When I’m not out with friends or with Dan, I’m doing one of
two things, 1) sitting at home on the computer (aka Facebook, Pinterest or
Youtube), watching shows and movies I downloaded, or 2) working. Since the
first would totally bore you, I’d like to talk more about my job.
As I’ve said in past posts, I work at a private school here,
in South Korea. I can truly say that I love my job. I have great coworkers and
the kids I teach are so sweet, fun, and smart. I get paid to play with kids,
and I like kids, so it’s really quite easy for me!
Today, I started the day on a lesson about the word “melting”
with a group of Korean age 6 year olds (Kindergarteners). It was a simple
lesson. First they looked at a page in their book that featured the work in a
fun font with three pictures that showed things that were melting. There was a
picture of ice melting, butter melting in water in a frying pan and one of
something else I can’t recall at the moment. Anyway, after I asked them to read
the word the way they thought it was pronounced, I said it a few times, and had
each child repeat it back to me. Then we discussed each picture.
Amanda and Michael, the left page is the one about "melting"
In all of my classes each day, there are pictures to look
at, especially with the younger kids. We always try to talk about them. It
usually goes something like this: I point to a picture and say in my excited
teacher voice, “Ok boys and girls. Look at this picture. What do you see? Who
is in the picture? Where are they? Tell me anything you can in English.” I encourage
my kids to speak in sentences but sometimes this actually discourages them, so
then we just focus on saying any vocabulary words they know about that picture,
even things like, “ball, pencil, daddy” or “2 girl and one boy” although they
are getting much better at knowing when to add an s to the end of a word.
I used this same technique today with my Kindergarteners and
they were able to give me pretty good descriptions of each picture. They said, “fry
pan,” and “butter in water” for the first picture and for the second they said,
“ice is melting.” After this, I got out the 5 small paper cups and ice cube
chunks I grabbed from the cooking room earlier. I took the smallest piece of
ice I saw in the cup and asked the kids what would happen if I put the ice in
my steaming hot coffee cup. They told me, like the geniuses they are, that the
ice would melt. This was our first little melting demonstration.
I then distributed the cups, one for each child and one for
me, with an ice cube. Each cup had a different sized ice cube. We then decided who
had the biggest ice cube, down to the smallest and I wrote their names on the
board in this order. I had them guess whose ice cube would melt first and then
we “tested” out their hypothesis. I told each child to hold the cup in their
hands and slowly roll it to make the warmth from the hands move towards the ice
cube in their cup. To avoid a mess, I told them they were not allowed to touch
the ice cube, but they could touch anywhere on the cup.
Joseph showing me his ice and water
Even without touching the ice cube, they had a lot of fun
with this, touching the bottom, which seemed to absorb the most water, checking
their cube and that of the kids around them. They guessed correctly, again! Man,
they are smart!
Here you can see some pictures of the kids hard at work trying
to melt their ice cube. Just LOOK at Michael's face! Hahaha He always makes the BEST faces!
From L to R: Joseph, Michael, Alan and Amanda, holding the cups you see below
After that we practice the presentation they will recite at
the end of February for parents of perspective new students. Aren’t they
adorable?!My job is incredible :)
Michael :)
Amanda, too adorable for her own good
Joseph, so smart!
Alan :D
Well, what else can I say? This is how I spent the first 80 minutes of my work day! Does it get any better?! I think not! Hope your week is going this well! :)
This weekend was a blast. Dan and I went up to Muju with a
bunch of friends to hang out, drink, and enjoy the Lunar New Year, or Seollal (설날). We met up at Club Davey around 11pm
Friday night. From there we took two cars full of people, food, drinks, and
clothes to ski and snowboard in. The group consisted of Rob, Renee, Yonodan,
Pete and Gio in one car and Lizzie, Seth, Amanda and Dan and I in another car.
We headed north and stopped by a ski shop Rob had been
to.Here we got our rental gear and ski
lift tickets for the following day. Then we went to our room in one of the many
buildings at Muju’s resort. By the time we got into our room for the night, it
was after 3 am. Crystal, a friend of Seth and Gio’s, was already there waiting
for us. The rooms are pretty expensive but they didn’t seem to care that we
were all staying together in one suite, so it ended up being just 45,000 Won per
person for 2 nights!!
We unpacked a bit and got ready for bed. Some of the group-
Dan, Seth, Rob, and Yonodan- were all planning on walking up at 5:45 to go
snowboarding and skiing for the dawn and morning sessions. They ended up
waking up on time (although Dan just stayed awake). I learned this night that
I am a very light sleeper because their talking woke me up and kept me up until
after they left. Rob and I had an ongoing joke over the weekend that I was in
his head because I could quote things he said that weekend when he had no idea
I was around to hear them.
After the guys left, I made it back to sleep for a few more
hours, until the phone in our hotel room rang. After about 3 rings I ran to get
it, realizing nobody else was awake enough to really hear it. On the other end
was a man from the rental shop telling me, in broken English and Korean that he
was here with all of the rental gear for everyone still in the room along with our
ski lift tickets. While on the phone, Pete and Crystal woke up so I recruited
the two of them to go downstairs with me and bring up ours and everyone else’s
stuff. It took about another hour and half for us to get everyone else awake
and ready before leaving to take the shuttle to the mountain base closest to
us.
We arrived right at 10am, with five and a half hours left to
use on our ski lift tickets. Pete, Lizzie, Renee, Amanda and I took the lift up
to the top of the closest mountain and then we strapped ourselves into our
boards to get ready. Lizzie was the only one skiing in our group and she was a
bit nervous because it had been a few years since she’d last gone.
Once we started heading down the mountain, we stopped every
few minutes or so because someone had fallen behind or was tired. I liked going
at this slow pace because it meant I wasn’t getting sore. It took us a while to
get down and when we did make it down, Lizzie was pretty discouraged. She, Pete
and Amanda headed inside to get lunch while Renee and I met up with Rob, Dan
and Yonodan. The guys were just about to grab some food and head back to our
room to nap but Renee and I convinced them to do one more run.
They told us about a run four miles up that had spectacular
views and amazing snow so we headed up two lifts to get to the top of it. It
was a lot of fun to board down. The snow for the first 2/3 was absolutely
beautiful and great to be on. It was fresh and powdery. It had been snowing
since very early that morning and was continuing to snow as we were heading down.
Dan had his video camera out during this too. I think he was impressed by how I
was doing; except for the way I still had to stop every so often, although a
lot less than when I was with the other group. He was pretty tired from already
being out there so long and not sleeping at all the night before.
As we were out there,
Rob talked to someone from the hotel and was told that we would have to change
to a different room. Originally, we were going to head up to Muju on Saturday
morning so we didn’t book a room for Friday night until Friday day, so due to
the separate reservations, we had different rooms. That lead to Rob, Dan and
Yonodan heading down the mountain much faster than Renee or I could and they
took a shuttle bus back to the room so they could quickly pack everything up
and take it conveniently to a room in
a different building. :) What troopers!
While they were busy taking care of that, Renee and I made
it down the mountain and rode back up to come down again. Then we tried to meet
up with the others we knew were still around somewhere. That proved to be a bit
difficult and when we did actually meet up with Lizzie and Pete, they wanted to
go snowboarding again. I was plenty tired from not sleeping well that night and
from the snowboarding I’d already done, plus I was starving. So I offered to
wait in Lotteria while they went down for another few runs. I knew I was tired
but I didn’t realize just how tired I was until I sat down and waited for my friends
after what seemed like an eternity. I actually almost fell asleep in the busy
and noisy fast food shop. :o
When I met up with the others about an hour later, we headed
towards the shuttle buses and made it to our new room. This place was a bit
smaller than our last room, and double the price because it was on the weekend
(and a holiday). It still had two bedrooms, one of which had a bed but the
other was very small. Still, it worked out well for those who were not finished
playing in the snow because this building was practically connected to one of
the slopes. You literally had to walk out back five steps and you were ready to
go down the mountain!
When we got back to the room and took all of our cold
weather clothes off, we ate and lounged around the TV for a while. Then we
started drinking. Some had beer, some had soju, and some had wine. I had Kahlua
and Pepsi.We played all of our regular
drinking games with cards and when we ran out, some people made a run and
brought back small cups to play flip cup on the edge of the coffee table.
Dan and Seth went out for skiing from 10:30 till 12:30. By
the time they got back, EVERYONE was in bed asleep or about to be sleeping. It
was pretty surprising and funny at the same time! However, they figured they
should get in bed too since they and a few others were planning on waking up
around 6am again for the dawn and morning ski sessions.
Sure enough, they woke up, a bit sleepier than the morning
before, along with Rob, Yonodan, and Renee. They made it out a bit later but they
still got in lots of great runs. It wasn’t snowing anymore, and the skies were
crystal clear making for exceptional fun. All weekend they were recording with
Dan’s video camera and Seth’s Go Pro camera. I spent a good majority of my
Monday night and Tuesday morning (ok..
afternoon) pulling snapshots out of those videos and I compiled a 200 photo
album of the excitement onto Facebook.
While that half of our group was off on the slopes, the rest
of us were slowly waking up, cleaning up and then checking out. Last time we
were in Muju, Pete’s car needed to be jumped twice and what’s a trip without
car trouble? Surprisingly, it was not Pete’s car that had trouble, but
Lizzie’s. When she put the key in the ignition, it would not turn at all, so
after we tried several things, we had the receptionists help call her insurance
company. Shortly after, a man came out in a bright pink truck to assist us.
After fiddling with the car for a few minutes, he turned to Lizzie and said,
“No.” We had no idea what he meant. At first Lizzie thought he was saying he
couldn’t help us and was just going to leave, but it turns out he was saying
that he’d have to call another, bigger truck out to tow her small car to the
nearby shop. Pete and Lizzie drove off with the mechanics while Gio, Amanda and
I waited in the downstairs lobby, with a great view of the slope.
Less than fifteen minutes later, Pete returned and informed
us of the situation. Yes, we had all looked like huge incompetent idiots, but
that’s nothing new in a country where we can hardly communicate with the
locals, but more importantly, Lizzie’s car was fine. Apparently, when driven
into the shop, the man there took the keys and started it right up with no
problems, so we are not really sure what was wrong. We just know we didn’t have
any more trouble with it afterwards.
Once we got back to Gwangyang, Dan and I took our stuff home
and laid around for a while until we met up with the others for pizza at Mr.
Pizza. We were all hoping to eat hajeongook, but it was closed, which I had
expected, seeing how all of the Korean restaurants were closed as Dan and I
walked back. Plus I remembered how they usually are off during their national
holidays, like Chuseok.
Dan had Monday off, so we spent that together and when he
left that evening, I began working on this blog entry as well as pulling
pictures from the videos. You can see some below:
L to R Gio, Crystal, Yonodan, Rob, Lizzie
Seth, Dan, Rob, Yonodan, Renee
I love when Dan takes video's where you can see us both like this, such a cool effect!
Rob looks AWESOME!!
Dan and Yonodan on a ski lift
Dan making it look easy!
Taken from Dan's video camera, no one we know but a gorgeous view!
In short, it was a very entertaining way to celebrate this
important Korean holiday. I haven’t spent a lot of quality time with the people
who were on this trip so it was great to see their faces and meet a few others.
It was a fun group of people and I’m definitely glad I was a part of it!
Getting back to school was great. I missed the kids and I
was ready to see them again. Of course, the two weeks off were also great, even
though I didn’t leave the country and I spent most of my time off in Gwangyang,
where I live. It's just that I was really itching to get back in the classroom with my students.
I was in such a hyper, happy mood especially those first few days back!
Monday night, a huge group of us went out for hajeongook,
the delicious pig spine soup. It was a great way to welcome everyone back who
was gone on vacation. The rest of the week, Dan and I mostly stayed in because
I had to work and I get really cranky when I don’t sleep enough. :) Friday night was
a fun night out.We met at the Korean
BBQ place we all love so much and then went to String afterwards. It was Rock’s
birthday so there was a good crowd there. All of the regulars and a few out-of-towners
were there too.
On Saturday, Dan and I woke up around 11am, got ready and
then took a bus to Daegu. He had to sign back in on post, as it was his last
day on vacation. We raced around the city, going to the base he needed to sign
in on and to the one he lives on. We also went to the PX where we randomly ran into a girl I went to high school with! I knew she was in the Army and she got in touch with me on Facebook when she got to Korea and realized I live here too. Such a small world! We were at the PX to buy a few things friends
wanted as well as a few things for me. One of the things Dan picked up was a Go Pro
camera for Seth. There will be more on that later. There wasn’t time to get
fish and chips, which was a huge bummer, but as long as I get them a time or
two more before he leaves, I’ll be more than happy. :) Plus, the PX has a Taco Bell and a Subway, so I ordered both to go. Yay for cheap, delicious fast food!!
We took a bus back to Gwangyang that night and went straight
to the same Korean BBQ we were at the night before because Dan was hungry- he did not order delicious fast food as I did. It
was pretty funny when we walked in because we saw Lizzie and Fritz sitting
there. They were finished eating, but we sat with them anyway and ordered more
food. Then we took our bags back to my room and met up with them and others at Fish and Grill. Fish and Grill, I think I’ve mentioned before, is a bar/restaurant
with soju cocktails. They bring out pitchers of a fruity, slushy, juice drink
that already has a bit of soju in it and we order an extra bottle of it to add
in each pitcher. They come in lots of fruit flavors and they are quite
delicious.
Sunday was supposed to be a lazy day, and was until about
5pm. At that time, Seth came to tell us that a group of people were going out
to play screen golf. Dan had never been and wanted to try it out. I’ve gone
before and was rubbish, but I went to hang out. We were there from about 7 till
10 and then we went to Club Davey to make plans for this weekend; more on that
later too.
Monday was a regular school day. Dan was STILL here, which
was great, but it made teaching a bit more annoying because I would have rather
been at back home with him, still, it made going home great. Plus, my kids make
teaching so worth it. For instance, Monday morning, I taught the 6 year old
Kindergarteners two classes in a row, so we used that time to type up their
presentation speeches which they will recite in front of parents, as a sort of
recruitment tool to get more students at the end of February. This presentation,
of course, is in English and my little 6 year olds were busy typing away for
over an hour IN ENGLISH!! Mind you, they weren’t doing it very well, because
they still haven’t learned how to type in Korean, and they really have no idea
where the keys are. Still, this is only their second time, and they are already
doing pretty well!
Tuesday was an exceptionally great day at school. Ivy told
Kate and me the day before that we would be going to Gwnagyang Eup- the city
next to ours- the following morning to go ice skating with our 9 kindergarten
students. Since Dan was still here, I asked her if it was okay if he came with
us. She said it was fine and Kate had the same idea so Tuesday morning, Kate
and I walked to school with Dan and Seth. Dan was excited because he had never
gone before and there was a “trip” to go near Christmas that fell through.
We got to school and the kids went crazy over my wolf
hat/scarf/mittens combo as well as over the new people we brought. Some of the
kids had seen Dan before, but it was still exciting for them to see another
waygook (foreigner) so closely. Kate and I rode with Ivy and the kids while the
boys rode with Big Mama, our boss (no we did not give her that name) and Brian.
When we got to the ice rink, the guys were already there in light pink skates
and Dan even wore a matching helmet. It was quite a site, but it got better.
Seth brought along the Go Pro camera Dan picked up for him
and he took lots of fun footage of our Kindergartners trying to learn how to
skate. Both Seth and Dan were very helpful with the kids, taking them around
the rink and being great sports about everything. Because of this, the school
paid for their rental tickets and Big Mama left her car for us and Brian to
take back to i-Sponge when we were ready! We went to leave a few minutes after
the kids left, but then Seth decided to ask if we could use the go karts they
had set up just in front of the skating rink. After we paid, we hopped in go
karts, which of course, was also filmed. It was pretty fun. While Seth filmed,
we took turns shouting “GO PRO!” into the camera and Dan had fun pretending to
be The Stig (Top Gear reference).
That night, Dan took a bus back to Daegu. He has three
days of easing back into Army life before coming back down to Gwangyang Friday
night!
This weekend is Lunar New Year, and since most Koreans spend
this time with their families, much like Chuseok, we were told the slopes would
be pretty empty. With that in mind, we decided to take a trip up to Seoul and
head to Yongpyong, where the 2018 Winter Olympics are set to be held. Because of
the holiday, we get Monday and Tuesday off, so we figured it was well worth the
trip north. Unfortunately, we received misinformation. Maybe that’s true for
the actual holiday days of Monday and Tuesday, but EVERYWHERE was booked up. We
thought we were safe trying to make reservations just a week in advance but we
were sadly mistaken. We even tried having some Korean friends ask for us. :(
The new plan is to drive up to Muju EARLY Saturday morning
and hit the slopes there all day Saturday till Sunday afternoon then come back
to Gwangyang. We will have two or three cars full of people so it should make
for an interesting trip! Plus, Dan will have my new camera by then so I’ll get
to play with that! As for Yongpyong, it was a huge bummer to us all, but maybe
we will be able to squeeze it in one weekend. Since we’re getting back on
Sunday, there should be time to unwind and relax before going back to work on
Wednesday.
Of course, I’ll let you all know how that trip goes! I'll also have my new camera so prepare yourself for far too many pictures!! :D Until
then, stay warm!
Since Christmas, life has been mostly tame. Dan and I
spent the week after being SUPER lazy. The only productive thing we did was
cook better dinners for ourselves and go to HomePlus
to buy a shelf to put next to my bed. Besides that we really just hung out with
Walter at Lizzie and Iain’s, while they were away, and watched way too many
movies and TV shows.
I learned about this awesome website called Pinterest from my cousin, Jade, a few
weeks ago and that also ate up a lot of my time these past two weeks. I’ve
already spent HOURS on it! It’s amazing! It’s like virtual inspiration boards
you can make on anything, recipes you want to make or try, clothes you like,
wedding ideas, gift ideas, crafts and do-it-yourself projects, ways to stay
organized, teacher resources, books, TV shows and movies you want to watch,
products you love or want to try, etc, etc. I made Dan look through all of things I pinned
so far and he refuses to really get into it. He says it’s a girl’s website and
I can’t say I totally disagree with him. Still, I think it’s a great way to
share fun ideas with people you know and with strangers. I think it is
replacing Facebook for me. I used to
spend uncountable amounts of time on Facebook
and more and more of that time is being devoted to Pinterest. It’s definitely worth checking out!
But enough about that.
On New Year’s Eve, Dan and I went out to eat with Seth, Pete
and Fatemeh to a fun chicken restaurant called HooLaLa’s. They had yummy fried chicken and these delicious plates
with all different types of French fries! We got two of those. :) After dinner,
we went to a GS25 (convenience shop)
and each bought a beverage to drink while we walked to String. Seth and Fatemeh
hopped in a taxi when we had already walked ¾ of the way there. They missed out
too because even though they beat us by a few minutes, Pete, Dan and I saw a
bright, breathtaking shooting star! We were all in awe and it was a great scene
to see that night.
When we finally got to String, it was about 11pm. It was
pretty crowded, but mostly with Koreans. We found this to be surprising since
it’s our foreigner bar. There wasn’t anywhere to sit, so we all just chilled
behind the bar like cool people. Jeff and a few others took turns playing
guitar and singing solo. Then Rock and his band played some songs to ring in
the New Year. As midnight drew nearer, we foreigners were trying to figure out
how to have a countdown, so we just brought up the time on Rock’s desktop and
counted down to that time. Not totally accurate, but it worked nonetheless!
Rock, rockin' out... ha ha ha
At midnight,
we all shouted a loud, “Happy New Year!” which happened to be in the middle of
one of their songs, and we hugged and kissed, as is our tradition. It was a fun
night. Rob and Renee were out, along with the group we came with and Kate and
Matthias. Most people were still out of town on vacation or back home but we
still had fun!
New Year’s Day was a very lazy one for Dan and I. We packed
to head up North the next day, but that was about it. On Monday, we took a bus
to Dong Seoul and then another to Bears Town, which is a resort in the suburbs
outside of Seoul. It was much less busy than Muju which was great. We originally
planned to stay until Wednesday afternoon but ended up staying until Thursday
instead. We took a few pictures and videos of where we were staying and of each
other, but Dan accidentally lost my camera somewhere on the slopes or off the ski
lift. No more pretty blue Olympus for
me. :( But that’s okay. I’m getting a Fujifilm
S3200 in exchange and although it isn’t as tough or pretty as my old one,
it should take much better pictures, not that I was complaining about the
picture quality before.
Old camera :)
New camera! :D
When we got back to Gwangyang Thursday night, we did laundry
and packed food right away. We also went to visit Lizzie and Iain who were back
from the UK. I’ve been learning to play cribbage, a card game, and I finally
beat someone! Haha Friday afternoon, Pete and Seth came over to meet with us
and head up to Muju. We stayed in the love motel attached to Muju Ski School,
the shop we rent things from. Friday
night, Dan and Seth hit the slopes while Pete and I stayed in. We left only
once, to get some dinner and beer. The boys took Pete’s car over to the
mountain and didn’t realize that the light by the rear door was left on. This
would present later problems that night/morning.
WARNING: If you drive
your own car in Korea, beware that if your car needs jumping, you better have
your own jumper cables, because NO Korean has them.
This is what Dan and Seth discovered between midnight and 2am
on Saturday. When they got back to the car to head back to us that night, they
discovered that the car’s battery was dead. They called the ski school to get
the English speaking guy, Lee, to call them a tow truck that could jump the car
for them. This ended up costing them a few hours of their time as they went
back and forth between waiting for the tow truck and calling to make sure
someone was actually coming to help them. They made it back around 2am and then
we all slept in the sweltering heat of the floor beds because we couldn’t
figure out how to turn off the heat (Korea uses floor heating).
The next day, we had to check out because we didn’t think it
would be busy enough to need reservations and apparently the place we stayed at
that night along with EVERY OTHER motel in the area was booked. So Saturday
morning, we rented our stuff, had the car jumped again (much faster this time
around when the Korean helping us could tell with certainty exactly where we
were parked), and made our way back to the mountain.
We went to eat at Lotteria,
a burger place, and saw Ivy and Sherly! We also saw them on the ski lift and at
the rental shop when we were returning our stuff before heading home.
Seth wanted to try out snowboarding, which he had never done
before, so we stuck together all day, until I decided to sit and wait for the
boys to finish. Seth picked it up right away, which was pretty disgruntling for
Pete and me. Dan just bobbed back and forth between us taking pictures and
videos of us and trying to have fun while going slow. Haha I managed to stay standing
almost the whole time, but I went really slow because now that I know I have
balance, I’m scared to try going sideways because that builds speed and I’m
sure I’d fall a lot more going that way. Lol
Here are some pictures from the day:
See me behind Dan!? :)
Seth snowboarding for the first time EVER... not fair haha
Seth and Pete
Dan's shadow.. I thought this was pretty cool :)
Since we had nowhere to stay that night, we came back to Gwangyang,
unloaded our stuff from Pete’s car and then ate dinner at our favorite Korean
BBQ place. Afterwards, Dan and I came back, watched Independence Day and called it a night.
Today was a day of cleaning, reorganizing and enjoying my
last day of vacation. Tomorrow morning, Kate and I will be back at iSponge,
which I must say, I’m excited about. Don’t get me wrong, being off of work made
for a nice break, but I miss my kids!! Dan is here for another week, so that’s
exciting too! Kate’s back from the Philippines and so I’m sure we’ll be having
more fun nights soon!
This weekend was great. We had our Gwangyang Secret Santa
gift exchange on Thursday night, which was a blast, Dan and I went back to Muju
with a few friends for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and then I spent
Christmas Day with Dan, making yummy food and Skyping with the family!
Now let’s back track, so I can really fill you in.
Like last year, we had a Secret Santa gift exchange. A few
weeks ago, we all went to dinner and then to String, where we drew names. It
was supposed to be a secret, but a few people traded, others forgot who they
had, and still others just hinted at who they had, like Pete. Oh well! So much
for the surprise! :) Pete drew my name and so he asked me to go shopping with
him because even though we have been friends for about a year and a half, he
had no idea what to get me, so that is how the two of us spent last Monday
night. Although I gave him crap for not being able to think of anything to get
me, I must say it was nice to pick out my present, because those who know Pete
know he likes some pretty weird things. Haha It also made Thursday night that
much more exciting because I couldn’t wait to actually be given my AWESOME Wolf
hat/scarf/mittens combo.
On Thursday some of us went out for Hajeongook, which, if I
haven’t mentioned it before, is soooo delicious. It’s a Korean soup dish, known
as hangover soup, served in a ceramic hot pot. The broth is delicious, and
there are lots of veggies, like onions, cabbage, and garlic, several spices and
best of all, lots of pork, still on the bone. It reminds me of home, because it
is sort of like stew, and it’s one of very few Korean dishes that isn’t spicy,
at least it isn’t at the restaurant we always go to get it at.
After dinner, we all went to String and played a massive
game of Apples to Apples. I think there were about 15 of us playing. After we
got bored of this, we decided it was time to pass out presents. Rob gave his
gift first and so it went from there until everyone had given and opened their
present one at a time. Last year, we all just gave and opened gifts at once, so
I liked taking the time to let each person see what they got before moving on.
I think it made everything more meaningful, and also funny, depending on who
got what.
I took some pictures of that and you can see a few below.
PRESENTS!!!
Kate with her "night vision" light up sunglasses! haha
BEST hat/scarf/mittens EVER!! :D
Ugly.. I mean Christmas Sweater buddies! haha
After the presents were all passed out and opened, we drank
and talked and laughed for a while more before Dan and I went home.
Kate and I did not have to work at our usual time on Friday
because our school was having a garage sale that evening. At least that’s what
they called it. All the kids were told about the “party” a few weeks in advance.
They were asked to bring in things they no longer wanted. Then they were given
pretend money based on how many stickers they received since last Christmas. They
could then use that “money” to buy toys, clothes, books and games from one of
the classrooms upstairs, or they could stay downstairs and “pay” to get their
face or hand painted or buy some food.
For the Halloween party, Kate and I were on face painting
duty, which was a lot of fun. We aren’t sure why, whether we were being
punished for Kate’s crappy job on Halloween (Kidding!) or some of the Koreans
just wanted to paint because they thought it was fun, or easy. All we know is
we did not get to paint like last time. We were put at the kimbop (Korean
sushi, sort of) making station and it was tough. We made it for two hours
straight and there were several times, especially during the first hour, where
kids and their parents had to wait because soooo many people wanted our
glorious kimbop!! Haha We made it fun though.
Friday night, Kate, Lizzie, and Iain all needed to get to
Suncheon to take the midnight bus to Incheon Airport so we all just chilled at
Club Davey (Lizzie and Iain’s apartment) even after Pete left to drive them to
Suncheon. I learned how to play Risk on
the Xbox. Weird. Haha. Luckily, I already knew the game setup thanks to a game
my younger brothers showed me online called World
Wars 2, which I have spent way too much time playing. In fact, I couldn’t
remember the name of the game, so I just had to Google Addicting Games’ website
to find, and then of course, play the game! Haha
Saturday, Christmas Eve, Dan and I left bright and early,
about 7am, in Lizzie and Iain’s car (THANKS AGAIN SOOO MUCH, YOU GUYS!!!) to
Muju with Seth, and Julia. We made it up to Muju relatively easily, Thanks to Pete’s
GPS, although Julia and I held onto each
other a bit in the back seat! Haha We arrived at Muju Ski School, the name of the
rental shop and motel we were staying at. It was too early to check in so we
just changed there and left everything else in the car. Then some of the workers
dropped us off near the Mansun-base with our gear and we headed towards the ski
lift and up our first mountain.
Now, last time I was in Muju, I only made it through one run
because my first one took me so long and I didn’t want to make the others wait,
so I just sat alone for a while like a creep. :) This time, I was determined to
do better than that, but first, I wanted to help Julia, who had never been
snowboarding. So when we first got off the ski lift, I dragged my board to the
side bank and worked with her on balancing and doing the pendulum motion I
struggled with at first. Seth and Dan were busy skiing and snowboarding but
they did stop from time to time to give her pointers. After about a half hour
or so with Julia, I was itching to get on a board myself and see if I forget
everything Dan had taught me last time, or if I could improve. This board had
my legs set much farther apart than the one I first learned on, which made it a
lot easier to push my body in whatever direction I wanted to go in, but it did
a number on my knees.
I was WAYYYYYY better this time around. I got up on my own
almost every single time and I wiped out and fell A LOT less often.Dan took some videos of me on his camcorder
and they are both below, just because I was so stinking proud of myself for
doing so much better and having a great attitude about it this time around. :)
Watch me go!! Haha As you see some pro whizz by me... :o
That's really me!! :D
Shortly after my epic first run of the day, a piece of the
binding on my board snapped off when Dan was tightening the board to my leg, at least I think that's what it was.. haha
This meant (1) I would have to keep the board on until I was finished boarding,
or (2) I’d have to call the rental shop and have someone bring me a new board. I
have to give a HUGE shout out to Ivy, my co-teacher who brought Dan and me up
to Muju last time. I called her at least 8 times Saturday morning first trying
to figure out what the shop workers were asking when we first got to the ski
school and where I was supposed to meet the guy bringing me a new board. It was
an adventure, to say the least, and I was a bit cranky and discouraged by the
time I finally got a second board. Let’s just say, there was quite a bit of
miscommunication between Ivy, the guy trying to reach me and myself. Anyway,
once I got the second board, I was ready to get back out there.
This board was a lot more like the one I used my first time
out. The board itself was longer, but my legs were closer together. This one
was definitely harder to adjust to using. I found I could keep myself moving
more easily on this board, and I could move in more of a surfing motion than a pendulum
motion, but this really freaked me out because I was going a lot faster and my
body was balancing from side to side instead of forwards and backwards. Plus, I
was on my own for this entire run, except at the very beginning, so I got a lot
more discouraged, especially when I fell a few times while on the last big hill
that was icy and REALLY hard to stand up on. Haha UUUUUGGHHHH!! I was sooo
cranky when I got stuck there and I took it all out on Dan. Sorry :( Good thing
he’s a good sport! ;)
Group shot, before we started for the day
Santa and Julia sitting in the snow.. on purpose.. ha ha ha
After this run, all four of us met up and took another half
hour trying to get ahold of the guys in the van to take us back to the ski
school. We were having the same miscommunication problems as I did a bit
earlier in the day.
After we finally made it back, we got our stuff from the car
and checked in to our rooms for the night. Then we went to a BBQ place to get
some fried chicken and French fries. After that, we spent the next several
hours in our respective rooms napping, showering and watching amazing, I mean
terrible, TV. Dan and Seth wanted to go out for midnight skiing so Julia and I
hung out in one room and snacked while we watched a CREEPY movie called The Others;
I do not recommend it! We ended up passing out pretty early. The guys got back
after 2am and then we all just crashed for the night.
You can't really read it, but it says, "BBQ Best Believable Quality"
When we woke up, we headed back to Gwangyang. I went to my
place to clean up and get settled. When Dan came back a bit later, we decided
to have a Chrismasesque dinner. We made chicken, cut that up and then added it, peas and gravy to stuffing to bake. It was really yummy and the closest thing we were going to get to a real Christmas dinner! While we ate, we watched Elf because I was in a Christmasy mood and we still had some time to kill before Dad and the kids we ready to
Skype!
Of course, not everyone was awake right away, first it was
just Dad, Michael and Abbie, but the others got up quickly, because if there is
ever an easy morning to get up, it is Christmas morning! We Skyped for over two
hours! It was so great to see all of my brothers and sisters and chat with Mom
and Dad while they drank coffee, opened presents and laughed with/at me. I told
Dan I wanted him to Skype with us. Since we were originally supposed to be
going home to meet each other’s family, this was the next best thing. He was a
great sport about it and he got over the initial awkwardness pretty quickly.
I also woke up at 6am for a quick twenty minute Skype
session with my Dad’s family who stopped by the house later that day (home time).
I got to chat with my Grandma, Uncle Don, Aunt Karen, and Samantha too!
I have officially lived in Korea for over a year now and I
can now say that I’ve spent a Christmas away from home (last Christmas I went
home). I must say that this Christmas was pretty great. I was still able to
feel like part of my family and take part in all of the fun we have on
Christmas day back home. I am incredibly thankful for my family and friends,
both here in Korea and at home, who made this Christmas such a good one. I am
very lucky girl to have the things I have and the experiences I have and I am
so in love with my life!
This week Dan and I are both on vacation and we are taking
lazy to a whole new level. We are both looking forward to this weekend, and
ringing in the New Year with some of our friends! :) Then next week, we’ll be
going up to Seoul to snowboard again!
I hope you all had a great Christmas, and I'll be back in 2012!!! :D
As I said we’d be doing in my last message, Dan and I went
snowboarding this past weekend in Muju. I had mentioned to my co-teacher, Ivy,
that Dan liked to snowboard and that he would be making me go soon. I asked her
a few questions about it earlier this week and then she invited us to go with
her, and her niece. We met her husband up there. She picked Dan and me up in
front of my apartment building at 6:30am Saturday morning. Fortunately I was in
a good mood, and not cranky like I usually am early in the morning. Haha
She drove as the rest of us napped. As it got brighter outside, I woke up and
looked out the windows. It was snowing- in Korea! This is still amazing to me
because I’ve only seen it snow here three other times, once on a mid-December
day, very faintly, again on my trip up to Seoul and then coming back to
Gwangyang after going home last Christmas. Anyway, this was REAL snow that was
actually sticking to the ground and everything! Dan’s and my faces were lit up
with joy. Me, because it was weird
seeing it, him...well just because he is weird. :P
As we got closer, it started to look like a country town,
and then all of sudden it looked just like all the pictures and movies I’ve
seen of “ski” towns. The road was completely cluttered with places to rent and
buy gear to ski and snowboard, restaurants, and places to stay the night.
We stopped at a shop to rent gear. Dan was fully prepared
and I only needed a board, goggles and padding. All of us already had pants and
coats so it only took about 15 minutes here. It was fun seeing Korean girls
pick out coats, pants and hats to wear as well as seeing so many of the guys in
crazy outfits that I did not know were snowboarding attire. Only in Korea.
We continued on our way; both Ivy and Dan were making little
squealing noises in anticipation and excitement! It was adorable and put me
slightly at ease. Then we parked, got
our gear and went to change. The dressing rooms were in a building attached to
the bathrooms, but you had to go outside to get into the bathroom. It was very
warm in there. We took another 20 minutes or so to suit up and make our way to
the ski lift. Of the two slopes in the area we were, only one was open by the
time we were getting ready to start. Ivy and Dan said it was crowded but I didn’t
know the difference and it looked pretty empty to me. As we got closer, Dan
stopped and tried to show me a few things to do once I was on the board but
then decided it would be easier to just get up there and try.
Ready for my first ever run!
This is when I started to get nervous. I made him leave me
and go for a run without me so I knew he would get some actual snowboarding in
and so I could have time to freak out by myself. Haha Those of you who know me
know I’m not athletic at all and I haven’t tried a new sport in a very long
time so I was kinda freaking out. It only took Dan about 20 minutes to go
through the line, get up the mountain on the ski lift and then down the
mountain back to me. He sat with me for
a few minutes and then we got in line.
Oh My Gosh!!
I was sooo nervous! Haha Even getting on the ski lift seemed
challenging because you have to go on this conveyor belt first and then sit
down quickly and hold on to your board, because I clearly did not have that
attached to my feet yet. Going up the mountain was nerve racking because it was
so cold and I didn’t think we were going up nearly as far as it looked from the
bottom. I wasn’t nervous about the height off of the ground we were but farther
the distance I was about to go down because I knew it was going to take me
FOREVER!! Once we got off the mountain, Dan led me to the left side. I learned
that both sides of the mountain are for training. He helped me put my board on
and then he put his on. This was before he realized how long this whole
learning process was going to take me. :)
He quickly realized that he was going to need to be on his
feet to help me get up on mine. So, he unhooked himself from his board, put it
off to the side, walked towards me and helped me up to my feet, because I was
completely unable to get up on my own at this point. We spent the next half
hour or so trying to get me to make pendulum motions down the side of the
mountain. This was a very slow process with a lot of cursing and falling but
also with a lot of laughing and jokes. Because I was working SO hard, I was
nice and toasty warm.
One of many falls
After making it down the first slope, I was starting to feel
pretty good about it all. Dan was VERY patient with me and encouraging which
was exactly what I needed. About halfway down the second slope I was getting a
bit discouraged again and needed a break, but I knew Dan was antsy to finally
be on his board again so I made him leave me AGAIN to go down the rest of the
way and then meet me back there. This took another 20 or so minutes and it gave
me a chance to think about the experience thus far and I decided here, all
alone sitting in the snow, that I liked it. I was having fun and it wasn’t a
cold as I thought it would be!
Standing :)
When Dan met up with me again, I got up and got going
quickly and we made it down to the flat part of the mountain. We took off our
boards (read: he helped me with mine) and walked to the right side. Once he
helped me put my board back on, he walked down the mountain as I rode down. He
loved that I was going faster than him, not falling or anything. I did fall
pretty badly one time on this part. It KILLED my knees, but I was determined to
finish my first ever run standing, so I got back up and didn’t fall again! :)
Yes, that's really me!
After finally making it down once, this took about an hour
and a half, we met up with Ivy and the others for some fried chicken. Then they
all left me to go back out. I was happy with my one run and there was only another
hour and a half before they closed both slopes for a while so I decided to sit
and wait while the others went boarding. This way no one had to worry about me,
and I didn’t have to rush. Haha
Dan and I about to leave Muju after a successful day!
Check out this video of me trying to snowboard! It's pretty entertaining!
Dan and I were originally going to stay the night but I
decided I wanted to be back home, especially knowing how sore I was going to be
in the morning. I REALLY did not want to sit on a bus for a few hours and then
walk to my place the next day. So, we headed home with Ivy, her husband and
niece, got home around 7:30, watched Dumb
and Dumber and PASSED OUT!! Aren’t we wild?!
All in all, it was a great experience. I got hurt, but I had
expected that and it was totally worth it. My “injuries” were ones that could
have been avoided. So I’m looking forward to going again, staying the night and
making a whole show of it. We are trying to set up a group trip with some
friends, but that has proved tough to coordinate with everyone about to go
their separate ways on vacations, so hopefully that works out in the next few
months. Either way, Dan wants to take me up to Seoul to a place he knows, so
that should be fun! Yay!! :)
