Hotel Riviera Daejeon

... reflective' feeling. You know....kind of like when you awaken on a Saturday morning and lie in bed listening to the rain of the rooftop. I take a short hike to a small shop within sight and enter after shaking off the umbrella. The shop owner speaks no English but does recogize my request for a 'taxi'. Kindly he gets on the phone and makes a call that sends someone my way. A few elementary schoolchildren are poking aobut selecting out candy and some chewing gum. They take the ...

... to go to Songnisan National Park for the weekend for some peace and quiet, so again I woke up nice and early, but this time I made my way to the Dong-Seoul Bus Terminal. Buses are so cheap over here, so I envisage using them a lot more than trains, even though it may mean less encounters with friendly ajummas... Once again it was blue sky when I eventually arrived in the small township of Songnisan, so I wasted no time in heading to the ...

... teachers who did remain here will help us collectively get through the 5 camps we still have to run (3 of them are only 4 day camps) and the three currently underway, the 3 red-sweater wearing camps Meg is in charge of. Sorry to bore you all... again. "I knew them when" I told you all in the last entry how Travelpod are going to display one of our pictures from this trip on the front page ...

... new, question-laden teachers who will be arriving. The OT we've just completed seemed to go well, apart from all the questions it generated. We're assuming the 14 teachers who sat through the 2 OT sessions (a.k.a. the question setters) are informed enough to help ensure that tomorrows events/tasks go smoothly (if they don't it certainly won't be for lack of effort on our part). But of course getting over one days tasks just ...

... yet we've heard it is finished. We've also heard it's "okay", the Korean equivalent of 'rubbish', 11 minutes & 42 seconds of rubbish. We hear they like our 'Star Wars' scene the best. That figures - it's the one where I had to wear a mask and didn't have any lines. Aggh well, if anything it'll be a memento of our 'crazy days' traveling. It'll be released to the public soon, so we'll let them be the final judge. We're not ...

... it through the weekend. Yep, the cafeteria was open today. So much for the line that it wouldn't be open until Monday. It was, emm, Korean food. But that was okay as we got our first taste of the much-hyped Korea University cafeteria food, and we have to say we were impressed. We're still eating various 'things' (that's about as descriptive as I feel like being right now) off white trays (just like in all our other camps) but the quality of the 'things', even ...

... the test. You could purchase the test early and answer all the questions using a book and then memorize the test. This is exactly the way the middle schoolers study for their tests. For the exams students would come to our academy where we had the test printed out and memorize the answers we told them. Luckily this was all done with the Korean teachers because I found it outrageous. I don't understand how an entire country can be taught everything by simple ...

... my Korean driver's license. They gave me a book (in Konglish - mostly English but with funny spellings based off of Korean) about 100 pages long with all the rules similar to home. It was hilarious to read because every rule written I had witnessed being broken at least once. So I studied my little book and tried to memorize the legal height one can pack things onto the back of a scooter and other such ridiculous rules. However, at the testing facility all the ...

... so traditional that I felt connected with customs that had been happening for centuries. It was a nice change from the Korea that I see on the street daily: neon lights, glittery shoes, cell phones, construction, computer games. It really made me wonder: why would they want to leave a path of a simple existence to create a cement jungle and create societal pressure to succeed in monetary ways instead of spiritual ways? But I don't think that is a question ...

... class as to why she would do this.) Not a single one mentioned presents, yummy food or visiting relatives. Q: Do you like Christmas? A: Yes (75%) because we get the day off of school. (They don't have an extended vacation, just Christmas day and it is unheard of to work any less. However I did see some academy busses running on Christmas day which leads me to believe that not everyone took the day off of work.) So So (25%). Q: What do you want for ...