Falling Behind!

I must apologize to all my dedicated readers! The semester is almost done so I am crazy-busy with homework, papers, lesson planning, and spending as much time as possible with my friends that I will be leaving, so I've neglected my blog quite a bit!

Thursday: I had my conversation class with Jihye in the morning, but our afternoon culture class was canceled due to the festival on campus. After class, Emily and I went for a run in the gym because it was rainy and cool; there were also tents set up on the main stretch of campus which would have made it difficult to run around. Emily came with me to my class again. We had to move my class up a little because we were having a Farewell Party for all the International students. After class, we went to the party. Inje students performed for us; the performances ranged from singing to dancing to taekwondo. We were also awarded certificates of completion of the program. We went to dinner, but it was just one of those meals you looked at and thought "BioTech, really? Really? What is this?" So we went to a little restaurant that serves bibimbap (rice, vegetables, egg and pepper sauce) and hand rolled and cut noodle soup. You order both the bibimbap and the soup-2 big bowls for 4,000W (a little less than $4!). Actually, it's normally 3,000W but I think because we were all foreigners they charged us more. After dinner we headed over to HomePlus Express to get some snacks for our evening discussion. We had our group meet to talk about our adoption searches and where we are all at. After our discussion, we went out to enjoy the university's festival. Later, we went to the student union and went to a dance. One of our friends from ET was one of the DJ's at the dance, so that was fun.

Captain Sailor Moon MCing for the Farewell Party

Friday: Classes were canceled again! :) Jenny and I went to lunch on campus and then went to get some ice cream. I worked on a special project to give all of the people in our program. I had class with my students. In the evening, we went out to the festival again. 

Saturday: I went for a run off of campus. Emily, Maren, Jenny and I went to the teachers cafeteria for lunch and it was Emily and my favorite meal! They had the 'boxed kimbap'-rice, cooked kimchi, radish, seaweed, and egg. After lunch Jenny, Emily and I went to climb the mountain behind BioTech. I worked some more on the special project outside. In the evening, we went to get ice cream and then watched Tangled in my room.  

Emily, Jenny and me!

Sunday: I went to church and then met Emily and Jenny at our kimbap restaurant. We went shopping so I could find something for my host family. I was meeting them in the evening and it was our last meeting. I ended up getting them a small journal so they could record special family events and memories in it. I sat outside for a bit and was joined by quite a few different people passing through. Hans was dropped off by his family who visited him. He had a traditional Korean snack for us called "약밥" (약= medicine 밥=rice). It tasted pretty good-it looked and tasted very healthy! His grandma had made a whole bunch of them for him. 


My host family picked me up and took me to their home. We had a GIANT pizza (45 cm!), japchae (Korean noodle dish), and a salad for dinner. We had watermelon for dessert-it was so sweet! They gave me a going away/birthday present too. I received a beautiful dress and several pictures of me with their family. They bought me shoes to go with the dress I guess, but didn't know my shoe size so they are going to get the shoes to me later. We traded contact information and then it was time to go back to ET. 

Hansy unwrapping the "yakbap"

Yakbap!

Some friends enjoying the yakbap outside! (L to R: SeungBae, Milan, Tim, Jiwon, Inseok, and SungMin)

Host Sister and Brother with the giant pizza

Monday: Happy Memorial Day to friends and family at home! It was kind of strange not to celebrate this holiday!


I went to lunch with my friends Jeong Kwan and Jeong Su. We went to the kimbap restaurant. Jeong Su was so nice and paid for lunch. Then we went for ice cream at Baskin Robins and he paid for that too. After lunch I sat outside and talked with Ben until cooking class (Ben is leaving on the 1st). In cooking class, we made japchae. It turned out so good! Emily and I went to the gym to work out for a little. In the evening Ki, Tim, Emily and I went to the Makgoli place. Ben joined us a little bit later. We shared a lot of laughs, but also had some very serious discussion. It was nice to be in a small group to share. Afterward, we went to "the spicy kimbap place". Recently Ki and Tim stumbled upon a little hole in the wall restaurant on the main strip off of campus. They went in and ordered kimbap and it was so delicious and spicy they talked about it for days. So, we went to experience it, and it was really nice!

Ice Cream with Jeong Kwan and Jeong Su!

The japchae Emily and I made...last dish!!

Kimchi Cheon...the last piece in the shape of a heart!!

TABLE 8!! NO WAY!

Excited for spicy kimbap!! (L to R: Ben, Emily, Tim, me and Ki)

Today: Language class was really difficult to get through for some reason...in the afternoon I did some work and had my class. I stayed a little bit longer and just talked with them. I really enjoy working with them. It is more fun than work. :) Tonight, we will go out to celebrate Ben's last night in Korea. We are all going to miss him so much!

Last Wednesday in May!

I can't believe May is almost over. This month flew by!!


This morning we had a make up class for our Friday writing because we have off due to the University Festival week. After class, I went to Kindergarten. We played "telephone" outside with them again. This time we used English-color words. They did a really good job. :) We had two guests in our conversation class. Jihye previously volunteered with InKAS, which is an adoptee organization, and they asked her to be a translator for a French and Dutch adoptee yesterday. She invited them to Inje University to sit in on some of our classes. They also came to movie class with us. We watched "Old Boy". It was a very disturbing movie and I would not recommend it. I'm not sure why we watched it. 


I went to go teach my class. Emily came with me. Yesterday we had to cut class short before we finished working on some "skits" and I told them I would try and have a friend come and act out a skit for them with me. Emily was a good sport and came along and stayed for the whole class. We played a few other word/guessing games after watching the other groups give their skits. 


Two of our friends were singing in a competition for the university festival. Jiwon mentioned they would be singing around 6, so Emily and I went to the Student Union to see if they were singing yet. Jiwon let me know it would be closer to 7, so we went to have dinner at BioTech. We met up with Tim and he decided to go and see Jiwon and Inseok sing with us. We had to watch a whole bunch of other singers and dancers before our friends. The best group was the ROTC members dancing around; it was pretty entertaining. Emily and I went into town with her friend Sean. He invited us to see a 'famous' singer perform, but he told us it was at 10pm. Turns out it was actually at 9; we didn't go. Around 9:30 we went back into town and went to Paris Baguette to see if they had their discount bags of bread-they did, so I bought some nice looking bakery. :D We came back to ET and watched a movie in my room. Tomorrow our culture class is canceled due to the festival! I still have to go to my conversation class in the morning, but it is nice to know the afternoon is mostly free (I have to teach earlier because we are also having a farewell party in the evening).

Our friends JiWon (center) and Inseok (right) being interviewed after singing

Tired Tuesday

Sunday: I spent most of the day with my host family. They took me to the Pusan Horse Park. There is a racetrack there, but it is also a family park with a lot of different activities for children. We stayed at the park almost the whole day. We had kimbap for a picnic lunch (they made it with imitation crab meat and I didn't even poke out the crab!). After being at the park for awhile, we came back to the area around campus and had dinner at a BBQ restaurant. When I returned, I lesson planned and then caught up with Jenny and Maren. Jenny was the interpreter for Ben and his birthparents for the day. Emily returned from her day with one of our teachers, Hannah. Ben, Emily and I went for a run on campus. We thought it would be nice to have a talk with Ben about his feelings and experiences, so some of us went to a Twosome Place to talk for a little.

Lunch!

Biking around the park

Some horses coming down the stretch!

Blue Moon Rose!!

Monday: We made plans to throw a "Western style picnic" for Jihye and Professor Jongman. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate; it was rainy and cool. I had to buy some last minute ingredients for our busy chefs at Tanya's place (Tanya is the adoptee from the Netherlands we met a few weeks ago; she married an Inje University student and has a 2 year old son). I had a few extra minutes before my decorating committee departed, so I was able to give my Grandpa a call and have a short conversation with him. :)

We made it to Tanya's by taxi and helped set up for our picnic in her living room. Our menu was: sangria, apple chicken honey mustard sandwiches, breakfast crepes and pineapple crepes, tuna pasta salad, and tadziki with bread. Maren also had brought a cake mix and frosting from the US, so she baked a cake as well. Everything was so delicious!! We shared best and worst moments of the program and laughed a lot. After our picnic, it was on to cooking class. Today we made 김치 찌개 (kimchi jjigae- kimchi stew/soup), which is Emily's all time favorite dish. I am starting favor it as well. In the evening, Emily and I went for a run. On our run, we encountered a HUGE toad in the middle of the road! I was yelling at it to get out of the road, but it didn't move. Jokingly I said to Jenny, "you try, it doesn't understand English!" Jenny said "빨리 가!" (bballi ga=go away!) and it started hopping!! It was so funny!  After our run, Emily, Jenny, and I went to HomePlus to buy a few groceries.

We had a special "checking time" for the "Festival Week" here at Inje. First of all, they let Ki do the announcement for our curfew time! We also had the guy RA's come and check us in, so that was kind of fun. Apparently by the time the guys were finished, they ended up with makeup all over because all the girls added stuff to their faces.

This kitchen is a disaster area!

Some of the food prepared and our flower memory decorations

Today: Our conversation class was pretty relaxed. We went over a few expressions and dialogues. The rest of the class time was spent making cards with traditional paper. We went to taekwondo and were put into groups to create a "dance" routine with the kicks we know. However, partway through I think our instructor was unsatisfied with our ability to actively participate with our Korean group members, so he pulled us aside and had us do some kicking drills with him. After lunch it was on to our language class. My speaking class was this afternoon. There were only 4 guys today and they had to leave a little early to play a soccer game. When Emily, Jenny and I were returning from dinner, we ran into our friend Hans. He invited me to get ice cream with him and Jeong Kwan...so of course I couldn't turn that down! Then we went to ET. It was the last ET, but I didn't know that until that class. I am sad that ET is all over now. :( Our group went to get chicken and just hung out for most of the evening.

So far behind!

Thursday: Today was our big speech day! We wore our hanboks and went over to the main building to meet the President, Founder, and all of the Deans. We had to wait awhile before we could go in; I think they were waiting for the Founder to arrive from Seoul. We gave our speeches and then sang "Haebyun euro Gayo"-Lets go to the beach, but replaced "beach" with "Inje". Then we took a few pictures with the President and Founder and shook hands with them and left. We had our Intermediate class with Jihye for about an hour. In culture class, we learned "Yut" (the game I played with my host family the first time I went to their house) and played 3 rounds. In our culture class, we have about 9 Chinese students, so Professor Cho REALLY wanted it to be the Korean adoptees vs. the Chinese students...we ended up winning only one round, BUT the Chinese students had Professor Cho on their team and when we said losers buy ice cream for the winners, he really stepped up his game. After the 3 rounds, we went to the Lotteria to get ice cream. We sat and talked for a little and then class was dismissed. 

I had my class in the evening. I already can see them starting to be more comfortable and confident in speaking. :) I'm really enjoying teaching and working with them. After class, I met up with almost all (Emily and Maren were meeting with their host families together) of our group for dinner with Professor Jongman. We found a restaurant Colin had spotted earlier; they had very cheap samgypsal (pork), but it was pretty good too. We sat outside under a tent which was kind of cool. After eating we went to "Kenny Rogers", which is kind of like a bar and grill sort of restaurant. It was fun getting to spend time with Professor Jongman.

Our group with the President (L) Founder (C) and Director Kim (R) after our speeches

Dinner with Prof. Jongman

Friday: Today when we woke up and it was rainy! :( Bad news because it was also our mountain hiking event! We still went, even with the rain. We took taxi's to 검정산 Keum Jeong San (san = mountain) and actually drove up a fair amount! When we arrived at our meeting point, we introduced ourselves to Mr. Ha, also know as "Watermelon". He was the main organizer/ big push for hiking. Then we had 'breakfast'...kimbap! We were given rain ponchos and stopped to look at a Buddhist temple before beginning the shortest hiking route (1 hr long). Halfway up we stopped and passed around Mr. Ha's bag with the question why did it weigh so much? We found out it was because he carried a watermelon halfway up the mountain! So we ate watermelon on the mountain, in the rain and wind! It was reeeally delicious!! We ended up taking a cable car down to the bottom (thank goodness because it would have been so slick trying to climb down the wet rock!). We walked to the restaurant we were having lunch at. It was a buffet restaurant called "The Party". The food was reallly good, but the desserts were the best! We all ate so much! 

When we returned to campus, I had my class again. There were about 10 students in the beginning, but most of them needed to leave to attend a business meeting. Then there were 3 girls left, so we did have some structure, but it was really informal and mostly just us talking together. I had to leave a few minutes early because ET had a game night that we were required to attend. Most of my ET group however, did not attend. My leader, Seung Chul, and one other guy, TaeHoon were there, so we joined Ji's group. We played a lot of trivia games and games different kinds of speaking games; it was fun. After the game night, Jenny, Emily and I went to dinner. I was still full from lunch, but we stopped at "Coffee House" and I got a cookies and cream smoothie.

Cool carvings at the temple

Watermelon!!

So cute!

On the cable car

View of Pusan from the cable car

Carbonara Pasta!!!

Director Kim

 Today: Finally! Soccer! The only bad thing was that it was so, SO HOT! Just standing outside not moving was enough to cause you to break out into a sweat! We had a group of 9; at first my team only had 4 and we still managed to beat the other team. We took a break and switched up the teams. One of the guys stopped and was ball boy, so for the next 2 rounds we had 4 vs. 4. After soccer, I met Jenny, Maren, Emily and Ki for lunch at the teacher's lounge. Maren left early because she and Ben were meeting Ben's birthparents! After lunch, Emily, Jenny and I hung out and went into town-got groceries and sat outside. In the evening, the three of us went into town again and bought some bread. We are also throwing a "Western style" picnic for Jihye and Jongman on Monday; Emily, Tim and I are in charge of the decorations, so we grabbed a few items for that.The rest of the evening we just hung out. :)

Whirlwind Week-it's Wednesday!

Monday: It was a beautiful day! I studied outside and my friend 정관 helped me with my speech for Thursday. In cooking class, we made a traditional Korean cookie (usually only made for weddings) called " 매작과" maejakgwa. It was made out of ginger and dough; then we cut them, twisted them, and fried them. We also made a sugar syrup to cover them. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera, so...no pictures of the delicious cookies!

In the evening, Emily and I went for a run on campus. Then we watched an "American Idol" kind of singing contest show. We were updated that we would have an extra class on Tuesday because we are missing our Friday writing class due to a field trip. It was scheduled from 3-5. None of us were looking forward to "Terrible Tuesday x2"!


Tuesday: Only a few of us attended the first conversation class. Our teacher was a little sick, so we cut class short. Jihye came around 10 and we practiced our speeches. We convinced her to have us as a group miss taekwondo because of our preparation for the speech. (We will be speaking a few sentences in Korean to the President of the university, founder and about 40 other professors/sponsors!!) There was an English speaking contest in the afternoon starting at 2. A few of our friends from English Town were participating in the contest; many of us had helped them revise and edit their speeches so we all wanted to attend the contest. Again, we convinced Jihye to talk with our professor to change the extra class in the afternoon and move it to a different day. We had a nice break until our 1:00 class; when we got to class, we asked our professor if it were possible for us to cut class in half, and his response was "I won't be here either!"; he was a judge for the competition. Emily and I went to BC Park (a park located between Building B and Building C) before the contest. Our friends 성민 (Sung Min) and Captain Sailor Moon were in the first half and both did a nice job. Sung Min ended up taking 2nd place! 

After the speaking contest, I finished preparing for my first speaking class. It went really well. They are pretty shy and nervous about speaking English, but I think we are going to have a good time working together. When I left, I ran into Ben and Tim; they told me dinner at BioTech was a "disaster" and they were going into town to get some food. I went with them and ordered kimbap. I had my ET group; we just did some speaking and finished class early. Emily and I went for a run and then we hung out with Jenny in my room.

BC Park

Ji! My Bro.

Captain Sailor Moon!

Today: Kindergarten was fun. We played 'duck, duck, goose' with them again. Colin thought we should try another game, so we explained the telephone game to them. First we tried using English sentences, but it was a little difficult for them, so we switched to Korean. I think they enjoyed the new game. We had our Friday's class and finished up a little early. In our movie class, we watched a movie based on the May 18 Massacre that took place in Gwangju in 1980. That was the first movement towards a democracy in South Korea. It was really sad, but I didn't know about this part of Korea's history, so it was also very interesting. After movie class, I had my second speaking class. Today, there were only 4 students. I think it was good for them, because they had to speak more. Towards the end of class, a few students came in, returning from a business meeting. They had made a bet if I was still going to be there or not, so one of them had to buy ice cream for all of us. :) I sat and talked with some of them before going to dinner with Jenny.

There is a bug going around, and I think I caught it. Both Jenny and I are feeling a little under the weather with sore throats. So I'm going to rest up tonight!

Sunny Sunday

Saturday: Emily and I went for a run in the afternoon. It was really hot outside! Emily, Maren, Jenny and I studied outside for a little too. When we were walking inside, Emily got stung by a bee! :( In the evening, we listened to and helped our Korean friends with their speeches for a speech contest later this week. Then we watched a movie. It was a nice relaxing day!

Today: I went to church and then met up with Emily, Maren, and Jenny at our favorite Kimbap restaurant. I ordered kimchi fried rice...yum! After lunch, Jenny, Emily and I studied outside again. Later in the afternoon I worked on lesson plans for my first speaking class...on Tuesday! I'm getting a little nervous! After dinner, Emily and I went for a short run. Another pretty relaxing day. We are all a little nervous for this coming week; we've basically had off of school for the past 3 weeks, so it is going to be very difficult to get back into the swing of things!!

Jeju Island Dream Trip!

Wednesday: We left Gimhae in rain and wind. We landed at Jeju and were greeted with the same. Our decent was SCARY! The crazy "stomach dropped from a roller coaster" feeling was a little bit too much to handle. No one got sick, but we were not only a little freaked out, but a lot of people felt dizzy and motion sick afterward. 

At the airport, we were met by our tour guide and bus driver. Right away we were off to see some sights. By the time we arrived at our first location, Yongduam Rock, the rain had stopped. Yongduam Rock is an lava formation that looks like a dragon. Then, we went to Dokkebi Doro- "Mysterious Road". At this location, if you put your vehicle in neutral, it will roll UP a small hill! It was pretty crazy! At the top of the hill was our next destination, Loveland. Loveland is a sculpture park dedicated to all things love. It was an interesting experience. We had tuna kimbap as a snack after viewing the park. Luckily, we had a break in the weather and the sun came out! Then, we went to Han-ra Arboretum. It was very beautiful there. We went to a restaurant that served Jeju Island's famous black pork. (The pigs on Jeju are all black.) It was good, but very fatty and salty!

I've got my ticket to Jeju!

First view on Jeju Island!!

Dragon's Head Rock

Mysterious Road! The bus in front of us was rolling upwards

Walking around the arboretum

The group at dinner!

Thursday: The morning started out looking not so good, but as the day progressed, the sun came out, it warmed up and was quite humid. We went to Glass Castle first; this was a museum/park with all the exhibits made out of blown glass. It was pretty amazing. Then we stopped at O'Sulloc Tea Plantation. This is a huge, famous tea brand; all the tea is organically grown. In 2009, I went to Boseong, which is a city famous for tea farms, but this one was even bigger than the one I visited in Boseong! We only had few minutes and then we were off to Circus World to see some performances. It was interesting, but a little hard to watch; a lot of the gymnasts were young, (Chinese), skinny, girls and we were wondering about how well they were being taken care of and provided for. 

After Circus World, we stopped at a buffet restaurant for lunch. Then we visited Camellia Hill, which was a flower park. It was also very beautiful here. Unfortunately, not many flowers were blooming, so it was very green! After Camellia Hill, we went Jet Boarding. This was probably my favorite experience of the trip! :) A jet boarding boat is basically like a giant 12 person jet ski. We sat in an open top speed 'boat' and the driver went really fast over the waves. It was really neat to see the coastline of Jeju from the OCEAN! We then went for a hike on a trail called "Allet- Gil". It was also very beautiful there. The views of the ocean and coastline were incredible. Many famous dramas and movies have been filmed around that location. We also went to see a waterfall called Cheonjiyeon Falls. Another beautiful sight. We toured around Saeyeon Bridge; a bridge designed like a sailboat. Unfortunately, at this point my camera battery died, so I had to have Emily take some pictures with her camera for me. After the bridge, we had some group members who wanted to go Go Karting, so we had to wait for them to do that. Dinner was at a restaurant known for two special kinds of fish found around Jeju...unfortunately I did not eat much! 

View from our balcony...looks like the making of a crummy day...but there was sunshine a few hours later!

Glass Castle display

Another display at Glass Castle

Flowers at Camellia Hill

Camellia Hill

Around where we went jet boarding

Jumping around...what we do best!

Our jet board boat

"Lonely rock" on the right side of the photo; view while hiking at "Allet-Gil"

In front of the waterfall

The sailboat bridge

Friday: We woke to sunshine, but it was much cooler during the day. First on the agenda was EcoLand. This was an ecological park, but it had a 'train' running all through the park; we rode on the train to view all of it. Towards the middle of the 'ride' we were inundated with a large group of "ajumas" (a very special 'breed' of Korean older women...known for their short curly permed hair, brightly colored clothing, need for pushing and shoving in crowds, and loud chatter). One of them had to sit in the train 'car' with Emily, Colin, Prof. Cho, and me. She sat down next to me and her friends in the car behind us teased her that she should have sat between Colin and Prof Cho...so with enough bantering, she was peer pressured into changing seats. THEN one of her friends climbed over the seat and came into our car so she could get her picture taken with him. It was really funny.

Our next item was horseback riding! I was so excited and had high hopes for this activity. I was severely let down. Here I was imagining at least 30 min to 1 hour of riding...maaaybe even along the beach or something...but...it was at a little farm. We were on the horse for maybe 10 minutes, if that. So sad. But, it was still fun to go for a ride anyway. There were also ATV's to rent and a few group members wanted to do that, so we waited for them to go on an ATV ride before moving on to a traditional village. The village was kind of interesting, however the whole thing seemed set up only to sell us their products at the end. The products were horse bone "pills" to help with "EVERYTHING" and a kind of tea jelly. 

We had spicy black pork bulgogi for lunch. After lunch, we headed to U-Do ("do" means island in Korean). We had a 15 minute ferry ride to the island. Upon reaching the island, we got onto another tour bus and were taking to the bottom of a big grassy hill. We had time to walk up the steep hill and take pictures. There were, of course, many beautiful views. Then back on the bus...and we drove around the island some. We passed some very beautiful beaches...but didn't stop! We were surprised we didn't stop to see a lot of sights...finally we stopped at a beach facing Jeju. It was also beautiful, but not as beautiful as the other places, I don't think. The water was an amazing shade of blue and the sand was made up of tiny shells. I even found a few pieces of beach glass there! We got back on the bus to get a ferry back to Jeju. We then traveled to one last location; I don't recall the name of the final place, but it was another beautiful view of the ocean with all of the lava rocks jutting out and tide pools to look at. There was only a little bit of time here, before we stopped at a Jeju Tourist Shopping Market and then finally to the airport. We had a short flight back to Gimhae, a taxi ride to Inje (when we were at a stop light we had some guy get out of his car and smack our taxi! Our taxi driver told us that was his friend, but we weren't so sure...) and finally I was back in my dorm! 

Morning sun: view from balcony

Ecoland Train Ride

Maren, Emily and me ready to ride!

Traditional Jeju Island Village

Beach...beautiful!

Can I stay here?

We hiked all the way up here!!

Inactive volcano

Leaving Jeju!

One last blurry look at Jeju Island