Practice

Last night we went to the recording studio to practice with the band. Kat wants to play drums with us so we wanted to see how it would. Troy has set a tentative date for our first proper show in about a month and a half. This studio is awesome...it's so cheap, only about $10 an hour. We don't go there for recording, but practicing (if you record, only $20 an hour! so cheap!). They have a drumset there and big amps that you can plug into to play loud. It was super fun and we just went to try out a few songs to see what works and what doesn't work. I definitely learned that I need to plug in my acoustic guitar....or maybe buy an electric????? who knows????

Ice Climbing

Lindsey on the Ice

Yeongdong Ice Park

Last weekend, I went to the mainland and to go ice climbing with Lindsey. We went to an ice park near the small town of Yeongdong, near Daejeon. The ice is all man made, pumped from the river below and sprayed over the cliff with little shower heads. That weekend there was a major climbing festival and competition. We didn't compete, but it was a super time and met lots and lots of people. It was really crowded!

Nagging Sickness

Life during the past week has been as good as it can be, but I've had this nagging sore throat ever since New Years Day at the bar where they play the music too loud and I end up yelling all night. Its funny about living in Korea...sometimes I get sicker than I ever did before. I know I'm not the only one that has this problem and I know that this is one of the difficulties about going to another country halfway across the world. But it is one of those difficulties, and it is something that I guess you just have to be prepared for and deal with. Today was the first day I felt 100% better and its funny about how I got better. I asked my students what they do for a sore throat, and they said to gargle salt water. That's what I used to do as a kid too! So I tried it out again and life is much better now that I can sleep at night!

Birthday Hallasan Hike

Emma, and our New Slovakian Friends on Hallasan

Wednesday was my birthday and what a great day to have Wednesdays off! This is a bit of a special birthday for me since I turned 29, but in Korea, they count your age from conception, so you're a year older than your western age. I get to try out being 30 for a year! To celebrate, I went on a hike up Hallasan with my friend Emma. We woke up super early and got a good view of the sunrise on the drive to the mountain. The weather was nearly perfect, blue skies and warm with little wind. I think Hallasan is easier to hike in the winter time since you put these little mini spike/crampon things on your feet. The snow covers most of the stairs, so you don't have to be so careful about your foot placement. At the top, we met a Slovakian couple who are on a long Asia trip, visiting South Korean Buddhist temples. They turned out to be climbers and super nice folks. We invited them out to the saunas then to dinner at the Bagdad Cafe (Indian Restaurant) and had a good dinner with them and Darren, Christine, and Sam. It was a perfect birthday!

Haenyo

The weather over the past week has been incredible! Nearly 15C lately. I went for a bit of a cruise on Sunday and at the end of the day we saw the Haenyos out diving. Everyone in Jeju will tell you that Jeju is famous for three things...Wind, Rocks, and Women. These are the famous women free-divers of Jeju.

Gardeners

When I'm at home and practicing my guitar, I like to watch the gardeners outside my window. This picture doesn't show how amazing I think this is. This garden is right on the corner of quite a busy intersection. I don't know how people decide who gets to use the land, but every little section belongs to different people. The people around here use every bit of land possible for something!

Students

I like to think that most of my students are happy and enjoy my classes!

Some of my classes can be pretty large (for Korean hagwons)

Sometimes they even study hard!

Although I post pictures of climbing, turkeys and bands, the central point of my life is my work as an English teacher. Lately I think I've kinda been neglecting that aspect of my life here in Korea on my blog, so here's some photos of some students. I teach both upper elementary and middle school students, sometimes in the same class. As a reminder, I teach two classes a day. Each class is three hours long. Lately it seems like the end of the evening class can get pretty grueling since it finishes at 10pm!