Fall

ops, it’s been over a month almost two since I blogged. I started working on my Masters, so I couldn’t justify writing a blog when I should be writing a paper. So, now I will sum up the last month or so…..

My favorite thing about October was our trip to the Persimmon Wine Tunnel. The wine tunnel is located in Cheongdo about 2 hours away by train and bus. Two hours was worth it. It was so nice to get out of the city and into the beautiful countryside surrounded by traditional Korean homes and persimmon orchards. The wine tunnel was originally a train tunnel built during the Japanese invasion. In 2006, the Cheongdo Gam Wine Company opened it as a wine cellar and café. We enjoyed taking pictures and tasting the wine. It tastes like white wine, but it has a strong alcohol taste. It was good, so we bottled our own wine with our own label. It was a great trip. Check out their website http://gamwine.koreasme.com/

One of Jayson’s favorite things about October was zip lining in Daegu. We went to a small outside amusement park called Herb Hillz to go zip lining. Our friend told us how fun it was and she did the hardest course and it was a little challenging, but fun. So we took her advice. We got a 20 min crash course in Korean about how to hook up and hang on. Then the guy showed us the translation on his iphone. I didn’t seem to worry because I figured I would just watch and learn. Well, it didn’t work that way. He took us to the hard King Kong course and shook his head and walked away. Our first obstacle was climbing a 50 foot wall. That was ok, but then we had to swing between these rope-foot things to get from one 50 foot tree to the next. Jayson glides across. I try, but I don’t have enough upper body strength to hold myself up, so I am just hanging on the rope stuck like a V. So I go back to the platform. I try about 3 times and each time I fail. So now I am stuck on one platform 50 feet high and Jayson is on the other. So, we figure we will wait for the guy to come back. 30 minutes pass and Jayson and I are just hanging out in the trees (funny now that I think about it). Finally we decided to climb back down and do the Tarzan course. I can’t believe they let us go through a hour long course by ourselves. It was still hard but the zip lining part was so fun and we survived!

I celebrated Halloween with my extra class students. It was so much fun, the kids had a blast. Koreans don’t celebrate Halloween, but they sure did have a whole lot of decorations and costumes for sale. The kids dressed up and trick-or-treated in the school. They bobbed for apples and had a mummy wrap competition. It was a nice break from studying hours upon hours. The kids have so much school and are so serious, it was nice to see them let loose. They had a blast.

I also went on a day trip with all of the teachers at my school. We drove out to the countryside and hiked. We enjoyed lunch and dinner together. At school most teachers avoid me or just say hi, but after a few shots of soju everybody was talking to me. It turns out they really do know English. Haha. I think they just are scared to make a mistake. After hours the portable karaoke machine came out. I swear those things are everywhere; children’s arcade, trains, bars and now restaurants. The principal tried to get me to sing, but my co-teacher helped me by saying “She’s a bad singer.” It worked

In November, we celebrated Thanksgiving. The local foreigner bar hosted the event. They had all the traditional Thanksgiving fixins. We played games and enjoyed spending time with foreigner friends. Even some Canadians attended even though their Thanksgiving is not in November.

We are enjoying our last few months in Korea and planning many trips. So much to look forward to!