Mindfulness Through the Senses Workshop

These are pictures from the yoga workshop Kara and I held in Busan, Korea. After the two hour yoga session, we all went to Dajeon Vegan Tea House.

Halloween at CDI April

Oh, Richard.

Another reason I LOVE teaching April, is that it's a lot of fun! Halloween is not traditionally celebrated in Korea, but we had a little party for our students anyway!

First, each one of the classes had a pumpkin decorating contest.

Then we watched Halloween movies.  With the younger students, we watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  For the older students, we watched "The Nightmare Before Christmas."  I watched the opening scene to 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'  FIVE times.

Finally, we converted one of the classes into a Haunted Maze. The staff decorated the walls with black garbage bags and the students had only a flashlight when entering. Some kids LOVED it.  Some kids cried. I could sympathize.

Here are two of my six classes. I'm going to miss these babes.

My youngest class. They are this crazy ALL THE TIME.

This class I've had for the entire time I've been teaching April.
 During intensive week, I would see some of them every day. I will definitely miss this bunch.

Especially these gals.
They have bright futures ahead of them!

After the students left we had a photo shoot with the staff!

Only the foreign teachers dressed up.

Nicolette and I were foxes!
FRA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KOW!

Cheese Ramen

I know this sounds so gross. But it's actually my current guilty pleasure. Don't judge me until you've tried it yourself!

Quinoa in Korea?!

This picture may not look like much, but it's definitely a rare sight. Carrots, bell peppers, and tuna with lemon juice. In one of the Tupperware, quinoa. In the other, pasta sauce made from scratch.

No rice or kimchi in sight. Eating lunch with Nicolette made my day!

Bemosa Hike

Britney, Eric, Benny, and I went on a hike from Beomosa Temple to the base of Geumjeongsan. This was the loveliest hike I've been on yet.

We started the day taking the subway to Beomosa Temple.

Details in the paint.

Details in the walls.

gate doors

gate doors

Things are really coming full circle, as Beomosa was one the first temples I ever visited here in Korea. I even did my templestay here. This is picture of a temple hall they were building back in December

12.30.12

This is the same temple hall now.

10.20.13

The four of us started at the trail head at the edge of the temple.  We walked up and over the mountain, where it became a more level path. We were walking along the ridge and could see views from both sides.

Me, Eric, Brittney, and Benny.

New trail/travel shoes!

The path along the ridge.

There was a woman selling ice cream at the top!
Genius! And how did she get those up here?!

We stopped on a big rock to eat lunch.
You know, just eating kimbap on a boulder.

Anyway, it was a gorgeous day.

Takoyaki

New obsession. There's a takoyaki truck next to my work.



I can't wait to go back to Japan!

Jinju Lantern Festival

Anne's parents, Mark and Nancy came to visit for a week.  I went with them to the Jinju Latern Festival along the Namgang River.

On the bus, Jinju was about 2 hour away from Busan.

Aside from the lanterns, different part of the river were dedicated to other exhibits such a fake Korean Drama set or trick eye art.

Nancy and Anne, cooking an omelette.

Not sure what these were for, but looked cool!

As we continued walking down the lantern side of the river, dusk was slowly setting in.

The lights started to turn on, just as we were taking pictures!

The river as the sun was setting.

We crossed a makeshift bridge to get to the other side of the river, where more lantern displays were.

RAWR

Okay, so we had been walking for a couple of hours admiring all of the beautiful lanterns along the river.  We thought we had come to the end of the exhibit, until we walked up the old castle wall.  Beyond the wall were lanterns literally as far as the I could see! It was the grandest display of lanterns I had ever seen. How was this all completely free for people to come and walk through?! There was no way we would have been able to see everything, but we made our way through.

Nancy and Mark in a pumpkin patch.

This forest display was my favorite.

Me and Anne in a magical forest!