Vacation!!

Happy holidays everyone! Alexandra and I finally get to explore the city and spend some quality time together, but we're both suffering from a terrible cold! Mine is not as bad as hers, but we've been confined to my apartment for more than 24 hours, which really sucks.

We went out last Thursday, just the two of us to Hongdae for dinner and a night out on the town. It was Christmas eve and we had dinner at midnight and went to two bars until 5:30 a.m., which is so not like me, but time sort of flew. We had a good time, got into a tiff, got into a cab to take us home. When we arrived back at my house, I told the cab driver that I didn't live here and Alexandra was like, yes you do!! Then I went straight to bed and she stayed up making a list of why we got into our tiff. So when we woke up the next morning she asked me if I was still mad at her and I told her no, then she read me the list, which I can't stop talking about. She says that I have too many rules at my house, which I never noticed I had. So I'm trying to work on that, but not trying that hard.

Last Saturday we went snowboarding two hours away from Seoul. It was a trek and a half to finally get on the mountain, which was all faux snow, but we had a good time. It took me two times down the bunny hill to finally get my snow legs back, and it was Al's first time snowboarding, so she had a difficult time, but she tried her darnedest! I have two huge bruises on the side of my leg from thinking I was cool enough to take off my board while standing on it...I fell right on top of it! Hilarious!

We have become obsessed with finding warm hats and have recently purchased Dunkin Doughnut hats with bears on the sides, where our ears are. They were only $3 or 3,000 won, and now we want these penguin hats that are all the rage from Baskin Robbins, the only problem is that they won't sell them to us, we have to purchase an ice cream cake to get one penguin hat, and the ice cream cakes are at least $20, which economically don't make sense. I mean we could get almost 7 Dunkin Doughnut hats with that kind of money!

Then we went to explore the city with one of my teacher friends, Meghan and her visiting brother Keith, who we have given multiple names since then which include (KeithEKins, Kikers, Kiki and K.K.). We tried to go to Seoul Tower, but it was snowing so much that the taxi drivers wouldn't take us there. So that night we decided to have a dinner at "Pig & Cow" which is just what we call the restaurant behind my apartment because they have a picture of a pig and a cow on it. We proceeded to drink mass amounts of Soju and beer and have a fun dance party. I videoed part of it and may post it, but may not....I still haven't decided.

We've sampled a couple different noodle places and have named them Nice Noodle and Mean Noodle. At mean noodle, when you walk in the door they basically ask you what you want right then and there. The only problem is, I always think that they are asking how many in my party, so I simply respond with two and throw up the peace sign. We found nice noodle the other day and the owner is awesome and speaks English. So far Al and I have been there 3 times in the last 3 days. We tried this awesome seafood noodle soup last night that was really spicy and loved it. It may be our meal of choice and it was only $6. So you can't do better than that. I will promise to start posting pictures of the food, kids, Seoul and whatnot as soon as I take some good ones. Hope you are all doing well and enjoying the holidays! I miss you a bunch!

Seoul Cold!

Bbbbuuuuurrrrr! Its so cold, freezing cold. It hasn't snowed since my first week here, but let me tell you, its cold enough to snow. I have a sore throat and I think that I'm losing my voice, which is really terrible since that is a necessity to teach. I've been gargling with salt water, drinking tea and orange juice, taking vitamin C and cold medicine, and I can't shake it. So last night I tried beer and soju. I mean when all else fails alcohol should kill all of the germs, right?!

I was taken to the hospital last week, for my blood test and urine test. I thought that was all that it was going to be, but boy was I wrong. After I gave my blood and urine, they wanted to take an x-ray of my chest. Then they had a dentist check out my teeth, then they weighed me, measured me, not just my height and took my blood pressure. Then I had to sit with a doctor and go over my medical history, at which point he had to check my breathing by going under the front of my shirt. I was a little weirded out by this, I'm used to doctors going up the back, but when in Rome, right?! My health checked out fine, so that was good.

I started teaching on my own this week. The kids are really cute and smart. Each time I go through a lesson with them, it amazes me how quick they can build on the English they already know. I keep thinking back to junior high and high school and how difficult learning Spanish was for me. They all have a speaking test with me next week, so the past couple of days I've been doing review with them, and trying to come up with games that incorporate vocab and grammar. So that was the highlight of school.

Last weekend was my first weekend out here and I went to another teacher's going away party. Going out in Seoul was really fun. The bar that we went to had dart boards, a pool table, and a shuffleboard table. Oh, and there's no tipping at all here. Not at bars and not at restaurants and everything here is pretty cheap. Food, public transportation, clothes, etc.

I am very excited for this weekend! Its Anna's last weekend (the teacher I'm replacing) and Alexandra gets in tomorrow!!!!! I can't wait! I'm sure that we're going to get into some sort of shenanigans! So get ready for all of the silly stories to begin.

I Made It!

Hi Everyone,

Well, I made it to Seoul late last night. After two long flights, the first one I was sitting at the back of the plane, next to the bathroom, in the aisle seat. Not awesome, by any means. Anyhow, I watched 3 movies on the flight from SFO to Tokyo, Funny People, State of Play, and 500 days of Summer. All of which weren't bad. I didn't sleep as much as I would have liked on the flight to Tokyo, but I did sleep on the shorter flight to Seoul, so that was good. I had this fear the entire time I was on the flight that no one was going to fetch me from the airport.

Luckily there was a taxi driver waiting for me. He didn't say two words to me, but that was fine. I arrived at 10 p.m. and it took about 45 minutes to get to my apartment. The driver had a large GPS with an antenna on it, after a while he changed the GPS to TV mode. So we watched tv as he drove me to my apartment. I thought to myself, hmmmm....we're not even allowed to talk on the phone while driving, and here you can watch t.v. while you drive....yeah, I feel safe!

When we finally arrived at my new home, I met with a guy that works at the school. He showed me to my apartment and told me that he would pick me up at 10:30 a.m. to take me to the school to observe for the day. I was more than surprised that I would be jumping right in. I wanted at least a couple of days to adjust, but I went with it. I woke up this morning at 7 a.m. and tried to unpack a little bit, then I watched some movies I had brought with me. Before I knew it, it was time to go to the school.

The school is about a 15 minute walk from my apartment. When I left this morning, I remember thinking, its not that cold, and I thought that it was going to snow. While I was going through the orientation packet, it began to snow outside, and it looked beautiful. It didn't last that long, and there isn't any snow on the ground. But it is really chilly!

I observed a bunch of classes today and met a lot of the teachers. Everyone is really nice and I can already tell that this is going to be a fun year.

I will keep you posted on the haps, and I'll post some pictures and videos soon, I'm just too tired right now. I miss you all and I can't wait to talk to you! Skype me anytime, I'm 17 hours ahead of you! Love you!