Jess Mutter's Travels: November 2012

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).

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.