Famous in Korea?

For everyone that thought I was joking, here I am on the front page of the Korean newspaper. This paper is called the Gookje Sinmun. And yes it is a national paper.




I was also in another news paper called the Sonyeon Joseon. It's like a childrens version of another paper called the Chosun Ilbo. Here is a weblink to the article. Unfortunatly I never got a paper copy. click it to see-->kid.chosun.com

A radio station also did a radio interview with me and I was on the radio on Wednesday. The station is TBN FM 94.9. I got a tape of the program but getting it on here is a pain, and most of the show is in Korean anyway....

So that was my crazy week. Our school has been getting a lot of attention for our English program these days. I guess that means it's been a success!

I'm not actually famous here....yet. But, it was nice to get some attention.

Fireworks at Gwangali Bridge

Last year they had a huge fireworks display for the APEC summit, which I missed. I'm not sure the exact reason behind it but they had the fireworks show again this year. The beach area was so crowded you couldn't move. People were really pushy too. In fact I couldn't even get near the sand during the show since it was so crowded. The fireworks shot off from the bridge and from boats lighting up the sky for about an hour. It was a pretty impressive show. People were jumping all over each other and climbing on top of buildings, phone booths, etc, to get a good view. I waited about 30 minutes after the show to leave because the crowd turned into a stamped trying to leave. Afterwards, the beach and streets were left covered in trash!



More pics here***

Climbing Seunghak Mountain

I try to go hiking on Sundays to a hill near my apartment called SeunghakSan. This time of year the leaves are changing colors so the hike was particularly nice.



Look at some more pictures by clicking away on these words you are now reading!

Pusan International Film Fest 2006

Last year I missed my chance to get tickets to this world class event. I had no idea tickets would be sold out so quickly. So I waited all year for another chance to go. This year tickets sold out so quickly, a month before the show started, I thought I missed it again. But, by a stroke of luck a friend of mine was giving away some tickets to "Paris je t'aime." A french movie made up of shorts by at least a dozen different directors. Many of the directors came to the screening (none present that I recognized or heard of) and the ambassador to France also made a speech. It was an interesting experience to see all these different cultures mixing together. The movie I saw was screend at an outdoor theatre near the water. I loved this event, and the movie was pretty good too.



Here are the rest of the pictures. (note+++photo galleries are now fixed)

+++BONUS+++
This is unrelated but funny. I just noticed that my picture is on the website for the New Brunswick Film Festival back in Canada. I used to be a member of the NB film co-op. See if you can find me in the picture.

Sports day at Sesan Elementary

We had a fun day of cultural events, dancing, food, and games at my school. The kids did a dance with umbrellas, and performed a Korean druming show for parents and teachers. I really have to get a video with sound of the kids doing the drum thing. It's really impressive. For now, here are some pics of the sports day.

Here are a few video clips of their umbrella dance.

Seoul

During my summer vacation I also had time to go see Seoul again. This time I got to check out more tourist stuff and wander out to some interesting night spots.

Here I am at Gyeongbokgung Fortress, the largest and most important fortress of the Joseon Dynasty. Read more about the history of the Fortress here.

The fortress has some really nice ancient looking structures and temples to see. At one time the royal family lived on these grounds.

I enjoyed some tea in a traditional tea shop.

Here is the famous "63 building".

Here is the photo gallery! <----------------------------Click that way!