korean dairy comes from dogs, cats, and genetically modified birds

Yesterday I went to Daegu Stadium (largest stadium in South Korea) to watch Usain Bolt run in the World Pre-Championship meet (world championships will be held in Daegu in 2011, and this was kind of a mini preview meet- not every event was run). He, of course smashed the competition in the 100m, then did a 400 minute victory lap, pausing all over for photos, posing in his famous lightning bolt pose, and just generally cheesing for the crowd. I've never been to such a big track meet in my life, and full of Olympic medalists- including David Payne, University of Cincinnati alum and silver medalist in Beijing 2008 in the 110m hurdles. I ran track at UC when David was there! So cool to see him run in an international meet in Korea! Small world. Lots of photos were taken :) The stadium itself was really cool to see. Definitely the largest stadium I've ever been in. Now in Korea I've been to a baseball game, a rugby game, and a huge track meet! I'm just trying to sample a little bit of everything that I can in my time here.

Daegu Stadium- seats 65,857

David Payne- about to run the 110m hurdles


Mostly Americans and Jamaicans lined up at the start of the 100m

Usain Bolt- camera shy


Usain Bolt killing it in the 100m

Today we had open class at school. This means that for all the kindergarten classes in the morning, the students' parents come in to observe the class while we teach. I had to prepare lessons for 2 different classes. We've been talking about this day for weeks! Though, I have to be honest, I did most of my work in the past few days. I can never do something ahead of time. I work best under the pressure of doing everything last minute! But everything went smoothly, and I was really comfortable having the parents in class with me. I think it made all my boys really hyper and they all wanted to show off how much they've learned. I've been teaching these particular students for about 2.5 months and they have come so far. My favorite is when they tattle on each other for speaking Korean during class. I have a little boy called Steve, and today during open class his mother leaned over to him and whispered something, and Steve immediately exclaimed, "Teacher! Mommy is speaking Korean!" We all got a good laugh. It's amazing how quickly children can learn a foreign language. I'm so proud of them.

Tonight after work 5 friends and I are piling into a rental van and going on a roadtrip! We've been told by a Korean friend that we're the only foreigners he's ever heard of renting a van in Korea. And we're pretty sure it's the kind of van that businesses rent, not 6 American, Canadian, and British foreigners! (It IS a 12-passenger van, afterall!) We'll be armed with a GPS, and a plethora of guidebooks. We have a rough idea of where we'll be heading, but since we'll have our own transportation (a total rarity!) we are free to go wherever we please. We're heading southwest, to an city called Wando. There are many islands in the area, lots uninhabited. So we will be camping on the beach at night, and lounging on the beach during the day. We also plan on hiking, and just generally spending as much time outdoors as possible. I've been looking forward to this for weeks and weeks. We'll be driving all night tonight to hopefully avoid the traffic. We have a 3 day weekend because tomorrow is Buddha's Birthday- a national holiday in Korea. Hopefully lots of fun is about to be had!