Comedy Sho' by Mr. Cho

We had a chance to watch Danny Cho perform in Korea. He's a Korean comedian who was born in the U.S. He has performed stand up and has also appeared in shows such as Mad TV and Parks and Recreation. One of the girls I went with knew him in college and invited me to watch his performance. 

Here's a short video of one of his performances from his website.

 His jokes were hilarious and I was laughing so hard at times that I could barely breathe. I was definitely glad that I came up to watch him.

Nice group photo of us with Danny. I will let everyone else add other captions for this photo;)

Hanging Out With Sea Life

Last weekend, I went out with some friends on a scuba diving trip in Busan. At first I was nervous since we were at the mercy of fish large enough that they could eat us. Our certified scuba diver assured us that nothing would happen as long as we didn't provoke them. We had about a 1.5 hour crash course on the basic scuba techniques before beginning our dive. We got to only about 20 feet deep at the lowest point of the aquariam, but that's still enough to cause pressure change to our ears. Its the same effect as flying on an airplane. After about 45 minutes underwater, we slowly ascended back to the shallow end. It was one of the most exciting experiences that I've had in a long time. The view of all the sea life underwater was amazing and I will never look at an aquarium the same way. Our scuba trainer did a great job of training us and everyone came out having a great time.

Some stingrays and a few fish going around us.

Check out the size of this grouper/groper in comparison to the people watching our dive.  These big dudes can open their mouths even wider than a shark!

Sharks are not as aggressive as they are portrayed in the media. As long as we do not provoke them, they will not attack. This one started looking at us as we were taking photos, which caught me by surprise. After a while he just went on like nothing happened.

 As you can see, these gropers are a bit ugly, but still cool regardless.

 Our friends tried to take a picture of us from the outside, but we were blocked by a groper!

I had to do the peace pose since I couldn't smile or make crazy gestures under water;)

 One of the sharks lurking at the shallow end of the aquarium.

My friends also captured some video, which I will try to post in the future.

Go Go Gadget Sports

All right, my thoughts about my school's Sports Day is long overdue and will be my most epic post yet. Our school had this event roughly 3 weeks ago. When I heard about our Sports Day, I was intrigued of what would take place. The teachers were supposed to participate with our own team, but we ended up not participating (to my disappointment). This was a great time to see my students show their cheerful side since they study almost non-stop. Many of them have school plus academy from 8:30 am to 10 pm every day, so this day was definitely well-deserved! We started out by playing the familiar sports, basketball and soccer. Basketball was stopped after 10 minutes when students started chucking shots from NBA 3 point range and half court. The soccer mini-tournament went much better and students showed some nice skills. Everything else revolved around the track and field. Some of the events were somewhat bizarre at first, but it was very entertaining to watch! It was a great time overall and the students showed great competitive spirit. I'd like to thank all of the teachers for providing me with these images. For next semester, I'm hoping I get to participate in the 2nd Sports Day!

 Students warming up before all the events

 Look at how intense the students look in this race!

 For this relay, all of the students bend down for the lightest student to walk on their backs. This event is called the "bridge relay". The students in the back will then run towards the front to advance the bridge.

This event gets pretty crazy once the students are fully in motion. It reminded me of one of those kung fu movies where the main character prances over the people's shoulders to run away from the enemy. This inspired me to watch a martial arts movie afterward...

I was amazed by how the coordination of the students. None of them wiped out, and it looked liked they all had fun.

 I was tempted to grab a pair of scuba flippers and start running on the track.

 Some students doing the 110 meter hoop roll with their wands.

 This was the first of a four part obstacle relay. The students had to run to this spot, then pop the balloon before they could continue running. It was kind of funny seeing the students get frustrated when they couldn't pop their balloons on their first attempt. 

 For the second obstacle, the students had to break through this net. The student wearing orange did a dead sprint into the net. He successfully went through with little resistance, but suffered a few rope burns...

The third obstacle is similar to the potato sack race.

For the last obstacle, the students were jumping over "hurdles". The mats behind the hurdles used to reduce injury are not very soft, but I guess that's better than plunging face first into the sand!

A competition is not the same without the classic tug-of-war.

Our principal being a bit camera shy. Here I was talking to one of my co-teachers and him about activities that are done in American middle schools.

  One of the pictures my co-teachers took of me with the 7th grade students.

The final event was the 400 meter relay.

The 8th grade "Bee Team" celebrating their victory! All of the other 8th graders looked so disappointed...

The winning teams coming up to claim their prizes.

Crouching Eel, Hidden Chicken....

Preparing eel for the grill. The crazy part was seeing our server literally take out the swimming eel from the tank, wrapping it up in foil, and simmer them alive. Despite seeing part of my dinner roasting to death, the eel was pretty good after it was grilled.

Can anyone guess why my friends look ready to reach out and grab someone with their "claws"? That's because this entree happens to be chicken feet! While the taste itself was not bad, I'm not sure if this is something I'd be drooling over for dinner....