The academic side of my experience continues to be a positive
one. My classroom management skills have
gradually improved and I genuinely enjoy
my job and seeing my students improve their language and equally important
creative abilities. My favorite group is
my advanced class. They push me to
prepare more thoroughly and offer that I’m-a-teenager attitude. During
an exam week, one of my students played “corm” in a game of Scrabble. You know, corm-
an enlarged, fleshy, bulblike base of a stem, as in the crocus. He is the smallest student and they call him boy genius. As you can see below, a few of my students
need to start taking steroid tests along with their vocabulary exams. They are huge for Koreans!
Festivals are
commonplace here. You’ll hear about a major one happening nearly every week. In fact, according to this article there are
over two-thousand planned this year alone.
I was fortunate enough to attend both the number #1 and #5 on this CNN list. Jess, Luis, and I headed to the Andong
to the International Maskdance Festival with my boss earlier this month. We witnessed a traditional mask dance,
released burning lanterns into the sky, and watched traditional Korean fireworks. (See pictures of this and the Jinju Lantern
Festival in my F’book album)
Festivals are
convenient ways to try new foods, travel the country, and take in some of the traditional
culture. Nonetheless, before this past
weekend I can’t say I’d be compelled to recommend one over another. The Busan Fireworks Festival (#1) was a
breathtaking spectacle- hence the
title. I am talking a literal
jaw-dropping experience. The kind of thing
that I can only remember happening when the WTC towers fell, the day I found
out Santa wasn’t real, and the moment I knew I had shit my pants during a Peace
Corps meeting. The lights in the sky were so intense and magical that I fell
back into Caroline’s lap, jaw hanging, as we watched from the beach.
The festival
took place in Busan (2nd largest city in Korea) this past weekend, a
weekend that was incontestably my favorite of my experience thus far. The weekend included the festival, a visit to
the aquarium to see sharks, beach time, and nudity, as the usage of the third puzzling
and inappropriate word in the title alludes to.
Hey, it kind of rhymed? In honor
of Caroline’s birthday we got into our birthday suits. Ok, ok we went to our respective saunas in
the hotel and got full body massages. As
a fledgling to the Korean sauna world, stripping down and parading around the
sauna, the showers, the pools, the beach chairs —the entire facility- was initially
a bit overwhelming. Sure, I’ve showered
in the men’s locker room stateside, but this was a new level of free.
My initial
nerves wore off and by the second day my Superman briefs were off quicker than
the 2012 World Series. Relaxing in the hot, cold, and mineral pools, experiencing
the wet and dry saunas, and lounging in a beach chair overlooking the ocean
were a perfect part of a rejuvenating weekend. Check out Luis’ more detailed comical summary. Who would have thought a sense of comfort with
my body would be something I’d take from this experience?
Happy Halloween to everyone back home and feliz cumpleaños to Aunt Maureen! My positive thoughts are with all friends and loved ones affected by Sandy. Miss you all
