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!