Ongoing October

Hey everyone!

Have you noticed my new blog layout? I also created a new banner/logo for my header... I am feeling pretty professional right now. I love it - I hope you do, too. I think it fits adequately with who I am and captures what this blog is all about.

4D Movie

The days are flying by here in Korea - hard to believe that October is already coming to a close. I had a nice week-long break in the middle of October, which I spent traveling of course! The first stop I headed to was Mokpo, alongside my friends Jeremy and Riki. We went to Mokpo's Natural History Museum, and while we were there we went on a 4D Dino Adventure (movie theater!). It was pretty fun to experience a short film in 4D - your seat shakes, water gets sprayed at you, 3D, everything! After the museum, we met up with some friends who live in Mokpo for dinner and drinks.

This past week I had the pleasure of meeting up with all 115 Fulbright Korea ETAs in Gyeongju for four days. We all met at a hotel for professional development workshops, and our Fulbright Korea director also spent the four days with us. In addition to our workshops, the first-year ETAs attended an all-day tour of Gyeongju on Sunday. It was an AWESOME trip!

Our group! So pretty

Gyeongju was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Silla (57 BC – 935 AD) which ruled about two-thirds of the Korean Peninsula between the 7th and 9th centuries. Gyeongju is often referred to as "the museum without walls" because of its historical treasures; Seokguram grotto, Bulguksa temple, Gyeongju Historic Areas and Yangdong Folk Village are some of the tourist destinations our group visited.

Beautiful lights by the lake walkway near our hotel

Hanging out in Gyeongju

Anapji Pond

Anapji Pond (안압지) used to be a garden to commemorate the unification of the Korean peninsula under the Silla Dynasty. Today it is a common park where a lot of couples use to take wedding photos. From June to early August, the ground is covered with blossoms - I was a bit sad that we missed that, but still a beautiful site to visit.

Outside of the National Museum

Daereungwon - ancient tombs

Daereungwon (대릉원) is a site where you can see twenty-three ancient tombs of songs and noblemen from the Silla Dynasty. The tombs look like massive hills - and underneath is the buried body. One of tombs is open for the public to see many artifacts such as weaponry, jewelry, and ornaments.

Bulguksa Temple

Bulguksa Temple (불국사) is the crowning glory of Silla architecture. The excellence of its carpentry, the skill of its painters, and the subtlety of its landscape all contribute to its magnificence.

Seokguram Grotto (석굴암) is a stone temple made of granite, hidden in the mountains about Bulguksa. Construction began in the year 751 and took 24 years to complete. It is a statue of Buddha surrounded by over three-dozen guardians and lesser deities. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed at this site, so I cannot show you. Sorry - it was quite an enormous Buddha, though.

Gyeongju National Musuem is newly renovated! This is where I was able to learn all about the Silla Dynasty in Gyeonju, which was the capital of their dynasty.

An ancient crown

The week after conference was a bit difficult to adjust to after being on a week-long break, but it felt great getting back to work and seeing all of my boys again! This upcoming week I will have a Halloween lesson for them, which I am quite looking forward to. It will be about survival during a "Zombie Apocalypse" and they have to strategize to find their way out.

Persimmon farm

Inside of a ripe persimmon - delicious!

One thing that was really exciting for me this week was working on my host dad's parents' farm. They own a persimmon farm, which is a very popular fruit in Korea (not so popular in the USA!). The ripest ones are a deep red color, and very juicy and sweet in the middle. It has quickly become one of my favorite snacks or after-meal delicacies! I spent an afternoon with my host mom picking persimmons from the trees and boxing them up for selling. It was tedious work, but it was amazing to see how many boxes we gathered.

Boxing up all of the persimmons we picked

Yesterday (Saturday), my host family took me to an island called Namhae, which is about an hour and a half away from Gwangyang. We went there to go hiking and see the view of many islands surrounding Namhae, which was beautiful! The sky and the water were so clear and so blue, it could not have been a more perfect day to visit. After we went hiking up a mountain, we went to sea level and walked on some cliffs near the water. I felt like I was in Portugal all over again - the atmosphere felt very similar. It was a beautiful trip, and I definitely want to go back in the future.

This week is Halloween week, which means my students will be going CRAZY for candy! Thus, a trip to the grocery store is necessary. I will be sure to snap some pictures and update how my hopefully awesome Zombie Apocalypse lesson goes - stay tuned!

On a cliff in Namhae

Namhae