Happy Holidays!!

Merry Christmas everyone! Here are the latest pics! I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season and enjoying yourselves. I didn’t think I would miss being home as much as I have lately. I thought that with our Vietnam trip and the lack of Christmas celebration here I wouldn’t be homesick, but that’s not the case. I miss being home during this time of year, I even miss the snow (just the pretty stuff not all the storms). I miss the cookies, the songs, the feeling you get from being with family and friends. I miss the Christmas Eve parties, Christmas day food, and the Christmas Story movie marathon, haha. I’m lucky that I have Dave here to keep my spirits up. I’m also glad that at the Nareabong (singing room/Karaoke) they have Mariah Carey’s “All I want for Christmas is You,” which I can’t sing but love trying. We are also very lucky for the wonderful x-mas packages sent to us, thank you to all of our families! My mom sent Dave and I a singing snoopy and another dog for our classrooms and the kids love them! The kids are so entertained by the movement and music, they think it’s the best thing in the world. Dave’s mom sent us a couple of Christmas books one being The Night Before Christmas which has wonderful illustrations. When I read the story, even to the “bad” classes, the students listened in silence while gazing at the pictures. Dave and I are really excited to take out our middle schoolers on Christmas Eve. Instead of class we are taking them bowling so that should be a lot of fun. I don’t even know if any of them have ever been bowling before. These kids definitely deserve a little fun because all they do is study. When asked “what will you do on Christmas, you have no school or Academy” the response is “study.” You can just tell how stressed and tired they are even before they talk. I can’t wait to see their reactions.

I’ll give you a little update about our Vietnam trip, but look forward to a very long blog entry about it when we get back. We are leaving on Christmas day to spend five long hours on a train to get to Seoul where we will meet up with Jeff and Hyegyong. We will most likely have a fun night in Seoul (including a western style meal!) and then hop on a plane the next morning where our destination is Ho Chi Minh (Saigon). We will spend a few days there in 80 degree weather sightseeing and shopping. Then we are off to Nha Trang to spend the remainder of our trip lying on the beach and possibly scuba diving???! Overall, our trip is ten days long. We are going to spend Christmas and New Years in Vietnam, that pretty cool! I think this trip will be relaxing and hopefully re-energizing at the same time because when we get back from Vietnam Dave and I have a full schedule at the Hagwon with winter camp. We will be working in the morning and in the evenings, and even though it will be long and tiring it will hopefully bring in some extra money for our next trip

Here are a few pictures of the snow in Yeosu (it only lasted for about 10 minutes), and some Noreabong action. I’m really starting to like this Noreabong idea, I wish there was something similar back in the states. It’s a great workout too because all I end up doing is dancing, haha. This also might seem a little random but living over here where I have to speak so literally I feel like I am losing my vocabulary or that it is just getting rusty. Sometimes when I write or say a word I haven’t used in a long time it strikes me as being incorrect. I am so used to speaking as little as possible to my students, keeping my sentences short, simple and to the point so they can understand. Back home I could use complex words without thinking about their meaning because it was natural, but over here I think about the meanings of words much more (even small words). It is a really strange sensation when you are speaking to think consciously about the words you are saying. Languages and communication can be kinda crazy sometimes, haha!

Well sorry for that random thought but I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Years. Dave and I appreciate all of your love and support. Keep up the e-mails and comments we love hearing from you. See you all next year!


Dave wishes they had this one at noraebong.