Its Fall, The temp is dropping and its time for a break!

The past month has been a rough one.  October  is a very busy month for our school.  Grades, parents weekend, Chuseok Break, Fall Break, and the start of second quarter.  Its alot!  We did get some adventuring in however.

We checked out the little unlucky Oreum near the Village.  I think its called Doeksan or something like that, but I just call it saddle back mountain, since it's not nice and round like the other oreum.  The locals consider it unlucky, because it's not nice and round and there are little towers at the 4 cardinal compass points to keep the spirits in.  Theres also a Confucian temple at the base, and a nice little trail that looks like it  sees very little use.

Thats where we are headed Abi

Saddle in the foreground (both peaks) Sanbangsan in the background, Hallasan faint on the left far background.

You can almost  see the trail to the top, its in the dip to the left of the peak.....Most of the trail is at the level of the power lines in the foreground...

Pretty flowers and butterflies

And these beasties, the size of a poker chip are all over the island.

on the main trail

two lovely ladies at the start of the trail.

yes, 150 meters (~450 ft)  vertical in only a kilometer  of trail...  start bottom left, peak is red dot on the right.  Yellow dot is a cave entrance....

trail looks very unused, but still sturdy

Since it was a short trail, we tried the first trail up the mountain.  Up, meaning nearly vertical.  It dead ended at a cave.  Maybe  where the evil spirits live?  I gotta admit, I was not keen to enter....

the deep, dark, dank cave.  Im not going in there....

Jessi and Abi taking a peek

So we went  back down and went around to find the peak.  most of the trail was low around the north side of the mountain and the trail to the top was nearly vertical.  It had us climbing steps and scrambling over boulders.  Glad Abi was in the pack or we wouldnt have made it.  

steep enough that we made several stops to catch our breath.

kinderpack in the wild!

my selfie skills suck!

almost there, you can see the sunlight

The view at the top was stunning.  Had a great vantage over our little corner of the island.

I can see KIS from here! Gold  building on the left (Middle School)  to the black and wite checks on the right (High School).  Weird UFO looking building is Branksome Hall Asia (Canadian international school, IB all girls), just up the hill from KIS

nice view of Sanbangsan and Dragonhead Point on the shore.

Sangaksan (caldera on the shore) Sagaye Beach (on left) and Moseulpo and Daejeong (on right) (we really are in the boonies...)

a much better selfie by me!

Jessi took Abi to Norimae, a little park nearby for kids.  They had a great time.

Yeah...  everywhere.  And HUGE!

seriously kiddo?

She also got a new bike.  All of ther little nursury school friends have one, so we jumped on the bandwagon.  Shes now a full fledged member of Diapers for Life!  the toddle biker gang.

theyre called balance bikes, no pedals or training wheels.  

she gets faster each day!

Ben, Audrey, and Abi after some serious biking.

whos idea was chocolate ice cream at dusk???  

ID like to take a second and describe Parents weekend.  In the states, we have parent teacher conferences.  A 4 hour block of time when parents schedule 15 - 20 minutes of  our time to t alk about their child.  We also have open house, which is a little more structured, when parents follow their childs schedule trough a school day one night, again 15-20 minutes per class, where the teachers go over the expectations of their classroom and give some feeling of what their children will be learning this year.  I always dread conferences, because it's rarely the children who's parents you need to talk to, nor the ones who are great kids.  Its usually the parents who really care, but who's kids could give a rats ass, so theres some mildly banal talk about responsibility and why little Johnny is struggling to hold a C.  (Hint:  its because a C is good enough to not have to repeat next year).

Here, the kids are mostly boarded (they live on campus and rarely see their families) and they are under tremendous pressure to do well (an A- is too low for most, problem is, not everybody is an A student) so we have parents weekend.  Classes are shortened for two days, and parents are encouraged to follow their kids to class for those two days.  They usually sit in the back and just observe.  It was unerving having 5-7 korean parents in the back of my room silently staring at me while I was teaching.  Thursday afternoon we had our fall festival, where clubs had booths of activities and goodies, and elementary and Middle school kids dressed up for halloween.  Friday afternoon, we had scheduled 15-20 minute conferences with the parents of our advisory students, those 10 - 12 students we have in our Advisory class (like a homeroom 2 times a week) Then on Saturday, all of the high school teachers were assembled in the gym from 9-4.  We each got our own table and parents flooded in, usually with their kids as translators and were free to visit with any teacher  they chose for as long as it  took.  Some teachers were in conference from 8:30 - 3:45 when we were released.  It was daunting.  However, Kudos to the 10th grade parents, alot of them brought sweets for the teachers, macaroons, doughnuts, ferro rocher gift packs.  It was sweet.  I will never complain about open house or conference night again.  

Anyway, that kicked off Fall Break!  Most singles and DINKS (dual-income no kids) went globe trotting to Japan, China, Taiwan, Australia, Bali, Phillipines, etc.)  Most of the families stayed home and stay-cationed.  We took a drive around Halla, BBQ'd, Beached, Found Abi a Horse to ride, Game-nighted and had a great time.  Abi is potty training and doing very well, and Halloween was last night.  Despite missing the little comforts of home, its been a really fun time.

Here was our route around Halla, 1115, to 1131 and the tree tunnel and Jeju Horse Park, 1117 and then 11139 back to 1115 and home.

I think this says "Beware!  Ninja Horses!"

Abi loves the little brown horse

Horse pasture on the slopes of Halla, 

The tree tunnel, this is the road that caused the famous "Halla Hurl"

We did not have a repeat of that episode, thankfully.

Then we went to Sangaksan to ride the horses.  Here goes Liam and Peyton

Now it's abi's turn.  The oLd man, lifted her right up and put her on the horse...

she was unsure at first....

then he left her to get Audrey on her horse

Then the old man led the horses and the girls around the paddock a few times.  

ANd theres a big grin....   worth the 5,000 won (<$5.00)

And finally Halloween,  We had a Yoda costume and a few princess dresses, but we forgot the yoda hat.  Abi got to choose.  She chose....wisely!  Proud nerd dad moment.

at first we tried the pants she had on...  orange and white stripes....

then we switched to black pants and her brown boots.  

it really made the outfit...

My little youngling, complete with braid.  Watch out for Anakin kiddo...

some of the other kids getting ready to trick-or-treat around the Village. Then partied at the Moore's downstairs.  I hung out and handed out candy at our apartment.

and of course, it's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown on tv today...

Its been kinda rainy and cold today, but thats ok.  Been dealing with shipping company and customs.  Our long-term shipment finally hit korean soil, a month late.  Now we deal with customs, which is it's own special kind of hell.  Abi slept till 9:30 this morning so we've had a couch day.  Watching movies, playing and relaxing.  Back to school tomorrow.... to start Movember! 

TTFN