Rainy season: view of Chiak Mountain from home after it rained all night.
Grandpa receives a blessing from Father Kim.
A visit to my great uncle's orphanage in Nonsan.
Entrance.
Cafeteria.
Great uncle and family at the orphanage.
Rice field in the countryside.
Ginger is grown under these tents.
Visit to great aunt's daycare.
Can I please pinch your cheeks?
I love fungi!
Buckwheat noodles in an ice bowl.
Snack cart on the train. Harry Potter-ish?
Seafood heaven!
Pusan city located at the southeastern corner of the country.
Alive and edible.
Fish market where every lady is yelling at you in her Korean Southern accent to buy her fish.
View of the colorful bridge from the beach.
About 75% of those businesses are sushi restaurants. Competition is fierce.
Family friends.
View from an island off Pusan. Japan is within eyesight.
Statue of mother and children who symbolize the families that wait for their fathers to return home after fishing in the ocean.
On the way home from Pusan, we stopped at this large rest stop.
Inside the rest stop.
This is the beginning of the funeral rituals for my grandpa who passed away. Fruits, incense and flowers adorn the shrine. Family members stay at this site to welcome visitors for three days straight. No sleeping for us.
Family members gamble with Korean cards in front of grandpa's memorial. My reaction was, "the nerve!" but apparently this is customary and not disrespectful. After all, it was grandpa's favorite pastime.
After friends bow to grandpa's memorial, my parents "receive" the bow of the friends as a sign of gratitude.
Funeral service at the church my grandparents attend.
Burial service at Baeron Seongji (Korean holy land).
Mom is reading a touching letter she wrote to grandpa at the burial service.
Grandpa's place.
Grandma's godmother who is explaining the importance of these Korean customs. She's a silly character with missing teeth, half-dyed hair, a cackle for a laugh and unmatched clothes. She makes me smile.
The first sangshik, which means tabled meal. It is Korean custom to set a table for the deceased because the spirit is hungry. Grandma is pouring some Korean liquor (soju). I was really confused when we ate all the food soon after.
We visited grandpa's burial site as is custom on the 3rd day after the funeral.
Everybody takes turns lighting the incense, pouring the liquor and bowing 2.5 times.
Chatting at grandpa's niche of the mausoleum.
3 generations at the center of a medieval labyrinth.
Meditation exercise on the labyrinth.
Boreum sangshik: 15 lunar days post death another table is set for the deceased; we bow and pour Korean liquor.
Traditional Korean-style mass on the floor. It was a neat experience except my legs fell asleep.
With friends at Baeron Seongji.
I know this is too obvious to even express but I noticed that everybody here is Korean. It's so weird to think that the people who never leave the country may never know what race consciousness is.
Friend's dog that wears a baby diaper wrapped with pantyhose.
The dog is cute.
Some people believe butterflies have a spiritual significance. At the funeral, a butterfly landed on my grandpa's picture so my grandma believed he had already become a butterfly. Several days ago, another butterfly landed in our house and she proceeded to talk to it because "he" had visited us. I had this picture taken to show my grandma that "he" had visited me while I was eating in a restaurant.
Duck feast.
Street in front of our house.
Spiders everywhere: I used to be scared of them but now I talk to them in English when I get tired of speaking Korean.
Family visit: my young cousins and me.
Aunts and grandmother.
Monthly service trip to the "Angel's House." It is a home for physically and mentally handicapped children.
Playground and dorms for the kids.
Teaching the kids how to say the "Our Father" in English.
Kids were very affectionate.
Volunteer team from church.
The infamous peace sign!
Beginning of the 7-day English Program in Korea (EPIK) orientation at Koryo University.
On our second day of orientation, we went to a folk village to see how people lived over a century ago.
Traditional house.
Drumming and dancing with ribbon hats.
The see-saw show was amazing! Flips, ribbons and large hoops were employed in the following acts.
Korean traditional tight rope-walking w/ a fan! This was very entertaining and impressive.
Korean EPIK teachers!
There was a wonderful concert of Korean traditional instruments such as the zither. I love that word!
We got to sing along to "Arirang," a famous Korean folk song. The variations were hard to follow.
We had a Korean craft class to make a jewelery box of Hanji. (www.doorihanji.co.kr)
EPIKers running around with their kites in their nice dress clothes.
A view of Koryo University, the largest boarding campus in Korea.
Nongshim Hall where our seminars took place.
Joe, a fellow EPIK teacher, is a very swell harmonica player! He keeps it handy wherever he goes. His rendition on "The Farmer in the Dell" is encore-worthy.
We practiced pouring drinks (Korean-style) on our last night of orientation.
The EPIK teachers of Gangwondo province had a second orientation immediately after the first on a beachside resort on the East coast. We are showcasing the banner.
My room at the second orientation in Yangyang.
"Catherine Teacher" and "Anna Teacher."
Rows of fish/squid boats. It smelled fishy of course.
It was a windy, rainy day so this is my attempt to escape the nausea inside the boat. It would also explain why I look a bit loopy.
Nearing the port in Sokcho.
We took a field trip to the Thomas Edison Museum and this is a picture of the first lightbulb. It was quite random to see several of his first inventions in a Korean museum.
First time I've ever seen so many gramophones in my life.
Evening walk at the beach on the East coast of South Korea.
Swimming at 6:30am to wake us up.
Teacher friends!
Waiting in anticipation for the final event in the hotel lobby.
Orientation farewell dinner was grand! I got my fix of much-needed spaghetti.
Korean fan dance called buchaechum.
Grandmother's godmother who is singing and showing off her new jacket.
I convinced my grandmother that Korean Bugles taste better if you eat them off your fingers.
Lanterns made by children at the Hanji festival of Wonju.
Pyongwon Middle School: my workplace for the next year. I teach about 800 students a week.
1st graders on the top floor and 3rd graders on the bottom floor. Seniority is everywhere.
My first dinner with the teachers of my office, where sharing alcohol is a must! They love speaking English with me and are certainly more eager to learn than the students.
