Winter begins

During November, as the weather got cooler, the kids enjoyed the last of their soccer games.  Here's Marly playing against a team from Busan at DIS.

Marly as goalkeeper.  She really enjoyed this after-school soccer club.

My students painted a few outdoor murals before it got too cold to make any more.  They did a great job!

 My friend and I enjoyed walking at Bullodong Tombs park as the leaves were turning.

A hawk there was looking for some prey.

We found a nice church in Daegu with an English service through a friend.  They served a Thanksgiving meal for everyone, it was very good.  We also had a pretty nice Thanksgiving dinner at our school cafe, complete with pumpkin pie.

In November we had International Night at DIS. This is a big event.  Here's my National Art Honor Society with their Qatar country booth, making Henna tattoos and serving hummus.

Marly's grade had India for International Night; here she is with some classmates on parade in costume.

International Night was kicked off by an amazing troupe of local dancers/drummers in traditional Korean style.  Very exciting.

After all the elementary grades performed, the Children's Choir also did a performance, including Marly and friends on xylophone.  Levi's class did not perform as he's in Jr. High; he mainly watched and enjoyed all the great international foods that our school's moms brought.  ☺

In late November, all the teachers and their families were treated to a 7-course Chinese dinner at a hotel by a generous parent.  The food and wine were excellant!

There was a chiropractor there who gave adjustments- here's James getting his.  He felt better afterwards.

For a Saturday trip, dorm residents went to the local ice rink for some skating fun.

Back at DIS, my students were busy painting an indoor hallway this time...

On Friday, Dec. 7, we got our first snowfall of the season.  It started coming down about an hour before school let out.  Here I am by my classroom window on the second floor.

After school, many kids went outside to play... like Levi.  And James.  ☺

The guys had a lot of fun in the snow.  It packed very easy to make snowballs.

An hour later, after-school clubs let out and all those kids came out to play.

The big kids were out too.

Mar and Levi had a lot of fun and went out again later and the next day to play more in the snow.

The school kids had a lot of fun creating snowmen!

The next morning I walked in Bongmu park which was a winter wonderland.

With the leaves off the trees, you can see this terraced hillside garden now.

The duckboats wore a blanket of snow.

There are some real ducks living in the lake now.  They've migrated south to here, probably from Siberia.

This grey bird liked eating the persimmons in the park.  I really need to get a field guide of Korean birds, to find out what they are.

The magpies are out and as busy as ever in the snow. I'm glad the cold weather hasn't slowed anyone down.

My Art club (NAHS) is painting a mural at the local coffeeshop, the Muffin Tree.

Here's a closeup.  They're so talented!

My 10th grade students created masks for characters in the play, Antigone. They created a short version of the play for their English teacher and performed it at the Dec. assembly.  

Two colorful guys getting ready for the school concert, Dec. 13.

Santa stays active.

Marly sang her heart out in the elementary performance of the school concert. 

Here she is doing a bell performance for the show.

We also enjoyed the MS/HS performance. Levi will be playing in the spring concert, as he's taking Music next semester.
There's always something happening at DIS!

Autumn in Korea

Autumn is here and there are even more fun things to do around Daegu.  The 4th and 5th graders enjoyed a trip to a Football (soccer) game at Daegu Stadium in late September, thanks to a generous parent.  Here they are with the stadium mascot guy (Mar's by his hand).

Here's Marly by her class (all 12 of them) getting ready to go in.  This is where the IAAF international track & field competition was run with Usain Bolt last year (They kept the giant picture of him).

Of course, we heard "Oppa Gangnam Style" over and over as we waited to enter. It's so popular, you hear it everywhere. Good thing the kids don't get tired of dancing to it.

It is an enormous and state-of-the-art stadium.  For this game there were just a couple hundred fans including us.

The action was good and Daegu (lt. blue) won! Many of their players come from Brazil. The kids really enjoyed cheering the team on from up-close.

Marly playing with her friends at the stadium- she's in the cutout. That's a Girl Scout uniform on the right.

Autumn at my daily walking place, Bongmu Park, means the leaves are changing and falling. I haven't seen this since I lived in NJ and am really enjoying it.

The veggie vendors now have pumpkins for sale.

Fall flowers are blooming, including the wild Morning Glories all over the park.

The walk around the lake has a whole different look.  Here you can see how clear the water is.

 

The magpies are becoming more social and you can get closer to them.  There are also flocks of tiny sparrows and finches looking for seeds in the park. 

Here's Nick, the owner of the Muffin tree coffeeshop next to the school. He tells me that many birds migrate south to here from Siberia.  So I'm looking forward to seeing lots more birds this winter.

The kids have been keeping busy. Schoolwork is challenging but they get more attention in small classes.   They are both doing well. For after-school activities, Marly has Kareoke club (shown here), Chorus and Cooking Club, and ice skates 1-2 x a week.  She rides to the ice rink with a schoolmate, the coach comes to pick them up.  I LOVE that.  I'll post skating pix in a future blog, after I make a trip to the rink!

Levi is keeping busy with Viola lessons, Journalism and Movie-making club, when he isn't working on schoolwork or playing computer games. He's gaining a reputation among teachers and students as a computer technician.

Shopping is one of the favorite pasttimes in Daegu and a little rain doesn't stop anyone.

We have discovered the Seomun market, the biggest in Daegu with 4000 (yes, that's four thousand) shops that have all kinds of clothes, household items, jewelry, specialty foods, you name it, separated into different areas by what they sell.  Always fun to go there.

The Snack Guy is at the market too.  Fill up a bag with your choice of mixed goodies for $7.

At the market, they also serve dishes of this local delicacy.. a kind of sliced tripe. None of us had the guts to try it (ha).

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We went to the local theater for the new 007 movie, with Levi and some of the dorm students.  It was released two weeks before the US got it.  American movies are in English like normal, with Korean subtitles.

It's Autumn at DIS.

The week of Oct. 29 was Spirit Week at the school.  James and I enjoyed Beach day although it was a bit chilly...

Nov. 1st was costume day, always fun!  Here's me with some of my Art students.  Behind them is a mural they are painting for my class, outside the school gym.

Later that day there was a costume parade through the school.  Here's Marly with her China girl dress and wig, hanging with the ghouls.  She also enjoyed trick-or-treating in the dorms while Levi gave out candy to the kids.

Me and another of my wonderful students.

On Oct. 31st, a very generous parent treated all of the high school teachers to a five-course steak dinner at his new hotel's restaurant. The filet mignon was delicious.

The dinner was complete with professional singers.  Here they are singing "Funiculi, Funicula".

We were also treated to some traditional Korean dance.

On Nov. 4, our school director took us on a hike at Mt. Juwuangsan, a well-known place.  Hiking is a national pasttime in Korea.  Here was the scene in the parking lot as scores of hikers arrived for the day.

The town by the park is famous for its apples as you can see from the cute lamps.

Here are some.. they are huge, about the size of a baby's head!

There is a village of stalls with all kinds of tasty treats on the path to the park.

The scenery and rock formations of Mt. Juwang were just amazing.

We haven't seen rock formations like this since we went to Yosemite.

Up, up, up we climbed for one hour straight.  The mountain is about 1,700 feet tall.

I logged a lot of steps on my pedometer that day.  Good thing I've been practicing hiking at the local park.

At the peak, someone  passed out rice wine to everyone to celebrate. Cheers, Mr. Kim!

Here I am on the path heading down..

While on a hike, Koreans will sit and picnic on any open spot.  A delightful habit.  Here are some folks by a dry riverbed below. We stopped to picnic under some trees, too.

Mr. Kim by the dry riverbed.

Watch out for falling rocks!

Did I mention that hiking is a national pasttime?  There were over 10,000 people at the park that day.  Here we are on the trail through a canyon, just going with the flow.  At least everyone is polite and orderly.

Another view in the canyon, with a couple hundred hikers.

The view looking back in the canyon with the crowd on the left.

This building marks the site of a fortress that was built in 600 AD by Juwang, who the mountain is named after. He made a successful coup d'etat against the Chinese Tang dynasty and settled here.

More cool rock formations on the hike.

Mt. Juwang is one of twenty Korean national parks.  Not bad for a country that's a little bigger than Florida!  I guess that's one reason people here are so into hiking.

There is also a Buddhist temple near the entrance (Mt. Juwang in background).

James and I REALLY enjoyed this beautiful hike.

Another look back, at the parking lot and village where we started faaar below...

Mt. Juwangsan is an enchanting place in autumn.

The views in the park were one of a kind.

On the hike out of the valley.  One of the best hikes ever, and we hope to go to another Korean national park someday!