Dong Pi Rang Village (동피랑마을)!

     Today, I visited Dong Pi Rang Village in my city Tongyeong, South Korea. Within the village is a maze of murals painted on the walls of small interconnected alleyways heading up to the top. From what I have read, it is an old and poor village that was saved by artists and college students who were studying art. The residents of the village were close to becoming homeless, and news of this spread. The artists and the students came up with the plan to save the village by painting murals to make the village more attractive. The government then reversed its decision to demolish it! It is now a huge tourist attraction for the city. The people in the village are still poor and can't afford to live very comfortably, but they feel happy to live in Dong Pi Rang. Although I walked around for a long time, I feel like I only covered 60%-70% of the village! There were a lot of people there, so I had to work around the huge crowds. I'm glad I had to chance to walk around in it, and will probably return to see what I missed. It is truly a nice place, with the top of it being a great viewpoint for the city. Below I have a video of my walk-through (be sure to adjust the video quality!).

2012 Geoje World Shipbuilding and Marine Festival

     Saturday, May 5th, I visited the island of Geoje with Sara and new friends Fatih from Turkey and Liz from Boston to attend 2012 Geoje World Shipbuilding and Marine Festival. This festival purposefully coincided with Children's Day. Geoje is an island about 30 minutes away from Tongyeong. It houses more foreigners, so there is more foreign food to be found. For instance, the group and I ate at Quizno's. Also, thanks to Fatih, I now know that Geoje has two of the largest shipyards in the world. After eating at Quizno's, we walked around the festival and saw the different arts and crafts that people could buy. In the video, I show you how soap was being hand made. There was also handmade jewelry, pottery, and paper products. The booth that you see Fatih at was a man serving Turkish ice-cream. It was a mix of chocolate and strawberry flavors and tasted great! We walked around the festival more and saw the different types of boats and ships Korea has to offer. Ironically enough, on the opera ship that you see us entering, they were playing Titanic music! In fact, we heard "My heart will go on" there and at the Turkish restaurant we ate at. I don't know how that is supposed to make us want to explore the boats and ships, but I digress. Within the opera ship, we saw Korean style paintings of different landscapes, people, and so forth that South Korea has to offer. On the opera stage, the kids were in a contest to see which group could finish their watermelon's first in the time limit. I didn't realize this until after I stopped filming! We explored more boats and ships, some being occupied by navy cadets, before heading out to the Turkish restaurant that I mentioned earlier. We then came back to the festival to listen to the rock concert. Fatih and I liked the concert, but Liz and Sara didn't care too much for it. Unfortunately, we had to miss the fireworks and DJ festival! Still, I had a great time hanging out and I think they did too. I recorded some of the experience for you to view below.

Dinner At Yoogane!

     On tuesday, May 1st, I was treated to some DELICIOUS Korean food. My friend Lloyd (who has been teaching ESL in Korea for two years and lives in the room above mine) and I met other foreign teachers (Mel, Melissa, and Sara) at the restaurant. In the the pictures I have down below, you see how the food is prepared. All the ingredients are thrown together in a huge skillet to be cooked. You order a main dish from the main menu first, then order a side dish. You can have the side dish cooked with the main dish or have it cooked separately. We ended up ordering two main dishes (a spicy dish and a non-spicy dish) and multiple sides (including rice, noodles, and stuffed cheese Dokboki). This was due to Sara not liking spicy food, and me not being sure how I'd handle the spicy food. The non-spicy dish was the marinated chicken bulbogi (bulgogi being a meat with special seasoning). The spicy dish was the Yoogane's marianted chicken galbi (galbi being a sort of Korean barbecued meat). The crazy thing is that I liked the spicy dish more (although the other was good too)! Those who know me know I don't do well with spicy food. The chicken galbi was soooo hot, but sooooo good. With each bite I tasted deliciousness, but I also began to sweat intensely. The employees even took notice.... Still, it was worth it! I have pictures of the restaurant's menu below.

What I am sure will be my favorite dish, Marinated Chicken Galbi Fried Rice. I think I'll add the stuffed cheese Dokboki to it!

Marinated Chicken Bulgogi!

Yoogane's Marinated Chicken Galbi (I took the picture too early, sorry)!

Left side of menu

Right side of menu

Yoogane's Marinated Chicken Galbi close-up. 7,000 won is equal to about 7 dollars.

Side menu close-up

First Day At School

     I just finished my first day of classes and they were great! I'm pretty sure I love the job already. Although the students were rowdy, which was expected since they're teenagers, most tried to be respectful. For the students that are disrespectful, I have some punishments Korean style at my disposal. Hahaha. My favorite that I will use is making the student(s) do push-ups until they fall from exhaustion. :D Others include smacking on the head, going outside with your hands behind your back in a awkward sitting position-oh and more smacking. :) It is these students that take most of the energy out of me and other teachers, so they see these punishments as necessary. In between classes, the students are basically the janitorial staff for the school! They clean the bathroom, the teachers office, the library, and so forth. Students in America truly have it easy. Haha.
     During the group activity that I had for the class, I saw how a lot of the students knew some basic English. While giving them clues and helping them, I saw how they were able to piece the puzzle together in a sense. Their sense of humor, and mine, came out during the class activity, lol. These will definitely be classes filled with humor. They even welcomed me and bowed to me at the end of class! The students were very kind, in class and out of class. As I walked out of my first class, I was bombarded with the following words: "Ohh!", "Ahhh!", "Hi!", "Hey!"and "So handsome!"as the students were excited to see me. Stares accompanied those words of excitement.
     The classroom itself is very nice! It is way better than American classrooms. They make teaching easier and more enjoyable for myself and the students. I look forward to making full use of it. Once I go through all the classes, I'll know which ones I'll want to record for this blog. For now, I have recorded a small video with my iPod touch for you to enjoy.