South Coast Trip

I had two trips this winter to Korea's south coast, both to the same general area. One was an EPIK cultural trip, the other was a Yeongcheon Girls' teachers' trip. I was skeptical of visiting the area in the winter, but although people told me it was much more beautiful in the spring/summer, it was still actually quite nice. Even though the EPIK trip was called a "cultural" trip, it was pretty much just scenery with little to no explanation. Oh well.

The weather was also a lot warmer in the south, so it was a bit of a relief to get to hang out there for a bit. As usual, the teachers' trip consisted of most of the teachers getting drunk on the bus and singing karaoke (also on the bus, as well as in a Norebang). For the occasion I had prepared a Korean song to sing (너를위해 by 임재범). It went over very well, and the teachers who heard it were impressed with my dedication to Korean culture. Sadly, there was no encore. I'm not much for singing in public.

For more scenery and some descriptions of what we did, follow the link.

I'll start my diet next week!

Actually, I didn't really start a diet as a New Year's resolution, although I have started exercising again. But it's a good thing I didn't, because my friend Sun-Ran took me out to a really cute restaurant for a delicious meal. It was a restaurant aimed at couples, and instead of a menu, it featured a six course meal with several shared dishes. The atmosphere would be very romantic for a date, but the food was worth coming there just with friends.

It's Sun-Ran, waiting to start on the appetizer. Let's go! More photos after the cut.

Christmas Snowboarding

Christmas, as I've said, isn't really a holiday here, but it did fall on the weekend, so we awesomely had it off! This winter has been much milder than last winter with almost no snow. Mostly that's a good thing, but it does detract from the Christmas spirit. Luckily, I got my white Christmas anyway, because I joined a snowboarding trip last minute to help out my friends, who had lost a member of their group to sickness. Even though I don't like skiing, I'm really glad I went because snowboarding turned out to be more fun, less scary, and only slightly more painful. I actually really enjoyed it. If I go to a ski resort again, I'd like to give snowboarding another go!

Here I am with my rented snowboard. Click on the jump to see pictures of me actually snowboarding, all of which I lifted from my friend's facebook, since she took them all. I was too scared to bring my camera along, since I knew I'd be falling a lot.

English Contests

This year Yeongcheon had two English contests for the students: a skit contest and a speech contest. Each school in Yeongcheon sends one entry to each contest, the students must perform on a stage in front of an audience of their peers and then answer an "interview" question to test actual English comprehension, since the skit and speech largely show off memorization.

Since my school is one of the largest middle schools in Yeongcheon, and considered an English leader and example school, the principal had high expectations, and for each contest most of the English staff had to stay after school for hours practicing. But the real admiration should be saved for the kids who participated, who practiced endlessly in all their free time. We shared cheap dinners crowded around a table in the English office, flashlight-lit trips to the bathroom in the dark, deserted school, hours of practice interview questions, and even a few occasions of stress-induced silliness. Although I got pretty tired of, say, drilling the same questions over and over and hearing the same speech dozens of times a day, I really enjoyed the chance to get close to a few special students, all of whom are funny, sweet, hard-working and energetic.

This was probably one of the more memorable experiences I had here and definitely an interesting time. While there are things I could complain about regarding the actual contests (some schools' lack of appropriate preparation, an atmosphere too heavily focused on winning, memorization without comprehension, technical difficulties, etc.), I think it was a good experience for the students too and helped form some friendships that probably wouldn't have occured otherwise, as between the mix of 1st and 2nd graders shown above (A-hyun, Je-Gyung, Yoo-jin, Jenny, and Bo-ram).

More photos after the cut.

Around Yeongcheon

Today was the first actually cold day by my standards, so in honor of the beginning of winter, I'll post the pictures I took around Yeongcheon during the summer and fall. One of the things I'll miss the most about Korea is its beauty, especially the greenness of Yeongcheon. It's sad to know that my remaining months won't be able to give me that. But at least we'll always have Paris. Or rather, these pictures.

Dong-Yun's Wedding / Halloween

My friend Dong-Yun was married on Halloween weekend, and since she got married near Seoul, it provided me with the opportunity to go up to Seoul for the weekend before Halloween and then down to the wedding before school started again on Monday.

Here is Dong-Yun and her husband posing with me. After the wedding, the bridal couple change into fancy hanboks and go around the buffet hall greeting and thanking people. We only got a moment together, since they were busy, but at least I got this picture!
More after the jump.

Hanbok

So, since my hobby is sewing and I have a passion for pretty dresses, I knew as soon as I came to Korea that getting a hanbok, preferably made by me, was a goal of mine. And now that goal has been accomplished! Actually, it's been done for awhile, but I'm just getting a chance to post the pictures.

Actually, I stole this photo off of Facebook. It's one Hye-Jin took of me at Parents' Day at school, where I was convinced to greet parents while wearing it. I think most of the parents just wondered what the heck a crazy foreigner in a hanbok was doing there, but it was ok.
More photos after the cut.