old adventure updates + new ones as I am nearing the end

So, I have shared plenty of my adventures over here in Korea, but I have been lacking some seriously awesome pictures my friends and I took while we were on them.  So here are a lot of the things I have done in my year over here...

So, a while back Some buddies and I went on a hike up Munsu-sa here in Ulsan. Here is me on a cliff side on the way up the mountain trying to look thoughtful, but just looking goofy as usual...

Me, Arron, Elliot and Josh (lurkin)

OH MY GOD! I made it to the top.... time for a Kimbob party!

There is part of my city, Ulsan. Apartments for as far as the eye can see.

So... to pick Jamie up at the airport I thought I had to be lookin fancy... So I was.. Also, for the longest time, Jason had been going on about how amazing this kiwi yogurt drink was.. Every time we went to a mart or store they were never there. So at the airport Jason found them at the mart and made me drink it.. This is the documentation of my shame for hating on him so much about kiwi yogurt. They still taste awful.....

Here is Jamie and myself at a local restaurant eating some delicious Gamjatang. It is a pork spine soup. just awesome....

oh yeah... the whale boat festival on Taehwa-gang. Here was the set up with the boats and rowing teams I was talking about and participated in.

is there any other way to chill than in a suit on a workout ball?

Josh, Me and some Korean homies in a long night out at Ilsan beach. Gotta love the boys. We had a blast even with minimal communication. This was on Josh's last weekend here in Korea.

Me and my co-teacher, Kate, at her wedding. She waiting for me to show up just to take a picture with me, before starting her wedding. Isn't she just lookin like a Korean angel?

In action bowing to the parents.

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT BUTTERFLY AND FLOWER TEMPORARY TATS?!

Jason, wearing some weird facial mask I got for free at the mart next door for buying a beer a long time ago, with Me and Nancy. The silliness never ends with us..

So, I know I am obsessed with my kindergarten kids, but they are just so damn cute and they love me more than life itself. So, I have to share more...

Jenny, Tony and Eric. they for some reason always think I am a tree to climb on....

just another one in the photo shoot. Jenny is just the cutest. It is silly how much these children love me.

Joy, Alex and Ryan on our field trip to a restaurant to learn table manners in English. Joy never smiles in pictures and i find it to be hilarious.

Aarya, who I call Mr. Staarya. This boy is so cute and always far to happy. He always acts like a little police officer telling on all the kids. even for things as simple as another student isnt sitting down while drinking their milk during their play time. He has actually picked up a scary amount of the Korean language.

Tanvi and Falak. These girls are way silly and cute, but they never stop talking to each other in class.

This is Nicky. He is one of the strangest little boys, but he loves me and he is always silly. He always wants me to call him an animal name like dolphin, fox or frog. and then he acts like that animal during his play time.

Ryan and Katherine. Ryan is totally in love with this girl. It is quite hilarious. Katherine is just a little genious. Amazingly smart and by far at the top of our class in all subjects.

Ok, back to adventures. Recently, I went to Pohang with Jason and Nancy to go on a hike at Bogyeong-sa.  It is a mountain with 12 different waterfalls. we only made it to three due to time constraints, but I am hoping to go back soon. It was actually a really funny trip because I was only wearing shoes, and swim shorts expecting to roll on some swimming holes. But, I was walking through the town without a shirt and all the korean people were totally decked out with fresh hiking gear like the are about to conquer Mt. Everest. So the whole time people just oooooing and awwing and some people even saying NOOOOOOOOO. It was hilarious. I would just always say "Conchaneyo, naneun babo" which means It's ok, Im crazy.   We actually missed the last bus out of this rural area and nearly didnt make it back to Ulsan. Luckily right as the sun is setting a cab driver rolls up and asks us if we needed a ride. Here are some of the pictures.

Thank you Russel Crow for bringing us all beer and freedom!

This was a must buy at one of the street markets. BIG MAN fanny pack!

We actually got off the bus in the wrong place, but you can tell how rural this area is. that was the only buidling on a mile stretch of road until we got to the miniature town right before the hike.

Here is the temple right before the hike to the waterfalls.

Here was the first waterfall worth talking about.  It actually had water deep enough to swim in. There were signs everywhere in Korean saying swimming prohibited, but I just couldn't resist because it was so hot. Luckily some Korean guys joined me.

some cool wilderness.

this was waterfall #3 and as far as we made it on the hike. This one was just beautiful surrounded by small caves and carvings of Buddha. Notice how decked out the Koreans are in hiking gear. This was a nice spot to swim too. I will have more pictures of this one later once I get them from Jason. Just awesome though.

In the village right before the hike they were selling bottles of this wine at all 12 of the stores. restaurants, marts and supplies shops. The bottle says "Beolddeok-ju" literally translated into "jump-up wine" I found the penises to be hilarious, I just hope this isn't viagra wine....

This was on the way to Bolyeong Mud Festival. Went on a karaoke bus with 50 other people. Needless to say, that was a wild 4 hour bus ride.

action shot. it was terribly difficult to get a picture that wasnt blurry on this thing, but pretty much just imagine 50 people tring to stand up on a tour bus singing karaoke at the top of their lungs for 4 hours. awesomeness. It is the only way to travel.

The next day at mud fest. There are plenty of weird mascots hanging out. here is me painted up with some of the famous Bolyeong mud which is supposed to be ood for your skin. Me, mascot and Nancy.

Jason, Mascot, Chris, me, mascot and Nancy

Some gangster silver guy and me.

Jason, pink robot lady and me.

Jason and I got painted up with colored mud. Just awesome times.

Me, Chris and Jason

Damn.... we are cool....

So I have been having a great time with my friends. Classes have been going well and I only have 4 weeks left of in class teaching.  On August 25th Jason and I depart on a long excursion throughout Southeast Asia.  We are going to Taiwon, The Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. Before I finally return to California I will be stopping off in NYC to visit my buddy Nick. See you all on October 18th!

Good Times Count Down

Alright, so it has been a long while since I have updated this, but that's how it goes when I'm just in the teaching grind.  Anyways a lot has happened in the last couple months.  I went to a whale festival here in Ulsan.  It is held every year to basically celebrate all the great things about whales....including eating them! And if you're wondering... yes I did eat some whale. It was awful and nearly made me spew all over m friends.. damn that was terrible... The main attraction to the festival is the whale boat race on the Taehwa River. 5 boats race at a time with teams of about 18 people on each boat paddling their asses off.  My team made it past the first round but got knocked out in the second round.  So basically after that it was time to use our wristbands to get the free food and brewskiz! My friends and I had a great time at the festival... here are a couple pictures from the event..didnt get too many unfortunately.

tents for dayzzzzz

Me, Chris and Greg. good times..

I also recently went to the 2012 World Expo in Yeosu with my friends Josh and Adam. Both of them just left Korea too...  But it was a pretty cool event.  The focus was about oceans and water preservation.  Tons of countries have their own venue to show off some culture and how they are working towards water preservation.  We went to the ones for USA, Argentina, Lithuania, Australia, Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Isreal, Italy, Turkey, a few of the 'Stans, Thailand, Spain, and a few others.  It was pretty interesting. They basically built this massive place in the city of Yeosu just for this event.  Here are some cool pictures from the Expo....

view from outside the Expo

Here was some tango dancing from Argentina's show... that was bad ass.

Isreal's made no sense....

they had silly thing like these guys positioned in strange things like its magic... had all the Koreans trippin out.

I wish I had this TV over my bed!!!!!!

Here is Adam, Josh and me at the expo lookin JACKED!

At the end of the Expo they had an amazing water/laser show. That was AWESOME! (notice all the cell phones out almost as bright as the show hahaha)

They turned the middle of the ring into a waterfall screen with animations all over it like a movie.... Damn that was cool..

who doesn't like a bit of explosions?

I feel pretty lucky, because I get to go on field trips with my kindergarten kids. They love me to death and admittedly I love them too.  They are always ridiculous cute and pretty much live to impress me all day long.  We got to go to the whale museum here in town which also has a massive aquarium.  That was a great time.  We also had a bit of an impromptu field trip because one of our teachers called in sick.  We went to a exotic animals/ flower walk place up in the hills here.  We had a blast! here are some cool pictures from those..

DOLPHINS!

look at these silly kids with the snake! here is Kia, Nika, Jack, Joy and Ellis

me and my new best friend.....

my snake friend with my kids swoopin on me. its so funny because they were pretty scared to touch the snake, but once i got involved they were all about it. gotta love these little munchkins.

walkin through all the flowers and plants and whatnot. LINE UP LITTLE ONES!

a 5 minute walk requires a lay down nap time and water break.....

So... other than field trips and hanging out with the homies, my life is pretty much dominated my teaching and my favorite part is my kindergarten kids.  They bring way too many smiles to my face every day... I have too many pictures of them because they are constantly doing stuff that has to be captured... here they are..

you ever wonder what happens with little kids find stickers?

I never knew a shelf was a chair...

I find the birthdays we have for the kids so funny. they just get as much pizza and fried chicken possible and some fruit and cookies and just stack the table then sing happy birthday 5 times at the speed of light. I just try not to laugh the whole time.

my tiger class is dominated by silly faces.

Linda is a silly face legend...

  Since Josh just has just finished his contract some friends and I went to his last service at his church. The man is a for real serious Christian... that was an interesting experience for me. We wrapped the day up by buying these silly shirts from this brand called Pancoat. they are just silly cartoony animals on shirts. They are way overpriced but insanely popular over here in Korea with kids and adults...

Shred it Joshy!

Here are is the rest of the Pancoat crew! Jason is the crocodile, Josh is the dragon and Nancy is the Hippo. I have a gorilla shirt. 

Afew random things that have really enjoy here... There are some older women that have carts in high people traffic areas all over the place here.  There are a couple at the beach near my place at Ilsan Beach.  You pay your Cheon won (1,000won is a bit less than a dollar bill) then you get to move these blocks of wood over a 1-100 numbered bingo board.  You then pic a piece of paper from a cup and if you have your blocks over any of the numbers you win a big sugar thing.  I dont really care for the sugars, but it is a hilarious thing to gamble on, even if you lose you win a little fish. PLUS they sell some awesome fireworks like roman candles! Check it out...

I have also really enjoyed the drink makkoli over here.  It is a cloudy rice wine. Pretty unique flavor.  There is also the best brand of it here from Taehwa and it only sold here in Ulsan.  It is really good mixed with cider which is a weaker version of sprite or 7up.  It is a magical beverage that is uniquely Ulsan, that i will miss terribly when I leave.

some chilsung cider, a shaken bottle of makkoli and one just before shaking it.. strange drink but it works!

Plenty more pictures to come soon.  Just need them from my friends... Anyway everything is going well over here.  I'm really ready to make it back to 'Merica.  I have been really busy planning my trip lately for the end of my contract. Jason and I are going to Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia from the 25th of August to the 11th of October.  My mind is constantly in dream land in class... CANT WAIT! more updates to come soon!