First up, was 'National Foundation Day', which no Korean person I asked was able to explain. Was it the day Korea was first founded? When was that? How is it different from 'Independence Day' a couple of months ago? Either way, it was a day off school, so me and one of the other teachers went to Everland, a theme park, and one of the biggest tourist attractions in Korea. I wanted to go for one reason, and one reason only. To see a liger. For those that don't know, a liger is the offspring of a male lion and a female tiger (as opposed to a tion), and as they don't exist in the wild, there's only a very few in captivity in the world, and Everland is one of the places that has one. Sadly, the place was packed, so I didn't get to see the liger, but I will definitely be going back. I did see one of my students, who was crazy excited to see me, despite the fact that she saw me the previous day at school, and would see me again the next day at school. She was so happy to see me, and told everyone at school that she had seen her teacher at Everland. It was hilarious!
That weekend I went down to Mokpo for the weekend to see the Korean Formula 1 Grand Prix. The race is held right down in the southwest of the country, about 5-6 hours away from Seoul. The idea was to build the track, then build a new town, loads of facilities, and make it into a resort to really regenerate the region. However, once Korea had built the track, they ran out of money, so now they have a Grand Prix, miles away from anywhere, which no-one wants to go to. The place was empty, whole grandstands were closed because there was no-one there, and there was maybe one seat in 50 occupied. Despite being ridiculously cheap. It will definitely be the last time they hold a race in Korea. But I saw a couple of crashes and a car burst into flames so I was happy. Here's a shot of Kimi Raikkonen zooming past
We then had another day off this week for 'Hangul Proclamation Day' which commemorates the creation of the Korean writing system, which was only about 150 years ago, as the Korean writing system is incredibly simple and easy to learn. For this day off, I visited a traditional Korean folk village. I saw some traditional Korean tight rope walking, some traditional Korean pottery, some traditional Korean houses, a traditional Korean wedding, some traditional Korean dancing, and had some traditional Korean food. It was all very traditional and very Korean. I also saw some traditional Korean horse skills;
It was actually very good, my only criticism would be that there were too many traditional Korean houses. Once you've seen a couple, (and there are over a hundred), you are quite literally just going round the houses.
In school we're getting ready for another open class (when all the parents come in to watch your lesson), this time for our after school kids, who are more advanced. The school is a kindergarten from 09:00 - 15:00, then an after school club (or Hagwon) from 15:00 - 18:00. I say more advanced, some of the after school kids aren't great. The system we use works on levels, with each class completing a level every two months, and moving up to the next level. So the kids go through 6 levels a year, so a kid on level 18 has been learning English for 3 years. Some of the kindergarten kids I teach at level 12 are super smart, and some of my after school kids at level 20 are . . . . . well . . . . not. Here is an example of a kid's journal;
I should say, that one of his classmates wrote in perfect English about how he'd read a book about Hercules, and that he liked Hercules because he was very strong, and he liked Greek Mythology. He likes Apollo who is a very good hunter, he likes Poseidon because he makes big storms, and he likes Hermes because he is very fast. The kid that wrote the journal above, is a little behind the rest of the group. Or to put it another way, he sometimes takes off his socks in class and chews on them. True story.
In sporting news I was back on the baseball field on Saturday, smashing balls all over the park as my team got back to winning ways. Its nearly the end of the season, with only a few more games before the playoffs. But more importantly, I am playing international cricket tomorrow! I'm playing for a World XI against the Korean National Cricket Team! Korea is hosting the Asian Games in 2014 (like an Asian Olympics), so the Korean Cricket Team is desperate for as much practise as they can get before they get thumped by the likes of India and Pakistan and other Asian nations that actually know how to play cricket. But I'll do my best to give their players a masterclass in batting tomorrow.
And finally, the Adventures of Tyrion the Turtle.
This week, Tyrion and some friends went jewelery shopping! Check it out;
