Neighborhood Brunch

Cooking things on a glorified hotplate isn't always easy but lucky for everyone bacon and pancakes are hard to screw up.

After going five months without eating a breakfast that my father would approve of I went to Costco and bought plenty of bacon and some maple syrup. I invited all my friends living in the building and we had a calorie-heavy home-cooked American breakfast. In true Costco fashion I now have 3 more packages of bacon frozen in preparation for next time.

Last Day of the Semester - Student Pics

My favorite class of the semester...not sure what the guy to the right of me is up too.

One of my best students attempt at a portrait. Much better than I could ever do.

One of my other good classes. John is pretty excited about that bucket full of candy.

Three students in my friend Liz's favorite class.

Not sure if he did that to himself or had it done to him. He looks pretty good either way.

I'd been meaning to take pictures of my students since the first day of class and finally had a good excuse to do so the final day of the semester. Some highlights here, though none can convey some of the hilarious things that come out of their mouths.

Student Phone Calls

Twice a semester we call each of our student for a one on one phone conversation. We have to ask them some questions based on the recent reading units. Much more interesting are the questions we get to make up. My favorite thing to ask is what they want to be when they grow up. I get plenty of predictable responses but plenty of unexpected dreams too. I had a particularly quiet student who said she wanted to be a rock star. I looked at her a little differently the rest of the semester.

Work - Avalon Office

My desk at work. On top of that big tube behind my name is a hat the guys who own the place I get my hair cut gave me. It says "force" in Korean. The kind Luke Skywalker has in abundance.

The room where the nearly 30 teachers at my campus work (half Korean, half foreign). It's a fun/noisy place to be.

My good friend Pete arriving at work in a newly purchased t.

Five of our foreign teachers on their last day. For all such occasions, including birthdays and weddings, we gather in our lobby for soda, pastries, and ice cream cake.

Waiting for the celebrated to blow out the candles so we can eat.

Some pictures of work life. We were just made to switch desks last week, in order to get to know more of our fellow Korean teachers, instead of sitting next to the same neighbors all the time. Its a good idea but always an insane day. 30 people trying to move into someone else's desk while that person waits for their new desk to be unoccupied. A lot like musical chairs, but musical chairs while holding 30 books and a pencil case in your arms.

Staff Dinner

The director of my school, Sophie, and my good friend Liz. And one of our TA's trying to get out of the frame.

Most of our elementary school staff out to dinner recently, celebrating the end of the semester.

The four young guys who work as Teaching Assistants at our campus. All great guys who keep our school running on a day to day basis.

My school does a great job of celebrating events. For the end of semester dinner we took over half a restaurant and ate family style. Its always fun to see the people you work with outside the office, though it can be tough to make small talk with your boss for an hour. Sadly I didn't stay long enough to watch the TA's start in on the soju.

Fongs

My friends Thomas and Marshall, and the guy who cuts Marshall's hair. Not sure I would have visited him the next day.

Pyun Sung, the owner of Fongs (favorite local bar), who went with us on the DeokJeokDo trip pictured in the previous post.

His wife Hyo Joo and my friends Heather and Liz. The fact that we don't speak more than a dozen words of the other's language doesn't seem to matter much.

My friend Peter and about half of the other teachers I work with on a recent Friday night at Fongs.

Liz, Marshall, and the owners of the local hair place.

A great Japanese style bar, called Fongs, opened up in town about six weeks ago. The owners are a young married couple who both love art and traveling. My friends and I go about once a week and are becoming great friends with them both. The husband is a chef and has started asking about our favorite foods so he can add them to the menu. Spaghetti bolognese is the most recent addition.

DeokJeokDo Island

My attempt at trying to catch a seagull in the act of grabbing cheetos out of the hand of an 8 year old. I think she understood what I was doing but that didn't seem to alleviate her confusion about who the westerner taking pictures of her forearm was.

Most of my friends, and the rest of the boat, trying to catch up on sleep missed the night before.

My good friend Liz and the dog she hoped was a stray, named Ralph, and tried to take back to Seoul with us (it was not a stray).

My friends Liz, Thomas, HJ, and Jake after playing some frisbee on the very foggy beach.

Heading back to Seoul after an exhausting 36 hours.

My first trip out of Seoul was to a small island off the western coast of South Korea, called DeokJeokDo. Sadly we were rained on almost the entire time, which meant we spent a little more time drinking soju under umbrellas than we would have otherwise. We found a hotel room big enough for the ten of us.....really just a big room with tons of blankets and a heated floor. We ate well, got in a great hike to the island's peak during a lull in the rain, and joined a big nighttime bonfire on the beach. The best part about the trip was the company of our favorite bar owners, who closed up shop and came with us for the weekend. They brought the drinks, we paid for everything else.