Jumpin' June

My time this semester has become so routine, that I have resorted to one blog post a month. I know that's really sad, and it may seem lazy, but there is just not a lot going on these days.

Saturday June 5th, Andrew and I heard that Ulsan Grand Park was having a festival of roses; so naturally we had to clear our busy schedule to check it out. This park truly lives up to it's name, it's very grand and we weren't sure which part of the park was holding the festival. After some walking in the hot sun we found it. It was BEAUTIFUL! There were thousands of bloomed roses of every color and size. It was a great day for "couple tee" spotting. These couples came dressed and ready for their pictures to be taken, and men have no shame when it comes to matching the lady they love (Andrew refuses). They also had a few interesting lawn ornaments that made for great photo opportunities but the lines were too long to wait in, so we only manage to take one.

We walked around for awhile until we got tired of dealing with the mass amount of people that were there. We bought some ice cream and then began our hike back home.

Saturday June 12th was the first world cup game for Korea. Andrew and I wanted to get in the full spirit of things so with our Home Plus-bought jerseys on, we fought the crowd at Taehawa River where an outdoor viewing of the game was being held. Picture a big flat grassy field next to a river with several large screens and a stage set up for viewing. EVERYONE was wearing red and many people were sporting the light up devil horns ( I really wanted some, but they were sold out) because Korea calls themselves the red devils. 대 한 민 극!! (Dae-Han-Min-Gook) was constantly being shouted and everyone was cheering. Andrew and I decided to pick a spot and just sit down before we would have to sit somewhere where we wouldn't be able to see. Well, what we thought was a good spot ending up being the biggest pain. We were constantly straining our necks in every direction trying to see. People would inch their way in front of us, standing, and it got old fast. Luckily for a few min, an old Korean man sat in a chair next to us and would yell at anyone who stood in his (our) viewing area. He finally got fed up with it and moved.

It was hot, and rainy but everyone was still in pretty high spirits. It reminded me a little of 4th of July at Corporate Woods...minus the Devil Horns and things being shouted in Korean. When Korea scored their first goal against Greece, it was done by Park Ji-Sung. He is basically the biggest athlete after Kim Yuna in this country. People went absolutely nuts! Andrew and I ended up leaving at half time to finish watching it at home because we just couldn't see anything. Luckily, we didn't have to miss a minute of the game on our way home because the taxi driver had his TV playing the game. We got to celebrate Korea's second goal with the cab driver. It was fun to experience the atmosphere and we were glad we went.

For the first three weeks of June, Johnson was in charge of helping 8 students with an English play. So every afternoon for 3 straight weeks, I got to hear the students practicing and helped them make their props. June 18th was the big performance of "The Magic Fish," (but for costume purposes, it was more like the magic dolphin). The kids did a great job considering the entire play was in English and they looked adorable doing it. Check out our awesome laptop, camera, MP3 player, cell phone, refrigerator, and flat screen TV we made.

Let's see, what else...

June 19th I went shopping in Daegu with a couple other female teachers...

June 13th and 27th Andrew and I went to the orphanage again...
June 24th a woman learning to drive accidentally hit the gas instead of the breaks when she was parking and drove through the wall of our English Zone...

Also June 24th in one of my 4th grade classes four students had to run around the classroom once before they could write the answer on the board. Well, one boy thought he would be smart and run the opposite direction to avoid congestion around the curve. Only two people ended up at the board out of the four. Turns out the boy didn't think things through. I went back to check on him and he was holding his nose while a taller girl was holding her mouth. It was obvious what had happened. I peeled his hand off of his nose to assess the damage: instant swelling and bruising as well as a deep cut down his nose...broken. She wouldn't let me see her mouth so I sent them to the nurse right away, never to return back to class. I felt to horrible.

Well that's all that happened in June. Like I said, nothing too exciting.