Ski Trip

I had a very eventful and fun weekend. It started Thursday afternoon with 13 of my friends coming to Yangji to go skiing. I had a coupon for a free night at one of the condos at the Yangji Pine Ski Resort so we all went skiing together and then stayed up late hanging out in the condo. It was a lot of fun even with the super icy skiing conditions. The next day my friends Chi Ha, Kevin and Steve and I drove to YongPyong Resort in Gangwon Do to ski. YongPyong is Korea's oldest ski resort and it was a really good time. They had some really challenging and long ski runs and it only took about 2.5 hours to drive there. After skiing in YongPyong for 2 days we drove to Phoenix park which is another big ski resort in Gangwon Do. The snow conditions there were much less icy but it lacked the really challenging runs that YongPyong had. We still had a good time though. We actually joined this Korean ski club and stayed with them Saturday night so we made a few new friends to ski with! It was a really fun trip and definitely has me pumped to do more weekend road trips here in Korea.

snow gone!!!

It was about 50 degrees here yesterday and it rained all day so the snow is now melted except at the ski hill where it is now really really icy. Oh well! I guess the snow doesn't usually stick around very long here in Korea. This past weekend was really great! I went skiing Saturday morning with my friend Kim Chol Og. He is a 50 year old Korean guy who is a teacher at a nearby elementary school. He also loves skiing and hiking so in the fall my Korean co teacher intoduced me to him. We had a great time and I think my downhill skiing skills are improving as I was able to clear the big jump on the hill! It is a 15 foot table top. Then Saturday afternoon I drove with Liz allan and steve up to YangPyeong (about 25 miles north or a 50 minute drive through really pretty mountains). My friend SangMi's parents have a cabin there! It is on the Han river too(Its the biggest river in Korea) We had a great time! We made korean barbeque and played in the snow. Sunday afternoon I went hiking on the way home on a new mountain range about 30 minutes from my house that I really wanna go check out again since I didn't have time to make it to the summit. Having the car makes life here sooooooooo much easier from where I live going to a place like Yangpyeong would take about 3 hours or more using busses and trains but its just an easy traffic free 50 minute drive through the countryside with the car! Up for this weekend is a trip to Gangwon do for some skiing in big mountains!

enjoying the snow!

I acheived a life long goal of mine this past weekend. I sledded down a mountain and it was awesome. after all the snow we got on monday I realized that i should go buy a sled and then take it out to the local hiking trails for some crazy sledding fun. I hiked with some friends around the trails taking turns doing the downhills on the sled. I also skiied a bunch this past weekend. I definitely need to take a few days off to recover from all the skiing. in 2 weeks I am taking a trip with some friends to Gangwon Do to ski some big mountains. It will be my first Korean road trip so it should be a blast! I am even taking one day of vacation for it! 5th and 6th grade english camps started today too. The 5th and 6th graders are a lot easier to control than the 3-4 th graders so hopefully I won't lose my voice this week from always having to talk really loudly.

Busan trip then skiing!! Then monster snow storm

My trip to Busan was great! I had a lot of fun with my friend Misun and her family. They were super nice to show me all over town. As I mentioned last time I at a lot of crazy seafood some of which was still alive! After returning from Busan my English camp at school started. It is definitely tiring teaching 6 hours of class solo to kids who basically don't know any English but I am having a good time anyway.
Sunday night we had a huge snow storm too! It snowed about 10 inches here in Yangji and I guess thats the most they have had at once in over 10 years! The mountains are really beatiful all covered in snow and the skiing is a lot better on real snow! The only problem with all that snow is the fact that there aren't snow plows here to clear the road! So there is a lot of crazy driving going on right now since people aren't really used to driving in snow. Thank goodness my car has 4 wheel drive or I wouldn't even be able to get up to my apartment. Because of the snow they cancelled my english camp for 2 days so I have been going skiing in the afternoon after spending some time planning lessons in the morning.
Last weekend was a lot of fun too! I had 11 friends come to Yangji to go skiing ang 7 of them slept over at my tiny apartment afterwards it was a little cramped but we all had a lot of fun. Up for this weekend is more skiing with friends and more apartment sleep overs. The season pass and the big SUV I got are definitely paying off since I am taking lots of people skiing every week!
I hope everyone had a great christmas and new year!

Getting tired then resting! and Merry Christmas!

Since the teachers trip school has finished and preparation for the English Camp I am teaching has started. Its actaully waaayyyyy harder to plan and lessons then I thought it would be and I only had 2 days to plan for 6 weeks of 6 hours of class 5 days per week! Ahhh!!! My prinicpal decided she didn't like my lesson plans and that they needed more activites from outside the text book curriculum we bought for the camp!! Ahhh! Now my job is kind of stressful. but i think I can handle it and modify the lesson plans to make her happy. Anyway I have been having a lot of fun too and its made me really tired! Skiing and meeting friends until late definitely takes its toll after a few weeks! So I came to Busan (the second biggest city in Korea) to visit my friend Miseon who I met while working at the Purdue Writing Lab. I am staying with her family (2 elementary school age boys). It is a lot of fun and also good for me since we are going to bed early and getting lots of sleep! It was about a 4 hour bus ride to get here but it only cost about $20! We are touring all of the famous sites of Busan (which is famous for beaches) and we are trying lots of new foods (Busan is famous for raw seafood) Today I ate raw fish, oysters, touched a live shark, and at a bunch of other raw seafood that I had no idea what it was! I hope everyone has a great christmas! I will post some pictures here eventually!

Teachers ski trip

Last weekend my school took a 2 day trip to Gangwon Province in the eastern part of Korea. It was amazing. The mountains there are so huge and beatiful! Friday night we at grilled beef (beef is expensive in Korea so having grilled beef is kind of a treat) as well as RAW BEEF!!!! This was my first time to eat raw beef and it is really good! I didn't get sick so it must be ok. After dinner we went skiing at High One Resort which was really fun even though it was raining. That resort is huge the runs were 5-6kms long each! After skiing every teacher went to the Singing room to do karoake together! This was also very very fun!! I sang the YMCA song and Crazy by Britney Spears. It was a very long night! And a very early morning as we got up at 8am to go visit a cave! We took a walking tour of a giant cave which was very beatiful! I forgot to take pictures though as usual. After the cave we ate lunch and went to a traditional Korean market to look around and eat delicous snack food! The market was extremly crowded but it was still a good time. When we got on the bus to go home everyone immediately fell asleep! After getting home and showering I went to a party in the north part of Yongin with some friends and met some cool new korean friends there! It was great. Sunday I met my new chinese friend Roy and we went hiking around Yongin City it was new trails and I discovered some great places to go mtb riding that I am hoping to check out this saturday.
Up for this weekend is sking with another teacher from my school on Friday night, mountain bike riding or hiking saturday then meeting friends saturday night in Yongin then Sunday I am gonna go to Gwanak San to go hiking! It should be a fun weekend and hopefully slightly more restful than last weekend.

Driving a car in Korea!!

This past week and a half I realized just how expensive driving a big diesel SUV can be when gas is $6 per gallon! really expensive!!! Also all of the driving I am doing is basically city driving with lots of stopping and going which eats up gas too! I definitely need to balance my driving with some bus riding. Riding the bus works well on the weekends and when I am not in a hurry to get somewhere. Anyway things are going pretty well here! It got cold again so I haven't been riding my bike but this weekend is a big ski trip with my school to Gangwon do which is where the biggest mountains in korea are!. I made friends with 2 of the girl teachers at my school who are young and they both also bought season ski passes to the Yangji Pine resort! So I have a couple of ski buddies now! They speak english too but it will be good for me to practice korean with them too. Last weekend I had dinner at a korean friends parents house! it was awesome we at fresh korean oysters, fish and pork spare ribs all cooked on a grill! It was really fun! In other news I have some korean friends who live in Yangji. They work up at the Asiana country club which is a big famous golf course here. Next week I should have a good update to post after the ski trip.