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| From left to right: Yours truly, Chul-shik (Gym), Do-hwan (Earth Science), Jin-il (Korean Language) |
Last Saturday I hiked 앞산 (literally, "In Front Mountain) in Daegu with a few other teachers at my school. They have to teach two Saturdays a month so we met up in the early afternoon and ate 잔치국수 (Wedding Party Soup). This soup is a cold noodle soup eaten on one's wedding day and contains extremely long noodles that symbolize the longeivty of one's marriage.
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| Wedding Party Soup |
The mountain itself is in Daegu, pretty close to where I live. There are numerous trails and even a cable car up to the top. We hiked for about two and a half hours to this helicopter pad (I believe it either has something to do with forest fire prevention or rescuring injured hikers).
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| On the helipad with Daegu in the background |
After taking in the view over the city of Daegu, the teachers I was with decided that taking the cable car back down was the best bet. However, the cable car ended up being too crowded and not wanting to wait any longer we decided to hike down. We met up with their wives (yes, I'm really an old man now) and went to a 막창 restaurant. Makchang, from what I understand, is grilled intestine (woo, again). It's very chewy and dipped in different sauces and eaten with lettuce. It was slightly better than the 순대 that I ate a few days before, but still intestines isn't something I look forward to with baited breath...
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| Makchang |
On Wednesday, like every other Wednesday, I went swimming and biking with my gym teachers. I'm getting more and more used to this naked thing, and more importantly to being stared at by other naked men (apparently it's unusual to see a foreigner in one of these spas so they find it appropriate to stare). While at the pool, a female Keimyung University student (the pool is near Keimyung) stopped me, mid-swim, and started to talk to me in Englsh. This is the first time that I've been stopped by a female my age. As I've said numerous times, I'm a huge hit with the older ahjummas and my middle school girls but as far as someone my age?! Hah, one of two things usually happens: a) she runs in the other direction when she hears English or b) if I try to use Korean, the conversation quickly escalates to a level where I have no idea what she's saying. Anyway, this was unusual and I think it probably has to do with her being a college student. After the pool, we went for -----. With this dish came a smaller plate of fried chicken pieces. It was extremely chewy but not all that bad. I was told that if I ate 5 pieces, they would tell me what I had just eaten. Obviously I knew that I wasn't going to like what I was about to hear but I obliged and found out it was 동집. (literally, fecal house). It was chicken anus, snipped up into little bits and fried. I have to say that it was better than the intestines but I still didn't eat any more of this side dish after finding out what it was.
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| 찜닭 |
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| 동집 |
Superlatives: This last week, in my first grade class I did a lesson on superlatives. I think that it went well, but the reason I'm not sure is because they fill in my name for any exercise I give them. For example, this is what one of my student's worksheets looked like:
1) Mr. G is the best athlete in our class.
2) Mr. G is the most famous celebrity.
3) Mr. G is the funniest person in our class.
4) Mr. G is the best soccer player. (Author's note, this is absolutely false.)
5) Mr. G is the most organized person.
6) Outback is the best restaurant in Daegu.
7) Woobang land is the best amusement park in Korea.
8) Mr. G is the best teacher at Jukjun Middle School.
9) 박신호 has the longest hair.
I also did a lesson on asking for favors. One student got up to present a question and said (in grammatically correct English I might add!!) "Teacher, can you you bring Mr. G with you everyday?" The horrors of being famous.
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| Daegu |
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| Apparently, if you can build a rock tower of at least 5 levels, you get a wish. What did I wish for? |
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| One of many trails |
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| Daegu |
