Happy Thanksgiving!

I know it's a bit late, but I wanted to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. This is always the most difficult time of year to be away from home. I miss Grandma's cooking, seeing my family, and watching football. It's a holiday that holds so much tradition for American families that usually most people get down a bit this week. Luckily, I have so much to be thankful for! I had a fabulous holiday: two feasts, shopping, and many Christmas movies. 

Here at TCIS we have to work on Thanksgiving, however, on Thursday Sheila, a fellow MS teacher, cooked dinner for a few of the single teachers. The food was delicious...she is an amazing cook. I had been waiting all year for that caramel pie and it didn't disappoint me! On Friday we had a half day of school, so at noon I went home and decorated my house for Christmas. My Christmas tree and lights were up, and I was in the Christmas mood, so after cooking some strawberry banana bread (while listening to Christmas tunes), I decided to watch "The Holiday." When it finished it was time to head to Thanksgiving dinner at the school. Just like last year we had an abudance of food and I ended up coming home with almost a whole loaf of banana bread. After dinner a group of us headed to the movies to watch "A Christmas Carol" for my friend Mike's birthday.

The next morning, Saturday, I woke up early to catch a school trip to Songtan, the shopping area outside of Osan Air Base. We spent the whole day shopping, except for the stop at the Mexican restaurant for lunch. I got all my Christmas shopping done, but it was a long day...we didn't get back until around 6:00. I invited everyone to my house to eat 치켄마요 and watch some my new DVDs. We watched "Four Christmases" and "Christmas Vacation" before calling it a day. It made for the end of a very happy start to the holiday season.

Weekend fun

Despite the fact that I came down with a nasty cold on Saturday and spent all day Sunday in bed, I had a wonderful weekend. Friday night I helped with a 7th grade Thanksgiving party. We are attempting to unite each grade by doing various social events and this was the first of the year. I spent the evening playing Uno, Blackjack, Boggle, and "Piggy" (like pig in basketball, except more letters. hehe. I guess they've never heard of horse.) with a great group of middle school students.

When it finished I headed to bed because Saturday morning the swim team departed at 6:00 AM for SIS. Our first jamboree was a success; there are some really talented 6th graders this year. Others on the team have improved so much this season so it's fun to see them so proud of themselves! Overall, a great event and everyone had a good time...although it felt like I spent the day in the tropics. It had to be 90˚ in that pool!

We returned to campus around 3:30, so I headed straight down to the gym where the annual Christmas Bazaar was taking place. I bought some DVDs and books from MS STUCO (Student Council), chatted with some people, and then had intentions of resting. However, by the time I got home it was after 4 and I had made plans to meet friends for dinner at 5. I basically dropped off my things and met up with Anna and Ben for some Korean BBQ. Yum!

After dinner Anna and I got all dressed up for some fellow teacher's "Halfway to 90" b-day party. All guests were supposed to dress like they thought (or hoped) they would look like when they were 90. We raided the drama dept's costume closet and found some great pieces to wear. The party was a blast! Everyone was so into their role, the food was great--candy "pills" and many desserts since "we don't have to count calories anymore"--and the games were "age appropriate" as promised. My favorite part was that they gave everyone a sticker on their back related to a funny problem people have when they age (dentures popping out, not hearing well, wandering off, falling asleep at random, not being able to see, etc.) and we all interacted accordingly. It was a hoot!

This weekend looks to be another busy one. Although Thanksgiving isn't really celebrated here, I am having Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and Friday (Yes!). I will miss the football and parade, though. We do have school on Thursday, but we get Friday afternoon off to cook for our Friday evening feast. I am going shopping in Songtan on Saturday (in line with Black Friday in the U.S. :-D) and planning to catch the new Christmas Carol movie, too. Oh, it's time to set up my Christmas tree. I hope all of you have a Happy Thanksgiving! There is so much to be thankful for!

Groundbreaking

It's official! Today was the  groundbreaking for the building of our new school campus out in Techno Valley, a newer part of town about 30 minutes from where we are currently located. We aren't relocating until August 2011, but all the same it was an exciting day just knowing that what we've been dreaming about will become reality (picture is of projected new school). This afternoon the school decided to put together a groundbreaking ceremony. I, along with most of the staff, was skeptical about the notion of busing 800 people out to an empty hill where everyone will freeze for an hour while some higher-ups talk about the history of TCIS and what the move will mean for our school. I am happy to say that I was mistaken! The event was great. Yes, we did freeze, but getting everyone out to the site was much smoother than I thought it would be; and it was really nice to have everyone in the community together for the big event.

Before the ceremony, no one really knew what to expect. It was funny to clarify with the students that we weren't moving into the school so they didn't need to bring all their belongings, and no, we don't need to bring a shovel. hehe. I was expecting lots of TCIS banners, but it turned out to be much more than that. There were inflatable banners, banners flying high in the sky, tons of flowers sent as gifts, a stage with lots of cameras projecting the podium, and many honorable guests including the mayor of Daejeon, city council members, board members, presidents of various international schools, and even Korea's equivilent of the Vice-President. Only an Obama visit (hey, he was in Korea today!) could have made a more distinguished guest list. After a short opening prayer and a welcome from Dr. Penland, each of the guests, as well as student body co-presidents, gave 2 min. speeches stating their congratulations and gratitude. After the speeches, all of the administrators grabbed gold shovels to "break ground," and as they did confetti shot into the air! After that admin went to the "button=pushing ceremony." That had us all confused. What does the button do? No one was expecting the spectacle when they pushed the button. There were fireworks and more confetti and colored smoke and hundreds of balloons released. It was actually pretty cool! Plus, they gave all the students and staff snack packs on the way home complete with an orange, cookies, M&Ms, and a brownie! It was quite an afternoon. And in 16 months when we all return to that place there will be a wonderful new TCIS in place of the windy empty hill. Yay!

It's kimchi makin' time!

Each day at the beginning of class I ask my students what they did the day before, over the weekend, etc. This week, I had many excited students respond, "I made kimchi!" I'm not a kimchi eater myself, but I know that most Korean people are addicted to the stuff. It is served at every meal in the cafeteria and with any dish you order in a restaurant. For these reasons, I was curious (and thought it was important to know) how to make kimchi. My students were pleased with my interest and shared with me what the process is like. So, now I'm sharing a my newly-found cultural knowledge with you!

The first step in making kimchi is to wash the cabbage in salt water. Then, you cover it in red pepper paste. My students said they just buy the red pepper paste from the store, but that their 할모니(grandmas) make it from scratch my crushing dried red peppers. Next, they put the red pepper paste-covered-cabbage into a giant kimchi pot and let it ferment. I am unsure how long it has to stay there (they told me three days, but I would think longer...maybe it was lost in translation), but the entire process takes quite some time. Many said they do it for a couple days for a few hours each day. It seems to be a family affair, too. And, Korean families make SO MUCH KIMCHI! The kimchi pots are huge! Plus, in all of the 가개 and supermarkets there are cabbages stacked in every spare square centimeter you can find.

Maybe I will grow to acquire the taste of kimchi, but I just can't get past the spicyness...maybe some day. In the meantime, I will marvel at the process and appreciate the family time and hard work that goes into making this Korean staple. And if any of you come visit me, be prepared to give kimchi a try!

Happy Peppero Day!

It's that time of year again. Time for the genius marketing scheme that makes everyone in Korea purchase chocolate candy sticks called Peppero. I love this holiday around the middle school because of all the drama that takes place surrounding who gave Pepperos to who. hehe. Plus, who doesn't like to receive some free Peppero. I have just received my first ones, and boy are they tasty. :)

Besides Peppero day, the middle school is a bit crazy because of H1N1 vaccinations that 400 students are receiving here today. The Korean government is paying for all school children in the country to get the vaccination if they want it. Kind of ironic since everyone else in the world has a shortage. This week the flu has hit hard and each day we have about 15+ students absent. After they are confirmed positive they can't return to school for a week so the number will likely keep growing. I just hope we don't close down and have to do ODL (online distance learning) again!

Since volleyball has ended, sadly, I haven't had any more free time than I did before. In fact, I often find myself feeling more stressed out than I did during the season!! Last Sunday I spent about 7 hours getting caught up on grading that had been a growing stack during the season. I have also been keeping busy with middle school swimming. Even though it is only until 4:30 two days per week, it is so exhausitng. This year we have around 40 kids on the team and only 2 lanes to practice in. Plus, because we have to drive to the pool, change, practice, change, and drive back, we are always in a time crunch. One of my fellow coaches described it as feeling like a race everyday. I am constantly thinking "Go, go, go..." The first practice we arrive late and missed the bus and had to find alternate transportation for 13 kids. Since that day we are determined not to do it again. It just means we really have to keep those kids moving! Usually by the time practice is over, I am completely wiped out.

Time once again is passing by so fast that I don't even know what I am doing with it. Less than 50 days until I leave on my South America trip. I'm looking forward to that and in the meantime am working, trying to stay healthy, and enjoying the beautiful fall weather here in Korea.

잔명 Hiking with 1000s

Yep, that's what I did this weekend. I went hiking with 1000s of middle-aged to old Koreans. My friend Laura and I decided to go hiking on Saturday since the weather was perfect and the leaves were changing. We left Daejeon for Daedunsan at 10:30 an hour later we found ourselves stuck in a traffic jam about 1 km from the base of the mountain. When we finally arrived, we grabbed a bite to eat and then headed to the cable car so that we could just hike to the peak and back down. We were surprised when we went to buy tickets only to find that the cable car was sold out until 2:45! Usually the cable car only runs every hour, but this day it was running every 5 min...and each time it carried another 50 people up! We decided we didn't want to wait that long so we just hiked up the mountain ourselves. It was a really nice hike and we were glad we decided to walk. However, several times on the way up the mountain was so crowded and congested that we had to slow up and wait in line!! Although we couldn't enjoy nature and being out of the city as much as I hoped, it was a great cultural experience. And we had a lot of fun crossing the bridge and climbing the steep ladder...it was worth the wait. After 3 hours we made it to the peak (along with about 50 other people. hehe) and enjoyed a beautiful view and the satisfaction that we had climbed the whole mountain ourselves. It's still amazing to me to think that all those people decided to spend a Saturday hiking a mountain. I don't think that would happen in the U.S. You can enjoy some pics from the day here.

Welcome back, Life

I now officially have my life back. There hasn't been much to it these last couple months since I have been so busy with coaching volleyball, but this weekend was the conference tournament, marking the end of the season. The boys finished in 5th--despite an injured setter and our freshman setter-in-training playing for the whole tournament (he did a great job under so much pressure!)--after winning the final game against Daegu American. It was great to end the season with a win. It was full of ups and downs, but now we are done and I've had a chance look back, I see that it was a great season. I really enjoyed getting know the boys. One of my worries before the season started was being able to form relationships with them like I did the girls on the swim team. Although the relationships were different, I think I found it easier than with the girls and now maybe even feel closer to the boys. Even though we had a losing record, I don't think that reflects how good of a team we actually were and how much improvement was made. Plus, we had so much fun! I am proud of the guys and how they represented TCIS this year. And I am so thankful for the opportunity I had to be a part of the team. Although I will enjoy having some free time, part of me will miss going to practice everyday. At least I have next year to look forward to! Go Dragons!