My Apologies....

....for the recent lack of posting. The past few weeks have seen a pretty brutal schedule in terms of both work (Monday - Friday, 9:30 - 7:00) and weekend activities. However, the next chance I get at some serious down time I hope to do a few solid entries complete with photos and rich commentary.

Please be patient.....

 

Dukjukdo Weekend.....

Because this past week was Chuseok, our school enjoyed a 3-day weekend and having not yet taken any trips outside of Seoul, I saw this as my first opportunity to do a bit of traveling. After being invited by Rod and Crystal (one of the couples working at LCI) to join them and a few other teachers from various schools, some of whom I had and had not yet met, for a weekend excursion, there was little hesitation. 

We packed up our things and set out early Saturday morning for the island of Dukjukdo, just off the western coast of South Korea. A quick taxi ride to the ferries at Incheon and we were off....

Here are some of the gang bright and early (perhaps a bit too early for some....) on the ferry Saturday morning....

About 20 minutes into the ferry ride, we came upon a bridge nearing completion. It was a massive bridge, not dissimilar to the length and size of about the Bay Bridge, but with the center portion of the bridge yet to be completed, it was quite a spectacle.

After about an hour or so, through the early morning haze, the island crept into view.....

We began our approach to the dock.....

....and unloaded our belongings.

A short busride to the other side of the island brought us to our "Minbok" which is a particular style of lodging where there are multiple, ultra minimal rooms that everyone shares by sleeping directly on the floor.....

We were lucky enough to get a nice patio on the 2nd floor that everyone could share. Here's the view of our portion of the island from our patio...

Here is our room (and when I say "room", I mean our "The length of Taylor's body-sized box"). Quite literally, it was four walls and a floor, about 6 feet 4 inches in length and width. Though I dont mean to complain as we spent little, if any at all time in our room outside of when we were sleeping.

After unloading our gear into the room, we all changed and hit the surf.....

The majority of Saturday was spent at the beach, soaking up rays, tossing a frisbee or two and wading in the bath-like water. 

So Sunday we decided to change geography and headed into the mountains. Everyone who had been here before had mentioned a great hike up to a temple at the peak of the highest mountain on the island.  We awoke early Saturday morning (Rod, Crystal, myself and two newly acquired friends), walked down to the beach for a quick dip, and headed out on our hike.

Here is a map of the island with numerous hiking trails....

A bit of an ominous entry point into the jungle-like terrain.....

A small deserted hut towards the base of the mountain, enclosed by a bamboo fortress....

A nicely carved out trail here, though not always the case. There certainly were moments where you were fighting off brush and trees to continue on.....

A welcomed break about halfway up the mountain, overlooking our portion of the island......

There were a few different paths up the hill, some of which led to particular lookouts. Though we were headed for the top.....

Rod and Crystal fighting their way through the landscape. Again, the path was not always so defined.....

After about an hour and a half or so of hiking, the temple was in site.....

A view from the top!!

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Can't get much higher than this (unless you are hanging out with Corey! HAR HAR HAR!!!)

Here's a video from the Temple.....

A first of hopefully many incredible journeys to come!!

CHUSEOK!! (Korean Thanksgiving)....

So this weekend in Korea was the three-day holiday known as "Chuseok". Chuseok is more or less equivalent to our Thanksgiving in the US. As part of the celebration, at school all the kids and teachers dress up in traditional "hanboks", play folk-games and make traditional foods such as "songpyeon" (rice cakes). Here's a look into the celebrations that took place on Friday.....

MORNING FESTIVITIES:

Making songpyeon...

Dow enjoying his rice cake!

Shane fixing Alex's hanbok....

Thom looking sharp is his hanbok....

Doggy bag for the leftover cakes....

Claire throwin' up the peace.....

Brandon's Brown class keeping it classy!

Alex striking a pose....

Jane showing off the pearly whites....

None of this peace sign nonsense for us; Brandon and me throwin' up our respective coasts.....

Danielle with one her little ones... 

Jason (head teacher) looking good in his hanbok!

Dave's got the peace fever.....

Rod and Crystal showing off they aren't scared of a little carnation.....

Gotta say, I was a little jealous of Brandon's hanbok.....

AFTERNOON FESTIVITIES:

After lunch, we took all the students outside to play some traditional Chuseok folk-games:

"LINE UP! STRAIGHT LINE!!"

The highlight of the afternoon was the garbage-can dart throw contest. Earlier in the morning we had made some darts out of styrofoam, clay and strips of colored tissue paper. All the classes would line up and a trash can was placed about 5 feet from the children for each class. Each kid got a total of 10 shots, and the two best students from each class would advance to a throw off, with the winner advancing to the finals. 

Here I am giving Green Class a pep talk as we are getting ready for some action. 

Students getting ready to take their shots.....

ACTIONS SHOTS!!!

Kebin with the one legged toss (sidenote, Kebin took 2nd place overall!!!)....

Lily showing some nice form.....

Ryan with a clean follow-through:

Leo with good arc on his toss!

Ben (who just joined Kids Club this past week) needed a little coaching...

After a few helpful hints from Coach T.....

ACE!!!!!!!

Jane, a regular accessory on my leg most of the time, not really feeling the dart throw....

Green Class after an exiting day of food, fun and costumes! If it looks like I am cracking up, it's because I am. Right before the picture was taken, Dow (to my immediate right), who is one of the more, if not the most, talkative kids in my class shouted, "OHHHH, MONEY!!!!" which he had overheard me saying during the dart toss. As much as these kids test my patience, moments like that make it all worth it....

All in all, a very fun day......