this week is exams again and classes are cancelled for two days. the teachers all went on a hiking trip to mount palgonson just outside chilgok. first we all had what could be described as a company christmas lunch. we all went to this chalet in the mountains and had bibimbab(rice). then they did presentations and awards. they used me in this charades game and i had to guess five words they were miming out. afterwards we went hiking in mount palgonsan. they forgot to tell me it was 5 hours round trip! at the summit is a rock gasanbawi where you can see a panaroma view of the whole city.

I was accepted into the English Buddy program. This is a trial program started by the board this term. One foreign teacher is paired with two korean english teachers from daegu. we have to meet twice a week for 100mins each for onsite training. anything like going to a restaurant, go shopping, coffeeshop, to be a venue for conversation. i also have to do one hour of offsite training by phone/email etc, so five hours total per week. i didnt realize the pay i could be making over $1000 if i do the full five hours every week for 12 weeks.

i signed up because i thought this would be a good way to interact with more of the locals outside of school and we can do activities like going to a restaurant so they can teach me some korean like the names of foods and how to order. this can make up for the fact i cant goto the korean language classes on fridays. i am paired with two older male english teachers who are good at speaking but need more help with interactive conversation. also a change as everyone in my school is mostly female. we had dinner with the two directors from the school board, seafood and mussels soup and dunk your bowl of rice in, nice and spicy! i got to impress them with my training background in the insurance industry

my afterschool kids class on fridays is a challenge. only six of eleven students showed up, all boys. three were not interested and said they are only there because their mum told them to go. the second week i told them there were four superman movies, spiderman cartoon, batman tv show, and their faces lit up as they had no idea. my afterschool teachers classes are a lot more fun. i have nine lady teachers including the vice principal very eager to learn, and the music and art teacher who are also quite fun. when teaching family members i explained domestic disputes with inlaws and they nodded and said 'same in korea'!

my co-teacher also took me for lunch to this restaurant where they serve shabo shabo i think its called. you sit on the floor and there is a stove in the middle with water boiling with seasonings and flavourings. then you take your meat and vegetable items and cook them in the boiling water. i had the seafood platter and am eating things i've never tried before like giant 10 inch clams. i know everyone says everything always tastes like chicken but these clams actually did as it was like a big juicy piece of meat in the middle.

the silla festival... brief history, 2000 years ago korea was three kingdoms. north korea was the goryeo, south korea was divided into east and west (silla, and baekje). the capital of the silla kingdom in the east was gyeongju (45 mins from daegu). in the 7th century the silla kingdom united with the other two kingdoms and ruled over all korea for the first time so gyeongju was the capital of all of korea. this lasted till about the 10th century when the capital moved north before ending up in seoul. so gyeongju was the capital of first the silla kingdom, then korea for a period of about 1000 years.

as soon as we get to gyeongju we see royal tombs everywhere which are large round hills. you can go inside one to see the kings remains but no photography. we didnt see any activities for the festival but after a while we saw a tent and a large group of mostly elders in tradtional dress. it seemed to be some sort of private graduation ceremony with only family members present, no tourists, so wasnt sure if we were intruding. we saw people handing out food from a van. then we were told by people to go and take some food so technically we have now been 'invited'. people were curious about us as we were the only strangers at this family affair and the only foreigners.

they tried to make conversation and from what i can make out this is a gathering of all the descendents of either the royal family or the noble families. then people were again offering us more food so i guess we sucessfully managed to gatecrash a private gathering, and get a free lunch, without offending anyone, getting thrown out, or chased off! :)

then i had to leave early as my co-teacher and her fiance had offered to take me to the Jinju lantern festival which was 2 hours from daegu in the opposite direction so i had to head back to the daegu bus station to meet up. this town is famous as a geisha lady tricked the king and got him drunk, then grabbed him and jumped off a cliff together killing them both. the lantern festival was really good and had korean characters on the river. you can walk across a floating pontoon bridge which was very wobbly from all the traffic. they also had moveable exhibits breathing fire, and a colourful fountain show.

next weekend is the baekje festival celebrating the baekje kingdom on the west in their capital city boyeo. i've become the designated organizer for these trips since i do a lot of research and enjoy going to these types of historical/cultural places. we also want to go back to gyeongju and rent bikes this time to explore more. i'm told it takes 3 days to explore gyeongju proper as there is so much to see and we hardly started. my teachers korean friend is also very eager to come with us and keeps asking when? i've also cracked hangul and am reading tv commercials now which is scary! :-)

video : lantern festival http://www.youtube.com/user/londone73#p /u/4/V8mS9Avt0SU
video : floating wobbly bridge http://www.youtube.com/user/londone73#p /u/2/GdqZZ5tznQI
video : fire show http://www.youtube.com/user/londone73#p /u/1/ZAyNt4zzwAk
video : fountain show http://www.youtube.com/user/londone73#p /u/0/S2B8IZr0Jn4