Pumba Festival and Mt. Worak

View of Seoul over the Han River at 6:00 am.

Pumba was the word repeated by beggars and street singers a long time ago.  Many performers dress up as these beggars at the Pumba Festival, held in Eumseong.  I happened to be one of them.
Apparently foreigners who dress up like Korean street bums attract alot of attention.  There are about 30 Korean photographers taking pictures of Laura smashing food just to the left of me.  
Me and Tyfany trying to look like beggars.  I think we failed.
The aptly named Mr. Bean and Soju boy posing for the photographers.

No comment.
Another failed attempt.  The guy behind me passed out right after the picture was taken.
Big Buddha taken at 50mph.
After the Pumba festival we headed to Mt. Worak for some serious hiking the next day.  It's the tallest peak in the middle, with the right side slanted.


The first/ easiest leg of the trek.  Not everyone made it....
Rest stop.  While coming back down, a Korean hiker had fallen and was bleeding badly.  He had to be taken out on a helicopter.
Almost there.  Well, not really.  We had to go down and around and then up some stairs before we reached the top.
Made it.
The first ones at the top.
The chalet we stayed in is somewhere down there.

More proof.
Watch out for falling bears?
A batting cage at a rest area on the trip home.  Very Korean.

Cherry Blossom Festival

They've finally arrived!  The advent of the cherry blossom season also signals the spring season in Korea.  Apparently, after about 2 weeks or so, the blossoms will disappear, so I had to act fast and take as many pictures as I could before they're gone.  Here are some pics from Incheon Grand Park.

                                                                 

Korean breakdancers. 

Temple at the top of the mountain.

My guides.  I asked them for directions to the park and they told me to follow them.  Apparently they wanted to go the scenic route.  After trekking through the forest and a half an hour later, we finally reached the park.

Lately

After two months of stealing wireless internet from my apartment, my most reliable connection died.  I had to bite the bullet and pay for my own internet. I'm finally connected once again.  Here are some pictures since my last post.  

This is the view from Seoul Tower.  I assume it's the tallest tower in Seoul.  The view is really breathtaking.  There are lights as far as the eye can see.

This is the scene from bar golf.  The rules are quite simple.  Teams of two. Each gulp counts as a stroke.  One gulp= hole in one. Three gulps= par. Each bar is a different hole.  We played nine holes.  I missed a crucial putt to put our team out of contention.  The winners shot perfect rounds of 9, all holes in one.  Not everyone finished.  

Here are some of my co-teachers and the principal who took us out for some sushi.  I've never been served so many courses of food in my life.  Delicious octopus, salmon, eel, tuna, and God knows what else.  It just kept coming.  Oh yeah, we got a little tipsy too.  Every time the principal drinks, we're supposed to follow suit.  I like the idea.  The principal is awesome. Everything he says sounds really wise and deep when translated.  

Clockwise from the left:  Me, the Prince, Padrica, Terry, and Tim

Bupyeong Underground Market:  

I decided to look for a nice heavy coat to get me through the winter when I first arrived.  My one from home wasn't cutting it.  The Bupyeong market has hundreds of clothing stores next to the Bupyeong subway station for very cheap prices.  The only problem was that nothing fit.  Apparently I am an extra large in Korea.  Every coat I tried on, I couldn't move my arms easily.  I must've gone to ten different stores, all of which were too small in the same area.  I needed more "stretchy."  I had to settle for one from outside the Market.  It turned out to be a great purchase.  

I got lost many times trying to get back to the subway.  Every direction I tried to go looked the same.  The exit signs were misleading too.  They did not lead to an exit.  I think this place was designed for people to get lost, so they are forced to walk around long enough to see something they want to buy.

Chukhyun English Center

Chukhyun Public Elementary School:

My school is about a 10 minute bus ride from my apartment.  Regular school has been on winter break since December.  I have been teaching kids who registered with the brand new English Center that opened about a week before I arrived.  Supposedly it's the most funded public school in Incheon.  I don't doubt it.

 

      The School

The English Center (CHEC)

There are three small classrooms and one large one in the English center, distinguished by colors.  This is the purple bang (room) and one of my favorite classes.  Notice the boys don't mind having their picture taken.  The girls hate it.  I don't know why.

After I pleaded for a while though, they gave in.  The little one on the right with glasses, Julia, is one of the smartest kids you'll find.  She destroyed me at math problems on the whiteboard after class one day.  She's like 10 years old American age (12 years old Korean age).

I like the Heineken can in the top right corner.

                   Flat screen

Outside of the three classrooms, CHEC is designed to represent real life situations.  At the end is the cafeteria, where we role play ordering food and such.  There is also a supermarket and immigration office.  

The teacher's office.  That's Jung Bokshin, (Jenny) my coteacher and head of CHEC.  That's a peace sign she's giving me, not the finger.

A view of the playground outside the teacher office window.  What does the slide look like to you?

This is the main classroom.  When the new semester starts in March, Jenny, Paddy our new teacher from Florida, and I will team teach in here with all three classes together, and then break down into our separate smaller classrooms.  That's a touch screen tv you see in the middle.  What's the weird looking thing on the ceiling? Oh, just a projection screen for the back wall... For 3-D presentations.  The whole back wall behind me here becomes a huge movie screen.  Each kid gets a pair of glasses and we throw on an animated film in English.  I would pay to watch these movies at a theater.  Get at me.

I don't understand what these are for.  They don't translate very well either.

Birds, hamsters, squirrels, and other animals live here.