A ROK(ing) Adventure: Recreation Management and beach shenanigans

My co teacher's have been telling my students that I majored in Recreation Management. Most people at home aren't too aware of Recreation Management, let alone what one might do with this degree. But all of my students or the other Korean teachers all responded like they understand what my degree really was... I kind of doubted they did, but I let it go. Today I was at Bannam Middle School for the third time. I really love this place. The social studies teacher started to tell me a story about the home ec. teacher. Apparently the home ec teacher decided to take singing lessons and paid $30 for a month at a hagwon (private academy). After her first class the teacher told her that she has no pitch, her tone is terrible, she can't sing on key and she should either give up or practice everyday before coming back again. The social studies teacher found it really funny (she is always laughing!). And then I told her that I am a terrible singer and can't sing on key or carry a tune to save my life. Which made the home ec. teacher stand up to shake my hand. The social studies teacher asked me if I at least played guitar and I said no. She responded by saying "but your major is Recreation Management, you have to know how to play!" Apparently if you study Rec management here you have to learn at least one instrument. I have a feeling Rec Management in Korea is very different then what I studied at home. After we had this little conversation the Social studies teacher told me to follow her and the home ec. teacher. We walked into the English room where she handed me a guitar and started to teach me how to play. Today I learned the chords C and A minor. I also had to sing "Raise Me Up" while she played the guitar. As stated early, I am a TERRIBLE singer... I'm definitely tone deaf and I can't for the life of me read music. But, I have until December to learn to play the guitar and sing decently for the school's Winter Festival. What am I getting into?!

The teachers at Bannam are so friendly and exciting. They are always talking, laughing and snacking (which is nice, sometimes I get really hungry in the afternoon and no one talks or snacks at Geumcheon). My last class was finished at 3 pm today. I went to the teachers room and did the usual surfing of the internet. Ms. No asked me I would like to go for a walk around the school. I was all for this since my eyes were hurting from staring at the computer. We went for a 45 minute walk around the area and chatted the whole time. It was really nice and great for her so she can practice her English!

Last week was Chuseok vacation. Chuseok is Korea's Thanksgiving, usually Koreans go to their grandparent's house or have family to their house. They have a memorial service and then eat breakfast together. The traditional food during Chuseok is songpyeon, which is a rice cake type thing. For foreigners it's a vacation from school and everyday happenings. Several friends and I planned to go camping on Bigeumdo Island on the famous Heart Shaped Beach. As Chuseok neared so did a Tropical Depression, headed straight for the Island we were suppose to be at. We postponed our trip a day and spent Saturday evening hanging out together and having a big sleep over so we could all wake up together to go to the bus terminal. After a 45 minute bus ride, a 2 hour ferry ride and a 15 minute cab ride we arrived to the beach. It was overcast and foggy on Sunday, but that didn't stop us from setting up camp, collecting firewood for the camp fire and sitting on the beach. We had a great afternoon of fun and then sat around the fire for several hours enjoying each other's company. Monday was a beautiful and hot day, which was perfect for laying on the beach, swimming, hiking and playing games (or building random obstacle courses). Some of us got sunburns from falling asleep on the beach which prompted some people to get theirs out and apply it to avoid anymore burns. As the sun set, the boys built the fire where we enjoyed another night full of laughs, heart to hearts, and a bundle of memories. We even had s'mores thanks to some brilliant ladies ;) We also, unfortunately, acquired a bundle of bug bites during our night by the fire. Tuesday was another beautiful day, so we spent some time on the beach or napping in the shade after cleaning everything up. Then we headed off to catch the ferry back to Mokpo. The traffic was of course, insane because of it being the holiday but we eventually made it back to Gwangju and parted ways. On the weekends I've been crashing at my friend Gail's place, so we headed back to her apartment. We both had an extra day off on Wednesday. We slept in late, took our time getting around and then headed downtown to enjoy the day shopping. I got a bunch of things for my apartment, to spice it up a little bit more.

I had a 2 day work week at Geumcheon, which went by pretty quickly. Friday night the girls and I went out for dinner, shared a delicious warm brownie with ice cream at the First Alleyway and then headed to Ethnic Bar for a quiet evening of chatting. It's a great little place where you sit on super comfy pillows surrounded by candles and water and they play great music. Our quiet night turned into a late night at Soul Train. After being at Ethnic Bar for awhile we started to get too comfortable and wanted to sleep, so we woke up to join the boys. Gail and I eventually headed home to bed since we were getting up early for a beach party in Wando on Saturday. A few of us caught the bus to Wando around 9 am on Saturday which was another beautiful day for being on the beach and swimming in the ocean. It was a pretty cool time and we spent another night in a tent.

This Friday I plan on staying in my apartment in Naju... I think I need a little downtime. But then again, if something else exciting comes up then I'll head to Gwangju because being with friends is much more appealing then spending another night alone. :)