Paper Football

Four times a year, I get to teach all of my classes anything I want and we call it "English Festival". Most of the time I try to teach something that has to do with American culture, and for most of these days, I have searched my memory for the fun things I used to do as a kid. 

Since most of the kids are not familiar with American Football, I wanted to teach them about it and also teach them a fun game from childhood! So..... for the whole week, I taught 22 classes about football. I didn't change my lesson. I did the same one for 4th, 5th, and 6th grade, but I did slow down obviously for the 4th grade.
I started out with a football powerpoint about the basics and rule. I tried to keep it really simple. 

After that, I showed the students how to make a paper football, and I also taught them the rules!

All of the students really enjoyed playing this game, no matter if they were a boy or girl. I hope that they keep it in their minds as something they can do when they are board. I tried to emphasize that all you really need is a piece of paper (that can be taken off the street) to play! 

This next year, I plan on making a "field" that will require the students to speak sentences when they land within the yard lines. I think they would love to play again, and this way they can, but also learn some more English!

The following moments made me realize that kids all over the World are very similar!!! It really doesn't matter where they are from! ahah

After they played paper football for a while, I introduced them to tailgating. Yes, I know that this is usually before, but I can't just give out candy a the beginning of class! How crazy do you think I am! I also realize that there are usually much more alcohol involved that the kids needed to hear about. I did sensor it a bit...

I talked about grilling and eating tons of food and I found these gummies online and we had enough of a budget to be able to give all of the students one! They were very happy about this too. 

Overall, it was a really good "English Festival" or camp lesson, and I am planning on posting it for other teachers to get to use! The kids really loved it, and they learned something!

DMZ

At the end of June, a group of us went up to the north of South Korea to the most northern part we are allowed to go- the DMZ- the border between the south and the north.

A group of us booked a tour with the tour group Kooridoor. After reading many reviews, they came out miles ahead of the other groups. This was one of the only groups that took your to the JSA (Joint Security Area) as well as many other sights. Also this tour was led by the American military so it had an interesting perspective.
For this trip we went with a group of people that happened to be 3 Marie/Maria's and their significant other and Sian. Even though that added some confusion to the weekend, it was actually a fun novelty!

We left for the tour really early in the morning. There was a dress code that we had to dress to that included collared shirts, closed toed shoes, long skirts, and nice dress cloths. Apparently this is because we need to look nice for the North Koreans who were looking at us through binoculars.

The tour bus took us to the JSA where we boarded another bus. There we got to see the buildings that they have meetings between the north and the south. If you stood on one side of the room you were in South Korea, and the other side of the room you were in North Korea. The picture below I am in the north, and Ben is in the south.

This is the propaganda village that is located across the border in North Korea. We were told that many of these buildings have painted on windows and doors and do not even have floors in the buildings. The North Korean flag that you see if a funny story too!
Apparently, South Korea put up a flag on the border. To counteract this, North Korea put up an even bigger tower and flag. There have been many petty things like this done between the two countries over the years.

After the JSA we went to a  few other places including the train station that goes to the north. It was used a few years ago to take people to work at factories in the north. At the moment, it is not in operation, but there is hope for the future that it will be use a lot! We also went to a tunnel that was built coming into the south from the north. It was so deep and so long. I was amazed by it! We had to put on hard hats and duck our heads because it was so small/short. It was an interesting day and I'm glad that we got to see this important part of the country. I hope some day in the future, there will be peace between the the two sides and they will be able to unify. 

4th of July... Daegu style...

It only makes sense to celebrate the 4th of July on the roof of a South African friend with a bunch of other South Africans. I guess I should also mention mention that his place backed up to Camp Walker where they were having a firework display.
Now, this firework display was no Busan Firework Festival Display, but it wasn't too bad. It reminded me of the fireworks that they show sometimes after baseball games or a sporting event. 
We also had a barbeque and potluck that was super yummy. Ben even went further with his 'mericaness and drank a Budweiser beer. Whether or not he enjoyed it is debatable really...
Although I know that my time at home for the 4th of July is always a special time, I was thankful that I have great friends here in Korean that were willing to do extra work to celebrate a holiday that wasn't even their own!
The only downfall of the night was that I forgot to blow up my light up red, white, and blue balloons that were sent to me ages ago....I guess there is always next year!!

Murder? Oh wait....the World Cup is on....

I really want to write about my morning here is Korea. It was one of my favorite moments here thus far...
It started out like most of my mornings, waking up too early because of the sun and my lack of curtains. As I lay in bed wishing I was not awake, I was brought to my feet by the shrieking of a women... Murder?....Oh wait, Korea is playing in the World Cup!
I turned on my TV, and watched the game as I got ready for school. I should have muted it as I couldn't understand anything being said. 0-0 No one scored while I was watching the game...
I left my house to go to school. The streets were empty although I knew people had places to be! I didn't have to dodge the billions of middle school kids not paying attention to their surrounding today because as I walked by the middle school I heard all of them! (Apparently is was a near goal...) They had all woke up early and went to school to watch the game with their friends.
Then as I walked through the apartment complex, I was the only soul around as well. How peaceful, I thought...
"AHHHHHH!!!! YAAAAAAY!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!", I heard from thousands.
As I walked through these high rise apartments with their windows open, Korea scored a goal and the whole country erupted! It was such a cool feeling/ sound to be in the middle of thousands of people cheering! It was like I was on the field itself!
I kept walking to see some adults and children with the games playing on their giant smart phones (antenna raised up of course). When I made it to school, the kids were still jumping around.
One sixth grade girl said, "Marie Teacher, I'm so happy!! ummmm Korea umm...ONE!"
As I walked to my office, I noticed all of the classrooms had the game playing and the boys of the class had moved their chairs to the front of the classroom to watch more closely.

The excitement of this morning was intoxicating! Korea really comes together for international sports. I love it! Unfortunately, the game just ended 1-1.... GO KOREA!

The Countryside...aka...Jinbo

When Ben moves from his home in Jinbo, I am going to miss my visits there. It is such a relief to leave the big city and spend some quite time in the countryside! 
We were really looking forward to using our boots that we got during the Sea Parting festival. Unlike everyone else, we knew that Ben had a river next to him and we were going to explore it! 
On Saturday evening we, put on our boots and walked out to an island in the river. There we collected some firewood, and made a fire. I had been shipped all of the ingredients to make s'mores. 
As the sun set, we roasted s'mores in the peaceful air. It really was a wonderful moment; sitting there in the cool air eating s'mores next to my beau. I really will miss those weekends....

Namhae Island...

For the long weekend in June, we went to an island on the south part of Korea. We went with a tour group called "Enjoy Korea" whom we have found to be a really good company. 
When we first got to Namhae after about a 3 hour bus ride, we went to a farm village that uses the traditional farming techniques to farm rice on terraces next to the sea.  Flat land had been cut out of the land to make many small rice fields at different levels. The rice had just been planted so it was still very small. 
Considering that I am from a farm, I have seen many different kinds of crops, but rice is always a fun one for me to see because I am not used to it. 
They flood the fields with water, and then plant the small rice plants. The rice is already small plants and not seeds when they go into the ground. I didn't know this before. It's planted in rows to make it easier to harvest later in the fall. 

 

After some time at the farm village, we went to our pension. It was an amazing room (the nicest pension we have stayed in by far)! It was also a 5 minute walk to the beach. 
That night we cooked our own meat that we had brought. When it was dark we spent some time on the beach, roman candles being shot off and enjoying the sounds of the waves.
The next day in the morning we went to a temple. It was located pretty high up and the clouds and the fog were thick. This provided its own beauty. I was disappointed that we could see out for the view. I'm sure it was spectacular!
After the temple, we were then taken to another beach to enjoy the sun. Well, lack of sun really. There wasn't much sun at all over the weekend to be honest. We opted out of the German village because had heard from numerous others that it wasn't that great! 
On the second night we were so tired and exhausted from the day that we didn't even spend much time outside. I had big plans to roast marshmallows, but we fell asleep and were just too tired...

The last day we went kayaking. We kayaked out to an island, and explored a bit before coming back. The weather again wasn't the best, but we made the best out of it. I'm glad I went to Namhae and checked it off of my Korean bucket list!

Spa Land...Busan

 

 

 Only in Korea, can you just whisper one word- jjimjilbang- and everyone is instantly excited to spend the afternoon naked together...
Korea is known for these places, and in my opinion there is not a nicer one than Spa Land in Busan. This was my second time going to this place, and I think I managed to relax even more than the first time! I had the routine down...
Here is the process....

1.  Go into Spa Land and pay for your time there. After paying 15,000 won you can be there for 4 hours. They also give you a receipt ticket with a number on it. 
2.  Take your shoes off and enter the first area. This is where you leave you shoes. Find the locker with the number that is on your ticket; leave you shoes and take the "key". This is an odd looking key but you can wear it like a bracelet, and if you purchase anything you just scan the key. This is so you can truly be naked and care-free...
3. Next as you keep walking you are given your sauna communal area clothes and 2 towels at the counter.  The communal clothes are baggy thick clothes that everyone wears. At Spa Land, the men's colors are grey and brown and the women get maroon and grey. They are extremely sexy....not really. But in a place like Spa Land, it just doesn't matter!
4. Veer to the right (if you are a women). You have entered the locker rooms. This room is equipped with tons of lockers, mirrors, hair dryers, beauty products, and tons of naked Koreans.
5. Before going into any pools or saunas you MUST shower. So, strip down leaving all of your stuff in your locker. Sometimes you wouldn't even take a towel. These tend to get pretty wet! (I would keep at least one of your towels to dry off later)
6. After your scrub down shower you have options:

• Enjoy one of the many different temperatured pool, equipped with jets and some are even outside...
•  Scrub yourself raw while sitting down in front of a mirror (very popular with the older Korean generation).
• You can pay extra money (scan your bracelet) to get brutally scrubbed by an older Korean women who doesn't want you to leave that place with ANY dead skin on your body.

OR

• Put on your communal area clothes and enjoy the different themed and air temperature saunas, or the outdoor foot bath.

After you have enjoyed all of these things, you can go to the food area, scan your bracelet and get some blueberry vinegar infusion, or some hard boiled eggs.... There is a small menu!

I would suggest also going up a floor and checking out the other areas. There is an area for groups of two to watch TV. There is an area full of massage chairs that are actually quite incredible. And there are placed you can get further beauty and spa treatment
I'm not a huge- sit in a hot space for a long time- kinda gal, so when I am here I relax in a few of the cooler rooms and on some of the chairs they have. This time we hadn't eaten before going, so eventually I bought boiled eggs..weird

When you are nearing your 4 hour mark, I suggest taking a final shower and using the ammenities that they have there for you... shampoo, hair dryers, combs (yuck), lotion, and some other strange liquids I don't know.

When your 4 hours are over. Change back into your normal clothes. As you leave you will go to another counter where you can scan your bracelet and pay off the balance if you spent any extra money inside the spa. It's a great system!
Grab your shoes and return the key! The end!

We always have a great time and enjoy the relaxation that it brings!

Emily in the "Bamboo Room" sauna

The foot bath that is located outside...

Interior view of some loungers...