Haha For those of you who don't know what a noribang is ( which trust me, I totally didn't!!) it is a karaoke ummm place. What you do is go and rent out a room for probably an hour or so and then you and however many people are with you can sing to your hearts content. Often it is a fun time and people just get silly...very silly...
Also here are more videos of the closing ceremony which feature an a Capella group that sang a bunch of songs for us. They were a pretty sweet group.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
My apartment in Yeongwol
NOTICE - there totally isnt a sink in my bathroom. I did not notice that at first... ;;
Here is some awesome scenery taken from a my flat and from the riverside
Talent show! Last night!
This is our last night in Seoul and we had a talent show. Now I missed every single practice our class had for the talent show and we were trying to do something with the whole class though only a little over half was actually participating. So was going to skip it....and then I lost in rock paper scissors and had to participate in it. So this is our skit and the formal fan dance as well as the other skit and the other talents.
Korean Folk Village
We went to this super cool Korean folk village and got to tour around. We also go to see a tight rope show, a traditional wedding and a type of musical dance/ parade they put on. There we saw an apothecary and farmers quarters as well as work places looked like. It was pretty much similar to Colonial Williamsburg only older and no AC. Anyways I got some shots of corn mills and the houses where the township overseer resided as well as a practicing Buddhist temple which had some sort of ceremony with incense and food going on.
Look out for the parade video, there these guys who have long ribbons attached to their hats and would swing their bodies around and do cart wheels without touching the ground. It was pretty awe inspiring ( and a lot like human jumping jacks). Later another comes out with a 20 foot ribbon and practically skips rope with it.
After that was the traditional wedding ceremony. And me and my roommate kept wispering silly things like ' i wonder if that guy ever gets tired of marrying the same girl everyday' or 'he's way too good for him' and ' i wonder what she will do for her real wedding since it won't be as significant since she practically gets married everyday - she must go to vegas' hahaha ^^. Anyways it was mildly interesting ....especially her makeup!!!! She looked like she belonged in munchkin village in wizard of oz! I wish I got a clear shot of it.
It was ridiculously hot that day and everyone had to wear these blue knit polo shirts that didn't breath well so everyone's backs are soaked in sweat ( I mean honestly I have never sweated so much in one day in my life!!).
So after that we went to a School for Arts. We first learned the basics of traditional Korean drums. Our class as a whole did a pretty good job ( we had to keep perfect time with everyone and cut off at once). After that we did this really silly dance which was pretty much impossible to learn and we had these flag things on our hands and had to move our back and hips and heads all in since and up and down to a certain rhythm. IT WAS INSANE!!! I felt so ridiculous ^^ but so was everyone else. I will have to see if there are any video's of this on the EPIK disc they gave us. After that we watched Breakout which was a break dance comedy. Unfortunately there was no photography allowed, which is why I have the youtube link here ^^.
Orientation Dorm!
Here is a small tour of the Girls floor in the dormitory
Here is a view of our campus at NIIED
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Night out on the Town!
So me and some of my new friends, Shea, Ilya, Derek and Rob decided to take the town out on a night! So our goal was to check out the city scape and hit up a bar or two and little did we know we would end up hitting five bars much to Ilya's hangover in the morning. So here are a few video's of the night including an interview of the famous basketball player Mr. Derek Rose.
Ok edit!
Videos will have to come later when I figure out how to upload them here such that everyone can see them. I may just need better internet so that I can upload them to blogspot. Youtube needs 'realname verification here' and facebook video embedding ( which I did with the previous post) you can't see - according to some.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Day one
Hi Everyone!
I said day one - but I technically arrived yesterday but EPIK calls today day one. There is so much to get used to, starting with above all the jet lag. I keep wanting to sleep right after lunch which I have been treating as my dinner. The life here is pretty dormitory -esque where we have bathrooms and showers shared by the hall the building is coed by floor, everyone has a roommate, the beds are by far the stiffest of beds I have ever been in. So exactly like freshman orientation!!!
The food here ( at the EPIK orientation) is all Korean so lots of spice. But oddly in the morning breakfast is very normal like bacon and eggs normal, with amazing juices to drink. Which by the way Koreans don't normally do - drink with meals. Weird huh. Also in the Cafeteria we have this amazing view of the mountains which are surprisingly closer than I thought.
I will try to get a walking tour of the neighborhood up here later which is super cool with very narrow windy streets and lots of back alleyways which completely baffles me how our bus could fit into. But the city is not too different, just big. and by big, I mean likely bigger than any city you have seen thus far I feel like it is really several cities rolled into one. They have many American places here too. Like Dunkin Doughnuts and Starbucks and Denny's, which has a dance floor on the room, as well as a Papa John's and Smoothie King.
Another thing, its like they don't want to pay for air conditioning for us. For example in the auditorium earlier it was 33.7C!!! and our room is around 28C which is about average. Which definitely takes a lot to get used to and you really have to make sure you wear deodorant which is apparently really hard to come by here. My roommate was told that Koreans don't sweat as much which is why they don't have as great of a need for it.
Anyways I will have more videos up later, but here are a few of our Opening Ceremony which consisted of a Tae Kwon Do demonstration and traditional singing and instrumentation displays.
I said day one - but I technically arrived yesterday but EPIK calls today day one. There is so much to get used to, starting with above all the jet lag. I keep wanting to sleep right after lunch which I have been treating as my dinner. The life here is pretty dormitory -esque where we have bathrooms and showers shared by the hall the building is coed by floor, everyone has a roommate, the beds are by far the stiffest of beds I have ever been in. So exactly like freshman orientation!!!
The food here ( at the EPIK orientation) is all Korean so lots of spice. But oddly in the morning breakfast is very normal like bacon and eggs normal, with amazing juices to drink. Which by the way Koreans don't normally do - drink with meals. Weird huh. Also in the Cafeteria we have this amazing view of the mountains which are surprisingly closer than I thought.
I will try to get a walking tour of the neighborhood up here later which is super cool with very narrow windy streets and lots of back alleyways which completely baffles me how our bus could fit into. But the city is not too different, just big. and by big, I mean likely bigger than any city you have seen thus far I feel like it is really several cities rolled into one. They have many American places here too. Like Dunkin Doughnuts and Starbucks and Denny's, which has a dance floor on the room, as well as a Papa John's and Smoothie King.
Another thing, its like they don't want to pay for air conditioning for us. For example in the auditorium earlier it was 33.7C!!! and our room is around 28C which is about average. Which definitely takes a lot to get used to and you really have to make sure you wear deodorant which is apparently really hard to come by here. My roommate was told that Koreans don't sweat as much which is why they don't have as great of a need for it.
Anyways I will have more videos up later, but here are a few of our Opening Ceremony which consisted of a Tae Kwon Do demonstration and traditional singing and instrumentation displays.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Goose meets a friend
Hi!
I am starting this blog to document my adventures as a Korean teacher!
But First
This is Goose is he is my FID and completely adorable.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)