Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Month in Photos- January

Here is my month in photos for January. I am not including my Singapore trip here since that will have its own post at the end of this week!

Here are some photos from the Ice Festival I went to in Hwaechon. We played ice floor hockey, went tubing down a hill, pet a baby donkey, and some of us went ice fishing or bare hand ice fishing. I did the later, as evident by me holding my fish in my hands in the bottom left picture. I am not a fish person but this fish was super yummy! Fresh river trout.

  A week later I went to two birthday celebrations and before hang McKenna(the above photo) and I went to a dog cafe. These are all over Seoul where you can go play with dogs and if you find one, a cat cafe as well. I've been to this one twice so it was a lot of fun seeing some of the same dogs again. This doxendog was adorable!

 

This is Diane, she was in my Intensives class. She is 9.

These are my Seedbed students, most of them at 6. Their names  are Amy, Philly, Becky, Minseok, Kelly and Yeon Woo.




Now here are some photos from my classes! I'm going to label them all with the students and their classes.
This is one student in my Seed 2 class. Most of these students are 9, they are old for this grade level. This is Christine and her giant Angry Bird pen.
My Sprout 3 class, they are all around 10 or 11. Jenny, Amy, and Catherine.

My little heartbreaker in Seed 1, Jake. He is 7. He is the most adorable, pain in the butt kid ever.

More of my Seed 1 class. This is Scion, he is very smart and quiet. He is also 7.

My Sprout 2 class. Irene, Diane, and Jenny. This happens to be one of my best classes, they are incredibly smart and great to teach!
Enjoy!

Friday, January 20, 2012

Intensives - why I'm up early and being more productive

This past week I have finally gotten around to really updating the blog and I am looking into updating the look of the blog as well.

I am thinking of adding a couple of different things to the blog, such as trying to make a schedule of how often I do photo posts, regular posts with a number of photos, and posts that cover a specific topic. I've written down a couple of ideas about what I want to write and some of them may not be about my time here in Korea and about other things. Again, this is all what I've been thinking about.

So I am looking to mix up some things over the next couple of weeks and see if after my vacation I come back refreshed and really in gear. I have a couple of things hopefully starting when I get back and if I get into some of them I will know more about I want to be doing while in South Korea. I am thinking having some fashion posts, maybe posts of what I am knitting, interesting photos, or quotes from my students.

I am looking into volunteering and other groups that I can join. Doing 5ks and 10ks, volunteering at an animal shelter, maybe a choir, etc. I am trying to branch out and take advantage of where I am right now. Especially since I am putting an effort into saving money and only spending on essentials as well as sticking to a stricter budget. I figure if I go out less, well actually if I stop buying clothes I will save money  but I will spend my money on events and outings that are more meaningful than going out.

I'm not sure where things are going to go from here, but I am going to try to post more often and tell/show more of what I am up to. This week I made sure to capture moments in class with students so that I can show the kids I get to work with every day.

Stay in touch!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Halloween and November!


Aright. I am trying to pump out as many of these photo posts so that I am updated by the time I get back from Singapore and can write a wonderfully long post on it!
This is Francesco
My former Sapling 1 class. Gabriel, SunJin, Sophoe, Kelly, JinJun.
Jenny from Sprout 3.
Co-teacher McKenna.



Was in my A+ class, but is in my Seed 2 class now, Kelly.
Sapling 2 girls, Claire and Esther.



 In my classroom during our Halloween parties I had my students coloring in a bunch oh halloween inspired drawings. They Loved their spongebob.
 This is after the end of the Fall term and we went out as a group. We played darts, bowling, and pool. It was a lot of fun and just a really great mix of people.

I went to a cat Cafe. Such a pretty kitty!
The only pizza I can find that isn't covered in corn!

Not the best nachos, but doable!

Ice Cream in Myeong-dong with McKenna.

Dog cafe I went to before Thanksgiving dinner!

Thanksgiving dinner with some people I knew from training and McKenna's friends.

FInally! Updated to November! Now, December and Christmas! And, by request of my friend, I'll do a food post sometime soon. Hopefully I'll start doing with my coworker a cooking day every week while we try to make a Korean dish!

Much love

Monday, January 16, 2012

September and October



The flight to South Korea served complimentary wine. THAT was a life saver. And the three meals I got weren't too bad. I could have done with out one at least but

Lunch during training! First time trying Kimchi and Korean Barbecue! It really is my favorite meal here and I really enjoy all the side dishes you have. For going out and enjoying a good meal with friends, every can pay ten bucks for a great amount of beer and food!


Here are some pictures of my first couple weeks in South Korea!

My celebratory cake for completing training! It was yummy and a great dinner and breakfast!








 These are from a couple nights I had spent out in Suwon and shopping I had done in Myeong-dong in Seoul. The pyramid light up structure is in Suwon and is on my walk to the Homeplus by me. It is gorgeous in the day with the sculptures that are around.


 

 

These photos are all from a cultural festival I went to in October. I met up with my friend from training, Alanna and went with a couple of her coworkers. It was a lot of fun , we made Russian dolls, played some football and enjoyed some dances and songs from different countries.



These are my coworkers, Tintin, McKenna, and Kasey. Tintin and McKenna are teachers and Kasey is our boss. We had gone out in a group one night after work and this is us at a karaoke room.
I will post Halloween pictures next time! Bless you all and chitchat again soon!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Christmas and New Years Adventure

Happy New Year! Hope every one is happy, healthy and above all another year wiser! I'm going to bring every one up to speed on my comings and going and my exciting news!
Christmas was pretty much a downer for me. I was homesick, missing friends, family and wishing I could have been home for it. It was my first Christmas not being with my parents and I didn't think it would have been as hard as it was. I did spend it with some new people though, Katie and her friends. I know Katie through Todd and his friends from Wisconsin. It did help being around someone from home and it certainly  cheered me up that while we had dinner on Christmas Eve that our table won a bottle of wine and a bottle of champagne!

Lookie! I've learned how to integrate the photos into the post! That photo post will be done soon, since I've now had to add another month onto it. I may just split it up so there is one post for the first four months here...

I really can't believe I've been here for four months now! It is crazy to think about what I was doing a year ago and how far I've traveled since then.

Well, Christmas day was rounded off with a wonderful brunch with my two coworkers TinTin and Becca. Again, the distraction of being away from loved ones was needed because it really didn't feel like Christmas here and being surrounded by couples made me miss every one I love.


The week leading to New Years I was tentatively trying to make plans but again, I was stuck in a rut with just being sad. I missed my friends from New Hampshire and how much fun I had with New Years with them last year that I didn't think that this year would be able to live up to it. I also realized I really had no intentions of wanting to go out and get smash happy for the celebration. I think my doldrums kept me from making plans with friends who were going to go out and drink, but I am happy with my nice laid back evening at Seoul Tower and the Teddy Bear Museum there with Elana and her coworker Samantha.

Seoul Tower
Me next to one of the slightly creepy bears.
It was a good evening but I was glad when I got back from Seoul at 3 am that I could sleep and rest.
At work we started intensives which means 3 days a week I'm working close to 10 hour days, which isn't really that bad but gets tedious. I have one student in my extra classes so it's OK. I'm more excited about what happens after intensives is over!

Which leads me into my news. I'm going to Singapore! I'll be staying with family which will be helpful in saving money but I'm excited to be able to relax and enjoy some warmth. The winter here isn't too bad, but it will be very different actually taking a vacation at this time of the year. I'm really excited and hope that I can see everything there in my 3 day stay!