Korea Burn

Since coming to Korea, I have really appreciated food and eating out. I may have said this before, but eating out here is just so so good. I feel like no matter where you go, the food is amazing and there is just so much flavour. Every meal is just so delicious and I just really have come to appreciate it. Recently I went out with Chris and Ben to have Galbi and I just can't even describe how perfectly good it was. Every bite of every dish is just so satisfying. That is not to say shopping and cooking for myself is not frustrating, but eating out is wonderful.

I went on my first field trip with LCI. We went to a nearby Energy Plant and the students learned different ways to create energy and how to save energy. It was not the most exciting field trip ever, and I'm pretty sure they went last year as well, but they still seemed to enjoy it - but honestly, what kid doesn't like getting out of school for a day?! We left around 10am and piled into our assigned busses. I sat beside one of my students Anie. (Sorry for the blurry pictures, these kids can't stay still and move way too fast!)

 

Below is Sally and Olivia

 

 

This would have been a super cute picture of Michael and Tyler had it not been blurry!!

 

 

 Three of the classes learning about energy - they all wear LCI t-shirts and pants whenever there is a field trip - matchy matchy. But it does help to keep them all together!

 

 

 My class! They are really bad at smiling and Tyler has some weird hand gestures going on. She loves to sit on my lap though. Everyday at the end of class, I give them their stickers on their sticker sheets and she sits on my lap and watches and helps count :)

 

 

 

 Cuties - Michael and Tyler

 

 

 All of the little hands holding mine

 

 

Sungwon

 

 Anie and Sungwon

 

 

I know that they did learn a fair bit about energy, as they were all able to tell me different ways we can save energy when we got back to school. But I am looking forward to a more exciting field trip. I have heard we usually take the kids on a hike in October, so that would be fun. As well, on this field trip the guides spoke to the kids in Korean, so we couldn't even appreciate it much, not knowing what they were saying.

 

Now for Korea burn - My pick up location had been changed to Jukjeon Tollway Bus Stop and I had no idea where that was. Despite looking at maps, I felt pretty hopeless about finding it. Luckily, two of my coworkers Nate and Chuck were also going (but on an earlier bus) so I tagged along with them when they went to find the stop. We found it with some help from random Koreans on the street. We parted ways, and I headed back to my apartment to finish packing for the weekend. It's really hard to pack when you need to be completely self sufficient for an entire weekend. There is no possibility of running to a store if you forget something. Although it seems I always find it hard to pack! But really - what does one bring for food knowing you probably don't have access to anything that you can cook food on? How much water do you bring to last you Friday through Sunday? I ended up bringing some bread, peanut butter, ramen, zucchini, cookies, protein bars, candy, and oranges. Along with a 2L bottle of water, a 2L bottle of Gatorade, and 2 bottles of Soju. Keep in mind that previous to this weekend, a group of us discussed what to bring and brought different things to share. I was a little bit nervous when I got to the bus stop because I was the only one there (and had assumed others would have been picked up at my stop too). Several older Korean people arrived who were clearly going on a hiking trip and not going to Korea Burn. Eventually the bus showed up (late) and I found out they made a special stop in Jukjeon just to pick me up :) I walked onto the bus to everyone saying "Hi Ashley" and found my spot next to Emmalee (and behind Molly), two of the girls I had planned on going with. We left Jukjeon around 11:30pm and drove several hours, making various stops for the bathroom and to pick up more beer to drink on the bus and to stock up on last minute supplies for the weekend. It had been raining an incredible amount all day Friday and I'm sure that one of the convenience stores we stopped at has never sold so many ponchos before!

 

We arrived at Cheongpo Island at 2:30am and hauled our things a good 15 minute walk to the entrance of the beach/entrance to Korea Burn. The rain had let up just in time for us to set up our tents and the group we tented with conveniently brought tarps! Emmalee and I ended up borrowing a tent from one of her friend's friends which was awesome. There was one big camping area to set up tents in. Shortly after putting our tent up we ran into my coworkers, Nate and Chuck, as well as Elliot (the teacher I took over for). We had drinks and went over to the DJ tent and danced the night away covered from the rain that started once again. It was sooo wet! At one point Emmalee and I decided to go put on our bikinis as although it was raining, it was still warm and we decided it was better to get wet in clothes that were meant to get wet in. So we spent the rest of the night in our bikinis and a rain jacket. At one point we ended up at another theme camp that was making and serving grill cheese sandwiches (probably one of the best things I ate all weekend). We had already met a bunch of people that night but decided to head to bed and get out of the rain around 4/5am. Only that wasn't the case - it had been raining so hard that everything in our tent was already soaked. We 'slept' on soaking wet sleeping bags with puddles in our tent but tried to stay positive about the weekend. Below is a picture of Emmalee and I on the bus to Korea Burn, and Elliot (making a lovely face) and I during the first night of dancing. Elliot is a fellow Vancouverite and Emmalee is from near Toronto if I haven't mentioned that in a previous post.

 

 

Waking up the next morning was a mix of excitement, frustration, disappointment and frozenness. We woke up to the continued pouring rain and our clothes had soaked up more rain that ran into our tent. I decided to go survey the situation and this is what I saw:

 

It was a bit hard to stay positive about the weekend at this point, but at the same time you couldn't do anything but laugh. A lot of people were already piling into cabs or considering heading back. I ran into Chuck and he was heading to a nearby pension to see if they had any rooms available. This sounded like the best idea to me (especially considering if it were to stop raining, our things would still be drenched for the next night). We ended up getting the last room at the pension (for way more than we should have paid) and made new friends and piled 10 of us into the room. Wow was it ever amazing to have a dry space and blankets! This also gave us a small kitchen to cook in and two of our own private bathrooms and showers.

We spent that morning napping and playing drinking games and then finally the rain subsided! The sun came out in full force and we got ready to head out. We stayed in the pension with my coworkers and a group of teachers from Jeju. One of the girls, Brenna is very talented at face painting so we all got done up.

Below Top: The finished product of my face being painted & Nate getting his done.
Bottom: Elle and I with matching suns and Glenn done up in face and body paint.

 

 

 

 

The rest of the day was filled with so many different things I can't even begin to go into details on everything. Emmalee and I wandered around and met new people. We played beer pong, we shoe jousted, we danced, we went on a handmade seasaw, we tried pickled soju (pickle juice and soju together), we did a dare for free pizza and beer, we had friendship bracelets made, we sang, we burned sparklers, we watched the burning man burn down, we watched a fire show, watched burlesque. We were free.

PIP - Partners in Pink 

 

The Manifestation Station - You were supposed to write something on a piece a paper that you wanted to manifest or to let go. All of the papers would be burned and set into the universe with the burning man at night.

 

Someone painted this by hand during the weekend, just amazing!

 

 

Two guys had a graffiti battle and came up with this.

 

 

The next day we spend swimming and tanning on the beach. We also regrouped with Molly and the rest of her friends and made an amazing lunch. It was such a good end to an amazing weekend. I can't even put into words how good the weekend was, but it was so good and just what I needed. I am so lucky to have spent it with such amazing people!