Science Time!

As the science teacher at Grace School, sometimes I get to choose fun projects. This week was Quicksand! We mixed cornstarch and water half and half, and it creates a substance that is a liquid and a solid. If you try to pull your fingers out quickly, they get stuck.  If you hit it quickly, it becomes hard.

 

I think it was probably the most successful science project yet. Every kid loves playing in a bowl full of goo.

 

Even Sam had fun. I took the opportunity to grab a snapshot of the momentous occasion.

I will miss teaching science to these guys! 

A little more Lotte!

We loved Lotte World so much that we decided we just had to go back. Only this time, instead of going with a giant group of animals, we went with a troup of children.... practically the same thing. :-)  As part of graduation week, we took the older kindergarteners there on a field trip. 

The first thing we took the kids on was the carousel.  Carousels are much more fun with kids. They are still excited by the ups and downs.

Joel and I raced. I am pretty sure he won.

While we were wandering around, we came across some dancers. This pirate jumped over and startled the kids. Most of them thought it was cute, but a couple of them were scared. We actually had quite a few scaredy cats. We took them on one ride that had a little drop, and some of the kids were grabbing our legs so hard that we had nail marks!

Sam and I on a boat ride. 

After a few rides, we wandered around the entire theme park for probably 20 minutes while our boss looked for food. The kids started getting tired and grouchy, so we sat down for a while.

A tired and Sam demanded that we go home right that instant. After a hamburger, he changed his tune and wanted to go on another ride.

We may not have taught them much this year, but we taught them how to make silly faces.

What ride did we choose for after lunch? Why, the tea cups of course.

We spent some time in the ball pit, where we had a war.

This was my team. We fired balls down toward Clayton and his team.

I took the gun, aimed it right at Clayton, and was promptly scolded by the lady watching over all the kids. Way to be a good influence, right?

A worn out Ryan on the way back to school. The kids were all tired and yawning after our full day, but he was out within 5 minutes of driving.  Definitely a sign of a successful field trip! Too bad it was our last one!

If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out!

Our little gentlemen.

Last Saturday was Grace School's kindergarten graduation. It was really cute. The kids dressed up, performed, and were given little diplomas. Most of these kids have been going to school since they were 3 years old in English age (Korean age is 5 years old).  By the end of kindergarten they are speaking English all but fluently, and doing math and language arts that most American kids don't do until third grade.  They certainly do have something to celebrate.  We are both really proud of them.

 

 Kimchi!

  

Ryan L. sang 'Ben' by Michael Jackson. It was really adorable.

Ryan J. performed 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' on the cello AND did a Tai kwan do performance that was definitely the hit of the afternoon.

Roy, one of our favorites. He may not be a big singer, but he's so cute, who cares?

The girls sang 'LOVE,' complete with amazing hand motions, and the boys sang 'I Will' by the Beatles.

After getting their diplomas, the kids sang 'Lover's Concerto.' It would have been cuter if we hadn't listened to them practice it every moment of every day for the last 3 months. But they did very well on graduation day, and the parents loved it. Don't they look like they are graduating from university?

Christina, one of the quickest kids I have ever met, and one of our co-workers, Lucia.

Our little ladies. I am going to miss them so much!

Hanna, Ryan and James... three of Clayton's students, and Sophia, another co-worker.  

For the last two months, we have been working on a surprise project for the kids and parents.  We split up the lyrics from 'If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out' by Cat Stevens, and had the kids illustrate each line. Clayton made a video with them and we showed it at graduation.  The kids did a really great job with the pictures. It is also a great way for us to remember them.

Party Animals!

As our time in the ROK comes to a close, we are squeezing in a few more Korean adventures.  The latest and greatest? An animal themed birthday party at Lotte World, a theme park in Seoul. No... this was not a party for one of our students, but for one of our friends, a fellow English teacher. 

You see, Korea (or at least the foreign community in Bundang), has these animal pajamas/costumes that you can buy online. They are great for Halloween,  Animal-themed parties, or simply a Sunday afternoon.   Most of our friends (and everyone at this party) have them.

Unfortunately, Clayton and I didn't order our costumes in time. So, we settled for the other Korean classic: couples shirts. And later we paired them with these fabulous accessories!

Lotte World is the world's largest indoor theme park. It has roller coasters winding through the building, its own version of Splash Mountain, an ice rink, a monorail, and a plethora of other attractions. Outside, there is another section of amusement park called Magic Island.  Magic Island has a roller coaster called the Atlantis, on which an employee lost their head last year due to standing up on the ride.  After riding it, I can see how it could happen. The ceilings were pretty low. Yikes!  While we enjoyed riding it, we did not enjoy the 40 minute wait in the freezing cold with no coats. The second time outside we were wiser.

 

 

The French Revolution, the indoor roller coaster, was our favorite ride. This roller coaster wound all the way through part of Lotte World, and the loop-de-loop went around a walking bridge, so you could stand under the people and make faces at them as they went upside down (see above picture).  It was amazing to see people eating lunch right under the roller coaster. It also made the ride better because you felt like you could hit something at any moment.

We stayed until just before the park closed... or at least until the outdoor rides closed. We even tried (and almost succeeded) to sweet-talk our way on to the Atlantis after it was closed...  

The skating rink.

Lotte World at night!

All in all it was a fabulous day. Highlights included being given fast-passes because we were dumb foreigners, joining a parade, and "stampeding" through the park with a bunch of animals.   With such wacky, wonderful friends, you can see why it is hard for us to leave.

Oh yea... and we went to Malaysia!

In September, during Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving), we went to Malaysia. It just so happens that it was also our 1st anniversary.  Good gift? We think so.  We landed in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday night, and left first thing in the morning for Taman Negara National Park, the world's oldest rainforest.

Since we were on a limited schedule, we booked a tour company to get to Taman Negara. On the way there, we were taken to a "deer farm" where we were walked around a sad looking zoo and shown "exotic" animals, like this osterich, some deer, and some jungle cats that looked remarkably like house cats.

We also fed a sun bear and held a python. The other ladies with us on this little excursion weren't that excited about touching the animals, but Clayton and I weren't going to turn down the opportunity. It's not every day a bear eats honey from your hand!

After the petting zoo, we ate lunch and drove to an elephant sanctuary... the real highlight of our time in Taman Negara. We fed adorable baby elephants, rode them, and watched them bathe.

This little guy was so cute!

We were supposed to get to wash the elephants in the nearby river, but the water was too high that day, so we had to settle for this. It was still awesome.

Taxi? Subway? No thanks, I'll go by elephant.

In Taman Negara, we ate on a floating restaurant every day. The food was delicious and the view was amazing!  

 Our first night, we went on a night jungle hike, in search of creepy crawly bugs! Can you see the hand-sized hunstman spider in this photo? Not only is it well disguised, it is fast as lightning.  We also saw scorpions, centipedes, and a wild pig.

 

Jungle!

The view during our hike through the jungle.

After our hike, we went up the world's longest canopy walk. It was beautiful!

After our hard work hiking through the rainforest, we thought it was a good idea to spend some time on the beach.  We took a very long bus ride, followed by a speedboat out to the Perhentian Islands.  We stayed on Perhentian Kecil, the smaller and less built up of the islands. Be thankful you will ever see us again, because if it was up to us, we would probably still be there. It was the most beautiful place.

We spent some time on the beach, snorkeled, and just relaxed. We ate delcious meals of bbq baracuda, king fish,  fresh coconut milkshakes, and malaysian noodles.

We went snorkeling and tried out out underwater camera. It was both of our first time snorkeling, and we loved it!

We threw bread out for some of the smaller fish. But we also saw sharks, and some giant fish whose names we don't know.

We also saw a sea turtle! He was so cute! We were able to swim close to him and watch while he went up and down for air.  As with all sea turtles, this guy is endangered. There were signs all around the island warning against touching them.

Island butterfly.

One of the nights, we went to the other side of the island and watched a fire show. It was pretty incredible. The guy who did most of it was foreign. We imagined that he just showed up on the island one day and never left. A tempting thought...

The view from our bungalow and around the island. 

 

After the island glory, we went back to Kuala Lumpur to experience a little grungy city life. We went to several markets in the city, including one in Little India. We also went to the night market in China town, where we haggled to our heart's content.

 Our second day in KL, we woke up early and headed over to the famouse Petronus Towers. Despite getting there early, we would have had to wait for hours to actually go up the towers, so we took photos outside and went up the KL Tower instead, where we got lovely views of the city and of the towers.

After the towers, we headed out to see the Batu Caves. The Batu Caves hold a large Hindu temple, and many monkeys. This one seems friendly, but don't be fooled. In the temple itself, we were chased by a monkey who attempted to steal the remainder of Clayton's lunch.  The monkey actually launched himself off some stairs and swung on the bag before we made it out.

Given my love of henna, I couldn't turn down this lady who was outside of the caves. She did an amazing job, and she was incredibly sweet. In fact, almost everyone we met in Malaysia was very nice. We really enjoyed our time there.

We were very glad that we took the time to go to the Batu Caves. The multitude of stairs were well worth the climb. The inside of the caves were beautiful. There was moss growing up the side of them, and huge openings where sunlight could shine through. It was a very pleasant end to a wonderful vacation.  We would definitely visit Malaysia again.