The Beauty of South Korea in Spring

Over the last couple weeks I have just been amazed at the color and beautiful things blooming all over the place.  I guess I don't have a lot to say about it but I would like to share with you all some of the beauty I have seen.  I generally enjoy shooting pictures in sepia tone but these colorful things are just to pretty to use sepia.  Here is what Changwon and Jinhae look like right now...

^^ Of all the pictures I took, this is my favorite.  The intricacy of this flower, the symmetry, the amount of petals, just makes me think of God.  It's like this perfect piece of art made by Him to please our eyes, mind and heart.  Thank God for the beauty of nature.

Besides all those beauties, I also went to Jinhae over the weekend to the Cherry Blossom Festival.  It was a beautiful place as well.  Here are some pictures of the trees and other things.

I hope you all enjoyed that.  I will try to add more over time.

My Strong Willed Student...

This school year my co-worker and I came up with new games to play with the students to shake things up a little bit so we weren't just doing the same old routine day in and day out.  One of the games we came up with was a "Word Race".  The class would divide into two groups and each student would be given a word.  The two teams would get the same words.  When a word is called each student brings there chair to the front of the room and gets ready to race to the whiteboard and try to write their word as fast as possible.

I must say that sometimes strong emotions have been displayed since the implementation of these games, especially of those that lose.  On Friday two students had the word "farmer".  One of the students was one of my dear favorites Soo-Min:

She just has a fantastic personality and is pretty smart.  The pictures above just show how special she is to myself and my fellow employees.  She actually is welcome to just wonder into our office and just sit down on a chair and hang out with us.  Most of the other kids aren't so welcome to do that from what I've noticed.

Anyways getting back to the story at hand.  Soo-Min and the other student (who I believe was Chae-Hi) battled it out for supremacy of the speediest writer of the word "farmer".  Unfortunately for Soo-Min, she was not the fastest.  It was very close but I ruled in favor of Chae-Hi.  When I turned to Soo-Min to tell her that she did not win simply put her hands together, gave me a very accepting look and also did a little bow all symbolizing to me that she accepted my ruling.  I turned to the whiteboard to erase the kids writing.  I turned around to find my dear Soo-Min still standing where she had been before but in a very sad emotional state.  She was crying significantly.

On a side-note I really wish I didn't have favorites but it is really quite difficult when dealing with such a cute group of kids and also considering the many unique personalities they all have.  With that in mind there will almost inevitably be a tendency to find favor it some over others.  Soo-Min has for sure become one of my favorites.  Seeing a kid that I really like and care for standing there in tears kind of made my heart sink.  But what happened next only added to why I think she is so great.

I knelt down to her to try and console her a bit.  I tried to give her a hug but she pushed me away.  I felt at that moment that I understood her better.  Before when she bowed to me she was trying to be really strong and accepting, but sometimes for a kid that is just a hard thing to do because little things mean a lot to them.  I just stayed beside her a bit longer while she cried and eventually she returned to her seat and cried a bit more.  She was basically crushed for the rest of the class.

At the end of the class I told everyone to go but had her stay behind.  She was unsure why I was doing this.  I wanted her to try again with the word she was given before and race me.  Now obviously I knew I could probably write "farmer" faster than her but I wanted to bring her spirits back up.  I just felt so bad for her.  It really makes me wonder how parents feel when there children are hurting.  Soo-Min isn't even my child and yet I still felt so sad for her and wanted nothing more than to cheer her up.  It must be ten times worse of a feeling for a parent then it was for me.

So once I finally got the message across to her of what I wanted her to do we began our race.  I started first (but I seemed to develop some kind of hand cramp :D).  She then went on writing and I tried to keep up with her but I just couldn't.  She beat me by one letter.

When she realized she beat me she got this huge smile on her face and started jumping up and down with delight.  The feeling I got when I saw her go from looks of devastation to looks of joy because she beat me in a race made so joyful myself I almost started crying.  It was by far one of my most favorite experiences as a teacher of these kids.

So in the end I like Soo-Min because she is funny, smart, sweet, independent, prideful (which isn't always a good trait but for a kid it can be cool, cute and good as well I think) and desires to be strong (even if she fails at it sometimes).

I'll tack on this video I took of her a little while ago.  She wasn't aware I was videoing her so she wasn't really trying to do anything for the camera.  She was just being herself...enjoy.

A Day of Solo Recon in Busan: A Pictorial Narrative (Part 3)

Welcome back.

I left off with me just about ready to enter the temple.  I must say that the outside was really nice.  Here are some pictures a little closer...

Wall painting outside.  Very colorful and dramatic.

Another intense wall painting.

A view of the main temple.  I love taking pictures in sepia.

A close-up of a swastika.  I hope this is artistic and not offensive to anyone.

This door was really beautiful and huge.  The detail and colors is really great.

So as I began to go inside of the main gate I noticed this little fella standing watch...

Very cute watchdog.

I do have be honest though.  I was scared to go past him.  He did not seem hostile but I had a bad experience a couple weeks ago with an ankle-biter at a different temple.  That dog actually attacked me.  Considering it was just an ankle-biter I didn't have much to be concerned about.  On the other hand I thought if this dog decided to go crazy he might actually be able to do some damage.  So I just sort of hung around the entrance and took some more pictures.

One of four really tall and colorful magician-lookin' guys.

Number two guy.  Notice the creepy looking pagan demons at the bottom.

Number three guy.

And number four guy.

One of those creepy demons.  I'm not kidding either on the creepiness.

So after awhile a guy on a moped came and distracted the dog.  So I stepped into the main courtyard area and snapped this shot:

This building was really quite big.

So after taking that picture I decided to depart the temple and explore a little bit farther along than I had already come.  I found a mountain which supposedly contained a school on it.  I was intrigued  by that and began to hike it.  Not to mention I just love hiking and thought I needed some intense exercise.  Here are some pictures:

A label of things to come.

A pretty steep road to the top.

As I walked the mountain I never found the school but did come upon a large area of exercise equipment. I've noticed it a few times on mountains in Korea but this was the biggest complex I'd seen so far:

Some exercise equipment.

I began to feel tired on this mountain and it was starting to get a little dark.  So I began a journey to the bottom.  When I arrived at the bottom of the mountain I began to find the closest subway.  The subway that was closest was the one I arrived on which was some 1500 meters away.  So I retraced my steps and took some more pictures as I walked back:

On the university campus there was an ROTC building.  They had a rugby team and this is a picture of their mascot.  Pretty cool dude.

The soccer field I walked past earlier.  It was a lovely stadium.

A look back at where I had come from.  The temple is in the background.  Pretty.

There was this random man made stream in the middle of the campus.  Very nice looking.

The zodiac is part of the philosophy of the university.

"Horse"

"Sheep"

"Monkey"

"Cock"

"Dog"

"Pig"

"Mouse"

"Cow"

"Tiger"

"Rabbit"

"Dragon"

"Snake"

I wish my Seagate hard drive did this.  Maybe not though because it might kill me.

This was just a great sculpture.  A nice stack of concert books.  What are the possible symbols of this statue?  Especially considering how important education and huge tests are in Korea.

So with those pictures I continued my walk to the subway station.  When I got there I considered what to do next.  I could go home or try to get some food.  I decided to head to Haeundae to find some food.  I thought of a really tasty burger joint I had been to once there and felt like trying it again.

As I headed there I decided to shoot a couple videos of the subways departing and arriving from the stations.  I find the noises the trains make to be really cool.  Kind of sounds like some futuristic spaceship or something.

After I arrived in Haeundae I searched where I thought the restaurant was.  To my dismay I could not find it.  I am very sure that I was in the right area so I think it closed.  It was a very unfortunate thing.  I walked around a bit to think of what to do next.  I found a deokboki place and decided it would be tasty.  I went up to the counter and ordered.  She asked if I wanted to eat there or take it with me.  I said I would take it with me with the idea she would just give me a styrofoam bowl.  Unfortunately she put it in a plastic bag.  I felt a little silly and wondered how I would go about eating it.  There was a ton of sauce at the bottom.

So I walked for a bit and found a small wall to sit on next to a hotel (JJ Hotel I think).  As I sat and tried to eat a women from inside the hotel came out and seemed to wonder what I was doing just sitting on the property.  I showed her my bag of runny doekboki and she just kind of understood what was going on and went back inside.  It was a bit awkward but funny. She came out again and gave me a cup of coffee.  It was a really nice thing to do.  I don't like coffee much but can drink it if prepared black.  This coffee had a lot of sugar in it.  I could not drink it.  I sipped on it while I was their given the fact she was probably watching me on a video camera.

When I finished I began to walk away form the hotel.  I waved in the general direction of the hotel (hoping the women inside would see me on a camera) as a token of thanks for the coffee and for being allowed to use there wall.  I walked for a bit, took a few more sips of the coffee and pored it down a drain.  I felt bad about that but it was just awful.

I walked to the Haeundae bus terminal to get ready to head back to Changwon.  I got my ticket and got on.  To my surprise a large group of friends from my church were also on the bus.  The were heading back from a Costco run they had done earlier.  So for the whole ride back to Changwon I got to chat with a bunch of really great people.  We talked about many things: Life in South Korea, TV shows, movies, spirituality, Americans who had defected to North Korea, the Demilitarized Zone etc.  Good times had by all.

Eventually the bus arrived in Changwon and I headed home.  All in all my adventure in Busan was full of excitement.  While there were many bumps in the road I still really enjoyed just being somewhere all by myself and allowed to explore and meander and my own pace.  Just going with the flow I a fun activity to do and I look forward to more in the future.