Summer Camp

Here are some photos of the activities we did during summer camp. The camp lasted for two weeks and most of the students seemed to enjoy it. Each day had a mini theme, which included aspects such as drawing, outdoor activities, movie sessions, and games.

 This girl is one of the better English students and she does awesome drawings. Notice how she censors her name with hearts when this picture was taken.

This was a sandwich making contest. We had all of the students and teachers taste each of the groups' sandwiches and voted on the best one.
Doesn't this sandwich look delicious? I had the chance to sample this sandwich and it was very good. One of the ingredients was a shrimp spread and it was awesome!

 During the fashion activity, students created their "future" trends. This one was about half way done, but was starting to look nicely detailed.

 A group picture of one of our camp groups. Notice some of the students are having a bit of fun with one of our teachers during the photo session.

During this activity, the students had 90 seconds to complete their "mission" on the cards that they picked.

 Here is a sheet showing many of the mission activities.
 

He's too embarrassed to show his face next to her 90 second drawing and description!

Here is a group that nearly finished their poster.... I wonder how these guys managed to find a picture of Hefner and The Playmates from a pile of old magazines and newspapers? When I asked if any of them knew who they were, one of them said, "He is a playboy!". I just laughed and refrained from providing any other info. Many Korean students are taught that a "pimp" is called a "playboy". I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they don't know who they really are....

The students enjoyed playing dodge ball, especially since I added a rule that changed the game quite a bit. They were allowed to re-enter the game if they correctly answered one of my questions. It was kind of funny seeing all of the students rush towards me to try to get back in the game.

Wally World in Korea!

It looks like Wal-Mart is beginning its world take over with this opening in Daegu.... Damn you smiley face and roll back prices!

샤브샤브 - Excellent Food

After school, some of us had Shabu Shabu (샤브샤브) for dinner. It's a meal where we have a hot pot with temp control right at our table. One side of the pot is a spicy broth and the other side is a savory broth. We simply throw the ingredients into the pot and let it boil in the broth. The wide variety of foods we could use is what made this meal so phenomenal.

 First we threw in basil & mint leaves, onions, seaweed, and shallots for more flavor.

 Along with thinly sliced beef, there are a few dumplings, mushroom shoots, and some tasty flour batter with various spices. We also ordered a seafood plate which had several choices: shrimp, clams, baby octopus, shellfish, squid, and oyster. - Mmmm!

 Here we are beginning to throw in more ingredients for cooking. Whoever thought of a catchy name like Shabu Shabu for a dish is a genius!

Some of the food is ready to eat in as little as a minute. As you can see, we also put in some tofu along with Udon noodles (which equals amazing). This meal looks delicious right? I'm definitely coming again for more!

Updated entries

Now that I'm finished with a very busy month that included testing and summer camp, it's time to catch up with all of my updates. Some of you may have noticed that I included several posts that I didn't make in almost three weeks. I'll try my best to carry on with my posts before I start my vacation.

Apple's Next Project

Now there's an app for one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes too!

Sanitizer Not Enough?

So what happens if you don't have time to wash your hands and you don't think sanitizer will kill all of those germs? Maybe UV lighting will do the trick! I'm serious about this by the way!

Mud Festival

The Mud Festival is one of the main summer events in Korea during the week of July 16th-24th. Some of us signed up through Adventure Korea, a travel company that has great personnel. They were one of the few companies that were allowed some access to the mud flats. Many parts of the mud flats are reserved solely for the use in the festival. They want to keep the mud as pure as possible. The site of the festival is actually about 25 kilometers from the mudflats. The mud is brought from the mud flats to the festival. I didn't realize how many foreigners lived in Korea until I arrived at this festival. I almost forgot that I was even in Korea during this time. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my new camera because of the mud, but I did collect some pictures from friends! Maybe I should get a disposable camera if I get to attend the festival next year.

 The first event at the mud flats was chicken fighting. You fall to the ground, it's game over.

 Playing soccer in the mud was pretty fun. I did a wicked slide tackle to block a shot attempt that extended about 5 feet over. Too bad no one else captured a picture.

 Here's a quick group picture before we continued with the next events.

Mud wresting was pretty entertaining to watch. This was right after one of the guys was thrown into the inner tube pile driver style and bounced right out of the ring.

 I think it's easy to figure out which one of us did not participate in mud wrestling...

 The entrance into the festival. Notice that it even says "mud" in English - now that's what I call being foreign friendly!

 I have to give props to the people who used the mud as part of their costumes, since they were dressed like this for the whole day!

 This picture gives somewhat of an idea of how crowded it was at the festival. Since the beach is just right there, we could easily wash all of the mud off in the ocean!

Look at all of this mud!

Food for Thought

For one of our lunches, our school decided to go to a Japanese buffet place. There were 15 different kinds of sushi, and all but one was pretty good. The Udon noodle bar was great as well. After picking my ingredients and broth, I just give it to the chef and he lights the entire pot on fire.

For one of my dinners, I had went with one of the teachers for Galbitang and Chadolbegi, which is beef brisket soup and marinated beef. At first the soup looked simple, but the broth was amazing. I recommend eating this soup especially during the colder months. The marinated beef placed on a piece of lettuce. I have a choice of adding raw garlic or onion (or both) and top it off with mild or spicy bean paste. Then I wrap up the contents and enjoy!

Worst combination ever

I was eating an apple pie and a bartender who worked at the bar asked for my plate. He wanted to put something that is "traditional" on my dessert. I was thinking it was going to be ice cream, but I was VERY wrong. This was what he gave me instead.... I didn't want to be rude, so I ate some of it.... only to bring this downstairs when he wasn't looking and threw it away. My friends were laughing hysterically at this incident!

Happy 4th of July from Korea!

This was the only US flag I saw anywhere in Korea on the 4th of July, so I figured it would be appropriate to post this here.