The New Semester: Second Half Kickoff!

It has already been 9 months since I left the states to start my grant year in Korea. I cant believe that time has passed by so quickly. This new semester represents the second half, the conclusion, the finale to my year. Winter break is over and with it my hiatus from responsibility. Here is what is happening / has happened so far.

New semester for school
My old second graders have now become third graders and entered what will be their most intense and demanding year. They are noticeably more serious and responsible than they were before. I'm glad that they realize how important this year is for their futures and are acting accordingly. However, they have been replaced with another bright class of students! They have not yet had their souls crushed by the demands of a Korean high school. They are very active, happy, and maybe a bit naive. The big bosses of middle school have not yet seen the difficulties of their future. Their enthusiasm has been great for me and a great second wind for this semester.

I have realized that these students are my real impact in Korea. As much as I can grow and gain personally, my window for making a difference in their lives is closing. I have been re-energized to really help my students with the time that I have left. I want to have a lasting effect in their lives.

Good luck~

- Book Club -
One new initiative I started with all my students is a book club. We are currently reading The Giver by Lois Lowry. My object with this is two fold: 1) to expose my students to more complex expressions and structures of English, and 2) to empower these students and show that they have the capabilities to read English novels. I think that if they read through this book with some guidance, they will be encouraged to continue after my time with them has passed. Sustainability is the KEY! I want their English to continue to grow! I have challenged my students to articulate complex ideas and they are responding very well!

North Korean Defectors Program
So we have also restarted our North Korean Defectors Program at the Gwangju North HANA center. We have new students, up from 3 to 8! The US Embassy has also provided us with books and teaching tools to really make our classes more effective. For the sake of their privacy, I have decided not to upload their photos without asking for permission first. However, we have a much more grounded curriculum for them now, more volunteer teachers, and a great hope for the rest of this semester. Hopefully, I will be able to share a more photo friendly post with some reflections on this program. I think that it is really good work.


Jeju Spring Conference
Ah! Welcome to the island. All of the ETAs were really looking forward to the spring conference. I wanted to see my friends, have fun, and really energize myself to finish with a bang! We also had some interviews but more on a later date.

I can really see why Jeju is known as the paradise of Korea. The lay of the land was beautiful, the ocean on all sides was astounding, and our 4 star hotel with an international breakfast buffet was phenomenal. I think that I will try to come back here during my off week for exams. We had so much fund together as we shared our experiences and our hopes going forward for the next semester. It really felt that we were all completely different people since our last conference. We really have had so much experience in between and are rolling downhill from here. I'll let the photos really speak for themselves on this.

The view outside our window

The hotel court yard (back)

Yum

B-A-C-O-N

Don't worry, they still had Kimchi

The bottom of Sunrise Peak

From Sunrise Peak, with Mt. Halla in the background

Friends at the summit

The view below

Chitty chatters

Photo time!

You want a piece of me and my camera?

Lets take pictures of us taking pictures of each other

Some Chinese/Taiwanese guy that was being loud the whole time

Interesting rock formations

Whatcha doin? 

Oh you know.. talking to a real-life scientist

Work the camera and the waterfall

I'm sending this one in to get a job with the Bieber Fragrance Campaign

Beautiful, Thousand, Cave?

Newest member of the YMCA: Bourgeois Caver Explorer

Pretty rocks and water

Green in a cave...srsly

Astutely pointing out the lack of pants.

A cave painting. Don't think its too old though...

Aint nobody say there aint no Ostriches in Korea

Ride the mighty tiger to BATTLE

Optical illusion of the tiger's might

Was this inappropriate?

The couple

Having a good time? Gotcha!

Me and my oriental zodiac partner

My MOM
My mom is here, but she is too busy hanging out with her mom. Rejected. Today, we picked the heads off of anchovies for an hour together. Hopefully we do a family outing soon and they will let me take pictures.

Thailand

So, I was able to leave the glacier that is Seoul for the warmth of Thailand. My friend N is doing research there on solar energy so I thought I would drop by during the winter to explore Thailand. We didn't do many conventional tours, but it was a great opportunity to see life in Thailand. The trip was just too short to fully enjoy all that Thailand had to offer.

Seoul the day before I left

Still the blizzard

You can see the snow...

So... my two goals going into Thailand were:
1) Ride an elephant
2) Eat a ton of food

Mission Accomplished

Bangkok Proper
In Bangkok proper, N and I went to visit a few Wats, cross the rivers, and do some shopping. It was fun, but also very touristy. There are definitely more foreigners in Bangkok than in Seoul. I was surprised to see how spread out the city was. Honestly, I wanted to escape the busy city as soon as possible, so we did a very short day trip before going back to N's apartment in Bang Mot.

What?

Outside N's apartment is a.... palm tree

Local transport

Breakfast

Remnants of Chinese New Year

I'm pretty sure this is where they filmed Mortal Combat. Just sayin.

SPREAD OUT BK

Other side of the river

A rooster?

Its pretty high up..

Monk bestowing blessings

Buddha taking wishes

A different wat

Big tree

Ex-pat life

Ferry me over!

Reclining Buddha and me

Gold nipples

Big dude

Big feet

Me and N

Eastern paintings!

Murals were legit

Buddha has a spiky hair cut and some hard pillows

MORTAL KOMBAT

Like a Sir

Threads of wisdom

Buddha wanted a high five

Too many high fives to give

Gingers in Thailand

Just a street

To the Golden Mount

Fortune telling

My fortune

This thing is the Golden Mount

What lies beyond... probably hookers somewhere

Bangkok's actual full name

School's out!

Another Wat

Long live the king

Thinking... about how to take a cool pic

Grand palace at night! It glows~

Kanchanaburi
Erawan:
We escaped the city and went up to Kanchanaburi. The area is famous for waterfalls and elephant camps. I also read something about monkeys that play basketball, but I'm out of practice and didn't want to get schooled. We decided to camp out instead of getting a hotel or going to a backpackers. The camping is very manufactured, as you can rent everything - sleeping bags, pillows, grills, tents, lanterns etc... It was cheap and nice to spend time outside. God knows I can't do that in Seoul now.

A few things that I noticed:
1. TONS of Russian tourists- I forgot that Russians don't really have beaches or summers, so they really descend en mass upon Thailand. They wear swimsuits and love to have fun in waterfalls. N and I camped out so we got to do the waterfalls in Erawan before the Russians took over.
2. A lot of younger tourists - There seem to be quite a number of people who want to get in touch with their inner selves (a la Carrboro) in Thailand. They seem, how do I put this... hippie?
3. I ran into J, another ETA in Korea. Hilarity ensued as the chances of running into somebody in a foreign country are not that high.

The bus to Erawan

Camping

Probably never

Its a hippie trap!

The fish await our dead skin cels

Good Feng Sui

N

On top of a tree

Goddang monkeys

Worst waterslide ever.

Simply majestic

Come at me waterfall

N doing the same

Overall a good time

Sunlight shot

More on this pic later

The Russians Commeth

It went even higher

Looks like?

Use your imagination

Maybe this view helps

We done

Randomly met J

Huay Mae Kamin:
This seemed less touristy, as the only foreigners there were N and I. Huay Mae Kamin is a bit further north of Erawan and has no actual bus that goes there. The road there was insanely dusty. We camped again and enjoyed the trails and waterfalls. Huay Mae Kamin had bamboo forests which made it unique. The bamboo forest makes a lot of noise as things are bouncing around and bamboo is constantly making its hollow cracking noise. It was disturbing at first, but then very soothing. There was also a local show at night performed my school children. It was... a very good effort. Overall another great night out in the warm weather. N and I talked a bit about our high school experiences over bananas and sunflower seeds.

Scary sign

How we got to HMK

Bamboo

More waterfalls

Look! No Russians

N going for it

Local show

Looks like 'Nam

Field research

Sign the guestbook

Elephants:
We went to an elephant camp. We rode elephants. We drove elephants. Enough said.

Hi

Lil kids

Docked

We rollin

Flowerin

Where we taking this thing?

Awww yeah

Um... the trainer insisted on taking this picture

Switching drivers

We cruisin

Side shot

Getting the hang of this

You may not be able to tell, but this is very high off the ground

HUGE TUSKS

Food
I found the food so cheap yet delicious. You could easily eat a meal for about $1, but could really go all out for only $3. Needless to say, I ate too much and too frequently. I think all the Thai food was good, but I had a crab curry on my last day. It was regrettable that I only ate it for one day. It the most delicious thing I've had in a long, long time. Other than the cheap food, it was the fresh fruit! All kinds of new fruits to try and therefore all kinds of juices and smoothies. I think I had a smoothie every meal. It was just tooooooo good :)

Dinner courtesy of Jeju Air

Beef Noodle Soup

Street stick vendor

Noodles

If heaven were made of up oranges, this is it.

Pad Thai in Thailand

Curry & Crab

Northern food?

Why hello there slightly unnerving Ronald McDonald

People
I didn't really know what to make of Thailand and its people because I have no frame of reference. I know nothing really of the history and culture. Pad Thai and green curry was about as far as I got. In N's neighborhood away from central Bangkok, I found that the people were very accepting for foreigners. N could speak some Thai, so interactions were very easy. Again, I never really felt in danger or anything. The last day, I played some badminton with some graduate students near where N works. They take that very seriously, but it was all fun and games afterwards. Only good things to say about Thailand.

--The King--
The most surprising thing about Thailand I learned was about their reverence for their King. The dude is literally everywhere. I saw a movie my last day, and it started with a montage/pledge of allegiance to the King. He has his own flag and it is not appropriate to speak ills of the king. People cannot freely approach him either. He seemed like a mystical figure, but I couldn't place him in a good or bad category. I guess it is pretty unique to Thai society. All I can say is... Long live the King. :)

General Impression
Lastly, it was great to catch up with N about some experiences we had in the past, especially stories with mutual friends. I guess there are certain things only people you went to school with can understand, so it was refreshing to have that sort of time. All in all, I loved Thailand. I think before I go back again I should learn some Thai though.

Here are some of the videos I took while there. Descriptions should be self-explanatory.
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheWCCho?feature=g-upl

Welcome back says Seoul...

Goddangit...