Last weekend I went with Marlene to Yongpyong Resort in Gangwando Province to go skiing/snowboarding! We wanted to go to this place specifically because they are one of the resorts hosting the 2018 Olympics! A huge group of friends were supposed to come but they all bailed and said it was too expensive or they couldn’t figure out how to take the buses.. Which is ridiculous, Marlene and I live the furthest from anyone but still got there and didn’t really have any problems.. mainly! We left Friday at 2pm and arrived around 9. There was supposed to be a free shuttle bus, but it didn’t come to the place they told us to wait. We saw it drive by but no such luck! :/ So it took us a little longer then expected but still wasn’t bad at all. We stayed in the Youth Hostel on the mountain for 11 bucks a night for bunk beds. There was no key to the room or free lockers, there were paid lockers. But we just brought our valuables with us, and locked them with our shoes in the ski area. We mainly ate ramen, kimbop, and convenience food the whole weekend which was fine kept on our budget! Same as any ski area in the states prices are jacked up! I brought a few snacks but didn’t really have time to prepare meals or anything. Using our Korean Bank cards, we got a 40% discount off lift tickets and gear rental! That was awesome, it was going to be 72 bucks for the day. Also had to buy goggles, was told you could rent them, but the places said no. But they definitely got used as it snowed the WHOLE weekend! This was a blessing though. There were a ton of lifts, but not really a lot of terrain. I think there were about 10 lifts or so, but many of them went to the same place and they were built next to each other. They were high speed lifts but none ran at high speed except the one on the back side of the mountain which was served by the gondola. Lift lines were pretty short, really didn’t have to wait except for the gondola which was fantastic. Hills were not the same as the Rockies in any way, but there were a few decent blues/easy blacks. Which in Korea, these were expert only, or labeled double blacks which I found hilarious because the only thing that made it more difficult then the rest was that it wasn’t as wide, and there was a bit more of an angle to the hill. Thank goodness it had been snowing the whole weekend otherwise it would have been an icy weekend! From the time we woke up Sat morning it snowed the entire trip these big beautiful snow flakes making the place look like an amazing winter wonderland. Marlene is from South Africa and had never seen snow before so it was such a sweet sight to be with her for her first snow experience! All the little moments where I thought something was ordinary she was so impressed with! It really made me appreciate where I was and how lucky I am to have had all the opportunities to snowboard and ski in Durango with my parents, and everywhere else I’ve been snow related!
We missed each other on Saturday so I couldn’t help her with her ski skills as she had been one other time just for a few hours with her school on a field trip. At the field trip they just taught her to plow… Oyee. She met a lady who helped her Saturday afternoon a bit then I spent a while on Sunday morning helping her out. She had it down pretty well on the bunny hills by Sunday afternoon. She wanted to learn to snowboard but I told her that it would not be enjoyable as you spend generally at least 3 days on your butt, since we were only going for 1.5 it would not be wise. Not to mention, the snowboard school discriminates against foreigners. :/ We waited in line to speak to someone, no one was at the “Foreigners” line, then the lady spoke hardly any English. Prices for Korean Snowboarding lessons were 70 for the full day, prices for foreigner snowboarding lessons for 2 hours was 350 bucks! Outrageous. We also asked if she could just take a lesson with the Koreans as we know the key important facts, left, right, and we looked up shoulders and hips.. They said no way. So thats when I said she should def just ski! No point wasting that much money or pain! Not to mention you won’t learn enough in 2 hours. She will have to come to the States and she can take lessons there. She is thinking of working at a ski resort as something to do next.. I think that would be a blast as well! And ahhh all the boarding time would be amazing!
On Sunday they had set up some flags on the back side of the mountain, so I had fun going through the poles. Soo imagine if you’ve skied in Colorado, how some Texans just stop wherever they feel, take up the whole run with their huge groups, and wear outrageous clothes… Imagine that times 10. Koreans go in bigger groups, wear these huge baggy outfits, their clothes had to weigh as much as them by the end of the day! It was insane. Of course there were some normal outfits/gear. But generally when Koreans do something, they do it to the max and go all out. Also snowboarders take their entire snowboard off to go on any lift.. Soo if you can’t get on and off a lift, you shouldn’t be able to ride a snowboard. I found it frightening. How can they not know how or are too afraid to take the snowboard on the lift. Also.. if you drop that snowboard off the lift.. someone would die I’m sure! Speaking of ways to kill someone, no leashes on the snowboards, you would frequently see them people taking off after their boards that they unstrapped and weren’t holding onto. It was very funny but also silly to not have a leash. I think those were the main differences in US vs Korean ski resorts.
We headed back Sunday afternoon and it was snowing our entire trip home. We luckily had perfect bus timing, barely could hop from one to the next, but still made it. Unfortunately the one bus stopped in every little town so took a while, and with the snow was going extra slow as well. Despite that, I had a winning moment. My town is on the way back from the resort, so I had my Korean friend write the bus driver a text that asked if he could drop me off in Heunghae. When I showed it to the driver I wasn’t sure what he was saying to me. He said something and shook his head.. So I had no idea if he was going to let me off. Whatever he said I was going to go to the front of the bus when we got close to my house and ask if he could stop now! But when we got close to HH, he said HH something blah blah, I went to the front of the bus and he let me off! Ah was so nice. It takes me about 40 minutes on a city bus to get home from the bus terminal so that saved over an hour from my trip! It was an absolute blast to spend the weekend with Marlene, she is such a wonderful lady and like i”ve said before I’m so lucky to have her only 30km away!
The week following the ski trip was mostly spent doing what i’ve been doing the past two months while at home. Cooking, practicing guitar, sleeping in, working out, watching movies, doing some more job research. And other various things on the to do list. At night time there were a few going away activities and the excitement of having the newbies arriving and helping them out. Man how I wish someone had known my replacement teacher so they could knock on my door and help me out.. No I spent almost a week myself in this crazy little place called Heunghae wondering what the heck I was doing in this place. Thank goodness for Aussie and being on the same time zone as him!
Anyways we went downtown and had drinks sometimes, played pool, darts, etc. And showed the newbies around. I’m sure we’ll be helping them out for a few weeks. But it is a very exciting time in Heunghae, as we have grown from 6 foreigners to 11! There are some surrounding schools that It is the first time they are having a foreign teacher! And what a coincidence, one of them is named Nichole! How crazy, haven’t been used to having a name double in a while! But she is a sweetheart and I think we’ll get along wonderfully. And we are now all Americans in HH except Michael, the South African, and Chris who is from the UK. Chris has an interesting story. He is married to a Korean women who lived in the UK for 10 years. But she is from Seoul, so she has been experiencing culture shock just like the rest of us since she has been so gone from Korea for so long, and how different Pohang is from Seoul. But I’m sure she will be a big help with us ordering at restaurants and stuff. Either way am very excited to get to know all of them!
Weds afternoon I met up with Marlene to help her sort out laser hair removal in Pohang. It was quite the adventure as some people told us no straight up. Some of the Korean receptionists just laughed at us when we walked in.. very unprofessional. Many of them looked botoxed out of their mind. They had no facial expression and their eye balls glued open. :/ The amount of money this country spends on their plastic surgery is outrageous. I don’t have any numbers but I know women get it all the time. Even while we were sitting there there are like 60 year old ladies getting stuff done. I know you want to be beautiful at every age, but really your going to inject yourself with botox for x amount of dollars.. ahhh a little sad. But finally we found a place with a woman doctor who spoke great English. I just got the information, and she had the actual procedure done. So she will come every 2 weeks to have it done for 10 sessions I believe. Prices were pretty comparable to the states. I may do one area, and save the rest for back home. I think the technology will continue to advance, and prices will continue to go down.. So wait it out for a bit now that I’ve spent a nice chunk of change already in the states on it. But it is definitely worth every cent!
Thursday the temperature looked the warmest it had in a while, and I had locked my bike outside of Heathers apartment so she could actually walk in her kitchen! So decided it was the day to navigate myself across Pohang! For the most part I found a perfect bike path that went along the port then along the beach.. but then I had a lot of it where I was on bumpy bumpy sidewalks. Luckily didn’t really have any problem with traffic, crazy drivers, had to really watch when I would pass through little alleys though. There was a little bit of hill climbing and one section of super steep, other then that smooth sailing! I’m very excited though because I would definitely be able to bike downtown in about 30 minutes. Then have friends places to lock it if needed and ride it home the next day. It was such a nice change to my workout videos in my apartment. I cannot wait to get out and ride it more. And to prevent it’s theft, I lock it all the way up on the third floor right outside my door.. I don’t think I’m supposed to lock it there but there hasn’t been any notes or anything and the lock is similar to a U Lock!
Friday was the first day of school! I knew that I wouldn’t be teaching on Friday so wasn’t really stressed. And really knew nothing besides that I would teach grade 3 and 5. Got to school and received the 5th grade textbook, and a new 3rd grade textbook. It was the same ones they used the previous year which I’m not really a fan of because a lot of the phrases and stuff it teaches aren’t really commonly used. For example teaching: Aren’t you hungry? Instead of: Are you hungry? I’m not really an English grammar expert but I can tell you that my friends would never ask me aren’t you hungry. Either way was looking at things, also trying to get some ideas for what to do with the kindergarteners! I asked in the morning when we would begin teaching and they said maybe not for another week. At the end of the day my co teacher called my name and started kind of laughing, there was maybe an hour of the day left. And she said we would begin teaching on Monday.. haha good thing I had been preparing! I made a new classroom motivation and went over that with Eunjeong, then we also went over what we would do the first day. Then it was the weekend again! Haha I posted a status on facebook about how rough my life is. I have basically spent the last two months on vacation, sleeping in, making delicious food at home, learning guitar, watching movies, some GRE studying, exercising, and whatever else.. all while getting paid.. Crazyyy if you ask me. Its a strange feeling, but I think if I stay another year I will definitely want to figure out something to accomplish during these two months! But I think after all the hard work i’ve done and over worked myself in the past its okay to take it easy when the job allows!
Friday evening Abby who is a newbie TaLK teacher from Michigan thought she was buying one fish at the market day we have in Heunghae every 5 days, and ended up getting a whole bunch of fish. So she beer battered them for us and had us over for dinner. The batter was fantastic, however the fish were very small and had a million bones.. :/ Not my favorite. I rather pick a chicken, or crab these days! What did that just come out of my mouth? Haa. After dinner I took the girls to our “everything” store so they could get a few things for their house without dragging it all the way back from downtown. We spent a while there! After that headed home, watched a movie, and slept in Saturday morning.
Sat afternoon was supposed to go to the Pohang Steelers Soccer game, but the rain and cold I really didn’t feel like sitting outside and dealing.. It was the first game of the season so I’m sure there will be another opportunity. They had a good time. I took a nap saturday, made lunch, and worked out. Also practiced a bit of guitar. Then went downtown to meet up with everyone then headed to Tilt. It was their 1 year anniversary, so they had hot dogs! Ahh so amazing, then jello shots!, and drink deals. It was a blast, we danced the night away. I didn’t know there was a theme but it was the band “LMFAO” which is a “party” band/dj/rappers whom i’m going to see in Seoul in April.
Sunday the rain continued and I did the same stuff I always do. Michael helped me with guitar for a bit. Amazon.com is sooo fast. I ordered Aussie’s birthday present which is March 12th using standard shipping on Thursday evening here.. and he had already received it on Saturday.. like 9 days early! Oh wellll. If amazon delivered to Korea, life would be soo fantastic!
I am soooo enjoying having an oven! Have made all kinds of delicious things! Sunday I made a pasta bake with tomato sauce, spices, zucchinis, carrots, pasta, garlic, and baked in the oven and made some garlic bread and it was absolutely delicious! Also tried out banana bread! It’s not too bad. I’m still missing baking soda and a few other essential baking ingredients but its not bad for the little oven! Tonight I just sliced a potato, zuc, carrots, wrapped in foil with olive oil, garlic, onions, and spices and was another delicious meal! A friend of mine picked up some whey protein from costco for me so have been having chocolate banana shakes after my work outs to supplement the lack of protein that I get here and it has really helped my appetite. (which could have also been due to the fact that I was sitting around at home all day) Either way I’m not hungry all the time which is great! Also started doing Jillian Michaels 30 day shred.. in addition to bodyrock and p90x. I usually just do a combination of the three to make a workout of 60 minutes, or do my own thing. Also for lent Marlene and I gave up sugary drinks like coffee and “fake” fruit juices, or as much as we can tell! And eating after 8pm. Have felt a lot better in general.
Started the morning off not so great.. over slept for the first time. Luckily I didn’t have a first period class. I remember hearing my alarm go off but forgot to set it so that if I didn’t turn it off it would go on again. I woke up at 852, 12 minutes after I’m supposed to be at school. Got ready instantly, luckily had packed lunch last night, and ran off the school in the rain. No one mentioned anything.. was just lucky I didn’t have class. I think my body is now used to getting tons of sleep, might be an adjustment to just get 8.5 instead of 10.5 or whatever other amounts I’ve been getting! School today was good. It is definitely nice to teach in the English room and not have to wait in the freezing cold cooridoors between classes and not put my USB drive in 5 computers! I showed them my about me powerpoint where I introduce my family, a little about Arizona and pictures of the house. They all think that we are really really rich because of the swimming pool, then I try to explain that things are bigger in the states because we have room to spread out. I showed them the state of Minnesota, which is closest in comparison to Korea. They also freak out that I have traveled to 17 countries. But I hope I can instill the desire to learn English so they can travel one day too. We also had them make name tags, I really wanted them to come up with English names so I can actually have a chance of being able to call them by their name but only the kids who study at the private academies have names. I gave a few kids names but usually they say they don’t want them. But maybe more will ask for them thorough out the year as they realize that I will remember anyone with an English name. My favorite English names were Tiger, Cherry, and Ronaldo, like the famous soccer player. A kid asked if his name could be psycho.. but I said he had to think of something else. After classes I did a little bit of planning. My new co teacher came over and gave me a schedule of what order of 3rd grade classes we’ll teach. Before she did that she just stood next to my desk like she was about to say something and would laugh.. I would sit there patiently waiting like what the heck is she doing. She would say one sentence then start laughing again.. then she said I’m sorry my English is really bad… She basically told me not to plan anything for tomorrow just things to introduce yourself. I asked her about the class motivation charts and she said that would be fine.. I have no idea if she understood me or not. It will definitely be interesting. I will start my Kindergarten and After School classes next week so have a bit of time before that. Ohh and my schedule is a little crazy this year.. I have no class on Friday.. So will have to be very efficient in planning on Fridays and also analyzing what worked in the lessons and what we need to work on in just a short period of time. It definitely helps make the day go by faster having more classes but it might get very tiring.
I’m going to knock on wood as I say this, but I think I can say that I have survived the worst part of a South Korean winter, and my first real winter since I was itsy bitsy in Denver.. Temperatures haven’t been below 45 this last week. Although it has been raining it has been much warmer! Also the forecast for the cherry blossoms have come out and its not too far off which means sunshine and warmth!
Have also added a little bit to the about page on my blog about the characters in my blog if you’re confused or want to put names with faces! Will try to post pictures to go along with the ski weekend soon!
<3 N
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