Summertime!

It’s summertime in Korea, and it’s beginning to feel like it! Everything is turning from the flowers and trees to the sweaty, smelly kiddos who run in to our classrooms. June welcomed us with new schedules at school and blessed us with more great friends at I.C.C. (our church here).

Here are some photos and stories as of lately:

We went to the wedding of a friend’s friend. One of our co-teachers had a friend getting married, so we decided to tag along (it was totally okay and not weird, no worries). It was different from western weddings; Interesting, to say the least! Here we are with the beautiful bride in the "Bride's Room" before the wedding. Koreans have the reception part right…buffet of steak, sushi and desserts!

Cinco de Mayo is celebrated a little differently over here…May 5^th is also a national holiday in Korea, but not for independence. It’s called Children’s Day, where every child in the city is spoiled by their parents and grandparents. We celebrated our day off by heading to the beach with some other friends from Texas. We enjoyed Mexican food and even a small bowl of guacamole! Happy Children’s Day!

We had the opportunity to “bless” another couple at our church last month. A “blessing” is between two couples in our married couples Bible study. We all draw names and take another couple to do something fun! The Head’s took the Lett’s and their adorable 2 year old son to the Busan Aquarium for the afternoon. What cool creatures they have in this place!

In May we went to a kite festival on a beach way south of the city called Dadaepo. It was really cool. Amateurs and professionals flew kites of all sizes (some even made sounds when they flew!). Good thing it was super windy that day! It was the perfect day for a kite festival.

There are tons of festivals in Busan. It seems like every weekend we have the chance to experience something new and cultural. Here we are at the Sand Festival on Haeundae Beach in Busan. Hauendae is the most popular tourist and vacation spot in Korea (on the mainland).

Busan International Motor Show (BIMOS) is a huge event put on every year by the automobile industry. There were cars from economical to luxury, and smart cars to huge tour buses.

Alaina has a job at the local English radio station. She teaches a children’s program called “Power Phonics Corner” every weekday. It’s 90.5 Busan eFM if youre interested in tuning in!

Another national holiday fell in May, buddha’s birthday. While of course we did not celebrate this event, we did enjoy the beautiful lanterns the city decorated with.

Beomeosa Temple

The Busan Museum of Modern Art currently has an exhibit of “Monet to Picasso” from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Many artists were represented including Rodin, Gauguin, Van Gogh and of course Monet and Picasso.

It's election time here in Korea, which means one thing: lots of dancing and singing to the candidates official songs. The supporters ride around in trucks playing loud music from the back with choreographed dance moves. We decided (if we could vote) to choose the best dance crew for city elections.

Oh! We bought bikes, too!

We call this...."Yoga Turtle".