First written February 2013:
Ok, so it's been....well........, 3 months since I have written a new post. Can that really be right? Zack and I have been in Korea for 7 months! The times just seems to fly by. In these past 3 months we have done a lot but also a lot of nothing too. :)
We have been REALLY cold.
We celebrated Christmas.
This was a Christmas tree I made in my classroom using a green hand from every one of my students.
This is the Christmas ornament I made for 2012.
I went to see the Nutcracker with my girlfriends.
I won a Christmas cookie exchange contest for best cookie. These were Andes mint chocolate cookies. And my prize was the awesome Santa socks pictured above.
We also went to a Korean wedding. My head teacher Young Hwa got married in December and we were invited. We were the only foreign people at there wedding or the other two that were going on a basically the same time. (I need an entire new post to explain this wedding). :)
I had the kids make "Troll Snot" using corn starch and water. If you have never made and played with this substance you have to try it. Regardless of how old you are. :)
In January, both Zack and I taught English camps at our schools while the kids were on "Winter Break". The theme we chose for camp was Harry Potter. It was fun to just teach some random Harry Potter related English.
Zack and I finally moved into our new apartment. (522 is the old apartment on KNU campus. 1121 is our apartment in the downtown area of Cheonan City).
This is the view from our apartment window.
Also, my beautiful sister in law, Hannah, came to visit us in January. We ate a lot of Korean food, made our first visit to a Jimjilbang together, and had a great time wandering around Seoul in the freezing cold.
We, of course, had a go to a Cat Cafe!
We went to Seoul Tower.
Hannah met one of our good Korean friends DongHyuk. They got along great and he was able to tell her things about Korea and Korean culture that we might not have been able to share.
We also took Hannah to Gyeongbokgung Palace.
So we had to take this picture again. I think we will take this picture for every season. :)
And last but not least. I went to Hong Kong with 5 of my girlfriends for Chinese New Year. It was a very fast trip but it was a blast to get away with friends. Even if I did get super sick when I got back. :(
It was also nice to know how comfortable I have gotten in Korea. After spending 3 days with people that mainly spoke Chinese it was awesome to come back to Korea and hear Korean spoken. Even though I still don't know most of what it going on around me I do recognize the language that I am hearing is Korean.
The skyline is absolutely gorgeous!
Had to get Starbs before starting our day.
The year of the snake.
Hong Kong reminded me of San Francisco. There were lots of steep hills/mountains. And since the UK occupied it for so long and it has only been 15 years since the switch the city is very western.
We finally start the new school year on Monday. We have all new students (a few old ones), new teachers, new native teachers have come in (we are not the newbies anymore).
I am still teaching 5th and 6th grade. However, I am now teaching 5th grade 3 times a week and 6th grade twice a week. Which is a lot of planning but I think I will be able to do some fun things with them this year. Since I see my students 2 or 3 times a week I will get to know them much better and faster. A lot of teachers only see their students once a week and see many classes each week. I have a few classes and see them many times a week. There are good and bad to both things.
I have updated my classroom. I have taken down all of my winter decor and put up spring decor. My classroom has changed dramatically since starting in September. In September in was dirty and really just a room with desks. Now it is colorful and I think a much more learning conducive environment. I am proud of all of the effort I have put into my classroom (and it was fun too). I will post pictures of my classroom soon hopefully.
Zack still doesn't know exactly what he is teaching yet. He knows he got a new head teacher (so did I). But he will find out soon.
Tomorrow is another Korean independence day (they have 3 I think) so we have a 3 day weekend before starting the new school year.
With the weather starting to warm up (hopefully soon) we will be getting out and doing more in Korea. I will try my hardest to write more about the things we are doing here.
Lastly, I know that some of you know this but Zack and I have been given the opportunity to extend our contracts for another year and we have accepted. We will be staying in Korea and teaching until July 2014. We are excited about this opportunity to further our teaching and learning abilities and grow as a couple. Although we will miss you, our family and friends, the time will go by quickly and before you know it we will be back in the states.
We will use our vacation time in the summer to visit our family and friends in the states. When we know more about when exactly we will be there, we will let you know.
Thanks for reading!
With Love,
Tiffany (and Zack).
