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Monday, June 25

Pore strips for babies or pore strips that give you baby soft skin? I’ll never know…

Sunday, June 24

Drivers and pedestrians have to be really cautious because it isn’t uncommon for cars to run red lights. It seems like red lights are optional. There’s really nothing that stops people from doing this… Police don’t seem too bothered by traffic violations.

A year in photos – Day 119

Saturday, June 23

I had a really great weekend in Ulsan with Dave. I hadn’t seen him for almost two weeks because he had been back in Australia so it was nice to be together again.

We had planned to have a really relaxing weekend, but we ended up being very productive. We completely made over two of the rooms in his apartment. Now instead of two rooms that were quite cluttered and basically non functional, he now has an office and a bike room. We are both really happy with the results. And we had a lot of fun doing it.

A year in photos – Day 118

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Friday, June 22

I had to judge an English speech contest at my school today. The students all turned in scripts and I was able to read them over yesterday. This was my favorite speech. I thought it was clever and cute.

There were a lot of really impressive scripts, but it turns out that a lot of them didn’t live up to the writing. It was probably a mixture of nerves and the fact that the speeches were either written by or heavily revised by someone with a much higher English level.

I was really impressed by one 4th grader in particular. Yesterday when I read the scripts, I didn’t think much of hers. It was really simple. She wrote about I can/can’t.

She nailed it! She exuded confidence and memorized her speech perfectly. The great thing about it was that she probably wrote the entire thing herself. It was simple, but it was on her level and she did a fantastic job.

She won… the 3rd/4th grade competition. And both of the other top 3 had lived in the States for 6 months.

A year in photos – Day 117

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Thursday, June 21

A while back I posted a pic of a man pulling a trash cart. It wasn’t a great pic… The cart wasn’t very full and it was pretty far away. I feel like you didn’t get the full effect.

This hunchbacked woman pushes trash all through the neighborhood. They are out when it’s hot, cold, rainy, you name it.

A year in photos – Day 116

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Wednesday, June 20

Yards aren’t very common here so a lot of people have rooftop gardens. This is one that I find particularly impressive. Its located right across the street from the back of my school.

A year in photos – Day 115

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Tuesday, June 19

What’s that? Oh, it’s just my feet in bags.

Beauty stores are HUGE here. They are about as common as Starbucks in NYC. They are on every corner.

Nature Republic sells these awesome peeling foot masks. You wear these plastic baggies over your feet for 60-90 minutes and 5-7 days later your foot starts shedding all of its skin. I’m planning to bring some back to Texas with me this fall. Let me know if you want one.

A year in photos – Day 114

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Monday, June 18

I took this photo as I was walking home from work. It’s two men sharing an umbrella. One of the men has his arm around the other. Touching is a form of familiarity here and it isn’t weird for men to walk with an arm around the other, or even to hold hands.

A year in photos – Day 113

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Sunday, June 17

This is an ad that’s up in the subway station. YBM is one of the big hagwans. A hagwan is a cram school. It’s big business in Korea. The majority of my students attend at least one (but usually more). It’s not uncommon for them to go to these academies after school and not go home until 7-9pm. Remember… I teach elementary school.