Last year, during Halloween, I had a really good idea to carve pumpkins with my English club. It took us the larger part of one afternoon to find them, but we finally gathered enough from the market behind our school for what I thought would be an awesomely successful lesson. After getting my students really pumped with an explanatory PPT, my coteacher and I handed out carving tools (tiny utility knives *shudder*) and the kids went to town. About halfway through the carving, most of the kids had given up because the blades kept breaking off inside the pumpkins. Not to be beaten by those tiny problematic blades, I finished carving each of the pumpkins for them. The kids were all really happy with the results, and were able to take them home to show their families. I even seasoned and baked the seeds and brought them to school the next day.
+10 teacher points
Needless to say, I was a little surprised to hear that one of my students had eaten his jack-o’-lantern that same night.
I guess that’s one use for a really wasteful pagan tradition. Hobak soup is pretty delicious, so I don’t blame him one bit.
The Korean peninsula is split into two countries along a dividing line referred to as the 38th parallel. This 155-mile division is padded by an area called the DMZ (Korean Demilitarized Zone). Neither North nor South Koreans are able to cross this line, unless they’re officials meeting in the JSA (Joint Security Area). This area was planned specifically to bring about talks between the two Koreas, and is still seen as a symbol of hope for reunification. Read More
Bijindo Island is an island (actually two) just a short ferry ride off the coast of Tongyeong. Bijindo isn’t as famous as some of the other islands in Korea, but that just adds to the appeal. There aren’t any souvenir shops, no ridiculous traffic and honking horns, no sky-high apartment buildings, and best of all, there aren’t tons of tourists. Then again, maybe we were those tourists. But I digress…
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Samgwangsa Temple in Busan is most famous for having a beautifully elaborate lantern display for Buddha’s birthday. The temple is illuminated by thousands of lanterns, giving the hilltop location an ethereal feel. There’s definitely a reason CNN put it on their list of 50 beautiful places to visit in Korea.
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The word hike, by definition, is a long walk. In Korea, this could mean lots of different things. On one hand, with my school trips, it usually means a long walk on a paved surface with minimal incline. On the other hand, it could mean 3 hours of wondering why the heck you made your outfit decisions, and deciding in your head which of your friends you’ll eat first because that banana you had for breakfast just isn’t cutting it anymore. Our trip up and over Geumjangsan falls somewhere in the middle. Nobody died, though, and that’s a plus. The chance to make and take home a big bucket of makgeolli at the end of the hike was a pretty good reward. The pots of gold at the end, guys. They exist.
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An adventure in tetanus avoidance! Hooray!
This post will be presented almost completely void of any interesting informational bits because my friends and I literally know nothing about this wonderful little rusty abandoned water park. We assume it was open in the early 2000s, we also assume it was closed around 5 years ago. My guess would be longer, because nature has almost reclaimed the space completely. The property itself is really interesting because there’s a large outdoor slide, indoor swimming spaces, a spa, and a few hagwon spaces inside. I’d like to shake the hand of the guy who thought it would be a good idea to put classrooms (with windows) next to the giant slide area. Read More
