Expo Park

Expo Park and Sculptures

On Saturday, I watched a cross country meet for the first time. Our school was running here in Daejon by the river. I got to hand out popsicle sticks for the numbers- who was 1st, 2nd...... One race we had 63 kids running! Anna and Stephanie walked with me to the Expo area across the street and we saw some amazing buildings and rode the rollercoaster. It was a great ride and view from the top. I definitely want to go back.

Gwangwa Bridge at Night

Here's a short video of the bridge at night.

Gwangali Beach

On Sunday we met up with other teachers from TCIS and had a picnic on the beach. There was a big Art Biennial with huge sculptures on the beach. Those are real roses...we could smell them!

Busan Aquarium

We went to the aquarium on Saturday night. It had a huge shark tank that we walked around and under. There were lots of colorful fish! The last picture is with Stephanie and she's also from Iowa, but unfortunately, she is a Hawkeye fan.....last night she told me Iowa beat Iowa State in football, so I guess we'll have to wait till basketball season for Iowa State to beat Iowa.

Buddhist temple

Lighthouse and Cliffs

The lighthouse is on the cliffs and we walked down onto the rocks and could see right from the edge of the cliff into the water.

Taejongdae

We went to the area called Taejongdae and took a tram around to different places along the coast. We hiked down to a pebble beach, an observation tower and cliffs, a lighthouse, and a Buddhist temple. There were beautiful views there, and many many many steps..... These are photos from the Pebble Beach and observation tower.

Jagalski Fish Market

On Saturday morning we went to a huge fish market on the port. I saw so many fish and sea foods that I had never seen before, and they are all live in the water. One fish jumped out and was squirming on the ground close to my feet. I really didn't like that. There were at least 4 really long rows to walk down with people selling fish on both sides. We got there around 8:00 or after, but I think they had been up since 4 am catching fish and bringing them in. It was a fishy good time!

Haeundae Beach

I went with a group of 6 other people from the school to Pusan over our Chusok break. It's similar to Thanksgiving back in the states. We took the KTX fast train to Pusan on Friday and spent the day at Haeundae Beach, one of the most famous beaches in Korea. In the summer there are over 500,000 people on the beach. Since everyone was visiting family, it wasn't crowded at all and we had a blast! They even had bumper cars that we just had to put 500 won (50 cents) in to ride. We took a ferry at night around the Gwangwa bridge that was all lit up.

Volleyball

This is the first competitive boys volleyball game that I've been at! It was awesome. Our guys won their games on Friday and Saturday. My JV girls lost all sets on Friday, but won one set on Saturday. The varsity girls played with both teams and were better, but couldn't get over their mental game and win. Karl-you would love to see them. I'll try and get video from a game and post it sometime soon!