Becoming a Snow Bunny

One of the things I heard about Korea long before I ever got here was the wonderful ski resorts they have. Now, being from Florida (and yes Kentucky as well) I've never been much of a snow person. I love it. I really do. It's beautiful and I love to play in it, for one day. Then it gets old because, well, it can be a pain. It starts to melt and gets all slushy and muddy. Not my cup of tea. But when I was in high school, I was lucky enough to go skiing over a vacation with family. There were no broken bones, no complete mishaps (that I remember) but that was also about 8 years ago. So when I forked out a large amount of money for a weekend of skiing, I didn't know if it was a good, or bad, idea.

Day 1: Before heading to the slopes (and before the weather turned ugly)

There were about 200 of us headed to the ski resort, the best ski resort in Korea. The condos we stayed in also had an awesome hot spring pool area, which was a definite plus. When we got there, we grabbed the clothes we rented, got skis and boots, and then had no idea what we were doing. Some of the gondolas were shut down, and this resort was a lot bigger than I had anticipated. The runs were FOREVER long, so as a beginner you definitely got tired.

Made it down my first run!

Notice the horrible weather

For our first run, my group decided to hop on a quick beginner slope. HA. Said beginner slope was up at the top, and there was no way down since the gondolas were shut down. And a "quick" ski lift trip later took us to the very top of the mountain. Not what we were expecting. I began freaking out about 2 minutes in. What if I don't know how to get off this thing? What if I break my leg right here, right now!? All the while Sarah (a girl from my EPIK intake) is sitting next to me cheering me on. You can do it! It's easy, you'll be fine! So we found a quick little slope and practiced for a bit, Sarah giving me a few instructions here and there. But it actually came back pretty easily. I remembered how to turn pretty well, though I would get really scared when I would get going fast. Please God, don't let me get hurt. After practicing for a bit, we decided to try to find a way down the mountain because we had to get our room keys. And the weather had gotten pretty ugly, so we were all pretty tired, and hungry. I ended up having to ski down an advanced slope that was said to be an intermediate slope. But I made it down without crashing or breaking anything. That night, I decided to forgo the night skiing and head to the hot tub, which was shut down about 15 minutes after we got there (2 hours early) because we were foreigners. Great. Later that night, we headed to the party with a live band and DJs. The night was fun and we all had a blast.

The next day was so much prettier. The sun was out! There was no snow coming down! And we happened to find the beginner side of the mountain. Good to know. We skied down a beginner slope to the other ski house, where we could grab breakfast, then headed up the ski lifts to the real beginner slopes. It was a really great day. I found a slope that I really enjoyed (probably because I actually made it down, but I could also take my time and actually enjoy it, rather than feeling like I could die at any given moment). Again, I didn't fall, but I didn't really push myself that much. Note to self, try harder slopes next time and don't be afraid to get a little snow on your butt.

I had a great time and can't wait to go again... hopefully I can make it back twice, but we will see!

I've got a lot to be thankful for...

Our beautiful Thanksgiving table

It's the time of year when I begin to look at my life and reflect. Not only on the past year, but my life in general. I think about my friends and family, I think about my job, I think about my past and my future. And I think about food. Yes, food. Who doesn't think about food when it comes to the holiday season? You're lying to yourself if you claim you don't.

I have to admit that Thanksgiving dinner (or lunch, or whole-day meal, whatever you want to call it- and don't forget about the left overs) is my favorite meal of the entire year. And it is interesting because I never really knew why, until 2 weeks ago. Yes, it's great to be surrounded by family and friends, but this post isn't about the mushy part of Thanksgiving, it's about the FOOD. I learned that Thanksgiving food is the best because: 1. You really eat it any other time of the year, but you could, 2. There is just so much to choose from, and 3. Carbs. And cheese. And more carbs. I realized that Thanksgiving food is unique because you really eat a TON of carbs and cheese (which I love, by the way). If I have anything to say about it, if there is something that could remotely be considered healthy served at Thanksgiving, you've done it wrong. Broccoli? Throw some cheese on that shiz! Green beans? Sugar, salt and bacon please! Turkey? What's turkey without gravy?

A Thanksgiving toast- no judging on the brand!

But when you live in a country that you struggle to find things that you need for all your yummy homemade recipes, cooking for Thanksgiving can become-- interesting. I remember Skyping with my family once and they asked me what my friends and I would do. I told them we were planning on a pot-luck style dinner. When they asked about the turkey, I told them it is REALLY difficult, and expensive, to find turkey in this country, so we were planning on getting chicken. Do you plan on roasting it yourself? Seeing as we have VERY limited oven space, we will probably just walk down the the corner and get one out of the trucks. Apparently this isn't a normal response in America (it seemed totally normal, and logical to me at the time). I then had to explain that there are several trucks/cars that park on the street, open the back, and it is a full blown rotisserie! And the chickens look and smell delicious! Even though I was totally serious at the time, we ended up not getting a out-of-the-back-of-a-truck chicken, just a normal chicken from the store. Already roasted.

Chicken

Thanksgiving took a little more planning than I thought. I knew exactly what I was going to make. Broccoli and cheese casserole. My absolute favorite casserole. But when you can't find cream of celery soup, nor Velveeta cheese, it becomes a little difficult. OK, I'll do a different casserole. Cream of mushroom is at Costco. FOR $20 for a few cans. No dice. OK, then I'll have to do something else. I'd been put in charge of vegetables, so Adrienne and I decided to take a stroll to our local market and bought random veggies- zucchini, broccoli, corn, peppers. So I asked my parents and asked what I could throw together with what I had. It seemed like I was missing at least one ingredient for all the recipes they were suggesting. So I got online, chose 2 random recipes and decided to try to combine them.

When recipes go wrong

Goal: Yummy stuffed Zucchini. I had 4 halves of zucchini, peppers, garlic, sausage (technically beer and cheese bratwurst but you deal with what you have), cream cheese, onion, Ritz and Parmesan. So I just randomly threw stuff together. All 4 were different. 2 had cream cheese, the other 2 had Ritz and Parmesan on top. Some had bell peppers, some had garlic salt, some had Italian herb seasoning. I had no clue how they would taste, but it was a shot. So I baked them up, and headed over to Kaleena's to cook the rest of the veggies closer to cooking time (there was also an incident where Adrienne decided to launch one of my zucchinis across the street, therefore we had one zucchini with a little less filling).

The food ended up being amazing. And we had waaayyyy too much! We had the zucchinis, broccoli, corn, green beans, carrots, stuffing, mac n cheese, sweet potatoes (with rainbow marshmallows haha), fresh baked rolls and breads, pumpkin cream cheese dip, SWEET mashed potatoes with no gravy (apparently English people don't know the importance of this key dish in an American Thanksgiving, we still love you though Lauren, maybe) and chicken. For desert we had pumpkin pie, apple pie, apple crisp, brownies and ice cream. OMG it was amazing. So delicious.

My plate

I spy food comas!

We had games too. Jenga, Pictionary and a whip cream fight (that was only between Kaleena and Kieran). You know you've eaten a ton when the punishment for losing Jenga is "BROWNIE! BROWNIE! BROWNIE!" Also, when multiple people are down for the count in food comas!

Kaleena lost the whip cream fight

Concentration

Korean-style Jenga?

Adrienne lost- open wide!

Kieran thought she needed a little whip cream with that brownie

She got me back

Won Eyk and his (lacking) drawing skills

The group, minus 2

It was a great time with great friends. Hopefully next year will be just as great!

The school threw me a birthday party...

Well, not really, it was a School Festival. But it was still fun, and a great way to spend my birthday!

Every year the school has a 2 day long festival. The school clubs perform, there is a talent show, they set up things for sale and artwork done by students in art class throughout the year. Students began preparing weeks in advance, dancing in the halls, singing in huddles before class. It was fun to see everyone so excited (especially since, generally speaking, I only get to see my students study). They canceled classes and pulled students out of others for rehearsals and preparations, they even hired a professional MC! So when the big day was upon us, I was really excited. Yes, it was after school, and yes it was on my birthday, but I didn't care. This was a perfect way to celebrate my birthday, with my amazing students (and friends that came along for the ride).

The first day of the festival, there were several classrooms that were set up selling food, taking pictures and doing other various things, all for a small price. But the main event was the talent show. Students could put together their own groups and work together for the auditions, singing, dancing, some playing instruments, but not really anything other than that (not like back home where someone might twirl a baton or do a poetry reading). Adrienne joined me after school was finished to walk around and enjoy the different attractions. We took the traditional Korean Polaroid photos (and I got a few done with co-teachers) and took a look at the different food items for sale. Fortunately, or possibly unfortunately, a group of girls had run up to me almost immediately after school, shoved a cup full of smiley-face french fries into my hands before screaming "Happy Birthday Teacha!", so I was pretty full for the rest of the night and therefore didn't buy any of the other goodies. We were stopped by a few students to practice their magic tricks on us (Adrienne and I have great theatrical skills, 'OMG so amazing! How did you do that?!'), then we headed to the main event, the talent show.

These people weren't joking around with this talent show either. There was fog, there were lights, they had outfit changes, there was even a professional announcer. And these students were good! They sang and danced so well. I was so surprised and really enjoyed seeing my students have fun. Half way through, Kaleena joined us and Adrienne had to leave and a little later, a student of mine joined us and stood with us for a while. It was so cute. A few times I noticed the principal looking my way, even pointing once, later I was told that he was really surprised that I was there, and even happier that I had brought friends. Brownie points for Allie Teacha.

The next day Adrienne came back to my school to enjoy yet another round of performances, this time done by the students that were in dancing and singing clubs (they weren't eligible to enter the talent contest). It was so cute, multiple students had told me they were performing and that I just HAD to watch them. So every time another group came onto the stage, I was like 'oh, I have to watch this one too'. Some of my favorite boys performed a mash-up of some of my favorite KPOP group dances that they had been going on an on about, and it ended up pretty awesome!

After watching many of the performances, Adrienne and I headed to the "Scare House". They had transformed the 4th floor (including the area right outside of my classroom) into a haunted house walk through. Fortunately for us, we got teacher treatment and were taken straight to the front of the line (otherwise we would've been waiting for an hour or so, and at that point we would've just left) then got grouped in with some other teachers from my school. So we were walked around the 4th floor, students jumping out of lockers, hiding on top of them, and standing creepily in the corner. Then the first room came and Adrienne and I were shoved in by ourselves. Problem was, we had to complete a task, and the task directions were written in Korean. So we stood in the middle of the room, not having a clue what to do, finally realized that we had to walk to the back in order to be scared out of our whits, then were allowed to leave the room. The rest of the haunted rooms we walked in with other teachers, explaining that we needed people with us because there were Korean instructions. I have to admit, some of these rooms were actually scary. My favorite was when we were outside waiting to go into the next room and the female gym teacher decided to grab my ankle and scare me to death. And one room, while we were walking around in the dark, someone scared us and I went tumbling backwards, flinging my shoe across the room. All in all, it was actually pretty entertaining.

A popular girl group dance

The winners of the contest

The entire festival was incredibly fun. I will know for next time that I need to ask a few more questions, go to a few more rooms, and save room for the goodies.

PS Here are some videos I found on YouTube of my students' performances...

Some of these boys totally surprised me

The 3rd grade girls that apparently are going to go into dancing

At the 2:00 mark they start dancing to the most popular song/group in Korea right now... well done

The KPOP compilation from some of the boys (the ones that kept telling me I HAD to see their dance, they know I like these groups)