Our lovely school, Songwon Elementary

We really could not have asked for a better school and schedule than the one we have.   We have class from 8:30 to 3:10, and we have an hour and 40 minute break each day.  We stay after school until about 4:10 preparing for the next day.  The students call us "Carrie Teacher" and "Bradley Teacher."  As I have said earlier, both Bradley and I have about 300 students. There are also 8 Korean English teachers, who have the same group of students each period, everyday.  Once a week we go into each classroom and work with students grade 1-6 on various topics.  Some students, like the 1st and 2nd graders, have a math or science book in English which we read out of.  Basically we are trying to expand their vocabulary by teaching these subjects in English.  Some of the other grades use a reading comprehension book, which has stories about random things with questions at the end about the reading.  We have taught the students in these classes such topics as "What is the St. Louis Arch?" "Where does Maple Syrup Come From? and "What are Baby Teeth?"  The baby teeth class was fun because some kids had never heard about the tooth fairy, and so that was interesting to see their reactions when I told them I used to get money under my pillow when I lost a tooth ("Really Carrie teacher?? For real??)  On a side note, I learned that here in Korea they throw their baby teeth on the roof because it is considered good luck if a Magpie comes and picks it up off the roof (although some student's parents are starting to teach their kids about the tooth fairy, as our Western culture influences the culture here).  Lastly, our older students learn about debate, critical thinking, and discussion.  They have a book that has different Korean children's stories in it, and the class is supposed to debate about the morals of the stories.  They are totally bored with the book because the stories are well known here, but it is fun for me to read them! :)  We only see each class once a week, but we also have a morning class that is for advanced students who want to learn more English. We see this class 4 days a week in the morning.  Bradley has the 2nd and 3rd graders, while I have the 4th-6th graders.  It has been fun having this class because we get to know these students better and I have had lots of interesting conversations with them.  There are 10-12 students in each class, including the morning class, so that is nice.
The Korean English teachers are also very nice.  Sometimes they stay in the room while we teach, and other times they don't.  We all eat lunch together in the cafeteria everyday. (Which can be delicious or gross depending on the day. One thing is for sure, we will always have rice!)  One of the teachers gives us a ride home everyday too :)  We help them out by grading their student's English diaries, which I think is really fun!  All the teachers have all been very kind and helpful and sometimes give us little presents for helping them.  It is good to have such nice co-workers.
We love our school and are so glad we came here!

Our lovely school

Self portraits from past students out in front of our school

The front patio 

The fountain that doesn't work and the kids play on the ice in winter

Don't forget to take off your outside shoes and wear some slippers

The school's motto

Our office/example of our English classrooms

The teachers lounge 

We are on the 5th floor.

Some of our kiddos

Home sweet home!

We love our little house.  It is very clean, close to our school, and in a great location in a quiet part of the city.  We have two bedrooms, a bathroom, a tiny kitchen, and a little dining room/Carrie's makeup and hairdrying room :)  One of the funniest things about the apartment is the shower.  Instead of a shower stall, many of the bathrooms in Korea (at least in ours and in all of the hotels we have stayed in) just have a shower head attached to the sink faucet.  When you want to wash your hands, you twist a nozel on the sink to make the water come out of the faucet.  When you you want to take a shower, you flip the nozel to make it come out of the shower head.  At first I thought this would be annoying, but it actually makes for a very large shower! :)  Our apartment also has some very interesting wall paper, but we don't mind it!  We have a washing machine, but no dryer, so we hang our clothes on this cool little contraption on that hangs from the kitchen ceiling.  We have a stove but no oven, so we may be investing in a toaster oven in order to bake.  We also do not have a dishwasher, but it is so cheap to eat out that we don't have dishes to wash very often.  The apartment is the perfect size for us, and we couldn't have asked for a better place.  Perhaps best of all, we don't have to pay any rent!! :)

The building our apartment is in (photo taken by the one and only Ruth Ann Dill)

The door to our apartment

The foyer

The stove and oven (broiler)

The dining room (area)

The family room (Same room as the dining room)

This is where I make myself beautiful in the morning

The washer . . .

And the dryer 

The college style fridge

The second bedroom/TV room

The master bedroom

The best part, our bath and shower all in one!

Election Day skiing

In Korea, Election Day (December 19th) is a holiday and there is no school.  So, we went on a ski trip to Muju Resort, which is about 4 hours away from our city.  We went with a local Gwangju resident who organizes adventure trips, and about 25 other foreigners.  It was my first time skiing, so I was preparing myself for a day of falling and being angry . . . but I impressed myself!  I fell down only 3 times the whole day, which was much better than I expected.  Also, I thought I would be scared but I enjoyed it so much we are going again for a weekend trip at the end of January.  Bradley was awesome of course, like he is at any sport he does.  

First Snow

We had our first snowfall in Gwangju in the beginning of December.  We were walking to school and saw some white stuff falling from the sky, and I said, "Is that ash?  Do you think there is a fire burning somewhere?"  (true Southern Californians!) As more started to fall we quickly realized it was really snow!  I will probably be tired of it by the end of the winter but it is so magical to see snow falling.  Here are some photos around our neighborhood and school of the snow.

A video at our bus stop 

These are pictures of our neighborhood the next day.

A view from our window at school

Another view from school

Temple Stay

    The weekend of November 24 and 25 Carrie and I went on a temple stay, which is were you go to a Buddhist temple for one night and do as the monks do.  We went to a temple in the port city (smelled like home) called, Yeosu.  The name of the temple was Hyangiam.  This temple is a very popular tourist spot because it is on an island and is facing East, so most people wake up really early and hike up to this temple to see the sunrise for a family day trip (Pictures later).

This was a model of the chain weapon   

     Let me rewind and tell you about the fun activities prior to arriving at the temple.   We first visited the port of Yeosu, this city is not only know for its port but is know for the fortress of a famous general who lived in the 1500s.  He is famous for using a large thick chain to break enemy boats as they trailed his ships during a sea battle with the Japanese.

Bradley trying to be artistic 

The view from Yeosu.  There are lots of little islands off the coast

More views

The recreation of part of the old fortress

The valley is the only entrance to the town below. For this reason it was a great city to live in because of the protection from enemies 

After seeing the fortress site we moved on to downtown.  Downtown was very similar to Gwangju's downtown so we just shopped with some of our friends who work at the GIC.  After downtown we headed to the Temple.

When we got there, there was, as there always is in Korea, a hike to get to the temple.  During the hike you had to climb though boulders that were leaning against each other with just enough room for a person so walk through.

   



 We arrived just before dusk and were led to our accommodations for the evening.
   There was only 6 men on this trip, so our accommodations were better than the women's.  The men had a small room with multiple blankets yet no beds, which is customary in temples.  The women had a similar space but they only had a closet with a toilet, while the men had a full bathroom with an awesome shower (thankfully it was for only one night).
    The evening meal was a traditional Korean meal, only difference was that is was all vegetarian, as Buddhist monks and nuns do not eat meat (don't worry I made it without eating meat for the two days).  After dinner it was time to pray.

The view from the temple

The temple 

Artwork at the temple

Another view from the temple

The beautiful temple

These turtles were all over the temple and people would put coins on them as offerings and for good luck

More turtles

The turtles were watching the moon rise

   We met with a Buddhist clergy member, who is a woman so she is called a nun, pictured below, started the service by ringing the large bell.  Then we went into the temple and she did a couple prayers, then she explained what was going on in Korean and our tour guide/translator told us what she said.

After the service we went back to the dinning hall and had tea and fruit or dessert while we had a discussion with the nun.

This is the nun

We discussed many things with her, mostly we discussed why she became a nun and  about the Buddhist beliefs about the afterlife.  She was originally Christian but she always felt out of place when she went to church and so she searched and found Buddhism and decided to become a nun.  When she told her family everybody didn't like her decision but they respected it, except one of her uncles.  He told her that she was going to become a demon.  Much later in her life she saw her uncle again and had no hard feelings toward him but he said that he was sorry and realized that he was mistaken about her becoming a demon and that she looks healthy and great.
    The next morning we woke up at 3:30 am to go to another prayer service, where the nuns bow 108 times.  The 108 bows is symbolic of the Buddhist belief that one have multiple lives. The nun told us during our discussion that she did these bows every morning for six years straight without missing a day.  After the service we had breakfast and then came the sunrise.  After the sunrise it was time to go home to Gwangju.
   

The beautiful sunrise

More of the sunrise 

The tug boat at work 

We had an amazing time and are considering going to more temple stays in different areas (don't worry we will write about them if we do go).