Top 35 things I will miss about Korea

It was going to be the top 10 things I will miss abotu Korea but it quickly turned into 25, which then turned into 35. So here they are in no particular order...

1. Service (anything from more of the product or something as random as 1 fork taped to the side of your cereal box or anything for free. Also comes int he form of free drinks at restaurants or possibly even more of the meal)
   

2. Heated toilets in winter
   

3. The “hello's” on the streets

4. How willing people are to help

5. Being surround by mountains 24/7

6. My co-workers

7. Boys carrying designer purses

8. Traveling

9. Jap Jae noodles, Mandu, Doncass and Shebu Shebu

10. EMART escalators

11. Cooking our own meat on a grill in the restaurant

12. Eating with chopsticks

13. Unset prices that change based on who you ask

14. Seeing girls of all ages in heels all the time (hiking, the beach, etc)

15. How safe I always feel no matter what time it is

16. Cheap haircuts

17. Cheap doctor visits and medications

18. Being chauffeured around by taxis

19. Getting snail mail from friends

20. Broken conversations that are somehow understood with the use of hand movements

21. Wearing slippers at school

22. Eating out costing less than eating in

23. No tipping

24. Heated floors

25. Bowing
    

26. Vitamin c drinks

27. Korean commercials

28. Atlas bars and Mi-chew

29. Funny English translations

30. Call buttons on tables

31. K pop

32. No commercials during tv shows- only at the end for 15 minutes

33. Korean step and aerobics classes

34. Construction being done so fast
    

35. And of course...the KIDS!
    

To sum up the month of May.... I am so far behind, I know

The past couple of months have FLOWN by... Caroline and I have of course been staying super busy with school as well as traveling and having lots of fun. Here are the highlights of May.

Kinder Field Trip to the Photonincs Expo:
Every month (as of very recently) ECC has decided to do something with the kinder kids. At the end of April we took the kids on a field trip to the Photonics Light Expo. It was seriously the weirdest field trip I have ever been on. I thought we were going to walk all around and check out exhibits and stuff that the kids would really like. There was a cool airplane area that you could actually go in an airplane and plenty of just little tents and booths to go in but we didn't do any of that. When we first got there all of the kinder kids were shuffled at a pretty fast pace through a bunch of pods filled with art and stuff that was pretty neat and then we immediately split up. I was with one of my everyday classes- Princeton class- as well as one of Caroline's everday classes- Stanford class. Both of these classes are very cute and lots of fun so I enjoyed myself. Anyways, so upon splitting up, my group started immediately trying to find a "beautiful place" to take pictures. We took pictures in front of flowers. Then were whisked off to take pictures on benches. Only to be whisked off several more times to take pictures in front of statues, signs, and a bazillion more flowers. Then we ate lunch as a big group, let the kids run around for a bit in this small area before we boarded the buses and headed back to school to teach the remaining 3 periods. We didn't see anything or do anything besides take pictures which was extremely strange and different than any other school field trip that I have been on where we take pictures if time allows in between the planned activities and talks. Either way, it was a beautiful day and sure beat being in school all day and not enjoying the nice weather.

Haenam:
Toward the middle of May, Caroline, Erica, and Steve decided to do a temple stay. I had read about temple stays and although I knew it would be like nothing I have done before, I wasn't really feeling it and decided to go to Haenam with Davon and Jake instead that weekend. We woke up relatively early on a Saturday and boarded a bus to Haenam which was just a couple hours away. Haenam in a beach city and just what the doctor called for. Immediately after arriving in the bus terminal there, we approached the ticket lady and told her we wanted the bus that would take us to the dinosaur museum. She said there weren't any and pointed us to the taxi line outside. Based on the map we decided to walk it instead and picked a direction and just went with it. After walking for a little while we stopped in to a store and asked the lady if we were close or how we could get there and she pointed us back to the bus terminal and told us we were too far and to take a bus. So we walked back to the terminal only to be told no again. So we decided to X the dinosaur museum and instead ride up a cable car (Devon had never been on one and was excited to go) to a mountain where we would be able to enjoy the view. And that we did. We stood on a big platform thingy and were surrounded by mountains and water. There were several signs that pointed out different mountain peaks and one even pointed out that on a very clear day you could see the tallest peak in South Korea on Jeju Island. It was clear but not super clear that day so we couldn't see it but it was neat just to be so high and surrounded by so many mountains. It's definitely a really cool feeling and something you CAN'T experience by living in Florida. We took in the view and then headed back down the mountain and on to a bus in search of the beach. The bus stopped and we got off because it was an area Devon and Jake recognized and had been before. We were one of the few people to get off the bus but weren't concerned..... until we started walking around looking for a place to stay and weren't able to find ANYTHING open. We started to freak out a bit until we found the only place that was open and were more than willing to house us for the night. After settling in to our room where we sleep on the floor (very common in Korea) we headed out to the beach to walk around. We were seriously the only people on the beach. Or really in that town to be quite honest. It was a ghost town. But we didn't mind because better empty than crowded! After hanging out and wading in the water we decided to walk to the next town. We thought it wasn't too far but ended up being further than expected. We walked on a "main road" for awhile before hitting the southernmost town in mainland Korea. This area was definitely more populated but still pretty empty. We searched for a place to eat because at this point we were starving. There were seafood after seafood after seafood restaurants (go figure- we were literally ON the water) but NOTHING that even served ANYTHING besides seafood on their menu. Now for those of you who know me, you know that I don't eat ANY seafood. ever. Back at home even when we go out to Red Lobster, I order chicken fingers. The texture, the smell and just everything about seafood rubs me the wrong way. But with nothing else to eat and fear of being hungry the rest of the night, we found a restaurant that had smoked fish and sat down. After what seemed like a forever wait as I was anxious to see what was in store for me, our food arrived. I didn't even know how to begin to open the fish and get its meat. I watched Jake and Devon and just tried to do the same thing. It turned out to be not that bad and I ate most of it. After dinner, we decided to start making our way back to our small little town as the sun was setting and we were loosing light quickly. The more we walked the faster the sun seemed to fall and it wasn't long before we were walking in complete darkness along a rode where an occasional car passed by. Thank goodness Jake is smart and got the idea to hit the camera so it flashed every time a car came near us so they were sure to see us. The further we walked, the more we began to hope that one of the cars that was passing by would stop and pick us up and take us to the next town. Although this is dangerous, we felt safer about it (crime in Korea is nothing like that in America) than walking on the side of the road with no lights to light the way and no sidewalk for us to walk on. However, we were not picked up by any of the few cars that passed us and eventually made it back to our town safely. We stopped at a small mart and picked up some sparklers to entertain ourselves for awhile. As we played with our sparklers, a group of Korean teenagers began to form near us and it wasn't long before we had made some friends. We sat on the beach and enjoyed the beautiful night staring out into the water before going back to our room and crashing. We woke up the next morning and laid out on the beach. It was only us once again and an occasional person would come and go. Jake and I decided to go check out "Korea's southernmost point"(Why not. Then we could say we stood at Korea's highest point-Jirisan Mountain- as well as Korea's southernmost point.) However, this required the long trek back up the road we had just hiked the night before in the dark. It was a lot faster and a whole lot less creeper in the day than it had been the night before. When we got to the next town, we found the place where we could either take a cable car or hike to the point. We decide to hike it which couldn't have been a better choice. The whole hike was in a canopy of trees but we were still able to see the water at all times. Finally we reached "the southern most point" and stopped to enjoy it. The wind blew softly, the sun shone warm and brightly and we could feel the water as the wind blew it. It reminded me of the song we used to sing almost every time at the end of church. "May the road rise to meet you. May the wind blow at your back. May the sun shine warmly on your face. My the rain fall softly on your field and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hands." It was so awesome. We took it all in and then headed down another path along side the water almost the whole way which took us directly to our beach where Devon laid on the sand all by herself enjoying her time in Haenam. After laying on the beach some more and wading in the water, we got hungry and went to the only restaurant in our town to eat. This place had bulgogi (meat) and was quite good. After lunch we hung out a bit longer before going back to our room to shower and find out the damage the sun had done to us very pale girls. Both Devon and I got burnt (Jake is lucky because he isn't pale and doesn't have to worry about this) so we reapplied sunscreen for like the third time before putting on more covering clothes and making our way to the bus stop. We took 1 bus that took us to the bus terminal where we had to get off and buy another ticket before boarding another bus. We got lucky and caught a bus that left 5 minutes after our first one arrived. This was great because it put us back in to Gwangju at a decent hour and gave me enough time to relax and prepare for teaching the next day. It was a GREAT weekend and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Kinder Field Trip to the Rose Gardens:
At the end of May the Kinder kids were taken on another field trip. This time we went to a local university's- Chonam University- rose garden. They grow hundreds and hundreds of roses and people can walk through them and take pictures. This time we prepared ourselves for all of the picture taking. And we were right. We took millions of pictures but it was a beautiful so it was quite nice and I enjoyed myself. I got to walk around and take pictures with my everyday Kinder class that I have had since I got here- Cambridge (last year, Cornell) class. They are my babies and I LOVE them and would definitely love to take any of them home with me! I also got to take pictures with the babies of ECC. They are Korean age 5 which makes them 3 and 4 years old American. They are the cutest things ever! After a couple hours we got back on the ECC short buses and headed back to school. Once again we had to teach the remaining 3 afternoon classes but I didn't mind because getting to be out in the sun with the kids for a couple hours was loads of fun.

Welp, that pretty much sums up the month of May. June's post will be coming hopefully relatively soon. (No promises)


Miss you all so much and can't wait to see everyone shortly!! :)

LONG overdue

So upon request, I decided I would share a little of what I eat every day at school. Keep in mind the pictures are only of the foods I actually put on my plate and eat but there are other things I don't eat such as sardines, kimchi, soups, spicy rice cakes we refer to as “Spicy Marshmellows” and several more things I can't think of at the moment. Lunch is provided by the school and changes every day. There are about 20 dishes a month that are just repeated and until recently, there was no schedule of whats for lunch. So everyday was a game of “I hope it's something I'll eat”. Lunch always includes rice, kimchi, a vegetable of some sort (usually seaweed stuff or bean sprouts), a main dish, and a soup (usually tofu or something fishy). These are just a sampling of the meals, but I hope it gives you an idea. Here is my “Korean version” of “school lunches”.

"Tofu pizza" and string potatoes

Spicy tuna and potatoes

Yellow Curry and bean sprouts

Quail eggs and beef, and seaweed

Spicy Pork

Cold egg omelettes

Fried pork cutlet and egg/apple salad

Mushroom soup

Black Curry and Mushrooms

Kimchi soup
( I don't actually eat this one- look at the fire this one involves.)

Dumpling soup and green vegetables

Fried rice and some different green vegetables


Seaweed and potatoes

Birthday Shenanigans

Thank you so much everyone for my birthday wishes via facebook. You guys are so great and I can not tell you how good it feels to get so many wishes and know that this love is coming from half way around the world.

With that being said, let me just tell you a little bit about how my birthday went.
Every month, we have a birthday party for the kinder students. It's a big deal and a lot goes on. Every student who has a birthday in that month dresses up in a hanbok which is a Korean traditional dress worn for special occasions. They are then paraded in and are required to deliver a speech in English and Korean no matter their age. They are required to memorize it and then give it in front of all of the kinder teachers, all their peers, and sometimes even the director of the school. I am sure it can be quite stressful for such young kids, but it's required from our school none the less. Well, I thought I would be fun and buy a hanbok (I really wanted one anyways) and then wear it to the April birthday party. I then decided I would also give a speech and even got a Korean teacher to translate it in to Korean for me to give as well. So on the day, I started with the English speech and at the end everyone clapped and assumed I was finished. I then went on to give it is Korean. I did not memorize the Korean because I am just not that good, but I will tell you that all of the kids and some of the teachers were pretty impressed anyways. I have been tricking the kids since they have gotten here telling them I know Korean and even try to add an occasional yes or uh huh (of course, in Korean) so they believe I know what they are saying. So when I gave this speech in Korean I think it really validated for the students my ability. hahaha. Too bad even after being here for 9 months I still can't speak or understand much Korean- but they don't have to know that!

So that weekend, a couple days before my birthday, 11 of us headed to Jirisan National Park. I had read and heard great things about this national park and the boys had talked the girls into hiking. They made it sound enticing by telling us we would be hiking the highest mountain on mainland Korea and how sweet it would be to say we hiked it. Agreeing, we all packed our bags, as light as possible, carrying only food, water and a toothbrush. This can add up fast none the less. So the 11 of us began the straight up journey up the mountain not realizing that the boys decided we should take the steepest and most difficult route since it was the shortest. Let's just say I stayed with the back of the pack and tried to enjoy the hike up as best as I could. My legs were already sore and tight from running a long distance the day before (stupidity right there) and let's just say the hike up wasn't helping them. However, after several hours of hiking, we made it to our shelter. Our shelter was about 2/3 of the way up the mountain, which I was thankful for because I didn't want to hike any further. I was exhausted. The girls sat and ate a snack while the boys continued up the mountain to the peak. We checked out the shelter, the nearby temple, laid out in the sun and just kinda enjoyed the amazing view and talked until the boys got back about 2 and a half hours later. We all talked for awhile before eating dinner and then going inside the shelter and passing out. Mandatory lights out was at 8pm and most of us fell asleep on the hard floor of the shelter as soon as the lights were out. The boys stayed up longer and decided that night they weren't going back up to the peak the next morning, but the girls figured we had made it this far and that we wanted to see the top. So we woke up the next morning before the sun and hiked a little bit to the temple close to our shelter to watch the sunrise. It was absolutely beautiful and definitely worth getting up for. When you go to bed at 8pm, 4:30am doesn't seem all that early. Jake decided to get up as well and hike with the girls to the top rounding the group off with Devon, Caroline, Mickey and me. It was about a 2 hour hike straight up, in which we had to climb up boulders sometimes going on all 4s and sometimes there was a rope to help. It definitely was a huge challenge but the view from the top was spectacular. At the top of the highest mountain on mainland Korea we stood 1915 meters or 6,283 feet tall. It was breathtaking! We took pictures not only because it was so incredible, but also for proof I think. :) I have never done anything like this before. We stayed at the top for awhile before going back down to the shelter to meet the rest of the group and eat breakfast. Breakfast consisted of kimbop (seaweed wrapped around rice and vegetable- similar to sushi), trail mix, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, power bars, and cold coffee for some. (the shelter didn't have hot water) We got cold water to fill our water bottles from literally a hole in a rock which was pretty neat! After breakfast, we hiked down the mountain. It was a million times easier than going up on the thighs, but equally as challenging on the calves. Not to mention the steepness was nuts and the fear of slipping was always on our mind since rocks and roots and gravel moved under our feet. None the less, Devon and I who were some of the slowest the day before hiking up, ended up leading the pack on the way down. We were pretty proud! The Jirisan experience was AWESOME and I am definitely glad I went, but I won't be doing something that high, that fast, or that steep for awhile. :) It was a great way to celebrate my birthday though and something I will always remember.

The night of my actual birthday Jason, Erica, Caroline and I went out for dinner at a restaurant I really like that serves duck. It's delicious. Erica told them it was my birthday and they asked me how old I was and brought me out a big, nice cake!! Not just a piece, but the whole thing! We sang at the restaurant but then took the cake with us to another place where we went for a drink. Some of the middle school teachers joined us at this point and we sang again and ate the cake. It was delicious! We headed home around midnight which is way past my bedtime (sadly enough), but I had lots of fun!

My 23rd birthday was a blast and to spend it in Korea was lots of fun. Thanks again for all the love on facebook and via skype. I LOVE you all and miss you tons and tons too!!!

The months are flying by!!

This past month has come and gone so quickly. I can not believe it is already the end of April. I turn 23 in a week!!!! AHHH!! However, this does make me closer to my Korean age. Since January, I have been considered 24 here, although I am only 22. It was weird to gain 2 years in the blink of an eye. I remind the Korean teachers on a regular basis that if they ever move to the US they will lose at least a year, if not two. All the teachers here get pretty excited about this because they are all in their mid to late twenties for the most part and the stress to find a boyfriend and get married is high. In Korea, they believe you have to get married before you are 30, otherwise something is wrong with you and it makes it even harder to find a guy who will marry you because you are “old”. How crazy is that?! Although I feel like some people in America think the same thing, I don’t think people stress about it as much. I am surprised there aren’t more people with ulcers here.

So, with that being said, Ashley, one of the Korean teachers, got married this weekend. Almost everyone from ECC went. She looked beautiful and her dress was gorgeous! Her wedding was much like Lupina’s wedding I wrote about a couple months ago so I won’t say too much. We took pictures with her before she walked down the aisle, then watched as she got married and took a HUGE group photo at the end with all of her family and friends that attended. As part of her ceremony, she and her new husband were wheeled out their wedding cake and they cut it together. Lupina didn’t have a cake at her wedding so that was kind of neat and foreign to see. Their receptions here consist of only eating so I guess the cutting of the cake had to be in the ceremony if she wanted it at all. The food at her reception was a HUGE buffet with just about everything. It was delicious!

After we stuffed ourselves some of us decided we wanted to go “thrifting”. We just recently found a thrift store super close to our apartments and have since been there a couple times. I of course found some good finds, as did everyone else. We took 2 Korean teachers with us too. They both had never been before so that was fun.
After “thrifting” for an hour or so, a bunch of the foreign teachers and the 2 Korean teachers all met up to go to a baseball game together. I don’t know why we didn’t go to any last year because they were still going on when we first got here, but we decided this year we would go to at least a couple. Last year the Gwangju team, the “Kia Tigers” were really good and won the Korean equivalent to the World Series. This year they are not doing as well and are currently in 4th or 5th. The game we went to they lost 13 to 4. It was still a lot of fun though. The baseball scene here in Korea is much different than in the US. You can’t buy tickets for a certain seat or section so the earlier you come, the better the seats you get. Let’s just say after a lot of shenanigans, we ended up walking in to a packed stadium and the 10 of us were not able to find seats together and had to split up. Caroline, Erica, Jason, and I all sat in a different section than everyone else, but it turned out to be fine. Let me take a step back though. When you first get to the stadium, there are “ahgimas” or old ladies who all have tents setup. They are selling beer, soju, and fried chicken. You buy what you want before going into the stadium. They are all calling for you to come to their stand and buy enough refreshments for the game. Once you are loaded up, you go in and find anywhere to sit. There are also concessions inside too but they DO NOT sell HOTDOGS! What is a baseball game without a hotdog!! OR PEANUTS! They sell stuff like random chips, snack boxes, and RAMEN! Yep, they sell Ramen at a baseball game and even have a hot water station where you can fill it up. Also, instead of the peanut or cotton candy or drink vendors walking around, they have people walking around selling dry squid! Quite different I think. The game was fun but we kept waiting for the 7th inning stretch and the big screen guessing games they always play and the YMCA to be done, but we were sadly disappointed. Oh well. It was still loads of fun! After the game boys versus girls split up and “raced” in opposite directions to find the first cab to take us downtown. Girls won the race- OF COURSE!!! Then we ate an Italian place that kids often have their birthday parties and had some great pizza, pasta, salad, and rolls. After dinner we went home and passed out! ☺

Two weeks ago, a group of us went to Jinhae. This is a city known for its Cherry Blossom trees. It has a huge festival every year and millions of people go to see the several hundred trees bloomed and beautiful. It’s just a guessing game as to when the blossoms will be perfect and out, and not unopened or even on the ground because these trees don’t stay bloomed for long. We didn’t do too bad at this game and managed to see several trees bloomed. These were the trees along the road and in the city. However, the trees along the mountains were not bloomed which would have been beautiful to see, but oh well I guess. We enjoyed our time in Jinhae anyways. We spent the day taking many pictures, hiking, looking at random things being sold in tents, and hanging out on the lawn in the middle of a roundabout enjoying the scenery and change from Gwangju. It was only an hour or 2 away it made for a great day trip. You should check out the pictures on facebook.

The weekend after that one, several teachers went back to Jinhae to see it when everything was fully bloomed, and they said it was spectacular. Caroline and I didn’t get to go because we got scheduled to teach the Saturday classes that weekend. Each of the foreign teachers get their names pulled out of a hat and then signed up accordingly to teach middle and high schoolers on a Saturday for 3 hours. I really don’t think I could think of too much here that I would hate more. I don’t even know the kids. I don’t have any clue about the material. I don’t like middle schoolers. They don’t want their weekend wasted just as much as I don’t want mine to be either. Plus, often students don’t show up so whoever is forced to “teach” that day is required to stay for 2 hours before getting to leave if no students come, essentially missing out on fun activities for literally NOTHING! That’s exactly what happened to me. Caroline had 3 students show up for her first hour and a half block and they had already been taught the lesson a couple weeks before that she was told to do with them and then one student showed up for the next block of time. So basically hers was a bust too. And looks like I will be teaching at least one, maybe 2 more before I leave here. :/Oh well. You win some and you lose some I guess.

Anyway, the weekend didn’t turn out to be a complete bust. Erica, Jason, Caroline and I hungout for a bit before going to the “World Photonics Expo”. We didn’t really know what this was but thought we would check it out. We went in the evening which was pretty cool because it was lit up and still lots to see. There were these cool like military container thingies that were filled with people’s different ideas of light and art. They were all very different and kind of weird, but definitely cool. We also saw a small concert and these guys put on this awesome show. They were dressed in light-up costumes and did all sorts of break dancing moves as well as beating on drums that splashed water every time they hit it. The whole expo was pretty cool but really hard to explain. You will just have to check out the pictures on facebook. We are supposed to go back there during the day later this week with the kindergarten students to see exhibits we purposely did not check out because we knew we were going with them on this field trip, so that should be fun.

On Sunday, I went rollerblading with several of the Korean teachers and Erica and Jason. It was a lot of fun. I fell one time being stupid and got a huge bruise on my knee that is still black and blue. But we won’t talk about that. ☺

I guess that catches you up for now. I am going to post again in a couple days because this past weekend was exciting! Love you all lots!!!! Miss you tons too!!!

Kindergarten Graduation

Kindergarten graduation was last Friday. Now, I know what you are thinking. They must have looked so cute in their little cap and gown singing their one song off key and not in unison while some kids are picking their noses and others are doing their own thing. Let me just tell you that Kindergarten graduation in Korea is so much different and that the only part of this that is true is the fact that they looked super cute. They don’t mess around here and kindergarten graduation is NOTHING like the kindergarten graduation’s I am used to back home- IF there even is one. This ceremony has been something that we have been preparing for the past 2 months. It was HUGE and lasted 3 hours!

We started the ceremony with the traditional giving of the diplomas and everyone was in their cute cap and gowns. Each student was called up and given a present and their diploma by the owner of our school and then bowed and sat down. Then all of the Kinder teachers were called out on stage and the students sang a thank you song to us in Korean and gave a speech in unison thanking us for teaching them and letting the future students know they had to be just as good as them in the future.

Then we started the fun part. It began with the majority of students getting to play traditional Korean drums. This was really cool and the students did so well!! Then it was time for each of the graduation classes to shine. Each class (there were 6 classes) did a play and a song.

Stanford (my everyday class- basically my babies) were the first to go. Their play was the Korean version of “The Little Mermaid” It was cute but very hard to understand, as were most of the plays. Their play included snippets of music from a Korean pop band- 2NE1 and 50 Cent’s “Inferno”. Yeah, that was interesting and really inappropriate but it did make all of the foreign teacher’s laugh as you can imagine. This was the first of several inappropriate things to happen.

Then Princeton class went. Their play was by far the best one. It was titled “Broken English” and had students speaking Konglish then being corrected with the real English word. It was really funny and cute. In the middle of their play they had one of the boys do a dance to “Sexy Back” by Justin Timberlake. Inappropriate? I think so. Then the whole class danced to “Stupid Cupid”. The kids did a great job!

Next was Columbia class, a second year 6 year old class who gave advice “from around the world” to the new students coming in. Then they danced to “Beautiful Day”. That has become one of my new favorite songs and they were super cute doing it.

Then all of the classes came back on stage and sang and danced to “Summer Night” from the movie “Grease”. The girls all wore red bandannas around their necks that had suspicious leaves on them. It was cute though and a good showcase of all of the graduating students.

Following the Grease production, Oxford class came on and did a play about a lion with hiccups. The kids were all dressed up as different animals and I couldn’t get over how adorable they all looked as jungle animals. They danced to “Everybody Has Music Inside” which is a song that easily gets stuck in my head, but I love so that was ok.

Next was Cambridge class with their rendition of “Peter Pan”. I am still not sure exactly what was going on in this play but Caroline got to make her debut with her couple of lines in Korean. She was good and the parents laughed as apparently she used some Gwangju slang.

After Cambridge class we watched all of the graduating boys perform some Taekwondo in a Taekwon dance. It was super cool. All of the boys showed off what they had been learning in PE and it made me think that we should take Taekwondo back to the US for our PE.

Following the Taekwondo was Harvard class’s play. They did a play about a traditional Korean family but I honestly have absolutely NO clue what the play was about. Erica and Jason got to make their debut as a swallow and a monster. It was hilarious to watch them say their many lines in Korean and know that they nor any of the foreign teachers knew exactly what they were saying.

The last class to perform was Berkeley class. Their play was about sharing and playing together which was a good message. That class is full of the cutest kids ever so when they danced to “The Locomotion” it definitely didn’t let me down.

After Berkeley class all of the girls who were graduating sang and did 2 songs in sign language. They performed “Winter Wonderland” and a Korean song to all of their moms about how much they loved them. Or at least that’s what my six year olds led me to believe. It was neat to see them perform a song in a different language as well as in sign language.

Then Jake and one of the Korean kinder girls did a short skit that was half in English, half Korean and basically it was the funniest act in the show. It was about how to trick a foreigner into getting married over here. Step one was meet a foreigner at the airport and tell him you will show him around. Step two was teaching the foreigner how to speak a little Korean and trick him into saying I love you. The last step ended with the foreigner down on one knee and the little Korean girl putting handcuffs around him and taking him away. It was really funny and had the whole crowd laughing.

After that hilarious skit came another. This skit involved 2 boys but one of them was dressed up in a dress pretending to be a girl. It was a skit involving a “beautiful senorita”. Other than that, I am clueless as to what was happening in it as it was in Korean, but it was funny none the less.

Next came a miniature variety show where select students danced to several different Korean pop songs. There were a couple groups that had foreign teachers in them and guess who got chosen to be apart of one of those lucky groups. That’s right- this non-dancer here got up in front of so many parents and children and danced! AHHH! It wasn’t too bad actually. The dances were hilarious though so you will definitely have to check them out.

The last act was the foreigners making fools of themselves, but it was fun. First, we all had to introduce ourselves and say something about ourselves. Then we all chose a winter Olympic sport and acted it out in groups of two. Caroline and I did Alpine Skiing. Then came the interesting part. We all wore matching Superman sweatshirts and sang IN KOREAN and danced. It was pretty hilarious to watch I am sure. Most of us just kind of mumbled the words, because let’s be honest, even if I HAD memorized them I wouldn’t be saying them right because speaking Korean correctly is RIDICULOUSLY HARD!!

The show finished with all of the students and teachers on stage singing and swaying to the song “I Have a Dream” from Mamma Mia.

The show was lots of fun even though it had been a lot of work up until then getting it ready. The kids looked adorable in their crazy outfits they had to wear but everyone did SO WELL. There were no missed lines or missed entrances and I think the kids ended up having lots of fun with it. Tanya also said this was the first year where parents actually came up to her and commented on how good the show was which is exciting. I am glad I got to be apart of it. You can see all of the pictures I took as well as almost all of the acts I videoed on facebook. Make sure to check them out because I promise you will die laughing!

This, that, and the other

Man Oh Man. I have been putting off any kind of blogging for about a month and a half now because it just becomes so overwhelming and ends up taking me hours to write these things. But because I know I have regular followers and they have been begging me to update, I am doing this for them.
So... where to start...

Korean Wedding
Last month I went to Lupina's (one of the Korean kinder teachers) wedding. I was excited to go see what a Korean wedding was like and the differences between it and a western style wedding. In some ways it was very similar, while in others it was quite different. We walked into a building called "The Marriott Wedding Hall". Once inside we walked into a small room where we saw the bride in her beautiful dress surrounded by her friends and family. This small room was painted nicely and had a nice chair for her to sit in. Then, all of her friends and family could take turns taking pictures with her. I loved the idea! What was strange though was unlike our traditional weddings where the groom can not see the bride before she walks down the aisle, her groom was brought in to also take pictures with her and their families. After he was whisked off, a few more pictures were taken and then it was time for the ceremony to begin. We walked into this big, open room like area just feet away, took our seats and then watched as the bride stepped on to this hot pink and orange platform runway. Fake flowers surrounded her, but everything looked beautiful. She walked down the aisle with her dad and met her fiance at the alter. There we no bridesmaids, no groomsmen, no flower girl, and no ring bearer. It was just the two of them and a pastor. Oh, and there was a woman who was constantly around her fixing her dress, touching up her hair, and fixing her makeup. There were also several photographers who didn't hesitate to get in her face to get the perfect picture. The pastor talked for awhile, then the happy couple went to both sets of parents and bowed. Best friend and kinder teacher, Gina, sang a beautiful song, followed by the playing of a Korean pop song. During this song the groom took off one of his shoes and walked around collecting change in it. Then, everyone clapped and the ceremony was over. There was no exchanging of vows, no giving of rings, and no kissing. It all seemed quite strange to me. Immediately after the ceremony was deemed over people were being called up over a microphone for pictures- the groom's family, then the bride's family, then both of their families together, then the groom's friends, then the bride's friends, then all of the friends and family. When the pictures were finished, the bride and groom walked down the aisle only to meet the next bride and groom that were up to get married. There was no wasting of time. As soon as the couple exited, all of the friends and family who attended began exiting while the new friends and family of the next bride and groom shuffled in and the groom walked to the alter. It was a very quick turn around. I was almost able to see the start of the next wedding as I walked out. I should also point out that during the entire wedding, it never did get quiet as there were people in wedding hall just off this room talking, laughing and "oohing" and "awing" over the previous bride and groom and the next bride and groom to come. Weird. Anyways so following the wedding there was a reception, sorta. There was a TON of food and everyone sat at tables and ate while the newly married couple walked around and talked to everyone. She wore a Hanbok, he remained in his suit. There was no dancing, no toasting, and no throwing/catching of anything. Oh well. It was a lot of fun and definitely neat to see.


Eating GROSS-ness
A couple weeks ago Caroline, Erica, and I all decided to check out this restaurant we pass every time we go to EMART but have never eaten at. Now, usually when we go to a restaurant we aren't concerned because we have either 1. eaten there before 2. can read something on the menu and know it is ok to eat 3. are with someone who can help us. However, none of these things seemed to happen so we were on our own for figuring out what to eat. Well, this place had a cow on the outside and was a barbecue place so we assumed it was no big deal just to order anything on the menu. We read our options, knew what they said as far as reading them but had no idea what anything meant. Nothing was familiar. So, we did what any foreigner would do and just closed our eyes and pointed. Our waitress brought us our meat pretty quickly. The three of us looked at it with our foreigner big eyes. We weren't sure what we had gotten. We didn't even recognize the meat. It looked sorta like sausage but it seemed to almost be oozing fat. The waitress must have noticed our faces and decided to cook it for us. The more she cooked it, the more the sausage looking meat curled and oozed. I knew whatever we were getting ourselves into was not good. We asked the waitress what part of the body this was from as best as we could using sign language and she just kinda laughed and said nothing. We ate a good amount of it anyways. It was obviously flavored with spices and stuff ahead of time and then after being barbecued it surprisingly didn't taste too too bad. The thing that got to me big time was the texture. It was extremely chewy and squishy. We left about half maybe and then decided to go to Baskin Robbins to finish filling ourselves up. :) The next day at school we had one of the Korean teachers translate what we ate and it was..................... intestine. It was gross and definitely nothing I would have ever tried if I had known. Oh well. When in Korea, do as the Koreans do?!


Lunar New Year
The regular New Years that we all know and celebrate is celebrated over here, as well as the Lunar New Year. This is awesome because that means a couple days off and a gift certificate from our school's owners. (Yes, we work at an AWESOME school!!) We took advantage of our 4 day weekend and decided to go skiing for two of those days. Leading up to the holiday we asked the Korean teachers where we might be able to go that wouldn't hopefully be as crowded but we were assured that traffic was going to be bad everywhere and that there wasn't such thing as a ski resort without a ton of people at it in Korea. And with the holiday, there was no way we would be able to find any place that wasn't crowded anywhere. We have been skiing 2 other times and have found this to be true and is always crowded, but we really wanted to go skiing one last time this season so we figured it was worth it. Jay, a kinder teacher as well as one of my favorite Korean teachers, helped us call the travel agent place we went through the past 2 times we went skiing to get us a discount price. When she got on the phone and told the guy it was for foreigners and to put it under my name the man got excited and told her that he knew me. After getting off the phone she asks me if I know a Mr. Kim. Now, if you know anything about Korea, you know that everyone and their brother has the last name Kim. So to ask me if I knew Mr. Kim would be like asking me if I knew a Mr. Smith back home. Caroline replied for us "Yes. We know lots of Mr. Kims" to with Jay laughed and realized what she had asked. Anyways, I guess he apparently recognized me from he other times and was excited we were going again. So Caroline, Jake, Devon, the new teachers Matt and Melissa and I all packed a backpack full of ski clothes and left Saturday morning at 5:30am for the slopes. There was absolutely NO traffic which started off the day well. Then, when we got to the ski resort and on to the slopes we couldn't be happier. There weren't that many people at all and no lines. The more advanced slopes didn't have many people on them and even the easier slopes were by no way crowded. The past two times we had been we have always had to wait in lines anywhere from 10-50 minutes long. This time there were NO lines. We had a full day of skiing before we met Mr. Kim again who took us to our hostel at the ski resort. We only paid $20 each for the night. That's right, we stayed AT the ski resort in a hostel and only paid $20. You can't beat that!!! I think I am going to build a hostel on ski resorts in America. I think I would be rich because staying at any ski resort in America is ridiculously expensive. Anyways, so we looked around the area for awhile before eating dinner at this very typical Korean style restaurant. As soon as we walked in, they showed us to a table like you would find in America (because we are foreigners) but we pointed to the tables on the floor and asked if we could sit there instead. I think we put the staff in shock. The couldn't believe foreigners would want to sit on the floor, but we have been in Korea long enough to 1. not only be used to it but 2. know that the floors are heated and that we were freezing. So we enjoyed dinner and stayed warm. I had Bulgogi- 불고기 (meat) and mushroom chigae- 찌개 (soup). It was ma-shi-da 맛있다!! (delicious!!) We hungout that night and watched the Olympic's opening ceremony and some of the Olympic games before going to bed on the hot floor. We woke up early the next morning, ate some yogurt and crackers and stuff we got from the convenience store next door for a cheap breakfast and then headed back on to the slopes. We hoped for the best but figured the slopes couldn't be any emptier than the day before but boy were we wrong!!! Day 2 was even less crowded! There was absolutely NOBODY there!!!! Some of the chair lifts had nobody on them and there definitely was never any kind of wait. In the morning and early afternoon,coming down the slopes, you wouldn't see someone for hundreds of feet and then when you saw someone it was another couple hundred feet before you saw anyone else. It was AMAZING. I have never seen anywhere like this. Let's just say we got 2 FULL days of skiing in and had a BLAST!!!! We were definitely glad we went! We were exhausted the next day and just kinda hungout, went grocery shopping and enjoyed the day off. That night we went out for Monica's birthday. She is also a kinder teacher and the most bubbly person I have ever met. After some fun we went to a noraebong or a karaoke room. We practiced our knowledge of Korean pop songs and even danced to the songs we now know dances for due to kinder graduation. It was tons of fun. On our last day, Caroline and I went downtown and saw the movie "Valentine's Day". It was cute and am glad I saw it but won't be a movie I own. We also went to the World Cup Lotte Outlets to spend our gift certificates ( I can't decide what I want so I ended up not buying anything). We had a great long weekend and it definitely made for a short next school week which was just what the doctor ordered!!!


The Typical Week
I don't think I have ever written about my typical day and week. I think the last time I wrote about actual school was back in the beginning when I was REALLY confused about everything. I was just figuring out my hours, my classes, what I was teaching and did not know too much about anything. You will be glad to know that I have more than figured things out and I absolutely LOVE teaching here. It only took about a month to figure things out and another month to get into the groove and feel confident. I have now been teaching a little over 7 months. The days fly by as well as the weeks. I honestly can not believe I have been here that long. For those of you that don't know, I have asked to extend my contract 3 more months and stay until the end of October. Anyways, to explain my days, here it goes. Everyday I teach different things to different classes. There are 10 Kindergarten classes grouped by age and number of years at ECC. To give you an example, on Mondays I teach Art to two classes, story reading to another class, phonics to another class and then English conversation to 2 different classes on different levels. These two classes are my everyday classes. On Tuesdays I teach a theme lesson to a class, art to another class, drama to another class, story reading to a class and then math or cartoon to my younger everyday class and an American textbook to my older everyday class. Wednesday is filled with different classes as well as Thursday and Friday. I like my schedule because it allows me to teach different subjects to different students which keeps it interesting. It also gives me 2 everyday classes that I have fallen in love with. One class is 6-1 which means they are 6 years old and have been at ECC 1 year. The other class is 7-2 meaning they are 7 years old and this is their second year at ECC. They both are fantastic at English and filled with some of the cutest kids EVER!!!
The 7 year old classes (there are 6 of them) will graduate this Friday which will be really sad and I will definitely miss them a ton. At the same time though, I am just as excited though to meet the new students who will be coming. I will update you about the change when it happens on March 4th.


When, oh when, will I get better at this blogging stuff. Definitely not this week as Kinder graduation is just around the corner and I am sure that will continue to be stressful. It is also the end of the month which means evaluations and tests out the whazoo to be be copied, filled out, given, and graded. Maybe look for my next post somewhere around March 6th or so hopefully after the start of the new school year. I love you all so much and miss everyone TONS and TONS. Keep those letters coming, I LOVE getting mail!!!! :)

FIRE!!!

Between my sister and I, we are going to give my parents a heart attack.

In November, a guy with a gun walked into my sisters Engineering office on the 8th floor of a crowded building and started shooting things and people. Thank goodness my sister was able to run and get out of the building before he got to her cubical and call 911. Others were not as lucky and 5 were injured, one killed. It was a very traumatic experience, but she is ok. Thank you God!

On Friday, I too had a very traumatic experience at work but I am also ok! It started off as any other day at school. Fridays are my longer days but it was going pretty well so far. Then we had a foreign teacher meeting where we were informed that someone had to teach a 3 hour Saturday class every weekend. I decided to sign up for the one the next day to get it over with. After teaching 9 classes that day I was exhausted but decided to stay after school to plan for the Saturday class and since Caroline was still teaching, I figured we could walk home together anyway. I was in the big office on the 2nd floor of our school going through tapes with Devon, another foreign teacher, when a Korean teacher walks in and says "I've heard the news that's there a fire next door." She didn't seemed concerned but Devon thought she would go check it out. Sure enough, there was a small fire in the vacant building next door that has been in the process of being torn down for awhile now. Devon came back and reported what she saw and the two of us continued to search for teaching materials. Within minutes a little boy walks into the office (I am not sure exactly why) but he turns to us and says "Big fire, teacher." He was also very calm. Then the fire alarm goes off. Its very quiet and seems distant. I turn to my principal who is close by typing away on the computer and I ask her "Is that OUR fire alarm?" She says "yes" nonchalantly and goes back to typing. Devon and I are confused and go to look out the window again to see if it is in fact our alarm and if the fire has gotten any bigger. This time I go too. Devon was the first to get to the window and see big pieces of fire hitting OUR BUILDING. She yells and starts to run back toward the big office when I am able to see out the window too. The building next door to ours is about 10 feet away and is up in flames- HUGE flames. Our building is being hit repeatedly with fire and we are both convinced ECC is on fire. Devon and I run back to the big office quickly to inform the 2 Korean teachers making phone calls at their desks and our principal typing away on the computer. We both yell "FIRE!" but nobody seems to move. We yell it again and again before it hits our principal what is going on. Rachel (one of the Korean teachers) tells the parent on the phone she has to go because she thinks there is a fire or something and then gets off the phone. Devon and I grab our stuff and I run to the small office to grab Caroline's stuff before running to the stairs to find Caroline. It takes a little while before kids start coming down the stairs and Devon and I act as police men directing traffic yelling for kids to go downstairs and to get out of the building! It isn't a few seconds before those kids are running back up the stairs toward us panicked. Our principal is now directing those kids and all the kids coming from the 3rd, 4th and 5th floor in to the 2nd floor lobby. The lobby quickly fills with all of the students and teachers and is full of chaos. Students are pulling out their phones calling their parents frantically and a secretary is trying to yell something on a megaphone that isn't working. Our principal yells and everyone all of the sudden gets super quiet. She yells orders all in Korean and everyone except the foreign teachers seem to know the next plan of action. Next thing we know a firefighter is running up the stairs of the 2nd floor where we are all huddled and telling us all to go downstairs and get out of the building. As I am running out of the building I pass 3 frantic and crying moms who are looking for their kids to come out. I grab random kids and we started running/walking fast because there is ice on the ground making it hard to full out run. While we are running, huge embers from the fire are landing on all of us. A big one lands on my head but is quickly put out by another foreign teacher running beside me. Not too much later I find myself yelling at Caroline that there are embers on her coat and am patting them out for her. I am scared something or someone is going to catch on fire from the embers but all I can do is run and hope we are all ok. At one point we all stop running because we think we are far enough from the fire but the wind continues to blow huge pieces of fire on to us so we continue to run some more. By the time we stop again, ECC buses have arrived and are picking up kids. I am not sure if they had a system but I was pushing all of the students near me toward the bus to get them on. Finally, all of the students are either on a bus or at least way out of sight.

I can not even begin to explain how chaotic all this was. Students and teachers were everywhere and nobody knew exactly where we were supposed to stop or even where all of their students were. It was a mess but eventually there were no students anywhere in sight and a bunch of the foreign teachers had somehow found each other. We waited in fear for what was happening to our school a long way down the street. Finally we all decided we wanted to see our school's fate and walked together on the other side of the street back toward the fire. The embers weren't falling nearly as bad now and we had to know what was happening. I thankfully had my camera and began to take pictures. All of the pictures have been posted to facebook. Keep in mind these pictures were taken a good 30 minutes or longer after we evacuated the school so the flames were actually much bigger and scarier than you even see in the pictures. And during all of this, the road was not closed to traffic. There were all sorts of cars going both ways past the fire and at one point the fire fighters had even hooked up a hose to a hydrant across the street and it was being run over by the cars. Cars drove over the hose for awhile until a van drove over it and broke it. The hydrant had to be turned off and the hose fixed before being turned back on to help put out the fire that was still burning strong. Everyone in Gwangju gathered across the street and watched the building next to ECC burn down to nothing but the metal frame.

After watching for awhile all of the teachers decided to meet up at a local coffee shop to wrap our heads around what just happened and talk about the next plan of action. On our way to the coffee shop all of the Korean teachers were called back in to school to make phone calls to parents letting them know the evening classes wouldn't be happening and what just happened. The foreign teachers still met at the coffee shop and shared our traumatic stories. We got word that the owner of our school told all of the Korean teachers that they had to be back at school the next day (Saturday) at 9am to help clean up after the fire. The foreign teachers decided that we wanted to show our support and would all be at school at 9am to help too. Come to find out, our help was not needed as the damage to the school was beyond what we could clean up and a cleaning team was being called in. All of us went in the school to check out the damage and take pictures. There were broken windows from the heat on the 4th and 5th floor, glass on the floor of the bathrooms, ashes everywhere, and out back we could see our owner and our school technicians cars that were crispy on the hood and in the engine sitting where they were parked the day before, waiting to be towed. On the fifth floor where the kindergarden classrooms are (middle school classes in the afternoon and evening) one room was in need of serious repair. There were a couple big holes in the ceiling that I guess the fire fighters made to drain the roof of all of the water that was sprayed. Lights were hanging down and drywall was absolutely everywhere. Surprisingly, I think this is the only room that wont be in commission the next week or so.

Everything is now sorta a blur and I can't really explain what was going through my head on Friday night. I know I wanted to get all of the kids out and was concerned about them first and that's why I acted as a police directing traffic on the stairs rather that running out of the building myself. But looking back everything was really just done on impulse. I don't remember thinking about anything, it was like my body just knew what to do. I don't remember thinking about grabbing mine and Caroline's purse, I just did it. I guess it was also impulse to wait to find my roomie before leaving the building as well. I can't remember what the kids looked like whose hands I grabbed and ran with, I just know I was concerned with them getting to safety. I don't remember seeing a lot of fire trucks or a lot of fire fighters but our school principal told us yesterday that over 200 fire fighters and 50 trucks responded to the fire at some point or another. I don't remember a lot of the details but the overall experience I will never forget. It was scary and something that I hope never has to happen to anyone. I am glad the building next door was empty and was in the process of being torn down anyways and I am glad that as big as the fire was, that nothing in the surrounding area really got hurt too much. A middle school backed up to the building and it is just fine as is the electronics building that is on the other side of the building that caught on fire.

School is still scheduled for tomorrow but I am kinda curious how many students show up, especially from the evening classes that were there for the fire. Anyways, I hope my Monday turns out to be way less eventful than my Friday and I hope your Friday was less crazy than mine!

I LOVE you all so much and miss everyone like crazy!

CHRISTmas and New Years!! :)

Merry Christmas and Happy 2010 everyone!!! It seems weird to me that its already 2010. 2009 seemed to fly by! Boy has it been an exciting year!

This Christmas was my first one away from my family (and extended family). I always spend Christmas in Ohio and I get to see all of my bagillion cousins, aunts, uncles and Oma who I haven't seen since the summer. I was expecting Christmas to be rather hard since I wouldn't be with who I am always with or where I am always at. However, thanks to skype it was a lot easier than expected and although I missed everyone, I wasn't nearly as homesick as I thought I would be.

Christmas and New Years this year had an unexpected twist that I absolutely loved. One of my bestest friends ever, Austin, came to visit me for 11 days and spend the holidays with me. When I moved to Korea, I told all of friends that they should really come visit me over here and although I really wanted it to happen, I was sorta just kidding. However, Austin actually came and we had an absolute blast!!

ECC gave us 4 days off for Christmas, then we had to work for 3 days, then 4 more days off for New Years. Too bad we had to work for those 3 days in between but I guess in the long run it was kinda good because Austin ended up getting sick and thank goodness it was only during those 3 days. So Austin got here late on Wednesday and Thursday was our first day off. Poor Austin got a couple hours asleep before we woke up the next morning around 7am to catch our bus to Sokcho. Sokcho is a city in the north-east part of the country super close to the border. It is known for its national park- Seoraksahn. We had never been here but I had read good things about it and it was supposed to be pretty awesome and beautiful. Plus some of our co-workers were going so we figured why not. The last thing I wanted to do was stay in Gwangju for Christmas and think about how I wasn't in Ohio with my family. It ended up being Caroline, Steve, Jason, Erica, Austin, and me who went. It was an awesome decision to go because it was in fact beautiful and we had loads and loads of fun!

The bus ride up was 5 and a half hours long and because we hadn't really eaten much for breakfast, all of us were starved when we got up there. We walked for a bit until we found the first place where we could go inside and eat. It happened to be a Chinese restaurant. We ended up eating some really good chicken and fried rice. After eating we had to hop on another bus which was supposed to take us to our hostel. Hosteworld kinda let us down with the directions because all it said was get on this bus- and that's it. So once we were on the bus we weren't sure where we were supposed to get off or anything. We got off at the last stop which was at the entrance of Seorak National Park but there was no hostel in sight. Lets just say after lots of debate, broken conversations that didn't really help and lack of another way to really get there, we decided to walk 20 minutes back to the town we past while we were on the bus on the way in. When we got to the town we didn't see a sign for our hostel but on second glace, with the help from my eagle eyes, there was in fact a tiny sign that read our hostels name. We checked in and then it just got crazy. The guy started showing us random rooms and none of them had more than 1 double bed which was not as expected because we thought we were getting one with 4 beds. So after a lot of craziness we finally ended up in a 1 huge room with one bed. It was actually more like 2 rooms, one being a kitchen. Anyways, we all decided we would sleep in the one room and close the curtain-ish door to the other room because for some reason the floor in that room only got hot in places and we figured we would be warmer if we were all in one room. It was like a huge sleepover and was actually pretty fun all being in the same room.

So the rest of that day we walked around the area checkin out what was happening, which wasn't much and eventually ate dinner at a traditional Korean BBQ place. It was alright, but nothing special. The next morning was Christmas Eve America time which was when I planned to talk to my family since this is when ALL of my aunts, uncles and bazillion cousins are at my Oma's house celebrating. It was really neat because my mom and sister made sure EVERYONE in the family said hello to me via video chat on skype so I felt like I was actually there. By the way, I have 12 aunts and uncles and I think 21 cousins so that was fun getting to see and talk to all of them like I would if I was actually there! :) After my long skype talk, Austin and I headed to the park to meet everyone. When we got to the park we found them almost right away and did some walking around together. We saw this HUGE Buddha statue that was pretty neat and I of course got some pretty cool pictures of it with the mountains in the background. We then all took a cable car up one part of the mountain. According to the cable cars pamphlet the ride up was supposed to be "one of the most unique adventure attractions on Earth. It was pretty cool but I don't know if I would go that far. I got some great pictures though. When we got to the mountain we all sat for a bit to take it all in. There were frozen waterfalls off in the distance, snow in the mountain tops, and the view was gorgeous! Then, the boys and I decided we wanted to hike up this other little part of the mountain which looked pretty steep. Caroline and Erica sat and enjoyed the view while we took this scary climb up. It was definitely more than worth it because the view only got better! Plus, a guy at the top was selling medals and whistles that he would engrave with your name, I guess for making it to the top. Being the little teacher I am and always thinking about when I get my own classroom back home, I decided a whistle would be a perfect souvenir. I am going to need something to call my students in from recess and this was engraved with my name in Korean, Mt. Seorak, and the date (Christmas!) I wouldn't forget where I was for Christmas 2009 now. We enjoyed the view from the peak and took some fun pictures in front of a Korean flag before going back down to meet the other 2. Once we got down from this climb, it was awesome because it started snowing. It ended up snowing for only about 5 minutes but at least we could say we had a "white Christmas" right?! We took several more photos and enjoyed the view fr awhile and then headed back down on the cable car. Once we got to the bottom we took a long hike through the park to get to a waterfall. We saw a couple smaller half frozen waterfalls along the way. The hike, the view, and the sound from the waterfalls were awesome and quite peaceful. I really enjoyed it a lot. Once we got to the waterfall we kinda just chilled out there for a little while and once again enjoyed the scenery. It really was beautiful in this park! We met up randomly with a couple of Steve's friends and the 8 of us began our trek back to our hostels. We took a shortcut through the woods and over a river and finally made it to our hostel. We cleaned up a bit before heading up a road beside our hostel to a fancy hotel that had a western style restaurant. We wanted something nice (and fancy seemed fun) for Christmas dinner and we got just that. I opted for Chicken Cordon Bleu which was absolutely AMAZING and by far the best thing I have eaten since being here. Others opted for Salmon, Calamari, Steak, etc. It was delicious! Plus, all our meals came with 2 hot dinner rolls with real butter and a very yummy salad with Italian dressing!!!! Let's just say Christmas dinner was AWESOME and exactly what we were looking for. After dinner I spent awhile on skype with the fam since now it was Christmas morning their time. Then we all just stayed up watching a movie, talking, laughing and enjoying each others company.

The next morning Steve, Erica, and Jason all got up super super early to go hiking on this super steep part of the mountain while Caroline, Austin, and I decided to enjoy sleeping in and just check out more of the park. We ended up seeing a temple, some other traditional Korean architecture and more of the park and the mountains. It was lots of fun and again we took some pretty fun pictures. We spent several hours walking around before we all met up again. Caroline, Erica, and Jason decided to get the only bus home that afternoon because it had been a long but exciting weekend, while Steve, Austin and I decided to stay. When we went up to Sokcho I had read about a huge water park that had many hot springs and stuff and I really wanted to check that out. Plus Austin told me before coming that he wanted me to find a hot tub in Korea. Austin and I like to spend a lot of our time hanging out in my hot tub back at home, so he joked that I had to find one here so I did just that. I wasn't about to go back to Gwangju without going to the hot spring water park. I am really glad we stayed because that day turned out to be super fun. We went back more in to the city (away from the park) and found another hostel to stay at for the night. This hostel was nice and the owner was full of information. He helped show us what to do and where to eat. So the three of us spent the rest of the afternoon checking out a pretty awesome light house. We got to go inside which was really neat and check out the water and the view from the top. Then we climbed to the top of a hill and went in this temple looking pagoda thingie (I know, I give some pretty great descriptions ;) ) and enjoyed the scenery from there too. Then we walked around for a bit before catching a bus to the water park. The water park was called Waterpia and was as awesome as expected. Let me just try to explain this place. Its more of an adult water park than a children's place. When you get inside you go to your respective locker rooms and get changed. Let me take a step back. Now, Koreans are usually very conservative. When they go to the beach ALL of the girls wear clothes or cover-ups over their bathing suits in to the water. You wont see any girls with just bathing suits on. So, when i walked in this locker room I was expecting everyone to be modest but let me just tell you they weren't! There were Koreans from 1 to 100 just walking around, lounging, hanging out completely naked. Yes, you might say well duh Whitney its a locker room, but seriously I expected everyone to be conservative even behind closed doors based on how conservative they were out in public- they weren't! Anyways, so you could go out 2 doors- one led to the saunas full of nakedness and the other led to the pool area. Because it was the 2 boys and me and the saunas were separate for guys and girls, we opted for the pool area. We found a couple hot tub like areas but they were packed and I knew there were more so we went on a search for the others. They turned out to be OUTSIDE. That didn't stop us though. We went from hot tub to hot tub checking out the many different kinds. There were several different kinds all of different temperatures and contained different jets and stuff. When we got bored of one hot tub we would get out and literally RUN to the next one. The air was EXTREMELY cold, especially after being wet, but ti only made the hot tubs more enjoyable after getting in them. We spent several hours at this water park and all of us enjoyed it immensely! After Waterpia we went to eat a late dinner. We ate at this place that let you pick your own meet which was marinated in different sauces and you could have "all you can eat for only 7,000 won." This is about 6 dollars and was definitely worth it. It was delicious and you couldn't beat the price. We passed out pretty hard that night and caught the morning bus the next day that got us back to Gwangju around 3pm. It was a FANTASTIC Christmas break!

I went to school the next 3 days which seemed to actually fly by. Austin was sick and was feeling like death so he laid around those 3 days while I was at work which if he was going to get sick this was the perfect time. He finally started to feel better on the 3 day which was perfect because the next day we planned on going to Seoul for New Years. Seoul "gongs" in the new year with a HUGE bell. Basically its the Times Square of Korea and one of my partner teachers from school even ended warned me "don't die!" We woke up in the morning with our bags packed and everything only to get a phone call from some friends from school that were going to go with us telling us to go look outside. It had snowed the night before!!!!! There was about 6 inches of snow on the ground and the roads had not been salted or anything yet. After much debate we all decided not to go get on a bus for 4 hours in the snow and bad road conditions and that we would just enjoy the New Year here in Gwangju. This turned out to be a lot of fun and I am not disappointed that we didn't end up going. We spent that day (New Years Eve day) with several of the ECC foreign teachers. Jake, Devon, Erica, Jason, Steve, Caroline, Austin and I all headed downtown to walk around. We walked down "Art Street" the only famous attraction in Gwangju, but not much was happening, like always. It was still fun though. We shopped for a bit and just enjoyed each others company before heading back home and just kinda hanging out for a little while before going out that night to celebrate. The same group of people along with 2 more foreign teachers from ECC, Sam and Steph and Alan ( the guy from China who we often hangout with who showed us around Beijing when we went in October) all went back downtown that night to celebrate the new Year together. Let's just say we had a LOT of fun!!! I am glad we ended up staying and celebrating with everyone!

The next couple of days went by super fast. We played in the snow and enjoyed Gwangju. Austin and I went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks the Squeakquel one day. We did a little night hiking one night which was lots of fun and one day we went skiing. Skiing was a blast but ridiculously crowded! We still enjoyed ourselves though and I think everyone was glad we went.

Basically my Christmas and New Years were AWESOME! I am soooooooooo super glad that Austin came and I had a ridiculously good time hanging out with him! This was his first time out of the country and I think he really enjoyed his time here too. I am definitely glad he came!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years too!!! Happy 2010! I hope its a great year for everyone! I love you all so much and miss you tons and tons too!!