The Nitty Gritty

 

Me and my Advisory Students at Seokbulsa Temple in the mountains NW of Busan.

 

 Now that the school year is in full swing, we can get down to the nitty gritty of teaching.  And we have.  Its been really busy.  Jessi and I gave our first chemistry content chapter test and the average score was a 75%!  Great...  I thought.  In the states, thats what I looked for to tell me I did a good job teaching.  A C average.  The kids took it as a sign of the apocalypse.  Over 20 showed for academic support and retested within a week.  Our last test had an average somewhere in the 80% range.  WOW!

What else have we been up to?  A little of this and a little of  that.  The weather is cooling off and we are in the midst of Chuseok Break.  Kinda like Thanksgiving in the states, so we've been taking in some sights.  Since my last post, we have been to Sanbangsan, Sagaye Beach, Hello Kitty Island,  Jeongbang Falls,  Ive been to Busan and we went to Seongsan Ilchubong Tuff Cone Crater yesterday.

Sanbangsan

Is a basalt monolith that we can see from everywhere nearby.  It sits right on the coast, and you may have seen it  in some of my other posts pics.  It is considered lucky because it is very symmetrical, and it has a buddhist temple at the base and a sacred alcove half-way up.  Normally you can hike to the top, but it is closed to let the wildlife recoup this year.  It was a grey day, and we needed to get out of the house, so we went to see the temple.  Great views, lots of steps, some cool Goldenchild references, and ice cream when we were done.  There is a little more to see here, and its really close, but it started to rain so we went home without seeing the Dutch Trading Ship, or the Turtle Head Point.  We will be back.

looking up past the temple to the mountain.

The Turtle Head point and the Dutch Trading Ship.

Abi is a friggin rock star.  They all want to touch and have pics taken.  

From the top.  Thats Sangaksan in the distance.

The holy site

"I want the knife....."

Sagaye Beach

Most of the beach you can see in the pics above is called Sagaye Beach.  Its a little beach, some rocks, and a few lame surf schools.  Lame because there is very little surf, but that doesnt stop them.  I headed there with Abi and Matt, a friend  from school with his two little daughters, Audrey and Sabrina.  Jessi was at school for something, I cant remember what.  We had a fun morning playing in the sand and walking on the rocks.  Oddly enough, Alan and Judy happened to be there too with the kids.

Hello Kitty Island

One rainy day, (its rained a good portion of September) we needed to get out of the house before it turned into a bloodbath, so we decided to take in a museum.  Hello Kitty Island, yes that Hello Kitty, here we come.  Some of you may have seen my facebook post describing this place as barney's Fiancee from How I met your Mother described his apartment after she redecorated it in revenge.  "It looked like the inside of Tinkerbell's Vagina"   I did promise pics.  Here you go you little sadists.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the interior of a small, fictional character's nethers....

a little dance party room, with this video on endless repeat.  This must be hell.

Yes.  That is a whale, and yes, the kitties have their heads up it's bum.  You too could do it and be greeted with a psychadelic horror show.

At least it had a pretty cool play area with a rock wall...

and this weird net contraption, that would never fly in the states.  It was kinda cool.

Adventure Days

Our  school, being a boarding school, has divided up each grade into what we call Advisory Groups.  Each teacher is assigned a group of students (10-12 for High school) that they are to take a special interest in.  Adventure days is a chance to bond with these students.  Each grade goes somewhere or does something.  most on the island.  Jessi helped take the 9th grade to the Bomok coast where she set up a kickass marine life station.  We went the weekend before to check it out, it's just East of Seogwipo on the south coast.  On the way home we stopped at Jeongbang falls, a site we tried to find in our first week on the island, but failed miserably.  It was a nifty little hike, but there were throngs of tourists.

There was very little haze and we had visibility for miles, so we got a great view of Hallasan.  Normally its above the clouds or shrouded in haze.  Its over a mile above sealevel at the top of the crater.

Theres the stairs down to the waterfall viewing area (way off to the left)

The falls are to the right, looking towards Seogwipo.

Once you get to the bottom, you have to crawl over these boulders... lol.

The falls pretty much fall right into the sea.

A few of the ever-present Hanyeo cleaning the day's catch

My adventure day was a bit  more involved.  I went with the 10th grade to Busan for two nights...   There are 7 10th grade advisories, and Im one of them.  75 kids, 7 teachers.  Gotta say I was a nervous wreck before the trip, but it was fun.  We basically explored the city mostly on our own as an advisory.  We went to the Sea Life Busan Aquarium, the Museum of Art , and the Busan Museum (history museum).  We took in the largest Shopping Mall in the world Shinsegae (at least it used to be).  14 floors of shops and 2 basement  levels, including a spa, movie theater, amusement park, driving range (full size on the top 4 floors) and a school.  It was HUGE!!!  The next day we hiked to Seokbulsa Temple.  including the 2km cable car ride each way, it was 12 km up and down some nasty hills.  Quite a rough trek, but we need to get the kids ready for Nepal in April for the service learning trip.  We stayed right on Haeundae beach in a fairly cheap (<$80/night) hotel.  It was a great trip, I really got to bond with my advisory and they really got to bond with each other.  The best part was playing games on the beach after dinner one night.  Just nonsense kids games on par with red light, green light (they called it "the flower is blooming"), and a pretty cool detective game.  I cant wait to see the video they all put together.

The PTO catered Lunch when we arrived.

Most of my advisory, planning the rest of the day.

Jane at the Aquarium, waiting for the other 2 taxis to show up.

Jasmine, Sarah, Yasmin and Elin posing with the Penguins.

The whole group left to right: Jasmine, Sarah, Yasmin, Elin, Jane, Jacob, Skyler, Joshua, and Adam and Colin left to right in front.

Yasmin holding court with the penguins

We're gonna need a bigger boat...

Sarah and Skyler, up close with the rays

She's having a good time, they just dont smile for pics....

They had about a dozen LARGE Sand Tigers in this tank.

Colin and Adam, with Ben and Joon

We opted for the boat tour of the tank.

I asked how many species of fish were int he tank, he said 1.  I counted at least 2 in this picture, but there were also jacks of some sort, in addition to the permit.  He also said that thee fish become the sharks dinner eventually.  I call bullshit on that too...

The called this a "blue ocean turtle"  I called it bullshit.

The one art museum exhibit you didnt have to pay to see.  Its all they wanted to do.

Busan

Start on the right, cable car most of the way up.  Hike NW up mountain, W to Tree Village, SW down mountain, and last Bit NW up next mountain to the temple.

The cable car  to the top of the mountain...

Nice view of Busan

Almost Down the Mountain

Back up the hill, 30 degree grade!

The Temple at last!

Wait... you can drive here???!!!!

More stairs to  the shrine

And yes, proof that I made it!

And so did my entire advisory.  They are beat..  (and we still had to hike 4km back down and up the mountain to the cable car...)

The cable car is in the middle in red. The tree village is right above the big orange and brown spot, under the writing.  The Temple is not on here but would be right at the top of the map above those nasty switch-backs..

On Haeundae Beach across from the Hotel.

Seongsan Ilchubong Tuff Cone Crater

If you do a google image search for Jeju, and Im sure some of you have, you will see a picture ofthis beautiful green crater surrounded by blue ocean.  Thats Seongsan Ilchubong, it's a world heritage site, and it's been high on our list of things to do.  It is in the exact opposite corner of the island from us almost a 2 hr car ride.  We went yesterday.  It was really cool.  There were tons of Chinese tourists, pushing their way everywhere. They're quite rude.  However, the hike to the top was not easy.  All stairs!  Some of the tourists were in high heels amazingly. Its about a 30 min hike up and a 30 min hike back.  Theres a viewing platform at the top.  No hiking around the rim unfortunately.  Jessi took Abi most of the way up.  Some Chinese ladies took her some of the way too...  I looked back just in time to see them grab Abi out of the Kinderpack, pose for a picture and then start hiking past me up the stairs!  WTF!!  Climb some stairs, pass her off, snap a pic, and climb some more.  She was passed through 3 or 4 ladies before I was finally able toget her back.  She was not pleased at all....  Otehr than that it was a pretty cool hike.  Some nice monoliths of pyroclastic rock (lots of little bits, with big bits mixed in, basically solidified ash from an eruption.

It looms off the coast

And can be  seen above the roofline anywhere in this little fishing village.

It was hazy, but Hallasan is over there on the right, lost in the mist.

Seongsang up close.  Those little dots are people on the staircases up and down.

Up we go!

proclaiming it's status as a World Heritage Site, Global Geopark site , and one of the New 7 Natural Wonders ofthe World.

all I can say is stairs........

One of the many pyroclastic pillars. 

Abi being Abducted by Chinese women tourists

Everyone has their pics, up the hill they go...  Abi is not amused mommy...

Got her back safe and sound, but pissed off.

back over  the town...

close up of a pillar

The rim is so close...!

Made it!

This is the viewing area, overlooking the crater itself.

panorama of the crater

Panorama over the town

a nicer panorama of the crater, without the viewing area included

Selfies!

Back Down....

Have I mentioned the Massive Spiders on this island? This one almost as big as Abi's Hand. 

Kinda got us all looking...

Udo island in the distance.  Another trip for another day.

Down on the coast was an "Amazing Diving Women" Show.  Hanyeo house.

Look everyone!  White folk!

And I found a Buddhist Temple, NOT at the top of a mountain.

We ate lunch by the car and found a friend.  This guy knew an easy mark when he saw one...

You guys fed me,  need a friend?

3........2........1.........

OUT COLD for the duration...

Any day is a good day that ends with that.

Im sure she'll be up soon, and sounds like all of the other kids are on the new playground (just finished 2 days ago outside our front door.  She calls it "her" playground.)  Guess what we will do the rest of the day....  Hopefully we take in Andeok Valley tomorrow.  Then back to work.  Monday and Tuesday are training and Wednesday classes resume.  The life of an international teacher doesnt suck....