Movies, Meetings, and Melting Snow

The title of this post pretty much sums up life since returning from my vacay. Not too much has happened. After a strange, snowy winter here in Korea, the snow is finally beginning to melt. On Wednesday, although rainy and foggy, the temperature broke 50 degrees to melt most of the snow that had been hanging around since I returned from warm, sunny South America. There are still some icy spots, but I think winter is almost over here! Sorry to all ya'll back in Iowa where winter always seems like it'll never end.

Since it has been cold, I have been filling my time with lots of movies. Last week I watched The Road (super depressing), 500 Days of Summer (LOVED it!), Up (what a cute, chubby Korean kid!), and one of my new favorites...Avatar! Finally. I know I'm way behind on this one. My friend Anna and I went to the movie after everyone told us we had to see it. Luckily, we found a theatre showing it in 3-D and I was not disappointed. Wow...what a great movie! I will definitely be buying that one when it comes out.

Right now I am enjoying a few weeks of rest without coaching. Basketball finished last week so I don't even have any scoreboard responsibilities. I have been able to get into the pool and spend some time with friends. On Saturday I made a quick $100 administering the SAT. It was interesting because we were told to be on the lookout for these four people who take the test for other people. Fortunately, my room was uneventful, and I didn't have to deal with anything like that. This week I have been working on getting caught up with work before the swimming season starts. Last week we had a team meeting and enough people signed up that we will have to have try-outs. Yay for having a full team this year! Well, tomorrow starts a new week so I should hit the hay. 안녕이카세요!

Pictures are posted!

I have posted most of my pictures from my South America trip. Click on the links below to view them. More from Santiago will be coming; as well as some pics and video from my rafting trip. Enjoy!

Buenos Aires
Bariloche
Patagonia
Santiago (to come)

¡Me encanta Sudamerica!

You may be wondering why I haven't posted for so long, but the reason is because I have just spent three fantastic weeks on a Spanish teacher's dream vacation. For those that don't speak Spanish, the title of this post is "I love South America!" From December 19-January 10, I was busy traveling around Argentina and Chile with the two other Spanish teachers at TCIS. We had an amazing trip and did tons of cool things. No, I am not going to say everything we did. That would take days to read. Instead, I will give you the brief (well, as brief as I can be) rundown of the highlights of the trip. Then, if you want to know more about something, send me an email and I will be happy to share some of the stories of the wild things we did, the incredible people we met, and the absolutely beautiful nature we encountered. Also, be on the lookout for pictures. I will be posting them soon! Ok, here we go!

Dec 20-25: Buenos Aires--Went to a local market; biked around the city; visited La Boca, a cultural, colorful neighborhood; saw Evita Peron's grave at La Recoleta cemetery; took tango lessons; went to Christmas Eve mass; watched fireworks (and heard them all night) on Christmas Eve; saw an Argentine movie; and bought so many books and maps for our classrooms that we had to buy an extra suitcase!

Dec 26-28: Bariloche--Hiked to a beautiful waterfall; went white-water rafting to the Chilean border (and flipped on the first rapid!), ate incredible food...as we did everywhere in Argentina, but here especially; and went on a Chocolateria tour (Bariloche is known for its chocolate).

Dec 29: Ruta 40, a road that stretches from Alaska down to Ushauia, the furthest South city in the world--We took a bus for 30 hours with a five hour stop in a small small town of Perito Moreno. The trip was quite an adventure since the road was gravel and we would travel for hours without seeing a town, house, or even a car. It was an amazing adventure and we got to see a lot of Argentina!

Dec 30-Jan 2: El Chalten--Now in southern Patagonia, we went horseback riding and had a delicious lunch and wonderful afternoon talking with an Argentinian family on their farm; admired the picturesque views of the snow-capped mountains that surrounded the town; had a fancy New Year's Eve dinner and then went to a local party (El Chalten only has about 600 people and I'm pretty sure all of them, as well as all the tourists and temp workers, were there) where local bands played to celebrate the new year; hiked 26 km (15 miles) on 2 hours of sleep; trekked on a glacier and even climbed part of it using our crampons and ice picks!

Jan 2-3: El Calafate--Shopped; ate at buffet for our last meal in Argentina with good friends we had met on our travels; and visited Perito Moreno glacier, the only glacier in the area that is advancing. It advances 2 meters a day. The glacier is huge...70 meters high, 14 km long, and 5 km wide. The coolest thing was watching--and listening--to chunks of the glacier fall off. It sounded like thunder even when the smallest pieces fell off.

Jan 3: Travel day across the border to Punta Arenas--We got in pretty late so we took some pics by the Magellen Strait and then went to bed because we had to catch a 6:00 AM flight the next day.

Jan 4-8: Santiago--First thing we did...took a 5 hour nap (We had been traveling a LOT!). We also ate hot dogs with guacamole (a Chilean specialty); shopped at a market; watched a Chilean movie (super interesting about the U.S.'s part in the overthrow of Allende); took a double-decker bus tour; saw mummies at the Precolombian Art Museum; visited Pablo Neruda's house; took a day trip to Valparaiso where we rode elevators and trollies; laid on the beach at Reñaca; visited the Stock Exchange; and spent an afternoon relaxing at the gorgeous Santa Lucia park.

Jan 10: Back in Korea. After 40 hours of travel we arrived just after midnight to a snow-covered Korea...not exactly ready to start teaching again the next morning, but it was soooooo worth it!

We had an absolutely incredible trip. Our travel, though much, was smoothe. We stayed in great hostels with very friendly owners. And, not only was it a ton of fun, but we learned a lot about the culture of the countries, observed language differences, and practiced and improved our own Spanish. Plus, we met many great people everywhere we went. It was definitely an experience I will never forget!