Sooo much has happened, but I will try to keep my blog straight and to the point so as not to hurt Lacey's eyes with the length... :)
Alright, so we ended our Wando quarantine with a hike and a, "Last Night in Quarantine Dance Party." The hike was to the highest point in Wando with Kristin, Eric, Shannon and Michelle. It was pretty incredible. Climbing up the hill was killer for me since I had just gotten back from a five day stay in a hospital bed...kinda hard to be super active after that. The view at the top was worth the struggle. Once we reached the summit, we sat in a circle and talked for a long time. We shared funny stories and made it back to camp on time for dinner and got ready for the dance party.
The dance party, to my pleasant surprise, turned out to be a lot of fun! I took about a thousand pictures of some crazy dancing and everyone there was in great spirits. We all definitely made the most of our last hours in Wando.
The next day we left for a cultural excursion of Korea. Our plan is to go on a total of two tours. The first one was before our teaching experience and was for only two days. In the morning we climbed onto a sweet bus that was decorated with purple tassels and party lights. On our entire journey, our tour guide (which happened to be You-Sun) played Korean pop music over the speakers for us. We all loved the music and felt like we were on giant party bus all through Korea.
Our first stop was a famous green tea farm. The entire farm was beautiful and I took pictures of the rows of tea leaves. We drank some delicious green tea shakes in the sun.
Our second stop was a Korean folk village. It was pretty awesome to see the old Korean huts and way of life. It was authentic and there are still Koreans who live in the village. We walked along a beautiful wall that reminded all of us of The Great Wall of China, then enjoyed a stroll through the town while seeing Korean art and playing on seesaws.
After our adventures, we went to a special Korean bacon BBQ dinner (yes I am eating meat on this trip and yes it is kinda gross, hence the lovely picture of me with bacon). The restaurant was really cool. We sat on pillows on the floor and cooked our own food on a grill at our table.
We traveled to a city that our hotel was in and went out one of the nights to see the buildings and had drinks with the Koreans. We had a great night of just sitting around a table and talking with the Koreans about our different cultures.
Now, for the best part of the day....we went to a pay-by-the-hour-hotel!! Yay! In Korea, most affordable hotels are...hmmm, how should I say this?...those types of hotels. It was actually a very trendy and nice hotel, but ummm....gross. They lights turned on low and there were vending machines in the hallway with...ahem...questionable things available for purchase. Michelle and I shared a room and tried our hardest not to think about anything too hard. We switched on the T.V. and frequently said things like, "This is really gross," and "We are going to think this is funny later on, but this is really nasty right now." I think both Michelle and I had too many things on our mind that night because during the night Michelle talked in her sleep. She turned her head over to me and, in a very matter-of-fact tone, said, "You just grabbed my butt." I had no idea if I actually did grab her butt, because I was asleep before she said that, but I promptly responded with, "Sorry," and then went back to sleep. We laughed hysterically about it the next morning and I found out Michelle completely didn't remember saying that...which made it even funnier. Whether I really did grab Michelle's butt that romantic in the special hotel is still up for debate...but it makes a wonderful story! Sorry, no pictures of this scenario.
The next day we left the hotel as quickly as possible and all 70 campers went to a McDonald's breakfast. We took over the restaurant and it was a nice little break from Korean food.
Next, we went to a beach for a couple of hours to relax in the sun and go swimming. It was like a little mini vacation for us and even though I'm more of a mountain person than a beach person, laying in the sun was pretty nice.
After the beach, we went to a beautiful Buddhist temple. We sat in a long and peaceful silence inside a gorgeous temple on the floor with pillows. It was an experience I'll never forget.
We finished our tour and went to our camps to teach. I met my co-teacher and it turns out, he is the coolest Korean guy I know. He has been very helpful and involved with everything. He taught me how to use chopsticks and is a total gentlemen with always carrying my books for me...I know! So cute! He often talks about how much he misses his girlfriend and it feels nice to work with someone in the same boat as me.
Mokpo (my camp) is great! We walked around campus and found some really cool ships docked and looked around all of the college buildings.
As for my class...let's just say I find myself missing my job at home quite a bit. The school culture of Korea is EXTREMELY different than at home. For recess time, the kids are left unsupervised and are allowed to wander the campus to do as they wish. They can be found hiding in the bathroom stalls and when someone walks by, they kick the door open and spray them with the bidet. There is another sweet game the Korean children love to play and it has a Korean name that directly translates to "#%*$ Needle," cute right? When someone is bending over, a child will quickly charge that person with a pointed finger...I'm being completely serious by-the-way. One of our fellow teachers was lucky enough today to have experienced a student playing that with him as he bent over to pick something up....so adorable! Unfortunately, my students haven't tried to play that game with me...bummer. But, I have been able to enjoy other wonderful behaviors. My class was one of the only classes not excited AT ALL to perform their cheer for the school assembly, they also made a class poster that contained picture of people with cigarettes in their mouths and to top it all off, they decided to boo other classes as they performed cheers. I can't WAIT to see what's in store for tomorrow!
