This past Monday Jim and Kathy departed after a week and a half of Koreanism. Brian and David both got out of school early while they were in town, so the Laggi had many an adventure together, including but not limited to: school visits at both brothers' places of work, hiking Geumjeongsan (mountain), hiking Igidae, visiting Beomosa (temple), and a visit to Gyeongju where there was a rice cake and wine festival. We also Dr. Fished, ate hoe (pronounced hway, this being sashimi) at Jagalchi, went to the Eobang fishing festival on Gwangan Li beach, had a tour of all the fried street food that Food Alley has to offer, and discovered all you can eat tuna hoe for 15,000 won per person (roughly 12 USD). In fact, there was even a hookah bar somewhere in the mix. I've put my favorite pictures as stills but there are many more to see in the slide shows. Oh, and this Saturday is Buddhamas, so the streets are currently lined with bright colored lanterns and the temples are decked in the best and brightest.
Lanterns line the streets for Buddha's birthday.
Giant hula hoops in the exercise park on the hike to hike Igidae.
The Laggis boys at Igidae cliffs.
An ajuma cracks open sea anemonies to sell while her friend smokes octopus in the seaside shack.
Kathy tries out the foot torture path. Brian was the only one tough enough to stick it out.
Who knew the ocean would be this color in S. Korea?
Beomeosa has decked its halls for Buddhamas. 
A man and his camera at the upper temple.
Small shrine from the upper temple.
The bell from the upper temple of Beomeosa.
Jim and Kathy visit Brian's school.
Boats with torches for night fishing at the Gwangan Li Eobang Festival.
Jim and Kathy as Joseon Dynasty Korean fisherpeople.
THe string of kites they flew at the Eobang festival was stupendously long.
So long!
Brian and Jim in action on a traditional Korean game. I don't know how you're supposed to play, but it's fun as a human catapult.
The Eobang Festival parade featured traditional Korean song, dance, and costumes.
And floats!
This one's my favorite float.
Jim and Kathy visit Brian's school.Boats with torches for night fishing at the Gwangan Li Eobang Festival. Jim and Kathy as Joseon Dynasty Korean fisherpeople. THe string of kites they flew at the Eobang festival was stupendously long. So long!Brian and Jim in action on a traditional Korean game. I don't know how you're supposed to play, but it's fun as a human catapult.The Eobang Festival parade featured traditional Korean song, dance, and costumes.And floats!This one's my favorite float.An ajuma makes calguksu noodles at a stand in Seomyeon.
Orchids on sale on the cheap near my school.
It was really fun to see Jim and Kathy and to be reminded of all things Korean that are very different from home. We've all become so accustomed to life here that we've largely forgotten the things that wowed us when we first arrived. It's refreshing to see it all again through a new set of eyes. And I think that our visitors were thoroughly wowed.
Before they arrived and since they've left we've all still been feeling the aftershocks of all the changes the new school year brought. At my school there've been multiple "cultural education days" for teachers. In Korean schools the teachers are organized into teams by grade that they teach. At Dong Cheon, there are only 3 classes for each grade, so my coteacher and I, along with the special education teacher, are part of the 5th grade team (I don't really see how that follows either, but that's how it was explained to me and I like the 5th grade teachers so I didn't question it). Brian's school on the other hand, has 7 classes per grade. But back to the point, each team of teachers gets 1 cultural education day a month when they get to leave right after lunch to see a movie or visit a park and then go have dinner and get drunk together, and of course finish the night in the norebang (kareoke room). This is how morale is maintained, and it's pretty fantastic. Also, I recently discovered that there are 2 full size beds in the nurses room. After staying out late on a week night with Jim and Kathy in town I took a nap one afternoon at school. I love this job!
Also at Dong Cheon, we've started practicing volleyball every day in preparation for the teachers' league tournament that starts next month. This combined with the new development that I teach every class all class to ready me for Open Class results in very fun days but very little free time at school. So Open Class? Well that's the horrible idea the South Korean school system has devised to check on the effectiveness of its teachers. All Korean teachers have open class at least once a year, but this year the foreign teachers (that's us) also have one to make sure we're worth the trouble expended to get us here. Doesn't sound so bad yet, but the problem is that open class is rehearsed. Although it's the same thing we do everyday in class this particular class must be overpreped and practiced. The result of course is that the kids are bored out of their minds, and scared out of their pants because they're being screamed at by an over paranoid Korean teacher because they can't pronounce 12 correctly. And also, the people observing the class get an utterly artificial version of what goes on there. Be that as it may, this is a deeply entrenched Korean mainstay and it's going nowhere. So the poor 4th grade class that will be Open Class's victim this time around has had no games for 2 weeks, and it's starting to get ugly between Sun Ja and the kids. Luckily, it'll be over soon.
Also lucky for me, this coming Monday is Exercise Festival Day! Which is similar to field day except that there are large scale performances by each grade on top of all the games and races, and this too is rehearsed. Great for me because it means that many classes are cancelled and I now have time to catch up on my reading and photo uploading. Photos to come after Monday. For now, here are the rest of the pictures from Jim and Kathy's visit.
Before they arrived and since they've left we've all still been feeling the aftershocks of all the changes the new school year brought. At my school there've been multiple "cultural education days" for teachers. In Korean schools the teachers are organized into teams by grade that they teach. At Dong Cheon, there are only 3 classes for each grade, so my coteacher and I, along with the special education teacher, are part of the 5th grade team (I don't really see how that follows either, but that's how it was explained to me and I like the 5th grade teachers so I didn't question it). Brian's school on the other hand, has 7 classes per grade. But back to the point, each team of teachers gets 1 cultural education day a month when they get to leave right after lunch to see a movie or visit a park and then go have dinner and get drunk together, and of course finish the night in the norebang (kareoke room). This is how morale is maintained, and it's pretty fantastic. Also, I recently discovered that there are 2 full size beds in the nurses room. After staying out late on a week night with Jim and Kathy in town I took a nap one afternoon at school. I love this job!
Also at Dong Cheon, we've started practicing volleyball every day in preparation for the teachers' league tournament that starts next month. This combined with the new development that I teach every class all class to ready me for Open Class results in very fun days but very little free time at school. So Open Class? Well that's the horrible idea the South Korean school system has devised to check on the effectiveness of its teachers. All Korean teachers have open class at least once a year, but this year the foreign teachers (that's us) also have one to make sure we're worth the trouble expended to get us here. Doesn't sound so bad yet, but the problem is that open class is rehearsed. Although it's the same thing we do everyday in class this particular class must be overpreped and practiced. The result of course is that the kids are bored out of their minds, and scared out of their pants because they're being screamed at by an over paranoid Korean teacher because they can't pronounce 12 correctly. And also, the people observing the class get an utterly artificial version of what goes on there. Be that as it may, this is a deeply entrenched Korean mainstay and it's going nowhere. So the poor 4th grade class that will be Open Class's victim this time around has had no games for 2 weeks, and it's starting to get ugly between Sun Ja and the kids. Luckily, it'll be over soon.
Also lucky for me, this coming Monday is Exercise Festival Day! Which is similar to field day except that there are large scale performances by each grade on top of all the games and races, and this too is rehearsed. Great for me because it means that many classes are cancelled and I now have time to catch up on my reading and photo uploading. Photos to come after Monday. For now, here are the rest of the pictures from Jim and Kathy's visit.
