Pensions, Lotus Lanterns, and English activities...

We have a bunch of half days because of exams. On one of the half days, Thursday, April 23rd, I went for a half day trip with some of the other teachers. We went to a restaurant and had scary looking soup. It was served in a black stone bowl (like the volcano rock part) and looks like liquid fire (molten lava). The temperature is sooo hot and the stone pots keep the soup extra hot for a very long time... It was the reddest food I've ever seen, and it was bubbling and steaming for a good 5 minutes. I was scared to eat it because it looked like it would burn my face off. But it wasnt that spicy... Apparently it was so red because a different kind of red pepper was used. So after we ate that we jumped in the cars and drove to one of the teachers' home towns, about 2 hrs away and on the west coast shore. First we went to see what Koreans call a pension. Similar to an inn or B&B, except you do your own cooking. Koreans use them to day one or two day vacations away from life basically. They had some interesting carvings and it was a very nice property... We checked out the shore for a little bit but it was freezing. We went to this place by the shore to eat a special kind of food there. I love cold noodles so I was excited to eat them. There is a cold noodle dish is Korea where you have the noodles, add some veg and a spicy sauce, and mix it all up. So I was happy we were eating this. Everyone sits down to eat. I'm about to take some noodles when I have the horrific realization that they are NOT noodles, but tiny skinny clear fish. AND barely dead, perhaps not totally dead. ack. so I didnt eat that. The fact that the place was on a fishing shore, that it had tanks in the floor with live squids and such should have been a big warning sign. (Pics to come once I have a USB cord for my cell phone). So we hop back in the cars and go to the house that the teacher owns. Turns out he owns a large piece of land, like 50 hectares or something, Im not quite sure... AND that land includes some buildings, farm land, and an SK gas station (SK is a huge company of Korea). We had a little duck BBQ outside of his house. One of the teachers said that I was pretty because of how I eat. Apparently in Korea, if someone "eats prettily" they say they are pretty, that that fact makes them pretty (I verified this with another Korean source)... I know ppl look at me but yikes! even when Im eating??? Oh, and during the BBQ I kept hearing my name(they spoke Korean most of the time), I finally asked, the coteacher said they were talking about me meeting P (my school's vice principal's son), I asked them how they knew that and the coteacher said she just told them... !!!!!!!!!! I've been told Korean teachers are very gossipy, but was trying not to believe it until that point. After the BBQ we came back. and it was about 830, and we had left at about 1230, so it was a long time but I had fun.

On Sunday I went to the Lantern Festival for Buddha's birthday. We got to the area in Seoul around 1pm and spent most of the next 5 hrs wondering around all of the tents. They had tents set up where you could make different things, or participate in different activities. I made a little lotus lantern with one of the girls and failed at making another flower thing, while being teased by the guy who was running the activity... We all participated in a Korean tea ceremony. While the two of us were making lotus lanterns the others participated in a meditation thing. We were given alot of literature, and those of us who cared to get stamps at the various tents also recieved a free tshirt for Buddha's birthday and a bag for the templestay program. Then we watched a 3 hour parade. At first we were confused about where to go but we finally got some excellent seats and some people received some free lanterns, and one of the girls I was with gave me hers. Then I decided I wanted more lanterns so we went looking for some and everyone ended up with more lanterns. Everyone else has pictures of the parade and everything so again, once I get the pics from them, I will post them in this entry.

Tomorrow I will go out for dinner or lunch with the English and Korean teachers from Taesung. During the exam times, the teachers all have 1/2 days. They take this time to meet up with each other and socialize. On Tuesday, all of the different departments gather together for each of their own dinners. Im excited because I've started to realise that the last English teachers (they were a couple) didnt participate in many of the school's activities, and that many of the teachers felt that they were annoying them when they asked them questions about their country or something about English. So now Im working to correct this.

Oh. On Friday the classes did their English conversation exam. And I was told that they felt that the questions were just right in difficulty for them. However, that was the special high grade class that said that. We just have to wait to see how everyone did... I will do a pancake lunch with the one student from each class with the highest mark. So, 6 people will join in.

I'll add more detail to this blog when I have pictures to describe.