Half Marathon!!

I’m back! Sorry it’s taken so long to update. I have no real excuses except for a lack of motivation on my part. So if you’ve been a dedicated blog follower and haven’t seen an update in awhile, I truly am sorry! Anyways I’m back and running and when I say running, I mean it literally. Last weekend I ran a half marathon! After training for a few months, it feels great to have it behind me. The race day was so much fun and was truly worth all the hard work. The race started and finished at the Seoul World Cup Stadium and there were over 1000 people there running all different distances: 5K, 10K, Half, and Full Marathons. We (my two friends and I) ended up finishing in 2 hours and 6 minutes. I’m not really sure what that means in terms of a fast or slow time, but my goal was to finish and I did! Anyways some pictures are posted below. Hope you enjoy!
Before the race:

Middle of the race:

FINISHED!!

We wrote our names in Korean on our legs. This way people could cheer us on.

Parent Visit and China

As many of you know, in May, my parents made their grand appearance in Asia. First to Korea and then we took off to China. Their visit brought many good memories. It would take forever to write about all of the things we did, but I’ll try to name a few of the highlights. In Korea, I basically tried to give them a week long overview of my life in Seoul. We ate my favorite foods (which much to my dismay my mom was not fond of), they came to my school, and they met my friends and co teachers. During the day, while I was teaching, they did the tourist thing and saw all of the sites
After a week of them being here, we all headed to China. The first stop was Beijing where we saw Tiananmen Square, the Olympic grounds, too many palaces/temples, a phenomenal acrobatic show, and climbed the Great Wall. We had a really kind tour guide who showed us around. He gave us many laughs and he and his mother even bought a birthday cake for my mom on her birthday. The next stop in China was Guilin. It was here where we went on a boat cruise of the Li River, and saw some really pretty landscape. We toured the country side and it was a nice escape from all the people in Seoul and Beijing. The geography was stunning.
The last place we went in China was called Lijiang (we still can’t pronounce it). It was a really cute little town with cobblestone roads and beautiful snow capped mountains surrounding it. This was probably my favorite of all three places. We went hiking, rode horses, saw an orchestra made up of old Chinese men, and met a famous herbal medicinal doctor. I took few pictures with my camera during the trip because my father was taking an embarrassing amount, but the ones I did take I will post here. Hope you enjoy!
A classic:

At Dr. Fish in Seoul. This is a foot spa where you put your feet in the water, and some small fish eat off the dead skin. Sounds disgusting, but it actually feels good.

The Bird Nest and Water Cube:


Guilin, China:


In Lijiang, China. Note the Tarheels championship t-shirt!

House of Sharing

I had an incredible day today. It was very educational and moving. I visted the House of Sharing. This is a house that was built for women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japenese during WWII. These women are known as the ''Comfort Women.'' This term is used because they were forced into sexual slavery to 'comfort' the soldiers during the war. The house is about forty minutes outside of Seoul in the countryside, and once a month English Speaking voluteers take a group of foriegners to the house in order to raise awareness on the issue. The house consists of the living quarters for the women, a museum, and a conference/common room. There are currently 8 women living in the house and we were able to hang out with them, ask them questions, and hear their stories. It was also a unique day at the house today because they were having a 'welcome spring' festival for the residents, so we were able to watch traditional Korean performances and take part in some of the festival activities. It is hard to put into words all that I learned today about this issue, but there are a few things that stick in my mind that i'll share. First of all, these women, after over 60 years, still have not received a formal apology from Japan. This was highly stressed in all of the testimonies that they are still fighting and waiting for the Japanese government to take responsibility for their actions. Secondly, I was struck by exactly how young these women were when they were abducted. Many of them were between the ages of 13-14, taken from their families (who some never saw again), and forced to serve an average of 40 men per day. Very sad. On a happy note though, they are now living in a wonderful house where their needs are being met and they are living among people who they can relate to. The pictures at the beginning of this post are of paintings by the women living in the house. They are encouraged to use art to help them express their feelings from the past. The original pictures are hung in the museum. The titles from left to right are: 'Purity Lost Forever', 'Apologize Before Us', and 'Punish Those Responsible'. Here are some more pictures from my trip:
This is during a question/answer session with one of the women.

Sculpture outside of the house.

Some of the festival performances:

A few of the women all bundled up watching the performances.

All the paper hung on the strings are wishes we wrote for the women that were later burned. The burning was to signify that we were rasing our wishes to heaven. The victims wishes were read aloud over a microphone and then burned individually.

This is a replica of a room where the women lived during the war.

Every woman who has ever lived in the House of Sharing have imprinted their hands onto a wall. Each of us picked a set of handprints to place our hands in signifying 'puting ourselves in their hands.' How would we feel? This is me doing that. This is also the last picture so I hope you enjoyed. I know this is kindof a gloomy subject so I promise next time it will be more upbeat.

Korean Basketball League

Picture of me celebrating the Samsung Thunders victory with the streamers that shot out into the crowd.

The man leading the crowd in chants. The sign says Samsung.

On the top is the half time entertainment (cute kids playing a short game) and on the bottom is the dried octopus we ate during the game.

Two foriegn players gaurding eachother.

Posing with the cardboard cutout of the team.

The Korean Basketball League better known here as the KBL is fairly new to Korea. It started in 1997 and has 10 teams total. I went to a game on Friday night and had a great time. It was interesting to compare the difference between basketball games here to ones back home. My first observation was that the stands were pretty empty. With the amount of people who live in Seoul, I expected a bigger turn out but supposedly the fan base is way larger with the soccer and baseball leagues than with basketball. I will let you know if this is true when I can check it out for myself in the spring. The second difference was the price. We paid 7000 Won (approx. $5) for seats 10 rows from the court. Super cheap. The funniest difference to me was the food people snacked on during the game. Let's just say that I didn't see anyone eating hotdogs, nachos, or popcorn. Everyone around was munching on kimbab (kindof like sushi) and dried octopus. Of course in order to get the full experience, we had to do the same. The nice part about the food though was that you bring it yourself. Instead of the arena charging high prices for food/beer, what you do is go shopping at the convenience store before and bring it in the game with no hassle. One more interesting fact about the KBL is this..Each team is allowed to have 2 foreign players. Foreign players in the league are almost always either a forward or center, and they are not allowed to exceed 6 feet 8 inches. There is also a rule that no more than one foriegn player each team can play during the second and third periods. Although there were many differences, the overall atmosphere was the same. There were still cheerleaders doing dances during time outs, a loud speaker with music, cheering fans, half time entertainment, and a large screen showing the game. My friend Anna and I actually made an appearance on the big screen while we were cheering! Anyways, as always i'll leave you with the pictures. GO SEOUL SAMSUNG THUNDERS!!!

Back To School

Since Christmas and until now, I had almost forgotten the main reason I had come to Korea was to teach! I cannot say that my life has been too rough this past month. I have had two vacations to South East Asian countries and in between those trips, my working was minimal. I was required to run three weeks of English winter camps, and not only were they a lot of fun, they only lasted from 9am to 12pm. After the camps were over for the day, I was able to leave school and do my own thing. If you calculate that, it seems I was only working 15 hours per week and getting paid full time. Not a bad deal!
My first week of winter camp I worked at a different school at a camp run by the district. I was one of three native teachers at the school, and we taught themed classes in English to 5th and 6th graders. There were six themes including art, science, cooking, sports, world, and english. Each native teacher taught two of the themes throughout the week. I was in charge of science and sports. I was happy with my topics because it allowed us to do some science experiments (making candles) as well as playing some sports games in the school auditorium.
The next week, I was back at my school and conducting a camp for the teachers. Teaching the teachers was a little nerve racking at first but it ended up working out wonderfully. I had about 10 teachers attend, and this time I was teaching more practical English. I taught a different topic each day including airport English, restaurant English, banking English, and giving/taking directions. My favorite part of the teachers camp was at the end of the class when we would all order lunch together and just talk. They were very interested how I was adjusting to Korean culture, so it led to some fun conversations and good laughs.
My last week of the winter camps, I was with about 18 students from my school. This might have been my favorite week, because it really allowed me to get to know some of my students on an individual basis. It was a nice contrast from teaching over 600 hundred students in a week like the normal school year. Throughout the week we read the story book 'The Princess and the Pea.' We covered one chapter a day focusing on difficult vocabulary, role plays, games, and worksheets. The students really enjoyed using a story book to learn English, so it is something I am keeping in mind to possibly repeat for my summer camps.
My schedule for this month is somewhat back to normal. The students are back in school for the first two weeks in February, they will then have graduation and the last two weeks of February off, and the spring semester will officially start in March. I am amazed at how fast my time here is blowing by, so I have vowed to myself to use some of my free time at the end of the month to immerse myself in the culture. I am starting Korean language classes tomorrow that I will attend every Wednesday for two hours, and I am planning on visiting/attending at least one cultural site/event per week. This week it's the Korean National Museum. One of my biggest fears is that my year here will slip by me and at the end of my trip I will not have done all that I wanted to do. Therefore I am taking a proactive approach so I can ensure I will have no regrets.

Stay tuned for a post/pictures from Thailand!

Ice Fishing

This past weekend I ventured out of Seoul to Hwacheon City for an ice fishing festival. Hwacheon City is a few hours east of Seoul. I went with a tour group called Adventure Korea that takes mainly foreigners on trips around the country. After boarding the bus bright and early on Saturday morning, about 90 of us arrived at the festival site just before noon, ready to fish. We proceeded down to the frozen river in order to be paired off -- two to a pole -- to catch trout. We were told to simply find an open hole, drop our line down it, and wait. Being the patient person that I am, I only lasted about 10 minutes before I was bored. Because of this, I cannot report that I caught anything. The pictures below are taken with a fish that we borrowed from our neighbors. The ice though was crowded with Koreans and foreigners alike determined to catch their lunch. The idea was to catch a fish and take it straight to a grilling station to eat, however I didn't get that far.

Although I didn't have much luck fishing, the festival offered a lot of other ice and snow related activities. From sledding to playing ice soccer we had a great time. The undisputed highlight of the festival however was the bare-hands fishing event. We were given orange t-shirts and some shorts to change into in preparation of lowering ourselves into the freezing cold water. The objective was simple -- catch a fish with your bare hands. This is definitely easier said than done. I've never been so cold in my entire life. As soon as my legs hit the water, I wanted out. To say that my feet were in pain is an understatement. It took my friend and I about 15 seconds max before we were limping to the hot tub they had waiting for us. I know it seems a little lame that we didn't stay in the whole time, but in our defense there were at least 10 other people that were out before us. At the time I didn't find it too amusing, but looking back it was a funny experience and I'm glad I participated.

After breakfast and a sceanic hike up Hwaaksan Mountain the next day, it was back on the buses and back to Seoul before I even felt like i'd left. The weekend was a fun one and ranks high on my list of memorable things i've done in Korea. I hope you enjoyed reading along. Here are some pictures...

Philippines

Mabuhay! If you enjoy relaxing by beautiful beaches, pearls, water sports, cute kids, and kind people, then the Philippines are the place for you. My trip was great! I took off early Christmas morning and flew to Manila--the capitol city of the Philippines. From there, it was a short flight to Catlican and a boat ride to Boracay, the island where I spent my Christmas and New Years vacation. From the ferry terminal it was straight to the resort where I met my friends. Here are some pictures of the place we stayed.

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It was such a cute authentic little place. We ate a complementary breakfast every morning on our porch and a short walk away was the famous 'white beach.' This is where we spent the majority of our time--laying in the sun, synchronized swimming in the ocean, and reading. Very relaxing! White sand, crystal blue water lined with sailboats, palm trees, and women walking around offering hour long, full body massages for approximately $8...who wouldn't want to spend time there? One of my favorite days, was when we hired a boat to take us 'island hopping' and snorkeling. You can see some pictures of that day below.
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We celebrated New Years by getting all dressed up, going out for Thai food, then dancing in the ocean at midnight and tons of fireworks went off over our heads. It was beautiful. Here are some pictures of that!

I loved the Philippines. We all joked and called it Mexicasia, because really, it seemed like the Mexico of Asia--- all the way down to their currency--- the Philippine Peso. It was like Mexico in a way that there are really nice beaches and resort areas, but poverty is definitely prevalent in the country. Anyways, I think that's all I have for you. The holidays definately weren't the same as usual, but I loved every bit of them.. Hope ya'll enjoyed yours as well!