January in Korea

January was full of stress and sickness.  The stress was from having what is called 'open class,' where all of the parents come in and watch your kindergarten class for about an hour.  My class was the only one who had to do this in January (most classes have it in May).  It wouldn't be so bad except the parents aren't actually watching real everyday class time; they are watching a carefully put together performance that has been practiced every day for over a month.  That means that for over a month, at least an hour of my day was devoted to practicing games, songs, expressions, everything that the kids would be doing that day so that they would be great at it and it would look like they are understanding English very well.  It seems very silly and unnecessary to me.  Also, I was still expected to finish all of the normal book work during that time, even though I was down an hour of class time every day.  I felt like I was overworking the kids everyday and it was very overwhelming.  The day of open class went very well, and all the parents liked me a lot.  So, at least it went well after all that work.

The sickness part is that I have had a cough since I got back from the Philippines.  I went to the doctor once, and got a chest x-ray (all for $20, and it only took 10 minutes as a walk-in patient) and they just gave me a variety pack of medication and sent me on my way.  As I'm writing this, it is the first day in almost a week that I haven't had a fever.  So hopefully I am finally over being sick, since of course I still have to go to work here because that's how South Korea works.

The best part about January is that we got to have a long 4-day weekend for the Lunar New Year holiday.  It's the year of the dragon!  We ended up going to Seoraksan for a couple of days, and it was really beautiful in the winter.

Here's a mini replica of the mountains in Seoraksan in the tourist center

Lovely winter mountains

The first day we did the cable car and started the short hike to the top.  We soon discovered that the snow on the path was so packed down from all the people that it was like ice, and we were all slipping and falling all over.  So we decided to get off the path and just climb the mountain in the deep snow.

It was way more fun to play in the snow!

The next day Meghan and I decided not to go hiking again, since we weren't dressed for it (tennis shoes and slush do not mix) and going to a hot spring sounded really nice.  So we asked our hostel guy where this hot spring we had heard of was, and he offered to drive us there the next day.  We showed up at the hot spring, and it turns out he had taken us to a jimjilbang hot spring.  I had totally planned on the water park-type hot spring like I had seen in the picture, so I had brought my swim suit along-but it wouldn't be needed at this place.  Meghan and I just kinda said, might as well since we're here!  Also, it was the oldest hot springs in Seorak (the town) so I guess the water is really good for you.  For those of you who don't know what a jimjilbang is, it is a traditional Korean spa where everyone is naked and it's not a big deal.  The men and women have separate spas, of course.  We walked in and had to put our shoes in a special shoe locker.  Then, we got a key for a bigger locker to put all our clothes and stuff, put the key bracelet around our ankle, and went to shower off before getting into the pools.  There were about five different temperature pools, from burning hot to Lake Superior cold.  We noticed everyone was sitting at the showering area exfoliating, so we bought these exfoliating mitten things for a dollar and took off our old skin.  I felt as soft as a newborn kitten afterwards.

For dinner we went to the fish market.  I just enjoyed looking at all the different types of fish available.

Here's a flat fish.  He was very flat.

Our stuffed squid being fried-yum yum!

We ended up eating a plate of various raw fish.  It really wasn't my favorite (read: kinda gross) but I tried each different kind.  

The next day we walked around and hung out at the beach.  While we were sitting on the beach, a big wave came up only right where we were sitting and got some of us wet (not me though!).  It was weird that the waves chose only that spot to come up far.

Here's a couple of pics of the kids dressed up for Lunar New Year.

The girls- I love Serry's expression

Winston and Yule

Eileen also had her birthday party recently

Last weekend, we went to the 63 building in Seoul.  It reminded me a lot of going up the John Hancock tower in Chicago.  At the top was a contemporary art museum from American artists, and the view of Seoul was awesome.  We stayed a while to watch the sun set.

Apartments, everywhere apartments

Seoul in the evening

Seoul at night

We also just found out that we get another four day weekend at the beginning of March for a holiday!  So the plan is to go to Jeju Island.  Yay!