Did January just pass by?!?
Wow, winter intensive courses are... ummm... intense. Tomorrow's the last day. Good thing because I'm losing momentum fast. To top it off most of my breaks this week were sucked up by random things like makeup tests or students popping in for extra lessons. It's not bad, just tiring.
My classes were all really funny today, I won't repeat everything but one kid asked if cars in America could fly. Before I could respond another girl said, "Cindy, it would have been on the news" Hahahaha!
There's also this 16 year old boy I teach essay writing to who claims to never have fun. Today as usual, I ask him how his week was... Peter: "Same, boring" Me:"Are you sure? Not a single fun or interesting thing happened?" Peter: "Teacher, it just isn't going to happen, ok?" awww man, what am I supposed to do with that? Haha, he's just joking though, once he relaxes he usually has an interesting story to tell.
The ice fishing festival last week was a blast. We went through Adventure Korea which is the same company I went to Geongju with. Myself, Meghan (my coworker) and her friend Natalie went, there were two buses of Westerners, about 50-60 people alltogether. We went to Hwacheon in Geongi-do privince which was about 3 hours northeast of Seoul. The wnter festival is pretty big as you can see from my pics, masses of people are there and it goes on for weeks. Theres tons of fun activities going on. We did the ice fishing for a couple hours which was really fun. Holes are already cut and you just pick one out you like. You can see crystal clear to the bottom through the water, it couldn't have been more than five feet deep. You just sit and watch the trout ignore your lure for a few hours while the guy at the hole next to you catches a fish every 10 minutes....fun!!!! You have to move the line all the time to snag the fish, but it didn't happen for us. As the only group of Westerners at the festival we were very interesting and amusing to other people so some people tried to help us. Some other people in the group were offered fish by random Koreans who had caught a lot. Festival people had us pose with a trout for possible brochure pics (we'll see if we end up on it next year) and let us keep that fish.
However, I did catch my own fish in the barehands fishing competition which was possibly one of the most ridiculous things I have ever voluntarily participated in.
They fill a pool with water and stock it with fish. A team of about 20 people get in. On the mark they jump into the water (wearing shorts and a t-shirt, no shoes or other practical winter gear) and catch fish with their hands. Once the first person catches 3 fish everyone can get out. Oh, and you put the fish down your shirt while you're catching the other ones. This is really fun for the spectators who are hooting and hollering the whole time. Anyway, us crazy Western women formed a team, and I am pleased to announce the I am the only one who officially caught a fish! (Meghan caught one but let it go, and someone else had a net assist) In response to crowd encouragement, I did, indeed, put it down my shirt. I was going to try to catch another one when I realized I could no longer ignore the INTENSE PAIN of the ice water on my legs and feet. I jumped out (half the girls had already given up on catching any fish at all) and hobbled to the changing room. It was very exciting.
We grilled our trout and ate it with corn and soju.
Note: Soju is vile, do not drink this stuff.
It was a good day.
Other than that I've just been hanging out with my friends and boyfriend in Hongdae, which I just love. It's that artsy, college part of town, not far from where I live. Lots of neat little cafes and things like that.
I have a vacation this Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday but won't be going anywhere. Maybe I'll do one morning at the sauna, we'll see.
Love and miss you all!
My classes were all really funny today, I won't repeat everything but one kid asked if cars in America could fly. Before I could respond another girl said, "Cindy, it would have been on the news" Hahahaha!
There's also this 16 year old boy I teach essay writing to who claims to never have fun. Today as usual, I ask him how his week was... Peter: "Same, boring" Me:"Are you sure? Not a single fun or interesting thing happened?" Peter: "Teacher, it just isn't going to happen, ok?" awww man, what am I supposed to do with that? Haha, he's just joking though, once he relaxes he usually has an interesting story to tell.
The ice fishing festival last week was a blast. We went through Adventure Korea which is the same company I went to Geongju with. Myself, Meghan (my coworker) and her friend Natalie went, there were two buses of Westerners, about 50-60 people alltogether. We went to Hwacheon in Geongi-do privince which was about 3 hours northeast of Seoul. The wnter festival is pretty big as you can see from my pics, masses of people are there and it goes on for weeks. Theres tons of fun activities going on. We did the ice fishing for a couple hours which was really fun. Holes are already cut and you just pick one out you like. You can see crystal clear to the bottom through the water, it couldn't have been more than five feet deep. You just sit and watch the trout ignore your lure for a few hours while the guy at the hole next to you catches a fish every 10 minutes....fun!!!! You have to move the line all the time to snag the fish, but it didn't happen for us. As the only group of Westerners at the festival we were very interesting and amusing to other people so some people tried to help us. Some other people in the group were offered fish by random Koreans who had caught a lot. Festival people had us pose with a trout for possible brochure pics (we'll see if we end up on it next year) and let us keep that fish.
However, I did catch my own fish in the barehands fishing competition which was possibly one of the most ridiculous things I have ever voluntarily participated in.
They fill a pool with water and stock it with fish. A team of about 20 people get in. On the mark they jump into the water (wearing shorts and a t-shirt, no shoes or other practical winter gear) and catch fish with their hands. Once the first person catches 3 fish everyone can get out. Oh, and you put the fish down your shirt while you're catching the other ones. This is really fun for the spectators who are hooting and hollering the whole time. Anyway, us crazy Western women formed a team, and I am pleased to announce the I am the only one who officially caught a fish! (Meghan caught one but let it go, and someone else had a net assist) In response to crowd encouragement, I did, indeed, put it down my shirt. I was going to try to catch another one when I realized I could no longer ignore the INTENSE PAIN of the ice water on my legs and feet. I jumped out (half the girls had already given up on catching any fish at all) and hobbled to the changing room. It was very exciting.
We grilled our trout and ate it with corn and soju.
Note: Soju is vile, do not drink this stuff.
It was a good day.
Other than that I've just been hanging out with my friends and boyfriend in Hongdae, which I just love. It's that artsy, college part of town, not far from where I live. Lots of neat little cafes and things like that.
I have a vacation this Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday but won't be going anywhere. Maybe I'll do one morning at the sauna, we'll see.
Love and miss you all!
posted by MacKensie at 4:51 AM
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