Winter vacation begins

After the New Year, I finally had some time to relax back in Gwangyang - but not for long! The first full week of January, I held a four-day English Camp at my school. Students in both the first and second grades were able to participate.

Bowling with the students

Snack time

The English Camp was phenomenal, to say the least. It was so nice to have small class sizes (12 students in each class), so I could work individually with the students and focus on their needs more specifically. The English Camp ran Monday through Thursday, from 2:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. From two to five p.m. we held our specific English classes. I recruited two other ETAs from the Fulbright Program to help me this week. So, there were a total of 36 students and were split into three different classes. Every hour they would rotate classes between the teachers. We worked on story telling, persuasive essays, speaking skills, and presentational tips in the English language. I was so impressed with the effort and determination my students put into this camp! I learned so much about each student than I would normally be able to do in class sizes of 30+ students.

After the three hours of class, we ate dinner together at the school cafeteria. From there, we got to do sports club activities!! The students could choose between bowling or ice skating. I chose to do bowling for my activity, and I was able to play with all of the boys who also chose bowling. It was so much fun being able to interact with them outside of class and see their personalities shine through. The students really improved their English skills as well as their bowling skills.

Our group

After the sports club activity each night, we had snack time! I loved snack time, especially hanging out with the other teachers and interacting with the students. We had chicken, pizza, and sandwiches for our snacks (yum!!). My favorite part of English camp, however, was AFTER snack time. After snack time, students could choose to go home for the evening or to stay and talk/hang out with the teachers for awhile. Many of the first grade students wanted to stay and hang out with us. We decided to play a game called Mafia. At first I was worried that the students wouldn't be able to play this game because it requires a lot of debate and English-speaking skills that they might not have developed. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The boys were so good at explaining themselves and debating back and forth between one another. Their critical thinking skills were impressive. It was also fun for me because I could show them a more relaxed side of me that they don't always see in the classroom. I bonded with the students a lot during winter camp, and I will always remember how much fun we had together!

At the top of Baegunsan

Aside from Winter Camp, my home stay family took me hiking at the mountain here in Gwangyang, named Baegunsan. It was a cold and challenging hike, but it was a lot of fun going with my home stay parents. We left early in the morning, and the hike to the peak took about two hours. When we got to the top, we ate lunch together. It was so windy and snowy! After we came down from the mountain, we decided to go to the spa to relax and feel super clean. This jimjilbang did not have multiple hot and cold baths like other spas do, but it did have multiple saunas. I relaxed for a couple hours with my home stay parents and passed out for awhile too. After the spa, we came home and crashed. I was sore the next day from climbing so much.

With my host parents

My most favorite form of mountain activity is skiing! I was finally able to go skiing this season with a friend and her husband, who have season passes to a ski resort nearby. Yesterday, we left early in the morning to make the two hour drive to the resort. I was able to ski all day and we even did night skiing, which I haven't done before, so that was super exciting for me. I only crashed one time, and that was because a Korean woman didn't know how to stop and was going straight down the mountain and top speed. She crashed right into me. Luckily I had been paying attention to what was going on behind me, but I couldn't manage to turn in time to avoid her.

A view of the ski slopes

Skiing is so different in Korea than in the United States and Europe. People are certainly not as cautious here as they are elsewhere. I am convinced some of these people don't even take lessons before they try skiing or snowboarding. My friend and I saw one guy crash into four people and knocked them all over at the end of a run because he didn't know how to slow down. Another guy was wobbling all over the place and going way too fast down a black diamond course. He crashed two or three times but every time he got up he always passed me and crashed again. I don't know why he was on that course. I am just glad that I wasn't severely injured... haha! Even though it was dangerous, I definitely want to hit the slopes again before the season ends.

Hitting the slopes in my ugly outfit

This upcoming weekend I will begin my two-week traveling with my orientation roommate. We are traveling to Hong Kong and Thailand and I couldn't be more excited! This week I will be prepping for the trip and making sure I have everything I need. I will just be carrying my hiking pack on my back, so I have to be smart about packing light. Luckily the weather will be warmer where we are traveling, so I won't need my winter coat. I am very excited, but also a bit nervous (I always get anxious before I travel abroad)! My next post will likely be in February after my journey concludes. Stay warm, everybody!