WINTER

On Christmas Eve, I had a big potluck dinner with my friends at German Bar. We had two delicious turkeys that a couple men slaved over the entire day. They tasted soo good! We had a whole slew of dishes! Everything was AMAZING!!! We also did Secret Santa. My SS ended up being Sonia, which I had found out the night before because she cannot keep her mouth shut. haha. She got me a really really nice and most importantly, SOFT, red scarf. I love it! The other gifts were great as well. There was even a Mini Stop Christmas in a bag! haha. After German Bar, we went to Crazy Horse and several of us stayed out until closing time, around 530am. I just had 2 tequila shots there, one when we first got there, maybe around midnight(?) and one right before we left. I think tequila is the only shot I can do correctly. It's so strange! The evening was just perfect (except there was no snow!). I had such a great night! Great conversation, great friends, great fun!

Yesterday was Christmas and I woke up expecting snow because it was forecasted. There was none. I was quite sad for I have been hoping for a white Christmas. There was a little snow in the afternoon when I was having coffee with Jarrod. Then the evening came, and boy did Santa deliver! It was coming down and the snow didn't melt when it hit the ground; it actually stuck! It was really exciting! I was at Austin & Mesa's apartment for a holiday party and when I heard the news of the snowfall, I went to the rooftop to experience my first snowfall in over a decade (minus that one time when it snowed for 5 minutes in LA during my 2nd year of college). I was soooo excited!!! The holiday party was great. Got to see people I haven't seen in a while, and just chat. We also did White Elephant. I brought some fuzzy puzzle pajama pants which were very much appreciated by the recipient. I ended up getting a golden piggy bank that all Chinese people have. I think I can start a collection! Austin brought a larva. Disgusting! After that party, some people headed downtown. Had a relaxing time at Soul Train, then headed home around 430am. It was difficult getting a taxi! It was still snowing at this point. Ahh! It's so beautiful and FUN!! I ended up getting some fluffy snow from a bench and I threw it at Okailey! I meant to throw it up so it would fall on her, but I ended up throwing it at her face! Omigosh, it was HILARIOUS!!! Man, I love the snow. Just not when my hands are freezing from touching it.



Backtrack!
I had dinner with my co-teachers last week and we had raw fish and some other cooked stuff, but not much of that. We had about 15 courses of food. It was really ridiculous! I thought the first two plates would be the end of it, but the door kept sliding open every now and then with MORE plates of food. I was STUFFED, but more and more and more were set upon the table. It was so good! Then one dish came, I looked at it, and it was wriggling around, so I blurted out "OH MY GOD!" It just came out! Immediately after, I apologized for my outburst. I was just shocked! On the plate was live chopped octopus! I've been wanting to try it and now the opportunity was served to me on a plate, not quite a silver platter. I had my co-teachers eat it first and I just had a tentacle on my chopstick, analyzing it. I was really scared, but then I just put it in my mouth and started chewing, A LOT. I didn't want it be sucking on my insides! It was a fun experience. I'm so sad that I didn't bring my camera though. So many photos to be taken and I didn't take a single one! Ugh!!! If I had gone home before dinner (from school), I would've picked it up, but I didn't. Boo!

In classroom news, a boy in one of my 3rd grade classes got up during a Christmas game, walked over to another boy, and just punched him square in the jaw. I was SO shocked!! So this is what happened. I was teaching a lesson about Christmas; we were playing a game. The question was, "Who helps Santa make toys?" I guess the boy who got punched said the other student's nickname, which he hates. The boy immediately stood up, walked over, and just hit him. It was unexpected. I thought he was just gonna yell at him in his face, or push him, or something not as extreme. He walked over rather calmly. Then he just hit him. The boy who received the blow didn't do anything though; he didn't cry, he didn't hit him back, he just sat there. He was quite shocked as well. Then my co-teacher dragged the assailant by his hair outside. I didn't know what to do! Then one of my students in the front row just continued on with the game; he was raising his hand and answering the question. I was like, "uhh....okk....let's move on with the game...let's skip this question!" What the heck do you do in that situation!? It was bizarre, and I don't really like how Korea handles these things. They kinda just brush it off, I feel. "Boys will be boys" they say.

I also finished my 2nd Korean class. I pass the exam, but I didn't do too well. I got 79.5%, I think. Overall, not that great, but it's good considering my attendance was low, including the week before the test (when the teacher gave us the answers apparently). Oh well.

One night, while going to Korean class, I ran into a student on the bus. I didn't recognize her at first, but she came to sit down next to me and we had a nice chat allll the way to school. I recognize her from class, but I never heard her speak, so I was shocked when I was talking to her to find out that she was on her way to an English class. At first I didn't even know if she could speak English, but I soon found out that she was amazing! Impeccable! I told her that her skill was very good and she could be an English teacher! I also asked her why she never spoke up in class. She said it was because there are so many students in class that it's very difficult for her to talk. I totally agree with her. There are SO many kids in the classroom; I thought America was bad! She's amazing though; she's been studying for about 6 years. Maybe if I study Korean for another 5 years, I could be as good as she is in English!


I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL NEW YEAR'S EVE!!! ^^

SNOW!

This morning was the first time snow fell in Gwangju this "winter"! It's still Fall, right? I was in first period and my kids were yelling to me, "It's snowing! Teacher! It's snowing!!" I looked outside and saw my first snowflakes (in Korea). I was SOOO excited (on the inside) and the kids were also SOOO excited (on the outside). My co-teacher wanted them to settle down, so we closed the windows. I then regained their attention on a wonderful Simpsons review game (we reviewed for the test, not about the Simpsons). Then after that was done, the snow was also done and gone. So sad.

Mega update

I'm getting horribler and horribler with this blogging dealio and also with my English. So let me just do one of those haphazardly put together recaps!

Last month, I went to my first Korean wedding! It was my principal's daughter's wedding. I've never met her before, nor do I have a strong relationship with my principal. However, in Korean, practically anyone with any sort of connection is invited to the wedding. It's a mass invitation. As for me, I was "invited" (or should I say, "allowed to go") because I work at the principal's school. Basically, if someone is getting married, they will post their wedding invitation somewhere in the teachers' room, and if you want to attend, you can. It's a free-for-all. I went to show respect to my principal and also because I wanted to experience my first Korean wedding. It was quite a sight. There are two parts to the wedding: a Western ceremony and a traditional Korean ceremony, the latter which is only for family members and close friends. Obviously, I only attended the Western ceremony, which looked normal, until about 3 minutes before it began. The wedding hall was gorgeous; untainted white fabrics, white flowers, chandeliers. There was also a sort of catwalk in between the two sets of seats. This is aisle where everyone would walk down. In America (or any Western country), everyone is hidden until they walk down the aisle, no? Well, in Korea, they are all lined up already for everyone to see even before they walk down the aisle. First, the two mothers (I assume) are escorted down the aisle together by people who work at the wedding hall. Nope, they are not family members/friends, as was confirmed to me, they are employees of the wedding hall. These two old ladies proceed to the front where they light the candles. They come forward a little, bow to one another, then take a seat. Next up is the groom. He is wearing a shiny cream/grey(?) colored suit with a white shirt and white tie. He looks pretty. He walks down the aisle pretty quickly, not only because the aisle is short, he is actually walking at a fast pace. Then next is the blushing bride in her beautiful white gown being escorted by the principal, her father. Oh, they also walk through these heart-shaped arches which are being held up by the wedding hall employees. Really tacky and funny, but disturbingly cute at the same time. Oh, best part yet, there is like a a magic show or game show going on or something because the lights dance and the music gets really intense...only when someone's walking down the aisle. Once they reach the end, it gets bright and the music abruptly ends, only to begin again when the next person walks down. I felt like I was watching some sort of Korean variety show. Not only are the lights dancing and the music bumping, there is an MC for the WEDDING. Not the reception, the WEDDING. I haven't even gotten to the reception yet. So, there's an MC standing stage left. I don't understand what he's saying, but I feel like he's giving a play-by-play for the wedding. "And next up, is the bride wearing a strapless white gown. She fakes left, goes right, and she tackles the groom." Then she and the groom are standing together at the front. The minister, or whatever he's called, the marriage giver starts talking. He rambles on and on and on and on. I believe the MC chimes in at times as well. After maybe 15 minutes of jibber jabber, it's time for the happy couple to kiss. Well, this is how THAT goes. The MC prompts the audience to count from 1-10, and that is how long the couple will smooch. We start counting. Hana, dul, set, net, da-sot. Then the MC stops us. We have to count again. The couple has to kiss again. How adorable...and again, cheesy. After that is the "reception". We had tickets to go into the reception too, by the way. We go in and it was basically a huge room with a buffet lining the full right side of this humongous room. It was already filled with people. I had tons of delicious Korean food. Amazing. When we sat down, I looked around...and I was wondering, "Were all these people at the same wedding....? Or were they from a different wedding?" To this day, I still don't know the answer to that. It was an ENORMOUS room and the room where the ceremony was held did NOT have that many people in it. Y'know what, I think I do know the answer to that question. They WERE from a different wedding because I remember there being another couple running around in their hanbok. See how strange that is?? Two different wedding parties are in the same "reception" room! It was also lunch, not dinner. Such a strange wedding experience, but I'm glad I got to attend one!

Ahh! I've done so many things since the last post.


Some friends and I had a Thanksgiving dinner. I was assigned to make stuffing and gravy. Thank goodness the people at the restaurant we were using made the gravy for me! They also made the turkeys. I've never made stuffing from scratch before, always the Stove Top boxed stuffing, which is delicious, so this was the first time I've ever made it from scratch, and it was also in a foreign country meaning I had to substitute some stuff. It still worked out though, surprisingly. I made apple stuffing and it was a hit! I really liked it! And thank goodness we made enough before other people were also to bring a dish, but they didn't bring enough for the 16 people that attended. The stuffing and the turkeys were probably the big fillers!

This happened before the last last post, but I don't think I wrote about it. We had a school festival, but I didn't get to attend because I had to do the spelling bee for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade at the school. The festival was held somewhere else. I was so sad! I heard the boys danced to Rain's "Hip Song" and was sad to have missed it, as well as the girls' performances. But I was under the impression that boys don't dance in public at school, so I was sad that I missed it! I told the boys this and one day, they asked me if they could dance in class. I told them OK, but I thought they meant after the lesson. They didn't. I went into class and they had pushed all the desks back and had their speakers ready. They danced for me and the whole class. I was so happy that they really wanted to show me their dance! I wish I could've recorded it! Soo good! I didn't know they had it in them!

I also went to Jeonju. I went with Maggie; kind of an impromptu trip. I had originally asked her to go to Sunchang (or was it Suncheon?). We met up at the bus terminal and she asks me if I want to go to Jeonju instead because it's closer (It turned out that it was actually a little bit farther..). We went knowing absolutely nothing about Jeonju except that it was an hour ish away. We came to find that it was bibimbap capital! They serve a special kind that has raw beef in it. We were on a journey trying to find a place with it. At first, the places were abundant, and then when we were actually looking, they disappeared into thin air, it seemed. But we eventually found a place (we had seen it earlier in the day) and we ordered their specialty bibimbap. Never again. My stomach was DYING from the rawness. Only cooked beef for me now! We went to a cathedral and a village. It was a nice day trip.




The weekend after I went to Suncheon with Ann! Which I guess was where I originally wanted to go. It is known for its ecology, so of course, I wanted to give it a visit. We went to the Suncheon Bay. There was a path through the reeds and there a was mini hike at the end where you can get a nice view of the S shaped bay. We really wanted to take a boat tour in the bay, but by the time we got down the mountain, it was getting dark and I think they had stopped the boats already. We wanted to see the sunset, but we got to the top too early and it was getting too cold to just sit and wait. We ended up getting some delicious dinner and heading home.

Hmmm, I feel like more has happened...OH! Two weeks ago, I went to the dermatologist with Okailey and got my face slaughtered. I got a laser treatment where they use the laser to make holes in your pimples and then the doctor uses some sort of instrument to squeeze out all the gunk in your pimple. At one point, I think I smelled burning flesh. Halfway through, the assistant puts a mirror in my hand and the doctor tells me to look at what's going on to my face. I was horrified! I was like, "I don't wanna see that!!!" It was quite painful; the doctor was pushing so hard on my face that I thought my teeth were gonna fall out or my skull was gonna break. It was crazy. I think I will go back one more time.

One last thing, last Friday was the deadline for deciding whether or not I want to stay in Korea for a second year. After pros and cons lists, tears, and conversations with friends (in Korea), family, and myself, I decided to go home. I was trying to convince my mother that my staying in Korea would be best (according to amount of items on my pros/cons list), but in the end, I realized that it would be the better to decision to go home so I could be with my mom to take care of her since she will be having heart surgery. I didn't want her to feel like no one was taking care of her. My mom trumps everything.