Skiing, parties, and nothing

Last weekend was a ton of fun.  On Saturday, Diana and I went on a ski trip with our taekwondo studio.  A bunch of taekwondo schools were taking a bus to Sajo Ski resort for the day.  I woke up at 5:30 am and Sa Beom Nim's wife picked us up at 6:30 so we wouldn't have to walk in the dark.  It was about a 2 hour bus ride to the resort.  Some of the kids from Oedae were on the bus too.

One of our students and Sa Beom Nim's son, Eric sleeping on the bus

 

One of my students, Henney, doing his spiderman impression

Sajo Ski Resort

  It was an excellent day for skiing.  It was sunny and it wasn't very cold or windy.  I've been skiing less than 10 times in my life and I haven't been in years, so I was a little nervous about hitting the slopes.  After a couple test runs on the beginner hill, I decided to try the intermediate one.  Sa Beom Nim took Diana and I to the top of the hill.  The beginning of the hill was super steep, so it took a while before I got up the nerve to go down.  It wasn't too bad because there was a thick layer of powder on the side of the hill.  I spent the rest of my time on that hill and by the end, I was very confident on it. 

Me at the bottom of the beginner hill

Me and Diana skiing with Eric

Me at the top of the intermediate hill

After we got back, I was exhausted but I got changed and ready for a party at Walita's.  One of the girls that she works with is leaving soon because her contract is up at the end of the month.  It was a good crowd of people and a really great time.  I also discovered that raspberry wine at the corner store is only 2,300 won or $3 a bottle, which made the night even better.

The next morning, I woke up early to go to Costco with Gwen and Diana.  Costco is a heaven for foreigners because you find North American products there like nachos, salsa, hashbrowns and big blocks of cheddar.  I usually spend about $80 to $100 there, but it's well worth it.

Afterwards, my initial plan was to sit on my couch and do nothing, but Walita called me, so I decided to hop on the subway so I could sit on her couch all day.  We watched 3 movies and ate a ton of junk, including pizza, ice cream sundaes,  and donuts.  A perfect Sunday if you ask me.

Work is going okay.  One more week of intensives and this hellish schedule with finally come to an end.  This week, one of my elementary school students, Winnie, interrupted me in class to point at me and say "Teacher...ET."  Then the entire class cracked up laughing.  I'm not sure where she got that from.  I don't think I resemble ET at all.  She's a very odd little girl.

Much ado about nothing

I haven't written lately because there really isn't much to write about.  Weekdays have become very monotonous with intensives going on.  A few interesting things happened at work.  One of my middle school students named Scott came up to the board for no reason and proceeded to draw 4 stick figures labeled "Korean, Chinese, Mongolian, and Russian" and then drew them getting killed, eaten and pooped out by a stick figure labeled "Japanese".  I'm sure what the reason was for the drawing, but it entertained me and the rest of the class for a couple minutes. 

Earlier this week, one girl named Erin, who grinds on my nerves, was acting up.  She is the type of kid who will always talk back or mutter under her breath whenever you discipline her or ask her to do something.  I have no idea what she's saying, but from her tone, I can tell it's not nice.  I got fed up with her and kicked her out of my class for being disruptive and rude.  Samson talked to her and threatened to kick her out of the academy if she got kicked out of one more class.  She later tearfully apologized to me.  Today I taught her again with minimal trouble.  We'll see how long it lasts.

The boys at taekwondo are getting used to me.  Now they yell "Bye!!" when they leave the studio at night.  I always get there early and my instructor or his wife gives me  vitamin C drinks while I'm waiting for the others to show up.  I love doing taekwondo with the black belts.  It really makes me push myself a lot harder.  I'm not sure if I've lost weight, but my belt now easily goes to the last notch, which is a difference of a couple inches around my waist.  I'm pretty proud of that.  I'm going skiing with all the kids from my taekwondo studio on Saturday.  It should be really fun especially since I also teach some of the kids who are going. 

New taekwondo class

Now that I don't have mornings off anymore the only class I can squeeze in is at 9PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I went to my first class today and it turns out that I'm doing taekwondo with about 6 boys, who are mostly in university and all of them are black belts.

Korean boys are generally really shy and when I walked into the studio, it was like I was a leper.  They instantly moved away from me.  It made me a little nervous at first, but as soon as we started practicing, they seemed to lighten up.  I think in the long run, working out with this group will really push me to do better.

Intensive time

I haven't written in awhile.  Right now, the kids have their winter break from school.  So instead of letting their kids run free, they make them go to English academies.  For the month of January I have 4 classes in the morning in addition to my afternoon and night classes.  Some of the poor kids attend the morning and night classes too.  All of our classes were also reorganized to move kids into their proper age groups and levels.  Needless to say, it has been a bit overwhelming and confusing.  Sometimes I don't know where I'm going or what I'm teaching.  I'm trying to fit in taekwondo on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I could probably fit in more classes, but adjusting to the new schedule has been exhausting.

Gwen is back in Korea.  It's really great having her here again.  We went to Costco on Saturday morning to buy food.  I made a couple New Years resolutions: cook and read more.  Hopefully laziness doesn't take over and ruin everything.

Christmas and New Years were good.  I would have rather spent it with friends and family back home, but can't do much about that.  To be honest, I've been really up and down lately.  I'm probably just tired.  I can't wait to leave Daegu and go to the Philippines.  I'm definitely in the mood for different scenery and time with family.