Chrissy Renae

In case you started to forget (because I almost have), I ammmm still a teacher. The kids came back for about a week, but there were no English classes so I just played games outside with them, got bombarded by the 5th grade fan club during every break, and had the usual daily daycare. Now they’re gone again for spring break until beginning of March. I do not understand the Korean school system at all but I’m just going with the flow and trying to make the most of all my spare time in my office. Once school starts up again on March 2nd I’ll be teaching every day for a solid 5 months, so I better rest up while I can!

Also, I got my hair cut and highlighted again (see picture 5..) I went to the same place as last time with the same stylist, sooo it’s pretty much exactly like last time. I love that place and Miss Kim, who is the only one there brave enough to touch blonde hair. She just pampers me with cappuccinos, fresh OJ, and beautiful Korean magazines. It makes me want to get my hair cut approximately every day.

I can’t stop taking pictures of the daycare kids because they’re always being adorable. We’re getting to a point where we can fully converse, even though we don’t speak the same language. One of them will go on a little Korean tangent, and then I reply in English, and then they reply back in Korean. We have all turned into mind readers.

This afternoon 5 of them dropped by my office and said “Teacher we don’t want to go home yet, can we stay here and play??” (Ok really it was “teacher, go home, no. UNO? pleeease?”) It was the single cutest thing I’ve ever heard. So we just hung out playing UNO and Hide and Seek until I figured they better head home before their parents got worried. I don’t need to be accused of kidnapping kids, like some otherrrr Americans I know. (How were they THAT dumb, by the way? The things people do in the wake of national disasters never ceases to amaze me.) While we’re on the subject… Poor Haiti! My heart hurts.

Winter and spring are warring over the month of February, so every day is a surprise. One day it’s nice enough for a sweatshirt and outdoor dodgeball, and the next morning I’ll wake up to ice and a blizzard and spend the afternoon making snowmen. It’s confusing, and impossible to be organized and lay out what I’m gong to wear the night before. Well… let’s be real, I never do that because I’m never that organized. BUT it’s still annoying! The nicer days remind me of the bliss of spring and keep me on my toes for when it will reallllly be here full swing. I won’t survive winter much longer.

Since it’s NOT real spring quite yet, we took advantage of last week’s blizzards by heading out to Yong-Pyong, a giant ski resort outside Seoul. After living in Utah for 5 years, I didn’t have high expectations for what we were going to get out of Korean snowboarding. However, I was very pleased and surprised. There were about a millllion lifts and different runs, and they were actually good quality too. From the top it looked just like Park City, which was weird (because they’re like 6000 miles apart). Since it had snowed so much throughout the week we had good powder the entire time, PLUS it stayed sunny all weekend. It was pretty much the most ideal snowboarding conditions ever, and we found it here in KOREA.

Throughout the week we just make up random excuses to go out and have fun, including various venues such as Miller Time, virtual golf, and noraebang. Usually kai bai bo (rock paper scissors) thrown in with anything else can be pretty exciting. Tonight we’re all off to Seoul to start the weekend off with a bang. Nothing like an all nighter to prepare you for the rest of the weekend…

(please note that in 3 out of the 4 pictures below i’m flashing the peace sign. the asians have taken over my brain)