Check Out Time: 11 AM

I am officially done teaching. It's pretty sweet. I unofficially checked out a few weeks ago, but now it's legal... This week we are finishing up some final exams and plays, and next week they take their final exams in their other classes. Then it's one more week (where we'll show a movie) and I'm home free for winter vacation!

A couple of weeks ago the seniors at our school took their version of the SAT. This is a huge deal, as it will determine whether or not they go to college. But even more important is that it signifies the end of the teaching responsibility for the teachers in charge of the seniors. The teachers put in as many hours as the students, and the ones who really care probably stress out more than their students.

To celebrate, they went on a camping trip to the south east coast of Korea - Mokpo. I was lucky enough to join them, and here are some pictures from the trip:

Traditional Korean village - complete with thatched-roof houses and personal gardens

The village around sunset

You might remember the video of us eating the octopus - this time I ate it TWICE in one day...

Stingray on the street at a fish market

Stingray - they literally slice them up in front of you and give you samples in hopes that you'll buy some. The 'Korean' stingray was twice as expensive. I asked how you could tell the difference between that and the less expensive, identical looking, and equally as tasty Chilean stingray... and didn't ever get an answer...

The low tide exposed a little land bridge by which you could reach that island.

The island we stayed at on Saturday night around sunset.

My 'fishing pole'... Everyone else caught at least 2 fish (one dude caught 10) - except for Mr. Choi and I. I think Korean fish just don't like people who can speak English.....

Our ferry that took us to the island. You can see that it just pulls up to shore, opens it's mouth, and people (or even cars) hop on. That's Mr. Choi with the blue bag on his shoulder.

Video of a Korean eel one of the other teachers caught.

So that about does it. I'm trying to figure out if it's going to be safe enough to travel to Thailand in a month. Right now restless citizens have taken over the 2 major airports in an attempt to defy their government. Something about grenades being thrown around the capital and such... not exactly the kind of excitement I was looking for on the trip, but we'll see how it goes.