Fun with Coteachers

So my first semester of teaching is officially over! There's a lot I am looking to improve on next semester, particularly with regards to my low-performing students, but overall I am pleased with my success in the classroom. I'm also officially halfway done with my time in Korea and it's amazing how the time passed both quickly and slowly at the same time. I now have a two month vacation and will be traveling for the entire first month of it. On Tuesday I am flying to Beijing for a wonderful reunion with my family, minus Wes. I will spend a week with them before flying to Thailand to meet my ETA friend, Rachel. The two of us will then traverse Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam for three weeks. I am unbelievably excited but it was still sad to leave my school and students today. Luckily, I was able to hang out with many of my co-teachers one last time before the break.

On Wednesday I did not have school because of the Presidential Election. Four of the younger teachers at my school were going skiing in Chuncheon and invited Amy, Rachel and I to join them. It was too good an offer to pass up so the three of us gladly agreed. We all decided to snowboard even though five out of the eight of us were absolute beginners. Therefore when we got to the mountain at 3 (did I mention the teachers taking us are all males who like to sleep reallll late?) we did not even buy lift tickets. Instead we headed to the pre-bunny slope. It's basically a hill that you walk up and then can ski/snowboard down. After a few runs on that we hit the real bunny slope. I was really impressed with how quickly my co-teachers were picking up snowboarding. We eventually completed several runs from the top of the mountain even! Overall, the day was a ton of fun and I was really happy to spend time with my coteachers outside of school. It's often hard to form more substantial and lasting friendships because of the language gap but the ski trip was a definite step in the right direction.

Today I went to Soyang Dam and Cheongpyeong-sa Temple with my co-teacher, Soo-Jin, and Amy, the other ETA at my school. It was really great to spend one of my last days in Korea with the two of them. Both Amy and Soo-Jin have made my time in Korea so much easier and more enjoyable. It was pretty frigid this morning and afternoon when we went sightseeing so I don't have any pictures. The thought of taking my hands out of my gloves was just too much to handle! The dam, lake and temple were beautiful and the boat ride from the dam to the temple was really enjoyable. It was a really great day.

Tomorrow is my last day in Hwacheon and I will be taking a hiatus from my blog while I am traveling. Once I return to South Korea I will update the page with stories from all of my travels. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

P.S. Here are lots of pictures from the Christmas Party at the Orphanage.