Halloween at School

Halloween was so much fun because the children were so excited for the foreign festivities of Halloween. As you can see the kids wore all kinds of cute costumes. But, Halloween is not very popular here, exemplefied by the small selection of costumes at the department stores! There were many children dressed in the exact same outfits, which they didn't seem to even notice!

Holly dressed as 'Sailor Moon' (a cartoon character) and I was a rockstar. The kids had their own interpretation though... Holly was a student and I was a grandfather! Ben was meant to be Spider Man, but it didn't quite have the full effect without the mask. You can see in the pictures a little pumpkin-man grabbing at Ben's mask. This little guy is a rough and tough little 4 year old named Lucas who was really looking forward to being Spider Man, prior to Halloween. So when he showed up dressed as a pumpkin, with a less-than-enthused look on his face, we felt sorry for him. The pumpkin outfit was a favorite among the girls, which added insult to injury for this very masculine little boy. But, once he got ahold of Ben's mask, his self worth was boosted and he ran around the rest of the day fighting crime like only Spider Man can.

Halloween: The Haunted House

The haunted house was ultra-scary for the children. If the pitch black room with witch noises, jack o lanters, and bowls full of creepy things (for them to put their hands into) was not enough. The teachers jumping out and scaring the kids at our bosses insistance made it an over the top scary event. Probably the craziest thing was the bowl of live, squirming, eels the kids had to put their hand into and touch. It was too much even for us teachers. The Koreans have a different sense of humour to say the least... they loved the bowl of eels (see the picture of Ben and Holly with the bowl) and thought the haunted house, complete with bawling children, was the funniest thing they had ever seen.

Surfing in Busan

Last weekend I went surfing with Ben. The waves were little beyond the scope of the beginner waves I had tried previously. Ben is a seasoned surf vet, so he was not phased by the ~2m swells. I, on the other hand, was a little shaken after I caught a couple, then got pummeled by one big wave that filled my wetsuit with sand!

We had a blast though. The weather was unusually warm and sunny so we enjoyed it thoroughly.

Munsu Mountain, the Ongoing Saga

A couple weekends ago, our friend Anna was leaving Korea and she hadn't been up Munsu so we decided to take her on a hike. Also Ben, the new teacher who just arrived, hadn't done the hike either so it was a great opportunity to get up the mountain. It was a beautiful day as you can see.

The rice fields were being harvested on this occasion. On the less steep banks of the mountainside there are many stepped rice fields and small farms with the odd restaurant on the hillside. It was interesting to be able to see the rice growing process, from start to finish, while being here.

This season is also when Persimmon trees fruit. Persimmons are tomato-looking fruits that grow on big trees (like the one in the picture of the farmhouse). So we bought a big bag of them on our way down the mountain and have been enjoying them for the past 2 weeks.

Seoul during Chuseok

While Holly was visiting Amanda in Kiev, I decided to spend my holiday time exploring Seoul. For the most part, my 5 days there were spent bouldering and hiking at Bukhansan national park, on the northern outskirts of the city.

But I did meet up with my friend (and coworker)Anna to go check out the Olympic park from the 1988 Summer Olympics. Since the olympics, the area has been made an enormous park with a lot of green space. The only let down for me was that we couldn't go into any of the stadiums. In particular, I was looking forward to seeing the track where Ben Johnson ran his (sadly) famous, steroid-enhanced, record breaking 100m race. To my dissapointment none of the stadiums were open for public viewing. What's more, the stadium where Ben ran is now being used for cheezy bike racing, with thousands of men sitting outside placing bets, smoking and bustling around.

We also went to the war museum, that highlighted all the wars, armies, and empires in Korean history from the previous 2ooo years or so. The most significant and widely displayed war was the Korean War from the 1950's. The statue seen below of the 2 soldiers was taken at the museum. The effects of dividing the two states (North and South) into separate nations has really devastated people on the family level. Something I didn't know about before coming to Korea was that, in the past ~50 years, there have been many families, divided by the border, who have never been reunited with their loved ones. It's a really sad fact. But South Korea seems very eager to reunite the two countries.

So this was Seoul in a nutshell (not really, there's tons more to see and do there!). The highlight of my trip: Riding the Subway! So fun! Despite not having a subway system in my hometown of La Ronge (population: 6000) to prepare me for Seoul's subway maze, I managed to get around without getting lost. The subway was a blast. I can't wait until we get one in Saskatoon.