Videos

Videos are a bit more interesting than photos at times, and give you more of a feel of where people are and their everyday life. So, for a change here is a glimpse of some "real time" action in Korea.

Here is a short video of a presentation at our school. It's more of a motivational speech to the students about why they need to study, take tests and further their education (especially at Avalon English Schools!). The man speaking is Mr. Wong, the Director of our hagwan. If you turn your sound up, you can hear the Korean language being spoken. The students are mostly Alaina's students, so they are middle to high school ages. The other foreigner you see in the video is Zack, one of the other upper level English teachers. The "shy" woman at the end of the video is my (Alaina's) co-teacher, Jackie. I have talked about her before, so as you may know, she is DEFINITELY not shy! Maybe just for cameras :) A few select students were also commended as "VocaKing" and "VocaQueen" for their high scores on daily tests and vocabulary quizzes.

Here we were on our way to Yangsan (north of Busan) to visit some friends and watch the opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics. Most of the subway lines are underground, but a few parts are built above ground and give awesome views and a perspective of the city. The subway ride from our apartment to Yangsan is about 40 minutes or so. This video gives you an idea of how diverse Korea is, from the bustling city life and bright flashy signs, to acres of farmland, fishing and mountains. Much of the industrial part of the city is near the water, hence the large warehouses and factories.

We are still on the same subway line here. The water you see in this video is one of the many channels that feed in to the Sea of Japan. The tall structure in the distance if the Tower of Yangsan (kind of like Reunion Tower -the "ball"- in Dallas, for all you Texas folks!)

While westerners celebrate February 14th as Valentine's Day, here in Korean it is Lunar New Years. For us, this means a day off work! As for Koreans, they visit their families and pay tribute to their elders by visiting their grave sites. This holiday is comparable to our Christmas--children receive gifts and money from everyone in their family. The bigger the family the more money (won) you get! Most businesses are closed for the weekend and traffic is horrendous. You can see the chaos in this video (taken from our apartment) as an ambulance tries to weave its way through the stacked up cars. Also, take note of how most of the cars are either black or white..

We had a little fun and took advantage of living on the 19th floor of our apartment building. Loren skillfully crafted a paper airplane and gave it a test run. Can you track it? We feel like this may be the first of many trials (sorry the video is sideways, I will learn for next time).