HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

A weekend of "Hiking" and winning apples...

We had our first visitor this weekend!  Our friend Kate made the trip from Anyang City to Bonghwa late Friday night.  Having the 3 of us here definitely set the record for the most Nebraskans in Bonghwa at one time, so we celebrated with some potato soup and a night walk along the river.



Wayne and Jesse hitchin' a ride
up the mountain

 The next morning we caught the first bus to Andong and then on to Cheongsong, "Where the apples are as big as babies heads!"  Our South African friends teach in this little town with a big apple festival, so we spent the day with them.  The festival was a hoot! We played darts, shot paintball guns, threw stick things into bucket things, and won a backpack full of apples, none however "as big as a babies head...."

From there we headed to Juwangsan National Park to do a little hiking.  After waiting almost an hour for the bus we decided to set off on foot instead.  I'm sure that seeing 5 white people hiking along the highway was quite the sight for the Koreans! Fortunately, a nice Korean couple with a brand new van full of apples felt sorry for us and gave us a ride to the mountain (it turns out it would have been a very long walk....)



'Hiking' at the park



The leaves changing colors definitely made the park a beautiful place to be, unfortunately, that's what about 5,000 Koreans also thought.  It was crazy!! We fought our way up the mountain and did get to see some great waterfalls and scenery, but then had to hurry back to catch the last bus to Bonghwa.



Teresa and Kate in Juwangsan



Sunday was a lot more relaxing...we enjoyed a Halloween breakfast feast and went on one last hike with Kate before she had to head back to Seoul.



YES, we also teach in S. Korea!

Jesse's class in Sebyeok...only 4 kids!

The view at Jesse's school Myeongho

Two days of our work week are spent at country schools, while the other three days are spent at the Bonghwa Middle and Elementary schools! 

It has taken a bit of adjusting, but we are finally in the swing of things and adapting to living and teaching in S. Korea.  We both agree, even though we were hestitant about teaching in the country (about a 40 minute bus ride through winding mountains to get to school...) that being at the country schools are a highlight during our week. 

The scenery is BEAUTIFUL and the kids in a smaller school are much more well behaved :)  I havn't taken any pictures of my 3 schools, but Jesse got a few good pics/video of his schools...

Jesse teaches 3-4 classes a day and an adult class (teaching other English teachers) every other week.  I teach anywhere from 3 to 7  classes a day and have an adult class every week.  Our day starts around 8:30 and ends at 4:30.  The schools also seem to always be having random activities and other things...so we get the occasional day off too!

A Weekend of Festivals!

Wayne admiring some delicious pork

This last weekend marked the internationaly-known Andong Mask Dance Festival and the unknown Bonghwa Mushroom Festival.  Saturday we met our South-African friends, Wayne and Christy, in Andong to let the festivities begin! We watched some mask dances, laughed at an alligator-duck-man that blew whistles at people, ate pounds of sample food, visited little shops, and ate some spicy chicken feet.  WHAT!?!?!  Yeah, they were as bad as you'd think...



Andong Mask Festival



Bonghwa Mushroom Festival

For all of you Americans reading this...don't worry I upheld the English language in a slingshot competition against Wayne to see if they are called slingshots (which of course they are) or, as he tried to call them, Katties....  Anyway, we let our slingshots do the talking, and the balloons soon came to fear the name of Jesse Williams.

The view from our apartment

We also hit up the Bonghwa Mushroom Festival.  Although it is a lot smaller, it was a lot of fun.  It is right on the river, they have fireworks, a few free games, Bonzai trees, and no chicken feet.

Mushroom Festival River Crossing

Wonderful Sandwiches and Even Better Temples

Wow! This week we learned that Bonghwa actually has some AMAZING sites nearby.  Two teachers from Teresa's school invited us to head up into the mountains with them to visit Buseok Temple.  This is a beautiful temple that was built over 1000 years ago.  It is a very famous place in Korean legend and has some interesting stories to go with it. 

We watched the mountain sunset, ate some incredible sandwiches, and watched the local monks bid the day goodbye with a drum ceremony.