January in Korea

Well after Ian and I got back from the Philippines, it was back to some of the coldest weather Seoul had ever had. We spend the week mostly just eating and staying warm. Ian relaxed while I was at work. We spent New Year's day hanging out with friends and then took Ian to a fish dinner for his birthday. We got to eat yummy king crab and a variety of other fresh sea food. Just after Ian left for the states, Seoul had the biggest snowfall in history. It completely shut down the city and made a giant, chaotic mess of things. It was pretty amazing. Being that his never snowed, people really didn't know what to do. They were using cardboard boxes to shovel and streets and the air smelled of burnt rubber because no one new how to drive in the snow. It was pretty amazing. Needless to say it did melt but the cold stayed. I guess I picked the best winter to come to Korea!!

January was also a fun month because my worked changed. The students in Korea get two big breaks a year, a one month break in the winter and a one month break in the summer. So during these breaks our school sets up a "Winter Camp" and a "Summer Camp." We get the students in the mornings and the afternoons and get to do more in-depth English work with them. We teach by doing fun projects, reading theater, etc. I worked a lot more but it was fun to be on a more normal schedule and see some of the kids every day.

It was also nice because we got an hour and a half lunch break everyday. We would go out for lunch each afternoon at a new restaurant. It was wonderful to explore the area I worked and ate fabulous meals every day.

Well Winter Camp ended and I got my mornings back again which was nice. The cold started to ease a bit and have started planning a few more trips to enjoy the country.

Christmas in the Philippines

I ended up having 10 days off during the Holidays which was wonderful. Ian flew to Korea to spend Christmas and New Years (and his birthday) here. We went to the Philippines for about 5 days which was a wonderful way to relax and spend some time together. It was also very very inexpensive. For both of our round trip tickets and tickets to a smaller city on a different island the total was just over $700...pretty amazing!!

So poor Ian came for some of Seoul's coldest weather that it has had in years. We went out the first day and bought him a hat and scarf so he wouldn't freeze to death. We ate some good food in Insadong and came back to pack. We left Monday night for Manilla. We were able to get there with no problems.

We stayed the first night in a hotel near the airport in Manilla. The Philippines was wonderfully warm and we thoroughly enjoyed being in the hot weather. Manilla wasn't anything special...just kind of a big city. We flew out of Manilla the next morning and landed in Cebu Tuesday afternoon. We caught a cab to our resort and relaxed in the warm sun the rest of the day.

The next few days we spent our time laying on the beach, reading, playing gameboy, and just relaxing. We ate some delicious meals and had cocktails every night on the beach. The highlight of the trip would have to be Christmas Eve. The resort held a dinner on the beach and for the kids staying at the resort they had Santa come visit. But since the Philippines is obviously too hot for his reindeer, he made his appearance on jet ski. Probably the best Santa entrance I have ever seen!

The Philippines was a very interesting place. The people are very friendly and everything revolves around family which is nice to see. It has a very laid back island lifestyle and kind of reminded me of a mixture of Mexico and Hawaii. It was a great vacation to escape the cold of Seoul and lay on the beach for a few days. We are already planning a return trip so we can see more of the country and go swimming with whale sharks!!

December in Korea

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted things. It has been a pretty busy couple of months. So here is an update about the month of December. I was mostly just working and hanging out with friends here. The Snowboard World Cup (or something like that) was held in Seoul this year. It was a pretty big deal...they build this massive jump in the downtown area of Seoul. It was pretty cool.

I also went to Dr. Fish with Garrick, a co-worker of mine. It is a cafe where they have a little tank built into the floor with all these little fish that come and nibble on your feet. They eat all the dead skin off your feet!! It is a pretty funny...a nice spa treatment for only about $5...I think in New York it is about $100!!! It tickles a lot but does leave your feet nice and soft.

December was beautiful in Korea. Lots of people celebrate Christmas and there were lots of Christmas decorations up and lots of Christmas music playing. Most of my students said that they did have Christmas trees in their house and exchanged presents...Santa also came.

I basically spend the month of December working, relaxing, eating, and hanging out with friends. It started to get a big colder and even snowed a little bit. December ended with Ian coming to visit, which I will talk about in my next post.