Hello 2010!!!

It's hard to believe that the new year has begun. It's even harder to believe that it has been so flippin' long since I have updated this thing. For that, I sincerely apologize. Every weekend I make a commitment to myself to finally put my thoughts down and share the events from the past few months. I even go so far as to open my home page and think of a creative title for my post. And then I blank. Literally. I have no words and even the pictures I've taken the past several months give me no inspiration to share my story. Even through the holidays when my homesickness was at an all-time high and my desire to reconnect was overwhelming, I couldn't bring myself to write. But, on New Year's Eve, I made a pact with my adult class to help each other get through our New Year's resolutions that we shared with each other. "Blogging more consistently" may have been last on my list, but that didn't make it any less important than my hope to work out more and finally start my novel. So here I am, finally catching up on the craziness in my life since October.

First, I'll begin with work stuff since that obviously takes up most of my time. I finally turned a corner in my teaching technique after getting some feed back from my co-workers and I think it has really helped me and the kids improve with our new units. They respond so much better with the new activities I've incorporated in the class and even my middle schoolers are starting to speak up and utilize the material. It's so rewarding to go through the incredibly painful experience of oral test week and see an improvement across the board with my kids. It's only made my passion for teaching that much stronger. In other, work-related news, Kelly (one of the Korean teachers) got married in November and is expecting a baby just a few short days before I am due to come back home. I am so excited for her and I hope her little one comes before I have to leave! We also hired a new Korean teacher to help out since Kelly will be leaving to move back to Seoul with her husband and we seem to be bringing on more kids than we can handle! Her name is Kim Bo Mi and she's a little on the quiet side. She's a year younger than me, so I'm finally no longer the baby at work anymore. I'm hoping to crack her shell a little bit so we can become as close friends as I am with the rest of the girls at work.

Which leads me to the social life section of my update. I have made friends! Real friends! Who I hang out with and go to the movies and go shopping! I know it seems silly that I am so excited, but trust me this has been a huge help with my transition. My other co-worker, Sarah, has been such a huge help with sending my packages home, opening a bank account and buying my cell phone (which gets TV - booyah!) She even gifted me with some of her furniture when she moved out of her apartment last month. Hyeon Hee (or Angelina as we jokingly call her) has also gone above and beyond what I could have expected from my Korean friends. See, she doesn't speak English and I obviously don't speak Korean. Our inability to communicate was so frustrating for the both of us because we could tell that we would be really great friends if only we could get past our language barrier. So, we have taken up studying together and it's gone pretty well. I'm still struggling a bit with remembering each sound Hangul characters make, but I have gotten to the point where I can actually sound out words even if I don't know what they mean yet. In addition to my friendships with the girls at work, I have an incredible adult class that loves to go out on the weekend and unwind a little. I think it helps them practice their social English outside of our discussion topics. Plus, we all get to enjoy good food, drinks and a lot of laughs. One student in particular has become a good friend of mine. She took me to my first movie here in Korea and then my second (BTW Avatar was AMAZING!). Unfortunately, she'll be returning to Seoul to finish up her last semester of university before beginning the job hunt. At least this will give me an excuse to get out of the province and go visit her. Hopefully, once the weather turns nice, there will be plenty more adventures for me to share with you. It's been bitterly cold this winter with quite a few dustings of snow already. I know most of you have gone through worse, but for this California girl, it's been pretty rough! I have also made a few new fellow foreigner friends while out and about. Apparently the gym is just as good of a place to meet people here as it is back home! We've all been busy with our holiday plans, so hopefully we'll get to hang out soon.

Now onto the adventures I have had as of late. In October, our work went on a day trip to the beach which included a great deal of booze and food. Those of you who understand my culinary tastes would be so proud of me and my adventurous taste buds. Not only did I have a meal consisting only of seafood, I even went so far as to eat raw fish! I didn't go all the way and join in with the feasting on sea-slugs, but I did enjoy the local fair caught fresh that morning. I made a little video of all of my pictures from the trip, including two from the main shopping district in Daejeon. (Here is the YouTube version if the video doesn't work)

I also made my first trip to Seoul in October. Our first day was spent walking through the Olympic Park and then onto Lotte World (the Korean version of Disneyland). We happened to be there on United Nations Day and they had a beautiful display in front ofGyeongbokgung Palace. It was so beautiful to see how much our American forces (combined with those from the UN) have impacted the Korean people and how grateful they are for our help in their fight for freedom from oppressive rule. We also got a chance to watch some incredible live performances inside the palace as well before rushing back to the train station to catch our ride back home to Nonsan.