Field trip to Gyeongju World

Yesterday we went on a field trip to Gyeongju World amusement park with 28 of our students from Omni. We all had a blast! We left Omni at 11am, but with traffic on our way to Gyeongju, we didn't arrive until 12:30. That's a long time on a bus filled with elementary students!
The Bus Ride:

Fifth graders Tony, Alvin, Harry, and Ethan on the Omni bus on the way there.

The Omni bus with newly added seat covers and curtains...stylin!

Keven- fourth grader

Lily and Andrea being adorable.

An hour and a half bus ride...entertainment? Play with teacher's camera!

Other sources of entertainment were their PSPs and cell phones.

Are we there YET?
Gyeongju World: Things are done a lot different here in Korea. For example, after we arrived at the amusement park, the kids were told to go and play...so all kids of different ages ran off to explore on their own with no adult chaperone. Some kids did stay with teachers, but most just met up with us at 5pm to leave. Korea is extremely safe, so that allows more freedom for the kids.

We're there! Notice the boys in the front all holding hands. Can you imagine fifth grade boys in the US doing that? It's weird, even straight men hold hands here.

6th grade girls holding hands ♥

Alex, first grader. This little boy is hilarious! On the bus ride to the amusement park, he used his cell phone to call everyone in his family, including aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. to tell them where he was going and to ask how they were doing. He was acting so grown-up. Oh, and yes, even first graders have the latest cell phones here! :)

Gyeongju World

Josephine, Frank, and John waiting in line to go on the Viking ride.

Lily and Andrea on the Viking ride. It's too bad that Lily was scared out of her mind after the ride started and refused to go on any other rides the rest of the day.

Terry- fifth grader

Terry in the last row on the Viking.

Bumper cars which this group of boys waited an hour in line for.

Tony

Alex and Frank sharin some tunes.

2 of our youngest students Amy and Alex- first graders

Taking an ice cream break

Sarah and her little brother Harry

Joanna and Rachel

Melissa, Jessica, Sophia (Omni's receptionist), Alex, and Amy

Mega Drop!

Melissa after Mega Drop dropped 230 feet!

Tornado, the scariest ride ever!
Dinner: After arriving back in Ulsan, we went to a hamburger restaurant called "Chi Chi's."

When we drove up to the restaurant, the servers had already set out all the kids plates filled with food, so they could immediately dig in and refuel!

Sarah enjoying her cheese burger, fries, bananas, and cookies.

Mmmmm!

We ended our field trip at 7:30pm exhausted, but happy we got to have such a fun day with our kids before leaving Korea. We've been so impressed with the kids' behavior in Korea. We didn't have any crying, fighting, or tattling during the entire trip and RARELY have any of that kind of behavior in the classroom, either, which makes them so fun to teach! We'll really miss all of them.

Yuka Comes to Visit!

One of our best friends from Japan, Yuka, came to visit us for a few days last week! She was one of the Japanese teachers that we both worked with. Yuka and her husband, Taka, took us on many hiking and road trip adventures in Japan, so we were really excited to get to take Yuka on somewhat of a Korean "adventure."

The first night we took her around a popular area in our neighborhood, Mu Ga Dong, which is down the street from our apartment. This is a restaurant, shopping, bar area with tons of college students since it is directly in front of Ulsan University. We ate at a delicious Korean BBQ restaurant and had coffee at our favorite coffee shop. We had a lot of catching-up to do...

A Trip to Gyeongju

The next morning, our Korean friend Michelle, picked us up at 8am and took us an hour away to Gyeongju. This city was once the capital of Korea from 57 BC-935 AD. The Silla Dynasty lasted for 992 years and most of the sights Gyeongju has to offer date from the 7th century! Gyeongju is known as 'the museum without walls,' and has more tombs, temples, pagodas, and rock carvings than any other place in South Korea.

First Stop: Seokguram Grotto (a Unesco World Heritage Site)

We began by driving up the side of a mountain, then walking along a path for about 10 minutes to reach a famous Buddha statue that is considered to be one of South Korea's most important national treasures. The Buddha is actually in a cave and is constructed from slabs of carved granite. It's 11.5 feet tall and is supposedly similar to cave temples found in China and India.

This is us walking along the mountain path to reach the Buddha.

Outside the Buddha cave, Yuka took a sip of natural spring water.

A pagoda on the mountain. It was so foggy up there!

Next Stop: Bulguksa Temple

The next stage of our trip took us to South Korea's most famous temple, Bulguksa, which means 'Buddha Land Temple.'

Yuka and Melissa in front of the Bulguksa Temple.

Walking towards the temple, we first passed a couple of lotus ponds on both sides of a bridge.

At the front of the temple complex is a large stairway known as Sokgyemun, it has 33 steps signifying the 33 steps to enlightenment, which symbolically lead to the 'Land of the Buddha'.

We couldn't resist trying some deep-fried corndogs!

Us with Michelle enjoying the Cherry Blossom trees.

At the front of the temple, 4 huge statues were built to guard the entrance of the temple.

A huge drum at the temple.

Inside the Bulguksa Temple.

The three storied stone Dabotap Pagoda, which was built in 751.

A view of the temple complex.

Last Stop: Driving around Gyeongju and the resorts

We ended our trip to Gyeongju by driving around and exploring the city some. We drove through a lot of family resorts where guests can play golf, rent bikes, etc. We also drove past the Gyeongju tower, which is probably one of the coolest buildings we've ever seen. In the middle of the building, a pagoda is carved out where you can actually walk/see through the building.

A Korean Lunch
We ended our time in Gyeongju with a traditional Korean lunch. The funny thing about eating in Korea is the amount of dishes they bring you! We could only eat about 1/2 the food they brought us. The restaurant is famous for it's tofu, so we had a few different varieties of that, plus some veggie dishes, a couple soups, and some kimchi-pork. Oh ya, we can't forget the fish they served us with it's eyeballs protruding out...we passed on that dish!

Bye Yuka!

After a few days with us, Yuka had to head back to Japan. We had a great visit with her and are hoping to see her again before our year here is over!