Jeju, Summer, etc.

Let summer begin!!

My first semester of teaching English in South Korea is coming to a close.  We have 1 more week of school left, but they've already taken their finals... so that means MOVIE WEEK for the students!  Because seriously - finals are over - who's gonna care about school now??

Last week I took my night class out for dinner for our last class of the semester.  We ate some delicious shabu-shabu (basically a Korean stew).  Here we are, me looking awkward and unprofessional in my white tee.  And below that is a picture of the city, Yangsan, from our school... it was especially clear that night!  (See one of the first few posts for a picture of the yellow dust that I'm used to clouding up the view).

Speaking of eating, here is more stuff that I think Koreans consider food.

I have no idea what they are, or if in fact they are used for food... but we were walking down a street market of entirely food - - so I am assuming that people eat them.

BASEBALL IN KOREA IS AWESOME!  It really is like going to a game in College Station!  Every batter has their own song, the team itself has its own song, they have a yell leader that coordinates crowd chants... and in the 8th inning they pass out orange bags that people blow up and put on their heads!  (The bags are then used to pick up your own trash - how cool is that???)  It was an absolute blast, some of the most fun I've had on a Sunday afternoon in Korea to date.  The game I went to, the home team (the Lotte Giants of Busan) won in the BOTTOM OF THE 9TH!  It was really exciting, and the place went absolutely nuts - - it was the perfect introduction to Korean baseball anybody could ask for.

Working in a high school (as opposed to a private tutoring place) has some extremely awesome benefits.  Besides getting 5 weeks summer vacation, we also got 3 days off while the students took their finals.  Add that to the weekend, and you're looking at a 5 day break!  So Kelly, Britani and I decided to go on a trip... and after some last minute planning, we went to Jeju - Korea's most famous island, and a point of pride for the country.  Koreans like to say it's their version of Hawaii.  And while I'm not sure that I would agree (not having ever been to Hawaii), I'll let you judge for yourself  (PICTURES HERE).

Anyway, the bottom line is we are really lucky.  In a week my mom will be here and we'll be going to China.  In 2 weeks Mere will be here and the 3 of us will be going to Japan.  I'm hoping to get scuba certified after that... but we'll see what happens (:

Life is good.  Whoop for summer...