Cheonan Christmas

Merry Christmas!! Our day was special, even being so far away from home. Last night we spent the evening eating and playing festive games with my Flipside Fitness crew. This morning we decided to be just us. We skyped with our families as soon as we got up. Then we ate some breakfast and opened our presents. Jean-Marc got me an iPad stand so I don't have to lean it against various objects or my laptop while I'm Skyping back home and a couple books. He had previously told me about one of them, the Omnivores Dilemma, and I am looking forward to reading it. I also got JM some books that I ordered from the USA, one from a philosopher that he really likes, and a good quality knife set for the kitchen. Which he proceeded to cut himself with before he even got it out of the box.

Rather than going anywhere tonight, we decided to host a dinner party for those who, like us, cannot go home for Christmas, and/or have no where to celebrate. While Christmas is not as popular a holiday here as it is back home (in Korea it is supposedly more of a couple's holiday rather than a family one), it is still a national holiday, so everyone gets the day off.

There were 11 of us in total; two of my Bugil colleagues, one of my boxercise girls, six Nigerian exchange students who we met playing frisbee and JM and me. JM and I cooked 3 chickens and stuffing and everyone else brought different dishes to compliment: quinoa, potatoes, chicken skewers, and many desserts. We played a board game called Life's A Pitch where you must pitch your answer to the person who reads a scenario. Whoever gives the best pitch in the judge's opinion (which could be funny, plausible, clever, or just plain silly) is deemed the winner of that round. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and it made for a very fine evening with good company and lots of laughs.We hope everyone back home also enjoyed their day.

Merry Christmas!

Team JMS

 

Santa came!

Jean-Marc, those knives are sharp!

Christmas Dinner 2012

 

Samson Family Christmas Tradition: Meat Pie!

Announcement: We made delicious meat pie from scratch!!!

Being away from family and all the holiday traditions is hard, especially Christmas. At least I get to go home in January to see my family, but I know Jean-Marc is bumming because he doesn't get to.
The Samson Family has a few traditions that I learned of last year when I spent Christmas with them. They always do a puzzle. Some 2000 pieces are laid out on the dining room table and for the month of December everyone who comes over adds a few pieces. They also bake spring rolls and meat pie which they eat on Christmas Eve after midnight mass.

Jean-Marc and I haven't done any baking in our Korean apartment. Baking supplies aren't the easiest to come by and our oven is small. But I really wanted to give JM a little taste of home for the holidays. So he got the recipe for the meat from his mom and I looked up how to bake a pie crust from scratch. With a wine bottle for a rolling pin, we hand made 3 miniature meat pies which we ate with relish, pickles and mozzarella cheese (a tradition of JM and Michel).

While they weren't exactly like Momma K's meat pie, they were soooo delicious.  I'm very happy we laboured over them.

Happy eating everyone,

Jennika

 

The end of the year!

The school year is wrapping up at the GLP. Classes have been done for a week, but the system here is a bit curious. We teachers not only have to finish grading lab and assignments, and mark final exams, but also write progress reports, submit performance based materials, and submit syllabi for the school calendar and another set for the AP curriculum. Basically I have been running around like a chicken with its head cut off. But now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it looks glorious.

Mike the headless chicken.

On top of that, today I was a member of the disciplinary committee. This was one of the longest hearings during the busiest time of the year. For me, a new teacher, it was interesting to witness, but it could have waited. Our school has a very judicial approach to the whole affair. Students write a letter detailing the event, and there is a committee meeting where the facts are presented. Each student gets to explain themselves, and their mentor also speaks on their behalf. Furthermore, everything is done to keep things as confidential as possible. Very different from my experience as the student council president in my high school, which was confidential, but not nearly as supportive for the defendants. I applaud the other committee members for their dedication to the protocol. It was my initiation and they helped me through the whole thing.

This was also the last night for Wednesday night suppers with my colleagues  We went to our favourite bbq place. We talked about computer programming, patents, and some politics. Just a great end to the year. It is a tradition I will miss over the next few weeks.

Actually a picture of a NY Korean bbq place.

Well that is enough for now.
JaM's

Saipan for the holidays

Well folks, we finally did it. We finally booked our first vacation together!! Like real vacation. A whole week, a far away island, palm trees, a beach, and us. Upon recommendation from one of JM's co-workers, we are headed to SAIPAN, part of the Northern Mariana Islands and north of Guam. It is a US territory, so JM will at least get the feel of being in a western place since he isn't going home. And trust me, after all the kimchi for 4 months, we really just want a burger. But they also have a good mix of local culture too since there has been a movement to preserve it.

Aerial view of the island. There is a reef that protects it.

Saipan!

There seems to be some great tours we can take, places and attractions to see, and things to do. Tripadvisor has been a great source of information and a blog/review I found recently from a guy who lived there really gave us some ideas for things we must experience on the island. The more I read about the island, the more excited I get!

Here is a map showing where Saipan is in the world. We are staying at the Hotel Galleria. It's not a resort or anything, but it seems nice enough. There are beaches all around the island so we are within walking distance of at least one. We have thought about renting a car for a day and driving around the island, but we haven't booked anything. JM's colleague told us to just meet one of the locals and hopefully they would show us around. So we are banking on their friendliness! It would be nice to get out of the touristy areas and see what the locals do.

We leave December 28 and return January 6th. I am definitely looking forward to 8 days of bliss! :)

Love,
Jennika

The airport.

Picture of the Week #4 - Why did I leave Canada?

Why oh why did I leave Canada??

It has not gone above 0º the past week.

Our Little Korean Christmas Tree

Last weekend, while I was in Taiwan, Jean-Marc bought us a small Christmas tree and some ornaments to decorate it with. Despite JM being on holidays from December 15th, we will be in Cheonan for Christmas this year because I have to work until December 28th. There is one week of overlap to our holidays (from December 29-January 6) and we are planning our vacation this weekend. We have picked a place and will reveal the location soon. Stay tuned!

So tonight we finally put on some Christmas music, got in the spirit, and decorated our tree. While last year was our first Christmas together, this is the first year we are living together and get to decorate a tree. I'm looking forward to having an intimate holiday and Skyping with all our friends and families back home. Happy decorating everyone!

Love,

Jennika

Ultimate Frisbee Weekend in Taiwan

In November, I had read a post on the Korean Frisbee FB group about needing some girls for a team playing in a tournament in Taiwan. I messaged a few people and before I knew it, I had booked my flight and was leaving in a week and a half!

The tournament was Saturday, December 1st and Sunday, December 2nd in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. Luckily, Taipei is only about a 2 hour 50 minute flight from Seoul. Unfortunately, Taipei is also very unpredictable weather wise, and we ended up playing on a rainy, cold weekend. Because we were playing frisbee for the most part, I didn't get to see too much of Taipei. I did manage to get to the National Palace Museum for a few hours and saw all these old artifacts (pottery, brass cauldrons, jade and wood carvings, and paintings) from different Chinese dynasties up to 5000 years ago. They were breathtaking. And of course, I met some great new international friends. The tournament itself was a bust - no points for me and no wins for our Renegade team, but we had fun and got reeeeeal dirty.

Entrance to the National Palace Museum. Sadly, I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside.

Statue at the museum

There was a lovely teahouse on the top floor of the museum where I enjoyed some hot chicken ginseng soup, a cup of tea and pineapple cake, a delicious traditional dessert

I created a panoramic of the stadium we played in for the tournament. By the end of Day 1 the fields were a mess.

We had to find new fields to play on for Day 2, but by the end of that day the new fields were also destroyed.
This is a picture of our Renegade team.

Making my way home from Taiwan:

I feel like such a jet setter when I can say 'oh I went to Taiwan for the weekend'. But it was also a learning experience for future travel. My Sunday night flight back to Seoul landed just before 10:30pm. I booted it through immigration and customs to catch the next bus home. Little did I know, the buses to Cheonan stopped running after 9pm. So did the trains. My only hope was to catch the next subway alllll the way to downtown Seoul (an hour ride) and then take the longggg subway ride home to Cheonan (another 2 hours). While on the subway, the guy next to me brought up the fact that the subway stops operating after 12:30am. Panicking, I checked my handy subway app and, horrifically, he was right. After 2 hours of travel, I was only going to make it to Suwon, still about 45 minutes away from Cheonan. Frantically, I got off the subway at the next stop and ran to the taxi stand. I handed them all my money and begged one of them to drive me the 90km home. One of them agreed, it cost me a pretty penny, and he drove at speeds up to 164km/h while I was curled up, holding on for dear life in the back seat. I arrived at my apartment at nearly 1am. I chose such drastic measures because not only did I work the next morning, but I hadn't slept much on the weekend and could feel myself getting sicker by the moment. I have now been fighting a nasty cold all week. Playing in the rain in Taiwan probably didn't help the sickness, but it sure was an experience!

Jennika