More to come when I return, but for now I am off to do more exploring!
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Singapore!
I am in Singapore, and it is amazing and beautiful and wonderful and ugh. I have many pictures, here are a few!
Monday, December 19, 2011
holy moly. Kim Jong Il has passed.
Honestly, I’m not sure what I am more surprised about, the fact that he is dead or how ridiculously normal things are around here. I didn’t even find out about it until half way through the day, my Korean co-teachers didn’t really even seem phased by it. When I mentioned it they all already knew and were quite nonchalant about the whole thing, the other foreigners and myself were quite taken aback. However doing a little reading has put me at ease. Even though South Korea has heightened it’s security and observation of North Korea, there hasn’t been any unusual activity at all. The Korean Government has urged everyone to carry on business as usual and well, they have.
As far as I know this will not affect my travel plans at all and I am still heading to Singapore on Saturday!
I just got home from work a few hours and put up Christmas lights that I received in a very lovely care package from my family! I’ll post pictures soon, I need to tidy up a bit before my apartment is on display for the public.
Tomorrow is going to be a hectic day as it is our English Festival, which is a program that we put on for the parents to show them how wonderful their children are and how great the teaching staff is. I will try to get some videos and photos of that as well…should be pretty entertaining!
I hope to post again before I leave for my trip, but I just wanted anyone with concern to know that all is well over here!
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Thanksgiving!
Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone and I have been here for 5 months already, crazy! Not going to lie, I was super homesick for a good portion of that week.
Thanksgiving day was weird because it was just like every other day. I went to work, came home, met up with some friends. No turkey, no family, no warm cozyness and scents of amazing food being cooked, it was just weird. I think it was even more difficult on Friday because that was the time when everyone back home was celebrating. Seeing facebook status updates of everyone being with their families and eating turkey was kind of a bummer, and then I slept through an alarm to skype with my family at their Thanksgiving...I did get to chat with my parents, Erin and her husband (which is still really weird for me to say), but I reallllllllllllly (all of the l's are for emphasis) wanted to see my grandparents, being here for five months means I haven't seen them in that long, and I miss them terribly! I did call them though, and chatting with them is always nice! They are so impressed with how well they can hear me when I am in Korea, it's so cute when they talk about how well they can hear me and how impressed they are that I am talking to them from my computer.
Being here is really lovely, I promise, but sometimes I kind of wish everyone would stop doing things so I wouldn't be missing out on things back home. Erin and her husband hosted their first Thanksgiving in their new home, that is something I really wish I could have been around for. I did, however, have my own little gathering and that helped the homesickness SO MUCH! As I have mentioned many times before I have some really great friends here, plus my friend Laura from University lives a little over an hour away so she, Holly and Alice came over. I made chicken, blue cheese mashed potatoes, and rosemary flat bread, not really a traditional Thanksgiving meal, but it didn't taste at all Korean so that was really wonderful!
My apartment smelled like homemade food, was warm and cozy, and I was with some very lovely people, which was exactly what I needed. We ate dinner and hung out and it was really really lovely!
This past week went well! We just got a new foreign teacher at my school to replace Cassie and the two girls who fled, yes fled, but that is kind of a long story, they're gone and I think the new girl will work out well! Wednesday was also my last day of my adult class, and although I enjoyed teaching it I am kind of glad it's done, I now have my week nights back! Teaching that class made for some long Wednesdays, and having to prepare materials which took a few more hours every week in addition to my normal teaching job just ended up being a lot of work and left me pretty worn out by the end of the week. It was definitely a good experience though, and I would probably take on another if given the opportunity.
My kids are still so wonderful well, at least my youngest ones. I have a play list with Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and some classical music on it, and one day one of my favorite little nuggets came up to me and said, "Amy, you make me feel so young," she's 5, I melted.
This weekend was also really great! I went out with friends on Friday night and the bar was filled with foreigners, I felt like I was at a bar at home, it was really nice. Saturday I volunteered and it was so great! The first hour we taught the kids English as usual, then the second hour we had them make Christmas decorations and it was so great! Usually when 3:45 hits the kids get their snack and leave as quickly as they can, but this past Saturday they stayed until 4:00 without even realizing it was that late, they were all so wrapped up in making paper chains and snowflakes, it was pretty awesome to see them all working like that and really enjoying themselves.
Lola is still wonderful, she loves to sit in my lap whenever I am on my computer, so she is a little annoyed with me right now because my computer is on my lap.
Thanksgiving day was weird because it was just like every other day. I went to work, came home, met up with some friends. No turkey, no family, no warm cozyness and scents of amazing food being cooked, it was just weird. I think it was even more difficult on Friday because that was the time when everyone back home was celebrating. Seeing facebook status updates of everyone being with their families and eating turkey was kind of a bummer, and then I slept through an alarm to skype with my family at their Thanksgiving...I did get to chat with my parents, Erin and her husband (which is still really weird for me to say), but I reallllllllllllly (all of the l's are for emphasis) wanted to see my grandparents, being here for five months means I haven't seen them in that long, and I miss them terribly! I did call them though, and chatting with them is always nice! They are so impressed with how well they can hear me when I am in Korea, it's so cute when they talk about how well they can hear me and how impressed they are that I am talking to them from my computer.
Being here is really lovely, I promise, but sometimes I kind of wish everyone would stop doing things so I wouldn't be missing out on things back home. Erin and her husband hosted their first Thanksgiving in their new home, that is something I really wish I could have been around for. I did, however, have my own little gathering and that helped the homesickness SO MUCH! As I have mentioned many times before I have some really great friends here, plus my friend Laura from University lives a little over an hour away so she, Holly and Alice came over. I made chicken, blue cheese mashed potatoes, and rosemary flat bread, not really a traditional Thanksgiving meal, but it didn't taste at all Korean so that was really wonderful!
My apartment smelled like homemade food, was warm and cozy, and I was with some very lovely people, which was exactly what I needed. We ate dinner and hung out and it was really really lovely!
This past week went well! We just got a new foreign teacher at my school to replace Cassie and the two girls who fled, yes fled, but that is kind of a long story, they're gone and I think the new girl will work out well! Wednesday was also my last day of my adult class, and although I enjoyed teaching it I am kind of glad it's done, I now have my week nights back! Teaching that class made for some long Wednesdays, and having to prepare materials which took a few more hours every week in addition to my normal teaching job just ended up being a lot of work and left me pretty worn out by the end of the week. It was definitely a good experience though, and I would probably take on another if given the opportunity.
My kids are still so wonderful well, at least my youngest ones. I have a play list with Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and some classical music on it, and one day one of my favorite little nuggets came up to me and said, "Amy, you make me feel so young," she's 5, I melted.
This weekend was also really great! I went out with friends on Friday night and the bar was filled with foreigners, I felt like I was at a bar at home, it was really nice. Saturday I volunteered and it was so great! The first hour we taught the kids English as usual, then the second hour we had them make Christmas decorations and it was so great! Usually when 3:45 hits the kids get their snack and leave as quickly as they can, but this past Saturday they stayed until 4:00 without even realizing it was that late, they were all so wrapped up in making paper chains and snowflakes, it was pretty awesome to see them all working like that and really enjoying themselves.
Lola is still wonderful, she loves to sit in my lap whenever I am on my computer, so she is a little annoyed with me right now because my computer is on my lap.
This is what she prefers, and those who have skyped with me are pretty used to seeing this.
Oh, I am also going to Singapore for a week over Christmas! I leave Christmas Eve at 6:00pm and will be in Singapore by 5:00 Christmas morning. It is only an eight hour flight, but we have a four hour layover in Beijing. It will be weird to have a Christmas without snow, but I think the white sand on the beach will be pretty ok too.
I'm sure there is more I could say, but I have some things to get done before I skype with my parents.
I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays!
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