Fun and Games and Photoshoots
Happy March!
With only a few weeks left of the cold weather, some of us took a trip a few hours north to go snowboarding last weekend. We took a 30-minute cab ride at 3:30 AM to get to the bus stop in Daegu, then took that bus to the ski resort, about 3.5 hours away, so that we arrived just as it was opening. It was pretty easy getting there and getting our rental gear for the day so we were on the slopes pretty quickly. Even though I've snowboarded a handful of times, I still remained frenemies with the ground the entire day. It was an extremely frustrating first slope, with a few rough wipe outs that caused some massive bruises and swelling pretty early on. Nonetheless, I still had hours to go so I kept trying...and kept falling back down. Although every time it got just a little bit easier, I could not fall on my knees even one more time so I took each hill veryyyy slowly. Luke and Liam stayed with Selestia and I for the morning and were very patient. Then after lunch, they went off to the non-beginner slopes that I dared not touch, haha. At the end of the day, the guys had a blast, while the girls had lost both a bank card and a phone - it was an eventful day, but we all had fun! We got on the bus and headed back around 4:30, making it just in time to catch the bus from Daegu to arrive back in Changnyeong at 9:45 PM. One long day filled with bruises, and lost items called for some pepperoni pizza so we picked some up on the way home and ate pizza in bed. It was very necessary.
If you have ever heard of Exploding Kittens, you know how fun it is. If you haven't heard of Exploding Kittens... you should just know that you're missing out. It's a card game where you try to avoid exploding (drawing an Exploding Kitten). It makes my heart race every time. It's always a favorite, so I recently bought the expansion pack, Imploding Kittens. We all spent our Monday night playing with the expansion pack, learning the rules, and for some...wearing the cone of shame (see last week's cone-of-shamers below). Tuesdays are typically our girls/guys night and since we were off work on Wednesday due to the Korean public holiday, "March 1st Movement", it was a bit of a later night. (A quick Google search tells me March 1st "marks one of the first public displays of Korean resistance during the Japanese occupation of Korea.") Between games, yummy snacks, stories, and lots of laughs, we always have a good time.
It's started warming up a bit outside during the day which makes it much easier to get out and do things. Lately, we've been playing basketball which I've really enjoyed. I haven't played in years and it's really nice having the court right outside to use. Luke and I also walked just around the farm we live next to so we could explore the area a bit. There's a pretty little pond where fishermen setup multiple poles and hang out. On the other side, there is a river lined with cute little (currently dead) trees. I'm excited to see what it looks like in the spring when everything starts to bloom.
We will all be participating in a race on March 19th. Some of us will be doing a 5k, and others a 10k. Our bosses will are running too so it should be an eventful morning! I do hope to start running again once my bruised snowboarding knees heal up and it gets warmer outside. This 5k may be just the kick in the pants I've needed!
We finally start teaching again tomorrow! For three weeks we haven't had students while we prepare the new school book. I'm sure others can agree that we are all very ready to have students again! After we submitted our pages for the new book, we all went around the school as a group to pose for and take pictures in each of the simulation rooms. We were all more than willing to play along and pose in each of the rooms, playing restaurant, coloring pictures, dressing up in the mart, etc. and the pictures we got were pretty hysterical! Since the new books won't be ready yet, we'll continue this week with our old schedule and curriculum. But take a gander at some of my favorite pictures from our "photo shoot" below. You can tell we all really hate our jobs... :)
