Fall

A couple shots of one of my 2nd graders.  Ali the troublemaker lurking in the background in the red shirt, causes trouble at least once a day.  

 Mighty Joe.

 Old Man

 For our one year anniversary, AJ and I saw a show called Nanta.  Simply put, Nanta is a cooking musical.  4 performers act out a play about preparing dinner for a wedding banquet.  The show involves magic, acrobatics, comedy, and even audience members.  At one point I was chosen to go up on stage and help out a contest between two teams.  The cast use cooking tools as instruments and hardly any words are spoken.   One of the performers had almost everyone in tears laughing when he did a comedy routine that was completely physical.  He mimed and danced around for about 10 minutes and was the best part of the show.  It was easily the best musical I've ever seen, and one of the best experiences I've had in Korea.

 The Seoul International Fireworks show was held along the Han River in early October.  Teams from Korea, Japan, and Portugal showed off their stuff for about an hour, although I couldn't tell which team was which.  Having missed Fourth of July fireworks for 2 years, I was finally able to get my explosives fix that I desperately needed.

 My favorite student, Raymond, on the right, and Phillip performing a pretty.....um.... interesting dance they learned at an English camp a while back.  

 After 2 months of training and 1 half marathon, I put my legs to the test and ran my first full marathon in Songdo.  I kept a slow, even pace for the first half of the race, which I believe helped me in the long run (get it, long run?).  One man skipped with a jumprope the entire race.  I was pretty satisfied with my time, 3:45 and I attribute it to the 50 year old lady who was running neck and neck with me the whole race.  With a few km left, I decided there was no way I could lose to that old hag, and mustered up my remaining energy and left her in the dust.  Take that, Grandma!  Pictured below are my friends Tom (in the middle with the funny shoes) and Brendan, who ran the half and 10km, respectively.  Tom just finished his 4th marathon of the year in those silly shoes.   Maybe next year I'll get a pair.

My first half marathon near the DMZ.