Monday Teacher Meetings

Every Monday, all of the teachers at my school have a meeting with the Administrators.  I went to the first 2, but when the 3rd Monday rolled around, I asked if I could be excused... (It's not like I understood anything they were saying.) My Vice Principal made a deal with me that he would e=mail me, each Monday, of whether or not I needed to attend the meeting. Here was today's e-mail:

"Jill. You may not attend teacher's meeting today. So you'll wait in your room. And door lock well. If you an emergency call me to phone 2200-102."

Dinner in the Country!

Sometimes I wonder what life would be like without Mr. Chun!   Most of the coolest experiences we've had have been thanks to him!

Tonight, he invited us  to dinner at his friends house in the countryside!  It's a very rare pleasure to be invited into someone's home in Korea and this was the 1st time we had been invited.  It was one of my favorite experiences to date!

When we first got to the house, his wife's friend had these "appetizers" out on the table!  Yes, in Korea, you CAN'T expect crackers and cheese, or chips and salsa before dinner... What you can expect is fresh lettuce, random leaves, and vegetables picked from their garden!

After we sat for a little while, eating the lettuce, Mr. Chun took Kevin and I on a walk around the neighborhood!  The pathways through the countryside were breathtaking!

On our walk, we walked passed a honeycomb farm.  This was the biggest bee I have ever seen!  It was literally 2 inches long!
 

This was the sweetest little labrador puppy!  Mr Chun told me not to pet it, because it was for food.  You can imagine the look on my face!  Apparently it's common for Koreans who live in the rural areas to raise and eat their dogs.  Every dog we saw after that, I would ask, "for food?" and Mr. Chun would shamefully nod his head, yes.   

Mr. Chun is an extremely chivalrous man!  He always makes Kevin carry my stuff and tells Kevin to hold my hand while we walk, or to give me massages after we go hiking!  I love it!  :) Today, on our walk, he told Kevin to carry me on his back!  Isn't that hilarious?!   

One of the thousands of gorgeous trees in Korea!

When we returned from our walk, there were 4 other couples at the house!  Apparently all of the husbands have been friends since Junior High and over the years, they and their wives, have met once a month for dinner!  We were so excited we were essentially at a Korean dinner party! 

I loved that one of the wives was sitting on the table, and loved it even more when she motioned to me that I could join her!  Really, when do you ever get to sit on the dinner table?! 

When we were leaving, I asked all of the wives if we could take a picture together!  And by "ask", what I really mean is that I motioned with my hands and said "picture!"   Never a dull moment when you have a language barrier the size of the Mississippi! 

Saturday field trip to a Temple!

Mr Chun told Kevin he wanted to take Kevin and I to a Buddhist Temple in the mountain this weekend. So, at 1:30pm, he picked us up, with his wife, and off we drove to the temple. We were excited to see it, but had NO IDEA it would be as breathtakingly beautiful as it was. ENJOY

The front gate to the Tongdosa Temple...

Driving through the temple grounds... The lanterns are in celebration of Buddha's birthday, which is May 2nd.

There were 3,000 of these statues in this particular temple building.

I love these lanterns! They're so cheerful!

One of the temples...

One of Kevin's pics...

Another one of Kevin's beautiful pics...

What a little cutie huh?!

I think this is the biggest tree I've seen in Korea!

This wood carving was GIGANTIC! It's one of the gods of either the North, South, East, or West. Not sure which one though.

Me, outside a private prayer room.

This buddhist monk was bowing to this statue. There were hardly any signs around the temple grounds, so I'm not sure what this statue is... just thought it was a beautiful picture.

These beautiful fuschia colored lanterns were hung around this entire temple. A Buddhist monk was inside chanting and playing the drum.

This bridge was built over a wishing pond.

This part of the temple holds remains of Buddah's bones and teeth.

I love these! They are drinking fountains. There are metal cups that hang on the side of the fountain. You just scoop the water out and drink away!

I wish this pictures showed the creek that ran under this bridge... It was such a beautiful sight!

After we walked through the temple grounds, Mr. Chun drove us to a picnic area and pulled this cooler out of his car! It was filled with fresh fruit, water, and a ginseng-honey drink. Adorable! It was such a great way to end our time together at the Temple.

Funny e-mail from a teacher

My friend Jessica teaches English to the teachers at her school. This afternoon she got the following e-mail from one of them:

"oh, sorry. 3-4,6,7,8 teachers must go to another building for listen another class. Can you remember that we met in a toilet? I said at that time. That class will be end today. Sorry,Jessica..And thanks~^^I hope meet you soon. Have a good weekend~"

Engrish Test!

Today, Stella and I gave our 5th graders an English test. In our class, we only focus on speaking... so their spelling is horrible! With that said, we asked the students to phonetically spell the words the best they could on their test. Here's some of what they wrote:

HOW ARE YOU?
I'm fein
I'm goob
I'm find
It's ha pey

NAME

neme

naym

neim

BOOK

boog

boot

dood

DOG

deg
doog

dox

CAT
ket

cok

APPLE
appr
aplle

oafl

EGG

eeg

Ggg

oag

GOAT
goot

goet

gort

FISH

fhis

pishi (MY FAVORITE!)