experience this together. The only downside though was waiting in line for the activites. There were so many people that the majority of the time was spent waiting and standing. We mainly went into the mud prison and the mud painting area as they hardly had a line. We were just getting tired of waiting hours for 10 seconds of a slide. We decided to jump into the ocean and have a nice swim instead. 

The very crowded Daecheon beach. The weather was not this good, but it didn't matter to us.

 

Although the beach was crowded, it was sooooo great to jump into the water and take some weight off our feet. And it was great to finally swim again! I don't even remember the last time we went swimming, so being in that salt water was so refreshing and rejuvenating. I think our bodies (and minds!!!) needed it. Kyle and I sat on the beach the next morning and had an early morning breakfast watching the waves and the people. It was almost like being home in Santa Cruz or San Diego. We saw non-Asians running on the beach! A rarity!

This was the mud prison. Everyone makes sure to close their mouths and cover their eyes.

The town itself is VERY small and this seems like it is the only thing that happens here. It was difficult to find food because there were only a few restaurants. So we spent a lot of our mealtimes perusing through the local 7-11 and FamilyMart.  THe festival draws hundreds of people so the food sells out quickly. The town must make a ton of money over the 2 weekends of the festival.

I did not bring my camera for fear that it would only get stolen or lost, but a few people took some photos so hopefully I can find some and post them. We were photographed and filmed by the press as well so you might even see our faces posted in a newspaper or on TV. Who knows!