¡Amigas Aquí!

I was so excited in my last entry to tell you about my trip to India that I forgot what happened before that. Tami and Colleen spent an amazing week in Korea. Although the weather was a little chilly, I had a great time playing hostess. I took a few days off work which allowed us to do just about everything there is to do in Korea all in one week. The trip began in Seoul where we stayed in an ondul--traditional style--room where you sleep on the heated floor. We spent a day shopping in markets, drinking tea, and visiting a palace/museum, and going up Seoul Tower.

Tami and Colleen were so brave! They ate everything I put in front of them. :) We ate shabu shabu (similar to Korean BBQ, but in a hotpot), bulgogi (cooked meat), mandu (dumplings), dongas (pork cutlet), samgyetang (whole chicken in a ginseng soup) and bimbimbap (mixed veggies with rice). We also visited friends from Central and had a couple little reunions. Crazy! Tami and Colleen observed classes at TCIS on Thursday and Friday while I had to teach.

One of the best things about the week was that Tami and Colleen came when school was actually in session, which meant everyone was here. They met most of my friends, and we enjoyed doctor fish and going to noraebang, coffee shops, and photo sticker booth; all things I love to do here. On the last night we did something I've never done...slept at the jjimjilbang before the girls went to the DMZ.

In the middle of the week we took a day trip via KTX to Busan to see the fish market, cliffs, and ocean. We also met up with our friend Zach (aka G) from college. It was so fun to hangout and have G show us all around his city.

It was so fun to have my amigas here, but it has been a busy couple weeks. I'm definitely exhausted now. And, I'm having quite a bit of trouble sleeping...well, being able to fall asleep especially. Stupid jet lag!

Yesterday and today was World Language Festival, which also may contribute to my extreme sleepiness. Like last year, the Mandarin, Korean, and Spanish students all got together to play traditional games from the target countries. The year 1 kids enjoyed it, but the year 2 students enjoyed it even more. Their theme was food, and we cooked doekbokki (rice cakes in hot sauce), mapo tofu (yummy yummy Chinese dish), and quesadillas. It was a huge hit, and a lot of fun. Next year, when there are year 3 students, we are planning to have a section of music and dance. Looking forward to it already!

I'm happy because tomorrow is a half day of teaching, and since I don't have class until 10:40, I only have students for 40 min. Unfortunately, the half day is due to parent/teacher conferences, meaning I have to be at school until 8:30. Yuck! However, Thursday we get to sleep in and Friday there is no school thanks to good Friday. Yay! Happy Easter!

I ♥ India!

I just returned from a fantastic week at an orphanage outside of Bangalore, India along with 14 others from TCIS (11 high school students and 3 other adults). We spent the entire week at the orphanage playing with the 68 kids who live there. We worshiped together,  did crafts, played games, and spent time just talking and hanging out. It was a great experience. We lived in a guesthouse at the orphanage, ate wonderful food prepared by some of the older girls, and took bucket showers. And in every other moment of the day we were with the kids. It was exhausting, but so incredible; they taught us so much! From new games and songs to being grateful for what we have to having a childlike faith. The children there are wise beyond their years and are absolutely beautiful inside and out. I know the trip made a great impact on some of the members of our team, because on the last day everyone's eyes were full of tears as we said our goodbyes to our new friends. I have been on many mission trips, but I've never been on one like this where we see the same kids everyday and really know them by the end of the week. We also had a really great team, and by the end of the week had grown close, too.

Although we spent the majority of the time at the orphanage with the kids, we did experience a bit of Indian culture. Each day we took a break for tea time...I'm assuming this was started because of the British influence in the country. We had the chance to watch a couple of Indian movies with the kids; one of them My Name is Khan was sooooooo good and very interesting. I would recommend it. I learned how to count to 10 in Kannara, the language spoken in that part of the country. One night we had a dance show, so we watched some Indian dances and performed some Korean ones for them. We also spent half a day in the city of Bangalore shopping. I bought a beautiful Indian purse and shirt. (Their clothing is gorgeous! Very colorful and decorative.) We also had dinner in a restaurant before heading to the airport for our long trip home. As you can see, I had a wonderful time. Hopefully I can go back and see those kids next year. I miss them already!

Check out the rest of the pics here!

Jealousy

It's snowing here! And not just a little snow, but really snowing! We are forecast to get 7 inches in Daejeon, but I don't think that will happen. I thought spring was almost here, but then winter got jealous of spring (as they say in Korea.) Crazy weather! I hope it warms up before Colleen and Tami get here!!

March

Wow, it's March already. I'm hoping to get a few more posts this month, but I know time is going to FLY by. Since Spring break the weeks have been passing so quickly and now in just a couple short weeks quarter 3 will be over and it will be one last push until the end.

Here is an update about what I've been doing and will do. Enjoy!

The weather has been pretty nice so last weekend my friend Laura and I went hiking at Bomunsan, a mountain I had never been to but is actually in the city of Daejeon. After walking 15 or so minutes you get to a lookout where you can look down on most of the city. It was nice to rest, watch, and enjoy the weather (plus take lots of goofy pics). Then, we walked around the mountain about an hour before heading home. I really enjoyed it because it wasn't like normal Korean hiking where you walk on a cement path or up rock stairs. The trails were more natural...and thankfully there were way less people.

This weekend, next weekend, and last weekend was/will be filled with swim meets. Last weekend we went to SAHS--going to SAHS is always exciting because we get to go on the base and eat Taco Bell and toasted Subway sandwiches and get all kinds of good candy out of the vending machine :)--for the shortest meet in KAIAC history! I don't know if that's really true, but we were done before noon. Next week we will be on the base again at OSAN.

This week we had the first 10-team meet. It was at YISS and it was a great day! TCIS swam so well. It is so cool to see the improvements my swimmers have made since last year. A good chunk of them have cut 7-10 seconds on their 50 freestyle times (which is totally crazy)! The meet got off to a good start when both the girls and boys relay teams passed people on the last leg to win their respective heats. Another cool...well, probably the coolest part of the meet was that Gil Stovall, an Olympic swimmer was there! He is apparently best friends with the new aquatic director at YISS. He was hanging around the whole meet so we got some pictures and autographs and asked lots of questions about the Olympics and training and Michael Phelps. haha. Then, at the break, he swam an exhibition 100 butterfly. I have never seen an Olympian swim live, so that was really cool. To the swimmers out there who will find this amazing; he took 6-7 strokes per lap! And he was so smoothe in the water. Watch the video below to see what I mean. Anyway, after the meet he talked to us about his journey to the Olympics, where he was went in seeded 2nd right behind Michael Phelps in the 200 fly, expected to medal, but woke up sick on semifinals day and missed the finals heat by .01 sec. He talked about how his faith had kept him going through his entire swimming career, and how when he looks back on that day, he realizes that God was teaching him that dreams of the world can disappear, but God is constant and never leaves. It was a great message and we all really enjoyed listening to him.

Besides swimming, not too much has been going on. I have just been preparing for Tami and Colleen, who will be here 1 week from today!!!! I cannot wait. They will be here all next week and then the following week I will be in India. Be looking for a post after that for sure! :)

Funny Story

The weather this week has been beautiful! I think it hit 70 today. Because the spring-like weather put me in a mood to exercise, I decided to ride my bike to the pool. I had a nice swim and then walked my bike (I got a flat tire :( ) back...like my own mini-triathalon. hehe. Anyway, that's not the funny part. Today at school one of my fellow teacher friends asked if I went to the pool last night. I hadn't seen him there, so I was quite confused. I guess one of his Korean swim friends was there and had this to say via text message:

today very amazing in pool - white woman are very well swim;

3:21 PM white woman..very .... good swimer..al the people stand and cheer loudly;;

  (my friend asked why - he said)

  why cheer? because, Caucasian woman! very swim player! very amazing  

HAHAHAHA! This cracks me up (and the broken English makes it even better)! I didn't even know this was happening! I saw a team chanting and I thought they were stretching or something, but apparently they were cheering for me. lol. As I was swimming yesterday I remember thinking I really liked swimming in Korea because everyone is pretty good...I didn't have to pass anybody and nobody passed me. But apparently I was amazing, and they were all quite surprised. hehe. Anyway, it totally made my day. I feel so cool. :-P

Happy Lunar New Year in VIETNAM!

I returned to Korea on Sunday morning from a very interesting trip to Vietnam. Not too many places I visit surprise me anymore, but Vietnam was still able to do that. And for that reason, I loved it! The most shocking thing was the traffic. I just could not get over the madness of thousands of motorbikes weaving in and out of cars and pedestrians. It was quite a sight! I also enjoyed learning the history of Vietnam. I guess in the north there is still some hostility towards Americans, but we didn't experience that in the South. It was definitely eye-opening to hear about the war from the other side. We spent two days in Ho Chi Minh, where we were able to spend some time in a beautiful park, eat lots of phó (Vietnamese noodles that cost about $1), see a water puppets show, and visit the CuChi tunnels. Anna, Lyndsey and I crawled through the entire thing. Parts of it were so small that we had to crawl on our hands and knees. And it has even been made bigger for tourists! The entrances were also very small and well-hidden. Our guide also showed us some traps that were used during the war. Very cool to see.

After a couple days in the city, we spent two days touring the Mekong Delta area. As a part of the tour we visited several small villages, traveled everywhere by boat, and did lots of crazy things: held a boa constrictor, ate "elephant ear" fish, drank honey tea, tried all kinds of new tropical fruit, slept in an...interesting hostel, bought pineapple from a boat at the floating market, and even saw a water buffalo.  The tour was relaxing and gave us the chance to meet some fellow travelers.

For the last few days of our trip we headed to the beach at Mui Ne. We arrived at about midnight, went to the hotel, and discovered that are booking was not received. Because of Lunar New Year everything in the country was shut down so people had a week-long vacation. It turns out that everyone goes to the beach during that time! We were told by the hotel owner that there were no rooms available anywhere because of the newear. The security guards helped us by calling a few hotels and finally said that the Saigon Mui Ne, a large resort, had one room available. The 7 of us then piled into a taxi to snatch it before someone else did. However, when we arrived we were told that they were completely booked. By this time it was approaching 1 AM, and I was prepared to sleep on the beach. As a last resort Jenn and Anna when one way and Lyndsey and I went another asking every place we came to if we had room. After walking for about 20 minutes (and feeling like we could relate to Mary and Joseph) Lynz and I were about ready to turn around when a woman ran out to us, pointed towards her guesthouse (it was dark and we hadn't even seen it!) and asked if we needed a place to sleep. We said yes and she led us to a clean, large room (2 queen size beds...enough for at least 6 to have a bit of mattress). She even had another room available for the next two nights. So at 2 AM we found a place to stay for the duration of the trip. Whew! It was quite an adventure!

The rest of our time in Mui Ne was very nice. We swam in the warm ocean, laid on the beach, watched kite surfers, visited sand dunes and went sand sleddin, creek-stomped in a beautiful stream, ate more yummy food, shopped, and played mini-golf. It was fun and relaxing. I felt so disconnected from school and work; it was great!

Now we are back in class for three more weeks until our next break. I will be going to India for a mission trip with a group of high school students. I am sooooo excited because I have wanted to go to India for quite some time now. We will be working at an orphanage near Bangalore. The week before that Tami and Colleen will be here!!! I can't wait! March will be here and over before I know it!

Click here for pictures from Vietnam. Also, check out the video below. It is incredible!

Escaping Winter

Yep, that's what I'm doing...escaping winter. Saturday I will be leaving wet, cold Korea for warm, sunny Vietnam! We have next week off school for Lunar New Year, so 6 friends and I will be heading to Ho Chi Minh City as well as to Moi Ne beach until Saturday the 20th. I'm so ready for a break. Swimming has started up and after having to make some cuts (I hate cutting people!), the team has been named and practice has begun regularly. We have our first meet the Saturday after break and then the season will be in full force.

Last weekend I kept busy at 30 Hour Famine with over 100 middle school kids at SFS. The event was great, but we didn't get much sleep. All the girls were squeezed into a gymnastics room. They went to sleep better than last year, but we didn't go to bed until about 1:00 AM. Then, about 5 in the morning 3 different cell phone alarms went off. Grr...we had collected all the TCIS students' phones. Overall, the event was a lot of fun and really eye-opening for many of our students who have always had everything they've needed or wanted.

The next month is going to be pretty crazy. 3 weeks after the Vietnam trip, Tami and Colleen are coming!!! Then, the following week we have Spring break and I will be heading to India on a mission trip. I will try to keep you all updated on my adventures. Happy Lunar New Year, all!

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!