The Week that Was: Daejeon, Teaching, and a Field Day

Disclaimer: I’m a terrible photographer. I never bring / take out my camera at good times, I’m too concerned with being a bother so I don’t ask people to take pictures of me or with others, and I try to take pictures of things that look obscure (but when I revisit the photos the intrigue’s waned and the objects just look weird or boring). I will work on this in the future!

Two of my close friends had birthdays last weekend so I went to Daejeon, Korea’s fifth-largest city. Daejeon’s considered to be the science and research hub of Korea and is appropriately located in the center of the country. I got out of work at 4, took a bus to Gwangju, and was on an Express Bus to Daejeon by 5. The seats for a $15 bus ride were absurd. I’ve never flown first class but that’s what the seating felt like (for lack of pictures, see disclaimer).

We went out in Daejeon’s new downtown both nights, to the same  bar, at a place called “Bar Sponge.” We had good nights but Daejeon was filled with far too many sleazy Westerners (not including ourselves, of course). Aside from the nightlife, on Saturday afternoon we went to Daejeon’s arboretum. We only explored a small portion of it but it was beautiful:

This girl apparently didn't like the fountains. My friends on the other hand...

...they loved them.

 

.

After the arboretum we went to a baseball game. The Hanwa Eagles (Daejeon’s team) are horrendous but at least they have Karim Garcia! He’s as fat as ever and probably just as likely to mash a Pedro Martinez pitch into the seats.

Stadium seats like 10-15,000. Place is tiny. We also paid $8 to sit anywhere wanted!

Sonia's like super into sports.

Hey look Andy (Aaron's host brother) isn't sulking, sobbing or attacking me! What a surprise

The game was fun but it went into extras and we left early. We were all exhausted and that probably reflected in our going-out mentalities. Zzzzz.

*****

Teaching went pretty well this week. I taught my boys about comparatives and superlatives (even though the younger classes didn’t get that far) by seeing who was taller (obvious), stronger (arm-wrestling) and louder (screaming). Of course punishment pushups made it into the lesson as well, they always do.

I really like my third graders (in Korea there are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders in middle school and then 1st, 2nd, 3rd graders in high school). I thought they would be a problem because they’re the equivalent of American high school freshman, but they’re pretty well-behaved and enthusiastic. Humpday is now something I can look forward to.

*****

This morning the orphanage that both of my host parents work at had a Field Day. For a few hours the kids played games (eerily similar to the games we played at Camp Fulbright during Orientation) and infused a bunch of energy into an otherwise dreary and cloudy day:

I did this too. I threw a baby on my back, jogged over to the clothesline and made her eat a ritz. It was funny.

Everyone stretching!

Naju's famous for pears so of course they had a pear shaving contest.

(write your own caption)

My host bros

This week (9/12) is Chuseok! aka Korean Thanksgiving. For Chuseok Korean families flock to their ancestor’s homes to pay homage. We will be going to Yeongnam, a city about an hour due south of Naju, to visit my host mom’s mother.

Chuseok also means a 5 day weekend! After I teach on Thursday and Friday next week I’ll be headed up to Seoul for the weekend. My friend from the States– who I haven’t seen in a year– has a layover at Incheon for 12 hours on Saturday and we’re going to meet up! Other than that, Hongdae and wandering? Yes please.