Hwacheon Mountain Trout and Ice Festival

For the past week and a half, I have become not only an English teacher, but a science teacher as well.  While teaching a 2-hour per day science class seemed daunting at first, my former doctor-wannabe nerd self came out and stepped up to the plate.  Each day, I started out with a kid-friendly powerpoint that no one paid attention to, especially the kindergarteners that don't know how to read.  Then we got to the fun part of doing experiments.  I wracked my brain for the fun experiments that I did in elementary school, then used the internet to fill in the gaps.  We did all the fun stuff.  We started out with a mini-unit on lemons and acid, so we made invisible ink with lemon juice on day one.. the experiment didn't actually work too well (it didn't work at all) so that was kind of a crappy way to get everyone's interest.. but fortunately, it was all uphill from there. On day two, we made "fizzy lemonade" from scratch.  The rest of the week, we made volcanoes, pizza dough (yeast lesson), ice cream, oceans-in-bottles, etc.

Drinking their homemade fizzy lemonades

Making volcanoes

DongHak and his volcano

Shaking the bags to make ice cream

On Thursday, we had a big field trip.  We piled the kids into 2 cars and headed to the Hwacheon Mountain Trout and Ice Festival.   The festival was on a frozen river that was divided up for different activities.   We started out the day by going through the ice tunnel (that changed colors because there was Christmas lights inside).  Inside a small room with paper mache trout in the ceiling, we wrote hope letters and hung them on the trees. 

Color changing ice tunnel

Writing hope letters.. notice the paper mache trouts

Hope letters

My hope letter

 Once we got inside the ice festival, it was a winter wonderland.  They built an ice castle and a huge penguin out of ice.. they had an ice slide, bob sledding, ice skating, ATVing on ice, sitting on the back of an army vehicle and doing donuts on ice, etc.  You name it, and they were doing it on ice.  

Ice Castle

Frozen river

Pororo made of snow

Ice slide

ATVing on ice

ice skating

The kids were too scared to go bobsledding, so my class decided to go ice skating.  I hadn't been ice skating in ages, and have never been ice skating on an actual outdoor body of water.  I've always wanted to after hearing stories about the "good old days" of ice skating on frozen ponds from my parents, so that was cool.  The kids were really funny to watch because they were just falling all over each other.   I couldn't stop laughing at some of them who just couldn't grasp the concept that you're supposed to skate, not run on the ice.

eating hot lunch

After a hot (pretty awful) lunch of uncooked dumplings, we moved on to the main event: ice fishing.  I had never been ice fishing, and never really expected to go during my life.  I think regular fishing is boring, and that's when it's summer and the sun's out and you can drink beers on a lake.  So ice fishing really stood no chance.. it was the boring fishing aspect but ON the ice, minus the summer, sun, and beer.  It was about zero degrees.  The kids were really excited about it but lost interest after about 20 minutes.  There were hundreds of people fishing and obviously not an a correct ratio of fish.  People may have caught fish in the beginning of the festival, but by the time we got there, no one was catching anything.  You couldn't even see trout in the river.

On our way into the fishing arena

Excuse me, your face is in the ice

My girls

Donghak

So many people, so little fish

Yoonjoo digging a new hole

We went home empty handed but everyone was in pretty good spirits.  I got a bit grumpy from my lack of lunch and nauseous because my students were eating silk worms and fish in the car...  Whenever I smell silk worms, I honestly feel sick to my stomach.  I really try to be culturally sensitive most of the time, but I draw the line here...

See what I mean? The smell is even worse.

The ride home from Hwacheon is through the mountains and is unbelievably curvy.  If there's any snow or ice on the road at all, you can't make it.  Lucky for us, on the way home it started snowing.  And then it got dark.  We were doing fine and JiYoung, my co-teacher, was being a real good sport about it all.  She only got her license a year ago and she borrowed her husband's car for the trip.  All of a sudden, literally out of no where, one of the students vomited ALL OVER the back seat and all over herself.  So... that was that.

So my first field trip as a teacher had all the essentials: bad food, too many activities, babysitting, and vomit.  Not too bad.  But I'm so ready for a vacation.

Which is why it's great that today was my last day! Time has flown by.  I've been such a brat these past 6 months.. i've worked less than I've been employed.  Oh well! Hello Southeast Asia!

The Hills are Alive.....

For the past month or so, I've been working an institute ("hagwon") in Dong Song.  Basically, when the kids are done with their actual school, they come to "hagwons" to learn more.. (because god forbid they go outside and play).  At my hagwon in Seoul, I felt guilty about working there because I knew the kids resented it's entire existence.. I really felt bad that they had to come to me for an hour and a half after they spent a full day at school.   But in Cheorwon, it's a lot different.  Because it's a rural area, things are laid back in general.  Parents are much less intense, and this hagwon is a lot of fun.  It was brand new when I showed up, so I've gotten a lot of freedom do teach what I like.

Since the kids are officially on winter vacation (which lasts from mid-December until March), my boss decided to run an English camp the week between Christmas and New Years.  She used to be a producer, so she decided to make it a Musical Theater camp.  I thought this was a great idea, and I agreed to run the camp.  I figured she would do most of the dancing/singing teaching, and I'd take care of the English stuff.  Well, I was wrong.

I found out a few days before the camp that we would be doing the sound of music.... and I would be playing Maria.  Just because I'm blonde, I can sing.. right?  Actually, I'm tone deaf, I haven't taken dance lessons since I was in kindergarten, and I've never seen the Sound of Music.  And the icing on the cake... we had five days to learn three different scenes, complete with songs and dances.

After a stressful week and learning to dance and then teaching it, our show was a success!  I was really nervous that the kids weren't going to remember their lines/dance moves but everyone really pulled together and did a great job.  I sounded bad, but no one was covering their ears. Phew!  We sang Do Re Mi, My favorite things, and Edelweiss.  The families of all the kids came, and Matt was nice enough to come cheer me on (it also gave him something else to make fun of me for!)

Here are some photos from the show that Matt took.  No laughing!

Do Re Mi

My favorite things

Finale

The cast

Do you know South Korea?

Here is a video that a fellow foreigner sent to me.  In 10 minutes, it really shows what it feels like to be in South Korea.  For those far away, I thought you might enjoy this!

Thanksgiving in Korea

While I usually assume the holidays are going to be a sad time to be away from home, this Thanksgiving was one of my best yet.  Naturally, I missed my family and our big family dinners at my grandparents' house.  But, I got to skype with my mom and the McBrides after their feast.

Thanksgiving this year went something like this:

Friday night: The plan is to cook.  Friends ccome to town from all over Korea.  It is a joyful reunion.  We go to the supermarket to get ingredients.  We stock up on veggies, potatoes, milk, pounds of butter, pounds of cheese, etc.  MJ shows up with 6 bottles of wine.  Matt breaks out a bottle of whiskey.  No cooking gets done.

Saturday morning:  We wake up and get to work on the food.  Matt peels and mashes 24 potatoes downstairs.  Upstairs in Scott's apartment, we have one oven.  Jerusha makes a sweet potato and spinach gratin covered in cheese.  I make two trays of the mac and cheese, clearly smothered in cheese- that Massey proceeds to fry.  Andrew K makes a green been casserole with the french's fried onions that his mom sent from the USA.. we then covered that in cheese.  Needless to say, it's thanksgiving, and we're going all out. 

In the afternoon, we head to the pension to meet our friends.   In case you're unfamiliar with a pension, it's basically just part of a house or apartment.. it usually has basic kitchen supplies and bedding for everyone to sleep on the floor.  It's perfect for get-togethers like these. There are about 20 people coming up to Cheorwon for the Thanksgiving festivities.

Carla makes mojitos (a rarity here in Korea)

the boys goofing around

Apples to Apples before dinner

We spend a few hours playing apples to apples and watching football before our friends arrive.  When everyone is there, we go around in a circle and give thanks- and then the feast begins!  Along with the things we brought, there was stuffing, cornbread, honey glazed carrots, homemade hummus, pumpkin dip and ginger snaps, roasted veggies, more greenbean casserole, home-made cranberry sauce, fresh baked bread, pumpkin pie, apple pie, fresh whipped cream, and real butter.

around in a circle, giving thanks

Carla does work on the turkey

Matt makes gravy

Carla makes a plate- look at all that goodness

Everyone enjoying their meals

The feast!

After dinner, everyone is in a food coma.  We spend the rest of the night playing scrabble, having a sing-a-long with the guitar/piano, and of course- having a dance party.

food coma

Lisa's solo of the Little Mermaid soundtrack

singing

scrabble

makgeoli bottle microphone.. nice

bailey's

leftovers, of course

baileys shots in chocolate covered strawberries

limbo

And like I said, this was in a pension with about 20 people, so here was one of the rooms the next morning:

cozy!

So all in all, it was a fantastic holiday.  Everyone really went all out on the food and a good time was had by all.   With friends like these, it really makes being away from home not so bad.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Cheorwon Chamber Ensemble Winter Spectacular

On December 1st, I attended a wonderful show in Sincherwon (the town over) hosted by the Cheorwon chamber ensemble.  There were a variety of acts- orchestras, child violinists, solos, a capella, etc.  And the best part? Along with the talented Koreans, my friends were performing!  

Johanna was the M/C.  She was paired with a Korean girl to do the translation.  Jojo was so hilarious, but her counterpart was realllly not into what she was saying.  Jojo would tell long stories or make jokes and then the girl would translate it into about 3 words.  This whole situation was really funny in itself.    

The M/Cs

Scott and Claire each performed a solo, and Scott performed with the chamber ensemble. Of course, my favorite part of the show is when Matt, my boyfriend, got up and played 3 songs with Claire and Scott.  Their band is called "The Clatt," which stands for Claire, Matt and Scott.  I know, their name sounds like a disease.  They played two songs that Matt had written, and then a Korean song that the audience got really into.  Here are the videos posted below! I got the first and third song. The first video is "Fireflies" and the second one is a Korean song that none of us know the name of.  

I apologize in advance for the end of the video being shakey.  In all honesty, my arm got tired (I know, lamest excuse ever).  

                                                                                    

Another part of the show that I really liked was when a Korean a capella group performed "Jingle Bells" in Korean.  It was awesome! Here's the video below:

 

When the show was over, all the acts came on stage.  Everyone was given at least two bouquets of flowers.  

the whole show

The Clatt

Matt and I after the show (he later gave me the flowers)

English Complexity

WORDS from Everynone on Vimeo.

This is a really cool video that I used to teach a lesson to my adult students.  (Actually, my friend Jerusha made the lesson, so I can't totally take credit).  It really gets you thinking about how complex (and overwhelming) the English language is.  It uses nine words: play, blow, break, split, run, fly, fall, light, and space.. and it makes you think about how many different meanings each word can have.  For example, run: run in your tights, to run (jog), runny nose, running water, run a bath, running paint, run a red light, run away, run way, run a class, run machinery, etc.  Or split: banana split, do a split (gymnastics), split up (break up), split wood, split your pants, a split in bowling, etc.  Pretty crazy!  They really enjoyed the lesson, and I really enjoyed the video. I hope you do too!