One Hundred Million....

...pictures! So, Il-kyu has been working on a project for the school. He has like these display boards in our main hall to show visitors how wonderful life is at our school. Well, the pictures in them are like 10 years old. So, he's updating them. He carries the camera with him everywhere.

One day, he and I went walking after lunch. I didn't have my camera, so he provided the school one that he happened to have on him. I took a few shots. Later he brought me the camera and cable to grab my photos. Instead I decided that you might like to see a bit more and grabbed all the photos. They start before I even arrived at the school! So, you now get to see many many photos! I didn't post them all.... I started with 299, I'm posting about 65. There were a lot of repetitive ones, and also I didn't want to be here all night just uploading pics. I've got places to be, ya know? ;)


One day Mel and I walked to her school. This is a view from the bridge we crossed on the way there. That's a river!

Here's a better view of same said river.

The town area closest to Mel's school. You haven't seen it yet because Mel is highly averse to having anyone think she might be a tourist. I'm pretty sure our white skin is a good indicator that we're not locals.
**Well, I'm not going to walk around with my camera and look like a fool taking pictures of things/places that are very normal for Koreans...in fact when Aaron busts out the camera I usually stand a fair distance away from him lest anyone think we're...together...**

That's the school up there on the hill.
**This is MY school. I am actually going to take the camera there tomorrow to take some more pictures. We have lots of lovely flowering trees that I want pics of. Also I only have 2 classes tomorrow so I have plenty of free time to wander around and take pictures. No one will think I am weird at school; they already know the truth.**

Other side of the bridge, other side of the river. See that stripe through the river? It's rocks! You can walk across them.

There's those rocks again. Better view.

Look on the rocks in the back of the pic, you can see people crossing.

Just today, Il-kyu and I set off on the trail behind the school. It leads up the mountain, supposedly towards the natural spring somewhere on the mountain. We did not find said spring. We instead came out on the other side of the mountain. Thankfully we had a free period after lunch giving us plenty of time.

Here's the path at a nice wide part. It's a bit rocky. Most of the trees are pine varieties.

Random shot to show some of the view.

I'm pretty sure this pictures gives little to no idea how steep the path actually was...

Maybe looking a little steeper?

So, there's tombs all over the mountain. I'm not quite sure if one can still be easily buried on the mountain or if that's an old convention.

Another shot of the tombs.

Okay, now we're back at those early pictures I was talking about. Here's some 5th graders working on a welcome sign for me. If you look up close, you'll see my name spelled "Aron" :D

Ah, this is the board Il-kyu is updating.

Okay, is that not the cutest thing ever? I have no idea what they're doing, but they're adorable in their little lab coats!

Behind the school.

The garden I mentioned before.

This is the day the reporter was at the school. I still don't know how the story turned out. Being in Korean, I would've been able to read it. I keep forgetting to ask Il-kyu how it was.

We had a parents day a while back. I wasn't there because it was a Saturday and I never have to work those. My contract says so :D This is the view of the stage at the front of our cafeteria.

This is the cafeteria as seen from up near the stage area.

Even here they make the parents set in the little kids' desks! :D

This is a staff meeting. I don't have to go to them because they're all in Korean. Only Il-kyu and my principal speak English. Most of the other teachers have varying levels of English, but not quite conversational level.

5th graders role-playing. This was the little mermaid. Flounder, the mermaid, and I can't recall who else.

They're not as cute as the 3rd graders, but still...

2nd graders, the little hellions. If Il-kyu's not there, this class becomes miserable.

I've set the program to randomly select a student. Right here we're matching the lower case with the upper case letters. They're only 2nd graders, so they're still learning the alphabet.

On the way out...

More science time. There's lots of science pics because Il-kyu is the science teacher.

More 2nd graders. We're playing a guessing game. The point is to teach them to ask "what's that?" So they're guessing. Hint: it's a water bottle in that bag.

After a few rounds I put the stool in the bag. Laughs were had by all.

Rock, paper, scissors in English is apparently the funnest thing ever. Much cooler than just playing in Korean. Although, the other night when we were in the bar there was a large group of Koreans playing rock, paper, scissors. That's not usually the first game I think of playing when getting sloshed, but whatever.

6th graders in their native habitat, i.e. their homeroom.

4ths with their homeroom teacher.

Little second grader doing some reading in the library.

More 2nds in the library.

Aren't they cute?!

Hey, it's that garden again. This time you can see we've started tilling. I'm spreading a nice bag of dung.

Role-playing. It's that wacky fairy tale I told you, about the turtle.

Looks like this meeting was a little more formal. That's our principal at the head of the table.

They have boy scouts here too.

Okay, click this pic. Seriously. You need to see the look on that kid's face, it's hilarious!

Dig dig dig!
Try to look busy!

Try to look busy!

Hard at work.... putting captions for every picture sucks. I wish I hadn't established that as the precedent.

So, one day we're learning under, over, in, on, etc... These are presented via a dialog about hide and seek. Il-kyu came up with a hide and seek game on the fly. One kid puts the bag on their head. Everyone hides while we count down. Then bag-head stumbles around looking for people. Hilarity ensues. *bonk* "My freakin' nose!"

Friday the 13th Part 16!

After a while I added a second seeker for even more funny.

*Stumble*

Think think think....

We have a driving range. Yeppers, that we do. I haven't gotten out there yet.

Maybe it was a new phone? I don't really know. Our head teacher (2nd grade) is in the pink scarf.

Lunch time! That's the kid who made the funny face with the rake a bit further up.

Ah, this is the walk that inspired the camera borrow. A 10 minutes walk from my school there's a lake. Pretty!

They're hard to see through the trees, but there's little sheds on the lake. Pay a fee to rent one and they'll take you out in a boat. Then fish 'til happy!

More pretty view.

Just a different view of Song-ri. I passed by this little street on the walk back and thought you'd like to see it.

These tombs are right behind our school.

This is a pretty flowering tree for Mum.
**According to one of my co-teachers, this type of plant even blooms in the winter. She said she wasn't sure why, just sometimes it starts blooming!**

This time I'm showing the 2nd graders "If You're Happy and You Know It". This video is really fast and the kids are British. We just had them do the actions rather than try to sing along. It's actually hard to find a decent video of said song.

Make your own caption, I've got nothing.

Maybe they've got one?

Okay, I guess that's about it. I've got a few topics I could talk about, but I'd rather save those for another post. Otherwise I'll run out of things to say.

Bye for now!

Aaron

PS Mel is supposed to be blogging like tomorrow. So you can expect more stuff soon! :)