How time flies!
Trip Start
Aug 26, 2008
1
6
Trip End
Ongoing
Daegu, Korea Rep.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
I'm at the end of my first month of study, and mid way through my first assignment. I won't lie, when I first started I was very overwhelmed! It was not easy getting back into study! But I have got into a good routine of neglecting my school work and just studying all the time! Its great to get back in academia, and I feel like I learn a million new things everyday, most of which I have forgotten by the next! I just hope I can keep it up, but so far so good!
The weekends have been quite tame recently! Now that I'm a studying girl again Ive not been going away too much! A few weeks ago we had a long weekend and went to an International Music Festival in Ulsan. It was great fun and we watched a lot of traditional music from all over the world. My favourite was a Romanian 'gypsy' band, who were just amazing! The next day we went to Busan for the International Film Festival. Its the 13th film festival they've held and I'm pretty sure its up there with Caine! The Koreans get very excited about it, but its really just a great way to see some small scale international films on the cheap! We saw a great one called Johny Mad Dog, about child soldiers in Sierra Lione. We also saw a German film which was very slow and full of silence, but summed up the point the film was trying to make very well. I really enjoyed it, the boys fell asleep!
The last few weeks Ive been in Daegu and enjoying the local delights! Last weekend I went to Donhwa-sa. Its a temple in a local mountain. I'd been many times last time I was here, but its one of my favourite places to go! It was the temples birthday month so there were thousands of lanterns strung up throughout the whole temple! It looked beautiful! It was a gorgeous autumn day, the sky was so blue, and just a perfect day! That evening I sampled the delights of Daegu's bars (again!) and caught up with a lot of friends! Its always a good time! After a rather late night I had an early start on Sunday for an old friends wedding! One of T's old co-teachers was getting married, so I went along with Young-Mi and saw a lot of my old friends. It was great to catch up! After the wedding Young-Mi and I hung out and I finally met her boyfriend!
This week has been an easy week at school. Third grade had national exams, so no third grade classes on tue and wed, and yesterday was a music and bowing contest, so only 2 classes in the morning! My favourite kind of week!The concert was great. Every first and second grade class had prepared a song and they all sang and danced! A lot of them sang in English, so they have no excuse not to speak English now I know they can sing in English!! I sat with the third grade students and caused trouble with them! It was great fun! In the afternoon some of the students took part in a Bowing contest. Every new year young people bow to their elders as a sign of respect. Its meant to be an art in itself and really hard to do in such a controlled way! It was wonderful to watch, especially as all the girls were in Hanboks (the traditional Korean dress), which were so brightly coloured! Ive put some photos on so you can see!
Tonight is Jan's leaving dinner. His company terminated their contract, and so they are all heading back to Germany in a few days. We're all so sad that they are leaving, as they are all hysterical!
Here is a question for you, how do explain the term:
'He who fights fire with fire only ends up with ashes'
to someone who doesn't speak English!?!
