Hangul

Back to the other side of the classroom I go! From student, to teacher, and now 

back to student -- I am now taking a class to learn Korean. I had my first class 

last Saturday, and I am excited to to see how it goes. So far, so good.

Study time!

Trick Eye Museum, Check

Spencer and Maggie came to Seoul for my birthday weekend, and we went to the Trick Eye Museum in Hongdae. The museum was interactive, and as you walked through you could take photos to really make the art come to life. It was a lot of fun and we took tons of photos, but here are some of my favorites:

The Hwacheon Ice Festival

Catch a live fish with my bare hands, check!..

The last weekend in January, we decided to take a Sunday trip to the Hwacheon Ice Festival. Little did I know what this day had in store for me. I think in the future I will look back on this year and have many crazy stories that begin with"This one time, in Korea..." 

Kaylee, 7 of her co-workers, and I woke up early and took a 2 hour bus ride to Hwacheon, not really knowing what to expect when we got there. The festival had all kinds of fun activities, all ice related. There was sledding, ice fishing, tubing, zip lining, igloos, ice mazes, ice scultures, and much more. The highlight of the day was definitely when the whole group decided to attempt bare hand fishing. We probably shouldn't have watched the group before us do this; their painfully freezing looking faces only made me rethink my decision more. But, we did it! Not only was it in freezing cold water, but it wasn't the easiest thing in the world to snatch up a live fish with your bare hands. 

Since Koreans are the nicest people ever, a complete stranger gladly took one of our cameras to document this once in a lifeline event (beacuse none of us are stupid enough to try this again! Kidding... kind of). The water was so cold, my legs turned purple after less than a minute. Once I grabbed a fish, I bolted for the hot tubs to thaw myself out. We all sat in the hot tub for as long as we could, shocked at what we had just done. We all took pictures kissing the fish and proudly posing with our soon to be lunch. Sadly, (and ironically) the camera we used to take all of these pictures was lost later that night. We ended up catching 3 or 4 fish between the 9 of us. A super friendly Korean girl gave us 10 more fish, so we gladly accepted, cook, and ate our fish for lunch. (Yes, really).  

Here are some of the photos from my camera. 

The group!

Fish everywhere!

Ice tunnel.

*Notice the man in the hello kitty hat on the left..

Ice fishing.

Ice bicycle.

Snow castle.

Sculptures.

This little blue bear was spinning donuts. 

Sledding.

Lining up before they all jump into this
freezing pool filled with fish. 

Wimps! ;)

The technique is to tuck in your shirt, and store the fish inside
 your shirt freeing up your hands to grab more.

The girls - Unaware at this point how cold we are
going to be in the next 5 minutes.

Getting nervous ...

Why am I doing this again?

My catch! He was a slippery little sucker.

Success!

We definitely worked hard for our lunch.

Korea, Thank you for giving me the opportunity to experience
so many things I never thought i'd have the chance to do.

I can't put into words how fun this day trip was. Someone who can, and quite thoroughly, is my friend Lindsay. Click here to see her blog post about this weekend day trip.

A Day in the Life

As suggested by Mrs. Kelly Hall, this post will show what my normal day now is really like.

Who I previously spent my nine to fives with:
Kelly and our "little brother"  

Nowadays, life is a little different. The day begins every morning as my alarm goes off 

and I wake up to Kaskade - Turn it down (no pun intended).

If you want to hear this amazing song, click me.

This is my walk to work.
The day I chose to take photos, it had just snowed.
Most days the snow does not stick. However, it is still very cold.
I have to wear leggings under my jeans, a shirt, sweater, sweatshirt, and jacket.
Needless to say, we aren't in Kansas anymore.
Somedays, I even wear two scarves.
Even with all of this, the wind is chilly on my face. 

But, it sure is beautiful.

My morning starts with a cup of coffee and time to prep for my classes.
My office is on the  top floor of my building and I share it with
my two foreign teachers. This is DJ.

This is my class schedule.
It reminds me of SDSU days, and making wish lists for classes.

In the morning I teach twelve freshly turned
7 year olds in the Olive Classroom.

Welcome :)

We switch books about every 40 minutes.
They learn phonics, language arts, science, math, spelling,
reading, writing... it goes on and on.

I have my little ones all morning until lunch.
I spend the first half of lunch eating with the kids.

Most days, we have meals cooked by my owners mother in law
(who lives in, and owns, my apartment complex).

Sometimes, they order food in.

I spend the second half of my lunch writing my reports for the kids.
We write a sentence or two about their performance that day. 

After lunch, the kids brush their teeth.
And stick their tongues out at me.

Depending on the day (MWF, T/Th) I have different classes in the afternoon.
These are all kids that go to Korean school during the day,
and come to my privateschool after they finish around 2 or 3 PM.

After work, it takes me about 15 minutes to walk home.

I usually go grocery shopping and grab something to make for dinner.
Even though it isn't as easy as back home, I still love cooking for myself.

This 7/11 looking grocery store is directly below my
apartment complex. and very, very small.

Sometimes I cook alone and sometimes I cook with friends.

Sometimes I chill at starbucks and listen to music.

Sometimes, I take the subway a couple stops to
Kaylee's for girls night, dinner, and a movie.

Pride & Prejudice on an awesome projector. 

(When its freezing) I stay inside, read my book, paint my nails,
or watch one of my favorite shows from back home online.
This is also a perfect time to plan my adventures for the weekend.

If the timing is right, I get to skype with some of my favorites from home. 

It's a great time to catch up, but more importantly, be silly.

I try to get to bed before midnight, but I rarely succeed. 

And before I know it, i'm starting all over again.