2nd Month Recap

I left off with my trip to Jochiwon and so I'll start there.  The following weekend I was invited to visit a relatively small town called Jinju where the annual Lantern Festival was taking place.  I met a Korean foreign exchange student who's hometown is Jinju and she was kind enough to have me stay in her home.  She even had a momento from my school :) 

The Lanterns were really incredible, I highly recommend anyone passing through Jinju in the first weeks of October to go there.  They set the lanterns up all along the river that runs through the center of town.  When I pictured the Lantern festival I imagined a thousand lotus flowers hanging on a street or floating on water, but this was totally different.  The lanterns turned out to be lifesize works or art; people, animals, Disney movies, and political references.  Each giant scene, super hero, and soldier was a light on the water or in the adjacent park area.  Beautiful.

The week after that my principal somehow was able to procure tickets to the opening ceremony of Korea's Annual National Sports event (kinda like the National Olympics).  The interesting or important bit about this information is that at the end of the ceremony Psy (that the Gangnam Style singer) was scheduled as the finale act.  

The Ceremony itself was really great.  There were several dancing acts in addition to the presentation of all the athletes from all the different sections of Korea.  With much anticipation, the crowd basically went insane when Psy finally came on stage--including me.  He said he was only going to do 3 songs and after those three he still hadn't done Gangnam Style.  I thought, "No way!!!"  And to my delight not only did he sing Gangnam style, but he also did an encore song. ^_^  Good times!

The weekend after that I went to Gyeongju for the Fulbright Fall Conference, which was an incredible reunion of all the ETA's currently residing in Korea.  We stayed in Gyeongju from Friday to Monday and had a lot of really good conversations with friends I hadn't seen in a month and a half.  We did a lot of talking helping each other figure out solutions to different challenges we've been facing.  

Ultimately it was a really good rally and we all spent Sunday on a blissful tour of Gyeongju's historical sights, including the graves of emperors and the famous temple Bulguksa. With everything I think the re-bonding time was the best.  Out back of the hotel was a peaceful little pond and a cute wooden bridge that crossed it.  Me and some friends had a really good time just chilling there.  

Since then I've been kinda chilling.  At school I haven't had to make a lot of lesson plans because I've been giving speaking tests to all of my students.  Even so, that has been pretty exhausting because of the amount of focus it takes to try to understand a student who barely can speak any English.  I was surprised how much effort it took.  Last weekend I had a good relaxing time at home and I finally got to go shopping with my Korean friend.  Actually Sunday was a bit of a landmark day for me--I bought my first ever pair of skinny jeans.  Crazy.  I fit into Korean skinny jeans.  It's awesome :).  

This next month I have lots of plans to visit friends in other cities and November 17 I'm going to have an early Thanksgiving dinner in Seoul with Fulbright people.  That will be the incredible I'm sure.  That's the current highlight on my horizon ^_^