New year, new location

Yes, I'm staying in Korea this year, but until further notice, I will not be continuing this blog.

Go to my new site here - Joe's Fotolog - to keep up with my life.

Fall in Busan

New pictures up in Picasa:

-Camping near the town of Miryang with the guys. Lots of hiking, eating meat, making fires, and all around male bonding.

-Thanksgiving. Tried to show the Koreans and other foreign teachers how to have a real American thanksgiving. Everyone brought a dish and it turned out wonderfully.

-Mountain pension. Went up in the mountains on the outskirts of Busan for my friend's birthday. Friends, food, drinks, singing, dancing, and fresh mountain air.

Chuseok in Japan

For my Chuseok break (Korean Thanksgiving), I went to Japan with my friends Ashley and Tabitha.

We took the 3 hour ferry to the closest part, Fukuoka and explored the city for the day before taking an overnight bus to Osaka. Once there, we visited the awesome Osaka castle and surrounding park, checked out the view from the Floating Garden Observatory, and went to the International Peace museum dedicated to WWII. I also took a day trip to Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan. I saw a bunch of historic temples, in particular the Sanjusangendo Temple. This long hall contains over 1,000 Buddhist statues, all almost exact smaller copies of the giant, central Buddhist statue.

After 3 days of culture, we moved on to Tokyo for some modern Japanese living. We stayed with my Korean friend Hena, who goes to school in Tokyo. She guided us to some of the best parts, starting with a championship Sumo match our first day. The whole tournament lasts for about 2 weeks but we only had time for a few hours. Next up was Harajuku street, where Tokyo's eccentric come to show there latest styles. Lots of interesting outfits to say the least. Another day we toured the Yebisu beer museum, saw Tokyo tower - modeled off of the Eiffel Tower, and went to an Izakaya bar. There we were able to try a bunch of Japanese dishes like Takoyaki (fried octopus balls), sting ray, and of course, sushi. I think I doubled the amount of sushi I've eaten in my life during one week in Japan. Another highlight was being in the most crowded places in the world. Tokyo has the busiest subway in the world, the busiest Starbucks in the world, and of course is the biggest city in the world - almost 10 times the population of Chicago. 7 busy days of touring Japan then back home to Busan after a great trip.

More China

After my family left from Beijing, Lynne and I traveled on. Our next stop was a town called Guilin, located in one of the southern most provinces, close to Vietnam and Hong Kong. The town itself was nice, but the surrounding countryside is what draws the tourists. The most famous attractions are the scenery on the Li River and the Longsheng rice terraces. We also Visited Elephant Hill, Silver cave, and saw an amazing show on the water called Impressions.

This picture is from the cruise we took down the Li River.

China

During my summer vacation, my family (minus Nick) came to visit me in Busan for a few days. They really enjoyed seeing where I have been living this year. I took them to my favorite restaurants and sites around. They also came into school one day when I was teaching summer camp. The kids were a little freaked out at first to see a whole family of foreigners, but it turned out just fine.

After 3 days in Busan, we flew to Beijing. I would not want to live in Beijing - too noisy, polluted, crowded - but it was packed with history and famous sites to see. We did an all inclusive 4 day tour which took us to Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, a jade factory, a silk factory, a pearl market, a Kung Fu show, and the Great Wall. It was a very busy week but super fun, and it was great seeing my family.

Pictures from my family's visit to Korea, and then our trip to Beijing.

After school classes

My kids just finished their final movie projects for my after school classes. With a little help from me, they wrote and directed these short movies. The kids normally are very loud, but not so on camera, so it may be hard to hear. There are 3 movies - Hero, Hansel and Gretel, and The Monster. Click the link below to get to them.

Enjoy

Joe's youtube

Busantown

School has been busy lately, hence the lack of blog activity. I just finished my after school classes so now I will have more free time. I uploaded pictures of a few adventures around Busan -


Lotte Giants games - the most popular sports team in Busan, and probably second in the whole country behind the national soccer team. The fans are great - they cheer for runs, hits, strikeouts, walks, foul balls - pretty much everything, and they go for 3 hours straight. It is a sight to see 30,000 people all tying orange plastic bags to their heads for the last inning.

Dr. Fish - this little cafe is one of the last ones in Busan. Though its popularity has died out in recent years, you can still find a few places that let you stick you foot into a tank of small fish as they nibble off any dead skin you have. I mostly tickled and it was hard to notice any difference afterward, but still a fun experience.

The Ballerina and the B-Boy - a very good play I saw about a ballerina who falls in love with a break dancer. It was actually more of a dance show as there weren't any lines. The break dancers were awesome! After the show, the announcer said something in Korean, told everyone to close their eyes, and when we opened them, the whole crowd was pointing at us (I assume he said pick someone you want to see dance on stage). So me and my friend Kyle got to show our moves in front of everyone. Check out the video.

Sand Festival - this annual festival is held on Haeundae beach and has many events, ranging from a volleyball tournament to a sand museum to a fashion show, and of course, the sand castle building competition. We spent all day on the beach enjoying it and even tried building our own sand creature.

World Cup - always fun, but especially awesome this time around because I am with people from all over the world. I watched the South African game with a bunch of South Africans in a pub. Then went to the soccer stadium which was full of 50,000 screaming Koreans for the Korean domination of Greece. Then stayed up late with my fellow Americans and a few Brits to watch the England USA match. For the next Korea game, I am going to watch on Haeundae beach, where they set up huge screens right on the beach and pack 100,000 people in the cheer on the Red Devils.

all of the pictures