A day at the beach...

On Saturday we piled into a dorm van and drove two hours to the west coast of Korea. Beautiful Daechon Beach was the perfect setting for a mini-holiday and we spent time frolicking in the ocean, watching an insane pilot zoom above the beach at an alarming low altitude, reading and relaxing, eating corn dogs studded with french fries, soaking in the mud pools at the Boryeong sauna and listening to some energetic Korean drumming. It was such a nice day and the drive was gorgeous. We drove past lakes and rivers and stunning vistas of mountains and plains. We were all reminded that we need to get out of the city more often. The scenery in rural Korea is beautiful.

The Big 4-0...

Brian celebrated a milestone birthday last week by going out for an Indian dinner with all of his girls. When he arrived home he was greeted by a big surprise. About 50 TCISers were packed into our darkened living room and everyone sprang to life with shouts of "surprise" and the flinging of balloons as we walked in. Consumption of cake, setting off fireworks from our apartment balcony (to the dismay of many Hansup residents), fine conversation and a wee nip of 21-year old special Balvenie ensued. Brian said maybe turning 40 wasn't so bad if it included these fun highlights.

New restaurant opens...

On August 25th (Brian's birthday - a BIG one!), a new restaurant opened across the street from our apartment building. This video captures the scope of how the opening was announced to the neighbourhood, and this type of "hook" on the opening day of various businesses is quite common. In fact, it is even more common to see dancing girls dressed in very skimpy outfits (kind of a cross between cheerleaders and go-go dancers) performing on opening day on the sidewalk outside of new businesses. In fact, sometimes these dancers will perform on flatbed trucks throughout town, advertising a new establishment and promoting its products. This technique certainly succeeds in drawing attention to the advertising medium (although the girls think the skimpy outfits are outrageous and always roll their eyes excessively if they see a performance in progress).

Our Favourite Hike...

Despite blistering heat on Sunday, we set off for Kaejoksan mountain and hiked up for a beautiful view of the city. On the backside of the mountain you see more low peaks layered off into the horizon and at the very top there is a traditional ancestral grave (probably the best view in the city, which means this ancestor was well-loved by his/her family). Also, one of the huge perks of hiking in Korea is finding cafes and restaurants along the way and on Sunday we found a new little cafe that has opened near the base of the trail. Air conditioning, cold beverages, jazz music, a man-made waterfall babbling outside... it was a lovely spot to relax after conquering the mountain.

Escaping from the Mogi Man...

After walking to HomePlus on Friday evening to buy some weekly groceries, we were walking home down a narrow sidestreet when Brian said "Oh no". Sure enough, the sound was unmistakable. The mogi man was coming. Before we could escape to another street the loud truck turned and bore down on us, spewing mosquito insecticide in a massive cloud from its back end. Mogi means mosquito in Korean and at this time of year mogi trucks can be found throughout the community, fogging neighbourhoods in an attempt to keep mosquitoes at bay. It is a custom here that children actually chase the mogi trucks, playing and laughing in the fog as they run along. Because it was evening when we encountered this particular truck, there were no children in its wake - just Brian and I holding our sleeves over our noses and trying to hold our breath for five minutes. I decided it was safer to walk to the next street but, as soon as we arrived, there was the mogi truck, coming back along the next street! This video isn't ours but I found it online and it demonstrates quite nicely what a mogi truck is like.

Thoughts on Friday...

This has been a busy week! We just finished our second full week of classes and this week the Global Issues Network students in high school (a club I supervise) planned a big school-wide "Go For Green" environmental focus week. Cora and a group of middle schoolers took part by creating a play about environmentalism that they performed at chapel on Tuesday. Also on Tuesday we hosted Theodore Oben from the United Nations as a guest speaker for our high school students. This was quite exciting and he is pictured above with a bunch of the GIN folks (Hannah and myself included). We also witnessed a lovely sunrise early in the week and my good friend Jane took Brian and me to a new store in town that sells wonderful soap-making supplies. We made some all-natural body creams and Brian spent a few hours on Friday experimenting with new soap designs. To add more excitement to the week, we've been teaching from home (via the internet) for a few days because of some confirmed swine flu cases at our school. Classes should be back up and running next week but it's given us a chance to try some new digital tricks with online learning. Fun for us (and hopefully for the kids, too!).

Laughs at Sang Soo Herb Land...

On Saturday afternoon Brian and I escaped from Daejeon to visit Sang Soo Herb Land, located about 30 minutes north of Daejeon. The girls opted to hang out at home for the afternoon, reading books and recuperating from their return to classes. There were lovely gardens to wander through and there were also some interesting features at this park. One was a huge rock called "Penis Dinosaur Rock" (no joke); apparently if you touch this rock while pregnant you will give birth to a boy. Hmmm... we avoided touching the rock at all. There is also a wonderful restaurant on-site that serves a variation of traditional Korean bibimbap (a rice dish loaded with fresh veggies). This version comes infused with herbs and topped with edible flowers and is very delicious. While we were eating lunch we met the owner of Herb Land, Mr. Sang Soo Lee. With gestures and a bit of English he showed us how to properly mix our rice and soak the edible flowers in water kimchee. He also inducted us into a Korean love ritual where he placed three red flower petals onto my face (cheeks and forehead) so that I resembled the famous Korean ajuma mask used in traditional dances. He prepared a spoonful of flower rice and had Brian and I stand up by our table while he made some sort of announcement to the entire restaurant. Everyone clapped and cheered while Brian fed me the rice; Mr. Lee then insisted we kiss to seal the deal (while everyone watched, of course). This was the funniest thing that has happened to us in a long time and we laughed and laughed. Korea is a wonderful and quirky country and today we were reminded of how much fun it is to live here.

Celebrating the First Week of School, Trekkie Style!

After a busy and full first week of classes, we celebrated being back at TCIS by gathering with a bunch of friends for Jen Park's birthday. Jen is a big Trekkie so we all reported for Starfleet command and hung out in the auditorium at our school. We played some entertaining simulation games (involving tin foil asteroids and a basketball that represented red matter) and watched The Trouble With Tribbles (quite possibly the most famous Star Trek episode ever). It was so much fun, even though the girls rolled their eyes (many times) because of our nerdy excitement about the event and our outfits. "Live long and prosper" is all we could say in response. (Please note that Brian was especially proud of his transformation into Captain Kirk...)

Ontario wildlife and scenery...

Here are photos from this past summer highlighting some Ontario wildlife and lovely scenery. It was good to be home for six weeks!