Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas from Korea! A day late but the Season's greeting is still there :D Having a rough time sleeping tonight so I will fill yo in on life since I last checked in. We had a Christmas Party! Once again we all piled into my "cozy" apartment for a Christmas celebration.



My Gram wold be proud of me. I made Kringle cookies for Christmas, granted I filled them with ntella instead of the usual yummy filling, bt it was delicious all the same!



After a weekend trip to Gunsan, a little coastal town, I came home to buy my Christmas present from Yamaha. I got me a brand spankin' new bowl-back mandolin! She was only a little bit more than my flat back but sooooo purdy! Next I just have to name her, and use her everyday! A feat that I dobt will be too difficult since today alone I spent a good two hours working on my C chords and scales :D



Well, until next time, have a merry holiday season. I hope the world is kind to you.
-Sara

Keepin' the Creepin' PG

Finally, getting a bit better at uploading. Well I've got quite a bit to recap so let's GO!

This past week the whole province of teachers in Jeollabuk-do was flown to Jeju, the island just off the south western tip of the Korean peninsula.


On said trip I began planning all the tables that I would one day like to have. For example, I would like to have this table one day so that I may place a gigantic wheel of cheese upon it and slice into it whenever it suits me. Plus, I love me a good stone table!


Next I found this other lovely table made from one solid piece of wood, cut from a tree trunk and glazed over. I want this table. I want a big tree table. If anyone knows where I can get said tree table, and/or if someone is willing to make me a tree table, it would be much appreciated.



After arriving in Jeju, and finding said lovely tables where we had our lunch, we went to a tea field where green tea is grown, harvested, roasted, and made into all kinds of yummy things like...tea, and ice cream, and lotions (not yummy tasting but it smells yummy).



The next day we took a rather unsettling trip to the southern most island in Korea. Unsettling simply because I can't deal with boats. Terrible sea sickness without Dramamine to help me. But once we got there it was a lovely sight.



Next we went to a place my mom would have LOVED. We went to the Teddy Bear Museum. Creepy as all hell but MAN was it also a kick in the pants. My favorite had to be the display about the dangers of destroying a bear's habitat (see below).


Then we went on the prettiest little excursion once we got back to walk around the island a wee bit more. The scenery was beautiful with a light breeze coming off the ocean. Not too bad for the first week of December :D


The next day we spent the morning at a cactus farm, but I didn't get any pictures because it was raining, and expensive. Then we went to two museums in the afternoon. First we went to a glass museum, which was so much fun. There were glass sculptures everywhere, my favorite was this orange tree.



Next we went to a sex museum. I had to pick the most wholesome picture to post just in case, but I am sure you can imagine all the kooky things we saw. If you want to look it up online, the place is called Love land.



After we returned from Jeju three friends and myself went to Seoul for girl time and shopping. While at Ewha Women's College, in the shopping area there, we grabbed dinner at the cutest little Italian restaurant. I forgot the name of the resto. but if you can find Snowflake Japanese restaurant it's right next door.

While in Seoul we stayed at the cutest little hostel. I literally fell in love the MINUTE we walked in. I can never stay anywhere else, ever. If you want the cutest experience ever, go to Bebop House. If you don't love it, you're just foolish.


Well it looks like that about wraps things up for now. Got Christmas festivities coming up soon so I'll be posting those kinds of goodies. I hope the world is kind to you and treating you as you deserve to be.

-Sara

Slacking Again

Shooting back Kimchi like it's nothing!

But what else is new? Oh, right, lots of things :/ I will not be updating for a little while after this because it's the end of the semester, and a bum rush to get the kids ready for their exams. I have to say that though I love it here, this has been the toughest, more disappointing, and yet most rewarding week of work for me. Even though I have pissed off probably half my school, I'm ok with that. They have been looking for my kids pronunciation to improve but honestly I haven't been working on how quickly and clearly they can say sentences, I've been working on whether or not they can understand those sentences. Maybe they don't have perfect accents, but I would rather have them understand me and vice versa over perfection anyday. How do I know my kids are improving? In the last week I have had kids not only request movies, specific genres, and learn what word to say when I point to something (my kinders are making remarkable improvement), but I have had them hold (albeit small) genuine conversations with me. Kids who, at the beginning of the year, were too scared to even say hello for fear of being bullied for their lack of language skills are STARTING conversations with me. Why? Because my emphasis is not on saying every word perfectly, but in understanding what that word means and how to use it. My philosophy on teaching has gone from teaching these kids english, to helping them accept not being perfect at english. Maybe they can't pronounce a word perfectly, but they can understand it. OK, sorry for going off like that. Like I said, it was a tough week and I just had to throw out the good part. It makes me feel all fluffy when I have 5 year olds ask for "cat and mouse movie" and when I leave they say "see you later" :D lil darlins!

Ok, back to my life and away from my lil saplings. Not too much has happened. Only two big things really, Thanksgiving and Kimchi making. So about a week, not even, after I did my last post I finally did the one most epic thing that this blog gets it's title from. I made Kimchi, with the help of my mentor teacher of course! It was spectacular, not only did we get to make it but we learned all about it. The woman who was giving us the "lecture" had such a similar food mantra to my own :D She kept saying how kids these days don't appreciate the tradition and the time and effort that goes in to making something so essentially Korean.

The woman knows all there is to know about Kimchi.

I feel that way with a lot of things nowadays. Maybe I'm secretly an old fuddy duddy, but it's sad to think that people don't appreciate good home cooking anymore.

The fuddiest of duddies, makin' kimchi

Then was Thanksgiving :D One of the best food holidays of the year. They don't have many turkeys laying around at the supermarket, so I ended up braising a duck on the stovetop for about 2 hours. I was soooo yummy. I just cut up some onions and potatoes, sauteed them until they were brown, and filled my pot with about an inch of liquid, put the duck in and let it simmer for about two hours with the cover on, checking every 20 minutes or so. It's especially awesome because as the duck cooked, the fat was drawn into the pan and the veggies were essentially cooked in duck fat for a solid hour mmmmmmmm. After it was done I took all the yummy fat and made a gravy, duck fat gravy! yummmmm. Everyone else brought fruit and vegetables, corn mashed and roasted potatoes. It was a most splendid feast. I have to say that I miss pumpkin pie, but that having such an amazing family over here makes up for anything.

You can juuuust see the spread on the table here

Making dessert, After all was said and done we needed some apple crisp so I threw it together on the stove top! let me know if you want any of these recipes btw.

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully the weeks start getting better after this one, like I said it was rough, but if this is rough I don't really have much to complain about :D Have a good weekend, I hope the world is being kind to you. Happy Friday!

Sara