Good Times...

This past weekend was culture packed, love it :) I was invited to my first Korean wedding which took place on Saturday. One of the Canadian teachers at E.C.C. married a former Korean teacher. The ceremony was pretty much as opposite from the traditional dutch weddings as you can get. I really can't explain it in a blog, but just so you can get an idea, it involved fog, confetti, and lasted about 15 minutes. Anyways, there was a nice buffet to follow which I took full advantage of :)

On Saturday one of my friends that I worked with in Montana arrived in Korea with her mother. They are here to pick up a new member of their family which is always exciting. Anyways, I was able to meet up with them on Sunday and spend the day together. It was a fun filled day in Seoul. We went to a Korean Theatre in the afternoon. It was great to hear some traditional Korean music and see some Korean dancing. There is so much to learn! The instruments they use and history of each form of music is very interesting. After the show we all headed outdoors and the performers formed a line and started dancing/skipping/and playing music. They invited some of us to join in so Jen (my friend) and I jumped it. Good times.

The performers wore Hanbok which is traditional Korean clothing; bright and beautiful! After the show we met up with a Korean family that they {Jen and her mom} knew from home. They were absolutely lovely. They took us to Korean House which is a very traditional Korean restaurant. It involved about 8 courses it seemed and a ton of side dishes. I ate eel for the first time, and I'm sure some other things I wasn't aware of.

Anyways I officially like Korean pumpkin soup and seaweed.

Great stuff. Korean food seems to be very healthy for you (for the most part), but extremely spicy. They also have different kinds of kimchi depending on the season. Winter kimchi is pretty good for the most part but I have yet to figure out what the differences are between the seasonal kimchi.

After we were stuffed we went to another Korean theatre show at the restaurant. There were some new acts that I hadn't seen in the previous show, but a lot of it was similar to what we had seen before. There were drummers, dancers, dancing drummers, singers, and many other musicians. It was great.

Work has been going well. I'm still doing pre-school which is going better. It's still pretty draining to do morning and afternoon/evening classes, but it's going alright. The children are starting to grow on me more and I think I'm getting a little more patient! (yay! ;)The weather has been alright. I'm a little disappointed I haven't seen much snow this winter but what do ya do. I guess that's about it for now. There's alot I still want to see and get involved in in the area but all in due time I suppose.

Oh, I also added a link to my photos on flickr, so if you're interested take a peak :)

Ho hum hum...

Well nothing major has happened this past week. Let's see, I'm still doing pre-school and middle school. Supposedly I'm done with Pre-school at the beginning of February but I'll believe it once it happens. This past weekend a new teacher/roommate from Canada arrived, so I'm currently living with an Irish and Canadian. I believe we are getting about 3 more teachers over the course of the next month or so which will be nice (more Canadian and Irish).

This past weekend I was able to check out a new church. It was a larger English service which was great and I enjoyed it for the most part. One of the downfalls though is it is about and hour and a half away by subway. I think I might check out a couple other ones closer to me. Hopefully I'll find one soon.

It's been a good experience to be the foreigner. I feel like I'm getting a taste of what my international friends in the states go through. And to think that I'm only doing it for a year and they do it years at a time. crazy.

I feel like it's finally hitting me that I'm here for 9 more months. I'm looking forward to it though. There's a lot of travelling I need to do (nationally and internationally), adoption info I need to figure out, songs that need to be sung etc...should be a good year.
One of my girlfriends that I worked with in Montana is coming this weekend (with her mother) to pick up her new baby brother. Asian babies are just too cute to resist ;)
Adoption is an amazing experience for both the adopters as well as the adoptees. I love it! Anyways, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing a familiar face!

Other than that I guess nothing new is happening. The weeks go by so fast and the weekends even faster. Crazy. I'll write more soon if something exciting is happening ;) Sorry that this entry is so random. I'm feelin kind of off right now... or maybe that's just an excuse. :)

New Experiences...

This past week was a relaxing teaching week. I only had 2-6 classes a day rather than the 9-12 (no pre-school for a week), but I got in the routine of going to bed late which made going back to my busy schedule this morning rather difficult. The students had a lot of energy today...or I should say more so than normal. It was good to see them again though. I am finally starting to feel like this is my home which is nice. (Don't worry, I'll still come back to America sometime :)

There's so much I want to do while I'm here. I'm rather worried I won't be able to get it all done within the year but I'll try. It's dangerous though because I rationalize my spendings here (and everywhere I suppose) by continually telling myself it may be a once in a life time experience...it's okay for small things but when it becomes a matter of plane tickets and such, well, that can be dangerous :) All my money should be going towards paying for my B.A. degree..but ya only live once right? ;) I'm still hoping my music/german degree will make me money someday...hmmm...:)

Well this weekend was pretty eventful. So the "once in a lifetime" mindset carried over into this past weekend. I pretty much will try anything once when it comes to food and so on Friday night a group of us went out and........ I had my first experience eating dog. it's true...and i love dogs too! here it is...yup. (sorry for those that have a weak stomach). We had dog soup and dog with veggies. There was a lot of fat, it was expensive, and it really didn't taste good at all. So basically I'll never eat it again but it was an experience (not necessarily a good one though :).

I also got a new hairstyle this weekend. I usually get my haircut once or twice a year while everyone here seems to get a new hairdo or cut like once a month. anyways, I 'm use to people taking like 30-40 minutes to cut my hair just for trim. Well I go into this little haircutting area on the 2nd floor of my school building and this lady sits me down and starts hackin away! crazy! No washing, no small comb to makes sure all the cuts are even, no careful eyeing of the hair, nope, none of that...just her fingers, scissors, a large comb, and a barrette to hold back some of the hair. The haircut took about 8-10 minutes. amazing. 10 inches off in under 10 minutes. crazy. anyways, it's decent for the most part..:)

On saturday night a group of us went to Hongdae in Seoul which has a great night scene. We went to an amazing which was....get this...all you can eat and drink for about $22 USD. I love Korea! :) As most of you know I looooove food so, yeah it was pretty great :) They had a ton of meat, seafood, kimchi (of course), soups, octopus..yup it was nice. Full of foreigners :) I'll be heading back there for sure :) I would still take grilled steak and potatos with special K cookies over the buffet though...ahh...nothing can beat that.

So those were some of the events that have been taking place this past week. We are having new teachers come this weekend and one current teacher is leaving this week. Crazy. I'm starting to study Korean (finally!) so hopefully I'll be studious and start crackin down on the language.

Alright, I'm calllin it a night. :)

Cheers to 2007!

Well 2007 is here! It's always interesting to reflect on 2006 and see the journey I've been on. 2006 has especially been an exciting year---finishing undergrad at Calvin, having great friends get married, working at FMG, working in the mountains in Montana, being blessed with another niece, and wrapping the year up in South Korea. Love it! I'm looking forward to see how I grow throughout this next year and hopefully get some more travelling under my belt. There's a lot of opportunities to be taken advantage of out here, so bring it on :)

I received the new year in Gyeong-ju, which is near Busan (South-East part of the country). This was the capital city during the Silla Kingdom I travelled with Kathy Teacher and checked out the country down there. It was great to see farming land again and get away from the city.

I was able to visit the famous Buddhist temple, Bulguksa. This temple contains 7 of Korea's National treasures and is on the World Heritage List. It is gorgeous. The roofing is beautiful along with the stone pagodas. yup. I'll hopefully post more images later on a website. The Seokguram Grotto is also nearby (large Buddha in the mountains) but I didn't have time to hike to it. I believe most of it was destroyed during the Japanese occupation though. The mountain ranges are a beautiful sight though. oi.

We also checked out the tombs where Silla Kings were buried. (It was a tomb park actually). I really liked this pic of the tree on the tomb... reminded me of the tree from Der Kleine Prinz.

anyways.

There is always so much to see and of course not enough time. I'll hopefully go back to this area during the spring so I can see the cherry blossoms! :) I'm already excited!

Kathy and I then headed back home. I had my first chance to drive in Korea...crazy. I realize I'm not an aggressive enough driver; my chevy use to be intimidating enough. Driving was fun but it was a long haul; I think it was about a 6 hour drive.

Well, this week I don't have any pre-school classes which is nice :) I can sleep in and relax. I guess there's not much more to write so I'll be signing off for now.

I hope you are all having a great start to the New year ;)